"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even n my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)
So this morning I awake at precisely 5.45 am.
I awoke with an incredible urgency.
I had been dreaming a dream, for what seemed to me like all night, and it had been a bit of a frustrating dream.
I dreamed that I was chasing a pearl. It was a giant shining pearl, beautifully translucent, smooth and perfect in its roundness.
It was about the size of a football.
I'd been chasing it all night. I so wanted to grab it, but every time I got near it, it would just shoot away from me into the distance.
As I opened my eyes at 5.45 am, my head was full of thoughts. Not a confusion of thoughts, but a crystal like clarity of voice speaking into my mind.
The thoughts had crossed the divide from sleep to being awake in a seamless progression.
The voice explained that the pearl represented the dreams and visions of people in the church.
Joel 2: 28-29 was also right there in amongst the thoughts.
I lay awake, partly because I didn't really want to get up, but mostly because my head was full of this dream. In this time, My thoughts travelled back to the last month or so. I've had the immense privilege of doing a bit of travelling and speaking in the first month of 2013. I have prayed and chatted with loads of people in that time, and I realised that what they were sharing with me had a common thread.
It was this.
They all wanted to share dreams with me.
I had one lady share a dream that she had to build an alternative venue for students to gather, a place that offered an alternative to the trappings of the student night club scene that sees so much tragedy and harm attached to it. Another lady shared with me this amazing dream of creating a social network for rurally isolated people to connect to a wider prayer community. I prayed with a guy who had a dream to convert his basement in his city apartment into a prayer room that would be accessible 24/7.
And there were many others.
I hadn't really thought about it as such.
But this morning? God brought it to my attention.
So much so that I felt I specifically had to blog it today.
Because.
In all of this common thread of people sharing dreams and wanting prayer for their dreams and visions, my attention was drawn to another common thread that seems to be occurring when people dream.
There seems to be a stifling of dreams going on.
From so called authorities, leaders, families. Friends, acquaintances, people who seem to think these dreams and visions aren't worth bringing to fruition.
Even though dreams and visions are really the only hope of true change in the church's approach as a response to the world in which we live.
Why do I say that?
Sounds a bit dramatic Gary?
Probably because the Spirit is being poured out on us.
A prophet of our time, said in recent years, that, "Jesus is the vision!" He's right.
All of the dreams and visions that have been shared with me, have all had justice and release at the heart of them. In other words they all had the unmistakable heart of Jesus in them. They were all aimed at helping a needy world.
All of them.
Jesus is the vision.
The trouble is so many people feel like they are chasing their dreams and visions.
And it frustrates the life out of them.
I knew that was what my dream was about last night.
The pearl represented the dreams and visions of Church in desperate need of release.
Release from the stiflers.
Those who would crush people's dreams like a nut in a nut cracker.
For what?
Only those who do that really sad stuff can answer that.
So here's the thing.
To the stiflers I speak this message.
Bless you.
But shift.
Move out of the way.
Move.
You are in the way.
Do the right thing.
To those who are chasing the pearl.
Stick with your dreams.
Share them, pray for them, pray about them, line them up with the living word of God, enthuse about them, do not let go of them.
People say the church is dying.
No.
God is pouring out his Spirit on us.
There are dreams in the hearts of the many.
The stiflers will never win.
Never.
So dreamers rise.
Sons and daughters of the King of Kings, prophesy, speak out your dreams and visions, fruition them. Pray them to fruition.
Never let go.
Church, we cannot chase the pearl (as it applies to my dream!) forever.
Grab it.
Build the change into our approach. Jesus is the vision, he is the change, and that dream you have, that exciting idea, that picture in your heart? Make it happen.
Take your dreams to a burnt out world and let our creativity be laced with the saving power of Jesus Christ.
It may mean the difference between life and death in every way for someone who needs a saviour.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Determination!
Shovelling snow ain't my thing.
Living in a village drives me insane at times, the City is only a matter of a couple of miles away and is relatively free from snow. My village, on the other hand, is completely whited out with deep cold snow.
Dawn and I had the car out of the drive this morning, We had to push it because it kept getting stuck in the snow as the tyres failed to catch the ground.
The frustrating thing was we can see the main road not fifty yards away.
That's clear of snow.
Here we are struggling to get the car out but a clear run is near and yet so far.
But!
We are determined to go to work.
Another day of kingdom opportunity.
Neither of us want to miss out on what God is doing.
All last week I have been preparing three fresh talks for the UK territories prayer warfare conference where I have to deliver three main talks.
The framework I have been given consists of this.
Know your enemy, the defensive strategy, and the offensive strategy.
I've been praying studying and seeking God for what he would have me say.
God put some stuff on my heart to do with the Armour of God.
It's been a tough working week, working with my head, my heart and my soul.
But shovelling snow at seven in the morning gave me picture of a new but vital weapon in the scheme of things in the spiritual battle.
Determination.
A bit of snow was not going to stop me this morning.
When the cold bit in, when the icy breeze caught my cheeks, when I had to clean the snow off the car, I could of easily thought, do know what, I'm going to ring in and say we can't get in, and opted for a warm fire and a bit of TV.
But our eyes were fixed on the work that we have to do alongside God on the mission field.
I have no idea what today will bring. Yeah, I've got a couple of meetings etc, but the rest of the time will be spent among the needy.
Brilliant.
Can't wait.
I'm writing this quickly because I have dropped in for a cappuccino before My work in the city starts today.
But it occurred to me how vital determination is in the spiritual battle.
Sometimes like this morning our lives can get bogged down and stuck and it becomes a struggle to get up and out.
Yet a clear road lies frustratingly near and yet seems so far.
But it's not really.
With a bit of determination we can fight our way out of the struggle and get on the clear road.
A verse from scripture God gave me to share with you today.
The righteous person may have many troubles, but The Lord delivers them from them all! Psalm 34: 19
Whatever your feeling today, or wherever you are, if there is frustration and trouble knocking around, then remember to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Because The Lord delivers us from ALL troubles.
Yes ALL!
Not a few, but all our fears and troubles and frustrations.
Arm yourself today with determination.
Determination will push back those forces that seek to disarm and disable us.
Determination will put us on the clear road to get to wherever we need to go today, spiritually, physically and mentally.
Blessings guys.
Living in a village drives me insane at times, the City is only a matter of a couple of miles away and is relatively free from snow. My village, on the other hand, is completely whited out with deep cold snow.
