He's At Work

Are We Radical?

2012-02-10T09:35:00.000Z

I've been re-reading some of my old books, and finding them very challenging. Even though they were written at different times for different generations they are still very poignant today. Arthur Wallis's book The Radical Christian is a case in point. Find a copy or dig out your old one and prepare to be challenged afresh.

Without the Holy Spirit active in the church, or body, are we alive?
Is it possible for a body of Spirit filled people to not be radical?
Do we bend to His will, or expect Him to work within our structures?
Is the Sunday gathering a completely predictable affair?
When and if the Spirit challenges complacency, do we agree, say wasn't that a good word and then do nothing?
In smaller gatherings (life group/house group) are we able to coast along without much interference?
Do we really worship?
Do we like happy praise songs, but the quieter worship songs drag on a bit?
Is there a continuing stream of new growth in the body that stays?
Why don't new people stay?
How easy is it for people to come through the narrow gate?
The prophetic word is nice on a Sunday, but would we miss it if it was gone?
Are Tongues and the Prophetic about as much of the gifts of the Spirit we see or expect.
We see where change should come but don't want to upset anyone?
Do we look to natural methods or supernatural?
Is good looking media more prevalent than Spirit life?

Shocking Billy Graham

2012-02-08T15:44:00.001Z

No disrespect intended with this post because of the funny picture, this is a genuinely shocking question:

Dr. Billy Graham once made a critical analysis of the Church systems in general and came to the conclusion that "The Holy Spirit could leave the church and it would go right on doing 90% of what it was doing; and NOT KNOW that the Holy Spirit had left."

So, it begs the question:

If the Holy Spirit was to leave your church, how much activity would just carry on?

The Highlighter Challenge

2012-02-01T13:43:00.002Z

I recently heard of this challenge Bryn Jones made to a group of Leaders.

Take 3 different highlighter pens.

Start at the beginning of the New Testament.

Highlight in different colours each time you find something written about:

Who You Are In Christ
What You have In Christ
What You Can Do in Christ

Bryn said that one of the biggest challenges facing the Church is for Christians to find their identity in Christ, and this was a very practical and clever way to help find that identity.

Bryn Jones: The Restorer

2012-01-19T07:48:00.003Z

You may remember that I recently found Bryn Jones's website, The Restorer. From my contact attempts I don't think the website is being maintained, and since the content is freely available, I decided to compile it into a book:
LINK
It's an A4 223 page perfect bound book. I have set the cost so I do not make any profit from this book, you will only pay for print and delivery.
Print charge is: £5.58 which is an absolute bargain.

Right in the middle of it

2012-01-11T09:59:00.000Z

I hope and expect in faith to look back at this post and see the wonderful things God has done for me.
I thought I would post this as I am currently in the thick of it, holding onto the word, just like the climber is holding onto the rock.
Last year, as the recession hit, work started to dry up for me. I found I was going to work and rather than being busy all day, found I may only be busy for half the day. I prayed to God and made a list of things I wanted God to talk to me about in my life. Work, career and whether I should pack up and move somewhere else was one of them.
God clearly spoke to me in my daily reading from Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 42
    10If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pull you up; for I will relent and comfort and ease Myself concerning the evil that [in chastisement] I have done to you [and I will substitute mercy and loving-kindness for judgment].
    11Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are fearful [with the profound and reverent dread inspired by deity]; be not afraid of him, says the Lord, for [he is a mere man, while I am the all-wise, all-powerful, and ever-present God] I [the Lord] am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
    12And I will grant mercy to you, that he may have mercy on you and permit you to remain in your own land.

This spoke very clearly to me that I was not to leave my work, but rather stay. That God wouldn't allow me to be uprooted, but instead I would be built up. Incidentally, the Israelites Jeremiah spoke to didn't obey this word, and did in fact leave for Egypt with bad results.

So I have stayed, and seen many days now where I come to work, and then leave without having had anything to do. It is psychologically very difficult. To sit at a desk for 8 hours with nothing to do is one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through.
I was told yesterday, that things will get harder, investment is not coming, and redundancies are coming.
The small office I work in paniced immediatley, doom and gloom, and people straight away looking for jobs.
Myself? I can't get away from the word I was given. I had no peace to look for another job, so haven't. I have prayed that when the season of that word ends, God will clearly and peacefully lead me on by his word and the prophetic. But for now I still endure a lot of days of nothing. My task is to keep my head up, to leave each day praising God and being a blessing to my family.

A Real Pearl

2012-01-09T10:28:00.001Z

I found a real pearl of a website!
It's http://www.therestorer.net/rhome.html
A website about Bryn Jones, including his teachings and downloadable audio files! It's a bit tricky to get the audio, but I found viewing the page as a source and then seeing the weblink for the audio files managed to get me 800+ MB of MP3. Not all worked, but what I got is worth it's weight in gold!

And, whilst I'm at it, how about this site: http://www.revival-library.org/
It has old publications etc. Some free to download, some as PDF's for purchase. I got free some MP3's about Smith Wigglesworth, but they have PDF's such as Arthur Wallis's minutes from his 3 main meetings or the complete Restoration Magazine library!

History

2011-11-20T08:00:00.001Z

Did you ever realise before that The Cross is quite literally at the center of history?

Funny Quotes

2011-11-08T15:32:00.003Z

Some funny quotes that can hit home more than you may expect:

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited-until you try to sit in their pews.
Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers.
It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.
The good Lord didn't create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.
When you get to your wit's end, you'll find God lives there.
People are funny, they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.
Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.
Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn't belong.
The phrase that is guaranteed to wake up an audience: "And in conclusion."
If the church wants a better preacher, it only needs to pray for the one it has.
God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?
Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
Peace starts with a smile.
I don't know why some people change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from?
A lot of church members who are singing "Standing on the Promises" are just sitting on the premises.
We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.
Outside of traffic, there is nothing that holds this country back as much as committees.
Be ye fishers of men. You catch them - He'll clean them.
Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
Don't put a question mark where God put a period.
Don't wait for 6 strong men to carry you to church.
Forbidden fruits create many jams.
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
God grades on the cross, not the curve.
God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
He who angers you, controls you!
If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
Prayer: Don't give God instructions - just report for duty!
The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
We don't change the message, the message changes us.
The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.
"Father, bless this person in whatever it is that You know he or she may be needing this day!"

And lastly, some interesting quotes from the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama was once asked what surprised him the most in life and his response was man, “because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

There is a saying in Tibetan, “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.”

No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.

Keep Going

2011-10-29T08:45:00.000+01:00

If ever God spoke to me through a signpost, this was it.
We were all on our way home from a holiday in Tenby and I saw the clouds settled in the valleys, so we stopped the car to take some photos. About 10' away was this sign, completley on it's own. I have no idea what it was referring to, but it spoke to me and is speaking to me at a time when life is very hard going.
In the past I've been so dull to hearing God, I think I made it difficult for Him to speak to me by my super spiritual expectations. These days I just take what ever He's giving.

Keep Going.
Keep Going.

The Debt Crisis

2011-10-21T09:23:00.001+01:00

I was told last night about the Wolfson Economics Prize
I'm not an economist, and don't understand half the questions on the list that need to be answered to win the £250K prize.
But I had a thought....

I remeber hearing as a kid about these people who trap monkeys. They would drill a small hole in a box, put some rice in it, and then wait. Along comes a monkey, sticks it's hand in the hole to get the rice...but now because it's hand is full it can't get it out of the small hole. Rather than let go, the monkey is so greedy it will cling onto the rice even as the hunter approaches and stuffs him in a bag. Literally caught by it's own greed.
The answer is to let go.

The Bible talks about a Year of Jubilee
Leviticus 25: 10
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

The idea was incredible. Cancel all debt on this year. It was so redical. It would happen every 50 years. The idea is millenia old, but can you guess how many times the Year of Jubilee was celebrated? That's right, none. They were too greedy to give it a go, and eventually all ended up in slavery, time and time again.

What if we cancelled all debt?
What if we said to all the countries struggling to pay us back, your debts are cancelled. Not just lessened, postponed, but cancelled. What if all your mortgages and loans were cancelled.

My first thought is, Nah- it just wouldn't work...would it? It can't...can it?
What if?

Perhaps God's way might just turn out to work?

Treasure Chest

2011-10-18T11:00:00.002+01:00

I just love the Bible, the Living Word of God.
I find reading the Word like running my hands through a chest full of treasure.
Sometimes I don't always appreciate the worth of what my hands are holding, and sometimes I am so amazed at a particular gem that I pick it out and just look at it. Letting the light fall on different facets and seeing different things.

Sacrifice

2011-10-17T08:19:00.000+01:00

I come into work today heard these words on the radio:

But I've shined like a diamond through sacrifice

here's the full song:

Dolly Parton The Sacrifice lyrics
Well, I've sacrificed time with family and friends
Gave up vacations for work without end
24/7, 365
But I was willing to make the sacrifice

But empty or full, I've carried my pale
You don't drink the water if you don't dig the well
Through blood sweat and tears I have built a good life
But it didn't come without sacrifice

But I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost
And I was gonna win no matter how much I lost
All through the years I kept my eye on the prize
You ask if it's worth the sacrifice, the sacrifice

I think about Jesus and all that he gave
And the ultimate sacrifice that he made
He is my strength and my guiding light
And he's taught me that nothing's without sacrifice

I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost
And I was gonna win no matter how much I lost
I wanted success and, brother, I've paid the price
And, yes, it's been worth the sacrifice, the sacrifice

I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost
And I was gonna win no matter how much I lost
Grindstones and rhinestones have made up my life
But I've shined like a diamond through sacrifice

I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost
And I was gonna win no matter how much I lost
But I hope God will tell me, 'Well done, my child
You've won your reward through your sacrifice, the sacrifice'

The sacrifice
But sometimes I wonder in the still of the night
Is it really worth the sacrifice
I've often laughed and I've often cried
I've often failed but I've always tried
I made the sacrifice

I Surrender!!!

2011-09-26T08:24:00.001+01:00

I Surrender! Please…don't kill me!

We talk about surrendering to God a lot.

I surrender this situation…
I surrender this problem…
I surrender this attitude…
I surrender to the Holy Spirit…

I have some bad news for you though if it's followed with the line 'please don't kill me', because Jesus doesn't take prisoners.

When we become Christians, we should be surrendering our lives to Him. We say, I get off the throne of my life and hand the seat to you. It's for you to rule and reign from.

What does Jesus do with our surrendered self? The same thing He does to anything that surrenders to Him, He takes it to the Cross and nails it to it until it's dead. Sorry, no cushy cell or slap across the knuckles, it's the death sentence.

Of course, when you die on the Cross you are resurrected again with Him, you are Born Again, A new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

Thinking on all this the other day I had a picture of a freshly dug grave, and a pair of hands reaching up scrabbling at the dirt trying to get out. That's not surrender. Surrender is lying down and letting that person die. Letting the flesh be crucified so the Spirit can soar. Letting the earth cover you and killing you off.

After we become Christians we aren't finished surrendering to Him. Jesus said we should DAILY take up our Cross and follow Him. The Holy Spirit, who has come and made His home in us, calling us His Temple, will point out more and more things to us that need to go. Attitudes, situations we are involved with, conditions we have, that need to die. We have to surrender them. Let them go. Don't try and cling on to them, picture them being taken to the Cross and nailed there. When we agreed to make Him Lord, He took us seriously.

Then wait to see what God replaces them with…because God always fills a gap. There are no vacuums in the Kingdom, where there is a space in your life the Holy Spirit rushes in to fill it.

Inspiring Books

2011-08-17T19:49:00.002+01:00

I've started making a list of the most inspirational books on Amazon.
The list is here:
LINK

Here is what's on it so far:

1. The Message Remix 2.0: The Bible In contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson

The list author says:
	"The Bible had to be first item. I chose the Message translation as any age can enjoy just picking it up and reading."

£5.41

2. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun

The list author says:
	"The story of Brother Yun brings the reality of being a Chinese Christian crashing into the homes of the West."

£6.30

3. The Problem of Wineskins by Howard A Snyder

The list author says:
	"You will never look at your Church in the same way again. A dangerous book."

Used & New from: £0.75

4. Smith Wigglesworth: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings by Alice Berry

The list author says:
	"Not a biography, but a collection of his sermons. Experience Smith speaking to you."

