Pause for Reflection...

Ponderings on my journey from Carisbrook to Redhill - 15th September 2015:

"We need one another, so I will defend each man as my brother, each man as my friend."

My beloved ones on the Island - I echo Jesus' words
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

"We're on this train to where this train is going."
(Inside in our souls and/or outside in our bodies.) 

From evening scripture reading with Samuel and Isaac 
the night before we left:
"Jesus was led up of the Spirit to the wilderness...
Then Jesus was taken up into the holy city
and the Spirit setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple..."
(Sometimes when we go to be with God in a 'high place' 
or when we are placed in, elevated to, 'high' places' 
we are severely and thoroughly tested...)
(And... by the way... then we have a TESTimony afterwards...)

Advert on our train journey:
"Those who face the music get to pick the tune."
(I can do the really hard learning and practicing... then I am free-er!
More able to be creative!  More Useful. More used would I be.)

"Sometimes it is interesting 'outside' while we are around a silly 'inside' conversation.
Sometimes the conversation 'inside' is more interesting and not much 'outside.'
(I was reading my morning scriptures on the ferry being conscious of 
some Bestival goers conversing next to me.  
Then I was looking outside the ferry windows still surrounded by chatter.  
We couldn't find three seats together so Glenn and Patrick sat together 
and I sat two rows in front of them in a single seat with the windows 
of the ferry right in front of me.)

My mind wandered to remembering our last Sunday School lesson.
"There are several individuals in the class this morning that are
'strangers and foreigners' to those usually in this class -
yet in this class 'we' are neither strangers nor foreigners,
but of the household of God, gathered in this place on this day
to be blessed and to bless."

I thought about how I sometimes feel about a 
"Public Displays of Affection" - that it can be distasteful.
I thought about people who can be churlish and surly publicly.
.I got here to Dianne's and looked up the definition of the words:
churlish - rude, mean-spirited.
surly - bad-tempered, unfriendly.
"Is that not also distasteful?  A public display of churlish and surly behaviour?"
Distasteful - disagreeable, unpleasant. 
"Hard for the one receiving that churlish and surly behaviour,
and unbecoming to the one behaving that way.
Difficult too for the ones witnessing it."
Sometimes it is me being churlish and surly... sobering.

I said to Angela at Jungle Jim's
"We are on the way to being FULL of grace and truth like the Saviour.
Of course we will not get it right all the time.  We are on our way.
There are those around us who are ahead of us - we can learn from them,
ask them how they do it, watch how they do it, and try it.
We are ahead of some others.  We can be generous and compassionate
to them and let them learn from us as they reach out to us."

On one of the stations our train stopped at I saw someone look at their watch...
I thought "It doesn't matter what YOUR watch says the time is...
the clock on the platform is the one these trains follows...."
A big lesson as I apply the principle in my life.

I look forward to this day -  
when 'they' will be able to let any 'nursing or weaned child' 
in their presence be themselves un-attacked by them.  
I love it when I am in the presence of those who are able to, 
but do not,strike at the nursing or weaned child parts of me.
I love being around those who do not HURT or DESTROY (Me).
I then feel like I am indeed in HIS... HOLY... MOUNTAIN...
I love that 'rest', His rest.
Not for the faint-hearted...

Isaiah 11:9
8The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, 
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. 
9They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, 
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD 
As the waters cover the sea. 
10Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, 
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; 
And His resting place will be glorious.…

"Honour thy father and thy mother..."
Not one, or the other...
Both.
Find ways to honour MY father and MY mother...

I remember one who had challenging parents say 
of his father  "I learned integrity from him."
and of his mother "I learnt compassion from her."
Knowing his parents my respect for him went up as he 
mentioned the qualities he singled out to honour in each of them.

I have some more work to do...
"One day at a time, sweet Jesus - "