There’s a storm coming?

Over the weekend the United Kingdom made preparations for what they called ‘St. Jude’s Storm’
The Independent Newspaper in England ran this headline on Sunday 27 October….
What does St Jude have in store for us? The patron saint of desperate causes is being invoked ahead of stormy forecasts
 “It is billed as the "storm of the century" and would, if doomsday predictions were to be believed, bring the country to a grinding halt. However, after initial forecasts of high winds and torrential rains due to strike today, later reports of the path and strength of the "St Jude's Day Storm" were contradictory. The most concrete warning weathermen would give uncertain Britons was to "prepare" for winds of up to 80mph.
In a reflection of the pessimism with which many viewed the storm, it was named after St Jude – patron saint of desperate causes – whose feast day is tomorrow. When asked to comment on the storm's name, the Met Office said naming storms was not within "their remit".

While The Daily Mirror ran this….
St Jude: 10 things you need to know about the patron saint of lost causes 
..highlighting one of those 10 things as… ‘Jude became associated with desperate situations because of a letter he wrote to the Churches of the East. In it he says that the faithful must keep going even in harsh or difficult circumstances.’
And indeed Jude did write such words to the believers…HOWEVER those words only make up the very first and the last paragraph and bring to a close his short letter, interesting is it not, that’s all they take from his words?? They would do well to read the WHOLE letter ALL 25 verses, especially today as people recover from the huge battering, the brief but deadly hurricane-like storm brought to so many!!!

As I listened to the news, here in Tenerife, removed from the pending events where we don’t get such extremes, well not since I’ve been here anyway, I thought back to 1987 when a certain weatherman Michael Fish dismissed the reports of a hurricane on its way to Britain and said ‘we didn’t need to worry?’

We all know it did and history now records it as ‘The Great Storm of 1987’.

Well, have we learned anything in those intervening 26 years??? Looked like it when British Rail together with airports and airlines, cross channel ferries and a host of others decided to take no chances and prepared themselves to face the storm with prearranged cancellations and staff in readiness for any eventuality. The Meteorological Office was being taken seriously this time it seemed as the whole of the South of England and Wales battened down the hatches for a dark and dangerous night ahead!!! BUT even as that was happening, there were the doubters already casting dispersions, like the journalists of The Independent and reporters on the late-night news programs asking the question, ‘Are we not over reacting?’

It seems we haven’t learned the lesson..and it certainly seems we have not learned another lesson too??? 

Only quoting a tiny portion of the words of Jude has no doubt over the centuries been as deliberate as the quoting or none quoting of other portions of Scripture especially those that bring dire warnings to us human beings!!! It was C.S.Lewis who quoted those very appropriate words… 

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 
Jude has equally startling words that are worth reminding people of today..”Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” Jude 3-7 and that’s ONLY the start!!!   
The Old Testament Prophet Amos had similarly stark words with interesting connections to Jude’s, “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!” Amos 4:11-13 and unless you think this warning was ONLY to Israel..think again…

Hebrews 4:13 “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” 
Revelation 20:11-12. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

What can I say but this, 1987 Michael Fish was the ‘so-called expert’ and he said we had nothing to worry about..about the weather that is!! He was wrong!! This time round people sat up and took notice BUT again there were those who began to say,, you don’t need to worry..Like the old priests of Jeremiah’s day who kept saying ‘Peace, peace when there was no peace’ They keep the old mantra going BUT about something far more important, far more dangerous than ‘St. Jude’s Storm’.  
                                          
It’s the time that is fast approaching when God will come again and begin to judge this world in righteousness and justice. This is not about trying to give some answers to the perennial questions of ‘why does God allow such storms to come to our world?’ but rather to ask you to just consider those words again of C.S. Lewis “God…..shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” and ask YOURSELF TODAY are you hearing something from God? Has this storm caused your ears to prick up and listen to what HE has to say for a change??  In those words of Amos that I repeat again ‘Prepare to meet your God!’ and before you dismiss that voice yet again, just ponder this is the light of the ironic example of Michael Fish… 
”The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31

The Gecko I called Fred!

The Gecko I called Fred!

The other day a rather old and disfigured looking gecko appeared on our balcony wall. On close inspection I noticed that is was tail-less! That’s a fascinating thing about geckos.. Some species of gecko have this interesting defense mechanism: they will drop their tail if threatened or if their tail is grabbed. The dropped tail will actually wiggle and twitch on the ground. This tail loss distracts the predator, allowing the gecko to get away while the predator is left holding just a tail. Of course, if you try to grab a gecko by the tail, the same thing is likely to happen. Not the only cause, the tail can be dropped because of bullying by other geckos, stress or fear, illness or infection.. The gecko doesn’t handle pressure or problems too well at all, seeking rather to flee away from either….Little did I know, although my wife did see a story in the appearance of this little creature which resulted in me taking the photo, and she was quite right but little did she know she would become part of the story!

In the early hours of Sunday morning, I awoke to find Lorraine in the Living Room of our apartment strapped up to our portable blood pressure machine..I discovered her heart rate had hit the roof and after an hour of her heart racing out of control things had not improved. By 5.00am we were in the ‘Urgencias’ of the Hospital in Adeje and as is the usual way here, Lorraine was whipped away in a wheelchair having almost collapsed as she entered the door. I was left on my own in the waiting room and as many will know from your own experience what was really only a short time felt like a lifetime of pacing and twiddling AND worrying!!!

