Creator God: in lightning, clouds and thunder,
I hear your voice, I sense the mountains shake.
But love is greater, causes me to wonder,
and in this moment faith begins to wake.
So I will sing in praise of all I see,
and in God's grace, I place my trust;
and through our lives may love confound our fear.
Sing praise to God, for God is love.
I look to stars, foundations of creation,
reflections gleam from streams as I pass by,
from mountain pass to shingle by the ocean,
the breath of God is moving with each sigh.
Within this world a human once embodied
a depth of love beyond what had been known,
a love that gave forgiveness once in dying,
that we could find in life, that all could own.
And when my breath is ceasing as I’m dying
may grace confirm the hope that faith has given,
this human love that I have known in living
grows firmer, deeper in the love of heaven.
© Andrew Pratt 29/9/2022
Tag: heaven
Hymn at a time of ‘levelling up’ – A promise of heaven is fine if you’re dead
A promise of heaven is fine if you’re dead,
but we’re in the present, need food and need bread,
the Christ that we ‘worship’ to whom we might pray,
would heal in the present, feed folk in his day.
And that still has meaning where poverty kills,
where selfishness injures – that’s not what God wills.
A levelling up, to which we might aspire,
says yes to the sacrifice God would require.
To follow the Christ child from manger to cross,
involves our self-giving not counting the loss,
to take from the poor while we bolster our wealth,
confirms our hypocrisy, signs our ill-health.
The world Jesus promised in action and word
made selfishness something both cruel and absurd;
to love every neighbour of each race and creed,
gave all of God’s grace to meet all the world’s need.
Andrew Pratt; 15/7/2021
Words © 2020 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider
and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre:11.11.11.11
NT Wright explores an early Christian view of heaven – very interesting
Very interesting reflection with evidence that might make us think and add a new perspective to our approach to Christianity today https://time.com/5743505/new-testament-heaven/
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace – vocation
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace,
the time is this moment, to cease to deride
the weak and down-trodden the world might despise,
to bury our prejudice, pack away pride.
The people are waiting God’s offer of love,
the different, disfigured, untutored or poor.
The grace of the God-head should not be confined,
how could we discard those who wait at our door?
While failing together we follow the Christ,
with ones deemed as worthless, as cruel or unkind,
as carrying our neighbours we cease to condemn,
while finding the heaven to which we’ve been blind.
Andrew Pratt 18/10/2019
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Tunes: DATCHET
Love matters for our future https://bramhallmethodists.org.uk/scienceandprayer/
Love matters for our future,
love founded in our past;
love woven through the present,
in hope that love will last.
This love is simply, human,
profoundly, love divine;
yet love can change another,
change lives like yours and mine
While we prefer the comfort
of minds akin to ours,
the gentle reassurance
of quiet refreshing hours;
in hell and not in heaven is
where the Christ is found,
the rough and trammeled pathway,
the trampled, bloodied ground.
But can we love another
and freely offer grace,
regardless of the neighbour
within our human race?
To always be uplifting,
to love and not condemn,
will model every person
as us and not as them.
Andrew Pratt 28/9/2019 – Science and the Language of Prayer. Written in response to Ruth Armstrong’s lecture. Seminar 1. Criminology.
Tune:AURELIA
Metre: 7.6.7.6D
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
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