BeLOnGings

As I lay listening this morning, Father again spoke to me about connections between personal experiences recent and more distant, world events and biblical truth.

Thank you for your prayers for our Freedom! Retreat last weekend! As usual we began the happy event singing Come On On On In😃

As I reflected about God’s hospitable heart, I began thinking about, what I later discovered, was today’s headline news, on The Epoch Times…. The expiration of Title 42. This legislation has to do with foreigners entering the USA. We were once there…. and are grateful for the (supernatural) way in which God’s hospitable heart opened that particular door for us.

“So why would God not give those thousands waiting on the boarders the same access as us?” I thought.

The line from the song brought the answer…….

“Come on on on in………Sure it’s wonderful timing for a wee cuppa tea in yer hand.”

I saw tea as a T …….representing the cross on which Christ died….. as the nails where driven through his hands!

This, and this alone, is what gives us legal access into our Father’s house.

We had done everything ‘according to the book’ in order to enter the US and become legal citizens. So too for access to the kingdom of God we must do it legally and therefore legitimately by faith in the saving work of Christ. He is the only door by which we may enter the sheepfold.

The first house Father provided for us to live in for the first 7 years of our American sojourn was on 42nd Avenue. The significance was not lost on us for the entrance into “the promised land” occurred after 41 encampments in the wilderness, as with the unnamed 42nd generation of Matthew.1 comes the Christ.

So again this morning’s headline prophecies as did our house number of where we find ourselves in the progress of His- story which is fulfilled prophecy.

This mornings blog at God’s Kingdom illustrates this relationship between history and prophecy, making sense and bringing peace in the midst of the present ‘insanity’😃

https://godskingdom.org/blog/2023/05/how-to-live-in-insane-times/

P.S……..and ‘Yes’ our prayers were answered as our gracious Heavenly Father once again made himself known to his children at the weekend. One participant shared how as I sang “On The Day You Were Born” she was taken to the place of her birth (which she had left when a few months old). She saw herself being held up by the Father, Son and Spirit to their delight, like Simba in The Lion King, then her vision shifted to the sun, and out of the Sun there came roaring the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

Hallelujah! The sons of the Living God are being called forth to Arise and Shine😃

Above is a photo of my Dad, Chris holding Laurie, and myself with Robin on my shoulders.

I realized recently how our Heavenly Father does not just cause our lives to overlap, but has woven 3 of our songs together.

When the first of the next generation of Kyles arrived in 1978, my brother Chris wrote a beautiful song for his beloved baby nephew, “Robin’s Song”

Robin’s Song began,

“It’s a long, long road that you’ll travel on.”

Then I realized one of Robin’s recent songs that was born out of that long journey begins,

“It’s the long game now.”

This song of Robin’s proved in turn to be prophetic for Chris, who along with his family bravely battled cancer for more than 12 years.

Several years ago, at this time of the year, the seed of a song began to grow in me as the bus from Dublin airport carried us north through the Irish countryside.

“A rising sun o’er sparkling dew

Hillside clothed in yellow hue

Skipping lambs.

A wisp of cloud in boundless blue.”

We made that same journey three times this year, and watched those yellow win bushes gradually blooming until on the final trip they had burst forth into their full glory!

I knew that although the song had been given many years before, it was for this time, and this person.

It was Chris’ Song!

It was another thread of the Master-weavers handiwork.

Here are verses 1 and 4 of A Rising Sun, (or was that A Rising Son?)

This year I was puzzled when for the first time in many years I had to pay federal taxes! The odd sum was $167. I asked Father if there was some significance to this amount. He pointed out to me that the day after Chris’ funeral would have been his 67th birthday!

Then the significance of the ‘win’ bushes dawned on me. Chris had sung in Robin’s Song,

“And I hope you WIN, I couldn’t bear to see you fall.

That’s all that really matters after all.”

I realized…….. “Chris WON at 67!” (167)………in the sense that death has been conquered, and we have the promise from Jesus that “he who believes in me will never die.”

On the flight home from Ireland I found myself watching a movie on a screen in the row in front of me. It was ‘the win bushes’ in the Irish countryside that caught my attention.

Although I couldn’t hear the dialogue, it wasn’t difficult to figure our the plot in this romantic comedy. A wealthy New York debutante in search of the ‘perfect’ corresponding husband finds herself stranded in rural Ireland. She has one after another, “stiletto heel in cow pat” type humiliating experiences, trying to get out of the country in the company of a poor young Irish bartender who remains unflustered and supportive even as she falls apart!

