The thing I like doing more than anything else is helping people practically doing little jobs or transporting furniture or whatever and giving help freely. I am very fortunate that I get the opportunity to do this in my day job. The other day for example we had some bedroom furniture donated. We took it to a girl's flat and the following day when my wife was at work we went to her flat and arranged it (she was away, but knew we were going). It was in many ways uneccessary, she could have coped without but the feeling of just giving to someone over and above what could be expected and without any anticipation of reward is great.
Is this then some kind of self gratification trip masquerading as benevolence. I don't think so.
Abundant giving for no reason with no visible reward, sometimes anonymously is recommended by Jesus nd it certainly fits the bill for me. My ideal job title. helper of others. I would like there to be no paperwork involved though. Selfish? Probably.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Miracles
Most days I get at least one text message from someone I have met a couple of times. He is wheelchair bound and has some mental health problems. He phoned me today and spoke about feeling fear. I prayed with him over the phone. Do I believe he is going to get better? I don't know, what I do know that it's not impossible with God. I would like to see him healed, in fact there are loads of people I know trapped in addictions, spiritual blindnesses, negativity, laziness, hatred, greed, indifference who I would love to see finding healing, and I know God can do it. My prayer is this
Lord teach me to pray effective prayers.
Lord teach me to pray effective prayers.
Wednesday 16 March 2011
answers to prayer
Wednesday evening and I am at someones house for a cell group meeting. Only two of us present have English as our first language the other six are Farsi speakers. This is pretty common for me. We sing some songs and people pray some in english, some in farsi. I feel alost as if the barrier between us is tangible; they call it the language barrier and it is an accurate description. I cannot get through to these people, they cannot get through to me.
It's pretty frustrating, I wonder if they feel the same. So I sit and I pray. Lord I want to be able to engage with these people! I don't know if desperate would describe the way I feel but at the best I am pretty fed up.
Then in that oblique way that prayers often get answered, something happens seemingly randomly. The other English speaker kind of gets hold of the wrong end of the stick and we are all at cross purposes but out of it, one Iranian guy starts to share, about how he and his wife were unable to have children then they prayed and now they have a baby. All of a sudden we are on the level, a confidence has been shared, a testimony given. As I sit here in front of the computer after getting home I thank God. He's done it again.
It's pretty frustrating, I wonder if they feel the same. So I sit and I pray. Lord I want to be able to engage with these people! I don't know if desperate would describe the way I feel but at the best I am pretty fed up.
Then in that oblique way that prayers often get answered, something happens seemingly randomly. The other English speaker kind of gets hold of the wrong end of the stick and we are all at cross purposes but out of it, one Iranian guy starts to share, about how he and his wife were unable to have children then they prayed and now they have a baby. All of a sudden we are on the level, a confidence has been shared, a testimony given. As I sit here in front of the computer after getting home I thank God. He's done it again.
Sunday 13 March 2011
The idea of perfection
Continuous improvement is one of those methods of getting more out of yourself change one small thing a day and by the end of the year there will have been a massive improvement. But do we need to change, are we not Ok the way we are? Shock, horror; you can't say that! There is nothing wrong with wanting to be better but there is everything wrong with not being satisfied with the way we are, swayed by the media or peer pressure into being discontented about yourself when there is not a lot wrong in the first place.
A.W. Tozer put it like this: "Apart from sin, we have nothing to be ashamed of"
The cult of change has got a hold of the world, faster better, thinner, cleverer, richer, newer, the latest thing. Yesterday's improvements swell the landfill and noone is any happier.
Look at the Church. The Bride of Christ, the Apple of God's eye, the Zenith of his creation. Is it perfect? No you say, it is being perfected, perfection is in the future. Is it? How then does God find ways to move through this shambles? If the Church is an engine has God got all the pieces laid out on the ground before him scratching his head about how to fix it, or is it together, chugging away, going places making a difference? Of course it is. That component going round and round, limited, one dimensional is never going to go up and down but hey, here is another limited component that does just that. Good eh? The Church is working, maybe it is leaking a bit of oil, maybe it is a bit cranky (you'd better believe it!) but it keeps on keeping on. Let's not tear it apart. God knows
He loves it, so do I warts and all. Some of those warts are mine.
A.W. Tozer put it like this: "Apart from sin, we have nothing to be ashamed of"
The cult of change has got a hold of the world, faster better, thinner, cleverer, richer, newer, the latest thing. Yesterday's improvements swell the landfill and noone is any happier.
Look at the Church. The Bride of Christ, the Apple of God's eye, the Zenith of his creation. Is it perfect? No you say, it is being perfected, perfection is in the future. Is it? How then does God find ways to move through this shambles? If the Church is an engine has God got all the pieces laid out on the ground before him scratching his head about how to fix it, or is it together, chugging away, going places making a difference? Of course it is. That component going round and round, limited, one dimensional is never going to go up and down but hey, here is another limited component that does just that. Good eh? The Church is working, maybe it is leaking a bit of oil, maybe it is a bit cranky (you'd better believe it!) but it keeps on keeping on. Let's not tear it apart. God knows
He loves it, so do I warts and all. Some of those warts are mine.
