BeLOnGings

After the last blog about God’s glory, I received this double witness from “Candle Stick” Lewis, on the same morning, from two different friends in Ireland!!

Rosemary Millar wrote,

“Just read this after reading your last blog Paul……”

At the same time Anna sent this……

On our flight home from Ireland I decided to watch an old movie I had never seen. John Steinbeck’s classic book, “East of Eden” is loosely based on the story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck’s story is set in Monterey California, and ends beautifully with the son who believed himself to be ‘evil’, finding in the end, the acceptance he had always longed for, from his father.

Although 1 Jn.3:12 says Cain “was of the evil one, and slew his brother” we are all in this sense ‘of the evil one’ and capable of the most heinous crimes. I believe Steinbeck was inspired in writing into his story the truth that it is God’s desire and plan that in the end all sons be restored to their father.

Then the other morning I got a phone call. No name appeared on the screen so I didn’t answer, but noted the call was from Monterey, California. I recalled that was where the “East of Eden” story had taken place, so was intrigued to check the voicemail and discover who the mystery caller was.

It was Mary, whom I hadn’t heard from for many years, and so I purposed to call her in an hour, because when I woke that morning I felt prompted to first go for a run.

At one point on the run Father said to me, “The landscape will be forever changed”

I turned the next corner and was surprised to see a whole new vista (pictured above) open up to me! Where I remembered only trees, I could now see beyond to the river and golf course that had always been there – only hidden from view. A large swath of trees had been cleared since I last ran this route. The landscape had suddenly and dramatically changed, and in a beautiful way.

Some minutes later, I reached my turning point on the path, and as I paused for a few moments to catch my breath my attention was drawn to a bird’s song filling the air. There perched high up on a tree was a tiny solitary bird. I have never heard a sad bird song and as it sang it’s heart out I noticed how a vast area, maybe a million times the size of the little creature was impacted by it’s joyful anthem celebrating the gift of life!

“It’s time for the song.”  Abba said.

I had a sense I was being given instructions as to what I could do in the light of the world’s landscape that is changing forever. 

I got home, and returned Mary’s call. She said, that morning in her prayer time my song, “Lord We Have Heard” came to her mind. She put on the recording and began to play it. Then her 15 year old son came into the room. “What is that song?”  he said, “You need to put it on repeat!“

Let your glory,

Let your glory,

Let your glory

Fill the earth.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Let your glory

Fill the earth

Mary who is a remarkable prophetic intercessor said she believed this song was a prayer for this moment in God’s unfolding plan. “How can we make the song more broadly known?” she asked.

As I pondered further I realized  how these “God-incidences” all fitted together.

Mary’s son’s name is Seth. In the Genesis story, Seth, Eve’s (and also Mary’s!) third son, was ‘appointed’ or ‘granted’ in place of his murdered brother Abel. 

In the record of Jesus genealogy in Luke chapter three, the final verse reads“….the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” 

All of humanity including Jesus, “the last Adam” (1 Cor.15:45) are descended from this appointed son of the first Adam.

God’s ‘glory’ plan is set forth in 1 Cor.15:22 in terms of the two Adam ‘containers’. 

“As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 

This was the message I was being doubly sent from Monterey – The Mountain of the King! 

…..and so we are invited, to be the little birds atop a tree, each charging and changing the atmosphere of an entire neighborhood…. as we burst forth in this joyful song of hope,

…….as the “Amen” on earth to God’s promise, which will most certainly be fulfilled……..

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab.2:14)

P.S. I have responded to Mary’s request by posting the above video on Youtube and giving the background story here on my blog. As you can probably guess I am very low tech and so cobbled together a few slides from our last visits to Ireland and videoed them while playing the song through my simple sound system! The result is less than professional! However you may notice the rainbow like color effects coming in and out of the shots. An expert may well be able to explain why, scientifically, however what to most might seem like ‘distortion’ I took as an affirmation from our Father that our prayer will indeed be answered and his glory, which is made perfect/revealed in our weakness, will indeed fill the earth. (The Celtic monks in fact deliberately included a mistake in their work to affirm the weakness of the human vessel!)

