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)

---

in Canberra (ACT)

---

God help your son to be a conduit for

your love that comes to him through light and air,

through humans who have smiled on him and more,

through your own heart that he's begun to share..

completing now the circuit of your pow'r..

the power of love that may look very weak,

help him inside to choose & not go sour

to let your love out in the acts that speak...

---

Jesus’s daughter,

(on the way to Jairus’ daughter)

---

Dear God, our father, you who knows us well - 

we show you how we are by what we do

and ask you to help us the Truth to tell

as best as we now can. Open to you,

and your creative options to learn love..

for we are small, and weak, and immature,

and made from dust as animals here gov-

earned by instincts that are not straight and sure.

We thank you that your own creative love

was breathed into the dust that is our lives,

& if you don't give wisdom from above

then we can’t be at all like Jesus Christ.

But the distinctive thing about that man

was he could clean us up from right inside,

our motives and directives, & he can

we’ve found and know that this can’t be denied

(of course it can if we choose our own world 

but) this is what your leader came to lead

us in, wherever we are (by you) hurled

to show off small and weak light’s quite quick speed.

And so, as James learned from his big bro. then,

we’ll learn to let your love light do it's quick

and active thing within your world right when

a list’ning ear is needed. I am sick

of quickly talking, frustrating inside.

I give this sickly self to you, again.

Please heal me. I will walk, if I can’t ride

with you, or else Lord Jesus, touch your hem*.

---

After a phone discussion with my daughter (who has made the second turning, to grow younger as the daughter of her father in heaven) on a set of wierd incidents that had the smell of supernatural involvement and testing to snapping point… (but that through help provided by God, and followed through with by her, DID NOT snap her, but that almost appeared to strengthen her). 

The second or third try, we gave up on the glitching phone, and decided to sing a hymn or Psalm that came to mind, where we were. This is the one that came to my mind and by this blog I am sharing it with you, daughter:

Draft 2 recording

---

Footnotes

m* - Mark 5:21-37

---

..Love your work!

(as witnesses of, & junior partners in it)

---

Oh God we like the way you let us work

beside you as "your little helpers" and

there's no way that we ever want to shirk,

but neither to walk not "holding your hand".

It seems we're more like one-year-olds, or two-

year-olds who must refer often to you.

But this is not an immature state to

grow out of, it's the forward way for new...

new-humans in a New Creation of

the Heavens and the Earth, where we are like

left hemispheres of brains that aren't impov-

er-ished by their connection to the right...

We're very happy learning here to look

and see the things that grieve your heart in time,

and let you be our comforter who took

the burr-den out of burden, and who'll rhyme

a resurrection with creation's good

(and seven times in that process you "saw

that it was good", by letting all that could

do partnership with you, do that, and soar!)

So we would like to join up more with you.

Our chief delight is working hard beside

you, and at your direction a task to

do shopping, knocking, coffee, or to hide

away and hang out with our fam-il-y

is so delicious, a delight of life.

And we thank you for letting us just be

your offspring, vasal, friend, close as your wife.

---

listening

(quickly, actively, livingly)

---

So ask more questions when I feel that urge

to differ, or to incredulity;

before I let myself express to purge

the world from ignorance or foolery.

I see I'm called to follow in Christ’s wake:

ask for recalling or interpreting,

restatement, or on what basis they make

conclusions such as what I heard them bring

there to the table, metaphoric’ly,

to add to all this conversation fare.

Before I let reactions out of me, 

I need to find out more, the When? & Where?

The Who?, What? How? and Why? of what I heard.

So letting them, in stages, spell out more.

For us to clarify not “give the bird”,

unless it is that dove that came before.

The dove, the homing pigeon, Noah sent

to bring back from the larger world outside

some news from all the places that it went

in flying round about. It sussed the tide.

Or else the dove from heaven coming down

and resting on him (not just shooed away)

and being welcomed, glad to have around 

a smaller weaker one willing to stay,

and just to softly coo into his ear, 

but also send him out to suffer well,

to serve as slave to all who would appear

and come into his orbit, whom he’d tell

that simple news to freshly, and then show

it off in all the habits of his life;

like what his little brother came to know

as quite distinctive, got him into strife!

---

the pazazz ...

...that one has!

---

The fun of teaming up with a great bird

(a being which can see beyond our sight)

is hard to put to word, but can be “heard”

through body language, acts that may, or might

communicate the energy it brings.

It’s more a “taste and see” yourself then know,

than theoretic-al com-pre-hend-ings.

Why even human friends surprise us. Though

you get to know their character somewhat,

and recognise their choices’ patterns as

the integrated higher life they’ve got

is here expressed, on Earth, with a pazazz.

And difference in the patterns keeps it fun. 

The ever-learning new things to adjust

as love delights to do, that good be done

to benefit another - not from lust.

But that the will of God (that’s good; God’s love)

be spread and made more concrete on this Earth

by wisdom that we get from God above

as we hang out with this bird since our “birth”...

our “birth” I say, coz we have not controll’d

our birth, we are more passive, well respond-

-ers, mirroring through our own nature doled

out to us. Our job is “take it beyond…”

Not “on our own” (we wouldn't have a chance

of knowing how to drive such complex stuff).