Bottom line; she isn’t imprisoned in Ireland but in her own vanity which the Irish guy helps her discover as he demonstrates in their relationship what love really is. (Actually the plane landed before the film ended, but I am imagining that is the way it should have gone.😃)

Chris was that sort of Irishman. A true lover.

I noticed the Irish Tourist board advertisement at the Belfast City airport…….

Chris will be sadly missed on earth, but joyfully welcomed in heaven at, as my song says, “the perfect time to catch the wave and rise above.”

……..in accordance with the good and gentle Shepherd’s Clock.

Setting out for Belfast I had ‘randomly’ picked a book from my shelf to read on the flight over.

It was “A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23”, by Philip Keller, a book I had read many years ago. Opening it on the plane to begin the read I realized it was my mum’s copy. By the time we neared Belfast I turned another page near the end of the book and discovered this scrap of paper……

When I told the story to my grandsons they exclaimed, “It was a time capsule!”

The note has been written decades ago, the book been carried from Ireland to the US where it sat untouched on a shelf for many years. Then I ‘just happened’ to pick it up on this trip, to discover this message of grace (That is the meaning of Anna)…..that the Lord was the shepherd of her three ‘boys’ my John, my Paul and my Christopher. This was the significance of the three underscores !

The day John had called to tell me Chris had rapidly deteriorated, just as I hung up, a remarkable thing had happened. There came a knock on the door, and when I opened it, there stood two police officers!

“Did you call 911?” They asked.

“No” I answered.

“Huh!” The officer continued. “ We got a 911 call to come to this address. Must have been some kids playing a prank! Thank you sir.” And the two cops left.

“Now what was the meaning of that Father?” I asked.

I realized 911 (the US equivalent of the British 999)was a call for help. But it is also the gematria for ‘charis’ the Greek word for grace!

I knew the timing was perfect, for Chris was now walking through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’. The message from mum and from heaven was clear, he need “fear no evil”, for the gracious shepherd was with him.

On our way to Ireland our flight was delayed. We missed our connection, we missed our bus, we missed our rental car. On our way home the rental car was returned early, the bus arrived early, the flight left early, the connecting flight was early, and we arrived home early!

The contrast was so stark I knew it was meant to confirm the message that appeared on the bottle of Australian wine our friend Norah had bought for communion in Belfast.

From a human point of view we make judgements about ‘what is late’ and what is ‘early’, but as Psalm 139 says, every one of our days is written in the Shepherd’s book. Everything in our lives will happen precisely when it is meant to from the moment of our birth to the moment of our death. It is all perfectly according to, “The Shepherd’s Clock.”

The symbol on the wine bottle is of a Laughing Kookaburra bird. ‘The Shepherd’s Clock’ is a synonym for a ‘laughing kookaburra.’The Aboriginal story goes….

“As the sun rose for the very first time, Baiame (creator god and Sky Father) wanted all to witness. He elected just the bird for the job. 

After a raucous “GUU-GUU-BERR-AA-AA!!!”, everyone was awake. 

When the people rose, sunlight met Earth. A display of warm hues blanketed the lands — for all to see, thanks to the laughing kookaburra. “

Chris rallied in March, and encouraged us to return to the U..S. for a planned visit to Florida. It wasn’t his time……quite yet.

Here in St. Augustine, Florida, we heard the news of his going home to be with the Lord. That day we visited a local coffee shop. We then realized the significance of it’s name……

Neither was the significance of the number of the coffee shop lost on me, for as Psalm 133 says, “Where brothers dwell together in unity, there God commands the blessing- even life!”

Chris had said after our deeply meaningful time in Belfast, “We three are together again now, the way we were always meant to be.”

Today we return to Belfast for a third time this year, to give thanks for a life well lived, where “goodness and mercy” have followed, both as the overshadowing of the gentle and gracious shepherd and the legacy of this one sheep of his.

One week ago my younger brother Chris went home to be with the Lord.

For the previous few days, his wife Sharon and their three daughters, took turns to hold Chris’ hand. Chris was always very good at expressing affection and love.

10 minutes before he passed, my older brother John (whom I wrote about recently in The High Sheriff blog) arrived at the home, and the ‘baton’ was passed to him.

