more ons and lessons

Well what just happened back there at that place?

I knew there was a protocol, a way,

a definition, to speak clear and trace

a movement, or a practice to display…

But several times today a rule of life,

an expectation, or agreed-on drill,

a definition meant to shrink the strife,

can seem to be a hard note, or too shrill.

But yet, when my own mind allows for God,

that maybe there's another way to see,

if there's a Goodness and if it has got

some access to communicate with me,...

& if my English isn't its own tongue

(or if my language isn't rich enough),

it might communicate with things undone,

or thoughts and times of all the other stuff.

But anyway, I saw that when I “grasp”

on something in my mind, it often has

my push or pull that comes behind quite fast,

and often that reaction is a spasm.

It might once help, but's mostly in the way,

and causes problems more often than not.

I'd like to send that demon off today!

And so I'm asking for your help now God.

I just remembered what Yeshua did,

when deafness came and caused some things like that,

he lifted up his eye, with opened lid,

and opened up his mouth, then looked back flat!...

---

He it is who strengthens me, gives hope, and too a future... ... ... to do, and to hear and see, sometimes he does a suture!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 (PM Version)

For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 (PM Version)

The faithful love of The Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. They are new every morning- Great is His faithfulness. I say to myself The Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in Him. Lamentations 3:22-24 (PM Version)

... ... ... ...

All kinds of things, from washing up
to fixing up the fender,
or broken clothes-rack in our room,
hear a mate on a bender...

The kind of things I need to do
here in this life God-given
like help my children see things through
and count up to eleven

in Persian, or in Germany,
in following my leader
- can do ALL things through Christ in me -
who is my great LOVE-feeder!

For God knows all the plans he has
(like I did for my children)
the LORD says: "They are "for good" plans
not "for disaster" build-en-ed,

but to give you a future, and
a hope of faithful loving.
For the Lord's love it never ends,
His mercies are not nothing.

And his kindness never ceases,
for it’s renewed each morning-
very great is His faithfulness.
Say to myself, my warning

is “Make sure that you don’t forget
your inheritance is not
things, for the Lord himself is yet
your Hope, How, Why, Who, (What not)!"

Annabelle Rose Elvita Heer Walker

Well Annabelle, that's Belle-y, Arabelle,

’Arbelle, or Belle, is learning how to dwell,

in what her name means, to her mum and  dad

not what it seems to others who have had

somethink to do with her. They'll sum her up.

For Love - won't fail, - will stir  - bright buttercup!

Her name means “beauteous gift” - to this ol’ world,

where years ago (well twenty three), she’s hurled.

And Rose, with scent of that flow-er has come

to hide (or eat) an elfish self for fun,

or’f  “vita” means life, AND “el”, means the god..

her life may have strife, but we'll see just what

she's made of. She came true, from God's own heart,

& all those years ago she made her start,

into this world to show hosts of folk who

will rank upon rank, watch all that she'll do.

And so they should, for WHO's good - makes her true,

and for joy, spurned the cloy-ing sick’ning few

sumpthings that stings the eyes, and makes ya sick

at heart, ya do ya part, coz suff’ring’s quick -

to catch ya by surprise, shows up world-views:

-  a world of only death and pain for news,

or else - creations to be born, full fresh,

as babes are born from wombs when two enmeshed.

So walking now though fields and climbing  walls

towards her hea'enly father who now calls

her on to be the “godess” he thought of

when making all this world, and seeing “Tov*”!

---

*  Tov (Hebrew) = good, as in “And God saw that it was … good” (7 times in Genesis chapter 1, and the last was “tov tov”= very good)

Daughter fought a war before..

May Milly Pilly Polly Pandy be

an older bolder woman who will see

much that will come and go for God's kingdom,

as she and he (her Dunc the punk) wing some

of what the world has hurled (and will still yet)

at them, with changes in the wind - you bet!

