BeLOnGings

Last Saturday night after receiving the “A Greater Story” blog, I got up from my bed and went downstairs. As I stood sipping a glass of water I noticed the calendar picture of a rainbow opposite me……. Father was continuing to speak, about COVENANT.

The red lights in the kitchen began to flash unaccountably. I glanced up. The clock said 1.44. This number represents the Resurrection Company of Revelation 7 and 14. I reached for a scrap of paper to write down what I was getting and a few moments later I took the photo above!

As you can see, the ‘scrap of paper’ turned out to be one of the extra cards announcing our grandson’s birth. His name LUKE means LIGHT!

I then read the commentary on the calendar:

The rainbow speaks of how the beautiful and colorful diversity of creation has come from the SON-LIGHT (Luke) and to him it will return. “For from him and through him and to him are ALL things. To him be the GLORY for ever! Amen.” (Rm.11:36)

The line. “Rainbows are created when……. is followed by the scientific explanation.

This of course is the secondary reason.

The first is …… God want’s to say something.”

I blogged about how just before we went to Ireland our neighbor John arrived heartbroken on our doorstep to tell us of his wife’s sudden death (‘Who Is My Neighbor?’ September 5th)

A week before this, John had also knocked on our door.

“LOOK!” He said to me, pointing to a rainbow in the sky. “Do you know what that means? It is God’s message in the sky that his love never fails. I was taught that as a child, and I have never forgotten it.”

God wanted to say something to his beloved son John to prepare him for the loss of his human partner of 44 years that was to come a few days later!

The rainbow of COVENANT consists of seven colors. These provided the outline we used to convey the ‘good news’ through our FREEDOM! musical.

7 is the biblical number of Completion, Spiritual Perfection. (The popular rainbow nowadays has only 6 colors. 6 is the color of Man)

When in Ireland one day I went for a circular stroll with Luke in his stroller around our old neighborhood. I got as far as our old house, and paused to observe how it, like so many things ‘back home’ have received an UPGRADE. When I got back to the starting point I realized I had lost one of Luke’s socks. I decided to retrace my steps. I reached our old house again….and there it was lying on the ground by the Wheely Bin/Trash Can

As always I asked Father, “So what is the significance of this?”

….for all things have significance and particularly when accompanied by this sort of ‘God-incidence’

Only last night did the meaning come clear.

The number 76 represents ‘Cleansing’. The photo capturing two 76s is a double witness. It is significant that the numbers appear on the garbage disposal!

The next great event we are anticipating is our ‘UPGRADE’ at the first Resurrection. We are now in the process of being cleansed of our garbage, in preparation for this.

“When this age shall end and the time has come

For the trump to sound and our Lord to come

Then as one we’ll rise and our flame unite

With the one who loved and bought us.”

The FREEDOM! musical has given way to the FREEDOM! retreats which act as a vehicle in which the Holy Spirit reveals and removes our garbage! Some of the team members have been with us for many years. It is wonderful to hear them testify at each subsequent retreat of their continuing growth in freedom and wholeness as they move from glory to glory!

We were due to host a retreat this weekend, but were directed to reschedule it for January 10 -11th 2020. If you would like to attend or recommend it to someone, scroll to the bottom of this page to register paulkyle.org/events

P.S. As I was typing this blog a repairman arrived to fix our basement clothes washer. He just appeared again to say,

“You will need to utilize your ‘Replacement Helper Plan’ as the machine, which is now 10 years old, needs replaced.”

In other words, I require an UPGRADE. (The number 10 represents ‘The Re-establishment of God’s Order’)

I then discovered that he was a brother in Christ from Ghana, Africa! He belongs to an ‘apostolic’ church called ROYAL HOUSE.

I broke into “Lord Jesus we enthrone you…..we proclaim you are King.”

“I know that song!” He exclaimed.

Rich, my new friend, left smiling, CD in hand.

