tough love..

A mutual friend needs stern-ness: He has been acting from his needi-ness, rather than his gifted-ness. When I've spoken straight to him, he's stopped coming around and talking. This acting out his neediness means that not many other people want him around for long.

God please help our brother now,
to see what you've gifted him,
and in celebration
serve with grace, strength undimmed.

Please also help us see
any more we can do
to appropriately
be co-workers with you.

Amen.

Soph the Goph...

Our Sophie's one year older since her birth,
about now is the time to celebrate

the twenty six year holder - on this earth,
& we are glad that she's done more than hate;

she's learned to love & that's of the most worth
- & still it's growing in her more of late

with her Peter, she's learning to have mirth
that's oh sweeter, and is a kind of 'gate',

or 'door' into another kind of turf,
or more a world that's stamped with the Creat-

or's image that grows energy (not girth)
in expressing the love that makes life great.

So we are glad to know ol' Soph the Smurf,
her Papa is too, I'm glad to relate!

there in the train.... a mum and two sons... thinking again

It'd be better to have parents
and miss your inheritance,
than to get all the goodies 
yet lose out on 'lations!

It's better to get God 
and miss his gifts,
than to get all God's gifts 
yet miss out on learning how to live (& use them) from your God - who is both father & mother!

Especially if your fam'ly's true,
for they will know just what to do,
& if they don't they'll still love you,
& share their own lives with you too!

So thanks to God "You're my Pa-paa,
though I don't know quite where you are,
but maybe as I've been a Dad
(the best insight I've ever had)

& talked to my kids 'in the womb'
(when neither Mum, nor Dad were seen -
or understood, it was too soon)
& yet we loved our kids between

us both, & separation's gift
was to allow more love to grow
between us as our child we lift-
ed (& they chose to let us know

the inside stuff, like hopes & fears,
to choose to listen & to learn,
& let love grow throughout the years,
respect, & don't just pout & spearn

advice and help that's offered them).
O God I will learn from them to
be a true child, who is a friend,
& offspring, of someone like you.

Caught a cold...

Hi Paul, I'm feeling quite out of it cause of this cold. Can we catch up early next week?


God, please do your thing
the way you make life
from dead stuff, you bring
new movements of lithe
dancers with intent;
friendship, hate, or strife.
Please help Tim, who's spent
time feeling un-life-ed.
Work & studies meant
Carm may feel un-wifed!
Help him, you who went
where sicknesses stif-
-led, & unclean "bent"
people tried to trif-
-le with God's world, lent
to us who are rife
- rife with God's intent,
& with God's own life.
There you made a dent,
'n'cut out like a knife.
Please do that again t'
Tim, & too his wife.

to know as we are known

... For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1Cor.13:6-13  ASV

For now we see, as though through a mirror

[a mirror made of polished metal plate,

well bronze that’s beaten - sil-ver was dearer -

by hammers; smiths would try to make it straight]!

When tarnish then corrodes with green or black,

the mirrors would show “darkly” when you looked.

The world within the mirror would be stacked

with many things unclear-er than if took

to eye-balling the people or the world

around you, without mirror in-between.

For who knows Love (that’s not just has been told

about it) are like children who’ve been weaned*:

they look to see their mother not just for

what they can get from her - like their next feed,

but love’s awakened something that’s much more;

they recognize her face, not just their need.

When starting to know her, not just the facts

about her, her child’s starting to be real,

to know some of her secret thoughts, & acts,

her motives and commitments, how she feels…

This childlike knowledge (diff’rent from “child-ish”),

the kind of knowledge God has now of us,

is more concerned with knowing someone's wish,

& recognizing them without much fuss.

But “darkly” also meant  in parable,

enigma, puzzle, figure, mystery.

Though Christ’s followers may seem gullible,

the crucial, central figure here is HE.

* Psalm 101& 131

Can I do anything?

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. 
Philippians 4:13. (Paul M. Version)

I agree with both Pauls (the apostle, & McLaughlan). But there is something (broken?) in me that takes a lovely statement like that, and twists it (esp. the "I can do all things/anything..") for, what it calls "My (or even God's) purposes", but is really only the purpose of a stinking dead me. My antidote is firstly, to reframe the statement in it's original context, e.g. 

I think Paul was probably
getting at, or trying to
communicate in words the
things they'd seen in life & truth:

already Philippians
had seen him (and Silas) jailed
and the jailer heard the songs,
saw that Christ's life hadn't failed.

Maybe Paul meant something like
" I can handle any things
(that God allows to his tyke)
that come my way, that life brings;
since he himself is my "bike",

he is my "car", and my "truck"
my gate, my path, and my door,
he is my way, and my luck,
and my truth, my life, what's more

he is my strength, that's God's Christ,
God's anointed here on Earth,
showed how to be sacrificed
to our God, for what it's worth.

