Unlimited

A dream we've had for twelve years was, in the realms of officialdom, ended this week.

We've thrown our lives at it.

It's been a blast, a mix of ups and downs, breathtaking successes and wild failures. And it ended with no dramatics, no histrionics, no, it was just ended on paper by others, in a seemingly cold decision, in some kind of meeting somewhere.

Right at this point it sounds like this is going to be a very negative blog post.

Doesn't it?

But it definitively isn't!

I should probably be a tad annoyed with these people.

But hey, they have to make difficult decisions. And that's hard sometimes.

But no.

I'm not angry in any way.

I probably should be.

But I'm not.

I'm cool to the extreme with it actually.

And feel kind of peaceful.

Man loves to limit stuff. In the church we love to create limits. I've even heard some leaders saying that creating limits stops chaos happening. I disagree. I think quite a lot of the limits that are created actually create way more chaos. I've seen it in fact. Man sometimes seems to crush others visions, and can use their so called limits to keep them exempt from any blame when decline or disaster happens.

The problem with that.

Is God is limitless.

His love is limitless.

His grace is limitless.

His power is limitless.

His creativity is limitless.

His openness is limitless.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of assessment of where my own life is right now.

It's been ultra productive.

And I have latched onto something that I think is important.

I want to live my life without limits.

And I'm taking steps to make sure that happens.

This week I sat with a police sergeant and a young guy who is homeless and is hopelessly lost in a world of criminality and drug addiction. He owes money, lots of money, to people who are dangerous. He is seriously entrenched in a trap that he just cannot lift himself out of. Without going into the detail he is dying in hopelessness. Fast. We spoke to him about another world, one where he can be safe and build a different kind of life. As we spoke to him I felt the hopelessness. In fact, I felt hopeless myself because he couldn't see what we were saying was right. I wanted to shake him. Shake myself and shake God, it was so frustrating. His life is limited. His time on earth could be limited and he's only in his early twenties. His world is a limited world. And he's trapped in it. Unable to get out. Only God can rescue him now.

When that meeting was over I slinked off to the prayer room.

I voiced my frustrations to God.

After a couple of hours my attention switched to my own life.

I'd just been told of this decision the day before that had affected the vision God has laid on our hearts for over twelve years.

I began to see how I've way to often allowed limits to limit my life.

Ok, man has often piled those limits on, but hey.

Sometimes I place my own limitations on myself.

The young guy that the policeman and I were trying to help, is seemingly trapped right now.

But I'm not.

God made that perfectly clear to me, as John 10:10 came into my mind, I came to give you life in all its fullness, says God.

A life without limits.

A life with limits results in death, sometimes even while we're living.

I don't want to be dead!

Ever!

I want to live my life without limits.

The good thing is, living life without limits means that our visions and dreams stay intact.

Whatever man says.

The trick is, to walk in relationship with the limitless God. That's why I think the bible instructs us to follow God not man. It means to me that we would be best served walking in his limitless grace. Being in relationship with a limitless God.

It would be easy for Dawn and I to drop the vision right now. We are about to move to London, to start a brand new appointment that as yet we don't know much about. It's a good natural break to drop the vision we have been given. But, living life without limits means the dream is still alive! It's still on!

The mission of God will always be alive. Gods mission is limitless! He will stop at nothing to bring His kingdom on earth.

So today if you are feeling limited, or being crushed by the created limits of others, switch your attention away from those people who are limited in their approach and onto the limitless God. Deciding to live life without limits brings freedom. Freedom to be who we are. Freedom to be effective in this world. Freedom to really live! Whatever we do don't let mans limits crush our spirits. Don't let them ruin our very being. Just chill out. Just follow God. A God who has unlimited love for us.

Live.

Really live!

Take a massive deep breath and breathe in his unlimited grace.

Rise up and start life again.

I'm not saying we disrespect those in leadership or those who are responsible for us, definitely not. I'm talking about an inner decision to be the person who God made us to be, to be free to live life in all its fullness. Whatever man says, he cant steal your freedom, the enemy (satan) comes to steal and kill and destroy, but we can make a defiant choice. Choose to live our lives without limits.

So in a week where I should be disappointed in some people.

I'm not.

In fact I feel alive and full of hope and ready for action!

Why?

Because.

God is in control. Not man.

The unlimited God.

