BeLOnGings

Well I thought the GODSELECTION series had ended with Part 17, but the other night I woke, and the Holy Spirit began making some connections!

On the January 1st post I wrote,

“gloriously manifested, on that perfect day!” 

Then on the January 6th post I wrote,

“I was convicted that even though this was correcting a minor detail in the blog, the ‘little things’ are important as we move toward that ‘perfect day’

A movie was subsequently brought to my attention called, “The Called – Makings of a Perfect Day.” It was posted on YouTube on 9th January.

It gives the alternative view of one person to the prevailing narrative about America and recent events.

It features an enigmatic figure called Juan O Savin, and is woven throughout with references and messages.

I sensed because of the ‘Perfect Day‘ connection I was meant to post a link to it on the blog.

Another phrase I also used in a recent blog was,

“TIME WILL TELL”

Again, toward the end of the movie Juan says the same!

When these thoughts occurred to me I turned to jot them down, and noticed the time was 211 representing the 21st of January.

The film also ends…. in the future after the caption Two Weeks Later – i.e. after the events at the Capitol on 6th January

I would encourage you to watch it right to the end.

Maybe by 21st January we will all understand more?

https://www.bitchute.com/video/HFl0V1AJGC89/

After extolling the virtues of Hilary’s Christmas pudding and talking about the cherry on top of the cupcake, I have been given another gourmet title for this blog in, ‘The Icing on the Cake‘

In Part 8 of this series I talked about how early on the Saturday after the election, Father said to me I should do a ‘Victory Lap‘ – a 25 mile cycle circle around the beautiful ‘tree’ lined, City of Lakes. 

The blog was titled, “Choose your Trust’ and pointed to how scripture enjoins us not to trust in any man but to trust in God alone. As I joined with the creation singing my praise around the Twin Cities, it was to rejoice in God’s Victory, secured long ago.

When I arrived home that afternoon I witnessed the dead tree in the yard of the neighbor who had for a few years brought a dark cloud to the neighborhood, being taken out.

It seemed to me a ‘Victory‘ sign of life winning over death, and with the tree not ‘falling down’ – but UP!…. to represent an inflection point at this time as good triumphs over evil.

(Did you notice? The only word I picked out clearly in the recording was, “butterfly”)

Well yesterday, once again completely outside of our control, it came time for another dead tree…..one in the other next door neighbor’s yard! – to be removed! The bookend of a ‘double DEAD TREE witness’

Interestingly yesterday (when the electoral college was due to meet) was the feast of the Kings, Epiphany, and today is Christmas Day in the Orthodox calendar!

“The Icing on the Cake” title refers to our grandson Luke (LIGHT). Yesterday was his last day with us before flying back to Belfast with mummy and daddy. What a treat his heavenly Father laid on for him!

Trees in scripture represent men, and I believe these dead trees represented the ‘wicked’

“See, the STORM of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a driving wind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In the days to come you will understand this.”

I believe the significance of how this tree was dismantled branch by branch and section by section speaks of how the STORM of the LORD will not happen all at once, but will continue to be a step by step process…….until God “fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart.”

Psalm 2 continues (from last week’s blog)……….

“He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”

I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.

Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

Authority is being transferred to ‘the saints of the Most High’ (Dan. 7:18) …….so let us then indeed, in these days of the STORM of the LORD….. with a kiss of loving submission to our King, celebrate with fear!

“Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling.

Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Let Nana have the last word.……

The chipper’ of those dead trees reminds us of how the wicked steward who proved unfaithful was ‘cut in sunder’ (Lk.12:47) According to the law however that cutting had a limit (Deut.25:3) for God’s “Mercy TRIUMPHS over judgment.” (James.3:13)

Once again I notice I am given this message about the Triumph of the Lord as Part 17...the number of Victory!

With both of these dead trees having been taken out, the result for us is increased LIGHT!

