Even as Christians we are susceptible to attack. Our health and finances are the enemy’s favourite targets. We lose sight of what Christ bought for us through the atonement and when we do we are open to assault in any area.

We stop watching our backs and we become complacent because of modern medicine and credit agreements. We get sucked into darker places easily once we start relying on our own strength and “street-smarts” to move on in the world. Then once the circle is big enough to trap us, the enemy moves in ans snaps shut, then suddenly we are serving two masters. The trap catches us unaware and our life changes.

We are not aware in this modern world of the battle we are caught up in. John Eldridge likens this world to the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. From a Spiritual perspective we are storming the beaches of Normandy and taking heavy fire all the time. Many of us are walking around broken and bleeding from life-threatening wounds that left untended will eventually kill us.

We leave ourselves open to heartache, sickness and death both physical and spiritual when we lose sight of the battle we are in.

Paul writes to the Ephesians about the Armour of God and lists the items – breastplate, shield, sword, helmet, foot-guards and belt. The list is based around the armour of the Roman empire. Roman legionaries were famous in antiquity for not retreating or turning their back on the enemy. There’s no protection for the back. It’s a blind side.

If we keep facing the enemy we are fully protected. The Belt of Truth holds all the rest of the armour in place. The Helmet of Salvation protects our minds. The Sword of the Word is an offensive weapon which Paul says is mighty to tear down strongholds. The armour of preparedness on the feet lets us move forward to spread the Gospel.

All of this is great, but the most essential part that gets forgotten so often is the shield. Faith is our shield. It protects our blind side. The “fiery darts” Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6 are a likening to the flaming arrows fired in ancient warfare. The shield in Roman armour was thick and heavy. The wood it was backed with would absorb the arrow deeply enough to extinguish the arrows fired. It had to be hooked onto the belt because of the weight. It was not enough to have the shield alone. Truth supports the shield.

What much of the trap of the 21st Century has delivered to us is a false truth. Medicine, although useful – it must be added that right now I myself take several medicines daily for unresolved chronic medical conditions – is not God’s first choice. We are comfortable with it because we can live with the issues that just 50 years ago were almost always fatal unless God intervened. When we need finances we turn straight to a bank or “micro-finance” lender. The concept of turning to God to meet financial needs, despite being a central theme through Jesus’s own teaching, is virtually condemned by most churches (note the lower case “c” there). Christ’s teaching of reliance on God for our daily needs has almost been completely lost. We need to get back to basics, and it protects our blind side.

The enemy will sometimes get a shot past us. We may get wounded or even killed by those shots, but if we keep our mind set on the Truth and build our Faith on that Truth, then we can overcome even potentially fatal wounds.

It’s easy to sit back in our comfortable chairs and spout platitudes about how to live as a Christian. Platitudes are easy. They are pure theory, like the scientist who sits looking at pieces of paper and uses mathematics to explain how a star can exist, or more accurately a business man called in to “streamline” a company talking about how many jobs must be cut, then returning to his million dollar job in his million dollar car.

Reality is harder.

In World War One the soldiers doing the fighting sat up to their knees in filth, mud, water and rats. Many lives were lost because of the conditions the men were forced to live in. Even today, you can visit places and see sanitised versions of the trenches. I saw the reconstructions as a teenager at Vimy Ridge. I saw the massive memorial at Thiepval to over 70 000 men whose bodies were never recovered on the Somme battlefields.

But the Generals who sent these men to their deaths sat growing fat at HQ, eating steak and attending dances whilst their men were close to starving and waiting for death to call.

As Christians we can fall into the trap of believing we’re Generals.

We sit and spout theory about why things are the way they are. God being God allows certain things to happen to teach us. He has His “master-plan” and we can’t understand it.

We’re living in a world where we are at war but we think we’re at HQ. Then the shells start falling around us. Cancer, unemployment, death of loved ones strike at us and we are reminded that we are not safe behind the lines, but rather we are stuck in the middle of the front line, and the enemy soldiers are well trained and relentless.