Blob of impossibility

The waitings over.

Dawn made me get up at 7,30am to open the email that would inform us where our next ministry appointment would be. Where we will work and live for the next phase of our ministry.

To be fair to the personnel department of the Salvation Army, the email landed on my iPad at precisely 7.30am.

I opened it quickly.

A bit like ripping a plaster off in case it hurts.

But as I read the clear black text on the brilliant white screen, it didn't hurt at all.

I was kind of excited.

It read that we are moving to London.

Back to city life.

It read we had three appointments. Well I've got three, Dawns got four!

The appointment to London seems to involve some serious development work in terms of the Salvation Army in West London.

Kingdom stuff.

I'll find out more I guess when I get there in four months time.

It seems a big task.

It appears it is a massive ask.

But as I think about it today. I see this big blob ahead of me. A blob of bigness in terms of the size of the ask to maybe see an Army rise out of the embers of former glories in the area they have sent us to.

But.

As it happens.

I love blobs.

I love impossible situations.

I feel my jaw setting hard at the thought of another seemingly difficult challenge ahead.

I feel the rising of my battling spirit.

I've learned now from the experiences of past ministry battles in Liverpool and in Sacriston and Durham that God always wins.

God always wins!

I say it again GOD ALWAYS WINS!

So blobs of the impossible are penetrable and can be obliterated as long as we fix our eyes on Jesus.

As I think about this stuff, I see the figure with the drawn sword.

In Joshua 5: 13: 15

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked. "Are you for us or for our enemies." "Neither," he replied. "But as the commander of the Army of The Lord I have now come." Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "what message does my Lord have for his servant?" The commander of the Lords Army replied. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Joshua about to take some serious ground, had to undergo a bit of a spiritual metamorphosis here. Before he could conquer Jericho, God had to conquer Joshua.

I picture the same figure with the drawn sword.

I get the feeling the drawn sword is an absolute.

An absolute assurance that God is going before Dawn and I.

Jericho must have seemed like a blob of impossibility to Joshua.

But as soon as he recognized he was in the presence of the ultimate commander, who's sword was drawn for battle, and as soon as the commander instructed him to show that recognition, the bible says he did so.

He did so.

And Joshua did so!

God conquered Joshua's life.

Joshua surrendered in total to the commander of the Lords Army.

We all know he went and conquered Jericho.

No blob of impossibility stands a chance. When we surrender our lives to the ultimate commander.

So I've still got work to do here in Durham.

The blob can wait.

For now.

But I feel the rising strength of the Spirit of God with his sword drawn stirring in my being. Preparing me, preparing both of us.

Big battles ahead.

Bring them on!

Oh.

And a little challenging thought to finish.

Have you been conquered yet?

Straight Street

Waiting.

Waiting for something can be a really tiresome occurrence.

The tiresomeness depends on two things.

Whether you are patient or impatient.

We are waiting for news of our new appointment which comes on Thursday this week.

It could be anywhere!

Both geographically and ministry wise.

I'm not naturally very patient when it comes to waiting for big news.

But this time?

I've had to learn to be patient.

Practice it even.

Practice it by physically stopping myself from being impatient.

How have I done that?

I've had to work at it.

Work hard.

This past five years has been tremendously life changing for me. We were sent to an appointment with virtually nothing. We were sent to live in a village, something I am not used to because I am a city boy, and I crave city life. Our house was a bit of a mess when we moved here as it hadn't been lived in for some time. The hall was dreary and had plants growing out of the guttering. On the surface it looked like we had pulled a short straw in the appointments round.

But.

Without going into all the detail, that's a story for another time, it has been the most amazing appointment. Amazing people, amazing victories, amazing experiences.

And it has changed me.

I've learned that God is even in the so called spiritually dry places. I've learned that even though I never got used to living in a village and never will, I can endure anything.

I'm amazed at the fact I've got through it.

I'm thrilled at the fact that I have enjoyed my time in the North East, a great place with beautiful people.

We had two choices Dawn and I.

We could wallow in self pity at being placed in a prime example of two wrecks of Salvation Army Corps, one with a few people left, the other at Durham had been closed down altogether, or we could focus on God and look at the situation we were faced with with His eyes, get our eyes to the skies (that's for you Sylvia!) and work as hard as we could with God.

We chose the latter.

