Amen

 

Amen

Let us not forget to contemplate and affirm the Amen, that so small word, with huge meaning, which we say at the end of this most wonderful, powerful prayer.

“So be it,” we say. This is the absolute confirmation from all of our being that we want what we pray for, to be so.

We ask for food. It will be received. We ask for help. Help will be given. We ask for protection. Evil will be banished.

This is an amazing acceptance of the Love and Power of God working with us, in us and through us too.

Amen. Let it sing in your whole being, as an act of love and commitment to God’s Will; to love and mercy unbound. Amen I sing. Amen!

Let us pray this prayer humbly, knowing that as we do so, we enter intimately into the presence and essence of relationship between the Father and the Son. Let us remember that Jesus shared these words Himself when he Lived on Earth and enabled us to be included in His Sonship through them.

Let us pray with confidence and trust and with new eyes to see and new minds to know the truth of this prayer, for each of us. Let us be aware of the hope and even perhaps trepidation, with which Jesus himself  may have entered on His own pathway to the Cross and pray these words tenderly with fresh insight into the love and relationship between the Father and the Son.

It is a prayer of acceptance and absolute reassurance of God as Love, as a God who can, will and does protect us unconditionally.

Let us pray the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, that we may know with absolute certainty, that we are held by the Love of the Father and the Son and empowered by the Holy Spirit who is the Messenger of Truth.

And that we may know that we do not pray alone. The power of the Word of God prays in us, as we utter each syllable and no harm will come to us, for of this we can be certain, all Protection, all Love and all Mercy will be received.

Amen!

Deliver us

 

Deliver Us From Evil

We certainly need protection and deliverance from evil. Evil is everywhere whispering at us, suggesting alternative paths and views or tormenting us, at our indecision or right choices, even.

You can see, feel, taste evil. It is a tangible energy, if you develop awareness and discernment. It is so much more than sin, which we perceive to be an absence of love, an inaction for love, simply healed by correcting your path.

We desperately need God’s help to avoid the temptation to follow a false voice or path, that might set us, unfortunately, toward evil and continuing wrong choice, which leads further away from love toward deliberate intent. We need the gifts of the Spirit to help us in our struggles against evil. And the power of prayer!

Discernment, Knowledge, Truth, will all aid us. But remember that the Spirit had not yet been sent when Jesus prayed these words, so it may also be seen as a prayer for fulfillment of His Passion, so that the Spirit would indeed come to be with us, so that we would have gifts from God to help us in our fight against evil, so that we would all ultimately find God’s protection and be delivered.

For we are so much smaller and weaker than Jesus was. And need all the spiritual help we can use.

Jesus chose, very deliberately and consciously, to go through his Passion, such that He would vanquish evil through the power of Love and Mercy and lift us all into life, everlasting, with Him.

These words are a prayer that we may all remain strong and true to God, defying all evil, relying totally on the Father, who is absolute Love, to protect us, as Jesus Himself, who had to go through torture and death, literally to hell and back again, before Mercy could be freed, life restored and the Spirit set free, as a messenger into the world, for all time.

Let us remember that when Jesus shared this prayer, he must have been aware of His own difficult path ahead, as well as the struggles we all face on our own paths.  He would need to be able to stay strong and true to the Will of the Father, no matter what assailed Him and that Will is, most assuredly and ultimately, always Love and Mercy. What greater gift can we ask for in prayer and what greater gift can He give us than this prayer. For every time someone prayed that prayer, before His death, they were in effect praying for the success of His Mission of Mercy to save humanity and overcome evil for all time on the Cross. And every prayer prayed after His death reaffirms His success and confirms that evil can and will be overcome.

For mercy, above all, is a gift of pure love that overcomes all evil.

Where Mercy is, no evil can exist.

This is the message of the cross and the affirmation of this prayer. This is our prayer of protection.

A New Year Blessing

The suffering never leaves us
May the year ahead be blessed

And so we change our focus
May the year ahead be blessed

And look for light to guide us
May the year ahead be blessed


(c) Greg Crowhurst

Lead us not

 Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Temptation is everywhere, so long as you have free choice in the world. Temptation is a truly unpleasant, even tormenting experience for those who have a conscience. 

There is always a decision to be made each time that temptation knocks at the door.

    Do I look after myself only?

    Do I take the easy path?

    Do I walk away when my help is needed?

    Do I avoid speaking out or speaking up, for what I believe?