Suddenly we have to start to walk the talk. And we usually fail.

Peter was so filled with the Holy Spirit that people placed the sick in the street so his shadow could touch them. When it came time for them to look for someone to wait on the tables they sought out those anointed men to do it – Primarily Stephen, the first martyr.

They talked the talk, yes. But they walked what they talked. Peter laid hands on the sick, He raised the dead. He had freely received – not in theory, but in reality – and he now freely gave. He taught others what he knew, sometimes he even used words to do it.

We are quick to talk, but walking it is another matter. It’s hard to stay strong when it looks like your life is falling apart. Death and sickness haunt your every step. Loved ones die and are diagnosed with terrible illness. Fear is a natural response. Grief hammers on the door of our heart and we open it up and weep.

It’s normal. It’s part of healing. It opens the door to what comes next…

hang on…

Next?

Next…

“Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!'” (John 11:33-36)

Jesus wept because He loved Lazarus and He loved Martha. He felt the grief tey felt. He felt the loss. He wept.

Then He acted.

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.<sup class="footnote" value="[c]”>[c] And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.'” (John 11:38-44)

First Jesus felt the grief, then He acted. And Lazarus came out of the grave.

Jesus walked the talk. Peter and Paul and Timothy and all the apostles walked the talk. They saw miracles. Jail cells opened, blind eyes seeing, lame walking, deaf hearing.

When my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 I tried to believe for a miracle. I wanted him to live and recover. He didn’t. I didn’t understand at that point. I said all the right things, even outwardly did all of them, but my heart saw him die when the doctors made the diagnosis. As a result I prepared for his death in my heart, and not for his health being restored.

I talked the talk, but I didn’t walk it. I know that now, and although I’m saddened I don’t feel guilt or shame about it. It’s been taken care of by giving it over to Christ, something we all must do.

Walking the talk is hard. It means taking hits, often from people we are very close to.

It means having to watch sometimes and wait for the moment to call our Lazarus out.

We weep. We bleed. We feel the despair and the heartache this world holds.

We drown it out most of the time. Numb ourselves to the cry of our hearts by watching TV or drinking, or partying. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. But then we go to sleep alone, and in the darkness He calls to us, and our thoughts return to where we should be.

So we get up and we talk the fight. Once in a while we even fight the fight.

Then a new attack comes and we crumple.

Unless we consistently walk out our faith. We can build ourselves up through fellowship to a point where when the storm comes we can weather it. The wave breaks on the Rock on which we stand, rather than swamping us

Talk the talk, yes. But we must walk out what we believe, whatever the cost personally if we are to stand.

Walk the talk. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22)

Every so often in our walk something truly catastrophic happens. The Enemy of our soul gets a shot in and on target and we are left reeling and wounded in a huge way.

It’s happened several times in my life.

Each time, however, life goes on.

My younger brother was killed in a road accident, my favourite aunt died in a house fire, cancers in the family, more and more things went wrong.

Each of these incidents had the potential to destroy my life. And they nearly did.

Thankfully, God is here.

These incidents have all been redeemed. Jesus used Robin’s death to reveal His amazing Love for me to me. My dad’s first cancer shook me, but eventually drew us closer to each other and to God. His second cancer, which took his life in 1999, led us into a level of closeness and relationship we’d never experienced before, although we had a very close relationship. I was able to hold his hand as he went home, and I believe he could have been healed but chose to rather go as he knew our Lord was with me.

The issues we face are not sent from God to test us. He loves us unconditionally. He redeems us perfectly. He gives us only good gifts.

Cancer is not good.

Death is not good.

No illness is good.

God gives us only that which is good, perfect and pleasing. If it’s not all of those things, God didn’t send it.

BUT…

He can and wants to redeem it.

 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20a) That doesn’t mean God sent it – I’m certain when God showed Joseph his future He didn’t intend for him to be sold as a slave and imprisoned on false charges for years before it came to pass. Joseph’s brothers were motivated by jealousy and greed. They were filled with anger and acted on it.

