Get Out of the Boat

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“But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” [Matthew 14: 27-29 NKJV]
Picture the scene. For hours the disciples have been battling the wind and waves of a severe storm on the Sea of Galilee. They are swamped with water. The little fishing boat is filling with water.
They know they are going to die.
Suddenly they see a figure walking over the sea towards them. He calls a greeting to them. The sequence of Jesus’s greeting is significant. First He tells them to be of good cheer. Then He identifies Himself. Then He tells them to not be afraid.
Imagine you were in that boat. Soaked, half dead from exhaustion. Now this figure defies everything you know from years of working the sea and walks to you over the surface of the water. Which way would you lean?
Eleven of the disciples go the “sane” route. They cling to the mast, the bulkhead, anything that’s still in one piece on the boat.
Peter calls out to Jesus.
Be careful what you say to God in times of trouble. Peter says “If it is you”. He paints Jesus into a corner. He forces God’s hand. Jesus can either deny Himself or call Peter to Him. “Come”.
The other eleven must have thought Peter had lost his mind as he climbs out of the sinking boat. But then imagine their incredulity as Peter walks on top of the water, just as Jesus was doing. He looks Jesus in the eye and walks towards Him. He’s nearly there when he realises what he’s doing and fear starts to grip him.
But immediately as Peter begins to sink, Jesus has His hand there to lift him out. Immediately.
They return to the boat and climb back in.
Hang on… They return to the boat? How often this little nugget gets missed in the story. They don’t teleport. There’s no cry of “Beam me up, James”. They return to the boat, walking on the water. The storm lifts as they climb into the vessel. Peter returns with Jesus to the boat.
He walks back.
Calling to Jesus in his desperation restores his Faith. The miracle of walking on water is restored. Presumably he walks either hand-in-hand with Jesus or alongside Him. But he walks.
Every day I get up out of bed to face the day. It’s not easy. I suffer several major illnesses that by God’s strength in me are not getting worse for the first time in years. I trust in time I will see improvement and eventually healing for all of them, but for now I have to fight these agents of the Enemy every morning. I start my day with tea, eggs and medication. If I don’t, diabetes causes me to feel too ill to function, my mind cannot focus as ADD takes hold and I sink into deep depression.
I have my storms. You have yours. Maybe you don’t have the daily reminders I do, but you have your storms. They may be financial. Like me, they may be illnesses. They could be a feeling of helplessness as you are forced to watch someone you love suffer with terminal sickness.
We all have our storms. And we all have our boats.
But Jesus walks over the very things trying to kill us. Just as He walked over the sea through the storm to the disciples, He walks to us through the middle of our battles. Just as He called to Peter “Come” He calls to us. He calls us out of the storm. He reminds us we are not subject to the wind and waves, that they are subject to Him.
If we listen.
Faith comes like a muscle grows. By use. We can’t (usually) go from not believing for $1 to believing for $1,000,000 in one step. Muscles just don’t grow that strong that fast. We can’t (usually) believe for healing of cancer or AIDS if we can’t believe for healing of a cold. Faith and Miracles are different. I’ll cover that another time.
There are always exceptions, times when a full-on miracle occurs. These are few and there tends to be little if any form of logic to the miracle. It just seems to happen.
In general we need to be patient. If you’re broke now and have been for some time it could be cataclysmic if God were to suddenly drop millions into your hands. First He needs you to let Him change your mindset. Once you’ve done that you can step out of the boat.
Peter saw Jesus on the water. A fisherman by trade, he realised if he stayed in the boat he was a dead man. So he trusted. They had seen Jesus save the sick and demon possessed. They had seen Him feed 5000 men plus women and children with a packed lunch. He took the chance that he would see Jesus save him from death by doing something “logic” said was insane.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” [Proverbs 14:12]
It looked like staying in the boat was the right thing to do. It seemed right. But stay in the boat and you drown. Peter saw that.
In the situations we face every day we have the same dilemma. Do what everyone else does in this circumstance or try something that looks crazy. Like taking a heart from a dead man and putting it into the chest of another. But today a heart transplant is almost a routine operation. Investing in a time of recession seems crazy by the World’s logic, but there were more millionaires at the end of the Great Depression than there were at the beginning of it because they had the recognition that it couldn’t be a permanent slump. Their investments looked crazy.
These are Worldly examples of course. But Peter grabbed the hands of a cripple and pulled him to his feet in Acts. To a man without Faith, an insane act. To an imitator of Christ, a simple command.
We lose sight of the fact that we have been given Christ’s authority over earthly matters. Health, finances, family. We need to get back to basics.
We’ve spent our lives on the fence, watching others who have walked on the water and marvelling at the “special anointing” they have. But that’s what Christianity – imitating Jesus – should look like. We need to take the chance He gives us.
We need to get out of the boat.

Christian Security

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Theologian and Apologist CS Lewis hit the nail on the head in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, one of the Narnia stories written for children of all ages in an allegorical way. In the scene, Lucy has found a spell book in a magicians house and is reading from it aloud. She finishes the spell to make the invisible visible and this follows:

“Oh Aslan,” said she, “it was kind of you to come.”
“I have been here all the time,” said he, “but you have just made me visible!”
“Aslan!” said Lucy almost a little reproachfully. “Don’t make fun of me. As if anything I could do would make you visible!”
“It did,” said Aslan. “Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?”

CS Lewis Voyage of the Dawn Treader ch.10
Aslan represents Christ, obviously. I found myself pondering this for years, but recently it began to dawn in my lightning fast mind that what Lewis said of Aslan, God says of Himself.
Aslan was not a tame lion, but He was predictable and reliable when the Narnians knew he was there. 
Jesus is not a tame lion either, but He is predictable – He will only do what the Father does as the Likeness of the Father. He will empower us to do the same in His name. Freely receive and freely give of what we have been blessed with. This knowledge gives us a security that simple theology cannot. It transcends mere intellectual information and truly enters the realm of Faith.
We should therefore be able to walk in Faith for what we need. The predictability of God should allow us to first hope for, then have faith and believe for, then finally in Love receive what our heart’s desire is for us – in every circumstance.
It’s not important how many years have passed with nothing. What’s important is how much longer will we make God wait to give us the Blessings he longs to give us? My own life has been – on the surface to the outside world – devoid of visible blessings for over five years. But seasons change. Bulbs push through the frozen ground in spring and carpet fields and woodlands with breathtaking colours. They are a blessing that begins long before the fruit is seen. It’s part of God’s Natural Law.
Aslan in the Narnia allegory had to follow the laws set out by his father, the great Emperor over the Sea. So in our world, Jesus did only what He saw His Father doing. He healed the sick, raised the dead, provided food and drink for crowds of exceptional quality. He never rebuked anyone who came to Him in Faith. 
Not a single time was someone told “You need to learn from your illness!”
Jesus was predictable – even in His apparent unpredictable behaviour He did only what He saw the Father do. We can see it reflected in creation around us from the tiniest atoms to the mightiest supernovas, everything has a purpose: to praise God. And God designed creation to do just that – a continuous choir of worship singing God’s Goodness to anyone who will take the time to listen.
That’s where predictability, and as a result security, comes in. For a Christian, something being predictable will not equate to being dull. Paul’s arrest, imprisonment and execution were predictable, not boring. We need to learn to walk the victorious Life we have been given by learning the Law of Faith that God’s Kingdom is built on. Faith is the foundation, along with Hope and Love for everything we will receive in this world and the next.

