You deserve my every breath

I will offer up my life
In spirit and truth
Pouring out the oil of love
As my worship to You
In surrender I must give my every part:
Lord receive the sacrifice
Of a broken heart

You deserve my every breath
For you paid the great cost;
Giving up your life to death,
Even death on a cross.
You took all my shame away
There defeated my sin
Opened the gates of heaven
And have beckoned me in.

Jesus what can I give, what can I bring
To so faithful a friend, to so loving a King?
Saviour what can be said, what can be sung
As a praise to your name for the things you have done?
O my words could not tell, not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed by this thankful heart

What do we have that we have not been given? What can we do with what we’ve been given but give it all back to the God who gave it to us in the first place? And how must we return to Him all that we owe? Surely in humble gratitude and heart-felt praise.

This is the theme running through Matt Redman’s song and highlighted in the Bible story on page after page.

If we have not seen the truth of this yet or lost sight of the splendour of it, we need to re-visit the place where it’s glory is most clearly to be seen, the Cross of Christ. We need to read/hear/ consider again what the New Testament teaches about the Cross.
Here’s a sample;

“Christ was innocent of sin and yet for our sake God made him one with the sinfulness of men, so that in him we might be made one with the goodness of God himself” ……..”the hour of favour has now come; now, I say, the day of deliverance has dawned” 2 Corinthians 5 v 21; 6 v 2

In this, St Paul says to the Corinthian Christians, and by implication to Christians today, “you have received the grace of God; so do not let it go for nothing……..you are not your own; you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6 v 20

To listen to the song “I will offer up my life” go to my previous post and use the Player. Why not make this song your response to Christ who loved you and gave himself for you.?

You gave me this breath

 

      Baby at 12 weeks

So fearfully and wonderfully made
How can they say there is no God?
Reminded every breath that I take
It’s by your hand I have been formed
So what am I going to do with this life you gave me?
What could I do but live for your praise?                                       

Chorus
You gave me this breath
and you gave me this strength
and every day I’ll live to obey you
With all of my heart
with all of my soul
Let every breath I’m breathing
Display you God.

There’s elegance in all that you create
Your Grand designs leave us amazed
The wonders of the way we’ve been made
Speak of your power, tell of your grace
So what I’m going to do with this life you gave me?
What Could I do but live for your praise?

So what am I going to do with this life you gave me?
What am I going to do with this life?
What am I going to do in these days you’ve ordained?
What am I going to do with this life?

These song lyrics by Matt and Beth Redman first took shape after  he and his wife had seen an ultrasound scan of their new baby growing in the womb. Words based on words from Psalm 139 entered Matt’s head “so fearfully and wonderfully made, how could they say there’s no God?”

Later Matt wrote these words about the song

“Just before mixing the song we had the idea of adding the heartbeat sound of a baby to the introduction. He sent such a sound to the producers. They nearly fell off their chairs because the heartbeat tempo perfectly matches the tempo of the song. The chances of these matching up so precisely must be crazily small. It felt like a precious moment when you get a sense of God’s smile over you.

Sometimes I find it hard to fathom that people cannot recognise evidence of our Creator. You need look no further than your own body to see the wonders of His design. As the song says, with every breath that we take we’re reminded that there is One who made us and sustains our every living moment.”

Why not read the words again while listening to Matt Redman sing…..

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Behind the Stable

Time And Relative Dimensions In Space

There is more to life than meets the eye.

Most of what we see consists of the common and ordinary and we tend to pass over it. We only get excited it seems by the extra-ordinary; that which stands out as different and unusual. How exciting it would be if we were to discover that beyond, beneath and behind the ordinary lies a reality we had never experienced!                                                                                                                              

The world of sci-fi tempts us to believe in projections of the human imagination. In one way or another the clamour for such stories suggests a human need is being fulfilled. Perhaps this need is a thirst for the reality that lies behind the ordinary.

The DR WHO drama uses the idea of something ordinary becoming a vehicle into other worlds, past and future. The ordinary old-fashioned telephone box becomes the TARDIS which propels its occupants into amazing adventures with the death-defying Doctor.

In a similar way the ordinary STABLE in which Christ was born can become for us an extra-ordinary thing, pointing us to a new and adventurous life accompanied by an eternal Friend and Guide.

