Devotion

I love passion flowers. I had no idea this enjoyment could be an Autistic thing, as I was informed recently it could be. It is known as an Autistic Glimmer, which is something that for some can cause an overwhelming sense of sensory delight. So this could indeed be an Autistic aswell as a faith and beauty thing. I didn't know they existed infact until a few years back when I heard of a faith group called The Julian Meetings who are a bit like Quakers in worship style, but particularly like Julian of Norwich. The passion flower is the symbol they use, but it has faith connections all the way back to when the Spanish discoverd the flower.  "We chose this plant to decorate our publications because of its silent witness to the heart of the Christian faith. The passion flower is a native of southern Brazil and first flowered in England in 1868. The name Passion Flower was given by the first Spanish friars and missionaries to tropical America, who were impressed by the symbolism th

Today I started my journey officially with Edinburgh Preaching Group . Today doctrines are all signed and my first training is complete. I have three preaching appointments for the calender. A rather productive morning. The first one is in December, then the others in the new year. Prayers for these appointments, churches and this preaching ministry is most appreciated.

I have started a project of adapting some of my poems into prayers. This is the first instalment of that project. I will likely adapt it into a book or ebook. Watch this space. Suffering Lord,  Who has all answers?  Surely only you. We often have questions in life. For many questions the faithful answer is "I just don't know". This can be hard for us as we don't have the bigger picture yet. But, just as we see through the glass dimly one day we will see all things face to face. We can argue the impact of free will in answer to some questions. We can argue the power of your infinite light and love to other questions. But, some of the hardest questions are around the issue of suffering. In life all your true pilgrims suffer. Just as all humans. Some daily. Yet they inspire us as they worship you in the storms of life, just as your son who wept, but never waivered. You are not a twisted king. You are not absolutely power hungry. You are not a micro-manager. You are love,

Written by David Holdsworth With help from Imagine Forest For an Autumn Writing Challenge *** "The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go." - Unknown *** It was Autumn, and there was a great storm at sea. One could hear nothing but the swell of the wild oceans and the great feared beasts beneath. The air was filled with black smoke. The water was strewn with broken mast parts and pieces of timber which the winds had knocked from the ship. Many people had been lost, and many more had been wounded. The ship had caught fire. The beames were breaking out from below. The deck was all ablaze. The people who were left made haste to launch a small boat. They leapt into it and rowed swiftly away. Any other place was safer now than on board that burning ship with a cargo of gun powder headed for the New World. But the captain's child, young Arthur, still stood upon the deck. The flames were almost all around him now,