Business Christianity

What does it look like to be wholeheartedly following Jesus in a place of work. I have been an employee but now as a business owner - what does it look like to manage an underperforming staff member? Would Jesus ever fire anyone? If so, how and when? Would he pursue excellence in management? What about vision? Many church leaders have visions for their churches which keep them awake at night due to excitement, urgency and exhiliration - I see the same rollercoaster heart in many business leaders. Many of their stories read like an advneture series - finding new markets, perseverance, failure, and then success and often benevolence out of that. Can a christian be 'Richard Branson like' in business vision without being carnally minded or temporal and materialistic?

Run the race with perseverance

"Run with endurance the race that God has set before you”

I am thinking about entering a triathlon next year. Swim 2 miles, run 6 miles, cycle 20 miles - ouch. I am no way in shape to do that but I want to be.

I had a moment of truth yesterday because I want to enter the race but the only thing that is holding me back is whether or not I have a training buddy. I so know I need that. There are two guys who are keen to do the race together but are unsure whether they can commit to train together due to work shifts and other commitments.

Strange isn't it how my sole concern is that I have someone to run with me, make sure I follow through on my big statements, eat well, sleep well, and then actually get in the car at the end and drive to London!


Such is the Kingdom of God - the way we run the race set before us is directly linked to those who can run with us (separate race) but next to you nevertheless.

Trusting God

My late gran used to talk about trusting God and whenever she did she had a lovely naivity and would use phrases like 'God works in mysterious ways', and she would apparently see God's hand in everything. I assumed it was part of her being elderly and Welsh!

Increasingly I believe that child like ruthless trust is what we are called into. I struggle with this concvept because I prefer control and to be able to be master of my own destiny but as it is I find myself out on a limb having embarked on anew businesses (with a business plan of course), but being wholly dependent on God to open and close doors as he sees fit. (Isaiah 22:22).

A life of desire

I spent last Tuesday afternoon with Rob SC and I have come away grappling even more and recognizing that there are no answers, because we are supposed to follow and embrace a person, NOT a set of values or rules, however noble or lovely they may appear.

My questions were:

• How does someone live wholeheartedly for Jesus in the place of business and corporate prosperity?
• How much should such a person give/keep?
• How to we discern between freedom (to enjoy what gives us), and compromise where our slippery hearts find a way to justify anything?

I also shared the Onesimus vision which I know is still evolving but asking that rhetorical question 'what if......'

Rob took me to Psalm 37 where it says: 'Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfullness'. You expect it to say feed on the barley and wheat you grow there, but it doesn't, it says dwell in the land, (the natural), BUT our supply is his faithfulness. In other words we touch what is temporal but our own drive and motivation is something 'other than', something eternal, the very character of God. It is character and our dependence on His character that may cause us to believe for extaordinary things.

That scripture then goes on to say, 'Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart'. Rob said he believed that everything in our life was to be birthed out of desire. Many read that and believe that if they follow Jesus they will get the porsch, hot tub (their desires) etc, but the reality is that as we delight in Him alone our hearts are so changed that our needs/wants change and invariably through church history it has been towards a simpler life where our treasures become people and the presence of God. Our desires become the same as Jesus'.

R & P live very simply indeed, one friend told me they live off the equivalent of benefits because big meals and fancy restaurants don't add anything for them. I tried to press Rob to give me some guidelines I could take away and he wouldn't and he describes it as putting Saul's armour on David, in that God has been shaping him for longer so he does many things out of desire, effortlessly and we are not called to copy people but to dleight in God and let him shape us in His time and in his unique way.

He gave me an interesting example. Were I to drive to Cribb's Causeway he could either give me directions, a long list, left, right, second round-about........and off I go on my own, OR, he could jump in the car with me.

Jesus wants to jump in the car with us ........

and keep us trusting minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day in an adaptable, flexible, spontaneous life. That way he gets ot have us near to Him, (which is Jesus's heart cry In John 17, (I pray that where I am, they may be also). If we are making decisions based on inner promptings then who knows what will happen.....could be all we have, our own lives! One of the religious reasons we love rules about tithing is so that we know exactly how much we have left to squander on ourselves!

So, no guidleines, no rules - just a call to practice the presence of God and delight in Him with all our heart, mind, strength so that we can hear those promptings of the spirit and follow them.

things I love

I was re-reading the "onesimus trust" post and started thinking...

I was thinking and dreaming about the things believers have done that I admire, and connecting this with the premiss behind the onesimus devotion. I'll list a few...

I love IHOP, and the motivation and spirit behind it. An all encompasing devotion to worshiping the king, putting the first commandment first, interceeding and seeking God's face, and longing for His presence. Spiritual boredom, burnout, lack of power should be swept away.

I love Opportunity International. This is my favourite charitable enterprise, started by a guy dumped in front of an orphanage, who later became a millionaire, but devoted his life to an idea... of giving the poor and hopeless a chance. By seeking for the God-given entrapranerial spirit in the slums, giving cheap loans and training, and the chance to trade their way to a better life. Millions of people have been touched by this.

I love a true missionary spirit. Those that bring a true gospel of real grace, repentance and devotion, and bring it with love and power. I met a family in kansas who were doing this - coming from a conservative baptist background, received a real annointing of the spirit (despite not looking for it) and brought Gods salvation message with power. Healings, miraculous signs, and revival came as a result.

I love those, like George Muller, who meet the need of their time and place. better than the UN - someone who uses the resources of God to solve a problem.

I love those who change unjust systems. Wilberforce springs to mind.

Wouldn't it be amazing to combine these things somehow. Obviously it will be this way in many places - but often, either in church or organisations, one aspect is focussed on at the expense of others.




Hopefully this dodgy picture illustrates what I mean without need for explanation.



It strikes me that only the "Davids" and "Josephs" can bring these things together, with orgaisation, finances, vision and passion.

Onesimus Trust

What if there were a new breed?

A generation of men and women who moved in and out of all the spheres of life including the business world and they could say

'All I have I give you'.

This is the wedding vow and Revelation 19 tells the story of our destiny and that one day we will love as we are loved and know Him as we are known. Any crowns we might have will be thrown at His feet anyhow.

What if we were able to say those words now. Lets face it they are being uttered by believers all over the world in times of crisis and persecution but lay it all down nevertheless.

I have a dream.......

Business entrepreneurs with that same heart and being like Cyrus in Isaiah 45 who God appointed and anointed as a Gentile King to fulfill his purposes with Israel (which include the promises to Abraham - 'you will be a blessing to the nations') and did it all without reward or cost.

Business people who say of their businesses ' Its all yours God'.

I love generosity but I have been challenged by Galations 2:20 in that if anyone is in christ he no longer lives....but christ lives in Him. The very act of giving infers its 'mine', is that scriptual?

What if set apart people came into places of influence and it was all for the Kingdom. I don't mean church buildings or anything like that but certainly dedicated to the things God cares most about - I expect this would mean the poor - widows and orphans - the marginalized. Would it not spead God's glory radically?

I have a dream.........

The Onesimus Trust - a vehicle for those who would make such a dedication/devotion. Like Cyrus - to serve God in this ministry of business without reward or cost. No more 'giving; to the Gospel, but rather allign to the truth that it is all His and as disciples we do not touch it unless He says so.

I love Wesley who said that if he died with any money at all he should be remembered as a liar and a thief!

"Unless a person gives up everything he has, he cannot be my disciple". - Carpenters son

Tapestry of love

The last 14 days have been a roller coaster.

I resigned last Tuesday from Lyons Davidson having been made an Associate 3 days earlier. I am only two and a half years qualified so it is a real honour and represents a fast track up to partnership. But, I was so excited because I wasn't tempted in the slightest. In fact the Partner said he knew it wasn't worth trying to offer more money etc because since I returned 'to the cage' from America as an Onesimus I have not asked for anything. On a beach in New Zealand the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said not to negotiate as I should go to Him as my shepherd. Ever since then I have tried to do everything wholeheartedly without complaining, (hard at times).

There are two key prophecies from a few years ago which actually happened this last week.

7 years for heart's desire - Jacob and Rachel Genesis 31.

At IHOP Bob H said that for me I would receive the 'Jacob' revelation. Its not what I do but who I do it for. That Jacob worked for 7 years for his bride and it felt like only a few days because of his love and that I was on that journey.

My business is to launch on 1 July 2007 which Haze pointed out on Saturday is our 7 year wedding anniversary. I will have been in the workforce doing 'wrong fitting' jobs for 7 years when I start this venture God appears to be birthing. I love that! God loves times and numbers.

End of slavery

It has been an ongoing theme for sometime that I was called for a season to be like Onesimus and be a slave (not what I do but who I do it for), and let my identity rest in Christ alone. Onesimus means profitable but Paul told him to go and be a slave.

In Feb 2005 Bob H told me that I had been trapped before and would be trapped again but that it was ok because God was in it and there would be a grace. That all happened. A second promise to me that I felt God lay on my heart was that the age of 30 would be significant. Floyd said the first 30 years of my life would be about identity and the next 30-40 about ministry. I had the age of 30 highlighted in my mind as a key date for this slave to enter into ministry and to see the unravelling of all those dreams I always talk about.

Well, Sunday 25th March was my 30th birthday and in the afternoon Haze showed me an article saying that the same date was the 200 year anniversary for the end of slavery, (which happened in bristol)!! http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/slavery/index.htm?cids=Google_PPC&cre=Slavery&gclid=CJyQuKXWlYsCFSF_XgodlXkwQg

The dates are crazy because if there was one word to describe what God has been doing it would revolve round that word slave and one key date it would be the 25th March. I am overwhelmed still and it makes me feel that maybe, just maybe God might be involved in all of this.

It feels to me like God's ways are so perfect and that he takes a billion threads and weaves them together into a tapestry of love. He doesn;t have to, he just can't help himself because he wants to love us extrvagantly. Who else have I ever met who would be so extravagant.

Influence - a Holy motivation for business?

Today I have been pondering the nature of influence. We all know the evils - money, sex and power. I think disciples sometimes run away from all three. Should we do that or embrace all three with an undivided heart without mixture?

Things are moving on in my journey to starting my own business and all sorts of questions have been asked. Why - is the main one? Why does anyone go into business? Is profit ok with God?

As I walked home I thought about the scripture which says the knowlege of the glory (weight) of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In Isaiah 55 there is a stratling promise about the mercies of david which has fascinated me since I was 16. I had just been sharing my hope in jesus with a friend who was in a dark place linked to the occult and I felt the spirit hovering on us as we talked. I said to God 'make an everlasting covenant with me that you will make it possible for me to love you like this all the days of my life'. I'm not sure what I really meant but I think I was feeling ' God, make my life make people love you, let me be significant, don;t let me drift into meaninglessness' A bit like that well quoted prayer of Jabez.

As I walked back the boarding school a scripture reference fell into my head (first time that had happened) - Isaiah 55:3 - and it begins 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you........ It freaked me out because those words are not pasted all over the place in scripture. the promise goes on to describe the promises to david as a model for the way he deals with us. There is a promise there ' that surely you will summon nations you know not and nations you do not know will hasten to you because the Lord your God the Hold one of Israel will endow you with splendour, (glory/weight).

I then reflect on the models in scripture who have gone before us and how they embraced the secular to reveal the sacred. they worked with the carnal so that they could reveal the spiritual. They built in the temporal so that they might point to the eternal. They ruled in the visible to declare the invisible.

David - with a one thing heart filled natural coffers thorugh war to build a place of worship on the natural earth. It was about God's glory but fixed in the natural as well. A meeting point for the created to love the creator.

Solomon - aquired unsurpassed wealth and dedicated it to the temple. It was all about using the natural resources to build worship on the earth.

Jeremiah - a bricks and mortar man to secure the place of worship. he used his influence as a cup bearer to the King to re-build the walls.

Joseph - was a mother to Pharaoh and used wheat, bricks, etc to enable Israel to grow from a family to a nation and see the expansion/fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. He was endowed with splendour to build a family of worshippers.

Back to this question of influence. We should crave nothing but Jesus and his glory but it seems to me that He will add weight to our lives to that we can live and move in the natural, temporal, secular to bring about the realization of that promise that one day God's glory will cover the earth and the waters cover the sea. So maybe we should stop coming up with phrases like 'God doesn't need our money' and start to realize we no linger live but Christ lives in us. He wants to use what is His to establish His throne! If I viewed everything in my life as sacred and His then I could stop running in fear from the natural things and actually spread some Glory. I think part of the fear is legitimate because so many believers start off well and end up in compromise and aquiring the hot tubs, BMW's etc. there is another way i believe.

I think the key is to do with having a Psalm 27 heart, which has onething in mind. I once read some words

"to the heart without mixture I will give the spirit without measure".

More to come along these lines.......

property

Thought I'd retrace some of the trail that now finds us looking for a house/land to subdivide. This is as much for my benefit - just some key events and attitude changes, some you'll know and some you wont.

I'd never really thought much about what I'd want my life to amount to until a month long series on money at my church at the start of 2000. One speaker, Ron Syder spoke about giving to the needy. Another guy, a controvesial business man, basically said 'you'd better figure out what your life is about and get after it quick, or it'll all be a waste of time'. Although most people didn't like him, it really got to me, and I started thinking about my future plans. Later that year I went to Bristol and some people I worked with started talking about property, and from that I started thinking about it. In 2001 I came back with an interest. But in the meantime, I'd sensed God say not to buy a house for 2 years - but that it would be part of my future. There was a massive property boom from 99-2000, lasting till about 2004. It was big news through that time - prices were soring, a lot of people wrote books on how to prosper with property, and my parents were bugging me to buy a house. I knew I was missing out - any dummy who bought a house in my area would easily be $100k+ richer now, but had no doubt I was to wait. So up to 2003, I'd read, investigated and prayed a fair bit about property. I'd only considered the main 2 methods of prop investing of buying for capital growth, or buying for income.

During this time I'd been sensing that prayer should be a focus for me (wont go into any of this now) and by the start of 2003 I'd put 2 and 2 together and thought maybe God wanted me to invest hard to free up time to pray and give. I did really sense God was leading in this direction, so I gave God an ultimatum and asked for a sign. I'd just got a small payrise, but said to God that if he did want me to do this I'd need more money so He must give me another bigger rise. This seemed to please God and I got an amount to ask for, and a cuttoff - that if they gave me over this amount, then that would be the confirmation. To cut a long story short, I ended up with a rise over 20%, (25% when including the earlier one) - well above the cuttoff, all back-paid 4 months. Ever since I've been confident this is the right direction for me.

After that, I nearly bought a few times, but always backed off, generally due to fear - looking back, the 2 or 3 I was seriously looking at would have worked out fine, but thats in the past. By now (mid 2003) the boom was mostly over. I was trying to figure out how to make capital which I could then invest for income, which is what I need at the end of the day to cut back on being a wage slave. So my next line of thinking was to buy land, and build a house and sell, as I noticed in some locations there was a gap between the cost of doing this and the sale price. This is how I came across the block in portland. It had the cheapest land I could find, but was a coastal town that seemed undervalued, and with a wind farm development about to go in nearby (large employment increase). I could buy it for cash so I did that - finally I'd bought something! In the meantime I'd received the opportunity to go to the UK again (a good opportunity to save money). We first heard in September 2003, but didn't leave til Aug 04.

In amongst this, friends and I often talked about the possibility of a business, and for some reason I can't explain this entered my sights whilst in the UK. But really the only go-ahead I'd had from God was for property, and that to phacilitate prayer and giving. Anyway, I got swept up in this a bit, and for a while almost forgot about property. Really I was looking at anything that would get me out of a job I didn't like. This included shares - I put a heap of money into shares (back in Aus now), and I remember asking God for wisdom, but sensing God saying - 'you'll never do it with shares'.

But then I went to IHOP in May 06. I thought this was going to be some launching pad for business success where God would reveal His chosen business plan for me - just like Bob! But alas it wasn't to be. There was an opportunity to ask for wisdom from a few experienced guys, including Bob F. Within a few minutes he'd summed me up, and basically said gently "I'm not sure you're as entrapranuerial as you think - maybe property?" And another of the group suggested property as a means of fulfilling my goals. I was a bit shattered and went to the prayer room and cried. God brought a whole heap of stuff back to my mind - that prayer etc is the reason and predominant concern for me, and the leading I'd had with property all along. I'd gotten off track.

So I arrive back in Aus refocussed on property, and a few things happen - I start to notice property suitable for subdivision - and a friend buys a corner block, subdivides and makes a lot of money ($80k), so I start to look into it. The numbers seem to make sense - quite simple really if it comes off. You buy a house on a large block with sufficient open space - where the house is sitting on one half - buy, subdivide, sell land. The value of both after subdivision will alway be greater than as a whole. The main risks are that there is no guarentee the council will approve the subdivision (although this can be checked out pretty well prior to buying), or that unforeseen costs will come up re subdivision. Here's one example of someone else who's done it: http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=103717083&f=0&p=30&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&c=30253335&s=vic&snf=ras&tm=1170505092
If you zoom in on the map you'll notice quite a few blocks are kind of cut in half with a drive way up the side. I think I remember this house being for sale a while ago as a whole for 320+. During the time last year when I started thinking about this, a few things happened that I think were pointers from God - just to look in this area. But perhaps a bit... tenuous, so I'll tell you in person. In any case it seems to make sense, and is do-able for me.

more decisions

Thinking about decision and prayer, I did some searches through the gospels trying to find the times Jesus withdrew to pray alone. obviously He prayed a lot in public and with His disciples but when did He pray completely alone. Luke says jesus often withdrew to pray, but there are a limited number of times actually recorded. Note this was done using some word searching on the computer, so there may be some missed out.

I found this mentioned 11 times in all the gospels, but with some things repeated, so from that - 4 separate times were recorded as Jesus being alone to pray (until He chose to come back). Often all night by the way.

1 Dealing with grief
He sought seclusion after hearing about John the Baptist death. (Must have been devastating given the connection - the only man who really understood him.) This was interrupted by a crowd of 5000 which He feed, but He then dismissed them and sent the discipled away.

2 Getting strength to obey
In gethsemene before facing the Cross

3 Decision ??
He prayed all night before choosing the 12

4 Decision ??
He prayed alone before asking the Disciples who they thought He was, and Peters subsequent confession. It also marked a dramatic shift in His teaching and direction (toward Jeruselum and death)

As an aside, it is interesting the way Jesus dealt with grief (extreme grief), no counseling sessions, but alone with His Dad. And similarly whilst facing the cross.

Regarding 3 & 4, when I think about it, it could be argued they probably were the main decisions as such that He had to make. Given that He knew what He was on earth for all His life, choosing the main carriers of the message, and when it was time to go to His death are quite crucial. He did it by spending the night with God

Come to me

Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest

I have been thinking about the first 3 words this week end. I like the rest of it too. He knows we get weighed down and he sees, cares and can do something about it! But, I am interested in the invitation to go to Him.

I enjoyed the last post and will probably be chewing it over for sometime. How does God guide us - dreams, visions, common sense, friends, etc. But Jesus again and again presents Himself as the answer to everything. Like Rev 3:20 "Here I am, I stand at the door".

It seems to me that Jesus invades our lives with his lovely presence but comes only so close so that we get to go to Him. Lets face it, in the standing at the door verse, the inference is that Jesus has done all the travelling to our home, where he finds us locked up and closed off and all we need to do is open the door. All we need to do to find rest is to 'come to me'. Our side of the deal is just too small, too simple, too understated but despite how much God does for us - he will not do our bit. Actually, thats not true - sometimes he even invades that but only because he knows I want him too!

The words' come to me', stand out because I know he is always there and I find myself going to people, church, Christian books - and find something of his after glow in those places but why do I not go to him directly and plainly?

And 2 more thoughts:

• In HIM we live and move and have our being
• I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me

It is when we go to Him that we receive what we need - spiritual food, spiritual guidance, spiritual revelation,guidance, life, joy, patience, perpective, wisdom.

Flesg gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit. ONLY Jesus can give us the spiritual stuff.

decisions decisions

How do we make decisions? How do we know if we are having holy doubts or backing off out of fear?

I keep thinking of the joke where an old pastor is on his roof while a flood sweeps in around him - a man in a canoe paddles up and asks if he needs help but the pastor says "no thank you, God will save me." The waters rise, and a bit later a boat comes along and offers help, but he says again "no thank you, God will save me." The waters rise, and a bit later a chopper comes and offers help, but again "no thank you, God will save me." Eventually the waters rise and he drowns. He enters heaven and angrily questions God "why didn't you save me", and God replies "well I sent you a canoe, a boat and a chopper, what more do you want?"

Silly, but does is carry some truth? Makes me wonder about some of the opportunities that have come and gone - were they God's will? Some times I feel a peace, and even a faint whisper in my splirit to go or it - but I was waiting for... something. To be honest I'm not sure what.

