On the palms of His hands..

"See, i have engraved you on the palms of my hands." - Isaiah 49.16

"I have graven thee." It does not say, "Thy name." The name is there, but that is not all: "I have graven thee." See the fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when He has graven thee upon His own palms?" - Spurgeon

The Lord of sea and sky

"I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry; all who dwell in dark and sin my hand will save. I, who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall i send?

Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people's pain; I have wept for love of them - they turn away. I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone; I will speak my word to them. Whom shall i send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame. I will set a feast for them - my hand will save. Finest bread I will provide till their hearts are satisfied; I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart." - Daniel Schutte

My family has this song on a c.d. We used to listen to it when we were young and we always referred to this song as my little brother's song. I think it was his favourite one. But i like it as well. I like the lyrics. I like the hope that is portrayed in them; the promise that God hears His people's cry, that He will save those who are in the darkest places, that He feels their pain, that He notices the poorest and most feeble of all and that He will set a feast for them and satisfy them. I love it. And i think that the call to us, as His people, is a very real one. I want to always be in a place where i can say back 'here i am Lord'... but i guess as the last line of the song says, we can only say 'here i am', alongside 'if you lead me'... because we can't do any of this alone. We're not even meant to. We can only do it in and through Him and as and when He calls us.

Amazing grace...

"AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND, THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME.."

-John Newton

I realised that i would normally be reluctant to post a photo of one of my paper-cuts, but today i decided not to care. It's not that i think it's great or want to show it off, it's more that i simply don't mind what it looks like - i am a wretch, whether i can cut paper well or not doesn't even matter - the point is that still, despite everything, God saved a wretch like me. Who or what i am, or what i can or can't do seems almost irrelevant right now - what matters most is the beauty of God's grace... grace that saves me even if i have absolutely nothing i can offer back..... what matters is God, not us.... and i want to declare how truly beautiful He is and how marvelous His grace is.

The glory of God

"We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self. Indeed, what could be more ludicrous in a vast and glorious universe like this than a human being, on the speck called earth, standing in front of a mirror trying to find significance in his own self-image? It is a great sadness that this is the gospel of the modern world." - John Piper, via Mercies New

The pure diet..

When i was a child i was allergic to certain ingredients in food - mainly additives, e-numbers, colours, flavourings and monosodium glutamate. Basically food that was processed or had a lot of unnatural things added to it; it made me extremely hyperactive and aggressive and stopped me from sleeping. Quite simply, i had to be on a very natural, pure diet. Man-made foods with all their additives made me restless and sleepless.

Last week i went for 11 nights, with an average of only one hours sleep a night. It was awful and i felt like i was losing my mind. But somewhere in the midst of it i realised again how important our thought life is. I realised that in the same way that processed foods stopped me sleeping as a child, over-processing my thoughts stopped me sleeping now. As soon as i filled my mind with people's opinions, or my own ideas, and tried to over-analyse them, then i was restless and agitated and couldn't get any rest. My dear brother sat up with me nearly all night last Saturday and kept directing back to what the Bible said. And i discovered that feeding on pure food; the word of God, calmed me again. I've realised again how utterly essential it is to have a store of Biblical truth to fight with at all times and how important it is to just focus on the truth of what God says, when you can't understand anything else.

"I have esteemed the words of His mouth, more than my necessary food." - Job 23.12

"Blessed is the one.. who's delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a stream planted by streams of water, which yields it's fruit in season.." - Psalm 1

He is good.

"You have been good - You will be good to me." - Brian Doerkson

And i guess He can be nothing else. For He Himself IS goodness.