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Glen Park Gospel Church >> Archive >> Editorial >> 2020
Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Some months include a topical article or report. We thought you might appreciate reading those previously published.
Eutychus's Long, Long Day
Eutychus may not have been the first to drop off under Paul's preaching. Paul was bit long winded and more so that night for good reason. And there was a crowded room and the heat of the many oil lamps to contend with. But he is the first literal drop out that we know about. His name means "Good fortune". Can you think of any other reason?
'On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech, and it ran on and on until midnight.' Acts 20:7 (ESV).
The 'we' in this short informative story includes Paul and his travelling companions. Among them was Luke, a medical doctor, historian and author. It was he who recorded for us, this miraculous event. Luke today is noted as being most careful to get his facts straight. He was a fastidious historian.
It was still Saturday evening by Roman reckoning in Troas, a Roman city. But Paul and his party were largely Jewish, and the Sabbath, our Saturday, had ended for them with the setting of the Saturday sun. The Roman day began with the rising of the sun. Thus it was still a Roman Saturday but a Jewish Sunday; an eclipse of times which began at sunset on the evening before the day and ended at sunrise.
This becomes a little more interesting when we consider the Jewish rituals and prohibitions as associated with Judaism compared with the freedoms and simple observances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, or the 'breaking of the bread' of the Christians. It meant that early Jewish Christians could still participate in their local Synagogue ritual and when the Jewish day was finished, they met with other believers to 'break the bread'. For them the Synagogue became more and more a place of witness. Worship for them became more and more a simple remembering Jesus 'until He come', as he had commanded.
We can take this anomaly a little further. Judaism and the Sabbath became a Saturday religion of rules and rituals, especially with the more elaborate observance of the annual Passover, speaking endlessly of the Messiah of prophesy. There was the promise of redemption, but their Messiah had yet to come. For them the promise was, and still is, an unfulfilled promise.
Christians however pointed to the Cross. The Cross is not the end, but in many was a beginning. It commenced an evangelism explosion that continues until all the world has heard. John's declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" fitted every expectation of Jewish prophesy. The Life of Jesus with His compassion and miracles tells us that the Christian claim must be valid. Jewish leaders who could not abide that claim used Roman authority to slay Him. Then it was, God raised Jesus from the dead, fulfilling every remaining Christ oriented prophesy of Jewish scripture.
The Miracle of Wingello
David Bruggeman and his family have just had what they call a 'miracle'. He was fighting bush fires near their shop and home in the south-east bush uplands of New South Wales. The Currowan fire crossed the Shoalhaven river and headed for the little village of Wingello. Wingello only has one business a small store and eatery near the railway station at the junction of main roads. It is at the focal point of this story.
David, and his family worked until midnight fending off ember attacks on his business and home. So called embers are large bits of flaming forest that are thrown up by fire convection uplift, then driven by wind to fall to earth ahead of the fire front, thus causing the fire to leap ahead. At midnight David realised that they had to leave or become casualties. He worked to protect his home and shop before they had to flee. They were sure that they had lost their house and business. But still were counting their blessings. They were alive.
They then had a phone call that said, "David, the shop's still there." But he could not believe that it was true. Then someone else confirmed that not only the shop but his house as well! And I said, "The house! No way!"
David says 30 or 40 houses should have been destroyed that night but only six were lost. The house of one of the Firies was about to go. The men were defending it but conditions became so hot they had to abandon their effort.
But then the fire burned right up to the house and stopped; and the house was saved. In many instances, David says, the fire burned right up to the houses and then stopped. He calls it, "the miracle of Wingello."
People reporting the event on the radio station found it hard to believe. But David credited the miracle to the prayers of people around the world who were supporting him. And he was anxious to give the thanks to almighty God.
*You don't believe this report? Listen to David's account on Radio 2GB, on the Ben Fordham Show for Monday Afternoon 6th January 2020. Alternatively, drive to Wingello, walk around the town, call in at the shop, buy something and talk to the proprietor. He is still there.
