Pressing On

Read this recently by a man called Ray Stedman. Adapted it a little to personalise it, but what a great summary prayer to an excellent commentary. My Gracious Father, I ask that you who have called me with a holy calling, have imparted to me the Holy Spirit, and given me your Holy Word, may keep me and make me to be faithful. Give me the diligence of a farmer, the discipline of an athlete and the dedication of a soldier that will make me equal to the times in which I live. Father grant that my eyes may be lifted above the common place obscurity of my every day life to the great things that lie beyond the invisible curtain and see myself living constantly in your presence, even in this hour. Challenge my heart to be strong in the midst of weakness, and to be faithful in the midst of that which is false. I ask in Jesus' name, Amen. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

One of the downsides of twitter, facebook etc. is the growth in accessibility of sound bites, especially when we are limited to 140 characters. Each sound bite or slogan can seem so plausible, and maybe readily accepted, unless you take time to think a little more deeply into them. An example of this would be a tweet I read last year which confidently stated that "If it is not miraculous then God is not in it!" ... which might sound great but the more you think about it the more one realises that perhaps God is, in fact, very much present in the mundane things of life. Another quote that I have been thinking about recently is this "A crisis is really an opportunity" ... Now, when crises present themselves to us we do have a choice as to how we respond to them - and rather than respond as helpless and hapless victims, we can respond in faith or rather in trusting God, who is good 'all the time'. However, when this type of statement is made by Christians it ca...

What difference does it make to be a Christian? What does our relationship with God mean in the ongoing machinations of life? For some there might be some expectation that becoming a child of the Living God might mean that He, in His Sovereign power, will construct a wall around all His children, protecting them from anything bad ... after all, He wants to bless us right? No doubt, the first few weeks of life as a Christian demonstrated that this is not the case, but rather than allow your experience to cause you to doubt His presence use it to drive you further into experiencing His presence in all that you go through. In Hebrews 4:16 we read "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need" (ESV) It has been a long time since I have written anything in this blog, and I suppose what has been happening since I last wrote is indication sometimes blogging is not a priority. There are times when mini...

Due to the fact that I am a verbal reasoner, someone who prefers to talk things out rather than write about things, as well as the fact that in my current role a lot of time is spent on laptops writing emails, debrief reports, Conference minutes, vision statements etc. etc. ... you know 'the fun things!' ... I have recently been exploring options for less typing and more talking - which will alleviate the admin burden but also make tasks themselves perhaps more enjoyable. Here are my three easy solutions tried thus far and comments ... 1/ Phone a friend (or Skype) ... the bad thing about email is that it is a trap - People email me, I email a response ... but does it need to be this way? If people email me I could always ring them back ... duuuhh! However this is not as easy as it sounds ... if a response is required then I can write an email when it suits me, ie I am in control of the time, if I phone then they have to be available to take my call and talk - this is n...

Have just finished watching the review of the news on the Andrew Marr show, a political discussion show on BBC UK TV ... nothing out of the ordinary today except a comment that got me thinking. One contributor to the show was the Editor of 'The Huffington Post' http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ which currently has some 18k likes on their facebook page. At one point Andrew Marr was bemoaning the lack of real journalism and journalists in the press - to which she replied that at the HP there were only ~26 journalists but some 3000 bloggers whose opinions were included. The comment seemed to be expressing a desire for more facts and research rather than opinion. I also watched the film 'Contagion' last night which included a character, played by Jude Law, who had some 12m followers on his blog post and who swayed public opinion in what transpired to be a very unhelpful way (Hope that is not a spoiler ... watch the film - quite good!) Obviously Social Media has me...

I read this a few weeks ago ...  RT “ Thought you might be interested in this story- Minister To Atheist:  http://fry.am/JmDOEc  ” What an amazing story!  It got a small response at the time, but as Stephen Fry wrote it the millions who read his Tweet might have pursued it. (If the link above does not work try this  http://www.npr.org/2012/04/30/151681248/from-minister-to-atheist-a-story-of-losing-faith?sc=tw&cc=share ) There is a lot in this story that saddens me - not least the compassion I feel for anyone grappling with issues of faith. It would be great if there was just one button that can be switched on which removes all doubts and issues - but there isn't. What we have is the Holy Spirit that leads us into all truth, the Word that provides guidance and the 'body' that should encourage faith. That is 'the Church' but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much space for anyone, especially those in leadership, to acknowledge that they have doubts a...

Am currently attending a 10 day conference in Malaysia ... at the introductory session we were asked to reflect on this poem. Oh God I have tasted your Goodness, It has both satisfied me ad made me thirsty for more. I am fully conscious of my need of further grace, I am ashamed of my lack of desire. Oh God, Triune God, I want to want You. I long to be filled with longing. I thirst to be filled with longing. Show me Your glory, that I may know You, Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul ... rise up my love, my fair one and come away. Then give me grace to rise and follow You up from the misty lowland whare I have wandered for so long. A W Tozer Ponder, enjoy and be satisfied! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad