Birth and Rebirth
All of a sudden the birth pangs came
Hoped for, dreaded, intense
Focusing every bodily sense
Into the crisis of pain.
The baby lay on my arm
Small, round, red, crushed face
Every finger and toe in place
Suckling at last and calm.
Oh the joy of a baby’s smile
When dark eyes looked at me
The stirring of life in a soul is seen
In the love of a little child.
I thought of the birth pangs borne for me
As Jesus hung on the cross
What agony and bitter loss
He paid for a soul set free!
But oh the joy on the Father’s part
When I look to Him above
When He sees a smile of adoring love
Awakening in my heart!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Old Book
The Old Book
What will we do with the Old Book
So out of touch and dated?
How long will we keep the Old Book
That says that God created?
Was not this world just formed by chance
Over myriads of years?
By accident on accident
Were formed your eyes and ears?
The Old Book’s “sin, abomination”
Is what we call gay pride
And greet the gays with acclamation
As through the streets they ride.
And did God know me in the womb
As the old book says?
Or should the womb become a tomb
For unborn boys and girls?
John Wycliffe trained his readers
To teach it far and wide.
For this his body was exhumed
Ash cast into the tide.
Luther nailed his theses firm
Upon an old church door.
He made his answer, “Here I stand
I can do no more!”
William Tyndale was arrested
Tried for heresy and burned.
Yet his work is in your Bible still
And from it we have learned.
We learned to follow Christ our Lord
To rest upon His grace.
On this old book I’ll take my stand
And keep it in its place.
Alison Cunningham © 2009
What will we do with the Old Book
So out of touch and dated?
How long will we keep the Old Book
That says that God created?
Was not this world just formed by chance
Over myriads of years?
By accident on accident
Were formed your eyes and ears?
The Old Book’s “sin, abomination”
Is what we call gay pride
And greet the gays with acclamation
As through the streets they ride.
And did God know me in the womb
As the old book says?
Or should the womb become a tomb
For unborn boys and girls?
John Wycliffe trained his readers
To teach it far and wide.
For this his body was exhumed
Ash cast into the tide.
Luther nailed his theses firm
Upon an old church door.
He made his answer, “Here I stand
I can do no more!”
William Tyndale was arrested
Tried for heresy and burned.
Yet his work is in your Bible still
And from it we have learned.
We learned to follow Christ our Lord
To rest upon His grace.
On this old book I’ll take my stand
And keep it in its place.
Alison Cunningham © 2009
Saturday, June 28, 2008
the Bible, sin, and salvation
So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.
That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.[1]
Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers—none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you [2]
It is clear that God regards homosexuality as a sin, but there are many things actively promoted in today’s western society that are also called sin in the bible. In God’s eyes it is a sin to kill an unborn child, it is also a sin to hold on to more than one’s share of this world’s goods when people are starving.
Jesus said that if a man has two loaves of bread he should give to the man (or woman) who has no bread. If a man has two coats he should give one to the man (or woman) who has no coat.
If you neighbour shouts abuse at you over the fence, it is a sin to shout abuse back at him. Jesus said we should return good for evil, blessing for cursing, we should love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
If you know someone who is sick and lonely and do not go to visit them, this is a sin. If a man knows something good to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Truly there is none righteous the only righteous man who ever lived was Jesus. We all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. But the Lord has laid our iniquity upon Jesus. Like the good shepherd that he is, Jesus has taken our sin into his own body, and carried to the cross. If we turn to Jesus and follow him, we will hear his voice speaking to us in our hearts. He will take us up in his arms and carry us home rejoicing.
This is the good news. Not only will our sins be forgiven they will be cast into the depth of the sea. As far as the east is from the west – so far are forgiven sins removed from us. Not only does Jesus forgive us but by the power of the Holy Spirit he gives us power to forsake our sin, and live holy lives to his glory.
[1] Romans 1:24 – 27 New Living Translation
[2] 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11New Living Translation
That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.[1]
Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers—none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you [2]
It is clear that God regards homosexuality as a sin, but there are many things actively promoted in today’s western society that are also called sin in the bible. In God’s eyes it is a sin to kill an unborn child, it is also a sin to hold on to more than one’s share of this world’s goods when people are starving.
Jesus said that if a man has two loaves of bread he should give to the man (or woman) who has no bread. If a man has two coats he should give one to the man (or woman) who has no coat.
If you neighbour shouts abuse at you over the fence, it is a sin to shout abuse back at him. Jesus said we should return good for evil, blessing for cursing, we should love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
If you know someone who is sick and lonely and do not go to visit them, this is a sin. If a man knows something good to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Truly there is none righteous the only righteous man who ever lived was Jesus. We all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. But the Lord has laid our iniquity upon Jesus. Like the good shepherd that he is, Jesus has taken our sin into his own body, and carried to the cross. If we turn to Jesus and follow him, we will hear his voice speaking to us in our hearts. He will take us up in his arms and carry us home rejoicing.
