to honestly honour a person’s recount in a passing culture..

..  in light of our own (also passing) culture

---

Our lives are set to grow us up. Impacts

of cultures & economies conspire

as servants of creative love to tax

un-fam’ly* at a rate that is much higher.

Heuristic that might mimic

(gifts to care)

with immature, unloving creatures which

are hardly hearted* but think they are there,

assuming that their currency’s the pitch

to spiel, or play the game (like cricket?) on.

To keep up with the science of the times;

to follow culture’s choice of worth, and song

that will be used as current in power lines.

And when I hear the voice of that young bub

across the walls or under floor at home,

recalling too, the process to grow up,

involves a lot of suff’ring, pain, and stone-

stone-walling of our own agendas and

unsurity about our own needs but

some insight into others round, who stand

quite near, when we learn how to press their butt-

ons; on or off, this gives us insight to

the person we are living near to see

how taking them, their frailties now into

account, not to control, but so to be

relating to them as another bod

on Earth, as neighbours in this neighbourhood.

I have to listen to them not as “God”

but as someone who might reflect some good.

---

y* - Taking note of the evangelist's record of Jesus’ words to Peter: “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?” When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free.” (see Matt 17:24-27); and to the teachers of the law “ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’(Matt 8:10-13), and Matt 13:36-43..

d* - the heart, for our culture, being the seat of love in our metaphors and myths; where a human is seen as (or at least talked about) as one who has known love, and who lives in it, and has  become a lover themselves.

---

In Part* -

ner-ship*!

---

Give space within my life for God to act.

To make our partnership be real in me.

So go beyond the token stuff in fact.

And let God help, and then use eyes to see..

and ears to listen & to hear the thoughts 

that come, ide-as to build love and light.

What’s true and honest, say only what’s caught

somehow within the web of what is “right” ..

That’s right relating, as I would be “done 

by” - keeping my own word to my own hurt!

And trust my “father” to bring joy* to “son”,

and let his word to me hold weight, not blurt

out some religious piety to prop

up power structures, for some little man.

We’re talking of creative love’s unstop-

pab-le incessant work (since time began).

And work with all my might and mane to join

in, where I can - to make a difference here,

within the stuff where I can choose, what’s mine

to bring to table, thus make it appear.

And treat the partnership, this covenant

that Jesus spoke about, as real and true.

And bounce on it, in fact (not just to rant)

to bring it into being here in you.

And it might be quite diff’rent for some one

who’s diff'rent to me (and some people are)!

So not to replicate some other’s fun

but learn to be this self that’s made this far.

---

Footnotes

t* - “now we know in part, and now we see God’s bigger possibilities in part… now I know in part, then I shall truly know in the same way that I am truly known.” (1Cor 13:9,12)

p* - as alluded to in the last sentence in the footnote above, the partnership (truly knowing as I am truly known)  of God and his children, or God and his wife, (or for another picture: the Right Hemisphere & Left Hemisphere of the human brain) in the job of allowing the world to exist, be populated, and to thrive, in multiplying, planting, tending & caring for (overseeing, naming,  talking about, & considering) the world seems to be the biggest theme of the holy scriptures, and the end goal of all the rest of history, and the core means to make known, and reveal his glorious goodness  to the heavens and the Earth.

y* - joy, though, is a movement of a whole being in such a way that we must choose for it to experience it in full. In fact the Apostle Paul names it as one of three things that God is constantly willing for us to experience: “Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. For this is God’s will for you, in your life in union with Jesus Christ.” (1Thess 5:16-18)

---

THE NEXT CONVERSATION*

(Jefferson Fisher’s book)

---

Reminders from my father up above

have come to me the last few days. I hear

what he is saying, teaching me, so love

can be extended from me far & near:

A focus when I'm in a conversa-

-tion, on the person - to relate to them

as neighbour in God’s world, by what I say,

and how I say it, yes, more how and when,

and even more by what (& how) I DO..

which emanates from WHY I’m here at all.

That simple adage*, lived by just a few

and focussed on God’s chosen one, no small

or insignificant, unhelpful thing!

And then* explored by those who’ve found what works.

The lack of which I’ve seen in what I bring 

to conversations, when I am a jerk.

So here’s the next few steps in exploring

the way of truly human ones on Earth:

• Note my own body’s cues and how they string

      along the folk around me since my birth.

• Then take the time to get my head back straight 

      to purposes I am committed to.

• And let my curiosity relate

     as wild beast might to each and ev’ry cue.

Be willing to rule systems I am in.

To tell them where they can get on, and can’t.

And take the ride I’m given with a grin,

& though I get amazed, don’t get alarmed!

---

Footnotes

n* - re-reading; & up to 15 min into Chapter One (Never win an argument)

e* - probably (in my estimation) from Jesus Christ’s next oldest little brother (Mark 6:3) James, from the book by that name, James ch 1:19-27, as summarised in the starting sentence: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone of you should be quick to.., slow to .., and slow to.. .”(verse 19)

n* - by people like Jepherson Fisher, in ways like he does in this book

---

the ghost of a chance ..

.. the Next Conversation*

---

I do not want convers’n to torpedo

relat’n to the person or to veto

the next conversation I’ll have with ’em

or chances for formation of a prison

for parts of me that should not be let out 

in fact I see my “needs” might free a lout

to try manipulation of folk ’round -

instead of conversation which I’ve found

to be a two-way street, where people meet

and learn to take their turns, while neither spearns

the other, nor their mother, (though in truth

she still might send a shudder .. & forsooth

she might be rather cagey, and asuage -y

to offspring of her womb to them en-tomb

’ny part of them, though God knows when it’s need

is obvious, and clearly now the deed

that should be done, though could not come to mind

for folk who’d learned (as butter’s churned) to find

their joy in what’s annoying those who’re blind,

or “diss’n” folk who’re missing undefined

and “hard to put to words” training as kids.

We have to train the turds, the billy-lids

that are ourselves, it’s hard but help is on

the way, & I can say I’d pay belong-

-ing as the only force, of course, that might

(not will), let people grow as plants to light,

to energy that can be used to fight

against the “death”, that don’t do breath - the blight!

---

Footnotes

*n - I’m thinking of the brilliance in the focus given by the simple title of “The Next Conversation”, by Jefferson Fisher (about 6 hr). Before you even get to any of his brilliant advice on ways forward: considering “What do you want them to know?” & what he says about the pause (or breath), which I perceive gives me time to process the question and allows me then to be affected by the still, small voice of the “Right Hemisphere” that allows me to relate to other people, rather than to simply control them! 

---

my

dear brother*…

---

Be really quick or active here to hear,

so “Listen” is the word we’d often use

to cover actions that might be what’s near

to those intentions, and what follows through

somehow in manifesting in this world

the kind of things that are shown in a life

that’s lived on Earth (where we’re all sent, or hurled),

exemplifying heaven - in this strife.

The active part of list’ning might be stretched

to cover asking questions which allow

us then to hear much deeper, once we’re meshed -

relating with some trust, and grace somehow.

Along with really hearing, then belongs -

remembering, recalling to our minds

the stuff that is disclosed by who responds

and thinking, seeing options that love finds.