I may not be looking in the right place but the bible doesn't seem to be brimming with instruction about how to get guidance. There's a lot of "Davaid enquired of the Lord..." - "and God said..." I'm told pulling rocks out of pockets and casting lots isn't the done thing anymore (sometimes I wish it was...) and I don't know who the resident prophet is.

Dreams, visions etc are wonderful but are we to bank of these miraculous events for all major decisions?

One of the hardest things for is to trust that God will speak in some clear way. This is an extension of faith. In Rees Howels life he would pray, fast etc until he had an assurance. At which time there was not an ounce of doubt of the thing being accomplished or the direction to take. I have at times tried at times to live my life this way, but often its doubt that stops me at the outset. A doubting that the assurance or answer or direction will ever come. So, often I just make up a number of hours to pray etc - or in the case of direction, plow on regardless and pray "God if this isn't right You'd better stop me". But surely theres a better way? Maybe the answer is to treat direction like asking for any other thing or miricle. To seek until... This takes a huge step of faith though - to decide we will seek and wait at the outset. I believe this is one of Davids key characteristics.

Having said all that, there must still be a place for Godly wisdom and common sense. Why would God bother with Proverbs if this wasn't the case. I know it must be "both and" and not "either or". But I do struggle with this. My current thinking (which is immature and easily changed!) is that we should seek God's intimate counsil alongside but before looking to wisdom. Hopefully this leaves room for God to speak what might seem foolish, or to bring out things in our 'due dilligence" we otherwise would have missed.

Bless you mate.

Whats in a name?

Holding my son for the first time was overwhelming. The contrast between his vulnerability but looking at him and considering his potential. This little boy will one day know Jesus for himself. He will love well and walk as one who is loved. A lilly of the valleys who touches the heart of God like few do. I wept and held him near to my chest. My son with whom I am well pleased. Perfect in everyway before he can even open his eyes.

As I held him I felt worship and gratitude bubble up out of my heart and I whispered to Jesus, "thank you, he is yours. I know he has only just arrived but I want you to know I give him to you right now. All that he is, is for you and about you. I want you to know that I don't take this lightly"

Whats in a name? God often changed people's names. You have been called......but I will call you......The inference being that they had been given the wrong name which was out of sync with who they were going to be. When they were knit together by God in their mother's womb God had laid his hand on them with thoughts concerning them outnumbering the sand on the beach. Haze and I therefore took the naming of our child as no light matter. It started with the question, 'God, who are you blessing us with!

One of the most profound character descriptions in all the Bible is ascribed to Barnabas: "He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith" (Acts 11:24). That passage continues, "And a great number of people were brought to the Lord ...," no doubt in part because of Barnabas' encouragement and peacemaking mission. Haze tells me that only two people are described as good in the bible. One of them is Barnabas, the other is Jesus. That said he is not one of the most talked about people. The 'popular' guys are Peter, James, John and Paul. Barnabas is more in the background until you start piecing it all together.

Barnabas was a man of encouragement (Acts 4:36). His real name was Joseph the Levite, yet as the result of his attitudes and actions, the disciples surnamed him Barnabas, which means "Son of Encouragement." Wherever Barnabas is mentioned in the Bible, there is always the activity of encouragement (Acts 11:23; 14:22; 15:31). The term encouragement is derived from the Greek parakaleo. That word comes from the same root that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit when he said, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor . . . ." (John 14:16).

Barnabas was a man who rejoiced. Acts 11:23 and 15:3 reveal that he brought great joy to all the church. I picture Barnabas as a fun guy who knew how to have a good time but always took very seriously the fact that Jesus had placed his hand upon him. So, he was no doubt at the parties but probably looking for the guy standing on his own.

Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit Because Barnabas was a man full of the Holy Spirit, his peacemaking impact was a natural consequence of God at work in his life. I pray that Barny knows the sweetness/weight of God on his life. I have experienced it since I was about 16-17 and it means everything to me. Jesus has been my encourager and motivation. Without him I would be nothing.

Barnabas was a man of courage When the disciples were skeptical of the Apostle Paul's conversion, it was Barnabas who took a calculated risk. He had the courage to bring the disciples together with Paul, the former terrorist of the Christian faith. Its a bit like me being asked to go and meet Osama bin laden who has recently had a 'spiritual experience'!! Barnabas is not a 'nice' guy who says 'nice' things to people but is otherwise a bit bland. No, he was a soldier for Christ.

Barnabas was a man of perseverance (Acts 13:50; 14:21-24). He never gave up on people or situations. When the going got tough he remained focused on people and was really quite selfless. After being pressured to leave Lystra because of the rioting crowd, Paul and Barnabas waited for a reasonable length of time and then returned to complete the task of "strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith" (Acts 14:22).

Barnabas was accepting (Acts 11:22-23). Unlike many Jewish Christians, he did not shun the Gentile Christians, but rather rejoiced that God reached out to include them in his covenant. I pray that Barny is one who receives people no matter where they come from and refuses to Judge people no matter what state they are in. He will see what God sees and learn to discern a man's heart.

Barnabas believed in people to the end just like Jesus. Barnabas recognized when John Mark was not ready for the mission field (see Acts 13:13). Unlike Paul, however, he did not consider John Mark a permanent liability but a late-bloomer. I find it fascinating that the great hero Paul gave up on John Mark for the sake of the mission but Barnabas believed in him and was willing to jeopardize the 'mission' for the sake of loving this unreliable man. It is fortunate that Barnabas recognized the timing needed for John's development since John Mark later helped Peter write his epistles! John Mark also became useful to Paul in Paul's twilight years (2 Tim. 4:11).

Barnabas was willing to confront others (Acts 15:2,36-37). Barnabas confronted Paul about John Mark in Acts 15:36-37 and was temporarily wounded by separation from the man who was his best friend. Later, however, perhaps thanks to Barnabas, Paul and John Mark were reconciled (see 2 Tim 4:11).

This courage to confront may expose little Barny to misunderstanding and rejection, but it provides God with a channel through which He can work to bring about repentance and reconciliation.

Barnabas was discerning (Acts 11:22). It was Barnabas who was selected by the Jerusalem church to evaluate the validity of the Christian movement in Antioch. The Jerusalem elders who sent Barnabas to Antioch were confident of his discernment and peacemaking skills. A man of discernment looks at motives as well as facts. I pray that Barny will be a man of understanding and be like David in the way he enquires of God (not man) all the days of his life.

Barnabas was submissive and accountable to others (Acts 4:36-37). He was a man of status (a Roman citizen) and means (a property owner), yet he was willing to share his personal wealth by denying himself and giving to a higher cause. Obviously, Barnabas felt accountable to God. Not only was Barnabas submissive to God, he was also submissive to God's people! I ask God for Barny to be able to say, "I no longer live but Christ lives in me" and that he would be a team player albeit one who will know his unique God given place on that team.

Barnabas was trustworthy (Acts 11:27-30). The Gentile Christians at Antioch raised funds to provide relief for the famine-stricken Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Barnabas may have initiated that collection and was therefore 'safe hands' when it came to this usual stumbling block of money. I pray that Barny will be free from materialism and that there may be something about him which is 'easy come easy go'. Whether he has much or little will be of little significance to him because his identity would be so rooted in how loved he is.

Barnabas was humble (Acts 14:8-14). I pray that like Barnabas Barny will have a servant heart and find that place of rest at the bottom of the table where Jesus is to be found sitting. I pray that he has a confidence but not linked to his place in the world's system. This will give him such freedom to move in and out of circles and to bring words of life to people.

Barnabas was a man of faith (Acts 11:24). Those who please God and who are used by Him must have faith (Heb. 11). I believe Barny will be one who leans on God's promises to him despite challenging circumstances. As my gran Megan Mills used to say and sing, "trust and obey for theres no other way, to be happy in Jesus, you must trust and obey'.

Barnabas was anointed by God (Acts 13:2-4). God called and anointed Barnabas and Paul for missionary work. God enables His servants to do His work. I believe Barny will be one with that special something on his life. A touch of God and a weight which cannot be attributed to human abilities.

Barnabas was a person of prayer. Philippians 4:6-7 speaks of the "peace of God which transcends all understanding...."I believe and pray that Barny will be one who prays without ceasing at all times and in different ways but constantly placing himself in that place of weakness before his all poweful God.

Barnabas was a man of rest and Peace His feet are shod "with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15). I believe little Barny is one who will be a man of rest and peace. A pilgrim heart who has fountains of living waters on the inside. He will be an anchor to many in their place of turmoil and bring God's words of peace and life to them.


More about Finn next time.

Barnabas

Barnabas - son of encouragement - welcome to the world!

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You don't know it yet but you are an incredible blessing, and incredibly blessed. A blessing because you are the gift of the one true God, the creator of the universe, to two of His humble servants. And blessed because you were given to two of the most beautiful people I've ever known. They will love and nurture you, pray for you, and put your hand into the hand of the King who will guide you through life.

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To Mum and Dad and the rest of us you are a new gift, but God has been waiting for this moment for thousands of years. I can imagine Him, with a twinkle in his eye he proudly announces to His Son, "see that child Barnabas... he's going to be quite a man some day." The King has never stopped thinking about you - how precious are His thoughts concerning you, how vast is the sum of them, like the grains of sand on a beach. I can picture Him announcing your arrival to His angels with such excitement. The joy and uproar in heaven at 1.45pm the other day would have been unbelievable. How do I know? Well I live on the other side of the world, but He woke me up with 4 prank calls / wrong numbers in 5 minutes at about 11.05-10pm my time (1.40pm your time) - right before you were born. My wife and I knew it was something to do with you and your parents, but didn't know what - I guess God just wanted a quick prayer, or for us to be awake when it happened - Barnabas had arrived.

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Now, I'd like to pray for you...

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God, I commit Barnabas Finn Askew into Your hands.
May he grow up healthy and strong.
I pray that he would be a man after Your own heart.
Give him the spirit of wisdom and revelation
that he may know you intimately
and may he be in constant communion with You.
Give him the courage to love and obey you,
no matter the cost, every day of his life.
And open up Your word to him.
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Bless his character with love, honesty, generosity, humility,
joy, determination, wisdom, and encouragement.
And may the fruit and gifts of the Spirit be abundant in his life.
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Give him many great friends who can share the journey of life
true friends that stick closer than a brother.
People that support him, challenge him, and spur him on in You.
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Prepare for him a Godly, beautiful and loving wife
prepare them both for each other even now.
Keep their hearts free of distraction and hurt
and may they love and serve each other their whole lives.
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Bless the work of his hands.
May it be fulfilling and rewarding.
Give him ability, success, passion and contentment.
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And as he grows, may he be a blessing to his family
and give them many smiles and much joy.
Let him be a baby that settles easily and sleeps through the night.
Bless his parents and keep them strong in You.
Protect their marriage and give them patience, perseverance and love.
And wisdom as they nurture and discipline their child.
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And now Barnabas
May the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you, and give you peace.

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Bless you Barnabas. Can't wait to meet you one day...

Lessons on the allotment

Matt Clements

I have been loving my times on the allotment. As a kid I used to love digging holes and I don;t get to do much of that in commercial litigation! On the allotment I get to dig to my hearts content and plant, harvest weed etc.

It all started about 3 years ago when Matt, (above), my brother-in-law, brother in Christ, and friend had an allotment in Manchester with Kate, (his wife). It had never occurred to me to go after such a pursuit since most my friends go out for a beer and watch football on big screens.

I have shared an allotment with Sarah and Joshua since October last year and it has been one of the most rewarding things.

I go there early in the mornings to pray. By that I mean wander round, be still, and let God pick his way through the things sitting on my heart and if anything comes up I might be specific. I also think alot there about scripture and God's unfolding purposes in my life and on planet earth as a whole.

The thing I have loved about it has been the lessons I have learnt about spiritual principles which are set out in the Bible but perhaps I have never understood the agricultural imagery until now.

Here are some examples:

Weeds

They will grow, and appear in great numbers. I cannot stop them growing but what I have to do is uproot them before thet strangle my sweet corn. Maybe it is similar with my life, where weeds are describes as the love of money and the desire for 'other' things. These distractions will grow up in my life but I must make sure I am diligent and deal with them before they choke God's purposed in my life.

Growth

I ploughed the soil, planted the seeds and put out slug pellets but I could not make the plants grow. Such is the Kingdom of God....How often do I take responsibilty for 'fruitfulness' rather than just making sure my heart if fertile soil, planting the seed of His word in it and then inviting the radiance of God's countenance to shine on me. If you abide in me you will bear much fruit.

The sun/Son.

What if the Creation was put together in such a way as to point to the sun as the centre of everything.

John 1: 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood[a] it.

Well, needless to say on our little farm the sun has the final say. I planted two tomato plants at the end of te brussel sprouts with the view of them growing in one particular direction to full a space. Well, they wanted to grow the other way, towards the sunlight and mess up my aesthetic master plan.

Similarly with the runner beans. They reached the top of the poles in no time without any intervention from Joshua or myself and then I decided to twist them so they run down the bamboo and fill a space, (away from the sun). They disagreed and died within the week.

These are just some simple lessons I have learnt from the land. Matt has been an inspiration to me in photography, writing, and horticulture. I thank God for him and his diligent pursuit of God. He is much like you Mitch in the weight on his life leaning into the place of prayer. A secret place but attracting an eternal glory.

Wholehearted

Colossians 3: 22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Ch 4, .....

9He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you ( slave)

More thoughts on wholehearted devotion to God. I have been thinking about the God of all of life as opposed to the somewhat limited God of church programme and culture.

I remember Billy Graham writing not too long ago that he considered the next big evangelistic move of God to be in the workplace. It rings true. People who don't follow Jesus usually don't go to church but most of them go to work. How then can we transform the secular, even profane into a sacred space? Wherever God is, is sacred and holy. How do we invite his presence into these otherwise mundane and ordinary situations like a law firm?

In a conversation with my friend Tom Hope earlier this week it all suddenly fitted together. We need to be wholehearted in everything we do. More often than not I am most aware of God when I am waiting for him and looking for him in everything I do. This might be why we experience God in church but not work - simply because we switch off at other times. Tom was telling me about his recent trip to Syria and Lebanon and a couple of divine encounters which surfacd out of seemingly nowhere. One involved a man offering to help him climb up some rocks. It resulted in the sharing of his lifestory and prayer. It was not 'ministry' but simply Tom being wholehearted in his walk along the promenade. What a challenge to us.

I love what Paul says in opening the door as wide as it will go. 'whatever you do, ....(badminton, sewing, suing, designing, cleaning, loving, cooking, gardening, walking, washing, preaching, prophesying, singing, listening), do it with all your heart for Jesus.

This passage is set in a context of winning the respect of outsiders. Perhaps outsiders will be won over when they see a passionate life, a passionate father, husband and employee. What if everything we did was wholehearted? What if there was nothing bland in our lives because we considered every little act to be worship and devotion for which God would reward us. Sometimes, just sometimes christians have been labelled boring. Is God boring?

As you know I have become well aquainted with Mr Onesimus. He was trapped before and would be trapped again. He was defined as nothing in his world system, (a slave, lowly employee equivalent), but God defined him in love. Its not what you do, its who you do it for. I love this passage and this is what I am building up to, the crescendo. This teaching which we have all heard so many times is written by Paul and he knows what he is talking about. I just imagine him writing the letter at his desk with his mission companions around him, praying, talking, fixing the tea and one of those companions is......

Onesimus! The very one who God re-defined in love and sent him back to be trapped but to be wholehearted as a slave. I think of the discussions Onesimus would have had with Paul the night before and this letter flows out of the clear close relationship. I imagine Paul thinking at the back of his mind, 'wow, what if all the church followed Onesimus' example'. He has just told them to be wholehearted in whatever they do and then adds (remember), Onesimus is one of you.

Reebok say 'the world is your playground', What if we could say the 'world is God's footstool, sanctuary'. A place of rest for him. The organizations, structures, systems, departments could become sacred space and maybe what Brother Billy said might actually happen.

Onesimus Revolution

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.

I love watching God's plans and purposes unfold. Sometimes it feels like we are supposed to go after God's plans and then battle through to make it happen. My experience is more about being passenger than driver. Watching it unfold and being quite passive.

To inadequatley summarize a very long and multi-layered story...I returned from Kansas City with the dream of Philemon. Being like Onesimus whose name means profitable but he had become a cause of financial loss of Philemon. He was sent back to be a 'slave' but no longer as a slave but as a brother. In Christ we are all slaves (to Christ), and all free from passing labels.

For me this worked itself out as being going back to my Law firm, a place i had run from, albeit I believe God was in it and fulfilling his purpose in my leaving as much as in my returning. I found myself at the same firm, same department, same secretary, dare I say ut some of the same ongoing cases! I received a prophecy in February 2005 that I had been trapped before and I would be trapped again. For me this was going back to the previous employer like Philemon in the story. There was also to be an available grace.

I won't talk now about some of the wonderful people I have met there and whos elives are being transformed by a real living and interactive Jesus, but this is part of that outflowing grace mentioned above.

IN the last 6 months it has become progressively harder at work to keep doing it for Jesus. The song on my lips had been, 'its not what I do, it is who I do it for'. But that is difficult to maintain when you are in an environment that is at times very self-seeking, political and quite frankly unfair. For example, one colleague 'a fellow slave' had become a supervisor whilst I was away and now used this position to apparently damage as opposed to serve. I would work with all my heart for jesus and the credit would be taken. I would keep my case load up to date and then I would receive a 'hospital pass' and deal with problems. There were countless other things which so damaged the moral in the team and dented my own courage.

It was almost as if God was testing what he had written on my heart. If I am doing it for Jesus alone then these things shouldn't present any problems. The truth is, I was obviously still looking for human reward.

One particular colleage was/is struggling so much and I found her being targeted rather than loved and encouraged. In fact things were happening that could actually damage her career overall.

about 2 weeks ago I hit rock bottom because it all felt unjust. I related to the things David said, about why do the wicked prosper? How do they become supervisors?? It feels unjust. Haze and I were talking about it and she was challenging me to speak up for myself to the big boss about what was really going on in the department and to fight my case.

No guy wants his wife to think he is a door mat and weak. But, I have been thinking about meekness alot these last 6-9 months. I wanted to be a bit like david who could have killed his enemy saul but wanted God to fight his battles. People say meekness isn;t weakness. I disagree. I think it is voluntary weakness and place of foolishness. The meek will inherit the earth but right now they get a pretty tough time of it. Like Paul said, if there were no resurrection and 'after' then the here and now is all a bit ridiculous. To follow God we need to be pegged to the after.

Well, I decided not to fight my corner and be weak and frustrated. I can;t say I walked into it joyfully and full of peace either. It just felt right.

Well, the very next day 12 hours later, the boss called me in on another matter we ended up talking and he said he had been wanting to speka to me for weeks about me leading a team. He said he had seen the way I looked after people and knew I would excel in that kind of position. I was shocked and overwhelemed. I then got to fight for my struggling colleague to paint a pictue other than the one that had been painted by a supervisor. I was able to say that I believed in her and that she needed encouragement.

One thing led to another and within 7 days I have a team of 6 people and I have been given another office in another building away from the politics. And My colleague who has been making things difficult now has only one team member because most of them have been placed under my supervision. Amazing.

And, the project i have been given is to make a historically loss making type of work profitable. IN law almost everything is profitable. The one non profitable department has been given to me to turn around. Amazing. Onesimus means profitable and he was sent back and Paul promised he would be profitable. This means that it is going to work and we are going to be profitable!!

I feel once again amazed at the wisdom of God. he takes foolish things and does extraordinary things with them. I am so excited at the prospect of loving these 6 people well. creating a working environment if prayer unlike any they have ever experienced. A place of compassion, laughter and encouragement. Maybe, just maybe they will come to Know Jesus for themselves. I started off by saying I have been a passenger in all this stuff and it carries on. That is not some kind of humilty but the real truth. I had no idea what God was up to.

The story continues....

Everlasting to Everlasting

Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses the man of God. 1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

I think, from time to time about the eternity of God and how big He is. It strikes me that I am more inward focussed and self-centred than I realize.

I personalize srcipture which is a good thing to do and treat it as a love letter to me. The problem with this is that I become a mini God in my universe and I lose sight of the real God, of all generations. I forget about that cloud of witnesses that have gone before me, and the elderly who are still with me. They have each encountered something of you. Its a bit like feeling i know my neighbourhood when I walk round at night and standing under a lamp post and to be in it's light. Then one day I am in Kruger Park safari with haze and we look up at the night sky and it shocks, scares, intimidates me that there are these constellations, so vast. My familiarity with the neighbourhood suddenly seems to tiddly.

Rather unusual analogy but I think it is simialr with the knowlege of God. So much of my study has been 'me' driven.

My freedom,
My destiny
My calling
My wholeness
My vision
My struggles/victories
My My My etc...

Then I read a book like Ephesians which uses the word 'you' alot and I hear 'Brad' when in fact the 'you' was aimed at the church, a body, family with no singular heroes. Very counter our present culture. Its amazing what a different read it is when you see the bigger picture, the eternal context and purpose.