God has created something amazing here out of the ashes of devastation that seemed an impossible task to restore.

It's simple though.

God is restoring long devastated places.

We have to learn to look with His eyes not ours.

That's when visions envelope us.

That's when dreams start to turn into realities.

When we learn to operate with the eyes of Jesus mission has to happen.

But for me?

This last five years has been a remoulding, a reshaping, and even a restoring of me as a person and as a leader.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

I've worked hard at it.

It has added a new dimension to my leadership.

I'm stronger, because I have endured.

I know Dawn is the same.

So those things that you see as hopeless or seemingly impossible, you can endure it when you see it from Gods perspective.

Switch your vision.

See it with Gods eyes.

He sees the bigger picture.

We don't.

Psalm 107 is a word I believe for Dawn and I right now. But I felt the need to share it today, for those who maybe struggling with the now and can't see where their futures lie.

Here it is.

Give thanks to The Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of The Lord tell their story, those he gathered from the Lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to The Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to The Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107: 1-9)

It is in fact worth spending some time reading and reflecting on this whole psalm.

Whatever we are going through, whatever we are required to do, even if we feel we are wandering through a desert wasteland experience, God can transform the situation.

If we keep our eyes locked on to Gods eyes, locked onto Gods vision for the saving of this world,
Then he will keep us on straight street. And will lead us to a place we can settle.

So roll on Thursday.

We're excited and feeling amazed at what The Lord has in store for us next.

But we do thank God for the life changing experience that has sharpened us and shaped us for the future.

Maybe your reading this and you feel like you are wandering through a desert wasteland right now?

Gods hearing your cries.

He really is.

Love

Sanctuary 21 is alive with life right from the off this morning.

I get hit straight away with a large group of lads who must have gotten hold of fresh supplies of some kind of drugs, because they were hyper and loud to the extreme.

All of them.

It's only 10.30 am.

They gave me some ritualistic stick about my football team, Liverpool, losing again last night. They then started arguing with each other about something ridiculous, tomato sauce to be exact.

Don't ask.

How we got from Liverpool getting beat to tomato sauce I do not know.

They never taught me this stuff at William Booth College!

Then the police come in.

They've come to mediate in a family dispute. They've chosen S21 as neutral ground.

Both sides of the family in question, are kind of snorting at each other.

Loads of students are gathering because the CU has a mission week, they look scared stiff of taking the gospel out onto the streets today. Lingering a little longer than necessary over their coffee! But they'll be OK, they are fabulous.

Our ever growing daily attending community are chatting away building each other up, no doubt.

People wander in off the street.

Every prayer room is full by 11am.

It's a bit chaotic.

I take a seat in the cafe and sweep my eye over the living scene before me.

It's hard to think five years ago this vision was just a picture in the hearts of Dawn and I.

It's mad to think that there was no one but Dawn and I at the start of this.

Five years on, this is really the first time it's really hit me what God has done here.

It's breathtaking.

It's a God created chaos.

A daily gathering of the needy. (That includes me of course)

I am humbled by the simplicity of it all.

In these days of "sexy mission," of the colourful "successful" church, of the flashy preacher, I sit and stare this morning at the brokenness of the world. I catch a glimpse of the basic reality that people need God but also still need each other.

I feel a confirmation sear into my heart.

Confirming to me that building the Kingdom ain't actually rocket science. It isn't formed by the coolest of mission plans, or the most massive congregation or the most stringent of frameworks.

It's actually love that is the key.

As I'm having these thoughts a guy called Barry comes over to me. He's one of those guys who is not the cleanest. He's one of those guys who needs us to help him with the basics of daily living. He's one of those guy who is so desperately lonely that he will talk to you for hours if you let him. He's one of those guys who seems to have a gift of catching you when you are at your busiest. He was really upset today that Dawn and I may be moving on in the summer. We've had to prepare everyone for that prospect. As I soothed his fears as best as I could, my mind went back to all the times people have spent hours just talking to this guy, eating with him, filling out food parcel forms for him, helping him. There can only be one thing behind that.

Yeah.

It's love.

Love breeds acceptance and compassion.

This place has been built on prayer.

But equally it's been built on love.

Love has required all of our workers and community to live out the basis of our Christianity that there is no hopeless case. No one who should not be accepted. No one who shouldn't have a chance to rebuild their lives.