Used with permission.
Always . . . Read the Fine Print.
Many years ago my brother traded his reliable small English car for a large American job. Getting the new acquisition home, with a little difficulty, he had time to reflect on his actions. There were significant defects.
It was then he took the time to read the contract to see what remedy he had. In the section describing the merchandise he found a condition of the sale. It read, "This vehicle is sold with all faults and/or defects if any." There he had it, and it had him. The fine print made all the difference.
The Bible comes with fine print. Bible fine print is not an escape clause, put there to let the author out, but is a translators or publishers explanation of something that might otherwise cause an untrained reader to miss a significant point, or make an hasty interpretation of its wording and miss the intended meaning. It may only be quite simple.
Here are some examples at random from the ancient past that add colour to our understanding:
Genesis 43:14. For God almighty read one of His names, "El Shaddai." It is: 'The God who satisfies and pacifies.' 'Shad' is an ancient Hebrew word for the human breast. A baby is nourished and soothed*. A western reader would probably miss this deeper inference.
Genesis 43:24. 'Were merry' means 'were intoxicated.' Rather dangerous for foreigners to be drunk before the ruler of a foreign power.
Genesis 48:22. 'I have given to you rather than your brothers. One mountain slope.' In the Hebrew one portion of the land.
Genesis 49 10. 'Judah . . . until tribute comes to Him' could possibly read 'until He comes to whom it belongs.' Suggested by the Septuagint, Syriac and Targum. Take time to read the passage both ways. Could this passage be a Messianic prophecy? There is no need to close this question. Learn to wait on further revelation by the Holy Spirit in due time. But be aware!
Life comes with fine print. To read the fine print means to think things through properly. How do we know when we have thought enough to have considered a question from all angles?
Take the English proverb of 1693 Marry in haste: repent at leisure.*
Is praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit a substitute for thinking things through, or on the other hand is seeking His guidance a release from the discipline of analytical thought?
* Outline Studies in Christian Doctrine. G P Pardington p89.
* Stage play, “The Old Batchelor” - William Congreve 1693.
Jonah's Deep, Deep Experience
The scene is of the men in a merchant boat in a raging storm bound for Tarshish in Spain casting Jonah overboard. It ends at chapter one, minus the last verse. Verse 17 introduces Jonah's experience in and before the belly of a huge fish.
When the Lord appointed him to prophesy to Ninevah, Israel's enemy, he ran away. With Jonah floundering in a tempestuous sea, the Lord appointed the great fish to swallow him. No doubt Jonah mistook his salvation as another problem.
Many of us are like Jonah. We baulk at God's appointments and try to sidle around our distasteful duty, playing with reality, finding something easier, something else to do. But all that time God is waiting, watching.
How did Jonah last three day inside the fish? In the fish, he thought he was in "the belly of hell",1 or realm of the dead.1 But the Lord heard him. And he told the Lord all that he had experienced to that point. This is the substance of Jonah chapter two. It is the deep, deep experience of a dying man. It also tells us that even at such an extreme moment we can call upon God. Job, also in the midst of trauma, tells us that his bones stuck to his skin and that he escaped by just the skin of his teeth. "When my life was fainting away," says Jonah to the Lord, "I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you." There is nothing like extremity to cause us to pray, even when we have turned our back upon God.
Another deep, deep experience in similar circumstances, but a totally different reason is that of the Lord Himself.
He claimed, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."2 We do not know all that occurred in the time that Jesus was in the tomb, but the New Testament claims repeatedly that Jesus was there for a full three days and three nights. By carefully reading all the New Testament narratives we can verify this statement.
The events that Jonah experienced were most real to him, just as ours are to us. But God had the intention to make that which he suffered a messianic prophecy which points us to God's redemptive purposes for mankind. It also tells us that our salvation is only in Jesus and all that he accomplished on our behalf at Calvary.
That is why we put all our trust in this Jesus. In a real need, Nothing else stands between us and the fathomless deep.
1. AV, NIV
2. Matthew 12:40 ESV
Three Keys to Finding
The Will of God In Your Life
George Mueller was used of God to bring in millions of pounds to care for thousands of orphans in old England. He maintained an intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
In the biography of his life by Dr. A. T. Pierson we find three vital factors that he employed in his ministry and personal life. They are:
1 Assuming that there are two ways that may be taken, which of the two appears most in accordance with the teaching of the Word of God? This necessitates are careful study of the Word of God.
2 Which of the two ways is most in accord with the witness of the Spirit of God within? When we move in the will of God, the Spirit of God bears witness that no man can refute or contradict, a deep seated conviction that no man can shake.
3 Which of the two ways seems most in accord with providential circumstance? When the Word of God, the witness of the Spirit and providential circumstance come together in a straight line we can move down that line confident that we are in the very centre of God's will. If one of these points is out of line then we are not in God's will or in God's time. Little else is of consequence in life until we have confidence that we are moving in the will of God. Only there can we know deep settled peace, the fulness of joy and the abundance of fruit which he has purposed for His own.
(These are like harbour channel marking lights, in the darkest night, that must line up, if we are to proceed with confidence and in safety.)
Adapted from The Believer Priest in the Tabernacle Furniture by Harold B Street, Moody Press.
Some Modern Worship - a parody
We thought you might like a bit of fun. It does NOT apply to all modern music
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways.
For most of us when asked our mind
admit that we most pleasure find,
in hymns of ancient days.
In hymns of ancient days.
The simple lyrics, for a start,
of many a modern song
are much too trite to touch the heart;
they mutilate poetic art,
and go on much too long.
And go on much too long.
O for a rest from jollity
and syncopated praise.
What happened to tranquillity?
The silence of eternity
is hard to hear these days.
Is hard to hear these days.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness
till all our strummings cease.
Take from our souls the strain and stress
of always having to be blessed;
give us a bit of peace.
Give us a bit of peace.
Break through the beats of praise guitar
Your coolness and Your balm;
let drum be dumb: bring back the lyre!
Enough of earthquake, wind and fire.
Let's hear it for some calm.
Let's hear it for some calm.
(From Anglican Advocate, July 2000
Culled from Don Prouts. New Life.)
‘Some Modern Worship.’
We Really Need to Meet Again!
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Hebrews 10:24&25 (ESV)
I need you, and you need me. God has drawn us together, and although we have some differences we can and should listen to and learn from each other. For sanity's sake we really need to meet together again. Soon! The Covid19 scare has done much more damage than to kill off a few of us, mostly just a little ahead of our time, but in God's time. Our doctors are excellent at extending life until their patients have lost their grip on it. The knee jerk reaction of authorities around the world fearing a community kick back has done much damage to the ongoing relationships of the most of us who remain.
Man is a social animal. We need each other. We were not created equal in that sense. God has given us two ears to listen, but only one mouth. We have reversed that order and fitted our mouth with an electronic megaphone to magnify the volume a thousandfold. That can be good, but it also can be very bad. It all depends on the message which is put through it.
Look again at the text from Hebrews quoted above. Consider means, "to fix our eyes upon and attentively consider, to perceive or see and understand." And the objective of all that effort is to motivate others to love and acts of kindness toward one another. We can't live like that if we don't see and listen to each other. Email communication is not enough. An email is all one way. When I speak to you I look for the light of understanding in your eye and a smile or frown upon your face. And you do the same with me.
So let's take time and effort to restore and magnify our community life. So much of our teaching leans toward isolation-ism.
Jesus bids us shine, with a clear pure light
Like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world of darkness so we must shine
You in your small corner, and I in mine. (Susan Warner)
Now that is unsocial distancing. The author of that little ditty had the best of intentions in motivating children to tell their friends about Jesus. I would have learned that song perhaps seventy five or more years ago, and the words and the ideas have motivated me all that time. What I need to do is to get up out of my small corner and come over to you and add my light to yours. We can do better together than one by one in isolation. A voice in isolation has limited impact because of its isolation. Over the years I have heard and seen many men standing alone on street corners, speaking of the love of God in Christ Jesus to people passing by. The enthusiasm soon wanes and they are gone. It is lonely, hard, unencouraging work.
Muriel Smith, Bob Peterson's friend about five years passed on a little song to me after I preached a sermon. Can you work it out?
Scintillate, Scintillate, globule vivivic,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific,
Loftily poised in an ether capacious,
Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous. (Author unknown*)
Can you work it out. It is about shining in a larger corner where all can see.
Now the shining light is one important aspect. People need to see our testimony. But just because they do, it does not mean that they are greatly affected. They want to feel a part of the caring provision, of being part of an encouraging family.
Jesus did not just call one man to follow Him. He called twelve. A Church reflects, or should reflect community, a family. Community is not without a structure built on love, which includes shared and thus accepted standards and values. God ordained that a family must have an head and a heart. Traditionally the husband and father is the head and the mother is the heart. The Church family must resemble it. If all accept it most problems are solved.
I ask you for your encouragement and you need mine. There are things that I can do well, and there are things that you do well. I have a reasonable knowledge base, and so do you, and if what you know is happily added to that which I know we are doing the best we can. If the Holy Spirit working in me is the same Holy Spirit who works in you, He will not be arguing against Himself, will He?
* See interesting comments: http://www.paulcarey.net/Music/The%20Star.htm
Oxalis
It is Oxalis season in Melbourne. Surely you have noticed. Suddenly, yellow flowers are everywhere. It has a number of different names. It can be called wood sorrels, yellow sorrel or pink sorrel after the small five petal flower, which can also be white or even orange. It is also called false shamrock, yellow clover, goat's foot, sour grass or sour sod. But its all Oxalis.
This weed is found naturally in forests and woodlands in different varieties in both hemispheres, but out of its natural habitat it is highly invasive and readily takes over gardens, roadsides, and recreation parks. When the flower is finished, the seed pod matures and bursts open spraying its seeds in every direction, or fly away in the wind, each one a future oxalis. It is prolific in winter when natural grasses are dormant, from December in the North and June in the South.
The benefits of oxalis: It is good for food. Oxalis is edible in small quantities in salads and juice extracts. A thirst quencher on hot days. It contains oxalic acid, as also does spinach, chives, parsley and asparagus and in normal quantities this amount of oxalic acid is generally tolerable. It is attractive to the eye. Its pretty flower is sometimes grown decoratively. Its abundant honey attracts bees and moths that then pollinate other species. The root has been used to treat bowel worms, including tapeworm. It is high in vitamin C, an anti oxidant that stabilises free radicals. It has been compounded by herbalists to treat muscle swelling.*
It reminds us of that noxious tree that felled Eve: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." Genesis 3:6 (ESV) So sin invaded the whole world of mankind. The similarities are evident. Can you take up the lesson?
How can we eradicate oxalis? If you know, please tell me. How can we eradicate sin from our lives? The Saviour died to remove the punishment due to our rebellion and participation. Past, present and future. That is a great relief. But, says John, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves", and we are not being realistic. It's nagging presence is always there to trip us up. We must be constantly vigilant and maintain the fight against such an invasive enemy. Sin and our potential to sin is the oxalis of every believer. Be constantly alert, constantly aware, constantly active.
* These paragraphs: summarised from Wikipedia - 'Raw Food Foraging: Sour Grass, etc.'
But God ...
This phrase is found forty seven times* in my Bible, often it records an intervention in the affairs of God's servants, or the intention of rebellious, unbelieving people whereby God saves His servant from making unintended blunders.