And slow to speak might not mean to speak slow-

ly; maybe it’s the time between our thoughts

and then when they get worded on the go*,

to acts that might communicate of sorts,

in which case it’s the time to let the right-

hand hemisphere of our brains (which relate,

instead of just use data in a fight

to gain ascendancy, control, or bait) -

to give time to reflect, for wisdom’s way

to influence, inform, and then affect

by choosing what to do (and spesh’ly say),

instead of anger’s loss of true respect. 

---

Footnotes

s* - “... So, my dear brothers and sisters, get this straight. Every person should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”(NTFE; + see James wep1:19-27)

o* - think of  The Next Conversation, by Jefferson Fisher (about 6 hr); “What do you want them to know?” & what he says about the pause (or breath), which gives time to process the question and allows me then to be affected by the still, small voice of the “Right Hemisphere”! 

---

Leading hand

---

To lead out of love means learning to serve.

And,”being the leader” means being first,

and leading the treck by having the nerve

to do what’s worth doing, undoing cursed

procrastinating, fear of the unplanned,

& “keeping control”, as though that’s your need.

One’s leading displays what they understand,

and also who. It’s letting the seed

develop & grow up - here in God’s world

by choices made in settings that you’re in

while part-ner-ing (right where & when you’re hurled)

displaying grace that covers all the im-

maturity and failures, & the falls,

the losses & the lacks and missing marks. 

The love that hopes and plans and acts in all

all circumstances - & gives grace to sharks, 

evolving them to mammals with a heart

(a seat of rule for love over the whole..

..whole body, and the sea where it might start).

And leading is self-evident to soul

that’s been awakened, now with spirit’s heart

that brings along the oxygen in blood,

‘coz breathing has begun, at least in part.

A leader helps you stand against a flood!

And leaders call you to cover their back,

& help you clarify where you have lacked,

yet will not just give up, send you off track

just so they’ll be more seen as who's uncracked.

---

Waif or Ward?

or..?

---

Our breaky together is postponed: Ok. Hope to see you either at work or next week.

---

Oh God of all humanity who's kind-

-ly made us up, and would be making still,

if we would open eyes to be not blind

& find the grace that’s in your eyes* to fill

us with your own aims, dispositions and 

then partner with us in your making of

continued growing, in our understand-

ing and our habits of list’ning with love..

..to make these foetal children here (of yours)

to grow to be no less than like your Christ.

We gladly now en-list ourselves because

your life grows in us. His life has sufficed!

- to you, because as Peter said, he heard

you speak from heaven, saying - you were pleased

with him*, & since we’ve followed, quite absurd-

-ly, wonderf’lly we’ve joined him on his knees

before the Father (of good   Fatherhood)

and with him, in him (as foetus in womb)

we’ll grow till we “come out*”, just as we should.

As Jesus came out of that Easter tomb!

And even now, in Christ, we hear you say

to us the same words that you spoke to him,

(not “on our own*” - we need not live that way

again). We share it all - the bright, the dim!

And soak in your good grace all that ensues - 

that we are sons, are children of you true-

ly, and that you are pleased with we who do

for our part live this way, teamed up with you.

---

Footnotes

s* - as the old King James Bible’s translation of Gen 6:8 in its euphemistic way says of Noah, that he “found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

m* -: (if “Mark” has indeed come to us because Mark (translated then) wrote down the gist of Peter’s exhortations to Jesus’ followers) Mark 9:1-13; 2Peter1:16-19.

t*  - Romans 8

---

follow ..

.. the thread

---

Oh God I heard of how you work with weak

and trembling & bewildered folk who seek

to cover over shame, but they can’t speak 

in public. They aren’t honoured much.* It’s bleak,

until I think of you. You love to sneak

about invisible to us, and tweak

things for all who invite you; being meek,

when partnered with you, they yet hear & peak

and leave room for your word to them. They reek

& smell of Christ, himself a sticky beak

for acts of God to copy (not to eek 

out life alone) - quite sim’lar to a geek

he’s happy with a help that’s slowly leaked

by - (not so much the thunder) - bray or squeek!

---

Footnote

* - “Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary

Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. [2] Very early on   , inSunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. [3] On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” [4] But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. [5] When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, [6] but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. [7] Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.” [8] The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened.” (Mark 16:1-8 NLT )

---

turn, turn, turn

our turn, to return…

---

Oh God, I’m learning how to love a girl, 

as boy does as true husband in this world.

Your gifts seem far too precious to be hurled 

about to people who have evil curled

within them. I feel love’s creative sight

& touch, and hearing, smell, & taste, as might

be justified, but only in the light

of promises as precious as your right

and just and merciful prom-is-es to

de humans who accept them, & renewed

in inner selves (as body is by food)

then learn to walk on holy ground un-shoed.

Thus ruling - as a good king, serving well

the Earth and it's inhabitants who dwell

within, and over, under it to smell

themselves like YaHWeH GOD. His story tell

in ev’ry choice they make, in ev’ry deed

they’ve done, & ev’ry word they speak, to bleed

their life of love back to the ground (their steed)

and thus to give. In fact it is their need!

For kindly kind of life that mirrors him

who gave us this small gift (that’s not so dim!)

is meant to be returned. We learn to swim

when air-clothes are dismissed (they cramp each limb).

But that is not to stop our lessons in

bending, blending in his love (not sin*),

to show (not tell, in “words”) our way as twin

to God’s own way* across the seas. No FIN.

---

Footnote

n* - sin is used with its original broad meaning of anything that simply misses the mark (of all best hopes, plans, and good wishes)

y* - “In the beginning… the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from (spirit of, breath of) God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

‘He alone stretched out the heavens and walked on the sea as well as the earth’ [Job 9:8].

“Solomon, in the Jewish book of Sirach, spoke of Wisdom: “I encamped in the heights, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. [5]  Alone I compassed the vault of heaven and traversed the depths of the abyss.” (Sirach 24:4-5 NRSVUE)

“Your way was through the sea, your path through the mighty waters, yet your footprints were unseen. (Psalms 77:19 NRSVUE)

CF Jesus passing over the lake , instead of swimming through it, or walking around it (Mark 6; Matthew 14; John 6)

---

Aligning …

---

Dear fam’ly of the Father & the Son, 

and Spirit sent by both t’be embod-

-ied in the set of acts which will have won

at “end of this time”, clothed in us and shod

in each and all of this one family!

It’s Pete who said that all God’s promises

are precious for they bring to you and me

the very nature of YaHWeH* who says

that God’s delighted to use weak, fragile

immature and incomplete critters

to further his own purposes, to smile 

on his creation, gath’ring what’s dispersed,

dispersing what’s been gathered - as he wills.

And it’s the will of God to honour HIM 

the human who kept close through all the spills

of life on Earth, both glorious and dim

at times, as this HIS story moves and more..

Our neighbour over road told me this last

twenty four hours what transpired before

[when we saw him ‘n’his neighbour (in the past)

a-talking out the front, with cut of trees(?)]

He said “Let’s say of past, ‘Good-bye’, ‘Be-gone!’ ”

And start afresh in present time.” And squeezed

each other’s hands. And then the man went on

to share more pers’nally some weaknesses.