For change goes with decay in this ol' Age

whose change comes from decaying at this stage,

because a bunch of un-dead walk this Earth,

until the breath of life has given birth,

or else has waked the dead with God's own “Word”,

which once it's spoken, has pow'r quite absurd.

For we are used to pow'rless words down here,

don't understand how he was drawing near,

and binding himself to what he had said,

to then bring out creative things ahead.

But Milly is like her Father above,

she knows that words come only from his Love,

and learning still, to speak, like him, the Truth,

she's growing to maturity, from youth.

And ev'ry year her age increases “one”.

They say her twenty seventh year's begun

since she's completed 26 today.

So I am glad to celebrate and say,

that Milly Pilly Polly Pandy is

a older woman, holder of true wis-

dom, as she’s learning to share in God's life,

as daughter, sister, friend and also wife.

---

Have pity on a Saul,

The father of a Saul is who we ask
to look at how his offspring fares this day
and give resources to fulfill the task
he gave us to do while we are to stay.

learning2pray, which is to say; being in prayer with God who's there

Done too!
HALLELU! 

He's who
helps me do

with you,
what is true!

Please God
this seems odd:

this bod
what it's got,

'nyour nod
is a wad

of cash,
or fuel-gas-

that has
enough "pash"

to gash,
flash, & sash!

Learn prayer?
yes, I dare

Beware!
Who is there?

Your stair-
way up there..

to love
from above

not shove
(hand in glove -

a dove
a peace uv

you here
while I steer...

Oh dear!
us, we are...

No fear!
You're our seer!

may your will (even at the expense of my desires), be done!

...coming back to look and listen, to your poem/ recollection/ prayer...

It's almost overwhelming...

I see your recurring themes of loneliness, stepping out on a risky adventure, questions, and, that one I bounced off in my last email...
"Your will be done!" - even more than my escape from suffering.

“His final words guide faith today
Into YOUR hands I commit my spirit
Into your hands I commit my spirit
Thy will be done.”

---

Amen*.

Amen,

Amen!

God, may your will,

(in words learned from their captors, in the tongue
of Babylon, where they were sent to fill

the need of land to rest, to compost dung)

be done! - God's people learn to turn from sin,

and listen to, and weigh up, truth he sends,

and follow God's anointed when he's in

this world to teach us where the good way wends.

Until he brings an end to all that smirched,
transgression finished, and all sin undone.

D’ya think that wickedness must be researched?

It needs to be clean soaked up like a sponge!

And sealed against with righteousness that's tough,

and lasts as everlasting stuff can do.

God's will is not some static thing, enough

for older cov-en-ants, that were in view.

God, may your will not just be talked about,
but done - at the expense of comfort here.

And start in me that I will, without doubt,

now do your will, of thankful, prayerful, cheer!

So, may your new creation cov-en-ant

with you, and faithful be to such a one.

Until you fill the Universe which can't

contain you, though you'll love to have it done!

And though the wars and desolations grow,

an end will come, the sanctuary destroyed,

with God's anointed put to death below,

the chaos seemed to conquer, making "void"

the promis-sory note, the cheque he gave

to say that these resources could be the used.

But ev'ry time his resurrection waved

it gave us hope, and left us less confused!
...

---

* Amen (meaning Yes. Alright. Ah huh. Ok. I agree! May that be the case!), Is an Aramaic word. First Century Jewish people in outlying villages had grown to have Aramaic as their mother tongue, since their exile in Babylon >500 years previous. It was there in exile, that Daniel responded to God's revelation: “Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us,

yet we have not sought the favour of the Lord our God

by

turning from our sins and

giving attention to your truth.

…

‘Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city

to finish transgression,

to put an end to sin,

to atone for wickedness,

to bring in everlasting righteousness,

to seal up vision and prophecy and

to anoint the Most Holy Place.
...

“After the sixty-two “sevens”,

the Anointed One

will be put to death and will have nothing.

The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

The end will come like a flood:

war will continue until the end, and

desolations have been decreed.”

