tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64109304820486527122024-03-08T03:33:33.177-08:00Pauline 'Ready Writer' LewisPauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.comBlogger148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-47440503253004430542024-01-05T07:17:00.000-08:002024-01-05T07:17:22.180-08:00HOW DID YOU DO IT?<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">The question
had taken me by surprise. It is so many years since I went as a single
missionary to the remote land of Papua New Guinea, yes, sixty years ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My
memoires,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Wings of the Morning,’ had
been published, soon after my husband’s death, twenty years ago, but this
special lady who had invited us round to her Granny flat, had been rereading
it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She reminded
me of some of the challenges which had faced us in daily life up in the
highlands, but now she was asking, ‘Tell me, how did you do it?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Words do not
come easily to me these days. How could I recount in few words what I knew had
been a series of miracles which had changed me from a fearful young woman, a
‘stick in the mud’ as one school chum had described me to a woman of faith?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of our
friends helped me out. ‘Why!’ she proclaimed, ‘We were young.’ And the moment
was passed, but I do want to give an answer to my Sue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How had I
done it? My pastor had told me I was not strong enough to be a missionary. When
I eventually arrived, my colleagues were not impressed.’ She won’t last a year,
they had said, yet I lasted longer than many of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My friend
Esther had gone to Africa seven years before, but she was strong, athletic,
maybe a bit of a daredevil. Yes, she was cut out to be a missionary, but I
certainly did not aspire to follow her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet, in our
church a word was coming again and again, that someone was going to other
shores and would bring revival. I felt a tremendous burden until I asked,
‘Lord, can it be you are speaking to me?’ I knew it was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For a little
while I was sorry for myself, thinking how hard it would be, until the Lord
showed me what a privilege he was giving me and told me, ‘Rejoice in your going
out.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So yes, it
was tough. As dear Sue reminded me, I lived in tumble down houses, we had fires
and floods and times when I could have been very lonely but in it all, I knew I
was in God’s hand and he had brought me there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And if ever
I felt overwhelmed by some of the hardship and challenges and think that maybe
I should have stayed in UK , gone on for a headship as they had wanted me to
and a comfy flat and a car I would remember that God’s hand would still be on
me and I would feel that pressure to go as a missionary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And this
same wonderful God has been with me, through those happy years back in UK as a
minister’s wife but since then in long years of widowhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDzLSRAK592QK84rwdiUGHpi0t8-bFLSCarjVdlRZ8lP-GmE5hDm5cWYr1MzX1fip1rM4_X8uDfaIjnMJdnC-SSTiPchLbo9Ssb8-X8Rwn2dNDCAiR5tC_NDgPtIPCLwX1I6CO4GLZ6mQk09ibz3aRPfpyUDDHb2yfjIHxWWAep3uyCDNrE1za2KyColt/s1425/hisnameiswondeful.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.reviveourhearts.com/podcast/revive-our-hearts/season/his-name-is-wonderful-isaiah-9-6/" border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1425" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDzLSRAK592QK84rwdiUGHpi0t8-bFLSCarjVdlRZ8lP-GmE5hDm5cWYr1MzX1fip1rM4_X8uDfaIjnMJdnC-SSTiPchLbo9Ssb8-X8Rwn2dNDCAiR5tC_NDgPtIPCLwX1I6CO4GLZ6mQk09ibz3aRPfpyUDDHb2yfjIHxWWAep3uyCDNrE1za2KyColt/w400-h206/hisnameiswondeful.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Yes, dear
Sue. We each have our callings and we have sorrows as well as joys, but in it all Jesus is our joy, our strength and our song, and we are here for each
other.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you
for asking me and giving me the opportunity to recall how wonderful our Lord
has been and will always be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">His name
shall be called ‘WONDERFUL.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">P.S. The
Lord is reminding<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>me of his wonderful
promise of ‘Joy and Peace.’ Not just for those on the mission field but for
each of us, here and now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-76516748820260925712023-10-09T04:09:00.004-07:002023-10-09T04:09:44.953-07:00THE FATHER HEART<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I had been
challenged to meditate on the cross; to stand as it were with those women
looking up at their suffering Lord. But how could I do this? I who try to shut
out anything involving torture or abuse because of the nightmares that follow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But God has
been teaching me to come to that secret place where he has promised always to
be there for me. So now, with his arm around me I ask,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Father, how
could you ignore the pleading of your Son in the garden, and even on the
cross?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Gently God
took me back to the counsel of the godhead before the foundation of the earth.
Even then they had known of the great rebellion that would arise, and they had known
that a yet greater cure must be given. He reminded me how it was the Son, in
whom was all their delight, who had stepped forward to say, ‘I, I will go.’
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we had agreed together, and so now, I had to be
deaf to the cry of my Beloved. I had to turn my face away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Yes, I
could have saved my Son, but……<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I looked
into those eyes and through them deep into the heart of the Father and it is
helping me to understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Father, You
so loved the world, so loved us, you and me, that You did not spare your Son,
your only Son, your Beloved, so that we, believing, accepting, might receive
this wonderful gift of life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, thank you for all that you suffered for us that we might come
home to you. Hallelujah! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWgl_fQSidwfNurkWI1mdIoGvldla2fIvnW7amy3pLSiq3o72ej5e11AkZ2SpLdTcbc71_CzFNkgXxaP3V7JS0eAIV1r5NbeObHOiPiGaOBQ0L5RtGald8dqVkcuZywmFXZ-1AQflCYG-BjwQP1oJoVHZY5FxWrAQwl27D3LbRtUqOy4b0bPDyHa4nsqH/s3402/freely-10122%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.freelyphotos.com/All-photos/i-ZKtz3HF" border="0" data-original-height="1731" data-original-width="3402" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWgl_fQSidwfNurkWI1mdIoGvldla2fIvnW7amy3pLSiq3o72ej5e11AkZ2SpLdTcbc71_CzFNkgXxaP3V7JS0eAIV1r5NbeObHOiPiGaOBQ0L5RtGald8dqVkcuZywmFXZ-1AQflCYG-BjwQP1oJoVHZY5FxWrAQwl27D3LbRtUqOy4b0bPDyHa4nsqH/w640-h326/freely-10122%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>THE FATHER
HEART<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The sheep
are straying from the fold –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Father-
heart cannot withhold<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The price to
pay to turn them back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But, who,
who will go?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Twas You,
Beloved, my only Son<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who counts
the cost that must be done<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To turn
these lost rebellious ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘I, Father,
I will go.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so, He
left his Father’s throne<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For virgin’s
womb, carpenter’s home –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rejection,
pain, the cross, the tomb.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Father, you
let him go?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, child,
I gave my only Son<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For you,
who’d spurned my Holy One –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deserving of
death, that you might turn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My arms are
open! Come!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-15113626136230141162023-09-25T02:30:00.003-07:002023-09-25T02:30:17.346-07:00BINDING UP BROKEN HEARTS<p><b>‘’God binds up the broken hearted and heals their wounds.’</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We have been going through the Psalms. Reaching Psalm 147, my
heart leaped as I heard this verse read. I will never forget, for it was the
first time that the Bible had come alive to me – a living word. I had not long
come to trust in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I returned home having visited a
lovely motherly Christian friend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/images/3595734/Psalm_147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="568" height="269" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/images/3595734/Psalm_147.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Her grief had been terrible to behold. Having been nursing both
her elderly father and her beloved<br /> husband, exhausted, she had cried out to God
that she could not go on.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Her situation eased, but it was her husband who had died, not her
aged father. She was covered in terrible sores all over her legs, wounds the
result of her inexpressible grief.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I had been brought up to respect the Bible as God’s word but did
not know God could speak to me through it, but now I had opened my Bible and
here was this wonderful word. I knew God knew and he would bring our dear
Auntie Em through her grief, and he did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since then, I have learned to live on God’s word as he speaks to
me so many times through the Bible, and yes, I have come to prove for myself
that God does indeed bind up the broken hearted, for he has bound up my broken
heart and healed my wounds and does and will continue to do so, and I pray this
for you too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some of my readers may have heard this story. I believed God had
promised me a husband, but I also believed God was calling me to go to the
mission field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God would not expect me
to go on my own, would he?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">After I had settled into life in the highlands of New Guinea, John
had arrived. It had seemed a fairy tale romance, but I was left with a broken
heart, wounded indeed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nearing forty now, I felt I could no longer go on believing for a
husband and children. Miraculously, God did heal my broken heart and bind up my
wounds. By faith, whatever my feelings, I learned to speak out, based on God’s word,
‘Lord, I am delighting myself in you and you are giving me the desires of my
heart.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For the next ten years I fulfilled my calling. ‘The Little
Children’s Mother,’ they called me, and I was a joyful mother of children,
content, - but then God gently prepared me to hand over my responsibilities
abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I came home, from Ghana now, to find the husband God had for me. Recently
bereaved, Joel and I had 26 joyous years together before God called him
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I knew that I had the husband God had chosen for me, but with this
great joy was the possibility of great pain. But hadn’t the dream God gave me
so long ago shown us walking together into the glory of God? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Joel had not passed his medical to be in the army yet survived
many years on the mission field in good health. He reached eighty and was full
of faith of what God was going to do through us. He was still preaching and
then a viral infection attacked both of us. The doctor assured me he was over
it but a few days later he was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The morning he died, I had been into one of our Primary Schools to
take an assembly and was able to share my joy with Joel, who had come to the
door to welcome me, for as always, I had known the presence of Jesus, meeting
with our children, blessing them, and yes, I had booked to go in again in four
weeks’ time. A few hours later he was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes, I was left with a broken heart, but we had had 26 wonderful,
fruitful years together, and God has been here, binding it up, - healing my
wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The other day I was tempted to indulge in self-pity as I thought
of friends who have had long years with their spouse and more than ready to
soon join them, not the long years of loneliness that I have had.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Shame on me! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I needed to
remind myself and declare to you too the faithfulness of the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes, a month after Joel died, I was back in the same school. Struggling
with tears, but with Jesus and his joy in my heart. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I had heard about ‘Walk through the Bible’ while Joel was alive
but was unable to attend the training course. Now it all opened. Such joy, such
love. Tears for a few years, but all part of the healing, and hopefully a
ministry to others struggling in the deep waters of sorrow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Over twenty years a widow! My tears have long dried up, and the
promise the Lord gave me, that ‘I would be able to turn ready and easily to him
at all times as to a friend alongside.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is still true. But still we are meant for
a mate and there is pain in being alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even in my grief I knew God had honoured Joel. Eighty-one years
old, he was preaching a fortnight before he died. He hadn’t suffered and he
hadn’t seen old age. I could have been left with an invalid to care for,
instead of which I was well provided for, in good health and able now to get
more involved in the schools’ ministry, which I so enjoyed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then there was our church in Porthcawl. We believed God had told
us that now was the time and almost Joel’s last words were, ‘I believe God is
going to do great things.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It was soon after Joel died that I heard of Brackla’s plans to
start a church for Porthcawl. The prophetic dream given to Joel was coming to
pass. Grace Community Church is indeed the fruitful bough God had shown us, from
the beginning, and I am privileged to be in membership with them, still able to
pray and encourage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I am so thankful for you faithful widows who have been such a
shining example to me of living as overcomers. May we still be encouragers to others.