By seeing Jesus was predictable, or rather by realising it, we free ourselves to receive predictably from Him. We allow ourselves to walk a predictable path, meeting Him daily and talking with Him the way King David did – and getting replies. We need to bear in mind that God is Himself bound by choice to the Laws He made. He desires our company so He makes a way to have it. The Law of Faith. The Old Testament is completed by the New, not eradicated. That makes for predictability in our life.

How?

In 2 Kings 4, Elisha is able to see the widow of the prophet provided for by a single jar of oil, and the implication is that she will be able to live for the rest of her life from the proceeds of the oil multiplied to her. Elisha asked, and received. He expected God to come through. He was secure in his Faith that God would provide.

In Daniel we see repeatedly Daniel and his friends expect God to come through for them, but they leave no room for Him not to. They are willing to endure fire and lions rather than quit the Truth of the God of Israel. And we must remember we serve the same God as Daniel.

Over and again, even in the tiny verse about Jabez buried in 1 Chronicles 4:9 & 10 we see God’s predictable generosity when we ask expecting a miracle. Peter expected the cripple to walk. He wasn’t surprised because it was a predictable result.

James 5:15 says “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Expectation of the miraculous – real and genuine expectation not vain hope – will produce more than asked for. The prayer of Faith not only heals the sick person, it forgives their sins. Jesse Duplantis said in a talk back in the 1990’s “God’s not enough – He’s too much”, a sentiment which is essential to a predictable walk.

If we can grasp the concept of a “too much” God being our daddy-God, then we will begin to move in a predictable way of seeing His provision, healing and restoration in our lives.

I keep saying “we” because although I’ve begun to grasp this concept, the fullness of it eludes me. I see some provision, some healing and some restoration in my life. My health is not deteriorating, but I still need diabetic medication for example. I’ve used the same prescription of spectacles for over ten years – an eye examination last week confirmed my prescription has still not altered in 15 years – since I began to understand with my heart that God wants to restore me and heal me. But I recognise my head, after 40+ years, gets in the way of a fully predictable life.

But setting off on a journey still gets you and me closer than sitting around.

Predictability in God may not be a popular idea to the “Can’t put God in a box” crowd, but it makes sense. God chose to create and follow His own Law. And if we understand the Law, we can see the heart of God in the Law, and live in the knowledge that if He created it then it will never change. We didn’t put God in a box. He chose to design and work within His own set of rules for the universe.

And as a result we can live a predictable and a secure Christian life.

“ 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)

God Changes Not…

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Way back in October 2011 I wrote a little about the hymn Ev’rything Changes that I sang as a very young child at primary school.

I don’t have much memory before 1985, the reasons for which I’ll relate another time, but one thing did stick. Every time we sang that chorus, Bernard Ward – our terrifying headmaster (who was actually a REALLY nice gentleman in the proper sense of the word) would emphasise the same point.

God changes not.

My life is in a transition at the moment. I’m writing this entry from a hotel in a town four days ago I’d never heard of (Colesberg, South Africa if you’re interested) on my way to take my wife for a job interview which, should she be successful, will mean moving away from Cape Town for a minimum six month period. In addition to this I’m caught in the throes of trying to formally register Eagle’s Wing Ministries as a legal entity Faith Based Organisation so it can grow.

In the last four months I’ve seen growth and had contact from more places than I’d ever had before, and from two countries I had to google to find out where they were! It’s exciting times as I can feel God leading this change in my life simply by being true to the call He placed in my heart 30 years ago.

I’ve changed a lot in 30 years.

God hasn’t.

Much in my life changed. Deaths, births, weddings, cancer, emigration to name just a few. But the call in my heart to make this ministry a reality has never changed because God placed it there.

I can’t do it alone, and I’ve had many offers from people all over the globe wanting EWM to visit or partner with them. Thank you all so much for those letters. I’m praying right now for guidance for where to step first is. I’m certain God has it planned, and has had from the beginning.

There are resources the ministry will need to advance – primarily able and willing bodies – so we can move together.

Eagle’s Wing Ministries is changing. We are evolving into the butterfly God made the caterpillar to become.

And what makes it possible is the unchanging nature of God.

We forget as times change and we see reality TV shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race and the Republican Party debates dominate the airwaves that people’s ideals shift. A political wind can decimate a Christian community – like ISIS has.

Pseudo-martyrs can turn people genuinely suffering for their belief in the Biblical Jesus into nothing more than a footnote on page 30 reporting their execution.

The enemy changes the picture we see. Remember the scene in the original “Matrix” film where Neo sees the cat and then sees it again because the Matrix changed something? What if our perception of reality is shaped by something other than our own experience. It’s been said that simply putting a film crew in with a combat unit changes how that unit behaves on the field. The pictures tell the story the editor wants to show.

We need desperately to return to the uncut raw footage of the Gospel. I don’t read Aramaic or Greek so I use about a dozen translations when I’m researching to find the whole meaning of a passage. The simple translation of a single word can alter the meaning of an entire phrase.

But God doesn’t change.

He is the same today as he was 2000 years ago on the cross and as He will be in 2000 years from now.

God. Changes. Not.

Don’t Throw It Away

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“Do not, therefore, fling away your [fearless] confidence, for it has a glorious and great reward. For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.” [Hebrews 10:35-36 Amplified]

There’s this concept in modern Christian beliefs that has become insidious in the lie it holds. The thought is that once we have been accepted into Christ, that’s it. We have nothing more to do.
Nothing could be further from the Truth.
I recently wrote a piece on Persecution from a Western perspective, and found several articles on Huffington Post saying how American Christians are not persecuted and they (we if not from the US) should be dropped into Syria to see what persecution really is.
Yes, there is a strong argument that the persecution experienced in the Middle East under the genocidal rule of ISIS is an extreme form – like the Crusades but with AK47s – but the role is more damaging and deadly from a spiritual perspective in the West.
The writer of Hebrews was onto something major when he wrote chapter 10.
What we have from God, we have to hold onto to move into it.
CS Lewis touches on the subject briefly in “The Last Battle” when the Narnian Kings, Queens, Lords and Ladies are pulled into Narnia one final time but Susan is not with them. Peter tells them gravely “my sister Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia.” The others from our world explain to the Narnians with them that she has abandoned Narnia to the whims of this World, described by Lewis as “Lipstick and Nylons”. It’s a disturbing concept as it evokes the verses from Mark 13:

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and they will provide signs and wonders in order to deceive, if [such a thing were] possible, even the elect [those God has chosen for Himself]. But be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance.” [21-23 Amplified]

