Scenes From The Park - Friendship

They sat on a park bench, ate ice-creams, talked

Ready to set the world right

And with each other formed a friendship

Saying all that was wonderful

Is made perfect in friendship.

The words of consolation were whispered

To a friend, given in revelation, shared,

Listening to a voice without condemnation

And held beneath the summoned breath

Back to the heart, no more rejection,

Just tears wept at the loss.

They used to sit and listen to the sound of laughter

When days were long, nothing measured, infinite,

Now they wait for the hidden treasure

To form the name, they wait for the call,

Once before they glimpsed the future,

They had been there before and knew it all.

Scenes From The Park - On A Bench

Entrenched on a bench

Endless chatter

Engaging the world

Everything matters

Enlightening hearts

Enclosed in time

Enriched with love

Eternally mine

Even the seagulls

Earnestly circle

Ever wanting to enter

Escape the cruel world.

Engaging the heart

Enriching their talk

Entrenched on a bench

Eventually they walk.

Scenes From The Park - A Moment

A chance to clear the mind

A moment

A towel in the sun

Surrounded by screams

Of happy children.

A calling of a name

Smiling besides the fountain

She is immersed

A hundred questions

Take my phone

A few moments to text

To answer a question

Run to the waterfall

Drink of the water

A chance to feel renewed.

Scenes From The Park - Tag Team

 Got to hide

Slowly

“Catch him”

“Careful”

We’re a tag team

“He’s yours!”

“No, he’s mine!”

Fast as you can

Run

Run away

Don’t get caught

“Safe!”

Follow the scream

Dodge the water

Put your head under the fountain

Feel the cold

Taste

Be refreshed

Feel alive.

On Our Wedding Anniversary

I love you

The pale meadow of your skin

Your sparkling emerald eyes

Those lips that taste of heaven

I love you

The bright glade of your smile

Your shining ruby soul

This heart that beats with compassion

I love you

The colour of care

Singing the stories of sacrifice

Songs of lost dreams

I love you

This field of faithfulness

Where all you’ve done is sown in care

Smiles of hope

Prophetic tears

Enduring joy

Frequently, in everyday words of love

I love you.

=======

28th July 2013, is my 29th Wedding Anniversary, i married the most beautiful, wonderful girl in the whole world and i am so grateful she puts up with me and all my strange ways. 

Amazing Love

Amazing love

Whispers still

Wonderful grace

My heart thrills

He carries me through

Completes the song

Destroys my sin

In him I’m strong

Became my saviour

Healed my pain

Gave me hope

His riches I gain.

Friday's Five - Reconciliation

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. – Romans 5:11

That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. – 2 Corinthians 5:19

And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity – Ephesians 2:16

And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. – Colossians 1:20

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. – Hebrews 2:17

In The Woods

Well worn paths

Through shaded glens

A cathedral of branches

Altar of leaves

Windows of green

Hidden chancels of dreams

Lost in paradise

Sweet the wind that chills

Dance with the breeze

A psalm of tenderness

Streams a symphony of praise

Darkness resistant

With a orchestra of hope

Adorned in a glorious light

From A Park Bench - As You Received Christ so Walk in Him.

In Colossians 2:6 "Paul says just as you received Christ so walk in Him. Or the NIV says just as you received Christ, "live in Him"!

We all want to feel connected and in total harmony. There is nothing better that when we are in tune and everything is right. Sometimes it is our employment, that feeling of having a great day at work, when we achieve every thing we set out to do. Sometimes it is at home, when the kids are just compliant and there is no stress at home. Sometimes it is taking the time out, sitting on a park bench, connecting with nature and soaking in the surroundings. For all of us there are moments and instances when things just all make sense.

The Gospel is about being connected; it is about being in total, fulfilled harmony with God. It is about having right standing with God and that is what righteousness is it is that every second of every moment of every day we are wonderfully right with God.

Through the grace of God we are safe, secure, assured and confident with God and God wants us to be grounded and rooted in the grace of God.

Just as we received Christ through grace we walk in Christ through grace.

God desires to establish us deeper and deeper in the revelation of the free gift given to us of His righteousness so that we identify with Him in every area of our lives and we see that ever increasing fruit results from resting in the free gift of his righteousness.

Don’t go back under the law trying to be right with God through your actions or your obedience. The deception is that once we received Christ by grace, we have to maintain our relationship by effort. No, you received Christ by grace through faith, God declared you righteous as a free gift by grace. So just as you received Christ so walk in Him and live in Him.

We reign in life because we have been united with Christ by grace.

We are constantly righteous and holy there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. 