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Sweet Poison
Periodically through my life this question has come up: "What is happening to my body?" I remember noticing for the first time, hair growing on my toes and feeling a vague sense of disgust when I was about 11, this was followed by more alarming changes through my teenage years. Spots was a major issue for most of that time. Then there was my height; when I was about 13 everyone else in my School Class had outgrown me, I didn't make five feet until I was 15. Then by 18 I was the height I am now (give or take a bit for possible shrinkage recently). Now I look in the mirror and wonder who that middle aged bloke staring out at me is.
As I have recorded on this blog before I have recently changed my diet in response to rising cholesterol levels, cut out, or at least drastically reduced my cheese intake, massively increased my porridge intake, cut down the consumption of sweet things. My body has responded in various ways. For a start I have lost weight coming in at 11 stone or just under. That has made quite a bit of difference, involving the possible demise of some of my favourite (but far to baggy) clothes and a noticable improvement in stamina.
What has also happened is that when I do indulge in the more junk like foods, very sweet things etc. my body really does not respond well. It is a bit like putting dirty fuel in the car, there is a lot of spluttering and backfiring happening (the least said about that, the better). My body has become trained to process the good stuff, to draw out nutrition from it and when it is confronted with sugar rich, fat rich foods it tends to go haywire. I know a person who gave up smoking a while back and then had one in a stressful situation and felt sick. It is similar to that.
Wouldn't it be nice if abstinence from sin built up in us an allergy to it and we found it impossible to do? A few weeks self effort and it would be sorted. As it is, the tried and tested method of cying out to God, repenting, receiving forgiveness and daily dying will have to suffice.
As I have recorded on this blog before I have recently changed my diet in response to rising cholesterol levels, cut out, or at least drastically reduced my cheese intake, massively increased my porridge intake, cut down the consumption of sweet things. My body has responded in various ways. For a start I have lost weight coming in at 11 stone or just under. That has made quite a bit of difference, involving the possible demise of some of my favourite (but far to baggy) clothes and a noticable improvement in stamina.
What has also happened is that when I do indulge in the more junk like foods, very sweet things etc. my body really does not respond well. It is a bit like putting dirty fuel in the car, there is a lot of spluttering and backfiring happening (the least said about that, the better). My body has become trained to process the good stuff, to draw out nutrition from it and when it is confronted with sugar rich, fat rich foods it tends to go haywire. I know a person who gave up smoking a while back and then had one in a stressful situation and felt sick. It is similar to that.
Wouldn't it be nice if abstinence from sin built up in us an allergy to it and we found it impossible to do? A few weeks self effort and it would be sorted. As it is, the tried and tested method of cying out to God, repenting, receiving forgiveness and daily dying will have to suffice.
Sunday 6 March 2011
Changes
It has often occurred to me how quite a small action can change the course of history. The line between hero and zero is a small one. Gordon Brown's famous "off air" comment about that lady which contributed towards labour losing the election. Would people have felt any differently about it if he had refused to retract what he said and brazened it out (as John Prestcott probably would). After all, he meant it didn't he?
People like myself do not usually consider themselves world changers, we leave it to the front runners, the authority figures to carve out a path, but like a lot of preconceptions this is wrong. The out front leader often has to contend with the drag effect of the people he is trying to lead. This is especially true of the kind of leader who is controlling and interventionist whose specialist manouever is the U turn. The gentle hand on the rudder, the imperceptible movement, the smooth transition the minor intervention is incredible effective.
For those of us who prefer conciliation to confrontation, the danger in the face of a pressing problem is that we do nothing and hope it goes away, or that the blunt instrument specialist leader type will comes in and bash it. Doing nothing is a poor choice, trying to wield the hammer is worse in the the hands of a mild mannered man. Enough people who are committed to bringing about small changes will be more effective and in the long run more fruitful. We cannot avoid those moments of pain when upset is caused to some but we should not see that as a mark of our authority, rather as a necessary bi product of change.
People like myself do not usually consider themselves world changers, we leave it to the front runners, the authority figures to carve out a path, but like a lot of preconceptions this is wrong. The out front leader often has to contend with the drag effect of the people he is trying to lead. This is especially true of the kind of leader who is controlling and interventionist whose specialist manouever is the U turn. The gentle hand on the rudder, the imperceptible movement, the smooth transition the minor intervention is incredible effective.
For those of us who prefer conciliation to confrontation, the danger in the face of a pressing problem is that we do nothing and hope it goes away, or that the blunt instrument specialist leader type will comes in and bash it. Doing nothing is a poor choice, trying to wield the hammer is worse in the the hands of a mild mannered man. Enough people who are committed to bringing about small changes will be more effective and in the long run more fruitful. We cannot avoid those moments of pain when upset is caused to some but we should not see that as a mark of our authority, rather as a necessary bi product of change.
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