If you have read more than a handful of my blogs, you will have realised how indebted I am to the writings and thoughts of Henri Nouwen. His book “Wounded Healer” was on the list of recommended reading when I first became a Candidate for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament with the Church of Scotland back in the 1970’s. It is still a book worth reading. Though some of the  cultural analysis of the times in which it was written shows that nothing stays static for long, basically – at the risk of sounding patronising –   it passes the test of time pretty well. I would encourage you to read it to find out what it means to think of  Jesus, the Messiah, as the Wounded Healer, and what it means to be involved in His ministry in the world. However I have been thinking in the last few days of a phrase that came to my own mind a few months ago: Jesus as “Wounded Traveller.” That thought came back to me with renewed force today as I was talking with my friend, Rich Johnston. I will say  more about it a bit later on in this blog.

Earlier Christian centuries than our own  were full of discussion and argument as to the best way linguistically to express the mystery of the Incarnation: how do you express that Jesus was God and Man, accurately, without diminishing the reality of His deity or the reality of  His humanity?  I have always liked the way St. Anselm expressed the mystery. He talked of “The God-Man.” With Christmas approaching, I was thinking of that ancient attempt to describe the mystery of the Incarnation, and as I did so,  I found my thoughts going beyond Jesus birth to His ministry as recorded in the gospels,  and also to consider  the way I experience Jesus personally. Because Jesus is “the God-Man,” I can find him on both sides of any human predicament or experience I may be facing. That might seem like theological gobbledygook, so let me clarify and illustrate what I mean. Take the story of “The Good Samaritan.” Although we must never forget the whole point of that parable  is “Go and do thou likewise” in terms of being a neighbour to those in need, indulge me here for a moment and let me speak of the parable in relation to my experience of Jesus. I can see Him on both sides of the main action of the parable  I could sum up my thinking like this:

At times Jesus draws near to me as the “Wounded or Stigmatised Healer” whose divine help I may accept or push away (despite my need). At times I meet Him in the “Wounded Traveller.” I can choose to stoop towards Him in compassion and care, or pass Him by.

All of this has put  a new tool in my hands in terms of spiritual discernment. Christ is fact. His presence is fact in any life or situation. Part of being a Christian is asking, “Where is the fact of Christ?” in  any given moment. Because of what I have outlined above, I can ask that in more defined terms: “Is Christ revealing Himself to me in this moment and happening as “Wounded and Stigmatised Healer” or as “Wounded Traveller?”  “The God-Man” can be either because He is  both.  In Himself, He brings the help of God to our human frailty and cries out  for God’s help from within it. He offers me the gift of  His merciful, divine love and  help for my own life,  and also calls me  to hear His cry of need from the lives  of others. He gives heavenly help, and lies on the roadside beaten and bruised. He is the Mighty God come to save, and the fragile baby who cries from a manger needing nurtured, soothed, cared for, provided for and loved.

May you and I discern the presence of  “The God-Man” this Christmas and always.

God bless

Kenny

One of the most frightening things I have ever seen was watching teenage boys rushing up to a double murderer to shake his hand in the streets of Wester Hailes.

Last night, I had one dream after another about the spiritual equivalent, church murderers, being congratulated as heroes. Sometimes it was a minister that had been murdered by strong angry proud voices within their congregations. Sometimes the dreams were of a story of life in a congregation that had been killed off. Whatever the scenario, there were always people there to rush up and congratulate the murderers for killing off life. It reminded me of a time in one congregation I ministered in when God was manifestly at work and I had a dream. In it an elder rushed into the Kirk Session and said, “Quick! There’s a fire in the Church! We must put it out!” The elder was living a double life at the time.

The Christmas story carries within it the darker tone of murder. The stepping in of God is not always wanted.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, we all have the potential to be spiritual murderers, especially when something new and young emerges in the purposes of the God who loves His Church and loves a lost world. Be an encourager of fresh life, not its killer. Encourage those the hand of the Lord is upon as they emerge like a shoot out of dry ground. God forbid that you should become their killer or their torturer.

Today, I am also praying for any of you who are hearing murderous voices being raised against you as you humbly serve the will of God with all the love for Him and for people He has worked into your heart. God is telling me you will survive this, but the scars inflicted by your torturers will be and are real. When the glory falls you will see them in a fresh way… I have learned in the course of ministry it is so, as have many besides me.

God bless

Kenny

Mary saying “yes” to the will of God meant her saying yes to the pain of labour and other pains to come. If you want to say “Yes” to making space for God in and through you, it will mean saying yes to pain in one shape or form. Is it always so? I have come to believe, “Yes: always,” in answer to that question. That is not meant to be morbid, nor is it intended to push into the background the overwhelming joy that Mary expressed in the Magnificat, or the uncontainable joy that we may experience and express in almost violent, warrior like terms when we see God fulfilling His purposes, making His name known.