This is the good news. Not only will our sins be forgiven they will be cast into the depth of the sea. As far as the east is from the west – so far are forgiven sins removed from us. Not only does Jesus forgive us but by the power of the Holy Spirit he gives us power to forsake our sin, and live holy lives to his glory.
[1] Romans 1:24 – 27 New Living Translation
[2] 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11New Living Translation
Sunday, January 13, 2008
A Mother's Wisdom
A Mother’s Wisdom
I have been reading the biography of a father and the wisdom he passed on to his son[1]. It got me thinking, a son learns most from his father, but a daughter learns from her mother. This prompts me to write of the things my mother taught me.
When I was a toddler I helped make the beds. We played lumps. Mother would throw the sheet over me and feel me through it, rubbing her hands over the sheet. “What’s this lump?” her hands explored my shape as I collapsed in a giggling heap on the bed. Later I helped smooth the sheets and blankets and turn down the top.
Mother taught all seven of her children cooking. We began by making “sunbeams”. We mixed together the sugar butter and eggs, then we rolled out the dough, spread it with jam and rolled it up into a big sausage shape. Then we cut the whole thing into slices, put the slices onto the greased oven tray and watched while it disappeared into the oven of the wood stove.[2] Yum! How we loved them! We loved to help in the kitchen and progressed to making custard, gravy, milk puddings, boiled fruit cake and pumpkin scones.
We learned not to be afraid of storms. This was a great achievement on my mother’s part, as she herself was terrified of them. Not until we had children of our own did she admit to this. Then she told us how, when she was small, she had been looking from the window when a bolt of lightning had struck the fence where a group of horses was standing. There was a huge clap of thunder and at the same instant all the horses fell down dead.
As a child, knowing nothing of this, I loved storms. “Go and watch the storm from the window,” my mother would say. I realise now that there were no animals in view from that window, and that she wanted to divert our attention from herself. She went on with the chores in seeming calm. I caught the note of excitement in her voice but I never guessed at the effort it took for her to still the trembling in her hands as she peeled those potatoes for tea.
By example Mother taught us love. As the younger children arrived one by one we helped in many small ways with their care and counted it a great privilege to be able to “nurse the baby” as we sat on the floor carefully surrounded with pillows.
At bed-time Mother tucked us in and taught us to pray before we slept. I did the same with my own children and now I see my daughter praying with each of her little ones as she settles them for the night.
Church attendance was another thing our mother taught us. In the early days on the farm, there was no church near enough so she gathered us around her for “Sunday School” – simple lessons with drawing and scripture verses to learn by heart. Later in town we went to church and Sunday School, and still Mother encouraged us to memorise Scripture, Psalms and poetry. The twenty-third psalm has helped me in many tough places in my life.
One of the best lessons she passed on was one she learned from her own father, a godly man I never met. As a teenager my mother had rebelled against going to church, since the preacher at that time had been discovered in immoral conduct.
“I’m not going to church while he is preaching!” she declared.
“Well,” replied her father, “I don’t go to church to worship the minister!”
Mum went. It is another lesson that has stood me in good stead!
Last of all Mother taught us not to fear old age. She herself, at ninety-three years of age was still visiting and helping the “old folk” in her neighbourhood. Her favourite quote was from Browning:-
“Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
The last of life for which the first was made.
Youth shows but half, trust God, nor be afraid.”
[1] Big Russ by Timothy Russert
[2] I suspect that this recipe was chosen because there was plenty that small hands could do without help and it kept us happily occupied for some time.
I have been reading the biography of a father and the wisdom he passed on to his son[1]. It got me thinking, a son learns most from his father, but a daughter learns from her mother. This prompts me to write of the things my mother taught me.
When I was a toddler I helped make the beds. We played lumps. Mother would throw the sheet over me and feel me through it, rubbing her hands over the sheet. “What’s this lump?” her hands explored my shape as I collapsed in a giggling heap on the bed. Later I helped smooth the sheets and blankets and turn down the top.
Mother taught all seven of her children cooking. We began by making “sunbeams”. We mixed together the sugar butter and eggs, then we rolled out the dough, spread it with jam and rolled it up into a big sausage shape. Then we cut the whole thing into slices, put the slices onto the greased oven tray and watched while it disappeared into the oven of the wood stove.[2] Yum! How we loved them! We loved to help in the kitchen and progressed to making custard, gravy, milk puddings, boiled fruit cake and pumpkin scones.
We learned not to be afraid of storms. This was a great achievement on my mother’s part, as she herself was terrified of them. Not until we had children of our own did she admit to this. Then she told us how, when she was small, she had been looking from the window when a bolt of lightning had struck the fence where a group of horses was standing. There was a huge clap of thunder and at the same instant all the horses fell down dead.
