Sunday 27th July - the Isaiah 'hand-holds'

 I've posted about this before, but it was a long time ago...

We visited a tiny church in a tiny village somewhere near Arundel, either North Stoke or South Stoke, I think. I have a feeling the church had no electricity,  and the music for the hymns was provided bt one of those harmonium with foot pedals to work the bellows... 

On the table by the door was a pile of help-yourself leaflets, with the 7 handholds in Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10;

1. So do not fear,
2. for I am with you;
3. do not be dismayed,
4. for I am your God.
5. I will strengthen you 
6. and help you;
7. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

One for every day of the week. 

It was a bit of a lifeline for me, a ladder out of a rather worrying couple of weeks, and there have been times since then when I have returned to these hand-holds, as the help-yoursef piece of paper called them. I used to write them down at the top of each page in my diary, one for each day, and hang to them on when ever things were getting on top of me.

Well, I loaded a set of daily study notes (Encounters with God, July -September) onto my kindle, and the passage for the day (I'm catching up so I think it is July 17th in the actual booklet). 

So there you are. Seven hand-holds to help you through the week.

Picture 

Half-copied from a Hannah Dunnett illustration in her book 'more than words'. Drawn on the Kindle scribe.

Music

I do enjoy watching the Adama Duo playing piano duets together. This is 'En bateau' by Debussy.