Walking the line

I work with street people, people with no homes, no link to society and no faith in their fellow man. These people often have no one and have been treat so badly in the past and often the present that they can not see it ever changing in the future. My role is to build relationships with these people and help them integrate in their own time and in their own unique way not by telling them how to fix their lives but walking alongside them helping to take the load when it becomes too much for them.

One phrase we have at work is that our best work is done when we are not only on the line, but sometimes when our toes are just over the line. For me this is an amazing way to work, helping people rebuild their lives themselves, giving them the option to fail and still provide the support and friendship, becoming more than just another worker pushing another agenda.

Since beginning this job 6 months ago I have come to realise that this way of working is also the way I act as a Christian. A way that I feel may not win more souls than other methods, but has a better chance of truly saving people heart mind and soul. This is because in my interactions with people I am not preaching sermons to them or trying to force people to live as I do. I am giving people the option to make their own decisions and never leaving because they act contrary to my beliefs. But day by day in every interaction I am showing them who I am, and through me I hope they see my Lord and Saviour, I hope they feel his love flowing from me. In seeing me and feeling the love Jesus has for them it leads me to a place where I have their trust and confidence where they know who I am and what I am where they know I will not judge them or condemn them. In this safe relationship they can then ask the questions burning in their hearts and minds and because they respect and trust me as I have respected and trusted them my words can carry more weight than a street preacher or another form of outreach. I see this way of working as very similar to that of our Lord and Saviour, getting out there and on to the same level as the people who need Him more than anything else. Not presenting myself as anything special, not acting as if I am better than them, but being willing to serve them and work for their benefit. 

John 15:19
If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you.

We need to be in the world, how else could we complete the great commission that Jesus gave us? Yet we can not be of the world because to be so would mean that we had not accepted the Fathers love and have been saved. I think though that the "best" work done by missionaries, ministers and believers through the many centuries has been done when men and women of faith have been right on the line between being in the world and of the world. It is a hard place to be a Christian, it is open and exposed to the enemy and you are open to attack. Yet if our faith is strong and we can walk the line with Jesus at our side then we can do amazing work in this dark world. If more people were willing to leave their comfort zones, to put their faith into action I feel that we would see a true revival in our time, a revival that I hear many people calling for but see few taking action towards.

A while ago I posted about loving the unlovable and with this post I want to make that point again, we as followers of Christ should be getting out there and showing Christ's love in the many dark corners out there. We need to look hard at the example that Jesus left us and think about how we are acting as His disciples on earth now. Jesus preached to those who came to listen to Him, to those who wanted to know, but he also went out there and spent time with those who didn't on a level they could relate to, helping them without asking for anything in return knowing that in their own time they would seek him out. Love the unlovable, look for the lost, but don't force your expectations or desires onto them. Show these people the love of Christ, show them that Jesus is the one who will never give up on them through your actions. When their hearts are ready they will seek him out, it may not be the fastest road to conversion but a personal relationship with God will help these people more than any amount of sermons, study or preaching ever could.

Walking the walk, even if it is in the mud

Well I did intend to post before this but as usual life got in the way. Well I say life but what mean is I was busy at Leeds Festival.

For those who don't know I am a member of the Salvation Army and for the last two years we have run a ministry at a local music festival serving cheap alternatives to the wildly over priced food and providing for physical and spiritual welfare of the festival goers.

As I normally would attend the festival anyway this is a fantastic opportunity for me to be in my natural habitat yet still display to the world unashamedly that I am a Christian and that even though My Chemical Romance blew my mind serving Jesus will always come first for me. The chance to talk to other young people who normally would have nothing to do with Jesus, the Church or the Salvation Army is one that for me can not be missed. I also have to say hearing an appreciable fraction of Leeds Festival chanting about how amazing the Salvation Army is was a moment of pride I will never forget.

For me this is the sort of Christian behaviour we should always be aiming for, being in the world but not part of it. Showing the world we love them, yet also showing them how by being just a little different life can be so much better with Jesus. Walking the road that Jesus would want us to take, getting down and dirty with the unwashed (which with it being wet and muddy at Leeds Festival was oh so true this year). We may not have converted anyone at Leeds festival this year, but for us that was never the point, what we did do was sow thousands of seeds, plant tens of thousands of thoughts about why 65 people took on the challenge of taking care of 75,000 people living in a field for the weekend. Some of these seeds and thoughts will lead to people looking into the Salvation Army, finding out about the Church and Jesus for possibly the first time and maybe next year they will be ready for the conversation about how to have Jesus in their lives too.

