The Thrill of The Now

The Thrill of The Now

I don’t know about anyone who reads this piece.  But I have been impressed with the number of times when I have been trying to get to sleep but have been bugged with variations of treatment for a blog, or have been enthused about some event in the future only to forget about it until I see the news report of that very significant event afterward the event.

This has happened enough times that I tend to wonder if there may be an alarm in our make-up.  One that the Master has placed there, so wonderfully designed to encourage us to rest, in the immediacy of knowing that we have a co-editor in any of our pieces.

I may be wrong, but it seems that when I start a piece at the time I think of it, there seems to be a smoother flow to my composition than if I try to do a similar subject at a time of my own pleasing, but on the other hand when I delay by even a day my inspiration can disappear into delay.

I have called it the “His obedience influence,”

Obedience as an attitude of relationship that seems to be far from the flavour of the today, even within families it seems.  But anyone who followed my last attempt at putting together a regular blog can testify, from my early text how I struggled with the Master right from the word go. The fact used to be that I had previously been restricted to small writings of about 200 t0 300 words occasionally. However, what was placed in front of me was a proposal of a blog of 600 words and more than that this blog was to go out every day.  Just the idea of such an undertaking sent shivers up my spine. So back to the “thrill of the now.”

The life history of the Master’s dealing with the ultimate part of His creation showed, time after time, that the chosen people found an adequate place when the Master had imagined a far better place for them.  Just look at the mutuality of father and son Tarah and Abram in the early part of Genesis, Abram broke the mould when he took the Master’s calling and became Abraham, the father of nations.

T o return to today it is my contention that the “Obedience Influence” has been responsible for the best part of at least 200 blogs a year for around three years with almost all being written at around 2 O Clock in the morning. In fact I can still feel what it felt like to write them, There was the frequent pause in the process where I was given the opportunity to revise a sentence and which incidentally improved  the flow but more than that was the sensation that my number one writer was with me almost breathing the words into my ear, in fact it is happening now as I type.

One thing that needs clarification is that sometimes we have ideas that may have merit but that do not have ongoing traction. These may have value however in my experience the thoughts that I have worked through in this piece are ones that roll around in my head until I have written them.
I am not sure where this is going, whether it will be a daily edition but at least I haver the experience from “God’s Mad Mad World” that all things are possible when we operate at His time and we cooperate with His call on our lives.

Your passion may not be the written word but be assured that He has your talent at the forefront of the things He has in mind for you. But this truth is constant when He shows you your day it will be an easier day than “later”.

So, the Word came again

So, the Word came again

Behold the word came again, to use an old phrase, but one that was appropriate tonight.  I had no sooner put my head on my pillow when the Master tuned in.  I do not know how many of my readers remember the drama that ensued leading up to the first episode of God’s Mad Mad World about four or five years ago; let me briefly recap.

Around four or so years ago the Master put it into my head to begin writing a blog, along the lines that you have seen at some time or another.  We had a bit of a set to as I knew that my capacity was limited, and I was certain that, in my capacity I would run out of words, way before the 600 words my self-imposed reference into blog writing required.  A second reason for my hesitance to start was that I knew that I was a great one for starting projects and in the shortest of times I would run out of subjects to think up. Well we went around the issues and fears that I had for some time and then I had to throw my hands up in the air and give in to His word: although perhaps that should be Word.  I had one rider though, if this was to be an ongoing thing to His glory, then He had to be an active participant. 

This was not a story of the Divine dictator even if it sounds like one.  I would go to bed every night bereft of inspiration and sometime before daylight He would wake me up with something insistent that just needed to be written before daylight.  Sometimes it would be a title and sometimes, many times, I faced up to the blank screen and prayed “I am here Lord” before I started to type.  There were several times when I started typing on a blank sheet waiting for His inspiration to arrive.  Now the incredible thing was that in the first twelve months we published daily, except for Saturday and Sunday,

Tonight, was different.  If my impression of what was said/implied was that the limit I imposed back then of 600 words has now been rescinded and He has plans for more writing than the regular, or irregular, blogs as it has been downgraded to lately. Don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed them and unless He says otherwise I may find time to continue GMMW as it has been written: my only desire being that He gets glory from these pages.