But God redeemed their actions and saved thousands through Joseph despite their hate.

No matter how negative the situation you’re facing God can redeem it, and wants to. He has a perfect plan for our lives, one with a hope and a future. He wants us to live in an abundant life. Jesus Himself said “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10 Amplified)

So basically, if you are going through hell right now, God wants to redeem it. If you went through hell recently, God wants to redeem it. God will guide us through the valley of the shadow of death, not help us set up home in it. He leads us through the darkness in this world into life and light.

Life is short. It has hard knocks in it. We all miss what God is saying to us from time to time and then we have consequences we must deal with. But God wants to redeem them and make us live better, setting up a table for us in the very face of the enemy who tried to destroy us.

Hold fast to the Cross. Anchor to the Rock of Christ and never let Him go. No matter how bad the situation looks now, God wants to redeem it.

Every so often something comes into your life that you don’t expect. It can come in many forms, but it is so out of the blue that you can’t brace for it.

“Mum, I’m pregnant” – and 14
“I’m sorry, it’s cancer”
“There’s been an accident…”

The ground gets pulled out from under us and we just stagger under the load.

God didn’t design us to cope. This isn’t a flaw in the design, or in the programming of Mankind. We were made for paradise. We were designed to live for ever. When God made us, He made us in His image. Immortal and unflawed.

Enter Satan…

When sin entered into the world God had made everything in creation changed as Death entered with it. Everything except our programming.

Suddenly we were going to die. There was a finite time period for existence in this world. Worse, we were separated from the only one who could help us.

Sin, sickness, Death. This world was opened up to everything Hell had instead of the riches of Heaven.

Adam was over 900 years old when he ceased to exist in this world, but we don’t know how long he had existed before the fall. It’s possible he and Eve had lived for centuries before they tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Adam sinned and condemned all of us.

Jesus came to put it right. God had a choice. He could eliminate everything and start over, or He could redeem His creation. From the very moment Adam ate the fruit he had been forbidden to eat Jesus began to move. “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15) It was the child of a woman, not a man who would crush the serpent’s head. Jesus was born of woman, but His Father was God Himself, just as Adam’s was. He would face the same temptations and the same trials as Adam, but where Adam had fallen, Jesus would succeed. Instead of surrendering to Satan, Jesus did what Adam was meant to do –  He rebuked Satan and walked away. Satan was left powerless against Him.

It’s because of this that we have a share in Eternal Life. Jesus chose to give to everyone who accepted His sacrifice a share of what He had gained. He gave us a piece of Himself, and took from us what we were never designed to cope with.

The enemy will still try to put a load onto us. Cancer, HIV, alcoholism, addictions – the list is long and sounds daunting. Whatever comes against us is merely a distraction designed to draw us away from God and trusting Him and His goodness though.

We are bombarded with facts. They add to the load. Words like “inoperable”, “Incurable”, “chronic condition” and “lifetime illness” are thrown around and destroy our faith. The facts can build us up, but the enemy will use the facts to distract us from the Truth and to put onto us a load we should never have had to bear.

We have been given the Name of Jesus. In His name we have authority over all sickness, and even death itself is not an obstacle that is insurmountable.

Until our faith develops to the point that we can do like Jesus and then Peter did and see health return at the command in Jesus name we have the Comforter to teach us and convict us. But even this is twisted. The Spirit comes, but “…when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness”. (John 16:8). He will convict of Sin, but He will convict of Righteousness. Since He has come, we are therefore convicted of our status. Satan deafens us to the whole message though. We readily accept te burden of being a sinner, and accept the sin we have been living in, because we can see it. But we get so bogged down in that we don’t hear the rest. Because of Jesus we are righteous. We are made in right standing with God. He sees us as sinless as Jesus because the burden was taken from us again by His sacrifice.

Lift the load from our shoulders and give it to Jesus. He said we must take His yoke. His burden is light. He wants us to take His load, and He will take ours.

There seems to be a shift in thinking in some places today that we are on our own as Christians. God has set things in motion and now just lets everything run until the end of time.