I remained, smiling, as I recalled the scripture:

“Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Eph.2:19-22)

I released the last blog, A Greater Miracle, on November 1st. My trajectory in this “Greater” series was adjusted by our Father the next night when he reminded me of a report I had read that day, 2nd November, about an event on ‘the world’s stage’ that confirmed to me in a beautifully personal way, the message of my last blog.

You’ll remember that the essence of that blog was the the miracle of the New Covenant whereby God has promised to change human hearts reconciling the world to himself and us to one another. I spoke of how we personally experienced this miracle of reconciliation in divided Northern Ireland. Rocky, the Holy Mutt, was God’s agent sent to bless the feet of those who had proclaimed this good news at St. Mary’s, that God reigns over ALL

The event on ‘the world’s stage’ I’m talking about was the Rugby World Cup Final that was played last Saturday between England and South Africa.

As I lay in bed pondering the epic victory of South Africa over England I realized………

………….S.A. had scored 32 points! As I have mentioned before in connection with the 32 counties of Ireland and Minnesota being the 32nd State in the USA that number represents COVENANT.

…………..My first introduction to South Africa was through reading the book THE COVENANT by James Michener in my twenties. It focuses on the history of the formation of that divided nation through the coming of the Dutch Afrikaners and the English to colonize that part of Africa.

Pienaar, the captain of the victorious South African team that had won the ’95 World Cup hosted in South Africa, said this year’s was a more significant victory, because the captain, Siya Kolisi, was an indigenous African, and the team embodied a true unity of those races.

Pienaar, Mandela who presented the trophy to him in ’95, and Kolosi on this occasion, had all worn shirt #6. While 666 represents ‘the beast’ in Revelation 13, consistent with the truth that God’s reign over ALL, it also represents the three nails (pictured in the Hebrew letter Vav = 6) that pierced Christ on the cross, thus destroying the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8) and reconciling the world to God.

…………..I read The Covenant in preparation for the first of several trips I was privileged to make to South Africa. There I joined spiritually with the many thousands who were already declaring for their nation through my song……”Lord Jesus We Enthrone you……….we proclaim YOU OUR King.”

Apartheid was still in place as we worked with that precious little community of whites and blacks who met alternatively in white Johannesburg and the Soweto township. It was, as we too were experiencing in Northern Ireland at that time, an embryonic representation of the reconciliation and unity that is possible in Christ….. when God changes hearts.

Then, lying there in bed, I smiled as it finally dawned on me

……………the name of that community was –

Christ the ROCK(y) 

Kolosi began his speech after the game with the words, “So grateful, so grateful…….

This is the only response we can make when knowingly or unknowningly we find ourselves recipients of God’s Grace…..actors in the New Covenant drama.

Thus I realized my little story from last week was being confirmed in this ‘Greater Story’, just as this Greater Story points to ‘The Greatest Story’.  

This is what we see in the book of Hebrews whose main theme is how the New Covenant is Greater than the Old Covenant. The writer quotes Jeremiah’s words, “I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts.” confirming that where man’s attempt to fulfill his vow to God has failed, God’s promise to fulfill his vow in man will not!

Then chapter 11 records the stories of many heros of faith. These stories however are all pointing toward The Story of The Hero of chapter 12.

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such great a cloud of witnesses let us look to JESUS, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross……”

For when all has been said and done there is only one story, of which all our  stories are shadows  – All of human his-tory……. is HIS STORY!

As Hilary and I sing……

This is the greatest love story ever

Pain beyond bearing, joy beyond pain.

This is the REAL thing, now and forever

Toward which all other stories laid claim

Just before we returned from Ireland I was invited to share at a cross community prayer vigil at St Mary’s.

Significantly St. Mary’s was the first Catholic church in the heart of Belfast and was built in 1784 with funds…… raised by the Protestant folk in the city!!

Many believers from both these ‘tribes’ were hoping that night for ‘a miracle’ that would mean the liberalizing of the abortion laws in Northern Ireland would not happen. The local assembly however faltered and failed yet again and the Westminster law was imposed.

