Open eyes.

"It's all a matter of keeping my eyes open, Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them. The least we can do is try to be there... So that creation need not play to an empty house." - Annie Dillard

Tear it out.

"The role of the will in sanctification: How intentional must you be to tear out your eye? Totally. It's never spontaneous." - John Piper

Challenging, but true...

Chinese Totems

Photos taken from the 'Totems' series by Alain Delmore. They portray Chinese men carrying vast loads across the city of Shanghai. I find them pretty fascinating.

All in a day's work

"If i may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole." Mark 5.28

I've been marveling at Mark 5 this evening. It contains three incredible stories showing Jesus' power; power over the enemy, power over sickness, power over death. And it's all in a day's work:

Jesus frees a mad man from a legion of demons and restores His health and sanity. Then He heals a lady who's been sick for 12 years. I am in awe of her simple faith.. She had spent all she had on seeking a remedy, only to have gotten worse. Yet when she sees Jesus she says with complete and absolute certainty that if she just touches His clothes then she WILL be made well. She touches, with a trembling fearful hand. She's made whole. And then with humility she declares to everyone the full truth as to why she had touched Him. Straight afterwards, Jesus raises a child from the dead, with the power of His simple tender loving words: "Little girl, arise." She arises. She lives.

Honestly, this chapter blows my mind. This chapter points to the absolute beauty and power of Jesus - power over the enemy, power over sickness, power over time, power over death.. and beauty that invokes faith and love and humility in sinner's. This God-man is incredible.

Your hands.

"Jesus, let me see Your hands. I wanna see the holes, where You felt Your Father's plans. Jesus, let me see Your feet. Never was a man's suffering so sweet.... Those who have ears, let 'em hear... those who have eyes, let 'em see.... There will be a day when the King will come, separate the weeds from the wheat.... Scoffer's scoff, skeptics smirk, don't you see a sinner's just like me... There will be a day when every knee will bow... So Jesus, let me see Your hands. I wanna see the holes, where You felt Your Father's plans. Jesus, let me see Your feet. Never was a man's suffering so sweet."

- Josh White

The Sun is Rising

The little video that this photo is taken from is worth watching: The Sun is Rising

Trees - Men

" “I see men, but they look like trees.” (Mark 8:24). Lord, leave me not with one lone touch. Keep touching till all is clear. " - John Piper

The cry of the needy

"He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap." - Psalm 113.7

"You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed...." - Psalm 10.17-18

Photo & stencil graffiti by icy

The face of Jesus

"'I see the face of Jesus in disguise,' said Mother Teresa about the dying beggars she would invite into her home in Calcutta - 'sometimes a most distressing disguise.' She, like Gandhi, understood that the direction of charity is not condescending, but rather ascending: in serving the weak and the poor, we are privileged to serve God himself." - P.Yancey

A crown of thorns.

"It ill becomes you to make much of dress and show, when you are so soon to see the face that was crowned with thorns." - RMM via J.Piper

He opened not His mouth

"Never man spake like Him (John 7.46) and never was man silent like Him." Spurgeon

I still can't comprehend how Jesus always spoke so beautifully. His every word is absolutely perfect. What blows my mind even more though, is His silence. I love this God-man. And I love His words. Out of everyone, He has a right to defend Himself, yet He doesn't... instead, His silence speaks in my defense, when I'm the guilty one.

Let me sail..

Photo by Sarah V. Elston

I caught a glimpse of You today, as shards of light danced across the ocean, merging sun and sea into single sapphire dewdrops; it was a timely unison. A summer radiance overthrew yesterday's grey countenance, and every resident of that water-city seemed to sing with victory. For a moment, Your laughter was written into the face of the great deep.

When You withdraw, all pleasing colours fade from those waves, like blood that drains from a broken man's skin. They have no brightness of their own.. they are not whole... like a bride without her groom. With no metronome to tame it's song, the current writhes at the hands of fierce winds, like a restless troubled soul. It's breakers crash upon the rocks, unleashing heavy salty tunes.. and my own heart echos their cry, releasing heavy salty tears. We toss as one, the vast ocean and i... we utter sounds simultaneously, as we share our longing for Your rays again.

Yet today, as i gazed into the waters heart and You unveiled Your shimmering eyes, hope surged through the fragments of my soul. I heard a faint whisper of the voice that stills the waters; a faint promise that the day is not far off. And I burst with gratitude at Your faithfulness. But still my every fibre flows with yearning... I long to sail peaceful seas again, to let You calm my ocean. I wait in hope for Your voice that speaks to my depths and hushes mighty storms. I wait in hope for the gentle tide that draws me to You, my desired haven.

"He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven." - Psalm 107.29-31

Old Brighton Pier

I like these double exposures by Dan Mountford

Twenty Three

"Arise Oh Lord

Lift up Your eyes

Don’t forget I’m helpless

Oh You lead me to waters and pastures so green

Oh You pour out Your oil and choose goodness and mercy for me

No I will not be in want

You’re with me

I will not fear

You comfort me

I will not fear.