I think Psalm 90 is great for this. Man is dust, even if he is a christian. Even if he makes it on to the shelves of the christian book store autobiography section! Our lives are like a vapour and they will soon vanish. The only thing that will remain will be God's remembering us in his Kingdom when all things are made new and whole.

Before the mountains were called forth, before Gen 1, 'you were from everlasting to everlasting'. Everlasting back and everlasting forward. My mind overloads at trying to figure that out. What was he doing all that time? It also puts an interesting spin on my understanding of time and how focussed I am on 'me today' as opposed to God forever. If Only I could grasp the eternity fo God in my heart, then I am sure I would make my little decisions, and deal with the affairs of the day diferently.

A precious vapour
Though it appears for a moment, then is no more
I am precious in your sight.
One breath of air in the winds of change
but it silences the corridors of heaven
It turns your face to look upon me.
Your beautiful one. I am yours and Your desire is for me.
For this reason this vapour will be remembered.

Flying under the radar

Those were fantastic thoughts. I got so excited reading of what the Spirit is teaching that I read it to Haze!

Its all about love. Its all about a wedding. Its all about a bride being beautiful for her groom. Its all about beauty. Its all about love.

I remember the passage in Collossians which i read one lunch hour last week in the message and how it says 'after beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to accomplish your goals by human effort', and how that spirit groans in us for Jesus. A groaning of desire at times but also sometimes adeep awareness of living in a dry and weary land where there is no water and needing to come to Jesus as the fountain of water to wash over us and to drink of Him.

If love and deep affection for the man Christ Jesus is removed from the picture then I do not think we have much left. We love Him because he first loved us. I liked the way you linked those passages and how Paul so focussed these young people on the love of Christ rather than a deep mentorship programme etc. It was all about that love which would propel some of them into remarkable feats for Jesus but for them it would all be about love. Like Phil 3:10 ' It is my determined purpose that I might Know Him', (what he prayed for others) and the power of his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings.

I have had this thought many times in the last 2 months, that to go after the things you talk about, Prayer, love for Jesus often in secret, we need to be willing to fly under the radar of much of church life. The reality of course is that we are to live to please Jesus only. Will I do whatever he says and be faithful to the 2-3 people who I feel are to be looked after by me and covered in prayer in this next season. It doesn;t look like a 'ministry', but I know of God's pleasure.

I was blown away by the story of Catt at Joco and what the Spirit said through Bob H. It reminds me that Jesus really is other than, holy, and quite different to us. he does not assess things the way we do. He would see Catt looking after those elderly men and women as sacred and there is a reward in that. Coming back to england like you know was for us a taking hold of Jesus' new deffinition of love over us and letting go of the old dreams, vision, purposes, callings which had so become everything. Now for me to live is Christ and the overwhelming fact that he loved me. Coinciding with this revelation has been the most remarkable thing. As I have beheld 'the God who sees me and cares', like Hagar, I have started seeing people and caring in a way that I didn;t before. People are not 'church', 'ministry time', or whatever, but it feels more sacred, time is more available, and I have started to love people more than I did before.

We need to fly under the radar more Mitch. No books will be written about Bob hartley and as you said a while back, who has ever heard of the Moravians? But the truth is the Shulamite in Song of Songs live dout of the reality of knowing the intimacy of Jesus and led the way for others to follow into that place. Just like david, who made others jealous. And Joseph....

Not my most comprehensive blog, more a bundle of thoughts arising out of your post.

My challenge is to become more hungry and thirsty for God and to actually want wisdom and revelation. That thirst comes and goes but my feeling is that I quench that longing with secondary stuff. One of the big reasons the last 18 months has been so significant for me with revelation etc, is because of the principles of fasted living as taught to me in IHOP. It is really no different to arranging date nights with Haze to help me know her better.

I am still pondering the stuff you shared on your next steps, calling, business/prayer divide and will come back to you on that when things crystallize a bit more!

Pauls Prayers

The day after we got back from the USA, on saturday evening, catt and I were feeling pretty tired. She went to bed at 8.30 and I stayed up reading and praying a bit, but very tired. I was reading psalm 16, and then I get this thought to read Peter's speech in Acts 2. After this the thought comes to read Rev ch2, 3 times. The message to the first church, Ephesus was standing out. They were doing lots of good stuff, believing lots of good theology, and standing against evil. But Jesus says if you don't repent and find your first love I'm going to remove your lampstand - I think lampstand = a church, so that means remove the church altogether. This hits me as a 'type' of church today.

So I went to Ephesians and started reading the summaries. I know Ephesians is held alongside Romans as the great theological explanations of grace and holy living. The summary in my bible mentions 2 prayers and I felt prompted to look into these.

The first prayer is Eph 1:15-23. It begins with "for this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in Jesus, and love for the saints", so I look at the preceeding section. It basically says - they were saved. v13 says they heard the word, believed and received the Spirit as a seal. I sense that that is the link to the Acts 2 speech. I know there is no real link, but sense God saying, the point is, they were saved - thats it. Its weird that Paul says "since I heard" as he was there for 3 years I think? So there must have been lots of new believers or something??. Then he says he "keeps praying that God will give them then spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they may know him better. WOW I thought. It just struck me that the first thing Paul prays after they are saved is for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better. Then he prays that the eyes of their heart would be open to know the hope, inheritance and power that is in them.

The second prayer is Eph 3:14-19. It again begins with "for this reason", which is referring to the end of Ch2 (ch3v2-13 is a sidetrack). It says they are being built up to be Gods dwelling place. Because of that he kneels - so this is a big deal - and prays that God will cause Christ to dwell in their hearts, ie receive more of God's presence, and have power to grasp more of God's love. Obviously I've read all these thing 1000 times, but it just hits me that after these people get saved, the first things that Paul prays is that they get revelation etc to know God better, and know the hope, inheritance, power thats in them. Then to have more of the presence of God and grasp his love more. It skrikes me for 2 reasons - first that what he prays is exactly what Jesus said they needed to change in Rev 2 (in it Jesus only says love, but really the first things paul prays will lead to love). Secondly that this is so different to what we see now. Think about what he doesn't pray... Its as if in the first 3 chapters he's saying, "you're saved - thats great. Now what I want is for you to get the spirit of rev to know God better, and the hope, inheritance, power in you. By the way what actually happened to you was grace (ch2) and you're now in it with us jews, trying to be presence carriers, so what I really, really want is more of God's presence for you, and you to grasp God's love more." Ch2 is generally considered the main chapter, but I don't think it was to Paul. Ch2 is what has happened - but it happened whether they understood it or not. What Paul is really concerned about is in his prayers - and rev 2 is the proof.

I then start to think about Pauls other letters, and what he prayed to different churches...

Phil 1:9-11 "that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, SO THAT you may be able to descern what is best and may be pure and blameless ... filled with the fruit of righteousness..." Here Paul makes the connection between greater knowledge of, and love for/with God - and purity. I know all this is obvious, but don't you think its funny that this is what he prays. However in Phillipians he doesn't say anything like "I have heard ... for this reason I pray", so it is what it is and thats all.

Col 1:9-14 "for this reason ... we have not stopped ... asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom ..."
This prayer is quite different than for Ephesus, and I think its because of what preceeds "for this reason". V4 Paul says he's heard of their faith in Jesus and love for the saints (just like Ephesus)... V5 "the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven ..." Its as if Paul is acknowledging that what he prayed for Ephesus in the first prayer - the collosians have got it. I'm taking the phrase in V5 to be a 'tag-line' for the prayer for the Ephesians. By that I mean Paul is saying - you know what - you collosians are saved, but more than that, you have some of the spirit of rev to know God, his hope, inheritance and power - and out of that place you have grasped some of the love of God. Therefore I feel safe praying that you know that will of God for you. Paul never prayed that the Ephesian would know the will of God.

1 Thess 3:11-13 "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other..." I can't get quite as much from this, but in 1 Thess 1:3 Paul speaks of their work and labor prompted by love, inspired by hope. Its almost like they've got what he prayed for both the Ephesian and the Collosians - Spirit of rev to know God, hope, love, etc, and know, and are doing the will of God. So Paul simply says - let the love increase and overflow... and keep your heart pure.

I think there is a little progression going on here - with the Ephesians, Collosians and Thesselonians.

This experience was weird and wonderful for me. It started with me being tired at 9pm, but by 9.15 was alert and my heart was on fire - with this strange awareness that the Spirit was about to open up something to me. Minute by minute new things were jumping out, but I had no way of keeping up, remembering or writing everything down. 5 minutes later it was 1.15am - you know what I mean I'm sure...

joco

Had a great time in Canberra last weekend with Bob Fraser/Hartley speaking. Very strange - as I went there by myself, and had no idea what to expect. It was just a friday night, and all day/night saturday. They basically did a cut down version of the full retreat that you did. Over the past few months I've spent a lot of time praying that God would speak both at this event and in May when we're in Kansas. I realise there's nothing magic about these places/events, but I wanted to give these times completely to God, and use them as special times of seeking God's presense.

As I was walking to the place on friday night I was thinking pretty negatively. Just asking myself why I'd bothered to come all this way to this thing. I was thinking: "I've spent all this money booking flights to america and here, to hear some people I don't know. They're probably just normal guys, and Brads already given me the gist of it - its not as if they'll be levitating or anything..." As I walked into the building I thought, "this is stupid I'm wasting my time." They were starting with some worship, and funnily enough, the very first words of the worship leader were "hands up who's from interstate... well you're not wasting your time coming here - God honours every small step we take towards him..." I took that as a direct answer to my poor attitude.

I think the main thing for me was an amazing sense of the presence of God - an answer to prayer that I'm so grateful for - God really met me there. As I said we started with worship, just a guitarist and keyboard that could barely play at all, let alone with each other... So there was no chance of sensationalising anything. During the worship and Bob Frasers first session, I was pretty much crying the whole time... Very weird. First time I've cried in a few years. Its hard to put into words what was going on. I mean, he was talking about God in the marketplace - businesses etc - not exactly an emotional subject! But I think God was really touching my heart, and confirming the direction I thought he was leading me in. In a strange way it was like I was home ??

I was so touched by both Bob's also. You know how you can just tell sometimes when someone is dwelling in God's presense - like I've mentioned with Rob Scott-Cook. Different to seeing a dynamic speaker or leader. A humility and gentleness that you can tell isn't of themselves.

I had decided that no matter what, I was going to have a talk with one or both of them, and share my situation - at least so they could pray for me, and know who I was before going to kansas in May. I think also becuase I knew that most of the 150 people were just there because it was a good thing to go to. But for me this was a big deal - almost like a culmination - of several years seeking / struggling and God leading. I was getting pretty up-tight about it (You may not know, but I'm quite shy, and meeting people is hard). Also, I had no idea what Bob Hartley did, but when he starting prophecying over people, that only made it worse. I was saying to God - thats it, you've got to speak to me through a prophetic word! That night I had a dream: I was in a room after a meeting had finished and I was desperate to talk to, and be noticed by, some people. So I went up and talked to them, but they responded with "oh, why do you want to talk to us? what do you need that for?" I left bewildered with the realisation that firstly I knew what I had to do so didn't really need their direction/prayer, secondly, that my real motive was to be noticed. That dream really hit me with just how much I "need" adulation. A combination of pride, yet lack of confidence and surity about what I'm doing, its like a cancer in my heart - God help me...

The main thing that I really want, that Bob Fraser talked about, was in receiving direction, business ideas, etc in the place of intimacy with God. I want that!!! But I will have to change so much in seeking that. Spend heaps more time with God, and give up a lot of stuff. That reminds me... Over the past month or 2 I've been convicted about my love of sport - I love watching football, cricket, tennis etc. During one of Hartleys sessions, he got a bit annoyed, almost raised his voice - and out of nowhere says "why do you waste so much time with sport!". I'm taking that as a direct word from God to me - I need to change.

There were other small ways that God spoke, and I surer than ever what my focus should be, and what I am aiming for. So all in all it was awesome. Obviuosly the teaching was amazing, but you know about that. And this was only a day and a half. Can't wait for May!

It would be great to have a "house of prayer" in Aus. Somewhere that people who want to seek Gods presence can centre around. In his prophecies for Australia as a whole, Hartley said we needed one. So if you ever feel like moving to Aus we could start a business and house of prayer - that would be fun! :)

The Absent Captain

The thing that fascinated me growing up was knowing God. I heard about people being his friend and knowing him in a very real way. I read about these heroes of the faith that gave up everything for Him because they knew Him. I always wanted to know Him and walk in his footsteps and to hear his voice. I really never wanted to stand up and talk about it.

No bright ideas or 5 year plans for how I will impact this world. Just a heart in deep affection for this man. I have entertained intellectual arguments as to why God should not exist and discussed exactly what God feels about this and about that but somewhere in there is a very unfortunate trade off where I reduce God to a concept to be played with and to grapple with and lose that ever present closeness of knowing God.

I love Phillipians 3:10, which says ' It is my determined purpose that I would know him and the power of his resurrection. Again, number one is knowing him, Psalm 27 and number 2 is to see the outworking of that. Loving God then loving the neigbour.

Where is the captain? A few friends and I started a darts club a few years ago and all had darts names, 'silver jackal', 'slider', etc, and as i recall we only played darts twice but this community went on for so long. we really enjoyed it. As all great societies Ben decided that we needed a larger than life history and founding member. This is where the 'Captain' was birthed. He would be mentioned here and there as a great man, noble, and awe inspiring in life and deed. Of course the whole thing was one big joke but it caught on. We need a 'captain' so that when we go for a beer we can raise the glass and make mention of this deeper reason for our evening out.

Why do I tell this story? I think God, in my life becomes this 'captain'. Noble, great stories to tell, all in the past tense. But speak about him as 'daddy, or my precious friend' and it becomes a bit uncomfortable.

I have found in the last couple of weeks that the thiings of God become synonymous with God himself. I have been doing Alpha, homegroup, pastorate, chruch, and involved with people alot and these things do satisfy in part, but then suddenly I hear these words in my spirit, 'the absent Captain'. As john Piper said, 'God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him'. How quickly I love the praise of people and see the well worn channels in church structure to move onwards and upwards into more influence but I get terrified because I am nothing. I know it, and I am not trying to be humble, I am trying to be honest.

I have so little of myself to give that I dare not mention it. I love the way God has been speaking to me in dreams, when I have been asleep! I so desire that this would continue and I might share what God is saying with no understanding of what I am saying so that God might be seen as the hero. I love human heroes and know that I want a human King other than God. Just like the people of Israel, I want to point to a Mike Bickle, John Wimber and identify with them, WHY? because in my life the captain is absent. It was prophesied in isaiah, 'I wish you were all prophets', and 'I will write write my law on their hearts', . God is desperate for each of us to know his voice and for him to be ever present no human 'captain'

Finally, a weird interesting hypothetical thought......'If God ceased to exist, for how long would things go on as usual?' Church, charity etc... I want to be so leaning on Jesus that I cannot get outof bed without Him. I cannot walk to work unless I know he is with me. I do not say anything 'spiritual' unless I have heard Jesus say it to me, and I do not do anything, whether parking duty or prophesy without having heard Jesus say for me to do that. This is the whole message of Jeremiah - the weeping, forgotten and jealous God - to paraphrase ' you always do your own thing but you forget about how I feel about it all'.

What about the needs we see? What about duty to community and obligations? good questions but I see Jesus meeting needs but also running away from the crowds to be with his daddy. One moment he says to a paralytic ' get up and walk', the next minute he is saying to Peter, 'quick Peter paddle, before the crowds get here!'.

I guess this all comes back to meekness. Am I the answer or just a priest who points to everything I have seen and heard in that secret place? Moses was the leader tof the armies of Egypt and was therefore the Donal Rumsfeld of the day but he became the meekest man alive. He told God he could not speak. I hear people say he had a stutter. I doubt it. Raised in Egypt, leader of the armies of the greatest civilization on earth and second to Pharoah in that household, but he later could not speak.

In Prince of Egypt, they depict Moses speaking out to pharoah ' let my people Go', but he did not. He whispered to aaron and he was the mouth piece.

I think it takes spiritual violence to cut out the things that mean it is no longer noticed when the presence of Jesus isn't there.

Hmmm, sorry I was a bit bullish in the last post. Did the paragraph about love make sense? I was really only meaning that it needs to be 1 Cor 13 love and not just 'days of our lives' love. I assume you get that show over there...

Regarding Sauls first dissobedience, Henry's commentary says the following

"Saul offered sacrifice without Samuel, and did it himself, though he was neither priest nor prophet. When charged with disobedience, he justified himself in what he had done, and gave no sign of repentance for it. He would have this act of disobedience pass for an instance of his prudence, and as a proof of his piety. Men destitute of inward piety, often lay great stress on the outward performances of religion. Samuel charges Saul with being an enemy to himself. Those that disobey the commandments of God, do foolishly for themselves. Sin is folly, and the greatest sinners are the greatest fools. Our disposition to obey or disobey God, will often be proved by our behaviour in things which appear small. Men see nothing but Saul's outward act, which seems small; but God saw that he did this with unbelief and distrust of his providence, with contempt of his authority and justice, and with rebellion against the light of his own conscience."

Another aspect to David and Sual, perhaps an offshoot of trust, is fear. When Saul is making excuses for his second mistake he says: "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them." Just after this he says: "I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God." Firstly, before he sinned, he was more afraid of his subjects than of his God. And second, after being caught, he still seems more worried about his reputation, than of what God thinks. David on the other hand never showed much fear of man, right from the time he took on Goliath, despite the chastisement of his brothers.

Also, you don't get the impression Saul cares that much that he disobeyed the Lord. After the first mistake there is no repentance mentioned - I assume they would have noted it if it was substantial, then the second mistake brings excuses and face saving. Compare this with Psalm 51 when David is confronted with his sin.

There are a lot of differences in action, and they reveal a big difference in the state of the heart of both men. I think you're right... David's love for God is the source of these differences. His love for God far exceeded Sauls. But more importantly, it went well beyond his love of others, which took away his fear of man and concern for reputation. Later, faced with his own sin he could say "You and You only have I sinned" - He feared God far more than anything or anyone else. Only intense love could drive out the fear that is so human when facing a Goliath, and give the 'second nature' trust in his God.

Bless you guys... Please pray that this is the month for Catt and I (if you know what I mean)

saul, david and phinehas

Had a look saul and david, and it says a lot we need to hear.

First of all I just like to say, when we make comments like, all that counts is our love for God - my response is, well that depends on what is meant by love. If it is all encompassing - assuming passion, obedience, faith, and a few other things, then yes - all that really counts is a heart of love for God. However if by love we mean a heart-felt passion for God, I would have to say... well I think scripture says God wants more.

Anyway, moving on. I looked at how both men started - what were they both like at the beginning.

Saul:
starts out looking for donkeys... doesn't mention God until he runs into Samuel. God had chosen him. He was from the least of the tribes (Ben), and the least of the clans within that. God's continuing pattern of chosing the lowly is shown again- probably a shock to Israel. He's annointed, and Samuel gives him 4 instructions - (3 signs, and 1 command) The 3 signs all happen, which must have been pretty cool for Saul. He is filled with the Spirit many times from here on. The 1 command - to wait for samuel at Gilgel (for 7 days) for him to do the sacrifice, before going to war. This is the first thing God, via Samuel asks him to do... and he almost does it... sounds like there was just a few hours in it. I wonder how history might have changed if he had of waited... but probably it was an indication of his heart. Was it sloppiness, arrogance, impatience, a lack of respect or fear? At that time a word from Samuel was equivilent to a word from God. But not sure if we can really know the exact state of his heart at this point. Samuel has very harsh word - God would have established his kingdom for all time, but not anymore, and God has someone else in mind who has a heart after His own. All because he didn't obey that 1 command. Then when Samuel gives instruction 5 - a command to go and destroy the amalekites - he almost gets it right, but takes it upon himself to give a bit of plunder to the men, and even to sacrifice to God. Samuel and God hate what he did, and that is the end of his reign - it was just a matter of time from then on. God was grieved that He made Saul king - ouch. Did God not know he'd disobey like this?

David:
He starts in a similar place of lowliness, this time sheep instead of donkeys - but they are both pretty dumb. Seems like a strange twist of 'fate' that David is sent to play for Saul - perhaps God wanted him to see what 'kingship' is like, a learning experience, or just to make himself known prior to his first real appearance. I think its significant that the first real time we hear from David is in the incident with Goliath. 1 Sam 17: 26 he reveals part of his heart: "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" Then a few verses later "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this philistine". Then when he meets Goliath: "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty..."