Has God ever done this for you? If so have you testified of your experience to others. It may be that which helps to lead them to the Saviour. At the very least your experience will encourage others on their pilgrimage.
Richard DeHaan in his devotional book* tells that the Anglican, Bishop Gobat, whilst working as a missionary in the Middle East was invited by a tribal Chieftain to visit him. Wanting to build a relationship with the significant man he accepted. Unfortunately he became ill and could not go. He was again invited but regrettably circumstances again stepped in and forbade him. A third invitation came, and with a local guide, he set out. But the guide lost his way, then an hyena crossed their path. The guide was very superstitious and would go no further. He later found that the invitations were part of a trap set to enable men to murder him. The villainous chief later confessed that he was impressed that Gobat was indeed a servant of God and that God had protected his servant. God often does intervene on behalf of His servants and His plans.
Acts 7:9 tells us that Joseph also was sold into slavery in Egypt, but God was with him. All through his servitude and imprisonment, Joseph maintained his integrity and standards. Time after time, Gobat was saved out of the hands of his enemies, but Joseph was saved in the hands of his enemies.
* Genesis 3:3, 8:1, 20:3, 21:12, 31:7, 24, 45:8, 48:21, 50:20, 24. Exodus 13:18, 21:13. Numbers 22:22. 1 Samuel 23:14. 2 Samuel 14:14. 1 Chronicles 21:7, 28:3. 2 Chronicles 20:15. Psalm 49:15, 52:5, 64:7, 68:21, 73:26 Ecclesiastes 5:7, John 4:9, Mark 2:7. Luke 5:21, 12:20, 16:15. Acts 7:9, 42, 10:28, 40, 13:30. Romans 5:8, 11:22, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 3:6, 12:24, 15:38. 2 Corinthians 7:6. Galatians 3:18, 20. Ephesians 2:4. Philippians 2.27. 1 Thessalonians 4:8. 2 Thessalonians 2:19.
* Our Daily Bread Favourites, Zondervan 1967 for November 4th.
Destination Heaven : Latest Travel Information
Accommodation: First class accommodation for all. has been pre-booked. John 14:2
Passports: Persons seeking entry will not be permitted at the gates without correct credentials having pre registered their names with the Ruling Authority. Matt 22:12
Tickets: Your ticket is a written pledge that guarantees your journey. It should be claimed and all its promises kept firmly in mind. John 5:24
Customs: Only one declaration is required while going through customs. 1 Corinthians 15:1,3,4
Immigration: All passengers are deemed immigrants, taking up permanent residence in a new country. The quota is unlimited. Hebrews 11:16
Luggage: No luggage whatsoever can be taken. I Timothy 6:7
Air Passage: Travellers going directly by air are advised to watch daily for indications of imminent departure. 1 Thessalonians 4:17
Inoculation: Vaccination Injections are not needed as diseases are unknown at the destination. Revelation 21:4
Departure times: Exact departure detail has not been announced. Travellers must be prepared to leave at short notice. Acts 1:7
Adapted from Sunshine Baptist Church Bulletin.
Silly Boy!
"Master, Master," cried the farm boy one day, "the calf's got is ed thru the gete, an canna get it oot agin!" "Will get the zaw, and zaw it oot agin." the farmer ordered. Thereupon the boy got the saw and started to saw off the calf's head. The calf did not see the funny side.
The boy did exactly as he was told. But he didn't understand what he was told.
This is a parable. Do you understand the words of the Bible?
Our good friend Dr. Bob Peterson used to tell us. There are three steps. "Hear, Understand and Obey." We can only short cut that path to our detriment. Make sure you really do understand what you are reading. Don't cut off the calf's head.
This story is found in "The Cotswolds One Hundred Years Ago", by Alan Sutton, p62. Circa 1880
With the Lord: Dr. Alan Healey
In the early afternoon, Friday 28th September, my cousin, Dr. Alan Healey entered the presence of the Lord. Alan and his wife Phyllis, who predeceased him by a few years, gave their life to work for the Lord, with Wycliffe Bible Translators.
