Thinking Thursday: Live Fish

A short one today. The following Latin inscription is on the wall in the Blue Boar in Hay on Wye:
Pisces Mortui Solum Cum Flumine Natant

I'm not sure how good the Latin is, but it looks OK to me. Here's the translation for you to think about:

Only dead fish go with the flow

Blinded by the Light 22 The Need To See - The Solution

The wonderful thing about Christianity is that God's promises are written down, so we can be sure of them. We do not need to see instant results or signs to know that He is faithful to His promises.

The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving to all he has made. (Psalm 145:13b)

Spend more time studying these promises and remember the times in the past when God has answered your prayers and those of others, and especially where things have worked out very differently to what you hoped for, but were still for your benefit.

If you have been living with 'the need to see', it can be hard to let go. Life can seem uncertain and unsafe. You need to retrain yourself away from this and get back to the solid foundations of promises whose outcome you cannot see, but you can believe in. As a simple example, many years ago, when I moved from a very charismatic church to a more formal one, I found it hard to worship without getting excited and jumping around and getting a 'buzz'. One day in church I clearly felt the message "Their worship is just as acceptable to me." I was reminded of the scripture that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart, and looked at the hearts of those in church around me and realised that truth. It was a growing experience for me to learn to worship God in stillness too.

In the Truth part of this topic I mentioned that the Psalms are full of cries that God seems to have turned away, leaving them to trust in His promises. Here are some of their responses. May your life respond in this way too.

My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word. (Psalm 119:81)

Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them… Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight. (Psalm 119:140, 143)

Previous posts in this series:
Introduction
Legalism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Magic Formulas: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Answers to Everything: The Truth,The Trap, The Solution
Scripture Twisting: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Superstition: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Elitism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
The Need to See: The Truth, The Trap
Further posts to come in this series:
Conclusion

Thinking Thursday: Soaring, Running, Walking

Isaiah 40:31
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not faint.

The above quote from the Bible used to puzzle me, because I have been a Christian a long time, but I don't soar very often. I have a disability, which I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, and often feel very weary indeed. Then I read something like this in one of those daily reading books, and it comforted me greatly:

Eagles soar without any effort, being lifted on thermal currents. Sometimes we soar on the wings of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we cannot soar, but we can run, and God will give us the strength to not grow weary.
Sometimes things are really hard and we cannot even run. But God will uphold us if we lean on him.

Blinded by the Light 21 The Need To See - The Trap

The Bible says "a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign."[Luke 11:29] Although most of us would not consider ourselves 'wicked and adulterous,' deep in our hearts we all need to see evidence that things are true. When we pray, so often there is no instant response.

The attraction of the Toronto Blessing and similar manifestations is that, when you pray for someone, they fall over. Here is evidence that your prayer is working. Or if you are the one prayed for, the spiritual feeling that sweeps over you and takes your strength gives you assurance that God is indeed moving and responding. Yet, how often does this happen and the prayer is not ultimately answered in the affirmative? At the height of the Toronto Blessing I saw a young couple who were living together outside marriage fall down under prayer and get up with radiant faces – and then go home and carry on as before, unchanged. If God truly moves in your life, the experience will change you.

Previous posts in this series:
Introduction
Legalism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Magic Formulas: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Answers to Everything: The Truth,The Trap, The Solution
Scripture Twisting: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Superstition: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Elitism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
The Need to See: The Truth
Further posts to come in this series:
The Need to See: The SolutionConclusion

Thinking Thursday: Blessings Both Ways

There is a museum on the edge of Carmarthen in South Wales, where there are some very fine embroidered samplers. I was particularly impressed, not only by the embroidery, but by the motto on one. I offer it for your encouragement:

A solitary blessing few can find;
Our joys with those we love are intertwined,
And he whose helpful tenderness removes
Th'obstructing thorn which wounds which wounds the breast he loves,
Smooths not another's rugged path alone,
But scatters roses to adorn his own.

So, bless those you love, and bless yourself.

The Christmas Tree & the Apple Tree

Welcome to my first Thinking Thursday. With Christmas recently over, this seems a good topic to think about:

We cut down a pine tree, take it home, and put decorations on the outside. Nothing comes from inside the tree. Eventually the pine needles fall and the decorations come off.

You do not see people sticking flowers on an apple tree in spring, and later sticking fruit on. It comes naturally from the life within.

Examine your Christian life. Do you have a lot of impressive stuff stuck on the outside but in reality the pine needles are falling? Or do you bear fruit out of the life of the Spirit within?

Blinded by the Light 20 The Need To See - The Truth

God has promised He will answer our prayers, but He has not promised what His answer will be. It can be hard to wait and not to know. Although we read in the Bible, and in the lives of Christians throughout the ages, accounts of God moving in a supernatural way – visions, voices, miracles – these occasions are rare. God will fulfil His purposes, and sometimes He does so in a spectacular way, but mostly it is done quietly and often un-noticed. The Psalms are full of cries that God appears to have turned away, leaving them to trust in faith that He has not forgotten them.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

In the film 'The Golden Compass', of the book by Philip Pulman, Lyra has an alethiometer with which she communicates with the 'dust' – the essence of all life. When she asks a question, the hands move to point to symbols, through which the answer is revealed to her. How we would love to have some way of telling us God's answers to our prayers! But God tells us that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8). We cannot grasp His infinite plans, and must trust what we do not understand.

Peter promised us that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.” (1 Peter 1:3).There will be times when the way is clear and times when our hearts soar with the touch of the Holy Spirit, but these are times of special blessing, not our everyday experience. Do not let people make you feel inadequate because you do not live your life 'on the mountain top'.

Previous posts in this series:
Introduction
Legalism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Magic Formulas: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Answers to Everything: The Truth,The Trap, The Solution
Scripture Twisting: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Superstition: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Elitism: The Truth, The Trap, The Solution
Further posts to come in this series:The Need to See: The Trap, The Solution
Conclusion