Bees in My Bonnet

Prayer to the Trinity, adapted for children Three together in one, One, but still Three - You are God Who saves me! Father in Heaven, Son Who delights the Father, and Spirit Who never ends, I love You as One Being, One God in three different persons - and I love You because You bring wrong-doers to know You and to become Yours. O Father, You have loved ME and sent Jesus to get me back from the mess I've found myself in; O Jesus, You have loved me and even became like me when You lived on earth, and still fully understand and exist as a real human person, You gave up Your life by shedding Your blood to wash away all the bad in me - when You did this You took Your own pure goodness and covered over all the ways I fail so often; O Holy Spirit, You have loved me and entered into my heart, and planted there an unending tree of eternal life - You have shown me how wonderful Jesus is. Three Persons and One God, I bless and praise You, for loving me when I really deserve no love, and ...

I sometimes pick up the collection of Puritan prayers and peruse its contents and am very blessed by it. Then I wish the language were just a bit more readable for a wider audience. So I decided to re-write some of it for the sake of simplicity and comprehension. I wanted it to be something a 10 year old can understand and an adult who gets tripped up by thee's and thou's can grasp. Here is the first one: The Valley of Vision Lord, high above me and holy - gentle and stooping to reach me, You have brought me to a valley where I can see clearly, where I live in a difficult place down below, but see You clearly high above; sometimes trapped by mountains of sin, I can still see You are wonderful and glorious! Let me learn from you even when things are puzzling - that the times I am down in the depths, then You are able to lift me up, that to be low is to be high, that when my heart is breaking you can heal it, that the sorry and sincere spirit is one that also rejoices a...

How To Forgive I realize I tend to just muse out loud here on my blog, and sometimes I just throw my thoughts out, drop them like a bomb and run for cover. Sometimes I fail to address how some of my observations can be remedied. After writing the last bit I thought, 'Okay, I've said my bit, had my gripe about lack of forgiveness, and could say lots more, but some people genuinely struggle to forgive. What hope have I offered them?' And I repented and decided to write some more. How can we forgive - big things or little things? I believe there are two main ingredients that must precursor forgiveness. Take a look at the following verse: “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” from Luke 17 Now, let's for a moment lay aside the part of the repentance - because much of...

I was thinking again on this subject and had more thoughts to share. I write this blog from an entirely Christian, Bible-based perspective. I just want to clarify that before I begin, because I know I have a wide range of readers who may or may not agree with my beliefs about God, the world and us who inhabit it! Regardless, I am thankful and honoured to share my thoughts about matters that apply to all of us, no matter how we encounter God in our lives. I do believe that He seeks to draw all of us to Himself by His great mercy and love. Because of His great love for us, He calls His children to forgive. This is a high order for some, but when a follower of Christ really considers it, it is not such a big deal. We would like to think it is, but that is merely a form of nursing wounds. Forgiveness is puzzling to consider when we look at the foundations of our western culture - it's values, core beliefs and traditions. It is a counter-cultural idea to most all cultures, b...

We know that in some sense, all of life is in one frame or another, an act of worship. It just depends what we are worshiping. While I hold to this concept, I do not want to minimize what Christians do when they gather together in order to corporately worship - solely focus their hearts, thoughts and being on the person of Christ, the greatness of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This, I fear, is attempted often times, but often falls short of what it aspires to do. Why is this? I think habit can deaden the senses. No matter what the habit. Be it liturgy, dancing in the aisles, old worn hymnals... any habit can become boring. At the same time, the heart of the worshiper can be so moved by the familiar, by these habits. The heart can be engaged by both variety and by familiarity. So, regarding corporate worship gatherings I have an idea. And since cyberspace is where I toss my ideas and then run for cover (what a blessing!) here I go. Why not have a group - be it a Church...