We merit all the blessings that Jesus merits because we are a joint heir with Christ and an heir of God. Therefore we are always the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Grace Notes - Luke 11 v 38

"And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner." -  Luke 11:38 -

The New Covenant is a covenant of rest; it is living and acting from our place in Christ.


Everything we need has been provided by God, through grace. God anticipated all our needs; he acted independently of us, before we were born. We cannot move God to do anything, because he has already done everything we need through Christ. In Christ we have received every spiritual blessing we will ever need or desire.

How we perceive God and what he has provided for us by grace is faith. All we need has been given to us we just activate it into reality from the spirit realm by believing and receiving.

Good works, doing the right things, trying to make God to move by our acts, is all self-righteousness and is rooted in unbelief.

Saying thank you and resting in all Christ has freely given by grace is the essence of faith and walking in the spirit.

Andrew Wommack explains that grace is the key to the Christian life and believing that God has already done everything through Christ.

“A sure sign of the error of legalism is misplaced priorities, as we see here with these Pharisees. It is not recorded in Scripture that the Pharisees marveled at the wonderful works of Jesus. They were too busy looking for something to criticize (Mark 3:2). But they marveled at Jesus not washing His hands. This is a classic example of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Mt. 23:24).

Those who seek to earn righteousness through keeping the Law are consumed with "doing," while those who receive righteousness by faith are simply confessing what has already been done. This is a simple and yet profound difference. If we are still "doing" acts of holiness to get God to move in our lives, then we are still operating under a "Law" mentality that is not faith (Gal. 3:12). When we simply believe and confess what has already been provided through Christ, that's grace.


A person who is living under the Law and a person who lives under grace should have very similar actions of holiness, but their motivations are completely opposite. The legalist has their attention on what they must do, while the person living by faith has his attention on what Christ has already done for him. For instance, the Scriptures teach us to confess with our mouths and believe with our hearts, and we will receive from God. The legalist thinks, That means I can get God to heal me by confessing, 'By his stripes I am healed.' 


However, the person who understands God's grace will not confess the Word to get healed. They will confess, "By His stripes I am healed" because they really believe it has already been done.

Analyzing our "mind set" is the simplest way of discerning whether we are operating in true Bible faith or a legalistic counterfeit. If the motive for our actions is to be accepted with God, that's legalism. If we live wholly out of faith and gratefulness for what God has already done, that's grace. Grow in grace!”

Every Day

I breathe

My heart beats

Blood flows through my veins

The wind bites my face

The sun warms my skin

The rain covers me in coldness

I feel the same pain

I cry the same tears

I am trapped by the cruel knife of time

 Equality is not a concept

It is not a theory

Or a social action

It is the way you look at each other

The way you value each other

The way you accept each other

The way you listen to each other

Celebrate who you are

Dance with the divine

Listen to the melody of freedom

Taste the acceptance of love

 Every day is a day to embrace who you are

Every day is a day to learn

To listen

To change.

Friday's Five - Peace

Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting—and conflict. – Proverbs 17:1

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. – Isaiah 26:3

I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear – Ezekiel 34:25

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. – Romans 5:1

and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7

From A Park Bench - Here I Am. Send Me.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”   Isaiah 6:8

A few nights ago my wife and I were talking about Gideon and how God spoke and called him in an audible voice. There was Gideon threshing wheat in the winepress, hiding from the Midianites when the Angel of the Lord sat beside him and started to talk to him.

In the passage above from Isaiah we have the prophet given a vision of heaven and God commissioning him in an audible voice.

Both Gideon and Isaiah lived in a time when God was separated from his people. God dwelt in heaven and man dwelt on Earth. The Old Covenant was a covenant of separation, the veil separated God’s presence from the Children of the promise in the temple.  God called out his people to be holy, to separate themselves from the nations around them; God spoke audibly because he was separated from man.

The New Covenant is a covenant of union. God now dwells inside every believer, each of us are now in total and full union with Christ.

God does not have to ask ‘Who will I send?” because where his children go, He goes there with them.

Every second, in every mundane task, in every act of kindness, God is involved, living and acting through us by His grace.

If we are praying and waiting for God to do something for us, we will be waiting a very long, long time. God, by grace, has provided all we need and He has anticipated our every need.

We are His body, our touch to the lost is his touch, our outstretched hand to the hurting is his hand, and our listening ear to the lonely is his ear. When we connect to those around us, we are Christ to them.

We don’t need to be commissioned by God, every breath taken is God living and working through us.

Jesus - Our Refuge & Rest by Joseph Prince

God does not want you to live a "striving" life or a "trying" life.

The reason many of us strive and try to make things happen in our own strength, is because we believe that what we do will earn us acceptance from others and also with God.

