Holy Week

Hi all

Ahh, so this is Holy Week, does that mean the other 51 weeks are ‘unholy’ weeks lol?

Or maybe it’s more appropriate to call it ‘Spring break’ or ‘Mid term’. Eh, no – it’s Easter! It’s the time of year when the church recognises the most world changing event in history. More controversial than the atomic bombs of the second world war, more defining than the Roman empire, more challenging than any natural or manmade disaster.

Easter week changed the world forever. It once and for all took away all man’s ability to make excuses for not worshiping God. God did something that could not be imitated, manufactured or fabricated. God invented a way to totally deal with our sin. No longer to cover it up but to deal with it. Our sins of the past, present and future! Not only did the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus release us from sin, His ascension to heaven released the Holy Spirit to come and be in us to empower us to live for God. Until Jesus’ death the Holy Spirit acted on the outside of us, his presence was from time to time in the world but when Jesus left , He said He would send the Holy Spirit to us. He said that He would come upon us and fill us with power. Power to live a Godly life, power to overcome the temptation of sin and power to have supernatural experiences in His name.
Don’t know about you but for me that’s a bit more important than ‘spring break’ or ‘mid term’!
I know there is an ever increasing pressure from the world to remove all Christian connotations from our calendar, but Easter has stood for 2000 odd years, I think it will survive this latest trend of man trying to de-christianise our society! It doesn’t really matter what they call it as long as we understand that the acts carried out during Easter week have not lost their power or the authority of God to change lives forever

Amen!!!

Confusion VS Confirmation

Hi all

Isn’t it amazing how easily we are confused? It never ceases to amaze me how the Devil scores cheap points by bringing in a bit of confusion to our thinking. He seems to have an uncanny way of just subtly nudging us off course. I thank God that our Father never gives up in trying to redirect our path to come back on course. He has given us His Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. He reveals Himself to us at every opportunity to confirm our beliefs, confirm our actions in Him and confirm our salvation. His Holy Spirit in us is our moral, ethical, doctrinal and directional compass that never deviates from truth. He constantly uses it to reveal our position in relation to His. He is not interested in our performance, His only concern is our position. Are we positioned for favour or failure?
I love how the disciples learned truth at His feet. How he confirmed time after time what and who He was. The only time they got in trouble was when they deviated from His teaching. They didn’t have 2000 odd years of theologians dissecting the Word. They didn’t have years of cultural, contextual studies, they didn’t have umpteen versions of man’s interpretation of the scriptures – but they had The Word that became flesh! When they followed His commands and instruction they succeeded, when they just did as He said they saw what He said they would see. They released miracles as part of their every day experience when He sent them out. God’s word is simple – it does what it says on the tin!! Problems only seem to arise when I put my spin on what Jesus said. The devil has always tried to bring confusion to the word or words of God. Way back in the garden he questioned Eve – “Did God really say….”

Thousands of years later his tactic remains the same! Why? Coz he knows it works. There is something in all of us that lends itself all too easily to hear the words that draw us away from God’s perfect plan for our lives. Yet in all of the confusion the enemy stirs up there is, if we listen, really listen, a still small voice on the inside of us that brings clarity in the situation. Where confusion lives is where you will find folly. Stick to what God has revealed to you. Stand firm on the spiritual revelation He has delivered into your vey being. Don’t deviate from the truth and simplicity that God has given instruction on. Apply His wisdom, not the wisdom of men or of man’s interpretation of what God said. If the disciples were told to wait until the power of the Holy Spirit was upon them then there must have been a ‘God’ reason for that. How are we any different? Are we more able to do things in our own strength because we have years of theological explanations or expositors whispering the latest doctrine in our ear? I think not – the word is simple – we need the power of the Holy Spirit as much (if not more) today than the disciples did back in the day!
God says the preaching of His word is confirmed by signs and wonders! I hear lots of preaching but not so many signs and wonders, maybe the two are connected by the spirit of confusion! If God’s word says that signs and wonders should be evident then who is it that says otherwise? Who is it that wants to bring confusion to the Word of God? It’s a bit of a ‘no brainer’ really when you think about it. The word of God is truth, the problems come when confusion comes which leads to error. Ultimately you can make the word of God say whatever you want it to say but I would rather just hear it said the way He said it. Read, believe, obey, simple really!

