Greater things are yet to come!

Greater things are yet to come
Greater things are still to be done in this city.

Great line from a great song.

In fact a song that has had a magnitudal effect on me this last couple of years.

Looking at my life closely this morning I ask the question are you truly the God of this city, the city that is my life?

And for some reason a wave of excitement rises up within me.

I think where I've come from, to where I am now.

I grew up in a hard poor urban inner City jungle just a stones throw over the river Mersey from Liverpool City Centre. Seven of us crammed into a small terrace, with no bathroom just an outside toilet.

We had nothing.

I fought my way through a tough school.

I came through unscathed from the life that comes growing up in traditional Salvation Army.

I learned so much from my years working  in the ultra tense business of open heart surgery.

Here I am a Salvation Army officer.

I often think how did that happen?

So this morning I ask myself what next?

That's when those words dropped into my head.

Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done.

I was thinking all this stuff on my morning walk by the river Wear in Durham city centre this morning. I love that time. It helps me to get my perspective together before I work. As I reflected I was thinking of those areas of my life that still need cleaning up. Sometimes they seem so difficult to do anything about.

I let that thought form the content of my prayer this morning. "Lord, help me to clean up those things that need cleaning up."

As I prayed that prayer I came across a window cleaner at work. He was doing an awkward job. He was having to clean the Riverside windows of a city restaurant (See picture below). He was balancing on a big pipe,  one slip and he was going in the river, a fast flowing river that has claimed a few lives lately.

He was taking a big risk.

Just to clean up the restaurant windows.

I thought to myself how that was an amazing lesson for me.

How do I clean up those areas of my life that need cleaning up?

Those stubborn and awkward things?

It seems to me I need to take a few risks.

To get to those awkward places.

I need to ignore the danger.

Go out on a limb.

Work hard.

To keep working towards holiness.

And the best thing is.

Nothing is insurmountable.

Everything is capable of cleanliness.

And always  there are greater things.

I love it when Joyce Meyer says, "I'm not where I want to be, but thank God I'm not where I used to be."

I think that's my thinking today.

Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done.

Bless you in your journey  guys.

Gaz

Praying without Technology!

I really love technology.

 How often do we say, I don't know what we did before mobile phones?

Mobile phones, tablets, computers, Mp3s, Skype, wow, there are numerous ways of staying connected. One multimedia company makes this statement in an advertisement, "Enjoy hours of communication with our products." It is a fact these days that we are constantly available.

Constantly connected.

We are rarely unavailable.

When Jesus prayed, he often made himself scarce, in a practical sense, seeking solitude so he could speak and listen to his Father uninterrupted.

The other day I oversaw a prayer meeting in a church not far from where I live.

During the prayer meeting of which there was about 6 people, one person suddenly stood up and said sorry a text I have been waiting for has come in I'll have to go.

Then there were five.

Five minutes later the front doorbell of the building sounded. A lady went to answer it and didn't come back.

Then there were four.

The next ten minutes went by without interruption when all of a sudden someone else's phone rang. Off he went.

Then there were three.

A couple of minutes later I felt an odd vibration on my thigh and realized my own phone was going off!

At least I stayed!

Reflecting on this I wonder whether unavailability by switching off our devices is a valid spiritual practice?

Giving God some space to speak with us uninterrupted.

It's incredible how we can tend to place earthly communication higher up the pecking order than spiritual communication with God.

I know we don't do it on purpose.

But we can be known to do it nevertheless.

I know that our phones are a useful tool if we are in a boring meeting or something. A pseudo ringtone is a must, especially for us ministers who often have to attend all kinds of "lose the will to live" meetings! I have to hold my hands up and say I've used that one a few times!

But when it comes to spending quality time with God?

I said to someone the other day, "I'm expecting an important call could you make sure no one disturbs me."

Wouldn't it be great if we went to those lengths everyday of our lives to give God the same respect?

Maybe its time to start switching off our gadgets for periods in the day, making ourselves unavailable to take calls and messages. Undivided attention all round I think is needed when talking with God?

Because in truth? What is more important?

Rain (A homeless guy's late night experience)

Richard ate his soup with some difficulty this morning.

Richard had spent last night in a doorway in the city.

He couldn't eat his soup because he was so cold that he was shaking. The soup just flew off the spoon the second he loaded it up.

I asked him where his sleeping bag was?

He told me he had lost it when he was drunk yesterday.

He told me that last night the wind was so bad and that the cold was sickening.

I get so frustrated because I can't get him to go to one of our hostels or even to come home with me or someone else from our Church.

He just won't risk leaving the one place he knows.

The street.

He told me that even though it was so cold last night he had a strange experience around 2am.

He said the rain was driving down to earth with some force. He said that when it hit the pavement he literally saw it bounce back up about a foot. He said at first he thought about finding a different doorway because the rain was seeping in. Then he said that all of a sudden he got strangely fascinated by the rain, He said he was transfixed, just watching it.He described to me how he just had an inexplicable urge to just go and stand out in the heavy rain falling from black skies.So he got up from the doorway, walked to the centre of the narrow Durham Street and said that he closed his eyes and opened his arms and just let the rain drench him.

He told me he just cried.

He didn't know why.

He said maybe my life is so low that somehow I needed to let the rain wash the bad away.

I sat with him listening intently.

My eyes filling with tears.

I was overwhelmed with thankfulness that here I was back at work after Christmas, and realizing what an honour it is to sit with broken.

It was funny really, because as he was was speaking I felt like rain was falling on my own life.

I had the same irresistable urge to stand in the rain.

The rain of the Holy Spirit.

I struggle living in the village I live in. I am a city boy and I long to live and breathe major city life once again.

And lately I have really let it get on top of me.

And I have to get through the next year coping with that.

Yet God reminded me today as I sit with Richard that as long as I retain the desire to be drenched by God I will be OK.

Its when I try to fix things myself that I really struggle.

The presence of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God is enough for me.

And he showers us from heaven with those things relentlessly.

So much so in spiritual terms it is always raining.

The trouble is that there are times when I run for cover, to get out of the rain.

I don't want to get wet. When what I really need to do is to step into the rain and get drenched!

Whatever you are going through, good times and bad, even those things that come to mind right now? A good thing to remember is? It's always raining.

In fact it's pouring!

Raining God's incessant love over our lives.

So don't resist that urge to step out into the downpour of God's amazing love.

Try not to just run for shelter.

Let the rain wash away the bad, the pain, the unrest, the insecurity, the doubt and the despair.

Don't run away from the rain, run direct into the middle of it.

Close your eyes, open out your arms and let the Holy Spirit drench your life.

His grace will get any of us, through anything, that is a promise!

Richard is warmer now.

He has finished his soup, dried off and had his flask and water bottles filled up.

I have just watched him drift off down the street probably to look for money or alcohol.

And my heart burns.

And my prayer is that this world will realize that its always raining.

I pray people will step out into the rain of God's love and let it drench us.