£17.09 Used & New from: £12.91

5. Tramp for the Lord: The Years After the Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

The list author says:
	"See how a little old lady devestates those around her. An amazing lady."

£6.29 Used & New from: £1.99

6. No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green by Melody Green

The list author says:
	"When Kieth was saved, he really got saved. He tried to live a life that he saw the Bible teach. Radical."

Used & New from: £1.25

7. The Lion and the Lamb: Reflections on the Book of Revelation, Volume 1 by Tony Ling

The list author says:
	"If you know Tony, you can't help but hear his voice as you read these 2 volumes. The best books on revelation you will ever read."

£8.99 Used & New from: £4.73

8. Worship: A Heart for God by Bryn Jones

The list author says:
	"Everyone who knew Bryn loved him. Here is a collection of inspirations on Worshipping."

Used & New from: £0.01

Leadership

2011-01-03T13:45:00.001Z

I just finished reading the memoirs of Major Dick Winters, a book I received for my Birthday. Dick Winters is the legendary leader of Easy Company, immortalised in the Band Of Brothers HBO series.

His book finishes with 10 points on leadership, here it is, and it deserves some thought.

Leadership at the Point of the Bayonet

1. Strive to be a leader of character, competence, and courage.
2. Lead from the front. Say, “Follow me!” and then lead the way.
3. Stay in top physical shape--physical stamina is the root of mental toughness.
4. Develop your team. If you know your people, are fair in setting realistic goals and expectations, and lead by example, you will develop teamwork.
5. Delegate responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their job. You can’t do a good job if you don’t have a chance to use your imagination and creativity.
6. Anticipate problems and prepare to overcome obstacles. Don’t wait until you get to the top of the ridge and then make up your mind.
7. Remain humble. Don’t worry about who receives the credit. Never let power or authority go to your head.
8. Take a moment of self-reflection. Look at yourself in the mirror every night and ask yourself if you did your best.
9. True satisfaction comes from getting the job done. They key to a successful leader is to earn respect--not because of rank or position, but because you are a leader of character.
10. Hang Tough!--Never, ever, give up.

Working for God

2010-11-02T15:21:00.000Z

I was recently very inspired and challenged again as to how much we do things in 'the flesh' as opposed to 'the Spirit' after reading this in Tozer's book 'The Set Of The Sail' in the chapter 'Substitutes for Discipleship':

Another substitute for discipleship that I would mention (though these do not exhaust the list) is zealous religious activity.
Working for Christ has today been accepted as the ultimate test of godliness among all but a few evangelical Christians. Christ has become a project to be promoted or a cause to be served instead of a Lord to be obeyed. Thousands of mistaken persons seek to do for Christ whatever their fancy suggests should be done, and in whatever way they think best. The what and the how of Christian service can only originate in the sovereign will of our Lord, but the busy beavers among us ignore this fact and think up their own schemes. The result is an army of men who run without being sent and speak without being commanded.
To avoid the snare of unauthorized substitution I recommend a careful and prayerful study of the Lordship of Christ and the discipleship of the believer.

Happy Anniversary

2010-10-18T11:50:00.000+01:00

So, Nicky and I recently celebrated our 19th Wedding Anniversary.
I say celebrated, but really that's completely misleading.
The Tuesday of our Anniversary I had been suffering from a sore throat.
I decided to go to the Doctor's and get some pills and just return to work, but when the Doctor saw me he diagnosed Quinsy.
I'd never heard of it, and apparently it's not that common, being an old type of illness. It's so uncommon, that he immediately got on the phone to another Doctor to come and have a look, as they'd never seen it before. the other Doctor simply said "Oooh, lovely".
A funny story, but Praise God I got the Doctor who actually knew what it was! Not one of the Doctors who would have given me a wrong diagnosis.

Anyway, I spent our Anniversary in hospital hooked up to IVF liquids and antibiotics after they'd put a huge needle down my throat to try and scratch the swelling.
Not pleasant.
I couldn't talk or eat for the best part of 24 hours.
I really noticed how much I missed speaking in tongues. It was a couple of days later after being discharged that I had the strength to talk a bit and I started speaking in tongues again. I was very aware of these power words going through my throat, like reverse medicine, coming out instead of going in.

I've been speaking in tongues a lot more since. About 15 mins at a time. I seem to have had a heightening of my understanding of just how powerful this gift of the Spirit is.

The Omni's!

2010-09-07T10:47:00.000+01:00

The kids are going back to school. For my daughter it's a new school. High school. And it can be very daunting.
We spent some time the night before her first day playing a game of encouragement. We basically took it in turns to say encouraging things to each other.
I got a bit carried away, and started talking about God's 'Omni' characteristics.
It's so amazing, I thought I'd share these very pieces of encouragement.
These do not of course fully explain these characteristics, they are just small facets of them.

Omnipotence (from Latin: Omni Potens: "all power") is unlimited power.

God is all powerful. Yep, easy one, got it. But what does that mean? If you are in need and pray, God doesn't just get His eye dropper out and measure out a tiny part of His power to help your need. No, God aims ALL His power at your situation. His power is perfect and complete. It never runs out, never needs to replenished, He never needs a rest for it to build up again. When He helps, He helps completely, and He hasn't then emptied Himself of power, He still has all power to help anyone else.

Omniscience is the capacity to know everything infinitely

God knows everything. Again, easy. got it. Next. It means God knows everything there is possibly to know about everything in existence. He will never be surprised by something He didn't know. We will never learn something He doesn't know. We just learn things that he allows to be revealed to us. I guess that's what science is. Our learning of his revelations on creation. He knows everything about you, every thought, motive, word spoken. He sees all the secret things.

Omnipresence is the property of being present everywhere.

This one could freak you out. To explain this one to the kids I drew a line on some paper. Marked the beginning of the line as birth, and the end as death. I then marked lots of different events along this line, such as: first time to walk, first word, starting nursery, first day at school, first day at college, first job, getting married, having kids, being a grandpa/granny, being called home to be with Him.
Then I asked the kids, where Jesus was on this timeline? They pointed to various events, but I drew a circle outside of the timeline and said He's there. He's outside of time. Because He's outside of time, He can see all events at once, and can be in all places at once (at every time).
So, right now, he's there at your birth. Right now, He's there when you walk. Right now, He's there at your first day of school, ready to help you, preparing things for you. Right now, he's there at your first day of work. Right now, he's there at your bedside calling you 'come home'.
Absolutely beautiful.

It's the Devil!

2010-09-06T13:26:00.000+01:00

I've wanted to work this out for a while.
I get a bit fed up with people when they say things like:
The Devil stopped me.
It's the Devil that has done this.
The Devil is making trouble for me!

Wheras I agree 100% there is a Devil, and he is our adversary, I think a lot of 'stuff' that happens in our lives has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual warfare.

So, I wanted to see just how much time the Devil can give to each person. Because he isn't Omnipresent like God, he can't be everywhere at once. So his time is limited.

There are 6.721 Billion people on the planet. There are 24 hours in a day.
Divide one by the other, and allowing for the speed of light you have exactly .00001285522988 of a second to have his undivided attention.

Seems a bit more unlikely now doesn't it.

Death Strikes Twice

2010-08-23T15:16:00.001+01:00

Psalm 68
20 Our God is a God of salvation,
and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

So, Monday 9th I was cycling along, just out of work, making my way to the Taff Trail, a path for cyclists and pedestrians that runs along the River Taff.
It's my usual route and a good time for me to speak in tongues and worship.
This Monday afternoon I was praising God, thanking Him for delivering me, because I had just been missed by a Jeep, which had cut me up on the corner before getting to the Trail. It missed be by a foot, but even closer was the trailer it was pulling, which missed me by about an inch.
I thought It was my time, but Praise God, I lived.

I got on to the trail, praising and then noticed for some reason my coat had come undone at the bottom and was flairing out like a cloak. I did think of just leaving it, but as it looked ridiculous I stopped and re-zipped it.

My next encounter was with a chap standing in the middle of the path urinating.
Some days cycling you see it all.

Then I came to a part of the trail that runs into an underpass. just before I came to it a motorbike roared out of the tunnel. it was going very fast with a teenager driving. He didn't move out of my way, so I had to swerve off the path to not get hit. he was of course riding illegally on the Trail.

I thanked God again that I had not met the bike in the tunnel, as there was no room and I would have just been killed by a bike going at that speed.
And then I thought.
The amount of time it took me to stop my bike and re-zip my coat earlier was the amount of time I missed being in the tunnel when the bike was there.

Truly Our God is a God of salvation,
and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

We See Your Glory

2010-08-07T07:01:00.002+01:00

This album was given away on CD at the latest ministries Without Borders Bible Week 2010.
It's also available as a free MP3 download.
It has some superb songs on it and words that you'll be glad you have knocking around in your head.

Download HERE

The Circle Of Life

2010-08-04T09:19:00.002+01:00

A superb book. I just e-mailed Roger Aubrey the author to give my thoughts:

Hi Roger,
Just a quick note to say I have just finished reading The Circle Of Life.
As I started reading I thought it was good reading, but when I got to the chapter The Attitude of Gratitude it just hit me with both barrels.
It's been a couple of weeks since I read that chapter (Bible week in the middle) and I am very pleased to see that it has become a part of me.
One last comment, the end chapter and your operation. I thought it was a very powerful message the way you reacted to the hospital ward 'joker', by not accepting his words, even though it was such a subtle attack in joke form. That really made me think a lot as to what I accept.

Thanks Roger
Chris Morse

Cain & Abel

2010-07-06T14:40:00.003+01:00

Cain has to be one of the most infamous characters in the Bible. He's known as the first murderer. What he isn't known for is being the first worshipper. And yet...

Genisis 4

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.

2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground,

It was Cain who made the first offering. We get it into our heads that Cain & Abel perhaps had a competition to see who could offer the best offering and Cain lost. But that's not what happened, some versions of the Bible state it was at a later time that Abel bought his offering.

Is this an important point? probably not, what is important is that Cain was definitely first and the instigator.

So, what went wrong? Why was it rejected?

Both Cain & Abel had good professions, one a keeper of sheep, the other a farmer. The substance of the offering was OK. There's nothing wrong with offering God grain, seed, flour, oil...it's all stuff prescribed by Moses as acceptable.

So, I ask again...what went wrong for Cain's offering of worship to be rejected? Remember, at this point in time there's no murder been committed, and God isn't judging him for something he will do but hasn't yet.

There's a massive clue later in Hebrews:

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

So, faith plays a part. But how has it played a part?

Romans 10 tells us: 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We really need to pull this verse apart to get to the bottom of things.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. By faith. Faith comes by hearing, and we hear through the word of God.
So, working this out, Abel MUST have heard God say something on the subject of worship/offerings/sacrifices and he then offered something after he heard because he acted on his faith.

Sorry, if I'm really spelling this out, it's just so important to get to grips with this simple story and truth before we answer the big question of Cain.

It would have been impossible for Abel to offer anything in faith if he hadn't have heard God.
So, does this mean then that Cain didn't hear God? there was no offering by faith? it was just a good idea he had?

I think the answer to those questions has to be a yes, yes and yes.

But surely God wouldn't reject Cain's offering because he hadn't heard God say anything on the subject and therefor couldn't offer in faith? Would He?
Surely God would look with kindness on any offering of worship. This just can't be the reason that led to history's first murder. Can it?

Let me ask you, what else could it have been?

The book of Romans talks a lot about the flesh and the Spirit. How both are at war with each other. God cannot accept something done from a fleshly heart, or to put it another way, He will only acknowledge an act birthed from the Spirit.

If this is starting to sound a little far fetched to you, think over some of the Bible's greatest stories, how people responded to God and saw Him reward their faith with His presence and power. Then think of people who did things their own way, and the punishments that followed.

To me this story of Cain & Abel is a huge wake up call to Christianity. It says to me that no matter how holy or religious or kindly an activity is your involved with, if the Holy Spirit has not given you the idea, or it's origins are not in the word, God will not back it. Have you ever been involved with outreaches or events that appear to win no souls and see no fruit. We console ourselves by saying we had maybe 1 good conversation, that we know it may take several conversations before someone accepts Christ, and perhaps this was only the first, we put a spin on our events to cover up the obvious failures they are, but really we need to come clean and say it was a failure that the New Testament would not have seen.