I may be in a Care Home, but Jesus is with and in me and I know He</span> has sent me to bless others
as well as to be cared for, so let us learn day by day to give thanks in
everything. God is good, in it all.</p>
<h1><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></h1><h1><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">THE KISS<o:p></o:p></span></b></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Butterfly gentle caress</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>on the brow of the sleeping child<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Father heart strong embrace <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">for the son turned again from the wild</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<h1><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; text-indent: 48px;">Peace in the place of warfare</span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></b></span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Tears kissed from the sorrowful one</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ardent strength of the lover who knows</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>life is only
begun<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But what of the kiss of our Maker<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>breathing
life in the form he had made?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the worshipful kiss of the maiden<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In whose arms
as a babe he was laid?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cost of the kiss of our Saviour<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>crossing out
all the wrongs we have done?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the bliss of the kiss of our Lord for his Church<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At the
marriage feast of the Lamb?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1521508567009-a6d821b3db22?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1470&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1521508567009-a6d821b3db22?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1470&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Asked when he last gave his wife flowers, my husband replied that
he gave me flowers every day –<br /> ‘two-lips’. After Joel’s death, setting out to
see the tulip field of Holland, God gave me this fragrant meditation<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other.’ Psalm 85:10<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-57231172116686400062023-08-12T09:18:00.006-07:002023-08-12T09:18:43.455-07:00GOD DOES ANSWER PRAYER<p> I believe God wants me to share this story of answered
prayer, especially for those of you who have been praying for me since I moved
into a Care Home, that though I was disabled in many ways, that God would use
me there.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Such a wonderful answer to prayer. It begins with Ross
praying over the telephone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We had a dear lady with dementia, very frightened and
confused, but also very strong in body. She thought it was her task to care for
us all. Unfortunately, I had upset her and now she was acting aggressively to
anyone who came near her. I had apologised but she would never forgive me. She
was behaving aggressively to everyone within reach I phoned a friend and asked
him to pray for peace in this situation. No sooner had he said Amen and I had
put the phone down than I looked up and this lady was at my bedroom door.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">She was not supposed to come upstairs, but she had been
exploring. Gently I welcomed her, holding out my arms and she walked into them.
Amazingly Matron then appeared and took her downstairs, but this dear lady has treated
me as her friend ever since. Her language and behaviour might not be all that
might be desired, but I think we are all trying to use more understanding and
the staff are keeping her busy with little jobs, for she still thinks she is
here to look after us all.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I know that I am very privileged to be a resident in such a
wonderful caring home. Though it had meant giving up my independent living in
my spacious two-bedroom flat, the Lord had assured me that I would still be a
missionary. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am no longer coming in
as a preacher as when Joel, my husband and I used to take a service so long
ago. They all know I go to church. How else would they know it was Sunday if it
were not for Pauline going to church? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://plus.unsplash.com/premium_photo-1663100677752-4970f3f006d6?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://unsplash.com/photos/PQh98AX_uJE" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://plus.unsplash.com/premium_photo-1663100677752-4970f3f006d6?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" width="320" /></a></div>But today I walked through the lounge to find this lady
standing alone, maybe wondering where she was and what she was supposed to be doing,
so I walked up to give her a little cwtch. She responded<br /> gratefully. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘You’re happy aren’t you.’ It was a statement, not a
question, and went on, ‘You’ve got Jesus, but somehow I can’t get through.’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not the time or place for a prayer, but a door wide open as
God again wonderfully answers prayer. I believe he will lead this lady, and
others too through her, to find this peace and joy that we have through Jesus
our wonderful Saviour.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So thank you, praying friends. Let’s keep on praying and
seeing God answer our prayers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile I am marvelling at what God has done in my
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember when I first began to
attend a little Apostolic church and someone chose a hymn, ‘I feel like singing
all the time.’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How could that be true for anyone? It certainly wasn’t for
me. I so soon would tumble into a pit of depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now, as this dear lady had seen, Jesus is
with me all the time and yes, I am happy.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And if ever depression does try to intrude then I know it is
time to praise the Lord, yes, and to count my blessings. <o:p></o:p></p>
<br />Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-9212858199573468212023-07-11T06:25:00.007-07:002023-07-11T06:25:46.079-07:00A PLACE OF PRAYER<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Since my
episode in hospital, I had found it hard to return to a regular prayer time. I
needed help and it was at hand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After some
readings which pointed in the right direction, I found God was using my godly
imagination. My upward climb had brought me to a mighty temple and a voice from
within assured me that the door was not locked, and that it would always be
open to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1593382067395-ace3045a1547?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1472&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; font-size: 14pt; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@tabithabrooke?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">tabitha turner</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lj7guVTi7GI?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="601" height="400" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1593382067395-ace3045a1547?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1472&q=80" width="300" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Without a
struggle I found myself within and knew I was in the presence of our Almighty
God and Father, but he did not look up. He was aware of my presence, but also
of my interest, but what was he doing? He seemed to be at work on some masterpiece.
He who created every star and planet, every tiny creature or beautiful plant,
was working on something very special. But what, or perhaps who could it be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was a few
days later that I had the answer. We have been deeply concerned to hear of the
trial through which a godly friend has been going through. How could God have
allowed such an injustice and seemingly unnecessary suffering to our lovely
friend?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">God allowed my
memory to carry me back to the scene in the temple of God’s holiness, where he had
been watching so tenderly over the masterpiece on which he was working.
Lovingly he assured me that our friend was in his sight and in his care and
that he would only allow that which he could turn to good in her walk with her
Saviour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wonderful
Lord. Help us to trust you in the hardest circumstances and to praise you, even
when we cannot understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-74732947996277488162023-06-15T01:33:00.003-07:002023-06-15T01:33:55.612-07:00U-Room, D-Day<p> The year was 1981 and now, more than thirty years later I am
recalling the sweet words of my husband to be, for it was the date of our
wedding. Just turned fifty, I had thought marriage had passed me by. How
thankful I was that I had not had to wait to be married to find contentment.