Susan, chosen by Aslan himself has been lured away from Narnia by the cares of this World. Jesus’s own words in Mark’s Gospel more than imply, they categorically state that even those specifically chosen by God Himself will be deceived and drawn away from the Faith by the World’s cares. He warns us to be on our guard against such things.
What troubles me right now is the way Christianity – or what passes as such in the mainstream – bends it’s will to that of the popular media. I read a statistic recently that suggested 1-2% of the US population identifies itself as LGBT while 15-25% describe themselves as Christian – including non-denominational house churches and less formal church groups within protestant ideology in addition to Catholic, Anglican, Baptist and other mainstream denominations.
That’s a massive discrepancy. maybe 2% of the population is forcing it’s religious and ideological beliefs onto a majority that remains silent or is portrayed in the news as Kim Davis nuts – a grave slight on real loving Christians by an over-zealous official. There were many ways for her to handle the situation she was in. She chose one which tarred all Christians as bigoted, hateful people.
Let us remember Jesus was rejected by the establishment of the day because he went and associated with prostitutes, sinners of all kinds, tax collectors, Samaritans and those outcast from society. Leprosy was the AIDS of the day, yet He went out of His way to touch the lepers. The first one to proclaim the Resurrection was an ex-prostitute.
He caught the fish, then cleaned it by His work in it (us). We seem to expect the fish to clean itself out to make itself worthy.
Then we beat ourselves up for falling short.
That’s where the Hebrews verse comes in.
Our confidence comes from placing ourselves in Christ’s care, not relying on our own abilities or works to become acceptable to God, but recognising that we NEED the sacrifice of Jesus to reach the relationship Jesus wants for us. The recognition of the need is our confidence. That’s good news.
The bad news is that the World tells us another story – especially in the West. We’re not good enough if we don’t got to church every Sunday, help in the soup kitchen on a Tuesday, attend home group on a Wednesday, midweek prayer meeting on Thursday mornings, start a prayer group at work to meet every day at lunchtime, never watch a single secular TV program or listen to anything but Gospel music and tell at least 20 people a week about Jesus and how He will save them if they do all of the above.
I guess I’m going to Hell. If that’s the definition, I guess we all are.
For accuracy, look to the thief on the cross next to Jesus. He didn’t live long enough to do any of the things the World lays on our plate as being “essential” to being “saved”. All he did was accept Jesus’s offer of Salvation. Nothing more, nothing less. He put his Faith in the sacrifice of the broken body on the cross next to his own.
And he died with confidence.
We throw our confidence away.
We live in a world where doubt reigns supreme. Consider the books of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and compare the characters with those in the movies. Bilbo remains doubtful of himself and his abilities, Frodo and his companions return to the shire and resume unassuming shy lives. Aragorn has to be virtually begged to become King. But in the books, Bilbo returns a changed person, stronger and more adventurous – you do actually see flashes of that Bilbo in the opening sequences of Lord of the Rings, but not in The Hobbit. In the books it is Aragorn who requests the shards of Narsil be reforged, he does not have to be convinced to put the ranger behind him – He knows who and what he is. The sanitised ending of the movies has Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry returning to Hobbiton unchanged by their adventure. In the books they find the shire under evil rule and overthrow it because their change is profound.

But the World looks for insecurity. Consider how many modern movies have protagonists torn with self-doubt from beginning to end. The characters with confidence all the way through tend to get killed off.

Nothing scares Satan more than a Christian who is confident in what God has given him in terms of authority. He throws sickness and the confident Christian brushes it aside. He throws financial ruin and the confident Christian steps through more like the Terminator than a hobbit.

“No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; And every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This [peace, righteousness, security, and triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And this is their vindication from Me,” says the Lord. [Isaiah 54:17 Amplified]

No weapon formed. To walk in that promise we need confidence.

We were made in God’s image. A part of that is “The Lord is a Warrior, the Lord is His Name” says Exodus 15:3. Somehow we have swept that under the mat. Granted our battles are waged on a Spiritual battlefield, but they are war nonetheless.

Be confident. Satan cannot take it from you, but if you look at the wind and the waves of the storm around you, you’ll find yourself throwing that confidence aside.

Put your Faith where it belongs: in the one who made us in His image.

Hold fast to your Confidence in Him.

Don’t throw it away because things are a bit tough. If you do, you’ll never receive the glorious and great reward waiting for us.

Hold fast. Jesus is right there.

Be confident.

Winning or Victory?

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I was cleaning out some old VHS tapes a few days ago and found a recording of a final episode of “Survivor”. In it, two men were competing to go forward to the final and the grand prize of $1m.

They had been friends and allies for the entire season. One was a NYC Firefighter, the other worked with aquatic mammals. The challenge was to see who could stand on a narrow-ledged pole for the longest. Watching paint dry would have been more riveting under different circumstances. The dolphin trainer/conservationist had done something that the fireman regarded as a betrayal – I forget what. The winner of this challenge would almost certainly – given their final opponent – win the million dollar prize.

After several hours – yes, hours – standing on the poles, an occupational requirement for both men to the point that we probably could still have been there now had the incredible not happened.

Ian, the dolphin guy, began to talk to Tom, the fireman. They argued back and forth about what true friendship meant and how one had been playing the game and the other had been forging what he expected to go on to be a lifelong friendship. The conversation – the highlights anyway – was broadcast. Tom felt hurt that Ian had gone back on his word. He saw it as a betrayal. Ian weighed the pro’s and cons of the situation and decided the friendship was worth more than the grand “prize”. He told Tom this and dived off the pole.

Tom won the million dollars, but I saw something in this deeper than that.

Ian realised that having Tom as a friend was worth more than having a cheque for a million dollars.

It set me thinking about my schooling. Much of my education was classical history, including the story of Pyrrhus, a Greek General who led many successful campaigns against the expanding Roman army, but at great loss to his own. He is reported to have said following one victory: “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined”.

Tom’s win was, to my mind, a Pyrrhic Victory. He may have won the challenge, but I felt he sacrificed the nobility and character he had shown through the series in order to attain it. As I saw it, Ian was the Victor. His honour and respect was not only intact but was strengthened by the display of his character. A long-term friendship with – to be fair – a decent, honest and apparently trustworthy man was worth more to him than the prize money, so he gave up that financial win for a longer lasting victory.

What does that have to do with us as Christians?

The Bible sets out the moral and just Laws of God and how we are to receive Salvation and become “more than conquerors” in our lives. We claim the Victory of Christ Crucified.

Alternatively, we have modern society which challenges the teachings of the Bible that have stood for 2000 years in the case of the New Testament alone, in excess of 5000 for the Old Books of Moses and the Histories.

In modern terms, we “win” if we support society’s norms and values, twisting scripture to find a way to justify pretty much anything as being God’s Will just like the slavery traders, the inquisition, the crusaders, witch hunts and a myriad of other obscenities inflicted on mankind by men who yearned for power like the Ring Wraiths in Tolkein’s masterpiece “The Lord of the Rings”.

Victory, however, is more elusive. It’s a narrow path. I heard it said recently that the fact we sing of a “Highway to Hell” and a “Stairway to Heaven” says a lot about expected traffic volumes.

