e-holiness

no bees!

it's almost a year ago since i posted about listening to the bees, in fact it could be a year ago today given that this is a leap year, anyway that's not that important, but the following fact is...

...today as i walked past the wonderful laburnum that dominates our garden with it's beautiful yellow flower pods i was struck not by the sound of bees that graced the tree this time last year, but by the complete silence and lack of any movement in the tree whatsoever. where have the bees gone?...are the conditions slightly different to last year, maybe the mornings are colder and the bees aren't up and about yet....

....this bought a thought into my mind, is God like the bees?, i mean the tree is displaying all the right signs but there is no buzz, can our lives be like that, from the outside all can seem well but if the conditions of our hearts are out of line with Him does he choose not to manifest Himself in our lives?

....these are big thoughts but ones that we have to address as we seek to display His love to this world, we can display all the right 'Godly' characteristics but if He isn't moving in us we will be doing everything in our own strength and not His.

as per the post last year, my thoughts really haven't changed that much, i do believe that sometimes we don't see or hear God at work in us, He just is and we are blind to that, but on reflection this year could it be that the conditions of our heart, much like the weather today, can make a difference to whether He is able to work in us?

come on bees i wanna hear you...!

it's easy with God....

i have heard much spoken about the outpouring which is hitting florida and breaking out around the world, one of the comments i have heard is that 'healings and deliverance's will be easy to achieve as God pours out His Holy Spirit on us'.........and i believe that is true, the amazing miracles that i have seen recently on tv and in the flesh are testimony to this.....there is also another comment that 'moses is dead and this is the joshua generation', meaning that God will not use just one man as with moses but will pour out His power on us all as we step into the promised land of healings and revivals, but with this i have a warning....

...we must not forget God as we become accustomed to this outpouring and the amazing things He is doing, deuteronomy 8 1-20 talks about when the israelites were warned about becoming too comfortable as they settled in the promised land, a land that had taken 40 years to walk into, a land that was flowing with milk and honey, much like the warning to the israelites we must continue to praise God each day for His amazing blessings and not get fat living off of the knowledge that when God is working the miracles are easy, we must continue to look to Him and give Him the honour as we see His mighty hand at work.....

......this is a warning but i also want to encourage you into all that God is doing at this time, there will be some sceptics but hey we don't want to be like the pharisees and miss the Son of God as He worked amongst them do we?!, God does use some crazy guys to bring His message of love to the world, todd bentley might be one such man to you but you cannot deny his love of God and the way in which God is moving in his life..

life without God

i have just spent 11 days out of the country, visiting various countries in europe and ending up at the largest shopfitting show in the world (euroshop), held in dusseldorf (every 3 years), what a show, 14 halls filled full of everything you could want to fit a shop out with, mannequins, checkouts, flooring, wall systems, lighting, it was amazing.....however much of what i saw filled me with sadness.

the shopfitting industry, as i imagine with all other industries, is a multi million pound global juggernaut, people from china, india, eastern europe, the united states, south africa, even little olde england, all joining together to promote their products on huge stands to impress their customers, including the likes of wal-mart, tesco, m&s, spar and other global brands.....the whole week was about corporate entertainment, both during the day, on stands which must have cost the earth, and in the evening and late into the night as the centre of dusseldorf and surrounding towns buzzed with party people.

it was three years since i last visited this show, and town, and nothing much had changed, see my post about that trip here, however what i did think as i wondered around, watched people and tried to stay focused, is how hard it must be for people to live without God, each morning i would continue to read my bible and pray but time was so precious and short that there was little time to do much else...how do people live without Him to guide their lives? and where do they get their moral stand points from? from what i saw there was little to say that many had standards and living in a world like that can be very hard even when you know you are a child of God.....

