Thursday 13th October - The Fish - Ancient Christian Symbols

 

And the link to the video and commentary on the Bible Society Website  

We are all very familiar with the fish symbol below in all its many forms. But this shape is NOT the one in the video!

This site has more to say about the symbol that is scratched into the stones at Ephesus. There is a story that the shape scratched into the stones was used to play a game called tabla. What a wonderful way to spread the story of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire - if the story were true...

Jesu, joy of my desiring (Voces 8)

Alleluia alleluia for the Lord God Almighty reigns

Psalm 23 - You restore my soul

Poem - Footsteps

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

Old Testament Ruth, Jonah, Daniel

 

Still sticking to the shorter books, but looking for a change from the Epistles. The coincided with a sermon on tracing the presence of Christ through the Old Testament, and also looking for stories in the Bible as opposed to lists of instructions, or bloodthirsty battles, or instructions for building the temple and so forth.

 When it came to reading Jonah, we were very tempted to share 'fish' recipes...

It is well worth having a good look at the map below to see exactly how far Jonah was running away from Ninevah;  

We only looked at the first Chapter of Daniel, before the 'visions' section (opportunity for vegetarian recipes...) 

It also game an opportunity to share the Children's Cantata 'Jonah Man Jazz'

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/daniel-0

Here is the poem by Vachel  Lindsay - well worth reading!