Dawn and I had the car out of the drive this morning, We had to push it because it kept getting stuck in the snow as the tyres failed to catch the ground.
The frustrating thing was we can see the main road not fifty yards away.
That's clear of snow.
Here we are struggling to get the car out but a clear run is near and yet so far.
But!
We are determined to go to work.
Another day of kingdom opportunity.
Neither of us want to miss out on what God is doing.
All last week I have been preparing three fresh talks for the UK territories prayer warfare conference where I have to deliver three main talks.
The framework I have been given consists of this.
Know your enemy, the defensive strategy, and the offensive strategy.
I've been praying studying and seeking God for what he would have me say.
God put some stuff on my heart to do with the Armour of God.
It's been a tough working week, working with my head, my heart and my soul.
But shovelling snow at seven in the morning gave me picture of a new but vital weapon in the scheme of things in the spiritual battle.
Determination.
A bit of snow was not going to stop me this morning.
When the cold bit in, when the icy breeze caught my cheeks, when I had to clean the snow off the car, I could of easily thought, do know what, I'm going to ring in and say we can't get in, and opted for a warm fire and a bit of TV.
But our eyes were fixed on the work that we have to do alongside God on the mission field.
I have no idea what today will bring. Yeah, I've got a couple of meetings etc, but the rest of the time will be spent among the needy.
Brilliant.
Can't wait.
I'm writing this quickly because I have dropped in for a cappuccino before My work in the city starts today.
But it occurred to me how vital determination is in the spiritual battle.
Sometimes like this morning our lives can get bogged down and stuck and it becomes a struggle to get up and out.
Yet a clear road lies frustratingly near and yet seems so far.
But it's not really.
With a bit of determination we can fight our way out of the struggle and get on the clear road.
A verse from scripture God gave me to share with you today.
The righteous person may have many troubles, but The Lord delivers them from them all! Psalm 34: 19
Whatever your feeling today, or wherever you are, if there is frustration and trouble knocking around, then remember to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Because The Lord delivers us from ALL troubles.
Yes ALL!
Not a few, but all our fears and troubles and frustrations.
Arm yourself today with determination.
Determination will push back those forces that seek to disarm and disable us.
Determination will put us on the clear road to get to wherever we need to go today, spiritually, physically and mentally.
Blessings guys.
Monday, January 14, 2013
No hopeless case
In the run up to Christmas, in fact about a week before Christmas Day itself, we had a meal for the homeless and more needy people of Durham.
Lee, a twenty three year old lad who has alternated the last five years of his life sleeping rough or sleeping in a prison cell, was so looking forward to this meal and in fact not just the meal but his present too.
Lee, is a hardened criminal. Often he is a nightmare for the police and boasts literally hundreds of arrests, court appearances and convictions to his name.
He has had the most incredibly difficult upbringing and life. Rejected by his mother, his father has died and basically he has been left since about the age of ten to fend for himself.
He is street wise, street feared, and street tough.
He was released form prison two years ago from a violence charge, and came straight from there to us at Sanctuary 21. He has been in our building every day since.
He is an integral part of our community.
He is wild.
He is also a human being.
He is a child of God.
Lee never made it to the Christmas meal he was so desperate to be at.
I found out he'd been to court and they had sent him down for six months for another fight related offence.
We were devastated.
I knew how every day leading up to the meal that he had told me that he couldn't wait for his present.
He'd literally never really had one before.
After Christmas I was back at Sanctuary 21. I was in the cafe, trying to fixing a prison visit to go and see Lee.
As I was actually listening to the dialling tone leading to some phone in Durham prison office, in walks Lee into the cafe.
A massive beaming smile on his face.
I was praying he hadn't escaped!
"They let me out" he was shouting excitedly.
"Someone came to my cell this morning and told me I had a court appearance. And the judge cut my sentence and they let me go!"
I was so please to see him.
Then he said something devastatingly fantastic.
To fantastic to even feel true.
But it was true.
"Gaz" he said, "I did what you told me to do and I got on my knees in my cell and prayed!"
"Half the night!"
My heart swelled immediately.
"I prayed That God would get me out of jail. I told him I would go to church every week, if he got me out of here!"
I've got to say I'm not lost for words often, but this time? I didn't know what to say.
Lee then said he was coming to our service this week and wanted to know Jesus more.
There is a long way to go for Lee, but all the prayer our people have done, all the love shown to a young man with seemingly no hope, all the patience and all the advice including some real telling offs from people who want the best for him, have carried Gods saving power.
It's like a literal twenty first century Acts 12 occurrence.
The freeing essence of the Holy Spirit.
The literal power of prayer.
Lee on the surface of it seems unreachable, unteachable, even unlovable at times.
He seems like a walking no hoper.
Transformation seems an impossibility.
But.
There is no truth in impossibility where God is concerned.
There is no truth in impossibility where prayer is concerned.
Even though its hard to get our human heads around it sometimes.
It comes down to this.
In Gods eyes?
There is no hopeless case.
We are working hard to rescue Lee.
Armed with the knowledge that there is no hopeless case.
That knowledge completely changes how we look at ourselves and look at others.
No hopeless case.
I pray for us that we will understand that.
That our eyes of mission will be improved by having the ability to see others as Jesus does.
And that we would all constantly through our relationship with Jesus, continue to look to rescue the millions of Lees in this world through prayer and through action.
Blessings.
Lee, a twenty three year old lad who has alternated the last five years of his life sleeping rough or sleeping in a prison cell, was so looking forward to this meal and in fact not just the meal but his present too.
Lee, is a hardened criminal. Often he is a nightmare for the police and boasts literally hundreds of arrests, court appearances and convictions to his name.
He has had the most incredibly difficult upbringing and life. Rejected by his mother, his father has died and basically he has been left since about the age of ten to fend for himself.
He is street wise, street feared, and street tough.
He was released form prison two years ago from a violence charge, and came straight from there to us at Sanctuary 21. He has been in our building every day since.
He is an integral part of our community.
He is wild.
He is also a human being.
He is a child of God.
Lee never made it to the Christmas meal he was so desperate to be at.
I found out he'd been to court and they had sent him down for six months for another fight related offence.
We were devastated.
I knew how every day leading up to the meal that he had told me that he couldn't wait for his present.
He'd literally never really had one before.
After Christmas I was back at Sanctuary 21. I was in the cafe, trying to fixing a prison visit to go and see Lee.