John, Chris and I attended the same Primary school, High school, and Medical school. We even did our first year of doctoring in the same hospital!

John has been a great “older brother” for both of us, so it was, in daughter Jenny’s words “beautiful”, that our gentle shepherd should orchestrate it that it was Dr John , and not Chris’ nursing wife or two doctor daughters, that would take his hand at the end and detect that the earthly heartbeat had stopped, and that Chris had left this realm to enter that ‘greater ‘reality’

When I shared with our grown children, Ben texted, “Sorry Dad. He was a beautiful man and a beautiful brother. And still is.’

Our mother had a profound influence in the lives of all three of us.

I recalled how the day before I flew home to journey with her through a similar exit strategy (renal failure) I went for a run through the woods. As I was pondering Psalm 139 I noticed a golf ball on the path in front of me. Picking it up, I read, “Taylormade”

Psalm 139 speaks about how each of us are ‘knit together’ in our mother’s womb and ‘woven together’ in the depths of the earth. Our Heavenly Father truly is The Master Taylor.

He whispered to me, ‘Not only did I tailor make, Anna, but Anna tailor made the Kyle family ……as mother’s do😉’

I ran the same path the day before going back in March to see Chris. It turned out to be the deepest ever connection we had as brothers.

Along the snow trodden path where the golf ball had lain, I noticed what looked like a trail of leaves leading upwards…….as if left by someone who had gone ahead……like my Mum and Dad, saying, “This is the way. It’s OK. Relax.”

I shared this story with our friend Jane Lockhart with whom we stayed in Belfast. She smiled and said, “Reminds me of a dream I had that I captured in a piece of art. Did you notice it in the bathroom?’

Mum had a wonderfully healing touch and when Chris would have a ‘sore tummy’ she would say ‘Let me give your tummy a rub.’ As she laid her healing hands on our tums, she would say in her firm but reassuring voice, ‘Now. Relax.’

We would laugh at how little Chris would then ask, “Are I alaxing now mummy?”

Invariably after a few minutes, the pain had passed.

Chris now has ‘relaxed’ into the arms of his perfect heavenly parent, along with his mum and dad, and no doubt, the pain has passed…….and the joy……..been made full.

P.S. In the second part, which I will post tomorrow, I will explain more fully the opening photograph.🙂

In Ben’s song Shandy Bass he recounts a childhood escapade.

He references buying a “Chelsea bun” at the Cherryvalley Bakery with the change from his big brother’s suspect purchase of Shandy Bass at Harry’s. Sad to say Harry’s and the Cherryvalley Bakery are long gone. The Chelsea bun recipe however lives on.

Today I spotted one in S.D. Bells, another ancient local institution that continues to survive and is frequented by the older generation (of which I must admit we are almost a part!) My sister in law said the wry Belfast humor has named the packed house of white, grey and bald heads, “God’s Waiting Room” As we were leaving, I noticed…..a Chelsea bun ……the last one in the display cabinet. Sad to see it so lonesome, I couldn’t resist the “Ben” temptation and decided to purchase the lonely soul and take it home with me.

Shortly after, companion coffee ready, I sank my teeth into that childhood delight. As I began to savor the flavor, it dawned on me, “This is made from the same gooey, spicy, fruity bread dough as the that other local seasonal favorite……the Hot Cross bun!”

As I gazed at the Chelsea glaze it dawned on me the prophetic nature of these two buns!

The hot cross bun has atop it an iced cross. This depicts the first work of Christ on the cross. This was a dying work foreshadowed in the sacrifice of the two doves for the cleansing from leprosy (representing mortality) where the first bird was killed. (Lev.14)

The second bird was then dipped into the blood of the first and then released live into the world.

This depicts the Rider on the White Horse whose robe has been dipped in blood of Revelation 19.

This is the resurrected Christ leading forth the armies of heaven as they participate with him in a second “living” work on earth……a work which we are now entering into.

The end result of this second work is represented in the Chelsea Bun where the icing covers the whole bun…….For the glory of the Lord will cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.(Num.14:21, Hab.4:14)

So I will never listen to Ben’s song again or sink my teeth into a Chelsea Bun without a cry of delight and praise that goes far beyond the sensual pleasure either of theses “shadows” might afford as we anticipate the substance of the work of Christ that lies ahead on the basis of the work of Christ that has already been 😀

The other night I listened to the latest “Johnny Enlow Unfiltered” on Elijah Streams.