In all honesty, I wrestled with myself as to whether this has been necessary to be written. But then I got up because I couldn’t even keep the title clear in my mind.  This has been a common problem over the more recent years hence it became a situation where I needed to get up and make a start or find that it had disappeared over night, that would also include the encounter that got me up.

There are other reasons for writing this.  First is that I am getting increasingly restricted in my mobility and this, not withstanding the intervention of my Master to make me well.  I am going to be limited to efforts like this to honour my Lord and Saviour.

Second, I would like to pay tribute and thank those who have been in for the long haul.  I think the total of blogs has been somewhere near the 500 or so and I appreciate your faithfulness, I hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as me.

It occurred to me lately that I somehow failed to provide a feedback opportunity to you the readers who may have had a negative or positive response.  I did find some in the Blogger files but that were so old that it was pointless to reply, and I was not informed of your responses in a timely manner. I am sorry for that.  If anyone does want to comment on this turn of events, then you will find me at bj4wood@gmail.com or I am still on Facebook.  Wish me well into the future.

Obedience and the Example of God

Obedience and the Example of God

Jesus was born as the will of God and the extraordinary obedience of a young Jewess who was engaged to be married. Mary’s response was totally out of character for young engaged girls, she didn’t even wait to consult her loving fiancée. It would be bad enough today but in the days of Herod the Tetrarch it was not uncommon for future wives who fell pregnant to be stoned even if daddy was the fiancée.

When the news hit Joseph the Fiancée he initially planned to put Mary out of his life at some convenient time. That was until God gave him the plan then everything was back on track for the wedding.

Around about this time, well about 6 months earlier there was another pregnancy that sort of set the religious world abuzz. Mary’s cousin who was well past the age when one would normally expect to experience the “pitter patter of little feet” became pregnant. Elizabeth’s husband who was doing high priestly duties when God interrupted him with the news and he was so flabbergasted by it that God made him dumb until the day of his son. God had told them both the name for their son and it rather stopped the crowd in the street when Mum said, “his name is John”. There was no family member who had been called John and then father wrote on a piece of material, “His name is John” then promptly got his voice back. Now that really set the town a wondering what was going on.

Ever since these two events there has been a passing parade of extraordinary acts of obedience, but the most outstanding in a field of many, was the Passover when Jesus gave His life for us, the many. The story began the evening before His crucifixion. That night Jesus went out to the mount of Olives. It was a night that Jesus had to talk seriously to His Father. His followers went out with Him but couldn’t stay the course. While they slept Jesus prayed to the Father so intensely that we are told He sweated blood as He asked His Father if there was any other way than the Crucifixion to achieve what He had set out to do. Again, the issue was resolved by His classic comment “nevertheless Your will be done”

Having chosen obedience Jesus went back to where the disciples were asleep again and very shortly after the Temple officials arrived to take him back to the “High Justice” of the time and within one day all the hearings were heard, Jesus was nailed to the Cross of Salvation and there He died for the love of sinners like you and like me.

That wasn’t the end of the story God brought Jesus back to life as His honoured Son, the followers who kept going to sleep on that night were transformed as a result and became the beginning of a world changing tribe of obedient, to the end of life for themselves in almost every case, but only they passed on the message to others first: and the tribe goes forth even to today.

Acceptance: Our Future Secured

Acceptance: Our Future Secured

This may at first glance seem a statement out of touch with the reality of the world today. The reality is that followers of Christ Jesus live in an upside down and what may approach as in inside out world.

We have chosen to obey and to trust Him for out daily necessities. It is an action of our will and is driven if you will by our intellect. And the clincher is that as we surrender the details of our lives to Jesus He fills our lives with attributes like peace and joy. It is no major surrender when you consider that most people in the normal world experience stress overloads, of some degree or another, suffer from anxiety in their personal existence and apart from that some do not feel comfortable in their work/home life, as there is always someone or another who is scouting for their job, or their man.  This is, put simply, the sin stain that Jesus came to offer a way to resolve.