I have nicknamed our gecko ‘Fred’ for a couple of reasons that I hope will become apparent now! One of them is in honor, if you could call it that for an admired author! I have the utmost respect for and am greatly indebted to the writings of Frederick (Hope he doesn’t mind me calling my little gecko Fred after him???? I’m confident he won’t when I think of his often wicked sense of humor (NB the US spelling)!!!)) I have recently become acquainted with his writing and have been challenged by his sermons as recorded in ‘Secrets of the Dark’. I am going to quote in a moment or two from his sermon, ‘The Church’ Page 146ff but even as I am putting pen to paper or rather finger on keyboard, I have noticed his recent facebook post and wow, talk about appropriate..Look it up……https://www.facebook.com/Frederick.Buechner.Center/posts/629373457113193
He begins with these words…” "Have no anxiety about anything," Paul writes to the Philippians. In one sense it is like telling a woman with a bad head cold not to sniffle and sneeze so much or a lame man to stop dragging his feet. Or maybe it is more like telling a wino to lay off the booze or a compulsive gambler to stay away from the track.
Is anxiety a disease or an addiction? Perhaps it is something of both. Partly, perhaps, because you can't help it, and partly because for some dark reason you choose not to help it, you torment yourself with detailed visions of the worst that can possibly happen.”
The article of course concludes with what we understand is the reality of the Gospel message and confidence in the knowledge that God is with us ..ALWAYS and we need not fear but even in the midst of the roughest storm we Christians can know peace..HIS PEACE.. “Yet "the Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything," Paul writes, who was evidently in prison at the time and with good reason to be anxious about everything, "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

You know that..I know that…better than most perhaps? As a Pastor I have been with people in the middle of hugely difficult circumstances and have endeavoured to encourage and comfort them through those circumstances by reading from and reminding them of Scripture..BUT you know sometimes folks we, and when I say that I mean ME!! I have to tell you that while I know the Bible and I know the God of the Bible, and I trust Him with heart soul and mind, in the early hours of Sunday morning I sat in that waiting room a shaking, worrying wreck..AND I’ve been there before, beside the incubator in which lay our dying first born son, Stuart. Outside the Operating Theatre into which our son David had just been taken. At the doors of Craigavon Hospital have driven, I reckon way beyond the speed limit to get my injured daughter Julie to casualty..In the Labour Ward of Coleraine Hospital waiting for Joanne giving birth to Matthew who when born looked like he would never make it!!! AND you know I have a list that would take up the rest of the day recounting, days like those, as I am sure you have too???

In his sermon, ‘The Church’ Buechner records for us the 12 Disciples beginning with Simon and then says this so poignantly, “Those were the people Jesus started His church with, as Matthew names them anyway. We know little about them and would give so much to know more…..They’ve had a pretty bad press over the centuries, and by and large they seem to have deserved it. On the night of the arrest, for instance, not one of them apparently raised a finger to defend their friend except Peter, who cut the ear off one of the High Priest’s slaves with his sword, which can hardly have made matters anything but worse and might have led to worse still if Jesus hadn’t told him in effect to cool it…… But of course the other reason for their bad press is that they never seem to have gotten any of His points very well, or if and when they did get them, never seem to have lived by them very well, which makes them people very much like you, if I may so, and also, if I may say so, very much like me. That is to say, they were human beings. Jesus made His Church out of human beings with more or less the same mixture in them of cowardice and guts, of intelligence and stupidity, of selfishness and generosity, of openness of heart and sheer cussedness (Stubborness! Who was it said the US and UK are two nations divided by language??)  as you would be apt to find in any of us……It’s a point worth remembering……It is also worth remembering that even after Jesus made these human beings into a Church, they seem to have gone right on being human beings. They actually knew Jesus as their friend. They sat at His feet and listened to Him speak; they ate with Him and tramped the countryside with Him; they witnessed His miracles; BUT not even ALL of that turned them into HEROES. They kept on being as human as they’d always been with most of the same strengths and most of the same weaknesses”

Doesn’t that encourage you??? It does me…
Oh not because of my humanness and my constant ability to get things wrong BUT the fact that God knows my humanness and my weaknesses and my failings and He loves me just the same. He accepts the shortcomings, not that He wants to leave me like that, Oh no!!! He who has begun a work in me, says Paul, HE is going to finish it…I will be perfect ONE DAY..in the meantime..in other words of Paul, those I posted on Sunday morning, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10
AND my anxiety on Sunday morning was soon lost as faith took over..and the picture I saw was Peter, who had been so victorious in being able to walk on the water but now sinking in the very same water and in response to his cry of faith, seeing the hand of Jesus reach down and pull him back up….

I think those of us in Church Leadership, we are wrong to have people believe that we never have doubts or fears, or worry or cry or have questions we cannot find an answer for….

The other reason I nicknamed the Gecko ‘Fred’ was a song I remember from way back…Bernard Cribbins recorded it in 1962 called ‘Right said FRED’ telling the account of three workmen, one of whom was Fred who tried and tried to shifted some large article, like a grand piano or such down stairs and despite doing everything from removing doors to knocking down a wall they just  couldn’t move it..The song finishes with this verse;
"All right," said Fred, climbing up a ladder
With his crowbar gave a mighty blow.
Was he in trouble, half a ton of rubble landed on the top of his dome.
So Charlie and me had another cuppa tea
And then we went home. 
They gave up and as the dialogue bringing the whole thing to a close says, the reason they failed was;
(I said to Charlie, "We'll just have to leave it
Standing on the landing, that's all
Trouble with Fred is, he's too hasty
Never get nowhere if you're too hasty.")

Don’t be like Fred, either of the song or the gecko…Don’t be giving up too hastily, God hasn’t and don’t be too hard on yourself either, God isn’t..BUT don’t be afraid to admit that sometimes life does get scary and you might not handle it the way you should, and you might just think, here we go again…you want to throw off your tail and run…Go on do as Paul exhorts us even in your most difficult situation, “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:10-11

Timely Reminder in a Truck.