But now, after a good and fruitful first marriage with his Betty while I
fulfilled my calling as ‘the Little Children’s Mother’ first in the highlands of New Guinea and then
in Ghana, after</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Betty’s sudden and totally unexpected death, Joel and I had
been led very clearly to this very different D Day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘D for Delight.’ It was. For eight years I was privileged to
minister with Joel as a pastor’s wife, then after we settled into retirement in
Porthcawl gradually opportunities opened for me in the schools. It was then
that God called me to write and Joel and I worked together <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to organise the annual South Wales Christian Writers Days.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Joel was great at suggestions and happy for me to do the
organising. But now I was learning that special gift of delegating. ‘Godliness
with contentment’ was no problem, for I had learned<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that lesson after a broken heart When Joel
did not recover from the viral infection which had attacked us both it left me
bereft but with a full diary of commitments.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96UZEY7wNFOHXlVMGsWx2UK9VgM-qsoF7A7WJ7FLBxT5EbDtqgesUKeGnTmrMvY6HNirko0tqYw8Oitiua-qGL0Ag7jdjBbSiZT8ObH039mT5fbo9EMR3aFIUtCjS93LRzw4zmM4MSPUI3qqEMQagJuB3t_vJOvAmhSJVir8ultLeXtDckuE8lvxS-A/s1280/1280x1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="www.bible.com" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96UZEY7wNFOHXlVMGsWx2UK9VgM-qsoF7A7WJ7FLBxT5EbDtqgesUKeGnTmrMvY6HNirko0tqYw8Oitiua-qGL0Ag7jdjBbSiZT8ObH039mT5fbo9EMR3aFIUtCjS93LRzw4zmM4MSPUI3qqEMQagJuB3t_vJOvAmhSJVir8ultLeXtDckuE8lvxS-A/w320-h320/1280x1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The day he died I had taken an early assembly and happily
booked in for another in a month’s time. I knew this was a commitment I must
keep. Then wonderfully a door opened for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>me to train to teach ‘Walk through the Bible.’ While God never told me
not to cry, as tears are all part of the healing but now, all too soon it
seemed, I was coming up to ninety. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">B</span>y
I could no longer drive but God was not speaking to me about retiring. Then
very gently, for me, came LOCK DOWN. The decision was made for me<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Long, quiet days shut in my Eagle’s Nest for uninterrupted
writing. Yes, of course I missed my wonderful husband but it was when I was
living above the clouds in the mountains of New Guinea that my heart was broken
by my Prince Charming that I had been challenged to speak out the promises of
God. I dared to speak out – ‘I am delighting myself in the Lord and he is
giving me the desires of my heart.’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God cannot deny his
own word. How I needed to speak this out now – and yes, I still do, and still
he is giving me the desires of my heart.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A totally unexpected heart attack and cardiac arrest had
prepared me, so I thought for heaven, and I was happy to move from my
independent living in my ‘Eagle’s Nest,’ and I was welcomed into Pinehurst,
where Joel and I used to go in to take a service many years before and then the
Ladies of ‘Grace’ had carried on to visit regularly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I no longer have the privilege of being an invited visitor
and have to earn the right to speak into situations. I find now God is giving
me the privilege to write someone a special birthday blessing, and though it is
sometimes a struggle to tackle the computer again and it would be easier to
join the ‘nodders’ who sit in the lounge and doze, I am so very thankful for
those who refuse to let me rust away and who are always available, making sure
that I have a lift to church or the help I need to sort out my problems on the
computer. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, we may not have special dates to help us remember or
may even waiting for those longed for dates to recall, but we have the same
wonderful God who loves us and is planning for us in love. Let’s say with King
David, ‘This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in
it.’(Psalm 118:24)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-17214296360917639322023-04-19T08:36:00.003-07:002023-04-19T08:36:45.101-07:00MIRACLES<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Our Pete,
has printed out for us an inspiring account of the miracles he has experienced
in his life. This got me to wondering. I have had a long and yes, an exciting
life, but miracles? There must have been some, and yet?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You may not
think of them as miracles and yet I know it is only through divine intervention
that I am here, 92 years old and still being published to bless others. Isn’t
that miraculous, that I was able to hear and know it was God’s voice calling me
to write and giving me a husband who was also into writing and who encouraged
me all the way?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I remember
the time, years before, when my pastor told me I must give up all thought of
being a missionary because I did not have the health. My colleagues who
welcomed me onto the remote mission field in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
shared his opinion. ‘Give her a few months,’ they had forecast, but I outstayed
many of them, and though eventually circumstances forced me to leave, it was to
gain further qualification before joining another team in Ghana, Africa, to do
the work God had shown me in my early days in Papua New Guinea.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then there
was my wonderful years working with Joel, the miracle of timing that had brought
me into<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wales at the time when his
lovely Betty had died, so unexpectantly to others but not to God. How God had
given me the gift of contentment in my singleness, so that I could be ‘the
little children’s mother’ as they has called me, in both Papua New Guinea and
Ghana, and now the wife that Joel needed coming up to retirement and on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Happy,
fruitful years. I could write a book. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Wings of
the Morning,’ was with a publisher when Joel died, and so did the editor who
had promised to bring my life story to birth, but as I learned after more than
twenty wonderful years of married bliss that this was not the end of my life
story, and there were more chapters to be written before my life story was
eventually published, with<br /> Bas Evans wonderful painting of an eagle in flight
adorning the cover. I believe it is still available to purchase from Amazon,
but I no longer have copies available to give away.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLCzfs8XoYZI6zUVS4_XaCsAxMLUuuCzCg5Of8msPAglC8Ns_NR3dabDvsqUQjPIIaAZO9eNtbv7jS3SUFIqnGEvvIk5xe5kOCPWTZPyljMaRNi_1HnvZqeGb9YSF3VCBUFDqZi6VxaHmrj3_Es3t5z3uCqpYFGqsAJG4O13o0yjpx5g0ToDl5N-SXJQ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Lars Kuczynski on Unsplash" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1170" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLCzfs8XoYZI6zUVS4_XaCsAxMLUuuCzCg5Of8msPAglC8Ns_NR3dabDvsqUQjPIIaAZO9eNtbv7jS3SUFIqnGEvvIk5xe5kOCPWTZPyljMaRNi_1HnvZqeGb9YSF3VCBUFDqZi6VxaHmrj3_Es3t5z3uCqpYFGqsAJG4O13o0yjpx5g0ToDl5N-SXJQ=w367-h244" width="367" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the great
age of ninety two,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my siblings, who both
made it to university having suffered from dementia before their death I am now
pronounced of a sound mind and enjoy keeping in touch with my friends through
this blog and still in receipt of the occasional cheque from the publishers of
‘The Upper Room.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No, I make
no claim to miracles, but I do give all the glory to the faithfulness of our
God, who ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ that if I would believe
in him, would not perish but enjoy life both now and in eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And it is
surely God himself who made a way for me receive wonderful nursing care in a
care home where Joel and I used to come to take a service so many years ago,
and also the love and care of Grace community church who make sure that someone
will be sure to transport me to get well fed spiritually and continue to be a
well loved member of their community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe not
miracles – but pretty close I would say, and something to talk or write about
and give glory to God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-79796316464381192782023-01-24T06:49:00.003-08:002023-01-24T06:49:54.556-08:00A Time to Die<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Yes, but it
had seemed such a convenient time for</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">me
to die. There I was already in hospital and likely to be in need of far more
care than I already had.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But here I
was, celebrating my nineties, with such thankfulness that God had not<br /> answered
my knocking so<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hard on heaven’s door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifWi18-RRWAGwnzFgBy6t3thFx5Ir-Rlt4SsNTAdzu31kUFX1RfXPHzyX1hHk_ik5xN61rYGjkkFY62CBDyBvVt022ZMTAX4Df5h4AHubpiQjy7SEyaW5lXi2Mk1CU0hQy5AOPVXFCvlyGfyxbTdYS9oh8QayOJuBtFkiUYHjr6aPqfE7VnLIWlh2Rcw/s1620/FB_IMG_1674571628282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifWi18-RRWAGwnzFgBy6t3thFx5Ir-Rlt4SsNTAdzu31kUFX1RfXPHzyX1hHk_ik5xN61rYGjkkFY62CBDyBvVt022ZMTAX4Df5h4AHubpiQjy7SEyaW5lXi2Mk1CU0hQy5AOPVXFCvlyGfyxbTdYS9oh8QayOJuBtFkiUYHjr6aPqfE7VnLIWlh2Rcw/w266-h400/FB_IMG_1674571628282.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was
eighty I had carefully selected those who had been of special significance in
my life, but now it was a different story. The facilities of The Rest were sadly
no longer available, and my financial position was very different since God had
wonderfully provided for me to have the nursing care I now needed.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Joel and I
used to visit there to take a service, and after his death I was delighted when
the ladies of Grace took over this ministry. And so now I have a loving caring
family, and have taken on the self-appointed position of birthday poem writer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Two days
before I had been writing a birthday poem for a special twenty year old and
then, realising no one was likely to write one<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(I was wrong) that I needed to write one for me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So with deep
gratitude to all those who are giving me joy in living in so many ways, and
very especially to our wonderful Hyelim who has given me the desire of my heart
in letting me hear my favourite hymn sung before my funeral, and who knows but
Jesus may have come to surprise us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NINETY AND
STILL CLIMBING<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not yet, not
yet to reach God’s mountain peak<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Still
heights to challenge on His chosen way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not ours to
choose our time for reaching home<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>let’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>cheer each other<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in God’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pilgrim Way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He’s giving
us fresh garments to put on<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And songs of
praise to sound our joy abroad<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">New strength
when ours seems almost gone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Join with
God’s church to welcome others home<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thank God
for every birthday we have passed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And those
who walk with us this Pilgrim<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reaching old
age with all his promises<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ll joyful
know his blessings day by day<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pauline Lewis<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-76937069093676111072022-11-04T04:28:00.003-07:002022-11-04T04:28:30.052-07:00WELCOME TO GOD’S TABLE<p> I always have a blessing when I come to church, even though
I often struggle to remember the message as I am no longer able to take notes
to help me to recall what I have heard. I have to wait for Tuesday to arrive
when we discuss Sunday’s message. Then it all comes back to me and I am
hopefully able to join in the applying of it to our lives.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not only do I have difficulty in taking notes, but I
struggle to make good use of my hearing aid, so my heart leapt when I saw the
child-sized table<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and chairs set out
for a party. So - who was to be invited?. Our Laura excels at getting the
children involved, and hopefully I too would understand.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We soon had a proud volunteer as the king, while his two
equally confident little sisters followed as queen and princess. Then who else
should be invited? The Prime minister? Some discussion here. Then, to my
surprise, the very busy caring lady beside me rose suddenly, called to
represent the people we can’t do without.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Only one more seat to go. Amid much hilarity, a long legged
lecturer from the Bible college rose and squeezed himself onto the remaining
chair. Failing to hear Laura’s application, I wondered whether it had been open
to any of us? Obviously they would not have offered me the privilege. I
couldn’t have clambered up the two steps<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>to the platform, and yet….there were plenty who would have helped me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t remember what Laura’s application was, but I know
what God’s lesson is to me, and that is that none of us are excluded. We are all of us invited. So let’s not
wait for someone more important than ourselves to pray or volunteer. No one can
be more greatly loved than you are, because ‘He loves us all the best’.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1522413452208-996ff3f3e740?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Jordan Arnold on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1522413452208-996ff3f3e740?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Thank you Laura, for that lesson for a very old lady as well
as the very little ones too. So no more excuses. We are all chosen and special.