...it wasn't all bad and we did have a great time catching up with old friends and michelle our german interpreter was again a little star, bless you....it's good to be back.

pure thoughts

i am not really one to talk about pure thoughts, with my performances on the football pitch on a saturday afternoon bearing witness to my thoughts of revenge for a bad tackle or wrong decision by the referee, i could also add my thoughts about the dog (his name doesn't even deserve a mention on this holy site!) that we are baby sitting for at the moment (like 12 months babysitting), the thoughts i have when someone cuts me up on the motorway....but it's not just me.

our nation is driving full pelt down a road of unhealthy thoughts, about sex, drugs and even rock and roll (well rap music anyway), our children are subjected to images on the gogle box that we never thought possible, well not until after 10pm and then channel 4 put a red triangle in the corner to warn (or encourage us)....but today we can watch 24 hour tv via sky or the net and fill our minds with utter rubbish or worse images that encourage evil or un pure thoughts, i think you can see where i am coming from.

paul in his letter to the philippians encourages us in chapter 4 v 8-9 to  think about noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable thoughts, not words that we (or our children) are really familiar with in 2008....i know that i will sound like a real old git but hey look what's happening because we have lost these words or thoughts.....

we are called to be peacemakers, Jesus in the beatitudes, that's not just someone who lives in peace with themselves causing no harm to anyone, this is someone who works for peace. so today as we work for peace lets keep those pure thoughts at the forefront of our minds and encourage others (especially our children) to do the same....

rejoice in the Lord always. i will say it again, rejoice! let your gentleness be evident to all. the Lord is near. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practise. and the God of peace will be with you..

testing...

i am working my way through the bible in a year, a couple of my friends bought me the one year bible for my 40th birthday in august so i started it half way through the year, and whilst i haven't be faithful to that book everyday, in fact i am only on 3rd jan now so i am over one month behind already, i have found that each day the scriptures are apt for the situations i have found myself in, it's amazing how God's word does that.

as lent started this week i have been thinking about Jesus and his 40 days in the wilderness and todays reading in my one year bible was from matthew, 3 v 7 through to 4 v 11, which picked up on this story. what i was most impressed with, when reading this well known story through again, was that the devil is very crafty in his temptation of Jesus, at the end of chapter 3 we read that after john baptised Jesus a voice from heaven said 'this is my dearly loved son...' then as Jesus was led into the wilderness satan comes to Jesus and opens with the lines 'if you are the son of God'...thus calling into question what God had just confirmed about Jesus.

how many times in our lives have we been knocked back or tempted just after we have had a clear call, sign or word from God, satan loves to come in a cast doubt, a double thought, into our minds. we are called to be single minded, not doubting, Jesus confronted the devil with scripture, the truth, we must also learn to stand against him with the same....the truth. God has called us sons, heirs, His workers, so today as the devil tempts you stand firm resist him and he will flee and be sure you know that the truth sets you free.

God's covering...

this weekend we have seen some amazing sunsets over our home in whitchurch, we are so blessed to live in such a wonderful part of the world, see photo for an example of the sunlight capturing a couple of vapour trails as well as the upper level clouds, it was a truly amazing sight to behold....the nights have also been so starlet it gives me a sense of awe and wonder at the might and power of our God....and as we wake this morning the mist is so low that we feel cocooned and the world feels very small indeed, but i know that my God is with me and will enable me to do great things for Him.

yesterday morning we made the long, but very worthwhile, trip to dudley to hear charlie robinson speak at arc church in dudley, it was great to listen to charlie again as he expanded the bible to explain about God's blanket covering over this world and us his people, i won't break into providing you the full sermon but charlie was speaking of the garment of praise as found in isaiah 61 and the mantle, again another garment, which elijah passed on to elisha, found in 2 kings.....

as i sit here typing and reflecting over the weekend, the wonderful sunsets, stars and mist, which are the covering of God over this world giving us cause to raise up songs of praise and thanks giving, i am just so amazed that God would chose us to to complete His works here on earth with his full covering and a double portion at that which will enable us to do even greater things that Jesus, who had raised people from the dead and restored sight to the blind, just as elisha did after elijah, who had seen mighty miracles himself, the burning up of the meat, stones and water as he called fire down from heaven etc.....come on guys lets live as true sons and daughters of God as we live within the covering power of God's love.

lent 2008?

lent '08 is nearly upon us and i was wondering as to what i should do this year, i know what i'll give up and no it's not e-holiness unfortunately for you, but wanted to follow an on-line lent type thing. if you have any ideas, links etc then please post a comment. if i don't hear anything i will be sitting staring at a blank screen....maybe that might help.

what to read?

i have recently been asked about reading God's word (so instead of replying to that email i thought that i would post my thoughts with the hope that others would add to them), the question actually asked about 'the best bits', which is a great question. for those of us who have 'grown up' with the bible many of us take for granted those key stories and scriptures, however for a new Christian or someone looking into this for the first time the bible can seem a bit daunting, and i must say even to me it seems daunting..!...

in answer to the question i have found the following to be really helpful but would welcome other comments and thoughts as we seek to provide a answer to this very important question.