Victory can be found in the pages of Volumes 1 and 2 of “Jesus Freaks and the Voice of the Martyrs” books and the work of the Voice of the Martyrs which continues today. Dozens, if not hundreds of men and women who are named and held up as an example of what it truly means to be a Christian underwent torture, imprisonment and brutal deaths over the last 2000 years are recorded in the books alone. In the eyes of the World, these people lost. They lost their lives, their homes, families, reputations. They gave them willingly to honour their Jesus.

They held a Victory more powerful than the “win” the World accomplished.

It’s time for a new generation of witnesses to rise up and challenge the direction of the World.

I’m a Generation X baby. I was alarmed to find recently that the mother of a friend in her mid twenties is actually younger than I am. I still feel like I’m 25 and ready to fight, even though it’s nearly 20 years ago that I was that age.

Generation Y, a lost generation even more than my own, has no clue how to innovate in general. At least Gen X has produced some advances. Gen Y seems to sit back. Many of the twenty-somethings I speak to have dreams but then end their statement with “but I guess I’ll never get there”. They’ve been taught to settle.

That’s the Enemy’s voice.

Settling brings a short-term win. A passive life where you accomplish nothing of true value.

A man I met a few times in the 1990’s passed away recently. He was in his 70’s so I guess he’d be a “Baby-Boomer”. He had such a passion for life and he used it to propagate his faith in his friend Jesus. Dave was larger than life. He was physically an imposing figure – and I’m not a small man – and exuded enthusiasm and life wherever he went. He treated everyone the same from meeting World Leaders in private audiences to teaching a group of teenagers. He described himself as the “Warm-up act for the Holy Ghost”. And his witness was unrelenting. His message uncompromising.

I aspire to be the kind of man Dave Duell was. Fearless and passionate. A real Ambassador for Jesus Christ.

Where are the Generation X and Generation Y replacements for men like Dave?

I long to be one. It’s why I write and why I want to be able to speak with the passion I have in my heart. I want to go out into the world and fight on God’s terms. I’m sick of waiting for the fight to come to me. I was reminded by a friend writing to me recently that I’ve never been Spiritually or physically stronger than when I’ve been at the front of the battle. I was also reminded – gently – that my current depleted state probably resides in sitting back and letting someone else fight for me.

I won for a short time in the World’s terms. Financial comfort and the trappings that go with it drew me away from noticing I was slowly less and less involved with God. Then those worldly wins dried up and I was left with nothing but crippling debt and poor health. It’s a long way back out of a hole like that.

God does the impossible as a matter of routine. My situation changes daily. I experience victories regularly and setbacks often. Losing my focus on Christ even a little has cost me a lot. Ten years of my life have gone that I’ll never get back.

But God can overturn the World’s Win and replace it with His Victory.

If I let Him.

It’s hard to do, but I’m doing it. I’ve been writing here and on my own blog for a few years now and I’m looking into registering my own ministry, Eagle’s Wing Ministries, as a Faith Based Organisation (not for profit) as I am now being approached to write leadership courses and raise funds to help people get basic items like clothes and Bibles in their own languages. Not to mention food.
I hope by Christmas I’ll be registered. I’ll continue to write as I believe that is a BIG part of my calling, but I find my heart being pulled to do more, to work 100% for Jesus, not just give Him what’s left at the end of the day. It’s 3am here as I’m writing this. I need to be able to do this as my main work. To move into my Victory.

I’m tired of just “winning”. Winning has brought me nothing but heartache.

It’s time to become more than a conqueror and walk in the Victory Jesus bought for me.

Join me. To quote Dave Duell: “It’s only Forever”
Join me and let’s turn the tide back against the World.

Following God’s Lead

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I have a passion for writing and speaking God’s Word, and although there have been opportunities to share my faith on this site and others, and He has opened doors to me to talk to individuals about my Faith and relationship with Jesus, but I find myself unsatisfied with where I am. Like when you’re driving and you know you missed your turn and you can’t turn around for who knows how long without getting even further off course. That’s how it feels for me.

Both my wife and I have health issues which would be if not resolved completely, would be easier to manage in a First-World economic environment with First-World healthcare available. For example, in January my medical insurance company chose profits over patient care and I had to change medication for diabetes management because the medication I was using – and had been controlling my glucose levels perfectly – is too expensive. In England, my home country and a place we may consider moving back to, patient care comes first, not profits – although cost is an issue as it is a Government paid service. I am thankful that after six months of adverse reaction to the medication that replaced the original I have been able to revert – because the price came down.

And that is but one of many examples.

Some days I find it hard to believe I am in the right place.

Yes, I have been open to being used by God, as His instrument and voice, but how much more could have been done had I listened to the voice saying “This is the way” a year ago?

We had the opportunity to move to England in March 2014 but it would have meant major changes in style and size of home. We chose creature comforts over instinct. Not a wise move. I did something similar 20 years ago and it took me another 18 years to start writing – something I knew I was called to do from a teenager.

Right place and right time, or the concept that I am automatically where God wants me to be is a popular misconception. It creates complacency. God uses us where we are, and He can use us effectively if we are open to it, but He has a plan for our lives. The problem is that our ideas may not line up with His plan if we don’t take them to Him.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” [Proverbs 16:25 NKJV]

Imagine when it was going well for Paul in Ephesus that he had said “I’m comfortable here. It must be where God wants me.” He could have chosen to stay there making tents and we’d have lost most of the New Testament.

Consider that the Holy Spirit had a direct hand in allowing persecution of the disciples as they became comfortable in Jerusalem, forcing them to move abroad and reach the World with Jesus’s message – the Great Commission.

Often what God calls us to is uncomfortable. It is difficult and challenging so our Faith can be developed. Without challenges ministers like Billy Graham, Jesse Duplantis, Dave Duell, Andrew Wommack and many others would never have reached the millions they have reached through their ministries, travelling evangelical and church-support conferences and the other events where lives have been changed. Preachers of the past and Godly men like Wilberforce, the Wesleys, Luther and Whitefield could have succumbed to outside pressure in favour of comfort.

Change is uncomfortable. Growth hurts. When a seed falls to the ground it must die before it can grow. The caterpillar must cease to exist for the butterfly to emerge. So it is with us. We strive to stay in our cocoons when God wants us to be a rainbow of colours with wings to carry us that He longs to provide.

So yes, some people are where they are meant to be. Bruce Wilkinson wrote a wonderful book called “The Dream Giver” some time ago. It is the story of Ordinary, a man living in the Land of Familiar, who has a dream to move away and follow the dream. He battles with giants and seemingly well-meaning friends and family to reach his dream and after much struggle he finds he is able to reach the city he’s dreamed of with a message of hope for them.

In the sequel book, “The Dream Giver for Couples”, Ordinary marries and he and his wife must travel together to reach a shared dream. Again they fight battles with giants and times in wastelands where it seems they have lost their way, but by trusting the Dream Giver they reach their new destination to follow their shared dream.

So before you get comfortable – too comfortable – where you are, ask yourself: “Am I where I should be? Lord, Am I where YOU want me to be and in the centre of YOUR will?” If the answer is “Yes” to all three questions, Go with God.

