Muirfield Musings????

If you are a Golf fan you’ll recognise the significance of the title..if you are not, however, you won’t have a clue??? This weekend the world’s top professional golfers were battling the Scottish Links Course at Muirfield in the hope to come away with the most prized trophy in World Golf, The Open Championship. Links golf courses are notoriously difficult to play that even those who have grown up around them find no advantage to those who are strangers to these courses. This year has made that point clear again when an American Phil Mickelson took the trophy once again across the pound! (America has NO links courses!)

I tampered with golf a little bit a few years ago. The ‘handicap’ principle in golf makes it a game that anyone can play, with anyone else no matter the difference in their playing ability and each have an equal opportunity to win, unfortunately my handicap in golf was ME! 
                                                                                                                                                            BUT I learned great lessons from golf and over the weekend was reminded of another couple.
No matter what experience or experiences you have, life is tough and can prove very difficult at times. Phil Mickelson was the only player after four days of competition who had an ‘under par’ score. The entire field of professional golfers, with their vast experience, skill and excellent equipment found Muirfield so difficult this year that ALL but one were beaten by the course itself!!

That is the reality of life isn’t it?                                                                                                            
I had a tough week, last week and quite honestly I found myself going into the weekend more than a bit discouraged. The events of the week almost beat me!!! That was until Sunday. Thank God for Sunday!! Now there’s another analogy….if we had just a Good Friday and NO Easter Sunday?? Thank God for Sunday!! I stepped into Church, I was among the people of God, I heard the Mighty Word of God (and I preached it!), we sang together, we prayed together and we talked with one another AND the Lord lifted my soul, Hallelujah.
                                                                                                                                                                  I came home yesterday with a renewed heart and thoroughly encouraged. Thank you Lord…………

Going back to the golf!!! One bad round never puts you off going back unto the course. One bad competition won’t stop those guys going off to play in another one next week.. One disappointment will not prevent them seeing another victory.. You see they have been around golf long enough to know that every one of them has bad days and won’t play well, the ball will not always go their way BUT then there are those days when they will and they will be the one holding a trophy in the air..

This is a new week, it holds great potential, don’t let the discouragement of last week rob you of the encouragement in this week..Keep going, learn from the mistakes if there were any, “and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9. One more thing too, to remember, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9. Hey! Never mind a trophy, even if it is the prized ‘Claret Jug’!!!!

AND make sure YOU encourage someone else this week too. You will make their week better, I can tell you!!!
 

Always there!

We had looked forward so much to the arrival of Julie, Giz, Hannah and Connor joining us in Tenerife for two weeks holiday. BUT those two weeks passed quickly by and on Thursday past we were back at the airport for the tearful farewell...........................

When we return to Ireland we know the family are as excited about that as we are when they are coming this way. This is especially so of the grandchildren and most especially our eldest and only granddaughter Hannah who is particularly enthusiastic about the arrival of Nanny!!
YET!
When we land at her house she is straight out the door to friends or off playing somewhere else??? We could never quite understand, that is, until now!! In the past when family have visited us here they have stayed with us or in another apartment but still on our complex, so we literally spent all of the time with them. On this occasion they were staying some distance away and the commitments of work meant we were not able to be with them all of the time…BUT we knew they were there! We knew that we could simply jump in the car and go over to them!! We were content with the knowledge they were here close to us and if and when we wanted to we could see them, talk to them be with them.. Now they have returned home, I realised how Hannah felt. We were there; she knew that she could go off and play knowing that at any point should she come back home or just come downstairs we would be there. It was enough for Hannah that we were there. I miss them being around, even now I’m fighting back the tears, I wish they could always be around, ALL OF THEM but they cannot!!

Who of you reading this is not feeling this very same way? You wish you had the ones you loved around, here? Worse for many, perhaps, is that the one you loved the most has not just gone back home but had gone forever! If only they were still around? BUT they cannot!
Yet there is ONE who can know, who makes all the difference in my life, and although I miss the closeness of family around me here, still He makes up for that and He fills the empty space and replaces my sadness with His joy AND the greatest thing is that He, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ IS ALWAYS..WILL ALWAYS be around.. Listen to what Hebrews 13 says  “Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me? (He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.)

