Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s book - Beyond the Chocolate Window

The Voice of Isaiah

It all began in the year that King Uzziah died. ‘I was a young then, but now I am old and nearing the end of my life. However, before I ‘go to glory’ and join my God, I wanted to share the pathway of my life and the pictures God gave me, so that others might draw strength and trust from my story.

It started with a dream — a vision, really, but I wasn’t hallucinating. I saw myself standing in the courts of God, in the throne room of the

Almighty. Suddenly, I was not alone. I was surrounded by creatures, the like of which I had never seen before, or since. Each one had six wings and they flew all around me.

I covered my eyes because I felt so vulnerable. I was afraid that I’d die if I saw God. I knew I was not worthy to be the company of such angelic beings, yet there I was. Then one of the creatures touched my lips with a burning coal and I heard the voice of God speak to me. “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

I was overrun by emotion, swept up in the very moment. So before I even really knew what I was doing, I was putting up my hand. I hadn’t thought it through, hadn’t undertaken a risk assessment. I hadn’t even consulted my loved ones.

“l‘ll go,” I said. “Send me!”

And send me he did. He sent me to “an unclean people” with “unclear lips”. He sent me to tell them to repent and turn back to him. There was no going back — no pretending it had all been just a dream. This was my new reality: I was a prophet of God.

Years passed, and over time God’s message changed: destruction was in the past, repentance was the order of the day, and hope was at hand — the hope of a child to be born, a son to be given who would be called “wonderful, counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace”. He would come from the line and the throne of David, and he would establish a kingdom built on justice and peace. A people who were

‘walking in darkness’ would see the light dawn.

However, the child that was born would not remain a child, of course. He would grow and become a man - a man who would be a servant even to servants and who would lay down his life for his friends. He would redefine all things. He would be like a shepherd for scattered sheep. He would also be treated badly — his beard would be pulled, he would be mocked and he would be whipped on the back by his aggressors. Ultimately, he would take upon his shoulders the sins of the world. He would suffer and die alone and in agony.

Nevertheless, this would not be the end. Hope would come again. He would rise up, like an eagle taking flight. He would never grow tired or weak again. The child of hope would come to stay forever. He would make his home among us. He would come and renew his people, and everything would change.

Prayer

Lord of the manger and of the cross,

thank you that you are with me

as I prepare to greet you again this year.

Help me to remember that even when you were a baby,9

the cross that lay ahead was always the purpose of your life.

Help me to work with those around me to share your story,

not just one of a baby born in a stable,

but of a man who died for our salvation.

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s Book- Beyond the Chocolate Window

 The Voice of Salome

My name is Salome. I am the mother of a boy who died but was revived and rescued from death by the prophet Elijah.

Our land had been struck by a heavy drought. It had not rained for years. All the crops had failed, and food was running short. In fact, I had enough flour and oil left to bake just one more meal for my son and myself — before starvation and death would be our fate.

Into our village came a man — old and unkempt, but with a kind face and an air of authority about him. He approached us as we slowly gathered wood to build our final fire.

“Please,” he said, “can you make me a cake?”

I almost laughed in his face. “We have nothing,” I explained, and I spelt out our predicament to him.

“I have come from God,” he told us. “He has promised that if you help me, the little flour and oil you have will never run dry. Trust in the God of your ancestors and deliverance will be yours.”

I made a cake for the man of God and, true to his word, the flour we had never ran out. The man stayed with us for months and months,  until the rains came and our fields were once again ready for the harvest.

Time passed, but with every passing day my son grew weaker. I watched as he deteriorated in front of my eyes. I cried out to God who had saved us from certain death - could he now restore my son’s health?

But death came.

I didn’t know what to do with myself. I beat my chest and wept until my eyes had no more tears left. Where was God now?

Then, when all hope seemed lost, Elijah returned. 

I pleaded with him. “I helped you. Now, could you help me and restore my son?”

It was a bold request, but the prophet didn’t flinch. Instead, he knelt and prayed. Then he took my son in his arms and breathed over him.

To my amazement, my son opened his eyes! He was alive!