This can happen for each of us as we come to realise WHO the person born in the stable really was. We must grasp by faith that the baby of Bethlehem was God incarnate; that Jesus of Nazareth was God taking on humanity with no loss of deity; that the baby in the manger was as truly and fully divine as he was human!

What happened that first Christmas is the focus of the profoundest and unfathomable depth of the Christian revelation!
As J Packer once put it

“nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory. God became poor in Jesus and was born in a stable that He might hang on a cross. This is the most wonderful message the world has ever heard, or will hear”

St Paul saw through and behind that stable when he wrote

“Christ became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich.”

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

Seeing life differently

Mike and Jean, from Bristol, came to visit for a few days. The weather was good so one day we took them to parc Glynllifon about six miles south of Caernarfon.

History, art and landscape come together here. The historic gardens comprise a tree trail with over 200 trees, some planted more than 150years ago. Fifty trees are listed as of special interest. These have been sourced from round the world and have exotic names like the Tibetan Cherry, Dawn Redwood, the Roble and the Golden Twigged Ash.

Wandering through the grounds is enhanced by the “wind-up” commentary points. These are located at strategic places and lead past the Mansion (at present undergoing restoration ) along the riverside to the fountains and caves and eventually to the amphitheatre where Mike tried out his Henry V speech!

Walking back through the woods we came across the childrens mill and could not resist going behind the rushing water flowing over our heads. The picture picks us out peering through the water. With the sun glistening on the water the whole view of the wood was transformed before us.

Reflecting on this experience I cannot but pass on the wonderful lines of William Rees about the Crucifixion and suggest that seeing and living life in the light of the Cross is a totally transforming experience, one to which we are all invited.

Seeing life Differently

“On the mount of crucifixion
fountains opened deep and wide
through the floodgates of God’s mercy
flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love”
William Rees’ hymn ”Here is love

The last word

We went to a funeral service the other day. It was the only one I had experienced where the last word was a resounding Alleluia from the congregation!

This was at the requested of Joe, a Christian gentleman, well known in the locality whose life we were celebrating. The Alleluia was a great shout of praise to God for a life of more than 80years testifying to His goodness, love, mercy, patience, power and faithfulness. It spoke of the purpose-driven life which is the Christian’s calling.

The fruitfulness of this season gives similar testimony. The abundant fruit on our victoria plum tree this year is simply amazing!

Jesus said to his followers

“I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit…….by this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.”

Make me a fruitful Christian Lord so that the last word over me will be a resounding Alleluia to you.

Sea sickness

Today autumn has blown in! The local Irish Sea forecast was a gale warning with winds veering to severe gale force 9 with the sea being rough and very rough at times.
There will be much debris on the shoreline when we next take the dog for his exercise and, if the ferry to Ireland dares to sail, there will be much seasickness no doubt!!

I am reminded of one of George Herbert’s poems where he compares mankind after the Fall to a tossed vessel on the high sea

“At first Man was a treasure,
a box of jewels, shop of rarities,
a ring whose posie was “My pleasure”:
He was a garden in a Paradise;
glory and grace
did crown his heart and face.

But since sin has fooled him; now he is
A lump of flesh, without a foot or wing
To raise him to glimpse of bliss;
A sick-tossed vessel, dashed on each thing,
No, his own shelf:
My God, I mean myself “

The last lines are illuminating. Herbert realises that he himself is that “sick tossed vessel” affected like the rest of mankind by the sea change brought by the coming of sin into the world.

The prophet Isaiah was given a message from God, which said

“There is no peace for evil people. They are like the angry sea, which cannot rest, whose waves toss up waste and mud”

However even to him a promise of peace was made, ultimately fulfilled in Christ

God said “ I will give peace, real peace, to those far and near, and I will heal them…..I have seen what they have done, but I will heal them and comfort them and they will all praise me”

Praise the Lord all the earth!

Celebrating life

I watched from an upstairs window. The handful of sparrows was on the track below enjoying a dust-bath. They stamped and brought up the dust with their wings. Then on some signal, it seemed, they took off into the hedge nearby. I watched them do this a score of times.

