Pressing On

I love the book of James . As a very pragmatic person I enjoy thinking through a theological truth convin ced that it must somehow express itself in lifestyle and practice. T he book of James is intensely practical and incredibly blunt in places , I might not find it easy reading but I find it accessible and readily applicable. Chapter 4 deals with one key issue and ' submission' - W hat in our lives do we submit ourselves or yield to? For e ach of us there must be something, or someone, who i s enthroned and who will act as the catalyst / initiator of what we do, the decisions we make , and w ho will shape our thinki ng.   I t might be that we e nthrone self, its 'me' who makes all the decisions about what I say and do. I t may be another person, perhaps a parent or significant other. It may be some conversation we had as a child, a word spoken to us or over us that we still allow to shape our lives. Perhaps we choose a direction so that we do...

More thoughts in the series ... this time from a friend in Central Asia.   Monday tomorrow – back to the office. Sometimes, it seems like a drag. Teaching, translating, trouble-shooting, personnel problems. I dream of being a ski instructor (not that I can ski!) or of 'full-time' ministry. But then I remember why I am here: 19 years ago God called me – suddenly, unexpectedly – to this 'closed' country (but no country is really closed, just takes more creativity to enter) that I had only heard of in passing, and his commission: “I am building by Church there – you go and be a co-builder with me”. And then 6 years later (when I was already on-site) “I will lead you in ways you have not known”, as he directed me to start a business. Most people think the business is a 'platform' – that's insider language for a way to get a visa. It isn't - ok, maybe I...

The next instalment in my very occasional series comes from some workers in South Korea ... Enjoy and, if inspired, get stuck in yourself! We have been here, in South Korea, just one year – my husband Paul and myself, Kim.   Our ministry is teaching, training, mentoring, mobilising. We currently live in a city called Yeosu which is made up of three ‘downtown’ areas and is not really a city at all. But it is a beautiful area with a large coastline that reminds me of my hometown in Devon. Yeosu happens to be the base for MTI, the only Missionary Training College in Korea that teaches English in a community setting where the students speak English all the time, whatever their level. The teachers are all native English speakers that come as volunteers for ten weeks. You do not have to be a qualified teacher to volunteer (...

More thoughts from my guest blogger, Malcolm Gr a y - Thailand.   “Why did you stay among the campfires to hear the whistling for the flocks?” (Judges 5:16).  Israel have settled in the promised land of Canaan. There is an uprising under Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army with their 900 iron chariots. Israel are too disunited and afraid to face the enemy. Owing to a lack of willing male warriors, God chooses a courageous woman, Deborah, to lead the Israelite army into battle, consequently shaming the men. Predictably, God pulls through, and an amazing battle is won in the shadow of Armageddon (Mount Megiddo). God sends rain, the plain of Megiddo turns to a sticky mess, rendering the chariots useless, and Sisera flees on foot to a friend’s tent. Jael is the welcoming hostess, allowing the exhausted commander to sleep – just long enough for her to drive a tent peg through his temple, rendering ...

This year marks the centenary of WEC International . It is great to give thanks for what the Lord has done these last 100 years with and through the WEC fellowship - but I also want ed to mark what is happening in the world today ... So here are some more details ... "My name is Malcolm Gray, living in Thailand with my wife Kerstin and ten-year old daughter, Amy. We are a family of ‘missionary kids’ – or ‘MKs’ according to mission lingo. My daughter and I were born in Thailand. My wife was born in Burundi, each of us to missionary parents – who are not coined ‘MPs’ by the inconsistent lingo ! Our passports state that we are British and Swedish, though, if my Dutch mother was the type, she may feel slightly hard done by – but she’s not. She taught me about g race rather than being Dutch. And that’s what we aim to teach the Thai – what Grace is as opposed to what being Dutch ...

Following on from my recent blog on Captivity ... here is my second thought stemming from reading Philemon. It concerns v6 "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." I saw this posted on a friends Facebook page recently, whic h sums up in a very clear way what I think the Apostle Paul was trying to tell Philemon. It is never the Lord's intention that we live our lives as consumers. Partly, because then the tendency is that everything becom es inward looking rather than outw ard and p artly, because those with the desire to serve end up serving almost exclusively within the Church and to a Churc h - so we lose out on tw o levels. It is a common statistic that about 20% of the Church for 80% of the work. Or, as one Pastor once tol d me, "I have a Church of 350 going on 40 people! " People with a consumer mentality or within a consumer led system...

In 1 Chronicles 5:20 we read ... "(God ) a nswered their prayers beca use they trusted i n Him ." We know that across the world the re are many people that pray . For example, i n the book " Christian Prayer for Dummies " a survey is quoted stating that in the UK 82% of adults and 89% of teenagers pray at least once a week!  We kno w, too, that prayer s may be directed to a 'god ' , 'divine being' or 'some one/something' that it is supposed can hel p in time of need, whether or not there is an experience of being in a relationship w ith the object of the prayers or not.  However, what strikes me in this verse is t hat the peoples prayers w ere answered not simply beca use they pr ayed, but because they exercised faith, they trusted in the One they were prayin g to ... which leads me to the question " How do we have faith?" How can our experience m ove beyond a blind hope into a confident trust? For me the answer ...