Excited by the things Johnny shared, I went upstairs to tell Hilary, only to discover she had spent the evening on that endless task of ‘sorting through another drawer’

She had come up with an intriguing find!

It was a letter, but a letter she couldn’t remember having ever seen before!………. and yet it must have sneaked into the slim pickings we brought with us from Ireland 28 years ago, and hidden itself in one of the suitcases to make it’s way……. back across the Atlantic, for it had been franked in New York and bore an American stamp with the picture of a Swedish pioneer’s covered wagon, like the cover of our TREK album!

Interestingly, Minnesota is by a wide margin the State with the most inhabitants of Swedish origin….. and is also where the Kyle family ended up on their pioneer Trek from Ireland! Imagine that!

The letter had been addressed in beautiful freehand script to “Miss Sadie Kyle.”

My auntie Sadie, the firstborn of my father’s 5 siblings had never married. We had cared for her in her last days and she had died just prior to our emigrating to the US. She had left us a kind gift in her ‘Will’ which I remember using to pay for the first of our recordings, Come Lord Jesus. (I recall thinking we should call our enterprise “Auntie Sadie Music” 😀)

Any money that came from the music was ploughed back into the next project! So the ‘spinster’s mite’ that was sown, has indeed reaped a great ‘spiritual harvest’ through the release of (to date) 7 subsequent albums.

I noticed for the first time the number of the Kyle family home. It had been number 33.…..the biblical number for ‘A Sign’

A hauntingly mysterious old house built by a Russian piano maker, it had stood at the end of a long rhododendron lined driveway when there had been little else on the now full and at times frenzied, Gilnahirk Road!

As we carefully opened the letter, the next layer of intrigue was a pink tissue parcel bearing the same distinguished script and identifying the sender.

We eagerly unfolded the tissue to discover a pair of what must have been the finest of New York lingerie in the day…. a pair of silk stockings….from a “Richard Kyle”!

With more questions than answers we searched for more clues to the human story or the heavenly sign!

I looked at the date when it had been sent and did the quick calculation. It had been mailed exactly 75 years …to the day when we had ‘found’ the mystery letter….12th March 1948.

(Which also happens to be the date when Hilary was exactly 2 months old!)

I woke later that night, as Father gave me ‘the bottom line’ so as to speak. It was the year! I realized the year the letter had been mailed – ’48 – WAS THE SAME NUMBER AS THE JOHNNY ENLOW EPISODE I HAD JUST WATCHED!

I believe discovering the ‘mystery letter’ had been Father’s way of highlighting to us the importance, relevance and timeliness of what Johnny was saying in Episode 48.

The human story remains shrouded in mystery!

The episode begins with some introductory reflections on the current political situation in the US. Then Johnny talks about the emergence of a deliverance ministry that is currently taking place. He concludes with sound wisdom gleaned from mistakes from the past, including those concerning the full story behind The Jesus Revolution movie I recommended in the last blog.

Next week end we will be hosting at Rivendell another FREEDOM! retreat…. on St Patrick’s weekend! Patrick means, Hostage Looser!

Last week at Rivendell, we had lunch with Matt Lozano, Neal and Janet Lozano’s son and Director of Training for “Unbound” who happened to be in the cities doing a Catholic parish retreat. As we were chatting an invitation came in for us to do a FREEDOM! retreat at a local Non Denominational church’s Men’s weekend. We have a number of other invitations on their way!

It seems God is alerting us!…that now is the time God intends to use His Body on earth to bring deliverance to people in a powerful and yet balanced way. Johnny’s emphasis on focusing on loving the person, helping them take responsibility and understanding their authority in Christ rather than on demonic manifestations, resonates with our approach.

So this preamble is by way of encouraging you to take the time to watch the episode….especially if you are a part of our FREEDOM/YSF prayer teams here or in Ireland!

P.S. It is a long interview but all worth hearing. A hint I have found is to change settings from normal speed to 1.5 …or faster if you can keep up 😀

P.P.S. We would appreciate your prayer support for this upcoming FREEDOM! weekend. People can still register at paulkyle.org/events

Back in the day of “The Jesus Revolution.” (You’ve got to see the movie if you haven’t already!) we, in ‘the by-way‘ of Northern Ireland, were as usual a little late to the party!