Have a power filled day!

God Knows!

Hi saints

Don’t you just love when God shows that ‘daddy knows best’? I never cease to be surprised by the ‘mysterious ways, His wonders to perform’ things that God does! Just when you think you’ve got a situation sussed, God shows up and proves once again that He knows best – love it!!

Situations we often write off, God has already got in hand. Situations that we thought were pretty much history God says are just about to become future. Situations that we think are dead, God says, No, they are just sleeping! Even tonight I have just been taken by surprise once again. Something I thought was ‘lost’ has just been found. I’m in awe of the things God does! It serves to remind me that in some situations the best move I can make is to move aside and let God move in. The power of His Holy Spirit achieves more in breath than I can in a month. He always knows best. The best way to solve a problem, the best way to right a wrong, the best way to reconcile a rift, the best way to restore a relationship, the best way to find the lost, the best way to return the prodigals, the best way to heal a wound. I love my Father in heaven for always knowing best!

Every so often God just blows me away all over again! Nothing can imitate the genuine amazement I feel when He shows up in a situation in a way that only He can. There is no situation beyond His reach. There is no place too dark for His light to illuminate. There is no place on earth where He can’t find you. There is no pit too deep for Him to reach down into. There is no wrong that cannot be redeemed. There is no road away from Him that can’t lead back to Him.
There is no ugliness that His beauty cannot cover. There is no sin that He didn’t die for. There is no mystery He cannot explain. There is no beginning that He didn’t start and there will be no ending that He didn’t finish!

He loves us, Oh, how He loves us!

Ok, Rant Time!

Hi all

I haven’t had a good old rant for a while and I felt one coming on, so I’m sorry but it has to be said!

I am getting ever more annoyed at whoever is in charge of all the various television shows across the board in relation to reality, game or quiz shows. It seems that every show contains the ‘token’ gay or gay couple. If statistics and averages were to be represented on these shows at least 25% of the UK population is gay! Or is it just me noticing it? ‘Don’t Tell the Bride’ with a gay couple, ‘One Born Every Minute, with a gay couple, Come Dine With Me, a gay person in almost every show, the list goes on and on. Are we being duped into believing that this is a normal way of life? Is this the establishments way of ‘normalising’ abnormal behaviour and lifestyle? I’m not homophobic but we are in danger of becoming normalphobic!! I know I can’t use the term abnormal when referring to the gay lifestyle but my problem is that I can’t ever see me accepting it as normal. If it was normal then by definition of the word normal, most of us would be gay. Saying it’s normal for gay people is like saying it’s normal for murderers to murder. Yes, but that doesn’t mean most of us are all doing it! Does loving gay people the way Jesus would have us love them mean we embrace, condone and accept that lifestyle as ‘normal’? Just because we have now legalised so many things means that society, all of society, has to accept them as normal. I’m not narrow minded and I’m not naive, but society is slowly (but increasingly more quickly) turning the screw on the church and her God given morals. Us pastors will soon be facing serious consequences for refusing to marry gay couples if the lobbyists have there way! Man, I almost feel guilty writing this post, such is the societal pressure to accept the gay lifestyle as normal. At the last count the gay population was still a minority but you wouldn’t think it by the way it is represented in the media! Ok now I’ve said it, had my rant. I will probably have to hide under a rock for a month to avoid the flack! But I finish with an honest statement – I’m NOT homophobic, I am a Christian with Christian values and still have a right to voice that opinion (for the moment). In 2 or 3 years time I will probably be jailed for such writings.

What’s Your Dream?

Hi peeps

Here’s a thought – what if God got you on your own and asked you “What do you want, what do you really, really want?”

