Silent Witness

Above all TV series? Silent witness is the top of the pile for me.

I love it.

the suspense, the incredible story lines, the technological aspects of pathology.

I love it.

I know a silent witness.

Personally.

He isn't a pathologist.

He isn't a crime expert.

He is an ordinary guy who has had his life flipped over by Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

He is an amazing addition to our church and to the church in general.

Even though he is a fairly new Christian, he gets the whole breathing in-breathing out thing. In short, his intensive relationship with Jesus compels him to operate in the world in terms of action.

He heard  about St Francis of Assisi, and was fascinated by his little famous dictum, "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words."

He really gets that!

He is a living, breathing silent witness.

That's how he lives and no-one has really taught him that, he just does it and it is a real challenge.

Everyday he travels to work in his car. He travels the same route, day in day out. he was telling me the other week that every day he saw a guy who was struggling to walk up a hill. he walks with a stick and he looked to be in pain as he walked. So This guy i'm talking about says to me, "I knew God would stop and offer him a lift. So Everytime he sees this guy, he picks him up and takes him to where he is going.

Simple action.

With extravagant Kingdom connotations.

Fueled by lavishly beautiful love.

Preaching without words.

The church bands about a lot of words.

I know I do sometimes.

More action is needed.

Lavish, simple, out-giving action.

Enough said?

A visionary Army

I said a quick Amen and sat down.

The host took over and told the crowded auditorium that following the final worship song, a prayer team would be available at the front to the left immediately after the session.

And on a whim he added, “O and maybe Gary will hang around the front too?

I had just finished speaking in the evening session of a conference in Wales.

 If I’m really honest?

I was looking forward to getting to bed.

The worship band finished leading the last song. The session came to a vibrant end.

The prayer team had gathered in the allotted place and people started coming forward to be prayed with.

I trudged across and stood with them.

I stood alone for what seemed like a long time.

After a while I started thinking about sneaking off and getting a cup of tea in the foyer.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a very old guy heading slowly and gingerly, with the aid of a walking stick, towards me. As my eye caught him he kind of half raised his walking stick in a gesture that said, "Wait I am heading for you." So I waited, feeling a bit frustrated inside that I probably wasn't getting a cup of tea or a bed anytime soon. He seemed to take an age to reach the raise area at the front where I was standing.

He was helped on to the slightly raised area by two helpful guys standing near by and finally came slowly face to face with me. He was so close to me I could almost see my face in his shining bald head. He raised his eyes slowly but purposefully and his gaze interconnected with my own gaze.

The guy turned out to be in his 90s and a veteran of a previous Welsh revival that had happened early in the twentieth century.

He was rippling with anointing.

So much so I could hardly stand up.

He looked me straight in the eye and said he had a word for me.

"God says through his Spirit that you are going to come against some brick walls. the vision he has laid on your shoulders will not find an easy path. But God wants you to know he will get you over every wall."

With that he dropped his electric gaze, turned and began the slow journey to the foyer.

I was left pole-axed by the Spirit. My body filled with feeling. A feeling I cant even begin to describe, so I won't. Dawn, my wife, had to drive me home because the whole of my being was a kind of spiritual jelly.

That was over six years ago.

He had said, "The vision God had laid on our shoulders wouldn't have an easy path."

Yeah.

God had laid a vision on dawn and I.

A vision to see prayer and justice transforms lives in Cities throughout the world.

And there have been walls.

Denominational leadership structures and systems can undoubtedly place walls in the way of vision while pretending to do just the opposite.

But some walls if I am honest are built expertly by myself.

Walls of doubt, frustration, sometimes apathy, sometimes a kind of resignation that things aren't going to happen.

But whatever the wall, whoever builds it, however it is built, God can get us over them.

This is vital to grasp when carrying and pursuing a vision given by God.

I was in a business meeting recently, when somebody talking about vision said, "It would be good if people were prepared to die for the vision."

I get bored in business meetings but this statement would not let go of me. and it is still resonating with me now.