The song beautifully arranged and recorded (and only mildly flawed :- ) by my friend Paul McAree is of course also available on The Ascent CD from us paulkyle.org or through iTunes, Spotify etc. Mary suggested Facebook. Any other ideas?  Get it out there and offer it up as you are moved : – )

Thank you.

Yes, the Time of God’s Favor….it wasn’t a typo! (or spelling error for Irish readers : – ) 

All my songs are registered with Christian Copyright Licensing Inc. I rarely hear from them, but the other day got an email asking me to check that the lyrics of all my songs had been submitted. I went to their website and discovered that for some reason unknown to me, one, and only one of my songs was without lyrics! As I typed in the words of the song that had been given to me many years ago I realized this odd turn of events was the Lord quickening to me the message of this song for this time!

 

We need a Savior for this land

Someone who can bring relief

Someone who can really understand

Someone who has shared our grief

Someone who can heal a bleeding wound

That saps our life day after day after day

Someone to do the impossible

Destroy hostility and make us one

Oh God is there no way, no way.

 

I the Lord have heard your cry

And I have sent help

When you called you didn’t know my name

But I the Lord knew who you meant

And so I sent my one and only Son

Then turned away as he abandoned himself for me

And when all the powers of hell were spent

I turned again to him raised him in my arms 

And we cried, “Victory!” 

 

Now is the time of God’s favor

Now is the time our cry’s been heard

Now is the time to be saved, to be saved

 

The Almighty God has spoken

Yet mortal men hear

A word that never can be broken

Yet breaks the hearts of all who hear

A word for all men in all places

And yet a word to us here

A word that first was heard in heaven

But now it’s in our hearts and on our lips 

The living word is near.

 

Now is the time of God’s favor

Now is the time, our cry’s been heard

Now is the time to be saved, to be saved

 

So today when you hear him 

Don’t harden your heart

As they did in the desert

And the light they had grew dark

For today won’t always be today

When time is past

And eternity is begun

When Jesus comes again in glory

And we stand with him in our Father’s house 

And cry, “This is home. This is home.

Home at last. We’re home at last.”

 

Now is the time of God’s favor

Now is the time our cry’s been heard

Now is the time to be saved, to be saved.

 

America I have heard your cry

Africa have heard your cry

Europe I have heard your cry

Asia I have heard your cry

Australasia I have heard your cry.

………And I have sent help 

 

As it says in Hebrews 12, everything that can be shaken is now being shaken so that that which cannot be shaken will remain. It continues,

“Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.”

In our Foundations Course, I used to conduct “The Why Test” Starting with any behavior I would ask “Why?” a person did that, and then“Why?” and “Why?” again, until I arrived at a core or foundational belief a person held, such as “Money makes you happy” or “It’s important that people like me.” or “Professional success will bring fulfillment.” 

Then followed the question, “So is that a good foundation to build your life on?”

The parable of the wise and foolish builders then illustrated the foolishness of building on any other foundation other than hearing and obeying the words of Jesus. 

“Now is the time of God’s favor”…… because the current shaking of society as we’ve known it and the enforced slowing down of life gives people a gracious opportunity to re-examine the foundational beliefs they’ve been building their lives on and make any necessary course corrections.

It is a time to ‘be thankful’ and ‘worship God’ rejoicing in the perfectly loving father who disciplines the son in whom he delights. (Prov.3:12)

I was then reminded of the above photo I had been prompted to take in our friends home in Florida a few months ago.

P.S. You can listen to the recording of the song on the Trek of the Bright Hotage CD via Spotify, iTunes etc. 

One day Hilary left for town to have coffee with an old friend. The plan was that after Luke’s nap we would venture out into the wet blustery ‘beyond’ for another adventure. I’ve always said an adventure is what God adds to us when we are willing to venture out ‘beyond’ with faith in Him.

As we were about to step outside I realized the front door key, which I needed to lock up, was in town in Nana’s pocket. So I let her and mummy know what had happened through the above video.

I didn’t realize at the time how ‘prophetic’ it would prove to be in the light of the subsequent worldwide ‘lockdown’ because of Covid19!