We’re offered partnership, coaching to dance

by none other than THE creative love

who put this world together at the first…

and partnership in this love’s creating

of more good here (my heart is close to burst-

-ing) is the reason that I want to sing!

So "thank you" to this great creative love,

KHESED* itself, is everlasting for

it is synonymous with YaHWeH-dove, 

and wiser than the serpents at the door.

It made them all, and gave us too the word,

capacity to hear, and then to speak,

but is itself more than we’ve ever heard

or seen with eye. Reality’s not bleak!

---

D* - KHESED is the Hebrew word for covenant love. It is variously translated or seen as steadfast love, faithful love, family-style-love,  and with YaHWeH God is based on keeping one’s own word, not for any higher reason, but as the higher reason to choose & continue on with any course of action. It is a kind of commitment for the good of the whole shebang, not just the self in isolation. (Thus it purposefully partners with as many as possible, to enable them to share in this goodness more deeply.)

---

Quick.., Slow.., Slow..

(..to listen..to speak..to anger)

---

So just to clarify, and too recall:

to here fulfill love’s hopes and plans for me

I must first love the One God, overall,

and then the images of him that be

here living, moving round about, they walk,

and something in us loves to well, relate

to see each other, hear our father talk;

yet some acts build up love, and some build hate!

Will I expend my energies “to hear”?

To really hear his words & thoughts, and his..

..his motives and his ways to bring good cheer,

that set our heaven’s constellations wizz-

-zing overhead - which if we’ll start to see,

we’ll start to recognise and feel home in.

And this brings on, in us, an energy

that slows, and calms, as well as "soaks up sin*”.

This quickness in our soul to listen big,

observe, and note with active energy 

what’s happ-en-ing a-round us, even dig -

for asking is a way of mining - see (!)

and active looking, listening is called

for in this world (where things are often hid)  

not just more passive open up - stand tall,

but moving round, and asking what folk did.

And letting then, that spirit of KHESED

(creative covenantal love) speak out

with words, to bind itself to what it said,

so “slow to speak” is fitting, there’s no doubt!

And “slow to anger” is an upshot too, 

for in this way of living that relates 

more than reacts (by physics laws that do

their thing by mechanis-im’s  measures, weights, 

& thus can only try to quite suppress

the equal and the opposite force which

is just in line with physics in this mess -

which happens when relating gets “the ditch”).

And yet emotive-anger has a place

within a world where hell has taken root.

As shame’s a thing that should show on a face,

if shamefull acts we’ve done, we'll “give a hoot”!

---

s l o w . . . .

to speak*…

---

If I am to be slow to spruik, to speak, 

to say a word to others, in this world,

it’s prob’ly gunna be ’coz I’m too weak

to come across “on top” of all I’m told.

Then I won’t feel so confident myself

in knowing what to say that makes folk think

that I am truly knowing, wise & health-

-y. No jokes with a surreptitious wink!

‘Coz my own ego will feel bruised and warn,

not fresh - to battle up the hill, like goats.

Oh give me love’s own impulses, reborn

as crucified “with Christ” must then denote.

So here I hear his call once more to track

him through rejection by this world, and then

some unjust suffering & death, then back - 

for forty days to hang about with friends.

And all this while I’m learning privately, 

to keep an intimate “romantic”* life

quite flourishing, through which I’m re-viv-ed-

-ly nourished ‘coz love thrives when it's in strife!

So in this interchange, not built on words,

but giving rise to many “in their place”,

with bridge between the beings formed unheard

‘cept for the groanings love works into space.

And this gives rise (in ya’ way, YaHWeH God),

to new and living ways to walk on Earth,

not trying to be bolstered by this lot

I’m sent to show your love* to, since my birth.

---

Foot notes

k* - as seen throughout human history, taken as a whole, the Creator God very rarely speaks audibly from heaven. And as James recalls his “big brother” Yeshua, and dote-ingly passes on to his other “brothers”: “My dear brothers, everyone of you must be quick to listen, and slow to speak…” (James 1:19)

c* & e* - it turns out that instead of love for the creative spirit (behind the creation of the whole of the heavens and the Earth) being somewhat romantic/ sexual in nature, it is more like romance/ sex has been invented to give us a humanly experience-able metaphor for that creative spirit’s commitment for the highest and best, most pleasing, kind of love, KHESED (covenantal, family-kind love, based on “keeping one’s own word”, and thus allowing a real option to the coercive, manipulative control kind of “power” this world only “knows”, because this world is like a human brain’s left hemisphere trying to play the role of both hemispheres simultaneously) to build a family which will share and expand the KHESED work on Earth.

---

BE quick* - “jump in” - listening!

(like God*!)

---

If I will not be quick to listen then,

and now as well, I'll turn into A.I. - 

dispensing facts and stories in a blend 

to keep attention on me as I try

to not bore people, yet they’ll fall asleep,

or walk away, from boredom or disgust

at lack of listening and hearing deep-

-ly those around me, brought by God, from dust

but breathed into by YaHWeH God himself..

the spirit of an oversee-er who

can influence for more disease or health 

within this world around, and Others too.