Are we prepared to die for the vision?

There is a lot talked about vision.

Everyone has to have a vision!

I cringed recently when someone showed me a letter from a more senior minister saying, "You need to come up with a vision by next Friday's meeting!" 

Come up with a vision? 

Get real.

Vision in the Christian context comes from God alone.

The day any of us are forced to create a vision just for the sake of having one is the day the game is over.

But?

When God speaks a vision into our lives, which will always mean transformation of lives, then get ready.

The path will never be an easy one.

There will be walls to scale.

But he will get you over or round or through them.

Everytime.

Lately, in regards to the vision God has given Dawn and I as a part of the whole of God's vision for the Church, I am standing on the wrong side of one of those walls. A wall partly built by daft religion but mostly built by me.

Its a big wall.

I stand knowing we have driven this vision now for over ten years and we are at a point where we really need more senior decision makers to catch this vision, embrace it and then release us to drive it further. 

And it appears at first glance right now that we have reached the end, it almost feels we cant take it any further.

But every time I put another brick in the wall I hear the words "are you prepared to die for the vision?"

When I deepen that thought I find a whole host of things I need to die to. Die to self, die to doubt, die to feelings of inadequacy die to all kinds of things.

If i don't die to these things as well as being prepared to actually die for the vision to see lives transformed by the power of God then the vision dies.

God says, prophetically, I will get you over the walls.

why?

Because God needs a visionary Army. An Army prepared to die for the vision. the vision of transformation of the lost and the broken. God needs an Army that stops building its own brick walls. God needs soldiers who every waking hour dream of transformation and all the possibilities that it brings. God needs an Army willing to be saturated by the Spirit of God. God needs an army that chooses the spiritual over the worldly. God needs an Army that puts Salvation before self.

God needs you.

He needs us.

Maybe you are tired of hitting brick walls. It is tiring.

Listen.

There is no leader, no system, no denomination, no self built belief, no enemy who will ever override God.

So I pray today that we will receive strength to have a faith so strong that we believe God will get us over any wall.

Believe the vision he has laid on you. Test it, pray for it, carry it.

Be prepared to die for it. 

So this world will be saved. 

A Call to the Salvation Army (Re-Run)

Over the last three weeks I have had a few thousand requests from all over the world to re-publish this blog post.

Thank you for all the texts and emails regarding this post especially those from USA, Canada and Australia who this word particularly seems to resonate with.

Much grace and blessing

So here it is.


So it's one of those mad days.

Tensions were running high
.
Mindsets,  damaged by the virulent chargedness of alcohol,  heroin,  and other dark elixers seemed to be in overdrive.

Two guys were arguing over some insignificant issue.

They were about to wade into each other with a menace in their eyes and a venom in their veins until I managed to step in between them.

Another guy was struggling not to vomit after downing three litres of cider before 9am.  Eventually a technicolour yawn did occur!

Then another lady who has just one tooth was crying loudly because she said she had to go to the dentist for a tooth out,  you do the maths!

I don't know.

There is something in the air today.

Mind you it went quiet for half an hour while the City beat police came in for some soup.
As soon as they left?

Back to Ravingmad Salvation Army Corps.

Later on, in walks Ruth, a young girl heavily addicted to drugs.  We hadn't seen her for a while as she's been in Jail.  Her arm was badly injured from a fall.  We cleaned her up and bandaged her wound.  She started to cry,  she was crying for her mum,  who has long lost touch with her. She cried herself to sleep and spent the rest of the day sleeping on one of our couches.
Watching her sleep,  she looks like an angel.

A question rises upon  my mind.

Why do these people get drawn to the Salvation Army?

When we planted Sanctuary 21, we didn't have much of strategy.  We cleaned the building up,  opened the door one day and prayed like mad. We agreed with God we would deal with the whatsoever and the whosoever.

Not much of a plan eh?

But here's the thing.