Check out the coverage we got from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14631755

Smashing stereotypes

Yesterday afternoon I had one of the best times I have had yet in the short time I have been working at my current job. I was recently asked if I would be willing to present a short meeting to the older ladies of my Church in their weekly home league meeting and if I would talk about working with the homeless. Now I am aware that I have only worked with the homeless for a short period of time and my knowledge and experience is slightly lacking, however I had a great idea and accepted.

So yesterday afternoon I went along to the meeting and gave them a meeting unlike anything they are used to or were expecting. It took a little arranging with my managers and colleagues but I managed to arrange to take some of the residents of the homeless shelter I work in along to the meeting with me and allowed them to speak of their experiences and thoughts on homelessness and living in a homeless shelter.

The meeting was more of a question and answer session which seemed to work quite well and seeing the reactions of the audience to some of the replies and stories was interesting. At the beginning of the meeting the audience were expecting what most people without experience with the homeless would assume. These guys must be homeless for a reason, they are possibly lazy or a victim of their own devices, uneducated and uncivilized. However after a short amount of time listening to the stories and history of the residents you could see the audience beginning to realise that these are normal everyday people you could easily pass in the street. They began to realise that for a few situations and circumstances being slightly different these guys could be living a "normal" life and it could be us in their position.

I know that since I first began working with the homeless I have had many up and down times, I have had great days where it seems you could possibly fix all the problems and then others where it seems there is no way to make any progress. In these experiences I have learned to value these people and the skills they can bring, I have learned that there can indeed be many diamonds in the rough. I am not saying that there are not problems, that there are not people not wanting of help or not extremely difficult to help. But I have come to realise that acceptance of who these people are, of the way they are is the beginning. I have realised that in seeing the good in each of them you can begin to bring it out and how them a life very different to what they currently live.

We are all victims of stereotyping and we are all guilty of propagating stereotypes through both the way we act and how we think of others. Sometimes we need to sit and think, or listen to the world around us and realise that behind every stereotype is a person, behind every mask is a soul in hiding.

Jesus was always smashing through stereotypes with both His actions and the interactions He had with others. He was not one to ignore someone because they had been painted in a certain light by society, He was not one to judge someone for a situation or circumstance they were currently in. Instead He look inside to the good each of them had inside and found a way to let it out. This is something I have learned in association with the homeless and need to apply in all walks of my life, as Christians it is something we should all be doing with everyone we meet.

If in doubt...

...Ask God.

There are many things that cause us to doubt, there are things in life which cause us to doubt various things. Sometimes we are going through tough times and our faith is not what it should be and we begin to doubt God. We doubt that He cares for us, we doubt that He knows our needs and we can even end up doubting His existence. I know there have been periods in my own life where I have doubted so much that I was almost certain that there was no God, and that even if there was a God He was uninterested in anything that we did as a species never mind on a personal basis.

The thing is that when we doubt, especially in God the problem can be seen to be in us. Even when the problem is not in us we can be part of the solution. When we are struggling, when things are not as we would like them to be there is one thing that we can do, one thing that is guaranteed to set things right. 

Prayer.

To pray to God takes little to no effort, just start talking and he will hear. Talk to Him and tell Him your problems, ask Him to give you what you need. God will know just what it is you will need, He knows just what it is that will help you on your path. If you doubt God why not try praying and allow Him the chance to help, if you doubt Him why not open your mind, your eyes and ears just in case your doubts are wrong.

Matthew 11:15 (NIV)
     Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Music makes my life go

If there is one thing I think I would really struggle to live without it would have to be music, I spend all my time either playing or listening to music. The range of music I both listen to and play is mammoth, everything from classical guitar right through to hardcore rock. Because of this sometimes the transition from one track to another can be incredibly striking for example from O Fortuna leading into Dance Dance by Fall Out Boy and many other bizarre examples. While driving home last night one of those moments made me pay attention to the words in the song that came on. I can't remember what the song immediately before was but the change to Turn by Travis was striking enough to cause me to pay attention to the lyrics.