Everything i've ever wanted, i find in You. I could run away and You will never leave. You will always stay, right by my side."

- Song Lyrics to Twenty Three by Aaron Strumpel -

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Photos by Ibán Ramón.

He is good.

"I will hope in Your name, for Your name is good." - Psalm 52. 9

"I will sing the Lord's praise for He has been good to me." - Psalm 13.6

So that we might cling to Him

"Christ did not come into the world so that we might comprehend Him, but so that we might cling to Him, so that we might let Him simply pull us into the tremendous story of the resurrection. He came so that we might simply let Him tell us in total incomprehensibility: You are dead - and yet you have risen! You are in the dark - and yet you are in the light. You are afraid - and yet you can rejoice. These totally incompatible things are side by side only a hair's breadth apart. Just like the two worlds, our world and God's world, they are side by side only a hair breadth apart.....

Our visible life with its joys and successes, with it's worries and trouble and its painful disobedience stands holy and innocent and perfect for Jesus Christ's sake in that hidden world of God before the eyes of the Almighty, today and tomorrow and forever. And no tear flows in vain and no sigh goes unheard; no pain is disparaged and no jubilation is lost. The visible world brutally and heartlessly and violently marches over all of that. But out of grace and mercy and great love, God gathers up our burning, blazing life... Our true life is hidden - but it is solidly grounded in eternity." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Walk with me

"I want Jesus to walk with me. I want Jesus to walk with me. All along my pilgrims journey, I want Jesus to walk with me. When i'm in trouble, walk with me. When i'm in trouble, walk with me. When my heart is almost breaking, I want Jesus to walk with me. Well in my trials, walk with me. In my trials, walk with me. When my head is bowed in sorrow, you know i want Jesus, i want Jesus, i want Jesus to walk with me." - Song lyrics by Eric Bibb

Forgotten Faces

The above images are by a street artist called Michael Aaron. He's a Christian and i like the stuff he does and the reasons behind it.

His Name

"All hail the Lamb, enthroned on high, His praise shall be our battle cry. He reigns victorious, forever glorious, His name is Jesus, He is the Lord." - Dave Bilbrough

I've been thinking recently about the significance of names - both our own names and the names of God. Psalm 9.10 says "those who know Your name put their trust in You." There is incredible trust & faith & hope & victory that arises simply out of knowing God in the light of His names. But more than that, i've been thinking about our own position in relation to this.

I noticed something remarkable recently. Rather than being labelled with our own name, the name that will be publicly on us, the name which others will see and will be written on our foreheads, is GOD'S name, not ours. Rev 22.4 says: "They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." Or as the King James says "in their foreheads" - which suggests the name we dwell on, and is engraved right into us, is His. Rev 14.1 also says "on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with Him 144,000, who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads." I honestly love this. I can't think of any other name that i would rather have written on me than the name of my God. It is a thousand times better than having my own name.

That's not to say we don't have our own names... we have names now - some with good meanings, some with bad meanings.... but ultimately God will give each of us a new name, that defines us much better than any name we're known by now. It says in Rev 2.17 "I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." But what i love about this, is that it's private.

The name that is written on us, as a public statement of who we belong to, is God's. We are first and foremost known as His.. as His people, as His body.. as His. It's His name that matters not ours. It's who HE IS that matters, not us. I was packing this week, and labelled my boxes with my name... because they belonged to me, and that's all i wanted other people to know.. not all the details of what was in them, just who's they were. He is the One that matters.. and even the name on us will stand to point back to Him.. for His glory.. because it's all about Him.

But i guess, because He loves us, and because there is a depth of intimacy in the way He relates to us, He still gives us names too. He still has an affectionate way to refer to us. I'm happy to know He will give me a new name.. and i am happy that it's just between me and Him. I don't know why exactly though, but i just love the fact that it's HIS name that is written on me, not my own... but i love too that He still does rename me.

"No man can burn a label into flesh and make it stay, when heaven disagrees." - Calvin Miller

Overcoming

"Revelation 12:11—"They overcame the devil by the blood of the lamb, for they loved not their lives even unto death"—what does that say? You overcome the devil by the gospel, by believing you are covered by the blood. You overcame by applying and teaching and preaching the blood of Christ, and then by being so sacrificially dedicated to people's lives that you are willing to die rather than run away from a situation. When that happens, when martyrs covered by the blood loving people happens, Satan is defeated. I don't think in order to be seriously engaged in spiritual warfare (where you are freeing people from the powers of the evil one), you have to do exorcisms week in and week out. You have to be a faithful, loving, humble, and repenting teacher—a lover of people. Satan is a liar and therefore he will not abide truth. He is a murderer, and therefore he will not abide love. So if you are a truth-giver and a deep, self-sacrificing lover, you will win." - John Piper, taken from this article

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.