April 5

Key Word:- MERCY

Title:- Dining with Dennis the Hamster

Deuteronomy 25:4
“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

Outside in the darkness adjacent to a closed back door, underneath the low sill of an old damp window, I found my first fond pet, breathing badly and dying of a heart attack. I couldn’t lift Lassie because she was so old and heavy, especially for a young lad like me, so I had to leave her there alone whilst I raced on home to get my father.

It was my first experience of death and I asked my dad “Will Lassie be in heaven?” Indeed, this was the very same question which I also asked the Roman Catholic priest at one of my first confessions. My Father didn’t know what to say and the priest just ignored me and gave me two ‘Our Fathers,’ and a ‘Hail Mary’. I remember mumbling through my penance and was angry that God had no answer to the pain I felt in the loss of this lovely old dog. My first fond pet, found dead.

Obviously, God did not care about dogs. I wonder if He cares about other pets?

Since then I have said goodbye to ‘Patch’ my teenage hound, ‘Marmalade’ our cat, and ‘Dennis’ the hamster. I had great affection for each of them. It’s amazing how much we get attatched to little things. Tell me, “Will they be in heaven? Shall I see these lovely creatures again?”

Born in other countries mind you, these same companions of mine may have also been heartily and possibly thankfully delivered to my hungry stomach! If I ate them, would I see them then in heaven? Would I want to? Now there’s a thought! Will we see each KFC we have devoured, and wow at each cow we have consumed? Will animals be redeemed? I mean, just how does God care about the animal kingdom? Are they but mere fun and fodder for those created in His image? William Blake in his Poem, ‘At the Last Judgment’ writes: -

A dog starved at his masters gate
Predicts the ruin of the state
A horse misused upon the road
Cries to heaven for human blood

I have yet to see many works addressing God’s relation to, and God’s delight in, His very own animal kingdom. Mind you, I can understand the avoidance of the issue for I don’t begin to understand the purpose of soft deer and hungry carnivores being placed on the same planet? Except that sin and bloody sacrifice are Scripturally speaking, always destined to walk hand in hand in this great story of ours, then the reason for the created and open ferocity, ripped skin and shed blood of the animal Kingdom eludes me. I can barely imagine what a redeemed animal Kingdom will look like, for I am sure there will be no more ripped and torn carcases. If so, then surely then, the carrion we see now will be out of a job?

Never the less, I know Jesus ate fish, and at least once a year was partial to little roast lamb Himself. I know He rode on a donkey. I know He shall yet come with clouds descending, riding on a mighty white warhorse; I know His throne is surrounded by composite and fantastic creatures. I know He cuddles kittens and pats dogs, and loves His creation and calls them all very, very good, even at one point with Job of old, delighting in it’s created ferocity whilst pointing to some kind of Dinosaur and shouting in glee, saying,: “Behold Behemoth!”

Yes indeed, we can say that God gets excited about His fantastic creation and that He has entrusted it to us, to use it, to utilize it, to tend it and especially, to respect it.

Will I see Dennis the hamster again? In the light of my God withholding no good thing and loving me immensely I think I have to say this to that question: “If I want to dine with Dennis the Hamster in my heavenly home, then I believe I will!” I’m partial to the right bit of lettuce. In the meantime, let us respect God’s magnificent creation and remember the lines of William Blake when he says

A dog starved at his masters gate
Predicts the ruin of the state
A horse misused upon the road
Cries to heaven for human blood

Listen: - A righteous man regards the life of his animal. Prov 12:10

Pray: - Lord, for all your animals that You provide, we give you thanks and ask that you would indue in us, the proper respect and honour for this most glorious of Your creation, in Jesus name we pray, amen.

Jul-18-Burgler

Key Word:- FIGHT

Title:- The Big Bad Burglar

Genesis 14:16
So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.

It’s an old chorus but I love it. “I went into the enemies camp and I took back what he stole from me; took back what he stole from me, took back what he stole from me.” Friends we have been robbed and Goliath of Gath, that ugly taunter of the people of God, that giant of a mercenary who mocked Israel on a daily basis and laughed from the haughty hillside at the beautiful people of God, still giggles with glee over our stolen dignity, our stolen strength, our stolen faith, our stolen joy, and the ensuing total inability to fight and be who we are in Jesus, MORE THAN CONQUERORS! Today, the big bad burglar still swings his swag bag over his shoulder and shoves our losses down our throat, again and again and scowls at our inability to reclaim what once was ours and our families to enjoy. I’m sick of it! How about you?