So, should Cain have just done nothing? Yes. Again, I think one of the hardest things for a Christian to do, is nothing. He feels he must in some way work for God, do something for Him, go out and start a Church, put on a meeting, look for the bigger and better. but again, if God is not telling you to do this, then it's origins HAVE to be in the flesh, and therefor God will not back them. In fact God is at war against them.

So how do we know when God is telling us to do something?
Most people will acknowledge that when he has spoken to them, they KNEW. You can also read the Word and have a knowledge of His commands to you.

Thinking this through over the months God showed this to me I have come to a place where I realise God won't micro-manage you. He wants to see you make good decisions yourself. He doesn't really have a lot to say on the subject of whether you should have tea or coffee, where white or black, He want's you to make a decision. There are bigger decisions to be made than this though. Such as where shall I live, where shall I work, who shall I marry, and when it comes to the Church, His body, He has a LOT to say and we exclude Him at our peril. It is in this type of decision we need to hear the Spirit talking, and if we hear nothing, to do nothing until we do.
I will finish this lengthy spiel, to just say that there is also a daily walk with Jesus where we need to hear and obey. A time when we will be walking along and the Lord will tell us to do something unusual, to break from our routine or our plans and turn aside and achieve something specific. this might be to talk to someone, to pray for someone, to do a secret act of kindness...it could be anything the Spirit directs you to do. That is when we need to obey and see God back up that act of obediance and faith with His power and presence. What we mustn't do is then think, WOW, that was great, I'm going to do it again to that person now. That is when we get fleshy.

Tiny Little Things

2010-05-26T14:23:00.002+01:00

Strange this. A while ago an idea came into my head about a traveling salesman, that I should make him a music CD to listen to in the car as he's traveling around.

I promptly did nothing. Every now and then as I listened to my iPod I would think, oh, I must put that on his disc, that's a really encouraging song.

So, more than a month later I get another prompting of the Spirit. I need to complete these little tasks. So I started the compilation. It took me about a week or so, but Sunday morning came and I thought I'm going to get this done and finish it, then I can hand it over to him at Church.

Thing is, how on earth can this be the Spirit? It's such a little thing and not really very dramatic. it's not like the Spirit has told me to go and lay hands on someone or raise the dead is it. It's a CD!

So, I'm at Church and the guy gets up to give a testimony of what has happened to him this week.
He tells us all he's got a new job, he's back on the front line of sales and his words were "I need to start wearing the armour again" and also he was given a car! Yes, a car! And not just and car but an E type Mercedes!

So, after Church I go and hand over the CD and say I felt I needed to do this for him.
His face was beaming. He said he hadn't got any music in his new car and he really wanted something encouraging to listen to.
I didn't tell him, but the first track is Phil Driscoll Armour of God.

So.
All I can think is I must complete those little tasks the Spirit gives me a lot sooner. Maybe it will lead to bigger ones.

Going The Distance

2010-05-05T12:21:00.003+01:00

1 Corinthians 9
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

Hebrews 12
1 ...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Something that's been with me a long long time over the years, and has reared it's head again recently is endurance.

When I was in school I was an excellent athlete, usually winning the 5 star Amateur Athletics Association award in Pentathlon.
I was a great sprinter, and could handle a 200 meters pretty well, but anything longer was a hardship. I wasn't trained for this kind of endurance. I was a winner at the sprint but in the mile would do well if I came in half way through the scoring.

What I learned from trying long distance running is that the start goes well. You have all the energy, you have the plan in your mind of how you will pace yourself and who you will pace.
The end goes well, you find that extra bit of energy, and you make that last high energy surge for the line.
The hard bit is the middle. When the start is long gone and the end is nowhere in sight. There's just the plod, plod, plod of the mundane as you put one foot in front of the other and just carry on.

The same is true in the Christian life.

The start is exciting, you feel you can take on the world. Everything is possible. You know how the story ends and you know where your place will be when the final curtain goes down.
But the bit in the middle can be hard going.

How do you keep going when the tough times come, or even worse than the tough times...the mundane times. Days of blandness. Days of non events where you just go through the motions of living.
I know some people may say, "hey, your a Christian, every day should get better and better!" but we actually live in the real world, and the real world isn't like that. Some days don't get better and better, some day's nothing happens at all. And sometimes, weeks are like that. So what can you do?

You have to stay hungry. You have to strengthen yourself. You can't afford to become lazy, to become disinterested or even worse, dispassionate. And that's where the hard work comes in.
I'm sorry the answer to all this isn't an easy one, where you just say a prayer and all is right with the world. It's more a case of building yourself up with the truth. Speaking in tongues, not letting any negative thought find a foothold. You have to keep going, believing what you knew at the start and wait patiently for God to refresh you along the way.

You just have to keep going.

Stay Soft

2010-04-13T09:28:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking of this for a few weeks now but not had the chance to write.
When I lived in Basildon in the 90's, one of my best friends was a Leader of a Church there.
I used to visit him regularly in his office and amongst all the books and paraphernalia on his shelves there above his desk, stuck on the wall with a bit of blue tack was a tiny picture of an African child sitting on a blue bucket in a dusty dirt street.

I asked him about it once and he told me this boy was looking for food, probably he'd walked miles with his bucket to try and find some aid. His parents were probably dead with starvation in this droughted location. The boy himself would probably have died a few hours after the photo had been taken.
He said sometimes he looked at the photo and just cried.
He kept it there on the wall to stay soft.

Over the years I've thought a lot about that conversation.
I've noticed that there are times when things are going so well, you feel like your on cloud 9, God's blessing seems so rich, you have a smile on your face and joy in your heart and yet... with all these good things going on it always seems to be the time you become calloused and hardened to the needs around you.

It's the time I need to be careful, to stay soft.
Staying soft isn't about being a push over, or a weakling. It's about having a tender heart. When meat is tenderized, it's done so by having a big steel mallet pound it again and again, imagine that happening to your heart. It would be so bruised and tender that the slightest feather touch would cause you to wince and clutch your chest. That is what being tender to the Spirit is all about. Staying soft so that his merest touch stops you in your tracks.

I use many means to stay soft. Memories. Songs. Films. Pictures.
Oswald Chambers says to let memories do their work in you. They can teach and tenderize you to God. I've found that it's true, and for me a hard pounding on my heart.
Find your hearts soft spot and pound it.

Priorities

2010-02-11T14:23:00.003Z

Priorities.

I've been thinking of these recently. It seems as life gets busier and more and more demands are made of you the importance of knowing your priorities becomes vital knowledge.
Getting them wrong can see conflict in your marriage, your family and in yourself. You see your free time being eaten into, your rest time, family time, husband and wife time and something has to give.

Here is my list of priorities. I've thought these over for a while in the Spirit and asked others what they think, and believe these are right:

1: The Lord.
It had to be didn't it. Above all others you must cultivate your relationship with God or the others are pretty much doomed.

2: Your Husband/Wife.

3: Your Children.
The order of these two is important. If your children eat up all the time you have for your spouse then there is no option but deterioration for that relationship. The same with your spouse taking all your time so you can't spend time with Jesus, the time might be going into the relationship but because the priorities are wrong it will suffer for it.

4: Your Job.
They pay you for your time, and that payment affords you to stay in your house, clothe yourself and family and allow you to eat. Your job is a gift from God and we need to work at it 'as unto Him'.

5: The Church.
As a friend said to me recently, Church isn't the same as God. If you don't get the above priorities correct you will not be able to operate at Church level. It's important to be committed to a church, to become part of the wider family of God, but if it's at the cost of your marriage you wont win any stars in your crown when you stand before Him. Some churches love to hold meetings, 1 a week, 2 a week, 1 every night. You just cannot agree to that level of commitment without something suffering.

The Cross Part 2

2010-01-26T11:03:00.000Z

So what is the power of the cross?

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
(I Corinthians 1:17)

I remember as a kid going to a gospel meeting, that didn't have nice words or clever arguments. I remember a young man talking of what the cross was like. What the thorns were like that were twisted into Jesus head, what the nails were like that cruelly went through His hands, the spear that gashed his side open, and this was all after his cruel flogging and mutilation.
The cross has no power as a gold piece of jewelry that hangs round your neck, or as a white marble statue above a pulpit. They beautify something that should not be beautified.
The power of the cross is to kill, and keep killing, until whatever is on it is dead.
The power of the cross is it is a doorway to life. An eternal life that can only be reached by death, now, in this world. Not at your natural death, then is too late, but willingly, while you have breath now.

and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
(Ephesians 2:16)

The power of the cross is to take away the judgment we deserve. Jesus took that hostility between God and man, that hostility that man had created, that stopped man from being all God intended him to be, and nailed it too the cross in his own body.

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
(Colossians 2:14)

Imagine being in a queue at a store. You have 1 item in your basket. It's the most precious of possessions, costing all. You get to the till and realize you have no money. You can't put the item back, that is not an option. The price has to be paid, and you can't pay it. The sentence for not being able to pay is eternal imprisonment. And then Jesus comes, opens up his wallet and pays the price for you.
You would be eternally thankful, the fact that some would rather go to prison that have the price paid for them is astonishing, but true.

Jesus paid the price with His life, on the cross, and when you see the truth of it the only response is to give Him your life. And as we've seen, the way to do that is through the cross.

A couple more things on the cross. These are some random thoughts associated with other 'cross' related verses.

but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
(John 19:25)

The cross isn't a quiet private event. People will notice, and should notice. Your family will be the closest and most observant. They will see a great and tragic spectacle. They probably will not understand. Think your being a fool. Maybe try to coax you down, plead that you give this up so life can go back to normal. But it can't. And eventually they will see the effect the cross has had on you once you have made it through the door to the other side of death and Jesus lives in your heart on the throne and begins to make all things new in your life. The cross is a public spectacle and the more people see and know of what you have done the more will be affected. After all the Bible tells us:

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
(Romans 10:9)

There is a telling, a confession that is part and parcel of salvation. It just can't be done in secret.

, As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.
(Matthew 27:32)

Similar to the point above, but this makes me think that there are other people who get dragged into what is happening with you near the cross. There are relationships you have, people you know, or people you don't know that for some reason become satellites to you as you are going through this change to the cross. You may feel sorry for them that they see you like this, falling to bits as sin weighs heavy around your neck, as the knowledge of Heaven and Hell weighs heavy, the knowing deep down that your life is a mess with you running it and you desperately want Jesus to step in and become Lord. But God has brought these people to you for the very reason of observing you, to get a feel for how heavy and how deadly the cross is. They may never hear a skillful sermon, but to come into contact with you as the cross weighs heavy is a more sobering experience than any they will have experienced up to now.

and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
(John 19:17)

Just to finish this point, ultimately, no one can bear the cross for you. You will carry it. It will take everything you are. Nothing left behind. But as the cross is inserted in the place of the skull, you will find that for you it is death that has been killed for you through the power of the cross.

Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
(Mark 15:32)

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:2)

The cross as we've seen is not a pleasant experience. Made all the harder by people who will ridicule you. People do not like an act like salvation. It's misinterpreted by them. They feel threatened by it, as well they should, because they feel you are saying; this is the right way, the only way to be saved, to be truly good, spotless and blameless in God's eyes. No one in these PC days wants anybody to draw a line in the sand as to what is right and wrong. These days everything is right, there is no wrong way to find God, in fact, we don't really need Him anyway because we are not bad. We've made up our own rules as to how we will enter heaven, and they don't involve Jesus at all. To stand up in that atmosphere and say; NO, there is only one way and His name is Jesus, will not go down well.
Despising the shame? The shame is to be seen as the sinner you are. All your faults and weaknesses. Jesus Himself took the place of a sinner and was counted with them, though He knew no sin. he endured it. He had His eyes fixed on the prize.