The line that really caught my attention was the line where Fran Healy sings the following words;

"I'd Like to see the Kingdom Come"

Last night before going home I went out for a meal with a friend and we talked for a long time. During this conversation a lot of things were discussed but the majority of the conversation was about our faiths and the Kingdom. We were in a loud bar and we were not particularly keeping our voices down and I am sure that the people around us knew the content of our conversation and I love that thought. The fact that two young Christians were sat in a bar unashamedly proclaiming their lives as Jesus'.

Without going into details about the conversation we talked a lot about the Kingdom and the future of the Church as it is here on Earth. We talked about the things that we do for the Kingdom, the things we would love the Kingdom grow to do and include in the future. I took a lot from the conversation and had one of the best nights in a long time which maybe why this song (one of my favourites) struck such a resonant note with me.

In essence last night was one of a number of moments I have had over the last year which has led me to have a burning desire to work in and for the Kingdom, to work fervently towards a future where the Kingdom does come. It is something that excites and inspires me to think that one day we will see Jesus once again walk on this same Earth as us.

In the song the line that immediately follows the one quoted above says "I want to feel forever young". I think that the two lines are irrefutably linked together, there is only one time when we will all feel forever young, that is once the Kingdom has come, one where Jesus has returned and won the final battle. We all know what Jesus commanded us to do, to work daily towards the coming Kingdom, to do His will and rejoice doing it, the work is hard and the hours are long but with such a prize and destination in mind how can we not rejoice. I think there really is only one kind of person who would not want to see the kingdom come, someone who has yet to give their all to Jesus, someone who is not safe in the knowledge that Christ died to save them.

Christ is coming, the Kingdom is on its way, it maybe tomorrow, it may not be for 1000 years, but why should that make any difference to the work we do. We will one day stand in glory, I want to be there knowing that I spent as many hours and as much effort as I could doing what He asked of me. If you don't yet feel the same way or you feel the fire has died down of late pray to God that you will feel the burning desire to do His will ignited in you. Pray these words;

But I must give You the whole of my life, 

Lord I must give You my best.

How can I help you?

Last night I had a long drive home, after spending a few days with friends I drove home. I guess for some people a 2 hour drive is not a huge drive but it is much longer than I am used to and my car does not like to be driven that far. It is a constant battle to keep it going straight, the accelerator is not in a comfortable position (which leads to cramp) and for some reason the heater has only two settings, too hot or too cold.

Well enough of the complaining. So I was driving home and the road was strangely quiet, one reason was that it was late at night, another was the weather was very cold and there was ice everywhere and there were few people stupid enough to drive on it and perhaps the third was that there were signs everywhere announcing that the road was closed after a certain point. I know this road well having drove up and down it countless times in the last 10 years and I could not work out where the signs were telling me the road closed, the road number they were using I could not place. So I decided to drive north and when the road closed I would then try and figure a way to get back home from that point as the only other road I could have used from my start point was also closed (thanks Highway Maintenance).

The result of all of this was that for the main part I was driving on this 3 lane motorway almost alone, I saw very few other drivers at all. And while this allowed me to get home about 45 minutes quicker than usual ( possibly I was driving a little faster than I usually would) It also gave me an amazing chance to sit in a kind of peace that I don't often find. Even though I live in the countryside I don't often find myself without another person in sight, surprisingly the countryside can be quite a busy place at times. But here I was driving along in the middle of nowhere and could not see any vehicle for miles in either direction. So I switched off the music, turned down the heater (which was just blowing cold anyway) and sat in my little bubble of peace.

While I was sat there I had quite a good little chat with God, I told him about my week and thanked Him for making it so enjoyable, I talked to Him about how the plan for my life was coming along, and then spent the time waiting for an answer. It was a beautiful night, clear skies, full moon and almost everything covered in frost crystals which gave them an amazing glittering glow which looked beautiful. And while I was appreciating that view a simple phrase came into my head.

"How can I help you?"

