Heavenly Marriage

Last weekend we went to a wedding. It was a special occasion, as all marriage celebrations are. This marriage was particularly special. It was a clear declaration by the bride and groom that they were entering into a covenant relationship with God and each other. They gave God the glory!

They had lived together for many years. They have two teenage children. But, since each of them had now entered the Kingdom of God, they wanted to give their relationship to Him. To do it His way, rather than their way.

Heavenly Marriage: a poem

I wrote this poem on my wedding anniversary in September last year. I am truly thankful for a God who redeems relationships. Roger and I were both married before but God, in His grace and mercy, released us into a new redeemed covenant of marriage in which He is the central part. Our wedding was a Kingdom Wedding!

Heavenly Marriage

God's marriage is a wondrous gift
To earth it comes from heaven 
From man the woman takes her life
And to the man she's given 

Designed for greater purpose yet
True marriage speaks God's worth
The crown of all created things 
For beautiful new birth 

And yet a greater glory still 
To show forth God's own Son 
True marriage speaks a mystery 
As Christ and church are one

As in that glorious union 
Of God's supreme design 
The man and woman signify 
Fullness of love divine 

The One who gave His all for us
To bring us to His side 
Is head of His own body 
And beautifies His Bride 

We celebrate the glory 
Of God's so perfect plan 
And praise Him for His marriage 
Of woman unto man...

God’s Word

I based that poem on a number of key scriptures. Here they are:

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’

Genesis 1:27-28

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman”, for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 2:21‭-‬24

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 5:22‭-‬28

After all, no-one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:29‭-‬32

Blessings

Sean and Joanne received sung and spoken blessings upon blessings as they made their commitments to God and each other, both in the nuptial mass at the church and later at the reception which was a joyous celebration.

Thousands of little lights twinkled as the sunlit afternoon melted into the darkness of night. The room was called the Compass Room and its walls were glass, overlooking Media City in Salford. What a broadcast of God’s love!

I had to include a couple of photos here..

Word & Spirit

Just a quick note this morning to let you know that we have now published the video of Victor’s Story on Kingdom Heritage Productions, our YouTube channel.

Life in all its fullness

Victor’s story is so life-giving. Those of us who already know Jesus will also know that Jesus gives us life in all its fullness. The life that we receive from Him is full of God’s Spirit and God’s Word. And Victor has supernaturally understood that, even though he said that he previously had no belief.

Simon Peter answered (Jesus) “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life.

John 6:63
A new revival

We have used extracts from Rob Parker’s music in our three videos about “Signs of Hope and Revival”.

www.robparkermusic.com

For us his music tracks perfectly expressed our own belief that the new revival will centre on God’s Spirit and Word coming together in a way that we may have not seen before. A church that walks in Word & Spirit together will, I believe, be ready for those who Jesus will bring in to His family.

Here is a link to an instrumental piece from Rob’s latest music on the home page of his website. Be blessed by his gift this morning, even as we give thanks and glory to God for Victor’s story of his journey from death to life.

Home
Lee’s Story

When we met Victor at the community chaplaincy called Yellow Ribbon in Telford, we also met Lee. We are now working on a video of Lee’s Story. Another wonderful journey of transformation in Jesus. We are working as fast as we can to get that on to our YouTube channel, too! Watch this space…

Hope

This morning as I woke early – before 6am – I realised that the light was already starting to come into the day. There was a hazy moon but I could see the clouds blowing past it, as the wind is still quite strong. February is in its last week and the days are lengthening.

That gives me hope.

A verse I have written here before is

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12
Words of hope

I was thankful for the earlier light this morning and I was also thankful for something I read. A woman who had spent 10 years living with a debilitating virus and becoming wheelchair dependent- just after she had asked God for a healing ministry and a husband to share that with – finally found her personal healing, the ministry she had asked for and a loving husband. She was then 50.

She wrote about her years of waiting and disappointment. She also shared two more verses of scripture that had sustained her when her hope was very thin. Here they are:

Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desires.

Psalm 37:4

I can testify to the power of that word in my life when I was waiting for fulfilment of something important to me. This one was also an encouragement:

For the Lord God is our sun and shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.

