Football

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This weekend my local football team earned a place to play at Wembley. The last time this happened was a number of years ago and I was thrilled to be there. This year I had to content myself by watching on a large screen in Carlisle with a many other people. The crowd was very enthusiastic, shouting and cheering when we scored a goal. I was quite blown away by the fervour shown. I know Bill Shankley once said, though this might be a misquot’e, Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important.’

Of course, that’s not true. Yes, football is an important game, loved by some and tolerated by others. But on this Pentecost Sunday we are reminded what is really important. Football matches are won or lost, football clubs will come and go but the giving of the Holy Spirit is for Eternity. {We won the match!)

Impatience

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‘I’m nearly six,’ my five year old young neighbour tells me every time I see him. Being six is obviously something to be attained to. My great-niece also has the same yearning to be older. ‘Next year I’m going to be a teenager. Then I can be difficult.’ Oh dear I see trouble coming there. I can remember longing to be 21, we didn’t have special eighteenth’s then. There were more things I was legally allowed to do.at the special age of twenty-one.

By the time we reach our 40’s our attitudes change. Some people remain at 39 for a number of years! In our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s we try to pretend that we are actually younger. We don’t look forward to old age. Then a change comes with our 70′, 80′, and onwards. People begin to be proud of their age. I’m in my 80’s so I should know.

I wonder why we have such an obsession with age. Every season of life has it’s great blessings. God doesn’t see our age; God sees our heart. When people scurry through life they’re only hurrying towards death. May we enjoy every moment that God has given us. Every second is a gift.

Work, Worry, Worship,

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It is possible for our lives to be all work and worry. Wall to wall work to give us the money to worry about what we can’t afford. It can be vicious circle. We work to eat, to work, to eat and so on. Is this what God has planned for us? If we add the third ‘W’ we will take our eyes off ourselves and look up to God. It is said ‘My God will supply all your need.’

We don’t need to worry. God has everything in His plan. ‘He will not let our foot be moved.’ Worship is the essential ingredient. We are programmed to worship, it will lead us up instead of downwards. It is worship that leaves no place for worry. We can work and worship and leave worry behind.

Forgotten

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I wonder if Moses was ever haunted by his younger life when he had killed an Egyptian? Did David recall with horror his past sins? We read of his remorse in his psalms. What did Paul think when he recalled his persecution of Christians before his conversation on the road to Damascus? Maybe they were able to act out the words of Isaiah 43:18 ‘Forget the former things, says the Lord, do not dwell on the past.’

I know I can recall the ‘sins of my youth.’ I didn’t always do things well as i tended to go down a few wrong paths.Some of my omissions and wrong acts have affected my life today. But Isaiah reminds us that God tells us to forget. God has banished our sins ‘as far as the east is from the west.’ Why should I carry the load around? God has redeemed my sins and by the power of the Holy Spirit I must let them go.

All Men are like Grass

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This is what we read in Isaiah 40. That’s bad news for anyone who thinks they’re important. Great statesmen of my youth are hardly known or remembered by today’s young people. Life has moved on. When i wrote a biography of a well-known missionary who worked in China who died about 70 years ago, someone asked me why I was now writing fiction. They had never heard of her. Our immediate family and perhaps a couple of generations on will remember us, but then we too will be forgotten. If all goes well we will live about hundred years, then it will be a matter of here today and forgotten tomorrow.

This is not a sad thought because there is One who will never forget us. He remembers us and loves us so much that our name is written on His hand. we are constantly in His thoughts and He only wants the best for us. We can’t really ask for more than that.

No Words Necessary

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A quiz question could be ‘What cannot actually speak but has a massive influence right round the world 24/7? I find the answer in Psalm 19 – in the heavens and the sky. Here we read ‘Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge.’ Words are not necessary, they pour forth speech just by their existence, by night they display knowledge.

When I think of all the words that are gushing out of everywhere, in every medium possible, it makes me stop and think. We probably have more words now than ever before. So many words are lies, half lies, harsh words and harmful words. We can’t stop this torrent. All we can do is make sure our words are like ‘apples of gold in baskets of silver,’ helpful, uplifting, God orientated.

Afternoon Tea

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Yesterday I went to have tea with my friend. She is not very mobile these days. The bones in her back are crumbling and she is in considerable pain. As we got talking she recounted stories of her time in India as a teacher in a Christian school which was a number of decades ago.

I sat enthralled, a different place and a different era. The scenes came alive as she told of tale after tale. When I returned home I thought about the good influence she must have been in those days and the part she played in spreading the gospel. It is only too easy to look at the old and sick and not realize how they would have been when they were younger. They would have been at the thrusting edge of Christian work, their endeavours in the past laying the foundation for the heritage we have today and for the future.

It is good that God doesn’t just look at our present condition. He knows all about us and knows that our hearts still beat for Him.

New Phone

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My mobile phone had become very slow in responding, so I organised to get a new phone. To be absolutely honest, my clever friend arranged for me to have a new phone. He knows all about the best deals. I’n not noted for my knowledge of technology! With my new phone I will be able to quickly send messages, receive messages, get into my website, e-mails and many many other things. Mobile phones are a comparatively new invention. I’m old enough to remember when it was necessary to walk down the road to a phone box to contact my friends!

Mankind is apparently so clever, we are now being threatened with the invention of A.I., with it’s blessings and curses. We feel we are so clever that there is no limit to what we can achieve. But there is a limit, a very real limit. We will not get ahead of what God is willing for us to discover. He knew all about these things since the beginning of time, in fact it was He who invented them, not us. When we take God out of the equation we will run into real danger. Mankind is only as clever as God permits us to be. And our knowledge is so very tiny.

Look at the heaven and the stars. Observe the wonders of nature and our inability to control storms, earthquakes and the climate. God is the all-powerful One, He made the earth and everything in it and He declared it very good.

Walk Beside Me

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‘Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow,

Don’t walk behind me, I won’t know the way,

Just walk beside me and be my friend.’

It was a long time ago that I first read this in a Valentine card and I might have slightly misquoted it but at the time the words meant a lot to me. Now I realise that this can be applied to our walk with Jesus. If Jesus walks in front of us, we might find it difficult to keep up. The things He tells us might be too difficult for us to understand. He may get so far ahead of us that we lose sight of Him altogether.

If He walks behind we will not know which way to go. We will not be able to see Him. It will be as if He is not there at all. We will stumble in the difficult places; we will go wild in the easy places. We will be walking in unproven places.

If He walks beside us our way will be safe and secure. He will hold our hand over the difficult places; He will place His hand comfortingly on our shoulder in the easy places. He will not only be our guide and encourager; He will be our friend!

Abiding

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As a fish abides in water and cannot live without it, so we need to abide in Jesus and not be able to survive without Him. How do we abide? We firstly need to know we are loved and therefore we become obedient to Him. We will abide more by investing in His word. That will tell us all we need to know. There needs to be a commitment to prayer, dialogue with God is necessary. Before there can be much fruit there will be much pruning.

This means that God will be glorified as we abide deeper and our prayers will be answered more clearly. Our joy will be complete as others will become included in our love. Nevertheless, the deeper we abide the more opposition we will receive. It is not the devil’s will that we should be closer to God or that we should grow spiritually.