The best may not have finished up the job

as yet, but I see this as sign that says

new WAY (of Jesus Christ) has somehow lobbed

into the camp of tight defences and

that there grenade might soon blow up road blocks.

Let’s keep on asking heaven’s court to stand

and join us so that both join with his flocks

in showing off the truth and life, and way

of Jesus, God’s anointed leader who

bore all the discord of our lives that say

that life is not worth living - It’s all poo!

Well God, for this one’s sake, your chosen (Christ!),

may this man lower, and his lower three,

be blessed by life, and love, and not demised,

till your good will is real-ised in each knee.

---

Footnote

H* - YaHWeH (the only God who IS God) is the personal name of the one Jesus of Nazareth called “Father!”, and whom this father said of Jesus “This is my beloved son. Listen to him!”, Peter who heard that voice from heaven said later to other followers of Jesus: “ He has by his own action given us everything that is necessary for living the truly good life, in allowing us to know the one who has called us to him, through his own glorious goodness. It is through him that God’s greatest and most precious promises have become available to us men, making it possible for you to escape the inevitable disintegration that lust produces in the world and to share in God’s essential nature.”(2Peter1:3-4)

---

Answering before Listening,

is folly & shame*

---

Dear God, please help me (thanks for help so far)

to learn by observation, not spruiking.

In words of James (who’s Jesus’ next brother)

“..be quick to listen, slow to speak a thing,

and slow to anger* (though I might still need

to get angry, but it should take a while)”.

I’m wond’ring what he meant by using “speed”

words: Does “quick” here refer to accent, style,

or time that’s taken to initiate?

Or does it mean a living kind of thing? -

where movement might be linked to time and state,

as passage through both time and space may bring*,

or else a movement responsive to will -

[and ours is not mature, or fit, quite yet,

for ruling worlds. And it won’t be until

we come out of this womb. But then I bet

our training will be solid till we can

be fit to rule the angels - and this world. 

And then we’ll listen better than a man

or woman could today, wherever hurled.]

That quickly, even actively, takes on

the list’ning mode to ev’ry -thing and -one,

we might request to uncover what shon

out light & help elucidate. Begun,

it might keep on (thus call for us to speak,

but here speech is the serving kind of stuff)

(not as the final judge who can't be tweaked

by past & future); wise & full of love!

---

Footnotes

e* - Proverbs 18:13

r* - (James 1:18-27)

g* - as the ancients considered the planets to be living (wandering) entities, if not metaphors (or icons) for them.

---

If I spend time with God, I'll just get sick.

“He does not heal at all” is my big stick.

---

My God, my God, my biggest fear is that 

You might abandon me (as Jesus cried*!)

He faced that fear himself, and though not glad,

expected to be answered - other side…

and did not flinch at the experience, 

but let that Psalmist* speak for him as well

as of his own life, and it's weary-ance

(not “Ev’ry day feels further from the Hell…”

… we brought into the world with choosing snake

as mentor, just because he could be seen

(no questions still remained, that then could make

us humble and still learning inbetween.)

But God, on other hand does not appear

so, always showing self to outside eyes,

or even heard (by us) with  outside ears.

He looked through metaphore, did not despise

the lowly physical, but vaunted it:

his own ident’fication “Son of Man”

or “Son of Adam” - spirit haunted it

as weak, or immature, a leader - banned

from Garden of delights, with God - on Earth.

I s'pose those kids* had felt abandoned there,

as Cain accuses God’s discipline, worth

those words “My punishment's too much to bear*.”

And God, as gracious Father, stigmatized

as never wanting to provide or give

mentoring to his children, dramatized

in parables, and ev’ry day he’d live:

“If you have ears to hear, then use them now*” ..

..(& hear the deeper meaning underneath!)

“Don’t you have eyes to see*?” He said, somehow

entrusting wisdom that just God bequeathed.

This second “Son of Adam”⁶, unlike Cain,

a murderer from jealousy and pride,

was murdered as those motives lived again,

and showed another way than “run & hide””.

He trusted discipline of God as good,

and not “too much to bear” (unless alone)

and as was said by Jesus, he “could

do nothing by himself*” - he will atone!

---

 Footnotes:

d* - on the cross at the end, he cries out “with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34; Matt 27:46)

t* -  the Psalmist who wrote: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?...”(Psalm 22 in the Bible Jesus would have memorised, & then chose to live by)

s* - i.e. Adam & Eve, billed as completely innocent children of God, at first, who then listen to a talking animal instead of YaHWeH-God, to follow the world-view of.

r* - Cain’s words to God (Genesis 4:13)

w* -  (Matt 11:15; Mark 4:23; Luke 8:8)

ee* - “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember? …Then he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”” (Mark 8:17-18, 21)

de* -  as did Adam & Eve, after choosing Snake’s way, instead of obedience to the will of God, as expressed by God’s word to them : “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. [9] But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” [10] He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:8-21) 

f* -  e.g. “I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” [27] They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. [28] So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. [29] And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” (John 8:26-29 )

---

Some One’s Psalm

[Paul, with stories from Beth & Bevan Walker, Annabelle & Matt Walls (& Arthur), and Katrina the lovely]

(20 May 2026)

---

Today my Dad & Mum flew down to stay

for one week here in Orange, in the cold,

from coastal place that’s called  Runaway Bay

in Northern Sunshine State. “We’re getting old”

they say, “But don’t get old yourself…”

Mum said that this day started off with stress;

she packed a larger “port” as nightly elf. 

An early start, and then rested as best

she could in plane while travelling quite fast.

Their neighbours drove them to the plane at first,

and baby Arthur screamed  with them at last.

And then we sat and talked, till we might burst…

We talked about a sleep-in for the morn- 

ing following, coz some people were crook

who’d normally join for breakfast after dawn.

And little Orange ear-plugs they both took.

They wandered down the back steps, to arrive

at studio for visitors and such.

And took the code (by text) to get inside,

A fam’ly’s set to teach us very much..

but specially ‘bout the love that goes beyond

our own world, to include someone (not us)

and care for them as if they had belonged

here with us. Sometimes that means making fuss.

And then I s’pose it’s letting love-light grow

as indicator of another way

at odds with what our culture seems to know.

Then God with his own fam’ly’s on display!

---

the Anterior Cruciate .. Lament

(not quite ..)

---

For pleasure of mere movement in the wind,

the joy of moving fast and turning quick,

on top of that the game that won't recind,

sheer strategy, and courage to the brink,

creative - bringing options fresh released,

& skilful in dependability:

these gifts are exercised, thus not decreased

through  games with all their physicality.

Competitive sport covers all these well,

so I would like to thank YOU - for it’s real!

But now recall it sometimes brings on hell,

with injuries that can take months to heal,

or maybe leave with loss, or lack somehow,

and that is where a bloke could today be 

if in a game of soccer with some pow’r

he ruined all that’s helpful in his knee.

And he might hope for healing yet again,

and therefore his direct pain might decrease,

but still there might be other kinds of pain

and lacks that feel like there’ll be no release.

And that is where things are for my friend Sam.

He’s thought, and still no options come to view.

I feel for him, for YaHWeH (the I Am)

hears cries and comes up close, and pers’nal, too.