And what’s the thing that stands out in YaHWeH*?

I think it was “he IS, he IS*” - not “WAS”,

although he was as well, as people say

and always will be*. And that’s just be’coz..

..he didn’t just create, he keeps it here, 

within his mind and purposes: he keeps

his word once he has given it. It’s queer, 

he binds himself, is faithful*. Yet still weeps

or deeply grieves, when children go off track, 

and doesn’t just unwind it all while one

of them remains who would perceive a lack

of faithfulness in father (or in son).

He’s bound to his own children such that he

is quick to listen, to expend himself.

And slow to speak, and “slow to anger”. We,

in growing up like him, come to our health..

---

Footnotes:

k* - “In view of what he has made us then, dear brothers, let every man be quick to listen but slow to use his tongue, and slow to lose his temper. For man’s temper is never the means of achieving God’s true goodness.

21-25 Have done, then, with impurity and every other evil which touches the lives of others, and humbly accept the message that God has sown in your hearts, and which can save your souls. Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves. The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, it is true, but he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror. But the man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s law, the law of liberty (or freedom), and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who sees and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.

26 If anyone appears to be “religious” but cannot control his tongue, he deceives himself and we may be sure that his religion is useless.

27 Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world” (James 1:19-27)

H*  - “God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” [15]  God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘The LORD – the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ [16]  “Go and bring together the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, appeared to me – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt, [17]  and I have promised that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ (Exodus 3:14-17 see especially the footnotes (a) in vs 14 of the NET version)

d* - God’s message to his people in their suffering: “ The Lord said, “I have surely seen[a] the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.[b] 8 I have come down[c] to deliver them[d] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious …” (Exodus 3:7-8)

S* & r* - An in-family announcement given to Moses: “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the LORD by name. [6]  The LORD passed by before him and proclaimed: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, [7]  keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7 NET etc)

l* - “...yet if we are faithless he always remains faithful. He cannot deny his own nature.” (2 Tim 2:13)

---

kids camping at our place

Please God help us to see the stables that 

you have prepared for your kids to stay in

with animals of yours whose king laid/ sat

in Mary's arms and manger with hay in..

 

My son ...

...dispise not the Lord’s discipline*

---

As “of the earth”, and also “of the wind, 

the breath or spirit of the very God”, 

amphibious, or hybrid is not sin

depending on relationships we’ve got

with both the heavens* and the Earth beneath 

our feet. For we could walk bowed down*, or crawl,

or lower still, could slither underneath

the legs of all, but we’re made to stand tall: 

we walk, skip, jog, dance, even run erect, 

yet need to bend our knees to move ahead. 

These oft repeated practices* help set

our whole selves to the right  spirit, as said

or maybe intimated, just before, 

we didn’t make ourselves (nor all the Earth).

We are not over all, we’re under more

than just the God who gives us breath since birth..

the other sons of God, not of the Earth,

right now are ruling us, until we grow

up big enough to come out* (a new birth?)

and then be ruling/ judging them; or so

we’re told in bits that slip out now & then*.

But habits* where we prostrate ourselves here

before the only wise God, help defend

us from that kind of pride that has no fear,

respect of God’s word to declare his will;

and listen carefully, to understand

but going that much more, & further still,

to act it out on Earth* - as is the plan*.

---

Footnotes

ne* - my son despise not the Lord's (your father’s) discipline, (fitness-regime, teaching, training)... (Proverbs 3:1-17 ff) and “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. [24] Never say anything that isn't true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words. [25] Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame. [26] Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right. [27] Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.”  (Proverbs 4:23-27 GNBUK)

ns* - “the heavens” seem to be the seed dimension where core attitudes and models hover, not (fully) embodied yet on Earth… but the plan is “as in heaven, so on Earth” and we are portals meant to carry out and help bring about that will, in that way (of HESED love).

wn* - remember that lady who walked bent over who came into the Synagogue in front of Jesus, and what he did for her, and said about her? (Luke 13:10-17)

es* - it appears to me that oft repeated practices, become habits, of our whole selves (heart, soul, mind, and strength), trained body, trained emotions and thus trained mind… or in the words of a wiser one: “Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.” C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man.

us* - Psalm 8; plus “the law” “given by angels” Acts 7:53), being a tutor to bring us to (and then help us to grow up to become like, the) Christ (Gal 3:23-4:11).

ut* - as in Romans 8:17-27 

en* - “we will judge the angels” (Paul to early Christians - 1 Cor 6:2-3)

ts* - like those spoken of by Jesus (or by God, or by Jesus’ little brother, speaking about his big brother, to his other dear brothers) to his disciples (disciplined ones) “watch & pray”, and “when you fast…”; “when you give alms”; “This is my beloved son; Listen to him”; “be slow to speak”; “be slow to anger” (Mark 8:31-9:13; James 1:19-27), … etc…or see Peter’s ladder (2Pet1:3-11) etc..

th* - again  “as in heaven, so on Earth”... our longing, requests, and our own actions (in partnership with God as our senior partner) are to be that the reign of God might come on Earth, as it is in heaven..

