I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] John 16:33 (Amplified)

I’m not sure how I feel about the jailing of Kim Davis for refusing marriage licenses. When I’m not writing I work in a secular job – in fact I own the business. I manage a medical practice. My faith tells me that God is the one who says His own name is “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). It tells me we are called to lay hands on the sick and they will recover and that the prayer of faith will make the sick person well. There is precedent in plenty of the authority to see healing in the name of Jesus in the Bible, and I’ve both witnessed it and received it several times in the last 30 years I’ve been a Christian.

But my business is a secular one. In the business I manage we have different religions represented among the practitioners and among the patients. As such we avoid putting up any religious symbols in common areas and by so doing we avoid offending others. We avoid talking religion in front of the patients – although my former PA and I enjoyed many conversations about our respective beliefs.

Ms Davis was jailed for standing up for her beliefs over man’s laws. I’m not going to comment on the specifics as she stopped all licenses not only same-sex marriages. Each of us must make up our own mind about where we stand on that particular issue and face God about it on the day of Judgement. And we must remember in our thoughts that this woman’s faith is personal – her conviction is personal. She does not speak for all Christians by any means.

Meanwhile a muslim flight attendant who refused to serve alcohol on a flight – something on long flights is a way to relax and enjoy the movie for many travellers – thereby increasing the workload of her colleagues and inconveniencing the passengers to the point of insulting them by her actions if not her words, has not been dismissed, merely suspended.

The “Planned Parenthood” program violates Federal law as I understand it, yet to my knowledge nobody has been arrested or convicted of that. So-called “sanctuary-cities” are also in violation of Federal laws – why are no mayors or town leaders even being sought for questioning? Even after violating a federal law with regard to classified information in private emails and admitting it, Hillary Clinton is still a presidential candidate, not under arrest.

Living in South Africa as I do, we have to rely on outside news sources for international news. In the twelve years I’ve been here this country has gone from a country to be proud of firstly under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, then under Thabo Mbeki, a man who, whilst not embodying the internal needs of the country spent his administration rebuilding South Africa in the eyes of the world’s economic communities.

Now we have gone to Jacob Zuma, a president who was charged with rape before his election yet acquitted somehow, has publicly under oath stated that taking a shower can prevent HIV infection after sex, has squandered millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on renovations to his personal home and made nepotistic appointments in influential positions – including the news department of the national broadcaster – who will spin anything to get him in a more positive light.

He allegedly personally had knowledge of, if not actually arranged for, the escape instead of arrest of a man wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.

But what does this have to do with Christianity?

Simple: Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, is apparently a leader of some kind in his local church. Many of the people who put together the law-defying programs in the USA are churchgoers.

It all paints Christians – the real ones, not just the nominal ones – in a very poor light.

We are a Faith at War. The god of this world is not Jesus Christ, it’s Satan. Jesus has overcome him, but there’s still a battle to be fought. Just as after D-Day in 1944 there were many battles between the Allies and the Nazis before the war ended, our D-Day – the Cross – merely signalled the beginning of the end. Just as the Germans knew full well the war was lost when the Allies took Normandy, Satan knows his time is limited. The orders given by the German high command at that point were beyond barbaric. Orders for the immediate execution of all survivors in concentration camps. Destroy all art collections and eliminate as much as possible of pre-Nazi historical development.

There can be little doubt given the way ISIS is spreading like a plague across the middle-East that their campaign, whilst a smaller scale for now than Hitler’s, has the same agenda: eliminate anything that contradicts their dogma and fanaticism.

Christianity is under fire in a way not seen in almost 2000 years. Christian persecution by ISIS includes torture and murder. In the West we see jobs being denied and jail sentences imposed where no actual law was broken simply for standing up for a heart-felt belief in their understanding of Christianity.

There is a war going on. We have to acknowledge it. For a hundred years or more since the last major revivals in Wales, Scotland and America at the end of the 19th Century we have been a complacent people. We stood as nations against tyranny where it suited our nations to do so, but allowed our Faith to be whittled away little by little over the decades. The new religion of Atheism – and it’s a religious movement, just look at how they conduct themselves and that’s obvious – gains ground all the time. It convinces the World the devil doesn’t exist, and without a devil there’s no need for a God.