I'm not sure we can say there was one single thing David had and Saul didn't. Its clear Saul was dissobedient - he got things 90% right, but the 10% failure was crucial to God. We've talked a lot about David's heart love for God -the psalms are full of it. And David seems to have that almost more than any other in the bible. But I'd like to look elsewhere. I see 2 main things here. Zeal and trust. I think these are the key. Zeal comes out in that he hated the fact that someone would dare dishonour his God. And Trust - he just assumes his God will come through. For him, intimacy with God, and trusing, assuming He will help him fight for God, merge into one...

Phinehas:
I'd like to mention Phinehas, son of Eleazer. I was reading Ps 106. v30 says "But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come." This was referring back to Numbers 25. Israel was sinning by fooling around with midianite women, and many were dying by a plague of punishment God had sent. Then an israelite brazenly brought a midinite women before the whole camp, into his tent. Phinehas took a spear and drove it through both of them, and the plague stopped. God then said to Moses: "Phinehas ... has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendents will have have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God..."

I think this is significant as there are only a handfull of people who have had such adulation from God. I see a similar thing in David.

Regarding trust. In reading the psalms, apart from the intimacy, the crying out for God's presence, and the love for his God, David trusted his Father. I read Ps 146&147 yesterday - Its just hit me how much he says things like: "Do not put your trust in princes ... Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God", and "His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."

We love God - we want to have a heart after his, but will we trust him and his promises. I think thats what I was referring to in the last post re the persistant widow and intimate child. I know we don't want fruit to be the focus, but that shouldn't be an excuse not to trust Him.

How does God evaluate things?

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree we need to really treat all weakness as a grace to lean on God in a greater measure through prayer.

A scripture that has impacted me so much this last 12 months is this:


1 Samuel 16
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Forget for a minute about the things we think are important, I am still baffled by that short statement which must become a lense for looking at everything in scripture and in all of life. God does not see things the way I see them. We must let that sink in. We must become students of the bible and ask questions. How do i see things? How does God see things? Is there a difference?

We look at the external, fruit, outward, appearance, image, and are consumed with the way a person or situation looks. Based on that King Saul would have been great but God didn;t see it that way. God had rejected him because he valued sacrifice (maybe service) above obedience. Samuel the prophet brought te word that the God of heaven is not looking for a butler but for a people who would obey, love and follow in a reverent way. David was the shepherd after God's heart who's life record looked very poor compared to Saul. We do not read about Saul committing the same number of blunders but God rejected him.

God is looking for something in our heart. Paul urges us to 'learn what pleases God', and I think the life of David is a place where we can learn what it is that tickles God's heart and makes him smile. Isaiah 55 says that David was made a witness to the nations. A witness to what God is after.

How exciting! As I spoke to our new friends (Dave and jen) tonight they really shared our feeling of frustration from delay in God fulfilling promises. In fact, our coming back to Bristol is the exact opposite direction to what I thought God should do. But, this evening I felt encouraged that God was looking at our hearts. Could it be that the ONLY assessment God will make of our lives is the amount of love that moves from our hearts to his heart? The only thing I care about in my marriage to Haze is the quality of love that passes between us in a very hidden place. Maybe that is a picture of God's heart too.


I pray that we might become shepherds after God's heart. Like David, then we will be able to love people well. Interesting who David's mighty men were before they were mighty men.

1 Samuel 22:2

1So David got away and escaped to the Cave of Adullam. When his brothers and others associated with his family heard where he was, they came down and joined him. 2Not only that, but all who were down on their luck came around--losers and vagrants and misfits of all sorts. David became their leader. There were about four hundred in all.

what do we do now...

Well I think its awesome that one person came...

Your situation, and post, raise a lot of issues. Not sure where to start.

We've talked before about Spirit giving birth to Spirit. And I know we both think similarly about the 'wisdom of man' we see in the church. I had written a whole heap about a conversation I had with a friend in melbourne last week (but it was getting a bit long and boring so I deleted it). To cut a long story short, some friends of ours have started going to another new church where they scrapped everything in a normal church, worship, sermon, etc, and just go to a caffe and discuss issues. Another friend here in Adelaide (who is part of the same group that started that church) gave us a brochure for a conference about new paradigms for missional church in todays culture. We've talked about this stuff a lot - and you know that I don't really like it - or at least the focus. The thought that if we do church in a more relevant way then people will come.

And you mentioned a similar thing in your last post. I loved your reaction! I agree, Spirit does give birth to Spirit. God does have to do something in a person's heart or nothing eternal has happened.

The thing thats bugging me is, how much is church - both the new stuff, and even the normal 'big successful church', gotten away from this attitude. How much do our actions show that we trust God? Do we believe that He can do anything?

Some words in Luke 18 have often confused me. Jesus, after telling the parable of the persistant widow - obviously encouraging the disciples to pray with faith and persistance - says "but when the son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Jesus seems to doubt whether many people will ever depend on God enough and be faithful in prayer enough... that's scary. No wonder many peoples focus is on other wisdom.

The obvious problem is that it is hard to do. Depending on God and praying in faith (a lot) is difficult, risky, boring etc etc. (I take special note that the very next parable is about praying with pride.)

Now how does this affect how many people come to Alpha (for example)? Over the past few years I've thought a lot about this and I have a few theories. I hate reducing prayer to a system - and terms I've heard like "praying in money" neglect the relationship side of prayer. However the following seems right...

Pray before - 'do the prayer' ahead of time - before acting, thus establishing a foundation of prayer - if nothing else, it shows God we trust Him first of all. Note in 'red moon rising' the guy he mentioned that started a church - prayed for a month then went out and brought many to God... I don't notice as much happen when people just start praying and doing at the same time (ie, the rest of the book).

Pray until - Think Rees Howles - my hero. I can't think of any other way to get faith for what we pray. 'claiming' something in faith has always seemed fake to my heart. gaining an assurance from an intamate place with God is the only real faith I've experienced. And faith is the key - Jesus was 'unable' to work without it... Also, I think there may be something significant about 'filling a bowl of prayer' before God acts. Also, I think a couple of minutes a day for something or someone doesn't cut it.

fasting seems to help - although I'm not very good at it.

who prays matters - like in foundations, a 'priest' of God, one who dwells in the intimate places of God and obeys Him, seems to receive more, also because they know more of whats on His heart.

timing. Also, all prayer is answered in God's timing - and we may never see the results when we think. Remember your friend (I think she had a baby) who became a christian while you were at ihop. I'm guessing God answered your prayer while you weren't looking.

All this might seem in contrast to a focus on intamacy with God, and seeking His presence. But I think God wants us to have both sides to prayer - intamate child and persistant widow.

Now the reason I'm saying all this is, I think we should act on this for your work. I know you have prayed and obeyed, but what if we prayed. What if we focussed on future stuff - ie Alpha in 3 months - not so much immediate stuff - and plowed intercession into that?

Bless you mate

PS: writing this post was the hardest one I've written by far - took a few hours to find the words and the computer kept on stuffing up - randomly deleting parts??

Maybe not the hero I thought I was!

Only the spirit can give birth to Sprit

Alpha kicked off last night and it was a wonderful evening. About 80 guys came along and there was a real buzz. I had 6-7 people who has committed to come along and for various reason, mainly spiritual (i believe) only one made it. The most unlikely set of reasons.

I felt immense disappointment. "God, I did my bit, I invited people and risked mocking and rejection and these are the few who said yes, why didn't they come if there is some divine purpose?"

On Monday my colleague 'took me to pieces' over the way I shared my faith at work. It shattered me. Ironically, he was one of the few who I had no peace about inviting to Alpha so I didn't. The guys I invited had no issues with it. He said the world is a worse place because of people like me who think other people need to 'have a faith'. He compared my inviting colleagues to Alpha with him inviting Hazel to a course on witchcraft. He also said I was unprofessional. Ouch.

My gut reaction, honestly, was to break his knee caps. The irony in the situation was that Alpha is an open discussion forum for all sorts, whereas his view of my faith was arguably intolerant. But I remembered Jesus that lamb who remained silent before his shearers and for the hope that was set before him endured the scorn, shame and pain of the cross even though there were 72 ooo angels waiting for his command the nuke the place.

Well, my colleague who attended the last alpha walked with me after the 'run in' and encouraged me to turn the other cheek. It was amazing to be uplifted by one who has just started to follow jesus for himself. In fact, he is now leading on this Alpha! It was ok to go through all that but the hope that I set before me was 7 guys on alpha from my firm. That didn;t happen.

Last night I had a dream and it was one I have repeatedly and whenever God warns me off performance. I was in a situation where I was to sit a german exam and I hadn;t spoken for ages, had insufficient time to learn again. It was a nagging fear of failure. This is the spirit's way of reminding me of two things:

1. After beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to obtain your goals by human effort?

2. John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

The second fascinates me. Only God can create god stuff. I so easily get trapped in my own limited, frustrated thinking that the aim of the game is to get people to church/alpha and then everything will be ok. But actually, it is only the work of the spirit in a person's inner man that does the stuff. Thats the way it is for me daily. It is the spirit stirring even these thoughts and groanings in my heart that is making a difference.

I am not saying the ordinary acts and deeds in our life count for nothing but flesh only gives birth to flesh. If we challenge a person's thinking we might see the birth of a new way of thinking but thats all. But only the spirit can give birth to what is spiritual.

What a relief. Even though 4 of my colleagues might go next week that does not matter. Not my business. My aim is to see the holy spirit do what he will do in the hearts of people who seek him regardless of location, church attendance etc

I used to think the church was a battleship and we needed to get people onto it, but I think the world is teh battlezone, where I have been quite wounded, and the father never stops working.

I pray that our eyes might be flooded with light to see jesus. he is the hope set before us. Maybe my disappointement is to chip away at my pride, and to make sure that the only reward for me is to be loved and known by jesus. none other.

My sweetheart

A seal upon the heart - Many waters cannot quench love

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
For love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

I have seen a marriage shaken to it's core recently. Whether it will stand I cannot say. Our hearts and prayers have been stirred and we believe that the 'valley of trouble is the door of hope'. God sometimes doesn;t provide a door out of trouble, but the very suffering is what heals us. It is like an onion of complexity. Layers upon layers of questions, unperceived hurts, wounds and vulnerabilities. It makes many question the presumptuousness of marriage.

I had a fascinating discussion with a good friend last week about marriage and love. The question was, 'Could this happen to anyone'? Does this just happen? Could I one day walk out on Haze? Might Haze one day reach for a better love in the arms of another? Just asking the question shook me.

A number of people have said that it could just happen and I have little control over it. People change, resentments become entrenched and life throws a curve ball. Something in me rises up against that like a flame to scream 'NO'. Maybe I am naive or a hopeless romantic tainted by Hollywood, but I must believe in love. If I cannot fight for love then what else is there to believe in?

I think of the many men and women who have laid down their very lives for lesser things than love. There are things worth living for and many worth fighting and dying for.

I have thought about this question for several weeks now and my position has not changed. Here are my conclusions.

There are two sources of input for a marriage:

1. the world
2. the eternal Christ

The two could not be more antagonistic. In fact I think Paul said somewhere that they are mutually exclusive. It is impossible or jolly hard for the two to co-exist. If you do not hate the ways of the world then the love of God is not in you. If you have one you will (by default despise the other).

The vows I made when I married Hazel were clear:

1. better or worse
2. richer or poorer
3. sickness and in health
4. forsaking all others
5. faithful to haze until I die.

Now, our culture says:

1. everybody has their limit.
2. life is not a rehearsal you need to pursue happiness at any cost
3. take life as it comes, (play it by ear)
4. if it feels good do it
5. our feelings must be trusted even if it causes short term pain
6. if it hurts get out.

Well, those are just some of the mixed messages. If we cannot fulfill the vow due to 'not knowing the future', then why do we make the vow? The thing I love about marriage is the mystery that reveals the face of God.

I get to love Hazel the way God has loved me. God fights for me, is patient, and will never let me down. If I break my vow he will not break his! Thats how I can be. Even if Haze were to go off with a Greek waiter, I can still love her. It is foolishness to the world but God's wisdom. This is the face of God we see in Hosea. God is a romantic and loyal/faithful husband who will pursue his bride at any cost. He is so meek that humiliation of chasing a whore means nothing to Him. His love is so intense that it drives everything he does. He gives everything with the risk of further rejection. Lets face it, Jesus gave himself for a world, that would mostly stick their middle finger up at him. But he still pursues the world in love like that lovesick husband. Now imagine the intensity of His love for the one who says 'Yes'. "Like a lilly among thorns is my beloved".

I am baffled by this love of God's. Words cannot describe it. But what really moves me is that marriage is the vehicle in which God wants to reveal His love. Crazy! Broken, weak people get to reflect the Hosea, calvary God. I get to pursue Haze in love all the days of my life and whatever life offers is an opportuniy to love her well. In the poorer, worse and sick times I will have the best opportunity to glorify God. And, God gives us all grace to do what he asks us to do.

Last Monday I watched 'The Notebook'. If you have not seen it then watch it. Some might say it is unrealistic and 'Hollywood' but it is no more than the love and seal on the heart in the opening scripture.

In the film the teenage couple meet. She is rich and he is poor. But love does not read the rules. They fall in love. It is real and against all odds. She goes to New York at the order of her disapproving parents. He writes for 365 consecutive days with no response. He stops writing but his heart is now orphaned. It cannot love again because it has been given.

Years later they meet again and his heart is awakened again. He could not marry another nor could she.

They grow old together and she has senile dementia and cannot remember him so he reads the story of their life together over and over in the foolish belief that she will come back to him. he is mocked by the doctors. The children beckon him as an old man, to leave his wife in the care home because she does not know him. he says, as a weak and failing man,

"you don't understand, that is my sweetheart in there. Your mother is my home".

Haze is like a seal on my heart. Many waters cannot quench our love. I will continue to hear the 'mixed messages' about how our marriage could suddenly fail, but I will be foolish and believe in the fairtale God who has made me his home. The most unlikely of places. I have made Hazel my home. She is not just my best friend but our hearts are one. No flirtacious secretary, debilitating illness, or poverty can change that. I vow to utterly scorn the lies of this world, and choose love.

Right place right time?

The God who keeps speaking

Mitch, I was so so excited to read how God spoke to you the other day. I was also encouraged, as ever, that God took my weak and unplanned words to be so specific in your situation. I haven't heard that sermon you refer to but i will try and schedule it in.

I am keeping a daily journal to keep track of :

1. what is God saying? and
2. what is God doing?

The two are completely related because God does not have to say before he does, but often, (in my experience) he does say an awful lot and does little without our partnership. A bit weird.

I am thinking about the god of all of life. If I cannot experience and discover the faces of God in all of life then I have some serious problems. I love the way ordinary men have walked with god. How Abraham was a cattle man but was God's friend. How Daniel was a prime minister and had regular prayer times in a culture that was hostile to His God. These men experienced God in their spheres as has every person who has walked this planet in with God.

It is my feeling that one of the reasons why we see and hearr little of God is that we are looking and listening in the wrong places. Lets face it, the only real time that our ears prick up and eyes open are in church or 'God times', like Bible Study or direted fellowship. What if, God is like the gazelle leaping upon the mountains in Song of Songs. I must confess that I at times, (very often) find services boring. What if God did too! What if God was more active in the 'world' and in real people'slives than he was in church? This would cause some offense to the $10 billion per annum Christian industry in the USA.

Something that strikes me from scripture is how God spoke to people profoundly through every day life and situations. For example, the potters house and wheel. What is God doing and what is God saying is really well expressed in Hosea. The messenger became the message.

Here are a few things that I look out for;

numbers:

various numbers keep coming up at unusual sitiations. the times 1:11 and 11:11 come up every day and they do for Hazel too. these numbers are not just on the clock but also in till receipts, exhange rate, dates etc. I tried for a very long time to figure it out but I think it is a sign and wonder. What are they thee for? They make us wonder! I take it to mean, God saying, 'I am with you'. When I see those numbers I become very alert because it is often follwed by a 'God event'. For example, I was wondering whether or not to buy a certain book for Haze earlier this year to help with the post-miscarriage stuff and wasn;t sure whether to get it or not. It was in New Zealand and I can't remember the exact price but when our visa statement came through it was £11.11. Surprise - can;t say I was but it was an encouragement.

Events

Which doors are opening which doors are closing? Any opportunities suddenly arisen? Any new people just come on the seen?

Conversations.

I try to keep track of various topics of conversations. Sometimes an unusual scripture, issue will come up repeatedly in different contexts. I then ask, 'is this a cooincidence or is God wanting to get me attention?'

Thoughts/distractions

Have you ever had a day dream where it is so real and you can;t really say the thing you were dreaming about was close to your heart. Well, if its not on your consciousness where did it come from? When I have these unusual day dreams where I go through an entire scenario in my head, I try and write it down afterwards because often, it happens later on.

Also, I have a log for business ideas. I often have thoughts of things that might make life easier. Inventions is an overstatement, but something like that. I write it all down. In isaiah 45 it talks about God releasing the treasures hidden in secret. Who has hidden these treasures? Where is 'in secret'?, Who gets to find them? Good questions to ask, and I believe this is released to God's Josephs like you. Why do we assume that all businee flows out of massive budgets, skill bases. God can and does give simple but novel ideas to his friends. What random thoughts have you had?

Pictures

I keep my eyes out for pictures and patterns. God spoke to me quite deeply though a key ring last year. It was literally the key to unlocking a number of things God had said to me though other people. Haze just mentioned that God speaks to her alot through the arts, i particular films including chic flics. In fact on monday I watched a film called the Notebook and when I got home was reduced to tears and it was a God thing. What is God's love like?

Dreams

Say no more! I try to observe what happened. What is the obvious meaning in natural terms? Does it connect with any other thoughts, words, dreams, scriptures. God's dreamers have two things in common. They meditate on scripture and ask for dreams. Until 16 months ago I had no dreams, (that I recalled) and after becoming aware that god would speak to me in my time of rest, and like david, 'counsel me in the night hours', it all took off.

Books

There is no good substitue to reading. I love reading the thoughts of men and women who are far cleverer than me, and have walked with god. In this day and age we have the privilege of 'knowing' people (through their writings) even if they have passed on, or are too busy or far away to spend real time with.

Scripture

I add this to the list to avoid the shouts of 'heritic', but i take this as read. In fact, I would say that 95% of my input, what is god saying comes from reading the bible and learning from that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. I am currently working through the life of David. 1 Sam 16 - 1 Kings 2. It is amazing to keep going through it again and again and asking the spirit to enable me to discern his heart.

Writing

The charge God brought against his people again and again was their poor memory. I know I am guilty of forgetting God's acts and interventions in my life. He accused them of negligence because they would forget that God had shown himself faithful repeatedly. This is why the prophets were always told to write things down.

I think we should take a pen and pad with us everywhere and write things down. Since I have started journalling I have noticed things that were probably happening all along but i was negligent. I was oblivious to God's hand behind and before me.

The was I described it to Haze was as a tapestry of love. God takes all of life, like a web of fabrics and materials and sews them together into what appears to be a seemless piece. Our joy is to 'join the dots' and watch and be utterly amazed at His handiwork. If we are not looking we will not see. I love it when friends look into our meshwork and say what they can see, and you haven't seen it your self. The body is essential to God's voice, both hearing and understanding it.

Brad

Great to hear from you. I can't believe what you wrote about! I've been a bit down lately (just a little bit - nothing serious!). Mainly as I've been getting a bit churned up about the future, and a few other things. On Monday, I was home alone and felt the urge to listen to a rob scott-cook message. I'd downloaded a heap months ago, but hadn't listened to any. The one I listened to was about God's rest from Hebrews 3 & 4. It really touched me - almost to tears. (Although it may have been the soothing welsh accent). Reading your post I was wondering if you had just listened to it also - although the sermon was in July last year so I doubt it (http://www.woodlandschurch.net/page.asp?sundayservices July 10, pm).

This morning I felt lead to Ps 119 v2, which basically says, 'blessed are those who obey God's statutes and seek His face'. Life summed up in ... 11 words. Now that I've just read your post I think God is trying to say something to me - and I assume to you also, although in very different situations. This, perhaps, is a pivital time for us to make sure we wait for the quiet whisper of God before we add to, or change what we're doing.

God is really moving through you at work. Such a confirmation that you are where you should be. At the moment I would guess its good for us to interceed for you and your work - for your influence, and God's presense, to increase - rather than worrying about doing too much other stuff. But always as God leads, (and the wife permits ;)

I've noticed you haven't been online at all lately and figured you were busy. Is it good busy or bad? Have missed talking and blogging regularly, but if its good stuff (God's leading) and God's moving then I'm happy.

Actually I think you may really benefit from that message...

Thats all for now, sorry its so short. We're flying to Melbourne tonight for the w/e. Will have a look at Soul and David.

God bless

Peace

I enjoyed your 'focus' post. It is so true that Paul was challenging the human wisdom of the day. Who do you follow, what brand of Christianity have you signed up to. Do you know the latest christian techniques....I love the raw foolishness of it because everyone gets to play. The only thing God needs is that leaning dependancy on him for his spirit to do the stuff whether prophecy, miracles, guidance, compassion. Its all the same deal. I find when the spirit is involved it is sweet, easy and fruitful. When he isn't there it is hard work and quite fleshy. We weren;t designed to do miracles - he was..!

