Bebo

Jim Diffin <Jim_D_>

"Revolutionaries...dreaming once again..."

	When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight...	740 days ago
	I haven't been sleeping too well of late. It may well just be the fact that I sit on Bebo to all hours of the morning writing blogs, who knows! I like to think, however, that it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Rather, it is only in the "wee small hours" that ones heart and mind become that little bit more lucid. Things which might not be said at other times come all too easily at such times. At one of those moments of sleep-deprived maddness that myself and a good friend decided to take a trip. It began as a trip to my house for a cuppa at 4am. It then evolved into an excursion to see "Belfast by night." Having journeyed down past the Odyssey complex we just kept going and ended up in a little beach off Belfast lough called Helens Bay. By this stage it was getting on for 5am. We decided to stay and watch the sunrise over Belfast and spend some time in prayer for this wonderful city which over the last couple of years I've grown to call "home". "Look," I said, "the sun's rising over Ards." I paused and looked to the city at the other side of the lough; "but it's still dark in Belfast..." "...not for long" my friend replied. You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people, You're the Lord of this nation, You are. You're the Light in this darkness, You're the Hope to the hopeless, You're the Peace to the restless, You are. There is no one like our God Greater things have yet to come And greater things have still to be done In this city. Greater things have yet to come And greater things have still to be done here. - 'God of this City' by Bluetree 'City' is a word I've been thinking about a lot lately. I guess what I really mean is that God has really put this city, Belfast, into my heart of late. I can't just attribute it to the prayer walk which I endeavoured upon and wrote about in my last blog. I think it is more of a general desire, which has been growing within me more and more recently, to see Gods spirit really poured out onto these streets which I walk every day. This evening, as I drove through Belfast, I was saddened. I was greeted with the sight of a young man being sick on a street corner. Further along on my journey I had to break as two guys chased another guy across the road and then proceeded to throw glass bottles at him. As I got out of my car a drunk man bumped into me as he staggered past. I mean, this is stuff which happens in the City on a Sunday night at 10:30pm; just try to imagine what it's like on a Saturday night. I've been there. I was once called on a Saturday night / Sunday morning by a few friends. They'd been to a club, had a little too much to drink and couldn't get a Taxi out of the city. I enlisted the help of a friend and we gave them a lift home; simply to make sure they got there safely. As my friend and I drove through the city centre, we saw people lying in the middle of the roads, fights outside pubs and clubs, police cars lining the roads and an ambulance on every corner. As I wrote that last paragraph, listening, as ever, to my Ipod on shuffle, I was played a song called 'Trail of Broken Hearts' by a band called Dragonforce. Be it coincidence or divine irony, I guess thats what I'm trying to paint you a vivid picture of; this 'Trail of Broken Hearts' which lines the streets of this city. The song speaks of looking back to the light of brighter days from a road marked with darkness, loneliness, pain, lies, tears and emptiness. It's a sobering thought; that in all those rows of people who walk through this city every day, many of them may just be another head in that 'Trail of Broken Hearts.' So where do we, by we, I mean all the people of this broken city, this broken nation, this broken world, go from here? Do you know What it feels like to be broken and used Scared and confused Yes I know One more question; I know time is dear But is what the world speaks of love really real? The answers not of this world but very clear Look above to find love and you found eternal life - 'Broken' by Scott Stapp Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." - Matthew Chapter 11 I know that the entire world need's to be reached with this message and I understand that there are missions to countries where the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ can't even be spoken without breaking the law. God, however, has placed me here; in a city on my doorstep which needs that message as much as everywhere else. I hope and pray that this place is on the brink of salvation; that the 'Trail of Broken Hearts' are starting to blink and rub their eyes in the faint glow of a new dawn breaking; that the souls who walk these streets begin to wander whether or not our lives can be filled with 'what the world speaks of love'; that burdens across this city are being left at the foot of the Cross with the realisation that there is eternal life to be found above; that it isn't going to be dark in Belfast for long and as that darkness turns to light, the suffering, the hurt, the sorrow, the pain, all of it... ...it ends tonight. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. - Psalm 127
	posted by Jim Diffin

1 Comment:

	Phil Alcorn said...	740 days ago
	AMEN!!
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