I say it again: as Christians we are at war. We live in a time where speaking out as a Christian will result in hard choices. We may lose friends, family, jobs, homes. We may lose our lives. Jesus told us it would happen. Believing in Him sets us on a path to war with those allied against us. The American and British Civil Wars have nothing on this fight we are embroiled in, simply because it’s so subtle mostly or so far away from us geographically we disregard it.

Praying alone isn’t enough. It’s time for the Church to rise up and fight the way Christ did. Lay down our lives if necessary, whether figuratively or literally, to serve Him. By not trying to hold onto this life we save our Eternal Life.

It’s time to remember our God is a Warrior.

It’s time to be radical in our resistance to the pressures of this world.

Our Faith is under fire. We’ve been given a shield to defend us from the fire, but we also have a sword.

It’s time to use it like it’s never been used before.

At Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival in 1991, the late Mike Yaconelli told a story to us in a seminar. I don’t know if it’s true or anecdotal but it stayed with me:

A little girl and her mother – who was in a bad mood – went into a diner for lunch. The waitress came over and took their order. Addressing the little girl she asked “what would you like?” The child replied “I want a hamburger”. The mother interjected “She’ll have meatloaf”. The waitress said “what would you like with it?” The girl replied “I want french fries”. The mother said – getting angrier – “she’ll have vegetables”. Finally the waitress asked “and what do you want to drink?” The girl said “I want a coke!” The mother said “she’ll have milk!”

The waitress went into the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with two trays of food. She pulled the lid off the little girl’s food and there was a hamburger, chips and a coke.

Amazed the little girl turned to her mum and said “MOMMY!!! The waitress thinks I’m REAL!”

We often look at our life and think God treats us like the mother in the story. Ignoring our wants and desires and giving us something we find unpalatable.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

 Many read this verse the wrong way. First we must delight in the Lord, whatever our circumstances. Consider Paul in prison who sang praises in his dungeon and refused to escape when the earthquake opened all the doors because of the consequences to the jailer. Once we delight in God, He places desires in our heart so we can ask for them and receive them. It sounds convoluted to us, but we still have a choice.

The attitude of the World is “the heart wants what the heart wants” and it uses it to justify affairs, embezzlement, lies, slandering political opponents (yes I do mean Donald Trump there), and a host of other “white” lies.

There’s no such thing. Either it’s the truth or it isn’t. Better to stay silent and get before God to thrash out your feelings than speak and destroy families and friendships as a result. Sadly I speak from experience on this. I lost several very dear friends because I was too quick to speak and as a result spoke in anger not truth. My Old Nature took control and I deliberately said things to wound. As a result I lost friendships I valued more than I can say.

God sees us the way the waitress in the story saw the little girl. He listens to us, to the cries of our heart. Just as Daniel prayed and the angel was sent but delayed by a demonic power with the answer, so when we pray God answers immediately but we allow the enemy of our souls to distract and confuse us and ultimately lose hope, and with it faith. This in turn allows in the lie that God doesn’t care about us.

We have to cling to hope with all our might in His strength.

We fell on financial difficulties some time ago and the only thing that has kept me going is the certainty of God’s love for me, and that when Hebrews says that my faith is the substance of that which I hope for it gives me the strength to keep on hoping despite the circumstances and the accusations of the enemy seeking to destroy me.

Part of my testimony is that in 1999 I became depressed to the point of trying to take my own life several times. God pulled me through each time and what the doctors told me should have killed me several times over merely allowed me to sleep deeply. God protected me from myself and this blog, these articles as a direct result of His intervention in my life. He brought me through it my rekindling hope in my heart which seeded hope and resulted in a renewed faith in Him. My physical circumstances – my dad having died, fiancee leaving me, losing my job and being told I was diabetic – didn’t change. What changed was the attitude of my heart.

And it happened because I realised that God cared about me. Enough to go to the cross.

Because He thought – and still thinks – I’m real.

