At the cross

Cat's recently blogged on Staying at the cross and how it's so vital that 'As Christians we need to stay at the Cross, no matter where we are in our Christian walk. The Cross is important.' She also quotes John Stott:

"The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God…puts himself where we deserve to be."

In short, we need to get our eyes off ourselves (our job, family, responsibilities, worries) and get them back where they need to be: on God. The source of our peace, joy and salvation!

As I read Cat's post, I was in the middle of writing up my planning for next week's literacy for my kids; and we're going to be doing Kennings (Norse-rooted poems where each line has 2 words, and the lines pair together as rhyming couplets). This poem is what came out of meditating for 5-10 mins on the cross & what Jesus did:

At the cross

Wood-beam bearer
Suffering sharer
Resolutely staying
Father obeying
Sin receiver
Burden reliever
Pain enduring
Life ensuring
Spirit released
Wrath appeased
Curtain torn
Hope reborn
Powerful raising
All tongues praising
Death defeated
By Father, seated
Glory owning
So much owing
Victory mine?
Take this lifeline?

I love how God takes the ordinary, in this case, my literacy planning (!) and uses it for his glorious purposes. Literacy has just served as a tool to focus me back on Jesus. Our God really is a God of the mundane as well as the miraculous. How great is our God!

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Making time to worship

I've felt quite challenged recently by worship and what this really means to me as a christian. I think it's very easy to get into the firm mindset that worship is 'singing' or worship is 'prayer', ending up limiting worship to one specific thing or another. But if you look at David in the psalms (and in 1 Samuel too) you see him praising God in all kinds of ways. Across all his musings and praise, David's aim in worship was always to give God glory - to tell him how awesome he is, to extol (tell out) his virtues and effectively take his focus off himself and stick it firmly on God.

It's also made me think, 'how much time do I spend making time to worship?' which for me includes writing poetry and singing along to my guitar from worship books, but I know for others will include other things as well.

As I got into bed this evening, I found myself split between the powerful urge to kiss the cat goodnight (a long-standing habit) and go straight to sleep, or to spend a little time turning my thoughts to God. The words to a Delirious song came to mind and before I knew it, a verse started writing itself in my head. This poem is what came of it. I've tentatively named it 'Wash me anew', but if you can think of another name, please do leave it as a comment:

Wash me anew

Kneeling, aware of your grace,
oh how I want to stay here
in this holy place.
I don't want to be anywhere else
away from you.

And the day fades away,
dissolving into shadows
as I turn to your face
and gaze into the depths of your love;
darkest depths that burn with holy fire,
dispelling the shadows & piercing the doubt,
lighting all the corners of my mind;
my heart intertwined with yours.

Then it washes over me,
rushing like a mighty flood,
the monsoon of your peace,
drenching every corner of my soul.
The open thoughts & hidden secrets
laid bare before you.

Oh wash me anew!
Cleanse me and know me,
focus now my selfish heart of you.
Wash me anew.

I love how worship can be as simple as a word, and as profound as the most marvelously practical wisdom. I love how God accepts our worship - despite how it never manages to truly capture his awesomeness. I love how he can take the events of the most trialling of days (and I'm having a few at the moment) and dissolve them into nothingness in the face of his perfect plan and all-encompassing peace. Worship is a truly awesome privilege. Let's give it our all.

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Mercy

Words inspired by our visiting speaker to Carey today. He reminded us that Jesus is our one and only sure hope for salvation. It's all about his amazing grace and his mercy.

Mercy

The tool of your mercy, a cross,
in its rugged and cruel, splintered form.
The shape of your mercy, a man,
hanging beaten, forsook and forlorn.
The cost of your mercy, your son,
your one and your only, severed.
The result of your mercy, new life,
for me and for you, forever.

Rock on :)

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Back from the hermitage

It's been far too long since I last blogged, so I thought (encouraged by Cat) that I'd pop up an update. The first half of term has absolutely whizzed by and before I know it, I'm into assessment week! This means lots of papers for my poor kids, and a lot of inspiration from me to get them in the mood to do them ;)

School's crazy at the moment, and I'm gaining 2 kids too! Very exciting, though part of me feels sorry for them as they'll be coming straight into test week. Oh yes, and something very exciting is that I've just started hunting for a house in Reading.

Adam (my housemate) have been looking around some very cool little houses and are waiting to hear back from an estate agent or 2 about severla places that we liked the look of. Progess will be posted!

If you're curious, I had a bit of a 'sad moment' (as my dad would put it) and videod the inside when we went to look around! Here's the vid, and feel free to ignore the ramblings in the background ;)

Anyhoo, I'd best be back off to get my planning sorted for tomorrow. But I'll finish on something that someone very special to me reminded me of yesterday re: work. I've been struggling a lot recently with confidence in my work, being reminded a lot from school that I've got numerous targets to meet, and the realisation hit that I've allowed the joy I have in Jesus to wane and be side-lined to 'scheduled time' with Him, rather than allowing it to sink in across the whole day. And what amazing joy it is! Why should we be allowed such amazing grace? It's something I enjoy not being able to understand. Allowing God's amazing grace to blow your mind does you a power of good :)

And as for work, I've been reminded how allowing the joy in the hope we have in Jesus to inspire your work gives you such courage and tenacity that you begin to realise how the apostle Paul chose to share the gospel with the whole of Caesar's household when he was slammed in prison. Awesome stuff. Now, time to plan!

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal