These Lively Oracles

I read a story in an old book which goes like this….. Many years ago a young lad was asked to recount his favourite Bible story. His parents were church workers and the young lad was taken to all the meetings. And he had heard the Bible stories many, many times. When asked to stand up and recount his favourite story he got flustered. But he carried on anyway….. Once upon a time a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. And he fell among the thorns. The thorns grew up and chocked him. And he went on. And didn’t have any money. He went to the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him one thousand talents of money and a hundred changes of raiment. And then he got into a chariot and drove furiously. And when he was driving under a big old Juniper tree, his hair got caught on the limb of the tree. And he hung there many days. And the ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. Afterward he was hungered and he ate five thousand loaves and two small fishes. One night while he was hanging t...

  As I write this little blog there is a teardrop sitting on the edge of my eyelid. I fight it back. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong. Everything is going ok. Going great. I still like to keep reading. To keep writing. To keep talking. But in preparing for this particular thought I was taken on a wonderful journey through my mind and remembered some fantastic experiences that I have lived or shared. After a recent conversation with my brother I started to remember some of the great hymns and songs I have known over the years. These songs are like wayposts that I visited on this train of thought. Each one reminded me of a time or place where I learned it or sang it. And it reminded me of the places and people that I was with at that time.   We all have so many favourite hymns or gospel songs. And over the years and I have been reminded of a lot of them as I thought about these things. As I mentioned in a previous post one of my earliest favourites was the old...

  The composer Franz Schubert left one unfinished work - The Unfinished Symphony. (Symphony No.8 "Unfinished" D 759 for those that might be interested). “Musicologists”, composers and scholars still debate to this day as to why Franz Schubert never finished it, for he lived for several years after he wrote it. And they may never know why. But, if some scholar or librarian suddenly produced a long lost document of the unfinished portion of the music that completed the symphony they would be thrilled as it would give a sense of completion and meaning to the musical score. Music scholars and composers from all over the world would be clamouring over each other to see this document. In essence this is what The Resurrection of Jesus did for Biblical scholars. It gave meaning to what the Old Testament scriptures were all about. In John 5:39 Jesus said to the Pharisees “ You search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And these are they which testify of ...

It's hard to find anything that would invoke a feeling of kindness and love in the whole account of the tragic miscarriage of justice that befell Jesus 2000 years ago. The whole week is account after account of betrayal, lies, violence, backstabbing, bloodshed, political intrigue, religious hypocrisy. Every form of wrongdoing was presented here in all its horrid gruesomeness. However, there is one small incident that happened that brought nothing but tears of joy. Mary Magdalene had risen well before dawn to go to the tomb where Jesus' body was laid. But when she got there she found that the tomb had already been opened. She stood there almost paralysed with grief. Almost speechless. How could they? Who took the body? Haven't they humiliated Him enough? Why couldn't they just leave Him in peace? Her despair was overwhelming. It was the kind of despair that makes you dizzy. The kind that comes smothering over you so that you can't even think. Then she heard a m...

I was brought up to go to Church as a child. I was sent out to Salvation Army, Sunday morning service, Sunday School, The Robins (Junior Section of The Boy’s Brigade). As a teenager I kept on going. Boy’s Brigade, Sunday afternoon Bible School, Youth Club, Young People’s Clubs, Scripture Union Groups and various other things besides. But none of this “grounded” me in church life. There was something that wasn’t quite “in place”. As such, my church life waxed and waned, as did my enthusiasm and devotion to the things of God. My faith was never rejected. I had kept all my books and my notes and my scribblings. I didn’t realise it but I was still subconsciously hoping that something would click into place. Something would link all these things together. It’s like I was wanting someone to throw a jigsaw puzzle of Christian faith into the air and for it to land on the table fully assembled. But that never happened. It never happens that way. Because that’s not the way it’s meant to ha...