From then on, I followed Elijah’s ‘career’ with interest. There was, for example, the ‘battle of the barbecues’, as I call it, against the supporters of a god named Baal. There, the challenge to light a fire with a lightning bolt was laid down; Elijah’s God not only did that but he managed to light a pile of wood that had been soaked in water to show his power...

Then there was the time Elijah fled the wrath of the queen, who hunted him down whilst he hid in a cave. There God came to him. There was a great wind, a fire and an earthquake, and yet Elijah realised that God was not in any of these. Rather as they passed, Elijah heard God in the still small voice.

Prayer

God of Elijah, who restored the dead child to life again, come and help me to know your still voice of calm. Amidst the busyness of my life, help me to find space for you, so that you can show me what you would have me do.

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s book - Beyond the Chocolate Window

The Voice of Love

Read John 15:9-17

Jesus says:

“I am the voice of love. Therefore, I no longer call you servants. I till you my friends. I want you to see that I am loved by my father in heaven and that he has sent me to love you.

“I came, leaving the love of my father’s kingdom, coming to earth to be born as a child. I grew in the love of a human family: a mother who was a handmaiden of her God, and a father who took me as his own, putting his own concerns to one side for the good of others.

“I learnt the scriptures. I understood that they referred directly to me: to the life I would live and death I would die. I knew from the very beginning when the end would come.

“In love I gathered a team around me - a team of twelve, made up of unlikely heroes: the fisherman, the tax collector and the outcast. I drew them to myself as companions on the tourney. I tried to mould them, to shape and guide them along the way of love. I wanted to offer new life and total transformation to them, and to all who looked to my father, the Holy Spirit and me for help. I used parables and stories and drew pictures with my words. Still, they did not understand or comprehend my love for them, for all God’s people.

“I tried to explain that my death would transform life; that if they lived in me, then I would live in them; that they too would know what it meant to love and be loved. I tried to tell them that I loved them so much that I would lay down my life for them — but they just didn’t get it.

“Everything that was foretold came to pass. One of my friends betrayed me, another denied me, and still others ran scared for the hills. I was arrested, tried, beaten and crucified, all in the name of love.

“However, my death was not the end — in fact it was just the beginning, as through it, love grew. From city to city, from nation to nation, the word of love lived on and thrived among the people. I came, I lived, I transformed, I died, I rose again, and now I live on — sharing my love trough those who choose to bear my name. As they love —love one another and love God — my life and death will fulfil its purpose.”

Prayer

God of love,

I choose today to live in you

just as you have chosen to live in me,

As I go out today, living in you,

use me to draw others to you.

Help me to love those around me

with the unconditional love shown in

the person of Jesus Christ,

and help me to listen to your voice of love

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s Book, Beyond the Chocolate Window

The Voice of David

My walk with God has been varied.  I have climbed the highest mountains and I have fallen into the deepest pits of despair. I have ridden on the crest of a wave and I have also crashed and burned. Most of that was of my own doing, of course. Yet through 1t all, God has been my constant’ — my comfort, my shelter and my help.

As a boy, I was called and chosen; anointed by a messenger of God and set apart for great things. My brothers (all bigger stronger and more handsome than me) were passed over and I was chosen. My heart was full of praise for God: how majestic his name is in all the earth; how wonderful it was to be in his service! 

I worked in my father’s fields as a shepherd boy and I understood the importance of looking after the sheep: caring for their every need; finding them good grass to eat and clean water to drink; keeping them safe and secure. So when God showed me that he would be the shepherd for the nation and we would be his sheep, I understood.

As I grew, he was there, always at my side with a shepherd’s rod and staff. He was my comfort, protecting me against my enemies — even the time when I stood before the giant Goliath. When it seemed to me that death was fast approaching, when I found myself in the valley of its shadow, even then I was not alone, for God was watching over me; he was my shield and my hiding place.

I gazed up at the hills, looking for someone to help me, but my hell’ did not come from there. Rather, it came from God. And who better? He who made heaven and the whole of the universe!