And so a groan comes out, turns into prayer,

as with that deaf/mute man* they brought to him

and looking up, we speak to his leg where

it bends (or doesn’t): “Open up - that limb!

---

Footnotes

n* - (Mark 7:31-37)

---

appendix -

-itus

---

God, pour your love on this one, (y)our daughter.

And thanks for each who helped, as supporter..

And all those who just had a chance as well

to join with “your will for your world” - ('gainst hell),

to make it heavenly by choices made

to represent your truth & love as bade

by you when you made humans in the shade

of your good mentoring (before way-laid -

by us who've looked to snake to learn/ to teach

us how to live with wisdom and to reach

out with two hands to partner with the love

that's given all good gifts come from above....)

Your healing comes to us from deep inside

each body you have given us to hide

creative love in action in this world;

and those folk joined with you, where they were hurled

by Providence who has provided well

a world for us to care for and to dwell

in, so to learn co-operation too

(with providence itself, &) me and you,

so parents, children, neighbours living near,

and others from afar who might come here..

Co-operating in a partnership

to learn to see another's win or slip

as way to join with them and multiply

the goodness in this world, so bye and bye...

(not "buy & buy", as money’s entity)

we'll even grieve with anger and pity*!

---

Footnote

y* - e.g. “Jesus was angry as he looked round at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again.” (Mark3:1-6)

---

Camera.. Action!

(Script)

---

Well things are happening around me now.

Before “words” come to me, I start to see*..

that I'm to learn to watch, to look, then bow

in recognition of the good ’round me.

To honor good in all the ways it should 

be honoured as appropriate in that..

..that time and place and instance where it could

be then expressed, embodied on this mat…

material and energetic place,

a concrete model of what’s come to mind

of YaHWeH GOD, who IS (existence Ace),

where we are meant to model, and to find

all goodness, since it’s woven secretly

into the fabric of the Universe,

then learning to extend it more, to be

co-opperators (not just some perverse

young operators of machinery, 

who play with the controls in ignorance)

apprenticed under one who made for me

& you, designed this whole she-bang (not chance) 

to now be finished - with his kids once grown

up, so to join in with the fam’ly trade

of building (& then helping with a groan

or two - as sign of processing what’s made, 

or being formed around us, in between

us, & within us, as we join with the

terrific purpose of our being seen

on this stage, till we have that final meet-

ing with Producer and Director who

will look at all our acting up till then.

Decisions will be made ’bout me and you:

Will we be picked for next production when…

the stakes get higher, viewers - many more.

So, starting now I am a viewer first,

but then I am an actor, singer for

this musical, with music fit to burst

this tiny little heart with joy & grief,

emotions must be just appropriate,

to plot-line where they frame, or bring relief…

We're in this First Production ’t any rate.

---

e* - copying YaHWeH GOD who “saw that it was good”, seven times in Genesis One.

---

But wait…

There’s more!

---

Background:

After a difficult Tuesday, I did what I needed to to process it (e.g. yesterday’s blog). Then set myself to live the next day (Wednesday) dependent on creative love, not my own independent resources. And shared my need with those who asked, and asked for prayer. At the end of the day I texted this to some mates: “Men, thanks for your prayers .. it was a beautiful day today... God stepped in and helped heaps. Thank you brothers for joining with me. Thank you God for your help in handling the difficulties and my forgetfulness etc... very “looked after” I was!!”. And this came out:

---

Oh God you helped, the atmosphere was great,

the setting - with two other adults there

with attitudes of helping, not of hate,

capacities honed sharp to show the care

that those kids really feel and understand,

& step up to, to do their very best,

along with do-able assessment planned.

Disruptions were disrupted - and the rest 

was “his-tor-y” (this morning), as they say. 

It felt like bits of heaven opened up.

Creative love itself involved today

itself in the classroom of this “young pup”.

And I am linking help effective from

yourself in ways as obvious as this,

to my inviting you in prayer (and song!),

‘n’the “body” joining with, not taking piss..

And for the chance to work like this in part-

-ner-ship along with you, I’m very glad!

But something makes me long for more, the art

of conversation as I walk, and gad

about the place, responding to their needs,

& opportunities (& threats) as well,

not just on outside, growing plants from seeds,

but inside, with my own “electron shells”.

My own subjective sharing of this life,

my feelings world, and motives, images.

I think I see how ev’ry bit of  strife

was tuned to, like your son in scrimmages.

It took my all, and knowing too, the game.

Expecting help along the way, and fun

that will involve my going past what sane

& “normal” life calls for. I had to run!

Not thoughtlessly, as frantic person might,

but joining in with much more than the norm.

And thus I would live all my life - in sight

of you, my God, my Father, through each storm.

Filled with the spirit of creative love, 

to try to make it manifest down here

that Earth reflect the heavens up above.

The very sea turns blue*, it would appear!

---

Footnote

e*  - not the “blue” of depression, but the regal blue of ancient cultures, also appreciated by flower lovers and bower birds.

---

Invite to come!

---

God give us wisdom from yourself to share

in ways that are appropriate and true,

that mirror you "the God who is still there”,

though these days yet we find we don't see you.

---

feelings before facings

(pre-face*)

---

Conceptions which are underlying for

our further understanding here; as such

Ontologies are central if we’d more

relate in ways that grasp, but do not clutch.

The purpose of our grasping-well affects

the way we use, and interact, and know.

The ways we interface and share reflect

the kinds of stuff appropriate to show

and tell within these times we learn & teach

and form each other, maybe deform too.

Re-forming right-relating here with each -

as much as it depends on me (& you).

Affecting our Epistemologies, 

our Pedagogy, Ethics will flow on..

Communities that practice truth will please

not power-mongers, but folk  who belong

to such communities that listen well, 

yet do not lose their voice by doing so;

in fact their service - fighting all the hell

that thoughtlessness does spawn, will go to show

and tell those stories, of the others here,

because we’re tuning in to their own speech

or lack of it. Acts make options appear,

creative, they make space for all & each.

And tuning in ourselves to deeper things

that colour all our acting, speech, and thought:

the hidden wholeness & 

imaginings

we wake up to bring more than what we brought.

---

Footnote

e* - Reflecting on the Preface (entitled “Recovery of Community in Education”) to the Paperback Edition of Parker Palmer’s book “To know as we are known - Education as a spiritual journey”, which was first published in 1993.

---

In this world …

... you will have trouble

---

God, please give wisdom to your young child Ian.

And help him in his weakness to look up

to you his father who knows how he's been

and still may ask him to drain down that cup.

And help me not to battle flesh and blood,

but spirits that rule by default for they

affect the options we see: sky, or mud! -

curtailing contexts, even what we’d pray.

So help me please to see the way you do,

to understand priorities as you

do, with the kind of options that you view,

because your focus is much broader too… 

For those two students I taught this past week,

who didn't show respect, or quickly lost

the bit they had; please help their lives so bleak

to come in touch with power of Pentecost..

And I as carrier of that strong wind,

those tongues of fire that speak of your good works

do set myself to not flail or recind

the unction you set on me; he who lurks(!)