But supposing there had been that miracle? We would still be left with a nation, and world deeply divided, falling apart. The human dilemma will clearly not be resolved by humanly elected and humanly run governments……..just look at the current chaos at Stormont, Westminster and Washington DC, to name but a few chronic failures of humanly appointed lawmakers!

I finished the last blog quoting Jeremiah’s lament over the wickedness of the human heart. However just a few chapters later, the same author records the promise of a Greater Miracle than the mere adjustment of a manmade law.

“‘The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant……I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.'” (Jer.31)

The ‘good news’ I was given to share that night at St. Mary’s, was this confident hope we have that God will ultimately fulfill his promise to do what he said he will do….. in changing every human heart, until one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

At the end of the prayer vigil a lady made a ‘B line’ for us.

“Paul! I remember you from Drumalis!’ She exclaimed.

I knew immediately what she meant.

Maybe 15 years ago we had been invited to share at a Catholic charismatic conference in a ‘mansion’ 20 miles north of Belfast called Drumalis House. During the event it dawned on Hilary and I the immense personal significance of the context of that meeting.

Decades before, Hilary’s aunt who lived in that area had done ‘the unthinkable’, by marrying a Catholic man! Subsequently her ‘Protestant’ family protested by completely disowning her.

She and her Catholic husband had then ended up living right here! – in the gate lodge of Drumalis House where we Protestants had been invited to address these Catholics! 

It was clearly a ‘set up’ by our Father and so Hilary and I told this story, and then asked the assembled company of our Catholic brothers and sisters for forgiveness as we identified with our forefathers. As it says in The Flame song:

“When our fathers erred they were weak like us

Times they failed to love times they failed to trust

But if we forgive……”

Repentance and forgiveness was reciprocated by our Catholic friends. The location of transgression had become the location of restoration.

We realized we had witnessed the Greater Miracle of God having changed hearts……as ‘the torch of faith’ was passed from one generation to the next!  

(Remarkably, Thomas, the leader who had invited us to share at that conference 15 years ago was counseling in a side room that very evening at St. Mary’s! When we subsequently discovered one another in the same building….. we joyfully embraced!)

This timely sign was to remind us that we have already witnessed the first fruits of this Greater Miracle that is coming!

After the service, as we stood around chatting over a ‘cuppa.’ Paul MacAree’s wee dog pictured above began to passionately lick my shoes. To everyone’s amusement this continued unabated for the next 20+ minutes!

On the way home my friend Keith said Father had highlighted to him the dog’s name – ROCKY. 

I have taught a Foundations Course, that I wrote almost 50 years ago, scores of times to very diverse groups. The opening scripture is the story of the wise and foolish men and the importance of building our house upon The ROCK who is Christ by hearing and obeying his word.

The course lays out the basis for our fellowship with God and our coming into unity with one another in answer to Jesus prayer in John 17. It is not that we agree on the details of every doctrine, but that we share a living relationship with the Rock that is the Lord  Jesus Christ. 

The next morning as I went for a dander up Peartree Hill, the Spirit highlighted to me the scripture:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…..”Your God Reigns!” 

I knew Rocky had ‘washed my feet’ because my Father wanted to affirm me in the gospel I had proclaimed, that HE reigns over ALL. 

No matter how bleak things may appear outwardly, he is the God who has committed to transforming us and our world…….. from the inside out

This is the REALLY ‘good news’ that he wants proclaimed!!!

On Wednesday the headlines in the British press featured the discovery of the dead bodies of 39 Chinese nationals in the refrigeration trailer pictured above, that arrived in England from Belgium.

Interestingly… “The number thirty-nine in Hebrew was written with the letters lamed (authority) and teth (serpent). Thirty-nine is the number of infirmity. When Adam and Eve sinned by falling for the temptation of the serpent, they inadvertently gave up their God-given authority to the serpent, who subjected them to disease, infirmity, and ultimately to death itself.”*

The sealed WOMB from which these poor ones were hoping to be launched into a ‘new life’, in a shocking way became – their TOMB!