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
(Galatians 6:12)

My last point. I have to stop somewhere on a topic so large or I might never finish.
When I read this scripture, the biggest thing I think of is to remember where we have come from. Remember the simple truths that set us free, and the simple but incredibly powerful life we have entered into. We have entered via the cross into friendship with the Creator of the universe. Our walk with Jesus is a simple one. As simple as Adam in the garden, walking and talking with His Lord, sharing his thoughts and feelings and listening to the great teacher as he shares His thought and feelings back. And as with any student / teacher relationship, He rubs off on us. We start to see His character and more, we start to become like Him. Amazing.
Where this goes wrong is when our eyes are diverted from this simple life. We get bogged down with people's ideas on how to worship, how to pray, 10 ways to prosperity, how to be an overcomer. And if we are not careful our attention drifts to formulas, to giftings and gifts, to ministries and people, and slowly our attention is refocused on something that is supposed to be 'deeper revelations' of Jesus, when in actual fact, the deeper revelations are already there in your simple walk, being revealed as He sees fit to reveal them. We find prayer gets harder, and shorter, worship only happens when the band is particularly on form or when it's your favourite song. You tithe, you read the Bible, you try your best, but slowly your walk with Jesus is being replaced with rules and regulations. Life is being replaced with Law.
The cross set us free. We are free. We have friendship with the Saviour. There is no deeper truth, no missed message that you have to fulfill to attain salvation.

The Cross Part 1

2010-01-26T11:02:00.002Z

Lets start with the big choice.
The Cross or the Throne?

The throne is where you sit now. Lord and master of your heart and mind and body. You do what you want, you say what you want. You answer to no one other than the Law of the Land.
The throne is a plush, gold covered, velvet lined, seat of luxury and power. You were born sitting on it.

The cross is a crude device, made from 2 long rough pieces of wood. No effort has been made to beautify it, no lick of paint, it's an object made for one purpose. To kill whatever comes in contact with it.

That is the big choice.

The first mention of the cross in the Bible is from Jesus. He's talking about the cost of discipleship:

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
(Matthew 10:38)

and in Luke:

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14:27)

Jesus wants you to go on the cross, allowing Him to take the seat on your throne. You have to allow this willingly by giving up the throne and going to the cross. You go to the cross by accepting Jesus as Lord of your life. As you do this you find that Jesus takes His rightful place as Lord and you find that you are now dead on a cross, crucified with Jesus.
Something I've learned since starting this study is that the cross will not be found by the light hearted. Only those with serious mind and serious heart can find the cross. It's the narrow door, not only does it cause you to lose all as you squeeze through, but for most they don't even see it as they carry on their busy lives.

And he said to all, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
(Luke 9:23)

Jesus talks of this being a daily act. This doesn't mean you have to go through the process of salvation every day by accepting Jesus as Lord of your life. When you have done this once, He is Lord. There is a daily walking through of what you have done though. The flesh, which could maybe translated as the part that still likes sitting on the throne, will rebel at your decision to give up the seat of ruler-ship. It's been used to getting it's own way and want's no other King but itself. It is this fleshly voice that needs to be put in it's place daily. The place of death.

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
(John 19:19)

This verse has a significance for us too. It is only in death, and death on a cross we will ever truly find out who we are. Just as all who passed could see this was Jesus, the King of the Jews, so when we are crucified with Him, we find out just who we are. Servant of the Most High, Slave to Christ, Friend of God.

He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
(Matthew 27:42)

What was said in mockery nevertheless has truth in it. You cannot save yourself. The one place you can save yourself is on the cross, but as Paul says, this idea is foolish to some:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
(I Corinthians 1:18)

How many times are we told the mystery about losing your life to save it? Just a quick search gives me 6 results:

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
(Luke 17:33)

Think of all those self help Guru's, those seminars where someone promises you to become a better person in 3 easy steps. The adverts that show you by buying this product, eating this, wearing that, will improve your life. It's all a lie. It won't work. Only the cross will make it happen.

Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
(Luke 9:62)

The same is true of those who go to the cross and are then fooled into thinking that another way will save them. To fall for the voice that says, 'do this thing instead, and then we will believe you are serious'. No, it's a one way journey. There is no turning back. Not ever.
I'd just like to expand on this point slightly. You have to count the cost. You have to assess the price being asked. I expect you might have been to meetings where an appeal is given. All eyes are asked to be closed, all heads bowed. It's made as easy and embarrassment free as possible for someone to shyly put their hand half way in the air, just high enough to be seen but not high enough to be noticed by anyone hopefully.
This isn't a good start. This isn't giving the person the right understanding of the cost of their decision. In some ways the decision to follow Christ should be made harder. Not a dip your toe in the water and if it's not to your liking perhaps find a different way to show your nice and good. No, it's a jumping straight in the deep end, knowing you can't swim and your not going to make it up. An abandonment of all that has gone before. No turning back.
I think the easier we make these decisions, in the long run, the harder the task to train the disciple.
You don't have to explain that your money is God's, your time is God's, every decision you make needs to be for God to a person who has given up his life to Jesus so dramatically. They understand already that they and everything they have and are is His.

Hero Worship

2010-01-14T10:00:00.002Z

When I was a kid, I had the nack of maybe not understanding the right answer, but guessing what it should be.
For instance, I was in primary school, and the question was asked: Which is heavier, a Kilo of feathers or a Kilo of sand. Nearly the whole class said sand. I had no idea what a Kilo was but I guessed it was a trick question and said they were the same...and got a big pat on the back for being clever.
Thing is, I'm not that clever, I just could guess well.
When it came to questions on having a hero, I was pretty much the same. Knowing that the wrong answer was to say my favourite pop star, because he looked cool, or wore dark sunglasses that were trendy...I knew not to say my favourite film star, the one who killed all the bad guys with witty one liners. Those were the guys I really wanted to emulate, but I answered correctly and said Jesus...and got a nice pat on the back for answering correctly.

Now I'm older, I look at jesus and think, this man really is my Hero.
Jesus was a man (as well as being God) that was always at peace. Nothing flustered Him. He never flew off the handle, he got angry, he got sad, but it was never out of control.
He could walk into a room and everybody would know, here is someone special. They might not like Him, may take offense at Him, but they couldn't ignore Him.
In conversation, it didn't matter who he was speaking too, he had the right word for the right time, something I admire in him more and more.
He truly was, and is, someone I want to be like.

My Hero.

More on the Holy Spirit:

2009-12-16T10:56:00.002Z

Intro:
I'm going to assume before we start that you are aware that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity that make up the Godhead, along with the Father and the Son (Jesus). For some verses to think over with regard to this look at:
Genesis 1:26 and Matthew 28:19
As with my other short question and answer sessions, this is by no means a complete work. The Holy Spirit is such a huge topic I feel a bit out of my depth even at the start, but if I can convey a little of what He does here, that is my goal.

1: Why do we need to be baptised in the Spirit?
First, it's a command of Jesus:
Acts 1
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you heard from me;
5 for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Second, without Jesus walking the Earth, after His resurrection and ascension into Heaven, there would be no Jesus on Earth in the flesh. God had a great plan for this though, it was to have multi Jesus's on Earth, this would be accomplished through the Spirit:
John 16
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.

We will see later just how the Spirit accomplishes this 'Jesus making' process. The point is Christians were never intended to live without the Spirit.
In Acts 19, Paul finds some followers who have never even heard of the Spirit:
2 And he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

There is only one outcome for these believers; to be baptised in the Spirit.

If you are coming at this question from the view of 'I've given my life to Jesus, don't I already have the Spirit?'
I believe that when you are born again, the Spirit does enter into you, and will have an influence on you, speaking to your conscience, leading you to Jesus, but until you are baptised in the Spirit, you are missing a dynamic of power.
In Romans 15 Paul talks about being used by God in a powerful way:
19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God
This is a level of life in God not experienced outside of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Another example is to look at the disciples before and after Pentecost, and what a transformation took place in them all from that day.

2: What does He do in you?
Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a Helper:
John 14:
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
and 15:
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

So, the Spirit first is a Helper to teach you about Jesus and help you remember the Word. He is then a Helper to witness for Jesus.
It's important to note quickly that the Spirit also makes His home inside you.
1 Corinthians 6 says:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,.
What does He do in you? He lives in you, and He has not come to be silent or timid. He has come for war!
Galatians 5:
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

He has come to wage war in you against the flesh. Flesh is everything opposed to His will. Every natural desire, both good and bad, because they are not Supernatural and of Him. The Spirit wants you to do only what He tells you to do. nothing more, nothing less, and to be just as Jesus, who said in John 5:
19 So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
It's not that Jesus had no will, and was like a robot, performing functions programmed into Him by the Father, rather Jesus made a decision of will. He would do nothing but what the Father was doing. And this He did by the power of the Spirit.

3: How does he communicate with you?
I recently heard a preacher talking about how much God shouts and only once the word talks about God whispering:
From 1 Kings 19:
11 And he said, Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD. And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

My opinion, and you can disagree if you want to, is that the Spirit does indeed whisper to us. He whispers for us to come after God, to come into His presence. Unfortunately we are pretty dull and miss these promptings far too often.
David in Psalm 27 said:
8 You have said, Seek my face.
My heart says to you,
Your face, LORD, do I seek.
This is pretty much how I think of the Spirits workings in us regarding speaking. He calls to us, 'seek My face', and if we hear, and if we're not too busy or are not missing our favourite TV show, we may just reply 'Your face, lord, do I seek'.
Realistically, how do we hear this voice, is it audible?
Again, in my experience, it is a conscience voice, a voice of the conscience, and as we learn to listen and respond, the path of listening will become trod over time into a well worn path that is no longer like a whisper but the loud command that it is.
I will just add 'the Word' here too. The Spirit will communicate through the Bible, for it was He who inspired the writers. It is Him who will lead us into ALL truth, and so He can open the Bible's truth's to us.

4: What else is the Spirit called/likened too?
I don't think I'll get them all but here are some, and when you see them mentioned in the Bible take note:
Oil. Also a symbol for healing.
Wind. Water.
Fire. Remember the tongues of fire?
And names! There's tones:
The Spirit of God, The Spirit of the Lord, The Spirit of Christ, Spirit of Fire, Spirit of Judgment, Spirit of Holiness, Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Life, Spirit of Wisdom, Spirit of Understanding, Spirit of Counsel, Spirit of Power, Spirit of Knowledge, Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, Eternal Spirit.

Why are all these names important? You will learn something about His character, and His dealings with people from these names.

5: What are tongues?
The Holy Spirit doesn't come into your life empty handed. He has brought gifts with Him. Some gifts are for everybody, some are more selective. Some gifts are occasional, some are permanent. For instance, someone may have a gift of prophecy without being a Prophet.

Tounges is mentioned as a gift received via baptism in the Spirit:
Acts 2. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 19. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Can everyone filled by the Spirit speak in tongues? Yes.
Does everyone? No.
Why? Faith.
Why is Tongues so important?
Paul described it as one of the lesser gifts and yet it is very powerful for day to day living.
First it is a means to build yourself up. (1 Corinthians 14v4), it is because of this first attribute that I believe it is for everyone. God would not let such a gift be for a special few.
There does seem to be some contradiction in the Word regarding tongues, Paul asks in I Corinthians 12:30, Do all speak in tongues, implying that perhaps all don't, but again in I Corinthians 14:5 he urges us ALL to speak in tongues.
The gift of tongues is also a means for the Spirit to communicate in a pure way to God. What I mean by that is He is not limited by our language and understanding of anything, but can commune only as the Godhead can. This means that the Spirit can pray on our behalf or intercede for others in a way we just can't do.
Tongues is also a gift to be used in Christian gatherings of the Church, though only with an accompanying interpretation, which is another gift of the Spirit.

Over the years I've seen the gift of tongues cause problems with Christians. They just don't get it. They don't know why it wont work with them? Why is it just not happening?
I've come to a conclusion the answer is a simple one.
It's faith.
The gateway to tongues, as with any gift of the Spirit, is to step out and do it. God will not physically take hold of your jaw and start making you speak. You do it in faith. And as you start speaking in tongues your mind will immediately start to rebel.
This is actually very encouraging if you just see this simple truth now.
You are speaking in a Heavenly language and thinking at the same time 'this is me, this is daft, is this it?' YES!
And the simple truth is you just can't do that yourself. Have you ever tried to speak to someone and be thinking something completely different? I'm sure you could with practice, but the fact you are doing it now with tongues is a good proof that it is God.
At this point it is a good idea to move on and accept you are speaking in tongues and enjoy it. You should do it every day. It will refresh you, it will act as a river of water to your mind, washing and washing it with heavenly words. It will change your prayer life and will give you new dimensions in worship as you now find another language ready to take over when your natural one has become lost for words to express your heart towards God.
It is a very encouraging practice to start to ask God for interpretations to your tongues as well.