And we find Christ says it's good,
beautiful, or else much more,
and speaks as if that's what should
be done, and not just ignored.

Paul here stretches, runs a race,
giving all, to get the prize,
till he stands and sees His face,
and looks straight into His eyes!

faith functions

A friend from a Muslim background said something positive about someone known to me whom he had met the other day, and wondered if they had faith.

This got me thinking etc. about what faith is... this is the result so far. Feel free to adjust, differ and to comment..


Our FAITH is our responding loyalty
to who and what we have believed before
it sort of helps us live above the sea
of i-de-as and contradicting lore.

And so it is important where it's based
for it sets our direction and the course
of where we then end up, or think we're placed,
how easily it leads life, or is forced.

Good Faith of which I speak brings confidence
for further living, as it is proved true,
we won't believe because we want it, hence,
we'll only hope for what there's reason to...

But still there's need to step out boldly to
meet each new future with these hopes in mind
and faith helps here if there's another who
works with us yet is not bound inside time,

especially if we're part of a big team
and others who we trust have "filled us in",
then faith gives us the bright capacity
to live with certainty 'bout what's not seen.

Marty. Might he? Older, bolder!

Well "Happy Birthday Marty" older man
(& one day later than I should have been
if my wish was on time, but then again...
some better things than "Happy" have been seen.

. .. could celebrate the day of your old birth
on any day that we were glad you came
(were SENT by God to live on this old Earth);
since then "born from above" brings on no shame.

In fact it brings more glory than could be
imagined, since what HE's gone to prepare
is better than ear heard, or eye could see;
that's whether it's on Earth, or in the air.

And since we know the new life that HE brings
is grown and matures fully in the hard-
hard places, and hard times, & sufferings,
a "Blessed Birthday" makes a better card.

For maybe on this Earthday we could bless..
bless you with all the joy and peace that's yours,
the middle of this old Earth's bloody mess,
as God's love to & through you daily pours.

New You, New Year!

In 2017- May The Lord fill you with His love to overflowing. 
A Love that touches everyone around you!!!  Thessalonians 3:12 (PM Version)  

2017 is going to be a great year!! Don't look back- look forward- keep your eyes on Jesus- He has good plans for you!! Blessings Paul McL

...........

In these days may The Lord fill you with such
such love to overflowing which will touch
all, everyone around you, so they see
the Life of Jesus (where you look - & me).

Know nothing good is ever lost, or "gone" -
its ripples will continue to go on.
And don't look back to what you used to do
as "way-to-go", because his plans for you

are good, and give a future and a hope.
And he's already started, & can cope -
working together: New You amaking.
All High Kings under him, or forsaking!

confessing blessing

A friend heads off North for New Year with his daughter etc...

Set your heart on Gods kingdom and His goodness, and all these things will come to you as a matter of course. Mathew 6:33 (PM Version)
..........

God give this man,
and too his clan,
the grace to see
how good you be,
& then to praise
through all his days
the giver, who
comes back to you.

And help this man
as best he can
to set his heart
(the whole, not part)
on your good reign
which is again
a gift from you
that's good and true.

While spreading more
your goodness o'er
this world, we wait
breath unabate-
ed, & we're grate-
fully relate-
ed by breathed breath*
that conquers death.

So all the small-
er things which call
for worry now
will be somehow
provided when
their need is 'then',
& Trust won't test
- it knows it's blessed.

The giver who
comes back to you,
as conduit wends
from source to end(s),
can only give
what source de-liv-
ers to the end(s);
thus us to friends.

* in Hebrew (ruach, & the Ancient Common Greek of the Frist Century New Testament - pneuma) the same word was used to cover the three related (though in our English-speaking minds quite separate) meanings of "spirit", "wind", & "breath". It might be said that they thought as much of the "holy breath" or "holy wind" as the "holy spirit" or at least the "play on words/concepts" worked for them such that in their minds a relation is quickly seen between actions & words (John 3:8; & even more so in John 20:22 so that they might immediately see it as "he blew/breathed on them and said receive the holy breath" (c.f. Gen2:7).

grateful thanks from a student for exposure to great minds and expression ...and ...a response

"just wanted to say thanks for introducng me to men and Poets like Rudyard Kipling, just re-read his heart on a page in "IF" and I know why I have these strong convictions about life and love!
thank you! :)"
...
Glad of the chance.
Haleluyah(!)#
- who makes me dance.
Love, too to ya!


# Hebrew expression meaning  "praise to YHWH", the Creator.

FATHER CHRISTMAS HEARS HIS CHILDREN'S CRY.....*

Christmas (like the Passover before it) seems to be a key part of the Christmas Father's response to the cry of his children through the ages..