Statements of horror and outrage came from all quarters including the British prime minister…..“How could these poor people have been so betrayed?”

Ironically the day before a bill legalizing the aborting of unborn children was destined to be passed into law in Northern Ireland by the British government.

Of the children who will die as a result of this legislative change it could be said:

The sealed WOMB from which these poor ones are hoping to be launched into a ‘new life’, will in a shocking way become – their TOMB!

Why do people not see the madness of such a double standard, where one and the same reality is literally one day declared a triumph and the next a tragedy?

Why is this dichotomy hidden from most……..yet in plain sight to others?

I believe there is in Ireland A Greater Famine than that which followed the potato blight in the mid 1800s ……..a famine that extends throughout the whole of the western world.

It is described in Amos 8:11, “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land — not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”

I’ve often said,“The heart of the Irish (human) problem is the problem of the Irish (human) heart.” 

When we have ‘heart idols‘ i.e. gods other than God himself, we are told God will answer us ‘according to the idols of our hearts’ (Ez.14:4). In other words, he’ll give us what we want……or what we think we want.

Hosea 1:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge…..and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

The loss of these children through abortion therefore is in fact the consequence of our rebellious hearts where we reject God’s way because we want our own way.  As it says in the book of Judges, ‘Every man did what what right in his own eyes.’

Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure.”

……….So is there any hope for us?

Next: A Greater Miracle.

*From The Biblical Meaning of Numbers by Dr. Stephen Jones

In my last blog I told the story of The Harpist and the Horn, the Horn being equated with the song “Lord Jesus We Enthrone You” which incorporates in it the cry of every believer’s heart, “Come Lord Jesus and take your place!”

On Monday evening on our way back from Ireland we were just about to board the connecting flight to Minneapolis in Chicago, when Hilary nodding toward the man opposite in the line said, “Is that not Larry?”

Our friend Larry simultaneously turned around equally surprised and delighted to see us. His first words were.

“We are just on our way home from Jerusalem! I was in fact going to send you a video of “Lord Jesus We Enthrone You” being played at the feast of Tabernacles there by 50 harpists!”

………Then I remembered that just the day before, a 50 Euro donation had been sent to us from Dublin, Ireland, along with a request for the Come Lord Jesus CD. The name of the sender, Jonathan Rowe, rang a bell, so sitting in Dublin airport I emailed to ask him how he had come across our music. His reply amazed us! A little background first……..

40 years ago when I wrote Lord Jesus We Enthrone You, I taught it at our fellowship in Belfast. Just a few weeks later Hilary and I went to Dublin for a weekend ‘get away’. That Saturday evening we were lead to a home fellowship meeting. Sitting on the floor of the living room crammed full of young people who like ourselves had just been ‘set on fire’ by the Holy Spirit, we flowed in worship from one song to the next….and then….. startled… I looked at Hilary and she at me….they were singing my song!…..”Lord Jesus We Enthrone You……we proclaim you are king.’

Afterwards we discovered that a girl from our group who had moved to London the week after I taught the song, had taught it to the London group, and then someone from the London group had the next week brought it to Dublin! (Subsequently we discovered that with the same rapidity the song had spread all over the world in a matter of weeks. Long before things ‘went viral’ via man’s internet….the song ‘went vital’ via God’s Spirit!)

Jonathan then immediately replied to my query explaining that he was indeed the son of the couple that lead that home fellowship! In fact he said his father was sitting right there beside him, (and just a few miles from us at the airport!)……. and sent us his regards! This after no contact for 40 years!

Jonathan also reminded me that the name of the fellowship was…… Shalom. (As in ‘Jeru(Shalom’)

So what are the chances…… that within 12 hours but 3,670 miles apart on two continents, I receive this double witness of….

