a child of god
this is the way, run in it
Most people say Thank God it's Friday because they are ready for the weekend to arrive and the fun to begin. Its acronym has even become a colloquial expression, TGIF. I like Fridays because I get to go to work! On Fridays, I work at a Church of England local parish church, where I have a lowly job of making sure the services are in the system for Sunday, the rotas are prepared and distributed (did you know that there are rotas in the Bible! so the priests could rotate off and go home and spend time with their families? True. ), and the weekly bulletin is printed and distributed. Someone has to do it! But, on Fridays at this church, we have Staff Morning Prayer, at the beginning of the work day. This is a short 30 minute service, where we go through set liturgy (prayers, canticle, bible readings, more prayer, intercessory prayer) following the Church of England Lectionary. I absolutely love it. Where else do you get to spend time with God and get paid for it? My colleagues laugh at me because when we assign tasks - who is leading the service that day, who reads the Old Testament and who reads the New Testament - I like to bag the Old Testament. I love the New Testament as well, don't get me wrong, but I absolutely adore the Old Testament. The reason for that is the Lord so often speaks to me through it. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while won't be surprised at that! But, today, at work, I claimed the New Testament reading, to the vocal surprise of the others. It was Revelation - need I say more? Some Fridays, the Lord will surprise me and speak to me at Staff Morning Prayer when I'm not anticipating it. He's done that in the past. But today He blew my socks off. Every single bit of liturgy, every bible reading, even the Canticle, seemed to have been picked especially to prick my heart, stir my spirit, wash my soul and it was amazing. It was exactly what I needed (God is good about that!). He was speaking to me through the whole thing, so that by the time we got to the Intercessory Prayer time, watch out! That prayer time was special. The Spirit of God was hovering over us. When I think about the fact that when we praise God, when we call Him holy, holy, holy, we are echoing the whole host of heaven, who also are doing that very thing. In this season of All Saints until Advent in the Lectionary, the liturgy says this before we all said the Lord's Prayer together. It says, Uniting our prayers with the whole company of heaven, as our Savior taught us, so we pray... Our Father, in heaven ... How amazing is that to think that when we pray the Lord's Prayer together, we are joining our voices with the whole company of heaven?! When we say "Our Father" that 'we' is really big.
The Psalm for the day was Psalm 51, and the Curate Ben said, "Who wouldn't love Psalm 51? Washed whiter than snow? Come on!" The OT reading was Daniel 3:19-end, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are thrown into the fiery furnace and Jesus is with them, untouched, walking around, with them in the midst of the furnace - and He brings them all out safely, with unsinged hair and garments. Whoo! Jesus is with us, family of God! The NT reading was Revelation 3:14-end, the message to the church in Laodicea. And I was moved, so moved, at how God is wooing His people in that passage. Yes, He tells them off for being luke-warm, like tepid used bath water. He wants us to be passionate about Him, about life with Him, about truth and justice. I can understand His getting impassioned Himself as He tells His people off for thinking they don't need Him. But He also woos them, calls them to come and open the door to Him. God's love for His people, even though it won't supercede His judgement, is always there. It moved me. He moves me. So to end this blog today, I'll leave you with the Canticle, taken from Isaiah 43, selected verses: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. "I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself, that they might declare My praise. Let's declare His praise, family of God! And keep our spiritual eyes open to see God's hand in the wilderness with us, in times of plenty with us - let's keep our eyes on Him!
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Franci Ballwatching and working for the kingdom of God in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham - UK Archives
January 2019
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