Tuesday 30 November 2010

What is Love ?

What is Love ?

No seriously – what is love? We all know how God’s Word describes it in 1 Corinthians 13 – but how does that all relate to real life. I mean to say – the Biblical picture of love is surely the ideal. Or is it supposed to be the norm?

Well, let me give you my view of it all. I am 67 years old and part of a travelling ministry team that has made around 35 trips to various parts of Europe this year alone. I was widowed 31/2 years ago only to find myself falling head over heels in love again and before getting married again just three weeks ago. OK, on some things I will be a bit biased, but in many ways this has been a journey of incredible surprises too, so let me tell you a little bit about the journey.

I have discovered that there is a serious richness in love that I never before realised and that has really made me reconsider my opinions about what we might call “Senior Love”. Everybody expects young people to meet, fall in love, get married and raise a family – that’s the church’s version of 1 Corinthians 13 put into the context of our lives. Meet, love, marriage, family – live happily ever after. If only . . . . But what about older people?

Older people have what we all know as ‘life experience’, especially if they have been married before. So, many older folk don’t set too many high targets. Smaller but achievable or more realistic targets or expectations is what you get from us. I expected that my new wife would come with certain baggage, not thinking for an instant that I would be the one with all the baggage. So it was in this context that I realised that something (I/me) had to change and it was in this area that I discovered a new incredibly deep richness to God’s love for us and in us. I fell in love all over again – twice. Once before the wedding and once after the wedding. However, with the second fall came a realisation of the full depth of my true feelings and, perhaps even more importantly, of my wife’s feelings for me. It was an overwhelming flood of love that swept over me every time we hugged and held each other. (You need to understand here that we are two tactile people so this tends to happen quite a lot so there are a lot of loving feelings flying around us.)

Do older people really hug and cuddle a lot? Oh you’d better believe it. We haven’t got as much time left as some of you youngsters and, anyway, why shouldn’t we? We hug the Grandkids; we hug you, our own kids, so why would we not hug and cuddle each other? It’s all about love. You hug those you love. I recently hugged my son and his wife when they announced another baby on the way. I hug people at church when I greet them. We hug complete strangers during public ministry – mostly because they NEED a good loving hug. There’s nothing sloppy or promiscuous or even the slightest bit dodgy about greeting each other with a hug. I once got into deep water at a church I was visiting when the minister told everyone to greet each other with a hug. How was I to know it was an arms-length hug and an air-kiss with no touching. The stranger I hugged was so surprised when I just hugged her as a friend – but fortunately. she walked away with the biggest smile on her face.

So what is love? Is it mental, physical, reserved for special people only ?? What ?? I think it is both a state of mind and a physical demonstration. I think it is everything described in 1 Corinthians 13. For youngsters it is tinged with passion and an urgency that you lose a bit as you get older. For older people, it is tinged with experience and it goes much deeper than it does for the younger generations. Age brings wisdom into love – a wisdom which quite provably is not availed enough by younger people. Yet love is not something to take for granted. Rather, it is something to be worked at every day of our lives. It is a selfless giving to each other with NO expectation other than that of receiving love. Love is exactly what 1 Corinthians 4-8 says it is. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
That’s it isn’t it? Love NEVER fails and I think it is that realisation that the Lord has so brilliantly brought into focus for me these past few days. He found us. He got us to meet on line. He caused us to fall in love – hopelessly and helplessly in love – even at our ‘advanced’ ages. He brought us together and got us married. THEN He taught us what His love really is about. And let me tell you, there is no greater privilege of loving and receiving love from another human being – especially a fellow Christian who shares your faith and beliefs.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Under Cover

Under Cover

Have you ever fully understood what it means to be under cover with God? Do you know the difference of being in His will and outside His will?

A while back, I was on a 4 hour drive somewhere when the Lord spoke to me. He asked me, “What does my Word say about staying within the law?” I replied that while we obey the law, then we remain under the protection of the law, but when we step outside the law, so our protection lapses. “Quite right!”, He said, “So why are you breaking the law?”

Knowing full well what He meant, I protested, “But Lord, I’m only doing 75-80! And the speed limit is only 70 and – and - . . . . .” so the excuses rolled out. The Lord interrupted my protests. “Let me show you what it means to be outside the law – as far as I am concerned.”

Without another word, He showed me my car driving along the road. There was just my car and nothing else in sight. “Slow down.”, He said. As I slowed down to 70 mph, so a white mist or fog surrounded the car. I saw angels appear at the four corners of the car. Then the Lord said, “Now speed up again.” The mist and the angels disappeared and there was the car – all exposed and in plain sight again.

“Hmmm”, I said. “Yes, hmmm indeed”, said the Lord. “When you are within the law, I can protect you. I can hide you from those who seek to do you ill. But when you step outside your law, so you step outside my law and therefore my will and protection, too.”

Silly little story I know, but it serves to illustrate a little bit just how Gods will and protection work for us. If we are outside of His will, then we are also outside of His protection. The enemy can ask if we “are supposed to be doing that?” God, being who He is, cannot lie and when He says “No” then the enemy can step in, or ask if he can step in, to an extent.

As a ministry, we are always having to decline invitations to visit and minister because those invitations are outside our remit, or outside God’s will for us at this time. Staying in His will doesn’t mean declining that invitation for ever – it simply means ‘not right now’.

Are you staying in His will right now? Are you under His cover? Or are you outside of His protection right now? What needs to change? Let me know and I will pray with you and for you.

Silence all Scoffers

A copy of a newspaper clipping recently came into my possession which I think will benefit us all. It is a letter from a lady in Sheffield, England.

