Tag: security

Filled with fear may love surround us

Filled with fear may love surround us

 

Filled with fear may love surround us,

spirit ground us, in that love,

drench us with this expectation

here on, earth not just above.

 

May each day extend a welcome,

open hands and open hearts,

open homes that offer shelter,

love that never more departs.

 

God enfold us, always hold us,

may our human love extend

’til all people, every nation

know your love can never end.

 

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 18 August 2026 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: 8.7.8.7 Tune: ALL FOR JESUS

Jesus casts out an unclean spirit from a man in a synagogue – Mark 1: 21 -28 – a new hymn


A man convulsed and crying 

was turning to and fro’, 

but Jesus reached to meet him 

to bid the spirit go.

The language of this story 

sounds foreign, to our speech

yet still our health can test us, 

when faith seems out of reach.



Great God, in Christ you show us 

that love can cast out fear, 

the fear that can assail us,

or those that we hold dear.

In times of desolation, 

or  times of deep  distress. 

mid loneliness bring friendship 

bring love to lift and bless.



If hearts and thoughts are twisted,

when nothing is secure

may ones like Christ stay near us, 

to show that love is sure,

to hold us through disturbance, 

as we will hold them too

when shadows cloud your presence

we’ll see each other through.



Andrew Pratt 20/1/2024

Words © 2024 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: 7.6.7.6.D

Tune: CRUGER; PENLAN

Henri Nouwen – this is worth reading and following – Freedom Is the Goal

Freedom Is the Goal

‘Though the forces of evil infecting whole nations and peoples are often hidden, complex, and elusive, we are called, as Christians, to unmask and expel them in the Name of the God of Love….’ Henri Nouwen – Meditation 13th September 2019

Read the full text at Henri Nouwen meditations