Tell me this would you not like to get to know this Jesus and know as I do that there is now NEVER a time in my life when I can say, I have no one who loves me, no one who cares, no one around???

Lessons from The Ant!

Lessons from the Ants! 

 

When you live in Tenerife you have to get used to one of two things..Well maybe you have to get used to BOTH in some places? Cockroaches or ants!
Personally speaking I’d rather have the ants. I know my wife would definitely rather have the ants! It’s just as well as the apartment we live in has ants, little tiny, minuscule ants, so tiny you can hardly see them that find their way into everything. They love anything sweet or sticky. Woe betides you if you leave anything in those two categories out for any length of time! It is absolutely amazing to see the hordes of ants that descend upon the smallest amount of ‘sweety’ stuff in a plate or a cup! You can sure see them then! There’s a couple of lessons there alone!
(E.G. have a look at 2 Kings 7:3ff especially note v9? Or Acts 17:6b!)

The complex in which our apartment is situated has its own colony of another species of ant..Just a little bigger than the ones inside, yet just as amazing and fascinating to watch. I have become so intrigued with these little creatures and then the other day I was outside and was just transfixed with the goings on of a bunch of them trying to get the body of another insect home in time for tea, I think? Well you can see for yourselves in just 3 photos.

LET ME EXPLAIN!
There were just a few of them initially but they weren’t getting very far and as they steered this body toward the wall the obstacles that hindered progress got bigger and more difficult BUT amazingly the harder the going got the greater the reinforcements and eventually the task was completed successfully.. The colony had a feast that

night OK!!!

 If you have been following my recent blogs, especially last weeks you will know I have a passion for getting the message out. that we, believers, have a task to complete and it is only in being committed to that task together that we will get it done. Sometimes I feel like I am ‘flogging a dead horse’ as the cliché puts it..So I am willing to
try and get us to think about this from another angle.. From these ANTS! I’m in good company too! King Solomon to whom “God gave wisdom and understanding and knowledge as vast as the sand on the shore” tells us to go to the ant and learn lessons from it! The two occasions these little creatures are mentioned in the Bible you will find in Proverbs written by Solomon. Proverbs 30:25 and the one that I want you really to think about, Proverbs 6:6 “Go to the ant, you sluggard (Take a lesson from the ants you lazybones)! Consider her ways and be wise (watch it closely you will learn a thing or two)”

Just TWO things I want to leave with you this week..

1. The ants are tiny little creatures and even though they can lift individually way above their own weight, they do things better and do greater things TOGETHER. They pull their resources and skills and can accomplish amazing things far beyond their size. NOT one will shrink away from doing it’s bit in the task and it doesn’t even need anyone to tell it to do it..No excuses from these tiny insects! Have a read at the verses that follow in Proverbs 6! “It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” v7-11.
Come on wake up, unfold those arms and get to work!!                                     
YOUR CHURCH WANTS YOU!

2. The ant just NEVER gives up..I watched those ants in our complex for hours. I mean it hours they strained and struggled, this was too important, they needed to bring ‘the bacon home’ OK not kosher but you know what I mean!!! Do you not get so fed up, sick sore and tired with yourself, never mind others, when we give up so easily..A critical word said, a plan that didn’t go the way you though it might at the beginning, or that guy you witnessed too and seemed to be interested just went off to his mates laughing at you. OR even sadder are those times when you don’t even try??? I’m always amazed at my grandkids when you take them out to a restaurant and when they look at the menu decide there is nothing on it they like..Well I don’t like that, or that’s not nice?? Hey, how do they know that?? They have never tried it???? So to hear the same sort of thing from Christians. “It’ll never work!” “I could never do that!” How do they know, well they will NEVER know with that attitude…The task you and I are called to do is too important, we need to be committed and to persevere until it is done..OK! 
YOUR CHURCH NEEDS YOU!

So there you are now, TWO lessons I am asking you to consider this week.
“Go to the ant..... consider its ways and be wise!”

No Surrender!  

