e-holiness

last day at work...for a while

today is my last day of work, paid, here in the uk, but as i say my goodbyes to friends, customers and colleagues the news from south africa that dr beetroot has lost her job is much more important, please read the article to understand the background and how this news should be good for those 5.5 million people living with AIDS in south africa.

you are free

if only i was in canada tomorrow for the first showing of the docufilm of joseph arthur called 'you are free', i will be searching for more info on this film, but please see here for a short trailer of the film and have a look at what some people claim to be and i quote 'one of the last true artists left in the world', josephs music is amazing and this film captures the first show of the 2005 tour, of which i saw three shows!, this guy is so deep and his music and paintings (which were created during his performances, you had to be there!), captures human emotions like no other i have heard. whats more he has a new album, his fourth this year, coming out next monday.....more of that in another post.

time is moving on..

it's funny how our lives are governed by time, and what with our imminent move to south africa this is more real for me than maybe at any other time (!) of my life, the things that have happened to us over the last year are amazing and last weekend saw one of the final pieces of the jigsaw being put in place, no it wasn't the three year volunteer visa that we picked up from the south african embassy in trafalgar square, but the moving of our middle son to his university place in bath.....how time flies, it seems like yesterday when we were hearing his first sounds, or footsteps, or first day at school, or football match, but time moves on and our lives do too.....we can't wait to get out to south africa to work with the poor and needy but it is with a little tinge of sadness that we do so as another stage of our lives comes to an end here in england, for him it is the start of a new life without mum and dad around, for us we are having to let go of one of the most precious people in our lives and trust God to keep him safe as we all set out on our new adventures!

bill's about

if you are staying in england and not joining us on our exciting adventure to south africa, which is everyone except me, maz and arron, then you might wanna check out bill johnson when he comes to england in november. i know that a few of you enjoyed his teaching at new wine this year and along with me have been listening to his podcasts, however this might be a chance to see him in the flesh and hear his wonderful insights into kingdom living here and now 2008 style!

good news but keep praying

the news channels from around the world yesterday was filled with the state of the current economic situation in the united states which is having a knock on effect on financial markets around the world, this could affect your pension and endowment funds and will perhaps make it harder for you to gain credit from your bank...

this is something we need to continue to pray into, however the good news that happened yesterday was the power sharing agreement that was signed in zimbabwe, now this is something that we need to pray into, the people of that country have been living in a dire financial situation for many years and whilst the news out of america will make a difference to us here in our safe western world where we have the opportunity to save for tomorrow (and i am not saying we all can due to our employment status etc but we have the safety nets in place which allow most of us to live with a roof over our heads and place food on the table) zimbabweans are now looking to a more secure future with a balanced government, we need to thank God that there has been an agreement reached but also pray for unity in a country so divided.

finding God

yesterday the news was full of the cern collider experiment which was switched on for the first time, for those of you who missed the news and the build up which has been covered for the last few years scientists have created a 17 kilometre tunnel where they will eventually crash together atomic particles in the hope of creating the event that took place just after the 'big bang' millions or billions of years ago.

what they are looking for, as with so many unanswered questions, is the missing link or what some scientist are calling the 'God particle', that element which they can't find or is missing from their scientific knowledge or experiments, and it's also known to be the 'let there be light' moment! this story has been covered well on the bbc but here is another take on that same experiment still on the bbc web page, the use of words like cathedral is also interesting and i hope you enjoy the read.

this whole news story, the search for the unknown, the unseen, the missing link and mankind's attempt to find God reminds me so much of the story of the tower of babel found in genesis 11. however as much time and effort we make to try to understand God He is so much bigger, mightier, 'other' than us that we cannot capture Him or even have the words to explain or comprehend Him.....this is captured so well in the book of job 38 and 39, who is man that we can try to understand our God, were we there are the beginning of creation.....whatever man seeks to prove God is beyond all understanding, all He asks of us is to have a child like faith and He will reveal Himself and His plans for our lives to us, all we have to do is ask Him.

too much stuff not enough time!

i have started this post a couple of times already, monday and tuesday, however time seemed to run away with me and i never managed to get further than the first couple of lines.

since returning from south africa last week we have been so busy, i mean my life is quiet hectic at the best of times but over the weekend we left our family home (which we have lived in since we got married 20 years ago) and moved down to a friends house, well should i say we moved into a room at a friends home, where we will be staying for the next four weeks before the big move to south africa in october.

when i returned from south africa i was somewhat shocked at the sight of my house, maz had spent the two and half weeks whilst i was away clearing up, sorting through and where necessary throwing out so much of our stuff that i was surprised to see so much still left in our lounge as i came through the door....i have never considered myself as a hoarder, ok i do keep hold of motor racing programmes and magazines from the 1970's and the odd football programme, but where did all this clutter come from?

i guess i am as much part of our materialist society as the next man but as we seek to 'downsize' for our long term move to africa where we will be living almost on top of people who struggle to get through each day, i am trying to declutter my whole life, not only the things i have but also the time that i put into what would be considered normal to our western eyes.

i am seeking God as to what he wants me to take and the more i think about it the more i come to the conclusion that all He wants me to take is myself and His love and compassion that He has placed in my heart for these poor and needy people......in three of the gospels Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

i hope that i haven't taken that out of context but it feels like i have the whole world and it's riches at my hand but i need only to ensure that Jesus has my soul as that is all i need....to have Him in my life not the riches and material things that i have unknowingly surrounded myself with over these last 20 years.

please don't get me wrong i will be taking some clothes and books and maybe if you come and visit us we will have some of the trappings of this life but all i know is that Jesus wants me, not my stuff, dreams, ideas etc, and when He has stripped all that away then He will use me in a mighty way to further His kingdom here on earth.....

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commiting our plans

it's been a long time since i posted on e-holiness, what with the 18 day trip to south africa and our imminent move from our family home, an address we have lived at for over 20 years, there has been so much to do with so little time, however as we make the first steps towards our final move to south africa in october i am encouraged by the scripture found in proverbs 16 v 3 which says 'commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed'....in all that we are doing, what with the house move, the purchase of the land which will become 'the village of hope', our move to south africa, it is our desire to commit all our actions, whether the big or the small to God, sometimes this can be a hard thing to do, but over the years we have found that God is always faithful and His ways are trustworthy.

i hope that i will be able to post a few thoughts about the recent trip to south africa next week but for now please pray for us as we place our next steps into the Lords hands......