May we all experience in 2021 increased LIGHT, as with awed excitement and joy we join with little LUKE witnessing to the ‘cutting’ and ‘the chipper‘ and the ‘BUMP!’ of ‘evil’

…….and the TRIUMPH of ‘good’

In the Community Foundations Course I wrote and taught for many years, I drew from Derek Prince’s teaching in The Marriage Covenant where he explains ‘koinonia’, the word that translates to ‘fellowship’ is ‘sharing in the common life of God’ i.e the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To experience this we need to be…

1.Walking in ‘the light‘ (1 Jn 1:7)

2. Walking in Covenant (That cannot be reduced to one text, but requires a full study of the Old and New Covenants/Testaments : – )

In yesterday’s blog I talked about a group whom I have been given locally, to ‘walk out’ ‘koinonia’ with ……4 of whom live here in The Big Green House!

As I was completing yesterday’s blog I asked a couple of them to come, read and comment on it. Then the other two ‘just happened’ to pass through my study on their own business. So I nabbed them, and asked them also to check it out.

Interestingly each of the ‘koinonia’ four offered a minor correction to my FATHERSCORRECTION blog : – )

….Our Father working through the Spirit in the Body of Christ, his Son.

Minutes after posting the blog, Brian, the fifth and final brother in this circle of ‘koinonia’ who had just read the blog, sent me this email

“Love the blog. At tonight’s meeting at WOTL I had a picture of canoeing into a storm.  The Father was steering the canoe, the Holy Spirit was supplying the power in the front and I was sitting in the middle as the duffer (along for the ride). It was an intense storm and I wanted them to go to shore where it would be safe.  They were both smiling.  I wondered where Jesus, the Son was and, of course, he showed up walking on the water.  The STORM of the LORD is here!“

…..Our Father’s ‘Chuckling Cherry’ on the ‘koinonia’ cake!!!!!

I realized Brian’s vision was a reiteration of the passage that launched and undergirds this GODSELECTION blog series. Psalm 2 begins

” Why do the nations CONSPIRE and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,”Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven LAUGHS; the Lord scoffs at them.

Like the giddy girls ‘schrunchingly distanced’ on Sunday’s super sled, our little band had just experienced again

…..The Miracle of Love on this journey together, where indeed we are just, in Brian’s words, “Duffers along for the ride” : – )

….that ‘koinonia’ that Jesus prayed for in John 17, and pointed to in Jn.13:25,

“By this will all men know you are my disciples, because of your love for one another“

How appropriate for Part 16 of this series – the number of aspects of ‘LOVE described in 1 Cor.13! Ha! What a Dad!

P.S. As if to confirm the ‘Chuckling Cherry’ title yet again, I have just received another email (as I am writing this in the middle of our night!) from a dear sister in Wales (who incidentaly is suffering deeply from an illness.)

.……proving that true ‘koinonia’ has no physical boundaries : – )

“Good morning Paul,

Just here chuckling. Woke in the early hours, having checked what time it was I noticed your blog had arrived. Determined not to “play on my phone”, I tried to rest and had been praying around old mind sets, when I felt prompted to read the blog ☺️. I love our Father’s sense of humour!

God bless

Lydia“

After posting the blog, “The Best Christmas (Pudding) Ever” God spoke to me through my wife (yet again :- ) It wasn’t anything too profound, just, “You should correct the description below the photos to Great Nana Kyle’s table tennis tournament rather than Nana Kyle’s.‘

Many years ago my mother had given us some money with which we decided to buy a little trophy cup that the 9 of us then would compete for each year. She played Table tennis into her 80’s – when she was still ‘competitive’ enough to beat the ‘young fellas’!

I was convicted that even though this was correcting a minor detail in the blog, the ‘little things’ are important as we move toward that ‘perfect day’

The following morning I got a long email from a reader, a brother who felt I was just plain ‘wrong’ on some contemporary belief and behavior issues.

