Musings

This morning I read 2 Chronicles 34 and was moved by the story of Josiah and his truthful heart before the Lord. The temple was in ruins at this time as Israel had turned away from the Living God and had returned to worshipping Baal under the reign of Manasseh. Despite his idolatrous surroundings, Josiah ‘began to seek the God of his father David’ at the age of 16 (see verse 3). He then destroys all the wooden, carved and molded images of idolatry in the ‘high places’ and the altars where incense was burned. The temple is restored and the Book of the Law is found. Shaphan appears before the king with the Book and reads the contents. Josiah’s reaction spoke to me most. We read, ‘he tore his clothes’. This was an outward symbol in the Old Testament of repentance. The words of God brought true repentance when he realized he and his people had not been keeping God’s Laws. The prophetess Huldah warns that God has been provoked to anger through their idolatry and an outpouring of His wrath...

I came across the expression 'seek God's face' twice this morning in my reading. Before I get on my kness to do so, I want to put these two powerful readings on my blog with the hope that God's people will seek His face today. ..if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face . Selah Psalm 24:3-6 God bless you today. xxx

I love this little anecdote from F.W. Boreham's 'A Pathway of Roses'. The incident happened to his mother at Canterbury Cathedral. ‘ “Excuse me,” he said, “but whilst I was chatting with the friend who has just left me, I could not help noticing that you were eagerly watching for somebody who, evidently, has not arrived. Were you thinking of inspecting the Cathedral?” I admitted that I was, and explained to him the situation. “I wonder,” he said, “if you would very kindly allow me to show you around. I am deeply attached to this place and happen to know something of its story.” His manner won my confidence, and I accepted his offer. And what an experience it was! As he conducted me from point to point, I seemed, under the witchery of his silver tongue, to see the coming of Augustine to Canterbury in the days when England was very, very young; I actually beheld those quaint and picturesque pilgrimages that Chaucer has described so vividly in his Canterbury Tales : I...

I must confess, I woke up this morning feeling grumpy and coming down with another cold, sick and tired of the winter... Then I read this reminder of how blessed I am. Blessed beyond words. Blessings If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world. If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you hold up your head with a smile...

As we go through life, the small moments logged in our memories are creating that mosaic of life experience which we will take with us into eternity. I love small moments. The one I want to share with you this morning is about the barefooted young man in the picture. We were in a banana plantation village not far from Tanuku, Andhra Pradesh to visit some Christian friends. Word of mouth in India is still faster than Wi-Fi, Skype or Twitter as we were swiftly surrounded by a cluster of giggling children. I noticed a young man staring at us from a short distance. He lowered his shy gaze, then plucked up courage and approached us. He spoke to me in an unintelligible language (Telugu) and my Indian friends quickly interpreted: he's asking you for a Bible . I handed him the blue, soft-back Bible someone had pressed into my hands. I will never forget the smile that lit up his face and my heart.

Yesterday, I was contemplating the importance of spiritual health in a world so obsessed by materialism and consumerism. At the risk of sounding Scrutonesque, I concluded that observing beauty is an integral part of spirituality. Our spirits soar within and a light enters our being when our eyes behold an object of resplendent beauty. This might be in the form of a delicate butterfly, a majestic painting or a ray of light on a crisp, winter morning. The older I get, the more I consciously look for beauty. I may be accused of escapism, but I think this is what keeps me sane in the face of realism. The day my spirit is not inspired is a dark day. It appears that the world is trying to fill us with darkness and pessimism - just watch the news for five minutes or go to a modern art gallery where ugliness is presented as art. The majority of our cities are ugly, vulgarity prevails in our songs, films and theatres, nothing is sacred anymore. If this is where we keep our focus, our spirits w...

This morning, I tweeted that I was not religious, which appears to be contradictory to the rest of my tweets and blogs where I regularly mention God and the Bible. It is not my intention to speak against any particular church or denomination, but I just want to express my personal thoughts on religion and being religious. The word ‘religious’ has a negative connotation for me. It conjures up pictures of people who are weighed down by obligations they must fulfil to appease some god or deity. The word itself comes from the Latin ‘religare’ which means ‘to bind fast’ in the sense of ‘place an obligation on’. Christianity has been included in the world religions which I find rather unfortunate as the Christ of Christianity was not religious himself. Religious Christianity abounds in our world today because there will always be a layer of society who love to ‘bind fast’, dictate, command, abuse, intimidate, dominate, exploit and quite simply do exactly the opposite of what Christ himse...