I will just make a few more points on tongues. Over the years I have heard people saying what you can and can't do with tongues.
Can you think in tongues? Well, I've done it, so I will say yes.
Can you write in tongues? I've heard of at least one person doing this in a powerful way, and I know of a few people who have tried it, myself included, so again, I'd have to say Yes but it's not very common in my experience and has not much point to it.
Can you have more than one tongue? Yes, definitely. I have recognised over the years tongues that sound quite different coming from me. I have known people speak in tongues and actually be speaking Italian or Hebrew.
What is the difference between speaking in tongues and giving a tongue in Church?
Again, over the years I have known times when I can speak and speak in tongues and it is an uplifting experience and of great benefit. I have also known times when it has felt supercharged, and a level of passion and purpose is there that is not normal. I believe it is these supercharged times that the gift is to be shared in a gathering along with the interpretation. And remember, if no one brings that interpretation it is your job to.

6: What other gifts are there?
The other gifts mentioned in I Corinthians 12 are:
utterance of wisdom
utterance of knowledge
faith
healing
miracles
prophecy
distinguishing between spirits
tongue
interpretation of tongues.

Now the Bible commends us to seek the gifts of the Spirit, especially Prophecy (I Corinthians 14:39), but I will just add one thing, over the years I have seen in myself desires to seek gifts to the extent where it was more a heavy burden. I am now at a point in life where I do not seek these gifts. I seek the Giver. What this means is, that I do not turn my nose up at the gifts, I just have a view that if I am in fellowship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, any thing He wants to do through me is just a command away, and the nearer I am to him the louder I will hear that command. As said earlier, this is my view, and it's for you to use or ignore as you wish.

And let's not forget Fruit:
From Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control;
These are not gifts, but rather 'effects' that the Spirit will have in you. All these fruits you can start to see being developed the moment you are baptised.
Have you been a stressful person? Expect to see Peace being developed in you more and more.
Have you had problems with addictions? Expect to see the fruit of self control being developed in you. These fruit will grow and grow killing off fleshly desires and fruit if you nurture them in obedience.

7: What do I do now?
I added this question for a few reasons.

First, if you have not been baptised in the Holy Spirit, then He is just a prayer away. You can seek Him yourself or ask for some one to lay hands on you.
Acts 8 shows us
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands,.
The Baptism of the Spirit can be given in such a way. But remember it is a gift and must be received with faith in the same way you received salvation. When you have been baptised that is the time to open your mouth and speak your first words in your new language.

Second, if you have been filled with the Spirit, and have become complacent and dry, do not delay. Start to speak in tongues again. Allow the Spirit to flow freely through your life again, sweeping away through repentance everything that would hinder His flow.

Third, I would say be obedient. The Spirit is alive and active. He will want to work through you. He has no interest in helping you with your life and projects but every interest in helping you become like Jesus. When he whispers to you, determine now that you will treat it as the command it is. When he calls you to come aside and sit and listen, be obedient, do as your told.

Keep going in the cold.

2009-12-01T08:58:00.002Z

It's getting cold now. Christmas is approaching and most of us are waiting for the time we can stop work for the year, put our feet up and enjoy a well earned break before next year.
But, how many of us take a break from God at that time. How many Bible's go unread, how many prayers unsaid?
I'm no super saint, I want to be a normal Christian. One tip I want to give, is that to help you keep going when you want to take a break, is to have a daily devotional. They are books that have a short message based on Bible verses for you to read every day. Some have one reading for the morning and one for the evening. They are a great habit to start. And remember a habit is hard to get rid of.
Habit: Take away the H and you have a-bit
Take away the a and you still have bit
Take away the b and you still have it!

I read the one at the top, Oswald Chambers: My Utmost For His Highest.
There are loads out there, find a good one and give it a go.

The chocolates were poisoned.

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000Z

The chocolates were poisoned.

Even as a kid I remember the chocolates being there.
They looked so good, some had shiny wrappers.
We all knew they were poisoned though.
I remember being in the Baptist church youth group, I was around 10 years old. Even then I remember some of the older kids, some of my friends, discussing the chocolates.
One day, my friend Phillip said he'd had eaten one.
We were all a bit stunned, after all, he was still alive?
He told us he knew he shouldn't have eaten it, but it hadn't been that bad.
A couple of weeks later he wasn't there.
I've not seen him since.

Then I joined another church when I was around 13.
There was a girl there called Dawn. She took one of the chocolates too.
It was very quick working on here, I never saw her again.
Then a friend of mine, also called Chris. He took one.
He was around just long enough to tell us he'd done it.

We all knew they were poisoned. It was tough though. You see them there day after day. As soon as one is taken, it's replaced by another. Day after day after day they are there.

A couple of times I was tempted to take one.
I even had one in my hand one time until I dropped it.
I'm still alive. Not down to me though, as I had it in my hand one of the leaders of the church warned me to drop it, and I did.

I'm not in a youth group any more - too old now.
Thing is, I was speaking at one the other day and the next week I dreamed about the chocolates.
I could see that this young group knew about them.
They knew they were poisoned.
I knew as well that each of the girls were going to try one, maybe some of the boys.

It's strange, but everyone thinks the same thing just before they pick one up.
They always think they will be strong enough to withstand the poison.
They know others can't take it, but they think maybe they can.
Then, when they do, they tell there friends about it, warning them; "I know I shouldn't have eaten it, and I'm telling you it was wrong and you shouldn't do it, I'll be all right though".
And then they're gone.

Do you know what the chocolates are?

The 60 Minute Father

2009-11-26T13:43:00.003Z

I've just finished reading this. It is true, you could read this in 60 minutes, but it took me twice as long. Mainly because I kept stopping to cry.
Never has a book just taken me apart piece by piece. This book is devestating. In it's little stories, funny anecdotes and life lessons you see where your going wrong, and more importantly, where to go right.

Every father should read this and be turned into something that is worth his calling.

Hitting you in the wallet.

2009-11-25T08:23:00.003Z

A few years ago now I was looking through my bank account, trying to figure out just how much was in there. At the end of the exercise I reckoned there was about £600 I couldn't account for? I said, Praise God and promptly spent it. I took it as a blessing from God. Who wouldn't?

OK, flash forward from there about 1 month.
I'm in church and the speaker is talking about paying our debts to God, which I fully agree with. Thing is I start to get an uncomfortable feeling. A long, long time ago I had signed up to a church charity to help the poor. It consisted of a standing order for X amount of pounds a month. When I checked over this I realized the standing order hadn't been set up. That was the £600 I'd spent!
I just didn't have that kind of money to pay it back either, but knew it was a debt I had to pay.
What I did, was set the standing order up again but for double the amount.
I've been paying it now for a few years and have cleared the debt and some. But this isn't really the point of this story.

I recently read something about how people who give to the poor can expect God to do some amazing things in their lives. I can't remember exactly what it said, but the gist of it was that. I felt a rise of faith in me as I read it as you do when you read something true. I thought, Aha!, I give to the poor, I'll increase the payment again. Which I did, now to treble the original payment.

Thing is, I'm in the car telling Nicky what I've done (we are in this together), and as soon as I said the words the Holy Spirit said, up it again.

It's funny, when you hear these stories about people trying to make deals with God: If you do this for me Lord, I'll go to church on Sunday! I'll go every week. I'll give to the poor. I'll do this, and I'll do that etc.
Like God's interested in that!
He want's you. All of you.
When He's got that He can tell you to do what He likes without the bargaining.
He knows what he's doing there!

So, I did it. How am I going to argue or say no?
I now pay quadruple the original amount. I figure I can afford it, just as God figures the same.
I also figure God is able to supply anything to me that I need.

One of the biggest 'rubber hits the road' moments for us as Christians is when God asks us to open our wallet. That's when we really get a look at how much God has our lives.

Top Trumps

2009-11-09T07:57:00.003Z

Top Trumps is a card game, based on facts. I used to have a set of tank cards when I was a kid. If I had a tank that could go 30MPH and someone else had a tank that could go 50MPH, I'd lose.

Their are facts in our lives. We don't imagine them. Facts like sickness, depression, needs in our lives. These are facts.
However, the word of God is a Top Trump. It too is filled with facts. And these facts beat any other facts you can throw at them.
But! If you are going to play a Word of God Top Trump, you really need to know what it says in black and white. Guessing won't accomplish much.
If you are sick, a Top Trump card to play is James 5:14

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Follow through on the verse: Call for the Elders, don't wait around for an appeal. They will annoint you with oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit (if they don't, ask them to get some), and they will pray for you a prayer of faith. Don't be embarasses to ask if it was a prayer of faith. You need to know for your faith in the Word.

There is then no other outcome except being raised up-made well. And amazingly, if youv'e got in that state through sin, it will also be forgiven you.

Play Word of God Top Trumps. And be a winner every time. Don't let the Word stay between those dusty covers. it wants OUT! it wants to be released to change everything in your environment. Starting with you.

Martyrs for the Lord

2009-11-04T13:32:00.003Z

I've seen this song written down in both Brother Yun's books now and it's a chilling, sobering reminder of what happened to those first disciples, and what could be our calling if we accept Christ.

Martyrs for the Lord

Chorus:

To be a martyr for the Lord, to be a martyr for the Lord.

I am willing to die gloriously for the Lord.

Those apostles who loved the Lord to the end

Willingly followed the Lord down the path of suffering.

John was exiled to the lonely isle of Patmos.

Stephen was stoned to death by an angry crowd.

Matthew was stabbed to death in Persia by a mob.

Mark died as horses pulled his two legs apart.

Doctor Luke was cruelly hanged.

Peter, Philip and Simon were crucified on a cross.

Bartholomew was skinned alive by the heathen.

Thomas died in India as five horses pulled his body apart.

The apostle James was beheaded by King Herod.

Little James was cut in half by a sharp saw.

James the brother of the Lord was stoned to death.

Judas was tied to a pillar and shot by arrows.

Matthias had his head cut off in Jerusalem.

Paul was a martyr under Emperor Nero.

I am willing to take up the cross and go forward

To follow the apostles down the road to sacrifice

That tens of thousands of precious souls can be saved

I am willing to leave all and be a martyr for the Lord.

I do as I'm told.

2009-10-26T08:35:00.003Z

I've been thinking a lot about the Holy Spirit recently.
We have ideas that we think would be good and please God, but in actual fact, if they are our ideas, God will be appalled at them.
Why?
Surely God would want me to put the chairs out every Sunday morning? I'm doing a good work for Him?
I think it's difficult to hear, but also I believe it's the truth, any, and I mean ANY, work that is not of the Spirit is of the Flesh, and as such God cannot tolerate it. It must die.

So, I want to give a little example of one of the events I've had happen to me recently. This isn't to blow my own trumpet, but more as an example of how the Spirit is working in my life and to encourage you in this life. Just as I need to encourage myself.

I was walking to town recently on the weekend to do a bit of Xmas shopping. I was just talking to the Spirit, telling Him how much I need Him and how much I need to keep up with his stride.
I was in town about an hour and ended up in a charity shop buying some books for myself. There was a small old lady in front of me at the till, I reckon at least 65 years old. She was buying some crockery and put her money on the counter. I looked at her and thought that the 4-5 pounds she was spending was probably a very large amount of money to her. The Spirit said to me 'You pay for her things'.
I stood there watching the cups and saucers being wrapped and thinking 'What!'
I was very self conscious, there were others in the shop behind me in the queue, there was another lady who had just knocked something off a shelf and smashed it, the lady behind the till thought I was bringing the books in as a donation and not buying it, but my heart was burning. I get a burning in my heart every time God tells me to prophecy. I know it's Him, it's pretty easy to tell as prophecies have a tendency to come true if they are from God. Anyway, I had this burning and knew I would just have to get on with it.
So I said to the cashier, 'I would like to pay for this ladies items', which I did, bought my books and left the shop. I didn't speak to the lady, I had no 'witness' inside me that was what I should do, so I didn't.
When I got home and told Nicky about it, I was pretty confused as to why the Spirit wanted me to do that, but as Nicky pointed out:
1: I don't need to know that, just be obedient, and
2: God knows that lady, knows what she needed, knows her intimately, and knows that that was a miracle for her.

I want more and more of these 'Spirit Adventures', in fact. I'd like a lifetime of them. In fact again, I need to have a lifetime of them or I'm missing the point.