I’ve described this as a ‘Family Blog‘ Most of you I have met face to face. We have a relationship. I know we share the same values – faith in God, love for others and a treasuring of family. I also appreciate how ‘diverse’ my readership is and seek to be sensitive to this, while faithful to ‘provoke one another to love and good deeds.” (Heb.10:24)

The Greek word used here translated ‘provoke’ is ‘paroxysmon‘ ‘I remember in my medical student days learning about the life threatening condition “Paroxysmal Nocturnal Dyspnoea ” pictured in a person awakening to feel themselves suffocating and violently jumping up gasping for air!

‘Speaking the truth’ as we perceive it even ‘in love’ can indeed be ‘life threatening’ to a relationship! But this is our responsibility to one another and so I appreciate those who have reaching out to me in this concerned way even as others have expressed appreciation for the provocation my sometimes ‘out of the box’ perspectives or links are offering.

“ The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a FATHER the son he delights in.” (Heb. 12:6)

It is always good, though uncomfortable, to be challenged, and so I have been holding the comments before my Father asking him to sift them and to sift me through them. While we all think we are working with ‘the facts’ it can be as if we are watching the same world events play out in a screen, but find ourselves to be perceiving two very different movies!

I have been helped in this sifting ‘process’ at the level of both soul and spirit, not only by Hilary, but by some faithful brothers I have been blessed to be given face to face and life to life ‘koinonia’ with, at this time. They each have deep personal experience of life’s fiery trials……..and of me!!

Email communication about matters ‘of the heart’ are difficult which is why I have not opened up the ‘comments section’ on these blogs.

I have replied to my friend affirming my ongoing love and appreciation but expressing my reluctance to enter into a lengthy ongoing point by point debate at this time……….

The next few days, weeks and months will likely be tumultuous for us all. I have been given Jeremiah 30:34 for this season.

“See, the STORM of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a driving wind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. IN DAYS TO COME YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THIS”

No matter who ends up in the White House…..

GODSELECTION will inevitably involve FATHERSCORRECTION.

May we all be able to identify and embrace his hand of loving discipline personally, as a church and in our lands.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:23,24)

I have suggested to my friend that in line with, “In days to come you will understand this.” we check back in with one another later, for..

TIME WILL TELL

Another point I have been convicted of at the start of this New Year is to trust that “people (including me thankfully!) can change.”…. for the worse yes, but even more importantly…. for the better.

“Yet, O Lord, you are our FATHER, We are the clay you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.” (Is. 64:8)

Let us not hold on to old negative judgments we have made about anyone (including ourselves) but remember that our FATHER is the God of the ‘second….and third and forth…. chance.” He is “the potter” who can break and remold his creations.

What we have chosen to do over this ‘holy-day’ season, is we believe, scientifically sound, fully responsible behavior, free of guilt and fear.

I will continue to post what I believe I’ve been given to share. I am no pope, and don’t claim to be an ‘expert’ so as you read these blogs please do not take my word for anything. Instead take responsibility to do your own research. Discern and decide for yourself what is real and true. Then take a loving and courageous stand for what you are given to personally believe – in your heart. “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Rm.14:23)

If you have found the blogs or the links helpful please feel free to pass them on as lead, as I know some of you do. While I am reluctant to get into much discussion outside of a live encounter, I welcome all input, positive and negative, and am happy to answer any questions.

Real science is never ‘settled’ and thrives on questioning. For those of you who want to pursue things further, I am posting three more recent studies/articles below that have confirmed to us personally how we have chosen to celebrate and live our daily lives.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/30/lockdowns-do-not-work.aspx?ui=bb2b60c02cb8338e5023840cf77638fdf4a643a5a675322588c45da11142be99&cid_source=prnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20201230_HL2&mid=DM761198&rid=1046912362

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/31/pandemic-face-mask.aspx?ui=bb2b60c02cb8338e5023840cf77638fdf4a643a5a675322588c45da11142be99&cid_source=prnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2HL&cid=20201231_HL2&mid=DM762038&rid=1047693143

https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/mask-harms-kids-68-parents-report-alarming-problems-first-its-kind-study-preprint1?utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%3A%20Mask%20Harms%20in%20Kids%3A%2068%25%20of%20Parents%20Report%20Alarming%20Psychological%20and%20Physical%20Problems%20In%20First-of-its-kind%20Study%20%28UmzESh%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&_ke=eyJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogIksydlhBeSIsICJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJwYXVsZ2lsYmVydGt5bGVAZ21haWwuY29tIn0%3D