The word ‘Grua’ can send fear into many a motorist in Tenerife, especially if you’ve parked in the wrong spot anywhere in Los Cristianos or Las Americas. They are the guys who roll up in their trucks, and hoist your illegally parked vehicle onto the back and the only way you get it back is paying a 60 euro fine!!! BUT then there are those friendly ‘Gruas’ that you so glad to see when their truck appears..For the uninitiated the word ‘Grua’ is the name given to the man with the ‘tow truck’! And last week Lorraine and I were overjoyed when one of the friendly ones came to our aid. We had driven up to Santa Cruz, just 40 minutes up the motorway from Palm Mar and a journey that he have done many times but on this occasion it was to prove just a little different. We began to have problems with the car about three quarters of the way there. We stopped did a few checks, topped up the oil and the water and back on the road. By the time we got to the well-known (at least here it is!!) Alcampo Shopping Centre it had become evident that our car had a serious problem and we were not driving this vehicle home!!! Thank God for the ‘Grua’ who appeared within 40 minutes in his little yellow truck! It was no time at all until the Seat was secure on the back and Lorraine and I unceremoniously climbed into the cab to begin the journey home..We speak very little Spanish and the ‘Grua’ spoke no English at all yet we managed to communicate and he delivered us, car and all safely back to Palm Mar..

No doubt our experience has been the experience of many, if not all who drive regularly, indeed you could hardly describe it as an epic event in your life!! BUT therein is the point and the ‘Timely Reminder I had sat in the very hot middle seat (atop of the churning engine) inside the cab of that Grua truck last week!!

I have become very fond of words of Frederick Buechner and the other day he posted a quote part of which read “EVERYBODY PRAYS whether he thinks of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else's pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way.” (https://www.facebook.com/Frederick.Buechner.Center?hc_location=timeline)
I had one of those Ah-h-h! moments that day..You see I know all about prayer, the necessity of, the power of, the principle of, the daily practice of, indeed I begin every day with prayer and I know that on that day I prayed with those very profound theological words of many of us super-duper Christians..”Grant us journeying mercies as we drive to Santa Cruz”????? (I know, I know what does that means exactly?? Answers on a postcard to….) How many of us have prayed similarly?? Well the thing is, I don’t think that I am the exception here when it comes to praying. I pray sometimes with words that sound ‘Holy’, words I have picked up along my Christian journey, likely from listening to others praying the same words..Now the words are not the point here either, just a little tangent along the way!!! BUT what is the point that I pray BUT……

DO I REALLY PRAY AND DO I REALLY PRAY ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING???

I am no different at times to anyone else, if we would admit it, that I really pray when I’m in a fix, when trouble hits me and when I really need God to break in..I really pray when something BIG is afoot, I really pray when it comes to my family, I really pray when it comes to my ministry and to the Church I pastor BUT when it comes to me, I’m not sure if my mind does not think, ‘well Lord you have enough on your plate with ALL the other and bigger stuff and….well the little stuff, I can probably look after that…..(Go on admit it, you do too!!!)  

Last week our journey ‘up the road’ to Santa Cruz was, as I have said, a journey that he have done many times, just a routine run out in the car, normal everyday stuff…BUT then events changed that and even though the event was NOT really an event it reminded me that ever little, familiar, routine, everyday thing that we do is something that needs to be given to the Lord in prayer and to Him is just as important as any other of the ‘bigger’ events!! AND remember this, for this is what I was reminded of….What begins for us all as an ordinary day, an ordinary event has the potential, of which the ALL KNOWING GOD is already aware, of becoming an extraordinary day or an extraordinary event that ONLY the supernatural power and the amazing Grace of God will enable you or I to ever get through it. So rather than wait for things to change, as they inevitably do....

TAKE EVERYTHING…ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING TO THE LORD IN PRAYER….AND DO IT NOW…BEFORE YOU BEGIN ANYTHING..

7 HATED THINGS!

7 HATED THINGS! 

Last week I came across the story of the homeless man from Boston, Glen James, who having found a backpack containing among other things money to a total of $42.000 in cash and travellers cheques, immediately handed the bag over to Boston Police who were then able to return the lost bag and money to its rightful owner..
The story got headline attention WHY???
Because of his HONESTY!!

What a sad, sad reflection on our world I thought!! For me however something else struck home when I read further and discovered the reason the man returned the bag. Despite saying he has been homeless for years, he wrote: “Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a ... penny of the money I found.” Mr James said in a statement: "I am extremely religious. God has always very well looked after me."

AND that’s what got me thinking, Bad enough the world is haywire BUT what if the Christians aren’t much better????

I have been a Christian since 1985 and whilst I would love to say that I have been ALL that I should have been, I have made my fair share of mistakes and guilty of much sin in those 28 years.. I am not perfect by any means and neither am I entering into the realms of hypocrisy by making rash statements like, ‘I would never do this!!!’ BUT in those years of walking with the Lord and ministering for the Lord as a Pastor I have been also bombarded personally and hurtfully by other Christians who by their words and deeds exhibit clearly to me that, while they may know God, they evidently DO NOT know the Word of God.

It reminds me of a story of W. P. Nicholson, one of Ulster’s greatest evangelists who was conducting a mission in Cookstown…On one of the days after the previous night’s meeting were many had been saved, W P, as he was called, was walking in the Main Street of Cookstown and noticed a drunken man on the other side of the street who was trying to gain his attention. He crossed over and the drunken man proceeded to tell him that he was one of the ones who was ‘converted to the Lord’ at the meeting the night before? To which W.P replied 'well you may be one of my converts but I doubt you are one of HIS?'

Here’s one of those portions of Scripture you read and you underline, at least I do and I did because it says here these things God HATES!! Hates to see in His Children, yet it is sad to say I have got to the stage where, like the world has almost given up on expecting people to be honest, I to have almost given up expecting ‘brothers and sisters’ to live and talk and behave as they should…Listen to this…as its paraphrased by ‘The Message’
Here are six things God hates,                                          

 
and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,                                                                  
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family. - Proverbs 6:16-19

NOW here’s my 2013 personal paraphrase…. 7 HATED THINGS
1. A people who find it easier to be dishonest than honest?
2. A people who find it easier to be unforgiving than forgiving?
3. A people who find it easier to be uncommitted than committed?
4. A people who find it easier to gossip than speak truth? (Linked to this then!)
5. A people who find it easier to make judgements of hearing one side of a story than take the trouble to find out the other side first?
6. A people who find it easier to say things behind your back and to others rather than say those things to you face to face?
7. A people who find it easier to be un-Christlike than to be Christlike?????