I have ministered in times of ease and in times of suffering, and all I know is that pain and joy were both part of the story of God being made manifest. They belong together. Perhaps if you are suffering at the moment, you feel out of sync with the message of joy that prevails at this time of the year, but you may be in a very vital place in the story of the continuing incarnation of God in the world.

Henri Nouwen puts it like this in a pastoral letter: “…the cutting away of rocks might hurt very much and you might not be aware of the space He is creating for Himself.” (“Love, Henri:Letters on the Spiritual Life,” page33.)

May this thought help some of you into rest of soul.

Kenny

Before looking for ministry from someone it is sometimes good to be honest about the choices we have made or are making right now….then ministry can begin on the basis of reality. It is hard to accept responsibility, where it is ours to accept, but do it without being defensive, explanatory, or shame faced.

I sense for someone reading this, you are getting close to this honesty. I get a good feeling in my spirit for someone who is coming out of fearfully hiding reality below a lot of charismatic and ministry gobbledygook, for which there is no real basis in the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the gospels. I hear a divine, “10,9,8,7,6….” there is a count down happening. The take off moment from the base of reality into the skies of healing is nearer to you, than ever before. Well done. Let the countdown continue to blast off, up and away you will go, into fresh discoveries in God. Don’t stop the launch as you have done before because of fear or shame or anger at others. Be confident that the God who deals in reality is with you and for you big time! Don’t take cold feet and hide away again, looking for more ministry to cover unreality. Lose the fear….

God bless

Kenny

There is nothing happening to me today that can thwart the purpose of God for my life…namely that I should be transformed into the image of God’s Son. Any other plans or goals we may have for ourselves can be interrupted. Base your life on any other purpose and destiny than being transformed to being like Christ, and peace and joy will go up an down like a yo yo. Stick with the plan of God and this day and ever day there will be as much onward progress towards the goal as you choose to live in.

God bless

Kenny

Feeling confined? Great things can come from such times. See Luke 1… Elizabeth…Mary…

Are there circumstances and realities that seem to be restricting your life at the moment? See God’s hand cupped around you,  active in the confining, and such times  will produce life, a greater revelation of Himself in you and from you to bless the world.

Psalm 139.5: “You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.”

God bless

Kenny

“The Spirit of God can breathe through through what is predicted at a human level, with a sunshine of surprises.”

I have always loved these words of Cardinal Seunens since I heard David Watson quote them in relation to the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. The reference is to surprising signs of life appearing when the church seems in a dire state, but I often think of the words in relation to personal experience of God as well.

I was reminded of the quote today because of an unexpected blessing. It made me want to hope and pray for you, especially if the word “dire” is a word that you have actually said out loud to someone today to sum up how you feel things are for you. I pray that God may breathe into your life with a sunshine of surprises.

God bless

Kenny

When I think of those who have taught me most about spiritual life, near the very top of that list, if not in the very top spot would be Henri Nouwen. I never met him, but his writings have become increasingly important to me since  my health deteriorated a few years ago now. He seems to have a remarkable ability to weave an understanding of Jesus into an understanding of the frailties and vulnerabilities we all face in our own existence, in our own experience of being human. For that I am deeply grateful.

At this time of the year, I use a small book of Advent Readings based on his writings. The following quote was in the reading for today. It originally appeared in a wonderful book by Nouwen called “Out of Solitude.” Read it and think about it slowly…

“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.”

This had the breath of God, the sense of bubbling living water in it for me today. I hope it may bless you.

At times the silence, the distancing that illness or any form of vulnerability and frailty  can almost force upon one can seem so frustrating. At my best moments though, I genuinely experience that silence, that sense of distance from the buzz of the Christian or Church  scene as a gift, a gift so generous that I feel totally unworthy of its riches, feel even guilty I have been given it. It is as though limitations become the hands of God cupping around me, that He might then in a place of stillness place His reassuring hand upon me. The  place of frustration becomes a place of unrivalled beauty that I am loathe to leave…

God bless

Kenny

There are some “words” God gives me that are for a specific person, but the principles are worth sharing.

While praying for someone in parish ministry not long ago, God gave me a word for them, but I think it is worth sharing.

The “word” came in the form of a picture. In the picture I was watching a TV programme I like to watch in real life, namely “Dragons’ Den.” You have probably seen it, but in case you have not, the format is roughly this: hopeful entrepreneurs present their ideas to a panel of  wealthy and successful business people and investors, in the hope of securing funding from them as well as the benefit fo their established expertise in the development of their proposed venture. Of course there are questions, as the Dragons try and tease out details, to see if any given presentation is as it appears.