And even if I fall, and body dies,

I set myself to trust you in my grave,

and crucify that part of me that tries

to justify myself, or else to rave

about my rights, or else capacities,

as though I were a God by my own right.

A joke, to think that ev’ryone should please

me. I would please the one who’s “outa sight”!

---

Practice

 being Godly

---

It's not the thinking of good thoughts* alone 

that makes me good (as even man may be*). 

Just speaking of good words don’t flesh the bones

of glory, honour, immortality.

There must be actions in this world, but not

just once or twice*, the flukes of happenstance.

And there must be intent to get to what

has baited humans through the years: The chance

of seeking honour, glory immortal-

ity by doing good repeatedly,

till it’s our character, habit settled,

and by this, programmed into us steadily.

This is the way YaHWeH has chosen to

now partner with us in creating more

reflections of him-self in me & you:

his love’s creative discipline gets poured

around the place by creatures on themselves.

Authority of him, is shared with us

to make a creature who can work for health

somehow by ways that act more than they fuss.

Appearances are NOT what “floats his boat”! -

unless we think “appearing on the stage”,

but there's a set of “skills” to learn (by rote),

till our whole selves are able to engage

in acting out the part he’s picked for us - 

to re-present creative love itself

in all the settings of a life that does;

to show an instance of a life with health!

---

Footnotes

ts* - though the process clearly does involve choosing to “think about what is good” (Philippians 4:8)

be* - “a good man, full of the holy spirit and faith” (see Micah 6:8; Acts 11:24; I Tim 3:8, 2 Cor 1:12; Gal6:7-10; )

ce* - (see above footnote, with emphasis on “all of life” or “in every way”) & this sort of passage: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he (God) will give eternal life.”(NIVUK, with italic font (& bracketed but) added by me for emphasis (& clarity); Rom 2:7)

---

(T)hankering

This hankering for recognition which

I find is deep within myself, inside; 

I’ll recognise, and name. It’s like a twitch,

or ‘tick’, or stutter. Not to be denied, 

but not to be the focus of my life.

My life is like a lens to focus on…

not me, but “good-ness”, in “good” times & “strife”:

good things to recognise, to think upon,

to give thanks for, & then good works to do,

because they’d help not me, but this cosmos,

where God has put me, at this time - where you

& I affect folk here for good, or loss.

I now recall what Pete*, or was it Paul*

said in the scriptures that we read today,

“God is my witness*” and too these words fall

quite nat-ur-al-ly, as a way to say

that this is really true, not “for affect” -

to garner praise or well-wishing from folk. 

He lived his life before the one who checked

him out and judges ev’ry Sheila/ Bloke.

And so I think I'll take a leaf from them,

or learn a lesson from the way they spelled

things out, God sees, & knows what I do, when,

and where, with who, & how & why, as well.

Don't think that recognition’s not that good!

That cannot be, unless God’s not around.

But as, in Jesus’s words, God is, and should

be trusted. I’ll walk gladly on (t)his ground!

---

Footnotes

e* - 2 Peter 1:3-11 and the rest of the chapter…

l* - Ephesians 2:10; Titus 3:8

s* - e.g. Galatians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; Romans 1:9

---

Growing

Responsiveness to God

---

Dad, after our brief talk on the phone Sunday Arvo, 

---

this morning I read through one of the 20 (?) different things that have helped me get or nurture the right attitude, or mindfulness to tune in to God through a day. This (The Examen) is one, maybe Laurie passed on to us:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B-x3YoQ3OQpLM2xMbjBUbHRZTDA/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=100279994004385559468&resourcekey=0-movByCwoDYI-SMYvPRWWpQ&rtpof=true&sd=true

.

Another thing is to kind of be a midwife for them as they look over their interactions with God, to start to develop a personalised discipline or "Way" that is helpful for them at this stage of their journey.. ie. To make or develop good "habits of responsiveness" ( based on the critter they are at the moment, and the critter they sense God wants them to become more of - to spread the life of Jesus more into the world.

Another example for me has been that little summative (& formative) passage of general advice the Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonian Jesus Followers: "Be JOYFUL always,  PRAY at all times, be THANKFUL in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; https://bible.com/bible/296/1th.5.16-18.GNBUK, plus then, the rest of the chapter)...

 I found it worked backwards for me... i.e. when I PRAYED in all circumstances, then I found I was THANKFUL to God for his help and gifts through every circumstance, and then I found I was JOYFUL (about something, even if it wasn't some change of circumstances, but simply the chance to share that part of life with God himself)...

---

Lamb & Lager ..

..& the Larger One..

---

Prologue:

Text2me: “…Not sure if this might interest you but we're having a men’s Lamb and Lager dinner on the 23 May. 6:30 at Holy trinity. $20. We'll hear from a local shepherd..”..

Text from me: Thanks brother, I like both lamb, lager, & the larger One. I may have a VIP visitor then, & if so, it probably won’t work. But if not, and if God brings me in touch with someone else who would appreciate company at such an event, I'd love to come.

 

---

GOD, may your people who bear your good name

and image in this town be yours, and its -

as Jesus wept for those towns* and inflamed

their leadership against him bit by bit

so in the end they killed him dead before 

the blocks of their great building were knocked down.

Oh may the people you love love you more

than all the stuff we gain from those around.

Oh grow, please God, some hearts of "flesh" that beat

as your heart does, to beat of diff'rent drum

that helped Him hear your voice out in the street

and at the table where who loved would come.

And may the King of Love who shepherds still

his sheep, and knows each lamb to care for it,

send out more shepherds to this town who will

find needy folk who feel they hardly fit

in set-ups under those who found "their niche",

(by which they don't mean ways to suffer well).

This Christ you sent to us, and too to each,

that we might learn to live "absorbing hell".

Or in the words of those who came around

to follow Him whom you said we should 'hear',

"love covers over piles of sin". They found

forgiveness is for giving out. He's near!

That’s He whose goodness never fails or falls

off just because he doesn’t find his match.

He’s faithful, so he builds; and he will call

and then equip, and also bind and patch.

---

Footnote

s* - e.g. Luke 10:13-15; 13:34-35; Matt 11: 20-30; 23:37-39 …

---

What's the RSVP date?

---

Inconvenience..

..or Adventure

---

Today the weather’s somewhat colder and

it might just snow sometime the bureau says.

The wind is chilly, and so I have planned

to wear a cap on head, for I can guess

my lunch-time duty will require I stand

out in the weather at the “lower front”.

So here I am in company so grand

as those around about me in this hunt.

This hunt I say, for “Truth (through Knowledge)” here

is hunted down, as gold is sought from ore.

For motivation’s key, it would appear,

and more is found the more it is looked for.

And things are truly looked for in this world

when they are really prized, or treasured in

themselves, or some good function they hold furled

within their nature, or where they have been,

or else because of their relationships 

to other things or people round about. 

So attitudes of honour, care, friendships,

or mis-trust can affect what is found out.

And many things will not be even sought

for, just because our models don’t yet let

those inputs in, so outputs can’t be brought

to match experience we can’t forget.

So sometimes fresh friendship, or love, or hate,

or even pain, discomfort brings me back

to live out in this real world, of late.

instead of just my model that’s off track!