“Long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly…the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  2 Peter 3: 5-11

Those two words will forever be synonymous with the Rev. Ian Paisley particularly and with the ‘loyalist’ cause in Northern Ireland. Still today they are the slogan of the thousands who protest

over the withdrawal of the flying of the Union Flag over Belfast City Hall except for ‘Designated Days’ and of other similar groups throughout the United Kingdom. It is not however a phenomenon restricted solely to those shores; it is not unique to have shows of patriotism and nationalism all over the world. Whether in the USA where there too they have an ardent admiration for their flag, incorporated of course into their National Anthem and right here in Tenerife, graffiti is evident everywhere declaring, “Independence for the Canaries”!

We invest a lot of time, energy and passion defending our culture, our country, including the land and our flag and all of that is understandable and I have a certain empathy with that. HOWEVER, are we NOT investing so much of ourselves, fighting and arguing over, protesting and lobbying over, these things that are in the end transient, not eternal and therefore in the whole scheme of things, of LESS IMPORTANCE than we imagine or believe??? In case you missed it? Read the verse at the head of this blog!!!!!

In Church these past Sunday mornings we have been studying the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. This Sunday, we have come to the last few verses of Chapter1, from verse 27 to verse 30. Just FOUR verses but mighty profound and thought provoking I felt as I prepared the message. Here is the impassioned plea of Paul to this little group of believers, this family of God, these citizens of heaven, meeting, worshipping, working and warring in the hostile environment of a Roman Colony, where they were distinctly un-roman! Paul not only exhorts them to live their lives worthy of BUT to “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” v27 Paul’s NUMERO UNO was THE GOSPEL everything else was secondary to the Gospel. “His jailhouse joy rested in the fact that the gospel went out to pagan soldiers, then through his encouraged brothers and was even preached by his competitors who were trying to afflict him. ‘What then?’ asked Paul. ‘Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (R Kent Hughes. The Fellowship of the Gospel)

I know I have been here before (See ‘Are You ashamed of the Gospel’) BUT I think it needs to be repeated again and again until we start to get a grip of the reality of our task and particularly here in Tenerife! There is so much that is anti-God on this Island and events and organisations endorsed by the authorities (EG New Buddhist Centre in Adeje!) that will only serve to mislead the community and rather than us as God’s people proclaiming the Good News we are occupying ourselves with sideshows?? I stand four square with the Apostle Paul in his firm belief that God transforms people and communities by the Power of the Word PREACHED and therefore he and I say again “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16) and from that I will not and we dare not surrender to any other cause for this alone is our DUTY!                                                                          

The Gospel must be our priority, the Church is NOT called to stand firm for a political opinion or a political party or for an ideology or for a pro-stance on something, those things are NOT the central core issue that the Church is to stand for the faith of the Gospel and the Gospel ALONE. You see that’s how we can go into our Communities. We go into our Communities with this;                             I am NOT ashamed of the Gospel because it is the Power of God for salvation for EVERYONE!!        No matter who you are, what you are, what language you speak, what religion you practice, what situation you are in.                                                                                                                                           We go into our community because we have GOOD NEWS; it’s the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet what do we spend so much of our time doing? Telling them about every other thing and getting ourselves tied up in all sorts of agendas and arguments! Even if they are good and may well be the ‘BIG ISSUE’ OF OUR DAY, yes even the whole debacle over gay marriage and homosexual rights!

How do we change our communities, our cities, our nations?? One soul at a time..                         That is our business, that is our task AND that is OUR COMMISSION!  

                                                                                               “The weapons we fight with

are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”(2 Cor.10:4)                                          What are those weapons? The Preaching of the Word and Prayer!!

What Paul recognises and highlights is that to do that is to enter dangerous ground and to invite conflict and suffering therefore it is an imperative that WE the Church, WE THE FAMILY OF GOD (I put that here because that is what we are, a family..I know as family we have times when we fall out, say some things to each other that we don’t mean BUT when we are attacked by others boy are we able to forget the things we did to each other and rally together and become a force to be reckoned with – Don’t mess with my family!!! There just is nothing like family, and that’s what we are folks and WE MUST STICK TOGETHER AND WE MUST FOCOUS ON THE MAIN THING. We will never do it alone BUT together we can with the help of the Holy Spirit conquer the world for Christ…HALLELUJAH!!..