an* - “the plan”, might well be summarised in the 4 words of the title of a Christian Ethics text-book which I read bits of years ago. Its “thesis” - that the basis of what some might call Christian Ethics, others might say it is the direction all the narratives, commands, pointers,  reminders & encouragement are trying to take us (by hook or by crook). It could even be said to be an inexorable “Law” [{given Jesus’s use of it to both enemies and family when he said “you are just like your father, the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning…” (John), and “be … just as your father in heaven is …”(Matthew)}. I say inexorable, but this doesn’t preclude either that there is an off-ramp or an on-ramp, these two ramps are… existential facts (which are also metaphors for existential choices), and they are…  ? (hint: Jesus mentioned one to Nicodemus)]. The four words are: “like father, like son”. Other idiomatic phrases that communicate something like this might well be “a chip off the old block”, or “the spitting image of his/ her old man/ woman”.

---

“deep” LIFE:

understanding and love!

---

My love and my peace come finally from God, 

my worth and energy, thriving, from him.

And when you think of it, it would be odd 

if it were otherwise, for we'd grow dim

when we weren’t recognised, accepted or,

acknowledged by the others - light might fade.

But we are heirs of Christ with his “much more”,

who conquers by the love-light God has made

to shine, and when it’s dark  the light shines on,

it travels through the void quite easily. 

It travels light! And then, by God, it’s gone.

It’s sent! And then its smile (uncheesily)

is seen on faces where it lands, the truth

is that it has direction - always OUT,

into the dark, with energy of youth,

determined toddler, but without the pout!

Its energy goes with it where it's sent.

In that way it’s still “of” the  source it’s “from”.

It’s light, by nature. Light itself is meant..

- and shows up ev'ry-thing it lights upon,

but doesn't have much “push” itself, more “let” -

the situation now be clearly seen,

or understood, perceived, not to forget

so easily, and light is rarely mean

or heavy handed. Still, we know the sun,

from its distance to Earth, sources our life,

for plants store photons, sent & too begun,

& give us food and breath, in “all our strife*”.

---

Footnote

e* - “all our strife under the sun” repeated phrase in Qoheleth (e.g. Ecclesiastes 1:3;9; 2:17; 4:1).

---

The exception to the rule (of late)...

return to the beginning (love & faithfulness kiss)

---

Well what was happening to my old Dad 

and what was happening within him too 

when I was with him there for just a tad 

a week ago I saw what he could do

when he was not in panic, manic mode,

but sharing life in weakness and in pain;

he couldn't talk so loud or  long, he rode

the wave, confused, determined. Then again..

his son did not step in much to adjust

the outcomes, or to stop him pestering.

The son was honouring, as well he must

be if he’s not un-grateful, un-fitting.

So both, in strength and love of God relied,

and loveliness related in this world -

a little piece of heaven was espied.

Oh God I choose for that where I am hurled

by you the ever trusting, faithful one.

I, and my Dad with strength of God of love,

will learn to trust in you as your own son

who’d grow like his own father who’s above,

below, around each side, before & aft-

-ter too. Your wisdom & your faithfulness

we’ll use, aspire to (though we are quite daft

and often draw the wrong conclusions). Bless

me farther on, and farther in to you,

to grow old and to die well. God you showed

the later (& the former). May we too

fulfill your word to us, so you’ve not “blowed*”. 

---

Footnotes

d* - blowed up like a baloon, or just “hot air” blowing out in useless, meaninglessness.

---

friend's @ a work related conference…

---

Yes, God we thank you that you've sent them there, 

as really doing things that should be done, 

and part of that's the friendship that's aware

of bigger friend who's here with ev'ryone!

---

!

!

holy carelessness

of the eternal NOW…

---

In tastes I've had of this (or in my dreams)

when this makes sense, describes a state that’s real..

the most important thing right then, it seems

is no longer “get ready”, so the feel

or focus, is not future, but the fun

of living life right now, in right rela-

tion with all those around here “under sun*”;

or as the Christ’s Ambassador might say:

“as much as is now possible, as far

as things depend on you, that is from your…

your side of your relationships, you are

responsible to live at peace, and more,

to now allow for thriving to be birthed,

not just with friends, but enemies as well*.”

He got that Way of living on God’s Earth, 

developing relationships ’gainst hell,

from you know who, who was himself the true…

true model of all that he said, himself.

So as that Paul himself was wont to do,

I bow before this Master of True Health.

And understand, in bowing down (by choice -

not in self-serving weighing of future

recompense or payments back in poise

or fashion then accorded) - Here we are…

right in the holy carelessness of that

Eternal Now, where God himself - my breath,

my food & drink, quite freely comes to bat

in partnership as blasphemous as death.

---

n* - life “under the sun” is a term used by Eclessiastes to refer to life on Earth as we know it, without much knowledge of & therefore reference to heaven

l* - Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them… . If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.(Romans 12:14-21)

---

cadarva "larva"

(or "from above" Love)

---

There is a chance for me - ’coz every cell, 

within my body has your written word

of life and love, and wisdom, who can tell -

your great amazing way is like absurd-

-ly good, and wonderful, above our “might”.

Your ways beggar belief.

’ don’t have a clue!