……….and finally, a video of how on Sunday a row of “schrunchingly distanced” beautiful little girls (like the two at the top!) – from our family and the neighborhood, demonstrated ‘The Miracle of Love’

Watch the gravity disappear! : – )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrpKBehJRls&feature=youtu.be

…..connecting the dots……to see and hear……. “The Best Day Ever…… The Church of Biological Mysticism explained.”

This Christmas I tasted what I think was my best Christmas pudding ever. Growing up in Northern Ireland my mum’s Christmas (or Plum) pudding was always the climax of the Christmas feast.

For the uninitiated this is a desert made months in advance, packed with fruit, preserved with brandy, ready to be gloriously manifested, on that perfect day! The spiritual parallels by the way are fully intended.

Hilary’s tasty effort this year, although ‘last minute’ was absolutely delicious especially when topped with her purely sourced ‘from scratch’ custard!

When I talk about my ‘Best’ Christmas, I am speaking about the ‘interior’ journey, not the external one I and we all have been on over 2020

…..maybe I could have titled the blog “The Most Fruitful Christmas (pudding) Ever!” because I am talking about the ‘fruits of the Spirit’ (Gal.5)

…..at least the ones we can discern in ourselves are concerned. I think I enjoyed more of these than ever – joy, peace, self control. Of course other fruits like love, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, might be better judged by those we have been with : – )

You see we are all meant to be going ‘from faith to faith’ (Rm. 1:17) so that in the midst of dark outward circumstances the inner light can glow brighter and brighter.

“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that grows brighter until the perfect day.“ (Prov.4:18)

That is not to say the celebration though topped with gladness was not tinged with sadness. Lemon zest and juice also go into the pudding, the tartness helping to highlight the sweetness.

Carrying in our hearts those we know who have sadly fallen foul of the enemy’s designs this year to steal, kill and destroy, and have been confused and compromised by some diabolical leadership.

But thankfully the light is shining brighter and brighter unto that day when all will ‘know the truth‘ and walk fully free.

“When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. (Is. 26:9)

May 2021 bring us all nearer to that ‘perfect day’

WHO are you listening to?

As I said in the last blog, we no longer live in the days of BBC or ITV, ABC or NBC, but at a time when most on the planet have access to an almost unlimited number of voices they can choose to listen to.

As the Mainstream/Establishment voices have become increasingly corrupt it is important that we grow in discerning of spirits and judging of character. I have talked about this in terms of those whom I sense have the COURAGE to open mindedly (HUMILITY) seek to know (which involves “FACTS that add up over time”) and live (INTEGRITY) the TRUTH.

I am honored that you continue to read my blog!

WHAT are you hearing?

“FAITH comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD OF GOD” (Rm. 10:17) This morning on my bible app I listened to several chapters of Jeremiah, including Chapter 29. This afternoon a double witness came, reading the Christmas greeting from our friend Maureen, she finished her inspirational update with these words from that chapter….

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

In the end of the day we should be hearing words that express the TRUTH about the Love, Power and Wisdom of God, giving rise to REAL faith in our hearts.

WHEN can we expect this future hope to come to pass?

Tonight I woke with my mind filled with the prospect of turmoil over these next days. I opened my eyes and the clock read 12:17. I knew Father was saying that we live in THE TIME described in Daniel,

“THEN the sovereignty, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey Him.’(Dan.7:27)

The number 12 represents authority and the number 17 represents victory. We are now no matter what happens in the world around us to walk in authority and know the victory that is ours in Christ.

The assurance that we are living in the THEN of Daniel 7:27 has come from studying what scripture reveals about, God’s timing. https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/secrets-of-time

HOW will this take place?