All I want to say today is come on guys get your act together live up to your calling in Christ. Start behaving right, get out there and say you’re sorry to a lot of people and ask the Holy Spirit to change that attitude you have got…. Here are TWO more verses just to finish with and for ALL of us to think about this week…

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished (perfected) on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

The Galilean has WON!

If you haven’t worked out the title yet, read on and you will!!!

Yesterday’s theme as church gathered around the Word of God was best summed up by these words, ‘A relationship with God is the most important relationship you can have. Embrace it EVERY DAY!’ This message was forcefully brought home to me later in the “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” NO, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 35-39..
day as I once again sat with a grieving family whose father had just passed away.. An expression often hear at times like these is, ‘I am sorry for your loss’ or ‘so and so has lost their father’ BUT no such thing could be said of the one who has died but who in life has not just heard those words above BUT they have become a reality in their lives and so upon death it is NOT that they are lost, for we know where they have gone and it is certainly not that we lose them for ‘in Christ’ we shall see them again. In his letter to the Romans believers who faced relentless persecution and the constant threat of death he wrote,
Wow are they not powerful words??? 
You see Paul penned those fantastic words assured himself that having been confronted with Christ, and exchanged all his religious credentials and intellectual acclaim and every ounce of self-achieved worth (Philippians 3: 4-6) for the life of Jesus Christ..He gained a whole new life that would last the whole of eternity…HOW LONG IS THAT??? FOREVER!!! 
No wonder that having experienced the reality of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Paul said of all those other things, they were just ‘rubbish’ (Philippians 3: 8) OR as the King James Version renders it and rightly as ‘dung’,  in other words utterly useless, of NO worth or value.

My friend Ian Macleod pens ‘A thought’ on Saturday nights and last Saturday he wrote something powerful, after quoting this verse, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 8:36 and according to the testimony of Paul..........................the answer is EVERYTHING!!!

I urge you to read Ian’s thought provoking word which, with his permission I am adding to the end of this blog..For you see if you are depending upon ALL that Paul ‘once upon a time’ depended upon then you are literally living out your own fairy tale? Because when it comes to the end nothing of that will count and nothing of that will stop you getting to that place where YOU will face that last enemy…DEATH!! That was my own testimony years ago as I tried to go to sleep in a Hospital bed and quite honestly, it literally scared the life out me, that I feared even to sleep…BUT now I know Jesus Christ and I fear neither sleep nor death for HE has conquered death and the fear of death, as Paul once again wrote, this time to the Corinthians believers, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (have died). For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.”……  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 1 Corinthians 15:20-57                                                                                                  
Victory in Jesus stands at the heart of the Gospel, many think and have you to beleive that when Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” from the Cross, it was cry of defeat BUT oh No!, it was not, it was shout of victory…and it was only ONE Greek word..”TETELESTI” that declared triumphantly, victory was won, Jesus did it all, paid it all, beat it all, death, the grave sin and Satan beat them ALL..that word shook the world.. ”and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened..” Matthew 27:51-52 ….and can shake your world up still?

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from Glory.                 

 

How He gave His life on Calvary,
To save a wretch like me.
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood’s atoning.
Then I repented of my sins,
And won the victory!
Oh victory in Jesus!
My Savior, forever!
He sought me,
And bought me,
With His redeeming blood!
He loved me ere’ I knew Him,
And all my love is due Him.
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood!

The opening title, “You have won, O Galilean” was said by Emperor Julian, having attempted to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire.
AND HE CERTAINTLY DID!!

You want to experience this victory over your life and over death then you must have a relationship with that same Jesus..Oh yes the one who died on that Cross over 2000 years ago and if that had have been all, well I would never be writing this at all BUT as the Scriptures declared and the hundreds witnessed and testified to (EG ! Corinthians 15: 5-7) "God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held by it.” Acts 2:24. Jesus lives and there is salvation (whereby we are adopted (Galatians 4:5) into HIS family = relationship!) in NO ONE ELSE, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we MUST be saved (only by which can we become Children of God (Romans 8:15-18))” Acts 4:12.

I am conducting another funeral now on Wednesday. I have attended or conducted a lot of funerals, sadly not all of them will be like the funeral on Wednesday.. Most will be in an atmosphere of uncertainty because the person has died with NO testimony of this essential relationship with the living God. BUT when we know, then those who are left behind… oh yes they cry, they know pain because there is the human separation, but as the Bible declares, they do not “grieve as others do who have no hope.”
To those of us who have entered into this vital relationship with God, Jesus has gone before us into heaven and is right now preparing a heavenly home for us, where we will be with the HIM and a great and glorious company of all of God’s people..Note the company is God’s people, NO ONE else will be there..that is why it is hugely important and extremely urgent that, as I finish you  understand what Jesus was saying here, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.
We always talk about the God of love and He is BUT He is also the God who is Holy and will judge righteously..And if you do not know Him personally, then you should fear Him and fear death for without Christ in your life, you tell me from this verse
WHERE it will ALL end for YOU??? 