My parents owned land at Gembrook during the war years, and Alan, on occasion, would come up during university semester breaks and I remember him riding the working horses. Some time after that he joined Wycliffe Bible translators and my next memory of him was during his deputation years.
If my memory is correct, Alan and Phyllis went to live with the Telefol tribe in PNG where they learned the manners and customs of the people, and then their language. From that they compiled a dictionary and translated Bible scriptures. This was significantly in the days before computer assisted translation was possible. It was hard work. Sharing tribal life is more than academic, as the translators themselves become an example and a demonstration of Christian living.
Others will more accurately and fully provide the detail of the lives and the work of Alan and Phyllis. I wish to acknowledge the privilege I feel in sharing so much of their lives.
- Chris Trinham.
Water from The Rock
How did Moses in the Sinai Desert, under the hand of God, fetch enough water from a flinty rock to provide about two million people, together with their cattle, with enough water to sustain them all and provide enough for their cleansing and sanitary needs, and provide enough to water all their herds and flocks during their desert sojourn.1
We cannot yet give you a mechanical drawing, or a chemical analysis outside the basic measure of H2O, but investigative science may be coming up with some suggestions, if not answers in the days that lie ahead. A recent ABC news article ran a report on the work of Dr. Laurette Piani 2 a cosmochemist from the Université de Lorraine who says that the ingredients to form all the water that fills our oceans, several times over, is bound up in the dry rocks of the mantle that forms Earth.
A print out says, "A new study shows that meteorite rocks of the type that built the Earth contain the building blocks of water." and that these rocks containing an hydrogen signature are abundant in the earth’s mantle. Such rocks, like some meteorites contain a lot of oxygen which can be liberated under certain circumstances. This liberation can be observed in the vapour coming from the magma in active volcanos which then condenses as rain.
Exodus 20:18 reads like a description of volcanic activity but goes no further.
Endnotes:
1. "A Survey of Israel's History", D. Leon Wood, Zondervan 1980, p154.
2. Friday 28.8.2020. Dr. Piani is looking for the source of the water that fills earth's oceans. We find her report of interest and suggest that she seriously view Genesis 1:1 - 10 which suggests a variation to her approach.
Rock Water
A Devotional Poem by Lea Nicholls
You made the water gush out
From the rock so long ago,
You commanded Moses to strike the rock,
Water came rushing up and sprayed all about
Streaming down the hard rock face, cascading to all below,
running down to desperate people,
so thirsty they wished to die
You gave them water that day in answer to their cry.
You gave them water that day in answer to their cry.
Strike the hardness of my heart, let the living waters flow
Holy Spirit, flood into this buried heart of mine,
Breaking up all resistant parts overlaid with time.
Quenching spiritual thirst, healing all my pain,
Flooding overflowing water, bringing life to all my path,
Bringing joy and making my desert heart bloom again.
He (the Lord) opened the rock and water gushed out;
like a river it flowed in the desert. Psalm 105:41.
From "Desert Garden, a Poetry Devotional", by Lea Nicholls 2020 p12. Used by permission.
Joan Smith has passed on a poem found in her mother's diary; it will encourage you.
I won't look back
I won't look back; God knows the fruitless efforts,
The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets.
I leave them all with Him who blots the record
And mercifully forgives and then forgets.
I won't look forward; God sees all the future,
The road that, short or long, will lead me home.
And He will face with me its every trial,
And bear with me the burdens that may come.
But I'll look up into the face of Jesus,
For there my weary heart can rest, my fears are stilled;
And there is joy and love and light for darkness,
And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.
Author unknown
Why? It's as easy as ABC!
What you now hold in your hand is a little miracle. It tells a story. On this bit of paper, arranged in rows are dozens of very little marks, called letters, arranged in continuous rows with a few missing here and there from each of the rows. When we look more closely many of them are repeated. But some only rarely.