Ok heres todays tangent. Peace. It is the one thing I really want. I am overwhelemed by the number of virtuous goals in church. Like in Song of Solomon Ch 1, where the Shulamite says, 'they made me the keeper of the vineyards but my own vineyard I have not kept'. I believe this is about that direction she is given to be more fruitful, more christian in her life's work but unfortunatley it is at the expense of her heart's fruitfulness in love for Christ.

In the last 2 weeks I have been bombarded with stuff to be involved in but God hasn;t asked me to do it. The thing he has asked me to do, 'love the slaves of Philemon's household', my collegaues at Lyons davidson, is wonderful. Since I have been back I have seen 4 come to alpha and two become Christians. A guy who came on the last one is coming again with me as a leader! This might not be much in the scheme of things, 'all the vineyards out there', ministries, programmes, plans, but it is the small thing God has asked me to do and I will be obedient. besides it is effortless because His grace is making it happen not me. I just agree with what he has said.

At the end of that Song it says ' Then I became in his eyes as one who had found peace' I love that. At the end of our journey's we will one day be in perfect peace.

In Revelation there is that picture of God's people standing before the throne on the sea of 'glass'. interesting, the eternal destiny is that we will be before a God of firece passion, who is so 'other than/holy' but the seas are like glass. A place of perfect peace.

Haze's verse for the year that God has given her, is from Ps 119 and it says, ' great peace have they that love your law(ways).

Is peace the presence of a chilled atmosphere or the absence of conflict? Perhaps it can be both but it emanates from the God-man Jesus.

I am wrestling with the many avenues to do stuff but I am really fighting to do only what I see the father doing and listening his voice and doing nothing without his asking me to do so. I have heard the story of the 12 spies a million times. Everytime without fail, I am asked, 'will you be like the 10 doubters or the two believers, Joshua and caleb'. Good question unless you are having a bad week already. Then, it inevitably follows, 'do you believe we can take the land?'. That is always in the context of defeating Islam, drugs, domestic violence etc. In one meeting we were made to say out loud repeatedly 'we can certainly do it'. I don't think I chanted it because I had lost track of the sermon and was afraid I might be volunteering for cooking on Alpha!

What is my point? In Hebrews 3 7-19 it says that our application of that story is not about 'taking the land' but about entering the rest of God. Knowing a peace that transcends understanding through our union with Christ. vs 10 'as they have not known my ways, they shall not enter my rest'. Like Ps 119. It is about the posture of our heart before God, which affects all of life.

I think God is so so committed to us knowing is ways, and being still before Him. from that place there is a promise that we will be fruitful but fruit should never be our goal or aim. The fruit is the gardeners responsibility. We just abide and soak up all the goodness like a vine. If we abide we will bear fruit.

I am accutely aware at the moment of my fragile heart. How easily I cry, how sensitive I can be to silly things. We grow up and feel like we need a 5-year plan but in reality I am still 6. As much as I would like to be a hero for God, I am delighted that I am loved and can be at rest. Nothing to prove to anyone, no legacy is needed in this life apart from the fact that this momentary vapour was exhaled in love with jesus Christ. I think it takes a 'violence' on our part to enter the rest. I don;t see it as putting our feet up but of resisting the spirit of this age which is so concerned with what people think, achievement, success etc

I love collossians where it says 'you are complete in him'.

On this note, why did God reject Saul but seek out David? On paper they were not too different.

focus

"This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Some great thoughts Brad. These verses in chapter 2 follow on from this same theme. ch 1 is about the foolishness of the cross, and God chosing a humble, lowly way to nullify pride. Then it goes on to say - "people wont 'get it' on their own. They need God." The Spirit must draw someone to God - the message is important and must be heard, but there has to be something going on internally and spiritually - that is the most crucial thing.

Ch3 v7 says "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." I grew up on a farm... The complexity and strategy involved in sowing seed, keeping the weeds off, and harvesting - is nothing in comparison to the internal mechanism through which a seed becomes a plant. Somewhat similar to a single cell becoming a baby - no-one on earth would ever be able to design such a thing from scratch. All we can do is sit back and marvel.

Ch2 v4 says "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Sprit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." So Paul brought the spirit, and told the simple truth, and God did the rest. Sounds simple in strategy - although I know this is an over-simplification. Its interesting that this whole section is in the context of divisions in the church. It begins in Ch 1 V10 and ends in Ch3V21-23. Everything said in between is in the context of people arguing/boasting about whether they follow Paul or Apollos etc - which teaching is best, maybe which strategy for church planting is best, etc etc. Its amazing how people stay essentially the same through thousands of years.

I guess the question is, why do we/people worry so much about 'earthy' strategies, when the essentials are lacking. In the context of 1Cor Chs1-3 it doesn't make any sense worrying about how cool the room looks, if we have doubts as to whether the Spirit is present and active. Yes a farmer does have a strategy, but the strategy revolves around what is best for the seed to do its thing. We worry about a few words of cultural relevance from Paul (ie mars hill), when he says over and over that he preaches Christ crucified and brings the Spirit. Not that that is particularly easy, but it is certainly a different focus.

Ch3 V18 "If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise."

All this has to have implications for our lives and for church

********************************************************************************


As an aside, I never realised the verse: "no eye has seen, no ear has heard ... what God has prepared for those who love Him" is actually about the gospel. Always assumed it referred to future glory in heaven. But the context is Christ crucified as God secret wisdom, which we know.

Foolishness 1 Corinthinans 1

"For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be emptied of it's power"

The message of the cross is foolishness

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent

Has God not made foolish the wisdom of this world?

The world through its wisdom did not know him

God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong

He chose the: lowly things, the things that are not, so that no one may boast before Him.

----------------------------------------------------

I am so excited because I don't know God very much it seems. All these years I have tried to be eloquent, rehearsed and tried to make Jesus appear attractive so that they accept him logically and out of their self-interest. But, here it says that the cross not only is foolishness, but it was God's preferred way to reach people. It Pleased him to use this utter foolishness. Does God love excluding the proud? How could it please Him unless he is far more emotional that I realize.

We have friends coming round to dinner and haze is wanting to do an awesome, 3 course dinner party type thing. That is so great but I was saying that the most important thing is the people around the table. There is one very good way to find out why they are coming to dinner - we could serve an awful meal and see whether they still have a good time. Weird analogy but I think God has done something similar. He has hidden his glory in the cross, in meekness and humility. We go to him and are not allowed to 'bring a bottle'. We go empty handed and just receive free grace. This is offensive to my ego.

I have spent some time in Salcombe, Devon and it is my greatest bug bear because it is full of 'rick kids' called Jimbo. Penelope, Camilla, and the guys all wear pibk shirts with the collars up and the girls all speak very loudly and confidently. An area of my heart that Jesus has yet to deal with, but I guess I hate it when individuals think they are better than other people. I hate it. We cannot choose our family line, which school we go to etc, and kids at that age have not acomplished anything yet. They have daddy's credit card etc. I don;t know why I mention this apart from the reaosn that I get the impression that God hates pride. he hates our independence from him. He gives his grace to the humble and crowns them with salvation. Like in that banquet when the noble people couldn;t make it to the wedding so he invited the unattractive and outcasts.

I am really re-thinking my doctrine because it seems to me that sometimes the church is a bit embarrassed that our 'leader/saviour/King' hung naked on a cross and hid his Glory in this age and has reserved his judgment, fury and jealousy for the age to come. Even on Alpha it sometimes feels like we are doing our best to remove the foolishness of the cross, to try and make it all sound logical when maybe God wanted it to be offensive and embarrassing. The message can sometimes seem to be, what we say, who says it and how it is said is very important, but Paul is proud of the fact that he personally didn;t baptise anyone and he was proud that his message tripped up the Jews and the Greeks. Relevant?

Finally, this takes us back to what you said about 24/7 and the emerging trendy church and how you can feel not 'cool' enough. I remember being 16, spotty, awkwad, lonely, not too clever, bottom set in several subjects, and a bit messed up in a number of ways, THEN...God spoke those words over my life for the first time, 'I love you and am pleased with you. I call you...' I was fascinated that God would deliberately choose the weak one, unintelligent one, unpopular one. He knew I would love Him for it.

Arrows of Destiny

Re' 'Your Challenge'.

I didn' know all that about your church background although I can picture it. Your lack of prophetic input was both good and bad. There have been times when strangers have prophesied over me, things they could not know and I felt very close and had that Hagar revelation, 'You are the God who sees and cares'. I thank God for that because it came at times when I doubted that I was engraved on his hands and that he counted my tears in his bottle.

However, my observation of the 'prophetic', (incindentally, that word does not appear in scripture), is that it is one of the dramatic power tools in ministry for obvious reason and where used immaturely and without a proper understanding of God's burning and jealous love for the person in front of you, it can be quite damaging.

Revelation 18 says that 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'. Therefore, anything that testifies to Christ is that spirit, wheras anything that does not throw you into Jesus' heart (however accurate the word may be) is not the spirit of prophecy. Tough hey!

My observation is that 'words' given are almost always 'big'. for example:

"You will be a prophet to the nations"
"You are man born for this hour, this generation, millions will come to Christ through you"
"You will stand before Kings and leaders for Him"

And guess what many feel they have 'missed it' because the words haven't happened. Ummm.

You get my picture. Very rarely do you hear an accurate, and 'prophetic' word with the sole purpose of drawing that individual,the bride of Christ, into their Bridegroom's embrace. In other words, we unintentionally cling to a job description and not a person. That has been my experience in any case.

I had a dream earlier this year. I was at a beach house standing alone outside and there was a party going on inside. A man walked up to me and suddenly I saw arrows in my chest. I recognised this man! He pulled them out without asking me first and I dropped to the floor in a heap and then emerged having never felt so light. I though I would float away. I felt a joy and I asked the man, "what was that?". He said they were arrows of destiny that pierced me!

I did not know that this was possible. Destiny had been used by the evil one to damage me, and in fact pulled me away from God because I believed he cared about the job description, not me! I will never be the same again. I have a resolve to fight for people's hearts, and to see them be rooted and grounded in love. Every word, action, benevolence, service, martyrdom, sacrifice - let it be for love alone. A love that makes me dizzy and compells me to silly things like those above but let there be no other motivation!

I say all this because I believe that God is grounding you in all this too. It is nice to hear from strangers that God has plans for us, but we know that already from scripture. We know from Ephesians 1 alone, that he chose us in Him before he created the universe. That is quite a motivation if it sinks in.

In any event, it is all about Jesus not us. In our culture we think of career progression, assett aquisition and pleasure seeking - these permeate our surrounds and regrettably my heart. What if I became like the Shulamite in Song of Songs 8, 'as one who in His eyes had found peace', (Like Jacob who was a schemer but became a Prince for God), and I no longer lived, but Christ lived in me? What if I became like John, who was the foremost witness on the planet to Jesus, the father's voice from heaven, the transfiguration, the resurrected Christ and too many miracles to record in all the books of the earth, but had no identity other than 'the one Jesus loves'. That moves me to goose pimples everytime I consider it. It is so right.

In my passing through this world, I too want to testify to all the things of Jesus so that his life can flow out, but as for me, I will be content to be still and know that He loves me. This is my only reward. I pray this for you too. Of course I also pray Ephesian 1:17 for you that you might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowlege of Him, whether by dreams, visions, words, or illumintated scripture.

Mark Douglass - Blown by Jesus

Meekness , Moravians, and Mitch

You know, as I read your post it all came together. You are meek and committed to pursuing prayer in the hidden place. I know you have been doing this for ages. I don't know what it was but I just thought that what I read about 24/7 was on all fours with what you had shared with me in a different context. I will really pray that God opens his heart to you serving him in the place of joyful prayer more in the coming days.

The thing that jumped out at me from the 'Red moon rising book' was the amount of messiness, ambiguity, at times confusion, spontaneity and the like that was a result of following the Holy Spirit into what he was doing. I love John 3, which says;

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

That is very clear. If we are to follow God it will be unpredictable for us. We will certainly have to hand the reins over to him. My friend Mark Douglass taught me God's heart on this more than anyone I have ever met. He is extremely accomplished, well educated, a philosopher, Theologian, writer, and wonderful father, husband and friend - you get the picture! He is the son of a Southern Baptist minister and faced enormous pressure to go into 'ministry'. The trouble is, that he is not willing to forfeit the authentic relationships based around the models he sees in the scriptures for 'big church'.

Both Mark and Bethany love to have open house, to get to know a few people really well, to laugh and to cry, to share everything they have and everything they are. Of course, this can be at odds with mega church vision, bums on seats, building projects, and 'ministries' for every thing you could imagine. He told me about a friend of his who was/is an anointed worship leader and was effectively sacked on the spot because the 'management' wanted something a bit more up beat to break into younger markets! He has lots of these stories and they all point to the same thing. God sees people and we must too.

Well, God moved his family to Kansas city for about 18 months without any good reason given. Then left back to Texas without any clear plans. Of course all the way the Holy spirit was leading in a clear way but not circumstancially. In the short time I have known this family I have been drawn to deeply into God's heart and he has been used in my life to ask questions like, 'what is church?....really". I'll write about this more later.

The reason I mention this family is that I see that in you too. That freedom to do whatever you are doing with all your strength for God and not worrying too much about the bigger picture, how it looks, whether your ministry is recognized etc. God will open doors, connect you with the right people and you continue to prioritize abiding in Him and seeking him first.

He is the shepherd
We are the sheep.

Sheep are allowed to be:

stupid/daft
afraid (of wolves, or trees that look like wolves)
always worrying about the next meal
irrational

This is why we have a good shepherd! Whilst we sometimes get to be a shepherd to others, we are always a sheep in his fold and get to lean on him completely.

whoes heard of moravians?

A few years ago when reading a biography on John Wesley I saw that he was influenced by the moravians. Never heard of them before and I thought they sounded like a good bunch, but never found out any more. So I was quite excited when I saw material on them on the website: http://www.hephzibahministries.com/index.html which has a lot of ihop stuff on it. Then when I was looking at the Pete Greig stuff there was their name again, so I finally read some stuff on them. Although not perfect, what an awesome group they must have been and I'm staggered at their influence. But what amazes me is that I'd never heard of them - and probably most people in church haven't either. Everyone has heard of wesley and carey, but these men used moravian principles, owe their spirituality, even salvation to them, and I can't see how they would have succeeded without them. Also as a group the moravians were doing the same stuff with amazing results decades before these guys started. Carey - the father of modern missions? maybe, although most of his ideas came from moravians who'd been doing missions for years.

Why has hardly anyone heard of them? Perhaps I have a uk-centric view of history. But I think it may have roots in things we have talked about before, and what I've mentioned is such a struggle for me. Wesley said of them that: "As they have all one Lord and one faith, so they are all partakers of one Spirit, the spirit of meekness and love, which uniformly and continually animates all their conversation." I think its profound that the first trait he assigns them after living with them for several weeks, was that of meekness. Maybe that is why not many people have heard of them. They chose the meek road- no one person 'changing the world' but walking humbly and intimately with God together.

Its great that they are becomming better known, and people are studying and copying them again. They had problems, mainly when particular leaders weren't grounded enough in the word. But they have some practical ideas that seem very wise, and it seems they 'wrote the book' on intimacy with God in their era.

I love this statement from Zinzendorf - one of the main founders: we know no other self-denial but to be deprived of Him and His blessings. See http://www.hephzibahministries.com/Resources/The%20Moravian%20Legacy.pdf page 4 for the full statement.

The writer of the above document about them, says in summary "They had come to a place of enjoyment in God and in prayer that sustained and refreshed them in their pursuit of God. They had no need of the common exhortation to "pay the price" in prayer ... Instead they had living reality of the concept in Isaiah 56:7 when Isaiah prophesies that God will give His people 'joy in the house of prayer'. The church would do well not to skip straight to the prayer meeting, but first learn simply to enjoy intimacy with God."



I pray that you guys, in this difficult time, would have specific wisdom, and that your words would not be words only, but would carry the power and authority of God. To love, challenge and convict - like a double-edged sword.

my challenge

Looking for the book you mentioned - red moon rising - led me to the 24/7 prayer website, and then searched on from their reading various bits from different places about what is happening around the western world re prayer. Seems like so much is happening, although in its early stages. As I was looking at this stuff I found some reactions occuring in me that revealed some aweful truths. Firstly I wondered how something like that could be started and grown here. 'maybe I could do this or do that - organise this, say that' etc etc. But the truth - for me at least - is that the best thing to do would be to do it, and stop worrying about what others are doing. Sometimes I can't help myself from focussing on what others are doing wrong, rather than just doing what is right myself. But these thoughts revealed something more evil. I was almost dissapointed that others were leading the way... 'How can I become known for this', 'how can I get recognition'. All this only took 30 seconds, but at that point I wondered - is this who I really am - what are really my deepest desires? I feel so ashamed. Glad I'm anonimous.

I remember God challenged me a couple years ago with the question, would I be willing to serve him quietly with no recognition at all. It challenged me so much at the time, but I guess you always think those are rhetorical questions. Like Abraham killing Isaac. He wouldn't really ask that would he... Maybe he is asking that of me.

Signpost?...

A few weeks ago during a prayer time I was thinking of how Bickle was given a direct word by someone else that he should focus on SOS. I was saying to God (complaining really) - "you know in my whole life no-one has ever given me a word like that - not once! Had words etc while people were praying for me. But no-one has ever come up after church, or rung up etc and said God told me to tell you this." As I was lamenting my unfortunate state in life I was reminded (I'm sure by God) of something that happened years ago when I was probably about 15-16 - wow thats 13 years ago now - getting old. Even though I've focused on prayer and the presence of God over the past few years I'd never once remembered this incident.

First a little background: I grew up in the country and went to a uniting church. (methodist really) Morning was 4 hymns and get out as quick as you can. Nights were more 'out there' as they sung choruses. If the word spirit was mentioned too much there was trouble. You get the idea... I wasn't in any spiritual state at all - made a commitment when I was 9, but didn't really decide to follow God till a few years after this. Anyway, there was a guest speaker at this particular service, plus some other visitors. The speaker spoke on prayer, but I'm pretty sure I didn't listen or understand any of it. Note: I can promise you that this was the only sermon on prayer in that church - ever. Straight after the service this girl came up - one of the visitors and said she thought God had told her to come and pray for me about prayer. Now remember this may have been the first and last time anything like this has ever happened in that church. Can't remember too much - it was pretty uninspiring, but she prayed that I would grow in prayer etc - blah blah blah was about all I heard. No idea who she was etc.

I don't really have a point, except that this memory now means a lot to me given the current circumstances. I feel very unconnected - not 'networked' with whats going on. But it reminds me that God must be in control. And maybe he really does have a specific plan for me/us. This is sunday school stuff - but who really believes it!

Next year...

Not sure how much more I'll be able to blog/chat for the rest of this year with holidays and christmas. So I'll say now - lets make next year the best of our lives. We can't always control circumstances, but we can live more in the presence of God - dig deeper, abide for longer, worship more wholeheartedly, run after Him. Lets not be satisfied with our current 'routine' - fast more, meditate scripture more, write more. Whatever makes us more Christ-like, and takes us more into His Presence - lets do it.

Reflections ...

The Vision

A poem by Peter Greig


So this guy comes up to me and says,
"What's the vision? What's the big idea?"

I open my mouth and words come out like this...
The vision?
The vision is JESUS:obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones?I see an army.

And they are FREE from materialism -they laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix,the way the West was won.
They are mobile like the wind,they belong to the nations,they need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free,yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose that they might one day win the great..
"Well done" of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.
They don't need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards
and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground,
the whisper of history in the making,
foundations shaking,
revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers,conspiracy is breathing...
This is the sound of the underground
And the army is discipl(in)ed -young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs. Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking,with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting.Watching: 24 - 7 - 365.

Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules,
shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide,
laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs,
laughing at labels, fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside?
They hardly care!

They wear clothes like costumes: to communicate and celebrate, but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives,
swap seats with the man on death row,
guilty as hell:a throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears,
with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdos!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes!

They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow,
Mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the Hound of Heaven
and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.
It will come to pass;
it will come easily;
it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself,
the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God.
My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great "Amen!" from countless angels,
from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself.

And He is the original dreamer,
the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.

Inward or Outward

I also found the comments on how to keep oursleves from being polluted too extreme. I think we are to move, live and have our being in Christ, in the world. The Armish, brethren and countless churches have, in their real desire to please God, cut themselves off from the fallen world, and everything that can corrupt the soul.

It is a wonderful idea but the shoe doesn't fit, so I cannot wear it. Jesus was the friend of sinners, confused as being a drunkard and glutton, and a little too accepting of the hookers. The religiously astute of His generation, in their (perhaps authentic) desire to be Holy, accused Jesus of compromise. His repsonse astounds me.