We are personally thankful to our Father in the light of President Trump banning flights from Europe that we had booked to fly back on the one day window he left open before Ireland was also included in the ban!

We felt right royally treated as the only passengers in the GoldLine bus that took us from Belfast to Dublin airport. In seats 15 (rest and change of direction) and 16 (love) we settled back in the knowledge of our Father’s care and control over all things.

We are all wired by our Creator to paradoxically desire both home security and distant adventure. A life psalm for us is number 84 which captures both,

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord…………..Blessed are those who DWELL IN YOUR HOUSE.”

………..Blessed are those whose hearts are SET ON PILGRIMAGE………….till each appears before God in Zion..”

Watching Luke playing over the last few weeks the phrase “Fearless adventurer” came to mind. I believe this is the quality Jesus wants us to retain as we grow older if like “little children” we are to enter into God’s kingdom. Secure in his love we can continue to venture forth in faith.

The longings for both adventure and security are spiritually based and satisfied only by faith.

The news about CoVid19 can provoke much fear. Interestingly the number 19 represents FAITH, the antidote to fear. Believers in God’s kingdom can turn the fearfulness of “the world” in this situation upside down and enter into the rest of Psalm 91 as we find shelter in “the secret place of the Most High.”“This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our FAITH!” (1 Jn.5:8)

The root of all fears is the fear of death. Should the worst scenario the world imagines happen and we loose our physical life, the apostle Paul tells us ……in the upside down,“kingdom of God”, it actually counts as a ‘gain’! (Phil.1:21)

In fact Jesus said it is only by loosing our lives, by DYING to self, for his sake and the gospel’s, that we find the ADVENTURE God has for each one of us in this life!

We attended a lecture in Belfast by a world authority on C.S. Lewis from Wheaton College. He spoke of how Lewis’s ‘Awakening to longing‘ began in his birthplace, Belfast, as he looked out over the Holywood Hills as a child wondering what adventure lay out there….’beyond’ his knowledge and experience.

On returning to my Northern Ireland birthplace I find myself also reaching ‘beyond’ what I have known and experienced heretofore.

Just the other day I walked ‘beyond’ on Ballyholme beach at the foot of those Holywood Hills only to discover a new door in the wall…….leading no doubt to a “secret garden”

I smiled as I noticed the dove perched above the door on the hedge…….confirming the Spirit goes before us when we choose faith over fear, and venture ‘beyond’ the ‘safe’ and familiar.

Walking back to the car I passed the gate to the exclusive Royal Ulster Yacht Club sitting in a private but not so secret garden.

High on a hill for all to see……the club offers an attractive reward to those sailors who settle for this world’s criteria for “success”.

But what “the world” has to offer can never satisfy that deeper longing for the truer security and adventure that was found by another Irish sailor.

1500 years ago Brendan and his company ventured out from these shores in their little wood-framed, leather-hulled coracle, placing their faith fully in their loving God, the Lord of the winds and the waves, for their adventure.

Today is the date when another Irish saint, Patrick, was said to have died. Whether that is factually true or not we know he certainly did die to himself to live as a fearless adventurer bringing the gospel back to his former land of captivity and transforming the world of his time and our time through his exercise of faith in love.

I recalled the lecturer from Wheaton say that the map of Narnia was a map of Belfast. It was here too that I was awakened to these Be-LOnGings that only find their fulfillment in being a playful child, and fearlessly venturing out in faith like Luke and Lewis and Lucy

……with that ‘good’ if ‘unsafe’ playful lion called Aslan.

For in the end of the day play isn’t so much about what you do

…….. as about who you are doing, whatever you are doing, with.

In the Psalmist’s words

…….. and being with You nothing else I desire.

I wasn’t sure where to go with the blog this week……..until this morning when Hilary ‘out of the blue’ sent me the above photo.

It’s me with our only 100% Irish grandson.

As I paused to ponder the photo, which she had taken spontaneously, Dad began to unwrap for me the significance of it’s context and gave me today’s Title.

We are pictured by Donaghadee harbor.

Behind my head to the left, is a LIGHThouse. At the foot of that lighthouse…….. Hilary and I first kissed😍

In front of my head is another LIGHT (Luke) who was born here 47 years later……..a fruit of our entering into the Marriage Covenant together.

