" Les Miserables You will always have with you" (NBT 'new broadway translation')

Fantine's Song - Les Miserables
(1 slightly altered line)








In one of the opening scenes of Les Miz.....

Fantine is left , alone, unemployed, destitute
, with her little girl ...
She is singing the lyrics of the heartsongs
of the poor.....


"I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
And they tear your dreams apart
Then rip your hopes asunder

I had a dream my life would be
So different than this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed "


IN John 5 - Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda

Picture the battlefield scene in the film "Gettysburgh" when the field is littered with the bodies of wounded and dying soldiers.
Go to an inner city nursing home, understaffed and overcrowded, and you'll see the scenes of Bethesda.

Rewind on the screen of your mind, the pictures of the starving and sick of Bangladesh or Ethiopia , and you'll see the picture at that pool.

Stand at the Broad street station in Newark and watch the thin-faced, sickly beggars hoping for a little of your change, look as they search your eyes for a flicker of acknowledgment , that you see them; and they are not invisible phantoms of some other dimension.

Work the clipboard for a night at the street feeding program
and watch the shifting eyes, the clutching hands
as they grip the plate of hot food ,
hurrying to eat.............
wishing for more.

Look closely, and you might catch a glimpse of Jesus ,
He's there................................and listening.....
to the crys of beggars,
the songs of the poor,
the mumblings of crushed dreams
and ighs of broken promises.


Can you see Him ?

Stepping tenderly between the broken ,blind and begging.........

Looking deep into the eyes of the lost

SEEING them .... LOVING them .....

TOUCHING them.

How I pray that the call of the Christ, to come and walk where He walks....... will not be lost in the roar of the world or fade as the desire of my heart. The words of a Keith Green song convey my desires for continual renewal:

"Oh What can be done,
With an old heart like mine,
Soften it up with the oil of your wine."

"The Oil is You,
Your Spirit above,
Please wash me anew
In the wine of your love."

Amen!