Psalm 84:11
The Goodness of God

God is good. And I have been believing in the power of another word of scripture as I wait for fulfilment of some other hopes in my own life.

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13
Encouraging signs

Many of us are hoping and praying for many people to turn to God. What we sometimes call “revival”. Although revival may also be about the church that sleeps! See my post on Revival.

When we were out with our caravan recently (as I explained in an earlier post called Adventure) we saw some very hopeful signs of young men being rescued from the pits of despair by our wonderful, merciful God.

Persistent faithful prayer through the ages has prepared hearts.

The links to the first two videos are here:

The videos are each about 6 minutes long.

Hope revives the heart!

My own heart – and Roger’s too – has been given a burst of new energy by the stories of hope that we discovered. We are now editing the filmed testimonies of two young men who we met a couple of weeks ago; Victor and Lee. Those testimonies will be ready soon; both young men were also recently baptised by full immersion in an outdoor pool!

A Prayer

Father, we come to You in faith, believing in Your goodness and Your faithfulness. As we see the signs of Spring 2022 beginning, the light increasing and the daffodils appearing, we ask You again to fulfil the desires of our hearts and our long held hopes. You are mighty to save; great in deliverance. We ask for many, many people to truly find Your salvation in their brokenness and pain. We give You all the glory as we ask for our own personal prayers to be answered, too. And we thank You for giving us Your son Jesus and for the power of Your Spirit and Your Word on earth today.

Revival

When we journeyed to the Telford and Wrekin area of our home county, Shropshire, two weeks ago we did not know what would unfold.

As I recounted in my earlier post “Adventure” we were led to “walk in revival”.

The outcome was very much led by God’s Spirit and we are very close to being able to show you the videos that we made.

“Revival” is an emotive word for the church. We associate it with past great moves of God’s Spirit like the Welsh Revival of 1904 or the Great Awakening in the 18th century led by John Wesley.

signs of hope & revival

Our intention in making the videos was to encourage God’s family. We have all waited so long for signs of people turning to God and we need fresh impetus to our prayers.

When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing

But when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul.

Proverbs 13:12 The Passion Translation

Yesterday I shared a poem called Repentance. Today, as I was sitting down early with the Lord, I asked Him again about the sort of revival that we might expect. Once again the answer seemed to emerge in a poem. But, please understand that I’m not claiming this as a prophetic poem – just something that unfolded to me. 



Revival

We see the graves, we hear no sound
Those bodies lying on the ground 
Are they still living, yet asleep?
If so, we have no cause to weep 

But we shall pray with all our might
That darkness will be turned to light
And sleeping ones be woken now
With tongues of flame upon each brow

Awake, awake the time is here  
Revive, o church, Your King draws near
And broken souls cry out for God 
For rescue from earth's weary sod 

Let's tune our hearts and turn our ears
To sounds that we have longed to hear 
The cries of hungry, thirsty ones 
The ones who thought all hope was gone 

This is our joy to be revived 
So others might now come alive 
And ask for God's own eyes to see
The ones who need His family 

Awake, o church, it's not too late
Jesus is waiting at your gate 
He's bringing  broken souls to you
And He will show you what to do

To bring His message of salvation 
To those who weep in condemnation 
To give them life and hope today 
And help them walk His narrow way

The way that leads to joy and peace
So all our barren efforts cease 
And by the power of God's own Spirit 
We'll find His life and His true merit 

So, dearest church, arise and shine
New wineskins filled with God's new wine  
Cry out for souls who die in sin
Jesus is waiting to bring them in.

I’ve been trying to use a good audio resource so that you can hear the poem spoken. I’m slightly struggling with the technology! But today I’m going to use SoundCloud as I can easily add a photo. I like the image of the small waterfall trickling over rocks. It’s Cardingmill Valley. Let’s pray the waterfall increases!

I would love to hear your feedback about how we, the church, might walk in revival today.

Turning around

After our adventure last week, Roger and I are now at work editing the wonderful and unexpected pieces of film that we gathered during our time in Telford & Wrekin area.