Then let us run, or even limp to take our place at God’s table. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-33398216133111884512022-10-03T07:00:00.001-07:002022-10-03T07:00:26.300-07:00Memories Wakened<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Few of us in
Grace knew Delora Morris in her prime. To us she was one of ‘the old originals’
who had been a members of Hope Chapel, but I am one of the few privileged to have
known her in her prime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Like myself
she was married to a minister and when we first came to live in Porthcawl I
became involved with Delora who was leading the Women’s World Day of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prayer. Though she was a Welsh speaker
herself, ‘Delora worked hard to get the Welsh to unite with us foreign English
on that special day. I admired her for that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1636884697123-baf494ea56ca?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1636884697123-baf494ea56ca?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" width="400" /></a></div>I always
knew where Delora lived because of the name of their home. It was ‘Cana’r<br /> aderyn.’ (Sing like the birds) <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was one
of her uncles I believe who wrote this beautiful Welsh hymn. When Joel and I
were invited to preach in some of the many Welsh chapels now without ministers
I would sing this as a solo, and they would lustily join in the chorus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our husbands
were both theologians and enjoyed many a discussion.’ He became affectionately
known by fellow Christians as ‘Rightly dividing the word of truth.’ We became
widows around the same time and did our best to support each other, but while
Delora had her house crowded out with bardic chairs won by her grandfather, and
other members of her family, God was helping me to declutter and leading me
into new ministries. Several years her senior, Delora was talking about
retirement homes long before I thought of such a thing and even now, believe I
am here on a mission. But our hearts were in the same place and our treasure
hid in heaven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am so
sorry that I was unable to attend the funeral of this special lady, and my
friend. She had taken me to visit her mother shortly before she died. She was
finding it so hard to cope with the thought of parting with this lovely woman
who previously would had been such a strength in her life and when I heard so
many tributes of the godly life she had lived I longed to bring my own
thanksgiving for this, another godly woman who, together with her husband had dedicated
her life to live for God, and after going through Bible college together went
straight into the ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I remember
her reminiscing with Laura, our busy Pastor’s wife of her days as a young pastor’s
wife.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A programme
I enjoy is ‘Homes under the Hammer.’ Like many others I think her house,
cluttered with memories will have to be stripped bare but I do <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hope the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>inspiration of its name will remain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">May we, like
Delora, ‘sing for the glory of heaven</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Like a
sunbeam has swept over my heart;'</span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-16276864796647189642022-08-09T04:24:00.006-07:002022-08-09T04:24:41.545-07:00Healing by the sea<p>One of the blessings of moving into a care home was to be living within reach of a walk by the sea. Convalescing after a cataract operation, I seemed to have lost my ability to hear God’s voice. Had I lost my ability to commune with him?</p><p>I thought of how Jesus had walked the shores of Galilee and how I too as a young woman had shared the joy of his first disciples who had answered his call to follow him. But now after years of joyful discipleship I felt I had nothing to offer him.
</p><p>Then, wonderfully, melting in our unusual heat wave, I was advised to rise before breakfast to come for my walk by the sea. There, resting on a bench I was aware of Jesus’ sitting beside me, demanding nothing, just enjoying my presence, and happy that I had come to meet with him.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBzdJtmLVSomhXWCgy2NQ0D61aqnwJbTvPhYBFC0-Y5uMdwkZhsE3S_7bn2yH2lzn5cqR6ZEHtiX7m7b0QXcqhwr-nBWTzCvisj4-RBHiXLzHb4nsRYHQfJBt2QZI6eIYQnYp1rAAW3njKOTkXDg30-1MfvfRHwfTBdHlPcJ6BjnaDoX6ETl_dkcDfA/s4928/frank-mckenna-OD9EOzfSOh0-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Credits to Frank McKenna at Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="3280" data-original-width="4928" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBzdJtmLVSomhXWCgy2NQ0D61aqnwJbTvPhYBFC0-Y5uMdwkZhsE3S_7bn2yH2lzn5cqR6ZEHtiX7m7b0QXcqhwr-nBWTzCvisj4-RBHiXLzHb4nsRYHQfJBt2QZI6eIYQnYp1rAAW3njKOTkXDg30-1MfvfRHwfTBdHlPcJ6BjnaDoX6ETl_dkcDfA/w320-h213/frank-mckenna-OD9EOzfSOh0-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>‘Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what thou art. I am finding out the greatness of thy loving heart.’ My time of the desert was over!
</p><p>I have longed to put into verse my own wonderful blessing of sitting beside my Saviour in my weakness on the shore, not of Galilee, but of Porthcawl.
</p><p>I hope this may bring assurance to each of us who may also have times when they need God’s own personal ministry.
</p><p> Oh Christ who walked by Galilee
</p><p> Have come to walk this shore with me
</p><p> And you who called those young and brave
</p><p> Call us afresh though old and frail
</p><p> Lord, though oftimes I fail to hear
</p><p> And know that you are always near
</p><p> You never leave us or forsake
</p><p>And you who called me when so young
</p><p>Like those you called by Galilee
</p><p>Are with me here , another shore –
</p><p>Porthcawl indeed, not Galilee
</p><p>But near and dear, yes all we need
</p><p>Come, rest with us each beside the sea.’
</p><p><br /></p><p>I am struggling to share this, to me, very special experience, but pray we may all know his love afresh, whatever our circumstances.
</p><p><br /></p><p>
</p><p>
</p><p>
</p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-80872823666906044342022-06-27T02:25:00.001-07:002022-06-27T02:25:44.787-07:00Mephibosheth<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">If you were
to choose a Bible story to illustrate the Gospel to someone brought up a devout
worshipper in our local Golden Temple, I doubt if you would have chosen the
story of Mephibosheth, yet I had a strong urge that God wanted me to somehow
share the blessing I had received from the sermon we had heard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But how
could I? When I tried to repeat this wonderful story I was struggling even to
pronounce the name of this young prince who, as grandson of King Saul, instead
of being heir apparent was suddenly the enemy of the throne.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The more I
wrestled with such a task the more impossible it seemed. It was not until my
heart<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was stirred in love for this
lovely, devout and gifted Indian lady who was one of the team of carers who was
one of the team who are now assigned to care for me that I realised the
necessity of Jesus’ words, ‘No man comes to the Father, but by Me.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Doesn’t the
angel declare? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Call his
name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here in this
little known story of this unfortunate prince, rescued by the grace of God
through David was the poem God wanted me to write.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MEPHIBOSHETH<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mephibosheth!
Mephibosheth! You’re summonsed by the king.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now grandson
of his enemy, how dare he enter in?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No pride in
his father’s loyalty, but banished, crippled, shamed!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1615500025837-cf3a8716c83d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1587&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Zane Persaud on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="320" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1615500025837-cf3a8716c83d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1587&q=80" width="213" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Prostrate he
lies at David’s feet – for mercy has no claim<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But David,
great in majesty, is great in mercy too,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Come!