I gazed up at the hills, looking for someone to help me, but my help did not come from there. Rather, it came from God. And who better? He made heaven and the whole of the universe!

However, some of the choices I made separated me from his presence, driving a gulf between me and my Lord. I chose death over life again and again. On one occasion I became infatuated with my friend’s wife, so much so that I just had to have her for myself. It’s so hard to confess this but I actually used my position as king to manipulate the situation in my favour. I sent my friend to war, to fight on the front line, and therefore got him killed. I then justified to myself that as he was now dead, it was acceptable for me to marry his widowed wife. I took her just because l was king and therefore I could. It took a man of God called Nathan to show me the error of my ways. Then, of course, I fell to my knees, recognising that the chasm between me and my God was completely of my own making.

God knows me so well — perfectly, in fact. And he has loved me and sought me out despite my sin. He was the one who originally formed me in my mother’s womb, and he knew the choices I would make before l even made them. It’s incredible to think about it, but his design was perfect— I am wonderfully and awesomely made by him, and I am in precious in his sight.

As long as I live, I want to praise my God with a full and thankful heart. As I often sing, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

Prayer

God of all knowledge and grace,

help me to recognise that you are always with me,

both in the highs and in the lows of my life.

Help me to use the talents and position you have given me

for the good of people around me and not for my own benefit.

Help me to walk the days of my life on a path of righteousness

and to offer your comfort and strength to all those I meet.

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s Book, “Beyond the Chocolate Window”

The Voice of Ruth

Read Ruth 1:16-18

It began in tragedy, with wailing and the gnashing of teeth, but it did not end there, as God brought forth joy from sorrow, hope from despair. However, the God of Israel blessed me, and a descendent of the child from my womb would fulfil his promise.

My name is Ruth and I greet you from the city of Moab.

I was young when I met my first husband. He was handsome and kind, and it was not long before I fell head over heels in love with him. He had come with his brother and his parents to build a new life in our city. They did this, and we were happy.

It didn’t stay that way though. Disease came to our land and gripped it, squeezing the very lifeblood from it, killing many. My husband, his brother and father all died, leaving my mother-in-law Naomi with nothing, barely surviving in a land that wasn’t hers.

In desperation she decided to return home, to go back to Bethlehem, and my sister-in-law and I chose to go with her. What would that mean?

The answer was clear; we would have to leave all we had ever known for the unknown; trading all we had ever believed for a new belief and a’ new God.

A little way into our journey, Naomi urged us to go back to. our families; to start again, to move on, to weigh up what we were really leaving behind. .

My sister-in-law turned back, but I could not.

“Let me come with you,” I insisted. “Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.”

We travelled back to Judea, but when we arrived we had nothing. People huddled together in groups, pointing at us and making cutting remarks. No one helped. No one offered the hand of friendship. They didn’t even give us some food.

Naomi had a distant relative named Boaz though. He was kind and let me gather corn from the sides of his field that the workers had left behind. One day I caught his eye. He smiled at me and we talked. As the days and the weeks wore on, we grew closer. I was encouraged to flirt and... next thing I knew, we were married!

Now I had a new husband, and my new God blessed our union with a son. When he had grown, he become the father of Jesse, who become the father of King David, who founded the family into which the Messiah would be born...

Prayer

God of Naomi and Ruth, help me to reach out to those around me who have found themselves in difficult places. Help me to walk alongside the lonely, to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless and to love the unloved. Show me how we might bring hope and love to others this Christmas.

Show me how I can forge hope from sorrow in people’s lives

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s Book, “Beyond the Chocolate Window”

The Voice of Moses

As a child I was rescued from death. My mother hid me in a basket, then placed me in the bulrushes growing on the banks of the river.

I was brought up in a royal household, raised as an Egyptian prince, yet Hebrew blood ran through my veins. So, when I saw the way my brothers were being treated, I hit out and committed murder. As a fugitive, I fled the scene — in my mind never to return; but God had other ideas.

