The words of Jesus. I’m loving spending time each day in John’s gospel, soaking in the words of Jesus. Today we think about the Good Shepherd and the sheep and the thieves who come to destroy. And how we as sheep listen to the Shepherd, for we know his voice. May you hear his voice today.
Freedom within the boundaries – an amazing thought. I never dreamed my home would be England for this many years, but here we are coming up to two decades and it is home.
Where are your boundary lines? Where is home?
I address these paradoxes in Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home & True Identity (Authentic Media, 2015). You can buy it from Christian bookshops, from me, or online at Eden, Amazon UK or Amazon US.
Please could you write a review if you’ve read it at Amazon UK, Amazon US, Eden, or Goodreads. Thank you!
Such controversy the teachers of the law got embroiled in over whether the man born blind was actually healed by Jesus. The man knew; his parents didn’t like to say; the religious leaders grew more incensed as Jesus exposed their spiritual blindness.
What am I – what are you – not seeing today?
Jesus had compassion on those who were limited physically, as we see in his healing the man blind from birth. He doesn’t hold back his grace or love; nor does he amend his answers to the teachers of the law to suit them – as we will see even more tomorrow.
“I was blind but I washed.” What a testimony of God’s love.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:8–10).
As we near the end of this journey of engaging with the concept of pilgrimage, we return to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through this faith-building passage from the letter to the Hebrews. This chapter lists hero after hero in the Bible who followed God’s call on their life. They lived by faith while enduring hardship, welcoming from afar the fulfillment of the promises of God.
For me, a line from our text that stands out is that Abraham didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t have the latest GPS update, his travel route planned out in detail down to which hotel he would stay in on night twenty-three. Rather he set out, trusting God, with herds and children and servants and household goods, journeying laboriously through heat and sunshine. I’m continually directionally challenged, so the thought of going on a journey without Gertie, our so-named GPS, sends shivers down my spine. I’m a much more content traveler when someone else is navigating – at least when it’s a physical journey.
And Abraham made mistakes: to Pharaoh he passed off his wife as his sister so that the Egyptians wouldn’t kill him; he gave into Sarah’s request that he sleep with her maid so to hurry up the process of him receiving the promised heir. Yet the writer to the Hebrews doesn’t mention these errors in judgment; rather he says that Abraham obeyed and went. I find that encouraging. Though we may follow the wrong course or get off-track, God forgives us and, if we are faithful, will say that we too obeyed and went.
Prayer: Lord God, direct my footsteps this day that I might walk the path that leads to joy, peace, and righteousness.
So much opposition Jesus faced. The teachers of the law misunderstood him, and as time went along, they grew more and more entrenched against him. Several of his key statements about himself come in chapter 8 – that he’s the light of the world, and that he’ll set us free. Freedom! Let’s claim it today.
Not everyone thought this moving story of who has the right to throw stones should be included in the Bible. For centuries it wasn’t, partly, historians think, because of a reticence over including such a story that concerns illicit sex (and note how the teachers of the law didn’t bring the man caught in the act of adultery to be judged). Most biblical commentators agree that the story should be part of the canon of the Bible, although some wonder if it was perhaps written by Luke and not John. Either way, it’s a powerful reminder that God is God and we are not.
Living water, flowing from within. Cleansing water. Life-giving water. This we receive from God. This we share with a thirsty world.
I knew that Jesus was persecuted, but spending more time in John’s gospel as I write these poems brings home the thread of attack and bitterness coming from the chief priests and teachers of the law. Have you experienced this sense of being defensive and on edge when your authority is questioned?
When I met up for a coffee with Shaneen Clarke recently, we marveled about how as sisters in Christ we can go deep immediately even though we are new friends. That’s such a gift that God gives, and one I don’t take for granted. I love her passion and her faith, and the way she travels around the world sharing the news of God’s love and life. Here she adds a London-centric addition to our “There’s No Place Like Home” series, which of course I love as an adopted Londoner. And her poem rocks.
London has a resident population of 9 million and an annual tourist population of 19 million. Its history spans Anno Domini an embanks itself on the River Thames. London boasts as the financial centre of the world as its clock at Greenwich allows simultaneous trading from Tokyo, Beijing and New York.
London has four airports, one helipad at Wandsworth and the rich can land their private jets within 40 minutes of the city centre. The centre of Government at Westminster houses the rulers of the nation with its buildings of Government huddled within walking distance. From Dick Whittington to Boris Johnson it has a Lord and London Mayor, from ceremonial to legal. This capital city houses two of the oldest professions and the one so respectfully guarded is the world centre of justice where anyone can come at fine price to seek and find justice. Its legal system designed by kings, founded by Romans has sufficient flex to allow Islamic ruling.
It is the world centre for any religion; its willingness to allow freedom of speech and demonstration caters for all. Its two cathedrals house the ranks of Christianity and its abbey at Westminster marries and buries monarchs. Its Royal Family is the oldest and has survived and thrived as ultimate ruler with little power to rule.
Its underground tube rail system along with its Victorian sewer systems creak at every edge crying for renewal as they wash through the masses and their waste daily. The ever increasing density and pressure of commerce attracts the rodents, rats and foxes of all shapes and sizes. The opportunities to house, feed and attract the people compound every business opportunity and its streets are paved with gold. Yet its homeless lie there and beggars are allowed to beg on streets, trains and buses occasionally moved on by its Community Police force. From Robert Peel its Peelers, Coppers and Bobbies have maintained order with the City and Metropolitan Forces.
London with its streets designed for horse and cart is the busiest traffic grid in the world served by two circular roads north and south with one single circular motorway which from air looks more like a car park. Its famous black cab has been allowed to be usurped and attacked by mini cabs, Addison Lee and Uber bring clamour and chaos to private transport whilst its daily congestion charge and road camera fines line the coffers of its government.
Its incredible labyrinth of museums, art galleries and concert halls wrapped in the bow of history is the envy of the planet. The old Tower of London as the seat of original government no longer executes people but stands as an attraction to many a ghoul, whilst the location of those hung drawn and quartered at Smithfield and Marble Arch are still proudly spoken of. Its London prisons built in Victorian times remain as torrid reminders to the populous and the scales above the Old Bailey a reminder of how ones life can so easily tip the wrong way.
London boasts the tallest building in Europe built on the wrong side of the Thames yet like cancer continues to feed all tributaries of life. Its main line railway stations connecting the masses via tunnel to Europe breaks with our island status yet the 2000 year debate to be joined with our continent continues. Its London buses driven no longer by the Jamaican but by Somalians and Ethiopians no longer know where Trafalgar Square is; the 87 languages heard create the buses of Babel daily.
It’s a city that somehow works, it’s a city of constant change; yet the longer one lives in it the more stranger one becomes. Squeezed like toothpaste, one can see one’s personal end and as we long for London of old we reminisce and are saddened at its plight not might. It’s the centre of all yet we know there is a better life beyond but we are glued to its connectivity, vibrancy and opportunity.
Shaneen Clarke is an author, speaker and evangelist who speaks and ministers internationally and has written Dare to be Great. She has been responsible for many educational and women’s initiatives and instigated the Ritz Tea in London where famous leaders address faith issues. She is a fluent Punjabi and Mandarin speaker in addition to her native English, and is married with two grown children.