Total compassion.

Total love.

I'm not saying that's easy sometimes, of course it isn't.

I wish I could say this place has risen from intense research, intense planning based on others experience, on working to a set plan and sticking to it like glue.

But it hasn't.

Yeah we've put some serious hours in.

We've done some brilliant stuff, we've also done some really daft stuff. We've got it wrong, we've sometimes got it right.

But it's all down to God in the spiritual sense.

And I give him every bit of glory as I glimpse at this movement of grace that is Sanctuary 21 Salvation Army Prayer Centre.

A place that has risen from the ashes of a Corps that closed down years ago. A place that stands as testimony to the power of God in building His kingdom on earth.

I'm excited today because as I glimpse all of this, it reminds us that God is alive and operating in this world.

He's saving lives eternally.

He's loving the world with a love that no one can fathom.

So love's important.

So important I would say the church is a dead thing without it.

"If I speak in the the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonour others, it is not self seeking, t is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child I talked like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully., even as I am fully known. And now these three things remain. Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Man, I dream of a church built like this.

This scripture should be the foundation of any mission plan, church planting manifesto, and especially our everyday walk of holiness.

Because without love?

We are nothing.

Comings and goings

Gripping cold.

That's the verdict on the weather here in Durham UK this morning.

It's only -1 but the wind chill feels more like -15!

Freezing.

I hate the cold.

I am beginning to long for the sun to make an appearance.

Walking through the city this morning, fighting my way through frantic snow flurries, my old fur lined green parka zipped right up to the hilt, with my black cowl wrapped around my neck and my black beanie pulled right down over my ears, I watch the people gathering in the city for business, for shopping, for appointments, for whatever. Their comings and goings seem as frantic as the snow flurries furiously swirling downwards like an angry snow-flake army descending to planet earth.

Busyness in the snow.

The city awakening to yet another day.

Comings and goings.

As I walked, my mind settled in on the current stuff happening in my own life.

Great change is coming for Dawn and I.

Big changes, all at once.

It is an exciting time, a thrilling time, a sad time in many ways, a nerve wracking time, and a little bit of an unsettled period of time too.

A time of apprehension as others make decisions about your life.

Comings and goings.

Comings and goings that are as furious and frantic as the snow flurries falling right now before my very eyes.

Dawn delivered me a mesmerising scripture in line with this period of time.

The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life; The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore. (Psalm 121: 7-8)

Truth.

Truth doesn't always hurt.

Sometimes truth soothes and brings you back into the reality of life.

The Lord is watching over our coming and our going!

Yeah.

That truth is comforting to say the least.

Whatever is happening in our lives right now, wether everything is full of stability, or everything, like my situation right now, is up in the air, then God is watching over the lot of it.

And further more the truth states that he will keep us from harm.

A student who I've known for a long time here in Durham came in yesterday and plonked an ultra thick bound manuscript in my hand. He had a beaming smile, and he excitedly declared that, "It is finished!" Of course he meant his Phd was finalised and ready to submit.

We got into a great conversation about his work which led to a great discussion about how man has shaped the church, and has sometimes done that at the expense of allowing God to shape it which in turn has led to some naff attempts by us, at carrying out its mission.

Yeah.

But my mind went back to that conversation and I felt a searing warmth go through me as The Truth that The Lord is watching over our comings and our goings soothed the jagged edge of the thought of some of the naffness that my own attempts to be missional have sometimes rendered.

So.

What am I driving at today?

Well, I guess everyone's lives are full of frantic comings and goings, ranging from settled stability to sheer pandemonium. I guess whatever is going on in the church, our jobs, our leisure times, our families, whatever, then The Lord has it covered.

Here's that scripture again.

The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life; The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore. (Psalm 121: 7-8)

Next week a lot of my own pandemonium will start to unravel.

In the meantime.

And I pray this helps someone.

I will try and keep focussed on the fact that God has it covered. He will keep us from harm, and he will be watching over us, relentlessly. So we can move forward in our flurries of frantic living, with an assurance like no other, whatever the outcomes will be, whatever the bumps and scrapes along the way are?

God has it covered.

Blessings.

The first time ( re-run)

This is a re-run of a blogpost from back in 2011.

I felt an urge to republish it tonight. 

So for whatever reason the prompt has come.

May it bless you massively.

Here goes.