I’ll trust you even though I'm not too bright,

’n it  doesn’t honour you much when I do.

But here I am just trusting your good word.

I think that’s good and right, because you keep

your word, and that’s what  keeps all hell deterred,

along with death and pain - what makes folk weep…

And keeping your own word’s your kind of love,

not as a needy “I desire..” thing,

but my real needs fulfill, as “from above”

you look, and see, and know. You are the king!

The king of love, provision, & request

(from me, for my own good, to help me sing,

bring gladness, pleasure, power, and the best

of disciplines that come from treasuring). 

Your ways aren’t of the dirty predator*.

But disciplined yourself, you help me learn

good manners and to think (as editor*)

before I speak, or act, or welcome, spearne,

allow others to “do their thing” dispense,

with me, to me, or me to them as well

(somewhat, because we have some influence).

You bring the smell of heaven, not of hell!

---

Footnotes

*r - Thinking of the models of an honourable man and woman, enmeshing each other in all of their lives, each for the advancement, development and growth of the other, as a good marriage becomes over time -

compared to & contrasted with -

the abusive use of another when they have less power or influence, portrayed by men like Jeffrey Epstein with his massage payments and his Island, affecting women from the USA and England, and Monsieur (Dominique) Pelicot with his drugging, sedation, and hiring out of his wife in France;

& their methods being contrasted with the methods of a very powerful creator who only interrupts our rulership when asked to do so. e.g. the Psalmist’s words, followed by the prophet Isaiah’s words spoken back, from God to his people:

“Teach me your ways in such a way that I will be enabled  to, and in actuality will, go in them.. (PLW after Psalm 86:11 etc)

or 

O LORD, teach me how you want me to live! Then I will obey your commands. Make me wholeheartedly committed to you! 

(Psalm 86:11 NET, for Hebrew and others, link to Other English translations) 

“Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the Lord. ‘These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.

[4] so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no-one answered, when I spoke, no-one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.’ [5] Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word; ‘Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, “Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!” Yet they will be put to shame.

[10] ‘Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. [11] For you will feed and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.’ [12] For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will feed and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. [13] As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.’ [14] When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.

[18] ‘And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. [19] ‘I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations – to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. [20] And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord – on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,’ says the Lord. ‘They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. [21] And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,’ says the Lord. [22] ‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure.” (Isaiah 66:2, 4-5, 10-14, 18-22 NIVUK)

---

at work in the ruins

(in this world, but not of it..)

---

Oh what a privilege to share new life

with people who will work along with who

made this whole Universe, with all its strife,

and complex e-co-sys-tem-ic stuff too.

And how’d’e-do ’is greeting -  with a “Hi!”?

o’ ’lo? which must go up or down to reach

each person. I must pull my head in, try

to not just entertain or even teach

but be “of benefit” to all, in all

I do and say (and even think) towards

the people I will contact, to not fall

into the habits of machines, but gods

who, though they're foetal, and not even “out”,

but still “in secret”, inside this great womb,

can start to make some choices - not to pout,

or tantrum! They’re part of the  anti-doom!

So, yup! There’s always trouble in this world*.

And we’ll be quite involved in it, right at

the centre. Often times we have been hurled 

right at it; God’s response team’s sent for that!

For crucifixion trouble, maybe Jo-

seph, with his “first-born son” foll-ow-ing sure.

And many others later with Nero.

For Peter all its horror was ignored.

For being thrown to Lions, there was Dan.

Then cent’ries later “Christ-i-ans” in Rome.

For dog trouble: St Patrick, Paul, (a man

the other year) in Thailand, Steve at home.

---

Footnotes

*  “...you may find your peace in me. You will find trouble in the world—but, never lose heart, I have conquered the world!”” (Jesus, to his disciples; John 16:33, and see other translations here, especially the NET’s footnote on Thlipsis)

---

---

Newly

imagined!

---

Oh God, to learn to think, in truth, help me

to do the practice, needed to assess,

to be in touch with your reality,

and less affected by appearances*!

You’ve given me the tools of trade I need,

to be a human - being here on Earth

in eco-system* which can fairly bleed,

in body* with changed blood-flow at its birth.

And offered then to share your wisdom too,

in fact it seems you’re very keen to. So

not hanging back, not scared of what we’ll do,

you’re lovingly determined t’help us grow.

And your determination to just bless,

I rarely see on Earth these days except

in settings of a fam’ly, where duress

is not just leaving angry folk bereft.

That real determined love that "digs in" for

the long haul, and for keeping its own word,

and not ’coz its desires made that call,

but ’coz it chooses to - in that absurd

‘ly supra-rational, but human way,

that doesn’t come to us from lower down,

or modelling, as A.I. does, or  say

the hemisphere* that’s left, without the crown.

But as we learn from more mat-u-re ones,

what love and patience is, and humour too,

we grow more human as we play for fun,

and dance instead of march. And ‘old’ grows new*!

