Remembering to say thank You for November

The more I have reflected these past months on answered prayer and thanksgiving, the more I realise that my attention is shifting to giving thanks and praise to God no matter what the circumstances. My prayers may not be answered the way I want, but His ways are higher, better, wiser and more perfect than my ways… I need to trust that God is always Good, always Righteous and always Faithful.

Today I revisited the story of the old lame man, begging since youth at the temple gate… He thought he wanted money from Simon Peter and John, but what God wanted to give him far surpassed his wildest dreams and gave him back his true life and dignity as a child of God.

This is God’s way.

Praise His wonderful name.

Despite this, I still bring my requests in confidence to my Father in heaven, knowing that He asks us to come with confidence and to ‘cast all our cares on Him’.

I often find visualising a prayer very helpful, so I will share, as an example, a scene I am currently praying for a lady I met last week, called ‘S’. (She has a form of blood cancer that she is told is inoperable, terminal and now simply a matter of time. I asked her if I could pray for her and she said although she is a Catholic, she is not really practising her faith.) The scene I have been praying through, and seeing in my mind’s eyes, is that she will hear the knock of Jesus on her heart’s door and will let Him in and go along to Mass; that she will receive the Eucharist and then the body and blood of Jesus will course through her veins – from the crown of her head to the souls of her feet – and she will feel it’s healing, life-giving power running through her; that the hospital check-up will reveal her ‘remission’ and that she and all her loved ones will give glory to her Lord and Saviour. As I prayed this I touched the crown of my head and followed through my whole body down to the souls of my feet and felt and saw the tingling new life.

This is only my way of visualisation and it helps me to focus my prayers. I may never see the lady in the shop again. With some prayers we never know how or when they were answered – not in this life anyway. Like with the lame man at the temple gate, God may have better plans and do it His way. But I do know that God has heard my prayers for ‘S’ and will answer them.

For the month of November, I have been blessed with many specific answers to prayer, for which I want to publicly give God all the glory and honour and praise:

For all the insights and refreshing in preparing the blog-posts about remembrance so far this month.

For the examples of so many Saints and martyrs who have helped to preserve the church and teach the faith as it was handed down from the apostles.

For showing me how to synchronise all this research into church and group lesson plans too.

For my personal remembrance of a late but loved friend; and

for my anniversary of 37 years since my baptism.

For ‘C’ being fully off the smoking now, though still ‘vaping’.

For blessing and refreshing ‘L’ and ‘D’ in their body, hearts and minds.

For blessing ‘B’ with a job.

For blessing ‘I’ with encouragement and a new sense of purpose and commitment.

That teas and coffees and richer fellowship is now returned and established back at church.

For giving ‘D’ courage and blessing as he ‘breezed’ through his first and second successful cataract operations in November and that he can already drive safely alone (after 6 months not able).

For wisdom and clarity to gather and submit all the relevant tribunal evidence requested in good time.

For all the kind letters of support and prayers over this time.

For motivating and helping me to wisely restructure and update everything in my business.

For dinner with ‘C’ and for his creative support with my book.

For a further remembrance and lovely reunion 40 years on from school.

For a wonderful return of the baptismal pool in church, for ‘S’’s amazing testimony and baptism.

Again I say thank you to God for His mercies, which are new every morning. None of us know what the day or the morrow will bring, but we can have every confidence in our Daddy God and His amazing grace and amazing love for each one of us. We are not worthy of this, except that we are now robed in the righteousness of Jesus. God looks at us and sees the righteousness of Jesus over us.

Blessed be God forever.

The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) illustrating Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me”. The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing “the obstinately shut mind”. This hangs in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Please be encouraged to also pray for those you may never have been privileged to meet – for our persecuted family throughout the world and wisdom for all the leaders and authorities. And never give up praying for anyone God has laid on your heart, especially those who still have not opened the door to their hearts to Jesus. Your prayers to God are powerful.

