this week I was unexpectedly busy and then, the news came of Journalist ( capital ‘J’ ) Jim Lehrer’s passing. His mate, Robin MacNeil, has this quote,

“I learned a lot from him, about his very direct manner of interviewing,” MacNeil added. “And not being afraid to say ‘you don’t understand’ or ‘you don’t know.’ But also his extraordinary ability to listen. You know the hardest thing to do on TV is to listen.”

so, read the Word as Mr Lehrer read his work; his interviewees; himself: listen well.

essential principle: sit with His Word; listen

If Our Word says- ‘we love, (because) He first loved us.’ 1 John 4:19

make it His And Ours:

we sing because He first sang over us ( Zephaniah 3)

we weep as He first wept over Us ( John 11: 1-44) (35)

listen to Him, as He all ways – always- listens to you; to Us

the principle: make it personal and objective; studied and emotional; Ours and His

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/remembering-jim-lehrer

simple 4: sit

so, so so many never ever sit in His word…

why, why, ….

in our human life; emotional life; in, perhaps, most of all- there is is lack of-

..heard…

Loving, loving kindness

but with Jesus…

I am heard

as I read, meditate, drench my self in the word, I ask: ‘what is the one first, image, word or words that touch, hold, really, in effect love me?

three point, alliterative sermons, talks, sharing do not do it, this day, for me…

one moment, a touch, does it-

today I was reading Hebrews 11 with another and this verse (35) ‘ jumped me…

Women received their loved ones back from the dead. 

…or as the paraphrase Message gives,

Women received by a rising again their dead, and others were tortured, not accepting the redemption, that a better rising again they might receive,…

‘ a better rising’

whom is the writer speaking of?

a person? as the widow‘s son in 1 King’s 17 ( by Elijah? …

or a community, as in Judges 4 & 5 through Deborah’s leading?

or through some women who went to Jesus’ tomb, days after his death, wishing to anoint and bathe His dead, multilated body? …

‘…The women who had come with Jesus from Galile followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.‘ Luke 23: 55-56

an artist craved these women in 1897 with hoods; robes; covered totally in sorrows…

-but Soon, very soon, their sorrows would no longer entomb, cover them. As Jesus when He rose shed His covering linens, (John 20: 7-8) ‘the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.’

-so will they, and we, remove all that covers and entombs, as we receive back all we though was dead

…this is the promise, ‘a better resurrection’ Hebrews 11: 35-36

a word, a one word life

When I lived in the United Kingdom, Hampstead, London, from 2012 through 2016, I experienced, I learned and unlearned, many principles and truths. I met many people and, through them and the Spirit, lived another life. A one word life.

This life, my life, has been and is about God’s Word. I read it and meditate on it; I write on it and speak on it. I walk it. I live it as best I can.

When I moved to the UK I was employed, called, to write on This, His Word. But at the start I struggled to share. Why? I used too many of my own words. I did not let The Word speak itself. Too much of me, and not enough of The Spirit in, from with The Word. So …

I listen to a mentor, Craig Borlase, and got all my writing ideas on small post it notes. I also began to pray and meditate in one verse scriptures. I returned to the Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner’

I prayed this prayer repeatedly; I changed it as I went on. I changed one word, as He lead me (for example, ‘a sinner’ to ‘your sinner’) and then when I went back to the word, I also asked, loved, loved that word as I walked.

Today, I am walking with Paul and the people of Thessaloniki,

Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always” & “Pray without ceasing” (5:17)

These two instructions are for the group and an individual. Packed closely together, their verbs, ‘rejoice’ and ‘pray’, describe how I am to walk this day, and everyday, with Him.

But where my Lord really desires me to go with His Words here is global: ‘always’ and ‘without ceasing’.

He desires all of me, everyday, joyful, joyful adoring in His presence.

In these two partnered scriptures, short and emotional; personal and loving, He takes me. Reading the Word is to be taken.

Taking; this is a word, a life. Mine.

My God, my life, my Jesus, my love.

On Christmas Eve 1982 one of several brothers was preparing to serve as a professional pall bearer. Outside his family home and work, Charles Guarino was shot to death,

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/24/nyregion/brooklyn-man-is-slain-in-gang-style-shooting.html

I went to Our Lady of Grace elementary school with the Guarinos. Their family, formed of several brothers, lived above the Guarino Funeral Home, right by Avenue X. Rumour was they were connected and they were to be avoided.

A number, if not all, of the brothers were killed. One of the last to go was Charles.

Why would a mob hit be done as the victim is to help bury another? And why on Christmas Eve? Why kill the last son?

Christmas Eve is when my family, and all Italian families, celebrate Christmas. We open presents, we drink and eat. We feast on ‘seven fishes’ – seven different fish dishes and a variety of pastas. It is a holy family day.

So why kill a son, a brother, on this of all days? ( https://www.google.com/amp/s/themillions.com/2014/05/thug-a-life-of-caravaggio-in-sixty-nine-paragraphs.html/amp) -the first line of this iconic article is ‘They torture him of course.’- This is why: torture.

Why?

Because the Guarino family was hated so by these others that on each and every future Christmas they would live in a time of ultimate family sorrow; hear always a death song; see always images of children dead, not borne, on all Christmas Eves. Torture of course.

1982 was a transitional year for me. I was leaving a soiled, rejected and bitter past and was slowly moving to a lighten immediate future. No more tortures, no more deaths.

In 1982 I had just moved to a new flat; we, Priscilla and I, had just enjoyed the beauty of our first daughter’s birth; we were happy tired. Happy.

In 1982 reading of this man’s death, then and now, I was taken by a gloved hand from these happy moments again to my past, a past of sorrows and tears; of failing eye sight and betraying hearts.

I also had failed others, along with myself. And I still do.

But now, today, in this moment, I choose to serve as a pall bearer to my past. I move to honour them in their burying.

I only trust and hope; hope and believe, that I, and my past memories, will not destroy me. I hope they will not bury me with them. I hope in you my Jesus fit unfailing love alongside these incessant memories and thoughts.

So, I look to feast on Christmas Eve, on past, on present and future births on all Christmases and their Eves. Memories and dreams will be reborn, and borne in peace together.

how I read, meditate, absorb Your word, today…

• where am I walking today?

• where am I standing this day?

• how and where am I sitting today? whom am I sitting with?

My truthful, transparent and rigorously honest answer to these questions takes me to prayer, my final and fourth step.

today’s prayer: my Lord, please sit with me ‘…appoint  your love and faithfulness to protect…’ (me) Psalm 62: 7b

appoint and post your love and faithfulness in all my walks, all my standings. And as I sit, rest, speak, move my heart faithfully and fully to you, my Lord.