---

Performing chants/ chance

to make a brand new world!

---

Well KHESED-love performs such deeds and words;

such words, and deeds then come to pass as well

the essence of intent before they’re heard

when mouth that formed the word was soon to tell

it out into the world, as spark of fire, 

(or seed of living animal or plant).

Its word speaks of intent and shares its ire,

or joy, or grief, and mind [not emptied out,

but teeming with what might be called desire,

if that means understandings, will, and plans 

to bless all others - creatures lower, higher.]

It starts with keeping its own word. It stands

to reason, and to creativity, to power to create (not just to change),

and understanding as with my kids, me.

It doesn’t help them if I am deranged.

And what en-love-en-ed father, though he be

as evil and mistaken as we are,

would try to “raise” his kids to hinder he

who gave them life? ..He hopes they shine as stars!

And I feel quite unlike that shining self; 

reactive and defensive when pain’s near.

My hopes and spirit, like a willing elf;

my “flesh” is weak to motivate and cheer.

But KHESED-love if you will enter me

and be my breath to take life further in,

and higher up, then I am glad to be

receptacle for your life. May it win!

---

EMOTIONS (as a result of our knowledge)...

..can smudge*, or bear witness to* KHESED-love’s actional communications.

---

To bear witness is not just to speak words

of language made by Hemisphere of brain 

that’s left (when pointing forward) - even birds

and reptiles, mammals might have to refrain

from learning just from sound-wave symbols when

they’re round about, and learn from acts, in fact

some things are best passed down the line again

by dramatised responses. For a pact

can be made that is binding, without words, 

though understanding’s necessary still.

And honour, glory can be seen, or heard

somehow by oft repeated acts that will

display the choices of a life well lived*.

It might be just the lack of fear, or else

the overbearing way the facts are sieved,

and seen in light of threats perceived from hell’s

capacity to taint the whole of life,

and lead to accusations and the like,

instead of questions, which can, like a knife,

cut out our immaturity and hike

on further than the accusations could

go, yet don’t need accuse at all, they leave

that for the ones who answering claim good-

ness at their beck and call. And on their sleeve

they wear emotions, and as humans would

be, they are vuln’rable to claiming judge-

-ment as their right, which may be well ‘n’ good,

when under-teamed with side that doesn’t fudge.

---

Footnotes

e* -  interesting little phrase (“εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς”=“to bear witness to them”) seen in two scenes showing Jesus’ intentions - at least one (the first citation) where his hopes were un-realised (or at least smudged), the second referred to some time in the future (where Jesus’ hopes would be either fulfilled or not fulfilled): Mark 1:42-45 esp v.44; Mark 13:9-11,esp v.9.

o* - see footnote above - second citation)

d* - Rom 2:7

---

Exploring

(a culturally "Jewish" lifestyle..)

---

As we left, after sharing an evening last night, my new Jewish friend talked about an old fellow he knew in Sydney (whom he was probably  going to the birthday party of next weekend) who was about (or over) 80yrs, very sprightly, and creative, when he gets knocked over he gets going again, it’s like he is a model of persistence,  innovation and creativity in his approach to life, and he has a personal trainer. That got me thinking later the next morning about how good it could be to have a personal trainer..

How helpful the gymn has been for me, and how I've been kept at it. It’s almost like each person in our LTG has “a personal trainer” (or small group trainer) in the others, and my times in the nights and mornings with my heavenly father, where he acts as a personal trainer for me. Then I realised that I HAVE A PERSONAL TRAINER ALREADY! And therefore I understand the goodness of it - and the need for manifesting this principle on Earth (it’s not, “So I don’t need one.”) because it’s “as in heaven so on Earth” [seen in Noah’s experience of building the ark (to make it like the one God had already shown him - in principle, in plan, in a vision of the mind), and in Moses’ experience of building the tabernacle (where it was to be made like the one God had shown him already*), and Jesus’ teaching in answer to the request (of his talmudim) to teach them to pray, and Jesus’ personal practice of going away in the busiest times (e.g.Mark 1:21-39) to be alone with the creative KHESED-love that made the Universe, (not as our flat materialistic or monistic view of it communicates in that word “Universe”; but) as is communicated in the title  “the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1&2) . It almost looks to me like he was modelling letting that creative KHESED-love be his personal trainer!

An appreciation of culture, meant as a support for the growth of Human beings to maturity, in security, like the scaffolding around a building while it’s being built (till it is built). Then the disassembly of it and storage of the scaffold - till a new building needs to be built.

This (along with a general journey I have been on*)  made me want to understand “Jewishness” for its capacity to perform a beautiful and actual scaffold-making function. 

• as seen in the extraordinary lives of this Jewish couple, who are only the second, third, or fourth Jewish people I have personally met, & started to get to know, who stand out, and then later we find out that they have a Jewish heritage. 

• As seen in the extraordinary life of my master, boss, Lord, Anointed Leader, Yeshua [who grew up as a Galilean-village Jewish builder, in the days when Israel was seen as (maybe a recalcitrant) part of the Roman Empire].

---

Footnotes

y* - Ai generated response on 02/05/2026: According to the Book of Exodus, Moses constructed the tabernacle (or Tent of Meeting) with meticulous detail, strictly following a divine blueprint or "pattern" (\(tabniyth\)) shown to him by God on Mount Sinai. This instruction, repeated seven times, ensured that the portable sanctuary exactly mirrored the heavenly reality intended to house God’s presence among the Israelites. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The Divine Pattern Revealed

• The Vision: Moses spent 40 days and nights on the mountain receiving the revelation, seeing not just a verbal description but a detailed model or "vision" of the sanctuary and its furnishings.

• The Command: God commanded, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain" (Exodus 25:40; Hebrews 8:5).

• A Heavenly Copy: The earthly tabernacle was a "copy and shadow" of the true sanctuary in heaven. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

n* - in my own teaching & learning to understand ancient “occasional texts” (like the Judaeo Christian Scriptures) firstly (though not only) via the Historical, Grammatical, Cultural Hermeneutic with books like “How to read the Bible for all it’s Worth”, (with its recognition of History, Grammar, Culture, & Genre, & Louis Tverberg’s 3  books: “Sitting at the feet of/ Walking in the Dust of/ Reading the Bible with … Rabbi Jesus” with their recognition of Culture]

---

Busy life

 

..and learning..

---

God bless this man, your son, and father of

the children you have given them so far.

And give your grace to raise them to know love,

experience your khesed  where they are!

---

---

a friend goes in

for heart surgery..

---

Lord, you're the one who gave us hearts of flesh.

We want them to beat right in time with yours.

To see the good around, and get enmeshed

in multiplying it in time, because

that's what you said to do, and your good word

is food and drink to us, the way to life

that's worth the living. But we've also heard

of your great grief* endured, 'coz of your "wife*".

We want to enter into joy and grief

in company with you who bears them both.

Your company is what brings our relief.

And also leads us on - to all our growth!

---

Lord we love you too.