The cry, “Come Lord Jesus!” arising from Jeru(Shalom) ?

The day we arrived home another very strange thing happened. I received a check from the ‘State of Minnesota Management and Budget’ telling me that several years ago I had overpaid and was due this refund ……for $50!

……..I just noticed the 120 days on the check which points to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the 120 in the Upper Room at Pentecost (50 days). However that feast described in Lev.23, fulfilled, and the downpayment given (Eph.1:14), we now look two chapters later in Leviticus to the 50 year law.

“Consecrate the FIFTIETH year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all it’s inhabitants……In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.” (Lev.25:10)

The significance of a third witness (three 50s) is to reveal….timing.

……..Thetime for the cry of the believer’s heart to be answered, and for the Prince of Peace to come to Jerusalem which means, ‘dwelling place of peace’ made up of the believers who, “like living stones are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (1Pt.2, Eph.2)

………The time for us to return to our ‘own property’, our inheritance of immortality that was lost in the First Adam but restored in the Last.

In the last blog I told of the sign on Horn Head where we witnessed the bridegroom Justin (the Faithful and True Judge of Rev.19:11) moments away from his desire.

I asked Larry, “Are you traveling alone?’

He replied, “No I have two companions

.…… Justin

…..and Jason!” (Son of Ya…….Jesus)

“Even so! Come Lord Jesus!”

I grew up in Gilnahirk on the Eastern side of the province of Ulster. The name translates from the Gaelic to “The hill of the HORN blower”

When the prophet Bob Jones said he saw me “blowing a trumpet/horn throughout the land” , I knew he was referring to the songs God has given me and in particular to “Lord JESUS We Enthrone You…..we PROCLAIM you are KING”

Over the last few weeks I was reminded how that “land” actually encompasses the whole earth and all nations…….

On the Mayo marathon we met Jeremiah, a Nigerian missionary to Ireland. When he discovered I had written this song, which he had often sung in Nigerian, he wanted a photo with us : – )

On the Sligo marathon we stayed with Endre, a Hungarian believer who had been a professional trumpeter in his homeland. Again he was thrilled to meet the author of the song. He had worshipped with it many times in the Hungarian language.

Our third and final marathon on this trip, the 32nd and last in the “Running with the Father’s Heart for Ireland.” odyssey was in Donegal where Hilary and I made our usual pilgrimage to the Western headland of HORN HEAD.

This has a special significance for our family as it so happens my father purchased a small field there. We were never able to get permission to build on it, but we like to return there when in Ireland to enjoy the view and reminisce.

This time a most unusual thing happened (humanly speaking : – ) As we were taking in the view a girl arrived carrying up the rocky path what was obviously a harp in case.

As we engaged in conversation with her we discovered that in an hours time a couple from America would arrive on that spot to be married! We watched and listened as she prepared.

I subsequently pondered the significance of the symbolism of all of this. She told us she had grown up in Stormont, near Gilnahirk. This area (like Westminster in London) is where the government of Northern Ireland reside.

For the first 21 years of my life Stormont building was the view through my bedroom window.

Each time we have returned to Northern Ireland I have made it my practice to go there and sing the song proclaiming that Jesus is King of this land

Currently due to an impasse between the two sides in government there is a vacuum, with no local government sitting in Stormont.

In the light of this, the government in Westminster have voted to impose on Northern Ireland, the only part of the British Isles where abortion has not been legalized, regardless of what the people think, the most liberal abortion law anywhere in the world!

Again although things look bleak from a human point of view we focus on the “Blessed hope” (Titus 2:13)

I find it interesting that TODAY, 27th September………

The songwriter K(ay n the) West was due to release JESUS IS KING

The songwriter K(yle)in the EAST who proclaimed JESUS IS KING

……..has a birthday!

As I enter my 67th year I turn to Psalm 67…….