I remembered that morning, Hilary and I, Luke and Abby his mum had lunch together in a nearby cafe. There Abby mentioned how her work on social media for Established coffee had been blessed, garnering 25,000 Instagram followers (more than Starbucks😊) I paid the bill which came to $25, and left smiling.

Then I discovered as we walked out the door, the name of the cafe………Bridewell.

The number 25 represents Blessing.

”Thank you Father for multiplied grace (5×5= 25) ………and for the blessing that has flowed from the Well of the Bride you brought to me in this place many years ago.”

The reason I tell this story is to simply encourage us all to learn…… to pause……..to listen……..and to give thanks.

I was intrigued to discover on arriving in Ireland this time that the two churches we have the closest personal connections with were both engaged in a “Wake Up” theme. One was called “AWAKE” the other “REAWAKEN”

Both are legitimate exhortations. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “ Awake sleeper; rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” and those know the history of Ireland are familiar with the history of a vital church here that needs Reawakened. However Dad showed me how the theme I had been given a few months ago, A GREATER AWAKENING, was pointing to something even more……..than in Paul’s day or Patrick’s day, for I believe we are living at a time like no other. As we move from the age of Pentecost extending over the last 2000 years into the age of Tabernacles in this new millennium our hope is not just for a Revival of religion,

………..but for the Restoration  of God’s original purpose as set forth in the Presbyterian catechism I learned here as a lad,

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

………and for the Reconciliation of the whole of creation, as set forth in the letter to the Colossians,

“ For in Him (Christ) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of the cross.”

Back in Belfast, I walked past the Methodist church building where Hilary and I sealed before God and men that Marriage Covenant all those years ago,. On the church notice board was a line from an old Charles Wesley hymn. It seemed to speak to this conviction that we have been born and been called together in marriage at this very special time in the unfolding plan of God…..as our sleepy eyes are opened to read in the pictures of our everyday lives God’s Story in this new Day of a thousand years

“Timing is everything”

…..which is why I waited an extra week before posting this follow up blog

……..in God’s time.

The ‘miraculous’ unfolding of events is recorded in detail on Robin’s blog posted yesterday at robinkyle.com

I will simply quote his final paragraph about the “peace that passes (goes beyond) understanding” that enables us to be, in the title of the last blog, Patient in our Be-LOnGings.

“Turns out the peace I experienced after the “bad” news in Boston three weeks ago was completely justified. I had an adventure with a divinely appointed angel. I got to take care of some practical life stuff that I wouldn’t have been able to deal with had the surgery happened when it was planned. I got to enjoy a little vacation in Boston with my parents who are two of the best people anywhere to hang out with and when I go back in May for the real deal I will be better prepared, in better health and with even more to be grateful for.”

Just as Robin posted he had been “Prepared in Advance” with a song he had been “given” a few months before “the Boston shock”, so I realized I too had been given a song in advance, a few years ago, for this situation.  I  recorded it yesterday in our Belfast bedroom and have posted it above.

The words of Psalm 147 about the “legs of a man” and what God truly delights in are all the more poignant now, with Robin’s story!

 

I have found that our little personal stories often overlay God’s big story. This happened last week in Boston.

A few years after the Pilgrim Fathers founded their colony a few miles south of Boston at Plymouth, the Puritan, John Winthrop, helped found this colony in Massachusetts Bay.

His seminal sermon,”A Model of Christian Charity” also known as “A City on a Hill” inspired by the picture of “the lamp” giving forth light to all in the Sermon on the Mount, described his vision for this Christian community to become a “shining” example in the world.  

This notion of a lamp, a light, a fire, is what took us to New England in the first place. A friend of ours had given Katherine Puleo a copy of “The Flame” anthem I’d written about an outpouring of the Spirit in ‘The Great South land of the Holy Spirit” at the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Katherine, who organized the annual Prayer Breakfast at the Massachusetts State Capitol said, “This song is also for Here, New England and America…and for Now!