Footnotes

f* - “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. [6] And the Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”(Genesis 6:5-6 NRSVUE)

e* - God’s people are sometimes (metaphorically?) spoken of as his “children” taking on the family “trade”, and at other times they are (oddly, to our ears) spoken of as his “wife” (Isaiah 54:5-10; 62:5, Ezekiel 16), whom he wants to share life with intimately and who is bound by covenant to share life and focus and the creative purposes of YHWH, Creative Love himself …

---

the two handed approach

(On the one hand…, On the other…)

---

Oh God, I feel embarrassed about us,

the way we are so programed, so to speak,

& though we are in charge of Earth, we're dust.

I feel two kinds of shame: So strong! So weak!

And now I think a bit more (while in love),

I’m being led by you to understand,

stand under your authority above

what you have put me over, as you planned!

Some shame can come from immaturity

that’s right and proper, for that’s how all growth

must happen on this Earth, where limits be.

But some’s from wasting, slackness, even both.

And forward way that’s good today, for all

is “truth to tell” - to think! to say! as small,

as well as big, let human mind not fall

in one rut or the other. But stand tall*.

And be the little toddler that I am!

Both showing off my skills (and prowess too);

and laughing at myself as a “big man”

who’s “free*”, but glad to be a person who

is growing in a family who loves,

so here I need to stand under my Dad 

& Mum, and learn from hand that doesn’t shove

so much as lead and draw me on a tad…

I own my shame, then name the kind I see.

Then in the presence of the God of all,

I laugh, and smile, repent, forgiven be!

Move on, both kneeling down, AND standing tall.

---

Footnotes

l* - “Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. Never say anything that isn't true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words. Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame. Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right. Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.” (Proverbs 3:5, 23-27 GNBUK)

e* - my three year old grandson sometimes talks of his father and grandfathers as each being “a big man” compared to himself as much smaller, but in the next breath he will talk of himself as so much bigger and more grown up than the babies around him, because now he is a “big man” who’s “free*”

---

renovating

downstairs

---

Please help, Lord of the heavens and the earth,

for me as builder of a dwelling place,

to understand our needs and what they’re worth

to value truly, minimise disgrace.

In working with the rules of this good land

& honouring our government’s job here,

to help us live responsibly, and stand

up on our legs, and not to just appear

that way, but have in fact, a good impact

on this world, as environment and web,

as ecosystem, so in word and act

we’ll use authority we have to tread

lightly, where we must, while serving all

with sense of that proportion which is tuned

to outcomes for the whole she-bang, not small-

ly thinking just to minimise our wound.

So using the resources of your world, 

and using our own income as He* would,

to value add in this place we’ve been hurled,

and make this whole adventure pretty good

for serving all the humans you put here,

to serve this Earth to bring your will as is

the case in heaven, as it does appear

from what he said to ask in prayer of his..

his teaching of his children to enact

the kind of life that manifests on Earth

the life which your eternal love has tracked

down here where we have all had our first birth.

---

Footnotes

e* - He, being the model or leader of humanity, and of Manhood, the Christ or Messiah of God, Jesus of Nazareth., who was by trade, a builder (before he was a Teacher, then said as Father of a new people of God, a new Israel, “I will build my ekklesia”.

---

asked us to pray...

Please God do your good thing for my friend there,

and help him get ahead a bit today.

Then for his healing, we ask you to care

for him, and keep him ev'ry other way.

Amen.

grace

Sleeping and waking affected by yapping dog

---

God, you sent those folk next to hell ’n we..

We know you love their neighbour, and her kids.

We pray for insight, creativity,

and grace from your own spirit under lids.

---

The greatest

of these is*…

---

So, I can either take for granted gifts

you’ve given me like beating heart, and chest

that breathes involuntarily to lift

“cells” up to function as a human, best

seen in that model human - Jesus Christ,

whom God has chosen as the leader of

Humanity. His life and death sufficed

to  show, and pique our appetite for love.

The fight is waged on many fronts just now,

and hatred, or just boredom’s love-lack ways

will do all that it can to break and bow

us at its feet, as though that then displays

the winning of the war it wants to wage

to beat another “ideology”;

for it cannot endure, on the same page

another getting honour or glory.

But he was “just a builder” from that town

on cliff-side, where things were precarious

and needed good foundations, and a frown

of thought to stand things up on various

odd angles against gravity’s down-pull..

And humans in His story are concerned

to let their “Yes”, have meaning, be faithful

to their own word, and God’s good that they’ve learned.

They’re learning to give place to feelings and

God's given, programed, built-in gifts/ desires,

but also to discern an order planned

to give ascendancy to KHESED’s* fires!

---

Footnotes

is* - after considering, faith, and hope, Jesus’ apostle (=Ambassador) Paul says this famous statement about the kind of love demonstrated by God, throughout his creation, but most fully in Christ: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”(1 Corinthians 13:13)

’s* - KHESED is the Hebrew word for covenant love, the kind of love that is not coerced, that reigns itself, and makes other good things up, creates to simply keep its own word, to back its own word up with action in this world.  Thus it is variously translated "faithful love, loving-kindness, steadfast love... etc", a high love, different to the tawdry self-serving love we are left with once we live disconnected from the eternal source of such love.

---

love's rôle with the punches

respecting..

---

..sorry to have missed your call. … Will try to ring back when I get a chance.

How are you going/ staying?

Any changes?

How is hubby coping?

---

God, please help Sis. ta speak the truth in love, 

and see your image in those round about

her, as she loves your image from above,

formed in her staying/ going  in & out.

---

Love Xx Oo

---

help comes

(from the Lord…..*)

---

How do I lead in loving? If that’s what

a husband’s job is under God’s world-view.

I just saw two things i could do a lot

more over coming weeks please help me do

them. Scared, I am. For I see others might

just misinterpret one of them as me

reverting to old ways of holding tight-

-ly to control. And so I let her free.

But afterwards she felt I didn’t care

for her. Maybe ‘coz others got my gaze:

my focus, or my time. Folk  who came where

I was. I feel prejudged, and caught these days.

Just like machines and animals might fight.

No malice, and no bragging. Just “They won.”

Or lost. They act as though they’re in the right,

some options do not show, if not begun.

But once begun, they hardly can be hid-

den, lion’s lair is where it wants to tear

to pieces and eat up each tiny bit.

Love wins if it does.. KNOW that God is ne’er

absent. ’Coz he’s “near” but will not man-..

man-ip-ul-ate or pressure those he loves.

He’ll ask the questions love asks - if it can.

And if it can’t it might enact. No shoves!

Oh God I’m such a baby at that love.

I now recall that you are here, with me.

My help comes from the Lord. Comes “from above”.

Your vantage point allows that more you see.

---

Footnotes

.* - “I look to the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help will come from the LORD who made heaven and earth...” (Psalm 121:1-2)

---

..renew a right..

(spirit within me*)..

---

But if the spirit* of his son who cries 

out to YaHWeH: “my Daddy*” in his grief,

and pain, and need, discussing as he tries

to understand, while trusting GOD’s belief…

in him, and hearing God’s word spoken when

it’s breathed (on God’s own breath*) into his ear

(as dove that stays on shoulder might do when

it softly coos, or warbles, always “near*”);

& breathed on breath that breathed on prophets past

(& some got written down - though not that much),

and breathed through “mind that’s set*” as Paul at last

speaks of God’s own - responsive to his touch,

his indication, verbal, or to look

at things he “got across” to us somehow

by pointing, or associations cook-

’d up through the hist’ry of our lives to now.