It's as easy as ABC, indeed! What a ridiculous statement! When we think about it the ABC, also called 'the alphabet', is the most obscure enigma ever to face a human being. And we expect tiny tots to master it. Many do, but some never.
What we have to do is to remember each sequence of letters because they are unique. There are millions of them! But all of our lives we only use a few. They have a meaning of their own. Wherever we see one, it always says the same thing. I own a three group sequence.
It is uniquely mine. To the best of my knowledge, some decades ago I searched the records to verify it, there was no one else that owns this string of three letter groups, among the billions of persons making up all of humankind. This series of letters is my name and it stands for me. Myself.
A Scotsman, Robert Moffatt had trouble remembering the sequence of the alphabet and somehow as he ground over and over this long string, trying to stash it in his brain cells, it suddenly fell into rhyme, a song with the old Scottish tune Auld Lang Syne:
So - A - B - C
D - E - F - G
H - I - J - KLM -
N - O - PQ
R - S - T - U
V - WXYZ -
Problem solved.
During the war years, due to no fault of her own, while my Father was in northern areas with the Army, my Mother failed to receive her monthly allowance, and the state bank foreclosed on her home loan. She walked the streets looking for someone to take us in. A wounded English soldier from the former war did. He also taught us children a song that sings the alphabet backwards. It also naturally, sort of, sets its self to its own music:
Z Y X and W V
U T S and R Q P
O N M and L K J
I H G and F E D
and C - B - A -
Try it!
All the wisdom of the world. All the literature. All the discoveries of science are coded with symbols like these. The lives of great men and women, written in just 26 letters.
Many, many more years ago the risen Jesus re-introduced Himself to us through the apostle John. I am the alphabet, He said. I am the Alpha and Omega, I am the first and the last, said Jesus to John. These are the first and last letters of the alphabet that the early Church used to record the life and death of Jesus, the great terms of the Gospels of grace. He who is the first and the last, is great, the creator and sustainer of the universe. He who Gave His life as the only Redeemer by which sinful people may be reconciled, did so as 'the alphabet'.
I Saw Three Ships
I saw three ships is a popular song but it is not a Christmas carol in the truest sense, but it is a well known traditional Christmas song. It goes back to 17th century Derbyshire and was later published in 1833 by William Sandys. The origins are lost in the mists of time like so many tall ships which sailed away with their human cargoes, never to return.
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day in the morning
Assuming that the meaning is tied to the nativity, the most reasonable suggestion as to identity, is that posed by the internet freebie, Wikipedia, that 'the ships were actually the camels used by the Maji, as camels are frequently referred to as "the ships of the desert" '. *
Francis Gay in her Friendship Book for 2004 has extended this imagery where she passes on to us the names of those ships; that 'the first is worship - remember that the wise men fell down and worshipped. The second is friendship. Remember that Christmas should be a time for making new friendships and strengthening old ones. The third is stewardship. Remember that a steward is one who serves and helps his fellow man.
Once you know that first verse it is easy to add the remainder. It is a song of many repeats. These lines are all you need to fill out all the verses. It is like an onion. The deeper you go the more repeats you go the more repeats you get;'
Then why not make up one or two new verses of your own. It’s public domain. Here is the new line of the remaining repeating stanzas.
Wither sailed those ships all three ...
Oh they sailed into Bethlehem ...
And all the bells on earth shall ring ...
And all the souls on earth shall sing ...
Then let us all rejoice again ...
* The full text is available under the Creative Commons on Attribution-ShareAlike License.
In the entry to our home sits a leadlight prayer. I wish to share it with you.
"May the blessings of God crown this house. Fortunate is he whose work is blessed and whose household is prospered by the Lord."
Origin unknown
You can make it your prayer too.
Remember, "The joy of the Lord is your strength"
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