Lent26

Mini church today is looking at the story of Mary and Martha.  So its on my mind as I will be leading the class and have written the programme.  Our emphasis is on friendship ( the kids are aged between 2 and 6).  Jesus came to show us what God is like and Jesus had friends because God really likes people and wants all the good things that friendship brings. I always feel Martha gets a raw deal in this story so I went looking into her a bit more.  She seems to be the older sibling as she is mentioned first, is the one who opens her home, goes out to meet Jesus after Lazarus has died etc.   If Jesus was in his early thirties and Lazarus was His friend, we might expect that Lazarus would have been a similar age to Jesus.  Give or take a few years.  Lazarus might have been the youngest of the 3 siblings.  Making Mary around 35 and Martha maybe 38-40??   Its speculation - I suppose they might have been teenagers but I like to think of t...

 For some reason this week Facebook has seen fit to fill my timeline with magic eye pictures.  You know, those things which look like a square of random patterns and then as you de-focus your eyes you suddenly see everything in 3D and a picture emerges.   It usually takes me a little while to see the hidden picture but Im always transfixed when I do.  How does it happen?  I know it was first discovered by accident by some bloke looking at his computer screen saver.  But then how did that accidental happening turn into a sort of art form?  Its a bit mind boggling.  And eye boggling too. My thought for today, inspired by the magic eye pictures, is about vision.   Is it possible that things we have been looking at for ages in 2D might actually hold hidden secrets if we just knew how to look?  I remember some of the prophetic guys who used to come through our church back in the day talking about the unseen realm.  Every bit as...

  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.     But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.     For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6 :19-21 ) “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke (12 18-21) I know the pension age keeps moving like a flag in the wind and we might all have to be working until we are 80 before...

 Isnt God just so kind? Over the last few years I have lost my Dad, my Mum and more recently my lovely step-mum.  My Mum was definitely not a Christian for most of her days.   My Dad and his wife went to church regularly but I never was able to quite fathom what Dad believed.  He liked liturgy, didnt have much time for sermons. I got the feeling that church for him was a cultural habit rather than anything living and active - but I couldn't be sure.   I didn't see much evidence of the fruit of the spirit in either parent - but I'm also aware that people looking at my life from the outside might not see much fruit either, so I opted not to judge and to leave in to Jesus to decide their ultimate eternal fate.   Dad died during covid.  I wasn't with him.  I spoke to him on the phone a few days before he died and I cant honestly remember if I asked him to promise me he would go with Jesus.  He was on a morphine pump at the end of h...

Short and sweet today.  I was in a shop the other day. In front of me was a trendy looking Dad and a girl of about 3.  I overheard this Dad... guess what? Girl... you love me? Dad ( laughing) yes I do love you but that wasnt what you had to guess.  Guess what? Girl... you love me Dad...yes of course I love you but theres something else... Girl... I love you? And the moral of the story is that whatever the question , the answer is always that we are loved.

  Then the  Lord  said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”  Gen 3:6 “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the  Lord  your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the  Lord , your healer.”  Ex ;15:26 That promise in Genesis that we should live till we are 120 is a bit scary isnt it?  Do you really fancy being that old?  Im not sure I do.   But I suppose if I could be a reasonably fit and healthy 120 yr old perhaps it would be OK.  If I lived that long it would mean that right now Im just about to reach middle age! I have two friends who have  93 year old fathers.  One was still going to the gym 3 times a week until very recently.  The other is still able to walk up his stairs and both are totally mentally s...

 I have no idea if my experience is 'normal' or not.  But Ive moved churches a few times in the past 25 years and each time Ive found it harder to make properly deep and meaningful friendships.   Maybe I was spoiled in my youth by having been blessed with a few ' soul mates'.  Those long lasting, tell-all, do-or-die, give you a kidney if you need one friendships are probably mostly made in our teens and twenties.  Dont get me wrong, Ive still got those precious soul mates in my life.  Its just that these days they are miles away and as busy as I am and they arent at the coffee bar at the end of a Sunday service ready to pray with me or chew over the issues of the day. As time has gone on my definition of church has shifted somewhat.  It used to be that my church consisted of those people who went to the same sunday service and housegroup as me.  Nowadays I know that my church consists not only of those people, but of a whole raft of other chr...