Now you know why I am asking you to read Ian Macleod’s word from Saturday that I attach here below……

My mind is set on a verse tonight which I would like to share and give a practical explanation of it in simple terms which we can all understand. And just for info, when Jesus mentions “a man”, it means ‘mankind’ therefore relates to a person, both male and female.
Jesus said, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul” (Mark 8:36)
 When I think of this verse, I do it in this way; a way that is so easy for us to understand in a simple profit and loss ledger.
The debit (D) side is what we will lose at death and
The credit side (C) is what can be gained.
So here we go…
So let’s address the question then. What’s more important to you this evening than Jesus?
You have your relationships and families. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your neighbours and your friends. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your job, your car and your money. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your home and your land. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your holidays, shops, clothes and your lifestyle. You can’t take them when you die.
You have your dreams, your hopes and aspirations and all the important issues you fight for. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have power, pride, wisdom and good works. You can’t take them with you when you die - D
You have the offer of the Gospel, the mercy of God and the hope of salvation. You can’t even take them – they’re only on offer while you’re here on earth - D
That leaves you with only one earthly component. Your body! You can’t take that either. You’re even stripped of the body that means so much to you – at least for a time - D
 Everything is taken from you. - D
 You go into death with only one living and real element of your being.
Your soul!!
All the things that this world offers you can never make you truly happy. They’re all temporary; they’re fading, perishing and passing away.
Your soul is so precious that it required God in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, to come and pay the ransom for it. (C)
So it leaves the question – Is that all that can go in the credit column?
Just Jesus?
That’s the burning question, and that’s what I leave with you to think about tonight.
Because the more I think about this the more I realise how precious Jesus Christ is and how thankful we all ought to be that He answers our true call for mercy and pardon.
 The only really important thing for all of us is to have Christ at our side and to ensure that he is our personal Saviour here in life and for eternity. His word says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Thanks to Ian Macleod
(Evangelism Coordinator at Western Isles Free Church Presbytery)

Watch the news tonight. Read your paper tomorrow. Click unto MSN News right now, all you see, all you read is that life is fragile and extremely uncertain..From whatever cause, there is a grim statistic that will include me in the numbers eventually, every hour that passes, 6305 people die in this world!!! 
SO………..“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near (while you have life).” Isaiah 55:6

¿Cuánto cuesta?

¿Cuánto cuesta?

I learned this question in Spanish very quickly..’How much does it cost?’ I need to know if I can afford it before I buy it!!! Jesus said something like this about our salvation didn’t He? Oh yes He did in Luke 14:26-33 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

Over the past weekend we have been following the terrible events in Nairobi, where terrorist took over a shopping mall and in doing so killed numerous people, including children, injured many more and held hostages captive for hours. The stand-off continues this morning (Monday 23 Sept.). Yesterday another massacre took place in another country, this time Pakistan where Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up outside and inside a Christian Church in Peshawar City killing 75 people and injuring many more. The morning service had just ended at All Saint’s Church and the victims were leaving to return home. Their crime according to the terrorists???
They are Christians in a Muslim Country!!!!

We didn’t hear much of this attack, it did not appear as the headlines on any news report that I saw or heard and today it will likely be pushed to middle pages of our newspapers..
In Tenerife and likely in the best part of the United Kingdom too we will hear more talk today of the great victory of City over United in the Manchester Derby yesterday?

While all this was going on yesterday, the majority of those who will read this blog went off to Church. You prayed, you sang, you heard the Word of God read and preached. You enjoyed fellowship with other Chirsitans. You went home, enjoyed your Sunday dinner, and relaxed in the afternoon and today you have woken up and praising God for another new day..

How blessed we are to live in countries where to be a Christian is ‘easy’ to live our lives of faith is to do so without fear!! Yet there are in many countries around the World, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran but to name a few where brothers and sisters are living and dying for their faith!!
Do we know anything of this at all???



To quote the words of Amos, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria” 6:1  or as the hymn writer Isaac Watts puts it, “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize, and sailed through bloody seas?”
The hymn those words come from is of course, ‘Am I soldier of the Cross’ maybe not the most appropriate thing to say today, when our image of soldiers in Kenya dressed in battle gear and armed to the teeth, yet an analogy that is pictured throughout the New Testament and is apt today. A soldier, after all, is always ready for battle, always prepared, always listening and waiting for his Commanding Officers orders and prepared also to receive the consequences of following those orders, even to the giving of one's life.
We can almost distance ourselves from the events of continents far away and far removed from the community and culture we live in but someday soon we, even in our democratic nations are going to be called to stand up and pay a cost for our faith!  You may well have missed this last week for it certainly never got onto any news bulletin that I know of but did you know that in Scotland on Wednesday last (18 Sept) a Josh Williamson was arrested by Perth Police for preaching the Gospel. After being cautioned he was released but only after being warned NOT to preach again on the streets of Perth.


Wow..Acts Chapter 4 all over again!.in Scotland

and it is not going to be long before we all must face up the reality of do I obey man or God???
(http://www.joshwilliamson.org/home/86-arrested-for-preaching-the-gospel.html)

For too long we have been selling a cheap Gospel that never speaks of the cost..Even in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ and His amazing saving grace we lavish our words on God’s FREE gift but seldom, except for Easter perhaps, do we focus our thoughts on the awesome cost, God’s precious Son’s life! BUT when it comes to discipling people we must never neglect to tell them whilst it cost them NOTHING to be saved, it may well cost them EVERYTHING to live for HIM!
Are you ready for that??
Chapter 14 of Luke’s Gospel ends with these words that should cause us to search our hearts deeply before answering that question,
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  

Our prayers go out to all the families mourning today in Kenya and in Pakistan for the injured and for the traumatised children and for the Lord to strengthen us for the days ahead.

This Sceptical Old Pastor!

This Sceptical Old Pastor!  

The title comes from another.. words similar to those written of Fredrick Buechner, who called himself “this sceptical old believer, this believing old sceptical”. (It was my good friend Stuart Pascal who spoke so passionately about Buechner that inspired me to obtain one of his books and I’m glad on both counts!) Though the title is from another yet it speaks so well of my own heart and from what I understand of Buechner and others it seems he and I are not alone and many a Pastor/Preacher could well describe themselves similarly…Hence the reason I tell this story..For it is, I feel, more a story than a blog but I trust that there will be encouragement derived by all who read it!