A fierce wind* that blew the oceans round

at the beginning, other times exposed 

dry land beneath the water that was found 

by feet of slaves escaping unjust foes.

Another time it blew together “shaved”

dry bones of long-gone bodies and enfleshed 

an old/new people from those un-en-graved

and desecrated, for ends that were meshed

with goodness as it weaves with wisdom’s ways

a new creation under KHESED-love

which is here shown in clear enough displays

in such a way we know it’s “from above*”.

---

Footnotes

me* - Psalm 51:10

it* -many languages [& both Hebrew & Greek (the primary languages used in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures) are such languages] employ one word for the concepts of “wind”, “breath”, “mindset/ attitude”, & “personal incorporeal being”. This allows their poets to play with three or four concepts with the use of only one word.

y* - “Abba” is a word from Aramaic (& Hebrew) often first spoken by children in their mother-tongue in Palestinian village life during the First Century (C.E.), as “Dadda” might be in English. Mark five times gives Jesus's actual words (or other local phrases) in Aramaic (transliterated into Greek in the text) followed by a Greek translation of the sentence, phrase, or word. This occurs with Jesus' form of address to God, in Jesus's garden prayer and is taken note of by Jesus' Ambassador (Apostle) Paul twice: Mark 14:36-41 , Rom 8:15-17, Galatians 4:5-7)

h* -many languages [& both Hebrew & Greek (the primary languages used in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures) are such languages] employ one word for the concepts of “wind”, “breath”, “mindset/ attitude”, & “personal incorporeal being”. This allows their poets to play with three or four concepts through the use of one word.

r* - working backwards… to early followers of YaHWeH it was sung: “the Lord is near to all who call on him”(Ps 145:18), & written “seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near” (Isa 55:6); to early followers of Yeshua (as YaHWeH’s representative on Earth) it was said: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20), and written: “always remember the nearness of your Lord” (Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:5) and to recall that “ ‘the Lord’ is ‘the spirit' ” (2 Corinthians 3:16-18)

et* - Galatians 5:18, 25; Romans 8:5-6

d* -many languages [& both Hebrew & Greek (the primary languages used in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures) are such languages] employ one word for the concepts of “wind”, “breath”, “mindset/ attitude”, & “personal incorporeal being”. This allows their poets to play with three or four concepts by the use of one word.

ve* - the phrase “..from above” is played with by poets in scripture that see this phrase as a referent to the source and origin of life.., love.., wisdom.., and insight- giving- experience.., or every good gift.. .

---

Look up

(to Jesus*)

---

I’m learning much by looking more at my

young grandson who is three years old just now.

He’s confident and bois-ter-ous. He’ll try.

Determined to grow, have a shot, know how.

While I feel more retiring, past my date.

And stuck in habits. Voice says: “Just give up”.

But I am hearing you. That’s not my fate!

You see me, as I see that tiny “pup”.

You're confident (and boisterous). You’ll try.

Determined to grow me. You’ll have a shot!

And since you will persist, then by.., and by…,

I’ll grow, and know, and learn how, why, and what…

The partnership is poss-ib-il-it-ies. 

Alone, my feelings of despair prove true!

That dead-end way finds only what it sees.

It seize-s not, nor adventures with you.

And I will knuckle under your good will

for me, because you think about what’s good

’n’ true, for all that is, and will until

it comes to be, existent. Now I could

as well, ‘coz all inertia’s lost its sting.

You’ve led the way, and made available

Christ’s life-blood with its  antibodies brings

it's antivenom unassailable.

That blood is poisonous to poisons round

because it is the source of life and health.

One life, a portal bringing heaven down

to Earth, & Earth to heavens. Health & wealth!

---

Footnotes

s* - and listen to his word through stories like this: 

“So Jesus called a child, made him stand in front of them, ³and said, “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. ⁴The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child. ⁵And whoever welcomes in my name one such child as this, welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:2-5 GNBUK)

---

Holding his hand

(into the unknown)

---

There is a sense in which there’s much of God 

I have no clue about. I just don’t know.

There’s much that he’s experienced, a lot

in fact for me to learn from “tell and show”.

And sometimes diff’rent cultures may have some..

some diff’rent edges on aspects of the..

the culture of eternity that’s come

down close enough for us to touch and see

and learn some diff’rent ways of acting out ..

it’s culture that gives boundaries that make

for more of that creative love that’ll shout

or whisper to bring understanding 's slake-

-king of our thirst for knowledge which is best 

kept centred on my father’s will, and self

and when the task he gives me is a test

for everyone to see and know my health

in order to join in and work for good..

good purposes which I must learn (not hate!)

in rote ways, how to join in as I should

if I were not to stand out but relate

and then myself be understood as well.

For words aren’t all, but then God’s Word in past,

is what has come and saves us from the hell

we bring when we live our will first not last.

My grandson is my helper here today*.

He mirrored my responses as I’ve done.

He helped me see from distance what I say

and do. Thank you, my three-year-old grandson!

---

y* - I only understand about 50-80% of my grandson’s speech sometimes. Though he will boldly continue speaking loud and clear. “G” sounds come out as “D” sounds. Etc. I have to very carefully make it a fun game and not overdo it. For learning any culture is arbitrary, and his feedback loop is lacking with close family members getting >90% of his words. He can quickly lose motivation. Here,  I see me in him. Thank you for helping me see myself grandson.

---

Into the unknown

(holding his hand)

---

I am at peace, with knowing you yourself,

not just an understanding of some facts* -

capacity to model on a shelf

the thoughts and words and hopes and all the acts

of that Creative Love that gives language

as gift to help us model and to learn

and not be too upset if at this stage

of life our language still falls short, no spearn-

-ing of this gift because it’s not as great

as who gave it. I’m thankful for help on

the Way he walked, as small child in the state

of toddler hand-in-hand. His light upon

this small world where the  cosmos was lit up

by that one visit as a man who’s shown

us all a solid prophet interrup-

-ting all the plans of mice and men alone.

For we were never just another one. 

We’re made more like a Left brain hemisphere

that’s meant to work in tandem, but as “son”

in terms of who’s the boss. The Right is clear-

-ly in Authority, and this must be, 

for only it connects us to the world

that’s larger round about us. And now HE

has lived it out and called us to be hurled

out as ambassadors of this new/ old-

-est way of living which does not need food

& drink for that’s internally resolved

by HIS resources inside. We’ve been clued*!

---

Footnotes

s* - Psalm 131

d* - “These women looked after him from their own resources”. (Luke 8:2-3); and he said “take, eat. Share among yourselves.” (Three gospels) “unless you eat.., & drink… you have no life in you” (John); “the words I have spoken to you are spirit and truth” (John); “who comes to me...rivers of living water will be springing up within them.” (John) a counsellor… this he spoke of the spirit who had not yet been given (?); "Our people must learn to spend their time doing good, in order to provide for real needs; they should not live useless lives." (Titus 3:14 GNBUK); "I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’ ”(Acts 20:35 GNBUK)

---