    Do I ignore what I know, because it makes me feel uncomfortable to know the   

    truth?

    Do I live incongruently, speaking about faith but not living it?

    Do I talk about beliefs and values without embracing them?

    Do I pass by on the other side of the road or can I truly be the good Samaritan?

    Do I want to live with my eyes blinkered from the truth?

    Do I love conditionally rather than unconditionally, which is so much easier?

    Do I justify hating others for the harm they do to me or others or do I choose to 

    walk free from them and their narrow minded, cruel behaviours and hurts and 

    remain loving in nature?

The only way to resist temptation is to develop a sound, strong faith and belief system, that is congruent with God’s Truth, in order to protect you from the temptations that abound to be less than who you are. For we do indeed need protection, for evil gnaws at our weakness and suggests the easier, selfish, self-justified path, time and again.

It is often so much easier to be self-motivated, rather than God- motivated. God asks a lot of us, for He asks us to be love, in every moment. That is a pretty tall order for humanity.

Perhaps asking not to be led into temptation, is a cry for help, to build a strong Faith in the centre of our being, so that we will not be tempted and fail. So that evil has no influence over us.

We have to remember that Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him. He knew where His path lay and He knew that even despite all His Faith and Wisdom, His Knowledge of and His love for the Father and His mission, that despite all of this, He would still be tempted profoundly, for His own will to live as a human being, was still strong.

In the Garden he would beg God to take away the burden of this path, His temptation to remain alive on earth, presumably, was immense, rather than suffer horrendous and unimaginable cruelty and torture unto death. And who would not?

So despite all that He knew and all that he was, he also understood temptation and knew how strong He needed to be, in order to fully resist it.

The bigger the mission, the stronger evil will tempt us from our true path and assault our daily lives, shouting falsely of a different, easier, sometimes less painful way.

If Jesus Christ, who was both human and divine could be tempted, how much more so can we be? For we are tiny by comparison.

How greatly we may need to beg God not to lead us on a path that we feel is beyond our capability, so that we can stay true to Love, when life is tough. Let us ask for His help, his strength, wisdom and discernment, to see how temptation will torment us and try to lead us down a path of evil’s intent, rather than good, so that we can choose the right path and the strong way, helped by God.

For some, temptations will seem small and insignificant. What does it matter, perhaps, you might think? It matters profoundly!

For a small giving in, to what seems like a minor temptation to be false, can lead further and further away from Love and easily eventually lead us on a path away from goodness. However small or large the  temptation is, it requires us to make a choice to not be true. When the suffering is huge and vast and the experience you face, torturing in nature, you may need to beg God to help to see clearly, to not let evil obscure your view or justify a wrong thought, action or choice.

For we must always remember that we have a choice. Let us always choose truth, freedom, love, rightness, strength, hope.

We certainly need to ask God to help us build a true heart, especially when our need is great, so that we can remain alive with the power of God living with us, so that we can call upon Him to gain His help when we most need it, when we feel weak, hopeless and can easily succumb to the temptation to walk away.

Let us ask Him then to help us stay true in all things, that ultimately we can still be love in a broken world. Amen.

Forgive us

 

Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

Forgiveness lies at the heart of Jesus ministry. Jesus knew that for us to find peace in our hearts and our being, we needed to forgive.

For it is only in forgiveness that we find the freedom and healing to live fully in the present moment, being all of whom God made us to be.

Hurts, slights, harms from others weigh us down and preoccupy us, keep us stuck in the hurt of the past, lost in grief, rumbling with anger, resentment or worse. They prevents us from loving fully, freely and unconditionally as the Father and Son Love us.

Yet Jesus also knows how hard it is for us to forgive, so He gives us this prayer to ask the Father’s help in this matter. He knows that we cannot do it alone, for oftentimes the hurt can be deep and the crime against us even heinous. It needs the power of heaven to aid us in our gift of forgiveness to others, for this is surely what it is.

The act itself may feel unforgivable or be unforgivable in the moment it is done, in its deliberateness and intentional hurtfulness even, yet still He asks the Father to help us to forgive.

Yet Jesus also knows that forgiveness may not always feel possible. He has lived amongst us. He understands the human heart and mind and the lives of the people he lived with and met. He knows, in truth, how hard it is to forgive, yet still it is His what He hope for us. It is the path He is to open up.

Yet even if we cannot forgive, He provides an even greater inspiration, for His intention to go through the Cross and fulfill the Father’s Will to fully be Love in the world, He pours out Mercy that indwells in the very centre of the Heart of Love and flows out to us all for all time.