OK, this week I was bombarded by emails regarding Ashley Madison. I don’t spend much time reading newspapers or watching TV as quite frankly I find the news depressing.

This was different. It’s rare for a news item to chase me as I generally subscribe to feeds from Christian sites. But as I say, this story is very different.

I’m a Generation X baby. I’m in my 40’s now (yikes) and still remember the days before Facebook, Youtube and dating websites. My first computer was a BBC model B computer with 32k or RAM. My current cellphone has more power than that and it’s obsolete. The internet changed how we do things forever.

I met my wife on a dating site, so understand I’m not against the reputable ones in principle. I was socially outgoing on the surface but very insecure underneath so our courtship was for several months regular email and instant messenger chats. We didn’t even exchange pictures for three months and it didn’t matter.

Ashley Madison is different.

Any site that starts with the tagline “Life is short: Have an affair” fails to hold any respect for human beings. My dogs show more fidelity than they suggest married couples should. It also fails to realise that actions have eternal consequences.

I’ve written about post-Christian society before, and spoken about it as well. The West in particular is not a Christian society. Laws originally crafted based on Biblical principles have long since been overturned or abolished and secular – and frankly unGodly – laws put in their place to legalise pretty much every sin listed in the Bible. Even murder is now condoned in many countries but the “politically correct” way of saying it is “assisted suicide” or “euthanasia”.

Which reminds me – I must update my living will. I suggest you do the same.

In response to the emails and texts about the Ashley Madison situation I found myself drawn back into reading the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I was reminded of a conference I went to in my late teens where the keynote speaker – Tony Campolo I think – was talking about sin and repentance. He said something that stuck with me and helped me get out of a bad situation (eventually). His comment was that the sin of the cities was not their sexual promiscuity, rather it was that their society no longer recognised that behaviour as sinful. It was simply how it was.

Fast forward three or four millennia to today and what’s changed?

Basically we now have the covering of the Cross to shield us from God’s wrath we can call on. So no need to build an Ark just yet.

There is a serious human tragedy in sites like this trash even existing. The assumption that it’s impossible for a faithful, monogamous relationship to be fulfilling is a joke to the World. Which is to be expected. The World is, after all, the dominion of the Father of Lies.

God didn’t include “no adultery” to limit us, but to free us to new depths of intimate relationship that we were created to have. Adam didn’t have Eve on speed-dial so he could call her for a quickie. It says he knew her. The implication is far more than him being aware of her existence as a fellow inmate in Eden. They had a relationship of intimacy far beyond a lustful encounter, and sadly beyond what many couples achieve these days.

My wife told me this evening after 12 years of marriage that I was the first man who made her feel beautiful. I was lost for words – which doesn’t happen often. We’ve had health and financial hardship for the last few years but that Love between us has become deeper and more intimate than ever before. And no, I’m talking intimacy not sex here.

Ashley Madison sells a counterfeit product. It’s a spiritual ponzi scheme. Eventually it will bring your world crashing down around you. It cheapens marriage. It blatantly lies about the nature of life. Life is not “short”. Life is Eternal, unending. With sites like this around – and I realise it’s not the only one – it sells the 21st Century problem as something to be chased. It makes sin sound desirable.

Like all the schemes of the enemy it builds on lies and half-truths to deceive the people it ensnares.
I’m sure the CEO thinks he’s done a wonderful job creating something so popular. He’s clearly a charismatic leader.

We would do well to remember Hitler was a charismatic leader. Lenin was popular. They were also the most repugnant embodiment of sinful behaviour of the last 100 years.

Sin – ALL sin – is driven by selfishness. Ashley Madison happens to focus on sex. A few years ago there was a financial scheme called PIPS which convinced many people of it’s legitimate business structure. It ran with huge profits for about nine years before it collapsed and was exposed as a massive ponzi scheme. It was popular because it fed on people’s greed for money. This site focuses on greed for carnality.

So where to now for those exposed?

Leaders need to step forward and admit their sin to their flock and resign, allowing Godly discipline to be placed on them. Families need to be loved, both the hurt and the wanderer.