Chipping away the rubbish.

2009-09-25T14:00:00.004+01:00

I think I've mentioned it before, but I was at one time on a Gospel Outreach Team (GO Team) back in 1989-90. When the team finished and normal life returned I thought I would walk into a job and life would be pretty much a walk in the park with things falling into place one after another as I needed them. After all, I had just given up a year of my life to serve God, I was due some blessing.
It's not what happened at all though. I spent the first 6 months unemployed, living in a room of a house where I was hated by one of the owners. I eventually gave up my room when I was offered a sofa to sleep on at another house. For weeks I lived there eating potatoes and sleeping on that sofa. My life, instead of getting bigger and better was pruned back again and again. I eventually got a job working in a hotel but soon after had appendicitis and after an operation and recovery period I had to give up work.
All this went on whilst I had no family or friends around me. My days were spent on my own, no one to talk to,traveling to the Jobcenter , usually twice a day to look at the same jobs that I had no qualifications for. I was 22 and life was closing in on me on a daily basis. I'd get back to the sofa, sit down, wonder what on earth I was doing and slowly start to die inside.
I just couldn't understand what God was doing with me. Why was this happening to me. Rather than having life more abundantly I was having life more despairingly. If you've ever experienced the same as me you will also know how soul destroying it is to see those around you achieving everything you want to and at the same time try and encourage you with platitudes like 'everything will be OK', 'God bless you'.

After a while I did manage to finally get a part time Christmas job as a security guard in Toys R Us. Even this was touch and go, as just before I was due to start I had chicken pox and was laid up in bed. I did start on time though 11 days later. I knew that the job would only last for a short while and so was under a huge amount of pressure to get a full time job. My boss there kept promising me if I did well he would see what I could do, but after a while I realised this guy had no real authority in the company and to hope on him would be a big mistake. I was also now married, in the October just gone, and although this was one of the happiest days of my life it's difficult to explain, but being in the position I was there was a deep sadness in me that only God could fix.

A month or so into my security job I got a break with a full time job, again as security, for a clothing store. You might think I start to sound like a spoiled brat now, but 2 days into this job I realised I hated it. It seemed God was just destroying me a bit at a time. I'd gone from desperate, lonely unemployment to desperate married employment. The job was 6 days a week with Sunday off. My boss didn't like me taking Saturdays off as holiday so I couldn't really have any holiday. This meant I went for 14 months working 6 days a week with no break. The wages were poor, so poor that after payday and our bills there were pennies left. I lived on potatoes still, eating a jacket potato with butter every day I worked there. The job itself entailed me walking round the small store for hour after hour after hour. My mind was near snapping with boredom. Conversation was frowned upon, the job was to basically be a menacing threat to shoplifters. I found the only way I could survive mentally was to split the day into blocks of 15mins at a time. Any more than that and I just couldn't cope.

Where is all this leading?
Remember the title, chipping away the rubbish? That's what was happening to me. Everything was being chipped of me. My character, personality, ideas, hopes, dreams, all ere being ruthlessly put through the oven of affliction. I really had no idea if I would survive.
During those 14 months I applied for so many other jobs, sending letters to firms and stores etc. You name it I applied for it. What could be worse that having no replies to these letters? Having your hope destroyed.
Proverbs 13:12 says Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. And that was me. My heart was sick.
I had 2 interviews in those months, one at a jewelers that went very well. I was told I would hear soon favorably, but the next time I walked past the shop it had closed! I put a lot of hope in getting that job. You start to dream that a door is finally opening for your escape, you think what direction your career might take, only to see it shot down at the first move.
The second interview, months later, was with the Co-Op store. That also went well. The manager said to me he would do what he could to get me a position in the company. I waited with hope for my letter, but it never came. I eventually went back to the store to speak to the manager and was told he had left and no one knew anything about my interview. It was another crushing blow. I don't know how I kept going. To have failed yet again, having to go back to work with still no light at the end of the tunnel.
And then came Gethsemane where I died.

It happened after seeing a job advertised in the paper for a trainee in a printers. They wanted a school leaver. I knew I was to old, but I had stopped caring about that, sending applications off for any job that might give me hope, even when I knew I wouldn't get it. This was the same. I applied for the trainee job and actually got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview. Not for the trainee job but for another position, a much better one, that was going to become available. The Printers apparently had my CV already. It was one of the companies I'd blitzed.
I went for the interview and was very pleased. It went very well, seemed a great place to work with a workforce in similar age to me that actually looked pretty happy with their work life. Something which was very foreign to me. The interview ended with the HR Manager promising to ring me later with a result.
That day I let my hopes rise again. I couldn't stop them. I dared to hope what might happen. When I got home I waited for the phone call. And waited. And waited. I was looking at the clock thinking perhaps they work to 5.30, then perhaps he's staying to 7. Then it was a case of wondering if he'd forgotten my number etc at around 7.30.
I couldn't leave it and rang the printers. I was told the HR manager had gone home for the evening.
It's very difficult to describe how I felt. It was the culmination of years of being pressured and disappointed. My wife came and took my hand, and I knelt to the floor crying. The prayer I prayed was one of my heart breaking, knowing yet again I had to go back to that job failed again. I prayed 'Jesus, today I loved you, and tomorrow I will love you'. It was all I had.
It was all that mattered. Everything else in me had gone. The very core of me was all that was left and all I could say was no matter what happened I would love Jesus.
Whilst still on my knees the phone rang. I picked it up. It was the HR Manager, from his car, offering me the job. I said 'Yes please' still with tears in my eyes.
The letter of confirmation came a couple of days later, and I immediately handed in my notice.
When I left I was very surprised to find a huge pay packet containing weeks of extra holiday pay that they'd never let me take.

It's a beautiful story from my life, but a story I almost didn't make it through. It took years to see that happy ending, which was really only another stepping stone in my life to become more like Jesus.

Back to basics

2009-09-22T13:35:00.002+01:00

The reason for this small list of questions, is that I wanted to have clear in my mind the important points that would not only help me, but others, get to grips with simple foundation stones of the faith. After all, it tells us in Philippians 2:12: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. When I became a Christian, there was so much I didn’t understand, and it took many years to hear all these things, and many more to be able to write them down like this in a simple to understand way (which I hope this will be).
This list is definitely not exhaustive or contains everything about each point, but I hope it’s enough for you to see the truth and if needed go on and find out more.

1: Why do we believe the Bible?
This is the most important of all the basic truths, because all subsequent revelations and truths hinge on this one. If you don't believe the Bible is the written word of God how will you believe anything written in it?
II Timothy 3:16 says:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Peter, one of Jesus disciples says in II Peter 1:20, talking about scripture (The Bible) and also the Prophetic words spoken of by those recorded in the Bible:
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
And just to labour the point, Jesus Himself used scripture and believed in it:
John 7:38
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
The only way you can believe this is through Faith, and that is a gift from God. So if you do believe, thank God for his goodness to you.

2: Why are we sinners?
OK, now we have our platform for the rest of these points, i.e. I’m saying that you either do believe the Bible as the true word of God, or you don’t.
So, what does the Bible/God have to say about us?
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
How did this happen? Well, in Genesis (the first book of 66 that make up the Bible), we see the story of Adam & Eve. God made them so he could have friendship with them, he put them in a garden , gave them work and gave them complete freedom except for one rule, not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil:
From Genesis 2:
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Well, it wasn’t long before Adam & Eve had both eaten from the tree after being tricked by Satan, the Devil. And that is how Sin came about. Sin is basically doing anything that displeases God.
So, how does that affect you? Because you are offspring of Adam. Go back far enough in the family tree and it all comes down to one man. Adam. I know it’s not your fault that Adam sinned, but because of him, we pay. If you find this hard to stomach, I’ll have to take you back to point 1. Let’s face it, you just have to see children to know it’s true. Do you have to teach kids to be good or naughty? One of them seems to come automatically. It’s no good, your born that way. A sinner. And because your a sinner, you commit sins. So there are 2 things to sort out, the sins you've made and the actual fact of you being a sinner that makes them.

3: Who is Jesus?
This is a toughy, I still don't understand it, but just accept it. Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also God along with the Holy Spirit, who is also God, and God the Father. Confused? Together they are the Trinity, the Godhead 3 in 1.
Genesis 1 gives a small example of this as God says:
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
So God is talking to Himself as a plural. We also see in Matthew 28:19 that in Baptism the Godhead is mentioned:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So, Jesus is God. The Son of God. He has many other names which is something to study, but for now lets just look at 2:

The Word:
John 1 says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
and a bit further on:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
There was a time when Jesus was not a man. He was God, all seeing, all knowing, all powerful. But when sin entered the World through Adam, as we’ve seen in point 2, God already had a plan to deal with it. It involved Jesus, and for the plan to work Jesus would have to give up his Spiritual being and become a human being. Phillipians 2 says:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The Son:
Psalms 2:7
The LORD said to me, You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Here we see prophetically Jesus telling us He has become God’s Son. He was the first. That is His place, to be first, first among all the children that the Father would adopt through His work.
I chose to emphasise these 2 names, because The Word will help us know the Bible is His Word, and The Son will help us know He is God, but also a human being.

4: How did Jesus pay for our sins?
This could get complicated, but i’ll try and keep it easy. Easy is best.
Because of Sin, God couldn't accept us. A price needed to be paid to make things better. Just as we see in the Old Testament that animals had to be sacrificed and their blood sprinkled to pay for the sins of the people. Only, they had to keep doing it, because the blood of animals couldn't permanently take away sins, and the root issue of people being sinners wasn't dealt with at all.
Hebrews 10 tells us:
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
But there was a sacrifice that could take away our sins, for ever. The blood of a perfect human, knowing no sin:
I John 1:7:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Hebrews 10:10:
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
So, sins dealt with! But what about us, the person, the one that makes sins? The bullets have been taken away, but what about the gun that fires them. How is that deactivated?
Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
God handled it with a master stroke. To stop you being a sinner, He had you die. There’s not much of anything you can do when your dead, and being a sinner is one of them.
But He didn't leave things there.
Romans 6:8:
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
That’s right, just as you believe you died with Him, that is exactly how you believe you now live in Him.
I John 4:15
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
When you are born again you take your place living in Jesus, and He in you through the Holy Spirit.
I John 4:13:
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

5: Why do we get baptised?
Hopefully this is an easy one if you have grasped the previous point.
Romans 6:3:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism is a physical testimony of what we believe Jesus has done for us. It’s also part of the process of salvation.
Mark 16:16:
Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Baptism means that as you are fully submersed in water, that is your identifying with Jesus death and burial, and as you come once again out of the water you are identifying with Jesus resurrection, and also, your resurrection in Him.
Colossians 2:12:
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Grasping this truth is so important to life as a Christian. Your old self is dead. The old you is not fighting for life, it lost. DEAD. And now you are a completely new creation, alive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
II Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

6: What about the Holy Spirit?
This question has stumped me for a long time. I’m not a great theologian (a professor of Bible stuff), I’m just a regular guy. I believe that all the foundation stones of our walk with Jesus should be easy to follow. You shouldn’t need a degree to understand these truths, so I will tell you my simple understanding of the Holy Spirit. it’s a twofold happening.

1: Salvation
I Corinthians 3:16:
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
That’s right, when you believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit came and lived inside you. The Holy Spirit is inside you, guiding you and making you become more and more like Jesus Himself as He reveals Jesus to you.
Titus 3:5:
‘Twas not for deeds that we had done,
But by his steadfast love alone,
He saved us through a second birth,
Renewed us by the Spirit's work,
And remember this point:
I John 4:13:
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

2: Power
Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
Hebrews 2:4:
while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
To see just what miracles and gifts of the Spirit can do, read from Acts onwards in the New Testament.
This second happening of the Spirit is the Baptism of the Spirit.
Acts 11:16:
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Spirit, given by the laying on of hands, though, not the only way;...
Acts 8:18:
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,
Acts 11:15:
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
...is for our empowering. To give us the power to do just as Jesus had done, and greater things.
From John 16:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
And John 14:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Bible shows us, that after baptism in the Holy Spirit, a dynamic Jesus life should be the norm.

