GOD

“God is bigger than the future, because He is already in the future, waiting for the future to catch up"

Seasons

Seasons

Sunshine, warm on my face
Reminds me of all that you are
A cool breeze, dancing in the trees
Whispering ways that you move
Hard rain, beats on the window
Tears stream and begin to fall
Dark clouds, menace my soul
The yearning to hear someone call

This is my season of surrender
My spirit lies wasted on the floor
These are the days of my deliverance
I bow at the altar of all, all that you are

Gold leaves, in September falling
Remind me of how you died
Tall trees, rise from the valley
Shouting that you are alive
Strong winds, driving me down
Forcing my face to the floor
I’m tired now, of trying to find you
Door after door, after door

This is my season of surrender
My spirit lies wasted on the floor
These are the days of my deliverance
I bow at the altar of all, all that you are.

Springtime emerging, fresh and alive
Brings the promise of better days
Life comes, lengthening daylight
Chasing the darkness away.

This is my season of surrender…

Calling?

My good friend Davey brought me a book from his recent journey to the Catskill Mountains, New York State. (Welcome home brotherman!)

"Everything Belongs" is by Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr and it's a timely and challenging piece of writing.

One example so far which connected says, ""We must go inside the belly of the whale for a while. Then and only then will we be spit upon a new shore and understand our call."

There will be more to follow I think!

The Amish Community

This faith filled community has had a terrible evil visited on them this week. No matter who we are, or what we believe, there can surely be no greater act of terror, than the killing or wounding of our children? This is an assault not only on the present, but also threatens the future, as our children are the only future we have.

The world will move on quite quickly. Fresh news will unfold and as with many tragedies, we will forget. For now however, lets pray for these peace loving people in their time of deep sorrow, shock and lament.


The Amish are a Protestant group who fled Religious persecution in Europe in the 18th Century. They subsequently settled in the US and some 200,000 Amish people now live in around twenty states across America in self-sufficient farming communities. Each group is generally small and self contained but all share a common belief in living their lives strictly in accordance with the Bible.


Amish children are educated in small, single room schoolhouses, illustrated by the school at the centre of yesterday’s tragic events. Despite their best efforts to live outside of it, the violent forces of the Modern world have been visited upon the small Amish community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Bruce Springsteen

Check out the new tracks, additional video's and live performances on the updated "American Land" edition of Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band.

This is an album full of history, hope, lament and love, played by men and women whose "playful" passion, causes even the casual listeners feet to dance and heart to soar.

It is folk, fun, rock n roll, gospel and the Psalms all rolled into one.

For the fan its a must have.
For the Philistines, worship your own giants!
For the uninitiated, check out the power, the passion, the majesty and the ministry of the greatest live performer on the planet!

The Boss himself brings the Seeger Sessions show LIVE to Belfast on 21st November 2006 at the Odyssey.

Reborn?

"Borrowed" this image of a wall poster in Belfast (thanks Grand Opera House!) but it made me think and it made me smile.

What does it conjure up for you?

Kyle's Song

Kyle’s Song

Kyle was a young American pastor who died very suddenly in the spring. He was supposed to preach the Sunday after he died, and his family found these words at the end of his sermon notes.

Live and live well
Breathe, – breathe in and breathe deeply
Be present, do not be past, do not be future
Be now!

On a crystal clear 70 degree day
Roll down the windows and feel the air against your skin, wind in your hair and warmth of the sun on your face.

If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool autumn day, to freeze your lungs.
Do not be alarmed –but be alive.

Get knee deep in a novel and lose track of time.

If you bike, pedal hard and if you crash, crash well

Feel the satisfaction of a job well done, a paper well written, a song well sung, a play well performed
a project thoroughly completed.

If you must wipe the snot from your 3 yr olds nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all, cause soon he’ll be wiping his or her own nose.

If you’ve recently experienced loss, then grieve and grieve well.

At the table with friends and family, laugh.
If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then laugh until you puke!

If you eat, then smell. The aromas are not impediments to your day.

Steak on the bar-b-que, coffee freshly ground, bread in the oven.

Taste. Taste every ounce of flavour, taste every ounce of friendship, taste every ounce of life,
because life is most definitely a gift.

Baker, Brewin & Pope Benedict

Followed Jonny Baker's link to Kester Brewin's blog concerning Pope Benedict's current "conversations" with some of the Muslim faith community.

http://thecomplexchrist.typepad.com/the_complex_christ/

Well worth a look, well worth a thought, well worth a prayer.

