Paul Long's Ramblings

  As I write this - to be posted next week when life goes back to yet another difficult "new "normal", New Zealand (especially the upper North Island) is still undergoing (hopefully the end) the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle. As I reflect and pray about the situation, my mind naturally goes to Bible passages such as the one where Jesus calms the storm. So I pulled out a sermon I preached (15 September 2019) on this passage.     Mark 4:35-41 35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind...

One of my favourite authors is the late Henri Nouwen. Every time I read something from him, he almost always makes me pause to reflect and pray.  How relevant and timely is this excerpt from his book "You are the beloved". More and more I read and hear about the increase in people struggling with mental health related challenges.  One of the most common is the feeling of loneliness, even among Christians, which Henri Nouwen (below) rightly describes can lead to depression if not dealt with properly. I can certainly identify with this first hand.  Read what he says and I hope it helps as he gives advice that he himself followed in his life.  The highlighted in bold part is my doing.  Whenever you feel lonely, you must try to find the source of this feeling. You are inclined either to run away from your loneliness or to dwell in it. When you run away from it, your loneliness does not really diminish; you simply force it out of your mind temporarily. When you start...

  I am currently preparing to launch a new sermon series in my church on the Beatitudes.  One of the reasons I chose this series and wish to preach an introductory sermon to start of the series is my concern that there is a lot of misunderstanding about God's blessings, and happiness among Christians. Things like being blessed means just having a trouble free life, financial wealth, good health etc.  So as I delve deeper into this subject and try to clarify my own thoughts, knowing that a little mist in the pew will be a thick fog in the pews (to paraphrase a well-known preaching aphorism), I came across the following from Kenneth Bailey in his book " Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels" Here's a part of his helpful observation. In Hebrew (as in Greek) there are two words that are translated into English as “blessed.” The two Greek words parallel the Hebrew words, and it is important to understand the differences between them. One of the...

 I had a look and saw that my last post was 25 Feb, 2015!  Why have I been gone so long? And why am I back? (hopefully :-))  I have been gone as life just became busier and decided to move more to posting and interacting on Facebook - both my personal account and my church's FB account.  I am back because when I agreed to help post weekly on https://thedailyprayerblog.blogspot.com/,  had to log in to blogger, and I thought "why not?"  When I have in between time and I need a break, why not post something on my blog? I still agree with Henri Nouwen's words that started me blogging (the side bar on this blog with the title: "Making our lives available to others").