This evening I checked in with two people who have recently been brought to my notice. Mike Adams, known as The Health Ranger does a daily update on political developments with some commentary on where he sees things going. I have appreciated Mike’s work on natural healing. naturalnews.com (Father highlighted his names to me.”Who is like God?” and the work of the two Adams!)

Today Mike wrote, “VP Pence, a traitor, is planning on accepting the Joe Biden electors on January 6th and fleeing the country as the civil war begins.”

I then caught a sentence or two from Professor Toto. Again the name describes how he seeks like the little dog in The Wizard of Oz to pull back the curtain of deception. Referring to Pence’s critical role in the electoral process on January 6th, Professor Toto said, “I don’t believe for a moment VP Pence is going to betray the Republic.”

Well these two brothers cannot both be right!

The “HOW” is something we can never be sure of. As someone said, “If you want to hear God laugh, just tell him your plans” Things never work out the way we imagine!

The word ‘hope’ from Jeremiah however, is not a vague optimism, but a confident expectation!

The following lyrics were given to me before recent events unfolded over 2020 revealing, when we pull back the curtains of censorship and propaganda, the ubiquitous extent of global corruption and control

Though wrong is called right and right is called wrong

Though the court is corrupt, true religion gone home

Though the famed and the fortuned dictate the song

Though our fallen desires just play us along

These fallen desires includes the desire to know HOW we are going to get to that ‘future‘. This is one of the desires we are to set aside,

and know by FAITH, as the chorus of the song states, that

……..ALL WILL BE WELL.

Last week I got two interesting and encouraging emails.

One friend wrote:

“Paul, your blogs have been a real life line to me, especially with everything that has been happening this year! Thank you for faithfully sharing what God puts on your heart as well as providing us with many very helpful links to understand better what is really going on beneath the surface.”

The words of Is. 59:14 ring so true in these days, “Our courts oppose the righteous, and JUSTICE is nowhere to be found. TRUTH stumbles in the streets, and HONESTY has been outlawed.”

More than ever I echo my mother’s prayer at the start of each day from Ps.25:4,5. “Show me your way O God teach me your paths. Guide me in your TRUTH and teach me, for you are God my savior and in you do I hope all this day long.”

Here are two examples of how ‘TRUTH’ has ‘stumbled on the streets’ of the UK and the USA.

I believe however that this is about to change dramatically as a tsunami of information sweeps the world through the internet, displacing the HateStream Media. As it says again in Isaiah,

“And I will make JUSTICE the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will SWEEP AWAY the REFUGE OF LIES, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” (Is. 28:17)

The other person who emailed me had discovered my Youtube channel and in particular the song, “We Will Fear The Lord”

Brent commented,

“Mr Paul, Greatly blessed by this! Do you have chords for this song? I searched ‘the Lord takes delight in those who fear Him’ and this came up. Thankful.“

What caught my attention was his name – Brent Heavener.

As Ben sings, it is getting “Harder To Hear” the TRUTH these days there’s so much ‘culture’ and ‘opinion’ and ‘money’ and ‘religion’ and ‘criticism’ and ‘journalism’ in the way.

But as we survey the world through the vehicle of the internet with as I’ve said before, “a courageously open minded passion to know and live the truth“, we need to trust that we will receive a Heavener perspective, as in the words of another Belfast songwriter, ‘God shines his light’ into our hearts, and as we tune into that ‘still small voice’ of the Holy Spirit.

In this pursuit we will more often than not find ourselves at odds with “The Establishment’ but in company with Jesus! Below, “Van the Man’ (backed up now by 23 scientific studies!) appeals that “Cyprus Avenue” be not only the name of a song, or the street where my mother lived, but a functioning restaurant!

It seems the distinction between good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies is becoming clearer by the day

….between those who determine, “We will fear the Lord and walk in all his ways” ….who have caught a glimpse of the Heavener, and seem to know one day they will stand before a sovereign God and give an “Honest to God” account of their lives to the judge of all the earth.