Daniel 9:13‭, ‬24, 26 NIVUK

---

Jesus’ Parable of a Great Feast (Luke 14:15-24)

Another guest at table [who heard most

o' what he said about the use of “feasts”

and parties, for the invitees and hosts;

and 'bout repayment of the “greatest”/ “least”

at “End of Everything”; the Brand New Start,

the Party of all Parties, Celebra-

tion!] said to Jesus, “Happy true, are hearts

of those who’ll sit at feast where God partakes!”

And Jesus said to him, “..There was a man,

who giving a great feast, invited man-

y people. When the time came, he began

to send his servants out to tell the men

and women he'd invited, all his guests,

‘Come, everything is ready!’ Now's the time!

But they all then began, to make requests

for leave of absence, reasoning sublime..

And after one, another made excuse.

The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought

a field and must go look at it; don't use

this as a point against me, for I fought

quite long and hard to save, and gain this field.

And do not pity me, but know “I'm good”!

So, here are my apologies. Please yield.’

Another said, ‘I’ve bought a new car, should

I not now run it’s motor in? You see,

I'm sure, that I am bound to follow through

on such a big investment. Excuse me.

And please accept apologies - if due.’

Another said, “I’ve JUST got me a wife,

so for that reason I cannot come there.

You understand, this is a change of life.

So in apologies - accept our pair.”

The servant then went back and told all these

to his good master who was furious

and told his servant, ‘Hurry to alleys

& streets within the town, bring "spurious" -

the folk who're poor, and crippled, blind, and  lame.’

So soon the servant said, ‘Your order’s done, -

been carried out, sir, but if it's the same

to you, there is more room still, ain’t this fun?

So master said to servant, ‘Go out to

the country roads and lanes and help them come

in, so my house will fully be full. You

know, of “invited guests” who'll taste? NOT ONE!’”

---

*   Luke 14:1-14

Recalling the “lesson” at the end of Matthew's similar rendition of (this, or another of)  Jesus’ story(ies): “Many are called, but few are chosen”, I just understood the possible humour in Jesus’ way of using the common terms for God's "called out of the nations", and "chosen" people. In these two of Jesus’ parables, the called are the invited guests who were called on initially, - and they “miss out”.

“Called” are many.

“Chosen” not many!

In an ironical play on words and meanings (similar to ol' Jonah's, with his 5 word  sermon), the “chosen” are those who “have chosen” to respond to the King's will, above their own desires!

[Reminds me too of Jesus’ Ambassador, Peter's, words: “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body has finished with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for human desires, but rather for the will of God.”  1 Peter 4:1‭-‬2]

How does one "make disciplined learners"?

Thinking of a friend who has given gladly of God's life within her, and been betrayed by a friend as close as Judas who betrayed Jesus “with a kiss”. Continuing to learn to live openly and givingly, as God does with us, and to appreciate the ambiguity and un-knowingness which questions^ help lead us further into [while, at the same time not precluding that we can come to know^ more deeply, in the personal sense].

---

One, Carer, bearer of three children now,

had had a taste of that before somehow,

in giving living water (milk, sometimes)

to children of the God who loves these rhymes -

with sounds around some place, that “come again”,

in fashions diff'rent-ly, with diff'rent “when”.

They're “ordered”, but not “bossed” at all you see;

they're found, and were once lost, but they be free.

Authority origin'ly not come

from rule, but ruler; who, though Number One,

ain't just a “bust” of Architect who'll  think.

But more a door into a world, a drink,

or food (not rude, but intimate enough),

like mother feeding her own body’s stuff -

her milk (the ilk of food and drink in one),

in order to grow up her daughter/son.

But not for what she can be given  back,

to get some “slaves”, who'll help where she has lack.

It's true, ensuing things will come to be,

but some are goals*, and some desires*, see!

To name the same god, “El Shaddai”, might mean

“destroying pow'r, to overthrow" it seems
"and crush”; or else "the many breasted one"°,

it's ambiguity appears well done.

