what if ? 2013

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not "How am I to find God?" but "How am I to let myself be found by Him?" The question is not "How am I to know God?" but "How am I let myself be known by God?" And finally the question is not "How am I to love God?" but "How am I to let myself be loved by God? - Henri Nouwen - The Return of the Prodigal Son

What if this were true?

What if God allowed us, drew us into the wilderness so we would eventually stop running?

What if God wanted to know the authentic us? The us of the DNA he created, not our own propaganda or our own desires. What if in the process of God knowing us, we might begin to understand who he created us to be. Some things in our past may begin to make more sense to us, as we let God know us.

What if all this were true, it could make 2013 very different from 2012, if we make concious choice to be found by the Father who loves us!

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverge in a wood, and I
I took the road less travelled
and it made all the difference - Robert Frost

Living in the moment

God, when He was asked His name answered, "I am." He did not say that He was "I will be" or "I was". We can still expect to find God there. Many of us spend all our time living in the the past or the future yet expect to connect to the anointing and be blessed. I believe that to have a full connection with the Spirit of God we must dwell in the now. It is so easy to live in the past or live in the prophecies of the future and miss what God has for us now.

I have come to believe acknowledging who God made us to be is crucial to our long term fulfillment and development. I have been quietly allowing the words of Ken Gire to soak through me from the book Windows of the Soul. This has proved life changing in enabling me to look back over my life. That does not mean I chose to dwell in the past, but I acknowledge my experiences and their possible significance for my present. The Chapter on the Window of Vocation helped me identify and acknowledge talents, giftings and desires that I have never seen in that light.

This has brought implications on how I now choose to live today. I used to be waiting for the fulfilment of the prophecies over my life to come into being. By doing that I actually denied the power of living for now because I was always waiting for something more or different. I now choose to live in the now...the phophecies can look after themselves. I choose to live in this moment. It is all I have and I am the better for it.

"I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference"- Robert Frost.

Less is More 2

I have been thinking about the "less is more" concept I wrote about in early October. At that time I was just trying to slow down my overstretched and busy lifestyle. I am not sure that I have managed to acheive that, but there are certain things that I feel that I have achieved.

One of them is to slow down the amount of "God content" I try to take on board. I have been studying academically for longer than I care to remember. I feel that this has drastically affected the way I interacted with God. It was as if He had become just another subject to learn something about, another box to be ticked for the day. Where is the relationship in that?

 I feel many of us withdraw into a box ticking mentality rather than seeking true relationship.

One thing I have discovered is that when I read books, devotionals or articles of a spiritual nature, I usually read them over a week or month. However if I stretch this to reading them for a month or many months,  I get better results. It is a type of soaking process that means I read and reread passages over and over again. I have found that it is not just interaction with the text as before but with the heart of the Father. It means that not only is my mind changed but my heart, and my soul too. Deeper not Broader!

This has meant that as I soak and chat with my Father I am changed from the inside out....permanently; not just till the next new thing comes along.

Give it a try -  slow down and listen!

What have you got to lose?

"I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference" : Robert Frost.

Thanksgiving

I 've been talking to some friends who celebrate the American Thanksgiving celebration and it really appeals to me. I've been talking to Bev and its seems like a celebration that we should pick up as a family. I don't think New Zealanders as a nation are grateful for the things we have been blessed with in this country. I don't think as Christians in the western world we are grateful for the things God has given us.

I found it interesting that it is actually a legislated holiday in the United States. It has been declared so twice. Firstly by President Washington declares Thanksgiving as a national day of thanksgiving and prayer on November 26. President Roosevelt determined Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November in 1941. I feel that to truthfully follow Washington's original everday needs to have an element of gratitude every day.

"Thanksgiving Day comes by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of grattitude will allow." Edward Sanford Martin.

I believe working on an "attitude of gratitude" and honouring on a regular basis allows the actual
 celebration and honouring on Thankgiving Day to have real meaning beyond just a custom. If we are truly grateful to God and to others and honour them appropriately it bless both them and us.

Sometimes life's a struggle.

It is funny how little bits of information sometimes grab your attention. I was reading some scripture in Genesis about Jacob becoming Israel.

Genesis 32: 28
Then the man said, "Your name will longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

The name Israel means "He struggles with God". A nation and the people of God were identified with this name. The modern church is sometimes called the "new Israel", but I wonder if this name is something we really want to aspire to. Do we really want struggle with God? Is this what Christ died for?

I believe that Christ died to restore us to the freedom of the "Garden of Eden". To walk with God the Father, not to struggle with Him. However so many of us spend our time struggling with God and what He is doing, rather than learning to enjoy Him.

I, for one, have had enough of the struggle, I choose to spend time with my Father whenever I can. I am learning to identify the presence of God and then take the time to enjoy Him. For me, it can be as simple as walking in my own garden and marvelling at HIS creation.
 
Life has it's own struggles - it doesn't seem much point in struggling with God as well!

Craftsman or Artist???

I was at a spiritual retreat on Saturday last weekend and I found it very interesting as it again brought to mind "God the Craftsman". Scripture talks about us being his workmanship: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them".

I beleive that God is the master craftsman that draws out the essence of our being; the gifts of the spirit, and the natural talents and gifts that have been embedded deep within us. He places us in situations that draw out these parts of who we are, often parts that he knows are there and we may not. Even if we are aware of them we may not know how or when to use them. Often God describes us as trees, in such a way that it requires us to look at the whole picture, what can be seen and what can't. He describes us as such in Jeremiah 17:7-8
But Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord
whose confidence is in him
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes
its leaves are always green
It has no worries in ayear of drought
and never fails to bare fruit.

I believe that God works the situations around us to determine the fruit crop that he wants at the time. Our situations create opportunities to develop the "Fruits of the Spirit" to enable the "Gifts of the Spirit" to be maximised. I guess for me those with the fruit of the spirit are like the difference between a guided and unguided missile -  both are powerful, but one is expenientally more useful. God uses our circumstances to mold us much like the Bonsai Master, creating the tree we need to be. Fortunately or unfortunately the bonsai process can be long, difficult and restrictive for the tree. The result however is beauty and art.

M. Scott Peck makes a statement that "Life is Difficult......Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand it and accept it - then life is no longer difficult" This is an interesting concept that bares thinking about and struggling with, but that is another blog.

I will finish with this quote:

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” ― St. Francis of Assisi

 

GOD: Craftsman or Artist?

 I will let you decide.

p.s. I am very time poor at the momment, but have lots of thoughts, so bare with me for the next couple of weeks. I will be back to writing write a couple of times a week,  after another two weeks.

 

Regards Paul

Something Tookish Woke Up

"Most of the time we are burrowed away in our Hobbit holes and don't give a thought to our heritage.
Bilbo Baaggins certainly didn't. Not until Gandalf entered his life.The magician entered his life through the front door of the hobbit's burrow. Before the door shut, a dozen mottley dwarfs followed on his heels, and on the turn of it's hinges, the quiet world of Bilbo Baggins dramatically changed.