I honestly believe that in our DNA,  the lifeblood of the Salvation Army is that we are house of justice.

A star in the East.

A champion of the whosoever and the whatsoever.

A warm breast where the poor and the needy,  the outcasts an the forgotten can lay their heads.

The Spirit of God then layed this word on my lips and my heart, and I felt an incredible urge to share this on my Blog.

The Spirit of God says,  get ready for an influx of the broken.  Ready yourselves to do whatever it takes to embrace the poor, the sick,  the Fatherless and the homeless. This is the heart I gave you.  Open your hearts,  open your doors, break open your Citadels.  Make them houses of justice. Make ready for the whatsoever, do not sing and shout about the whosoever and then pick and choose who fits in.  My Salvation is for everyone says the Lord. The Spirit of God says I put out a call to the visionaries who have been re-routed,  you are down but not out.  Return to the ranks, return to where it began.  The march is back on. Listen up! The last will be first.  The tables are set.  They are coming from literally anywhere and everywhere.  Get ready,  return to the track, draw a line on the past,  freshen the now, grasp the future.  I set the Salvation Army through the vision seekers of the past. The track is set. Go immediately to the track I set. You are one with the Church,  you have to be one with each other in order to fight. The Spirit of God says you are my open heart,  my tears, my comfort to the needy.  Get ready.  They are coming.  Go and rescue them in the streets,  the back alleys,  the low places,  the ruins of a world in turmoil.  Stand up and fight not with strategies and programmes,  and even that which is business,  but with open lives,  massive hearts,  brave hearts. I will give you a heart of flesh.  Hearts burning,  bodies willing to die to save the lost.  Get ready.  A wave of favour is coming. The fight is on. You will be justice fighters. An Army of freedom.

Ruth has awoke and is crying for her mum again.

I watch as Dawn and one of our volunteers cradle her.

It's the Salvation Army,  fighting for the lives of the broken.

And fighting for these very lives?

It's the only way.

Eye Level

Supermarkets.

I really don’t like supermarkets.

Supermarkets mean one thing to me.

I have to go shopping.

With my wife Dawn.

I hate shopping.

I noticed something the other day when I was shopping.

I noticed that all the best items in a supermarket are stacked at eye-level.

It’s set like that so the best stuff can be easily seen.

After a quick burst of research, (Search engines to be precise) I read that big corporations hire experts to work those things out.

Eye level is apparently what makes the consumer market tick.

So eye level is pretty important.

John 1: 14 says, “The word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like father, like son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. (The Message)

Here is God making himself eye level to the world.

Not distant and languishing on some insignificant high back shelf.

No, putting himself right in front of our eyes.

I had to laugh at newspaper and internet reports in the UK over Easter claiming that a vicar advised people in an Easter message to celebrate Easter by staying in bed, eating chocolate and having sex.

His congregation, according to the papers, increased by 100 the next week.

Here’s what I want to say to that.

Back shelf Christianity is a cheap option.

And the world loves a bargain.

So we rush to buy it.

The real stuff at eye level is a bit expensive.

And costs more.

And times are hard.

A lie in, chocolate and sex!

Wow!

Sounds great on the face of it.

But none of these things last long!

Especially Chocolate!

I mean, listen, Jesus suffered a horrendous death, in order to bring eternal spiritual opportunity to the world.

Eye level stuff.

It came at great cost to him.

He paid with his human life.

I am sitting writing this in Sanctuary 21 Salvation Army in Durham this morning at one of the tables in the café. There is a guy with a criminal past, a dangerous guy, who comes every day for a bowl of soup. He’s just come over to my table where I am working, and asked can he sit with me. He has been away on holiday and wants to give me the low-down on it. I initially feel frustrated that I am being disturbed, as I am in the writing flow-zone. The two words I am writing about, “eye level” come firing at my heart like an exocet. This guy needs my total attention. So I drop my pen.  I need to make myself eye level, sack the writing, and make my whole being available. Because this guy desperately needs a saviour.