7: Why do we still sin?
I mean, if our sins are paid for, our old man dead, what can go wrong? Nothing? And yet we have all known sin since being born again.
The truth of point 4 hasn’t changed. Our sins are paid for, our old lives dead, the Holy Spirit in residence. but He hasn’t come to put his feet up and watch TV, he’s come for war.
Galatians 5:17:
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
This is not a slight inner turmoil, it’s all out war, the result of which will either show your usefulness to God or your uselessness.
I John 2:16:
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.
We are still in our human fleshly bodies, and as such we are still subjected to fleshly temptations. These temptations and desires are warring against the desires of the Spirit. The way to deal with them is to put those desires on a daily basis in their proper place. That is, nailed to the cross of Christ.
Luke 9:23:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Romans 6:11:
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It’s very important to remember we have died with Christ, all those temptations, wrong feelings that surface, bad thoughts, need to be cold bloodedly reminded that they are dead. Don't allow them any life, but rather remind yourself that the job has been done, they are taken care of. In our own strength and ability we will fail to do this, but by letting go of our own strength and letting God take care of it we not only see those fleshly areas die but we allow God to do what He wants. It’s win-win.
I will labour this point just with one more example, imagine you come across a person who is very rude to you. You know that you should love such people but instead your anger flares at being abused like this and you want to retaliate. In the flesh you cannot triumph. The flesh will want it’s own way and to retaliate. But, remember, the flesh has been crucified with Christ. Stop. Allow those feelings to die as they should. You can’t handle this situation as it needs to be handled, but you are in Jesus, so let Him handle it. it’s a corny saying but one that sums this up perfectly: let go and let God.

8: How do we live as Christians?
The Christian life is the easiest thing in the world, and can be summed up in one phrase: Just do everything God tells you to.
Galatians 5:25:
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
This verse in Galatians tells us that we have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, but we Don't stop there. We need to live also by the Spirit. Again, simplicity itself, just do everything the Spirit tells you to do. In practice this can be an interesting experience and a steep learning curve for us as we naturally want to do so much for Jesus. But He isn’t interested in what we can do for Him, He’s only interested in what he wants to do through us. No more. No less. Learning to hear and see what Jesus wants to do through the Spirit is the Christian life. Desires, no matter how spiritual they seem, have to take second place and even die to the utmost goal of us knowing Jesus. Jesus Himself lived that way.
John 5:19:
Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
How did Jesus please God so much? By ONLY doing what God wanted. Consider the paralysed man outside the Temple that Peter & John walked by and said silver & gold I Don't have... Think, how many times had Jesus walked by that very man? And many other needy people? Why didn’t he heal him? It would have been a good thing to do, but no matter what we think of as our good ideas, without the prompting of the Spirit it is of the flesh. And that must die.
So, the Christian life is all about relationship, the doing part just comes naturally from that relationship as we hear and then do. We have a relationship with the Godhead, we approach the Father through the Son, we know the Son through the Spirit. We pray in Jesus name to the Father. We talk to Jesus, sharing our thoughts and concerns. We walk with the Spirit letting him be our guide in life and helper.

9: What happens when we die?
Matthew 25:46:
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
I haven’t quoted the whole story Jesus told in Matthew 25, please look it up yourself, but the end verse is the clincher. There is a Heaven and a Hell. Heaven is a place where God dwells and where we those who have been born again and received eternal life will join Him, hell is for those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord. Hell is written of as a terrible place of suffering.matthew 13:
So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Heaven is a place of rejoicing, peace and joy because God is there. And God is love.
From Revelation 21:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
Going back to point 8 though I will end this series of question with what I think of as one of the scariest verses in the Bible.
From Matthew 7:
“Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
Remember if you remember nothing else, it’s your relationship with Jesus that matters above all else. Not healing the sick, prophesying, casting out demons, doing miracles. They Don't count. What counts is, do you know Jesus?

Behind Closed Doors.

2009-09-18T08:40:00.001+01:00

This is a story from my teenage years and probably one of the most significant events from my past.
It was just after New Year and I was in a Church Youth Group meeting in Newport at the house of the church leader. There was a guest speaker, he was the leader of the church musicians and he started telling us about how he and his friend who played piano, had over the New Year, rededicated their lives to Jesus.
I must have been about 15, and I sat there thinking 'what a great idea, why didn't I think of that'.
So, it wasn't long after I decided to do the same thing.
I went to my downstairs bedroom (everyone else in the house slept upstairs), sat on the edge of my bed and said something along the lines of: 'Jesus, I just give my life to you afresh, use me how you want'. I then sat back and waited to feel God's big smile and a nice pat on the back for doing so well.
Thing was, nothing happened.
So I said it again and waited.
And waited.
And then started to get the first itch of doubt and worry.

One of the scariest verses in the Bible has to be the this one from Matthew 7:

21 “Not everyone who keeps saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn't we?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you evildoers!’”

The message here is frighteningly clear, it's not what you do for God that has any bearing at all on entering Heaven, it rests on one matter alone, do you know Jesus?
Your prophesying, great, doesn't count.
Your healing the sick, great, doesn't count.
Your raising the dead, great, doesn't count.
Sober stuff. And as I sat on my bed I knew that if I didn't know Jesus I was in the worst position imaginable.
However, I was determined to put things right, scared as I was, I laid on the floor and cried to God that he would be merciful to me, that he would forgive me.
It's a terrible feeling to be alone in a room all by yourself when you hope God will speak to you, but as I said, I was determined to stay on the floor until God spoke to me.
And I don't know how long I was there for, but eventually I did hear God.
What he said was: 'Chris, you've been taking me for granted'.
It was true. How could it not be?
I put myself right with God, and from that day I have never, ever wanted to be in that position again.

The message here is this: Do you see people moving in leaps and bounds ahead of you? Who seem to get chosen for all the 'good jobs' in the Church or who seem to just be blessed and blessed where you don't get anything? Do you feel left out, unnoticed, passed by?
It doesn't matter one bit. ALL that matters, and I say it again, ALL! that matters is that you can say I know Jesus. I speak to Him and He speaks to me. We have a 'relationship'.
If you can't say that my friend, be worried.
And put it right.

Regrets...I have just one.

2009-09-07T09:31:00.003+01:00

Regrets...I have just one

Not a few, as the song goes, but just one.
Sure I've made lots of mistakes in my life, but if you learn from them and move on they are not regrets but stepping stones. Regrets are when you wish you could have done something differently.

Secondary school was not a good time for me. I was separated from all my friends from junior school and put in a class where I didn't know anyone. I don't know why they did this, but it was a desperate time for me.
I remember break times, looking around and not knowing anyone. Just standing there like a lemon wondering which click I should approach. I wasn't the most confident person in the world, far from it, I was pretty shy and introverted.
In the end I approached the 'swatty' guys and sat with them. I was the outsider in their conversations, and remember sitting there listening to them and not having a clue what they were talking about.

The weekends I would cycle down the road to see my best friend. We'd known each other since play group and were as thick as thieves. I don't really know what had happened to me, I was probably under great psychological stress, but at school one day as I was waiting for the bus he came up to chat to me and I pushed him away. Forcibly. I suppose I was falling to bits inside, but it's no excuse. I pushed away the one friend I had who was trying to reach me.

That's my one regret.
If I could go back and change just one thing, that would be it.

Recently I've got to know that friend again through Facebook, and we attended each other's 40th birthday parties.
This last weekend I invited him, his brother and families up for lunch.
We've been renewing our friendship, but this time I had the opportunity to talk privately to him face to face. Which I took, and asked him to forgive me.
Sorry doesn't cut it. Sorry is such a meaningless word. It's only the act of forgiveness that involves the other party, allowing them to have their say, and as the Americans say 'closure'.
It went well. It's a very humbling experience to admit your faults and sins and seek reconciliation, but I'm through fighting the promptings of The Holy Spirit.

Keith Green

2009-08-28T15:07:00.004+01:00

Back in the 80's , I came under heavy conviction about the music I listened too as a teenager. It came to the point of me getting rid of all my albums and tapes. Something that pretty much the whole school heard about and even lead to the RE teacher questioning me on whether I'd heard God speak to me or not. He seemed to find the fact that God had incredible to believe.
Anyway, as usual, I digress.
I didn't really know much about Christian music and didn't have a lot of success with what I found. I remember listening to a group called Barrett Band that was good, Paul Fields, Graham Kendrick and of course Keith Green.
I didn't know much about Keith, I heard he gave his albums away for free. I didn't even know he was dead in those days until i attended a Keith green concert hosted by Melody green and it was all explained. His life story: No Compromise, is a challenging read and will explain a lot about a man who was wonderfully saved.

There was no where near the same level of quality of music there is for teenagers these days and I admit I struggled.
A lot.
Recently I dug out my old Keith Green CD's and put them on my iPod. I'm amazed how sharp his words are, and how they're getting under my skin and into my spirit.
This song has been on my mind for a week or so, I just can't get it out of my head. I dare you to read the lyrics and not be stirred, listening to Keith sing it with his passion is another thing altogether!

Asleep in The Light

Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Dont you care, dont you care
Are you gonna let them drown

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done

Oh bless me lord, bless me lord
You know its all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But he cries, he weeps, he bleeds
And he cares for you needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in
Oh cant you see its such a sin

Cause he brings people to your door
And you turn them away
As you smile and say
God bless you, be at peace
And all heaven just weeps
cause jesus came to you door
Youve left him out on the streets

Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay

Gods calling and youre the one
But like Jonah you run
Hes told you to speak
But you keep holding it in
Of cant you see its such a sin

The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just cant fight
cause its asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When youve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you cant even get out of bed

Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on get out of your bed

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done

Dont close your eyes
Dont pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with me my love
Come away, come away, come away with me my love

Visions

2009-08-24T12:21:00.001+01:00

Sometimes it seems people are getting visions 24/7. You hear people saying how they were reading the paper and had a vision, or watching Eastenders and had a vision. They were walking down the street and had a vision.
I do wonder at all this envisioning going on, mainly because in my 40 years I've only ever had 1.
I've had dreams, and pictures and daydreams but only once have I ever had what I would call a vision.
For a start I found it was memorable. Even now almost 20 years on I remember it in great detail. It was different to a picture or daydream too, I was awake and yet all my senses were involved.
Let me tell you about it.
I was on Go Team (a Gospel Outreach team) and we were sort of having a sabbatical in Northumberland at a place called Otterburn Hall back in 1990.
We were having a time of worship and I remember I was sort of on the edges of things quietly worshipping when it seemed I was no longer in the hall. I was in a wheat field. The wheat was tall so only the top of my body was visible. All my senses were tingling, there was a magic in the air, like there is just before a storm, everything was so quiet, not even the birds were singing.
I looked up and saw that the clouds had lined up in a row, just as they do sometimes when the weather will change dramatically over a 24hr period. And there, in the middle was Jesus, standing on the cloud. And also, as if I'd not noticed them at first was thousands of others standing with him to his left and right on the cloud.
I came too and found I was on my knees. I had no idea how long I had been there like that, seconds or hours.
I shared what I had seen, but after I kept it to myself.
It was like I'd been given a precious jewel, something just for me.

Mac Bible Sotware

2009-08-21T14:54:00.004+01:00

If you have a Mac you can download this great free software. Once you have it just download some 'modules' or books to be read with it from The Sword Project.

For instance I have a King James Bible (amongst others) that has Strongs reference numbers attached, plust the Strongs dictionaries to cross reference. I have Spurgeons morning & evening devotional as well as Pilgrims Progress.

For free this is outstanding material.

A Small Start

2009-08-19T13:27:00.003+01:00

I've been praying that this year would be a year of hearing God afresh, in a dynamic way, that I would be walking in The Holy Spirit, hearing Him speak who I am to speak to, who I am to pray for.
Sunday afternoon I was sitting on my bed praying. I looked out of the window and saw a man painting his house, further down the street. I thought 'he's working hard' only to staight away hear a voice say 'go and tell him I love him'. I sat there thinking 'oh'. I heard the voice again 'go and tell him I love him'. It's what I've been waiting and praying for, so I dont know why it was so hard for me to go down the stairs, find the door locked, think of giving up, unlock the door and slowly make my way down the street to the man painting. I did it though, and told him God loved him.
We talked for about 10mins. He was a nice guy, probably thinks I'm a little strange, but I'm so thankful for this small chance to do what I'd been told to do.