Now recently I have been going about doing loads of things that I feel will prepare me for the journey I have ahead of me, every opportunity to do something in my Church or to help someone at work or even one of my friends I jump at the chance. But there is always that sense of me trying to control these things that I am doing, controlling the direction that they are going in. I have become aware that although not totally lacking, I need to have a more servile nature. Rather than asking "what needs to be done" I need to take the time and effort to ask "What do you need done?". Whether this question is directed at God or at people I know in each circumstance I don't think is important, but asking the question and acting on the response is certainly something I need to be doing.

Lean on me

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you don't let show

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

So just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Lean on me...

          (Bill Withers)

While out yesterday I heard this song playing and although I know this song well I decided to look up the lyrics and read through them. While I was doing this I also looked to find out what it was Bill Withers had to say about the song itself too. 

As far as I can gather the song has no Christian connotations or meanings and is simply a song about friendship. It is a song about friends being there for one another in times of need, it is about how friends provide comfort and support for each other in times of need. But when I got to the third verse I could not help but be struck by the wording;

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

If there is a load you have to bear? Now where have I heard that before?

Psalm 55:22
     Pile your troubles on God's shoulders-
          he'll carry your load, he'll help you out.

I talked about how our relationship with God is that of a parent and young child yesterday, our relationship with Jesus is not the same as the one we have with God, it is different and has a different dynamic. With Jesus we have a friendship, a true selfless loving friendship;

John 15:15 (NIV)
     I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Jesus called us His friends, He had the power to come in and rule the world as His personal Kingdom, He had the power to take the world and do as He would with it. And He did, but not in the way that mankind would, He took the world and made us His friends, we who could and should have been His slaves, He made in to friends. 

This is an amazing thing, Jesus, the son of God, the King of Kings, Lord of all, the Word through which all that was made, was made, He wants to be our friend. I know I harped on about this the other day about mind blowing moments, but walking with Christ is full of mind blowing moments, and my mind is blown yet again by this thought. Just consider for a moment, God is our Father and Jesus is our Friend, if we recognise and accept this then we should realise that we truly are a blessed people and nothing, not even the enemy can stand in our way.

Lean on God when you're not strong,

Jesus will be your friend,

They will help you carry on,

For it wont be long,

Until you're gonna need

Jesus to lean on.

Tell me the stories of Jesus

Ever since this morning when I wrote the post about blown minds (if you don't know what I mean check back to this mornings post here) I have had an old song I used to sing when I was a child running back and forward through my head. The song used to be a favourite of the children in my Church and we used to sing it beautifully, well at least we were told we did anyway. The son is one called tell me the stories of Jesus by William H. Parker and Frederick A. Challinor.

Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear; 

things I would ask him to tell me if he were here: 

scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea, 

stories of Jesus, tell them to me. 

First let me hear how the children stood round his knee, 

and I shall fancy his blessing resting on me; 

words full of kindness, deeds full of grace, 

all in the lovelight of Jesus' face. 

Into the city I'd follow the children's band, 

waving a branch of the palm tree high in my hand; 

one of his heralds, yes, I would sing 

loudest hosannas, "Jesus is King!"

I know I have said before and there is a good chance that I will say it many more times, I just love these simple songs for Children. The manage to encapsulate such power and wisdom into simple words so that even adults can understand it. I say even adults because when I was thinking about my post this morning I realised that the reason we fail to have our minds blown by these stories is that we have become jaded with our age, we have grown up and these "children's" stories become just that, we end up lumping them in the same group as the fairy stories we were told as children. They are wild and fantastical and as adults we know things like that don't happen. 

Jesus warned us against this sort of thinking and knew that it is only by approaching Him in the same wide eyed wonder as a child does will we be able to fathom at least a small part of what He did and what He represents.

Matthew 18:2-5

     He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

The amazing thing about children is that they are always learning, everything is new and they see the wonder in all things. They have no preconceived notions, they have no baggage which taints their world view and they have no fear of the unknown and the new. Unless we learn to accept Jesus in this fashion, unless we learn to be the children that we are in his eyes then we will never enter the kingdom of Heaven, don't believe me? re read the verses above. 