Then came the next game! They moved from the hedge again but this time made for a rain pool in the track. The pool could have only been half a metre in diameter. At first they played round the edge. Could they be looking at their reflections in the water? One by one they waded into the shallow edges of the pool, fluttered their wings and once more, left, as a group, to disappear into the hedge.

At one point, another bird joined them from the hedge. It was a black cap; rather timid but wanting to join in the fun. It went round the pool edge timidly and at a little distance from the sparrows. Eventually it got the idea and fluttered the water onto its wings before flying into the safety of the hedge. The black cap was always the last one home!

Reflecting on what I had witnessed, the whole event was a celebration of life; a dance of joy and delight in the sunny interval between the rain showers. The pleasure of watching this was like a flash of glory on my senses and mood. As CS Lewis would have said “in receiving what I had witnessed I was experiencing something from a divine source. I was being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore.

Gratitude would exclaim “how good of God to give me this” Adoration would say “what must be the quality of that Being whose far off momentary light-flashes are like this?” One’s mind must run back up the sunbeam to the sun.”

To realise life as you live it and to give glory to life’s Giver must be an ultimate for any human being.

Grounded

On finding a kestrel, dead on the lawn.

Kestrel; grounded, at my feet
Slain; never to rise again.
What an end to beauty on the wing!
What purpose can you now serve
Broken link in vital chain?

Are you not part of brooding strong
Whose story touches warrior –kings?
Through ages long; wild and feared
We have known you near

Dust to dust, you go from sight
Yet what pleasure you have brought
To eyes of men and eyes of God
This must be said of you
“You gave your best and now
it’s time to take your rest.”

Promises, Promises

Another month, another marriage! This time George and Tamsin make their promises to one another and before God. And what promises!!

Turning to each other, the bride and groom took each other’s right hand and make promises:
‘to have and to hold
from this day forward;
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part’
The couple then exchange rings as a ’sign of their marriage’
‘With my body I honour you,
all that I am I give to you,
and all that I have I share with you,
within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’
These promises make up a solemn pledge setting them in a covenant relationship with each other. If two people are simply living together, either partner may abandon the other without accountability. The covenant involves a promise to obey God and to be faithful . As someone has said

Livi ng by covenants is God’s method to anchor our lives and provide security for us

The marriage relationship is the closest we can experience and in the Christian understanding it needs to be founded on Bible teaching to be successful. Hence the need for prayer throughout its course and the support of other Christians in the local Church.

George and Tamsin will find true success in their marriage as they mature in these matters and may God’s banner of eternal love be always over them.

Marriage is a tough call

Our recent trip to Mansfield to witness the marriage of Anne’s niece set me thinking about the beauty and depth of the words of the marriage service.

Words so easily slip off the tongue, even when we are under scrutiny! I understand the need for haste on the part of the vicar when given a 30minute slot but I do hope the meaning of Christian marriage outlined in the first part of the service are given the thought they deserve. More than this I pray that the words of promise and covenant between the bride and groom will have come from hearts of mutual love and trust in God to enable the commitment they demand.

Here are some of the words heard and spoken on that day by Heather and Chris and by 1000’s of others taking their marriage vows in Churches round the country

“Marriage is a gift of God in creation
through which husband and wife may know the grace of God.
It is given that as man and woman grow together in love and trust,
they shall be united with one another in heart, body and mind,
as Christ is united with his bride, the Church.

The gift of marriage brings husband and wife together
in the delight and tenderness of sexual union
and joyful commitment to the end of their lives.
It is given as the foundation of family life
in which children are [born and] nurtured
and in which each member of the family,in good times and in bad,
may find strength, companionship and comfort,
and grow to maturity in love.

Marriage is a way of life made holy by God,
and blessed by the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
with those celebrating a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
Marriage is a sign of unity and loyalty
which all should uphold and honour.
It enriches society and strengthens community.
No one should enter into it lightly or selfishly
but reverently and responsibly in the sight of almighty God.”

Marriage is a tough call! However God promises grace and strength for every life- circumstance and has special blessings for those who honour what he has given and choose His way. There are millions of married couples (including Anne and myself) round the world who can testify to His amazing faithfulness in the marriage relationship.