Suddenly he found himself saddled with the unwanted responsibility of hosting a houseful of strangers.After emptying his pantry to satisfy their ravenous appetites, the exhausted Bilbo plopped on the hearth of his fireplace before a crackling fire. as he rested there, the dwarfs joined in singing an ancient song, and as he listened "something Tookish woke up inside him and he wished to go and see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves and wear a sword instead of a walking stick" "Paraphrase and Quote by Ken Gire of J. R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

When I read the phrase "something tookish woke up inside him"  It excited my spirit, I remembered God's word says "Deep calls unto Deep." The Spirit of God calls to things that are buried deep within. The Spirit of God calls to things God the Father has planted. Things that have been there since the Dawn of Time.

There are things that are being awakened in my spirit as God calls to me. Do you feel like strapping on a sword and going and seeing your great mountains? The music, the book, the movie may excite you but remember it is the Spirit of God that calls you!

I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference" Robert Frost

Signs of the Times

As the week has gone on, I have continued thinking about Martin Luther King Jnr. During the week my attention was also drawn to the passage of scripture of 1 Chronicles 12:32.
"men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do - 200 Cheifs with all their relatives under their command;"
This indeed an interesting piece in light of people like Martin Luther King Jnr. The setting in scripture is that these are men who are joining King David from each tribe and they are being described. Mostly they are described in thousands of fighting men, but the men of Issachar are described as leaders/chiefs of household/families, not as soldiers. Men like Martin Luther King Jnr, John and Robert Kennedy were such men for their times. They understood the times in which they lived in and knew what they and their families should do.

They took on the giants, "the Goliaths" of their times; hatred, racism, social injustice and they stood for those who had no voice of their own. It is easy to say these men were giants themselves, but I would suggest they were men who used their sphere of influence for good not for evil. They were men who had some fairly significant personal flaws, but it did not stop them understanding their times and knowing what they should do. 

We all have a chance to be men and woman of Issachar; to look around us and see circumstances that are not right and need some attention. It is even better if we believe that we have a mandate from God. Martin Luther King Jnr did, but the Kenenedy's I am not so sure. Martin Luther King jnr started his journey in his father's church in Atlanta Georgia, Kennedy on a motor patrol boat in the Second World War. These great men did not start at a national level they started with the small sphere of influence they had. The interpreted their circumstances and their sphere of influence and sought to do something about it. That is something we all can do but still not many us make that choice to step out. We all have a sphere of influence we we could use, no matter how large or small. Even if we just influence ourselves and do the right thing, but most of us have a larger sphere of influence than just ourselves. The question is will we use our lives for good in our generation or will we be just a number on the list.

Today - I chose the road less travelled and it made all the difference - Robert Frost

"I have Dream"

I was preparing to make a short speech on the 10th anniversry of an organisation that works with at risk youth. Consequently it has proved to be a very interesting week as I have wrestled with some of the quotes that I found. I have made the address, but I am still wrestling with thoughts and questions, hence it has taken me a while to get to this blog and even then, I am not so sure I have begun to grasp the concept yet.
 This is the first quote I found from C S Lewis:
If you read history, you will find, that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those thought most about the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the otherworld that they have become so ineffective in this one."

This quote just leaves me with so many questions:
What does thinking about the next world look like?
How do you do this and remain living in the moment?
Is this something to do with interpreting the prophetic to get Heaven's viewpoint?
Are Bethel Church in Redding California onto something with their concepts of bringing heaven to earth, by trying to work out Heavens governmental system in a "A Culture of Honor".

While I was researching for my address I found two further speeches(that seem to be strangley linked with Lewis's thought) that were written 5 years apart by Martin Luther King Jnr. The first is the "I have Dream" Speech Washington DC, 28 August 1963.
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out of the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths self-evident that all men were created equal........." 

The second speech is "I have seen the Promised Land" Speech Memphis Tennessee 3 April 1968
".....Well I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult times ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life. Longevity has it's place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up the mountain. And I've looked over . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get their with you. But I want to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I 'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Martin Luther King was Assasinated in Memphis Tennessee on 4 April 1968.

With election of President Barak Obama, the first African American Preseident in 2008, 40 years  there was a partial fulfillment of King's " I have Dream" speech. At least in our life time we have seen change.

There was obviously some intense seeking of Heaven between 1963 and 1968, something had changed in the makeup of the man and it wasn't his dream. How this works, I am not sure, but work it apparently does. I need to become more heavenly minded to be signifigantly more useful on earth. I will continue to wrestle and keep you posted.

Not in a Box

Last night a group of relative strangers gathered together to hear from God, not in a corporate sense but as individuals. Would God show up? Well the answer was yes and He spoke in such different ways. We all gathered together to spend a night; creative journalling. A strange gathering expecting to hear God intimately among strangers .....even more strangely we did.

We looked at Scripture and began to respond in the heart, not in the head, an interesting phenomena. This was not to be teaching or learning; it was experiencing God through His word. Moving on we had to choose a secular magazine out of a pile and then had an expectation that God would speak.  He spoke through pictures, text phrases, advertisements and individual words. We gathered, tore or cut out pages or sections of the magazines to display the message we felt God had for us: totally individual, personal, and living. We finally wrote a simple cinquain (5 line) poem about what God was saying. Using colouring pencils and paint we made a presentation. This was an outstanding evening, first of many more, I hope.

God gave me the gift of Himself. All He asked of me was that I give Him time and took Him out of the box of my expectations. You see I like to have expectations about what will be, could be, and should be. When I step beyond that and allow God to be God - well interesting things happen! A God bigger than my understanding emerges and it is wonderful.

Don't be afraid to see God where you least expect him. Take the time.

"I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference" - Robert Frost

The big picture

I have found it useful to just step back a little in the last few days and look and think...
Who am?
Who am I in God?
What does my life look like when I look back over time?
What might life look like in the future?

These are all good and useful questions. When I did that I could see the ebb and flow of .... life....God's intervention.... themes .....my weaknesses  ..... my strengths.... my stuff ups ..... my successes.

For me it comes back to the prophetic, my prophetic nature, that's what drives me forward; my interactions with God.

Only by doing this can I begin to comprehend the warp and weft of God's tappestry. The prophetic stream in my life; brings me life, frames my life, brings consistant meaning to my life.

Somestimes you can get too close to yourself (almost navel gazing)........ you need the big picture!!

What does your big picture look like?

Less is More

As you may have gathered I have been away for a break with my family over the last few days. One of the things that having a little spare time does for you is give you time to think. So as I was reflecting I began to contemplate what I see as the major messages for me from God this year; I decided there were three:

The first was to slow down; as in the concept of "less is more"; I must try to do less; to acheive more. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but what I think God is looking for depth in an area, not width. I find that I like to know a little about a lot and God for me seems to be saying I need to know  a lot  about a little  i.e. depth in an area. I have slowed right down. Chapters of a devotional that would take me a week to read are now taking me a month. I am using a smorgasbord of resources rather than sticking to a select few. I am finding that God is speaking quite clearly.