     “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

We are and always will be like little children in His eyes, in so many ways except the ones we need to we act like little petulant children. We wine and complain, we ask for things that we don't need and often are bad for us, look to your relationship with God and I will be very surprised if it does not look like that of a parent and a young child. There is nothing wrong with this, this is the way it should be. But if we are trying to play a different role or trying to carve out a different relationship it wont work, it can't work. When you start to see your relationship with God as parent and young child then you begin to see that the ways in which we act, the things that we do all need to change to reflect the relationship. I know that I am as guilty as the next person of this and am only beginning to understand this fact myself. But I am hoping that in the future I am able to allow my mind to be blown my His awesomeness and that I remember that I am just a small child in His eyes, and His view is the only one that is important.

The road to Emmaus

I was talking to a friend last night about how we often read through the Bible and the stories in there a little underwhelmed. We have been studying and reading them in different ways for years, for most of us since our childhood days in Sunday school. We have read and re read the stories that many times that we fail to have our minds blown by them any more.

This came up because earlier in the evening someone had mentioned the road to Emmaus and we had been discussing about faith and the power of Christ I don't how much other people know about this story or about the context of this story, but bear with me while I talk through it.

This story centres on two disciples of Jesus, they are not major characters in the group following Christ as the Apostles were, but nevertheless these two men were disciples of Jesus. These men as disciples can be validly thought of as Rabbinical apprentices, and as such would have followed Jesus very, very closely if not for His entire three year ministry then for a large portion of it. Without putting too fine a point on it, these men knew Jesus very well, they would have spent huge amounts of time with Him and known very well what He looked like.

So these two men are walking along, understandably they don't want to be in Jerusalem just then, who would, and they meet a stranger on the road. You can imagine how it would happen, you are out walking with a friend talking, probably not in the best of moods and you come across a stranger. Not only this but the stranger decides to tag along after them trying to join in the conversation, even worse the stranger appears not to have a clue about recent events. Picture yourself in this situation, how would you feel and react towards this person? would it be in a polite, kind Christian way or might you possibly be a bit irritable and dismissive.

If all this was not bad enough the stranger who has already ingratiated himself so well begins to teach the two men about the prophecies regarding the Messiah. But remember these men are not your run of the mill citizens, they are Rabbinical apprentices, theology students, they know in their heads all that this stranger is trying to teach them. We are told that these disciples thought Jesus was the Christ but now because He has been dead three days and His body appears to be stolen they think they have lost everything. And here is this no one, this random stranger telling them about what the Messiah must do, I don't think annoyed is quite the word to express their feelings.

So after what is likely to have been many hours walking, and with this stranger tagging alone possibly some quite tense and uncomfortable hours, possibly some pleasant, we don't know. Obviously they were not that bad that they would let this stranger carry on into the night wandering to the next village and they invite him in to the house in which they are bedding down for the night to eat with them.

At this point Jesus takes the bread, blesses and breaks it and hands it to the disciples, at this moment their eyes begin to see. In the Bible it says that their eyes were opened, for me personally this links to the times in the Bible where it says things like, those who have ears listen, those who have eyes see. These phrases do not discount the blind and deaf, they signify that those people who have been exposed to Christ need to recognise Him and that it is right to do so. I think another equally valid way of saying the same thing would be that the disciples had their hearts opened, for me I think that in this sense it means the same thing.

Take a moment here with me, for a large part of the day these men had been walking with this man the thought a complete stranger. I have already mentioned about the way these men may have felt, a totally understandable way I would have guessed, a perfectly human one at any rate. And then in a blink of an eye they realise this stranger is no stranger, he is the man they have been following for maybe three years, day in, day out. How much of a kick yourself moment is that, how much does that mess with your head. Is your mind blown? I am sure theirs was, I know mine is. If yours is not please take some time, read through the story again, think about it, put yourself in their place. It is a mind blowing moment, if you do not see that or picture it please take the time to consider it again, I assure you at some point your eyes will be opened and your mind will be blown.

There are many other stories just as mind blowing as this one that we just seem to accept because we have known them since childhood. I mean this one time there were a lot of people following Jesus, and He fed them all, 5000 men we are told, using 5 little bread rolls and 2 fish. Mind blown? Think about it, 5 bread rolls, 2 fish, 5000+ people! Not enough for you? Ok, a different time Jesus' friends were out fishing in a boat and there blew up a storm, it wasn't a little but of wind or a little rain, these guys were career fishermen, they knew storms and this storm scared them a lot. We are talking heavy, driving rain, thunder, lightning, waves bigger than the boat and clouds that probably didn't let all that much light through. Jesus who had been sleeping gets up and turns to the wind and waves and says shut it, stop making a fuss. He calmed a storm so big that a boat full of seasoned fishermen were scared! Is your mind blown yet?