….and those who, “live a life without regard for the one from whom we came.” Someone has defined EGO as “Edging God Out”

Only God can read men’s hearts, but over the months I have given links to those who I sense are walking in integrity, humility and searching for facts that add up over time. You must make your own discernment. Each ‘awakened’ person contributes a unique piece to the multifaceted ‘truth‘

If you are SEARCHING for truth in ‘facts’, my preferred source now is theepochtimes.com If you are SEARCHING for truth in something more ‘fantastic’ you might want to check out,

TIME ALONE WILL TELL

……the relevance of the songs, and the stories that come to my mind in these days, stories such as The Silver Chair, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Wizard of Oz, The Pied Paper of Hamlin, 1984, Animal Farm, A Brave New World, The Matrix.

……and of course The Greatest Story Ever Told through the pages of the Bible.

I would recommend Stephen Jones current blog series at godskingdom.org which is an in depth study of the book of Isaiah, which I have been referencing.

Isaiah is known as the “Prophet of Salvation” and the “universalist” for he describes how God’s salvation in the end extends to the very ends of the earth.

All is well, and all will be well, for God has already won.

Honest to God!

“The Lord delights in those who trust in His unfailing love.

Whose heart is fixed, whose mind is set on the things that are above.

Whose life is hid with Christ in God, the one from whom we came.

Who watches o’er each step we take, ’til the circle’s closed again.“

Maybe my favorite hour every week is at 1.30 each Sunday. That is when Gilbert and I meet with my grandsons Ravi (12) and Ajay (11) for a Bible Study.

Yesterday (as usual : – ) Ajay said, “Papa I’ve lost my bible could I borrow one?” So I went to my study and retrieved for him the very first ‘real’ bible I owned.

“Thanks” said Ajay, and it happened to fall open at the above page. As you can see it had become loose with use over the years, so I seized the opportunity and said,

“Look boys. That is the Psalm you two have been memorizing over the last few weeks. Let’s hear how you are getting on with that…………”

I listened to both renderings with the usual interruptions to chat about the meaning of this much loved passage of scripture.

We then turned to our study, the story of Abram, the story of covenant.

We had come to chapter 14 of Genesis and so lingered over the mysterious encounter with Mechizadek the king of Salem. A thought occurred to me and so I quickly found this text message on my phone that had arrived the day before.

I asked the boys to interpret for me what it was, and it didn’t take long for them to figure out this $230 was Gilbert’s tithe sent to me through Apple Pay. A discussion about tithing ensued….. and about Salem and shalom and peace.

“But look at the figure! – a 23 (and a zero)!” I said. “Isn’t that a co-incidence?” The boys of course are well trained and know there are no such things as co-incidences, they are all ‘God-incidences’. Ajay smiled.

The conversation around the scriptures which is always invigorating and enjoyable came to a close. “Well I guess you should be going now.” I said. as looked up at the clock.

“Hey look what time it is?”

We had our usual group huddle as I recited the Blessing.

“The Lord (who is your shepherd) bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon ………and give you PEACE.”

As I woke during the night and began piecing all of this together the above blog title came to mind.

Never in my experience and likely in yours has there been such an awareness of people being so Deeply Divided in America and indeed in the world, nor so much uncertainty about the future. Humanity itself seems to be walking ‘through the valley of the shadow of death.’

I have just finished reading the book I referenced a few blogs back. On the cover “The Times” describes Jonathan Sacks as “One of the great public intellectuals of the age.”

The former chief Rabbi, I thought did a good job in describing the current dilemma humanity is facing. In the final chapter in seeking to end on a hopeful note, having described how society has developed a contractual mentality, i.e. “What’s in it for ME?” he goes on to contrast this with being covenantal i.e. emphasizing WE over me.