If the answer is “No”, find out where and what your purpose is through prayer, meditation and sharing your vision with people you trust in the Faith.

The Old Testament history books are a guide for us. We don’t have to learn by hard knocks all the time. When the Israelites entered the Promised Land they captured city after city, each one in a different way. Jericho was defeated by the sound of a trumpet. Jericho was a city terrified of the Israelites, and the only city God commanded the people take no spoils from. Achan and his family did, and as a result the Israelites were defeated by a smaller army at the city of Ai when they reached it. After the sin was dealt with, Joshua sent an army to the city again under God’s instruction. The battle was won and the city taken. In Joshua 9, the next cities deceive Israel by negotiating a treaty which the leaders did not take before God before swearing it. As a result the cities were left intact and ungodly influences that would eventually lead Israel into the worship of false gods were allowed to remain in the Promised Land.

Forwards in time, King David took each plan of war campaign before God and waited for His reply before he sent the warriors in. What happened was not the same twice.

Jesus healed more than one blind man in His ministry, but He used different ways to do it.

Don’t make my mistake and let apparent comfort hold you back from God’s Will for your life. Take your plans to God in prayer and wait. Wait as long as it takes before you act to be certain that you’ve heard His plans for you. His plan is one for the best for us (see Jeremiah 29) to keep us with hope for the future. Paul writes that Faith, Hope and Love are eternal, and the writer of Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith is the substance of what we hope for.

Get out there and Follow His lead.

You’ll never regret it if you do.

The Affair Phenomenon

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There’s been a lot of press recently about the leaked members list of the Ashley Madison website. Frankly any site with the tagline “Life is short: have an affair” should be something people who claim Christ dwells in them should run from as fast as possible, but at the end of the day we’re all human as well as Christian.

I’ve been married for 12 years next week. I’m 43 now and I’d be lying to myself if I said I’d never in those 12 years looked at another woman and thought she was attractive. I doubt any honest man could do that. It’s the way our brains are wired. Even those of us with conditions like ADD, depression and bipolar mood disorder would agree that men in particular are hardwired to find attraction in the female form.

I know there are men my wife finds attractive as well. Neither of us is threatened by this in our marriage as we are completely committed to one another.

But what exactly constitutes an “affair”?

My closest friend is a younger woman. We have a lot in common spiritually and have had many conversations about our shared Faith and interests. She knows me intellectually and probably emotionally as well as my wife does. Our friendship has been a support for both of us through difficult times and a joy for both of us in good. Spiritually we have a closer understanding of the Bible than I have with my wife. Emotionally I feel a connection with her I don’t have with anyone else – but it’s not romantic.

The problem is how others perceive the friendship. I don’t make friends easily due to my past still haunting me. With this person however things were very different. A few years ago before I was married I would probably have been nervous to strike a conversation with her. I never imagined when we met that a friendship so strong and supportive would come from it. After God stepped in and the friendship encountered what I can only call a baptism of fire we became very close friends and have been in a position to counsel and support each other as a result.

I was accused several times of cheating on my wife with her emotionally by colleagues. I’ve had close female friends before and so was able to deal with the comments easily, but it would be foolish to assume the possibility for an inappropriate level of emotional intimacy could have developed. I think both of us recognised that and as a result it simply didn’t happen. I came very quickly to see her as a sister I could depend on and tried to be a brother to her.

But where does the line fall?

I think the Ashley Madison site is repugnant. Life is a precious thing – and unlike the site’s tagline states – and it goes a long time after we leave this world behind. Marriage is under enough strain without this kind of attack being flaunted. Apparently reports of several hundred church leaders being active members have surfaced. Their behaviour too is repulsive. To disrespect your spouse in private is one thing, but this is so far beyond that. To put some perspective on the site from God’s side, let’s consider Joseph’s encounter with Potiphar’s wife:

“[Potiphar] is not greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept anything from me except you, for you are his wife. How then can I do this great evil and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9)

How can I sin against God? Joseph’s question when offered adulterous sexual relations with his owner’s wife. Not “How can I do that to Potiphar?” Joseph’s rebuffing of her makes it clear against whom the offense is.

It’s an offense against God.

This one passage among hundreds in the Bible underscores the need to recognise sin when we see it for what it is. True a physical encounter with another person may give some pleasure for a time. But God gives us a conscience and it is set off by that kind of behaviour.

When I was accused of having an affair it wasn’t by my wife but by colleagues. If anything was said to her she didn’t share it with me that I recall. To both of us – as far as I know – the concept was moot. I was married and committed to that relationship. We both knew that and although my wife and my friend never personally met (yet) there have never been any secrets between the three of us and all of us have had telephonic contact independent of each other.

Ashley Madison is different. It is set up explicitly to destroy lives through extramarital relationships. These sites have been around for years, it’s no secret. But this one in particular got caught. And marriages have disintegrated, trusts have been destroyed, churches have been left without shepherds.

All because of a few clicks on a website.

What next?

We need to look at what an affair is. Did I have an emotional affair with my friend? Was I emotionally unfaithful to my wife by turning to another woman for support at a time of crisis in my life?

I don’t believe so because I was totally honest with my wife about the friendship from day one. I made no attempt to hide anything from her about my feelings for my friend. I’ll be brutally honest: I love her dearly. But I love her the way I would love my sister.

It’s a choice.

Contrary to what the world would have us believe we are not slaves to our hormones. We have a choice. Even my dogs are faithful to each other. I’m better than a dog.

So are you.

The affair starts in the imagination we develop. Before I was married I was in love with a woman I’d known for years and had a very close friendship with. She came to stay with me several times – separate rooms I stress – and I with her. I had to fight my emotions every day I had contact with her.

For me, THAT was an emotional affair. I loved her deeply, and not as a sister. I told her my feelings and she never told me if she reciprocated, but the friendship got much deeper and closer afterwards.

In different circumstances things could have turned out very differently. I feel I must add that we were both single, but we lived a long way (in British terms) from one another. I spent a long time imagining what it would be like to be involved with her. And not just physically. It was an affair of the heart.

What Ashley Madison does is it attributes those lustful feelings as being positive and something to be explicitly sought out in every sense of the word.

The existence of a dating site is not in itself damning. I met my wife through one – we were both single. But a site specifically designed to promote adultery is a completely different animal. To become a member you have to be in a relationship as I understand it from what I’ve read. The implications are damning.

“Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6: 18-20)
Jesus said if we even looked lustfully at another woman or man we were guilty of adultery in our hearts.
Folks, we’re all in deep trouble.
All of us fall short of God’s standard.
But that’s the point. We all fall short. We can’t keep the Law. That’s the point of Jesus.
We need to take this time to reach out to those hurt by this adulterous website, both it’s members and their families, and extend love to them, not condemnation.
If we use God’s standard as laid out by Jesus we’re all guilty of an affair.
Let’s lose the hypocrisy the World is so quick to point out to us and rally as a Family should. Support the hurting, yes we should discipline the offenders, but we should do it from a place of love.
God’s kind of Love.
So what is an affair?
You decide – based on your own actions and conscience. Mine tells me I may not have joined Ashley Madison, but God can still lay that charge of adultery against me for thoughts I’ve pondered on through my life.
None of us is perfect. Get used to it.
Forgive. Love. Support each other.
Get over it.
A year from now most people even in the World will not remember Ashley Madison.