Mercy is greater than forgiveness; it is immediate, pure love, bringing complete healing and wholeness to all it touches, it flows from the heart to the heart.

Mercy bypasses forgiveness, it is a complete immersion in Love that overwhelms  unforgiveness in its awesome healing power.

Jesus says forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It seems pertinent to look at this phrase with new eyes, for we  surely need to learn  how to forgive in the same total way that They forgive. They forgive us purely, simply, totally and unconditionally. The Cross illustrates this most perfectly.

Jesus gives up His life that we might be immersed in Mercy and finally understand forgiveness. He forgives all. He forgives those who misunderstand his life and His meaning. He forgives those who harm him deliberately for He sees with eyes of Wisdom how small minded, how unaware and ignorant they truly are in the acts of harm that they perpetuate against Him. Yet still He loves them. Still Mercy flows from Him.

That is surely the greatest request, ” to forgive as we forgive” when you understand that the forgiveness required is equal to the forgiveness poured out upon us always from the Father and the Son: forgiveness vast and amazing in its awe and splendour.

Give us this day

 

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Feed us with earthly bread, yes. We all need to eat to survive and more than survive, to live. Perhaps Jesus is reminding the people of their complete reliance on God for food. Of giving their trust completely to God, who, when they need Him, when they rely on Him, when they trust in Him, absolutely and totally, like the Israelites did, who received Manna from heaven in the desert, whose dependence was total, God will feed them without doubt.

Jesus demonstrates this giving of food without shortness of supply when he feeds the Five Thousand. His confidence and Trust in the Father is total. The abundance of food that flows from this confidence and relationship with the Father is immeasurably more than we need.

This is Jesus’ message, see how much the Father Loves each of us and all creation, such that even the Lilies in the field and the sparrows are provided for. How much more He will feed and provide for his earthly children.

Not only does the Father feed us with physical food, He provides us with the Bread of Heaven. He gives us the living energy of Life, the Light, to shine in us and help us grow, for we continually need spiritual sustenance.

But also, never forget that He is ultimately and also praying for Himself and His own journey through the Passion. Let us not forget that Jesus is Himself to become the Living Bread of Heaven and Earth, the one that unites both in a mystery, a holy mystery beyond words and description, where His body will become the Living Bread for us all to receive, for all time as the Holy Eucharist.

Perhaps He, too, is thinking that He will need to have the strength and confidence in God, His father, to enable Him and to hold Him on his journey into suffering unto death, such that His body and His life will be given, transfigured, transformed into the Bread of Life, that will feed us forever.

He must surely also be wanting the Father’s Will to be done in Him, that He can be the daily bread of the people.

There are so many layers of Truth and Knowledge in this one line, yet which cannot truly be separated from the whole of the prayer, because it is all about deliverance, which is ultimately brought about for all of us by Jesus Christ, as we are held in and through Him, so that Jesus’ mission of Love can totally succeed, that is the core of this prayer: this is Jesus gift of prayer, for us all, to His Father. His need and His intention are so much more profound than the more simple lives of those whom he included in this all encompassing prayer and must surely have had an influence on the words included..

This is a multi- level alive prayer that can be appropriate for each and every one of us, no matter what our need and what our life is like.

It can be prayed on whatever level of need we have, for it is deep and wide as the ocean and the provision available is deeper and wider still.

When our need is total, your response is absolute Lord and we give thanks and praise for this wonder.

Amen

Peace

 

May His Peace be upon you today and always. Amen

A video song for Christmas

Here is a special video song for Christmas Day.

May we all be blessed this Christmas.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY3Jqg_IGzg

You are precious

Never forget that you are totally precious just as you are, no matter your circumstance.

Even if you feel unseen, unheard, unknown, unappreciated and you cannot celebrate Christmas in 

the traditional way, your presence matters and your infinitely valuable light shines out in the world.

There is a light that shines for us

So bright its light

So brightly it shines

This is the star of Truth.

All our love to you this Christmas.

