Pilgrim's Progress

The Monastery

I was really touched by "The Monastery" on BBC2 ... I'd love to know how others found it ... I know blogworld has been buzzing with it recently.

The honesty, humour, the unobtrusive camera work made it easy to watch, but most of all it was the profound encounters of some of the men, mostly Tony, which really struck a chord. Tony's final interview with his spiritual mentor, Brother Francis, spoke so powerfully.

I hope and pray that many people around the country will have been roused to listen to their spiritual hunger and take some new steps to follow its leading, as it has fed me too.

Thw Worth Abbey website is well worth visiting, including a helpful section on lectio divina (Spiritual reading).

Bible Study Resources

Discovered Biblical Training - a gold mine of quality Bible study resources, mostly audio lectures, many from well-known teachers in their field. e.g.

Bill Mounce on New Testament Greek.(audio lectures with Powerpoint-type slides)
Douglas Stuart on Old Testament Survey.

I can't vouch for the quality of it all, but I have sampled some excellent lectures so far. Explore!

I regularly need the feeding and teaching of others, more so as a full-time church leader who is giving out regularly to others ... and I've found this helpful.

One For the Road #2: Psalm 42 - I Remember

This might the the first in a series, but let's see how we get on with this one. It's a loose paraphrase of Psalm 42.

I Remember

I remember.
The clamorous praise, the ecstasy.
I remember well those giddy days
I remember.

I remember the stillness of your presence,
Serene, untroubled, like a perfect millpond.
In peering down deep I saw there your reflection, Yahweh.

But now in turmoil do I cry to you.
These towering waves,
These raging giants of the deep
Kicked into fury by your finger's flick
Upon the waters that rise up and surround me now;
They tower up and up
And I have no answer, no defence.
I am barely afloat.

Have you done this to me, Yahweh?
Did you make them taunt and jeer?
Did you make of me a laughing stock?
This one-time worship leader, now forlorn?
I have no strength or will to come against their mockery.
But you, Yahweh, my God, have you turned against me too?

I am barely afloat.
I cannot sink any deeper or I am gone ...
I gasp a cry.

Can this plaintive voice be heard above the ocean's roar?
Can this heart's outpouring, this soul's red rescue flare
Float up beyond the grasp of this rampaging sea
And drift its way to you?
Will its bright sputtering catch your eye?
Or will it fly too low,
Or unseen, fade and tumble earthward once again?
I dare to venture hope.

Let the seas do their worst, let them pound
I will not go down to the deep
There is something stronger here.
I exhaust my petition and fall silent.

I reach inside and find a prayer, and gasp it upwards.
I will praise you again Yahweh, as I once did.
I will remember.

I remember,
But I find that in remembering you I am remembered.
My prayer to you, Yahweh, was first your gift to me:
Your love by day, your song by night.

And so, amidst these raging seas
I dare to venture hope.
I remember.

He Found Me #3

He found me again ...

... in the Sunday morning prayers in church - it seemed as if the person praying had been eavesdropping on my conversations with God.

... in the words of Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for his Highest". I went looking for a daily reading, but opened it at the wrong page, but what I read hit home.

... as I watched "The Monastery" (BBC2) and found echoes of my own spiritual journey in the lives of the 5 men.

The task of keeping ourselves well-fed spiritually is a matter of commitment and creativity. But I have been struck recently how often God simply turns up out the blue with rich spiritual food in his hand, food that nourishes our depleted resources in a way that only he could know and cater for.

"You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." (Ps 145:16; NIV)
"You give it openhandedly, feeding every creature to its heart’s content. (The Tanakh)

At a recent DREAM worship event, the communion bread was given with the words "May the body of Christ fill you, feed you, and meet your every need". May God sneak up on you today and surprise you with his 'hesed', his steadfast goodness.

Bad Influence!

I'm a bad influence. First it was the vicar, now our church is at it too! (Blogging I mean)

Spirit of God, Find Us!

 

Two Pentecost images, but one deep longing ... to be found by God.

1. Pentecost. The same longing, the same need as ever - simply for MORE of Him.
2. Solitary Bush. Where will the fire of God break out around us next? Will we notice? Will we keep our distance or go over and look?

He Found Me #2

As I sat in seat 17A munching my favourite Spanish snack (fried corn), he found me ...

"If I go up to the heavens, you are there ..." (Ps 139:8)

Even as I sat hemmed in in a budget airline seat, he hemmed me in ... where was I going to go?

"you hem me in, behind and before ... where can I flee from your presence?" (v5,7)

And he whispered to me quietly, "read the story of Jonah" and the rest is too personal to publish here.

Beware the still small voice! When it catches up with you, when it seeks you out and finds you, whether it's at 36000 feet, through the hubbub of foreign voices, in a book you didn't want to read ... wherever it is, be still, let yourself be found. He has something to say to you.

He Found Me #1

He found me. The Spanish preacher's voice kept drowning out my translator, and I struggled to concentrate. But he found me anyway.

My holiday reading nearly ran out, but in the pages of my last book, which I wasn't all that keen to read, he found me.

It was only Spain. It wasn't the far side of the sea, nor was it the ends of the earth. But he found me. But I needed to be found, more than I knew.

"... if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me." (Ps 139:9)

There are times when we are strong enough to go out looking for him. But there are times when we only have the strength to let ourselves be found.

If my heavenly Father can get through to me in my weary, stressed and self-centred state last week on holiday in Spain ...