Jeremiah RBT shares

Jesus is the Lord of our righteousness he takes the cup of wrath for us 33:17
Sin is  'deceptive' 3:23 and must be punished 6:10
God requires whole hearted repentence 3:10
God is judgement and punishment 7:31, 48:26
God moves us on, changes us, 7:24
Salt and light 13:15
Comforter 31:16
Church 31:25, 15:19-21
Prayer 33:3

Gray hair is a crown of splendor

Forty.
Is not thirty...
YAY!

Signpost

 For all the prayers you answer,

 all the times you listen to my tears, 

 my ranting, my horribles,

 for making me feel like I can go on.

Thank you Lord Jesus, I am not alone.

the graveyard of umbrellas

I have recently noticed that I can't understand teenagers when they speak. And to add to this I have started relying heavily on lip reading when anyone of any age speaks. And during conversations my mind will switch off and by the time I rejoin the conversation I am completely off point.
But this did not stop me having a wonderful Sunday at Mount followed by a wonderful Sunday lunch, where I think the general consensus was that umbrellas are utterly useless in this town. And lemon meringue pie is the greatest pudding, ever.

note

there was so much time then,
before we met,
when I stood on the bare stairs
with bare feet
and the baby in bed,
standing there with my hair all wet
and the sun shone 
on the white wooden floor.
I had dug the garden over
in just one day
my spade-calloused hands sore,
my bicepts ached
and the fire stiill had to be laid 
and the tea stilll had to be made,

but there was so much time then.

my guy

Radical
and true
can't take
his eyes
off you
Faithful
he will
never leave
or forsake
you
Kind
he walks
with you
he prays for
you
Love
he loves you
he wants to be with you
forever!

Boy friend

He is too cool for school
he gets expelled for setting fire to his exam paper with his lighter
which he uses to burn the drugs he introduces you to,
he's selective, yet open and answers all direct questions
when anyone asks one.
He knows your pass word, your pin number, and where your diary is,
he loves you so much he cant bare you to talk to anyone else.
No, not even for a minute.
He buys you presents and pays for dates, he's so spontaneous
though he's hit a dry patch, so now you go Dutch,
after you lend him a twenty.
He hits you, but only once,
and only after you went on and on about that girl
you are so weirdly jealous about and any way you must not forget,
you must never wind him up when he's had a few and it's all in your head anyway.

When God speaks...

What do you do when God speaks?

You start talking crap.

This is because what you just heard contained everything you ever, will ever need to know.

At the Potter's house

When I first started out, my church Mum, said, 'you will be the type of Christian God wants you to be...' At the time, I was probably moaning, I didn't know really what she meant, I just thought it was a bit irritating.
Today, I woke up very early, due to a bit of help from my little one and I couldn't get back to sleep...usually this would cause me a bit of woe, and grumpiness, and 'poor me' ness,  but today I didn't mind.
Have I suddenly mutated into a saint?
No, I definitely haven't!
But there has been a fundamental change in me, I know this because even in my dreams, I am a Christian, even when I wake up at 4am, I am a Christian.
What is becoming clearer and clearer to me, is I'm not the person I thought I was.
The closest I can get to the person I am now is if I think of myself aged about eight. If I think of me then, there's a place I belong to, there's a certainty of who I am and when I forget the bravado, when I forget who I became...I kind of go to something like that.
It is at Church, I can practise being this person, when I clean, or cook, or talk to somebody I don't usually talk to, or attend weddings, or sing, or pray, or talk about the bible, or drink tea, or have seconds.
When you have been to bad places in your life, it is tempting to think you will go back, and sometimes there are terrifying reminders of the abyss, but today I think that although I know the abyss is there, and very close, today I think I want to choose to live with the door open, and that I want to live like Jesus says I can, without fear of going back. And although I don't know who he is going to turn me into, I think I would rather become the Christian he wants me to be!

Arriva

It's not a fast intercity train, it is a slow Welsh train.
So the first thing that happens is you feel the brakes go on, and as you've just come out of a bend it feels like the train is going to come off the track and run off the incline into a bright yellow field, somewhere just outside Shrewsbury, (or Tuesbury as we call it...)
You get a bit of that g-force feeling like you need to hold on to your seat, your kid, your i-phone.
And you vaguely realise something not normal is happening.
You look at your seat, child or i-phone and you think, "Shit!"
The train impacts. It sounds like an explosion. The train which has felt as if it were free wheeling suddenly feels as if it may take flight.
Simultaneously, the under carriage shudders like turbulence in a plane and a shower of what sounds like stones hitting the windows, and the train is still braking and you are still holding onto your seat, or your child, or your i-phone.
You think you must have hit a tree.
And then you really think the train is going to come off the tracks, and a quick glance reveals you now have a bigger drop, and then the train stops.
Shakes a little.
And starts to smoke.
You let go of your seat and you think "if I see flame...I run...with my kid, my i-phone."
Just as the fumes are getting a bit concerning the 'ticket lady' emerges and she says,
"Right, well we've just run over a cow..."
"How's the cow?"
"The cow is still under the train and there's a problem with the brakes but the driver is out there fixing it."
The driver manages to get the train moving enough to get to Church Stretton...where it is announced that anyone who wants to get out and have a cigarette can...under the circumstances...while the driver fixes the brakes...
At which point...everyone needs a cup of tea...but there's no trolley and there will be no trolley...
If the driver can't fix the train, we will be 'rescued' by another train, past experience tells me this will mean we will be crammed into the next train..which will already be full...I start praying the driver fixes the train.
The driver is the hero...he has engine trouble...but overcomes that...at the next station...
It may be the lack of tea...the lack of real disaster but when he deliverers us an hour late at Cardiff and we have to wait forty minutes for a train to Swansea....I'm starting to get a bit cynical...even though my kid's been a TROJAN and only hit me once, and only gone to the toilet three times...at Swansea  CK's whilst buying my son a prize, and some cream for the chocolate cake I'm baking tomorrow, I decide to email a complaint, with the view of getting a total refund...I start lamenting, 'We have no infra-structure,'....And then I tell myself, 'No, write the email and...you don't have to use Welsh trains...you can go to Birmingham and up...yes...that's the way'...
When I get home...that is a good cup of tea...mind!

antidote to first thoughts

Jesus is alive x

first thoughts

It's broken.
I can't.
They don't like me.
I don't like them.
I'm rubbish.
I'm tired.
I'm depressed.
I'm going to die.
No.
No chance.
Not today.