---

Footnotes

s* “You are righteous, O Lord, and your judgments are right.” (Psalms 119:137); “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. [16] You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand idly by when the blood of your neighbor is at stake: I am the Lord. [17]  “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. [18] You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:15-18); “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)

m* “ecosystem” can stand for our Earth, seen as a whole Ecosystem, with all its interdependence, and diverse beings and interrelatedness, OR our individual bodies, with on average, its 29-36 trillion very varied human cells, and who knows if it is a similar amount of bacteria, fungal, protozoan, and algal, not to mention nematodes and flukes, & insects etc.. that relate together within each body 

y* “body” can mean each individual human body ( which may be seen as a whole universe that each of us rule over in a god-like supreme-being way, OR ELSE the body of the human family, or for followers of Jesus, as I am, the body of Christ, both of which are made of a much smaller, though still a large number, of individuals. Each of these labelled groupings having lost much of its working towards a bigger common goal or order of being.

e* the left hemisphere of the single (two hemisphered) human brain, that relates data to its virtual reality or internal model of the world that thereby allows to to understand complex events and predict likely future ones, but which also needs to be able to be overridden or vetoed by the other ("right") hemisphere which relates us to the actual world at large.

w* in the words of Yeshua’s Ambassador (Apostle) Paul: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NRSV)

---

Growing up!

(starts with bowing down)

---

Dear Father, I am sixty six years old.

So now, in one more year I can retire.

Thus by most counts, I wouldn’t be too bold

to think that I’m a grown up. I’m a sire.

I’ve sired 6 living offspring on this Earth.

And have begun to learn to love from you.

But in that sense, I've hardly grown since birth.

And “Quite Mature” ’s a title I'd eschew.

Because  I'm learning how to tell the truth.

And hearing my own self-talk now I know

what you have always known - you don’t need proof!

Compared to your age, I'm still foetal. So

this makes sense of what Jesus said about

the reign of God belonging only to 

those who are little children. None are louts

or adolescents, adults with the view 

of centuries, millenia or such.

I have to start my growth by learning truth

in inmost parts, in spirit*, heart’s own hutch

for living treasure, inside my tent “roof”.

So as a little child I call you now: 

My Abba, Daddy, truest one who knows:

what ever’s worth the knowing or somehow,

whoever will be loving, where love grows

within them as a plant grows in the soil.

The seed of God’s been planted in this soul*

and as it grows the ground is like to boil,

& give birth then, a crop that makes more whole.

---

Footnotes

t* “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. [11] Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. [12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me… .

[17] My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalms 51:10-12, 17 NIVUK)

l* “No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” (1 John 3:9 NIVUK);  “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, ‘All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures for ever.’ And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25 NIVUK); “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:4 NIVUK)

---

 

with your spirit

(fill me - as your balloon)

---

Oh God you are both wise and good, and know

me well (with even hairs upon my head).

Your essence, attitude, motives that show

in all your acting and withholding, said

to be the spirit of the only God,

well of the one defining what “God” means;

the first, and primal, pioneer who’s got

defining rights, for love’s mind often teems

with possibilities that multiply

(and exponentially), till out of sight.

You can not hold it down. Well they did try!

We're talking here of light on a dark night…

It’s out before you put the lid back on, 

its oscillations are too numerous

to count in one life time, and then it's gone

and as it goes, it makes more universe

and fills it up with possibilities,

keeps on allowing us to more become

in line with all your spirit’s hopes and dreams

and wishes, which when spoken don’t make numb;

or do but in such do’s communicate 

the love that’s underneath on which we thrive.

The love that swallows impotence and hate,

and knows the purpose that we are alive.

And IS it too, because we are offspring

(the tiny foetal “children”) of Yahweh.

He is the reason that we truly sing,

or celebrate, or speed up, or delay*.

---

Footnotes

y* - e.g. creative love leads people to be (& to choose along with it, to become more) quick (to listen), to be slow (to speak), and to be slow (to anger)... (See James 1: 19-27)

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His word is MORE..

(both more personal*, & more enduring.. 

..than the Universe)

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Oh Lord you’ve given us such lovely gifts

and promises*, all backed up by your word.

The presence of yourself’s at top, and lifts

us up to heights, but handles "down"  absurd-

ly well. When “Lifted up*” as Nathan said

the son of David would in future be,

to reign as king un-ending. Jesus shed

another meaning, more macabre that he

then understood [in light of history’s

developments in keeping human slaves,

instilling fear as chief of strategies

to keep the status quo, so none behaves

in disobedience to master’s will*

(that’s culture’s dictates as it does its job,

and those who found they’d rule the culture ‘til

they thought that with no pain they'd get “on top”)].

While he, as little child, lived underneath

his father’s will, completely doing all

his father willed, though clearly he’d bequeath

his own desires, quite openly, to fall

in line, behind, in ways his father led.

His naked motive pow’r would not coerce

but only love, ‘first God, then like -” he said, 

- "his neighbour", act to help them choose, disperse-

-sing more the scent of heaven on the earth.

to live a higher life in partnership

with such creative love that gave us birth

and gives all* “goods” & services yet s(h)ipped.

