The Voice Within

God's eye view Is a clear sight of the thumping heart It is far from your social media page Or your words sashayed It is of the leaps and lows Of the undisguised human heart Of the core None of these external shiftings But of the internal murmurings Like that of the gurgle Of a stream in a cave Deep in a mountain Father, thank you that you see within and this is what counts. (inspired by 1 Samuel 16:7) "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

When we read the Old testament, we often see the Israelites forgetting God’s goodness and spiralling into a pattern of grumbling. This happens to all of us too- it hardly takes us a few days or sometimes a few hours, to forget God’s goodness and to embrace anxiety.  The good news is that God has given us a wonderful weapon to fight this called gratitude.  One of the best balms to soothe our fears, our grumblings, our despair is thanksgiving . Because gratitude and grumbling cannot co exist. The Psalmist declares in Psalm 69:" I will praise God’s name in song     and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox,     more than a bull with its horns and hooves."  Here the psalmist is saying that the sacrifice of thanksgiving is more pleasing to God than the sacrifices of animals that they had to make in old testament times. I think its quite helpful for us to realise that thanksgiving is a sacrifice- like ...

This morning I was waiting for my regular reverse commute from Waterloo. The grey June morning could not dampen my spirits as I was surrounded by elegantly dressed passengers who were waiting to catch their train to Ascot to go to the Royal Ascot races. Men with top hats and women donning fascinators in various colours and sizes made the heads of the rest of us turn and some of us whip out our phones to capture the beauty on digital film. I was trying to photograph a couple discreetly from behind them when they suddenly turned- I politely asked if I could take a photograph of them and they kindly obliged. What I did not expect was that they would go on to gift me a beautiful bouquet of roses and irises. They had purchased it earlier as they needed a rose for the gentleman's buttonhole-and they generously gave away the rest of the bouquet to me! I am reminded of the verse -'Every good and perfect gift comes from our Father above who does not change like shifting shado...

Its been a joy to memorize scripture (psalm 16, psalm 130) lately. Thank you God for Grace who has been an invaluable prayer partner who has spurred me to memorize scripture. Grace and I have been learning a psalm by heart each time I go away on a work trip...this has been so fab because when I am on a work trip, I am usually always in work mode mentally and I find it difficult to quieten my spirit and rest in Jesus during my quiet times with him. When I read the word during these fast paced days, I find it hard to concentrate...but voila! memorising scripture is just the thing to do/ It forces you to concentrate...I usually write the psalm down several times and say it aloud several times. Sometimes I do fun things like make an audio rec of me saying it and listen to it. And the scripture takes on new depth as you invest more time in it...and the best thing of course is, when you don't have a Bible with you, but want to preach to yourself, speak the truth and shus...

Two links Sandhya shared with me today: 1) It is well with my soul feat John Piper- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80x6wDi9umY 2) Though you slay me feat John Piper- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyUPz6_TciY Our suffering is momentary. It is also totally meaningful. The only thing we can rely on is God's goodness. He is not going to let go. God is too faithful. It doesn't depend on me.

that the two best inventions ever are : the pocket and the hot water bottle...thought of the first as I was ironing a shirt...am grateful it has pockets. Thought of the second as its winter :)

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning." Hosea 6:3 View of the work of my infinitely creative God from my room in Higashi Osaka Shi (2009)