   

                                                                  

So! Where do YOU start? Well let’s begin with our own families then our communities at least and leave the result to our ALL POWERFUL SOVEREIGN GOD!

 

 Let me finish with repeating verses 27 and 28 this time as translated in the New Living Bible “Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God.”                          NO SURRENDER! 

                            

Flying by ‘The Wind’!

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever” John14:16 (Amp)

Lorraine and I try to take one day a week to ourselves. We potter about for a couple of hours then we head to our favourite place, El Medano. There is a little beach on the left hand side of the town that over the last few weeks has been more or less deserted except for US. There we sit and watch and listen to the sea and it’s ever rolling tides, have a wee sandwich for lunch and relax in the beautiful sunshine..There is just one other thing about this place I forgot to mention, it is very windy, all the time..I mean very windy!! You have a real battle on your hands getting everything tied set up and then weighed down before the relaxing begins But when you do it’s worth it all and the wind becomes you friend keeping you cool in the blistering heat.

These last couple of weeks the beach has become busier with ‘windsurfers’ who obviously need plenty of wind and here has to be the perfect place for these guys. ‘If Lorraine and I were just a little younger’, we muse, we just might have given that a go BUT we’ll content ourselves to watch the

young experts surf across the waves. NOW let me put in an ‘excuse me clause’ before I go any further. I know nothing about windsurfing and therefore my attempt at describing things pertaining to this sport may be clumsy!

Watching these guys had me enthralled. They make the thing look so easy, yet I know that it's probably not BUT, no matter how good any of them were, and at times in some of the higher waves there were more than a few of them doing somersaults and all sorts of stunts BUT as some point EVERY ONE OF THEM, fell off and fell in! What I saw then has become the thread for my blog this week. To get back up onto their board and onto the waves again, I watched the windsurfers push their sail upwards to catch the wind again

and they waited for the wind to catch it. As the wind caught and the sail lifted they came up with the sail and back onto their board and off they went again!
                                                                                                                      So simple, yet so profound as I thought about that.........
Windsurfers need the wind. Without the wind, they cannot do anything! The wind determines their direction, their speed, their ability to do their sport.. Most of us don’t think much of the wind, for them it is vital!!

When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 He used the wind as an analogy of being born of the Spirit, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” That analogy comes for the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel where in Chapter 37 the Lord brought Ezekiel to the Valley of Dry bones and he witnessed life being breathed into the dead bones, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live…….and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”  V9-10                                                                                  

Life, God life, came and comes from the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Holy Spirit is described metaphorically as the coming of the Wind.                                                                                           Jesus also said that we must abide in Him or we can do nothing (John 15) but He was going back to heaven so how do we continue doing that? Well the Holy Spirit would come and He would by our Helper (Chapter 15 then 16) and so in v7 of Chapter 16 Jesus says this, “ I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].                                                                                                                                                       

Oh yes! Like those surfers for whom the wind is so vital, so too we Christians the coming and indwelling and working and power and guiding of the Holy Spirit is so vital to us, for it is as Zechariah says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord” 4:6.                        We are utterly dependent upon HIM! WE CANNOT DO THIS ON OUR OWN..NEVER! BUT listen to this TODAY! God has put this on my heart to write TODAY for someone reading this BLOG YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS. No matter how long we have been walking the Christian life. No matter the amount of experience and knowledge and wisdom we have accumulated, at some point ALL of us will ‘come off’. That is, all of us will fail or fall or have a time in our lives when we wonder to ourselves ‘How can I go on’, ‘Is there a way back’? AND this is what I found so profound in that simple picture of those surfers!!!!

When they fell off, they pushed their sails up. The wind caught their sail and with its power the sail lifted them out of the water, back on their board and back on their journey..
Hurting, broken, discouraged, despairing Christian, lift your ‘sail’ let the wind of the Holy Spirit catch it and lift YOU up put you back on your feet, heal your broken heart, comfort your troubled soul, take that failure and make it a lesson you have learned, the disaster an opportunity to bring Glory to God and set you off on course again with renewed faith, strength and joy..   
                                                                                                                                    
GO ON CATCH THE WIND, LET THE HOLY SPIRIT LIFT YOU OUT OF YOUR TROUBLED WATERS PUT YOU BACK ON YOUR FEET AND BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO YOUR SOUL!