---

Footnotes

al* - after writing this, I said to my ~5yr old  granddaughter something like "God is the most amazing person I've ever met!" to which she responded with patronage and a twinkle in her eye for this chance to fix up Grand-Dad's ignorance: "God isn't a person! He's just a god!"; to which I responded... "Ah, he must be a person! - because we are his children!"

s* - “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.” (from 2 Peter 1:1-11)

d* - The prophet Nathan’s words to King David, from God: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” (from 2 Samuel 7:1-17); and then Jesus’s prophecy/ commentary on his own future, being raised or lifted-up “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. [32] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” [33] He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. [34] The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” ” (from John 12:23-50 plus Mark  ch8, ch9, & ch10)

will* - for an indication of how crucifixion was developed by  the Empires, societies, and cultures of the (Mede’s & Persians, Phoenicians,  and) Romans to keep order in their realm(s) see the first chapter of Tom Holland’s book “Dominion”, from which book this quote is given: “A myth, though, is not a lie. At its most profound—as Tolkien, that devout Catholic, always argued—a myth can be true. To be a Christian is to believe that God became man and suffered a death as terrible as any mortal has ever suffered. This is why the cross, that ancient implement of torture, remains what it has always been: the fitting symbol of the Christian revolution. It is the audacity of it—the audacity of finding in a twisted and defeated corpse the glory of the creator of the universe—that serves to explain, more surely than anything else, the sheer strangeness of Christianity, and of the civilization to which it gave birth. Today, the power of this strangeness remains as alive as it has ever been. It is manifest in the great surge of conversions that has swept Africa and Asia over the past century; in the conviction of millions upon millions that the breath of the Spirit, like a living fire, still blows upon the world; and, in Europe and North America, in the assumptions of many more millions who would never think to describe themselves as Christian. All are heirs to the same revolution: a revolution that has, at its molten heart, the image of a god dead on a cross.” (Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, quoted in Good reads quotes by Tom Holland) & “In a city famed for its wealth, Paul proclaimed that it was the ‘low and despised in the world, mere nothings’,34 who ranked first.  Among a people who had always celebrated the agon, the contest to be the best, he announced that God had chosen the foolish to shame the wise, and the weak to shame the strong. In a world that took for granted the hierarchy of human chattels and their owners, he insisted that the distinctions between slave and free, now that Christ himself had suffered the death of a slave, were of no more account than those between Greek and Jew.” (Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind)

all* - all good gifts [e.g. “But every good endowment that we possess and every complete gift that we have received must come from above, from the Father of all lights, with whom there is never the slightest variation or shadow of inconsistency. By his own wish he made us his own sons through the Word of truth that we might be, so to speak, the first specimens of his new creation.”(James 1:12-27 esp vv 17-18)]; but, our experience of the good things in this world starts with our birth, followed by a “re-birth”, since a birth “from above” is also another birth, a second birth, or a new birth (coming, as it does, in time, after our ‘first birth’ our ‘old birth’, as Nicodemus rightly indicated, - from our mother’s womb). [e.g. “But when the kindness of God our saviour and his love towards man appeared, he saved us—not by virtue of any moral achievements of ours, but by the cleansing power of a new birth and the moral renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he gave us so generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The result is that we are acquitted by his grace, and can look forward to inheriting life for evermore. This is solid truth.” (Titus 3:5-7)]

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love's faces

---

You are the source of all the love I’ve known.

And all the food in this world, I believe,

is your creative love displayed and shown 

in avenues of edibility.

Veluptuous and varied: sweet and sour,

strong and crisp, and crunchy, bubbly too.. ,

can all be lovely gifts at different hours

or contexts. For you know us through & through.

Responsive to initiatives from me,

You are: my senior, wiser, & more a-

-ble, seeking partnership as way to be.

The only thing unmoving, clearly sta-

-ble, is your HESED, strong and pure, deter-

mined, minded to grow me to be like you,

that your creative love be so inter-

preted,  on Earth in ev’rything I do.

And all the gifts you've poured this way I see

are gifts of fam’ly love to grow kids strong.

And given for the best to grow in me

and you, and help us too, to both “belong”..

be long in suffering - that good may come 

(not only when it brings pleasure to me)

but even when it breaks my heart, ..& some

things don’t feel good; I'll stay and over-see 

that all is good (again) for thriving of 

the whole she-bang, and which we will be long-

ing for its good to multiply: “tov tov”

as partnership is harmonized in song.

---

Today’s lesson

(for me..)

---

One lesson that appears to come is strange.

I need deep wisdom to decipher well

its meaning as pertains to me, arranged

by God himself to help me clearly tell..

So help me God to draw clear insights from

this evidence, as seen in Mark and Mike,

and Adam our progenitor Golem,

and what my wife has said to me tonight

about my making gen’ralizations

or proverbs from each story that I hear.

She said they sound like “morals” for nations

& makes me sound The Judge, so it appears.

It turns her off, she wants me quiet then.

I wondered if I said “I’m trying to 

here understand a principle for when

we’re put in charge, so we’ll know what to do.”

But now I see that doesn’t fit his word:

“Man, who made me a ruler or a judge

who’s over you?*”, was what one fellow heard; 

but John heard that the Father would not budge,

“he’s given judgement to his very Son*”.

It may be that he changed as people heard

it diff’rently, from diff’rent hopes begun

inside a person's head, expressed in word.

So I might need the Father’s wisdom fresh*

for ev’ryone I interact with here;

And that makes sense, for love will always mesh

in loving ways, with each one to appear.