Today, I want to tell you how you can break out of that wrong belief and find yourself in a place of rest, provision, fulfillment and abundance.

If you can hear and act on what
I'm about to share with you today,
your life will bear great fruit.

I want you to know that rest and wholeness are available to you through your High Priest, Jesus.

In the Old Testament, the high priest represented the people to God. And all the standing of the nation of Israel was wrapped up in the high priest. If the high priest was good, God blessed the nation. If the high priest was bad, God rejected the whole nation.

But now the Bible says that Jesus is our High Priest...forever.

That means you can have permanent eternal security in your heart because your standing is wrapped up in your High Priest. When you behold Him, you receive everything He has to offer.

Today Jesus is your High Priest! That means that God is not looking at you to judge you. God is looking at your High Priest to bless you.

Beloved, this is why we must behold Jesus. Second Corinthians 3:18 says...

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory
to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Here's where it gets practical for you and me:

If God judged us based on ourselves, there would be no rest—there would be no peace. As long as God's blessings depend on us and our obedience, we are never at rest. But when His blessings depend on the finished work of Jesus Christ—the infallible, sinless, altogether lovely One—we can be eternally secure and at rest!

Something powerful happens when you see Jesus...

The Bible says that as you are beholding His glory, you are being transformed into the same image. Not by your efforts, but by the Spirit of the Lord!

When you behold Jesus, you become like Him.

The Lord makes it very simple for us: as we behold, the Holy Spirit transforms us...

From depression to peace.
From heaviness to joy.
From poverty to abundance.
From being sickly to being healthy and robust.
From striving to rest.

You cannot transform yourself by your own efforts. But you can enter into a rest where you allow the Holy Spirit to do His work. By turning your eyes and your attention toward Jesus, you open the door for these things to manifest in your everyday life!

Beloved, as long as you keep your eyes on Jesus, there is nothing to fear. You can rest in His security, His blessing and His supernatural work in your life.

It’s never about focusing on self...
it’s always about focusing on Jesus.

It’s not a question of whether you deserve God’s blessings—it’s a question of whether your High Priest deserves every blessing. It’s not a question of how pleasing you are in God’s eyes—it’s a question of how pleasing your High Priest is in God’s eyes.

Jesus Christ is your perfect High Priest, and since He is perfectly pleasing to God, SO ARE YOU!

That’s why the Bible says:

Love has been perfected among us in this:
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment;
because as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)

What a powerful, life-changing truth: As Jesus is, so are we in this world!

Friend, whatever you are faced with right now, whether it’s a financial struggle, a negative diagnosis, a difficult decision, a relationship issue or anything else in your life, all you need to do is look to Jesus.

You don’t have to be anxious or afraid, and you don’t have to fix it all in your own strength. Just put your eyes on Jesus and remember that as Jesus is, so are you. He is healthy...you can receive health. He is wise...you can receive wisdom. He is accepted and approved...you can receive the Father’s acceptance and approval.

Remember, God is not looking at you to judge you. He is looking at your High Priest, Jesus, to bless you. Fix your eyes on Jesus and rest in that promise today.

You don’t have to lead a "striving" life or a "trying" life any longer. The Lord wants you to live the blessed life, the abundant life...the restful life in Him.

Living at rest,

From A Park Bench - The Kingdom of God is Within

To want all that God wants, always to want it, for all occasions and without reservations, this is the kingdom of God which is all within – Francois Fenelon.

When we give ourselves to live from our union with Christ instead of our mind, emotion, intellect or bodies, we start to let God invade and dominate every aspect of our life.

To know what God wants, is to know who we are In Christ, to know all he has provided by grace and to be his ambassador to everyone we meet.

We have entered the Promised Land, our re-born spirit is overflowing with the grace of God and all that Christ provided at the cross. We have a fountain overflowing with good things, a land of milk and honey, an inhabitation of abundant provision on the inside of us.

The world and the flesh try to tell us that we have not received all God’s provision. They tell us to look at our carnal experience, to judge everything by our five senses, to doubt, to strive, to question, to explain everything away in what we experience.

But God sees things differently; it is his breath that breathes life into our bodies, it is his blood that obtained our forgiveness, by his stripes we were healed and the power that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of us.

His word, the bible, is his love letter to us, our spiritual mirror, it shows us who we are and what we have been given. He shows us all God’s promises and all that grace has given us.

As we receive his grace, believe the truth and let his spirit invade our soul and bodies, we are transformed effortlessly into his likeness.

The Kingdom of God has come and is within every believer, each of us has all the grace and fullness of Christ inside.