Covenant is at the heart of the story of Abram. God entered into a covenant with him by literally walking “through the valley of the shadow of death” where the halves of a dead heifer, goat, and ram were laid over against one another prefiguring the sacrifice of God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Where Rabbi Sacks stops short is that what additionally distinguishes a contract and covenant is that a covenant is initiated by God. What’s more, this ‘New (Abrahamic) covenant’, in contrast to the ‘Old (Mosaic) covenant’ does not depend on our ability to keep our side of the agreement, but wholly on God! We read ‘a deep sleep fall upon Abram.’ before God passed between the sacrificed animals……on behalf of then both!

The purpose of the covenant is that we come into perfect union, i.e. that we be DEEPLY UNITED with God through Christ.

So as we look out on a world Deeply Divided, the Good Shepherd refocuses us with the words from Psalm 23.

“Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

By faith, we walk with our Good Shepherd through the “valley of the shadow of death” and DEEPLY UNITED with him, the grace comes to enable us to play the unique part we are each given to play in the drama of the ages, until all things are restored, and God indeed becomes ‘all in all’

I rose to write down my thoughts, and checked my phone for the time……

With a subtle adjustment to Rabbi Sack’s book I realized I could now go beyond defining the human predicament to absolutely describing the already settled solution : – )

‘Back in the day’ (of my childhood) the most ominous words we could hear emanating from the TV were,

“We interrupt normal programing to bring you a party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative (or Labour) Party.”

“Borrrrring!”

Through the title of this blog, God reverses, that human announcement with his own,

“We interrupt this political broadcast to return you to normal programing.”

50 years ago there was a clearer distinction between politics and ‘normal programming’. Nowadays the two have become much the same as most everything on Harfung Mainstream Media has become ‘political’ i.e. has to do with being in control.

Last week we got some shocking news that reminded us that WE are not in control.

A family very dear to us (and to some of you) had suddenly lost their 24 year old son.

Our focus was suddenly shifted from ‘the ‘mirage’ of ‘party politics‘ around the American election, to an immediate personal encounter with ‘the reality’ of the ‘kingdom of God’ in the ‘normal program‘ of real life.

Hilary and I flew to Nashville for the funeral last Saturday.

Peter Thomas was an exceptional young man who raced through this life to find what was ‘beyond the stars’.

At the service his father told the story of how as a little tike, on their first ski trip, he wanted to go with his Dad to the very top of the mountain. He suddenly took off from between his father’s legs, down the ‘black diamond’ slope! When his father caught up with him at the bottom of the mountain, a grinning Peter asked, “Can we do that again Dad?’

Like his namesake in the gospels, Peter’s life was one of passionate pursuit. Maybe this was why ‘Abba’ choose Peter to be the first disciple granted the revelation,

“You are the Christ! The son of the living God!”

The final photo in the slide sequence at the entrance to the church captured Peter’s life perfectly.

As we walked into the sanctuary there he was again up front!………

When we returned to Minneapolis on Sunday and shared Peter’s story at our home fellowship, our son Robin picked up the guitar and began to sing the song he has been given, as he has walked through his own ‘valley of the shadow’. It proved to be God’s caption for those two photos…..

We’re never going to die……………………..When we’re perfectly aligned.

Waking that Sunday we had drawn back the curtains in the hotel room, to reveal a world shrouded in mist. As the sun climbed the sky during the morning the mist disappeared. The song rose up in my spirit…

“The perfect has come and the mist has now passed

With questions of What? Why? and How?

Now faith hope and love, but the greatest of these

Is the love that’s fulfilled – right here and right now!

In the process of a child being made ready to pass from ‘Shadowlands’ to ‘Sunstanceville’, Alyson expressed in the poem written just a few months earlier, how we learn as parents, that the politics of heaven are quite the opposite to the politics of earth, and that it is in surrendering control and trusting in the merciful and steadfast love of Christ,

that we too are being made ready,

to leap joyously

into.

……….perfect alignment!

GODSELECTION is not in any doubt.

His victory, for us as individuals families, nations, and humanity was planned before the foundations of the earth, was won 2000 years ago, and is now being rolled out truly and fully……… in God’s perfect time as we prove the opening line of Robin’s song….

“Life……. creates……. the conditions for LIFE.”