It should also be remembered that actions don’t happen in a vacuum. There is always, always a reason things happen. Affairs grow where there is something missing in a relationship – INTIMACY! Lust meets that need as a counterfeit that looks real enough.

We all need to be accountable to others. We need people we can turn to in times of crisis to get support and not judgement to prevent falling into traps like these sites.

There are steps for those exposed or who have fear they will be:

1. Acknowledge your sin to yourself, your spouse and your church leader before someone else does
2. Take action. Delete your account in their presence. Ask them to place a block on your computer preventing further access to the site that is password protected.
3. Recognise that trust has been broken and allow mourning for what has transpired
4. Press into Christ and begin the long road to forgiveness. Be aware that for some marriages this will be a wound that won’t heal easily and for some not at all in terms of saving the marriage. Whether it leads to reconciliation as a couple or not, forgiveness is the only way forward. Forgive the person who signed up. Forgive yourself.
5. Don’t withdraw from fellowship. This is vital. The Body of Christ can help heal the broken-hearted in a way individuals cannot do for themselves. They keep us honest.
6. Accept discipline with grace. Irrespective of your status in the church, submit to the discipline of the elders whether you are the pastor or the newest member.
7. Finally and most importantly: DO NOT JUDGE THE SINNER. We are called to Love the way Christ did, not stone the adulterer. Remember the woman caught in adultery didn’t get hit with a single rock. We’ve ALL sinned and fallen short of God’s standard.

Forgiveness is a path, not a destination. It requires effort every day. I have formerly close members of my family I don’t speak to because it’s easier to forgive them if I’m not around them. We can’t change others but we can ask God to help us renew our heart to be like Jesus every day.

Isn’t that the point?

It seems when we read the Bible that being rich may be a barrier to getting into Heaven. When Jesus counsels the rich young ruler in Mark 10, the man leaves unhappy because he is advised the only thing he lacks is to surrender all his belongings and follow Jesus.

As a hoarder, I can relate. A few months ago my wife and I had to move in with my mum, which was fine, except that my mom and I both collect things – on a big scale. For mom it’s model cats and houses. For me it’s a range of things. The result is chaos. Even I have to admit it.

My wife is a minimalist by comparison, and it’s been a source of stress for us.

I tend to be “ruled” by my desire to hold onto things. The rich young ruler had the same problem.

But Jesus wasn’t condemning him for being wealthy, rather the issue was for having that wealth as an idol separating him from God. In many ways I identify with him. One of the things I collected over the years are Bibles. The irony of a collection of Bibles getting between me and Christ is not lost on me. Many of the translations I use for personal study are not available online that I’ve found, so I have them handy in print in case I need them. They get in the way.

The disciples were incredulous when they thought Jesus said a rich man couldn’t enter Heaven. I’ve read around the topic a bit, and come to a conclusion. Jesus was actually trying to get the disciples to realize that a man who places his trust in earthly wealth alone will never enter Heaven. It came as a relief that my trust is not in the number of books I own, but the relationship with God through Jesus which allows me to enter into Eternal Life in spite of my collections rather than because of them.

Jesus didn’t condemn the wealthy for being wealthy. When Nicodemus came to Him, Jesus didn’t tell him to get rid of his belongings. Nicodemus’s search was sincere as to what he needed to do. The young ruler was trying to make a spectacle of himself and show that he was secure because he had money. As a leader, Nicodemus is unlikely to have been poor. The difference is in his heart’s attitude, and as a result the rich man, Nicodemus, learns how to enter the Kingdom as his trust is not in riches but God’s Grace and the New Covenant.

We need to hold onto that concept, and cross into Luke 11:

“So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.What father among you, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him!”

(Luke 11:9-13 Amplified)

“My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings.Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart.For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh.

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk put far from you.Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright.Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left; remove your foot from evil.”

(Proverbs 4:20-27 Amplified)

You probably know the old Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby”. It was a double “A” side single that went to No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1966. I stumbled on an old LP of my dad’s recently. On it was the song.

“Waits at the window, Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?”

The lyric stuck in my head. It’s something we all do.

We have different faces. The face at school or work where we have to be the right image to fit in. The face with our family. The face with our friends.