'There is nothing outside a man that can make him unclean, it is what in in his heart, (his reaction to the unclean), that pollutes him'.

For example, if my heart were pure then I could sit with a hooker and treat her with dignity and as a sister. If I were not greedy, money would be an overwhelming opporunity for benevolence rather than materialism. If I had a heart full of love, not hate, then aggresive people would receive a gentle response from me. If I were humble, leadership could be an opportunity to look after people rather than receive their respect and admiration. I think Jesus' point is that he looks at our heart. As Samuel said, 'God does not see a sman sees'. (Very very important). Of course that has to be reflected in our actions/works but that is innevitable.

So, Should I not walk down a road with a large advertisement of a very attractive lady wearing just her wonderbra, (as I have to every day)? I don't think I would be able to get to work if that were the case. Rather, I can look away, or take my lustful thoughts to God in that very moment and walk as Jesus did in 'unclean' situations without any fear of being defiled. The only thing that can defile a Christian is his or her heart. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean!

If this is true, then we don't need to go and hide in the mountains and wait for the millenial Kingdom. Apart from the being quite boring and weird, I will not be able to love people well at all from that spiritual refuge because hurting people do not congregate in churches. They congregate in pubs, clubs, and IKEA. If Jesus were in the flesh in Bristol would he attend a regular 10:30 service?

Last night was my law department's 'bash' and they were all very drunk, dancing till 2am and I was so provoked by the love and words of affrimation passing between these people. I know the wine/beer was speaking too, but I saw something so authentic that I would love to see in my fellowship with Christians. It was honest, fun, and vulnerable. No spiritual pomp. My friend Julie is in her 40's has a really sad story. But, at about 1:30am she said,

'There is something about you, dave and peter, (3 christians she knows), you are all cut from the same mould. I can't go to God right now because I am not ready, I am still angry with Him, but from what I see I bloody well want to know Him'.

I had the privilege of telling her that God was not who she thought he was. That He is altogether lovely and the stuff she saw in us was but a dim reflection of the real thing.

I felt God's pleasure being there and being able to love them. I had no temptation whatsoever to try and invite them to a Christmas event with a 'catchy' speaker. I just want to love them and see what God is doing as he draws them away in love.

On our way home, (I walked with Jeff), we saw a man attacking a woman on the Gloucester Road. She was up against a shop window and he restrianed her, pushed, shoved and she was screaming. At first, we kept walking as you do, hoping it was playful, but then in my heart I felt that call to be a peacemaker, and surrended my right to anonymity and my preference to stay out of people's mess and go to bed. I went back and helped with Jeff, fully expecting to get a beating from this drunk man, but he got scared and let go and walked away. What a privilege to get to love this stranger in tears and walk her to her car. It beats the church coffee rota as far as acts of service goes.

I am so pleased that I wasn't at a prayer meeting/bible study last night because I would have missed seeing God's Kingdom break in in small, but very tangible ways.

this chapter ...

Still going through this chapter, and there have been a lot of challenging points, and also a few I'm not sure about.

I was challenged by his comments about the eternal weight of glory being ours in the measure we enter the sufferings of Christ. And that those who wish to enter into this apostolic life are marked by the principalities and powers of the air - and sure for the toughest testing. What a harsh reality check for all who want to go deeper with God. And it is so true that the key during this testing is the knowledge of the eternal glory to come. I think it is something that needs to be pondered and dwelt on regularly - especially in the western comfortable world. Because we all know it, but it will only affect our mindset and aid perseverance if we dwell on it and the wonder of it captures our heart.

I think this last sentence is the key to many aspects of our relationship with God. The western church is fat with knowledge, but rarely waits, dwells, ponders, the truths of God. I know that is true for me. To grow deep and strong with God, according to Psalm 1 requires not extra knowledge, not a special prayer, but to meditate, ponder, fix our thoughts on these things. The renewing of our minds will not happen by magic or accident, but as we meditate on His word and be still before Him.

His comments about the true works of God, being those that have their inception in Him, performed in His power, with pure motives that seek His glory only - boy that is tough. There are a lot of good things done, but how many meet all this criteria.

Now, I didn't particularly agree with some of the stuff he said after this. Some of the things he called soulish and evil I don't think God is too worried about. Although I get his point - we need to run from anything worldly and not let it creep in. Also, I'm no eschatological expert, but I'm not sure about his comments about the different resurections and rewards etc. Doesn't botther me too much, but I think we need to be careful that we don't accept anybodies word as gospel without consideration. Also, just because a teaching is tough, doesn't make it right.

Response

Some great thoughts there Brad. Your first point reminded me of what Bickle was saying in the song of songs series. For me personally, God has been watching me try and serve him and draw close to him over the past few years, and continually falling short of what I wanted to be, (let alone what God wanted). However the realisation that he wasn't frowning, but delighting in me - thats just amazing, and I still find it hard to accept - could barely even type the words.

I think this realisation can have 2 general outcomes. it can spur us on to greater love and obedience, or it will become a type of false or cheap grace which leads to a lazy heart. By lazy I don't mean slumping on the couch, but a heart that doesn't strive after God. This is one of the things that separates Christianity from other beliefs (apart from it being true and the others not) often they require that you say some things and do some things and you're in. But God requires something different. The 'line in the sand' isn't so clear because God wants our hearts first of all. He wants a heart that yearns, both for Him, and for obedience to Him - and not for people who just do enough.

Its so cool how God has made so many things on earth mirror our relationship with Him - eg marriage, and having children of our own.

God, please bless Brad and Haze and Catt and myself with the gift of children. See the longing in all our hearts and be merciful to us. Let it be soon. May they be completely safe and healthy and grow up to be people after Your own heart. And may we learn about your heart for us - what we mean to You - and how we can be children that delight your heart and honour your sacrifice.

That was a powerful analogy you used about adopting a child. I want to add something to the substance of this relationship. There is more than love at work in a relationship between a child and father or parent. You mentioned the difference between love and fear, and trying to earn the Fathers love out of fear as if God is angry with us. That is so true - I mean for most of us, how do we know if He is or not, but we assume He is for some reason. But I do think that fear of the Lord and His authority needs to be held along side His tenderness. Seems opposite, but isn't. I haven't got kids of my own, but have a lot of family and friends that do. My observation is that our generation, in reaction to previous generations, is focussing more and more on being affectionate with their children, being their equal and friend. Previous generations (speaking from my own family) focussed, perhaps unintentially, on being an authority that was to be obeyed. My theory is that this change has had the following effect. It has increased the relationship and affection between parents and children, but obedience is more of a problem. I'm speaking about small children now - not real rebelliosness. I could say more on this, but I don't think there's any doubt that small children are more willing to be disobedient now than previous generations. Anyway, my point is that I think it takes more than the knowledge of God's love to produce complete surrender, obedience, and an intimate relationship with the Father. A holy fear of God's authority is required as well. That may sound like I'm disagreeing with you but I'm not. I think both need to be present at once. This has ramifications for my own future fatherhood. I want to be both a loving, affectionate father, and an appropriate authority. A child needs both.

Its late, and I'm rambling - and probably not making sense. Better go.

Adam & Eli

Baby steps in Kansas City

On the way home from work today Iwas remembering my close friend Adam. On a spring day in May 2005, we were sitting in his garden. Still fresh but the spring had arrived. That beautiful inbetween stage where the grass had had it's first cut the the plants are coming to life.

I watched him play with his son Eli, who was about two and he was learning to walk. He has such a sensitive spirit like his dad, and he would walk a few feet and then wipe out onto his rear. He immediately looked up at us to make sure no one was laughing and pointing at him. It was amazing that he was so self-conscious of his fall at that early age. Adam, looked and applauded him, and rather than saying, 'whoops y daisy', ''oh no, what happened there'. he said, 'Boy Eli, Son, that was great. Look how many steps you managed that time. Can you try and do that for daddy again?'. I was moved. No focus on the fall but complete excitement at the steps.

Is God any less encouraging and supportive. We all know that when we do something great, 90 minute quiet times, acts of service etc, God likes us, but our view of who God is almost certainly defined in our weakness. (Even tough people can be nice to me when I meet their expectations)How does God see me when I fall? How does he evaluate things?

In both the Sermon on the Mount and Ps 101, there is this command 'be perfect'. Both Jesus and David believed that to be the standard, nothing less. I think this means we are to strive for 100% obedience in every area of our lives. Innevitably, we are in for a shock when we take our first few steps like little Eli, and realize that we have some learning to do. I think God looks at our heart and so long as he sees our desire matched with our actions/willingness to love him and be obedient, it overwhelms his heart.

I think it is God's love for us in our weakness that propells us forward into obedience. Eli tried again because he could see his daddy's enjoyment. Of course, rebellion is another matter. If, in my heart, I don't want to follow him, then that is very serious. But, I think I have so often called my failings as sin/rebellion when in fact I was just like Eli, doing my best with a 'yes' in my heart towards him. God was delighted.

A second thought, from my walk home, is on the Father's love. My question to myself was this. Do I ever try and earn the father's love? Do I do anything to prove to God that my love is 'real'? In other words, are my actions, small steps of obedience driven by fear or love. Is it because I am loved already that I want to spend time with God, or because I want to be loved? It is a massive thing because it reveals who we think God is. Is he the lover of my soul or the heavenly policeman? I don't know about you but I avoid people who I think don't like me! This links in with your post on enjoying God.

I know, that this perfomance attitude pervades my heart and in my talking to so many people, there is this underlyng inference that God is a bit angry, but because of Jesus he has let us off the hook. But Zephaniah 3:16 says he shouts with joy and sings over us, (Like Adam and Eli), when he sees us.

I used to want to be 'used by God'. I thought that was spiritual and biblical. Don't real Christians really want to be used by God? Now suppose I was to adopt a little boy from India and I went through the social services interviewing process and they asked me, why do you want to be this child's adoptive father? My response: "Because I own a little business and I want to use him, put him to work asap. I know he is fragile, delicate and wounded from his time before adoption, but he can be 'healed as he goes'". You know what, my application would fail because that is child abuse.

BUT, we still have this pervasive doctrine that God wants to use us. Don't get me wrong I believe with all my heart that as we are loved by him, we will want to be with him all the time in his business like Jesus, but that is not what God is about. The motivation is all important.

The fascinating thing about this face of God , shown in Adam and Eli, is that my insignificant, and weak acts of obedience (baby steps) really move His heart and please Him. He doesn't do appraisals, but is alltogether loving, suportive, involved as a daddy. Do we believe that? Easy way to find out. Try praying next time and rather than calling Him God, Jesus, Father, say daddy and see how it feels. It feels to me almost too uncomfortable, too close, because I have not let him be that. I really want to though.

Godly motivation - Reward

I was surprised at what I found on this subject. Reward. I don't think I have ever understood this very important doctrine.

The call to disciple is a cost and we are to be living sacrifices. 'Unless a person gives up everything he has he cannot be my disciple'.


I noticed in Luke 14 that great crowds had followed Jesus and then he raises this question of their commitment and what he was looking for. Evidently he was not after the crowds or he would have been more than satisfied and recognised the potential of this gathering, but rather, he clearly places demands on these people that from any other person (than God) would seem unreasonable. Count the cost and ‘Whoever does not give up all he has, cannot be my disciple’.

It is not that he will not allow them to follow, but the cost is simply too high for them. Have I given up everything for Him? Of course not! I have made some right choices ( as well as wrong) but not on this level.

I then looked through Matthew 5 in this context about living the life and giving it all up for Him. It begins, ‘there were great crowds and the disciples came to Him’. I sensed the Spirit say that many follow the crowds but few come to me. When we come, we are taught about this way of life and level of discipleship. Am I following a way, the crowds, a church vision, prophetic promise or coming daily to the person Jesus Christ. He does not have life, he is life.

I went through each of the beatitudes and asked the question, what does this cost me? The conclusion was - everything. I will go through those in a minute, but this impacted me because Jesus was not being theatrical, motivational and ‘dynamic’ in his call to discipleship but rather, the Kingdom qualities and flowers that are to be grown in the garden of our hearts will cost us everything and bombard our ‘flesh’ and fallen nature from every angle. Only the person, whose heart belongs fully to Jesus, can pursue this. It is not a nice sermon on good works, and adding some spiritual flavour to our otherwise boring selfish lives but a literal demand based on the realities of the beatitudes.


Following Jesus is tough. This is what i figured we need to give up from the beatitudes:



Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
I recognise my barrenness. I forego pride, independence, contentment

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted
I give up alternatives, my crutches, secondary pleasures

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
I give up control, reward in this life, and temporal pleasures of this age

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
I give up cravings for other things, worldly desires.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy
My rights, my justice, the need to ‘win’.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
I give up all impurity, immorality. I make a covenant with my eyes.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
I give up my: indifference, anonymity, apathy.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
By identifying with Christ, I give up my reputation, even life and share in his sufferings.


Well, having established that Jesus wasn;t being theatrical about the cost of following him, reverse psychology etc, he was being very real, why would we do that??

WHY?

I think there is this mindset that says when you give it is all for nothing. That picture of Mother Theresa loving the outcasts expecting nothing in return. And, that is true. In this life, anyone who follows Jesus will probably have a jolly hard time. My experience today in my 3 month appraisal with the senior partner was that meekness means being ignored. I decided in advance that I would not brag on my good results from the last 3 months.

I have had some real highlights already but I felt meekness would mean doing nothing and saying nothing with a view to improving my own position, because that would be tantamount to manipulation. Well, I went in and I spoke highly of my colleagues and about how efficient the lady was who i took over from and I left feeling I had made no big impression. And remember, this is a culture where people take care of number one. It felt costly to me in my own small silly way.

I am now going through the many passages on delayed reward, hope, and God's pat on the back which is our 'modus operendi'. I am now thinking, It is not that we give for nothing, but rather we give for nothing now, but the weight of glory is huge and it goes on and on. That is why our weak words, weakest acts of surrender to God in the little things are so important. More thoughts to follow.

Venice on Sunday am, St Mark's Basillica

Love him

I am very challengedby what you said. A relationship with God has to be:

1. enjoyable
2. 2 way
3. regular
4. existent & real

I don't think it is an Ozzy thing but more likely a human heart thing! I have thought about this before in that the product that we (the church) are trying to market is a 'relationship with God', and we throw that out there regularly that it is not about a bunch of rules but vibrant life giving thing. But how often do we see it? More often than not we are presented with a bunch of rules, but because we are told that we should want to do them out of passion, desire etc, then they cannot be rules, that is unless you fail to keep them!

This all goes back to God's deepest desire and in fact his eternal purpose in the cross. It is a mystery kept hidden through the ages, that God wants, and will have a people close to his heart. The expression used at IHOP was, an equally yoked bride. That desire for God to have a counter part as seen in Hosea. Those first words in in the Bible to man - "where are you?", "It is not good for man to be alone", could that be true of the second Adam? That seeking and longing has continued. I am convinced that the power to love God can only come from the knowlege of how much God enjoys us even in our weakness. I dont; know about you but I tend to avoid people who don't like me. How many christians believe God passionately likes them? Not loves them, likes them. This distinction is important because if he loves us its only because Jesus dived in front of his angry father, and we fail to see that Jesus was God. He rejoices over us in singing in our weakness. That makes us confident before Him.

The pearl of great price is a parable usually preached about how we need to give up everything to gain the Kingdom of God, and jesus is that pearl. But, what if Jesus is the one who gives up everything for the pearl, his church, yes, me, you! I think Jesus is the one who wants the pearl because the story immediately after in Matthew 13 is about the fishing net and how God will catch many men etc. It is about Jesus' passion rather than ours. Wow! He is after one thing and it is love. God is love, it is his motivation, passion, means, end and joy. We have this problem that we autiomatically read things egocentrically when the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, not us!

That verse again which I mention over and over again. 'If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit!'. It is a promise but we are not called to be primarily fruit bearers but abiders/lovers. The two are so interrelated that they are often put the wrong way round but it is of paramount importance that we are abiders first.

The issue is this. If we are disciple makers, church planters, or whatever then we take the glory and responsibility. If our primary identity is as a lover of God, then we are equally satisfied with noble or ignoble tasks because God is himself, the reward. I think the danger is that as soon as you go on about abiding, there is a reaction in our hearts that we might ignore the father's important works, but think it would be impossible to abide and be fruitless. I think abiding is ultimate meekness because it has to be about him! Jesus repeatedly ran from the needy crowds to abide. Selfish or meek?

I do agree with your comments in that there are not many role models of people who genuinely enjoy God and are his friends literally.

Heres a poem I wrote In March. Actually the Holy Spirit whispered these words into my ears when I asked how I could love Jesus rightly.


Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
5 February 2005

Love Him with all your heart,
Love Him! Let Him know your affection.
Seek His face and not His hand.
Let Him know that you are His - His counterpart.
Call Him, ‘My bridegroom’, romance His heart
Talk about the wedding.
Tell people you are His. Boast of his beauty and majesty,
Boast of His might, works and affections
Love Him with all your heart.
With your soul, think of Him during the day and during the night
Laugh at His playfulness, smile at his kindness
Overflow out of his generosity
Take up your cross and meet Him in suffering
In your dark night let Him be your shield and light
Consider His thoughts, though you cannot count them, know His heart
Rest in His rest and run in his and strength
Let your mind consider His ways, His wisdom and kindness
Make every effort to honour Him in your thoughts , taking every thought captive
Making them obedient to your Bridegroom. Old lovers left behind
With all your strength march as a soldier, carry your cross, discipline your body
Fast and pray so that you will remain His.
Many are the pursuits of a man’s heart but He asks only this,
That you love him, really love Him. Desire Him, and seek Him first.

Marvel

Habakkuk

Have read a lot of Hebrews these last few days. So much to take in - its rocking me know as well. Whilst looking back at some references I came accross this prayer that is in Habakkuk 3.

Lord, I have heard of your fame;

I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.

Renew them in our day,

in our time make them known;

in wrath remember mercy.

.

.

By the way, whilst studying for, or writing these posts, prayers sometimes well up. I'm sure you know what I mean. Please share them - put them in the posts as they come and they can become my prayers as well.

Off the topic completely... Had small group on friday. It is a really nice group of people - very different to other groups as they are a bit older than us - consists of about 4-5 couples all with small kids - early 30's. They are quite mature christians - some work at the church. We were discussing how some people feel called to do something and it doesn't work out. Someone comparred it to quiet times, and how despite the fact that they hate doing it, they chose to love God and have a quiet time. Then virtually everyone agreed and commented how hard spending time with God is. For a lot of my life I would identify with this, and I know catt feels the same way. Heaps of my peers back in Melbourne are in a similar place. I know its always a choice, but to hate spending time with God?...

My point is - for years now people have constantly said that christianity is 'about having a relationship with God' - but it seems like it is so hard to achieve. I know, or at least know of, a few older people who seem to have a relationship to be envied, but no peers. (I should clarify that by the grace of God, He has blessed me with a deeper relationship this past year or 2) I'm not trying to be judgemental - but I'm wondering a few things about this. Firstly, is this an Aussie thing? How has this happened, given all the focus on relationship with God? The few churches I've been involved with have had structure, mission, vision based around making disciples. Is church failing in not 'producing' people with this deep relationship? How can church grow, flourish, or even be a joyfull place, when its members don't like spending time with the God they are supposed to be in realationship with? Is it better that people aren't brought to Jesus if what they're brought to is a difficult, dry or even non-existant 'relationship'. Or is the terminology of it being "about having a relationship with God" not appropriate as the term relationship describes 2 individuals often together, often communicating with each other, and enjoying each others company - which rarely happens.

I get the feeling that you know a lot more people who enjoy the presence of God - or at least enter it often. (I'm not saying that I think it should be jolly fun all the time - but surely it shouldn't be dry and difficult all the time.) I guess IHOP was a haven for this sort of people? So if you don't relate to this please forgive me.

There's probably heaps of practical reasons why it could be happening. Maybe the hedonistic society we live in has influenced my generation too much? Maybe God's presence is so absent from Australia generally that people can't find God so easily? I remember Yongi Cho saying it was always harder to pray in Japan than S. Korea.

On the way back from small group I was thinking - how could people be taught / lead / discipled, etc into having a relationship with God this is real and life changing? I don't think theres a silver bullet. Does it come down to desire - if you want it bad enough, hunger and thirst for it whole-heartedly - God will meet you there?

I'm a bit worried that this lack of sweet communion in church-goers is/will change church completely. Virtually all churches I have a contact with here are focussing on growing a sense of community within its members - or trying to reach the world by doing social justice stuff (which is fine) But as good as these things are or sound, are we barking up the wrong tree (in focus and priority)? Isn't Christianity first and foremost about God?