We three were back again in Boston last week with a plan involving Robin’s amputation. God had a different and better plan. When we heard the surgery was not going to happen at that time, because Robin was exhausted with all the preparations leading up to the trip, we all agreed to stay on for a week. It ended up a wonderful time of just ‘being’ together.

Then friends Collins and Cheryl who pastor a church in Great Barrington asked if we would share at their church on the Sunday. It proved a great opportunity to give expression to what we had experienced God doing during that week.

Cheryl asked me in advance to share about freedom, community and relationship. Unbeknown to her this perfectly summed up what we three had experienced more than ever before, in that week together.

Robin told the story of how God had set him free. Then he spoke of why we had come to Boston, and sang the song he’d been given, in advance of God’s changing ‘our’ plan. (Now posted on his blog at robinkyle.com)

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/WkxZox1z/img_2889_hd.mp4

I then shared with the church a poem I had written 24 years ago for Robin when he had turned 18.

Both Robin’s song and my poem touch on the delight of simply ‘being’ together.

To illustrate what we had experienced that week I used The Holy Trinity icon of the Father, Son and Spirit communing around a table. The icon, inspired by the story of Abraham feeding his three visitors by killing a calf, made us smile, as we had been joining Robin throughout the week on his ‘Carnivore diet’. The icon background also points to the story of the return of the prodigal son to the Father’s house.

Our week of just ‘hanging out’ together had culminated on Friday, January 31st, walking the historic ‘Freedom Trail’, sampling coffee shops and eating places.

That evening I caught a glimpse of the day’s British news on a TV screen – BREXIT finally happened!… and Boris Johnson was speaking of a NEW day of opportunity for ENGLAND (and the rest of the UK.)

Political views apart, I took note of his name. John means ‘YAHWEH IS GRACIOUS.’ This date was also my mother’s birthday. Her name Anna also means GRACE. It would have been the first day of her 99th year. 99 is the gematria for AMEN. 99 is also 9.11… the gematria for GRACE!

As Robin sang, we are indeed, “on God’s time now”.... His time for the birthing of a New Day….. the Great Sabbath Millenium.

Our housing happened to be in the city of Brighton i.e. BRIGHT ONE. The name Robin means BRIGHT or SHINING FAME. The refrain in Robin’s song written months before is “There’s a LIGHT that shines in me and you.”

“The Great Awakening” that swept Britain and America in 1730’s began in New England. Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon at that time was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

I wonder could the GREATER AWAKENING I have been writing about in our day, be more than another religious revival based on the fear of hell in the next life? Could this GREATER AWAKENING be an awakening to the GRACE of a loving God, drawing us into an intimate relationship with himself so that the light of his presence in our lives then transforms this present dark world into the ‘bright’ kingdom of God on earth, here and now?

A final sign (below) seemed to confirm to me that our personal story on this trip was an affirmation, that God will indeed, as he has promised in scripture, at this time, soul by soul, city by city, and nation by nation, fill the whole earth with the brightness of ‘his glory’, which is ‘his goodness, which leads us to repentance’ (Rm.2:4) ….even as the waters cover the sea.

This afternoon searching for a coffee shop in Boston to find WiFi, the best I could do was to end up sitting in my car in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot, sipping a decaf. Two older men approached and I heard them having an animated conversation about the car next to mine. I was just about to pull out when I noticed it was a Subaru Outback. I chuckled and thought, “It doesn’t really matter where you drink coffee….only who you drink it with” for I knew it was Jesus speaking : – )

Let me explain. Just a week earlier Hilary and I had been in Florida. Our friends had lent us their car – also a Subaru Outback. The day after we moved into our KOA cabin, an RV pulled in to the spot directly opposite us. It’s name – Outback.

So I asked Jesus what was the meaning of this triple witness in these two places.

He said, “I’ve been Out ……but I’m coming back : – )

I realized that for us personally there were two other levels of meaning;

We will be coming back to Boston, having made this first trip Out from Minneapolis. We failed to intersect on this occasion with our doctor from ‘man’s best’, Harvard University, but instead have had an experience in God’s Higher School of Learning. To get the full background to this story, you can read and listen to Robin’s latest blog @ robinkyle.com

A few days before we came to Boston for the amputation, my friend Mike from New Zealand sent me ‘a word’, “Something out of left field is going to happen.” As it turns out, it did,…..so  Robin still has his left leg!

