Let's live for 'This Day'.

When praying and reading the Bible today I was completely challenged.  Please excuse the slight diversion from Acts - but I thought this was cool...!

See for the past ages, and quite often throughout my life I've felt down or not good enough and wanted to change stuff, alter things, be better, do this, start over, and so on.  I tend to set a deadline and think, right on this date I'll do this, or be like this, or stop doing this. 

At the moment I'm particularly thinking over this as the year draws to a close and 2013 is upon us. Infact it was as I was writing my Christmas cards that this first struck me.  I was writing in peoples' cards 'May 2013 be your best year yet' or 'have a great 2013, hope it's your best year to date', and so on.  But why am I wishing time away?  Why am I waiting for the strike of midnight on 31st December 2012 to change me and alter things?  Am I expecting some sort of miracle to automatically happen and fix everything? 

No, see God's grace is big enough to start over now. His grace is so amazing, that we don't have to wait for a date or a deadline to sort things out and fix things.  We can do it now.  I don't want to wish my precious days on earth away by constantly living for the next date, the next holiday, the next deadline, the next opportunity to get it right!  I want to live for now, in the here and now, in the present day with God and His Grace continuously making a difference to my life and helping me to live each day to the full.  There is so much potential for today, let's not waste it but let's see it come to fruition now!

To finish, Derek Mills, author of The Ten Second Philosphy which I'm reading at the moment puts it like this... 'Over 2,000 years ago Christ taught us 'give us this day', not this decade, not this month, not this quarter, and not this fiscal year.  Give us this day'.  I think this is an awesome message.  Let's live while it is today.  

Be encouraged and encourage

Love God's Word!  I love how one little word can make all the difference - it's definitely ALIVE!

Acts 20v 2 '(Paul) travelled through that area (Macedonia) speaking many words of encouragement to the people'.

This simple word 'encouragement'completely struck me today.  It can be so easy in life to just moan, complain, grumble or even think we are saying positive things to help but actually cause more damage.  Honestly, it's so easy to complain about the weather, the news, lack of money, work, job, a colleague, an ache, a pain, etc.  Sometimes there can even be a lack of encouragement in churches - we are often told about sin, sinners, badness, evil, not matching the mark, not meeting the standard... and so on. 

Let's be a people who 'encourage' one another and who speak encouragement!  Who can you encourage today?  What can you say?  Who can you bless?

Not to write about this here or to boast or anything, but I just sent an encouraging text message to a number of people in my phone, having been challenged by this word to encourage.  And not through my own actions, but by God working through me an using me, so many people have apparently been very blessed.  How cool.  (Thanks for your texts if this is you guys).  It's so awesome how one small word of encouragement or one small text can change someone's day.

In school I often encourage the boys to do well. Rather than focus on what they can't do or haven't done, or focus on those who are behaving negatively, I encourage and praise the good work that has been done, or highlight and reward the boys who are doing the right thing and working well.  It's almost a reverse psychology (we are so used to negativity) but it works guys!

Let's be encouragers today.  Let's build up, not tear down.  Let's allow God to use us to be a blessing.

Ready to take on the world.... or not?

Hi!

I was really taken this week by the amazing scripture in Acts 6.  Take a look…

‘In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”’  Acts 6v1-4

My initial reaction was ‘Wow, that’s so amazing’.  You see I care for Tim and Helen, my church leaders, a lot, and particularly with the ever-growing work at Watford Community Church, and the increased numbers of people attending, not to mention the third service at Highwood, I do worry about them taking so much on and burning themselves out.  So how cool is this passage that almost lets them off the hook.  It’s ok to delegate.  The disciples couldn’t do everything themselves and had to focus on their calling, rather than trying to take on everything.  We have one pair of hands for a reason.  If God wanted us to do more than we can do with one pair of hands, He would have created us with two pairs.  I would hate for my leaders to take on too much, feel they have to do everything, and thus end up being removed from their ministry and teaching to do all of the extras.  This is definitely a word for some people, in that you can’t do everything.  We need a break, we need to rest, we need to stop, we need to delegate, we need to prayerfully hand the relay baton on and trust other people enough to carry on certain aspects of church and ministry.  We can’t be selfish and do it all.  That’s not what God wants.  If a footballer keeps the ball to himself without passing, he is going to set himself and his team up for losing.  We need to pass.