“May God be gracious to us and make his face shine on us – so that your ways may be known on EARTH, your salvation among ALL NATIONS

As Hilary and I drove down from the headland we pulled in to let a car ascending it pass. I looked to see the driver dressed right royaly, a radiant beaming face looking longingly and resolutely toward the summit.

The groom’s name was Justin, meaning ‘just’ and the bride’s name Margaret, meaning ‘pearl’

I wondered if the harpist from Stormont was the signal that the “Blessed hope” was near and that soon the Just King Jesus would come to unite with his bride, who had been purified through suffering, to establish together God’s government in all the earth.

Yesterday we walked Ballymastocker Strand on the Fanad peninsula in County Donegal.

Despite it’s being rated as one of the 10 top beaches in the world, Hilary and I found ourselves alone on this ‘eternal’ stretch of coastline where it seems the breaking waves and towering cliffs at beachend, have been forever.

“What are Paul and Hilary that you are mindful of them?” was the adapted scripture that came to mind..

Then at the top of the cliff I spotted two ‘love birds’ gliding together on the air currents. I smiled realizing that although our days might be a breath in the light of forever, it is the experience of being continually carried along by the breath of the Spirit that gives our existence in this world meaning and significance.

As we turned to retrace our footprints in the sand I  noticed the only other soul we had encountered. He too had turned and once again we were moving toward one another. I was reflecting on how LIFE is knowing His presence in our present moment, when we and the stranger encountered one another. Small talk quickly gave way to substance as I noticing his rosary beads. I commented,

“……….and it’s a great place to pray!”

‘Aye it is that.’ Liam said.”When I moved to Scotland as a young man, all my friends would go to the pub’.……then with a glint in his eye …...’.but I had my prayers!’

So we were presented to one another in the context of His presence.

Liam then continued to speak from his heart those same things that are on our heart……from the yearning for the unity of God’s people, to a longing for the rekindling of the fire of faith in the hearts of the Irish…….from  a confession  of God’s power to do the impossible, to his resolve to restore all things in the end……to a returning to our Father’s house. As he aired his perspective on American politics, Irish society and the mainstream media I knew we were on the same page!

Hilary and I had been struck by the the apparent materialistic upgrade everywhere, the bigger newer roads cars and houses, presumably with the inflow of EU money and tourists. This was a far cry from the hauntingly simple and serene Donegal I remembered as a child on our family holidays, with consumerism now overshadowing a sense of community that was an easy outgrowth of, as one visitor a century before had noted, the innate ‘kindness of God in the people’s hearts.’

” The Irish have never had money.” Liam said. “……. and now that they do, they don’t know how to handle it and have lost their way!’

I could tell, not only by the Rosary beads but by his language, that we had been raised in the two different religious traditions of Ireland but we shared  one faith….a living faith expressing the heart of our one Father!

”What shall it profit a man (nation) if he gains the whole world……and loses his own soul.”....came to mind.

As Hilary and I made our way back to the car by a different route because the tide had turned and was now coming back in I realized it was confirming Liam’s last words to us.

“If you talk to the people…..the faith is still in their hearts! Things will turn around. – In God…….There is hope!”

At this Tabernacles season in 2018 we were also here, and I wrote a series of blogs entitled, “Irish Road Signs” These were signs of hope I saw that also featured County Donegal…….the only county in Ireland that had not voted in the referendum for the legalization of abortion.

This week end the final marathon in ‘Running with the Father’s Heart for Ireland…for every county counts’ will take place in this….the 32nd county.

We await with eager anticipation the continued outworking of God’s Covenant (#32)………one of GRACE which cannot fail because it depends not on our ability but on His infallibility, in our two homelands…….the 32 counties of Ireland and the 32nd State of the United States of America!

On Friday night we will be singing Amazing Grace in this …the very county where the hymn writer John Newton also had his Good Mornin’Dad! dip : )

You can read about his Grace awakening here at www.amazinggrace.ie

Last Saturday Hilary and I participated in the 30th, ‘Running with the Father’s Heart for Ireland’ marathon along the Great Western Greenway in beautiful County Mayo.