As I was actually listening to the dialling tone leading to some phone in Durham prison office, in walks Lee into the cafe.
A massive beaming smile on his face.
I was praying he hadn't escaped!
"They let me out" he was shouting excitedly.
"Someone came to my cell this morning and told me I had a court appearance. And the judge cut my sentence and they let me go!"
I was so please to see him.
Then he said something devastatingly fantastic.
To fantastic to even feel true.
But it was true.
"Gaz" he said, "I did what you told me to do and I got on my knees in my cell and prayed!"
"Half the night!"
My heart swelled immediately.
"I prayed That God would get me out of jail. I told him I would go to church every week, if he got me out of here!"
I've got to say I'm not lost for words often, but this time? I didn't know what to say.
Lee then said he was coming to our service this week and wanted to know Jesus more.
There is a long way to go for Lee, but all the prayer our people have done, all the love shown to a young man with seemingly no hope, all the patience and all the advice including some real telling offs from people who want the best for him, have carried Gods saving power.
It's like a literal twenty first century Acts 12 occurrence.
The freeing essence of the Holy Spirit.
The literal power of prayer.
Lee on the surface of it seems unreachable, unteachable, even unlovable at times.
He seems like a walking no hoper.
Transformation seems an impossibility.
But.
There is no truth in impossibility where God is concerned.
There is no truth in impossibility where prayer is concerned.
Even though its hard to get our human heads around it sometimes.
It comes down to this.
In Gods eyes?
There is no hopeless case.
We are working hard to rescue Lee.
Armed with the knowledge that there is no hopeless case.
That knowledge completely changes how we look at ourselves and look at others.
No hopeless case.
I pray for us that we will understand that.
That our eyes of mission will be improved by having the ability to see others as Jesus does.
And that we would all constantly through our relationship with Jesus, continue to look to rescue the millions of Lees in this world through prayer and through action.
Blessings.
Monday, December 31, 2012
2013
Tonight is the night that we can consign the year 2012 to history.
At midnight, time will sweep us into a new year.
2013.
I'm writing this at 20.15 on the last night of 2012.
Personally it's been a really good year on the whole.
My best year in ministry.
And the hardest.
Dawn and I are city people.
We have lived for the last five years in a small village.
For Dawn and I that has been the hardest thing.
We both long to live and work back in a big city.
And yet?
In the face of that yearning?
We have experienced a totally extraordinary year, seeing Sanctuary 21 develop after five years of pouring our hearts and souls into developing S21 from scratch, spending hours building relationships, building a team, building a prayer rhythm, opening our arms totally to those who are struggling. We've thrown everything we have at it in the name of Jesus.
But this year.
2012?
We've seen some astonishing development in the very young life of S21.
We have seen God at work. We have seen him in the brokenness of the many people who come to S21 who are living out lives of true hardship, including the injustices of homelessness and marginalization. We've seen lives restored, we've seen breath-taking transformations. We've seen a community develop before our very eyes, glued together by love. We've seen tears, we've seen laughter, we've seen, to be frank, miracles taking place.
I have learned so much about God and about myself in 2012.
I've learned to be more patient, I've learned to be way more steely-eyed in leadership. I've learned to be utterly strong.
2012 has been a tough year, but when I look back at it tonight, I feel like some necessary work has been done in my life.
So at midnight I step over into a new year.
I believe God has new things in store for Dawn and I in 2013.
I feel deep inside it is going to be a pivotal year in our ministry. I really can't qualify that statement or give you a reason why, lets just say there is an anticipation there. However God gave me a scripture to share with you guys tonight.
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."(Joshua 1:9)
For those who are maybe unsure about what 2013 will bring, be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who maybe have had a tough 2012 and aren't looking forward to 2013 be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who know exciting things are coming in 2013 be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who just cannot see a way forward out of the mess you are in be strong and courageous for God is with you.
Take the treasure out of 2012, you know those things which have helped shape you, but consign the last year to your history.
A fresh start is there for you.
Fresh starts needs courage and strength and a desire to go forward.
Well tonight, hear the command of God, yeah, the command, it's not a suggestion, "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
So step into 2013 with that command ringing in our ears.
I pray such enormous favour on your life this coming year. I pray that God will continue to change everything for us.
Thank you for reading The Gary Lacey Files this year, the statistics for readership of my blog has been beyond anything I dare imagine. What started out as just a blog for a few family and friends to read has seen fantastic growth. I really appreciate all the responses via Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus as well as the email readership. I hope to open it up for comments direct to the blog this year, although you can do that now, it's very limited.
I wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR wherever you are, and I pray that you will truly be touched by the Spirit of God as you embark on a new phase in the journey of your life.
At midnight, time will sweep us into a new year.
2013.
I'm writing this at 20.15 on the last night of 2012.
Personally it's been a really good year on the whole.
My best year in ministry.
And the hardest.
Dawn and I are city people.
We have lived for the last five years in a small village.
For Dawn and I that has been the hardest thing.
We both long to live and work back in a big city.
And yet?
In the face of that yearning?
We have experienced a totally extraordinary year, seeing Sanctuary 21 develop after five years of pouring our hearts and souls into developing S21 from scratch, spending hours building relationships, building a team, building a prayer rhythm, opening our arms totally to those who are struggling. We've thrown everything we have at it in the name of Jesus.
But this year.
2012?
We've seen some astonishing development in the very young life of S21.
We have seen God at work. We have seen him in the brokenness of the many people who come to S21 who are living out lives of true hardship, including the injustices of homelessness and marginalization. We've seen lives restored, we've seen breath-taking transformations. We've seen a community develop before our very eyes, glued together by love. We've seen tears, we've seen laughter, we've seen, to be frank, miracles taking place.
I have learned so much about God and about myself in 2012.
I've learned to be more patient, I've learned to be way more steely-eyed in leadership. I've learned to be utterly strong.
2012 has been a tough year, but when I look back at it tonight, I feel like some necessary work has been done in my life.
So at midnight I step over into a new year.
I believe God has new things in store for Dawn and I in 2013.
I feel deep inside it is going to be a pivotal year in our ministry. I really can't qualify that statement or give you a reason why, lets just say there is an anticipation there. However God gave me a scripture to share with you guys tonight.
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."(Joshua 1:9)
For those who are maybe unsure about what 2013 will bring, be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who maybe have had a tough 2012 and aren't looking forward to 2013 be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who know exciting things are coming in 2013 be strong and courageous for God is with you.
For those who just cannot see a way forward out of the mess you are in be strong and courageous for God is with you.
Take the treasure out of 2012, you know those things which have helped shape you, but consign the last year to your history.
A fresh start is there for you.
Fresh starts needs courage and strength and a desire to go forward.
Well tonight, hear the command of God, yeah, the command, it's not a suggestion, "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
So step into 2013 with that command ringing in our ears.
I pray such enormous favour on your life this coming year. I pray that God will continue to change everything for us.
Thank you for reading The Gary Lacey Files this year, the statistics for readership of my blog has been beyond anything I dare imagine. What started out as just a blog for a few family and friends to read has seen fantastic growth. I really appreciate all the responses via Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus as well as the email readership. I hope to open it up for comments direct to the blog this year, although you can do that now, it's very limited.
I wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR wherever you are, and I pray that you will truly be touched by the Spirit of God as you embark on a new phase in the journey of your life.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Wisdomatic! (Gary's Christmas blogpost)
Christmas.
I don't know why I love this month, December, but I just do.
On a freezing cold sub zero morning I am sitting with my wife Dawn and a gingerbread latte looking out of a coffee shop window onto the City street.
We were chatting and reflecting on the fact that over recent weeks I'd felt a bit of darkness hovering over me, and it felt a bit heavy and unsettling.
Dawn gave me a scripture.
I reflected on it.
God spoke and the darkness lifted.
He had me thinking about the Magi.
You know.
The wise men?
Portrayed as three kings in the Christmas furore, although how many of them there actually were isn't really mentioned in scripture.
But God used this to speak to me.
So here's the story. I wasn't going to blog this but felt a bit of a holy prompt!
So Ill call it My little Christmas blog message if you like.
This word "magi" from the Greek word Magos.
Every Royal household had the Magi. (No its not some kind of epidemic!)
Magi were astronomer priests who usually provided the king with information they had supposedly read from the stars.
Over time occult groups got a hold of this concept of reading the stars and that's where the English word Magic has stemmed from.
Here we see these early ancient astronomer priests featured in this scripture.
I know we sing songs like "We three Kings", and kids dress up as Kings to represent these guys in their school nativities. Some scholars think this could be due to knowledge of scriptures such as Psalm 72: 11, that says, "May all Kings bow down to him."
But whatever, the Magi were often key members of Royal regimes.
Cue Herod,
King Herod, the guy who had been officially titled the King of the Jews by the Roman government of the day, getting well upset by the visit of a group of these Magi, star reader guys, who had come from the East and started saying we have seen a star and then were asking people "Where is the one born King of the Jews, we saw his star and have come to worship him?"
Herod calls all his big boys together including these Magi Guys, and asks them where this other king of the Jews was to be born?
They reply, "in Bethlehem."
They went on to explain that they got their info from a prophecy from was known that says, "But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means last among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." (Micah 5: 2-4)
Then Herod calls the Magi secretly and they tell him exactly when the star appeared. He then sends them to Bethlehem with the mission to tell him exactly where this King was being born.
So the Magi do their thing and follow the star.
This star stops directly over Bethlehem.
When they see this star they were overcome with joy.
They find Jesus born in a stable.
They bow down in recognition of a king.
They give him gifts expensive stuff.
They then having been warned in a dream, go back to the East, making sure they avoid all contact with Herod who had an evil plan to kill this so called King, Obviously because he was King and didn't want anyone taking that away from him.
No wonder we refer to these Magi guys as the wise men.
They displayed a wisdom that doesn't come from earth.
As I said at the top of this post I went through some unexplainable darkness recently.
Dawn gave me a scripture. Like she does so often.
After reflecting on it the darkness lifted.
I got to work on taking heed of the words I read.
James 3: 13-18
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
I saw in my spirit a real comparison in this scripture with the character of the wise men.
In James, the question is asked to the twelve tribes, in other words Gods people, so that includes us, who is wise and understanding among you among you?
Then he goes on to give us a key to allow us to demonstrate wisdom.
"Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."
Then he lets us know that if we harbour envy or selfish ambition in our hearts then don't boast or try to cover it up.
Then he says that that kind of wisdom is not from Heaven. It's from the earth, it is unspiritual and even demonic.
Because where we have envy or selfish ambition in our hearts, then you will have disorder and practice all kinds of evil.
But then this beautiful description of heavenly wisdom, wisdom that comes from God, is outlined.
And a set of values are used to describe the marks of a wise person who's wisdom is heavenly.
A person who is wise will display pureness, will be peace-loving, will be considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Then this beautiful passage finishes with the declaration that "those who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness."
Back to the wise men.
They displayed all of these things.
Their actions were pure. They craved peace and avoided conflict with Herod, they were considerate by even just walking into an old stable, that wasn't the surroundings they were used to. They were submissive as they recognise this child to be Jesus, the messiah and king of all, they bowed down to him a total act of worship. They were full of mercy and good fruit. Their act of worship really changed the course of history, if they hadn't followed the star or recognised Jesus as a king, then Herod would have got to him. Their wise actions allowed countless lives throughout the ages to be freed by the salvation story that unfolded with the birth life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were impartial they laid down their allegiance to King Herod, and they showed the ultimate sincerity.
So their wisdom came from heaven not from earth and they displayed nothing of envy or selfish ambition (the same couldn't be said about Herod).
Their wise actions kept the plan of Salvation alive and available to future generations.
That was a far greater gift than the Gold, frankincense and myrrh that they presented Jesus.
So guys what about us?
Heavenly wisdom gives us an opportunity.
An opportunity to change.
Change our lives and even change the course of history.
It seems to me heavenly wisdom calls us to change our attitudes, our ways, even our lifestyles.
Do we harbour selfish ambition? I'm alright Jack, it's all about me attitude. As long as I am alright then forget anyone else?
Do we harbour envy? Looking at others and wishing we were them, or have what they have? And maybe stop at nothing to get what they have?
The crucial thing is here that if we do have selfish ambition or envy then we are mini Herod's really.
His massive ego and pride amounted to selfish ambition and envy.
Selfish ambition and envy could have deprived the world of a saviour.
The wise mens pure actions helped to usher in the gift of Jesus Christ to this world.
That same responsibility is on us.
Yes us.
If we can see selfish ambition or envy in our hearts then all we will bring to this world is disorder and all kinds of evil things. That kind of wisdom is earthly, unspiritual and demonic.