However on a second reflection of this, and through certain discussions on this passage, I was made aware of the difficulties of passing things on because sometimes God’s people, *myself included* just aren’t ready.  Sometimes there can appear to be a lack of people ready to receive the baton in the relay.  We can sometimes be too busy watching from the sidelines, looking at the other competitors and becoming distracted with other things, rather than standing in the starting blocks, ready to receive the baton or the ‘pass’.  This made me sad and upset me a fair amount.

Whilst I understand that sometimes it is just not possible to do, do, do all the time, and whilst I completely sympathise with those who just aren’t ready to take things on, at the same time sometimes I think we need to toughen up, train up, man up and open up ready to receive the baton and start running.  Sometimes I think we are so busy that we miss God’s calling to receive responsibility.  Sometimes we are just too apathetic to train and prepare ourselves for the next race or the next step.  Guys.  Church.  Family.  Let’s take a look at where we are in the relay.  Yes there is a time to rest, but there is also a time to receive the baton and run.  This can’t just happen straight away, we need to train, practise and prepare ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually in order to do this. 

So are we going to be a church who is ready to run; having prepared, prayed, trained, and so on?  Or are we going to hinder the growth of church by not allowing the baton to be passed on, and the few who are running the relay become overwhelmed and burnt out and exhausted?  Harsh words I know, but I pray this may stir you up and cause you to think about your position in the race.  Are you ready to take the baton and run?  Do you need to train a bit more?  Have you been an onlooker on the sidelines, but now need to train, prepare and act?

Love you guys J  Have a blessed day.

Waiting, crippled.

Love Acts 3 when a beggar who has been lame since birth is HEALED in the name of Jesus!!! We are told in Acts 4v22 that this guy 'was over forty years old'.  I reckon in that day and age this was almost a whole lifetime as people died younger then.

Now we are told in Acts 3v2 that this lame beggar went faithfully to the temple gate every day to beg. I imagine he would pray here too, probably for healing and so on. Just think day after day, praying and praying for something that is just not happening! But praise God for this mans perseverance, patience and faithfulness!!

And then one day - probably not dissimilar to most from the outset, he was healed through the Holy Spirit working in Peter and John. Two things struck me here. 

1.  Never give up. Never stop praying. Be faithful in prayer. Be patient in prayer. But never give up. 

2.  Be available to be used by God. Just like Peter and John were like vessels for the Holy Spirit to work through them at any given moment, so too do we need to be available and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us. 

I was reminded again at an alpha away day yesterday about the amazing life we can have through the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean we need to go all weird and crazy, to preach from soapboxes, to do weird things and to stop being ourselves. We don't need to be crazy, scary Christians. That's just off putting! We just need to be available, in tune with what God is doing and ready to act if and when prompted. 

I want to live in step with the Spirit - to be joyful, have hope, see miracles, see the Spirit bringing about light, life, hope, healing, peace, joy....! Lets fill up guys :-) 

Kill Jesus!

Matthew 27 - so full of action, tradgedy, pain, emotion, love... Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ definitely comes close to showing some of the most realistic screenplay surrounding these events.

So we see Jesus being handed over to Pilate and the crowd voting for his crucifiction.  Even Pilate doesn't want to consent to it, so, following the tradition of freeing one criminal, he agrees to let one of the prisoners on death row go free.  Who will it be... Jesus, a man of truth, love, and grace who had done nothing wrong, or Barabbas, a 'notorious prisoner' (Matthew 27v16) who had been 'thrown into prison for an insurection in the city, and for murder' (Luke 23v19)?  Of course we know the crowd voted for Jesus.

Upon reading this this morning, it just re-affirmed and opened my eyes just that little bit more to how amazing Jesus was and the extent to which His grace flows.  He was placed lower than a reknown criminal, lower than a murderer.  The darkest of sins were above Him.  He made Himself lower than it all, so He could rise above it all.  There was not one sin that was beneath Him and beneath His love.  He died for ALL of our sins and wrong doing - from those little things we don't even think about or realise, to the worse things we could possibly do; even murder.

How amazing is Jesus?  How amazing is His grace?  Not one sin was unaccounted for.  Not one sin was beyond His reach.  He placed Himself lower than it all, so He could rise above it all bringing freedom to all and for all.