 A few months ago my pastor took me to one side for a chat.  Cant quite remember where it started,  but where it finished was with him saying that as our church is growing it might be time for me to pass on some of the stuff Im currently doing and to step into more of a 'mother' role.  I am one of a healthy swathe of over 50s in a church which has a really great mix of ages from newborn to 90s.  Alot of the growth at the moment is coming from young families joining - which is fantastic if not a little exhausting. Rory (pastor) is looking ahead and trying to anticipate the pastoral needs of his people. He recognises that there is wisdom, experience and commitment in my generation but that too often we get caught up in doing 'stuff' that doesnt really require those things.   A few weeks later I was on a day retreat with the ladies from church and got chatting to a friend of mine who is of a similar age and has similar experience to me.  I told her t...

 This popped up somewhere or other a few days ago and I thought it was really interesting.  https://www.facebook.com/caroline.christie/posts/pfbid02B7rFC8QKrj54uMHTZPVGDLzzx391A9eg1Me9NtrMpWCxAQ1cWejcZJvYpJRC57ohl It deals with widows and those over 60 but Im suspecting it could apply equally to men and to those who are unmarried/divorced/at a spiritual loose end.   Its not something Id really been aware of as a church 'thing'.  But clearly the early church placed a high value on widows and saw them as uniquely positioned to be incredibly helpful. I know perfectly well that were I to be widowed at any point I wouldnt want to be commissioned to intercede. Not my thing.  But Id happily be commissioned to do something else useful. Thoughts? ( esp from  my male readers 😊}

 On Ash Wednesday there was a short evening service at our church.  I went.  I wasnt in the best of moods and I sat there wondering what it was all about.  The songs we sang, the liturgy and the prayers.  Then the rather odd ( to my thinking) being marked with a cross on the forehead with ashes.  Communion and then singing and home again.   I spent most of the time wondering if this is what God was wanting or requiring of us.   And the rest feeling guilty for even thinking these things. I find myself in this headspace more and more these days.  Gone is the unquestioning, faithfully following, endlessly saying yes, ways of my youth.  For decades I have been to church, tried to be helpful, listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit as much as Ive been able to, served, participated...... and I think right now Im just a bit weary of it all.   And sometimes I wonder if God is a bit weary of it all too. 😊 Dont get me wrong. ...

 Do you ever have a random thought and wonder why you have never thought this thing before?  I had one of those yesterday.  About Adam. Adam and Eve were the only people who have ever existed who were not babies !.  They were formed as adults.  And because death did not exist and there was no decay they were made to be eternal creatures - presumably eternally the age they were when they were made.   I had never really stopped to think about this before.   I knew that ageing and decay and death were a result of the fall, but I'd never really considered that for the length of time between being formed and eating the fruit Adam and Eve didnt get any older.  We dont know how long that was.  It could have been weeks, but it might have been decades or a hundred years.  In that time they didnt gain wrinkles or go grey or start to have aches and pains.  They were eternally youthful.  When Jesus came he was an embryo and a bab...

 I have never felt less like writing a blog in my life.  But then I feel like that most times I sit down with 40 days of blank pages in front of me.  And I suppose that's the point.  The less I feel like it the more I probably need to do it.   I think this year it still feels that I only just set down the Advent blog - it was one of the easiest ones Ive ever written because I was really passionate about the topic. It got me thinking even more about fear and what God has to say about it.  It focused my mind and led me into numerous conversations with people which have been ongoing since the New Year. This time I think I might tackle ageing.  Its something we are all inexorably doing.  As most of my readers are probably the same age as me - give or take a decade - I guess we are all facing the same sorts of things.  Empty nests, ageing relatives, creaking bones, and more importantly a shift in mindset as we realise that quite probably our ...