There’s room here at my table and in my heart a place for you.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For your
father was my truest friend and our love was pledged for ever<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Even as we
rest in God’s great love, know naught from him can sever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not our
desserts but Christ’s sacrifice has bound us safely to him<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So rise with
joy to join the throng who’ll worship God for ever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pauline Lewis+-<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-60431222659403462402022-05-18T08:59:00.003-07:002022-05-18T08:59:26.812-07:00KITSUNGI HOPE<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">It was my first trip out from my new abode in
Pinehurst, a rest home in Porthcawl.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Such a treat for me to make my way independently,
apart from the help, of course of my reliable walker, to the end of our
street to the Promenade, only to find not only that the Lord was with me
but had gone before me, for there on the pavement was a china effigy of
Snoopy.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But why was he special?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Why, there was something that immediately caught my
attention, for this one seemed to be carefully adorned with numerous cracks,
all high lighted in gold.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1624989490962-c50820103989?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&raw_url=true&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1470" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by ali mousavi on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1624989490962-c50820103989?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&raw_url=true&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1470" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I am told it is a delightful practice of the Japanese,
not just to repair broken china so that<br /> the damage is almost impossible to be
noticed. It is called Kitsungi, where they enhance the breaks, not just
by repairing them so that they are almost impossible to discern, but by
outlining the breakages in gold.</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Snoopy here is gracefully covered in delicate gold
tracery. I was aware of the story because of a programme on the Bible network
where Patrick Regan and his wife are developing a ministry which they call
Kitsungi Hope. On the programme I had happened upon he was interviewing a young
man who has been greatly used by God in developing the work of Street Pastors,
But what connection could this successful young man have with broken pottery?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Why should I have been surprised to hear of the pain
that had been involved as he found himself broken and separated from the
fellowship in which he had thought he was so secure but had eventually led to
his leading a much wider ministry.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Much interest is aroused by this and many other
Snoopies placed around Porthcawl, part of a treasure trail to raise money for a
safe doggy path for our well- loved pooches, but as I met a young woman,
alone as I was, I felt I had to share the true meaning of Kitsungi and I know
it meant more than just Kitsungi but Kitsungi Hope to someone who needed her
pain to be turned to a ministry of beauty.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We thank God for Patrick Regan, Les Isaacs and the
many others of us who have allowed God to turn the pain and brokenness of our
lives into ministries of beauty. And those of us privileged as I am to enjoy
the message Snoopy brings us, may we day by day trust in the God who is
able to turn the painful cracks into Kintsungi Hope.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Has God not promised us ‘beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning?’ Kitsungi Hope indeed.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<br />Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-3176555859784721292022-04-27T02:56:00.004-07:002022-04-27T02:56:59.855-07:00A SPECIAL GOOD FRIDAY<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1555892727-55b51e5fceae?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1074&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Alicia Quan on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1555892727-55b51e5fceae?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1074&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Special? Of course. It is the day we remember the
sacrificial death of our Saviour, for the<br /> world, yes, but I am remembering his
death for me. I am one of the sheep who has gone astray, and because my sins
were laid on him, the spotless lamb, my life has been wonderfully transformed.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, but special for another reason. On this Good
Friday I had a bath for the first time for over 25 years. I had showered, of
course, because I could get into but not out of a bath. Now in a Care Home they
have a special facility where we are put into a seat then hoisted over and
lowered into the lovely warm bubbly water. Oh, such a treat, yet rather
humiliating to be raised naked, waiting to be covered.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In the wonderful atmosphere of worship before we
shared the bread and wine the Lord gave me a beautiful picture. I was in that
chair, washed but naked, longing for any old rags to cover my nakedness when
down from heaven was lowered a garment made of the fleece of the Passover Lamb
, a garment of glory and beauty. I was raised like a queen, my shame dealt with.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">How wonderful. Jesus hung naked on the cross. He took
my shame that I might be clothed with beauty.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It isn’t easy to give up my independent living, but I
am lapping up the love and care and in many ways am being prepared for heaven.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
</span></i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘All hail atoning blood, All hail
redeeming grace</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
All hail the gift of Christ my God, my strength and righteousness.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-77863927142997039972022-04-21T04:12:00.002-07:002022-04-21T04:12:27.640-07:00A SHINING PATH<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1621969876427-526f1f93c5cb?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1228&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1621969876427-526f1f93c5cb?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1228&q=80" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We were in a Watch-night service, perhaps around
mid-night when I clearly saw a picture of a path of light, spreading before me.
Then God began to put into words this picture he was giving me. This was
my first experience of the gift of prophecy, which my friend, Esther Knight
informed me would become the most precious thing in my life.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It was only later that I came across this verse
in the Bible, and indeed many utterances I had heard through seasoned prophets,
were all based on this wonderful Book, the Bible. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Looking back I remember how I began my walk on this
shining path. It was through Billy Graham and also my faithful friend Esther
that I had learned that Jesus had died, not just for Adam, but if no one else
had sinned, that he had needed to die that terrible death for me, but although
now I was meeting with God in a wonderful way, I was still going to worship
with those who denied this evangelical teaching.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I was in mental agony, until I cried out, ‘Lord, it
was so easy for your disciples. They just had to follow Jesus and I am trying
to find out what is right and what is wrong.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Clearly God spoke into my heart.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘No,’ he told me. ‘ It is just the same for you. It is
just for you to follow Jesus.’ </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘Lord, if that is really true, make it so plain for me
that it is either to choose you or deny you.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It was a very few weeks later that God did just that.
Explaining my dilemma to Esther’s father, he told me, ‘For me to go where they
deny that Jesus is God would be to deny my Lord.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I knew the decision was made. I would never go back. I
found myself embraced in the fellowship of the Apostolic Church and on the
shining path. No turning back.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It was a few years along this path that I thought God
was calling me to be a missionary. Every time I heard a missionary speaking I
felt I was being called there, until I realised that maybe God wanted me to be
willing to go anywhere for him. So for several years I continued as a teacher
in the needy mission field of London’s East End.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Esther meanwhile had gone to Nigeria. But there was no
call for me to work beside her, and yet there had to be somewhere with no
mountains or log bridges, for I was not of an adventurous nature.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Then a request came from Australia for teachers or
nurses with a missionary calling so I responded, but heard nothing back for two
years. Perhaps all God askes is for us to be willing? In the meantime I had
become a deputy headmistress and in line for a headship which had helped me to
become more confident.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So I was being led along this shining path until I was
in a prayer meeting, my flight booked for the following Sunday en route for
Australia and eventually Papua New Guinea. It was then I had a panic
attack. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘Lord, I won’t be able to leave everyone I know and go
alone.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Lord answered me. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘I am going. You can come with me, or leave me.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Whatever decision I have to take, it is always –
to choose Christ or to deny him, as I had asked.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Now in my old age I know some have feared that I have
rushed into decision-making, but my Saviour is the Wonderful Counsellor,
and he continues to prove to me that his will is good and acceptable and
perfect. He never asks me to step into any situation without coming with me.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Our Saviour does not ask all of us to go to foreign
shores or to learn foreign languages, but he has a plan and purpose for each
one of us that is good and acceptable and perfect and if we ask him he will
make it a shining path for each one of us. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-30340639071520122482022-03-17T05:17:00.004-07:002022-03-17T05:17:18.141-07:00RETIREMENT<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">My husband and I were agreed that as Christians we should never retire. Our work abroad was over when we married, and at 65, Joel retired from his pastorate in UK, happy to lay down his duties of administration while we continued to take every opportunity of ministry in whatever sphere. We were still missionaries</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When God called me to write, my children’s books had opened doors for me to take assemblies in our local schools.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joel was eighty one when he was ‘promoted’. He had been studying and preaching up to a fortnight before he died. He didn’t suffer and he hadn’t seen old age. Our diary was full, so I was left to fulfil our many Sunday preaching opportunities as well as becoming further involved in the schools as I now was able to train to teach Bible Explorer. What a joy.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nearer ninety now, Lock Down gently closed this door for me into the schools. Was I the only one who enjoyed it? Long undisturbed days for writing? But now, aged 91, my health seems to have hit a low. The two books I have been working on are published. So what now Lord?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I find the Lord reminding me of a visit we were asked to make some years ago.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A son had taken his mother into their home. ‘She is in the waiting room.’ He told us.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another dear lady my brother used to visit, had gone into care, knowing she also was a ‘lady in waiting.’</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So, with health problems increasing, and in spite of a pace maker, experiencing unexpected and painful falls, is it time for me too to become a lady in waiting?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://64.media.tumblr.com/49c1337580a0408ff1008c481aa88414/8b9fc91f0825b481-08/s500x750/42a50f6b86a6eccb3aaa91e1494960cffd63af88.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/49c1337580a0408ff1008c481aa88414/8b9fc91f0825b481-08/s500x750/42a50f6b86a6eccb3aaa91e1494960cffd63af88.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>But I’m sure the Queen does not think of retiring her ladies in waiting. And though I may not be engaged in other ministries God has a purpose for me as I still am able to shed his love abroad.<p></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Many years ago Joel and I had the privilege of going into a local care home to take a service, never thinking we might one day be one of their residents. What a joy then to find a harvest field happily prepared to welcome me. So no, no retirement, but maybe a new field of service will open up, still with church friends around making sure that as long as I am able I will be in the prayer meeting and Sunday services.<br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So let’s take receive each day as a gift from our Father, who promises that our days so shall our strength be.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-74076470685931979892022-02-07T06:50:00.007-08:002022-02-07T06:50:55.869-08:00SCARECROWS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1540786121371-70e1e61ac897?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=687&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Eric Deeran on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="320" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1540786121371-70e1e61ac897?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=687&q=80" width="213" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">I used to love the stories of the scarecrow, Worzel Gummidge. Recently childhood memories have been awakened as Susan and John have
been exploring again with the old rascal the glories of the countryside.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But the purpose of the scarecrow was to scare the crows.