 

 

 

I watched those surfers get back up time and time again and ride those waves. They never gave up and as they came off the water the look on their faces said it all. The waves might have been high, the sea might have been rough but with the wind in their sails they conquered, they overcame and they had one great time doing it…
I finish with this quote from Francis Chan from his Book on the Holy Spirit ‘The Forgotten God’ (worth a read!)  “I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said its better for us that the Spirit came and I want to live like that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.”

Any fool can be a DAD?

God says “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it …” Ezekiel 22:30

It’s Father’s Day in the UK this Sunday and although we live in Tenerife, part of Spain, we nonetheless celebrate ‘Fathers’ here this weekend too..
Any fool can be a dad; it takes someone special and certainly NOT a fool to be a FATHER! It seems to me that much of what is wrong in our homes, therefore on our streets, therefore in our communities, therefore in our Governments, therefore in society, therefore in our world is because there is the absence of good, strong, godly FATHERHOOD?                                          
In one of Dr. James Dobson’s 2008 newsletters, he writes: "Some years ago, executives of a greeting-card company decided to do something special for Mother’s Day. They set up a table in a federal prison, inviting inmates to send a free card to their Mom. The lines were so long they had to make another trip to get more cards. "Due to the success of that event, they decided to do the same thing on Father’s Day, but this time, not one prisoner felt the need to send a card to his Dad. In fact, when asked about it, many had no idea who their fathers were. I find that a sobering illustration of the importance of a dad and his blessing to his children." (From a sermon by Gene Edwards, "In Search of the Blessing")                                      

The Bible tells us that Fathers are to be heads of their households, to teach, to mould, to nurture, to encourage, to discipline and to lead themselves by example and practice and when they do not, well the evidence is there for all to see.
Thinking then of Fathers and the need we have for good fathers, took me a little further to think the same of the Church? Well is there not a direct link? After all to be a leader in the Church is not one of the qualifications that “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?” 1Timothy 3:4-5.
So can we conclude that as we see, I believe, the lack of godly fatherhood in our homes the result is evident in the decline in our society therefore is the same true in our world because within our Churches there is a similar lack of spiritual leadership? Men are not being what they should be or doing what they should do.. Oh yes there are a lot of men saying what needs to be said, there’s a lot of noise BUT nobody is prepared to act upon their words, it’s like what used to be heard in every household, maybe still is, when you were told to do or not to do something and when you asked why? “Because I said so, that's why!” 

These last few days I have been reading in the Old Testament and before you launch an attack on me, I know what you’re going to say!
What has the Old Testament got to say to 21st Century people? Well a whole lot actually, maybe because people are the same whatever century we live in AND perhaps if we had learned from the mistakes of our forefathers we wouldn’t be doing the same thing all over again!!!  THERE!

Now where was I? The first book of Samuel opens up with an amazing story about Hannah and how she gives birth to a son Samuel. The young boy is dedicated to the Lord and becomes a mighty prophet and a godly priest BUT running in stark contrast to this, through the first four chapters in another story about another family and this one is not great at all. It is the story of Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas.
It is the story of a family out of control because the father was not being the FATHER?
I think there is a clue in Chapter one about the nature of Eli. The High Priest, yet one who, it seems, has little discernment when he misunderstands Hannah, who is praying to God but Eli interprets as a woman who is under the influence of alcohol! In Chapter two then we discover the truth about the two sons as well. They were as verse 12 puts it, “worthless men” corrupt, scoundrels, a bad lot as some of the other translations puts it. They didn't even know the Lord? Yet their father had brought them into the priesthood?
They were Priests.. WHAT??? Aren't they are supposed to be godly men, spiritual men, good men, not just men who are following the line of the family business, yet there they were? The story is far from over however, we discover too they are abusing their position as priests. They have a terrible name amongst ALL the people and so we read these words, “Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel….. For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.
1 Samuel 2:22-23                                     
Worse still they were stealing from God in taking from the sacrifices that which was the Lords, “Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.” v17 and there’s more. They even used their influence and position to gain sexual favours with the women who served at the gate of the Tent of Meeting v22. Oh yes Eli knew what they were up to all right and he even called them to give account for their wrongdoing. “Why do you do such things!” v23.  What on earth is going on here? I keep hearing story upon story, everybody is telling me of the awful things you two are up to and it’s not right!
And he warns them BUT that’s ALL he does. The two boys don’t listen and ignored their father’s words, and carried on doing what they had always done!                            
In stark contrast to Eli’s sons stands Samuel who we are then told in the same verse continues to grow and was doing well, being blessed by God and the people spoke well of him! It is a bit of irony then, that this young protégé of Eli is the one who brings him news of God’s judgement upon the sons and upon him, the reason, well it’s clear even before we read it, “He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God’s name and God’s place, and he did nothing to stop them.”
1 Samuel 3:13 TM  He didn’t restrain them, he didn’t rebuke them, he didn’t discipline them, he didn’t stop them. Eli did nothing! He was one weak father indeed! …Just stood there and watched it all happening!
It was Edmund Burke who once said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