The links to our videos will appear on this blog in a day or so. We were so excited by two testimonies of young men who really had been affected by the power of the Spirit of God and had been born again into His Kingdom. They were such new believers and how we need to see and hear about the freshness of that first understanding of the love of Jesus!

Repentance

A couple of days ago I was awake early. I had the issue of repentance on my heart. How we long to see people really turn around from this present darkness on earth and see the Light.

Some of those who turn around will be prodigals; those who knew Jesus once but have wandered off in their own desires for a life that they believe will sustain and fulfil them.

Some of those who turn around will be ones who never knew God. Who thought He was just a figment of deluded imaginations, or worse.

Poetry as a response

I want to encourage you today. I’ve discovered recently that when I don’t know how to respond to something that stirs my heart, I ask Holy Spirit to help me to speak a prayer or express something on paper.

The excitement of meeting two young men whose lives had just been radically changed was the catalyst for me to want to do something in response. So, I used the gift that God has given me and wrote a poem. I don’t understand how the simple writing of a poem does something in the Kingdom. But I believe it does! I hope that, like the boy with the loaves and fishes, if I offer it to Jesus He will multiply it, using it as He chooses. If you want to share any of my poems with others at any time, please do. I’m offering them as a gift which the Spirit has empowered to do the work of the Kingdom.

My encouragement to you is to use the gifts that God has given you with a fresh hope in this season that He is going to multiply their effectiveness for His Kingdom. I believe that creative gifts come from the Creator for spiritual purposes that far exceed our understanding of their possible impact.

I’m writing to encourage you to fan into a flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you….

2 Timothy 1:6
Repentance: a poem

What does it take to turn a heart
A heart that's grown so cold?
Just like a sheep that's wandered far 
Yes, so far from its fold...

For pastures of a different kind 
Eclipse God's pastures green 
The sheep makes do with scruffy grass
And grazes on the mean 

Connection lost, there is no truth 
For a sheep that's gone astray
From the love of God's own Shepherd 
And turned to its own way 

How shall a sheep that's so detached
Return to meadows sweet
When it is always looking at 
The scrub beneath its feet? 

Yet comes a day of reckoning 
When scrub becomes just stone 
The sheep has fully grazed its field 
And remembers its old home 

And looking up it turns around 
And sees a distant land 
Hungry and weak it seeks to go
Towards the Shepherd's hand

And, in a striking moment 
That sheep is not alone 
It's lifted onto shoulders 
To carry it back home 

The Shepherd is still watching 
The ones grown mean and cold 
His heart is still inviting them
To come back to His fold

And those who never knew Him
Who see that sheep restored
May find their hearts now turning 
To call that Shepherd "Lord"

The Shepherd has a sheepfold 
Of which He is the door 
His heart is never mean and cold
He always looks for more 

He offers you green pastures 
And water still and sweet 
He asks if you will turn to Him 
Your life laid at His feet?

You're free to go your own way
Your own path may look rich
But in the end your own path 
Will lead you to a ditch 

For you were not created
To live without your God 
He formed you to belong to Him
He knows the path you've trod 

So, take a precious moment 
To look up from the dirt 
The One who really loves you 
Can free you from all hurt

Repentance is a turning 
From all that's hard and cold 
A beautiful new life awaits 
If you'll give up the old.
https://anchor.fm/kate-stanway/episodes/Repentance—a-poem-e1egv90
A prayer

Lord, I ask that You would stir our hearts to pray for those who need to turn to You in this season on earth – the prodigals or those who have never known Your love and goodness; even those with the hardest of hearts towards You.

I’m conscious that we are in a new season and early in a new year, too. This is a time for thinking about the seeds that may be sown and the soil that has lain fallow over the winter. So, Lord, we ask for a harvest of souls this year. For, even now we know that new life is breaking through hard, cold ground.

Send Your Spirit, Lord, to stir up hearts that are still cold and bring deep conviction of all that separates them from the warmth of Your love and the joys and blessings of their true home in You.

In Jesus’ precious Name.

Adventure!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted on here. And I’m still learning the art of blogging… too many posts and it gets boring for readers…too few and they think you’ve given up and gone away!