“Dear Editor, I was surprised that your writer, (name), was not aware that Joshua 10:12-14 is perfectly true.

“I read the following in a newspaper some years ago and kept it in order to show Bible scoffers.

“American scientists working on the U.S. Space Programme were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets 100 years from now. It was part of their planning for satellite flights. The computer measurement was being run over the past centuries when it stopped, showing a red signal. Apparently, there was a day missing in space in elapsed time.

“Then one of the scientific team recalled the story in Joshua Chapter 10 where Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still for ‘about a whole day’. This was still not accurate enough for the computer, which was short of 40 minutes.

“Even this discrepancy was cleared up when a team member, knowledgeable on scripture, recalled a passage in 2 Kings Chapter 20 in which Isaiah called on the Lord to make the sun go backwards 10 degrees as a sign for Hezekiah. Ten degrees in this kind of calculation is exactly 40 minutes.”

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Joshua 10:12-14 (New International Version)
“On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!”

2 Kings 20:8-11
“Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?” Isaiah answered, “This is the LORD’s sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
“It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” Then the prophet Isaiah called on the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”


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Oh what a God we serve !! Hallelujah

Today is the day to be different

Today is the day to be different

One of my favourite little sayings on Twitter is this “Please - Don't talk about how you sang and shouted praises to God on Sunday if your tongue rips & tears people to shreds during the week.” The Lord spoke to me personally about this whenever I first tweeted it and it has sort of ‘lurked’ in the back of my mind ever since that time. You know, God only wants the best for His children and it grieves Him mightily when we don’t even try to keep our end of the agreement. He wants us to praise Him and worship Him – Daily. He wants us to walk side by side with Him – or to be a little more exact, He wants to walk alongside of us each day. His word says that we are ‘more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Rom 8:37) and yet we act as if we are more than defeated rather than conquerors.

A dear brother summed it up today with his posting :-

Today is the day to be different
He wrote these amazing words:-

“Yet yesterday we have offered no sacrifice, sought no righteousness and found fault with others. We have pleaded with God to pour blessing over our burdens while pouring burdens into others.”
This encapsulates my thinking entirely. We do nothing of ourselves yet we still find fault in, and judge, others for doing the very same things. We go on our knees to the Lord in order to receive His blessings for ourselves. Yet, at the very same time, we have tried to burden others with our own burdens or with burdens they don’t really need right now.

Yes – it IS time to be different. Yes - why not start today? Today it is time to ask God, with some real expectation, to heal our land because we have heeded His word to “humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

You know – it is only my opinion but I believe that 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 is the most quoted and least obeyed scripture in the whole of God’s Word. How many times do we have to hear it or read it in order for it to sink into our ‘blind’ little minds (me included). How many times do we have to ‘repent’ before we actually do repent. True repentance, as in revival, comes with tears and conviction and a realisation of just how far we are from God.

If we really are an end-time army of God then revival and repentance starts at our own front door. We have to stop pretending and get real with God. We have to stop the hypocrisy of being Sunday Christians and weekday pagans. We have to allow God to truly convict our hearts and turn to Him again – this time in true repentance. Then – maybe – just perhaps – He will hear our cries, look at our hearts, and seeing the turning with some satisfaction, start to heal our lands.

No more false repentance. No more Sunday hypocrisy and weekday normality.

Monday 15 November 2010

Time to Be Prepared

Time to Be Prepared

When I was a bit younger, I belonged to the Scouts movement. Their motto then was – Be Prepared. I am thinking that this is a good motto for us today. I was reminded of this when I found an old prophecy I gave out about two years ago. It’s about preparation for the End-Time. For revival and for the return of our King of Kings – our precious and wonderful Saviour, Jesus.

As I look around the world today and see the corruption, the political correctness, the greed, and the rise of false religions, the Lord reminds me of His words to me. He reminds of what His Word says about the end times and of the return of our Lord. He reminds me of the things He said to me a while back and He says to me, “Be prepared. Be prepared for the persecution. Be prepared for the ways of the world to virtually obliterate My ways. Be prepared for false religion to rise and rise and rise again – before it falls completely. Be prepared – help my people prepare for what is to come. Be prepared to give your all to Me and for Me.”
This speaks to me of what we should have been doing for some time. It speaks to me of what we should be doing right now. We need to prepare – to prepare our own hearts and lives for the return of a Holy Lord. We need to prepare – to warn and help prepare the church for what is coming very soon. We need to prepare – to take the Gospel out as never before – to save the lost and dying before it is just too late.

Be encouraged – This is what the Lord spoke to me just two years ago. It is still valid – perhaps more so – today.
“The days are coming when many shall turn to me. Those who doubt now, those who do not believe in Me now, those who have wandered off like lost sheep. I am raising a new end-time army of believers. Those who will believe despite what circumstances scream out to them; those who believe despite and whatever the world throws at them; those who will believe through the worst possible persecution – even unto death. The world is turning against Me”, says the Lord, “ but I already knew this before I laid the foundations of the earth. The world does not realise this, yet even if they did, yet they would still despise Me. And they will despise you too because you speak My Name – because you believe in Me and in the One I sent. Even so,” says the Lord, “because your hope is steadfast and is rooted in Me, yet will I uphold you; yet will I justify you even in the worlds eyes. Do not lose sight of My Kingdom for it shall be your reward. Do not bow the knee to anyone but My Son for He is your saviour. Always remember that I, the Lord God Almighty, love you and I am with you – even to the end of the age. I am your provider. I am your Father. I love you – even you.”
Are you ready? Oh Brothers and Sisters – Be prepared. Be prepared.