You see I am not saying Eli was not a good man, he was BUT he just wasn’t the Father he ought to be. He let the boys do whatever they wanted, he loved them, he taught them the difference between right and wrong, he even taught them the Word of God, I am sure BUT he never disciplined them and he put them into places they should never have been in, simply because they were his sons.
He had wronged them by his actions at the beginning, and wronged them by his inaction at the end.. AND then the saddest thing was that what began as a family problem became a nation’s problem!

Israel’s spiritual leadership was rotten to the core and so it is understandable that when you turn another page into Chapter 4 that the people are just treating God with the same contempt as Hophni and Phinehas. God has become a mere talisman, a lucky charm to hang round their neck?
They go out to battle and face defeat and their response is let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant out with us and “IT will save us from our enemies.”? ! Samuel 4:3                                                                                  

Well if things have got bad they are about to get worse? The battle is lost, Israel is defeated, the Ark is captured and both of Eli’s sons are dead..The sense of  loss and of sorrow at what has taken place is summed up by the naming of Phinehas’s new born son as ICHABOD.. That’s what his wife named the child! “And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” 4:21.
Do you see it? A family destroyed, a Nation in ruins and God’s testimony dragged through the gutter and the fault lies with the ONE MAN! ELI!!!

Our homes and families are missing fathers who will not only be good fathers but godly fathers, who will be prepared to lead, to take the responsibility to be good roles models, to match words with actions?
Loving your children is NOT just about saying you love them, that's good or about spending valuable time with them, that's necessary or indeed just being good examples that they will follow, that's essential BUT  loving them enough to know when you must discipline them also.

               Heed the lessons of Eli! AND our ‘Spiritual Father’s’
      as it were, in our Churches, you must heed this lesson too.
There are very real connections here. I am not the only one who sees what happened to the Nation of Israel, happening right now to the Church of Jesus Christ. Ichabod??
Are you prepared to sit back and watch it happen, to allow others to go on sinning and robing God and treating His Church with contempt?

Our families need Strong Godly Fathers,
Our Churches need  Strong Godly Ministers and
Our Nations need Strong Godly Leaders!!!
Who are not only able to speak up BUT who are not afraid to take action when it is needed!

 

I for one am listening..I think to myself at times, I’m only one man, leading one small church on one little Island in the Atlantic Ocean, yet as this old poem says…

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. 
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Any fool can be a Dad? I don’t want to be just a DAD! I want to be a Godly Father; I want to be a Godly Minister that perhaps through me God would raise up from my children, from my Church, Godly people who will change our world, who will lead our people ,who will be the ones who restore the Glory!

“but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” 1 Samuel 2:30

 

 Come on let’s do this together?

 

Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose," Philippians 2:2

Here’s a story I have used before. A man was stranded on an island. Alone for a number of years, he was finally located and people came ashore to rescue him. They quickly discovered he was the only human on the island and that caused them to ask him a question. Because landing on the island they observed 3 structures built at the edge of the beach. “What are the 3 buildings for?” they asked the man replied, "This is the home I built for myself" Then showing them the other building he said "This is the church I go to." Then someone in the group said "Hey, what's the third building over there?" And the man replied "That's the church I used to go to."