---

Footnotes

?* Luke 12: 

n* John 5:22-27

h* James 1:2-9

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Help!

---

Oh God I like the way you help, and that

you aren’t so very pushy; though you made

us up, and maybe just because we're flat

& hardly 3 dimensional, you bade

us to grow up to love with all our selves,

and pass that love along to others too,

you knew we’d need integrity and health

so we could multiply love, not just do

what comes into our heads, to tax it (as

we pass it on to others) for ourself;

for that’s against the nature that love has

- to trust the Universe, not fear with stealth.

You don’t try then, to make us do a thing;

you want us to discover and then choose,

and even ask for help to trust and sing

in presence of my enemies, all who’s

not for me and for honouring my life.

For Love’s an overcomer, it makes worlds,

and overcomes all nothingness and strife.

To trust it is to trust where you are hurled

so as Yeshua trusted in desert-

-ed places, when he needed food & drink,

that God, his Father would see (though he’s hurt)

that he would not be harmed (- as God would think).

So I will trust, and not give way to fears. 

And let my pains and troubles in this womb

not count for more than what seems, or appears,

and let you be the judge o’er death & tomb.

---

flow (take 2)

---

My heart, I see today, is like a cup,

and it can carry water from a well

to my lips, and to any who look up

for help, & then whom God rigs against hell.

A sip might be the whole of what’s their need.

But cells like ours need water to survive,

so often they need more, each word and deed

can cup the water to their hands alive.

But they need water (& I too, no less)

to well up in their beings - all un-clocked!

The cup must lose its bottom, and be stretched,

become a hose, or portal that’s unblocked.

Reflection is requir’d to lively learn. 

Here water helps (when steady, in its flow)

reflect a face, and see disgrace, & yearn

for better looks, and helps wash clean, I know

b’coz it's helped me many times: to drink,

to wash, to cool, to see back or reflect,

& then to help those others on the brink 

of lack, or failure, to change course, deflect.

And ev’ry win (in stages) helps resolve

to grow. The wind resistance helps to train

obedience, that’s out of loyal love.

That helps us to move forward, once again.

And then to top it off, God’s eyes (in pairs)

see worth of whom they worked hard to obey.

He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but softened theirs,

through doing will of God (in Christ), I'd say.

---

think of Jesus’ disciples feeding with (a flow of) food (‘bread’ could just mean food) [Mark 6]

---

flow...

---

---

as in heaven, so on Earth... a "cup" of living (=flowing)  water?

---

My heart, I see today, is like a cup,

and it can carry water from a well

to my lips, and to any who look up

for help, & then whom God rigs against hell.

A sip might be the whole of what’s their need.

But cells like ours need water to survive,

so often they need more, each word and deed

can cup the water to their hands alive.

But they need water (& I too, no less)

to well up in their beings - all un-clocked!

The cup must lose its bottom, and be stretched,

become a hose, or portal that’s unblocked.

To live well as a human is to learn

and that needs time and focus to reflect.

And steady water flowing helps me yearn

and gives to drink, to cool, to see, deflect-

-ing/ softening the skin and nails (and heart?),

and washing clean as well (that is a lot!).

The opposite of still, can be an art-

form that will call out ev’ry thing we've got!

And washing out a hardness of the heart,

and stubbornness, and dullness, was a storm;

with wind that made it harder to impart

obedience from spirit clear though worn.

But then creative love itself stepped in-

to situation, onto water top,

and walked along as though he’d often been

for strolls like this, and would he ever stop?

---

Mark 6: (think the feeding with the flow of loaves…)

---

ever heard Ed shearin'?

You ever heard Ed Shearin'? It's a pretty big do, they say.

All the light show and machinery (& sheep?)

Step up! Owe nothing

 - except love!

(which you only pay out, because you - accept love!)

---

Before I met a mate for a coffee, I had time at home to have a cup of tea, and observe, hear, think, act out and understand good ways forward. We meet to share our thoughts and choices over the past week. How good has this simple habit been! (Alerting us to other, more basic, helpful habits too!)

---

---

Today I seemed to see how love can grow.

I know the case of how it can die back:

with kinds of hardness that a heart can know

when all of life is comfort, with no lack.

And somehow in the art’ries (where life flows)

the lack of lack, brings hard’ning, not much flex;

ta heart must pump the blood both fast and slow

sometimes, and yet be ready for what’s next.

And love’s the only thing that has these both:

the power & the will to cover up

(with band-aid-like capacity to know th-

- at healing’s from inside & then erupts.

And I, as just an animal, can not

learn love, except to copy what it does;

for love takes two to tango. One be God.

His partner is the flow’r, (where bee does buzz).

And living in a partnership is the

ground-breaking way of life, like jump from sing-

-gle celled amoeba… right up to multi-

to multi-cellular big living thing. 

And with this partnership as ground beneath

our feet, to walk upon - provide support,

to teach us how to love, & to bequeath,

contribute, not just take - us back to naught

we'll bring creative options into view.

Creative love invites, so I will too,

so learn to sit, and cover for all who

fall short. I’ll simply let them also choose.

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