I'm a big believer in the concept that any given group, be it church, nation, business is only as good as the individuals in it. Even unity or teamwork only comes from the quality of peoples character. Thats why democracy works in some places and not others. Therefore, if it IS all about relationship with God - and people only become more like Jesus with God's help - and we only get power from abiding in Him etc, etc - isn't seeking a good relationship with God THE most important thing in the world. Shouldn't those who despise their relationship / time with God do whatever it takes... kick, scream, scratch, weep, thirst, hunger, fight, with every fibre of their being to improve that situation?

Strangers and Pilgrims

Mitch, I enjoyed your initial thoughts. Particularly,

"there is another level of faithful obedience till death regardless of suffering or results. This is only possible with eyes on the eternal crown."

This means we have to be meek, presence drawn not purpose driven. We talked about that lots.

Hebrews 11 has been 'rocking' me for 2 weeks now. What is faith? I am so so convinced that this word has been hijacked by recent Christian movements to mean 'the currency with which we get stuff done in this age'. For example, if you have faith then you can access healing, material provision etc. What is particularly confusing is that we do see the Kingdom of heaven breaking in quite a bit. Sometimes its there, sometimes it isn't (bit like a picket fence). Jesus certainly linked faith to stuff that heppened but I think we have taken what is an eternal Kingdom and tried to consense it into a sardine tin. The thing is, this Kingdom is far bigger, broader and more fascinating than that.

Going back to my post the other day about the cruise liner - I was thinking this morning that a more suitable analogy would be a situation where you had a choice between being a billionaire for 30 seconds or comfortably off for a whole life time. No one would want to be a billionaire if it was so temporal and so transient. (irrelevant to this post).

I have delayed posting anything on Hebrews 11 at all because my heart was being quite stirred and my thoughts were a little jumbled. But this is what Ihave considered. The key verses which hit me like a steam train are these:

He (Abraham) waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

These (the Patriarchs) all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them far off were assured of them.

They admitted that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth

But now, they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country......God has prepared a city for them.

The shock to my system is the weight in scripture to what will be. The sense of looking forward and waiting. Jesus says, "the meek will inherit the earth", but for the present time the meek will probably have the same fate as Jesus. I find at work that when I am meek, I get side lined, other people get undue credit etc. Paul also said, to paraphrase, "if there isn't a resurection and more to come then I am history's biggest muppet". His decision to pour his life out was perfectly rational and sensible in the long run, ( a bit like a pension albeit a little more exciting and fortunately not linked to the FTSE).

I keep coming back to that phrase, 'none of these patriarchs received the promise in their life time'. In mainstream charismatic church, Abraham might have been told to believe more, confess more, and sow more, but he didn't, he waited and looked for and took re-assurance from the fact that the ambiguity of his life was not the end of the road.

Were we to have read his obituary, (assuming it was favourable), it would probably read, 'cattle man, moved from Ur to some random place, had only one child in his old age, and he died'. The thing that shone in his life that he happened to be friends with God.

My close friend and brother, Mark Wynter, was overtaken by his eternal hope 6 months ago after battling cancer for some time. The last time I saw him, he was talking about healing, hope and the promises God had given him concerning Uganda. He believed in it all, he really did. But, he said he kept being drawn back to this truth, 'these all died in faith. not having received the promise'.

Like Abraham, Mark and his amazing wife Sophie embraced and saw these promises from afar. Having graduated with a good law degree and every door open to him for that career, Mark admitted to me many times that he was 'a pilgrim and stranger'. He sometimes felt misunderstood and foolish. He could have invested in several properties in about 1999 but he didn't because he said it was just a means to make money. He shifted his thoughts from this temporal culture to the eternal Christ. I remember debating with him years ago (when I was going through my 'stand on the word' phase), and saying that God cannot lie and always meets needs etc. He smiled, and kept saying, 'think higher, what does it matter really?' What a wonderful friend and comrade in his pursuit of God. You will meet him one day and see what I mean.

Finally, have you heard the expression, 'so heavenly minded no earthly good'? Have you ever met someone who loved Jesus so much they became a worse friend, employee? I often wonder where this hypothetical person lives, I have never met him/her. I think the pursuit of God will lead to great things, (by God's deffinition, not Forbes), but in our heart there must always be only one thing. This brings me onto what Joseph understood about Faith. Were I to try and summarize his life, acts of faith and ventures I would remember the following;

1. Dreams and prophetic interpretations
2. Effectively prime minister of the world power
3. Salavtion of many, many people from famine
4. Grace and and mercy with his brothers
5. Colourful coat


What does God remember? We know from Samuel that God does not see as man sees. Man looks at the outward, God looks at the inward, (Seen the film Shallow Hal?)

In Hebrews 11, the greatest amplification of Faith in the scriptures, (I think), this is what God sees as significant.

"By Faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concernings his bones"

Amazing or weird, but this is what God identifies as significant. To paraphrase,

" Don;t bury me in Egypt with the greats, so that I am in the British Museum one day, (he would have been), I don't want anyone to think that I have identified with Egypt. That was never what I was about. I am looking to the promise of God and I still haven't seen it, a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

faith

It can seem that faith has 2 sides to it. Jesus spoke about faith that was necessary for God to act in power now. Then there is the Hebrews 11 faith that is hoping for something that can't be seen now, and may never be seen in a lifetime. How can it be both at once? I'm not sure it is. It is perhaps the same faith / principle working in both situations. In all the Heb 11 cases they believed because God gave them an assurance of what will happen. It wasn't blind faith really - they just trusted in Gods word. Remember Rees Howles - he saw a lot of miricles happen - but would only believe when he had an assurance from God first. I know people pray for things without that assurance and God answers. But I think the only way we can have real Hebrews 11 faith and assurance of something is when God speaks first.

What is Heb 11 really about. [what follows is thinking out loud and may not go anywhere] Twice it says - in verses 13 and 39 - that they "did not receive what was promised". This is confusing as many of them, especially the 2nd lot which includes Moses, Gideon, David and Samuel - clearly received much as a result of their faith. In 6:15 it says: And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. In fact in ch11 verse 32-3 it says And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised... So which promise are we talking about? I'm not sure we can accurately say what this chapter is on about on its own.

The end of Ch 10 says:
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. 37 "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls.

Firstly I think the confidence is referring back to 10:19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus ... And "what is promised" would be referring back to 9:15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

In 4:1 it says Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands ... and then from 4:7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God

It would be my guess that 'the promise' that they did not receive in their life was to enter into Gods rest. In ch 12 the theme is endurance. So the sequence is; end of ch10: Christ supersedes old sacrifices therefore we can enter the sanctuary and later His rest - so persevere in faith. ch11: all the old guys perservered unto death with this rest in mind - they did great things by faith, but they still held out for the eternal rest. ch12: now with that in mind you persevere.

I just went back and re-read "The Promises of God" section in our eternity chapter, and that is exactly what he says. I totally missed it the first time. So I'm not sure Heb 11 has anything to do with the actions of faith ie healing etc in this life ... Does that make sense?

I started writing this at the start of the day thinking one thing, and now I've completely changed my view of Heb 11. Quite a revelation - but am I right? Help...

Paxico

The 'why' of God's heart.

It seems that any consideration of eternity will have to lead into the depths of God's heart which involves so much mystery. By asking a question you end up with 20 more questions, not one answer.

I love 'the knowlege of the Holy' by A W Tozer in that he states that we are to search out God's heart and that is God's desire, but at the same time he reveals himself to be God unknowable. Something of a paradox? That is, if we were to take any one attribute of His heart whether it is his mercy, kindness, eternity, wisdom, they would all be unlimited. So, to put it in crude terms that I can understand - If God's heart were a football pitch, I could run from the sidelines into the middle and after 6 billion years I would be no nearer to the middle than when I started.

That said, we are invited to grow in the knowlege of God and seek him out. He has reserved his heart emotions and feelings for the hungry and thirsty. I guess these thoughts are a pre-cursor and pre-emptive defence to the fact that considerations of eternity probably cannot, or need not be directly applied to Christian service or life. The fascination with the nature of God is the end in itself because it causes me to worship him. This is the eternal purpose (worship), and to love him.

I have recently been attending the 'Alpha course' and it has been fantastic. On week 2-3, we looked at 'why did Jesus die?'. All sorts of analogies communicate the reason for it. God is the judge who has to act justly as a judge, but then he comes round and pays the debt as an ordinary citizen, that story of the concentration camp where the soldier is beaten to death for admitting to stealing a shovel, only later to discover it wasn't missing, he was simply protecting his comrades, and I could go on.

We are separated from God and the cross is the bridge, we have filled in the tunnel between us and God with rubbish and Jesus is the rubbish man to take it all away...These stories are all so familar but none of them explain why. That is, I understand the legalities of dealing with sin. I understand the need for salvation. However, none of this tells me why? Why in the sense of God's emotions. What was he thinking when he came up with this idea? Why did he need to save us? Why did he not wipe the planet and start again? Lets face it he could have done. I don't think anyone could have stopped him.

In Revelation, I read of Jesus, 'the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth'. Thats right, there was a sacrificial lamb, and remedy for my sin before God created the earth. His provision preceded Genesis 1! Before he said let there be light, before the apple, before sin, before there was a need to be saved, there was this remedy and loving sacrfice in the heart of God. It was not an after thought when things with A&E didn't work out. God wasn;t standing there saying, "Oh, pants, what happened there, what am I going to do".

I considered this carefully and then had to conclude that the all famous John 15:13, 'greater love has no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends', which we tend to refer to on war memorial days, was in fact in relation to Jesus. How can God, who is love be excluded from this highest form of love? For that reason there has always been a sacrificail lamb in the heart of God. Mystery? He needed to find and give expression to it and that is why the cross is the expression of love for all eternity. Jesus will always be that lamb, (forever).

That leads me to my final thoughts. Why sin? Is God all wise and all knowing? Of course he is. Why did he create Satan (Is 14)? He must have known that he would rebel and cause havoc. Of course he did. More importantly, for a God outside of time and space, why did he place this cause of sin and opportunity for rebellion in the same realm, same garden and locality as his beloved creation adam and his wife? God must have seen the consequences in human history and the pain, loss, sadness that we have all experienced. What was he doing? A mystery we cannot resolve but I feel some speculation leads into the deep places of God's heart.

A suggestion - God's highest aim throughout scripture is to be loved. One day we will love him rightly. One day we will honour him the way he deserves. One day every knee will bow. The highest command is to love him with everything. Hosea showed us that God wants to be first. Jesus revealed himself as that same jealous bridegroom who wants to be desired and chosen by voluntary lovers.

My natural conclusion must be that God, in his infinite wisdom, and passion to be loved, had to provide opportunity for secondary lovers so that we could say no to them and yes to him. This reminds me of Huxley's Book, 'Brave new world' in which there is a world where there is 'free love' and no one is ever rejected. If you want someone, take them, (written in the 60's!) The sad truth, was that without the pain of rejection, you could not have love. It was hollow and empty.

Similarly, it is a narrow path and maybe 1/10 choose to love Jesus on this voluntary basis but he describes these people as like a 'lilly among thorns'. We have every chance to turn back, persecution of we really follow him, but we say, 'you're altogether lovely'.

End of ramblings

initial thoughts

Boy I have some catching up to do! Some great thoughts - thanks! You would make a good writer!

considerations of eternity probably cannot, or need not be directly applied to Christian service or life.
I agree, in fact I was going to say that I have a problem with the 'eternity' mindset. Not in regard to realising we are part of an eternal kindom that is more 'real' than this natural life, and not so much that the things of this life distract from it - but more that this can lead to a destructive attitude. By that I mean in light of eternity, nothing in this world can hurt me and things like work and appearance become meaningless. As you know I struggle with work, and a lot of it comes from a mindset of: my work, my career, my boss etc are nothing in comparison. Where others fear being reprimanded by superiors, I have a 'you can't touch me' attitude. In some ways this is correct but when combined with pride - one of my failings - it is destructive.

His comments about modern christians craving acceptance, and too polite to present the real eternal message are so true. I found myself thinking that this eternity message is so unpleasent to say - and I guess to hear in western society, that I can't imagine anyone ever accepting it. But then I am reminded that it is the Holy Spirit that draws - we must present the real message of eternity and truth without dodging the tough parts, and rely on God to grow the seed in their hearts. It is fitting that priesthood was presented first in this book as presenting this message without true power and anointing is useless. I think this is the reason for all the tip-toeing around the tough parts of the gospel that we see so much today. A lack of the presence of God in the message and messager, which can only be obtained by true priesthood.

God I would rather wait for your call and annointing till I'm 80 than step into something now without you. May I achieve nothing apart from that which you have called and annointed - as a true priest before you, and with the full truth of eternity. God I want your presence more than anything, for your love is better than wine, more precious than all the riches of the whole earth.

It is so challenging to consider faith that is eternally minded. So many heroes of the faith didn't get the thing they struggled or believed for in their lifetime. I am naturally a results driven person, if results aren't coming, try something else till they do. But obediece may mean to struggle and obey until death perhaps seeing no fruit. To do this faithfully for life is the essence of living with an eternity mindset. I think there are different elements to having this mindset. I have thought that it means to not worry about the things of the world that people are generally obsessed with. This is part of it - but only part, there is another level of faithful obediece till death regardless of suffering or results. This is only possible with eyes on the eternal crown.

mellow fruitfulness

Eternity - a great clash

1 Timothy 6:12 take hold of eternal life to which you were called.

I still see eternal life as what happens after this ‘real life’ experience but I am challenged to re-shape that view in that we have eternal life now. His eternal life in me is so real and has permeated the rest of my life including my marriage, career and bank account. I love that quote:

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda nor even in stirring people up, but being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist. -- Cardinal Suhard

Upon reflection, I am surprised this clash of two realities is not messier. The eternal life, which we are supposed to take hold of, is here and now and runs concurrently with the natural. One day the natural will give way to the eternal whether we are ready or not but we are invited to get in step with the eternal purposes now.

It strikes me to be the biggest clash imaginable that this gospel might actually be true. I know we never question its truthfulness but do we consider it's implications? Is it really is the case that this world and its systems are under judgement and a day has already been appointed where every individual will be judged, not according to the standard of this world, but the standard of another? It seems to be too other worldly, so improbable, because if that is really the case, and the judgement on that day affects forever and ever, then surely this time which is described as a passing vapour should be lived altogether differently.

If what we do now with our time, money and heart’s resources sends ripples through all eternity then it is quite important! If I lean on God for mercy and forgiveness and life, I should have an abandoned spirit to Him alone. To forsake all other lesser ‘lovers’ and to pour out my life. Any less would be at odds with what is real.

To the individual who does not follow God, then EVERY THOUGHT, VANITY, SUCCESS, HONOUR AND DIGNITY IS A LIE. That is not to say that the billionaire businessmen , rock stars, models, leaders (including religious), don’t genuinely experience something spectacular and commensurate to worship in this passing vapour, but it is all false and built on a faulty premise. It is false because it is about to be washed away and none will remember.

I think of a luxury cruise liner with seven floors, 3 casinos, restaurants and is a temporal world of pleasure, pampering and escapism. Now, suppose I am on that cruise liner and I happen to know that it is sinking, (quickly), and I am in the middle of the Northern Atlantic. For a short period, there is another ship alongside us without any casinos and I am offered a transfer. What would my attitude be? It sounds obvious but I think we would forfeit some temporary pleasures of the short journey on the luxury cruise liner and hop onto the alternative ship immediately.
Similarly, I think this advice to young Timothy is for him to take hold of the inevitable now and recognize that the world as we know it is passing away. It is a clash because the directors of the biggest corporations present a virtual immortality, as does the media. But the gospel is good news (to some), but very bad news to the world under Judgement. The message is simple. The ship is sinking, and you need to take hold of eternal life. This is a clash. The world says, everything will work out, peace, peace.

On Friday, George Best passed away. He was greatly loved in the UK and arguably the greatest football talent to come out of the UK. He was responsible for the famous quote, “it (money) went on women, booze and fast cars, the rest I squandered”. But, the shock is that it is true. He died of alcoholism on the day in England that it became lawful for pubs to stay open 24/7. Am I the only one joining the dots?

Not wanting to go off on a tangent - Art put it this way:

'Our problem is that we secretly covet the world’s admiration. We want to succeed on the world’s terms if not academically then theologically. We find ways to be polite and to address our Christian convictions in a manner by which the world can receive them. We have lost the apostolic view, which was intended to confront the world in its entire framework of thought, for the whole of non-Christian thought is a lie if it has not reckoned on eternity.'

What are your thoughts Mitch?

novemer 05 kc

Bring me the Ephod

I am still grappling with this interaction between the sacred and secular, or rather the invitation to stand before God with an undivided heart and the pressures of dividing that same heart so to be faithful to other things, albeit secondary in importance.

On reading the life of David, I am repeatedly drawn to the phrase where the King of influence and conquest, puts life, the 'real world' on hold, and says, bring me the Ephod. I think it speaks of him wanting to stop being King, if only for a momemt to inquire of God and to know his presence. He took regular opportunities to do this, usually when he was under pressure.

I saw that david remembered God and prayed 7 times a day. Daniel stood before God as a priest, not a prime minister 3 times a day. How and when can I do this?

There have been times in my life (like last year), when it was all about growing in the knowlege of God and seeking him only. I came into much pressure to get back in 'the real world' but then I would consider Psalm 27 and how he desired one thing only, a midst the battles, building and business.

There is a modern day fable that says, 'God helps those that help themselves', but I think it is true to say that God is ever present in times of trouble and comes ot the aid of those who say 'bring the ephod', hence preparing themselves for the presence of God with the posture of a priest. I notice that the garments were not to be made of wool so that the priest would no sweat. We must come to him in a place of peace and rest. Leaning on him for everything.

We are sheep - so allowed to be a bit stupid, afraid of wolves, and always focussed on new pasture. This is why we need the good shepherd.

Insignificant

Priestliness

Mitch, some more thoughts on that chapter. I am reading through the life of David and that has given me some glimpses of how this priestliness stuff interacts with day to day life. The word priest carries so much baggage that i actually dislike the word. The images conjured up in my mind are:

Robes, incense, baldness, boredom, sad music, irrelavance, cold buildings, melancholy and old people.

I still picture an old man standing at the front representing an angry God to me. I am invited to draw near, (only as far as the railing for communion) and am then warned not to drink myself into judgement. Nice, warm fuzzy, not quite. But, you get what i mean, the general picture is one of service to people and performance, expectations etc. I guess because it is easier to relate to fallen people than to God, we have all gone down that track and made our journey of faith an unsustainable job description.

But, I was reading in 2 Samuel about chapter 7-8, how David, upon seeing the ark return to Jerusalem, which represented the middle of His people, how he danced with the ordinary folk. Saul's daughter, Michal, had a go at him saying, how have you undignified yourself this day? I ahve heard it preached many times about how David danced naked before God. he didn't. It doesn;t say that. He disrobed his Kingly garments and wore a linen Ephod. There was no nakedness in sight. The Ephod was the simple priestly garment with 12 precious stones across the heart area, symbolizing how a priest would carry God's people close to his heart at all times. I love this story because david is so unconcerned about his title, royalty and dignity, he just dances before God. He actually says to Michal, I wasn;t dancing for people but for God. or to paraphrase:

" I may be a great King but before God there are no other kings and I become just a loved priest".

So, on to my question on how priestliness interacts with the market place, 'real life' etc. I saw so many guys at IHOP who gave themselves full time to the role of 'priest', and would pray for hours each day, stand and wait before God and it was not with the view to pour it all out on the world. The standing there was the end in itself and the reward.

I found that hard because I have a passion for the world, work place , or rather the people I meet there. I know it sounds odd, but I don;t wake up every morning and look to get people 'saved', I actually really like the people. I do care about my work, although I have denied it in the past.

I David I see the synthesis of a King and Priest. I think it says i hebrews somewhere that we are a Kingdom a Kings and priests. Both, not one or the other. We love the world as a King, providing for our speheres of influence, acting justly and walking humbly, but all the days of our life we are reminded that our crowns will, in the eternal perspective, be thrown at God's feet. Dave Mitchell said something really interetsing the other day. He said, 'we are good at giving or weaknesses to God, but why not our strengths'. I agree, I must admit, I have felt that. I spoke to someone the other day who knew we had been away and come back to law and living, and althoughe he didn;t say anything, he inferred that I was in compromise by going back to a worldly career.

I thank God that my assignment right now is small and hidden because it will really test my heart. I am sure anyone can be a hero in front of 10,000. But, will I be faithful with little, without promise of more?? If God is King, and I am the priest the answer is yes. My little Kingdom (friends, money, possessions, career, ambitions) are all a bit silly in the eternal perpective.