This is simply not true. God knows the end from the beginning, yes. He does NOT however pre-destine individuals. There is a big difference between knowing what will happen and making the choice.

In the Matrix movies, the problem the machines have is they cannot comprehend choice. Free will is a mystery to them. They are bound by the programming in them and cannot comprehend choice.

We seem to think God is like that – or that is the impression you can get. I once heard Tony Campolo say when he was young he believed in predestination so strongly that when he fell down the stairs he thanked God it was over with!

The problem of Free Will is that we make choices that are bad for us. God allows them, and ultimately uses them to further His will in our lives, but the enemy has a plan to drag us away from His love into destruction, and Jesus Himself said most people will take the broad road to destruction rather than the narrow, hard road to salvation.

When I was still quite young, probably in the summer of 1984 when I was 12, my family went on holiday to the Gower peninsular in South Wales. We used to walk together from Langland Bay to Caswell Bay and back by following a footpath round the headland. It was a wonderful walk, uphill in both directions, or so it felt! We would wander slowly round the cliff walk and sometimes get an ice-cream before heading back. This one paqrticular day was hot. Very hot. We walked in shorts and t-shirts, or just shorts, and open sandals. As we walked we heard crying from above us in the gorse bushes over the path. Two young girls had wandered off the path and got lost in the gorse, somehow managing to get into a place where they couldn’t get out by going up or down.

My dad was a schoolmaster, and had a real love of children. Without hesitation he pushed through the brambles and thorns, lifted the two girls up onto his shoulders and carried them back down through the brambles to the path, then on to the lifeguard station at Caswell bay where they were reunited with their parents. Dad’s legs were badly cut and bleeding from the thorns, and it took the first-aid attendant over an hour to clean him up.

I have often had the image of my dad that day come back to my mind. He gave no thought of what it would cost him in terms of pain to help these children who were complete strangers. I remember marvelling at the way he just brushed through the thorns. I did ask him why he’d done it later. He simply smiled and pointed out that he knew he could help, so he knew he had to. He could endure what they could not, and they were rescued as a result.

Now my dad was not perfect. He was as flawed and fragile as any human, yet he retained a strength throughout his life. His faith carried him through the ups and downs of existence, and although he eventually succombed to cancer in 1999 he held fast to his convictions to the end. I had the honour of holding his hand as he went home, and although it hurt immensely to lose him, he left us in such a peaceful way that I was strengthened by his example.

We all have to endure things in this world we were not designed to bear. The human psyche as designed by God is not designed to deal with the loss we experience when death comes, or sickness or poverty. We were made for paradise and designed for peace, and we spend our lives trying to find it in spite of the world.

Endurance is something we must learn, but it is something we can do. He promised we would never be given more than we can handle. We forget this and it leads to depression, anxiety, stress and a myriad of other problems. Illness follows and we succomb to the ravishes of the dread diseases of this world. But even then by turning to Christ again He will support our feet and lead us through to safety held high on His shoulders through the brambles and thorns that surround us until we are reunited with our Heavenly Father.

Sometimes we can do everything right and still the Enemy of our soul scores a point. It’s not that God doesn’t care, or is incapable of intervening, rather it comes down to something in us missing the ball. Eventually we all must encounter this experience, since in this world we are far from perfect. Even St Paul may have had some issues, and we know Timothy did from Paul’s advice to him to take wine for the sake of his stomach!

Our health and our prosperity are perhaps the two area where Satan will attack most, since they are the areas most of us are most vulnerable in. We can generally cope if our health is intact, but then the bills start piling up and we scream “God these BILLS!!!” He gives us prosperity and we find ourselves with sickness in our lives, either in ourselves, or in those we love.

Sometimes it’s easier when the sickness is in our own body. We can rationalise that. But having to sit by whilst a loved one, even a saved loved one, is diagnosed with cancer, diabetes or some other illness with no “cure” can be even worse.