Sundays are always days of doing and of organisation. Despite good preparations being made beforehand things always seem to need adjusting or amending.. In our particular situation it is even more emphasised as we must set up the room in which the morning service is to take place, from scratch, as it were, every Sunday morning. We get there early, well Martins and Oliver, earlier than the rest of us, two of the greatest assets of our little church. They busy themselves getting the seating arranged and everything else in its proper place while others of us get the technology ‘stuff’ up and running. It is all quite straightforward really and everyone now is accustomed to doing what they do and knowing where what goes where..We set aside a time of prayer before the service is to begin and try to be in prayer by 10.30! However, despite all our best efforts and hard work, this seldom happens, something inevitably goes wrong? Something doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do or even worse the keys of the room cannot be found anywhere! The plain fact is, no matter how early we get there, it seems we end up ‘chasing our tails’ THAT IS…UNTIL yesterday?????

Fifteen minutes was all it took? The room had been more or less set up for us by the Hotel staff (Not normally done!!!) and everything else just fell into place perfectly.. Everything did as it was supposed to do, switched flicked turned on or off what they were meant to and we were ready to worship and we were ready to go to prayer..10.30am we began to pray and to praise God for another opportunity to gather as church and bless His Name.. What a beautiful start to this Sunday morning!!!
                                                                        THAT IS…UNTIL 11.00am?????

Well everything began to go wrong!!! The keyboard through which we play our music refused to work. So we read the Bile text for the message. Still no sound! So we prayed  and we prayed a bit more, but the praying was getting a little strained to say the least, as we competed with the noise of banging and metallic sounds from the ones trying to get the keyboard finally to work and I’m not sure if we were really wholeheartedly into the prayer with most having one  eye upon heaven and the other open and upon the defunct box that was supposed to be playing music…It was getting really irritating, well that’s what was going on in my mind and then suddenly there was a familiar sound!! The keyboard was doing what it was supposed to be doing. Hallelujah!!!
Let’s sing, let’s praise God! Appropriately, I think, ‘Be thou my Vision’ BUT then it went all wrong again and the words and the verses being projected on the screen for us all to follow where somehow unfamiliar and all mixed up..This has become farcical almost and my heart was sinking deeper and deeper..How can God be glorified in all this mess? I was wondering in my mind at this stage was there anything that I or we could do this morning that could redeem the situation?? AND before you shout down the internet at me, I know, I know, it’s all me, me, me. Where’s God in all this???

Unknown to me, at the time, I was being given a lesson that I needed to learn. The problems and the growing irritation in my head, and the questions I was asking myself spoke of a greater problem within my soul. I had become that ‘Sceptical Old Pastor’! That even though I know with all my heart that God had brought Lorraine and I to Tenerife for ‘such a time as this’ and even though we had been given evidence upon evidence of God’s blessing upon ourselves since we have come, I had become ‘a believing old sceptical’ like Buechner not really expecting God to do anything miraculous with the Church! I confess that even though the work is still just in its infancy, I had already got into that place of ‘going through the motions’???                        THAT IS…UNTIL?????

…yesterday and God grabbed my attention and got my attention!! For out of the chaos and confusion God did a miraculous thing, and it was in spite of me and in spite of all the mistakes and all that went wrong,  God did a work amongst us all and the Holy Spirit broke through and ‘we beheld His Glory’!!!
I spoke on ‘The Power of Surrender’ wow, now even that was of the Holy Spirit. In the congregation was a couple from Holland, Peter and Elena and their little daughter, Marina.

Elena will tell her own story in another place (You will be able to read Elena’s testimony by returning to CCC Homepage) But Elena has been questioning her need to be baptised for a long time. For 6 years she has been asked by mentors and Pastors, ‘Why have you not been baptised?’ Elena, afterwards told me she knew the need to be baptised, she knew the scriptures but was waiting for the Lord to convict her that this was something she must do for HIM! Not because the church or the pastor or another Christian said so BUT because God said so!  It was immediately after all the chaos that Elena felt the conviction of God and as she sang and listened to the Word of God she surrendered herself afresh to the Will of God and leaving the church she wept! She didn’t really know why she didn’t say more to me before leaving but when she and Peter got back to their Hotel she got Peter to phone me.. We met up later in the afternoon and Elena told me her story with tears flowing down her cheeks.‘I must be baptised right now” and so she was, just off the beach in Las Americas, I had the great privilege of being part of what God did in that young woman’s life yesterday morning.

I’m no longer that ‘Old Sceptical Pastor’! I was reminded so vividly yesterday morning that God did this in my life, 28 years ago.. He still does this in lives today and He can still do this in lives tomorrow. In the middle of chaos and confusion, when we think that there is no hope, God is at work, God can work because it’s at those times when all we have done has amounted to nothing, BUT God says it’s not about you, it’s not what you do or can do it’s about what I do and out of chaos and confusion and what seems defeat HE brings about order and beauty and transformation, now that’s what I call miraculous. That is the Power of Surrender…finding yourself in the place where YOU believe and see the God who still does miraculous things!!!

There were at least TWO people who put their hands up in Surrender yesterday and today is the beginning of a whole new adventure CONVINCED that God has more of the miraculous for both of them to experience!!!!

Character verses Reputation is the question???

Character verses Reputation is the question???

Just last week someone posted on facebook the following quote by John Wooden, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” The more I thought about that quote the more I found it to troubled me…Is it right to think of these two things as an either or question?? Is it simply one or the other or is it both or is John Wooden indeed right that reputation is a mere unimportant opinion?