Lastly, dear friends, I thank you for coming to read my blog.

Please share your thanks to Father God in the comments below, or privately as you remember His abundant blessings and faithfulness in your life.

Remembering Jesus in Advent.

Remembrance Blog 4 New Testament

In the last post, we looked at God’s word which was written on tablets of stone and memorised in festivals, but the prophets foretold a closer intimacy that God desired with His people. Celebrating the first week of Advent, this weekend, is a perfect time to reflect on the fulfilment of the promise, even though, despite the prophesies, it did not come about in the way the people hoped or expected. This part of God’s plan was revealed through the coming of God’s Son – Emmanuel and with Him, the revelation of the Kingdom of God. God wanted us to not just know about Him, but to know Him personally. We ‘remember’ (remind and encourage ourselves with the truth) that God came down to earth and we ‘remember’ that He WILL come again for the complete fulfilment of His Kingdom.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us

Jeremiah 31:33-34

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Though God does not remember our sins, and though we have His law in our hearts, we are still commanded to remember God in the Eucharist and to remember His words and everything that Jesus taught and did – because we are forgetful and easily distracted.

Remembering Who He is and His love

1 Corinthians 11:24-25

‘…and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.’

Revelation 3:3

‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.’

In our new birth into this New Covenant through the blood of Jesus, God helps us to remember, by giving us the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our guide and our ‘reminder’. –

John 14:26

‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.’

John 2:22

‘So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.’

Acts 11:15-18

‘And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

Just as in the days of old, we are still encouraged to teach, to remember and pass on the words and deeds of God and His love for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.

We are to remember, teach, inspire, honour, instruct and pass-on what we have learned from our Lord. The apostles do this in their written encouragements to the early church and we are exhorted to continue to strengthen one another with the truths and hope that we have through Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:12

‘Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.’

2 Peter 3:1-10

‘This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour spoken by your apostles.’

Isn’t it wonderful how Jesus assured us of how God still remembers His Covenant with us – even the New Covenant in His blood. God honours and remembers our faithfulness, our sacrifices, our love and our good deeds. When we pray, He hears our cries and remembers us and remembers the blood of Jesus, shed for the abundant, eternal life of each of us. Even in His moment of greatest distress, in agony on the cross, the thief asks Jesus to ‘remember’ him and Jesus assures him that He will remember him and has heard his plea for mercy – “today you will be with me in paradise.”

Matt 26:10 -13

‘Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me… When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Acts 10:4

‘Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Is it not truly wonderful that God loves us so much, that He wants an intimate relationship with each one of us, so He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us every moment into all the truth and to remind us of all that we need to know. I’m so glad He reminds me constantly of my complete dependence on Him.

And yet, all the ‘good’ deeds that we do are always ‘remembered’ by God, whereas our sins – these He remembers no more!

Hebrews 8:10-12

“For I will be merciful to their iniquities,

And I will remember their sins no more.”

What an amazing love and such amazing grace!

REMEMBER, REMEMBER…

Remembrance Blog 1

REMEMBER, REMEMBER…

My head is full to bursting with a trail of thoughts about ‘Remembrance’, so I am going to do a small series of blogs to explore one-by-one some of the themes connecting up in my brain, like a string of fairy lights.

As today is the fifth November, it seems fitting to begin with the old rhyme, drummed into us as children, calling us to remember…

Remember, remember, the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot…

As I’m sure you know, in Britain, folk build bonfires (to get rid of pruned trees and tidy up the twigs and dead leaves) and they have fireworks and outdoor celebrations with a mixture of autumn traditions of toffee apples, baked potatoes, mushy-peas, warm cider, and other festive goodies and fun. When I was a child, children would make a ‘Guy’ out of stuffed rags and wheel it around shouting ‘penny for the guy’ in order to get pennies to buy sparklers, jumping jacks or toffees. The ‘Guy’ would later be thrown on the bonfire and burned. (If it wasn’t too soggy!) This tradition has dwindled under the scrutiny of political correctness and health&safety and so doesn’t happen as much, to my knowledge.