If we are pure peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, then that is heavenly wisdom and will lead to salvation and freedom for ourselves and others.
The wise men were wise.
The wisdom they displayed had massive consequences for this world.
So it seems we can choose between two kinds of wisdom. And choosing heavenly wisdom? Well, it seems to me that we have the opportunity to continue to change the course of this world.
I know which kind I would rather choose.
Do you?
Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the encouragement this year about my blog. May I take this opportunity to wish you a really amazing blessing smothered Christmas this year.
I don't know why I love this month, December, but I just do.
On a freezing cold sub zero morning I am sitting with my wife Dawn and a gingerbread latte looking out of a coffee shop window onto the City street.
We were chatting and reflecting on the fact that over recent weeks I'd felt a bit of darkness hovering over me, and it felt a bit heavy and unsettling.
Dawn gave me a scripture.
I reflected on it.
God spoke and the darkness lifted.
He had me thinking about the Magi.
You know.
The wise men?
Portrayed as three kings in the Christmas furore, although how many of them there actually were isn't really mentioned in scripture.
But God used this to speak to me.
So here's the story. I wasn't going to blog this but felt a bit of a holy prompt!
So Ill call it My little Christmas blog message if you like.
This word "magi" from the Greek word Magos.
Every Royal household had the Magi. (No its not some kind of epidemic!)
Magi were astronomer priests who usually provided the king with information they had supposedly read from the stars.
Over time occult groups got a hold of this concept of reading the stars and that's where the English word Magic has stemmed from.
Here we see these early ancient astronomer priests featured in this scripture.
I know we sing songs like "We three Kings", and kids dress up as Kings to represent these guys in their school nativities. Some scholars think this could be due to knowledge of scriptures such as Psalm 72: 11, that says, "May all Kings bow down to him."
But whatever, the Magi were often key members of Royal regimes.
Cue Herod,
King Herod, the guy who had been officially titled the King of the Jews by the Roman government of the day, getting well upset by the visit of a group of these Magi, star reader guys, who had come from the East and started saying we have seen a star and then were asking people "Where is the one born King of the Jews, we saw his star and have come to worship him?"
Herod calls all his big boys together including these Magi Guys, and asks them where this other king of the Jews was to be born?
They reply, "in Bethlehem."
They went on to explain that they got their info from a prophecy from was known that says, "But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means last among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." (Micah 5: 2-4)
Then Herod calls the Magi secretly and they tell him exactly when the star appeared. He then sends them to Bethlehem with the mission to tell him exactly where this King was being born.
So the Magi do their thing and follow the star.
This star stops directly over Bethlehem.
When they see this star they were overcome with joy.
They find Jesus born in a stable.
They bow down in recognition of a king.
They give him gifts expensive stuff.
They then having been warned in a dream, go back to the East, making sure they avoid all contact with Herod who had an evil plan to kill this so called King, Obviously because he was King and didn't want anyone taking that away from him.
No wonder we refer to these Magi guys as the wise men.
They displayed a wisdom that doesn't come from earth.
As I said at the top of this post I went through some unexplainable darkness recently.
Dawn gave me a scripture. Like she does so often.
After reflecting on it the darkness lifted.
I got to work on taking heed of the words I read.
James 3: 13-18
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
I saw in my spirit a real comparison in this scripture with the character of the wise men.
In James, the question is asked to the twelve tribes, in other words Gods people, so that includes us, who is wise and understanding among you among you?
Then he goes on to give us a key to allow us to demonstrate wisdom.
"Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."
Then he lets us know that if we harbour envy or selfish ambition in our hearts then don't boast or try to cover it up.
Then he says that that kind of wisdom is not from Heaven. It's from the earth, it is unspiritual and even demonic.
Because where we have envy or selfish ambition in our hearts, then you will have disorder and practice all kinds of evil.
But then this beautiful description of heavenly wisdom, wisdom that comes from God, is outlined.
And a set of values are used to describe the marks of a wise person who's wisdom is heavenly.
A person who is wise will display pureness, will be peace-loving, will be considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Then this beautiful passage finishes with the declaration that "those who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness."
Back to the wise men.
They displayed all of these things.
Their actions were pure. They craved peace and avoided conflict with Herod, they were considerate by even just walking into an old stable, that wasn't the surroundings they were used to. They were submissive as they recognise this child to be Jesus, the messiah and king of all, they bowed down to him a total act of worship. They were full of mercy and good fruit. Their act of worship really changed the course of history, if they hadn't followed the star or recognised Jesus as a king, then Herod would have got to him. Their wise actions allowed countless lives throughout the ages to be freed by the salvation story that unfolded with the birth life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were impartial they laid down their allegiance to King Herod, and they showed the ultimate sincerity.
So their wisdom came from heaven not from earth and they displayed nothing of envy or selfish ambition (the same couldn't be said about Herod).
Their wise actions kept the plan of Salvation alive and available to future generations.
That was a far greater gift than the Gold, frankincense and myrrh that they presented Jesus.
So guys what about us?
Heavenly wisdom gives us an opportunity.
An opportunity to change.
Change our lives and even change the course of history.
It seems to me heavenly wisdom calls us to change our attitudes, our ways, even our lifestyles.
Do we harbour selfish ambition? I'm alright Jack, it's all about me attitude. As long as I am alright then forget anyone else?
Do we harbour envy? Looking at others and wishing we were them, or have what they have? And maybe stop at nothing to get what they have?
The crucial thing is here that if we do have selfish ambition or envy then we are mini Herod's really.
His massive ego and pride amounted to selfish ambition and envy.
Selfish ambition and envy could have deprived the world of a saviour.
The wise mens pure actions helped to usher in the gift of Jesus Christ to this world.
That same responsibility is on us.
Yes us.
If we can see selfish ambition or envy in our hearts then all we will bring to this world is disorder and all kinds of evil things. That kind of wisdom is earthly, unspiritual and demonic.
If we are pure peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, then that is heavenly wisdom and will lead to salvation and freedom for ourselves and others.
The wise men were wise.
The wisdom they displayed had massive consequences for this world.
So it seems we can choose between two kinds of wisdom. And choosing heavenly wisdom? Well, it seems to me that we have the opportunity to continue to change the course of this world.
I know which kind I would rather choose.
Do you?
Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the encouragement this year about my blog. May I take this opportunity to wish you a really amazing blessing smothered Christmas this year.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
The stuff of real Salvation
About 14 years ago I was sitting with my then 9 year old daughter on a couch at home watching TV.
My daughter was not feeling well.
She did not look good.
She began to speak.
"Dad, I'm going to be-----"
Then she kind of pebble dashed my clothes!
Listen, I hate sick.
It can make me pass out if I see it!
Because it was one of my precious girls, it was kind of OK.
I just wanted to help her.
I wanted her to be OK.
I love her so much that the sick didn't matter.
Why am I saying this? ( Oh and sorry Bailey if your reading this. I guess I've embarrassed you yet again!)
So this morning I'm sitting having my soup with Barry, a very lonely guy who lives on his own, and has virtually nothing. He doesn't keep clean and his clothes are a little dishevelled.
He wanted to thank us for sorting a food parcel out for him last Friday.
As I was talking to him I could see through our window at S21, straight into the posh hairdressers that occupy the shop directly opposite us. I saw a beautiful blonde girl having her hair done. The hairdresser was paying meticulous attention to her gorgeous hair, creating a no doubt stunning look for this girl.
I felt the gap.
The gap between her life and Barry's was to me obviously massive.
She was beautiful, clean and could afford the no doubt expensive price of her hair do.
Here was Barry. Dirty, dishevelled and virtually penniless. Having to eat a bowl of soup in a Salvation Army Hall with me, otherwise he may not have had any food.
I really felt the gaping wideness of the gap.
The gap weirdly felt a bit Godless.
Cue God.
He dropped the flashback of Bailey being sick on me into my thoughts.
He dropped it right into the gap I was feeling.
(Thanks God!)
He sent that flashback to remind me of something simple yet eternally stunning.
He completely loves us.
Totally and unconditionally.
Whoever we are.
Whatever we do.
It's the stuff of real salvation.
I thought to myself how come I cannot bear to see someone be sick, but when it was my daughter I didn't care?
Easy.
I love her so much.
So whatever she does including throwing up on me really doesn't change that.
How much more does God our father think of us?
God accepts us totally.
And I mean totally.
He stepped into my self created gap that I built in my head between Barry and the girl I saw in the hairdressers.
And reminded me.
In his eyes there is no gap.
There is no gap in how he sees everyone.
Yes.
Everyone.
He sees Barry the same as he sees the girl.
He sees me exactly the same way.
Which brings me to why I've churned out this blog post.
He sees you the same.
Yeah.
You.
You, the person who is reading this and feels so far from God the gap seems unbridgeable?
You, the person who has been hurt by the gap that you think stands between you and some seemingly high and mighty person. (And its driving you mad)
You the person who feels so unworthy you feel you can't possibly approach God.
Listen up.
There is no gap.
God loves us equally, totally and absolutely nothing can change that.
I was there that night for my sick daughter.
God is there totally for us.
No matter what.
I pray this helps someone tonight.
My daughter was not feeling well.
She did not look good.
She began to speak.
"Dad, I'm going to be-----"
Then she kind of pebble dashed my clothes!
Listen, I hate sick.
It can make me pass out if I see it!
Because it was one of my precious girls, it was kind of OK.
I just wanted to help her.
I wanted her to be OK.
I love her so much that the sick didn't matter.
Why am I saying this? ( Oh and sorry Bailey if your reading this. I guess I've embarrassed you yet again!)
So this morning I'm sitting having my soup with Barry, a very lonely guy who lives on his own, and has virtually nothing. He doesn't keep clean and his clothes are a little dishevelled.
He wanted to thank us for sorting a food parcel out for him last Friday.
As I was talking to him I could see through our window at S21, straight into the posh hairdressers that occupy the shop directly opposite us. I saw a beautiful blonde girl having her hair done. The hairdresser was paying meticulous attention to her gorgeous hair, creating a no doubt stunning look for this girl.
I felt the gap.
The gap between her life and Barry's was to me obviously massive.
She was beautiful, clean and could afford the no doubt expensive price of her hair do.
Here was Barry. Dirty, dishevelled and virtually penniless. Having to eat a bowl of soup in a Salvation Army Hall with me, otherwise he may not have had any food.
I really felt the gaping wideness of the gap.
The gap weirdly felt a bit Godless.
Cue God.
He dropped the flashback of Bailey being sick on me into my thoughts.
He dropped it right into the gap I was feeling.
(Thanks God!)
He sent that flashback to remind me of something simple yet eternally stunning.
He completely loves us.
Totally and unconditionally.
Whoever we are.
Whatever we do.
It's the stuff of real salvation.
I thought to myself how come I cannot bear to see someone be sick, but when it was my daughter I didn't care?
Easy.
I love her so much.
So whatever she does including throwing up on me really doesn't change that.
How much more does God our father think of us?
God accepts us totally.
And I mean totally.
He stepped into my self created gap that I built in my head between Barry and the girl I saw in the hairdressers.
And reminded me.
In his eyes there is no gap.
There is no gap in how he sees everyone.
Yes.
Everyone.
He sees Barry the same as he sees the girl.
He sees me exactly the same way.
Which brings me to why I've churned out this blog post.
He sees you the same.
Yeah.
You.
You, the person who is reading this and feels so far from God the gap seems unbridgeable?
You, the person who has been hurt by the gap that you think stands between you and some seemingly high and mighty person. (And its driving you mad)
You the person who feels so unworthy you feel you can't possibly approach God.
Listen up.
There is no gap.
God loves us equally, totally and absolutely nothing can change that.
I was there that night for my sick daughter.
God is there totally for us.
No matter what.
I pray this helps someone tonight.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Humbled by the need re-run (A call to the church)
From time to time I feel prompted to republish a past post.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
Humbled by the need re-run (A call to the church)
From time to time I feel prompted to republish a past post.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Drop the dead thing!
My eye caught sight of something that led me to change something today.
One of those things you see in the mundane movement of everyday life.
So in the five years I've been in Durham, most days I've walked through Millennium square and not really took much notice of it really.
Took notice of what your thinking?
Well.
A statue. (See pic at the bottom of this post)
A replica statue called "The Journey" by Dr Fenwick Lawson which depicts six monks carrying a coffin which contained the relics of Cuthbert, a monastic who became a saint, and who is deeply entwined in the history of the UK Church. The story goes that Vikings invaded the Island of Lindisfarne so a group of monks carried the relics of Cuthbert's body which were apparently so anointed that miracles happened whenever anyone went near them. They carried these old bones and a few precious items in a coffin, fleeing to various places including Melrose, Chester Le Street, Ripon and finally Durham, where he is buried in the Cathedral in an elaborate shrine, that draws pilgrims from all over the world.
I pass this statue every working day.
This morning it kind of drew my gaze.
And an overwhelming sense of God speaking enveloped me.
And what I saw was where I've been at this last week or so.
I saw a group of blokes carrying something dead.
I imagined how carrying this from an Island on the North East Coast to various places which are miles away from it must have been.
Carrying a dead weight about.
It must have been a complete trial.
It must have slowed them down.
Burdened them.
Weighed them down.
Of course there is a side to this that speaks about faithfulness and devotion and respect.
But really what I saw this morning was a group of weary monks, who are tired of carrying something dead around.
For what must have been years.
They were trying to carry something from the past around with them.
Holding onto it with everything they had.
And it looks heavy.
I wrote in my last blog post that I felt a real pull back to the past when I went home for a funeral last week.
And this last week has been a bit burdensome for me.
The past weighing me down.
I've started carrying something from the past around with me..
The Spirit of God speaks into my life this day that my past is actually a dead thing.
And I need to actually put it down.
Now.
So I can journey around quicker and more efficiently, so I can claim what is new, so I can break into new ground without carrying a dead weight into my future.
My head clicked into a scripture.
Matthew 8: 18-22
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. When a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head." Another disciple said to him, "First let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
I was reminded of the initial awe and amazement I felt when I first gave my life to Jesus. I knew I was crossing to the other side of the lake as it were. I knew God ordered me to walk from the place I was standing to a new place with him. A new life. A completely changed life.
And I committed right there and then to follow him.
The feeling enveloped my very being causing excitement and wonderment that just hadn't been part of my life up until that point.
This week though, I've kind of been in the "First let me bury my father" mode. In other words "Yeah I will follow you God but I have this heavy weight from the past, first let me deal with that."
Then today God hit me with a gaze upon a frankly spooky statue.
I hate it when he does that kind of thing!
He gets it right every time!
How annoying!
Yet?
How incredible.
The fact is Dawn and I will be breaking new ground in 2013. We will be walking into new things, new situations, a new phase.
God says to me in a way that you just know that its him speaking, "You have to Drop the dead thing Gary!"
He says, "You can't take it with you."
And so as he shared that personal order with me, I laid it at the foot of the cross today.
And it feels so much lighter.
So I felt that this may help someone out there today too.
What is that dead thing you are trying to take with you into your future.
Is it something from the past?
Is it a blast from the past?
Is it a thing you are holding onto with all your might, but its actually dead?
Is it heavy and tiresome and frankly getting in the way of your life's journey.
Are you called to follow God but need to sort a shed load of stuff out first?
It's probably dead in the shed actually.
The Spirit of God says this today.
"Drop the dead thing."
I pray downpour of strength on our lives today to be able to put the dead things of the past down and walk away from them.
Forever.
One of those things you see in the mundane movement of everyday life.
So in the five years I've been in Durham, most days I've walked through Millennium square and not really took much notice of it really.
Took notice of what your thinking?
Well.
A statue. (See pic at the bottom of this post)
A replica statue called "The Journey" by Dr Fenwick Lawson which depicts six monks carrying a coffin which contained the relics of Cuthbert, a monastic who became a saint, and who is deeply entwined in the history of the UK Church. The story goes that Vikings invaded the Island of Lindisfarne so a group of monks carried the relics of Cuthbert's body which were apparently so anointed that miracles happened whenever anyone went near them. They carried these old bones and a few precious items in a coffin, fleeing to various places including Melrose, Chester Le Street, Ripon and finally Durham, where he is buried in the Cathedral in an elaborate shrine, that draws pilgrims from all over the world.
I pass this statue every working day.
This morning it kind of drew my gaze.
And an overwhelming sense of God speaking enveloped me.
And what I saw was where I've been at this last week or so.
I saw a group of blokes carrying something dead.
I imagined how carrying this from an Island on the North East Coast to various places which are miles away from it must have been.
Carrying a dead weight about.
It must have been a complete trial.
It must have slowed them down.
Burdened them.
Weighed them down.
Of course there is a side to this that speaks about faithfulness and devotion and respect.
But really what I saw this morning was a group of weary monks, who are tired of carrying something dead around.
For what must have been years.
They were trying to carry something from the past around with them.
Holding onto it with everything they had.
And it looks heavy.
I wrote in my last blog post that I felt a real pull back to the past when I went home for a funeral last week.
And this last week has been a bit burdensome for me.
The past weighing me down.
I've started carrying something from the past around with me..
The Spirit of God speaks into my life this day that my past is actually a dead thing.
And I need to actually put it down.
Now.
So I can journey around quicker and more efficiently, so I can claim what is new, so I can break into new ground without carrying a dead weight into my future.
My head clicked into a scripture.
Matthew 8: 18-22
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. When a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head." Another disciple said to him, "First let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
I was reminded of the initial awe and amazement I felt when I first gave my life to Jesus. I knew I was crossing to the other side of the lake as it were. I knew God ordered me to walk from the place I was standing to a new place with him. A new life. A completely changed life.
And I committed right there and then to follow him.
The feeling enveloped my very being causing excitement and wonderment that just hadn't been part of my life up until that point.
This week though, I've kind of been in the "First let me bury my father" mode. In other words "Yeah I will follow you God but I have this heavy weight from the past, first let me deal with that."
Then today God hit me with a gaze upon a frankly spooky statue.
I hate it when he does that kind of thing!
He gets it right every time!
How annoying!
Yet?
How incredible.
The fact is Dawn and I will be breaking new ground in 2013. We will be walking into new things, new situations, a new phase.
God says to me in a way that you just know that its him speaking, "You have to Drop the dead thing Gary!"
He says, "You can't take it with you."
And so as he shared that personal order with me, I laid it at the foot of the cross today.
And it feels so much lighter.
So I felt that this may help someone out there today too.
What is that dead thing you are trying to take with you into your future.
Is it something from the past?
Is it a blast from the past?
Is it a thing you are holding onto with all your might, but its actually dead?
Is it heavy and tiresome and frankly getting in the way of your life's journey.
Are you called to follow God but need to sort a shed load of stuff out first?
It's probably dead in the shed actually.
The Spirit of God says this today.
"Drop the dead thing."