1. find a translation that you can read and easily understand, some people love the old king james but that doesn't 'work' for me, perhaps start with an 'niv' and 'nlt' translation, 'the message' is good to read as a book but i can't ever seem to remember scripture from there (the links to these translations are for info purposes, not recomendations for each version, please find one to suit you).

2. read Jesus words, mainly found in the four gospels, matthew, mark, luke and john and a little in acts, some bibles have His words highlighted in red, thus the phase 'red letter Christians'....perhaps start with mark as it gets straight into the story of God here on earth..!

3. back these words up with some teaching that the early church received to keep them 'on the right track', paul (who was a jewish convert) wrote most of these 'letters' and i think the books of hebrews  and titus are a good guide for us.

4. read some old testament to give context, exodus is a great book, to start with, but also add in some psalms, there's 150 of them to choose from..! and maybe a proverb each day, there are 31 of these 'chapters' one for each day of a month, ok excluding feb, sept, april, june and nov but you get what i mean.

5. the web site 'biblegateway' has some good reading plans and has a wealth of helpful information with all the translations at your finger tips. for a 61 day study, look at this one which picks the key verses and stories

6. the bigger answer would be just to pick it up and get into the whole thing, read it each day, start off reading it like a book and then go back over it with any questions, often the second time you read it something new jumps out or becomes clearer, it's amazing how God works like that..!.remember it's not a manual or a guide but it is the word of God which speaks to each of us.

to have some guidance is useful and that's what i have tried to do here, this is a big topic and not one that i have mastered myself, perhaps others could add their ideas via the comments section.

forgive as we have been forgiven

i was listening the 'midweek' programme on radio 4 last wedensday when i heard an amazing discussion about forgiveness, ginn fourie was telling her story of forgiveness following the murder of her daughter in cape town in the 1990's, she appeared on the show with letlapa mphahlele, the man who gave the order to commit the murder, and spoke about the time when she had to forgive him for her daughters death....

their story, along with many others from around the world, including a survivor the 7/7 london bombings can be read on the 'the forgiveness project' site. it seems that they are currently touring the uk with their exhibition which should be worth a visit.

forgiveness is at the forefront of Christs message, a large part of the 'Lord's prayer' is focused on forgiving others and is a key to our freedom from sin....it was interesting to listen to ian maccormac last friday evening as he shared his 'death' experience with us, as he was dying the Lord's prayer came to his mind and the part he had most trouble in saying (and meaning it) was about forgiving others as God has forgiven us.....Jesus says that we should forgive not once, not twice but 70 x 7, a number so big that we don't keep count.....

today as we think about forgiveness and read the stories, many of them from 'non-Christains' lets ask God to forgive us our sin (the wrong things, thoughts and actions that we do against him and others) as we forgive those who sin against us.            

going to hell?

last week we had a discussion in our homegroup (that's kinship for vineyarders) about heaven and hell, i think we were all clear that there is a heaven, although the debate rose around where and when that might be. the topic of 'hell' was bought up by one of our group who didn't believe that the creator, loving and compassionate God would let people who haven't chosen to follow him he on earth, for whatever reason, be thrown into a place of fire and torment (hell) for all eternity while 'the followers' enjoy paradise (heaven) beyond our dreams.

this got me thinking and searching the net for other peoples (mainly Christan's) thoughts on the topic of hell and i am trying to get my head around the lack of teaching from both Jesus and the main new testament writer, paul, on the topic that we find (or don't find) in the bible.

i would welcome your thoughts about such a topic and would love to find out whether there are others who 'struggle' with this concept, please visit the link to the 'tentmakers' site for their thoughts and explanation and also follow this link to an interview conducted by lee strobel, it's well worth a watch whatever you currently think.

funny enough we have 'jellyfish man' ian maccormac speaking at our church tomorrow evening, ian was stung 6 or 7 times by a box jelly fish whilst diving, died from the toxins, had an 'experience' of death and hell and was given the chance by God to come back to earth to tell us all of his story. it should be an eventful evening and if you can make it this will be held at the aylesbury grammar school at 7.30pm.