Category: <span>thoughts by Rod Marshall</span>

by Rod Marshall

“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” Revelation 8:3-4 (ESV)

I have been very ill recently and there is no doubt that God has been, and is, with me through this experience, traumatic as it has been.

I had become jaundiced and infected, very ill, and was admitted to hospital. The upshot was, as I got sicker, so my mental faculties left me; until eventually all was stripped away except God. There was no room for anything else because I was so ill. For a big baby like me who avoids hospitals,  needles, and endless blood-sampling, it was great. I had no space for fear or apprehension. There was just God and me together.

Now you could put all this down to kind of euphoria from the state I was in. However, I had a picture given to me whilst in this state to explain what was happening. This is the picture:

As I looked into darkness I could see something like an assembly line of a tinned product. This was a single line of tins encased by four open sides of bright metal. Rather than going horizontally, this assembly line came up from the darkness and then turned at an angle into a horizontal fixed point on a transparent wall where light was shining. As the many “tins” rolled up and entered into the light of the expanse, they immediately burst forth into a shimmering gold dust that spread out and drifted gently downwards into the darkness towards me.

I understood these were the many prayers of the saints being sent up from earth into the heavenly realms. As they reached into heaven they were blessed by God, and returned to earth to accomplish their mission. It was these very prayers, as an act of God’s grace shown towards me, which I believe took away all my fears and anxieties.

PRAYER: LORD, thank you so much for Your peace which passes all understanding and the fellowship of prayer. Your desire for us to be intimately involved in Your purposes for us here on earth, through prayer and action. We thank you for the faithfulness of the saints and your desire to answer prayers.

Please forgive us when we doubt You hear our prayers, and enable us to trust in Your love for us, even when we cannot see it, to know that it is there. For which we rejoice and give You thanks and praise in Jesus’ name, amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/01/22/rm_conveyor/

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Thoughts by All Thoughts by Men thoughts by Rod Marshall

by Roderick Marshall
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“..standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. …And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” 
Luke 7:38-50 (ESV)

I was in a queue at a set of traffic lights in town. We were stationary, so I looked expectantly towards the red lights in front of me, when a movement in the car in front of me caught my eye. It turned out to be a woman who had leant across to get up close and personal with her passenger: intimate. I thought; it must be love. You get exhibitions of young parting lovers making public declarations of affection. I can remember being like that once.

Anyway, the lights being still on red, and me being inquisitive, I watched this tableau played out before me. Only I realized the person on whom the woman was so  intent, was not her partner, no, it was her toddler son!

Presumably he was in a booster seat which raised his head up to adult levels. She was inspecting his face, then cleaning it and fussing him, prior to being dropped off at the nursery around the corner.

Well I was not wrong, I thought, it was love! Then the following words drifted into my consciousness: coming-towards-as-if-to-kiss.

Yes, I had been ambushed by God again. Proskyneo, the N.T. Greek word for worship means just that. Yes, I am no Greek lexicon, I had to look it up to find it again. It is not an amorous encounter, but rather one of trust, love, deference, respect and intimacy; like Mary Magdalene’s uninhibited entreaty.

As a Creator, God longs to be close with His children, just as this mother was to her son. The question is will we allow Him to get up close and personal? Close enough so He can clean us up, make us presentable, encourage us, and then send us out!

OK, are we ready to being open to Him in reverence today, even up close?

PRAYER: LORD, You are awesome and terrible, holy and majestic, yet You are also jealous of our worship, obedience and love. So we, with bended knee and humble hearts, say Our LORD come! Visit us once more today, in Jesus name, amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/06/06/rm_kissing/
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Thoughts by All Thoughts by Men thoughts by Rod Marshall

by Rod Marshall
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“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (ESV)

Christian DevotionalWhen I cycle into work, I pass by a woodshed where pallets of sawn wood of various lengths and thickness are stacked and kept dry. Sometimes when I pass by, and the wind is in the right direction, the lovely fragrance of pine wafts over me.

I grew up with pine trees in our garden. I can still remember the difficulty of removing the pine-resin after I had gleefully climbed the firs, and it had stuck to my hands. It was a time of growing. I was a bit of a handful. I still am, but God loves me and meets me where I am.

This all-pervading smell of pine prompted these questions: When we wake up and greet the day, do we smile, or grimace? How do we perceive ourselves? Do we allow the fragrance of Jesus to permeate deep into our lives to bring His grace, to wash our sins away, or do we focus on our shortcomings? Do we rest in and enjoy God’s company, or have we become nodding acquaintances who pass Jesus by in the morning, or evening, like workday commuters we greet Jesus: “Hello-Goodbye, catch you later�.

