Month: July 2013

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The watches of the night

The most agonising sorrows I’ve ever felt have been for others… a little of me in there too, but mostly others. When I watched a particular message by Michael Card, and heard this song for the first time, my heart sang with relief to know my sleepless nights were because my heart had a taste of the sorrow of Messiah… the man spoken of in Isaiah. To know this sorrow was how He felt for me… incredible.

I know the roundabout of sorrowing for another and feeling like the specifics of the Psalms don’t fit my cries, but when I learned that lamenting is worship, at least when addressed to the Father, it felt so purposeful instead of so very fruitless.

Prayers are eternal. Not a single word ever dissipates into nothingness.

So once again, if anyone’s headed for a sleepless night, know that addressing our sorrows to Him is very much prayer… and very much worship when we know and trust His heart for us.

I love this song by Kristen Getty – but I love her reading at the beginning of this clip even more.

A snippet:

I have cried upon the steps that seem
Too steep for me to climb,
And I’ve prayed against a burden
I did not want to be mine.
But, here I am and this is where
You’re calling me to fight,
And You I will remember
Through the watches of the night

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Thirsty

I wonder if Jesus ever got His drink of water from the woman at the well? It does tell us He was walking from Judea to Galilee and that He was tired and sat down there. Reasonable enough to be tired since it would have been at least a two day walk between the two places. A walk they undertook quite frequently.

I wondered if asking her for a drink was just a conversation starter… while it may have partly been, I recon He was genuinely thirsty too, but the story doesn’t fill in that detail as it flips over to the way the conversation went. Telling her to go get her husband was certainly a way of honing His point being that she didn’t have one – and He knew it.

So He communicates with someone from a region where the people typically ignore/hate/despise each other. Much is made of the fact Jews wouldn’t associate with Samaritans but the feeling was entirely mutual. It was just as big a deal in terms of race/history, that she spoke to Him as well.

He asks to drink from her vessel as he has nothing to drink from – this is just not done!

He then suspends His own need for drink and food to have this conversation. He engages with her, knowing her sin, knowing her story, and knowing her thirst. All three things concurrent. All three things making her who she was. All three things making her receptive… but not just receptive – READY.

While things were seriously messed up between the people groups, they did have shared ancestors and history. Both regarded the other as wrong.

But she knew her beans.

She knew there was a Messiah coming. Not just as rumour… but belief. Her readiness enabled her to not defend her sin or reject Him. She grabbed His message and told everyone she could to come hear what He had to say. And they did. And instead of being unwelcome, He stayed there for two days. And many came to believe in Him. And not because they had no sin, but because they did.

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Sorting it out

Reading Job with the four schoolies. Skipped a pretty massive section as a) I was getting weary of all the hot air and fine sounding words of Jobs buddies b) 2/4 kids felt the same and c) I want to have time to do Genesis before Mr Nearly 17 finishes school in a few months time.

Jobs buddies do waffle on. And they do say some worthwhile things in amongst the waffle, it’s the unscrambling that makes me impatient. Like this morning we read across a chapter where Eliphaz must tell Job half a dozen times to shut up and listen but also to speak up if he’s got anything to say. We did get a laugh out of that but basically I just want to cut to the chase. What does God say?

That’s the point that really matters – anywhere, anytime, but particularly when reading and trying to apply the book of Job!

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From and to

Rebellion and freedom are not synonymous.
Though sometimes they might look it.
Frequently they feel it.
But it all depends on the from and the to.

(This was a VSP – very short post 🙂 )