The other level of meaning relates to the assignment Father gave us when He invited us to move to America 25 years ago. We have always sought to only do what we see our Father do by only responding to His invitations. These invitations usually come through His servants. He reminded me that after moving to the US He arranged for us to be invited to the two ‘cradle sites’ of the church in this nation, St.Augustine, Florida, where the first Catholic mass was celebrated on that shore, and New England, where the Protestant Puritans and Pilgrims landed.

Both invitations had come through beautiful believing women, both called Katherine. The name Katherine means “pure.” I think both of these ladies represented the bride of Christ.

Over the next years we made many visits to these two ‘birthing’ places, repenting and interceding, teaching and preaching, worshiping and of course singing……..Lord Jesus we enthrone you, we proclaim YOU  are King…….Come Lord Jesus and take your place…….. in this place. We knew that the foundation of the American church had ‘mixture’, and that the building upon that foundation has often been flawed.

We knew we have been called to prepare “the bride” for the Bridegroom who went Out from the earth 2000 years ago, but is coming back for his bride in our day.

Over the last few years our two dear Katherine’s both died. Subsequently our invitations ceased, and we were Out of these two significant places. However over the past few weeks we have found ourselves suddenly back in both!!

Although Jesus went Out after his first (dying) work and will come back for his second (living) work as prefigured by the offering prescribed in Lev.14, he  has of course continued to be present by his Spirit in his disciples who have continued his work of, “ …….. doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.(Acts 10:38). However I believe there is now a greater anointing of the Holy Spirit coming for those who in past generations or in this one have been chosen and prepared through training to join Him in that second great work.

A few years ago my friend Bill introduced me to the kettleball method of training. Before this trip I had pretty much plateaued with the 35lb weight and realized I was ready for the next level of challenge and growth with the 44lb weight. When we arrived here at our divinely provided accommodations in Boston we were delighted to find it came equipped with a gym! I went in to look, and there it was……the 44lb kettleball!

The number 44 represents “chosen”. It also points to Ezekiel chapter 44 which describes the difference between the Old Covenant Levitical  priesthood and the New Covenant Melchizedek priesthood under our high priest Jesus. These New Covenant priests will be able to exchange their woolen (earthly) garments for linen (heavenly) garments representing the ability to move between the earthly and heavenly realms as Jesus demonstrated after his resurrection.

Robin’s chosen form of training on the other hand is the X3 resistance band workout. We have been watching him use this and are being taught by him the mechanism of how muscles only grow when they are challenged to the point where they exclaim, “This is going to cripple me!…..I need to become stronger!!!”

As he said this I knew he was prophecying  about his own life, for this latest test of being deprived at the very last minute of the relief of lifelong pain and disability has elicited from him the response, “This is all in God’s plan because it’s only as we are challenged that we can grow stronger,”  

We have witnessed that growth in his level of faith as he repeatedly gives it all over to God, trusts , gives thanks and finds peace.

There are three levels of faith in the believers life represented in the three feasts. The first level is Passover faith – saving faith. The second level is Pentecost faith – sanctifying faith, and the third level of faith is Tabernacles faith – the faith of coming into perfect agreement with our Father. 

We are all being trained up in God’s X3 through our trials to becoming truly and fully like Jesus – Sons of God.

• 

• 

We three in training : – )

This drawing and poem by our friend Hilary Curragh was one of the many expressions of love that accompanied the birth of our son Robin, our first child and the first ‘newborn’ in the Gilnahirk Fellowship, later to become Community of the King.

Robin’s arrival had been quite traumatic. It happened to be on the day I commenced my Obstetrics and Gynecology training. His was the first birth I witnessed in preparation for delivering my quota as a medical student. Hilary had been virtually ‘knocked out’ with too much sedation. From there everything seemed to go downhill! It seemed that everything that could have gone wrong did, but I remained for the duration because as a medical student the doctor in charge assumed I could handle it!