I wrote recently on the difference between Truth and  Fact, and the point I was trying to make is that facts are subject to change. Truth is, by it’s nature, unchangeable. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) He was also heard to say “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Either that was very profound, or Jesus had no concept of correct grammar. I suspect the former. Truth is unshakeable. If we place our trust in the Truth of God’s Word, which He places above His Name, then our foundation is solid.

For us to trust God in our lives, we need a foundation of Truth. When that is in place, we can endure whatever the enemy throws at us. The house may shake, but it will ultimately stand.

Building a relationship on fact alone when talking about God is like building on sand. If I base my relationship with Him on the fact that there is money in my bank account and health in my body, then I am set up for a fall. But if I build it on the Truth that if He is with me I am prosperous whether I have money or not and He has healed me according to His promises in Isaiah and Peter, then whatever my bank balance or my doctor may say the Truth will hold me firm.

So the circumstances will come in this life where we have the occasion to accept or reject Truth because of what the facts tell us. We then start to live under the circumstances, and we are tossed about in the storm. It is infinitely better to anchor deep, hold on to the Truth, and ride out the onslaught of facts. They can always be changed. The Truth is eternal.

So smile at your issues. Laugh at your problems. Trust Jesus with your heart in spite of the circumstances, and live life to its fullest.

We were created in God’s image. It’s an awesome concept. I don’t mean physically, but rather our essence, our persona is God-like.

It’s a unique construct in creation. First God makes the entire universe, with all it’s intricacies and foibles, then as his final flourish he creates Man in His own image. A self-determining being with free-will and a purpose to determine what path he will follow.

That being said, we have a responsibility in our freedom. God placed in each of us the seeds of greatness. Every human being ever created has the potential to do incredible things for God and to change the world.

The responsibility is mind-blowing. Each one of us changes the world with every breath we take.

William Wallace in Braveheart says something to the effect of “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” In our lives for Christ, how true is this? We are called to do incredible things for God, but every day we chicken out. I wrote in another entry of how I failed to act when a young father had died, how I missed a God-sent opportunity to minister to a grieving family because of fear. I am not paralysed by this memory, nor am I afraid to declare my humanity. I long to live in the way God wants me to live, but my human nature gets in the way.

St Paul had the same issue. He said “I can anticipate the response that is coming: ‘I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?’ Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.” (Romans 7:14-16 The Message) If the great writer and scholar such as Paul had these struggles, how arrogant would I be to try to say I have it down!

Paul lived his entire New life based on two simple questions after he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Those questions were:

1) Who are you?
2) What do you want me to do?

Everything in Paul’s life stemmed from those questions, from his missionary journeys up to his execution for declaring Jesus as the Christ. Even then there was more he probably wanted to do, but he lived his potential from those simple questions.

We can do the same.

Part of the reason I write this little blog is that I asked God what I should do, and I believe He told me to write. I asked what I should call what I do, and He led me to Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.” (Amplified) He told me not to be afraid of men or of criticism, but to write what I felt He placed in my heart, so this is what I do.

I became a Christian after my brother was killed in a road accident. I blamed God, I blamed myself, actually I blamed everyone except the driver that hit him – mainly because I know how he used to ride a bike! I had an encounter with Jesus that turned my life around in a quiet way at first, but has guided me ever since. I had a wandering away in my late teens and early twenties, but He kept calling me back. Through the early years in my marriage, He kept nudging me back to Himself. I’ve had the urge to write, to proclaim God’s goodness for years, and only now have I begun to find an outlet for that.

Potential is tricky. Bruce Wilkinson refers to what I thinnk of as potential as a person’s Big Dream. I love that concept, and I have immense respect for his writing. I have read and re-read “The Dream Giver” over and over again, and it was the inspiration that finally gave me the nudge to start writing myself. I recognise myself in Ordinary. I have a dream in myself of who I can be, who I should be.

I have more potential than I know what to do with, but potential alone is worthless. We need to take action on that dream, move towards the potential for it to be worth anything.