After running my 6 mile leg, I wandered off the beaten track to grab a coffee at Nevin’s pub, ‘The Heart of Hospitality’.

Fortuitously  I caught the opening minutes of the Ireland vs Wales rugby match, but had to pull myself away from the team on the ‘green pitch’ to catch up again with the more obscure wee team on the ‘green Way’ – a motley crew of runners, walkers and cyclists of all shapes, sizes, ages and nationalities. They had been lead as an ‘Amen’ company to agree that now is the time for the ‘green’ of resurrection life to be experienced afresh in the Emerald Isle as people are awakened to the outrageous grace of the ‘Running Father’ in the story of the Prodigal son/s..”…..that the world would turn green with envy : – )

On Sunday morning the Irish papers announced the rugby team’s victory, so that they now head to the RUGBY WORLD CUP as the #1 team. The photo below is a play on words as the Irish captain is named Rory Best.

By Monday morning the Belfast stores were already capitalizing on the team’s success as the top photo illustrates. I smilingly noticed again the name on the ball that is used in all international rugby matches – GILBERT

I began writing Gilbert’s Journal when we arrived in the US as a series of meditations to go alongside the songs on the Bright Hostage Trilogy of CDs. Weaving together scripture and real life stories with the songs, that journaling now continues in the form of this weekly blog.

My middle name, Gilbert means “bright hostage’ and also happens to be the name of my father and my youngest son!

Although we know we are still held ‘hostage’ to death and decay, because of our sure and certain “hope” as believers we are growing ‘brighter’ by the day as That Day approaches when our full “adoption as sons” is manafested in this world.(Eph.1:5, Rm.8:18-24)

“Until then the most significant things on earth from heaven’s vantage point are usually hidden, like a baby in a manger.’ I thought as I wandered down a back road in Westport.

I looked up……. and as if to confirm the thought, where Croagh Patrick, the most famous, peak in ‘the land of saints and scholars’ should have been visible, there was merely a blanket of mist.

However our confident hope’ is that one day every eye will be opened and ‘’every knee will bow and every tongue confess that, ‘‘Jesus Christ is Lord!”….. to the glory of God the Father.’

……….And I was reminded of another Belfast billboard image I captured in the wake of another success by the Irish team when we were here last January.

Roaring the Best possible news of God’s gracious plan for his creation:

• 

• 

The week before we left for Ireland, two of our neighbors on the block reached out to us.

Lena is a lady who is African American, (but with enough Irish blood to make her a good rugby player : – ) active in the Black Lives Matter and LGBT movements. She was eager to break her happy news to us that a new life was forming within her!

John is a white man (but with a good deal of Native American blood) very ‘working class’ (Irish) /‘blue collar’ (American). He came to our door distraught, wanting to break the sad news to us that his bride of 44 years had just died suddenly at home.

In fact he wanted to use our toilet, as a miscommunication between the professional services meant that her body was still lying on the living room floor 6 hours after a failed violent resusitation attempt that left him traumatized!

The next morning John returned. He had a request. He said, “You know we aren’t really church going people……but we do believe in Jesus, and do believe the Creator has put us on this earth to help other critters, whether human or our four legged friends. …….and I know you are the same…….so I was wondering……would you be willing to take the funeral service? ‘

Then very reluctantly, while warding off his daughter Christina’s  embarrassed protests he offered….’. In fact I was wondering, because our house isn’t really suitable….. could we possibly have the reception here – at the Big Green House?’

’Certainly John. We’d be honored to host it.’  

The funeral was delayed until a few days before we had to fly. The Oswald Chambers meditation seemed particularly appropriate that morning:

The funeral was to be at a cemetery in our old neighborhood. I recalled an experience I’d had there just after we moved from Ireland while jogging through it in ‘the fall’ just as the glorious leaves were falling at the end of their brief lives. I noticed an old tree, maybe 150 years old, had just been felled, and the inevitability of death for every living thing struck me, and the song ‘The Other Day’ was born, inspired by Gal.5:6 which says the only thing that matters at the end of our days is ‘faith expressing itself through love’.