The final complication was the discovery that Robin had a rare congenital malformation affecting extensively the blood supply in his left leg. I headed straight for the medical library to read up on possible complications. My stomach sank, and reeling, I drove blindly out into the countryside to find some place where I could process all I had absorbed over the last 24 hours “with sighings and groaning too deep for words.” Never were the gifts of tongues and tears so valued!

“Why me?” I asked.

“Why not you?” Father gently answered.

……and over the next months we experienced God’s grace more than ever in our weakness.

I didn’t tell Hilary what I had read, but a few weeks later she commented, “I think his affected leg is growing larger than the other one.” She was right. We began to measure, and then pray, and measure again, and pray…. and lo and behold the growth of the two evened up. Thank you Father!!

However at the age of 11 Robin sustained a wound on his affected ankle. Now 31 years later, the painful ulcer has still not healed! So this Tuesday, (28th January) Robin is scheduled to have the now cancerous wound and deformed leg amputated.

On the face of it – it seems a depressing story. Yet as Robin shared his story at the last FREEDOM! retreat of being “Awakened”, he was filled with peace and Hilary and I were both filled with joy!

I had just given the talk on “Repentance”, explaining it in terms of our being ‘Awakened’ to truth!.…the truth about God, the truth about ourselves and the truth about this life. We finished with the song, “God works all things absolutely all things, God works all things together for good.”

Then Robin stood up to share. He told the story of how he had journeyed “to a far country” searching for answers. There he had become ‘bound’ by an unbreakable addiction to smoking. Like the son in the story he ‘came to himself’ and finally after many years arrived ‘home’. He asked Hilary and I to help him walk through the 5 steps/keys we teach at FREEDOM! As we talked and listened together to the Holy Spirit he realized that the root of this addiction had been an act of “rebellion” in reaction to the hypocrisy he was seeing in the church. In response to the Spirit’s insights he chose to take responsibility and repented, released, renounced, and rebuked, and then received afresh our Father’s love.

That afternoon driving back to his house he said he had to pull over he felt so ‘intoxicated’! Then a tumor in his mouth that had been growing for sometime suddenly just, ‘popped out’! He smoked a few more times and then one morning realized he no longer had the desire! That morning he decided to quit, and has had no interest in cigarettes since!

This is just a glimpse into Robin’s journey back to his heavenly Father’s house of love. (It is of course actually Dad’s story about Robin rather than Robin’s story.) If you would like to hear Robin tell his fuller story in his own words and follow his progress through this amazing medical odyssey, as the three of us set off today for the operation in Boston, you can follow his blog.

If you would like to contribute to the considerable expenses surrounding the operation you can do so through this link. https://www.mightycause.com/story/Robinamp

From this ‘mighty cause” link you can in turn link to Robin’s blog.

Please do forward this to others who might know our family and be interested in following the unfolding story.

We always begin the FREEDOM! retreat at The Big Green House with Psalm 23:

“The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want: He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.”

May each of us ‘Awaken‘ more and more to this wonderful“kingdom of God” which consists of ‘right choices’ peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rm.14: 17)

Many thanks for your love and support over the years.

In our Father’s perfect plan.

Paul and Hilary

The text on Robin’s truck license plate is of course perfectly appropriate; “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Mat.7:11)

On Sunday afternoon immediately after the Freedom! retreat, Hilary and I hightailed it out of Minnesota just before the snow started. We were headed to see friends in the Sunshine State for a few days respite  before  accompanying our son Robin to Boston for the amputation of his left leg at the end of this month.

Despite the pressure to buy, we had as usual just trusted the Lord to give us our ‘seat assignments’ The man at the window looked quite ‘put out’  when we told him we had the two seats beside him. But he soon engaged and began talking to me about his worldwide retirement vacation experiences and before long had become quite relaxed and began asking me questions about ourselves.

A few hours later Bob sheepishly confessed that when he had bought his window seat, there had been an empty seat next to  him and only a person on the aisle. He indicated he had hoped for more privacy, but admitted  he had really enjoyed our conversation and hearing about our very full family life.