Thankfully we did get the Holy Spirit invitation, and many of us young people did turn up! I remember the Jesus marches and cheers, and offering Arthur Blessitt “Smile Jesus Loves You” stickers to puzzled little old ladies outside the City Hall where, as I reported in the last blog, 50 years on my brother was sworn in as High Sheriff!

Come Together in Jesus Name was a part of that ‘Jesus’ movement. Hilary and I found ourselves by an odd turn of events involved in leading the choir of young people who presented the ground breaking and life changing musical first to a packed audience in Belfast’s Wellington Hall and then at various venues to thousands all over Ireland.

We became friends with the creators, Jimmy and Carole Owens, who invited us to stay in there home in Van Nuys, California on our honeymoon in 1975. There we rubbed shoulders with their daughter Jamie and her friends many of whom had become noted musical celebrities in the movement. Barry Maguire we knew from having already visited Belfast. He had taught us a simple song that became a firm favorite.

“It’s happy day and I praise God for the weather

It’s happy day and I’m living it for my Lord

It’s happy day and things are going to get better

Living each day by the promises in God’s word.”

I found myself singing this chorus again the other morning, only this time the Spirit slipped in a new third line….

It’s happy day, and things couldn’t get any better……living each day by the promises in God’s word.

Now I know when you look around the world today you could respond, “You must be joking” Those who are ‘red pilled’ and awakening to the Matrix we have all been a part of for so long, are horrified with “This Present Darkness” that is now being exposed in the world around us. However if we are honest we recognize that darkness and the capacity for evil is in every one of us as Job experienced when he came face to face with the Leviathan that dwelt within him!

The good news however is, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn. 1)

The Light is Christ, and Christ is in you. He is our ‘hope of glory’….and not just ‘in us’ but ‘through us’ in this dark world.

Inspired by Come Together, I then crafted a musical, Come Lord Jesus, based around the song Lord Jesus We Enthrone You, utilizing songs I had written over the previous years illuminating Kingdom Living teachings we’d developed in Community of the King. The thrust behind this was to prepare Jesus’ Bride on earth for the coming of our heavenly Bridegroom.

A few years ago however I was given another emphasis by the Spirit with the song “You Are The Bridge Over Troubled Waters” with the refrain….

You are here, You are here. In our hearts. Oh so near.

You are here. You are here. In our hearts. Oh so dear.

Yeshua.

While we do look forward to the return of Jesus our Head, he wants us to awaken to his presence and power here and now in the lives of those who constitute his body on earth.

So I am reposting the song…..

As Hilary and I watched the recording again we cringed a little at the ‘imperfections’…a bum chord, an unkempt eyebrow, …and that little bug that appears in Hilary’s hair!

“What time did that first appear?” Father asked me. I checked. It was 1.28. Last Sunday as 14 of our family gathered around the table for a birthday celebration I had been prompted to read Psalm 128 aloud to the family to honor Hilary on her 75th birthday.

 song of ascents.

¹ Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
    who walk in obedience to him.
² You will eat the fruit of your labor;
    blessings and prosperity will be yours.
³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
⁴ Yes, this will be the blessing
    for the man who fears the Lord.

⁵ May the Lord bless you from Zion;
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life.
⁶ May you live to see your children’s children—
    peace be on Israel.

A few years ago the Lord said to us that when the word ‘church’ came up in conversation, this was the image we should have at the forefront of our minds, rather than pulpits and pews…..a family gathered around the table. To broaden that out “…. being engaged together in the WARP and WEFT of everyday life….WARTS and all!”

(Yesterday when I took three of our grandsons (The WW4K group) to see The Jesus Revolution I noticed near the end, when Chuck Smith’s daughter sits down at the dinner table with him to have an honest ‘heart to heart’ exchange, in the background between them was Di Vinci’s “last supper” scene with Jesus and the disciples – around a table. This was ‘church’ as much as the Calvary Chapel packed tent scenes!)

I watched a clip of the Asbury meetings as I’m sure many of you have. They were singing “Great are you Lord” The Lord then reminded me of a line from one of my songs.

“Greater. Greater. Greater is He.

Greater than the brightest star…..greater than the smallest flea.“

The greatness of God is revealed just as much in that little bug on Hilary’s head as in the brightness of the Asbury star. The issue is our being awakened to be aware of God everywhere at all times and in all things! …and especially that, His power rests on our imperfections – on our weaknesses! (2 Cor. 12)

One of the reasons I enjoy an extended fast is because I no longer have to make decisions about food. When in this season I was presented with the opportunity to enter into such a fast, Father said, “Why don’t you just fast pleasing yourself in order to prefer your wife? What about swopping out a religious practice for a relational reality for only by being in constant contact with me, will you know how to love your wife!”
This morning a book I’d been recommended got delivered.