Abraham once was given the task much scarier than that of scaring the crows.
His enemies were vultures and he dared not forsake this task for a
moment. I have never forgotten the story. You can find it in Genesis 15.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">God agreed to make a covenant with Abraham and gave
him instructions as to how to prepare the animals ready to be sacrificed. But
this was not all he had to do, for the offering was not to be made until
evening, and Abraham’s task was to protect the carcasses through the heat of
the day, and not just from crows, but from vultures, great birds of prey.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />When living in Ghana we learned to appreciate the
vultures who cleared away the carrion around us, but I have recently had need
to remember the lesson the preacher was seeking to impress on us.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1628703116611-f89850ae0e19?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Ingo Doerrie on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1628703116611-f89850ae0e19?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘You cannot stop the birds flying round your head but
you can keep them from nesting in your hair.’</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I felt that I was being attacked by wrong thoughts. I
knew that they were wrong, ugly thoughts that were attacking me but try as I
could they continued to flap around my head and I seemed to be unable to
be rid of them. But suddenly and unexpectedly all these ugly thoughts, together
with the accompanying depression, was gone.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘Thanks be unto God who gives us the victory through
Jesus Christ our Lord.’ </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-57135046805834563012022-01-24T04:00:00.005-08:002022-01-24T04:00:58.726-08:00SWEETEST INFANT VOICES<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516381548400-349d680edb56?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=735&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516381548400-349d680edb56?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=735&q=80" width="240" /></a></div>As teachers we used to laugh at those words, for children’s voices are often far from sweet. I remember a time when the sound of play time coming from our local school still brought a feeling of dread to my stomach. But now, instead, it brings joyful memories as I treasure the privilege I had of going into our local primary schools and<br /> knowing Jesus was coming in with me.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If only I had known Jesus as my Saviour and Friend as a little child, how different my school days might have been. And yet , there can be tough experiences for Christian children too, however well taught and supported.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Challenged as to how to help a family who have been seeing their child coming home in tears, I feel impressed to share a story I heard from a parent of a pastor long since in the ministry. His ‘gang’ had excluded him from playing football with them. This was persecution indeed.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mother challenged her son to pray with her and see how Jesus would come into the situation to help to make things right. Doubtless he was still in the Infants for Mum was around as they came out of school. They watched from a distance to see his mates enjoying their game without him. But strangely there was no football. Somehow the ball had been lost.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1502086223501-7ea6ecd79368?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=838&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="277" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1502086223501-7ea6ecd79368?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=838&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t think his pals thought to exclude him again, and he certainly had learned the lesson that if he invited Jesus into his situation that he could change even the most painful one.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I often think how different my childhood would have been if I had been taught that Jesus had died for me, that he forgave all my sins and would give me courage to face every difficulty. But even as an adult I have had to learn to pray and ask Jesus to come with me into a difficult situation whereas I had failed previously.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #323130; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So let’s pray for our schools, for Christian teachers and workers and especially pray for and with our children as they face their own Goliaths or other form of persecution.<br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-79042486090594300582021-12-16T08:38:00.000-08:002021-12-16T08:38:09.451-08:00HEAVEN'S GATE<p> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are two occasions in
my life when I have felt that I was at heaven’s gate, but on each occasion -
well – I am still here, aren’t I?</span></p><p class="xmsonormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Alone in a strange land, as
I regained consciousness from a head-on collision, I had a picture in my mind
of a young Ghanaian brother, who had died very suddenly just a fortnight ago,
now dancing before the Lord. (Ghanaians can dance) ‘Lord’, I whispered, ‘You
took William, but you did not take me.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No, it was not an audible
answer, but it was one I have never forgotten.<br /></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Because of the children.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> For nearly forty years
I have had the privilege of teaching the children that they are special and
loved by God. How I thank him that he had not opened the gates of heaven to me
at that time. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1475727946784-2890c8fdb9c8?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1184&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Arto Marttinen on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="800" height="263" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1475727946784-2890c8fdb9c8?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1184&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But now I am ninety years
old. I have been rejoicing that for over a year I have enjoyed good health and
no ‘incidents’, when suddenly and very painfully I found myself once again in
hospital where it was swiftly decided that I should be fitted with a
pace-maker. However, before this could be done, once again I found myself at
heaven’s door. I regained consciousness to look into what seemed like a crowd
of anxious, now relieved faces.</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But heaven’s gates seemed so
very near to me. I was pleading with the Lord to let me in. Like my beloved
husband, I would be saved the indignity of old age. But once again I must
believe that God still has a purpose for me, though no longer in the schools.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Back in the ward I was crying
in pain. I had to accept that the doors of heaven were firmly closed, but our
Saviour had left heaven once before to come to save us. ‘Lord,’ I whispered.
‘Would you send Jesus to help me?’ </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">He did. I know that Jesus
was present in the loving nurse who came now and sat and held my hand. I found
Jesus too in some of the patients whom I had previously found so difficult, and
now I am back home I am realising what a privilege it is to be still here to
bring Jesus to others, and what a wonderful gift is each day that he gives us.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And I thank God that he is
teaching me that the gates of heaven are never closed to us, even though he is
asking us to remain here as conduits of his grace and love and power.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">HEAVEN’S GATES</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I knocked in vain at
heaven’s door</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Lord, open now’ I cried</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘For I am weak and helpless</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh, leave me not outside.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘No, not outside, Beloved –</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Nought bars your entering in</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Remember that I sent my Son </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To conquer death and sin.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The door to heaven is open</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Though you’re still here,
weak and frail</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For I’ve given you life in
Jesus</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And for you there is no
veil.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So rejoice in your life in
Jesus.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">He has conquered death and
hell </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And though your strength is
failing</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In me you will prevail.’ </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-59027204743436179412021-11-24T01:13:00.006-08:002021-11-24T01:13:38.668-08:00SUNRISE ON THE GOWER<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When I booked in to attend a retreat at Nicholaston
House, part of the blessing of this special occasion was to have a room
overlooking Oxwich Bay and seeing away on to the hills of Devon.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The first morning I woke, as usual, while it was still
dark so I drew back my curtains and lay there in happy expectation of sunrise.
However, this wonderful view was not enough. The next time I got out of bed I
opened the curtain of one of the side windows. This one was facing East rather
than South. Imagine my surprise to find the sun had risen and was already
flooding the sky with streaks of glory.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1510784722466-f2aa9c52fff6?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by OC Gonzalez on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="283" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1510784722466-f2aa9c52fff6?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" width="425" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The next morning I knew where to look and had a very
special blessing as I actually saw the first peep of the sun rising above the
roof of the Celtic chapel which is nestling beside the house. If I had lain on
in bed I would not have seen it, for by the time the sun<br /> had fully arisen a
mist was covering the bay.</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This week was very special for me, meeting some old
friends and making many new ones. The retreat was titled ‘Grace-Space.’ A small
and close group of us, in spite of Covid and the necessity to still wear
masks, we shared in lovely times of devotion, where we were meditating and
looking afresh at some of the old familiar stories of Jesus; opening our hearts
too to the transformation of our lives.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But I think the greatest blessing I brought back from
this retreat was that God wants us to be a people who are watching for the
sunrise – ‘Looking for and hastening unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.’ He has promised us that he will come again. When he does, every
darkness will be banished and our world will be flooded with the light of life.
But let’s make sure we are looking in the right direction.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Even so come, Lord Jesus. </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-44139328668626358222021-11-10T05:08:00.003-08:002021-11-10T05:08:51.406-08:00JOURNEY OF LIFE<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">It was an outward, rather than a homeward journey that
was the inspiration for this meditation. Two years had passed since our last
coach holiday but now at last the feeder buses had brought us all together and
we were on our way. But as we reached the next service station we were told
there might be some delay. We may not think a wind screen wiper an item of
great importance, but it had rendered this 40 seater bus unsafe to drive. Not
too long and the repair van was off and we too on our way. We were expected to
arrive in Eastbourne by 5 o’clock. There would be plenty of time to settle in
before our meal.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Oh no, not again. This time we were waiting, not for
the repair van but a new coach, for the wipers had failed again. Vision is all
important and not to be trifled with, but it meant a lengthy wait. Fortunately
we were at yet another service station where there is every basic convenience,
but not where we would choose to start our holiday.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Am I to squander my time in boredom and frustration?
Or has my Father something to teach me?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As a writer I usually carry pen and paper, and had
with me some notes I had made yesterday at our special Harvest service.
