With You

•October 29, 2015 • Leave a Comment

How could you let this happen?
How could you leave us alone?
we needed you
to rescue this situation
and you weren’t here.

We thought you loved us,
cared about us,
what happened to us,
but you left us alone,
you didn’t come
when we needed you most
at our lowest point.

When you weep
I weep,
when you hurt
I hurt,
when you are broken
and weighed down with life
I am broken too.

Come,
let me see,
let me be with you
in the place of despair.

I reach into
your pain,
despair,
the place of death

and I bring life,
hope,
love,
new life
in and through me.

It’s yours.
I am with you

John 11:32-44 (CEV)

32 Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset 34 and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

35 Jesus started crying, 36 and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.”

37 Some of them said, “He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38 Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. 39 Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”

40 Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”

41 After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. 42 I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me.”

43 When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.

Jesus then told the people, “Untie him and let him go.”

A New Place

•October 28, 2015 • 1 Comment

Revelation 21:1-6 (CEV)

The New Heaven and the New Earth

21 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband.

I heard a loud voice shout from the throne:

God’s home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.

Then the one sitting on the throne said:

I am making everything new. Write down what I have said. My words are true and can be trusted. Everything is finished! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give water from the life-giving fountain to everyone who is thirsty.

It is not for no reason that this passage is often read at funerals.  For this is a promise of how things can be, how they will be, in God’s final ultimate reign.  How things will be for God’s saints when they live with him in  a new place.

There will be restoration and re-creation, God will live with his people.

I love this chapter and the following one.  In my darkest moments these verses have been the hope, the promise of all that had become undone being remade; all that I have lost being given back to me – water, fruiting trees, healing will all be there, in this new and special place where God lives and where I can live with him.

And all those tears, those lonely, gut-wrenching, despairing tears, will be wiped one last time, by God himself.

There will be no more reason for tears, for their causes will no longer be there.

How we long for a place where death, suffering, crying and pain are no more – and that is what God promises – in the place of his fulfilment, love and hope.

So I long for a new place.  A place of life, fertility, refreshment, peace, love and God.

I long for God and his hope and promise.  I long to be with him, in the here and now, but in a new place too.

New Jerusalem

 

Update on Voices in Advent and Christmas

•October 27, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Thanks to all who have bought a copy 🙂

I have now run out of the first run, but am ordering some more.  Alternatively they can be ordered directly from Moorleys here.

However, it seems that not all orders through the form on this site have reached me – I’ve only just found this out 😦 So, if you ordered one from me that way and haven’t received a reply from me, I haven’t received it – sorry.

If you want to make sure, to order or for any further details please email me: Voicesthrough@outlook.com

Thanks