One of my favourite concept ideas was told me many years ago by a friend who had been in the navy. He used to remind me that God treats us like a ship, and He is the rudder. Basically He doesn’t make us go anywhere, but He directs our course once we start moving. It doesn’t matter where the rudder points if the ship isn’t moving.

It’s easy to sit and procrastinate. We can watch ministers stand up and criticise the way they talk, or what they wear. I had hair I could sit on a few years ago, and a beard I could tuck into my belt. People who met me for the first time then were shocked when I started to talk about Jesus as though I knew Him. I’ve been guilty of judging others the same way. We all have.

Our potential is not limited by how we dress, but by what we do. When I rode a Harley and looked like I was a wild-man I found other bikers and wild-looking men and women talked to me. I had a lot of comments made about how I looked, but the ones making the comments were people the bikers I met avoided. It was a priviledge to be able to meet them and talk to some real people.

Each of us has gifts and a calling. You and I will meet different people and impact their lives in different ways. I work in the same place as my wife. She meets every person who comes through the door, I only meet them if they don’t pay their bill! I have a different interaction with our reception staff than she does. We impact people in the same environment in very different ways.

Our potential is God given. It is inspired and purposeful. He means us to use it to Glorify Him. We are called to do that which He created us to do – Worship Him and have full relationship with Him – and in doing that we can fulfil our potential, truly live a life that is full and passionate, exciting and constantly stimulating, and build a deeper relationship with Him on a daily basis.

In this 21st Century world we live in, we often miss the difference between Truth and the facts. This subtle difference is more than mere semantics, rather it is central to our understanding and ability to fully live in the fullness of Life as Christ died for us to be able to.

500 years ago, the accepted facts were that the earth was the center of the universe and all the heavens moved around this flat space we live on. The known facts today tell us something completely different. Facts are generally accepted without question, although every so often there are people who choose to shatter these facts.

Even in the last 100 years many accepted “facts” have been debunked. The concept of a human running a mile in less than 4 minutes, an atom being the smallest possible measure, the possibility of space flight, supersonic flight, cures for all kinds of illnesses previously deemed uncurable. These facts have changed our way of life and made us less aware of the Truths surrounding us.

Truth is immovable. It never changes. Popular opinion and understanding changes facts daily, but Truth is unchangeable.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”(John 14: 6,7)

Jesus not only spoke the truth, He is the physical embodiment of the Truth. Everything He said and did was an embodiment of Truth, from healing all those who came to Him and asked in Faith to driving the money changers out of the Temple. Never once did He say “come back later” or put sickness onto someone in order to teach them something.

He never took anything from someone without them receiving a Blessing in return far greater than that they had offered.

Facts were never a big part of Jesus’ teachings. Satan used facts to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus overcame these temptations with Truths.

Today we are quick to look for the facts. But facts can be misleading. It is a fact that there is more skin cancer now than at any other time in recorded history. It is also a fact that there is a hole in the ozone layer. It is also a fact that more sunscreen lotion is sold now than ever has been sold. The facts are suggestive that the hole in the ozone layer may cause skin cancer. But the same facts can suggest, if you choose to interpret them that way, that sunblock may cause skin cancer.

Now I’m NOT a scientist, and I don’t know the details of how sunscreen works or understand the workings of UV rays. But I do know that my own dad used sunblock, a vest, a t-shirt and a tracksuit on the beach and still got skin cancer. I also know many many people who use sunscreen and don’t develop cancer. Those facts suggest wearing too many clothes on the beach may be a cause of cancer.

We are quick to accept facts, but slow to accept the Truths we see.

Jesus heals. I’ve watched legs grow, have been healed of some physical ailments and met 3 people who have been raised from the dead. Truth is unmoveable. It is irrefutable. Facts are refuted and adjusted all the time. If we look for Truth, we must look in the Word of God. Jesus’ life and teachings, not just the current popular interpretation of them.

I heard of a church leader who refused to allow a song containing the line “here with the power to heal now” to be sung in his church because it may raise people’s hopes unrealistically when we know the fact is that healing just doesn’t happen.