Let’s make sure they don’t forget the Cross as well.

The Power of a Covenant

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“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the Living God?”      1 Samuel 17:26

The shepherd boy, fresh from the field hears the taunt of the giant. The giant who the entire army of Israel is afraid of. His chain-mail alone weighed 5000 shekels – about 125lb. I weigh about double that, and the thought of even trying to walk, never mind do battle in that kind of weight makes me need to rest.

Goliath is a huge man. Six cubits and a span – around 9′ 4″ tall. I’m 6′ tall. Half as tall again as me, plus four inches.

David is a youth. Nothing more than a young farm-hand, tending the sheep in the fields. It’s doubtful he’s more than 5′ 5″ tall as he’s still basically adolescent – if he weren’t he’d already be in Saul’s army with his brothers.

For forty days, twice a day, Goliath has been issuing his challenge. And for forty days the Israelites have been silent. They see as the spies who first went into the land with Joshua and Caleb did. They are small in their own eyes.

David sees him how Joshua and Caleb saw the giants. Just another notch in the Covenant-holder’s belt.

David’s own brothers doubt him. But David is a man with a Covenant, and he knows what that Covenant means.

The challenge is accepted. Casting aside the sword and armour Saul tries to give him, David picks up a few smooth stones, his sling and his staff and walks out to meet the derisory Philistine. Goliath is insulted and sneers as David takes his stand. David’s response to the jeering of the giant is simple:

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” 1 Samuel 17:45

Goliath rises slowly and makes his way to the field of battle. David runs to the field. He arms his sling and releases. Goliath falls and David takes the giant’s own sword and beheads him.

It’s a familiar story told in Sunday-schools all over the world. It was taught to me when I was so young I don’t remember the first time. But it’s only recently re-reading it with a more mature mind that the point of the story sinks in.

David, on paper, didn’t stand a chance. Goliath has been a warrior longer than David has lived. But David knows his God. He knows the promise of his God, and most importantly he knows this Philistine is facing his God, not him.

We find ourselves in the situation of David from time to time in our lives. We all face giants. Poor health, loss of income or home. Hunger. The giants taunt us daily. Every time we enter a borrowed room to sleep. Every time we take the medication the doctor says we need. Every mealtime we have nothing to give our family. The giant rattles his armour and declares war.

Too often we behave as the Israelite army does. We stand back and let fear take our hearts.

But we see in the movies a glimpse of the Truth of the covenant. Think of Aragorn’s speech in “The Return of the King” as the last army of Middle-Earth faces the army of Mordor, outnumbered and surrounded. Think of Theoden’s rally cry to the Rohirrim earlier in the movie to urge them to battle.

And we have David as an example. The best example as this is not fiction, this is Biblical. This is the Covenant our God has made with us. He will not desert us. He walks every step alongside us. He fights our every battle through us.

And that’s the point. Through us.

We sit and wait for God to solve our problems for us. But that’s not the promise.

“Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super-abundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]— To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).”                                                                                                                                            Ephesians 3:21-22 Amplified
We stop too soon when we read this passage – if we read it at all. Most people read “ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (NKJV) and stop there. The important part, the Covenant, gets missed. Of course God can do more than we can ask or think. He’s God. But He works through us. Any work He does is tempered by our actions – or lack thereof.
The Covenant stood to prevent the Philistine destroying the Israelites in single combat, but it took a young shepherd who had faced lions and bears to see that this un-covenanted fool was no different than the beasts he killed on a daily basis to protect his sheep.
The Covenant we have with God is the name of Jesus – even more potent than the Old Covenant David had. But just as it took David to pick up his sling and face the giant, we must pick up our weapon and face our giant. Your weapon may be your voice, your training, your experience. It could be your past. Whatever it is, ask God to guide your hand and go and face down the giant before you. 
Let His power work through you the way David let God’s power work through him to destroy the Philistines.
Anyone reading this could be the next William Wilberforce. John Wesley. Billy Graham.
Why not let it be you?
The Covenant of the Blood of Jesus stands beckoning.
Why wait?

