June 2024 Writing

Heavenly Growth

God created the world
And saw that it was good.
The seeds to flourish and grow
Large and small alike.
Despite floods and drought
Still nourished in God’s folding earth
Feeding the hungry
And the yearning soul
Healing pains and minds
Bringing comfort and peace
Restoring the air we breathe,
To praise him once again
Delighting the eye
And the artists brush
Filling the air with scent
God’s breath to stir our souls
Help us Lord to protect and love
Your heavenly God-sent gift.

© Helen McNicoll Kingdom Arts June 2024


A Prayer

Oh Lord of grace and love
How you have sustained me through the darkest of times,
I was bereft until
Your tender compassion surrounded me.
You listened to my heartfelt prayers,
Your Holy Spirit touched me bringing peace.
Always my Lord and my Saviour.

Amen

© Barbara Rolison Kingdom Arts June 2024


Alpha and Omega, circle of life, eternal joy let us live with you forever.
Despite our shortcomings, may we share your love, compassion, and liberty in heavenly peace with angelic voices singing to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Heaven on earth, bright flowers, birds singing, roaring oceans, sunlit mountains, loving relationships, family unity, no violence or hate, but pure grace as we look to you, our defender and sustainer.

Your world is full of your glory from the mustard seed to mighty cedars, may we treat them with the respect they deserve and sustain rather than destroy their environments.
Lord may we be your ambassadors on earth, of it but not living in it. We need to be heaven’s citizens, God’s hands and feet on earth, his mouthpiece to issues of the day, head above the parapet, advocating Your way, not the ways of war, compassion for the have-nots and wisdom in meditation.

We have a short time here but Eternity with you. Let us make it count, every day dedicated to you, conversations had with those you choose and situations encountered so that we can give glory to you in all that we do.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our joy, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love, cultivate these in our hearts.

© Julia Holdsworth Kingdom Arts June 2024


Enslaved, Free, Follow God

I have been enslaved for many years by what I call my “Stinking thinking”.

During the last few years, I have been given, by the grace of God, the opportunity to learn about what has been blocking me from experiencing peace in my mind and soul. I believe that I am being set free.

I have taken the opportunity which was presented to me, to seek professional help, which allowed me to realise that I had an addiction to being miserable. This realisation has enabled me to accept that I needed to seek help to move away from my addiction.

I was introduced to a spiritual course some time ago. This has helped to set me free from a misunderstanding of what spirituality is, and it has given me a new understanding of how to have a spiritual relationship with God and to follow God’s guidance.

I learnt that I needed to accept that we are powerless and that our lives can sometimes become unmanageable. I also realised that God can restore us to and to “make a decision to turn on our will and our lives over to the care of God”. This illustrated the need to follow God’s will in my life and NOT my own.

I have been privileged to see how God has restored people who have been enslaved in the prisons of alcoholism and more especially co-dependency. I have been helped to find some freedom from my “stinking thinking”, and my addictions. It has shown me, beyond doubt, that only God can set me free.

I have learnt many things about myself in recent years. It has been challenging and painful. The process has enabled me to get an awareness of being enslaved to addiction; of having God set me free, and to be able to follow God’s will instead of my own.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learnt is a new definition of the virtue of humility. This is having the openness and willingness to seek to know God’s will for me, and to humbly seek the power to carry it out.

I have begun to realise that God is not vindictive, critical or judgemental, but accepts me as I am. He accepts me with my personality defects and shortcomings.

© Paul Ingram, Kingdom Arts, June 2024