A story : 'Help'

'Help'

Wild briars whipped at his legs, but Dimitri didn't notice. Eyes fixed on the road he scrambled into his hidden look-out point. He'd heard the news. His cousin had rushed up to tell his father. There'd been a riot. That would mean new prisoners. 

Dimitri lived with his parents and his brothers and sisters in a little house next to the jail. Jailer was a poorly paid and little respected job. His father often spoke of getting another job. Well he talked about it. Dimitri didn't know what the jail looked like inside.  He'd looked in once but ran away sick with the smell and the noise.

They were coming up the hillside out of town. The Guard, only two prisoners, and the usual curious crowd. Dimitri ducked as he saw his father anxiously came out to meet them. He was always living on his nerves, terrified in-case a prisoner escaped, then he would be executed. Dimitri had learned to duck quickly if his father lashed out when he was like that. He'd have to keep the little ones quiet at supper.

That night Dimitri was restless. He had slept but something had woken him. It was the quiet. There was no shouting or moaning in the cells next-door. Just the sound of singing. It sent shivers up his spine.

Dimitri stood in the rubble that had been his house. The babies were crying. Everyone was shouting. His mother was desperately counting children. His father was oblivious of them all. He was shrieking and waving a knife. Dimitri stared his eyes wide, less worried about the earth quake than by the hysterical behaviour of his father. He'd never seen him this bad before. His father was going to kill himself. Dimitri tried to make his legs move but he was rooted to the spot.

Then a voice called out clearly amongst the debris that had been the jail.

"Don't harm your self, we're all here."

The Jailer called for called for lights and rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. The prisoners were walking around, their chains had fallen off them.

"What must I do to be saved?"

They replied : "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household."

We don't know what became of Dimitri and his brothers and sisters. We don't even know his real name. The last we hear is that the jailer at Philippi washed and fed his prisoners, they were all baptised and "the whole family was filled with joy, because they had come to believe in God."

Many children have lived in de-humanising poverty, witnessed trauma, or their parents in distress. The love of God is for whole families. If you identified with that child, but didn't have the help you needed at the time, I believe it's never too late to experience the healing hand of Jesus so that we can avoid passing on our chaos to a further generation.

From Acts chapter 16

Thought : Wanting a "word"

I've been struck again lately that sometimes we humans are twits. Arrogant ones at that. Not you of course. 


Do we want a special word for the New Year ?

Jesus gives us lots of really clear instructions, which are then reiterated and clarified by Paul etc. What sort of mentality needs their own private word to do something when we clearly haven't done what are obvious instructions ? It's like a teacher saying to a young class "Put your coats on" and little Joe sits there and says "What do you want me to do ?"  

To avoid being obedient we preoccupy ourselves with side issues like end times (for which we have little or no instructions) or  a morbid fascination with what's going wrong in society :  "We're all doomed ! (It's too big for me to do anything about so I won't do anything)" 

Don't get me wrong, I still believe in God guiding us, and listening to his leading in the details as well as the whole.  I still believe in intercession and warfare too. It's just that we're maybe at risk of missing the obvious because we prefer the less obvious. 

Loving the Lord our God with all our everything, and our neighbour as ourselves seems a bit too mundane - and rather expensive, in comparison. Paul Leader on his blog quotes from the film The Hobbit :

“Galadriel: Why the Hafling?

Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? That’s because I am afraid and it gives me courage.”


I found 686 references to love in the Bible. Numbers 426 to 500 are all said by Jesus. Just look at this little selection said near the end of his life ...

John 13:34
‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

John 13:35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

John 14:15
  ‘If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.’

John 14:23
Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
John 15:9
‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

John 15:10
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

John 15:12
My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:17
This is my command: love each other.

 It's a direct order. He repeats it over and again. Love me. Do as I say. How will people know we love God ? Because we love. 

Why do we have to make it so complicated ?

So what is my word for me for the new year ? DO IT !





I've taken the liberty of copying and pasting an extract from the latest post on Paul Leader's blog on this theme.

The Traveller’s Rest- Non Word for 2013.

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Paul Leader

Sound of the Anvil.

Normally at this time of year I release a prophetic word/thoughts for the coming year but this year I do not feel at liberty to do that. More and more the walk and journey are becoming the Word. These rambling thoughts and the daily chat, connections and even solitude become the expression of the heart that God has for us. I’m all worded out. To express something of how I feel I wrote a couple of things on my Facebook page; A Word for 2013 (Part 1)…Live (Nuff said) and a Word for 2013 (Part 2)…Grace (Amazing and outrageous). Along with maybe a few other good words like love, forgive, release etc, what more do we need? Yes I know God wants to talk to us daily sometimes at a more specific level, but what we need is to encourage people to listen to their own journeys instead of telling them what to hear. I should not dictate the journey of a group of people, but should equip and encourage everyone to clear the wax out of their own ears and just listen. I can share thoughts from where I am walking but I want to hear accounts of what others are finding on their own journeys. They may be totally different and even seemingly at odds with mine, but that is what makes this a special journey. Individuals linked in an adventure of incredible proportions. All inter-linked and yet operative at their own level. Members one of another but free to experience, hear, do, try, create.