You will notice I said I have used this story before but not now I don’t believe the disunity and division that exists in our churches is a laughing matter any longer indeed it is of grave concern to me..If you have been following my blogs of late you will know that I am deeply concerned about the state of our nations and what we as Christians should be doing to change things. What I have been saying is that we need to reclaim our high view of Scripture for ‘the Word of God is the power of Go unto salvation’ STILL!! Last week I spoke on our need to keep preaching the Gospel!! We are exhorted to look after the poor and the needy, I acknowledged that we cannot shirk our responsibility to those things BUT I also say that there are a plethora of organisations these days who offer social care to the many, the Church can do so too BUT it is ONLY the Church that has the Gospel and while food and clothing and shelter may alleviate people's immediate situation it will NEVER change their eternal destination??

I go a step further this week and suggest that there is one more BIG problem that stands in the way of the Church making the difference it ought to be making in the World and that is disunity and division! Might I say that if and when we reclaimed our high view of Scripture and got on with preaching the Gospel we wouldn’t have to even talk about this now at all because we would have the wisdom and discernment of the Word and we would be to busy doing the Work of God we would no longer have the time to get involved in useless argument!

How desperately sad is the fact that the church is known by schism, not unity; ignorance, not knowledge; and indecisiveness rather than maturity. How it must break God's heart to see us continue in such a poverty stricken condition in light of what He has done, stands ready to do, has the resources to accomplish, and has defined as our calling in Christ. - R.C. Sproul
"Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so far as lies in their power. – John Calvin

The unity of Christendom is not a luxury, but a necessity. The World will go limping until Christ's prayer that all may be one is answered. We must have unity, not at all costs, but at all risks. A unified Church is the only offering we dare present to the coming Christ, for in it alone will He find room to dwell.       - Charles H. Brent

God cares nothing about our manmade divisions and groups and is not interested in our self-righteous, hair-splitting, and religious, man-made formulas and organizations. He wants you to recognize the UNITY of the body of Christ. - M.R. DeHaan

 

The bickering and the infighting among Christians has become just plain ridiculous and a nasty habit has developed that if you don’t like the decisions made, you don’t like the way the Pastor speaks or you don’t like the songs we sing, well we’ll just go and start our own church until such time when someone leaves that one and another springs up…Curious to me are the amazing names folks come up with for ‘their’ churches these days, like

 

Run for Your Life International Chapel’ (Where to I wonder?) or Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church of the Absolute Predestanrian Faith and

Order’ (Me thinks someone fell out with the Arminians here?)  ‘Guided Missiles Church’ (Yes there really is one somewhere in the USA!) AND ‘Church of the Cross’ (No the name isn’t strange I liked this one for the words on their Noticeboard that really sums this up!) “Don’t let worries kill you. Let the Church Help”

 

 

Now there is something to make us think! 

I haven’t yet found a Church that is honest enough to have a name like “Church of the Holier than that other Church done the Street” ??
 Jesus said that the world would know that we were His disciples by the love that we have for one another (John 13:35).  Are you challenged yet?                                                                                

 

Let me ask you to do this, right now, pick up your Bibles, now look up JOHN 1:18
What does it say in that verse? “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son………… has made him known.” 

 

Now keep your finger in that verse and look up 1 JOHN 4:12 and see what that says.. Yes I want you to find it in your Bible I want you see that this is what God’s Word says not just me!  

 

What does that verse say? “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete (brought to full expression) in us.”

 

Both verses begin the very same way. In the first we are told that God revealed Himself to the World by the incarnation of His Son, Jesus. The world saw God in Jesus! How does the world see God today? The Church? Yes BUT that needs to be qualified. The Church, the Body of Christ, the PEOPLE of God, the true believers WHO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. That’s the whole definition and that’s how and  when the world sees God when it sees US, YOU and ME loving each other..

