http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/02-Love-Is-The-Way-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>
\nLove Is The Way featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love Is The Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson<\/p>\nSo for my birthday my lovely wife, Caroline took me to London to see Les Miserables in concert at the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. The show starred Michael Ball as Javert, Matt Lucas as Th\u00e9nardier, with Alfie Boe and John Owen- Jones taking turns to play Valjean. I was perhaps a tad disappointed when we found out that it was John Owen- Jones and not Alfie Boe that was singing at our performance – but not for long as Owen- Jones was absolutely brilliant – his solo of \u201cBring Him Home\u201d was the best solo I have ever heard and the applause afterwards seemed to deservedly go on forever. All the cast were brilliant with Matt Lucus, together with Katy Secombe as his wife, so very funny. The set was also great and the sound fabulous.
\nI thought in today\u2019s blog that I might list some facts and figures concerning Les Mis like the fact that it is the longest running show in the West End and the second longest running in the world- however I found this article on the net written by Rob Sumrall much more interesting :
\nValjean serves 19 years for stealing bread for his sister\u2019s starving child. He had become a hardened man, wrestling with bitterness and the lack of opportunities that life serves to convicted criminals. Finally, the Bishop of Digne, Monseigneur Beinvenu shows Valjean kindness. Valjean is offered a bed and a meal in the Bishop\u2019s home, but returns the kindness by stealing the Bishop\u2019s silver and slithering away under the cover of nightfall. The next morning, Valjean is brought back to the Abby by two constables who have caught him with the absconded silver. The lyrical dialogue is stunning:
\n[CONSTABLE ONE]
\nTell his reverence your story
\n[CONSTABLE TWO]
\nLet us see if he\u2019s impressed
\n[CONSTABLE ONE]
\nYou were lodging here last night
\n[CONSTABLE TWO]
\nYou were the honest Bishop\u2019s guest.
\n[CONSTABLE ONE]
\nAnd then, out of Christian goodness
\n[CONSTABLE TWO]
\nWhen he learned about your plight
\n[CONSTABLE ONE]
\nYou maintain he made a present of this silver.
\n[BISHOP]
\nThat is right.
\nBut my friend you left so early
\nSurely something slipped your mind
\n[The Bishop gives Valjean two silver candlesticks]
\nYou forgot I gave these also;
\nWould you leave the best behind?
\nSo, Messieurs, you may release him
\nFor this man has spoken true.
\nI commend you for your duty
\nAnd God\u2019s blessing go with you.
\n[The constables leave.]
\nAnd remember this, my brother,
\nSee in this some high plan.
\nYou must use this precious silver
\nTo become an honest man.
\nBy the witness of the martyrs,
\nBy the passion and the blood,
\nGod has raised you out of darkness:
\nI have bought your soul for God.
\nShaken by such an act of mercy, Valjean enters into his dark night of the soul. The Bishop\u2019s kindness is doing war with his jaded view of a harsh, unfair world. He wrestles with the man he is, the bitterness that has ensnared him, and the mercy and grace that is just beyond his reach. Valjean has seen his share of injustices during his life. Now, he wonders how the Bishop could have been so kind:
\nOne word from him and I\u2019d be back
\nBeneath the lash, upon the rack
\nInstead he offers me my freedom
\nI feel my shame inside me like a knife
\nHe told me that I have a soul,
\nHow does he know?
\nWhat spirit comes to move my life?
\nIs there another way to go?
\nI am reaching, but I fall
\nAnd the night is closing in
\nAnd I stare into the void
\nTo the whirlpool of my sin
\nI\u2019ll escape now from the world
\nFrom the world of Jean Valjean
\nJean Valjean is nothing now
\nAnother story must begin!
\nWhat follows in Les Mis is the unfolding of Jean Valjean\u2019s new story. After staring into the \u201cwhirlpool of his sin,\u201d he emerges as a man touched by grace. He becomes a kind-hearted, upstanding citizen, albeit under an assumed name and on the run from the law. He spends his life caring for others and extending mercy.
\nWhat a message! A man encounters the grace of Jesus Christ expressed through the unconditional love of one of His servants and he is inexplicably and unalterably changed! He becomes a friend to the downcast, a father to the fatherless, a forgiver of his enemy, and a savior to the rebel. The criminal becomes the saint. That\u2019s what redemption does!
\nI\u2019ll conclude the article next week<\/p>\n
Quote of the week
\nWhenever Christianity has been misunderstood it has been because it has been a miserable caricature and not the real thing
\nSelwyn Hughes in Every Day With Jesus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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