Drink Deeply

•February 25, 2013 • Leave a Comment

What do you need in life?  Really need?

     06192011

Isaiah 55:1-9

The Lord’s Invitation

55 If you are thirsty,
come and drink water!

If you don’t have any money,
come, eat what you want!

Drink wine and milk
without paying a cent.

2 Why waste your money
on what really isn’t food?
Why work hard for something
that doesn’t satisfy?
Listen carefully to me,
and you will enjoy
the very best foods.

3 Pay close attention!
Come to me and live.
I will promise you
the eternal love and loyalty
that I promised David.
4 I made him the leader and ruler
of the nations;
he was my witness to them.
5 You will call out to nations
you have never known.
And they have never known you,
but they will come running
because I am the Lord,
the holy God of Israel,
and I have honored you.

God’s Words Are Powerful

6 Turn to the Lord!
He can still be found.
Call out to God! He is near.
7 Give up your crooked ways
and your evil thoughts.
Return to the Lord our God.
He will be merciful
and forgive your sins.

8 The Lord says:
“My thoughts and my ways
are not like yours.
9 Just as the heavens
are higher than the earth,
my thoughts and my ways
are higher than yours.

This is such a beautiful passage.  Probably best to be drunk in (sorry no pun intended), rather than explained.

Just three thoughts:

God invites us to come, to come and receive what we need.  Water, food, milk, wine – all things that were vital, part of everyday life to the people.

We are warned not to waste time, money and efforts on things that don’t really satisfy, but to listen carefully to God – and then we will enjoy the best.

God can be found, he is near – call out to him.

Lord,

I am thirsty,

parched,

dry.

I come to you

and drink deeply,

of the water you supply.

Refreshment,

cleansing,

restoring,

life-giving

Posted in bible, faith, God, Lectionary, lent, Religion, theology
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Life in the Desert

•February 23, 2013 • 5 Comments

By Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The subject of these paintings is ‘Christ in the Wilderness’.  Yet in this painting, Consider the Lilies (seen here), the land surrounding Jesus is anything but wilderness or desert.  It is abundant with life – green grass, blossoming flowers, trees.

Stephen Cottrell reminds (p44) us of Old Testament prophecies of the desert blossoming and bearing fruit (though I’m not sure Isaiah 42 is the right reference?).

The desert is hard work, can be painful, soul-destroying – but ultimately, and this in not something you can see while you are there, it can be a place of fruitfulness and of life.  Because when everything has been stripped away, you become sure of what you can rely on.  What your basis is, and from their you can build.  From starkness and desolation comes life and growth.

By Nicolas Perrault III (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

This year for Lent, I am reading Christ in the Wilderness by Bishop Stephen Cottrell, published by SPCK, reflecting on Stanley Spencer’s paintings of that title.

I’m not necessarily going to blog every day on it, just when something leaps out at me – and they will be thoughts rather than full blog posts

Posted in faith, God, lent, Religion, theology
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What to Worry About

•February 22, 2013 • 1 Comment

…so we will be cared for and catered for by God.  Instead we must strive for God’s kingdom (p44)

So, we don’t need to worry about where our needs are coming from, how they will be met, God will deal with that.

What we do need to worry about and to work for is the coming of God’s Kingdom – where we are.  For that is something we can do something about.  To be God’s people, his representatives, his agents.  Living a life of God-worship, focussed, not on what we need, but what we can give.  Looking, not in shop windows, but on what God is doing – right here and now.

This is a fresh translation of the passage that ‘Consider the Lilies’ is based on:

Matthew 6:25-34

The Message (MSG)

25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

This year for Lent, I am reading Christ in the Wilderness by Bishop Stephen Cottrell, published by SPCK, reflecting on Stanley Spencer’s paintings of that title.

I’m not necessarily going to blog every day on it, just when something leaps out at me – and they will be thoughts rather than full blog posts

Posted in faith, God, Jesus, lent, Religion, theology
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