The second on the list is that there is God factor in all of us. No matter how far people are from God there is some of the Glory of God, if you look hard enough. I guess the challenge to me is to make the effort to look....... in some cases it takes real effort.There is an element of the elder son (in the Prodigal Son story) in my life and this often causes me to judge; but in doing this, it shows how little I understand the love of the Father. I 'll keep you posted on how that goes.....still very much a work in progress. I am reading through "A Culture of Honour" by Danny Silk, but the concept is being reinforced so many other places, it is quite scary.

Last but certainly not least is the; "darkness or sin factor". I guess its  about the fact we are all prodigal sons and daughters; we are all moving away from the Father at various levels on a daily basis. As I turn back to be with the Father, I realise more and more the dirt of daily life I bring with me; it just seems to be hard sometimes. In some ways I feel I am just as prodigal  as the day I was first saved.
St Teresa of Avila put it this way.....
" The door by which we enter this castle is prayer. It is absurd to think we can enter heaven without first entering this castle and finding our own sinfulness and how much we owe God for our redemeption"

Paul

EQ- Emotional Quotient

I was singing a song this morning (10,000 Reasons) in church with these two lines in it:

"Bless the Lord oh my soul
Worhip his holy name."

I sometimes look at myself and others and think how emotionally driven I am and they are. I like this - I don't like that, I won't do that because I don't want to. My emotions can rule me! How do I feel as I walk through the church doors can determine how I worship God. Is that the correct stance to take; is worship of God actually anything to do with the way I feel. The answer is No! God is worthy of my worship, I will spend eternity worshiping in heaven. So I better get myself sorted out.

One of the latest trends is to talk about my EQ (Emotional Quotient) my level of emotional capacity as opposed to my IQ or intellectual capacity. I think that we should look hard at our EQ and feel the feelings and then do the right thing. The question is not  how I feel, but what is required and is this the right decision?

Today I chose to do the right thing.

I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference to my day.

Happy Birthday to my friend Michelle!!!

The Crucible

I was spending some time with God this morning, reading a devotional classic by Samuel Bagster which went like this....
"How happy is he whose wrong doing is forgiven and whose wrong doing has been forgiven and whose sin is covered! How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false."

Although the process of us drawing closer to the Father illuminates our many sins, He is faithful to forgive and not only forgive, but cleanse, so that in our spirit there is nothing false. I am sensing the closer I get to God the more this applies.  The closer I get to the Father the more real I become. This is not to say that I don't have sin and darkness quite the contrary; I can actually see it, acknowledge it and  finally deal with it.  I guess it is like the old anology of the gold or silversmith skimming off the impurities. Until the heat and light of the presence of God illuminates our sin and dislodges it, floating it to the surface where it can not be dealt with it, nothing much happens and we can sometimes remain unaware. The heat of the crucible which holds the silver can be our situation, but I also see it as our continually entering the the presence of God. It must have been like that for Isaiah in Isaiah 6.

5  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
This was Isaiah's spritual crucible, only ours is heated a lot more slowly, by daily visits to the Father.
The Father is our silversmith, our furness and our crucible. He provides the heat, he carries us as the crucible and he gently removes our faults.

The loving Father and the prodigal children learning to be together and love each. This such apowerful image that speaks constantly of our Christian walk.

Taste and See

Can we really live on a diet of one sort of experience of God? Is this a breeding ground for a spritual straight jacket? It would seem that the books that we read, seek to tell us the answer. Could this eventually snare us in a very comfortable trap?

I know that it would appear to be risky trying different things, that ultimately I could end up being decieved. I guess that is why I have the plumbline of the "word of truth". I find it a very envigorating and exciting process to try knew things.

I was reading a book by a Senior Jesuit Priest who had spent much of his time in India. He was talking about "living in the moment" and saying that using all our senses to be in touch with where we are is very important. How my back feels against the chair, what is it like to have my feet on the the floor and so forth. This provides a grounding so I know where and how I am in the present. This seems to me to be important to totally experience the fullness of God. Is not God not called the great 'I AM'? If I am not as fully in his presence as I can be, being aware of all my faculties, how can I begin to move towards completeness in Him.

Philippians 1:6,9-10
being confident of this that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. 

I shall take some risks in my contemplation by opening my senses and awareness, and not be completely lost in "western tradition". Rather I will seek to acknowledge what my fellow Christians may have discovered. Truth is truth no matter where it comes from!

Hopefully by handling the real thing well, I will be able to discern the counterfeit better.

I hold to the promise
Taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him
Psalm 34:8

Rolling Stones

I was sitting looking at some items I have sitting on a set of drawers in my quiet space, my attention was drawn to a rock that had been cut in half and polished. The outside was crusty with deposits that looked like calcium or broken bits of barnicles, the inside however was multicoloured with crystals and different shapes. I started to think about how much we are like that stone, the outside can be crusty and fairly unattractive while the inside is beautiful when it is seen in the right light. That light is Jesus, He said "I am the light of the world". I remember seeing the Holman painting "Light of the World" in St Paul's Cathedral in London.

We all have beauty that can be brought out from the inside. I remember going to a gem factory and watching semi-precious stones being polished. They were placed in a rotating barrel; lots of stones flushed with them, with water as they turned. I observed the action of stone against stone, the reaction of the stones to constantly flowing water. The activity of water and other rocks was starting to rub out blemishes and polish off chinks, cracks and cuts in the stone surface. We are a lot like this -  God uses the activity of the Holy Spirit (water) and the bashing and crashing against others to begin to erase the blemishes, cuts and cracks in our lives.

When we are around the Holy Spirit and Father our darkness and blemishes come to the light pretty quickly. Over time the interactions with God and others slowly erradicates these faults and we become polished and begin to reflect the beauty that God intended in the first place. I notice my dark spots are becoming glaringly obvious, and more often than not they evolve to the way I see others and react to others. So the closer I get to God the more I see the darkness and more I feel compelled to do something about it.

In the end it comes down to a simple choice: do I want to do something about my darkness or not? Its a bit like deciding whether to start the barrel rotating or not. If it doesn't rotate, all you end up with is wet stones. Some may choose that option, but not for me at this stage!

The Haze on the Bathroom Mirror

As I said last time I have been pondering on the Apostle Paul's line about praying without ceasing and what that might look like. I have tried to work at the process that Brother Laurence applied about practicing the "Presence of God" in all that I do.( See Blog "Dial Up or Broadband"). I can do it while I do practical tasks that do not require too much complex thought. I however work in a "people industry" which means that when people demand my attention that tends to dominate my thinking, and as a consequence I often lose God.