Shane Claiborne

Reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution (thanx Mr Johnny!)

Anything that has the endorsements of Tony Campolo, Brian McClaren, Ron Sider, Tom Sine & forward by Jim Wallis, has to be a dangerous read.

This from the introduction;


"Most Christian artists & preachers have remained strangely distant from human suffering, offering the world eternal assurance over prophetic imagination. Perhaps it should not surprise us that Jesus says that if the Christians remain silent, then the rocks, or rock stars will cry out!"

I turn each new page with the mixed emotions of excitement & trepidation!

Watch out for further extracts, reflections etc or better still get yourself a copy. (don't ask Mr Johnny as I have his well thumbed copy!)

He moves in mysterious ways

I heard some life-stories at our gathering yesterday which reminded me that despite my doubts, fears, questions & tendency to be pessimistic,
"God still moves stones". (Thanx Max!)


These tales told openly, tearfully, honestly & laughingly caused my often sceptical heart to sing.
Girl saved from Ghanian waves by "Antoine the six-pack"
Street people give girls money to take to church!
A street corner named "laughter"
Croatian poems about Belfast City.
Student takes open heart & willing spirit to serve in Africa.
Tales of Tigers, cliff's & strawberries.

Yes we know only too well that for each of these, there are other stories of heartbreak & sorrow.
It is our willingness to walk with these tensions, that demands real courage, real community & real faith.

We will not know the times or seasons, if we did, we'd have enough knowledge to screw it up!

We are, most of the time, a people who live in the now & not yet mysteries of God.

We re grateful that every now & again, "heaven comes down".

Leadership

Our Leaders

We may or may not be fans of Tony Blair's politics but surely we should be disturbed & dismayed by the way he has been treated by his own party, press & public over the past few months.



Yes our leaders must be accountable.

Yes our leaders must be communicating clearly.

Yes our leaders are to be public servants, but they should also be afforded respect & gratitude, & dare I say it, honoured.

We in the faith community, whatever faith that may be, should surely be praying for our political leaders much more than vilifying them?

Yes we are free to question them, disagree with them, not vote for them again, but surely we can do this in a faith-filled & Christlike fashion?

Gods Ipod

How about a little detour from the serious (though valuable) discussions of life & faith?

If you had the chance to sneak a peak at Gods Ipod (without his omnipresence of course), what do you think would be on there?

What would be recently played?
What would be playlisted?
What Podcasts would he subscribe to?
Would anything ever sound new to him?
Could he stand Bono? (Would he get a word in edgeways?)

Serious, sarcastic or sublime, give Graceland your suggestions for the GodPod & we may try putting the compilation CD together!

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth, We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Searching for God Knows what

Just finished what I think was a very important piece of work from Donald "Blue like Jazz" Miller. Asked about "Searching for God knows what", Miller writes,

Essentially, I had begun to wonder if had misunderstood the gospel of Jesus, thinking of it in propositional terms rather than relational dynamics. The latter seemed too poetic to be true, but the former had been killing my soul for years and was simply illogical.
If we hold that Jesus wanted us to "believe" certain ideas or "do" certain things in order to be a Christian, we are holding to heresy., I finished the last paragraph and felt a kind of sickness at the thought of whether or not I was telling the truth. But after further consideration, and after rewriting the book, I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical.

Try it for yourself and let Graceland know what you think?

Modern times

Dylan praises Springsteen


In an interview covering his new Modern times album, Bob Dylan gives Bruce Springsteen some praise .

The USA Today newspaper published yesterday an interview with Bob Dylan. The artist talks about his new and excellent new album Modern Times, comments on the current state of pop music and has time to praise Bruce with these words:

"The performers who changed my life were individuals," he says. "They didn't conform to any sense of reality but their own. The last performer who stood up to be counted as an original is Bruce Springsteen, I think. Individuals move me, not mobs. People with originality, whether it's Hector, Achilles, Ted Turner or Jerry Lee Lewis or Hank Williams."

Images of worship?

"Images of worship" Each of us wil hold in our minds, hearts and computers some images of worship which speak to us. If you have any that you'd wish to share, post them here along with why they connect with you.

Riding in to Graceland!

As close as I get to the King , unfortunately he'd left the building!