Thus he could be our sustenance and source,
in what we do, and other ways^ of course,

as Carer's giving of her living self,

in sharing life with friends - in sickness/health.

---

*  Using Larry Crabb's helpful distinction between “goals”, & “desires” outlined once again here.

°  "El Shaddai (Hebrew) explanatory sites one, two, three,

^  To share our selves fully is to share our UN-knowing, as well as our knowledge, our questions “as well as” our answers, maybe “more than”. e.g. from a Jewish writer (with my response to a few of his comments) :  The necessity of asking questions; from an educator, Chris Gribble's poems Thinking early in 2018, and When I Wonder, later in the year; and from a promo blurb for a Christian leadership author Todd Wilson's book on Questions.  A beautiful book that further explores this kind of knowing we long for is To know as we are known, by Parker Palmer. .

The God of the gods...

It turns out that the Greeks were not so wrong -

there ARE god's who are ruling over Earth!

And they are 'bout as fickle as they're strong,

at times you wouldn't guess: ‘divine by birth’,

for there are times they miss the mark quite well,

and don't live up to their nobility,

their rule is off’n fickle, bringing ‘hell’ -

but in that Hebrew sense, if you can see -

the sense of that 'gehenna^’ more than 'hades’.

Gehenna's like Jerus'lem's "rubbish dump",

where it could be both 40* in the shade,

and, there corruption was let ‘get the jump’

in breaking down and turning to compost,

the maggots and the centipedes, as well

as howling dogs who fought, and “won” or “lost”,

the stench of death, the breaking down, & smell...

was maybe just the picture of the sort

of life this Earth can really truly be-

come. Come what may be warnings which then caught

some folk's imaginations, yet sadly,

less often than folk move in Jesus’ way,

we make God's world a dump - that's hot, and stinks.

Our choice still stands, to follow him today,

or give that other ‘hellish life’ more wings.

But like Nathan’yel I would bow my knee,

and state that Yeshua's “my lord and god”,

my leader, who is leading me to be,

and live, and walk as he has always trod!

---

^ Gehenna's start in the days of King Manasseh gave it a cursed feel in the eyes of those protecting,  culturing and looking after humanity. Then in ~1200 CE a Jewish scholar Rabbi David Kimchi (alone) suggested that it may have become the city's rubbish dump, which may account for Jesus' use of it as an analogy for the untimely end of those who will not be brought into the family/ household/ city of God. But it may simply have been it's connection to Manasseh's use of it, and some Jewish thought of it being associated with the gate or portal of an after-world with the same name “gehenna”. Jesus' use of it in his context connects it with rebellion, its consequences, and God's predictions through the prophet Isaiah, in alluding to the burning of children (which was previously linked with the valley of Hinnom, that is Gehenna), and God's burning of his enemies, in the last (verse and) chapter of Isaiah regarding the (unclean, repulsive, unburied) corpses of rebellious people, kept out of the new creation. In short it was used along with, at least the association's of a city dump: "outside the city", "unclean", "worms", " fire", "decay". Another (blog) summarises research. In short Rabbi Kimchi's suggestion fits the bill as a pretty good metaphore that fits with the feelings of repulsion, waste, and unclean-ness  engendered at the end of Isaiah. A (metaphorically speaking) dump outside the city for human refuse, in this case (I'm suggesting that metaphorically, the rebellious people might actually be seen as) the products of spontaneos abotions or miscarriages, embyos and foetus’ that would not stay connected to grow to maturity.

*  degrees Celcius/Centigrade (= 104 ° Fahrenheit) if unshaded dump in middle east?

In the Judeao/ Christian scriptures Yahweh is depicted as the God of gods (Deut 10:17; Ps 84:7; Ps 136:2), - and Lord of lords, which title he shares with Jesus (Deut 10:17; PS 136:3; Rev19:16)

The statement  “My lord & god.” (Ps 25:23; Jn 29:28) The end of a psalmist's cry for help, and an exclamation at the start of recognition of the last of the first-apostles to see the resurrected Jesus personally!