We came away with our caravan a week ago. We intended a weekend trip, but it grew as our short filming project became much more substantial than we expected.

Our intention was to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ in this part of Shropshire. They have faithfully prayed for a move of God for many, many years and hearts have grown weary.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick- but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12

“Walk in revival“

It started with some friends as part of a Prophetic Company meeting in the Telford and Wrekin area – about an hour away from home. Before we came I had sensed the leading of the Spirit to “walk in revival.” Even if everything still looks the same, we exercise faith by walking as though revival has begun!

That’s where the adventure started.

Roger and I had brought our filming gear. Pretty simple stuff, but we wanted to encourage the saints here by uncovering some signs of hope and revival. As it turned out, the Spirit of God had already gone ahead of us to provide some amazing opportunities!

Day 1

On day one we were unexpectedly at a friend’s home exploring a wilderness area of thick brambles and undergrowth which she is currently hacking through to make a way where there had been no way.

Later we were worshipping and celebrating a birthday at a church in Dawley. The guy whose birthday we gatecrashed (happily as it turned out!) happened to be someone who has made his own short videos on what revival might look like today. He also used to drive for a man called Arthur Burt, who was close to Smith Wigglesworth!

Day 2

On day two we were at a church full of people of all sorts of nationalities that has seen about 90 people come forward to accept Christ since last December!

Day 3

On day 3 we were at charity offices in Telford called Yellow Ribbon, filming the most extraordinary testimonies of 2 young men whose lives have just been transformed by meeting Jesus. One was an ex-prisoner and the other had been on the verge of throwing himself under a train.

The adventure continues..

So here we are – a few more days on – with all sorts of wonderful filmed interviews and other footage in the can, as they say.

We’ve started to edit. We were going to produce one short five minute piece but now have hours of exciting film to cut together.

Thank You, Lord!

In due time all the exciting comments and testimonies will be available on our YouTube channel. For now we just want to thank our God for His leading and making this adventure real. We will “walk in revival” as He directs.

It may not look as dramatic as Wesley’s 18th century awakening or the 1904 Welsh revival, but we have certainly found some signs of hope and revival to encourage and refresh the heart!

Family

Losing family

I know what it feels like to lose family. I’m sure you do, too.

Loss is a difficult emotion to process, as it has several different stages. And, in this time on earth, when Covid has deprived many people of loved ones, there’s a lot of loss and sadness out there.

“I will not leave you…I will come to you”

John 14: 18

Jesus said this to His close friends, just before He gave up His life on earth on the cross. He knew that the loss of His physical presence would be hard for them, but His promise was amazing.

His real Presence would come to them again, just not in bodily form.

 (Of course, after His resurrection they did see Him in His body again for a short while until He ascended to heaven. That was truly amazing!)

Being family

When I came into God’s family in 1990, I found a real relationship with God, my true Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit.

I also found countless members of God’s family! Whoever we have lost, God brings wonderful new family to us in different ways at different times.

Being together

The church has been through difficult times in the last few years with lockdowns and masks and not being able to meet easily.

But God’s family has remained intact. We have gathered on Zoom and Skype and all sorts of ways, when we couldn’t meet in person. His Presence has always come to us.

Yesterday, 7 of us met together again at our home to talk and laugh, enjoy a cuppa, eat cake* and pray! It was such a joy. It was family.

New wineskins

And no-one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Luke 5:37‭-‬38 NIVUK

A year ago I was thinking about what Jesus said – new wine is not put into old wineskins, because an old skin would crack and split. I had written and recorded a poem then. Yesterday I made it into a “podcast” and published it on Spotify! I’m experimenting with new things…here it is….

https://anchor.fm/kate-stanway/episodes/New-Wineskins-for-Old—a-poem-e1dhs90

*Baking!

As we were together yesterday eating cake, someone mentioned that she used to have a bran loaf recipe but had lost it. I told her that I still have an old recipe! So here it is:

Bran Loaf 

125g All-Bran
75g soft brown sugar
125g mixed dried fruit 
300 ml milk
125g SR flour 

(I think you could add a bit more fruit..)