There is no doubt in my mind that God is concerned about my CHARACTER and so should I. God is definitely more interested in developing my character than He is concerned about my comfort and that Godly CHARACTER ought to manifest itself in the growth of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:20). BUT should I NOT also be concerned about my REPUTATION?
There is a verse that has always challenged me. Among the seven Churches spoken to in Revelation Chapter 2 and 3 there is this word concerning the Church at Sardis..Read these words carefully! “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a REPUTATION of being alive, but you are dead.” Rev.3:1. Sardis had a reputation!! Here a Church and the word on the street was, there is a buzz in that place..Looking for a Church? Sardis is the place to be, everything is happening there! That’s what people were saying! Sardis had a reputation of being alive! Wow! What a great testimony, or was it, it was its reputation but was it the truth? It was a man called Thomas Paine who made this observation, “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” And sure enough God’s view of this Church was very different to the reputation it had in the world? God’s view of this church was they were not alive at all, but rather they were DEAD!                                                                                                                                                     Which ONE is more important???                                                                                                        The reputation you have in the world or the character you have that is seen by God?                        Well that is an easy one to answer, the latter is eternally and infinitely of more importance than the former. Unfortunately this generation we live in that hankers after ‘celebrity’ (see last week’s blog) has made inroads into the Church..were many in leadership, it seems to me, whether in the pulpit or not consider gaining  a reputation to be something of great importance, while spending little time considering their character at all. Their appearance, their intonation, their performance and resulting praise and applause or sought after more I fear than humility or servanthood or even godliness.. I agree here with Abraham Lincoln who said,  “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Dare I say that much of what we see and hear in Christian Leadership is far from being the real thing? No wonder our people are becoming what they are? As Robert Murray McCheyne declared, “If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry…..It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”
Having said that I am still left with the original question? And while CHARACTER is utterly important I do believe that we must also ensure our reputation is that which equates with my walk with God and therefore Glorifies Him too. As one Elbert Hubbard once said, perhaps a little ‘tongue-n-cheek’, “Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.” This I think is the graver situation of them ALL!
Far too many are unconcerned about what people think of them to such an extent that they feel able to behave in whatever way they like and think it is OK! Ironically Sardis was a city built 1000 feet up on the side of a mountain and thought itself to be impregnable. However, the city did fall to enemies twice during its history both times the enemy sneaked in and opened the gates while the people of Sardis slept. Contented no doubt with the reputation!!!!!! Now there’s a great analogy is it not? 

 

You were in Church yesterday. You sang the loudest, you prayed the longest BUT today back in the office, on the shop floor, in the check-out queue you have the reputation of being quick tempered, impatient, rude, and ungracious and you don’t care what people think. BUT God cares, I think, His judgment is this, “The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13
OR….YOU DO care what people think BUT for all the wrong reasons, you want to be one of the crowd, don’t want to upset the applecart as it were, you’re the one always cracking the jokes, you’re the one who buys everyone the drink..You have a reputation…’The Party Animal’. Again Isaiah says, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.” Isaiah 35:8……

 

Are you a fool?

You have a reputation, all of us do, we build that reputation over the time we spend with the people who give it to us…The question that should therefore and more importantly be asked is this??? Does that reputation match the character? That CHRACTER that YOU do need to be really concerned about and asking God by His Holy Spirit to develop in you and as a consequence will ensure that when it is said of you, He/she has a reputation of being alive…God says ‘I agree’  and I say Amen!
It is as one final quote puts it, “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.” Words aptly spoken by the great Dwight L Moody.

Watch out for the Spin-doctors?

      
I found this picture and I am sorry I just could not help myself!!!

I have been following various blogs etc. since last week and this topic of ‘Why are Millennials leaving Church?’ Bit of an oxymoron is it not..most of them have never actually joined a Church from which to leave???? However the debate  the original blog sparked off  has become viral around the ‘religious world’ and there has developed a ‘slanging match between the countering sides’

I was tempted to put my tuppence worth into the arena then saw this photo and caught myself on!

All these ‘millennials’ referred to.... are people, young people growing up in a generation that has the need to experience celebrity and popularity and success. There is no longer room among this generation for the Olympic ideal..”It’s not the winning but the taking part that counts” No, no, no one remembers the runner-up. It’s all or nothing..It’s win, win, win..NO ONE LIKES A LOSER!           Yet the times we live in, of recession and financial upheaval make that dream so much less achievable BUT they try nonetheless..The result is few make it and the suicide rate among our young people goes sky high and the ones who do make it, make it to the front page of ‘Hello’ BUT only for a while until the next wannabe kicks them off the front page that is until they sink low enough in addiction and depression that they become front page news again for ALL the wrong reasons.          

It strikes me that these ‘Millennials’ have got themselves into a spiral that they have little control over. They don't realise that there are others orchestrating their lives for their own selfish ends and for so many on the merry-go-round of fame, fortune and fantasy they end up in a heap of divorce, debt and often drunkenness!!! Meanwhile we as ‘The Church’ are still doing what Amy Carmichael so graphically portrayed in an account of a vision she had one night when unable to sleep, “Then I saw more streams of people from all parts. They were blind, stone-blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, clutching at empty air….On top the cliff she saw other groups of people, one of which was a group of christians with their backs to the cliff peacefully unawares of what was going on behind them but busy themselves making daisy chains?” (http://fixednails.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/amy-carmichaels-vision/)
Still making our 21st Century Daisy Chains meanwhile the generation now labeled ‘MILLENNIALS’ are as, Robert Murray McCheyne once described as hearing like, “The tramp, tramp, tramp of Christ-less feet” heading down the road to destruction and hell? That’s why this picture so grabbed my attention..All the sooth-sayers and spin-doctors of our world are peddling their glittering wares and WE are driving along oblivious to them waiting there at the side of the road to devour these very people for whom Jesus died and to whom HE has sent us out to reach.          

Waken up church! we are NOT in the spin-doctoring  business…Tell people the truth..I know..they don’t want to hear it....but they need to.. "Sin will take THEM farther than THEY want to go, keep THEM longer than THEY want to stay, and cost THEM more than THEY want to pay." Always has done, always will do!
The answer??? “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

If you would like to know more about God’s amazing gift of Salvation please feel welcome to contact me at adrian@cristianoscommunitychurch.com

What is alien to the millennials?