The title reminded me of the verse in Thessalonians where it says we are to be changed in our ‘atomos’ i.e. in our smallest parts – every moment, every movement and finally every molecule!

“Walking in the Spirit” is a metaphor for simply ‘living life.’ Bottom line……this is the single Atomic Habit we are all to master….courtesy of The Master!

Hilary and I have both had issues with our feet. We came across this little video on “Foot Cruches’ a few days ago.

Already it is bearing fruit in our improved walking ability

I believe Father wants us to increase our capacity to ‘Keep in step with the Spirit‘ (Gal.5:25) It comes as we ‘scrunch’ the ground under our feet….the ground of the miracle that is this life we live on “The Silent Planet” that is beginning to awaken!

“Things Couldn’t Get Any Better.” ………..Life is good, because God is good and God is God……. and we are exactly where we are meant to be on our journey with Him.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog – and giving me the opportunity to journal my journey with you.

In our Father’s unfailing and ever present love.

Paul (and Hilary)

Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus is the motto of the City of Belfast. It is the Latin Vulgate for the bible verse commonly translated, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” (Ps. 116: 12)

My brother John, a committed believer, a number of years ago felt lead to move beyond his medical practice to seek to serve the working class people in his district of Belfast as a City Councilor. His heart for reconciliation resulted in him acting as a peacemaker between the two communities in the divided province of Northern Ireland. (Even today there is no local assembly in Northern Ireland because the two sides ‘can’t agree’ what that should look like!)

A few months ago John decided to bring his ‘political career’ to a close. The nationalist SDLP party in acknowledgment of John’s contribution to facilitating co-operation over his years in office proposed that he should be made “High Sheriff’ This was quite something, as John’s political stance had him on ‘the other (Unionist) side of the aisle’. His first loyalty in being politically active was not to a political ideology but to the the Prince of Peace and as a servant of the people he represented.

We were delighted therefore, shortly after we arrived back in Northern Ireland, to receive an official looking invitation to attend the ‘swearing in’ ceremony of my big brother as the High Sheriff of Belfast that next week!

The office of High Sheriff is now mainly ceremonial. Having said that, one of his responsibilities would be to host Royalty who might visit the province, which could make for an interesting year with the upcoming coronation of King Charles III !!!

Growing up as a boy in Belfast (unlike my friends from Nebraska!) my knowledge of a High Sheriff was shaped entirely by the TV staple Robin Hood.

No doubt the theme song about this legendary ‘outlaw’ and his ‘band of merry men’ who was “…feared by the bad, loved by the good. Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.” did at least subliminally, influence us in our choice of names when it came to our first born son.

The arch villain in the series was The High Sheriff of Nottingham, who week in week out used his political power in a corrupt and self serving way only to be outwitted by Robin and his company time and again!

John’s ‘promotion’ at the start of our stay was bookended by another promotion we heard about at the very end of our visit.

Sadly, our friend Tom Livingston from Duluth called to tell us that his son David, whom Robin and I had gotten to know briefly but deeply after he had attended a FREEDOM! retreat, had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 43.

The wonderfully talented and caring young man had been unable to get the breakthrough into freedom in this life he and we had so earnestly prayed and hoped for.

I had lost my ‘timepiece’ – my cell phone, in Ireland when I thoughtlessly put it on the roof of our car in a Ballymena car park and drove off.

“What was that about Father?” I asked.

He answered me clearly through the words of another David, the Psalmist, “My times are in your hands.” (Ps.31:15)

This was before we heard of David’s death, but then…..it made sense!……. David had completed the course set before him. His days had all been recorded in God’s book.(Ps. 139)……. They were just a little fewer than his family and friends had hoped for.

We arrived home in time to participate in the Celebration of Life. As I scribbled some thoughts down on paper that morning Father said, “…… I’m still speaking to you about David….. Look what you’re drinking. ” I realized I had just sipped the last few drops of a particular coffee brand.

I set out to run through the local wood, thankfully fit enough for the first time in many months. Then as I turned a corner I saw someone had dug a new path through the snow……A SURPRISE SHORTCUT…. around a familiar obstacle

Returning by the road I noticed snow banks and solid ice sheets on either side of a clean dry road…… and made a SUREFOOTED SPRINT….. for home.

