Pressing On

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

I was recently challenged by reading through the book of Haggai. To set the scene the Old Testament prophet was speaking to the people of Jerusalem following their return from exile in Babylon - ie. post-deliverance from their bondage. So how does this speak to us today you might ask? For the purposes of my thoughts I was comparing their situation to mine, and to that of any Christian, we live post-deliverance ... Having been delivered through faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, from darkness into light, from bondage into liberty to live an abundant life in Christ. The question Haggai poses, and one we should all ask, is "What do we do with that freedom?" The phrase "Give careful thought to your ways ..." occurs a number of times. This comes as a challenge both to reflect on 'how your life actually is', and 'how your life should be'. This is what we must be doing as we seek to grow as disciples and mature in our faith. Questions such ...

I have nothing to add ... Suffice to say I trust the integrity of the source. I only publish these to give you the opportunity to "see" what God is doing around the world to draw people to Himself ... you may disagree with them, or you may have another plausible explanation - that is fine. What matters is what God is doing in someone's life due to the external circumstances as much as the external circumstances themselves .... He is at work to bring forth eternal life! I am often troubled by a verse in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament which says “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." As it demonstrates how strongly we can cling to things, practices etc which we hope will bring us peace, grace, mercy and love etc. and insodoing refuse to receive what is being offered so freely, Salvation in Christ, the receiving of which gives us the very things we are trying so hard to achieve ourselves. This in from a friend in Cambodia, a...

By which I mean 'spiritual discipline' - those practices and habits in life that the Spirit uses to refresh our communion with God! Now doubt people have many reasons for blogging ... communication, promotion, nothing else to do, self-aggrandisement - the list could go on. Probably, in some way, all of these are relevant some of the time. One of the benefits of blogging for me is that it causes me to 'reflect' ... for instance, you may have realised that I have not written anything on my blog since the 13th of March ... so, has my life been vacuous since then, with nothing to report back? No, and Yes - some things I do are not to be publicly declared on a blog site - they are to be hidden away before God in the quiet place! And this is the discipline that the blog page can encourage - sit, think, ponder what has happened, reflect on it before the Lord. What have I learnt? What glaring lesson has passed me by, which reflection brings to mind afresh? What was good? What w...

I have been very exercised recently for a number of reasons; 1/ Extended conversations with my teenage children about Sex trafficking (Initiated by the recent LZ7 track!) 2/ The dialogue online concerning the relative merits of Kony2012 campaign. 3/ Spending a morning praying for Street Children in Senegal (Talibes) and Prostitutes in Cambodia. 4/ Recently listening to a Dr M Loyd-Jones podcast - in which he refers to the state of 'apostasy' that the Church had got itself into at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th Century, as it cared so much for social, justice and poverty issues that it ceased to preach the gospel. (His words of course!) Now, where do my kids find their place in the midst of all of this? Our discussion centred around how meaningful is it to download a track and feel justified that you are doing something about sex trafficking? Is that simply consumer activism ... would we be so concerned to spend our 69p if we weren't getting a download out ...

Here is a brief overview of the future vision of WEC International - If you feel led to be a part of this international movement then get in touch. We are looking at 20 new workers joining us in the Autumn which is a great answer to prayer. Always space for many more though ...

I have nothing to add to these two stories ... Suffice to say I trust the integrity of the source. I only publish these to give you the opportunity to "see" what God is doing around the world to draw people to Himself ... you may disagree with them, or you may have another plausible explanation - that is fine. What matters is what God is doing in someone's life due to the external circumstances as much as the external circumstances themselves .... He is at work to bring forth eternal life! Each story raises a lot of questions for me ... As I hope they do for you! God's blessing and favouritism, the use of seemingly mundane human action to draw someone to Himself, why send a flood in the first place? Etc etc. It is good to ask questions, and please don't be afraid to ask God directly! A Christian family’s experience after the devastating flood which affected 68 of Thailand’s 77 provinces: they saw their field of tapioca completely destroyed. They had photos taken ...