I mentioned this to one of my close friends about how I was struggling, trying to work out this conundrum. It seemed to be one of those points of tension between the Word in the Bible and the reality that we face. How does this work? My friend said that Henri Nouwen in his time at the Dayspring Trust learned to find the reflection of God in the people that he worked with and seeing they were at the higher end of the mentally disabled spectrum, that was a challenge that took years.

I have pondered this and given it back to Father and said 'is this the way I continually interact with You?' ......because I will struggle. This was the concept and picture that He gave me back. It is like the haze on the bathroom mirror. At first I was unsure of what he meant. This is the interpretation I have come to so far................

The mirror is the person, the reflection is of the Father (God) in their lives. Sometimes in a bathroom after a shower the mirror is covered with various degrees of condensation which means the reflection changes from mildly distorted to completely undercover and unrecognisable. Well all that is fine but what does that really mean?!

These were the things I have discovered:

1. Not matter what it looks like that mirror ( the person) is still carrying the reflection of the Father whether I find it easy to see through the condensation or not.
2. My job is to find ways for the condensation to be lessened or removed so the image of the Father can be released.
3. When I think about the natural the easiest way to get rid of condensation is to have ventilation and air movement. That air movement/breath/wind is the Holy Spirit in the spirit realm. The Holy spirit will break down the condensation of my eyes and make me "Super-Sighted" to see the Father's reflection in others, even when it appears heavily disguised.
4. I started to connect the dots. If I am, as I suspect, very much like the prodigal son then as I learn to know my Father.... I will need to know my Father's business....."For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him" John 3:17 ...neither should I be condemming, but direct the people to the Son, through my reaction to them. By seeing the people as they were created to be by the Father, not through the distortions of "the mist on the bathroom mirror". I am now beginning to see that the mist will only clear supernaturally. It will only clear by knowing the Father.
5. It is said that bank tellers are trained to spot a counterfeit note by repeatedly handling the real thing. Only when I am so used to being in relationship with the Father on a daily basis will I be able to spot the reflection of the Father in others, through the Holy Spirit. 

This is easy to say but gives me some long term sign posts. I have along way to go.......

Dial up or broadband

I have often wondered about what it must be like to be a really good Prayer. We hear all sorts of amazing stories about what prayer warriors do. There are plenty of books around to tell us how to do it - but is this God's way?

I wonder if God has a plan for each of us, our own distinct way of communicating with Him? I have been taught that you have to get up early and have a quiet time. No one has ever done anything significant for God without this consolidated prayer time....but is that so? Paul talks about praying unceasingly. Which would seem to be a very different process from following a formula.

To me these two prayers - unceasingly and formula - are as different as dial up and broadband on the internet. Dial up can often be very slow and difficult. On the other hand broadband is available, fast, has depth and is versatile. I imagine this is what Brother Laurence was talking about when he said that there was no difference between his devotional time and the way that he lived in the presence of God.

Now I have no idea how to do this, it's a bit like being hung up on thoughts in your time of silence. I work with people all the time and find I can go for long periods of a day without really having payed much attention to God. I get so involved with the people I am working with that God seems to get "squeezed out". So I really don't know how to do this but I figure I can get better over time. So rather than just read a book I have decided to give it a go. I will read bits and pieces and who knows one day I might end up writing my own book after trying a little bit of this and that.

Dial up or Broadband...... broadband any day. I want revelation that is not old and mouldy like yesterday's mana but right up to the cutting edge. If I keep trying I should get better..........right?

Significance or Success

It is Father's Day this weekend in New Zealand and as a school teacher I am well aware that ours is a society depleted of fathers. There are so many children who grow up separated from their father. They may never have known their father, see him every second week, or have a substitute Dad. I see this as a significant ploy that the Devil uses in this country to separate and undermine our families.
I also see it as significant ploy of the enemy to strip our churches of their spritual fathers ( and mothers). People who are able to lead and nurture the next generation of believers, not because they have done a course, or its their job, but simply because of who they are. It's the way they do life that is so attractive, people see them and say "I want what you have." The father (or mother) may reply "if you want what I have....then you do what I do".

What might that be you may well ask?

I believe it is hearing that still small voice that Elijah heard in 1 Kings 19. There was a wind, an earthquake, fire, and then in the gentle whisper, there was the voice of the Lord. We get hung up on the earthquakes, fire and winds of our circumstances that we miss the voice of the Lord. I believe one of the whispers is the Holy Spirit himself testifying to our spirit that we need the Father.

Romans 8:15-16......" but you have recieved the Spirit of sonship and by him we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Our frantic activity does not make us significant to the next generation in anything but a worldy sense. These actions gain us a response that the world understands - Success 'The attention and acknowledgement of other people'. However a true relationship with the Father will bring everything into focus and allow us to be God's representatives on earth. Our activity on earth will not direct attention to ourselves but to the Father.

If we begin to seek the Father earnestly we may be able to rekindle the urgency and desire that will in the end transform the next generation by truly being a spiritual father or mother. This will begin to rebuild the church one day at a time and one person at a time. We may not be successful people in the world's eyes or even the church. We will however be significant children in God's eyes.

It may the difference between
" This is my Son (Daughter), in whom I am well pleased."

and
" well done good and faithful servant."

or worse

"Away from me I never knew you"

It is Fathers day everyday, Spend time with your Dad today ..... Abba Father we love you.

Paul

Life in Sharp Focus

Sometimes experiences and interactions bring life into sharp focus. I was involved in two experiences, one as a spectator and one as participant, and they both brought a reality check . In fact both experiences were very different, one full of hope, the other caused such sadness.

It is in these moments  I feel that I gain an acute sense of reality about what is important in life. There is so much that takes up my time that has little or no real value, let alone eternal value. As I consider this process of meditation and silence, I am becoming more aware that I am an eternal being right Now....not only in the future. God the Father created me for eternity. The question is "do I live with eternal values and knowledge, knowing that the things I do today, determine my tomorrow?"

I think we live our lives with such ambivelence  today. We place so much importance on the future and the past. While we drift through our now in a blur, can we remember with any clarity the details of your all to busy day, or did you function on auto pilot? I did! The mundane took over and my day was filled with automatic responses until something dramatic and traumatic happened. I live a desensitised life in many ways. I probably would not have noticed so much a month or two ago but now I feel the pain a little more. Because I have chosen to spend time with the Father, the things that break his heart are beginning to effect mine. My eternity is changing....One day at a time.

This is quote from St John of the Cross about devotions; "Their hearts (meaning us) grow attached to the feelings  they get from their devotional life. They focus on the affect not the substance of devotion"
I am starting to see that the changes that are made for eternity, like those happening to my heart, have little to do with feelings. I felt little in the last little while in my devotions. I have however made some small steps forward to my destiny and eternity.

"I took the road less travelled
and it made all the difference".....into eternity

Coming Home

I love to read the Books that Henri Nouwen writes about his journey closer to God through the Dayspring Trust. Henri went from an international speaker and lecturer working at Harvard University to a pastor of a group of mentally disabled residents at the Dayspring Trust. Part of that journey was his fascination with the Rembrandt painting "The Prodigal Son." I have read this before but in conjunction with what I was saying yesterday about intimacy it is starting to have a new and quite different meaning.

God is using the Prodigal Son to teach me some things about himself and ultimately about me. As with Henri above, I have found that it is possible to be in full time ministry ( which I was for 14 years) and still have little true intimacy with the Father. When I look at Luke 15, I find there are many ways I can be taught this. God has been talking to me about my circumstances.

As I said yesterday I am starting to see the darkness in my life like the younger son, although I have thought I was at times akin to the older son in the latter years of my life. In the end, God has shown me that neither son knew his father in an intimate way. Until the prodigal returned, neither son had any interest in knowing his Father. One was interested in being good and right, while the other was set on doing to do what he wanted to do. I can identify with both characters at different moments in time (sometimes on the same day).

Having made a decision towards intimacy with the Father it is reassuring that the father in the story literally runs towards the returning son despite the darkness and sin in his life. Although there is darkness in my life, the Father already knows that. I guess I am the surprised one.... firstly that the father is running towards me.... and secondly it appears that I am more concerned about my darkness than he is. The thing keeping we away from my father is not my darkness but my fear.

God has pointed out "There is no fear in love and perfect love (God's love) casts out all fear. However it will not happen overnight, not because God can't, or won't, but because I could not cope. I have to learn to be loved, and to truly love one day at a time. In acheiving this I will lose my darkness and sin one day at a time on the way.

I rest with this scripture given to me many years ago...."Being confident of this, that he who has begun a good work  in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6

I continue to come home and finish the story begun in Luke 15, just like you.

Moths to a flame

It is said that moths will be attracted to a flame (light) at night, ultimately this attraction will cause their death. This seems paradoxical to say the least, that the very thing that attracts us will also kill us. I think there may be a similarity in this process with becoming intimate with "the Father".

As I walk very slowly towards a greater intimacy with "the Father" through meditation and silence, I have become profoundly aware of the darkness in my own life. The darkness becomes more obvious as I step incrementally towards the Light. This has not happened over night, it has taken months and I have a very long way to go. I guess as I approach the Light, the darkness in me becomes more obvious. I don't find this a comfortable process because in order to keep travelling - like the moth -parts of me have to die. Habits and sins as they come to the light need to be put to death. This is not easy and it is painful.

So I guess I have two basic choices: to step forward, no matter how slowly, or step back until I can regain my comfort. These are very real choices because no one else knows but the Father and I. Others, if they were watching closely, probably could not look hard enough to spot the subtle differences over time, if I push forward or just ease back a little each day. ( That's one of the reasons I decided to tell you........ a little accountability).

Do I choose to go forward like the moth knowing the cost will be parts of me to die, and parts of my life I am very comfortable with have to change and ultimately disappear? I cannot have intimacy with GOD and the comfort I am used to, they seem incompatible at this stage and maybe forever I don't know.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

I believe there is truth in these words.

Paul

Silently mindful

I am really aware of the psychological phenomena of mindfulness in recent times. It is used to bring clarity, stress reduction and develop more emotional intelligence to name a few things. In its simplest form mindfullness means to pay attention to the present moment, without judgement. What is happening right now! This means we become aware of our thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions.
This would seem to be a useful thing to do when practicing silence and in my case "the surrender method of meditation".

This means to surrender all thoughts during my silence back to God. As another thought pops into my head release it back to God. This hopefully brings a deeper revelation of God. As I said previously it is bringing a greater sense of peace into my day to day walk, with 5 minutes silence per day. One of the things of mindfulness is to focus on "the breath" -  breathing in, breathing out - from deep within the abdomen. I find this brings a sense of relaxation. I have no idea whether the two methods are intended to be combined but it works for me at the moment.

I like the concept of the breath which is brought in the form of the pneuma of the New Testament and ruach of the Old. They are both attached at one level or another to the concept of the Holy Spirit. Which to me opitomises the concept of breathing in the presence of God. This really appeals to me in all sorts of ways but especially in a meditation sense.


Still trying to work it out

Paul.

The Road Less travelled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.   "The Road Not Taken": 1920 Robert Frost Verse 1

I started this piece by thinking about Robert Frost's poem which culminates in "the road less travelled". When I looked at the first verse of his poem, it probably sums up my feelings towards working with this concept of silence. As far as I can see the path bends into the undergrowth and becomes difficult. I am persevering but it is not easy. My mind wanders all over the place. My Spiritual Director describes this process, as sitting on the bottom of a river and watching the boats (your thoughts) go over head. The trick is not to get into any of the boats and go away with them. So for me this is very much a developing process, that has meant my road has a few brambles and thorns close to it. That's with only 5 minutes a day!! I am however reminded of the words of Scott Peck who said: "Life is difficult, when you understand that, it gets easier."

I was with friend of mine yesterday and we were praying and talking. A scripture was quickened to us. This was one that had been very important to us, over 5 years ago, when we were both in the same church. Genesis 26:18 " Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died." I think there is a well of silence that has been stopped up over the years. The Philistines of popular culture - and to some extent modern church culture - have filled in the well of "intimate silence". This was an area our forefathers knew about and treasured.

Could this process be an access to the "living water" that Jesus describes to the Samaritan Woman in John 4:14? Peace is the lingering result of my silence at the moment. Can peace be a part of that living water? I was looking up peace in my concordance on my phone and I came across this scripture John 7: 38 "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them." Jesus also said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you....." If I have this profound peace, I must have been in the company of the living God. So I should be somewhere along the road towards intimacy.

I continue to travel the road less travelled with God.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference. "The Road Not Taken": Verse 4 Robert Frost 1920 

Intimacy in Silence

I was chatting with some young people in our home and one asked, Why would you want to sit in silence with God? I had to think about that, but I concluded that being able to sit in silence with someone in a contented way is one of the ultimate types of intimacy. Marriages that are strong and seasoned have the potential to do this. Where there is such a level of intimacy and understanding that sometimes words become unnecessary.

As we, the Church, are Bride of Christ, I find this a good illustration of the relationship. It it also works for me because like any good marriage it takes work and commitment. Love in this case is spelt TIME. I found that working in the area of silence as a form of meditaion is quite difficult and I hope I will get better at it. I am working on five minute sessions a day at the moment. When I can get my outside world quiet, my inside world just seems to get louder!! I will persevere though and see what happens.

Maybe Julian of Norwich (1343-1413) discovered a truth that we can hang onto when we don't understand: "We are so preciously loved by God that we cannot comprehend it."

A little Bit of Nothing

What would happen if we did nothing?

In fact nothing at all; would this be a bad thing?

We are so driven in our task orientated cultures about doing, that I think we try to translate that drive  into our relationship with God. But is this what God wants or does it just enable us to put another tick into today's checklist and we feel a little better? I am not so sure God is into the perpetual motion scene and all that accompanies it.

One the things that seems to accompany "the task culture" is sound, more specifically we surround ourselves with noise. We may call it music, teaching, entertainment, life.................... but it is still noise. When we claim "to do nothing" we still surround ourselves with noise, sometimes music, we may even call it worship. But is it because we are scared of silence, of stopping long enough to hear the still small voice of God, that constantly whispers to us? Maybe if there is enough noise we don't have to  hear the voice; then consequently we don't have to do anything about what the voice might say.

Maybe we are afraid that if we stop there might actually be silence and we will be confronted with being alone. I find all of the scenarios of silence quite difficult, but unfortunately that doesn't make it the wrong thing to do.

I recently read a quote from Saint John of the Cross which stated "............ Silence is God's first language." If that were true what would that look like, I wonder. I think I may have to find out. You can join me if you wish, we could give it a go together.

Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God.............

Simple but not easy.

 After reading the last blog a friend of mine commented that sometimes you can't be bothered having a shower in the natural when you are down, let alone worrying about the spiritual cleansing. I believe that is a true comment on what it can be like for us.

Interestingly God doesn't seem to take this into account too much in His way of doing things. He is very black and white - "if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out, if your hand causes you to sin cut it off". There does not seem to be a lot of room in here for our emotional state; what we are feeling at the time. In the story of the "Rich Young Ruler's" encounter with Jesus there was not a lot of room for misinterpretation of what He said. I know that in the Bible there are many areas open for debate but I think the basics are very simple and very clear. Love the Lord your God with all your Heart and Love your neighbour as yourself (paraphrase)... ..........Then He goes on to say if you love Me you will obey My commandments. Not much room for error in these statements. When we think back Jesus was speaking directly to an audience that was largely illiterate, so the message had to be direct. In the middle ages the basics were simple enough to paint in pictures around churches, so the ordinaty folk could follow, because they couldn't read.

There is one thing the Devil and God have in common: they both want kill us in one way or another. The devil just wants to kill us; God wants us to die to our flesh so that we may truly live. It sounds so easy, as it rolls off the keyboard but is in essence a painful process, which I believe God does incrementally, if we let him (and sometimes even if we don't). It must be easier if we cooperate!! Surely!!

Simple but not easy!

Things rub off on us.

As we travel through our daily lives, doing our everyday tasks, things rub off on us. Things like dirt, grime, germs, contaminates of one form or another. This causes us to wash our hands and ultimately ourselves in baths and showers. To a large extent most of this contamination process goes unnoticed yet we methodically have a process of cleansing ourselves. Do we acknowledge that our spiritual life can be like that too?

We pick up all sorts of spiritual contaminants through our daily living in our media soaked world. Our eyes are being constantly assailed with images that are good, bad and downright evil. Depending on where we are, we may not be able to do too much about that. However much what attacks us may come from we choose to entertain ourselves with. What we watch, what we listen to. The Bible warns us to watch our "eyegate".  What are we looking at on a regular basis? Does it uplift us and bring us closer to God or does it contaminate our spirit?

It is fabulous that God has a remedy for our poor choices, and it is basic Christianity (Christianity 101). It is simply called confession and repentence. God calls us on a daily basis to confess our sin  and bad choices then turn from them. A daily spiritual shower which not only cleanses us but allows us to take on the beautiful aroma of forgiveness, grace and freedom. Much as the sweet aroma of shower soap in the natural. I love the feeling of a lovely warm shower and I am learning to do that in the spirit as well on a regular basis.

Paul

Paul

Capacity Building

I work with a non-profit organisation that works with "at risk" youth in our local community. We have grown form a small two man operation to an organisation that employs nine people. Part of our role on the Board is developing our structual and governance capabilities to match our growth. This is loosely called capacity building.

I believe God is very interested in building our inner capacity or - as in my last blog - expanding our tents (Isaiah 54:2-3). This not a one dimensional process that is all natural or all spiritual. It is said  the spiritual reflects the natural, so God uses all facets of our lives. Life's trials are the perfect ground for extending the fabric of our tents both spiritually and in character. Trevor Yaxley from Lifeway Bible College always says "Don't ever waste a good trial!"

The trials of everyday life: financially, relationally and spiritually test our ability to correctly interpret and apply the Word of God. Proverbs 7:1 states "My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you". This simple obedience results in the development of hope and faith. As Proverbs suggests with "line upon line, row upon row, precept upon precept". We get better slowly as we persist with the love and support of others.

God expands our tents through other wonderfully self inflicted things like diets and exercise regimes (both of which I am attempting at the minute!) These trials teach things like resilience, consistency, how to overcome yourself, especially in your flesh . This can be useful when dealing with temptation knowing that this need or urge shall pass, like hunger pangs and physical pain of exercise.

We grow stronger, when our internal capacity is built!!

Paul

Is God still in charge or what?

Discipleship is about following our teacher.  In this case is the LORD  Jesus Christ is our teacher and our leader. Dr John Maxwell states that in its simplest form leadership is the equivalent of influence. So how much influence does the leader have over his follower? A leader with no followers is someone taking a walk.

This begs the question 'how much influence does God have in our lives?' Jesus basic statement to his disciples was "Come follow me". We have so much teaching on leadership but we don't get taught how to follow. Before we can actually lead, first we must learn to follow. We all are following someone or something. Who are you following? Your culture? Your parents? Your church leader? The government? The Devil (usually mascquerading as something or someone else)? Or are we in fact following the leading of Jesus in our daily life?

I understand that this is far easier said than done. Which is why we come back to the development of innerspace, because this will aid the development of this process of followership. As John says learning to abide with God, learning to hear his voice more clearly, learning to do what you are told when you don't like it! 

Innerspace:A place for God to dwell a place for God lead from.

Go well until next time.

Paul

Conquering Inner space!

Scientists are now suggesting that the universe we live in is continually expanding from it's heart or centre. Considering we serve a creative God, I tend to believe it is entirely possible that He is continuing to create even as I speak (And I guess He still speaks things into existence).

I am exploring the idea that our inner space or internal capacity should also be expanding in a similar way. At the simplest form this means  the capactiy of the soul to love and be loved, to give more and more deeply. Also the development of our character in the "Fruits of the Spirit" and our level of resilience to the challenges that we face.

I also feel in "the spirit" our inner-self can be expanding. In Isaiah 54: 2 it talks about
"enlarge the place of your tent
stretch your tent curtains wide
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes."
What are your cords and your stakes to enable  you to enlarge the place of your tent?

I believe God is looking for room to dwell within us in the spirit, developing more room to move within us and ultimately overflow to those around us. John 14:23 If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him.