I think I need regular opportunities to stop being King/boss and to dance and stand before the one true King.

light

Pacific highway

Man vs God

In the beginning we challenged God's supremacy. Throughout Israel's history this continued. Who is worthy to receive the worship? Saul of God? We saw bright and shining lights in the lives of some men and women who were so radical as to live a life that declared that God was in charge. He was worthy. He was the reason for the success. But it continued, man vs God, in arrogance and independance stood alone and declared man's glory in enough. In Hosea the people's had other lovers and ran after them. God produces in Hosea a love song, albeit a rebuke, " I am the strength of your life, where do you think your success came from. Who fought your battles and blessed your crops?" But the people kept running. Man vs God, continued. In Jeremiah, an unprecented time of prosperity and the structural worship was virtually perfect but in Jeremiah we hear the voice of a weeping God, who does not want sacrifices and burnt offerings but a steadfast love. "You preach your own sermons, make up your own prophecies, talk about 'peace', when there is no peace". They ran in their own strength being stuck up in pride and forgot the face that had always gone before them, the glory of that face. Then in malachi, it continues, "I wish you would just shut it all down". The worship was about the priests, not about their God.

It continued into the Gospels, where God, a sin the parable of the vineyards, had sent his servants the prophets, but they had been beaten and killed, so he sent his own son. He wanted the fruit of this vineyard - a voluntary love to a God who should have mandatory everything. But it continued, he was despised and rejected, to the religious leaders and priests he said " you love to be greeted in the market place, you study the scriptures and pray out loud most impressivley, but you would not come to me, I AM the life". But they plotted to kill this one, who had done no wrong. The challenge simply carried on.

Jesus said, unless a person gives up everything he has, he cannot be my disciple. It made sense, one master is better than two. The invitation to follow was not user friendly. Only the meek, depserate, hungry and poor would even consider it. The strong remembered their heritage selectively, "we are abraham's children", but they did not have the meekness of that great man. Anything but to follow Jesus and make him Lord of their life.

Into the epistles it continued, who do you follow, Paul or Appolos? Who is the greatest? Many preached Christ out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. The war continued.

Today, is it alltogether different? IN my heart there is a constant war. It is not about financial giving, or kindness, or purity. It is far deeper and painful. I want to be the boss. I want to grow the church. I want to take/steal God's glory. I want a reward now, or at least a gurantee or I won;t take a low place in service. I will meet God when I want, and so long as it does not inconveneince me. I want a tailor made spiritual work out like the gym. A bit of church, bit of socializing, but around me.

If I give 99% of my life/heart to God, I am deceived. This means I am the decision maker as to which parts he can have. If I no longer live then I am his, no matter what.

This leads me to my final consideration. The call to 'accept christ'. "Go on, give it a go, what have you got to lose, if you're wrong you won;t know about it anyway. Jesus is noce, forgiving, - don;t you want to go to heaven" BUT, that is the spirit of the age. Jesus is not like a bullied school boy who wants to join in with the games and the teacher invites us to 'accept him'. Rather, to reject him is the greatest wrondoing and a contempt of everything that is valuable.We do not accet Christ, he accepts us. We take communion regularly to remember his death until he comes again. To forget about my brokeness identifed with his broken body, is to bring yourself into judgement. Not sure what that all means. but 1 Corinthinan 11 says it.

Jesus is in isaiah 53, as the jealous God, a his fury is revealed trampling on all that stands in the way of love, (which is Jesus).

IN church today, I see a picture not dissimialr to Jeremiah. Great buildings, visions, cash flow, expectations, community involvement, but what of the leadership of Jesus. I wonder, just wonder how Paul would speak in this post modern culture. Would his message still be, Jesus commands people everywhere to repent? I know it is so often taught that paul inspecte dthe idol to an unknown God and tried that, but he later said, after such a dismal time, with no converts, the Gospel is foolishness to the greeks, a stumbling block to the Jews, but I have resolved, (after athens experience) to know nothing, but Christ crucified and me his servant.

Powerful.

Priesthood

Only a few pages into this but its so challenging and exciting. I think mainly because it speaks directly into what (I think) God may be leading me (and perhaps you?) into. A month or 2 back I felt prompted to read Leviticus (or in that area) - in particular about the levites - which I did, but got zero revelation! I figured I'd made it up - but maybe it was a sign post to dig deeper - given that God probably knew you were going to mention this book and its first chapter was about priesthood.

Mystery of Priesthood.
I think the key to this mystery is "there is a requirement to minister unto God before one ministers to men". If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom - then how essential is it to obtain "the sense of the sacredness of God, which is to be found only in the holy place, by those who have the posture of the priest".

Levitical Consecration
Boy, he doesn't bother trying to gloss it up - or make it sound inspiring. But that was reality for the priests in leviticus - "full of blood, gore, and exhaustion". Ok - hands up who wants to be a priest!

When looking at the special treatment priest received with all their fancy clothes etc - what a humbling place to start - ie being washed naked before everyone. What amazing symbolism... also with the gold sheild on his head. It must be significant that God chose those words - "holiness unto God" to be placed near his mind. There are some obvious answers, but I need to give this some more thought....

Anointing Oil
This is what I/we are longing for. If God wants me to do something - I want Gods true and full anointing. I don't want to leave the house without it! I know its a good thing to be serving the body / growing the kingdom - but I can't get past the nagging thought - whats the point without God's anointing. I think if we dwell with Him / abide with Him faithfully and wholeheartedly then His anointing will come.

How many churches aren't guilty of adding razzamatazz - their own oil, to the oil of God's anointing. This is a harsh thing for the western church to hear I think. What he is talking about virtually defines most churches... I don't want to be a church basher - and therefore I'm not exactly sure what to do with this in regards to church - not sure I have to right now... For me / us though, it means we have to press in to the above paragraph all the more. Jesus said His burden was easy and yoke was light - and I think the main aspect to His burden and yoke is ... acheived (can't think of a good word) in remaining, abiding. If we do that (and live in obedience), then 'results' are up to God - in a sense not our problem - our reward will be the same I think.

The Sacrifice
It is so weird what was sacrificed and what was chucked out. Not sure if there's any significance in what was kept - kidneys, liver, fat, etc ... but how humbling to think that God looks most at the inner man - straight past abilities, personalities etc. (Probably just as well in my case!).

Such a significant statement: 'you cannot tell where the priest ends and the sacrifice begins'...

Obedience
In such a simple way, God portrays so much. It seems to link with Identification section and above sentence. Ie being smeered with blood is identifying / becoming one with the sacrifice - but at the same time symbolising obedience. Hearing / understanding - obeying with what I set my hand to right now, and in where I go in the future. But also this can't be taken in isolation - needs to be in the context of the next section (waiting in silence). Especially with what he was saying about true works of God brought forth prematurely as we are untouched by blood, and have no oil

So we need the oil of anointing, and the blood or sacrifice / obedience. But we can't do much to make them happen, except position ourselves before Him - God must do it.

Personal thoughts

After thinking about this chapter for a few days, I think it is starting to have more of an impact. Sorry my other post was a bit long... and probably too much like a book review! The main thing thats on my mind is the importance of meekness and humility. It is almost the top priority and pre-requisite before coming before God and seeking His presence. That is scary for me as I've always had a proud heart - I'm ashamed to say. God needs to change my heart so much more.

I've started reading the first chapter. Quite keen to see what he says about priesthood.

In the future it may be good to do this sort of thing on a book of the bible - but one thing at a time.

God bless

sections

Moses on the mount

From this, meekness seems so hard to 'attain'. We can only get it by being in close proximity to God - but "communion with God is never going to be convenient" and Expediency is contrary to God's Spirit".

The mian thing for me was the connection between humility and authority

Humility is Obedience

It is strange that true meekness and humility - in the context of obedience - may look agressive or arrogant. But I think the main point to this is that we are to be meek firstly toward God. A meek person 'knows his place' and therefore must obey. It implies that being meek / humble before God looks different to being humble toward others.

'Meekness is the quintessential character of God' - and 'the characteristic sign of an authentic apostle'. Strange that this isn't love, or gifts etc. But God 'opposes the proud'. I'm not sure of many other traits that God says he actively opposes - insinuating that we wouldn't be allowed into his presence without meekness.

Unselfconscious Humility

I think this is one of the most relevant things in the chapter. We are constantly examining ourselves and, based on our own made up scale, determining our spiritual state. Firstly our scale will be wrong. Secondly we will either become proud or depressed - neither of which is good. And thirdly we miss out on the freedom of not worrying about it.

This raises an issue with most church / small group experiences I've had. Where we mainly sit around examining ourselves. I know this is necessary in some aspects of life, but could lend itself to getting the above principle around the wrong way. Maybe we should spend more time sitting around fixing our eyes above. ??

Broken Alabaster Jar

The first thing I notice is the priority of importance which I see (perhaps incorrectly). Our worship / devotion to God is more important than looking after the poor. (This probably doesn't have that much to do with meekness directly). In fact there seems to be an annoyance in Jesus words (would need to check this more thoroghly) 'you will always have the poor' - as if to say your worrying about the poor is really you fullfiling your own needs in some way. When you think about it helping the poor doesn't necessarily take as much meekness as devotion such as the womens. I guess its about putting the first commandment first. Appologies to those with gifts of compassions - that might seem disrespectfull.

Following on from this, the comment about the 'preeminent fascination for ministry' ... and 'souls made shipwreck by a premature coming into ministry'. To me that defines much of my church experience. Could go on but wont...

I thought the section about if our 'christianity costs nothing ... we are one with Judas' was a little harsh... but I get the point. Growing a history with God, particularly in sharing his sufferings - very easy to say, but hard to do. Apart from the meek obedience, it takes patience.

I found the section about what 'would make church the church' quite interesting ... discuss another time perhaps as it seems like another diversion.

Following on - how do WE become fragrant? I think I know a bit about becomming fragrant myself, but he's talking about the church here?

Brokenness - I think we / I need to be reminded over and over to allow myself to appear broken before God and people. Two friends at work show me this. One always trying to be prim and proper - never putting a foot wrong in appearances - the other comes out warts and all - tells of all the silly things they've done. And for some reason I'm drawn to the later as there's something real and honest about it. It was a small revelation to me of God 'preferring' the broken.

Meekness - the key to revelation

'Authentic meekness (the key to revelation etc) ... is the work of God out of a relationship with Him'. This seems to say that we need to keep pressing in all the more. I really believe we are on the the right track Brad. This seems arrogant, but I mean it as an encouragement. The more we seek God's presence, the greater the desire, intimacy, knowledge of Him etc - which I think is the same as what Rees Howles called 'abiding'- and you never know, God may get us to do something special for him one day, but who cares, if we have more of God's presence then thats all that matters. Meekness is the means to this end - we don't become meek for meekness's sake, but only as thats what the King wants...


Two witnesses

As an aside, I always took forgranted that the 2 witnesses were 2 individual prophets. But they are referred to as lampstands which for the rest of revelation refers to churches? Haven't done any real study of this though.

The comment 'God goes out of his way to choose the foolish, the weak, and beggarly thing... all that is opposed and contrary to what man would have chosen'. Ref 1 Corinth 1. Obviously its easy to see this in terms of God's great plan - ie Jesus dying - but I find it a bit harder to see this at work now. When I think about a lot of the well known christians, the majority of them were or would have been very successful at worldly stuff aswell. For example ... Moody had gone from rags to riches very quickly. Floyd was a college basketball star (I think). My old pastor (grew crossway from 300 to 3500 + 20 years missions in bangladesh before that (awesome, powerful man of God)) was never beaten (national champion) at middle distance running. I could go on but you get the idea. This is partly being the devils advicote, but I'm not sure of the extent we can apply this principle... Hope this doesn't sound heretical - just trying to raise the question - not sure of the answer. (No good having 'truths' or 'principles' if we don't know where the rubber hits the road.)

Blameless consistancy

Keys for me were the comments "God does not say that it is the principles ... but rather the men in themselves etc" & the "equation". This rings so true for me / us I think. Its why we're on this journey. But consistancy IS the key. Like Bickle says about dwelling on SOS, you need to be doing it for 10 before complaining! We can so easily be on a spiral up or spiral down in terms of our walk with God. Please help me keep going up!

I though his comments on 'innocuous evangelism today' somewhat appropriate, but a bit harsh.

Getting people to 'serve the living God' instead of 'merely attending services'... Hmmm, that should be easy! (note sarcasm)

Yoke of the Lord

Self-consciousness and getting esteem from others can be such a huge stumbling block.

I find Paul's longing to join with Christs suffering for the 'crown' (ref James 1) completely daunting. He has a similar zeal as Jesus wipping the temple.

He talks a lot about church and community helping were interesting in that... I've never really experienced a place that helps that much in terms of the perfecting he talks about. Part of that is personal - in that I am more solatery than most. Perhaps part because in any group of christian everyone is headed / focussed on different things. But I guess what he is saying that we don't spend enough time on that level. Even as I write this I'm realising how much God has taught / changed me from our conversations over the past year. Which contradicts my usual thinking that I grow best on my own. Hmmm, this is a lot more to this than I'm writing - bit of a long story. Better save that for another time - this is getting very long and probably boring!

Conclusion

There needs to be so many more people who can say 'follow me' - and not just big leaders on high platforms - they need to be in amongst the congregation / community.

*****************************************************

Well thats it for now. Hope to chat soon.

to abide or to bear fruit

Really great comments Mitch. I love what you say about meekness as a quality existing only before God. If we are to be meek before people then that means we need to be understood and that means we need a platform and certianly cannot remain silent as Jesus did at times.

I also love your comments about the alabastar jar of oil and how Jesus said it was right to waste money on jesus as you 'would always have the poor with you'. I think this is one of those Jesus genius moments where he discerns thier hard hearts and to paraphrase says,

'"she is loving me well and that is (as God), what i am after and the very reason I camt ot the world. For the hope of such love and voluntary adoration I will even endure the cross like a meek lamb. But you say it is not prudent expenditure,....the real issue is your heart. Suddenly you cite the poor as a reason not to honour me, but in reality you could look after the poor whenever you want but you choose not to because you don;t care....right?, Bye the way, how much did this banquet cost anyhow??"

I was grappling with meekness earlier and found myself in collossian 1 which says jesus is the image of the invisible God. God is meekeness. There are so many catch phrases to describe meekness but not of them cut it for me because they are all so partial. I love jesus before pontius pilot, where it goes something like this:

Pilot: Speak you fool, don;t you realize I have the power to kill or save you.

Jesus: You have no power except that which my dad has given you.

We are told that there were 12 legions, (72 000) angels there at the cross, and one wiped out all the first born of egypt in the passover, 72,000! But, Jesus chooses to suffer repraoch for a higher goal. He looked so weak but actually he chose to be like that lamb because his goal posts were not self gain, honour but love. Is 53 is all about that meekeness. The truth is that Jesus could have destroyed teh cosmos in that moment but saw the love that would be poured out tohim and so embraced the cross. What kind of God does Jesus reveal? Crazy....brilliant.

One other thought about meekness. Jesus did not write one word about himself. had not one meeting with the high officials of jerusalem, but by John 6 they wanted him to be King! no advertising but he asked those healed to remain quiet. He remained as a carpenter and looking after his mum until the age of 30 when he knew he was the son of God at age 12, no mailing lists, offerings, schedules.

A tale of two parties - matthews house where he was a friend sof sinners and tax collectors, then at the pharisees house where he was treated awfully. This picture is SO different to the mega ministries we see today which say self promotion is good as long as there is fruit...its ok for leadership structures to be built around one man's anointing so long a speople get saved.....But paul says we should consider Jesus in Phil 2 and his glory of meekeness.

What excites me is that security Jesus must have felt to be able to take the towel and wash his disciples feet. I guess I want to know that pleasure of my father's heart more so that the honours , temporal rewards in this life seem all a bit silly.

Finally, as the title states, to abide or or to bear fruit???

I have had this conversation bout 3 times in the last month as to whether we should be standing before God or go after the poor, unsaved, weak. In other words love God or love your neigbour, First command vs second command. I have that verse burning in me still wher eJesus says,

'if you abide/remain in me you will bear much fruit'. In this purpose driven culture we are so rarely presence drawn as Rob scott Cooke said the other week. Do sheep drive themselves? God is not after heros but lovers who like peter will lay their lives down, but all for love, not so that they can sit at his left and right in the kingdom! the way i see it our job is to be abiders and if his promise is true we WILL bear fruit but our primary aim is not fruit but to abide.

blessings to you!

THOUGHTS ON MEEKNESS CHAPTER

Read Alabastar jar story Mark 14

What we do with the weakest and the least is what we are.

What is true authentic humility?

What is false humility and why do I do that?

What is unselfish-consciousness?

How much have I been pre-occupied with foundations ministry instead of with God?

My fragrance to the world is linked to whether, like that alabaster jar, I have been broken and poured out over Jesus.

would I have murmured at the waste if Jesus and so identified with Judas/convenience/spirit of the age?

why do i not pour myself out to other people more? how can i overcome that vulnerability?

Am I anticeptic or fragrant?

The more we grow in the knoelge of God the more we see ourselves less.

The foundation of the church is God as he is. IN that we see ourselves and broken and contrite, desperate for him, leaning on him and tender to his kind touch. What does God want from us? To be loved but it has to be with all our heart because any less would be to worship God as he is not. Less deserving, partially worthy and something less than all consuming.

Meditations

Psalm 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth,And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.


Isaiah 11:4
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.


Zephaniah 2:3
Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD’s anger.


Zephaniah 3:12
I will leave in your midst A meek and humble people, And they shall trust in the name of the LORD.

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.


2 Corinthians 10:1
[ The Spiritual War ] Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.


Colossians 3:12
[ Character of the New Man ] Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;


James 1:21
[ Doers—Not Hearers Only ] Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.


James 3:13
[ Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom ] Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.


1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Meekness

meek
adj 1: humble in spirit or manner; suggesting retiring mildness or even cowed submissiveness; "meek and self-effacing" [syn: mild, modest] 2: very docile; "tame obedience"; "meek as a mouse"- Langston Hughes [syn: tame] 3: evidencing little spirit or courage; overly submissive or compliant; "compliant and anxious to suit his opinions of those of others"; "a fine fiery blast against meek conformity"- Orville Prescott; "she looked meek but had the heart of a lion"; "was submissive and subservient" [syn: compliant, spiritless]

meek ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mk)adj. meek·er, meek·est
Showing patience and humility; gentle.
Easily imposed on; submissive.

new blog

mitch,

hope you found it>

good idea or bad idea, might be a good way to track with one another providing we are both happy to post on hear as much as possible etc. I personally like writing and find clarity in it but its up to you too.

hope leads to faith and love

Off the topic of meekness, or at least a tangent from that place.

I have been in Colossians 1 all week and have had some thoughts. 1: 4-5. An wavering faith and leaning upon Jesus and love for believers is what Paul said stood out and he praised it. The full integration of the body, growing up into the head who is Jesus and growing as part of the whole which are others whose names are written in heaven, I loved what Paul said about the soucre of this faith and love. Why did they have it? I always hear about how we should trust God more, and love people more but how? Here they had that faith and love because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. I love that. So often I think of heaven as being the reward. No more problems, no more tears, no more conflict between my heart and my head, rest, peace, no strife, no jealousy etc. But, what is this hope. The hope isn;t heaven, it is stored for us in heaven.

To the early church there was obviousl this emphasis on the eternal at the expense of the temporal which empowered the church to love God and love people. If our only reward is here on earth the forget about it. far too much hard work for such a short lifetime. But if we are motivated by reward, (not in the earthly sense) then it is a logical step t abandon oneself to the eternal and lean on God now fully and give my life away, as if pouring out, to his body.

rewards here are carnal, about pleasure, usually money and excess, but our reward is in heaven. That is our hope. the fuel in the tank that keeps us going when things fall down. When we are disillusioned with church 'vision', and see the senior leaders at times falling, why do I keep loving, why do I keep leaning? I love to hear stories about when people love the unloveable and they totally change and become pastors themselves, but what about the many time in my life when I love and get walked over, I am meek in work and so passed over, gentle and bullied, hidden and lonely, generous and exploited. The reward must be in heaven.

This really ties in with meekness and how jesus, for the hope that was set before him, (after resurection) he endured the cross. Jesus was so weiged down in the garden that he sweated blood and prayed that he might endure the sufferings. Could he have done it without that hope.

What is that hope in heaven. The mystery revealed at vs 26-27, Christ in you the hope of glory. Christ is the hope, the reward, the one we look to so we can endure the present sufferings.

My immediate thought is this. If we give little thought to Christ now, because of distractions of ministry, work, pressures pleasures etc, then will we enjoy 'heaven'. God said to Abraham, 'I am your very great reward' and we read in hebrews 11 about how these'heroes' of the faith lived in obscurity, struggles, ambiguity and didn't 'see' the realization of the promise because it was in another place, stored up for them.

Also, the Levite Priests were not allowed to inherit anything from their father because god was to be their reward.

So, I am challeneged to fizx my thoughts and attention on above and the reward of getting Jesus but we get that reward so much now too. If we don;t want him now then heaven might be a shock!

Structure is part of creation, but it is all about beauty and life.

From my friend Mark's blog - spot on

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda nor even in stirring people up, but being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist. -- Cardinal Suhard