He said he always liked to book row 22. We smiled and told him we did not believe in ‘co-incidences’, only ‘God- incidences’. I then asked him if he knew that in the Bible the number 22 represented a “Son of light”? The conversation shifted beautifully.

At Orlando airport baggage claim, with a “Rivendell  Live” CD in one hand and a warm handshake with the other, Bob bade farewell to his new friends. The Spirit of ‘Come on on on in’ had followed Hilary and I out of Rivendell and onto the Sun Country flight :  – )

Steppng out of our cabin on the St.Augustine KOA the next morning, there right in front of me was our friends Larry and Jenn’s R.V.

It confirmed that my first order of business here was to write a report on the retreat as I had time for Reflection on what we had just experienced of God’s Grand Design

There is so much that could be said about the personal breakthroughs and visible transformations we witnessed over the 27 hours the 30 of us spent together at The Big Green House, but Father highlighted to me our final ‘Talking Circle” where we pass around the cross (pictured above on our communion table) as each person gets an opportunity to share their ‘take away’. This followed a joyous dance circle around the circular communion table where we had celebrated the Great Thanksgiving for our Father’s Great Love.

The tears began to flow with Raine. She and her daughter Mni had lived with us for 3 years. She said how blessed she was to be “home” again and to be surrounded by all these loving “Dad’s”. Everyone knew what she meant because she had shared her story of how God had been healing her wounding from her natural father and men in general.

The cross arrived with Andrew another Native American. He turned spontaneously to Raine. “Please will you forgive me as a man for all the evil we men have done to you?”

The quiet crescendo of tears and love in the room continued as two other women who had accompanied Raine from ‘the Rez’ spoke.

It took the first some time to tell her story, but everyone in the circle patiently entered into her journey from traditional spirituality through brokenness to a recent encounter with Jesus as he had come to her through dreams and now on the weekend through the people and through the creation signs we had been pointing out. She said, “This  weekend has been a perfect answer to my prayers to Jesus that he give me what I need to continue on this new way with him.”

Autumn was next. She spoke of how this was the first time ever she had travelled more than 20 minutes away from her husband and son to whom she was deeply attached. But she had yielded to the leading to come. “As soon as I stepped through the door” she said. “ I knew I was with family.”

We received this email from her the day after she got home…..

“I  have to share what I’ve experienced all day today. I really love Him. I keep having waves of just feeling Him close. Despite being so exhausted today, it just came in waves. That indescribable peace and craving to just lay in His arms. It’s so real. His love is so real. His adoration for us is so real. I really feel the freedom from all that was broken from me. It’s like I reached a place of feeling ’normal’. I don’t know how to describe it!”

More tears as Autumn passed the cross to Chrissy our “earthy” neighbor mentioned in previous blogs.

Chrissy held up the cross in a vaguely familiar fashion and began,

”I would like to thank the Academy…..”

Instantly everyone’s tears were replaced with uproarious laughter.

Chrissy then went on to talk about how she had “stopped going to church” many years ago. “If I was late or not dressed up like everyone else I was criticized and made a spectacle of. But in this house you are accepted just the way you are, and if you have to leave to do something they say, ‘Well come on back whenever you can.’”

Yes, we have seen some amazing healings and deliverances over the years, but the miracle I am describing here is the greatest one of all……how such a motley crew of men and women, marrieds and singles, young and old, rich and poor, Americans and Irish, Protestants and Catholics, religious and irreligious who were strangers to one another, but each known and drawn here by their one heavenly Father, can within a single day, of walking in the light in an environment of authentic love be forged into

…….. a real family.

I thought again of my new friend Bob on the plane and of a verse from the song we began and ended the retreat with:

Well I hear you’ve been traveling to the ends of the earth

You’ve been to the back of beyond.

You’ve been learning some lessons ‘bout what is of worth

So you’ve come to renew family bonds.

P.S. I jumped the gun a bit last week by saying this blog would be “Robin’s Story”. At the end of the circle, hours after the retreat was ‘meant’ to finish, Rita asked, “Could we please pray for you Robin?” He held up a tin of tuna, Saachi hadhanded him and laughingly said, “It’s  really time I gave my kids some dinner.”

So we will get to “Robin’s Story”.….. right on time : – )