I shared in the funeral home how that song was given to me 25 years before ……for this precise day……..and place…….and person – for in talking with John and Christina I had discovered Bernie was a lady of faith that expressed itself in love in their Little Yellow House in the same way it did in our Big Green House, by becoming over the years a home for ‘stray people’ as her daughter put it. (Only they had managed to avoid getting into trouble with the code enforcement officer : – )

36 people came to the reception, the same number that signed the petition in support of us at City Hall. In scripture 36 is associated with ‘enemy’ and is made up of two Hebrew characters representing ‘authority’ and ‘nail’. ‘The authority of the nail’ speaks to me of the power of sacrificial love that has overcome our enemies, death, sin and Satan, and converts our human ‘enemies’ into friends.

When we arrived in Belfast as usual we went for a walk to combat ‘jet lag’ . We go ‘down to the sea again.’ Cultra is the priciest real estate in Northern Ireland. We like to look at the big houses here we might have aspired to, like the one above called Cuan, whose neighbor is ‘The Royal Northern Ireland Yaght Club.’

Alas our postal address is not ‘Cultra. County Down.’ but, ‘Robbinsdale Minnesota’ – but we wouln’t swap stories (or neighbors) for the world : – )

P.S. The last two ‘hard copies’ of that song on CD just went to Christina above and our friend Julie Norbury in Australia! …..but I would encourage you if you haven’t got one to access it through Spotify or iTunes : – )

“You give marvellous comrades to me; the faithful who dwell in the land.” (From Ps.16:3) 

Last Thursday I woke as usual after three hours sleep and listened. I found myself audibly but quietly (so as not to waken Hilary) giving thanks for people I have known who had been an inspiration in my life….those who have by their example called me on to know and love God better.

An hour and a half later the Spirit was still bringing people to mind from different times and places and seasons of our life. Many of you who are reading this would have been in my litany of thanksgiving – installed in my ‘hall of  faith’!

“Thank you Father for………………… Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

It was a wonderfully inspiring experience recalling and honoring all those  whose faces came to mind!

I got up out of bed as I often do and went downstairs and outside to stand on the grass and look up into the sky. The moon was bright before me illumining the wispy clouds covering most of the sky. Then I noticed a star between clouds, and then close by, another star in another space, and then two more over there and one more here……….

Father was showing and confirming in the sky what I had just done. Under his great light he was pointing me to little spots of the same light. There were countless stars up there, many more visible to my naked eye, but I had been given to see a small selection of them……..the ‘marvelous comrades’ that he had given to me over my lifetime……real ‘stars’ – in his and my estimation. 

Then this morning it occurred to me that last night the Ringo Starr saga I wrote about a few weeks ago got an unexpected epilogue. Ringo and band were performing at the local “Mystic Lake Casino.” Ben’s publicist asked him if he wanted to go. He wasn’t feeling well, but decided at the last minute he would go……only to find himself being invited onstage to join Ringo in his final number………With A Little Help From My Friends! 

The photo above is Ben’s subsequent Instagram post.

In the ‘light’ of my experience last night I realized that even the line, “I get high with a  little help from my friends” get’s redeemed as I consider those ‘friends’ who have helped me by called me upward and onward in life. 

Last week was the 25th anniversary of our move to the USA. Abby posted a photo also on her Instagram of our arriving at our new home (which we had bought in faith never having seen it!) 25 years ago.

My litany of thanks got extended as I spotted some of those who welcomed us here then, and made sure we had a bed to sleep on and food on the table!

Thank you Father for Theresa and Dave!

Thank you Father for Tony and Colette!

Thank you Father for Jake and Ali!

Thank you Father for Chris and Karin!