Tonight I am Just chilling.

My earphones are firmly in my ear canals.

From the depths of my Smartphone streams a song. Leona Lewis singing "The first time ever I saw your face." It sounds like pure golden liquid pouring into my ears.

As the song played its spine tingling notes, I began to reflect on the first time I ever saw the face of Jesus.

It was in Victoria train Station in London back in 1999.

And on reflection tonight, it was the very moment that changed my life forever.

No flashes of lightning, or claps of thunder.

I saw a homeless girl sitting down propped up against a wall.

She was so young.

She was tired, dirty and obviously hungry.

I don't know what made me stop.

As from a distance I looked at her, I saw another girl, also so young, but much healthier, clean and well dressed, walk over to her and simply kneel down beside her.

She placed her hand on the girls shoulder and whispered something into her ear. She was seemingly to oblivious to the thousands of people coming and going to their respective destinations. More than that the thousands walking past seemed oblivious to the homeless girl lying on the floor.

As she placed her hand on her shoulder, she closed her eyes and began to pray for the homeless girl.

As she prayed, I saw tears start to stream down the homeless girls face. They left tear-trails in the dirt on her face.

I watched.

Transfixed.

I had never ever encountered Jesus in my life before, due to my indifference.

But here in the face of this young homeless girl, I saw him.

I saw Jesus.

I encountered him in her hot tears.

I saw him in her pain filled face.

I was so touched.

This was a simple act of kindness in a frantically busy London train station. But I knew that in that one moment something big happened in my life.

I think that was the first time ever I saw His face.

It was so amazing.

It changed my life forever.

All the rubbish that was attached to my life, stuff that I had been dragging around with me for years seemed to loosen. I had a feeling inside that this was a real chance to draw a line on the past and begin a new life.

In that moment I couldn't get away from the feeling that the only way to experience a new, full, amazing life, the only way, was to be in relationship with Jesus.

I was also dumbfounded by the girl who had taken the time to care for this young girl.

How brave she was.

How beautiful.

How breathtaking was the unconditional love she was showing.

I was in a daze, I just felt like abandoning my life altogether and spending the rest of my life wiping the tears of the lost and the lonely.

My life up until that moment meant nothing. All the partying and overspending just suddenly came out into the open and I saw it clearly as a worthless pile of hopelessness.

I wanted desperately that my life should mean something.

And the first time ever I saw His face? It all changed.

Changed in an instant.

I remember saying over and over, "Will you fix my broken life?"

And all these years on? He has.

So do you remember the first time ever you saw His face?

Hey, maybe you have never seen His face?

Look around you.

He is absolutely everywhere.

In the eyes of brokenness.

I urge you to look for His face.

Maybe you haven't seen Him for a while?

As I say, maybe you have never seen him.

The other day I gave a pair of my jeans to a guy who has nothing. He had soiled his one pair of jeans in a drunken stupor. As I handed them over to him, his face just lit up.

His face looked almost angelic.

Definitely, I was giving the jeans to Jesus.

It felt like an act of communion somehow.

More and more amidst the often lifeless religion and church, and all that stuff, I see Jesus crying out for water, food and even a pair of jeans.

So if you have never seen His face?

There is always a first time.

Influenza and Grace

Influenza.

What a bad thing.

I've had the flu jab.

But I've just been through the worst bout of influenza I think I've ever had in my life.

In fact.

At one moment, when the fever was at its worst, I actually thought my time on earth was at its end.

I began to sense something amazing.

And I craved it.

Heaven, no doubt!

I didn't get to Heaven.

But instead, today, I'm on the road to recovery, back into work for the first time in a week.

I've had all the man flu jibes.

I guess when people say, "oh, it's only man flu," you get this picture that people feel us guys make flu out to be worse than it is?

You know what I mean?

But with all honesty, I can say this was no "man flu", this was deadly and virulent flu, a type of fever that I have never experienced before. A type that I never ever want to experience again thank you very much.

As I sit in the quiet, reflecting before the mayhem of mission begins, I feel a really remarkable calm today.

I think the brush with death, even it was only in my head, I don't know, it felt pretty real to me, has set me closer in my relationship with Jesus.

I sit in awe this morning of the grace, the sheer substance of his mercy, that he showers on us.

I feel strong in the knowledge that, even if my feeling of dying was in fact a "man flu" symptom, I actually felt ready.