What came to mind  in the Lord’s presence as I thought of one particular minister is a comment I heard a Dragon make in one episode of the programme. She simply said, “No, I cannot invest in this. I have worked far too hard to get where I have got to, to throw away money on this. It is not for me. I wish you well, but sorry, I’m out. I will not be investing in this.”

I felt this was true spiritually for the particular parish minister I was praying for at the time. There are few I admire more. He has consistently sought the Lord and I have seen him grow in the Lord and in effectiveness over the years. It has cost much, and I know therefore it will have inevitably cost his wife and family dearly as well. Growing in the Lord  and having a ministry that is fruitful in terms of the Kingdom of God, always does. He is humble and would be surprised to know he is one of my heroes. I know the Word of the Lord for him is that he must not throw away what he has gained in God on the suggested schemes and ventures of those within church circles, local or national,  who are sincere but have not sought God in their thinking, planning and in their proposals and suggestions that they would place upon others.

It is surprisingly common to find that many of those entrusted with positions of leadership in the church come along to leadership meetings, whatever  these gatherings may be called , with good ideas; good ideas with no God content, birthed in human reckoning, rather than in a lifestyle of seeking God for the revelation of His will, for the ability to hear from heaven. Most congregations in Scotland are dying not because of sin or evil, but because of the following of sincere and good ideas. The ideas make sense, but have no flavour of awareness of the Living God and have not been birthed in humble prayer, in fact sometimes have not been prayed about at all. The result is that in Scotland there is a prevalence of a form of godliness without power.

Make sure that you do not throw away all that God has invested in you, and all that you have invested in seeking His presence in you and through you,  into the proposed venture of human beings who think like any non redeemed human beings can think. Even if it means an eruption of human fury and wrath, stand for what God can do, stand for His wonderful deeds. In Scotland at least it  is a while since we have seen what God can do when He steps down from heaven. Though there are good things happening at this moment, there are greater things in our history and our heritage. From time to time the Israelites found themselves beginning to ask, “Where are the wonderful deeds of the Lord, our fathers told us about, when the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” From time to time I read of the wonderful things God has done in Scotland’s history in days of revival in the distant past and more recently in the last few decades,  and I ask a similar question, with a mixture of distress and faith and hope.

These are not days hospitable to Revival , or even to talk of Revival as a real event, in Scotland. I think Revival is further away than it was a few years ago. There is a depressing interest in examining our own navel in church circles at the moment, a looking at all we are doing wrong, and coming out of such an examination with another scheme for reorientation that will guarantee we become an effective church. In the face of such pressures, maybe you are one whom God is challenging to sit light to all such talk, to invest your time, your prayers your efforts into something more true to you and more true to  the God of the bible you have come to know, at the cost of a few scars to you and even, harder to bear, to your own family. Talk is cheap. Your journey has not been… hold fast to what is good.

God bless you

Kenny

I have over the course of many years now believed that poets and film makers are often more insightful with regard to what is coming to the earth than most. Their imagination seems to give them at times an almost prophetic insight into the way things are and the way things may yet be.

I was thinking today of a common theme in films. It could be summed up as the arrival of cataclysmic intervention into the normal course of reality. That theme can take many forms; the intervention could have a thousand and one guises, anything from a tsunami threatening the coast of a continent to invasion by aliens. The build up to the full manifestation  of the intervention onto the scene usually takes this form. Someone, somewhere, notices data that is out of step with the norm, and at first it is presumed to be some sort of glitch in a system or some sort of anomaly. However more confirming data seems to come in from unrelated sources and it becomes clear something is about to break, or to break in.

When I was praying today, just waiting upon God, it was that type of film and the build up to the intervention that God seemed to place on my mind. I felt he was using that art form to say to me look for this, pray for this to happen, in the spiritual sense; and to encourage you to look for this and pray for this too. There is coming a day for Scotland, it is not yet here, when reports of the unusual action of God breaking in to work in extraordinary power upon saint and sinner will originate from various sources, from various places. At first one or two reports will be dismissed almost out of hand, but the reports will increase numerically. It won’t be possible to tie the reports down to any common factor between them. It won’t be that the reports will come from a place associated with any name or movement that is common to them all.  It will slowly dawn upon us that God is rending the heavens and stepping down and mountains are flowing down , melting before His presence. The initial tremors of the moving of God will cause even the strong to quake, but they will be nothing compared with what is yet to come.