It is all right to have differences of opinion on the non-essential matters like worship styles or days, or dare I say this, pre-trib rapture, post-trib rapture, Arminianism, Calvinism, etc. Whether you believe one or the other, does not affect salvation. Yet far too many Christians use these non-essential differences as justification for division and sometimes even insight anger. When this occurs, the love of God in our hearts is sacrificed to our pride. Instead of saying to one another, "I am right and you are wrong," we should be saying something like, "It is certainly possible that you are correct.  Now, let's work together to glorify God and expand His kingdom."  Perhaps this is too simplistic, but at least it displays an attitude of humility that helps to bring unity.  Having said that however, in my experience, this has seldom been the reason for the many a row. It’s more likely to be a clash of personalities, a jockeying for position or a sheer lack of forgiveness and again in nearly every case it boils down to an ignorance of the Word of God, or even plain common sense or decency..I know I said this is no laughing matter but I can’t help myself, here is a typical example,

“The story is told about a small, country church where the pastor called a special meeting of the congregation to approve the purchase of a brand new chandelier. After some discussion pro and con, an old farmer stood up and said, "Buying a new chandelier may seem like a good idea to you, but I’m against it for three reasons. First of all, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford one. Second, there isn’t anybody around here who knows how to play one. And third, what we really need in this church is a new light fixture."

 It is the devil that wants us to fall into the self-abuse of division and bickering. Proverbs tells us, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,  a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.  Proverbs 6:16-19. Oh how easily we can justify the things we say and do and even make them sound so spiritual!!! THEY ARE NOT!

Folks we need to take a long good look at ourselves. We need to look at our churches. We need to look at one another and decide that we will love each other despite our differences, that we will stand on the essential doctrines of the faith and that we will be united against the enemy and all that opposes our God. To turn the tide of immorality and greed and cruelty and violence and deceit we need the Church to be together and working with one another, loving one another, UNITED and of common voice. The Church must get back to the place where when it speaks the people listen!!!! 

 

It may be difficult for many of us to look lovingly into the eyes of those of a different denomination or those who have hurt us without thinking in our hearts that they are wrong.  But, we need to be reminded that all of us have caused hurt and been wrong ourselves. Reminded too that we are all sinners who have been saved by the amazing Grace of God and brought together into His family; that we ARE brothers and sisters and that there are greater things at stake here.

Folks we will spend eternity together and at the moment for some that would be almost an anathema?  Remember to what Jesus said teaching us on prayer, “And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ‘For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:12-15.

Will not many reading this today recite these words in prayer tomorrow but will still not forgive???

Paul buttresses Jesus words with these…“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:12-14 

All of us I am sure will have our theologies corrected when we stand before the throne of God.  All of us will give an account personally for the things we have said and done, things that we are not proud of and regret, not one of is exempt..It is surely time for us to see the 'plank that is in our own eye rather than the twig that is in our brothers!' Therefore, let us put all these things away, let’s not behalf like selfish, silly children any longer.  We need to put the wrongs behind us, forgive one another and to seek to work together to further the Kingdom of God.

Ask yourself what is most important in YOUR life. Is it your relationship with God?  If it is, and it should be, should you not also be seeking the same thing that God wants?  Should you not also be seeking to love one another as Christ commanded us? Love is the perfect bond of unity, (Col. 3:14).
Remember, it is the devil that wants us to fight each other so that he can be freed up to deceive the world. If we are fighting each other then we are not being and not doing what we should be and are falling prey to His tactics.

I know that it is easy to speak these words and it is very difficult to apply them. That is true because true love is difficult to live.  But what if the world began to see the Christian Church uniting in spite of its differences? What if the world started to see how the Christian Church started to love not only their own church members but other church members too?

What do you think the world would say if the churches' bickering stopped?

What do you think the unbelievers would say if they saw us living more and more the loving attitude and a sacrificial life of Christ across denominational and personal barriers?

It would be a tremendous witness for Christ. It would be a tremendous assault on the enemy and I know that God would use it mightily to bring others to Himself by His grace.

Just to finish here are three more quotes from men better known than me. Perhaps you might take heed to what they say..and then the final and encouraging word from THE WORD!

What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together because they have all been loved by Jesus himself. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake. - D.A. Carson

I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord's people were divided.

- D.L. Moody

In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.  -- Richard Baxter

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes

It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.                   Psalm 133