Jesus came quite simply to end the war between man and The Fathers plan for man. To do that it was necessary to put back a world that mankind had turned upside down in its desire to live the way that they seemed fit. We were intent on retiring God from His proper status and stepping up to the plate as His replacement with the resultant social discord.

The issue was not that mankind is the pre-emanate being on the earth. Man is not, God is. God created mankind to enjoy fellowship with us. The problem was that we thought that we were that we could run the place, our way; it has gone downhill ever since then.

Jesus began His public life by reading an excerpt from one of the prophets, as it was passed to Him to read in the Synagogue. It read like a political statement at the start of an election, but it detailed all the things that He did right through His public life. The original document is found in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 62.

The First thing in that reading is that today is proclaimed as the acceptable year for God’s people, that means everyone. Furthermore, it will be a time of healing for the sightless, deaf, and blind, setting right all the things that have hurt people in the times before. Almost all the people who are healed are told firstly to sin no more, and then to go present themselves to the religious leaders as the book of the law told them. The further part of Isaiah’s writing was to look after the widows and the orphans of our world and to top it off: to unload the pain of those living in poverty

There is more to this transfer. Jesus told the crowds that we should give Him our heavy loads and accept his lighter loads, along with the easier pulling on the wagon of life that is involved in serving the Master.  Christ gives us more than a light load, there is also a change in personality Jesus gives us peace, and a life of looking out for the best in others, and for others in our lives.

I now live through the life and words of Jesus. I have decided to live within His comfort and peace. I would not have it any other way. How about you?

Acceptance: Our Future Secured

This may at first glance seem a statement out of touch with the reality of the world today. The reality is that followers of Christ Jesus live in an upside down and what may approach as in inside out world.

We have chosen to obey and to trust Him for out daily necessities. It is an action of our will and is driven if you will by our intellect. And the clincher is that as we surrender the details of our lives to Jesus He fills our lives with attributes like peace and joy. It is no major surrender when you consider that most people in the normal world experience stress overloads, of some degree or another, suffer from anxiety in their personal existence and apart from that some do not feel comfortable in their work/home life, as there is always someone or another who is scouting for their job, or their man.  This is, put simply, the sin stain that Jesus came to offer a way to resolve.

Jesus came quite simply to end the war between man and The Fathers plan for man. To do that it was necessary to put back a world that mankind had turned upside down in its desire to live the way that they seemed fit. We were intent on retiring God from His proper status and stepping up to the plate as His replacement with the resultant social discord.

The issue was not that mankind is the pre-emanate being on the earth. Man is not, God is. God created mankind to enjoy fellowship with us. The problem was that we thought that we were that we could run the place, our way; it has gone downhill ever since then.

Jesus began His public life by reading an excerpt from one of the prophets, as it was passed to Him to read in the Synagogue. It read like a political statement at the start of an election, but it detailed all the things that He did right through His public life. The original document is found in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 62.

The First thing in that reading is that today is proclaimed as the acceptable year for God’s people, that means everyone. Furthermore, it will be a time of healing for the sightless, deaf, and blind, setting right all the things that have hurt people in the times before. Almost all the people who are healed are told firstly to sin no more, and then to go present themselves to the religious leaders as the book of the law told them. The further part of Isaiah’s writing was to look after the widows and the orphans of our world and to top it off: to unload the pain of those living in poverty

There is more to this transfer. Jesus told the crowds that we should give Him our heavy loads and accept his lighter loads, along with the easier pulling on the wagon of life that is involved in serving the Master.  Christ gives us more than a light load, there is also a change in personality Jesus gives us peace, and a life of looking out for the best in others, and for others in our lives.

I now live through the life and words of Jesus. I have decided to live within His comfort and peace. I would not have it any other way. How about you?

A Breeze in the Hollows

A Breeze in the Hollows

A couple of days ago I had a zephyr plough through my mind. When I say a zephyr it was possibly more of a whirly wind messing with my memories changing my timelines of experience to much more of a balancing/dancing melody in my mind. I am not sure where this is going at the moment but if this fails my word count then it probably will never see the light of day.