Faith like Parsley

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One of my favourite worship songs a few years ago was “More than Oxygen”. I loved the idea that we need God’s presence in our lives so much. We can’t survive as humans for more than around 3 minutes without drawing breath, and God’s presence is so much more essential than that for us.
I recently went to a burger restaurant here in Cape Town, and was served the burger without the normal sprig of parsley sat on top of it. I didn’t even notice until the waiter apologised and offered to “refresh” the plate.
Since my normal use for the garnish is to dump it on the side of the plate anyway I told him not to bother, but in the last couple of days it’s had me thinking about God and His place in my life, and the lives of Christians in general.
Many who profess the Faith are genuinely aware of God’s presence the majority of the time. But it started me thinking about times in my life when God’s presence – or even his absence – has been like the parsley on my burger – something I hadn’t noticed. It scared me, and I don’t scare easily.
I’ve been in a situation for the last four years where on a daily basis if God didn’t come through for me I would literally lose everything. My wife has a life-threatening illness – currently in remission, but could return any time – our finances are a mess as she was the principle earner in the family. We’ve moved in with my mother and had to sell our home to reduce our financial outgoings, our medical insurance has only gotten more expensive, and more than half the life-saving medications we need are not covered by the insurance itself, leaving us with crippling costs each month.
And it’s been going on for four years now. A daily struggle where we have been forced to rely on God. And He’s never once let us down. Sometimes if it wasn’t for the last minute we’d not have received it, but the fact, no – the Truth– is that when God promised He would meet all our needs in Philippians through the writing of St Paul, He meant it. My God provides my needs.
Parsley is not a need. It’s a garnish, and it’s not noticed if it’s missing most of the time.
We – especially I – need to remember that God is not an “optional extra” on the sideline of my life. He needs to be the central character. It needs to be Him that I revolve my life around. God’s not the parsley, He’s the patty. Without Him, there’s simply no burger. There’s no life, no hope and no future.
In the last fifteen years He’s saved me from accidental death on motorcycles and prevented suicide attempts when I put him into the position of parsley in my life. He’s been faithful to me when I abandoned Him.
I read somewhere that the story of the Prodigal Son should really be regarded as the Story of the Father’s Heart. The son may spend his life with the pigs and repent, trudging home to beg to be made as a hired hand, but the Father has been watching the road waiting for the son’s return since he left, never abandoning hope that he would return and remember his place in the family. God’s heart for us is revealed in the story, for just as He should not be parsley to us, the story shows we are not parsley to Him. He seeks us out, waits for our return and greets us with full restoration so His family can be complete once more. This is no parsley welcome. There may have been parsley on the fatted calf, but the point of the meal was the beef, not the garnish.
How does it affect us on a daily basis though?
Brother Lawrence wrote about practicing God’s presence, and although I’ve only read a few passages, they struck me with the simplicity of the way we make God central. Make Him the centre of stirring the soup. Make Him the centre of mowing the lawn, of washing the car, of cleaning the dishes or doing the laundry. Make every action we do consciously an act of service to Christ.
My brother-in-law is a professional musician. He plays the bass trombone brilliantly, but he practices his scales every day. I was an amateur musician. I played double bass and a bit of guitar, but I never practiced my scales. I didn’t see the point. They were tedious and boring. Then I got into the exams and the first thing the examiner wanted to hear was not the pieces, but the scales. It’s a miracle I ever passed an exam. Lucien, the trombonist, plays every day, every scale. He has work regularly. I sold my bass because I never used it any more. There’s a huge difference between a professional and an amateur. The professional recognises the importance of the foundation that the scales provide. As an amateur I saw them as parsley. Optional. Scales were something to be avoided so I could get on and play the “real” music.
When I sold my bass, the guy who bought it played it for a few minutes to get a feel for it. He played scales. They were the sweetest sound I’d ever heard that instrument make, then he went from scales into free jazz and suddenly I got it. What I’d thought was parsley was the meat.
And I have done the same with God in the past. When everything was running smoothly I didn’t do much more than lip-service to God and His presence in my life. I didn’t realise the training opportunity the time of rest gave me to strengthen my faith for the onslaught to come.
Right now I am battling a badly infected wound on my foot which could – had it been left just a day or two longer – have cost me at least two toes or even the whole foot if left much longer than that. The infection had entered my blood and that kind of blood-poisoning can be fatal. Diabetes affects my body. I do not lay a claim to it or refer to it as “mine” as I believe it is an affliction, not something to embrace, but to fight. So I fight. Every day I fight. But I miss things and I miss the sensation in my toes that would have told me this problem was there. Instead I have ulcers the size of a quarter on my feet and nee to find suitable footwear to allow the wound to dry and heal. So I turn to doctors for guidance, and Christ for healing. I see no conflict here. My faith to see instant healing is not developed for myself, although I do sometimes see it for others (something I don’t understand).
I don’t sleep well, but that gives me time to write and pray. I figure if the enemy wants to deprive me of sleep I’ll use it to strengthen my relationship with my Saviour. Eventually he’ll realise it’s better to let me rest as God provides me with the strength for the day.
When my wife and I were opening a business recently our funding evaporated overnight and we were facing having to cancel the plan. God opened doors in the most unexpected places which allowed us to move forward with the plans easily. The business plan is amended to include the details of our new investors, and the banks are now prepared to seriously consider loans for the shortfall. I have meetings set up this week to see what we can raise through these “traditional” organisations now we have concrete investors sent by God to back us.
Meat, not parsley in this life.
What I had treated as a garnish for so long, even while leaning on Him for the major survival stuff, was that for a long-term future I HAD to trust Him for that as well as our daily needs. Like David’s plans before the Lord where he petitions about battle strategies, so I have to humble myself before God and look to His guidance to show us where to look for investors. They have been unexpected and amazingly generous in their faithfulness to us. Some are known to us to be Christian, others not.
But it is written that “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” (Proverbs 13:22 NKJV), and it seems we are now beginning to receive that wealth coming through to us to allow us to have a business to put our hand to so God can Bless it, the fruit of our hands labour. It is written that we have been given the power to create wealth “If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18 – The Message) A timely reminder to some couple on the brink of what appears to be a breakthrough that the breakthrough comes not from parsley God, but by substance, that the parsley is chaff in the wind and nobody notices if it’s not there. I never saw a single person send their order back because the parsley was missing. The burger, yes. But not a sprig of irrelevant leaves.
Keeping God central is a conscious thing to do. We have so many things to distract us. I made a conscious effort to cut out listening to all news bulletins and reading newspapers. All they report is the bad news and the occasional cat stuck up a tree. I rather read and listen to things that will uplift me. Music, books and even some DVD series which can help me find God in what may seem unusual places, but there He is, every time, waiting for me with a new spin on an old story. I never simply watch for the sake of watching. There’s always the thought “what are You wanting me to get from this?” in the back of my mind whether its science-fiction and fantasy, adaptations of Tolkein and CS Lewis or simply quietly reading Max Lucado, John Eldredge or the Narnia stories again. I try to read as though I’ve never read it before, and read with the mind of a child to allow the deepest truth to sink in.
There are horrors in this world. Things we cannot understand with our feeble minds such as the events of 9/11, and we have eternity to figure it out and forgive it. But we need to remember what the main ingredient in our sustenance is spiritually.
Parsley doesn’t nourish us. In the context of a good quality burger you don’t even notice its presence or absence. More so with a steak dinner.
The leaves stuck on the side of the plate. The “garnish” makes it pretty, but it lends no weight to the meal.
We need to stop putting God into the position of garnish and our own selfish pride and ambition as the meat. That path can lead only to utter desolation and ultimate destruction.
Sentiment is parsley. It distracts us from doing what needs to be done. Heirlooms which in days gone by may have been passed from generation to generation now gather dust and tarnish. The meat it could produce could produce a legacy for our children’s children that is spoken of in Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance [of moral stability and goodness] to his children’s children, and the wealth of the sinner [finds its way eventually] into the hands of the righteous, for whom it was laid up” (Amplified), again promising the wealth of the sinner falling to the righteous, but beginning with a moral stability foundation to build it on.
So when I can’t sleep I get up and write. I have a quiet time and I throw away the parsley and sink my teeth into the juicy meat of God’s word – washing it down with Spiritual Milk to make it easier to absorb.
But the parsley of this world needs to be discarded. It detracts and distracts from the point of the meal. It draws us away from the passions that first drew us to God. His heart for His Family. His Love for us, boundless and unfettered lavished upon us. Not an easy situation, but one we must make a deliberate effort to do. Jesus is the Centre of our life, and we need to fight to keep him there. His Love, Strength and Power through the Holy Spirit will be what gets us through the daily walk of the sinner and into the victorious march of the Victor. We were once Sinners saved by Grace, but now we are More than Conquerors through Christ, and we need to live as though we are. Confident and standing tall, fighting where we need to. A shepherd must tend the flock, but that involves fighting off wolves, bears and lions that would seek to shred it.
We are all pastors to a group. There are always a handful of people when you serve spiritual meat to. The need to know the meat from the parsley. But in order to show them, we must first recognise it ourselves. That can only come through a deeper relationship with our Creator and Saviour by means of the Holy Spirit guiding our every move – from where we walk, who we speak to and how we interact with people.
Driving will bring out the worst in most people. It does in me. I am an angry driver. It is a daily battle, made easier when I ride a motorbike as I’m not surrounded by armour. We need to learn to be exposed and vulnerable, because it’s only then that the Holy Spirit can work in us. Imagine trying to open a stone with a dripping tap. Use a hammer, it’s faster, but if you use tumbling to polish the stones, smooth pebbles from nothing but water come. Iron sharpens iron, and stone takes the edge off stone to produce things of great value and beauty.
When I get behind the wheel of a car, the horns and tail appear automatically, and I fight to control my temper. Just today a pedestrian stepped out in front of me and I had to fight the urge when he slapped the bonnet (hood to American readers) to not let my foot slip from the clutch. My wife, a true Blessing in situations like that, defused me with a single word: “Gun”. Meaning he probably has one, and I don’t. I didn’t lose the anger, that came later, but the need to retaliate was defused.
My wife struggles to accept she and I are good for each other. It doesn’t seem to matter what the circumstances recently, but historically we’ve been good together. Not always easy, good. Today was just another example. Meat, not garnish.
So don’t be a Parsley Believer. When I was, I was forgotten immediately by me, never mind the people I spoke to. Parsley is almost worthless. Don’t let that be the fate of your testimony.
By the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their Testimony promises Revelation that we will overcome the beast. Make no mistake, the beast is here.
He is called “Apathy”, and he feasts on Parsley testimonies.