Certainly food for thought. Is your inner space expanding??

Are we busy being busy?

I don't know about you, but I lead an extremely busy life. Our culture encourages us to work hard and play hard, but is our culture right? We fill our days (and nights) with all sorts of activities: some good, some important, some not so important - and some a down right waste of our lives.

Who is to blame for all this busyness?

Sometimes it's circumstances and economic need.

Sometimes it's us...because we don't want time to think, time to be alone, time to reflect and look back.

I find sadly that when I get busy the first casualty is my time with God. "I will spend some time with you tomorrow God." But unfortunately tomorrow never comes any differently, unless we do something to change what we do. I believe our Enemy would try and draw us deeper and deeper into our own busyness knowing that the first casualtly of our busyness will be God. The time has come for you and me to start some spiritual warfare and STOP and take stock of how we use our time.

Then place God back in his rightful place.

There is power in the questions

We spend huge amounts of our time looking for the answer!

I am convinced if we spent more of our time looking for the questions we need to ask, we would do better. There is huge power in a well defined, thought through and worked out question. This enables us to refine, define and redefine our lives.

The beauty of the process is that your initial questioning will hopefully encourage another question which will draw you deeper into what you are looking at. If you find an answer - especially if you feel you have found the answer - you stop looking. We remain shallow, when what the world most needs right now is deep people.

That's why it is said that "many things are lost in the mysteries of God." If we don't question we remain passive and dependent on other people. They tell us what we think, and what our faith and life should look like. Surely that is between ourselves and our Saviour, when all is said. That is not to say we do not need the counsel of others, but we shouldn't totally depend on it.

Don't waste your next good question!!

Seeds Of Doubt

I was reading a book by Gary Best about being supernaturally natural and it briefly looked at this idea. It just mentioned that "sowing the seeds of doubt about God" was the point at which Satan attacked Eve in the very beginning. He has continued to use this ploy with humanity ever since, doubting God and doubting each other.

I was thinking that this is a cunning ploy, because when a seed is planted, it germinates on its own  unless there is some outside interference. So when doubt is sown in issues of trust, the seeds begins to germinate on its own in the fertile ground of our mind and soul. Satan does no more real work, we do the rest, unless there is a direct counter measure on our part or from others. We develop our own concerns and anxiety that flourish if left alone to do so.

I think for me the best way to counter this is to begin to trust somewhere. It maybe God, but it may be as simple as sharing your doubt with another person you trust and hears from God. A better way may be to take the step of trying to open dialogue with your Father in Heaven. Either way, to do nothing is to allow the enemies ploy to flourish when the seeds of doubt are sown.

Until next time
Paul

Old Hillsong

I was thinking about the way we operate in the modern church. How mismatched some of our words and our actions are. We trust God - or so we say - but do we really? We may feel that we have good reasons not to. He may not have come through in some clutch situations the way we expected, but does that make him untrustworthy? An interesting question to ponder...

I suppose I came to this question while listening to some old Hillsong music: "The Power of Your Love" and "The Potters Hands". Wonderfully stirring music, it lifts your spirit but does your soul believe it? What would happen to me, if I actually believed the words,? What would happen to the "Church" if they believed the words they sang on a weekly basis? But it is so much more important that we act on our belief then just sing about it.

I guess love and action spell RISK. Until I am ready to take that Risk and you are prepared to take that RISK, not much will actually change.

God is My Co-Pilot

I have been pondering for a while about why it is that sometimes we seem to run on autopilot. Everything seems to be routine and we just function automatically. I think there is a great deal of that process in the church, I also believe a lot of long term Christians are just plain bored with their lives and their faith.  Pretty much like 'Groundhog Day".

As I was trying to work out how I would explain this, I was working beside my bookcase and my eyes rested on a book title " God is my Co - Pilot". It is war story and to be honest, I have never read it, but  the title started me thinking about how we have God in our lives. A lot of the time God can be like our Co-Pilot; we are in charge but God's around to do the small stuff  ( "God can you find me a parking space?") and in case anything goes wrong. Maybe its just me, but a lot of people seem to be like that, they carry on with life without God's help until something goes wrong!! Then we are scrambling around trying to get God's help in whatever we can't handle.

I was wondering why that may be the case and the conclusion I came to was that it was a basic lack of trust on our part. Do we really trust our Heavenly Father? Is this a transfer from when we have been let done by those who were supposed to care for us one way or another? So to protect ourselves we attempt to stay in charge of our own lives, because I am the only one I can really rely on. The root of this process is fear. Fear of being let down, abandoned or abused in some way. Danny Silk describes it as an "Orphan Spirit", which keeps us seperated from God and other authority figures; "running our own show".

Fear in this way is not of God, but it keeps us bound. The answer is love and God the Father is Love.

The scriptures say that perfect love casts out all fear. We need to return to the Father and begin to take some risks in the area of trust.

Arohanui (Love) Paul

To obey is better than sacrifice.

 We live in an age where we feel it is okay to offer sacrifices to God. I often hear people dicussing all the things they do for others or for the church or how busy they are in general. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these things. However I have a basic question:

Is this what God requires?

I would suggest the answer is: not altogether, because when we sacrifice time, money or gifts we retain control. We are deciding what we will offer or sacrifice. We are doing things our way which I don't believe is entirely the way God would have it. As Frank Sinatra said "I did it my way" has become a song or a mantra of our age.

God would ask us to be obedient as a prerequisite to discipleship. As Keith Green sang "I don't want your money, I want your life." God wants us to die to self so that we may serve Him with all that we have. The resulting action may look similar or even the same as when we offer sacrifice, but the heart attitude is completely different. God is pleased when we obey HIS guidance and HIS direction, because we show our heart is for him and not just to retain personal control.

The obvious prerequisite to all this is the we hear and have some understanding of GOD in the first place!!

1 Samuel 15:22
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice
and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

God and Sons - the family business

Am I about my Fathers business?

I long to hear from God the same words that Jesus heard. "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." Romans tells us that we are adopted sons and heirs of God, therefore it is perfectly possible hear these words. We will have our Spirit cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.  (Romans 8:16)

"This is my son in whom I am well pleased" are words that were used by Jewish Father's announcing their sons had come of age and were equals in the family business. If I am to be involved in the family business, it is a 24/7 process. I must align with the activity of God and fulfill his purposes on earth. This is not a Sunday or evening process, but one that requires my attention and awareness on a constant basis. I believe that with time I can get better at this.

This is part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ because as a disciple I must follow and emmulate the way of Lord. Jesus said " I tell you the truth The Son can do nothing by himself ;  he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

I must observe and know my Fathers activity and work for him and with him.

Enountering God and Faith

"The Holy Spirit is the Dunamis of Heaven. An encounter with God is often a power encounter. Such encounters vary from person to person according to God's design . And it's the lack of power encounters that leads to a misunderstanding of God and his Word. Experience is necessarry to build a true knowledge of the Word." - Bill Johnson.