I pray downpour of strength on our lives today to be able to put the dead things of the past down and walk away from them.
Forever.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Dark familiarity
In my last blog post I mentioned being at my old Corps (Church) for the funeral of an amazingly faithful lady.
I felt a kind of electrically charged surge of desire to write again this morning. I don't usually write blog posts close together, but it feels like I have to this morning.
This is for someone out there today!
Definitely.
So in for a penny, in for a pound!
I mentioned feeling an old familiarity when being at my old Corps and went onto say it gave me a warmth that was comfortable and it had a pull about it.
Pulling me back to the old life.
The familiarity and comfort of the old.
It's kind of, well, a bit like religion really.
You know the bad side of religion.
The side of religion When it becomes about staying positively fixed on the old instead of allowing Jesus to lead us into new ground.
And I realise that one of the spin offs of that kind of rigid expression of Christianity is familiarity.
A familiarity that is pretty much desirable.
So much so you could fall in love with it.
It is a fact that it draws you, it pulls you, it calls you backwards.
It has its dark attractions too because it lures you.
As much as I loved being home God has called me to follow him to the wherever, the whosoever and to the uttermost parts of the Earth if it comes to it.
As I returned from Liverpool to Durham after the funeral, I felt like there was an elastic band around the car, pulling me back. I felt unsettled in my Spirit as I advanced further and further away from the comfortable place.
The next morning I went to work.
Terry was waiting for me.
Terry is an alcoholic, and is in constant trouble with the police. It is unbelievable the scrapes he gets himself into. He has been living that kind of life pretty much for his entire existence. He was slightly drunk at 10.30 am. He wanted to tell me that he was going to court next week for crashing a car that he had borrowed, he was drunk and driving without a licence. Just another scrape on another day. This time he may go back to prison for the umpteenth time. He talked about how he is desperate to change. How he wants to know God but can't talk to him. He can't talk to him because he sees himself as completely unworthy. I listened for about an hour then talked to him about the unconditional love of God. I could see the pain etched onto his face. A struggle I can't possibly truly understand. I prayed with him and will try and go to court with him next week.
It wasn't a comfortable place.
But situations like that are the dark places in people's lives that God is imploring the church to head for.
A friend of mine asked me the other day, "Where are the Salvation Army heading?"
It's a big question. One that the whole church can ask itself.
A question we can all concoct an answer to.
The fact is wherever we are heading, we need to be heading away from old familiarity and head towards God.
Because Jesus Is in the dark places, geographically spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
He's already there.
We definitely need to walk away from the warm and sexy comfortablity of safe old religion and strongly reject its magnetic pull.
There are too many Terry's in this world to just stay at home under the duvet with old familiarity.
So if you are sick of old familiarity, rise up. Get out of there, now. Resist its strong pull.
If you are longing for the safety of safe religion? The Spirit of God says run away from it.
If you truly want to see the love of God at work, miraculously saving and transforming? Then join Jesus in the dark places of people's lives.
Go now!
I pray that we would be strengthened to run towards God and run away from the bad side of religion.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Battleground
I traveled to Liverpool yesterday to attend the funeral of a lady who I've known my whole life.
It took place in the Salvation Army Hall where I attended for the years between me being born and me leaving to marry Dawn.
I only just made it to the service two minutes before it was about to start. It was standing room only as the church was packed.
So I ended up standing near the front against a radiator that was so hot it wasn't funny.
As the service progressed, My mind focused on the years I spent coming to this Church.
Faces from the past flooded in to my mind.
I scanned my eyes over the congregation and felt a warm feeling envelope me as I stood face to face with old familiarity.
I saw aspects of the building that brought memories flooding back.
As I glanced sideways, my eye fixed on a pair of double doors. I was standing right next to them.
As I looked at them, I had a major flashback.
I remembered the many times that I had headed for these doors during meetings when I Was a teenager and into my twenties. If I felt emotional or under any kind of conviction, although I didn't understand those feelings back then, I would take the opportunity to" Go to the toilet" that lay just beyond these double doors.
In other words get out of the situation.
I used to" go to the toilet" an awful lot!
I think people were worried I had some extreme bladder disease or something!
I then began to realise as I reflected on those days that this hall had been a battle ground for a large part of my life.
I had, without realising it, been the subject of a battle for my very soul, and a battle for my life .
A battle that is ongoing in the heavens.
In the days spent in that hall I was a different Gary.
I was losing that battle back then.
But the real battleground wasn't the hall.
It was my mind.
This morning when I got back into Durham, the first thing I heard on the street, was that yet another student had fell into the River Wear that flows through the city centre, and had been pulled out dead at 3 am this morning. Drunkenness was at work in the lives of bright young people once again. I felt a real pain in my heart for this young man and his family.
I believe he was under the same battle for souls that I am under, that we are all under.
This tragic scene made me think this morning.
It made me think back to the funeral yesterday. It made me think about the battle ground, the hall I am talking about.
I can see it now.
God was constantly trying to get through to me. I was choosing to walk away from the intense spiritual heat that God poured on me. I was choosing to literally walk away through those double doors to pretend to go the toilet.
But walking away from conviction, only led me further and further into oblivion, into emptiness and a purposeless existence.
Getting out of the heat of God led me into the hand of darkness.
The land of nowhere.
It wasn't until my thirties that I stopped choosing to walk through that door.
I stopped running away from God and made the choice to run towards him instead.
That choice transformed my whole existence.
The young guy who died in tragic circumstances last night made a choice that led to death.
That's really what the double doors I was transfixed on yesterday led to. They didn't lead to an imaginary toilet.
They led to death.
A dead life.
I'm glad I chose to allow the rescuing hand of Jesus to save me from death.
I chose life.
There is a battle for our souls that will rage until Jesus returns.
But the battle has been won.
At the cross.
Which means we have the amazing power to choose life.
The blessing of choosing life is a powerful weapon in the selection of weapons God has graced us with.
So today if there is someone out there who is reading this right now and is feeling the heat of the battle for your soul and you feel like your losing.
Choose life.
Don't run from God anymore.
Run towards him instead.
Whatever you think, however you are now, whatever you have done.
His arms are open.
Massive blessings
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Every morning I have to park in a city multi storey. I park on level 4. Every working day. The thing is I have to jump a lift up to le... -
The other day a girl from the church I grew up in sent me a request through FaceBook. She was leading a service and wanted to ask some pe...