And right now I’m his only hope as Jesus displays himself through me.

How true it is when people say, “The Church is the hope of the world.”

Bed, chocolate and sex, as great as all three are in their proper contexts, are not the hope of the world.

Jesus is operating at eye-level.

That’s where we need to be operating.

So today guys let’s get ourselves off the back shelf.

Let’s not hide behind the worldly.

That’s the cheap option.

Let’s make sure we are operating at eye level.

So that the world can see the real Jesus in us.

Die to Live (Good Friday)

There are people all over the hall space.

Some are praying, some are reflecting, some drinking steaming cups of coffee straight from the percolator. A succession of tracks from a carefully selected playlist, flow smooth from the PA system. The soft colours of the stage lights project reds, greens and sodium yellow into every corner of the room.

The atmosphere is spiritually electrifying.

It’s Good Friday.

People have gathered for a two-hour reflection.

A kind of “just you and God” space.

I am sitting at the multi-media work station at the back of the hall, and I just feel ready and indeed spiritually compelled to just write this blog post.

Because I feel astonished.

I feel overwhelmed.

Astonished that Jesus Christ died for us.

So we can live.

Overwhelmed that he would do that so that the world has eternal consequences.

I am thinking about what the death of Jesus means to me as a soldier of Jesus?

And surprise surprise a question hits me hard.

How prepared am I to die in order to live?

My imagination antennas kick in.

Imagine if I was prepared to die for the vision God has laid on my heart.

Imagine if I was prepared to die to everything I consider my own?

Imagine if I was prepared to die so that others may live?

Imagine if I was prepared to die so that the amazing news that Jesus is a living reality could reach millions?

It’s Good Friday.

Great Friday.

Astonishing Friday.

My gaze catches an image of Jesus nailed to the cross.

I think I am more astonished than ever.

I’m actually overwhelmed.

And feel ready and able.

Ready and able to die to self.

Ready to die for the vision, the vision is Jesus.

Last week a Dennis a guy who comes to S21 for a coffee and myself were called out into a street in the City to help a guy who comes to our soup run every day.

He was so drunk that he couldn’t stand up and was in grave danger of losing his life.

We picked him up off the floor and sat him upright on the kerb, thousands were walking past oblivious.

Dennis and I deliberated over the best course of action. Shall we call an ambulance? Shall I get my own car and take him to hospital?

In the end we just sat with him. I ran back to S21 and got him a black coffee, not that that would really help, but it’s what we decided to do.

We eventually managed, with the help of a passer-by to get him down to S21.

As I sat with him on a step outside our building, he looked at me and said with barely audible slurred words, “Gary will you help me? I hate this.”

Right then I felt a sense of hopelessness on my part.

This guy is trapped in the grip of alcoholism and that’s a seemingly hopeless situation.

I couldn’t see how he would ever overcome it.

But?

It’s Good Friday.

Overcoming is the business of the cross.

Jesus overcame death and sin.

Which means?

In the backflow of that glorious happening, we can overcome anything.

I prayed right then and there out loud that an overcoming would happen in this guys life.

Truly nothing is impossible for a God who overcame death and sin.

Hope flooded into my heart at breakneck speed.

Suddenly it felt like I was sitting at the foot of the cross with this guy.

And I knew I can die for the vision.

I knew in the power of the Spirit of God I will fight for the lives of those of whom overcoming is impossibility.

Jesus died a horrendous death full of humiliation and extreme pain.

It’s astonishing to think that the death we focus on today ultimately brings life to every situation.

God always wins!

So then guys, what seemingly is an impossibility to overcome in your life today?

Hey?

A negative spirit?

An illness?

An addiction?

A relationship problem?

A work issue?

An attitude issue?

A financial issue?

What is it?

Sitting in the seat of hopelessness is getting you nowhere?

Is it?

Die to hopelessness.

Grasp a hold of the hope of the cross right now.

Live to die.

For Christ.

Die for the lost.

That is where the life will always be.