How faith works appears to be deeply connected to the way we do life with God. It would appear to be the experiential nature of our encounters with God that bring about the continuing development of Faith. It is the development of the encounters of God over time that build real relationship. To be a true disciple of Jesus Christ we need to be in relationship with him, and the rest of the Trinty, beyond doing a daily reading and saying the odd prayer.

Knowing God beyond the single plane of reading about Him, is to have regular interactions with God in a variety of forms that you understand. This would appear to crucial in the development of a faith that will survive in the rigours of the 21st century. This is a very similar time to setting of The Book Acts where most concepts are acceptable or at least have a right to be spoken. In the Book of Acts it was the power encounters with God that built faith, that changed the world.

If we are going to have faith that will survive the test of our culture and flourish we need to encounter and have realationship with the living GOD.

I find it interesting how God interacts with His people and the world. Last week I was working with some young people - a small group of over 18's. God prompted me to ask to two questions.........

(1) How do we respond to the great commission in our everyday life in the 21st century?

(2) What is the role of the Holy Spirit in this process?

We had an interesting dicussion with each young person, which reached a prayer and action point as to what this means for each of them. This happened just after one of these young people gave a recent sermon.  This sermon was about God's overflow in our life. This is surely an important part of the process of interacting with the Holy Spirit, as this interaction results in an  overflow of God that effects those around us. Which would seem to be a positive process and that would facilitate the Great Commission. This is indeed an outworking of faith and as James says: "Faith without works is dead."

At the conclusion of the young people's discussion, one stated that we need to be "supernaturally natural". There was some discussion about that might look like for each of us. However the strand was being developed by God, because I was given a book by a friend of mine called "Naturally Supernatural"  by Gary Best.  I immediately grabbed it because God seems to be strongly suggesting a theme. I started to read the initial chapter which is about passion for the Great Commission. Which seems to result in a natural overflow of the Spirit of God, as read in Acts 1:8.

 Is this (passion and resulting overflow) a reality today, in the 21st Century?

We are going to explore this further with our under 18 group. I will keep you posted, as we outwork the leading of  God.

Its a new day

What a difference 24 hours can make. Yesterday i had lost my work keys, which may not seem that important but was a minor crisis to say the least, seeing they opened almost the whole property. I did not want to go to my Boss and say I had lost them. So I was praying quite hard, and as explained yesterday nothing seemed to be happening. My wife and mother in law were both praying as well. I knew they had to be somewhere in the house.

This morning when my wife woke up she had had a dream which which told us the general vacinity of where they were. I belive the choice made yesterday to stand in faith made the difference. It is always the right choice to move toward God in faith.

It is always a new a day when I step forward in faith

a simple choice in the end

I find issues that deal with faith are always complex and challenging. I know as a I walk this journey day to day there can appear to be a "faith leak", sometimes fast,  sometimes slow. On a good day when things are going my way I can be bouyant and have all the faith in the world. Faith to move mountains , faith to believe for anything. However on a bad day I can slip quickly into unbelief and be badly in need of a faith injection. Have you had those days when nothing you try seeems to work? When you pray and pray and it seems like your voice is bouncing off the ceiling." Is Anybody out there ?!!" Today is a day like that!

I remember reading some work by Henry Blackerby and him commenting that new truth or revelation may come into your life through your circumstances. If circumstances are not how I would expect them, I may be thrown into a "crisis of faith". The result of which will either be to move closer or further from God. Today I have to choose which way do I want to go? What do I know about God? What I have experienced of God in the past? What truth do I have to stand on?

In the end it comes down it a simple choice. Do I choose to have faith in God today?

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve .......... but as for me and my household we will serve the LORD Joshua 24:15

Life's Anchors

 I continue to struggle with fitting all the things that I should or could do into a day. How do I learn to abide/ remain in these tasks, so I can gain the benefit from the positives that are so obviously there? This is especially important in the area doing my physical exercise. When I start out I am full of enthusiasm........... but trying to develop it into a regular exercise programme seems to have some real difficulties!
Gaining balance while remaing fully engaged in life is an interesting process. I see that I need help in this process to make it work.. I think there is need for a spiritual component to aide in this process, otherwise it all reverts to self will, which in my experience is an area I am found wanting in. My will power has a lot of short falls, especially in the area of exercise.

I do see there is need for this spirital component, which I  choose to call faith. I guess the next question is faith in what? For me, in my life it comes back to faith in Jesus Christ because I have found that without His anchor, I tend to fail most long term tasks. I can compare my pre-Jesus, to life with Jesus....... there is no comparison!  This prospect of abiding without God would seem to be neither useful, nor profitable.  I look forward to hopefully sharing my success in my exercise regime. I have Jesus Christ as my anchor in life what is yours?

What's in your hand?

As I try to think about the practicalities of what abiding might look like, what are things around me that may help me develop the knowledge and character I need to withstand and overcome the pressures of modern living? Was I mad to pick up another thing to do by writing this blog? I am a family man with a "drop dead gorgeous wife", 3 kids (two married), 3 grandkids, so do I need another thing to add to my already busy little world?

I think the answer is a most definite yes! Anything that helps me develop character - and dare I say it discipline - to walk one day at a time is valuable. Discipline is not a popular concept or term in modern culture, but it is something that the ancients knew well and used to help them to cope with the pressures of their world. So I am looking around at what are the things that are going to help me develop me? The answer appears quite simple in the end, What's in my hand? 

What's in my hand: my family, my job, my pets, exercising, my spiritual devotional life. All of these can help me learn to abide/ remain not just endure, but to excel in the way I do life. Doing things in a timely way, completing what is necessary, doing so with a positive attitude. This means my life will be not only a blessing to myself but to those around me.

What's in your hand?

Keep your eye on the ball

Hello my name is Paul, as I begin this journey I do so with a certain amount of trepidation. To share your thoughts with an unknown audience is an interesting process. What I hope to do is to share life with you as I travel "One day at a time". It is such a privilege to walk a journey with fellow travellers.

At the minute I am learning to "abide" which comes from the Greek word meno: to remain, to dwell, to stay in a given place/relationship/expectency. This is such an intersting concept in an age where we are encouraged to move on and move on again. Where change is progress and progress is good, but is that entirely true? I think there are many things that work well and actually probably don't need to be changed for the sake of change. It may well be that we are to go deeper in the place where we are, rather than skim the surface and move on.

It occurs to me that what the world needs now is deep people rather than people who appear to be very gifted and innovative, but are shallow in the things that may have eternal or generational value. Keeping our eyes on the things that matter, the things that we believe in, the things that will bring long term value; family, spititual faith  serving others rather than being so easily diverted and amused by things that bring immediate gratification. That does not mean that there is no fun to be had in our journey, in the sharing, the caring and the challenges. Abiding, "keeping your eye on the ball" makes the difference and the difference is significant.