First a little bit of history:

The plot was centred around a group of Roman Catholic revolutionaries furious at the persecution of their faith in England. The revolutionaries had hoped for better treatment from the new monarch James I after 45 years of hounding under the reign of Elizabeth I, and decided on drastic measures when things did not improve under his reign.

Warwickshire-born Catholic Robert Catesby and his friends planned to kill the King, his ministers and scores of nobles by blowing up the Palace of Westminster during the State Opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605.

The plotters rented a house nearby and managed to smuggle 36 barrels of gunpowder – around 2.5 tons – into a cellar under the palace ready to blow it sky high.

The explosives were discovered with hours to spare after an anonymous tip-off warning one peer to stay away.

To this day the cellars under the Houses of Parliament are ceremonially searched before the annual State Opening.

Perhaps it’s clear why we were urged to remember – to learn the ‘moral’ from the story (that rebellion against King and country has severe consequences and all that). But one can also see historically how courageous and desperate these ‘revolutionaries’ were to uphold their own religious freedom. There are two sides (at least) to every story and the terms ‘revolutionaries’, ‘rebels’, ‘reformers’, ‘pioneers’, etc – they always hold an historical significance and point to the beliefs and moral position of the ruling elite at any given time.

The month of November

November itself is a whole month dedicated to remembering – especially in church tradition – but also in general culture.

I’m going to share some of the historical significance behind some of the remaining familiar practices in our culture today.

In November the church traditionally remembers the ‘faithful departed’ and the Catholic Church priests says Masses for the dead in their parish all the month, following:

All Saints’ Day: November 1^st (since 8^th Century)

In the Catholic Church (and other churches) it is a Holy Day of Obligation to remember the saints and martyrs (known and unknown) on All Saints’ Day (All Hallows) – “all who have already reached the blessed land and point us on that path to reach the same destination” Pope John Paul II (2003). We remember these to inspire our own lives by their good example.

All Souls’ Day: November 2^nd

Likewise, on All Souls’ Day, all the ‘faithfully departed’ are commemorated and prayers for the dead, especially family and friends, are said. Often folk visit the graves of relatives, place flowers and reflect on their connections and lives.

Hallow e’en on 31^st Oct

Halloween was originally the vigil and evening of fasting and prayer before the feast day of All Saints/ All Hallows.

Traditionally folk would bake ‘soul-cakes’ (they had a cross on them, like hot-cross buns, as a sign of alms-giving) in preparation for the holy Day, and groups of poor people, often the children, would go door-to-door collecting ‘soul-cakes’ in exchange for offers to pray for the souls of the cake-giver’s family and friends. ‘Souling’ Christians would carry lanterns made of hollowed out turnips to represent the souls of the dead and jack-o’-lanterns to ward off evil spirits. Candles were also lit over these days to ‘guide the lost souls’ back to the light of Christ. Some dressed as known saints or in costumes to avoid recognition by evil spirits and homes and farmsteads were blessed.

It was a time of celebrating the end of the harvest and the start of winter, which is seen as the season of death.

Some of these old traditions carried remnants of older pagan traditions and a theology of purgatory and so were banned in the reformation.

The tradition of remembering the dead is to also learn the lessons – examples to follow and examples to learn from and avoid in our own lives. The Christian faith is one of hope in eternity and in heaven, because of Christ who conquered death. So remembering the dead is done with gratitude and hope.

Matthew 22:31 – 32

‘But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.’

Romans 14: 8

‘If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living’.

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What of you?

Are any of these days of any historical or cultural or spiritual significance to you?

Do you like to learn about relatives who have gone before you and learn about your personal or local heritage?

Please share any of your favourite practices relating to the remembrance of Saints, martyrs and our forebears, known and unknown, personally or historically significant.

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In the next post I will be considering Remembrance Day (in the UK) (Veterans Day in the US).