Put first 4 ingredients in bowl and leave for at least an hour. Then mix in flour.

Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin. Put mix in.
Bake at 180C or 350F for about an hour. 
Fan ovens - probably 160C. (320F)
Cool, slice and butter!

P.S

I welcome your comments. If you “follow” these posts then you will also get reminders when I post. Also, if you want to e-mail me I have a new address for this site:

kate@poems-and-reflections.com

Fresh Bread

“Man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God”

Deuteronomy 8:3

I’m departing from the sailing analogy of recent posts. I wanted to explain why I called this site The Bakery – Fresh Bread.

Although I love to bake and eat fresh bread, I have loved God’s words ever since my dramatic healing in 1990. I was alone in my room, desperately crying out to a distant God for help after 12 years of chronic depression that didn’t go away. And in that place, on my knees in desperation, the Presence of God came to me. And I stood up as He spoke “Stand up, you are Mine; I have called you by your name..and I love you”. I knew then that God was my Father.

That was the great turn around in my life. I was filled with joy and cried with relief. My depression left and I was healed and set free. I met God’s Holy Spirit and Jesus spoke, too, asking me if I would follow Him now and not turn back. I gladly said “yes” for in that moment I knew God personally and felt His love and affirmation for me.

The Bread of Life

After that amazing encounter I started to live in the truth and power of God’s Word, the Bible – led by His Spirit. I treasured His words and He ministered them to my heart. I discovered that:

“As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it..”

Isaiah 55 v.10-11

And those words written by the prophet Isaiah about the supernatural power of God’s words in the Bible and from His Spirit have been so important to me in the last 30 years.

Jesus – the true Bread of life

Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet, speaking God’s words as he received them from God. But Jesus is God’s living Word.

…Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.”

John 6:35

I baked a fresh loaf for today. But nothing can satisfy my hunger like Jesus.

I thank my Father in heaven for Jesus and pray that this post gives Him all the glory due to Him today.

Trimming the Sails

Learning the jargon

I’m learning all sorts of new things as I make this blog. One thing I know – that without God’s Spirit I would be sinking!

Just as an example, if you are reading on a desktop, there’s a right hand column called ABOUT. I tried and tried to edit this so I could add a few words about who I am. Just in case anyone I don’t know drops in to read the blog.

The good news is, after much effort, I emailed WordPress. They were very helpful and very quickly replied. Apparently it’s a widget! So, in a moment or two I will try to get a new widget in place. The old one is obsolete, so I’m told!

Down in the Galley

As I said at the beginning, I love baking. It’s both creative and satisfying! I have some very old books of recipes. The old ones are unsophisticated and light on ingredients – I don’t mean light in calories.

Oat + cookies 

I had half an egg mixed with a tbsp of milk left over from the other day, 
so I decided to add it in to this recipe, but you could just omit that 
if you want to. About 12 cookies from this recipe. I'm using grams this time.

Ingredients 

40g of soft marge or butter
40g of caster sugar
30 mls of golden syrup (2 tbspns)
50g porridge oats
40g SR flour
Ground nutmeg or spice
25- 40g raisins or sultanas or choc chips

Method

Beat the first 3 ingredients together until smooth. (Add egg/milk if you want to)
Stir in oats, flour, spice and fruit (or choc chips)
Grease baking sheets well or line with parchment (preferable as these cookies stick!)
Place small balls of mix on sheets spacing well apart. Flatten slightly. 
Bake for 10-15 minutes at 180C or 350F (check after 10... They should colour a bit)
Remove cookies carefully from sheets after letting them cool and set briefly.
I used a flat blade to get them off!
Feeling the breeze

This has been another blessed day. At lunchtimes, 3 days a week, we have a small worship & praise half hour on Zoom. My husband Roger plays the guitar and we both sing and lead those who join us in this worship. I am always amazed at the reality of the Lord’s Presence as we offer Him this time and our hearts and voices. Even on Zoom!

That’s the breeze of His Spirit, blowing through our lives and touching us with His love and goodness. May you be blessed today as you enjoy His Presence. And if you’re reading this and don’t know the Lord of life, and want to, please get in touch: kate@poems-and-reflections.com