David may never have made it to the earthly position of “High Sheriff” but from heaven’s perspective he was in Christ, indeed a “High Achiever” as was evident from the many tributes brought from all over the country that day, including this, from our own ‘Robin Hood’

Abraham was called ‘friend of God’. As he was the first to have revealed to him the New Covenant, we too can hope to become friends of God and experience this intimacy by grace through faith.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I no longer call you servants….instead I have called you friends’, and then went on to describe the nature of true friendship as something that Knows (walking ‘in the light’) Shows (walking ‘in covenant love’) Grows and Goes

^“You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other.” (Jn.15:14-17)

While in Ireland I met another ‘friend’ of God appropriately called Christine (as in Christ -in). She wrote to me from America telling a wonderful story about a shillelagh.

She described how when her mother and grandmother emigrated to the US from Northern Ireland in the 1950s, they brought with them the shillelagh pictured above. She wrote comically about the way growing up she and her brother used it to try and ‘clobber’ each other and how it now hangs on a wall in her home. She continued the story…….

“So it goes, back in November 2022, I was sitting in our living room & thinking of my Ma, and I said “Dear God, I miss her terribly at times & this is a time.” Shortly after, my eyes fixed on the Shillelagh. I picked it up giving it a look over, and read Pal Kyle. Now it just dawned on me that this was someone’s name. I reflected back to all the times I looked at that name, and as a child thought it was an old Irish saying of some sort, and one time I asked my gran as it was in my hand, “What does it mean?” well I just got the old norm, “Put that back where it belongs!” So I never pressed for an answer, just said something along the lines of, ‘geeeeze I was only asking a question!’ in a mumble, as a scolded child would. 

So, there I was, thinking & smiling to myself, “I wonder if this Pal Kyle was the wee friend that made this as a parting gift? Could Pal be Pal as in friend, and his name was Kyle, or was Pal as in Paul was his name.” So that lead me to search for Pal Kyle with no luck, then onto Paul Kyle, and up came your blog. In reading your posts such a wonderful feeling overcame me with goosebumps, I like to think a confirmation from the Holy Spirt that I was meant or led to find your blog. Mr. Kyle your music and your blog are gifts!!!

I thank God I found you all. Many Blessings to you & yours!!!!

Best regards

Christine.”

When I got round to repliying to Christine today what a timely encouragement the Pal Kyle story was for me, she wrote further….

“I felt, it was the Lord lifting me up in a time of sorrow & showing me “You are not alone, you are on the right path, you’re not losing your head”  and yes, he was introducing me to his friend (YOU) as he knew it was what I needed, and could relate to, on a few different levels. He checked off all the boxes, as he knows me well!

As I read your blog,  encouragement, faith, and love was filling me, and things that have been going on in the world, my husband & I have been paying attention to & praying over for quite a few years now.  So seeing you share some of this was in a sense also confirming to me (I’m not out of my head) lol  

It seems the Great Awakening may be starting (Praise God!!)” 

I was walking past this sign at the end of the side street I’ve discovered which has a few spaces where you can park FREE! …near the city center. (Shhh. Don’t let anyone else know 😊)

Anyhow it was a photo opportunity too good to miss, and so I snapped the litter strewn “sheugh” at the end of Great Patrick Street. We have just settled on the date for our next FREEDOM! Retreat in Minneapolis, 17th , 18th March…… which happens to be St. Patrick’s weekend!

How appropriate as the name Patrick means “hostage looser” So if you feel there is a lot of junk littering up your personal “sheugh” this is an opportunity for you, your family or friends to get FREE!… of the trash (mixing Irish and American terminology here😀) to make yours a truly GREAT Patrick Street, cleaned up and ready for the coming of our Bridegroom and King.

You can register for the retreat at paulkyle.org/events

The reason for my blog silence in recent weeks is not because we have found God to be silent, far from it, but because firstly myself and then Hilary have been healing from respiratory infections that have caused us to cut back and re-order our plans here. This together with my loosing my iPhone/clock has reminded us of Psalm 31: 14-15.

But I trust in you, Lord;
    I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;
    deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
    from those who pursue me.

P.S. We plan to return to the US tomorrow, but as I just said, “Our times are in your hands.” 😊

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:13,14)