It seems that many of us have a smoothie dance of life, or wish we had.  It shows up when we get stuck in proverbial mud, this is especially true when we step out in an endeavour that we are convinced the The Master put the idea into our mind.  We experience doubt in those stuck in the mud moments after all many of us say that if we are campaigning for the highest power things shouldn’t be this difficult. 

The truth of that statement is that often we need to develop an increased level of strength as we train for the higher responsibility that may be required: enter the proverbial mudhole that we are in.  It is not really that we need to prove our abilities, after all God knows us better than we often do.

Getting back to my afternoon reverie as a 24 year old it occurred to me that there may have been a possibility that I could have done some sort of a deal to go into a shared experience on my father’s pig farm. … then sometime later after our marriage and we had moved from Melbourne to where we eventually got to call Wodonga “home” Sue’s father brought about 80 acres primarily for the water right but it had a house on it, to cut a long story short he offered the land to us to use productively.

 Now this zephyr managed to twist the tracks into a linear approach with a slight dip in the middle accounting (??) for the change in location and whose father had the farm.  To finally spin this story down to brass tacks the timing of this attempt was started about 1977 and lasted about 18 months.

Sue and I met at one of those Easter camps where lots of people met and fell in love, one difference from some others we have since been married for 39 years since the camp.  When Sues father in 1982 made the offer it was a while we were married; so, the timing was distinctly different.

Now there was another rearrangement in my mind done by that rascally wrong zephyr.  It was a far less consequent meddling. But what the heck maybe, if this still growing piece has significance for some-one, then the message may reach by default.

Entrance number 2 was as I went closer to sleep, the breeze started pulling periods of time together and wrapped the dates into a mix an exotic of meaning in my past.  Then it oh so gently it wove periods of my life and after that periods of OUR life into charades of activity and inactivity.

Fortunately, after waking up and talking to Sue I/we could see parts that had been just left out like bundles of junk.  There were significant groups of people who were left out of these rewound histories and there was a significant act of God that had added to my faith meta novel that Father would into my life and there were even lessons that God taught me through the excluded people in my past. 

So, I write from an added benefit The little breeze has shown a new attack strategy one that is meant to belittle the importance for when God calls our names into His work.  Use this as your Mantra. 

“go ahead~ Trust God~, learn on the go,~ Trust God in all” `

Mission is A House of peace

Mission is A House of peace

I really am not sure where this will go so extend some charity in this regard’.

When we think of mission whether it is expressed as “Home” or as “Overseas” there are certain concepts of commonality and though some are somewhat vague I believe this one has a concrete application in more than one way.

Jesus in Luke 10 sends out 72 as teams of two ahead of Him to promote the message of the way as He started His journey toward Jerusalem

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.” Luke 10:5-7.

This is also one of the chapters where He addresses the need for workers to be sent to the field. He told them  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Verse 2 spelt out the conditions of the task verses 3 and 4 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

The question that vexes my mind is if this person who is a person of peace is important in the house you go to stay with. Then it begs the question.  How important is it also that we also are persons of peace and respond to people in peace? I tend to think that this is a desirable personality trait for dealing in these areas. Haven’t we all seen someone trying to ram home the good news at one time or another?

Going back to the Master style doesn’t He demonstrate these qualities throughout His ministry hence if we are to “imitate Him” then it follows that we should learn the style of peacemaking, and acceptance of others to become as Paul put it to become all things to all people that some might find salvation.

These personal qualities are not required by rote but should be learned by grace. It is an interesting speculation as to how finding a house of peace would go if the person who found it had an argumentative nature. It seems to be a self defeating relationship to me.

The Master can use our various personal qualities. It just seems that the more we are like Him the greater will be our Gospel impact.. In this exchange there is more opportunity, and it comes from the recognition that a new disciple may be introduced to the Master in a more natural event.

Our challenge is to imitate Jesus so that we may inspire our friends to meet Him by the light that shines through our lives.