Month: September 2020
Music Monday: Honest Questions From Isaiah
My wife and I are trying to finish reading through the Bible in a year. At the moment, our Old Testament reading is coming from Isaiah and it put me in mind of this song from my youth by Daniel Bedingfield:
Can you see
The honest questions in my heart this hour?
I’m opening like a flower to the rain
And do you know
The silent sorrows of a
Never ending journey through the pain
Do you see a brighter day for me?
Another day?
A day?
Do you wonder what’s in store for me?
The cure for me?
The way?
Oh look down and see the tears I’ve cried
The lives I’ve lived
The deaths I’ve died
But you died them too
And all for me
And you say:
“I will pour my water down
Upon a thirsty barren land
And streams will flow from the dust of
Your bruised and broken soul
You will grow like the grass
Upon the the fertile plains of Asia
By the streams of living water
You will grow
You will grow”
Do you know
My story from the start?
And do you know me
Like you’ve always told me?
Do you see
The whispers in my heart against your kindness
My eternal blindness
Do you see?
My faith came alive around the time this song came out and I remember that, as I listened to the album, when I came to this song, something seemed very familiar:
I will pour my water down
Upon a thirsty barren land
And streams will flow from the dust of
Your bruised and broken soul
You will grow like the grass
Upon the the fertile plains of Asia
By the streams of living water
You will grow
You will grow”
Daniel Bedingfield, Honest Questions (Chorus)
…and it finally clicked:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams
Isaiah 44:3-4
…which is itself alluded to by Jesus in John’s Gospel:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as[a] the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-38
How to Hajj
I have quite an interest with Islam and found this mini documentary on the “Hajj”, a semi-mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca, quite fascinating:
Lewis Group Picture
I’ve you’re reading articles about Lewis, you’ll quite often see this picture of Lewis and a number of other men sitting on a short wall:
I recently saw this article from the Sydney Morning Herald which included a cropped version of this picture, identifying the men, from left-to-right as J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis. However, this is incorrect!
The men in the above picture are Commander James Dundas-Grant, Colin Hardie, Dr. Robert E. Havard, C.S. Lewis, and Peter Havard. They are sitting on the Thames River embankment parapet wall at The Trout pub. Behind them (out of shot) is the old Chinese style wooden bridge, leading over to the island which had a stone lion statue on it.