After being so ill, I decided to play it safe today by doing almost nothing. Chronic Fatigue is a difficult condition to read though, as later on yesterday evening I began to feel quite a lot better, so much so that I visited my grand-daughter to leave her a birthday card. And so far today I’ve not felt too ill either, just ‘normal’. Nonetheless I’ve had a day of rest to try and make sure I’m properly recovering from quite a serious relapse. So far so good! But it’s not been an unpleasant day, even though my biggest excursion was to hang my washing out for the first time in weeks. Of course it rained within the hour! Yes, I’ve read a lot whilst listening to Mike Harding and then Paul Jones on BBC iPlayer, which was just a little sad as I remember it was Jane who introduced me to Paul Jones Rhythm and Blues programme. I’m more of a purist blues guy really but it passes the time in a nicely pleasant way. As did the more traditional folk programme.
And I’ve made a start with my artwork as well. A very simple outline drawing as a start to reproducing one of Jane’s mixed media works. She rattled off a short series of paintings over a couple of days a few years ago, all inspired by the seafront in Deal. She gave me this one as a birthday present one time and yes they are real sea shells from the beach there.
But not a day passes without contemporary Christian worship filling my home and that’s where my heart is really. Not particularly the American soft-rock style, just the God centred worship that is always so important to me and which that genre makes so easily accessible. So at the moment I’m enjoying Chris Tomlin, but it could easily be Tim Hughes or Matt Redman or Hillsong and a multitude of other albums. I find it fascinating how worship is truly global and the songs we sing in Derby are often used by churches worldwide. Occasionally, say on holiday or maybe as I watch Christian TV, I’ve been intrigued to recognise a very similar message being preached in Churches not just in different parts of the UK but internationally as well. It’s happened so regularly over many years that I cannot doubt it’s orchestration by the Holy Spirit. He truly directs not just the worship of the Church but the message of God to the Church.
I wonder what they’re singing in heaven today. I’m very happy to be wrong but I can’t quite imagine Matt Redman’s ‘10,000 Reasons’ being sung there no matter how much I appreciate it. I do expect Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Isaac Watts and especially King David are still producing new work in great quantities, though with what sort of instrumentation we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve always enjoyed a screaming overdriven electric guitar myself. But whatever the worship of heaven, I’m quite confident that in some way or other it compliments quite perfectly the Holy Spirit worship we enjoy here on earth.
Revelation 5:13 ‘And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honour and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” (NLT)
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