I saw different faces a lot as a kid. There was one guy in particular who alone, away from a group, was a really decent guy. But when he was with others or at school he changed faces more than a chameleon changes colour.

The greatest compliment anyone ever paid me was a couple of years after I committed to follow Jesus. Eddie, a “tough” guy at school, was a guy who respected and stood up for me. There weren’t many. It was an all boys school and my main hobby after school was Ballet. Looking at me these days you’d never believe it, but I enjoyed it.

Eddie told me “Dave, you’re always the same. Tiger in the wolves den. You don’t change your stripes.”

I wish that was still the case. It was easy at school. I didn’t fit into a group and I didn’t want to pretend to be something I wasn’t, so I just kept to myself and had as little interaction with others as possible. When I did have to engage I just stayed as myself. What you see is what you get.

As I got older I had to adapt. We all do. We grow more faces the more we’re around others and the more situations we encounter. Each one brings out a different face.

The problem is as Christians we’re supposed to be the face of Jesus.

It’s easy to forget.

It’s easier to show the angry face than the compassionate one. The disappointed instead of the forgiving. Loving instead of bitterness.

“For everything there is a season,
a right time for every intention under heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

There’s a time for everything, so says the writer of Ecclesiastes. Is there a time for different faces?

There’s place for different faces in our lives. Even God has different faces. The provider, the healer, the one who sanctifies are peaceful, beautiful images. God my Shepherd. This is a little different. In the Bible times a shepherd was not the gentle figure with a collie-dog next to him. He was rugged and hardy.

King David was a shepherd. The shepherd killed the lion and the bear to protect the flock.

This face of God is different. He is a jealous God – so He says Himself in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:5). He will defend His people but they must be His people, devoted to Him. We see over and over in the Bible that the two faces, loving and angry, forgiving and vengeful dwell in God in harmony.

Jesus was the embodiment of both. Witness Him in the Temple. He sees the money-changers stealing His children’s money. He sees the unjust scales and corrupt priests making a profit from the people coming to worship Him and the Father. So He takes leather straps. See Him sitting outside the Temple braiding them together. The disciples must have been confused – this wasn’t normal for Jesus.
Then He stands and slowly walks into the bustling outer court of the Temple itself.

The chaos must have been terrible. He throws over tables, drives out animals and thrashes the cheating money-changers with the whip He just made. Deliberate, terrible anger. But then in the middle of it we see Him stop to open the cages of the doves. Such gentility in the midst of such anger. The two faces in harmony.

The same God who cracked the whip chose to hang on a Roman Cross. The same God who placed the stars in the sky chose to walk among us clothed in flesh. The same God who will be Judge will also be in the Dock.

Eleanor Rigby may have kept a face in the jar. We do. God Himself does.

We don’t see all the faces of God at once. Usually.

Usually we don’t see them because we don’t look. It’s a case of missing the wood because the trees are in the way. The angry God of the Old Testament demanding the slaughter of all ahead of the Israelites as they enter the Promised Land is the same God who hung on the Cross and who offers His Spirit to us today.

I once heard it said that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah wasn’t sexual depravity. Rather it was that the sexual depravity was no longer considered to be a sin that so angered God that He destroyed the cities. As Ecclesiastes says:

“That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc 1:9)

Times have changed but men have not. The face of mankind displayed by ISIS is no different than that displayed by the Crusades. I know that’s a controversial thing to say, but let’s face it: if Richard the Lionheart leading the Crusade to Jerusalem had been able to use cruise missiles and C4 explosives then he would have done. That which was done is done again.

But whilst for man it’s a bad thing, we must take heart because as much as mankind repeats history, God doesn’t change. His nature is constant. He demonstrates His consistency in nature. Gravity, the speed of light, the speed of sound, the rotation of the planets all move with consistency and reflect Him to us if we will see it.

All God’s faces are unified. Our part is to reflect His face at each moment.

Don’t be Eleanor Rigby. She kept her face, her real face hidden.

Our real face is His. Be angry when God is angry and at what He is angry about. Be angry at the actions of the group murdering its way blindly across the Middle-East. But love the individuals within the group. Forgive the man with the sword but hate the action.

