Just Do It

What are you doing here?

I want to revisit this story again. Elijah, fresh from the victory at Mount Carmel, had fled from the repercussions of it all. Jezebel had sworn to take his life in revenge for him destroying all her personal prophets. I can’t quite see why, after all, she was feeding them all and Elijah had just saved her grocery bill a huge pile. However, that was the state of everything, and Elijah had fled. Anywhere but within the reach of Jezebel. The story is in I Kings 19:1-10. Verses 9 & 10 say this :-

“And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” 1 Kings 19:9-10

Ever been in this position? I don’t mean unto death – simply done your best and had everyone howling for your blood? There you are hiding away in a corner and God comes looking for you. “What are you doing here?” He asks. Seems an irrelevant question to you. “What do you think I’m doing, Lord? All I did was what I thought you asked me and now the whole world wants my head on a platter.” I can imagine Father God, smiling and shaking His head. “Do me a favour,” He says, “You keep doing what I asked you to do and I’ll look after the rest !”

At this moment there is a tendency for us to sound a bit like an old single cylinder 50cc moped. “But, but, but, but, but . . . . “ The Lord continues, “It’s a bit of a storm in a teacup isn’t it?” “Oh, is that what you call it?” you splutter. “Yes,” He says, a little more firmly now, “That’s all it is – a storm in a teacup.” “Now – will you keep doing what I asked and leave the rest to Me?”

It may not always be like this, but this is probably a fair précis of what happens quite a few times in our lives – even to those who are most secure in His love. For the rest of us, storms in teacups are the bane of our daily lives. They dominate our existence and they dictate our next hours actions – maybe even longer. We recently had a case where we had made an enquiry about something and before we knew it, we were reportedly set on a course of action that upset a couple of people. Everything was blown way out of proportion and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. All we did was to ask a simple yes/no question.

So let me ask you, what are you doing there (wherever you are)? Are you within the will of God for you? Or are you wandering around doing what you think you should be doing rather than doing what you know that God wants you to be doing? Are you hiding from what God wants you to do? If so – why? What do you need to do to get back into the will of God for you? One thing is for certain, stay where you are and more storms in teacups are sure to be on their way for you. That is when God himself asks you, as He did Elijah, “What are you doing here?” 1 Kings 19:9

As Mary, mother of Jesus, said to the servants at the wedding in Cana – “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:1-12)

Harmless Fun? NO !!!

Banish Halloween

It is that time of year. The clocks have gone backwards and hour and we had that extra hour in bed. Tomorrow is a very different day, or rather, it’s a different night. Tomorrow is All Hallows Evening – or as we all now know it, Halloween. It’s time for tiny kids to go door knocking for trick or treat. It’s time for older ones to party celebrating ghosts and things. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, said of this night, “Ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night.”

Halloween has gone from its ancient pagan roots, often with child sacrifice, through medieval pageant, and 18^th century Irish Celtic customs, to become a ‘harmless diversion for the kids’ and a reason to celebrate and party for adults. Yet - Halloween celebrates darkness and death. So why, I wonder, do so many churches, even pastors themselves, join in the apostasy that is Halloween? Dressing up as witches and warlocks, as zombies or skeletons – well meaning Christians see nothing wrong with it. “It’s just harmless fun.”

Well there’s the start of the problem – it is anything but harmless fun. It is so against everything that God stands for or that He teaches us in His Word. We are warned to avoid darkness because God is light and we are to be salt and light. Halloween celebrates the dead; it celebrates death itself. Halloween masquerades as harmless but, like all things of Satan, it is deceitful and really harmful. As if to demonstrate this, we had a posting this morning accusing us of splitting or dividing the church by being opposed to a little harmless fun on Halloween.

In this case the ‘score’ was Satan 1 - Church nil.

Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you to shun Halloween completely. It’s not 'a bit of fun' - it's evil. Hear what the Word of God says

".... God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5

“Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:13-14 (NKJV)

Halloween is a festival of death, dead people, and darkness – since when did light have anything to do with darkness?

Count Your Blessings

I Am Blessed

Last Sunday, I got a reminder of just how blessed I really am. A baby was in the meeting and he was just as happy as Larry. He was shouting a bit, but nobody took any notice, least of all the speaker who simply ignored him. After all, he’s a baby and he’s just doing what babies do. His grandma was looking after him and she took him out for a few minutes play. A short time later they came back – the little lad was quieter now, laying down in his chair.

Suddenly, he began to blow raspberries the way babies do. Long juicy raspberries that resounded around the auditorium – much to the amusement of the people around him. This time the speaker paused but carried on. So did baby. The raspberries got longer and louder until the speaker finally stopped and said to much amused applause, “I must be pretty bad today – that’s my own grandson blowing raspberries at me.” He laughed and ploughed on to the finish, then scooped the boy up and gave him a great big cuddle the way granddad’s do.

I remembered the thrill of my first baby. It was back in the early 70’s and I was one of the earlier dad’s privileged to be present at the birth. I remember the thrill of lifting him up saying, “Welcome to our world” before I prayed silently over him. I remember my second one being born too. The midwife had rushed to wherever I was waiting. She threw cap and gown at me saying, “Hurry up – I need your help” as my wife struggled to free herself of the baby who was by now virtually birthing himself. I remembered them growing through their childhood with all its scrapes and mischief as well as all it’s more serious moments too.