I see no particular signs of this as yet. Though I praise God for worthwhile ventures and good fruit in many places, I am thinking, feeling that God was speaking to me  of something more, a time that is not yet, when believers hearts will be lifted and their eyes lightened with joy and their spirits leap for joy as the Spirit bears witness within, to the action of God in the land.

I just thought I would let you know I believe for this. I hope you might believe for this too and pray for it.

God bless

Kenny

Mild Depression?

https://youtu.be/l0sn4bY0j28

2nd. Lieutenant George Williamson Borthwick. Born 1896. Killed in Action 1916.
My Great Uncle.

A poem, now with an added simple tune, for Remembrance Day. May it help you to think your own thoughts…

11th Hour

 2nd. Lieutenant George Williamson Borthwick: Born 1896. Killed in Action 2016.
My great uncle

These thoughts came to me as I was playing the piano.  I would like to write a tune for them but at the moment that is eluding  me. They are of course not the words of a hymn or even a spiritual song, they are not specifically Christian thoughts even, but just  a simple poem penned by a Christian,  that may be set to a tune if I have enough skill. Though I claim copyright please feel free to share with friends…. I hope my thoughts might spark off your own on the 11th day of  the 11th month.

11th Hour

That we might have tomorrows
They gave their todays,
11th month proud sorrow
Won’t let them fade away.

How then shall we honour those
Who gave for us their all?
How raise this day the heroes
From where comrades saw them fall?

In silence we’ll remember
Listening to Flanders flowers,
Dearest blood for darkened earth
Deserves an offering of worth.

Minutes, be not quiet,
Speak with thunderous power!
Past, invade the present,
Their 11th hour be ours!

Will  our hearts awake with gratefulness,
Will green stems among us grow
From such seeds of selflessness,
From “greater love” can no one show?

(Copyright, Kenny Borthwick)

https://youtu.be/W9vEYpLbSCg

Apparently the pigments that come into view at this time of the year are always there. It is just they are masked as chlorophyll does its work in its season. You probably knew that!

There is more to the glories of Christ in you than the continually changing seasons of life may have as yet revealed to you and through you! May you and I continually see more of Him and be blessed to be a blessing in each new discovery…

Hope this blesses you!

Kenny

https://www.facebook.com/531725987/posts/10155627502110988/

I am a “Charismatic” by biblical conviction and experience. I am also a Scot. I am meant to look and sound like a redeemed and baptised in the Holy Spirit Scot!

In an address to the House of Commons at some point in the 1920’s or 30’s the author John Buchan ( “The Thirty Nine Steps” etc.), who was an MP and became Governor General of Canada said this:

“In language, literature and art we are losing our idiom, and it seems to many that we are in danger very soon of reaching the point where Scotland will have nothing distinctive to show to the world.”

I read that yesterday in the introduction to a book of Buchan’s short stories. I couldn’t help but relate it with a measure of sadness to the state of things charismatic in Scotland.

Undoubtedly our culture has its blind spots and there are things to learn from those who know Jesus Christ from cultures very distinctly different from our own, but…but what distinctive offering do Scottish Charismatics have to offer to the Charismatic scene? Is there nothing more to God’s purpose for us than that we repent of being Scottish and accept franchised and well marketed versions of the Charismatic life from beyond our borders and shores, which though usually offered in humility and with sincerity of motive, often seem unintentionally to ride roughshod over God intended and God glorifying national and/or regional cultural diversity?

Leaving aside regional variations, what is our distinctive national spiritual “idiom” as Scottish Charismatics?  I am not sure that I know or can put it into words. Perhaps it is better “felt than telt”?

Answers on a postcard to…

God bless

Kenny

https://www.facebook.com/531725987/posts/10155617862580988/

https://youtu.be/UCCKN8XjeiU

https://www.facebook.com/531725987/posts/10155596375900988/

When Prophets and Poets agree…

https://youtu.be/oMNEr1QI6h4

The truth of God as “I Am” includes the idea that God is present active reality. God is known by what He does. He is not merely ambience or atmosphere. The bush burns and we do not go limp or tearful or sentimental in its warmth. We turn aside to investigate an observable event and discover with trembling fear and shock the God who is present active reality working out His purpose even suspending the natural order of things to do so. The action of God is the sign He is truly present. Let’s seek that and not be content with ambience. Churches that believe themselves to be alive are most in danger of settling for the god called ambience. There is understandably a market for a regular feel good moment.

God bless

Kenny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0B0HaEYNuA&feature=share

God bless

Kenny

https://youtu.be/YpyJFlbUbZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDR9-rwFXQ4&feature=share

I know I post too much for folks to keep up with, but when my heart is as filled as it has been today I can’t help myself…