It’s hard. Most people can’t separate one from the other most of the time. I certainly can’t, but I try. I ask God every day to soften my heart and make it like His, strong rather than impervious. Gentle enough to take a moment to release a dove in the middle of starting a riot.

I’m a work in progress. I wear many faces and I keep them ready to change at a moment’s notice.

I long for the day that I can say I’m no longer an Eleanor Rigby.

There is a definite spirit of intolerance over the country of Bangladesh at the moment regarding speaking out against Islam.

Niloy Neel was murdered in his home for having the temerity to question Islam on his Blog.

Let me be clear: While Niloy was an atheist of Hindu background and I am a Christian and this is a Christian Blog, I grieve for his death. All Christians should.

In case I’ve not made it clear on this blog in the past, I’ll say it now: Eagle’s Wing Ministries is here to promote Christianity as the only path to God, and as such demonstrate that only by Jesus can we be reconciled with God our Father.

In “A Grief Observed”, CS Lewis says “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.” Christianity is something we must be prepared to defend with our very lives if needed. There is only one correct solution to a mathematical puzzle. Other methods may get an answer that is close, but close and correct are very different concepts.

Islam is close to the Truth, but it misses the mark. It produces many good, moral men. I have often done business with Muslim professionals on a handshake because they will not renege on a deal for the sake of Allah. When I do business with a Christian I usually feel I need to get the agreement in writing. There’s something wrong there, but it’s the way it is.

I believe Mohammed was a false prophet. As a Christian I cannot do anything else. His teachings, however moral, still lead away from God.

I reject atheism as a life-choice. Again I quote CS Lewis: “Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist.” Why spend so much time and energy trying to convince me I’m wrong about God’s existence if my belief makes me a nobler human being, a more compassionate one than I might otherwise have been? Most Christians I know seek to help others sacrificially on their part. They open soup kitchens to feed the homeless. They open shelters to house the needy. I’m not saying no atheists do these things, but in my experience they are the exception historically.

I applaud Niloy for his stance. He championed causes I would champion. He fought for equal rights and upliftment of women and minorities, and the right to free speech.

And men claiming to be “religious” murdered him, doing their god’s bidding.

In the Bible this happened. The Israelites were led astray by belief in Moloch, a devil masquerading as a god who demanded the murder of children. Flash forward to today and you’ll see ISIS sending out children as suicide bombers.

Now more than ever as Christians we need to have courage to speak out for our Faith in our Lord. We need to show tolerance and patience to those who have yet to believe in Jesus as their Saviour. Just as Jesus Himself did.

Nobody cannot be saved through the Love of Christ unless they choose to not accept it. The murders in the middle East right now are simply another attack of the Enemy on our conscience and a distraction designed to strike fear into the hearts of believers. They target Christian areas and towns where Christians have lived for 2000 years, displacing them and seeking to eradicate our Lord from “their” land.

The lines have been drawn in the sand – literally. But we need to step across the line. It was drawn by a false god’s followers. Just like the Romans, ISIS will fall and the remnant will return. Nothing to stand against Christ’s Good News in 2000 years has endured.

Through prayer and action, that will not change now.

Pray for the Middle East, Syria, Iraq and all those brothers and sisters displaced by these terrorists

Pray for Courage to give them strength in their struggle, and tolerance to allow them to live out the commandment to love our enemies.

Above all, pray for those writers, journalists and bloggers alike, who are prepared to risk their very lives to speak out against the injustices in their countries.

I don’t usually do this, but I ask you to pray this prayer with me:

Lord Jesus: You know the hearts and minds of men. Strengthen the pastors and teachers in these oppressed areas under such terrible persecution from false gods and their worshipers. Give them the courage to speak your word in what they write and to whomever they speak. Give them your wisdom to soothe the wounds caused by the hatred stirred up in these troubled times.

Lead the hearts of the accusers to seek Truth from those they persecute as you did with St Paul on the Damascus Road. Let these violent men become warriors for your cause in heart, word and action. Change their hearts and cause the lies of the enemy to be silenced so they can hear your beautiful voice telling them “this is the way – walk in it” and recognise your Truth.