Held to a Higher Standard

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We are Christians. There is no higher call on a human life than that to accept Christ into our life and let the Holy Spirit renew us.

Some are called to preach, some found local churches. Some – like me – write. We all have a gift in us to use for God’s Glory. Each of us is unique and each of us is essential.

I personally dislike big church congregations. I’ve attended a few and it was abundantly clear that many people were feeling the same thing I was – my presence won’t be missed if I stop coming. In each case the same thing happened for me. I filled in a visitor’s card every week for the first few weeks I was there. Only one church bothered to call me to ask if they could do anything or if I needed anything. I was invited to a homegroup at that church, introduced to the members and then left to my own thoughts. When I stopped going, no calls came. I wasn’t missed. I wasn’t necessary.

This may sound like a bitter rant, but nothing is further from the state of my heart. I was a member of several churches over a number of years, each with a weekly congregation averaging around 100-150 people. If someone was missing, everyone knew there was a face missing and calls and visits were made if nobody knew why. It was a community. Especially the younger people – of which I was one back then – shared what we had with each other. Meals, cars (and motorbikes) for lifts, homes for gatherings. We all knew what was happening with each other and we had accountability to one another.

It was well known that we were a Christian group in the town. And you could feel the expectations as you walked around. We were held to a higher standard than other young adults. It was assumed we were all celibate, didn’t drink or smoke and never allowed foul language to cross our minds let alone our lips.

Now I’m in my 40’s and I live several thousand miles from that community and have very little contact outside my own family where I am now. I’m under constant spiritual attack as I try after a break to get back into becoming a member of a local church with a solid Biblical foundation. Outside my immediate family my spiritual support is basically three people, the closest of whom geographically is a 16 hour drive away – if I take the short route.

I’m vulnerable in a way I’ve never been before as a Christian. I allowed myself to get drawn away by the cares of this world and get out of the habit of being in a real Fellowship. Fighting alone is exhausting. Isolation is crippling.

Yet still when I mention I’m a Christian, which comes up a lot in general conversation for some reason, I see immediately a change in behaviour of the people I’m talking to. I’ve had people put out cigarettes and stop drinking their alcoholic drinks round me. It shocks people when they see me in a bottle-store from time to time buying wine or cider. I’ve even been asked who I was buying it for more than once – and the looks I get when I say myself are priceless!

Much of the community outside the church in the neighbouring areas to my home here is ruled by alcoholism and drug abuse, heavy smoking and gang crime are commonplace. A dear friend of mine is often afraid to leave her home because the gangs are out. In just one week last month there were ten killings within 100 yards of her front door as rival gangs fight for turf to sell their filth. It always surprises her that I’m not scared to go and visit her and her daughter from time to time.

I drink, but I don’t get drunk. One or possibly two drinks in a day at most, and never more than once a week. In fact this week I had my first real drink in over 2 years. I used to have the occasional cigar but haven’t had one in over 12 years and was never a regular smoker.

It freaks out people if for some reason I’ve been target shooting and see them while I still have my pistol clipped to my belt. It’s just an air-gun but I’m a marksman so I like to keep my eye in. I’d love to get back to rifle shooting again. There’s an archery range just opened down the road from my home I’m considering joining.

For some reason the World thinks as Christians we should not enjoy these secular pastimes. I don’t hunt for sport, but if I were offered the chance to go on a hunt to track and shoot game such as buck or warthog I’d probably accept as long as I could have the meat. I would never hunt “Big Game” for sport as the majority are endangered species and anyone who gets a kick out of hanging a lion’s head on their wall is clearly missing something upstairs. The only way to hunt Big Game is with a guide and a camera.

People expect that of us as Christians. I used to be a biker, torn jeans, long hair, leather jacket and a Harley-Davidson. I got looks as I’m a big guy. At the time I was 6 feet tall and well over 200 pounds. I was also on the welcoming roster at my church. I helped run a Youth Alpha course which was attended by several kids who simply wanted to be seen with a biker. They got a shock when I turned out to be a Christian and not there to kill the Principal.

We are held to a higher standard than the World by the World. They expect us to be walking around with our hands folded and a bible hidden neatly under our baggy sweater or inside our tailored jacket so we can use it much like an undercover cop might pull his gun.

We should be held to a higher standard. But by ourselves.

I’ve heard preachers advise young people they shouldn’t worry if they’re sleeping with their girlfriend. The reasoning? Nothing St Paul wrote, simply “in today’s society…”

We are conforming to the pattern of this world. We compromise a little chip here and a little chip there. Eventually there’s nothing left of our conviction but empty rhetoric.

We need to be better than this World society. There’s nothing new about the society we live in now, especially in America and England, that wasn’t going on 2000 years ago in the Roman Empire. Now we call slaves “minimum wage earners”. It’s a politically correct way of saying it’s ok for a young woman abandoned by her “husband” to fend for their children to have to work three jobs to pay the rent, school fees and food bill. I read an article today about a NYU student who has been a prostitute for over a year because her school fees were so high she couldn’t pay them and rent and food. And in the interview she stated most of her co-workers were also from NYU or other nearby colleges.

I’ve been opposed to Christians being overly political until recently. I was reminded by the news that President Jimmy Carter has cancer but insisted on continuing to go and teach his sunday-school class that real Christians can achieve real change against the odds.

We live in a time where, as William Booth predicted, we have religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, Forgiveness without Repentance, Salvation without Regeneration, Politics without God and Heaven without Hell. He predicted it in 1903. 112 years later he must be turning in his grave as we have sat back and let it happen.

The World expects us to be better. They hold us to a higher standard and watch for us to fall so they can cry out that there’s no God.

It’s time we held ourselves to a higher standard too. The standard of the Cross.

Christianity needs Christ. For forgiveness there needs to be repentance. True salvation leads to regeneration and change in our lives. Our politicians desperately need a moral compass. Who better than Christians to provide it? And from His stories we know Jesus believed in a real place called Hell. It’s time we remembered that not everyone goes to heaven automatically.

There are two songs I heard recently quoted. “Highway to Hell” and “Stairway to Heaven”. The titles say it all. They speak of the expected traffic numbers.

Hold yourself to a higher standard, no matter how high your personal bar is right now, raise it. Push the boundaries of your Faith in God and let Him set the standard to aim for.

Be held to His Standards, not the World’s