Inspiration began to flow. I found myself in imagination among those seated on
that hillside where Jesus had taken the loaves and fishes, given thanks,
breaking bread and feeding us all.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In those apparently barren hours Jesus was there,
breaking bread and feeding again. And once again Jesus was giving me that
precious gift of godliness with contentment.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Eventually another bus arrived, painted as a great
‘red dragon’. It was dark and yes, still raining, but it was more spacious
inside. Our all- important wipers were working and so we settled down, trusting
the driver. We trusted there would be no more stops until we reached our hotel
some three hours later. The hotel was advised of our delay and had promised to
have food on the table as soon as we arrived, hopefully something after seven.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As the driver drove purposefully through the long,
dark night and we rested in</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1632276536839-84cad7fd03b0?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=764&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Egor Litvinov on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1632276536839-84cad7fd03b0?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=764&q=80" width="320" /></a></div><br /> confidence, I meditated on the journey of
life. Like this trip, it can be eventful and for some of us, very long, but if
our faith is in Jesus then we know that we will not only eventually arrive
safely, and that there will be a wonderful welcome.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The driver had his radio on as we powered through that
dark wet night, but was it music he was playing? At times it sounded to me like
screaming or wailing, a reminder that we are traveling through a land where
Satan is the prince of darkness, yet now and again a gentle melody would break
through as if assurance from the Prince of Peace himself.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And yes, we did arrive, something after 7pm and a
sumptuous meal almost immediately set before us, the beginning of a happy
break. So now I am back in my Eagle’s Nest, looking forward, not to a break,
but to an eternity of joy and peace and yes, creativity when this journey of
life will be over and we will be home, home at last.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-64090446380858594872021-10-06T01:56:00.006-07:002021-10-06T01:56:40.980-07:00LEAPING FOR JOY<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1521632294500-008fd68bf7c9?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://unsplash.com/photos/XE4QrBRwfUM" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1521632294500-008fd68bf7c9?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It seems to be the fashion on Facebook to put up
photos of wedding anniversaries. They<br /> are all a delight, but there is one that
I cannot erase from my memory. It is of the Bridegroom leaping for joy.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The bride is of a different culture and the wedding in
her country, so maybe their customs are different from ours, but to leap like
that could only have come from a joy deep within.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But is such joy a one off? My own husband was very
reserved and not likely to sing for joy, let alone leap, but I was reassured by
the Psalmist’s declaration to know that his joy as a bridegroom was something
that gave him strength to run his race. I am sure this was as true for my
husband as for this couple, who now have the responsibility of a lively and
demanding family, as well as running ministries which necessitate the bearing
of heavy burdens as well as causing stress which may affect their health.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So does that mean an end to leaping for joy? I believe
God wants us to ask and still expect joy. Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Ask
and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.’? And the promise in Isaiah
is that the lame man shall leap as a hart, as well as the tongue of the dumb
sing. So we need to pray for those who carry heavy burdens and have
responsibilities that demand more than natural strength, that God will still
anoint them with the oil of gladness and that they will know his peace and joy,
in it all.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">There was a time when an injection given by the
dentist affected my heart and for a year I was struggling with ill health. It
was during that time that God gave me a promise that I would rejoice, not only
spiritually but also physically. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A few years later, I was setting out on trek in the
Highlands of New Guinea when, though I knew my strength would be tested as I
would have to wade through bogs and climb mountains, I felt this surge of
joy and knew God was fulfilling his promise.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1495572195357-1c8d6b84bc52?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://unsplash.com/photos/_YQ199RNF48" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1495572195357-1c8d6b84bc52?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1170&q=80" width="400" /></a></div>Today, when some like myself can’t go far without a
walker, while others of you may be in training to run a marathon, we can all
rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of our<br /> salvation.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘For the Lord is our strength and our song.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Let us remind God of his promise, ‘Then shall the lame
man leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-63953941174088036572021-09-17T01:46:00.005-07:002021-09-17T01:46:44.911-07:00DELIVERANCE FROM FEAR<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Our visiting preacher immediately had our attention as
he challenged us concerning some of our fears and yes, phobias.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Spiders? Yes. Heights? Big yes, for me, but for a
special reason. These <i>had</i> once been major fears in my life, but
wonderfully God has delivered me.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1524679166686-04237b4667b4?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=800&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1524679166686-04237b4667b4?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=800&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Simon continued with his message concerning the
disciples, seasoned fishermen, yet caught in a terrible storm on the Sea of
Galilee. Yes, the storm was terrible, but when they saw Jesus coming toward
them, walking on the water, they experienced an even greater terror.</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But yes, it was not a ghost, but Jesus, their Jesus.
Convinced, how gladly they welcomed him into the boat. Now fears were all
allayed. Not only now was the fury of the storm abated, but they had
actually arrived at their destination.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">An end to their fears? We would think so, but no.
Instead they were overcome with a greater fear, an awe, a reverence, for they
realised that they were not just in the presence of a godly man, but of God
himself, the one who is the creator and sustainer of the universe, and yet one
who they now knew as their friend, sharing their lives and their circumstances.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Their fears had been very real, but they had been
conquered by a greater fear, the fear of the Lord which, we are told, is the
beginning of wisdom.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I looked back to my deliverances, the fears from
which, little by little I had been delivered.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I remember clearly. I was in our prayer meeting, and
that weekend I was due to fly out to New Guinea where doubtless there would be
spiders and mountains and vine bridges, and all those conditions I had been so
sure God would not have expected me to face, and now he had, as well as going
alone, leaving everyone I knew and loved.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1532173811262-5fa76093001a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=375&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Tom Fejér on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1532173811262-5fa76093001a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=375&q=80" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">‘Oh, Lord,’ I whispered, ‘I won’t be able to do it.’</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Then God gave me an ultimatum. ‘I am going. You can
come with me or you can leave<br /> me.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">To lose my relationship with Jesus? That would be my
greatest fear of all. When I got to the airport gates I knew Jesus was going
before me, and when I reached that forgotten land he was always there so that,
little by little my fears were overcome.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Today we have brothers and sisters facing terrible
persecution and in fear of their lives. We pray that they may experience that
far greater fear, the awesome presence of the great I Am, the God of might and
miracles and who is our Peace.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">THE FEAR OF THE LORD </span>(based on Simon’s ministry
John 6: 16-21)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">No, not a God afar are you</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But one who is always near,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A God who’s aware of our deepest needs</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As well as each childish fear</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And you want us to find you in life’s fiercest storms</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-to know you, not just alongside</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But entering into each circumstance</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As the God who is come to abide.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus, our Saviour and our Lord</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Great I AM, God of glory and grace</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Only you be our fear. Let us know you are near</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As we live in the light of your face. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-36872150249579681262021-08-12T05:36:00.002-07:002021-08-12T05:36:37.654-07:00WORDS OF LIFE <p> <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 12pt;">‘Ten Words’ is
how it’s known to the Jews, but it is far more than ten words in our reckoning,
for this refers to the Ten Commandments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We were not
excited when we heard this was to be our study for the next few weeks. Surely
we are in the New Testament now, all these laws behind us? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1589829545856-d10d557cf95f?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1050&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1589829545856-d10d557cf95f?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1050&q=80" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif;">I remember
reading about a man who became a Christian while in prison. Eventually
released, for the first time in his life he went into a church. There, in large
letters, were written the Ten Commandments. He heart sank. He had thought he
had been set free, but now, how could he keep all those ‘No-no's<span style="font-size: 12pt;">’? He bowed his
head, bringing his despair to his Saviour and his Friend, the Lord Jesus.