As a child, knowing nothing of this, I loved storms. “Go and watch the storm from the window,” my mother would say. I realise now that there were no animals in view from that window, and that she wanted to divert our attention from herself. She went on with the chores in seeming calm. I caught the note of excitement in her voice but I never guessed at the effort it took for her to still the trembling in her hands as she peeled those potatoes for tea.
By example Mother taught us love. As the younger children arrived one by one we helped in many small ways with their care and counted it a great privilege to be able to “nurse the baby” as we sat on the floor carefully surrounded with pillows.
At bed-time Mother tucked us in and taught us to pray before we slept. I did the same with my own children and now I see my daughter praying with each of her little ones as she settles them for the night.
Church attendance was another thing our mother taught us. In the early days on the farm, there was no church near enough so she gathered us around her for “Sunday School” – simple lessons with drawing and scripture verses to learn by heart. Later in town we went to church and Sunday School, and still Mother encouraged us to memorise Scripture, Psalms and poetry. The twenty-third psalm has helped me in many tough places in my life.
One of the best lessons she passed on was one she learned from her own father, a godly man I never met. As a teenager my mother had rebelled against going to church, since the preacher at that time had been discovered in immoral conduct.
“I’m not going to church while he is preaching!” she declared.
“Well,” replied her father, “I don’t go to church to worship the minister!”
Mum went. It is another lesson that has stood me in good stead!
Last of all Mother taught us not to fear old age. She herself, at ninety-three years of age was still visiting and helping the “old folk” in her neighbourhood. Her favourite quote was from Browning:-
“Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
The last of life for which the first was made.
Youth shows but half, trust God, nor be afraid.”
[1] Big Russ by Timothy Russert
[2] I suspect that this recipe was chosen because there was plenty that small hands could do without help and it kept us happily occupied for some time.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Snowflakes
We have been cutting “snowflakes” for a children’s holiday program. We fold the paper in half, in thirds and in half again. With scissors we cut holes in all the folds and scallop the edges. Each time I unfold the finished “snowflake” I marvel—the radiating pattern is a thing of beauty, no two alike.
Snowflakes, real ones, form when clouds freeze. Each one has its own unique intricate pattern of ice crystals a beauty unseen unless examined carefully with a magnifier.
So it is in all creation –each plant and animal produces its own kind, yet no two are quite identical. For this reason too, every person on this globe is special: a one-off unique creation, precious in the eye of the Creator.
Snowflakes, real ones, form when clouds freeze. Each one has its own unique intricate pattern of ice crystals a beauty unseen unless examined carefully with a magnifier.
So it is in all creation –each plant and animal produces its own kind, yet no two are quite identical. For this reason too, every person on this globe is special: a one-off unique creation, precious in the eye of the Creator.
Monday, December 31, 2007
New Year's Eve
Today we cleaned windows. Husband took down the outside venetians and I used a broom and a hose to clean the venetians, the flyscreens and the outside of the windows on two sides of the house. Dip the broom in a bucked of suds, scrub and hose down with the trigger hose attaced to the rainwater tap via a pump. We are so short of water that we may not use the town supply for this. It was raining lightly as we worked and has rained much more tonight, so, hopefully, the water will be replaced in the tanks by the morning.
The lass next door chatted while we worked. It was her birthday today, and she is six. Remember how exciting Christmas was when you were six? Now we enjoy the wonder on small faces as they open presents, and thank the Lord for all our blessings.
May 2008 be full of blessing for you all!
The lass next door chatted while we worked. It was her birthday today, and she is six. Remember how exciting Christmas was when you were six? Now we enjoy the wonder on small faces as they open presents, and thank the Lord for all our blessings.
May 2008 be full of blessing for you all!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Christmas
Highlights of present opening time: A little fellow with a book set which included coloured glasses. When he put them on I showed him the pictures in the back of the book and saw him move his hand to hold the 3D image of a charging rhino! A vegetarian teenager with a packet of all flavoured jelly beans -unlike the ones in Harry Potter these had a chart to tell you what flavour to expect! His delight at finding that they did not contain animal gelatine so he could enjoy them!
The ABC concert on the Christmas evening did not entirely miss out on the central message of Christmas, including an item from the Messiah, and finishing with Hark the Herald Angels Sing - a carol with wonderful words if we take the time to comtemplate them.
"Glory to the new born King". May Jesus be reborn in your hearts, may you live in constant conversation with Jesus, the king of all kings, and give him the glory! When we all do so then at last we will have peace on earth, good will among men.
The ABC concert on the Christmas evening did not entirely miss out on the central message of Christmas, including an item from the Messiah, and finishing with Hark the Herald Angels Sing - a carol with wonderful words if we take the time to comtemplate them.
"Glory to the new born King". May Jesus be reborn in your hearts, may you live in constant conversation with Jesus, the king of all kings, and give him the glory! When we all do so then at last we will have peace on earth, good will among men.
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