It was David the youth of faith, who with a stone and sling, toppled that same Goliath and removed his mocking head. It was later at Ziklag when the Amalekites, a continuing symbol for evil and hatred against Gods people, came and stole everything of David’s and his warriors. Women, children, goods cattle, everything was gone and the remainder was burned with fire! The scripture reports that the followers of David lifted up their voice and wept until they could weep no more. In addition to that, some of them wanted to stone David, blaming him for everything that had come upon them.

I have been a Pastor long enough to know that we can be just like David’s robbed warriors. Yes, we are all capable of the same thoughts, feelings and actions towards God, after we too have lit the same burning pyres of grief, despair, despondency and anger in our own hearts. I would suggest that we have even had that same murderous heart towards the greater David, when we have found ourselves staring over the smoldering ruins of dreams and desires that have been stolen from us. It’s scary, but true. We can be just like that.

Friends, enough of blaming God! Enough of such debilitation. ENOUGH!

Do you know that the Greater David wants you, along with Him, to pursue the big bad burglar and recover, reclaim, restore, and redeem, along with Him, ALL that has been stolen from you? EVERYTHING! DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? WELL YOU MUST BELIEVE THAT, AND YOU MUST BELIEVE IT TODAY! BE a Rottweiler, lay hold and sink your teeth into that great truth! Be a terrier, don’t let go and take back, rip back, what he’s stolen from you! Oh and while your there, give the burglers backside a good ole chompin from me will you! Go get him tiger!

Listen: - “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” ..1 Samuel 30:8

And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 1 Samuel 30:19

Pray: - Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Today with You, I shall rise up and begin the recovery fight, the recovery process, of all that has been stolen from me and from mine. With your help dear Jesus, this shall indeed be done. Amen!

Jul-11-The Boom Box Of The Beating Heart of God

Key Word:- THINK

Title:- The Boom-Box of the Beating Heart of God

Luke 6:10,11
And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage….

I hate Boom-Boxes. Their intrusive noise and the accompanying shenanigans of those who cart them around on their shoulders or even drag them on little carts, usually means that my relaxing afternoon is going to be oer’shadowed with a thunderstorm of hip hop. Good grief, those blooming Boom-boxes are just so intrusive!

Maybe it’s just a predominantly Western and Calvinistic mindset? Even so, we will have order in our churches. Come to that, we shall insist on order everywhere! Order in the universe, order in our marriage, order in our mind, order in our family, order in our sock drawer, order in all things, except on things that are tall. Oh yes, tall orders shall be frowned upon, as they over stretch us to such an extent that we might just fall over and end up, well, end up disorderly, out of control, foolish. No, that’s settled then, we shall have undisruptive order! Why? Well because God is a God of order, and after all, where there is order there is a control and good grief, we need control over just about everything, because control is the same as safety and safety means no bad surprises and no bad surprises means no pain, no embarrassment and no problems. You see what I mean? We shall have this kind of order in our churches; the order of the graveyard, white engraved headstones set in green grass all in a neat little row, for after all, the dead rarely cause problems.

In our text today, look at Jesus. Do you see Him friends? Like some naughty toddler tempting his parents fortitude. Looking around, staring at them, and maybe thinking to Himself “On a Sabbath day, shall I? Do you dare me? Do you tempt me, the Lord of the Sabbath! Shall I break your rules? Yes, I shall……. ‘Stretch out your hand!’”

People with rules, even rules rooted in Scripture cannot stand Prince Jesus the party pooper, inviting repentant prostitutes and gays into His realm; the tax collectors and robbers, the unwashed, the unclean, the unkempt, the un-kept, indeed, all the ‘uns’, every single ‘un’ of them, into a place that over turns rules, over turns constitutions, articles, traditions, and whilst doing so, blasts out mercy, grace, forgiveness, and lavishness from the Boom-Box of the beating heart of God! Good grief, those boom-boxes are just so intrusive!

I may have said it before but I shall say it again, “Be careful if you invite Jesus to your religious party for He never behaves Himself!” After all, Jesus is the Boom-Box of the Beatng Heart of God!

Listen: - I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Mark 2:17

Pray: - Lord, break my rules, break my chains, break my heart, and make me more like You. Amen!

Jul-11-Fondly Frame The Butterfly

Key Word:- HOPE

Title:- Framing Butterflies for Feeble Knees

Job 4:4
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, And you have strengthened the feeble knees;

Our opening text today is spoken to Job by his 'friend' Eliphaz the Temanite. The spoken words appear to be true and should have encouraged the beleaguered and plagued Job deep in his spirit. Unfortunately they were but a mere pre-amble to some harsh and judgmental words that followed. Job's friend would become an Elephant of a Termite and walk all over Job's already sad and sickened soul, eat at his heart and bring down his house upon his now enfeebled little head.

Words are powerful things friends, they are either solid and foundational, slow and steady in building, or fast and swinging like a wreckers ball, filling lives with devastation and dust; Yes sir, words are as sweet as honey or as bitter and repugnant as rancid butter.