Isaiah 63 & 64  etc 

..that you would TEAR THE HEAVENS OPEN and ^a
then enter into life in this old world!
From outside in, and inside out, you’d stand.
Your flag could scarce be SECRETLY unfurled!

The nations - tremble; mountains - they would quake;
your deeds so awesome, beyond wildest dreams,
your touch on Earth would surely make it shake,
the sea might part - to tiny little streams…

else change it’s nature just to let you walk
right over it, as once you brooded long,
to bring from it the life on earth we talk
of, which too came to sky, & sea, & song!



..that you would TEAR THE HEAVENS OPEN and ^b
come down & enter human life down here!
Then you’d take heaven into woman/man
and it would be amongst us - oh we'd cheer!

So not just as a human avatar;
for you’d make holy woman's womb from which
our every child, that’s ever come that far,
has come this way, you'd be our star to hitch…

If you then grew, a boy, how good would that
be (if you had to grow in wisdom too),
and handle all the troubles (where we spat
the dummy) as your hormones/body grew.

And if you had to see the “unfair” things
as happens in those countries occupied:
the fathers killed because corruption brings..
and widows raising children as they cried..

And if you lived a man in Palestine
and saw God's people loving money more
than he who sourced all love before all time,
& too reflections of him - each neighbour.
 
And if you had to choose (as we do now)
between those bureaucratic beastly rules
and God's Will (that might cost our life somehow),
when everyone thought that was just for fools,

then though the heavens might be torn apart
we'd see more closely who our father was
and something might respond from our cold heart
to once again beat with a “love-because”...


..that you would TEAR THE HEAVENS OPEN and ^c
come down, & rest both ‘on’ and ‘in’ a man,
and then remain, abide, and help him stand
& live, & speak, the truth as well he can..

Your life within can’t help but then bear fruit
and show the image, likeness of the God
who loves and acts, and sides with his, in truth,
and goes ahead, where all his children trod.

So you would suffer, where obedience led
(or is it where your love would share?) the part
of your children when they are left for dead.
Your “lifting up” of him is quite an art!


..that you would TEAR THE HEAVENS OPEN and ^d
when both that Man and God sent you right back,
You, Holy Spirit came to Earth AGAIN
to “act out” like Yeshua down the track,

so thus to suffer inside woman/man
to still obey the father who has sent
us all to Earth to bear the fruit we can,
grow up to what “maturity” has meant.

That builder said he’d build “Ek-les-i-a”
(his own), and raise a temple where God dwelt
with living stones (“cells”, we’d call them here)
your Spirit in a body, that has knelt…

at the feet of God, but also blind men
by picking up their firewood, med’cine, food…
& speaking out the Truth of Love again,
when everyone ‘in power’ thinks that’s rude!


..that you would TEAR THE HEAVENS OPEN and ^e
then send us our Messiah to lead us,
a leader who would lead us as you planned.
Our “Maranatha” cry, “Lord Come! - Jesus”

* Exodus 3:7-8 ⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, …; 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears; Nehemiah 9:9 “And you saw the distress of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea; Job 34:28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted—; Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears; Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry; Psalm 106:44 Nevertheless he regarded their distress when he heard their cry; Lamentations 3:56 you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help, but give me relief!”; (& from Jewish writings before Jesus’s day that his family probably read: Susanna 1:44 The Lord heard her cry

^a Isaiah 63 & 64 ; Psalm 18:1-9
^b Mat 1;  Luk 1-3; 
^c  Mk 1:9-15;
^d Acts 1:1-14;  Acts 2:1-4, 14-41;
^e 1 Cor 16:22;  Rev 22:20

facts, faithfulness, feelings

Woke up this morning with a picture in my head and an unction to creatively learn-from/represent it:


*** at times a man should harden up and take
the plunge & stick his nose in where the snake
is threat'ning to dis-eve his family
and be the boss, which means responsib'ly ***

(REPEAT

while all the time allowing God to teach,
in helping him to see beyond his reach,
& then become the man who can step up
& let the love of others make him tough) ***

Oh God I know you're saying this to ME
(who has some of that insecurity).
I don't feel brave, I feel to be a fool,
but now I see that 'feeling' is a mule

that must be riden, or be coaxed to do
the job, or else be led on foot right through,
and yet can help to carry many things,
but sure is not the leader, - nor has wings.

So, I will be empowered by your love
that rules in wisdom (that comes from above)
right over reason, consequence, & rules
(and use my feelings as my lovely mules)...

crowd fund a mate to get the first part of an acrobatic flying licence?

Oh good. What a thing!

Oh dratt. What was that?..

O dear, that's not cheap,
then we've committed him to pay a lot of money to finish it.

O no. This is dangerous
we might even lose him to it...

O well, this is love...
and
it's all of the above.

OK

nP!