I took a job minding the sheep in my father-in-law’s field. Then something amazing happened. I saw a bush ablaze with flames — but it was not burning. Then from inside it came a voice. “Take off your shoes, Moses, you are standing on holy ground. I have heard my people crying in pain. as they struggle under the oppressor s whip. Go to the king and tell him to let my people go.“

I wasn‘t keen: I came up with every excuse I could. But every time I built a wall, God dismantled it, brick by brick.

Before long, I found myself a reluctant messenger of God. My brother Aaron and l were soon in the presence of the king of Egypt. We conveyed God‘s decree: that slaves would be freed and his people would know deliverance.

Nevertheless, the king’s heart was as hard as stone, his mind made up. He was unwavering; he was not willing to let God’s people go.

God showed his power by sending plagues upon Pharaoh and his people — ten in all, from rivers of blood to frogs and boils. Then came the final one: the deaths of the firstborn sons. Still, he would not yield and would not let God’s people go.

God instructed us to get the people ready. He showed them his plan to cut the chains of bondage and set them free. They had to take a male lamb — one without mark or blemish — and sacrifice it at twilight. Next, they were to paint their doorframes with the blood, so that the angel of death that was to come would pass over their homes.

It happened just as God foretold it. The firstborn son of every family in Egypt was slaughtered, including the pharaoh’s own son — and then he changed his mind.

“Go,” he said, “take the people of your God, and go!”

We led the people and the livestock out of slavery. For years We wandered in the desert — every year retelling the story, as instructed. We ate bitter herbs and bread without yeast, and we sacrificed our Passover lambs. Then eventually we reached the promised land.

Pause for thought - God heard his people cry to him in their oppression. How might you, together God, hear those who are oppressed today?

Prayer

God of the Passover,

free me from anything that still binds me,

from anything that still leads me into sin.

Help me recognise that Jesus’ death on the cross

paid the price of my sin so that I do not have to

Help me to bring the message of hope to all those

who have not yet heard it.

Amen.

Excerpts from Becky Lovatt’s Book “Beyond the Chocolate Window”

The Voice of Sarah

Waiting?

I'll tell you all about waiting! I waited for years; waited for my husband Abraham to share his life with me; waited for God to fulfil his promise; and now, after all this waiting, this happens.

I followed my husband, who followed his God. I left my home, my family and the people I loved. I followed because I believed that I would share in the promise. Eventually, after years of waiting... it was mine.

As Abraham‘s wife, I had been unable to fulfil what it means to be a woman in my culture and time — to bear a child. Yes, I was barren and broken emotionally, physically and spiritually, seemingly abandoned by all I had come to trust in. But then the waiting ended.

God came up trumps. Our son, Isaac, was born and he was everything. He was my whole world. He was the realisation of all that had been, all that was, and all that is still to come. This part of God’s promise to my husband had been completed and fulfilled.

So, you can imagine the sheer fear in my heart when I woke one morning to find my bed and Isaac's bed empty. I waited for the two of them to return — the father and the son — to embrace them, to still my racing mind and quell my increasing sense of dread.

Eventually, days later, they did arrive. As Abraham told me his tale, my fear turned to rage. God had been Calling again — not to move or change this time, but to kill; to kill the promise, to kill the one thing we had waited so long for, to sacrifice our only son.

How dare he, this God of grace and mercy who had given us so much? How dare he take it away now? Was this a way to punish me for laughing, for doubting his ability to give us a child in the first place? If it was, then he was a cruel and uncaring God and I wanted to walk away immediately.

Then there was my husband, blindly following the leading of a God he couldn't see. I know he had done it before, but this was different. This was our son. Didn‘t he think to question? Or at least to discuss it with me? No — God came first, as usual.

My anger was abated as I heard my child‘s cry. He was still breathing, still needing me. Moreover, his heart was still pumping blood around his body. 

God had provided a new sacrifice — not my son, but a ram conveniently caught in a bush, a replacement offering — but what did It all mean?

Prayer

God of all things, of waiting, of promise, of anger and of release,

come close to me now and hold me,

here in the situation of life I find myself.

I pray for all those I know who have lost children:

come alongside them and hold them as they journey on.

I bring before you those I know who feel anger

about what they are experiencing or have experienced;

bring release and hope in their lives.