{"id":13645,"date":"2024-11-16T14:36:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T14:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2024-12-13T22:03:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T22:03:57","slug":"day-15-isaiah-61-verses-1-3-when-this-child-came","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/?p=13645","title":{"rendered":"Day 14 – Isaiah 61 verses 1 – 3 (When this child came)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Bible Reading Isaiah 61 verses 1 – 3<\/h3>\n

61\u00a0<\/span>The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord<\/span> is on me,<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>because the Lord<\/span> has anointed me<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>to proclaim good news to the poor.<\/span><\/span>
\nHe has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>to proclaim freedom for the captives<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and release from darkness for the prisoners,<\/span><\/span>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>to proclaim the year of the Lord<\/span>\u2019s favour<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the day of vengeance of our God,<\/span><\/span>
\nto comfort all who mourn,<\/span>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and provide for those who grieve in Zion\u2014<\/span><\/span>
\nto bestow on them a crown of beauty<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>instead of ashes,<\/span><\/span>
\nthe oil of joy<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>instead of mourning,<\/span><\/span>
\nand a garment of praise<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>instead of a spirit of despair.<\/span><\/span>
\nThey will be called oaks of righteousness,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>a planting of the Lord<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for the display of his splendor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Opening Prayer<\/h3>\n

Lord, we pray that we may always be solid and firm in out faith in you. Remembering that it is you who has planted us. May our lives truly be a display worthy of showing your splenour. Amen<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/h3>\n

I love Oak trees. This year, as I collected leaves for a creative worship time, I was only able to select a few oak leaves. They were almost golden in colour but the vast majority of the leaves were dry and brown before they fell. So they are not colourful like some other trees.<\/p>\n

The acorns they produce, I am informed, can be roasted and ground to make a “coffee” but that does not sound very desirable to me. So they do not produce food for us.<\/p>\n

They do not have large attractive flowers. The female flowers are tiny and red, hard to spot unless you are looking. The male flowers are green catkins which only measure about 2 inches. So, they are not the source of beautiful flowers. They are, however, magnificent, long-lived majestic mighty trees.<\/p>\n

Probably because they have been part of the flora of our country for so long. They are, according to the Woodland Trust, hosts to 2,300 wildlife species.<\/p>\n

As I read today’s passage I was delighted to see the reference to the oaks of righteousness. Which, despite all of the above demerits I have described also consider the oak as a display of God’s splendour.<\/p>\n

Without wishing to push an illustration too much – the vast diversity of wildlife hosted by the oak – in my mind reflects the diversity of people, gifts and talents we find in the church. All of us supported and blessed by the fact that we are a planting of the Lord.<\/p>\n

A time for your own reflection<\/p>\n

Read the passage again and spend a little time thinking of how the passage speaks to you. The wonder of scripture is that there is always something new to discover and each passage speaks to us in our own need and circumstances.<\/p>\n

Only if you feel you want to – share your thoughts with someone. God inspires our thoughts and you never know, the person you share with may be waiting to hear what you have to say.<\/p>\n

Song<\/h2>\n

Here is the next song –<\/p>\n

“When this child came”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I did wonder about these lyrics but once I had generated the music they actually work very well – in my opinion anyway. A nice folky tune to this one again.<\/p>\n

Title: When this child came
\nWords: Chris Hancock
\nInspiration: Isaiah 61 verses 1 – 3
\nMusic: Generated on Suno.com<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/wptest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/When-this-child-came.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

[Verse 1]
\n\"\"<\/a>When this child came, the world was changed,
\nNo longer, can the darkness bind us,
\nHe comes that we can all be freed,
\nBy his life, God\u2019s mercy is revealed.
\n[Verse 2]
\nWhen the stormy winds of life wildly blow,
\nWhen hearts are only filled with woes,
\nHis promise is restoration to us al,l
\nOur walls of darkness will all fall.<\/p>\n

[Verse 3]
\nWalls of torment fear and blame
\nWalls that hold us in our pain
\nHe will set us free again
\nTurn our loss into our gain
\n[Verse 4]
\nThough we mourn what\u2019s gone before
\nWe can start again once more
\nA crown of beauty on our heads he’ll place
\nWe will worship the Lord in this place.
\n[Verse 5]
\nWe will be like oak trees he has sown,
\nIn our faith, his splendour is shown
\nHe will bind our broken hearts,
\nFreed from sins, our lives can restart.
\n[Verse 6]
\nThough we mourn what\u2019s gone before
\nWe can start again once more
\nA crown of beauty on our heads he’ll place
\nWe will worship the Lord in this place.<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Copyrights<\/p>\n

Reflections and Prayers<\/h3>\n

By Chris Hancock<\/p>\n

Songs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Words of the songs are by Chris Hancock
\nMusic generated on Suno.com
\nIf you are a user of the free tier of the Service then, you covenant and agree that you will only use Outputs generated from Submissions made by you through the Service solely for your lawful, internal, personal and non-commercial purposes, provided that you give attribution credit to Suno in each case.<\/p>\n

Bible Readings<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bible readings are from the New<\/a> International Version<\/a> (NIV)
\n<\/strong>Holy Bible, New International Version\u00ae, NIV\u00ae Copyright \u00a91973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.\u00ae<\/a> Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.<\/p>\n

Images<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Images where used are from pixabay.com and free for commercial use no attribution required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bible Reading Isaiah 61 verses 1 – 3 61\u00a0The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0because the Lord has anointed me \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent-2024"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/wptest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Day-14-feature.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13645"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13896,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions\/13896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hatfieldroadmethodist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}