How deep does our faith go? Jesus wants all of us, all the hopes, foibles, sins and secrets so that He can redeem us, encourage us and grow us. Through us He will be the fragrance of Life to the living and a challenge to those seeking Life.

So are we ready to be vessels capable of carrying the fragrance of Jesus to others, cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Have we allowed God’s love to penetrate past the surface, so the aroma of Jesus remains? Will it linger with others after we have moved on: or have we become commuters conformed into the world’s mould?

PRAYER: LORD, we come to You in humility and hope that You will restore us. Not because we are something special but because we know You are the Son of God. We ask for Your consecration so that we may be fitting vessels to carry Your Holy Presence with us as we go.
Holy Spirit may Your fragrance splash over into the places you take us to today, in the Name of Jesus, amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/05/06/rm_woodshed/
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Thoughts by All Thoughts by Men thoughts by Rod Marshall

by Roderick Marshall
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He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:29-31 (ESV)

My window at work looks towards the Cotswold Hills. When the clouds descend, the hills become hidden from view. Today, they arrived with snow in them, and true to form, the hills disappeared under the clouds’ caress. With the advent of thick snowflakes, the clouds increased their hold on my viewpoint and soon I could only see the university grounds.

I was taken up with the ferocity of this deluge from the sky, but eventually my focus returned to work. Later, the hillside shroud departed and I noted the contrast between the sunshine of a clear sky to my left and the total coverage of heavy cloud, mist and snowfall being relentlessly blown away to my right.

So stark was the contrast between the cloud and snow on the one hand and the bright blue sky on the other, I thought there was a point to this, but I dismissed it as a passing whim.

However, I was to be reminded a second time a few nights later. In contrast to the dark of the night, the cloud reflected the lights of Gloucester city as we drove home. Like a signpost in the sky, the edge between darkness and light was clear to see. It was as if God was giving me a nudge to take note of what had happened previously.

This was my thought: in the middle of some big event, we may slip into a frenzy of agitation, one that consumes our total attention. Enthralled by a cloud of circumstance, we become shrouded from the greater perspective, and our Kingdom goals seem a distant hope.

Our hearts may be agitated today, but be of good courage, because just like the blue sky restored my original perspective of the hills, so too will come the hand of Jesus to lift us.

PRAYER: LORD, forgive us our distractions that take our hearts and minds away from your protective love and grant us restoration to Your embrace. We rejoice that though you know our doubts and fears, yet you still choose us today.
LORD, as You send us out into the world again today prompt us to keep our eyes focused on Your Way. Amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/03/10/rm_clouds/

Thoughts by All Thoughts by Men thoughts by Rod Marshall

by Rod Marshall
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“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.�
Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

Last summer, we moved to a different house, and baby Zoë was born.

As a Christian, the nice thing about being a dad again after twenty years is that I believe I am more in touch with who I am, both in the world and in the kingdom of God. I no longer see the frustrations and exasperations of a helpless baby’s crying and total dependency as belonging only to me or Caroline. Of course, they are ours in the sense that Zoë is our baby, much longed for and loved, even in the small hours of the morning when we’d rather be sleeping.

How I view Zoë’s antics and growing pains helps my faith grow stronger and helps me to understand better what it means to be made in the image of God as our heavenly Father. For, in truth, just as I see her in the morning and night-time, and covet her hugs and smiles, so God looks forward to our spending time with Him. Just as I accept Zoë’s frustration and anger at being able to perform only the basic feats of communication, so God understands the limitations we work under while trying to communicate with Him and understand His will.

Amid these limitations, God has been gracious to help us understand Him through our commonality of nature. We are made in His image so that we may comprehend His nature, no matter who we are. We bear the marks of His authorship in our being. Thus, we can meaningfully respond to Him through ways that are set into our creation. No matter our physical condition or age, as Christians, we are loved in Jesus because He has first loved us, and we can respond, knowing that He understands.

More than I do Zoë, He loves us and wants us to identify Him faithfully as our heavenly Father. We are jealously watched over.

Matthew 10:29-31 (NIV) – “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.â€? 

Prayer:  Lord, we have been too busy again. We have squeezed You out of our stillness; we are seldom still. At best, we take Your love for granted, and at worst, we ignore it. Please forgive us our presumptions. Like a baby, we revel in Your presence with us, as You hold us close in the power of the Holy Spirit. We rejoice in Your unfailing love towards us, no matter the time, our condition, or the situation, because You first loved us in Jesus’ name. Thank You. Amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/02/24/rm_born/

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Thoughts by All Thoughts by Men thoughts by Rod Marshall