I don't know if anyone will be interested in my thoughts and reflections but it's 'cool' according to Patrick from church to have a blog, so here I go.
It has been a very busy time both at Church and home and I felt a bit jaded but that phrase kept coming to me from the Scriptures. 'Be still, and know that I am God.' Psalm 46:10 When it eventually sank in what God was saying to me I decided to take a little time for us both and went for a wander in the woods at Craigantlet, found a nice log to sit and 'think'..... it was beautiful. The sun was filtering through the trees , the bluebells nodded their heads in the gentle breeze, and as I relaxed and drank it the beauty of God's creation my mind drifted to William Wordsworth's poem, Daffodils. I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Couldn't remember the next bit but it continues,
Ten thousand saw I at a glance.
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. Leaving out the next verse,
For oft, when on my couch I lie
in vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
and dances with the daffofils.
Change that couch for a log and the daffodils for bluebells and you will get a sense of what I saw and felt, as the beauty washed my tension away again I felt God speak to me through the Scriptures. 'There is a time for everything' I opened the Bible on my iPhone (technology is wonderful) at Ecclesiastes and read.....
'There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.' 3:1-8
It reminded me again how important the Bible is for us, as we read and apply the Bible regularly, one of the great benefits is that we start to see the world in a Christian way. We also see the Bible as a whole, and not as unconnected fragments. As young children need a regular diet for proper growth, so the Christian needs to feed spiritually upon the scriptures, applying their truths to daily living.
I give thanks for the Scriptures and pray that no matter how busy we are..... we do not forget to be open to God's promptings and to live life expecting God to communicate with us.
And to finish, a notice outside a church. WORN OUT? COME IN FOR A SERVICE!
Blessings,
Your Pastor, Heather