Truth trumps fact. Every time. God heals. God prospers. God loves unconditionally.

If our body has symptoms, those symptoms are facts. Jesus heals.

Fact: I take medication for diabetes. Truth: By His stripes I have been healed.

I used to take medication for Gout. By His stripes I am healed.

Just something to think on…

We have no idea what Jesus looked like. No clue if He was tall or short, muscular or chubby. Did he have acne as a boy?

The disciples we allot physical types to. Peter, the Rock, was a fisherman. Muscular, ruddy complexion and imposing physical size. Levi, Tax collector. Less impressive, perhaps he looked like Danny DeVito.

But we have no descriptions. David was described as “ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features” (1 Samuel 16:12), and we know Moses didn’t think much of himself, but we couldn’t pick them out in a line up.

I think there’s a wisdom in that that is overlooked. The disciples who walked with Jesus didn’t recognise him cooking breakfast on the shore after the resurrection. They saw initially with their physical eyes, rather than their Spiritual eyes.

I knew a man many years ago who was a farmer up on the wild moorland in Devon. He spoke little and listened a great deal. His appearance was one that would have caused many to pass him by and pay no attention, but there was something in his gait that spoke more strongly than words. He had a presence about him from spending many hours alone in the wilderness on the moors with just his Bible for company. Eric was a man who spoke with authority because he knew his God.
 
Intimately.

Image meant nothing to Mark. He was born blind, and was offered prayer in his 20’s by a man who had seen blind eyes created seeing in the past through the power of God. He refused because he didn’t want his experience of God to be watered down by sight!

There are many more examples of men and women who have joyfully sought to rid themselves of any kind of image in order to find the Truth.

In the current climate Image is everything. Here in South Africa, Julius Malema – Leader of the ANC Youth League – regularly speaks out about anything and everything so he can change feet. Jacob Zuma, National President, said at a recent rally that a vote for the ANC means you go to heaven. The image that portrays is truly terrifyng!

Young men in particular are falling victim to the image-mongers. Cars, suits, hairstyle, skin condition, sunglasses are all essentials to say “I am a success”. Young women are bombarded with images on magazines like never before of “perfect” celebrities – but not told the details of the airbrushing that took them there. A few years ago I worked in Torquay, Devon, when some actors and actresses appearing in the local theater came into my place of work to relax. I stood and chatted to them for a while, then helped them get set up and enjoy their evening, totally unaware of who I was talking to, because out of make-up and costume they were just men and women like you and me. It turned out that when one of these men had been on TV, I’d been an avid fan and not missed an episode, but I couldn’t connect the real man with the character he’d portrayed – and rightly so!

Any magazine stand will scream the latest gossip from the covers about Charlie Sheen’s antics or Britney’s new hair or some other individual who we’ll have forgotten by next week existed as if the future of the human race depended on it. It’s all image.

George Burns made a series of movies in his later years in which he played both God and Satan. The Satan character had the flashy cars, suave suits, fawning women and money very obviously in his hand. The God character had a more “everyman” look to him. Grey jacket, loafers, flat cap and understated. Obviously, the characters were initially drawn to the flashy guy in the red suit, but as the movies progressed they found the image was hollow and the gentle guy in grey who was quietly waiting for them and offering advice ended up being the way they found they had to go to have peace.

In his song “Hollywood”, Michael Buble sings “Remember when you’re rich that you sold yourself for this – You’ll be famous coz you’re dead” It’s a great line, but how it gets lost in society.

Image is not improtant if you mean how others see you. What is important is Character, the person we are when nobody’s around to pat our back and say well done. That’s the image we should develop. It comes through every time.

For what we are in our most private moments is who we are. I’m a quiet guy with a bad temper that thankfully is mellowing with age, who longs to be a dad, a leader, a writer, a singer, but mostly a Husband and a Lover of God. I don’t care if people notice and ignore or notice and praise or even attack me for my beliefs and the way I live. I have chosen to develop my character. Granted it’s a work in progress, but I’m on the road at least.