For those who are struggling at Christmas

 

I feel desolate today - Lord lift me up and bring me comfort

I feel broken by the suffering - Lord reach out to touch and mend me 

I have no hope left - Lord restore me with Your  Spirit

I cannot bear the endless pain - Lord give me Your strength to carry me

I am tortured by everything - Lord heal me now, save me now, I beseech You

I am invisible and hurting - Lord help me feel seen and known

I am beaten today - Lord help me keep going

I feel unloved and unloveable - Lord fill me with Your Love. Amen

Not everyone can feel the Joy of Christmas or engage in celebration or interaction. If you are someone struggling at Christmas, may this prayer give strength and bless you. Amen

Thy Will…Part Two

 

Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven Part 2

Let us also not forget that we can see the “Our Father” as Jesus’ prayer to His Father, to help Him to flow in the Goodness and Mercy and Love that ultimately leads Him to and through His own death, to bring life to us all. It is a prayer to help  anyone in the bleakest of moments. We therefore need to ask for the gifts of the Spirit to strengthen us and enable us and give us the inner knowing of Truth and the strength of Faith, to participate fully in the Will of God.

Sometimes we will have difficulty living in the Will of the Father, because of the nature of being human ;our intention may be good, but we are complex creatures with many different parts that are hurt and wounded. Following the right path may not always feel comfortable.

Sometimes we act badly or we don’t necessarily flow peacefully with the highest path that we can take, but the wonder and the beauty and the goodness of God, mean that Love and Mercy are always available to us, so that even if we get it wrong, walk away, react badly, say hurtful things or act irresponsibly, even then, God does not desert us.

By calling His name and asking for help we can enter more fully again into His Goodness. We can realign our path with Love.

Because His will is always goodness then even when we get things wrong His will is to bring goodness from that, so that we can never be far away from the Goodness of God and His Will to bring Mercy, Healing, Light, Hope, to the world.

That is the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross; to take in all sin, all hurt, all the wrongness of the world and to return it to Love and bring us back to know the love of the Father, in all fullness.

This is why we cry out “Abba, Father”, as Jesus himself did on the cross, knowing He will hear and Love us and all through the Love of His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who acts in oneness with Him.

Thy Will…Part One

 

Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven

When we think of the Will of the Father, our view and knowledge of the Father can obscure the beauty of asking that the Father’s Will be done. We need to comprehend, as fully as is possible, the Love of the Father for his Son and for all creation, especially his little children on Earth.

If God is seen as a strict and authoritarian Father, then we might think that His will would be punishing, directive and severe. We might whisper these words with fear tinging our prayer.

This is so far from the truth of the Will of God, for His Will is Mercy, Love, Truth, Goodness.

As it is in heaven so shall it be on earth, qualifies the beauty and the wonderful nature of God’s Will. It must be all things good. As we ask that the Will of the Father be done, we are not giving up our freedom to choose, but rather we are choosing freely to enter into the flow of goodness that proceeds from the Father through the Son.

We are asking to enter into the flow of the power of the Holy Spirit who brings Mercy, Healing, Hope, Joy and abundant gifts from the Father, who is absolute Love.

In order that we know the Will of the Father we need the gifts of Wisdom and Discernment, particularly Discernment, because even though we ask for this path, it is still not always clear to us necessarily what that Will might be. The truth sometimes needs unfolding for it can have many layers of Wisdom and insight.

Often there are several or many paths to choose, all may be the Will of the Father or some may be illusory or false.

The way to discover the truth of the Will of God is to ask “does this path flow with Goodness and Mercy? Does it feel right? ” 

Then when we choose to follow, we must trust in the Will of God that He is walking with us as we walk with Him. A path may not seem necessarily obvious to be the Will of God when viewed with earthly eyes.

The path of the Cross can seem foolish and terrifying, had we not also discerned the awesome truth of the Power of Love at work in this way.

We need to stay very close then and pray often and without ceasing, if we are to feel safe and sure of our direction. We need to look with a spiritual focus to what we see before us.

Thy Kingdom Come

 

Thy Kingdom Come

It is important to remember that in the days when this was spoken the kingdom was not seen as land so much as people. The kingdom is the people and God’s kingdom is God’s people living in God. By living in prayer, by trusting and believing in God, by asking in faith, by earnestly seeking God’s will, by following God’s holy word, we too enter more fully into the kingdom and that kingdom is all goodness, all knowing, all beauty. Why would we not want to ask that this be so ?

In truth, the kingdom of God is entered into through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who unites us with the Father. They are inseparable. It is the awesome nature of Jesus Christ, who strides both heaven and earth, in the most unique and singular way, who enables this holiness, this entering into oneness, which enables the kingdom to be truly here.