When he looked again, they seemed to read in a different way. Not as ‘thou
shalt not, but ‘You won’t.’</span></span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus said, ‘If
you love me you <b><i>will</i></b> keep my commandments.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If we come to
Jesus as Lord and Saviour we too will find we are released from condemnation,
and released into new life in Christ. He it is who gives us victory over our
old sins. So, are we now able to keep these ten commandments?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although many
have done their best to keep them, without being perfect it is impossible. That
is why the Jews have a Day of Atonement, and endless sacrifices to atone for
their sins, and Paul, in the New Testament, writes that the law was a
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That is why God sent his Son to be our
Saviour. The name Jesus means Saviour. ‘Call his name Jesus for he will save
his people from their sins.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1450558415837-1f5e21a17709?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=358&q=80" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash" border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="358" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1450558415837-1f5e21a17709?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=358&q=80" /></a></div>Yes, as
Christians we have a saviour, Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven because the
judgement we deserved was put on him. He died in our place.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So now, as we
read again the Ten Commandments, do we get a tick beside each one? No, rather
we find that God is searching our hearts. I know that in many ways I have
to cry out, ‘guilty.’ Yes, guilty, but forgiven, and now able to do better.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">God has not
called us back to Mount Sinai to condemn us, for there is no<br /> condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. Rather, he wants us to know how great is His
love for us, making these laws that we might enjoy our relationship with this
our wonderful Creator, Redeemer God.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am adding my
interpretation of the glorious freedom that has been brought to us as, week by
week we have found God’s wonderful love expressed to us through these ‘Ten
Words’.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 126.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style \, serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 126.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style \, serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> * * *</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><b><i><span style="font-family: helvetica;">1.‘You
shall have no other gods before me.’ Exodus 20: 1-3</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">‘NO
OTHER GOD</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">God
has made us in his image<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Have
we need of aught beside?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Need
we any lesser god to satisfy our pride?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Should
we worship health or wealth?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For
this soon will pass away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">God
will give us life abundant if we walk his way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For
his love is living water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
a dry and thirsty land<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Bread
each day he gives from heaven, if in trust we’ll stand <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">No
need for us to worship beauty,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For
God will give us of his own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If
we’ll come to seek his face, - worship him alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Let’s
us banish gods of stardom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Or
of popularity, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Fame,
we know, is oft times fleeting - things that others see.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">You
alone are King for ever,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Your
love eternal, strong and true<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And
your word is living water. Yes, we <i>will </i>worship you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>2.<i>‘You
shall not make for yourself a carved image.’ </i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">NO GRAVEN IMAGE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What skills
describe the glory of One who made man from the dust of the earth?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">By the word of
his power called forth moon, stars and sun, each sphere of infinite worth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then why should
we seek by our skills to describe a God greater than all we desire,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With metal you
hid in the bowels of the earth to form a god who comes out of the fire?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Know that your
Maker may not be defined by skills that to you he has given<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For only through
Christ can his glory be known and we enter the Kingdom of heaven<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then may we not
think of our God as too small or shrink him to what we desire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But with
trembling and awe draw near through the Son to find him who’s revealed in the
fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.’ Ex.20: 7</b></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">NOT IN VAIN</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">No, not in vain
will I speak that name<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Name given, not
with holy fire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But through
lowly birth coming here to earth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And in poverty
and shame’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For God sent his
Son the Holy One<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That he might
through love inspire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Us to rise from
our shame and through faith in his name <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">-Come to
God, all our hearts may desire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>4. <i>‘Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ Ex.20.8</i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 36pt;">ONE DAY IN SEVEN.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">God took six days to make this world</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">With sun and moon and stars</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">The biosphere and atmosphere</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">Rivers, mountains, moors</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">Till, making man, he was well pleased</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">And that we may all enjoy</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">He did ordain a day of rest</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 48px;">For all in his employ.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 36pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>5. ‘Honour your
father and mother.’</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">LOVE
AND HONOUR<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">How
precious are you, so deeply loved</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That
God should send his Son<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To
pay the price that you, forgiven,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Know
you by such love were won<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Yes,
dearly, dearly loved are we <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As
is our neighbour too<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
may we show God values them <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
all we say and do<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Yes,
and parents too, though sometimes against the grain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just
as Jesus showed the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And
the elderly still need respect<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Even
when they’re old and grey<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Think
how Our Lord, taking bowl and towel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Gladly
knelt to show the way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then
may we, joyful, bow our knees<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To
share with others day by day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">6. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">‘You shall not murder.’</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">HONOUR LIFE</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Each of us
shaped in the image of God, known and loved and treasured.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then why should
we fear another’s rise when we each for ourselves are measured?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is fear that
gives rise to jealousy -Yet we each one are loved and are needed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why allow Satan
to lure us on? For from jealousy murder is speeded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">‘Where is your
brother?’ Cain was asked, his blood crying out from the ground<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Each drop of
blood is so precious indeed and an answer must surely be found.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lord, guard our
hearts against jealousy. For your purpose we each one are made.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Redeemed by the
precious blood of your Son, may we love and not be afraid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">7. </span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">‘You shall not commit adultery’</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><i style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">HONOUR MARRIAGE</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Searching for
love and acceptance<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Found
naked, abused by men<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Facing contempt,
indignation<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">She is dragged
out for all to condemn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But they take
her to One, who of all men<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Is come to seek
and to save<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is they, her
accusers who are standing condemned<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Those who plot
to judge now facing shame<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lord, you’ve
given us laws to protect us<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">From wand’ring
in thought, look or deed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To find our
fulfilment in Jesus our joy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And help others
enchained by man’s greed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For the Saviour
did not condemn her<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While he sent
her accusers away<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Gave her
strength to drink from a well that is pure<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And joy in him
every new day</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">8 &
9. </span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">‘You shall not steal.’ – and ‘Do not bear false witness.’</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><i style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">HONOUR PROPERTY, and
HONOUR REPUTATION<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
DO NOT STEAL<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">‘You can get it
for free,’ but know, someone must pay<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For there’s
always a price for what’s given away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We like to buy
cheap but is slave labour in sight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Oh no, we don’t
steal, but does that make this right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For we all once
were slaves, bound in sin’s darkest night<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And ‘twas Christ
paid the price that we might live in the light<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So - no need to
steal freebies - piling things we don’t need.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Let’s give away
gladly and find riches indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And then there’s
your neighbour! Would you steal his good name?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We’re all made
in God’s image and are worthy the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To whisper
suggestions is stealing indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So let’s love
and honour our neighbour and give help in his need.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>10. </i></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">‘</span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">You shall not covet.’</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><i style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">HONOUR
IN THE HEART<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
DO NOT COVET<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Only in Christ
is contentment,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
Only in him is true gain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why should I
covet the treasures of earth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">When
heaven’s wealth alone will remain?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why spend your
labour for blessings<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
That wear out at last and decay?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In your Saviour
alone is an upspringing joy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
That remains, though all else pass away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then may we
delight in his favour<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
And trust him, though trials will come<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For if Christ
himself is our treasure<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
We have love, joy and peace in the Son <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410930482048652712.post-61937902154600540562021-08-02T02:58:00.000-07:002021-08-02T02:58:27.255-07:00THE CHILDREN GOD HAS GIVEN US<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78Nu3fs9pPUz5tqEpsIYbVV9aQWi8k9H9kZE2IlEQZN6O9MuMRM8idyP6zu-LJOwOhLTJAOm8Mg8iNPjHtAEt2cK1WQh24my5ferXQP5_CcfVxxUNRqy3Fu3iMyLJlzzK3eMpB5hs2SQG/s2048/Pauline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78Nu3fs9pPUz5tqEpsIYbVV9aQWi8k9H9kZE2IlEQZN6O9MuMRM8idyP6zu-LJOwOhLTJAOm8Mg8iNPjHtAEt2cK1WQh24my5ferXQP5_CcfVxxUNRqy3Fu3iMyLJlzzK3eMpB5hs2SQG/w400-h300/Pauline.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I felt I had to share this picture of myself, being
loaded with blessings from one of our local schools where I have been teaching
‘Bible’ for so many years, because so many of you have shared in my schools
ministry; first of all in praying that the schools might be open to us.( We
had thought this prayer was answered so that a young man just returned
from Bible College might go in, but no. By the time a positive answer was given
he had moved on.) It had not dawned on me that God might expect me to be the answer
our prayers.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile God had called me to write. It was my books
that became the key to open the door for me to be welcomed in our local primary
schools. This led on to taking assemblies. I became a regular feature, but how
I needed the support of our praying women sisters who supported me to the hilt.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It wasn’t easy to face a hall full of children, but
when sometimes my courage would fail, God would remind me, as he had when I was
leaving for the ends of the earth, ‘I am going. You can come with me, or you
can leave me.’ When the children were all responding, drinking in the word, I
knew without doubt that it was Jesus who was reaching out to them through me. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Then came Bible Explorer. I had read about it and felt
it was something I could do, but it was not until my beloved Joel had died that
I was free to undertake the training. Now, more than ever I needed my sisters
to be praying for me. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And pray they did, and have given support in many ways
over the years. I never forget one sister who was on her knees praying for me
for the whole hour of my very first BX lesson.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Another prayed that God would let me see some fruit
from this teaching. Would I ever know? But one of the teachers had asked her
children to write about what it had meant to them, and I was able to read of
several beautiful responses.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">On rare occasions I would return home discouraged,
feeling I have not done as well as I should or that the children were not
responsive, but then I would remind the Lord that he had promised me joy and
peace, and without his joy I could not continue. Invariably the next lesson, or
assembly would be what I described as a ‘star-dust’ one. I would tell the
children, ‘I think the angels must have sprinkled some star dust, for you are
so good today.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I have one precious memory. A small boy had
asked to help me to the car with my loads. It was a very hot afternoon and he
in particular had not seemed responsive but now he told me, ‘I love it when you
come.’ He repeated it, ‘I love it when you come.’ I knew that small,
difficult, lovable little boy had felt the touch of Jesus. That is what it is
all about.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But now I won’t be continuing in the schools.
Retirement shouldn’t be part of a Christian’s vocabulary, should it? Having
reached the great age of ninety, my mobility and energy has been decreasing and
I feel through the Covid Lockdown that God himself has come and gently closed
this door for me, so that now I am able to give myself to full time
writing, and of course to praying.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I hope you will feel included in this lovely ‘thank
you’ that I have received and will continue to pray with me and for the
children of this generation; ‘The children that God has given me/us.’</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Pauline Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00492037054305751335noreply@blogger.com0