Despite nursery rhymes that tell of words that “Never hurt us,” we all know by experience the power of words, of even a single word! In a greater respect we also need to recognise the awesome and awful fact that words also breed. You see, when they depart our mouths, they spread their wings and enter the body through the ears and lay their eggs in the heart. The way those words are spoken, or maybe even received, means that years later, when the larvae eventually burrow up and leave, they either emerge as ravaging locusts that eat us away from the inside, or as beautiful butterflies, that visit each memory of our mind and mend the weeping hurts of many a present distress. Did you know friends as well that words, especially final words, last words, are words that haunt people?

Many of you have spoken some words to loved ones that you wish you could take back. I say to you, “You cannot!” However in the coming years you can so overwhelm the ones you have hurt, with words of such winged beauty that in time, the butterfly shall overwhelm the locust! If it is too late, if death has made the distance too far for your words to travel, then dear friend, repent and make your peace with God. Such repentance will turn your own horrid haunting to repentant regret and in time, Jesus Himself may reveal to you some of the loving and living power of other words you had spoken to those now departed, good words, powerful words, that you had spoken to them and had forgotten about. Yes, God can take the smallest smile in any word and turn it into a firefly in a loved one’s darkness. God is gracious, more than we can ever realize. Do not be destroyed by the haunting of your past horrible words to folk now gone.

So, may I encourage you today to begin collecting your words as framed pictures. Words that encapsulate pictures of what could be. Invest time, love, compassion and genuine care in the words you speak. Make them like apples of gold in frames of silver and deliver them packaged with a prepared possibility, even to those who yet do want to receive them. Life has taught me, that in time all words turn to pictures and either in rooms of regret, or halls of happiness, they are eventually unwrapped examined and held to the heart, before being hung on our inner walls as a perpetual reminder of the good or evil wished upon us or observed within us. Today my friend, fondly frame the fluttering butterfly.

Listen:- Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; Jeremiah 15:16

Pray:- Oh God in my mouth lays an unruly evil and a world of fire, even a flask of dripping poison! Oh Lord, tame my tongue, remove its whipping ways and make it like a lovers hand. In Jesus name I beg it, amen.

Jul-04-Dancing On Your Casket

Key Word:- LIFE

Title:- Dancing on Your Casket!

1 Cor 15:54
"Death is swallowed up in victory."

One critic has accused the metaphysical poet John Donne (he died March 31st in 1631,) of being obsessed with death after his beloved wife Anne passed away. Maybe so, for shortly before his own demise, John obtained an urn, his own burial shroud, and an artist. Then, wrapping himself in the shroud, he posed standing atop the urn and had the artist draw a nice charcoal sketch of him doing so. This macabre piece of artwork stayed at John’s bedside throughout his final illness. Obsessed or not, in his poem, ‘Death Be Not Proud’, he pens these marvelous lines

‘Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:’

Now John may have been an Anglican minister simply because it was a reasonable living (in those days anyways,) and he may have held, shall we say, some interesting theological thoughts! But he at the very least knew this, ‘DEATH SHALL DIE!’

Friends, everything this side of heaven dies, that is, in effect, becomes severed in relationship to us. Dreams, words, sons, daughters, wives, jobs, careers, teeth, and eventually even the flesh that holds them all together, shall dissolve and disintegrate. These are facts, and are best faced, head on. The scripture says, ‘Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart.’ (Ecclesiastes 7:2). In light of this text then, maybe Rev. Donne wasn’t as bananas as we might have thought after all?

My dear sojourner suffering under the fear of death, even suffering in the valley of the shadow of death, may I tell you that I agree with John Donne. “Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:.....’DEATH SHALT DIE.’” So, if you want rest today my friend, then you must first mock death, go on! Do it! Then laugh at it and choose to lay off it’s proud and heavy disfiguring yoke and then, why not place across your chaffed neck, the gentle healing, loving and leading, humble yoke of the all conquering Christ; for Death truly has been swallowed up in VICTORY! Yes it has! So, finish of the delightful deed today of mocking death today, by then taking your Palm branches, and standing on one leg atop your own urn of death, and wave them wildly. Why not get one of your friends to then take a picture of you, dancing like a loon atop your murky old casket once filled with gloom! Then this very morning and every morning from now on, choose to LIVE!

Listen: - so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21-6:1

Pray: - Lord, I believe that in the future life, nothing dies. Dreams, relationships, ideas, desires, pets, and other companions, shall never die. There shall be no fear of loss, and we shall at last be free to enjoy life! But oOh My Father, O my dear Jesus, help me to LIVE in this life and to live well, without the fear of death. Amen and amen!