Pressing On

"So, what do you do?" ... I consider this, then reply "I'm the UK Director of WEC International, a Christian missionary group." .... Pause .... "That's interesting..." They say ..... Then move on, find someone else!! So where's the touch point? What can they latch on to, get a handle on, know what to ask next? The issue of identity is an important one, if I said I was a Pastor or a Vicar then this gives someone in the UK a handle, albeit full of stereotypical thoughts, on what I do ... But missions Director? What's that all about? It's about encouraging, organising, equipping, strategising in order to see our final goal reached as quickly and as effectively as possible ... In WECs case that of sharing the good news of the gospel of Christ amongst those communities and people groups who are yet to hear it for the first time! Challenging of the week ... Due to population growth there are more unreached people today than ever before ...

Rising Generation � The Minster It all starts tomorrow at 10:30am ... watch this space!

"Repentance is godly sorrow for our sins, because of the wrong done to God, and therefore the hurt inflicted on Him (Gen 6:6) ... if there is no conscious repentance, just an acceptance of grace then there is no awareness of what we have been saved from ... which leads to a corresponding lack of depth and commitment ..." I read this in a book whilst I was at Bible College some 16 years ago. It must have struck me quite powerfully at the time as I wrote it on the inside cover of the Bible I was reading. It resonated with an experience I had recently had of being led by the Spirit into a season of repentance the like of which I had not experienced before. This did indeed lead to a deepening of my faith and a greater commitment to Jesus and the growth of His Kingdom throughout the world ... avery rich time indeed, and foundational in all that has followed. Up to that point I had been 'saved' some four years, I had experienced the wonder of forgiveness, but had not really...

I guess that depends on what you do with your time!! For me it was a time for spending with the kids, swimming, cycling, playing cards etc. No screens in sight for anyone ... And so we were "forced" to talk with each other!! Good to have nothing to do with a day except whatever presents itself ... Well, for two weeks anyway... Reading also played a big part of the time - two Harlan Coben novels (weekend reads) then Hunger for Reality (G Verwer), Outpouring of Grace (Roy Goodwin), Discerning the Spirit of the Age (D Tidball) followed by the completion of The Everlasting Man (G K Chesterton) ... An excellent riposte to the wave of aggressive atheism based on the 'science' of evolution. The scientific argument may have moved on since 1925 but the underlining arguments for a creator God remain unshaken and, indeed, unanswered by science. Having space ... no emails, texts, phone calls, facebook, twitter etc ... So what happens in space? In my experience, if you a...

Last week I had the privilege of spending a week with about 100 teenagers in a field! I was at WEC Teen Camp for the week ... and what I saw and experienced fills me with such hope for the future. Young men and women, despite all the 'stuff' that is going on in their lives. The world's value system that is force fed to them, that shapes their thinking and affects their daily lives ... for some in traumatic ways which are all too raw and apparent to them and, for some, in subtle ways that are damaging yet not currently apparent to them. (When the time is right the Spirit will reveal these things to them and deliver them from them ... after all He did, and still is doing it with the rest of us isn't He!) But still they worship, still they pray and still they have a passion for the Lord and for His kingdom coming to the ends of the earth ... I can't wait until it is unleashed! Lord let it be soon! The week ahead is one of relaxation and refreshment as we put all that...

I am a pragmatic person, who wants things to be real ... I want integrity. If something promises to be life changing then I expect it to be! The gospel is no different ... I did not become a Christian because I agreed with a creed or theology - I heard a message of 'fulness of life' in Christ, along with the promise of an intimate and imminent relationship with the Living God, my Father in heaven - through faith in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. I responded and have spent the years since increasingly understanding that 'fulness' and the One who made it possible. So on that level I want integrity, but integrity works itself out on another level as well. It is great went things seem to flow and the Lord hears and talks to you. But, what about those times when it all seems like hard work? and the heavens seems as though they are a brassy, impenetrable barrier? How do we deal with that? We have to show a level of integrity at those times and acknowledge they a...

Any work for God that depends on our own efforts, our own zeal, our own ability, and resources, will fail! - George Verwer. It is right to work hard, have zeal for the kingdom, apply all our God-given talents, abilities and resources to the task in hand - but never be dependent upon them ... How tragically wanting that would leave us! Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device