In Jesus’ Name

Amen

 

They say a writer should write every day whether he has a paying client or not. It hones the skill to a great degree. For a Christian writer it’s much the same, but also completely different.

When I write it’s usually late at night, often between 1am and 3am. There’s no distractions except the quiet breathing of my wife and the occasional nuzzle from one of the dogs looking for attention.

My life is in a state of great upheaval at the moment. We’ve been hit in the last five years by the heaviest blows I’ve ever experienced as a Christian, all starting from within a week of me beginning to write. First there was poor health, then family members diagnosed with terminal illness. Financial struggles, the upheaval of moving home, new neighbours who were less than friendly (and still are).

In short there has been chaos.

Normally I’m comfortable in chaos. Four years ago following the loss of a job through stress I finally found a psychiatrist who could answer the question I’ve been asking for thirty years: with an IQ so high, why do I fail to perform? What’s wrong with me?

That was a question I’ve struggled with as long as I can remember. The answer? “David: you suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder.”

ADD is a “silent” illness in adults – especially ones my age (40+). I grew up being told I was lazy and untidy. Employers told me I was disorganised. Eventually I decided I needed to be self-employed to survive. Now even that is too much for me because the business has expanded and I’m no longer mentally capable of maintaining the focus I need to do the job. But at least I know why.

In the middle of all the chaos I’ve had to learn to find peace.

Technically my wife is terminally ill. She is in remission, controlled by medication, but the illness has a 100% mortality rate.

Chaos.

For over two years neither of us could work and our financial stability fell apart despite God placing some amazing people around us to support us.

Chaos.

Our new business hinges on my being able to perform as manager – which I’m failing at – and her ability to do her part, which is hard because f what we’re going through.

Chaos.

So I write. I don’t keep everything I write, and I certainly don’t post it here or anywhere else usually.

Tonight I felt I had to, that there is someone out there who needs to know it’s alright to be different: God still has a plan for you.

I choose to write late at night because it’s the time I can hear God most clearly. Maybe for you it’s while you’re washing the car or vacuuming the living room. Whatever that place is, find it every day.

Spend time with Jesus every day. Preferably in the Bible. I have the New Testament recorded on CD and transferred onto my MP3 player so I can have time hearing the Word, because Faith comes by hearing. I listen to it some nights, others I listen to recorded sermons or devotionals. But every night I fight the chaos and drive it out to find a space for peace.

It’s odd the way my body works. I take three different sedatives to help me sleep, and if I don’t, I can’t sleep. But they don’t knock me out cold. It’s 2am here as I’m writing and I took the “sleeping” pills at around 10:30pm. Any one on it’s own should render me unconscious in less than half an hour. All they do for me is to slow the pace at which my mind runs.

But this is a Blessing for me. By slowing me down I can more easily hear God’s voice when I pray. I’m not in a rush to finish the prayer.

I find Peace.

The chaos in my life will not go away quickly. Some of it may never go away, and some of it will need a miracle greater than I currently have the strength to believe for to overcome, but God gives me the gift of peaceful sleep, even if it’s only two or three hours some nights.

Peace in the midst of Chaos.

Christ in the middle of the Storm.

Every night He invites me to step out of the boat and walk on the water with Him. Some nights I can, some I can’t. But when I can’t, I call out to Him and He comes to me and comforts me. Like a warm blanket on a cold evening I feel my spirit wrapped up in His Love and I receive Peace.

The chaos will probably never go away. The World hates those who truly try to follow Christ because we truly seek to follow Him. I expect to be involved in daily battles. I expect to win them day to day because Jesus is with me and He has overcome the World.

But a battlefield is chaos.

I visited the battlefields in France as a child where so many young men died in the trenches of World War One. There are places where the front lines are so close together you can hold a conversation with someone standing opposite, and certainly where a 90lb wimp could throw a grenade far enough to land in the trench opposite. The landscape is filled with craters and unexploded munitions a hundred years old that can still go off. People still die on the Flanders Fields long after the guns have been silenced. Even in the aftermath of that war, the battlefields are chaotic.

Then there are places in the middle of the battlefields. Cemeteries of German and British/Allied troops. In the middle of the horror of the reality you walk through to reach them, there is peace in the middle of the chaos.

Christ offers us that. The stability of a Spiritual Peace that goes beyond our comprehension in the middle of the worst situations we can imagine, He can bring Peace if we will let Him.

My wife struggles to find peace. Living with me is not easy. ADD sufferers are generally not easy to live with, and I have a habit of not dealing well with stress. Chaos invariably follows.

I take myself out of the situation so she can seek some Peace in her way with God, and I can seek it in my way.

Finding peace in chaos is hard to do, I won’t lie about it. It requires a discipline that, frankly, I’m ill-equipped to follow through on. But I persevere. I need that Peace that only Christ can give.

This entry is more personal than meditation in nature.

I hope it can Bless you to know just two things:

1) It’s never too late to stop and invite Jesus in to bring Peace in the chaos of your life
2) You’re not alone.

Feel free to write to me if you’d like me to pray for you to stand in agreement with you to see Peace passing all comprehension fill both our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of Jesus. The Peace-Giver.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

John 14: 12-14

 

1. Identify the need
2. Ask God what you can do to use the gifts He placed in you to help
3. Ask the person to exercise their faith with yours
4. Have the courage to step out and use the gift, no matter the personal potential for loss and humiliation
5. Don’t back down: stay resolute in the battle
6. See the victory – not always quickly, but see it nonetheless.

Six simple steps but steps we seldom make because of fear. But when we do follow through we receive those things that are termed “miracles” but should be “Thursday afternoon.” Don’t mistake me, I am in awe when I allow God to use me this way, but I’m a nervous wreck when He does. The enemy bombards with “what if” words which discourage and break down the resolve. It’s a battle that needs to be one in our own heart before it is waged on behalf of others by us. We need to stand on solid ground we are sure of. First turn the list on yourself. For me, that’s a work in progress. I struggle with unforgiveness and anger towards people. I have no right to hold on to the pain caused, but I struggle to let go.

But when I get past it, I can let God use me. I have friendships born in furnace-heat fire which are stronger than steel and purer than gold and infinitely more precious that began with me taking the nudge from God and saying “Hey, God says I need to talk to you about “X”, whatever it is. Scares me witless every time. Never been wrong.

All I did was follow the steps and I got a predictable outcome. 100% victory when I followed the steps.

Consider the universe. Such orderly creation cannot come from a mind we cannot know or trust to be consistent. And if God is the same today as He was in Jesus’ day then we have nothing to fear by approaching Him and asking BIG as long as we ask in line with His Will. We find that written in our hearts. Mine is writing and flying. I’m halfway there!

The laws of physics and chemistry were designed by intelligence to work perfectly. They always work and never fail. As Scotty in Star Trek would say, “Ye Canna change the laws of physics,” and he’s right. We can’t, but through the power of His name we can manipulate them to achieve God’s outcome.

Predictable outcomes are crucial for us to grow as Christians. If we don’t see consistent results at our current level of faith, we can never be stretched to reach for the next level of our faith. We stay on  milk spiritually – it’s a great way to wither and die. As we grow we need more sustenance to grow. That can only be found by reaching a place where our prayers are answered daily. Predictably.

The predictability of the outcome comes when we see that our constant routine produces the same result. Then we adjust the sights – same steps – onto larger targets. I know of a minister who started out needing $1,000 per month who after being faithful for some time now needs $1,000,000 per month and growing to keep his ministry running. He learned the power of living a predictable Christian life.

Not dull.

Not mundane.

Predictable. Perhaps terrifying and uncomfortable, but predictable outcomes.

We can all do that.

Just remember the steps:

1. Identify the need
2. Ask God what you can do to use the gifts He placed in you to help
3. Ask the person to exercise their faith with yours
4. Have the courage to step out and use the gift, no matter the personal potential for loss and humiliation
5. Don’t back down: stay resolute in the battle
6. See the victory – not always quickly, but see it nonetheless.

And move into a predictable, victorious life.