I found one of those ‘funny church’ signs the other day and used it for a post in the church facebook page. The sign made a very important point and one that I wanted to discuss further in this blog. We have become so concerned and centred, I think, on numbers and wrestling with the apparent decline in the numbers attending church!! Mind you if you go by statistics and you know what they say about those, according to a recent poll in England there are more people going to church on a Sunday than are attending football matches…Maybe that’s only because tickets have got too expensive for the ordinary man???? No I am only joking!!!!!

Last week I’ve picked up more than a few articles on this subject, one of those was a blog by Rachel Evans on CNN Belief Blog entitled ‘Why millennials are leaving Church’? I didn’t even know who or what ‘millennials’ were or are? I discovered it’s the term that encompasses the generation that is growing up now! I.E. The next generation that we must reach for the church to continue????       I’m not answering the questions raised in Rachel’s blog that was done brilliantly by another; http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2013/08/01/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church-a-response-to-rachel-held-evans/
Another blog report I read was a response to an editorial that appeared recently in The Independent Newspaper in London. It was throwing a punch at the Archbishop of Canterbury and his involvement in politics. That resulted from Justin Welby’s position in the House of Lords where he was questioning the Governments policy on poverty and welfare. The response I read was from Nick Baines ‘The musings of a restless Bishop’ blog;  http://nickbaines.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/religion-and-politics/  It to is worth a read.

The point I found in both these articles was that there are people who will NEVER come to church. They will find a reason that is if they need to, not to come and the general public opinion regarding church is negative and it will take every opportunity to take a swipe at it? Well what’s new???

If I go back to where I started and that church sign at the top. We have become so preoccupied at attracting people in that we have, I believe, lost our way and lost our integrity on the way?                  I understand completely the necessity to maintain a grip on communicating in a modern era but some of the things that have been tried, adopted or considered verge on the ridiculous.                               Do we believe that when God set out the paradigm for reaching the world with the Gospel as He did in His Word, that He was not aware of the technological era that would be the 21st Century or that the citizens of this century would be so erudite that we need to espouse a more scholarly approach? REALLY?
My mind is clear on this, I believe the Scriptures when they say, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?.... So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:14+17 therefore “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” Romans 1:16

The need of the day is for the Church to stand firm and preach the Word of God and I mean the whole Word..One more article of interest to this debate was one posted today entitled. ‘I wonder if Sunday School is destroying our kids’? http://beliefsoftheheart.com/2013/07/23/i-wonder-if-sunday-school-is-destroying-our-kids-2/
Highlighted in that is the way in which we portray bible Characters in their Heroic garb ONLY without mentioning their flaws or failings..It is so important for the Church to preach the whole counsel of the Word of God, that way it will maintain its integrity and that way and that way ONLY  has God promised bring about His purpose. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;  it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11

It is not for me or any of us to get hung up on numbers. It is for those of us who lead to ensure that we do so according to the Bible and that for me is, Preach the Word, in season and out of season, keep preaching the Word, ALL of it, believing absolutely that God is building His Church and never mind absentee millennials or newspaper editorials, the power of Hell itself will NEVER prevail against it..BY all means examine methods and programs, but never think it will by my cleverness that people will be attracted to the Gospel, it will be as we do this, sow the seed (The Word…Mark 4:14) be faithful to doing just that and leave the growing to God by the power of His Holy Spirit!

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 1 Corintians 3:5-7
And the perfect illustration of that is the picture Jesus Himself portrayed….Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.  The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.” Mark 4:26-29

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Facebook YES or NO? Not a new question I know but one that keeps coming up. There are those who have strong opinions when it comes to social networking and whether they are in the yes or the no camp those opinions seem to lead to a categorising of people with a different opinion as well, less than astute shall we say. From my part I find this very much the case within Christians circles. There are avid supporters and there are as avid critics BUT it is words from the latter group that I find a little difficult to understand.                   I know there are inherent dangers and I find it incomprehensible how people can use social media to berate others, often to extremes and how too people can live out their ever waking moment by tweet? However they are but the minority, I believe, and for most, like myself, who see Facebook or twitter or LinkedIn as real opportunities for good and for maintaining relationships that in the past when we lived without this technology would have died or faded because of distance in time and geography! Just by way of example, in the last twelve months even living as I am now back in Tenerife I have been able to reconnect with two colleagues that I hadn’t seen or spoken to in over 30 years. One of those men sadly died a few months ago BUT thanks to Facebook we had the opportunity to share our testimonies and encourage one another in our ministries and just talk about the goodness of the Lord. As another example, my wife and I have gone through and continue to go through a difficult period which we shared on our Facebook page and when you are going through such times, far away as we are from family and best friends, it was such a blessing to our hearts to have so many respond with promises of prayer for us..Those folks kept us going as they reached out to God and to us. Most importantly however has been the ability to keep people up-to-date with our ministry in Tenerife and from here with the use of Facebook reach out across the Island and the world with the message of the Gospel.  

                                                                                                                                                          These are but a few examples and I have umpteen more so I really find it hard to accept when a brother or a sister considers me or any other Christian to be ‘less than spiritual’ because I or they use social networking????? Oh yes I fully accept that there are those, some of which I have already mentioned and others such as those who post items that hardly glorify God or edify anyone at all and certainly do give good cause for the critics who then say ‘I told you so!’ BUT in the words of a good old idiomatic expression, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” AND for ALL of us using the web as our means of ministry and of fellowship perhaps we can apply the words of Paul not only to our thoughts but to our posts and give no one reason to criticise or question your spirituality, “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think (WRITE) about these things.” Philippians 4:8.

Please click ‘like’ if you like this blog, if not well you’re probably not on Facebook then, so you don’t need to do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!