How many of us could honestly say that when we answer Him it would line up with what He wants to really, really give to us.? The secret to getting what you want from God lies in the ability to want what He wants! How do we get to the place where we want what He wants.
First of all we need to want to! It may come as a surprise to some of us, but that isn’t as easy as it first sounds. We are inherently self centred and self seeking – not all the time, but enough of the time to put a question mark over our desires. Sometimes I can take a lot of convincing that God’s plan for me is better than mine! I know, I know that He knows best but sometimes I think I do! It’s not always obvious why God does something or allows something to happen in my life and my lack of understanding at those times causes me to think that I know best. Foolishness, yes? But don’t tell me you’ve never thought like that yourself! So anyway, yeh, the best way to get God to release His dreams for me in my life is to begin to want Him to. To begin to find out what He wants and start to move my thinking in that direction. Sometimes I get my needs mixed up with my wants and I tell God what I need when actually it’s more of a want than a need. Sounds better tho’ if I can pass it off as a need! Unfortunately for me (and you) God already knows our needs and has got that covered! But He is interested in our wants as well. As long as they don’t compromise the things He wants for us. Strangely enough, God has a wish list too! His wish is for us to live lives that are full, rewarding and blessed. I kinda want that too, but don’t always go about it in an honest Godly manner.

So what’s the answer? Well, get prepared for a ‘rocket science’ type answer! (not).
Love God! That’s it – love God. His word clearly says that if we love Him, I mean really love him, love Him above all else then He will give us ‘the desires of our heart’. Sorted then! Well no, but I am trying to work towards that. I want His dreams to be my dreams, His desires to be my desires and His way of thinking to be my way of way of thinking.

It’s me that needs to change tho’ not God.

When the Music Fades

Hi all
Just on my way home from an incredible weekend in Portsmouth at Empower 2012.
Fantastic, brilliant, challenging, fun, exciting, are just some of the words that spring to mind.

But when the music fades, when the lights are turned off and packed away, when the ‘conference’ atmosphere passes, what’s left? What remains is really the only important factor. Yeh it’s good to get the buzz, but it needs to leave something on the inside. Something that will nag us into action or it was just another conference! For me, it has. It has changed who I am, how I think, and hopefully how I will act. The really great thing about Empower is that it’s not about massaging your ego or tickling your spiritual fancy but about equipping us for mission and community. Churches from all across this once great nation should be changing how they do things because of it. Changing how we outwork the Great Commission. Same gospel – different vehicle!

From the shock of Stella’s Voice ministry to the discipleship teaching of Dr Leon and the empowering spirit of Andy Elmes and Derek Smith we have been ruined for anything else other than playing our part in the much need reformation of the church and it’s purpose. To be an attractional church is good, but to be an attractional church to enable us to be missional is better. Let’s forget being a church that’s built on ego and become the church that’s ready to Go!
Let’s become the people that are willing to say “Here am I, send me”.

The fields are already white and ready to be harvested. The Lord of the harvest is recruiting right now!

My prayer is, that those who attended Empower 2012 will carry back these sentiments to their churches and be contagious with the spirit of discipling. If your comfortable just sitting in church every week then your probably taking up too much room!

People keep talking about revival – revival is already here, it’s hiding in you! Until we see reformation we will never be able to release the revival that is in us. I’m desperate to get back to God’s Blueprint for His Church (courtesy of Andy Elmes book title) and see the real mission of the church being re- released on our nation.

Let’s do this thing together, north and south, east and west, let’s take this nation back for God! Let’s start today!

Nuff said!

You Gotta Have Faith!

Hi all

Oh no! Got stuck again in the Faith chapter in Hebrews! When I read through that chapter, sometimes it lifts my faith level and sometimes it don’t !
Faith is one of those qualities or characteristics in life that can sometimes fluctuate wildly. There are days when having faith seems to come easy and days where it is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack! We can be so fickle in what affects our ability to stand firm in the things we have learned and the experiences in the past where we know that God always comes through for us even if it’s in a way we don’t expect or choose. It amazes me how some days the slightest knock can bring that seed of doubt creeping in.

When I read of the great expressions of faith of the patriarchs, I think – aww I could never be like that! But then I get to the first part of chapter 12 and read that Jesus is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our faith. thank you Jesus! Thank you that I’m not doing this faith thing on my own or by my own ability. Thank you that in my weakness you are my tower of strength. Thank you that when I fail you don’t give up on me. Thank you that you will finish what you started and complete every good work in me. Thank you that as my author you have already written the final chapter. Thank you that as my finisher you have already destined me for victory.

Suddenly with all these ‘thank yous’ flooding my mind I feel my faith rising. I see that in you I can accomplish all things. Thank you for reminding me that my faith is not in me, by me or through me but in you, by you and through you!

Ahhh it’s good to have faith restored, nothing can stop me today!