Beauty for Ashes

It's all too easy to compare our situation with that of others, or to what we THINK that of others might be - and fall into the deadly trap of self-pity, which is really complaining at God for giving us a raw deal! Yet the Bible says "Every GOOD gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, who never changes".

Whatever your situation or mine, let's not forget that even if you feel that you have not been given what you deserved in life, God has given His very self for you in the lovely Person of Jesus, and His Spirit is always there with you if you have asked Jesus to be your Lord. In fact, if we got what we really deserved, each of us would be lost and on the way to eternity without hope and without God!

Today I have been really tempted to be ungrateful and full of self-pity: today is my 25th ("Silver") wedding anniversary - we are still together, but it has certainly not been a great marriage by any means. Neither my husband or anyone else has even remembered this day, and I am remembering it alone and with very mixed feelings, self-pity being one of the stronger ones!

I was tempted to ask God "Why?" when sitting next to my dear friend Peggy in church today - she had come to Songs of Praise (see previous entry!) for the first time since her 83 year-old husband Ashley had died after a long battle with cancer. Ashley's long life had been one of constant service and dedication to the Lord Jesus, and his funeral packed tiny St Margaret's to the doors with 297 guests, not so much mourners as those who each had a tale to tell of how Ashley had always had time for them personally, to lead them to Christ or encourage them in their faith.

"If only I had a husband like that"...., I was tempted to think - but it was then time once again to pull myself up, or rather let the Lord LIFT me up in the gracious way that only He can, into His never-ending supply of grace and mercy!

My local church is a lively and caring Church of England in Uxbridge, a suburb of London, called St Margaret's. They have just launched their own website at www.uxbridgeparish.org

On Tuesday lunchtime we have a short Songs of Praise service, modelled on the popular BBC TV programme whose format is well-loved hymns interspersed with true-life stories and inspiring thoughts. At the Uxbridge Songs of Praise today, we heard a moving testimony of two Irishmen who had been deadly enemies on different sides of the religious divide that existed there for many decades, but who were reconciled after both had come into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

The most inspiring part of the service for me, though, was Pastor June's vivid illustration of how the Lord can take even the most badly ruined life and make something new and wonderful from it. She was commenting on the loving way that the risen Lord Jesus restored His disciple Peter to hope and purpose in life, after Peter had denied three times that he even knew Jesus before the crucifixion. (You can read this story in John's Gospel, Chapter 21. If you want an easy way of reading the Bible online, go to www.biblegateway.com)

To illustrate just how much Jesus wants even now to heal and forgive even you or me, however badly we might have "messed up" in life, June took out a delicious chocolate muffin and showed it to the congregation, asking who would like to eat it! Of course, most hands went up then. But the next thing June did was to squash the muffin with her dirty fingers, take a bite out of it, and then trample it underfoot .....

"NOW does anyone want this muffin??" asked June. Naturally, everyone in the congregation shook their head to say "No way!"

The point of this, June explained then, was that Jesus wants you, even if you feel that your life is like that badly damaged and unappetising muffin, and - even better - He can and will make you better than new if you only ask Him.

This is some spontaneous song from Robbie at TACF,
May it touch our hearts!

....let the reality of that sink in, that He saved you -
I was thinking that often the greatest point in the movie
Is where the lover lays down his life for his bride -
The thing is, in those movies it takes about eighty minutes
To get to that point - sometimes even three hours....

The difference with our story is that our Lover started that way,
He started that way, to catch your eye,
To catch your eye, He laid down His life,
Went to a death most excruciating,
The most painful death you've ever heard of...that's how it started.
Not how the story ends, that how it starts......

Raised again, raised again, He came again
To love you back to life, He was raised again
To love you back to life -

How can it be, You were the One on the Cross?
Lifted for all our shame........
How can it be, that the scars in Your hands
Are for me?.......
You are the King of all.