I remember the girlfriends and then the choice of one followed by the happy day recorded on my living room wall photographs. I remember the joy of our first grandchild then the announcement of the second followed by the trauma of my wife’s early death. Then my second grandson arrived, I met and married my new, wonderful wife about a year ago, and then came the pure joy of a grand-daughter about 4 months ago. Now we have four grandchildren between us. Four precious bundles of energy and mischief who hurtle around the house making huge amounts of noise.

Oh the blessings of a family. What joy there is in watching these little bundles of potential growing, learning, laughing, crying, and loving. What a blessing to see them develop; to watch the possibilities show themselves to us as they begin to rationalise and enquire and soak up the information needed to live life. Oh the sacrifice of families too. My wife, being American, chose to leave her family behind to join me here in the UK. That is a sacrifice for her and a blessing for me that I cannot measure. Her grand-daughter was two last week but they didn’t see each other because 6,000 miles is a way to go for a party. I cannot tell you the blessing that is for me knowing what she has given up for me. All I can do is to seek to bless her daily by way of return – but it is so small a blessing; so small a return for the sacrifice that she has laid down for me.

Our families are so huge a blessing that maybe we need to separated from them for a while to realise it. I know that I am blessed with extraordinary blessings by my wife, our children, and our grandchildren. We are also abundantly blessed by our church too. The old song has it right, you know.

Count your blessings,

Name them one by one,

And it will amaze you

What the Lord has done.

Yes – I am truly a blessed and fortunate man.

Bible Truths

The Bible is TRUE

I actually put this true story out some while ago but it is well worth reminding ourselves of the proven truth of the Bible stories – in particular those which defy the natural laws we claim to understand so well. Time is one thing we understand quite well. The sun, moon and stars all have their natural courses in the heavens and we can state with stunning accuracy the position of any of the known stars and planets at virtually any moment in history – past , present, or future – as this story illustrates.

I was reminded again this morning that science is proving the veracity of the Bible time and time again. Some time ago I heard of a newspaper clipping which I think will benefit both believers and non-believers alike. It was a letter from a lady in Sheffield, England to a magazine regarding the position of solar objects and their movements.

“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.”

*****************

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.”

*******************

Oh what a wonderful God we serve !! \o/

Golden Bowls of Prayer

Sweet Aroma

Prayer is not just us crying out to God. It is not just a list of ‘I want’s’ in a ‘Gimme List’. It is not just us advising God on what He should do for us. No, no, no, prayer is so much more than all these things.

How can I even begin to describe prayer? It is spirit talk – my spirit talking to God’s spirit. It is a sacrifice of praise and prayer – it is me giving my all to the Lord – making room in my day just for Him. Revelation 5:8 describes prayer thus, “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Prayer is incense that rises as a sweet aroma before the throne of God to be collected in golden bowls. Prayer is a time of great intimacy with the Lord.

As the Bible also tells us that God knows what we want and what we need, so God also asks us to ‘make known’ our prayers and petitions. So, let me describe for you my ‘ideal’ setting for prayer – both personal and with others. Let me also say that my ideal may not be ideal to others.

Before starting out, prepare a list of all the subjects you think you should cover. This list gives you a target and a structure. It also helps prevent you wandering off on your own side tracks. This list could contain anything from personal requests to revival; individuals to nations; finances to your local football team. It is your ‘menu’ if you like.

Firstly, welcome people and welcome Holy Spirit, then start with a period of soaking music to both relax you and get you into the mood for prayer. This can last any time from 5 minutes to an hour or more. Let Holy Spirit lead and guide you in this.

Next, pray in tongues again for anything up to an hour or more – this may be at the same time as the soaking music, or it may follow the soaking.

Then, praise and worship including songs if preferred. CD’s or DVD’s are probably best unless good worship leaders are with you. Don’t be afraid to sing to each other (it’s quite Biblical) or to shout. The main ingredient here is freedom to praise as each wants to.

Followed by Thanks for answered prayer – be specific and keep a diary of when things were prayed for and what & when the answer was received. It is important to do this as it is your own testimony and it builds everyones faith for what is to follow.

Read aloud any useful scriptures relevant to your petitions. Healing or prophetic scriptures, relevant stories or events from Jesus’ ministry.

Lastly make your petitions known to God – stick to the agreed list – recording them in your prayer diary. A leader could call things out from the list just to keep everyone on track.

In all of this, there must be room for the Spirit to move to allow Words from the Lord to be brought – prophecy or knowledge; visions or dreams – this is important as it also allows flexibility in the schedule. All should be discerning in receiving or discarding what is brought. There is no time limit here – it lasts as long as the Spirit is flowing through you.

Finish with praise and worship – maybe with flags and dancing – express yourself freely in praise and worship. Wave flags and dance before the Lord. Celebrate Him.

A prayer meeting or prayer sessions like this could last two hours or six hours. Just be prepared to give the Lord some time and let Him work through you and in you. Let Him begin the refiners work in you as you meet Him intimately in prayer.

That is the secret of this type of prayer – it is a time of wonderful intimacy with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A time to treasure in His company. A time also to be who you are with God.