6 – Yesterday’s Tomorrow

I spent a lot of time thinking about the title of today’s episode – Tears for Fears, Yesterday, Perfect Day, Tomorrow Never Comes, All Our Yesterdays – and a couple of dozen others that I can’t remember for the life of me. Maybe I can’t remember the others because of all my yesterdays. I did…

4 – Where is God when you need him?

Look at the image above. What do you see? Probably a black spot. It’s a small spot, but you don’t really notice all the white around it. That small spot is in fact actually only 0.2% of the whole image. But it’s a big small spot, isn’t it? It’s also a powerful small spot -…

Stormy whether

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly all was calm. (Matt 8:23-26, NLT)
I am very aware of the fact that the Bible is a living word that speaks into the situation that you find yourself in. So often I read a passage and it means something different or something more than it ever did before.
Sometimes, though, I think this is often the case because I don’t think deeply enough about it – I just scan read, just as I have always skimmed the passage in the past, and I miss something, or put something in that was never there. This passage in Matthew is one such story.

Right, Mountain, out of the way!

A friend of mine will shortly set out on an amazing adventure – to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – to help raise funds for the charity Scottish Spina Bifida. I really admire him for that. It will take courage, strength and endurance. You can sponsor him if you would like to give him a wee bit more encouragement.
But I ask myself why he doesn’t just walk round it. After all, when we face problems in our lives, some of them look like mountains, and that’s often the easiest thing to do, isn’t it – walk round them? Sometimes we don’t even do that – we just stand there and look at them. They are huge! I’ll never get over it! Scientists say that Mount Everest is getting higher all the time. As we just stand and look at our problems, they get bigger too. Sometimes we can’t even see the top.

Follow the instructions

I once bought a new kitchen for my house. It was a self assembly kitchen. I was never very good at woodwork and stuff like that in school, so I was really pushing out the boundary of my ability, to say the least! I asked the guy at the store if it was easy to build the units. “Oh yes!” he said, “once you’ve done the first unit, the rest is easy.”
He wasn’t joking! I think it took me three or four days to assemble the first one successfully. I did it lots of times, a different way each time – but I was always left with an extra bit at the end, and the extra bit wasn’t always the same extra bit! Finally, I understood what the instructions were trying to tell me – it wasn’t my fault, you see – they just weren’t speaking to me clearly enough. I hate instructions that mumble, don’t you?

Riches to Rags

The story of Ted Williams, which has gone viral on YouTube, is the kind that we all like. A down-and-out, begging on the street, is discovered and his voice is wonderful, just perfect for TV and radio. A film of him speaking is posted on the net, and suddenly everyone wants to listen to him, everyone wants to give him a job. He is famous, his life is turned round. He has a great future. He will make millions. A great story of rags to riches!

Oh me of little faith!

Christmas Day was a busy one, calling in at our first round of visits at 11 am and leaving the last one at 11 pm. I could say that it was all go, but I would be more accurate if I said it was all eat. By the time Libby and I got home, we were very full and very tired. Boxing Day had an emergency start as we nearly slept in (as we would have loved to do) and we barely made it to church on time. Our church is very lively and, even when I am sitting down, I can’t stop moving in time to the music. The result was that I was very tired by the time I got home. We both were, and we settled down to be truly lazy relaxed.

What brought me here

There is a belief or custom in many societies that age brings wisdom. This gave rise to the role of Elder, where the older members of the family or society are in a position of leadership, and this has been incorporated into church life, though here spiritual maturity is normally the qualifying factor rather than physical age. Note that I have said the age brings wisdom, not intelligence or knowledge. I am sure that we have all met someone who is incredibly clever, but who shouldn’t really be allowed out on their own!

That sinking feeling

What puts fear in you?

For me, it is things or situations that I am not in control of. Computers? Not a problem, I can strip them down, repair them or rebuild them. Cars? Ooohh, fear, doom, calamity – all because I am not in control of the mechanics, because I don’t know how to fix them.

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said.
So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

Your way away

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
(Psalm 37:5-6)

The Hebrew for the start of this text is “Roll your way upon Yahweh.” It makes me think of those vehicles which lay tracks in front of them, so that they can move forward over a bad surface, and so that others can follow the same way.