So as I feel the strength of recovery flowing into my body systems today, I feel humbled that I know God. I feel ready, ready to live.

One life to live.

There's a thought.

In the thick silence of S21, this morning, before anyone is in, The thought is strong.

If I'm ready to live, how am I going to live?

Well for starters I want to see the world transformed, humanity restored, justice maintained. I want to see my own life grow inwards, outwards and upwards. I want to live a life that takes in the maximum that life can bring. I want to truly live the change that Jesus brings to this world. Experience it, breathe it in breathe it out.

I want to really live.

Ezekiel was once asked when faced with a vision of a valley full of dry bones, "can these bones truly live?"

This morning as I sit in the silence of his grace.

I let it wash over me.

Yeah.

These bones can truly live.

My recovering bones can.

If.

We truly allow the Spirit of God to breathe life into us.

So.

Are you ready?

Ready to live?

I pray God will touch your life afresh today.

Cheers in the name Jesus.

Quiet time in a dark place

The breakfast I've eaten is not very healthy.

But I loved it.

A full English at 8am.

You really cannot beat it.

I'm sitting in a well known night club, bar, eatery.

I've started coming in here early morning.

It's really quiet.

But you can feel, smell and almost the touch the night before.

It's in the atmosphere.

There is literally no-one in here.

But last night?

Probably a thousand or so clubbers thronged this joint.

It's a really dark place.

Some people may think that it's not the best place for a quiet time.

But lately I've found that I engage with God at a deeper level in the dark places than anywhere else.

And here is the daddy of them all.

As dark as it is, it is a thin place, a place where I can engage with God in a seemingly transparent form of communication.

I guess it could be something to do with the fact that God was amongst the crowd last night, probably weeping over a lost nation.

And he's still here this morning.

As I write this today from table number 42, right next to a brightly lit fruit machine, the table a bit sticky from spilt beer. The padded leatherette seats worn and split from constant wear and tear, I feel especially close to God.

So my iPad is out and the flow has started.

My mind skips back a week to an encounter I had which really shifted something in my heart.

There is a girl called Cheryl who comes into my church Sanctuary 21, at least three times a week.

Cheryl is 27.

Cheryl is autistic.

Cheryl is so amazing I can't put it into words.

She walks into the room and I'm blessed before she even says anything.

Cheryl is open about her autism. She walks the streets of our city just telling people that Jesus loves them.

Day in, day out.

She also brings me lots of information that she collects about things that are happening in our city that require us to pray.

She is so incredible.

Last week she brought me some of the said information, so that our team could pray for some stuff.

Everytime she comes in she is eating dried bananas from a big plastic packet.

I hate dried fruit.

Every time she comes in she offers me a piece of dried banana.

I don't like to say no.

Last week as I tentatively took a piece from the big plastic bag, I said to. Cheryl, "do you really like these dried bananas?

She looked at me as if I'd just asked a stupid question!

She said to me, "of course I like them, God made them."

Then she quoted a scripture, from Psalm 113, "from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, the name of The Lord is to be praised."

The thing is Cheryl looks for the good in everyone and everything. She sees God in everything, even in the darkness she still sees the light of Christ and keeps focussed on that.

She demonstrates a life of praise.

From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same.

On our streets, Cheryl walks in amongst the darkness.

She sees the good, it's simple for her, if God made it, he's there.

I was telling Dawn this story in the car last week, as I was telling her something major shifted within me.

I felt a tangible humility fall on my life.

Like a flash.

The grace of God fell on me like a bolt of lightening.

And something shifted.

I feel like I've stepped up a glory level in my walk of holiness.

So here I am this morning in a very dark place having a quiet time.

Before work.

And I feel it is a good place to be.

And more than ever I realised this truth.

It's absolutely no good hiding behind the closed door of our citadels.

Yeah God's there because he is everywhere.

But.

In the darkness.

The dark places.

He is waiting to teach us stuff. To show us the world as it is.

And he wants us to feel and see the hope that his light brings to this world.

Cheryl takes the light of Jesus into the darkness.

She looks for the hope.

Everyday.

I really pray that we will rise to the challenge the world brings to the church.

That from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, we will praise the name of The Lord.

Learn to see the good in what God has made.

Take that praise to a dark world who need to encounter God.