The kingdom of God is not something somewhere else, or some inanimate object or some finite possession. It is living, breathing people, who as part of the kingdom of God, by living in Him and He in them, bring God right here, right now, in a very immediate and immanent way. It is this concept of Kingdom as being alive, active and present, that makes it so exciting to be a Christian. It makes every moment of life alive with the wonder and power and presence of God. How incredible is that?

Let us not forget that the sick and the dying, the suffering and the grieving, the less visible in community are still very much a part of the kingdom of God, in fact, there is no separation between any of us and God.

The kingdom of God is inclusive and not boundaried by a church building, which must not be allowed to become a barrier to communion and fellowship, nor love in action. The Spirit knows no bounds.

Let us remember Jesus’ own words when he told Nicodemus that you never know where the wind comes from or where it is going. This is also how it is for the people born of the Spirit, they are alive with the Spirit and the kingdom of God is close at hand and not limited or controlled by man or limited to one place or building. God lives in our hearts and frees our spirits. Let us follow the Spirit then and go where he leads, using discernment as our guiding compass.

Hallowed Be Thy Name

 

Hallowed Be Thy Name

This is an acknowledgement of the Glory and Wonder and Holiness of the Father who is heavenly. To utter these words and to truly enter into them is to praise the name of God; the name of God that is utterly holy, all-powerful and that power is beyond our comprehension.

Acknowledging the holiness of God’s name lifts us into the wonder of the Glory of God and helps us to transcend all earthly things.

It sets us free to see and know the truth of all possibility and that is Love.

In prayer, awe and amazement we approach God in a tremendously intimate way and are touched by Heaven so perfectly. Let us be aware then, when we pray this prayer and say Our Father, just how incredible and holy this communication is!

Let us not just say it quickly, thoughtlessly, out of habit, without due reverence and humility in our hearts. Let us feel the mystery as we pray.

Hope

 

How to make Christmas special when you can’t eat dairy or sugar, when you are so hypersensitive 

you cannot have a Christmas tree, neither real or plastic, when you are so sound sensitive you can 

bear no noise, when bright light hurts you. 

When your eyes throb and burn. 

When you cannot bear movement or touch.

When every moment is pierced by agony.

When any hint of perfume on a parcel or card is a major threat.

When you can go nowhere. When it has been decades.

You hold onto hope. The hope of Christmas. The hope of a better moment.

The hope of love and an inner peace not of the world, of the joy of one pure moment of connection.

And you don’t let go.

Who art in heaven

 

Who Art In Heaven

Those who suffer are very close to Christ and walk intimately with Him; that has been our experience these last two decades. The second phrase of the Our Father then : “who art in heaven” is particularly special in this context.

This God who is asking us to call him “Father” is none other than the One who created life itself. We cannot see or know Him as He is and thus the Son is sent from Heaven to Earth, that we may all be lifted up with Him to the finer, clearer, most unimaginably beautiful light of heaven, where we might be reunited with the Father.

The son is the key to finding and knowing and growing in the Love of the Father, as he reveals to us when he tells the disciple Phillip, that if he has seen him, then he has seen the Father.

The most incredible thing about Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, is that it is only through Him that we are truly enabled to find God in heaven, for it is Jesus who is the way to eternal life, which we will experience fully, when we finally meet the Father in Heaven.

For Jesus says that no one can come to the Father except through Him. He tells us that If we know Him, then we know His Father too and in that moment that we know Him, we have seen Him. How incredible is that?!

However Jesus also promises that if we live in Him, that He and the Father will come to live with us and make their home in us. And all we have to do is love him and keep his Word! Thus in some most mystical and wonderful way, we must surely be touched by heaven on earth.

The first phrase Our Father

 

We shall explore each phrase of the Our Father in more depth.

Our Father

Jesus is the Son of God and it is through Him, who is both human and Divine, that we come to find that God is our Father, because Jesus shares Him with us and brings us to Him in a new way.

When Jesus says the words “Our Father”, He unites us in the mystery of His son-ship with Him, He includes us and acknowledges us as children of God and so it is as children of God that we can dare to approach God and whisper the words “Our Father” with new meaning and hope.

He brings us to a new relationship that touches our hearts and inspires us with confidence for what loving father does not know his child?

Perhaps we need to take time to explore this relationship for our heavenly father is none other than the God of Love and Mercy, the all-powerful living God who created Heaven and Earth. It may be that a lifetime’s journey is needed to learn to trust and grow in confidence in the nurturing love of all goodness. Saying Our Father is the first step….