Chris Vs The Werewolf

2009-08-17T13:46:00.002+01:00

Phillipians 2 v 12
And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

This is a bit of a strange story, but, nonetheless, it's true.
I reckon I was about 10 and doing my best to live a life in the Fear of God, trying to please the all seeing God. I knew a bit about Jesus now and what He had done for me, but probably like a lot of young believers would have had a hard time actually giving a concise and clear reason for my faith. I mean, I was only 10.

I remember clearly I started having a recurring dream.
It was very strange. I was in something similar to an interview room. In the room was a table with 2 chairs, 1 either side of the table.
I sat on one side of the table, and on the other was a Werewolf!
In the dream the Werewolf had one purpose to it's life and one only, to reach across, grab me and tear me to pieces.
But, I would be able to stop the Werewolf, not by might or power but by simply finding the reason why it couldn't do that.

The debate went something like this:
Me: You can't touch me because I'm a Christian.
WW: So what, what does that mean?
Me: It means I believe in Jesus.
WW: So do I. So what?
Me: I believe He died for my sins.
WW: Says who?
Me: The Bible.
WW: Who cares what the Bible says?

This would go on and on, it felt like for hours. But things would eventually come to a head, and it was always on the last point, the Bible.
I learned at that early age, working out my salvation with fear and trembling, that everything hinged on the Word. All the promises in the Bible, all the good things you know, or think you know hinge on whether the Bible is true or not, whether it's God's word or not.
It's the final card on the table that will show you surviving or being torn to pieces.
You can't prove it's true. You believe it is. By faith.
I play the card and the Werewolf is stopped.
I won.

Early Struggles & The Holy Spirit Pt. 2

2009-08-13T10:24:00.005+01:00

So, we made it to the Bible Week. It was hosted by a man called Arthur Wallis, all I can remember of him and the meetings I saw him at was that he would prophecy so long! it seemed instead of preaching the word he prophesied for about 30mins at a time! I later come to really love Arthurs' books and have learnt so much from them. All these meetings took place in a big tent. It was such a weird time looking back at it. I remember one day there the Police were called as a coven of witches had been broken up in the woods the night previously and arrested, they were all barking like dogs!?
Another time I saw a white haired man that someone said had been raised from the dead!
At these tent meetings I would sometimes just go off fo a walk as it all went a lot over my head. I dont know if there were youth meetings or not but I never got wind of them if there were.
One day I was walking across one of the fields and a man followed me. He introduced himself as Burt, he had a 'old sailor' look to him and said that he couldn't read or write. We got talking, which was very unusual as I was like a clam in those days, very shy and introverted. He said God had been speaking to him about me for the last 3 days.
I was very unhappy with life in those days, being a Christan at school had won me 0 friends. Literally. None. As we got talking he explained I needed the Holy Spirit, of whom I now knew a little. He told me to lie on the floor and prayed for me. it was bizarre, as there were other people walking around, but I did and started to speak in tounges. I ran back to the tent to tell everyone I could 'do it' and felt like I could take on the world. And win.
Which was just as well really because when I did get back home with my new Christian t-shirt on and went to see the boys playing football they told me to 'get lost'.
I walked away from the field and brushed the dust off my feet, because I'd read about this in the Bible.
I had some extremely lonely times as a child and teen, spending what was probably a very unhealthy amount of time on my own walking the hills around my home. I spent a lot of time praying and talking to God as well which was a healthy thing to do.
I do feel tearful thinking back at some of the trials I had, but thank God I came through them undamaged.

Want to hear something weird? Years after this event, when I was in a church in Risca and doing an outreach in Newport, I was standing in John Frost Square packing up some P.A. equipment. i stopped, looked up and there was Burt, standing there watching me. I know this sounds too weird, but it's 100% true. I've never seen him since.

Early Struggles & The Holy Spirit

2009-08-13T09:52:00.004+01:00

Living a life to please Jesus has not always been easy. Especially when I was young.
I've mentioned before that in the small village I grew up in there were only 2 boys my age. There was also 2 younger than me and 1 older. They would all get together (except for the boy my age who didn't play with the other boy my age...how complicated for 3 kids!). I would join in and play with them on the Junior School playing field after school or on the weekend. Sometimes we went camping together in a local farmers field.

One year my parents decided to go to something called a 'Bible Week', it was going to be in the New Forest. I think it was around 1979, which would make me 11 years old.
I'd now been baptised in water at the Baptist Church at the top of the road. me and another boy called Phillip Wild, who was one of the sons of the Sunday School teacher. I didn't have a lot of idea what was happening, even though it was explained very thouroughly to me by the Minister. I was only about 9, and just knew God wanted it to happen, so I did it. That was really the level of my understanding.

I think it was the following year that the Church hosted something called a Youth For Christ team. This was a bunch of teens and twenty somethings who had given up a year of their life to come and help our snall village be evangelised. It sounded interesting so pleaded with my Mum if we could put one of them up. What was amazing was she said yes and we ended up for a year with the leader of the team, Hugh, staying with us.
It was a very incredible year.
As the year progressed and we had some really fun times with Hugh and the team, who started a youth club in the holidays and took us on midnight hikes with soup at the end, and took us into Newport to play funny disguise games. Hugh also started taking us into Cardiff where we'd heard there was some amazing meetings being held in the Park Hotel. We started going along and found people a lot different to the Baptist Church.
Please hear me on this. The Baptist Church had some good people in it. They tried to walk a Godly life, though it was a very somber one. It fell apart though shortly after the events I'm describing.
At the Park Hotel, there were lots of happy people, they played tamborines, danced! and spoke the Word in a very different way to what I was used to. they would all sing in different languages as well, which apparently was the gift of tounges from The Holy Spirit.
My Dad was particularly taken with all that was going on, and it wasn't long before he was baptised in The Spirit, then a couple of others were from the Church until there was about 10 of us all filled with the Spirit (not me yet though).
After that Dad had real problems at the Baptist Church. They did not like him raising his hands in worship, and pretty much rejected what he had experienced of The Spirit. So, unfortunatley we all left and started a house church.
I'm not sure how we ended up at the New Forest bible Week, but we did.
And this post has gone on a lot longer than I was expecting so I'll pick up the story later.

Casting Crowns

2009-08-13T08:40:00.003+01:00

I've not been listening to Christian music for long. Probably about a year. I keep finding the more I listen to and read Spiritual media the more I'm being changed. It's really weird. It's happening so quickly. It's like suddenly finding you no longer like chocolate or can eat burgers when you only had one yesterday.
Yesterday I sat down to read Ben Elton's Chart Throb, I've enjoyed a lot of his books, but I couldn't read it! Same with music, i'm finding that Spiritual music is hitting me on a completeley different level to 'normal' music.

As said at the beginning, I've not been listening to Christian music for long, but Casting Crowns are one group that really inspire me. Read these lyrics from the song 'WHAT IF HIS PEOPLE PRAYED'

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captive free
And not let satan have one more

What if the Church, for heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took a stand upon God's promise
And stormed hell's rusty gates

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His faith, yeah
And turn from their old ways

And what would happen if we prayed
For those raised up to lead the way
Then maybe kids in school could pray
And unborn children see light of day

What if the life that we pursue
Came from a hunger for the truth
What if the family turned to Jesus
Stopped asking Oprah what to do

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face yeah
And turn from their own way
Chorus II:
He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear, yeah
If only we would pray

Bridge:
If My people called by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray
If My people called by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray

Choruses:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face, yeah
And turn from their old ways
He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear yeaah
If only we would pray

Facing The Giants

2009-08-12T13:43:00.003+01:00

Like a lot of people's reviews I've read on this film, I'll echo one sentiment. I did'nt know they made movies like this! It's not often you can watch a movie and feel better for having done so, but this is one of those. Facing The Giants is a "Christian Film", it has at it's central core the belief that God can change lives and events. From different reviews I've read this point seems to be hotly debated, maybe because when He does it does'nt make the news.

The story follows A High School football coach, Grant Taylor, who's life is just full of those little upsets that piled together can bring someone to their knees. His car is a piece of junk, he only earns enough to tick over, not enough to go out and buy another car or commit to that kind of a loan. His house smells terrible, something has died in the floorboards somewhere! The cooker is on the blink. His job is'nt going anywhere, the team are losing games and he might be replaced and lose his job. And to top it off he has some condition that is preventing him and his wife from having children. Some mountains he has in his life, probably easier to deal with in small doses but brought together are a tsunami for him and he is literally brought to his knees where he asks God for help. Grant is then used by God as a fulcrum for a revival in the high school as he makes a stand and brings Christian standards into the football code. The team has a complete turnaround and starts winning, enabling them to finally meet the biggest team in the State, the Giants. Before going further I must point out, that though this is a Hollywood quality film with high production values, the cast are not actors. Most of them are apparently members of the church where writer/director/star Alex Kendrick goes. Does this make a big difference? from my viewing I'd say no. It took me a bit of time to get used to the accents but after that you soon found that these 'real' people are acting very 'real'. You really feel for Grant and his wife. It's not common to see men cry on film, but in the situation he is in I think most would.

So, a good film? Real enough? Insiring? Yes, yes and yes. If you want to watch something that could genuinely lift your spirits as well as maybe just show you an answer to life then watch this movie. Me, I'm looking forward to getting the first film from this group "Flywheel" and also seeing there most recent one "Fireproof" too.

The Heavenly Man

2009-08-12T08:30:00.002+01:00

I've just finished reading The Heavenly Man, the true story of a Christian Leader, Brother Yun, in China.

Lots has been said about this book, the incredible tortures he endured after being captured by the Chinese authorities for his 'crime' of Christianity, or of the miraculous escape from a maximum security prison as he just walked out the front gates.

What hit me hardest though was the 'wake up call' in this book.
Do you take Jesus seriously?
If your a believer you would probably answer 'yes', after reading this book I had to answer 'not nearly as much as I need to'.

I should explain something else to you at this point, I've not read any Christian book other than The Bible for about 20 years.
One day I just stopped.
I was getting tired of reading other peoples revelation, other peoples miracles. I wanted to get it for myself, first hand, from The Bible myself. And that's what I have been doing for those 20 years.
Recently I was at a Bible Week in Stafford, England, and believed God was speaking to me to 'widen' the sphere of influence he has on me. What I mean by that is, to allow God more chances to speak to me. Part of that is to start reading books where God will speak to me. I know He can speak to me through any means, but realisticaly there's more chance through a book like The Heavenly Man than Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6.

So, to conclude, I recommend this book. It is a serious book that will challenge you to take your walk with Jesus a lot more seriously than I expect you are.

How it all began

2009-08-11T15:15:00.004+01:00

I've heard people talk about how they 'saw the light', 'met God', 'will never forget the day that...', but for me it wasn't like that.
I must have been about 5 or 6 years old. I had a tiny box room in the house I grew up in in a small village called Castleton. It was a small village with only 2 other boys in the neighbourhood my age. And they didn't play together.
I was taken by my God fearing parents to a small Baptist Church at the top of the road where every Sunday I learned to either draw strange aliens in my dad's diary or sketch the stained glass window. We went twice on Sunday. Sunday school in the morning with my teacher Mrs Wild and then in the evening where guaranteed I would fall asleep at the first prayer and wake up in time for the last hymn.
Anyway, I was about 5 or 6... I was in bed and having a cracker of a nightmare. In my dream I knew, as only a kid knows...I mean really know, that one day I would die and either go to Heaven or Hell. I knew that it was one of them and it wouldn't be Heaven. Dont ask me how I knew this. I had no idea about Jesus, the Holy Spirit or even much about the Bible. I just knew this was true.
I woke up crying and mum came in to ask what was wrong.
'I dont want to go to Hell' I cried and mum said we'd talk about it in the morning.
We never did.
From that moment on though I changed. Maybe not 100% straight away, but gradually, like a boat that moves a rudder 1° only to find out a few miles along that it's on a different course.
From that moment on I knew 100% that there was a God. he was everywhere. He knew everything. He knew all I said, all I thought, everything. There would be no hiding. So from that moment on I tried to live in a way that would please Him and not make Him angry.
Maybe I'd just learned The Fear Of The Lord at that early age?
After about 4 or 5 years I was baptised, and years later again baptised in The Holy Spirit.
But, all those years ago now, in that small room, on the bed my dad built as the room was too small for a 'proper' bed I started life.