We are small people, we have small minds, the only way to understand and deal with the world is to take mind blowing things we have heard and seen before and lump them in with "the norm". But when we do this with these stories we miss out on so much, we begin to think of these stories and Jesus as just normal. The thing is it wasn't normal, it isn't normal. These things have happened often just once, and certainly by only one man, they really should blow your mind. The power of God and Jesus is so far beyond our knowledge and comprehension that blown mind is a good way to approach it. We stand there before God admitting our ignorance, our failings and our inabilities, we stand before God realising we will never appreciate the fullness of His awesome glory in this life. This is a good place to be, in awe with our minds blown. Next time you are reading these stories of Jesus read them for the first time, read them without the barriers and preconceptions we have built up in our lives, read them and allow your mind to be blown away by the power and glory of God through His son Jesus. Blown mind is in no way a destination, but it is both a good starting point and way point on what I hope is a long walk with Christ for us all, why not stop at Emmaus today and see what Jesus has to teach you.

Time with friends

Today I spent some time with some of my good friends and had a good long conversation with one of them. This conversation was not an easy one as my friend as always brought up some challenging points and wouldn't let me get off with vague or part answers. Now it is not that she was purposely making it difficult for me or she was asking tough questions just for the sake of it, but she is the only one who asks me these sorts of questions and challenges and pulls me up on things I need to consider or think about.

It was a good conversation about our faiths, our journeys with God and how they are going and how various things are affecting us and our journeys. After eating and consuming a large amount of beverages in two separate cafes we wrapped things up for the day, but there was so much that came up in the conversation that I really need to think about and act on.

These points are ones that I have possibly made before and am likely to mention many more times as I battle through them and try and move on with my life. These are the last of the unresolved hang overs from my last relationship and how it is likely to affect the relationships I am in and possible relationships in the future. Also the point of have I really made the changes I think I have made for the benefit in my life such as being more honest and open with both the people around me and myself. One of the big points raised was how I am dealing with the fact that in essence the life I was aiming for and thought I would have is now no longer a possibility and have I dealt with the anger that could possibly be being repressed over this (my friend says I said I was angry but I have no recollection of uttering the words).

Altogether it was an interesting and valuable conversation that as I think about it over the coming days I will hopefully be able to come up with some answers. But until then I think I am going to leave it open and come back to the points individually once I have digested them in my own time, until then though hope you have a good day and please check out the rest of my posts.

Three times is a charm

Now I know that numbers are important, having studied mathematics as part of my degree course I know about the wonder and power numbers hold. I have also known for a while that numbers have significant meaning in the Bible. And the number I want to really focus on is the number 3.

When I was first beginning this blog I wrote a post on God is a quark linking the trinity to my knowledge of sub nuclear physics in a simple way as my understanding of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. When I wrote this however I missed out the significance of the number 3. In the Bible 3 denotes perfection, solidity and reality. My thoughts on the number 3 however were that 3 is the number of completeness.

Now I don't know if this is the same experience as anyone else, but I find that when God wants to tell me, or He wants me to do something the messages normally come in threes. Time and again when I have needed a push in a direction or there has been something I have had to do I have been given the sign or told in three different ways and often by 3 different people.

This happened to me this week. Last Sunday the sermon at Church was about Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman in John 4:19-42. Then on Tuesday night I rushed from work in order to make band practice at my Church and made it just in time for the devotionals in the middle of the practice, again the thought was on John 4:19-42. I could easily have put that down to either chance or the fact that the sermon on Sunday prompted the thoughts that led to the devotionals on Tuesday. The third occurrence of this Bible verse however could not have been the result of a cause or effect situation from last Sundays sermon, the reason is that the third time I came across this was in the daily devotions book I am using this year. So three different days, three times this Bible verse has come up, I can only think there has to be a reason and there has to be something to learn from it.

I am still pondering about this verse, the meaning and how it applies to my life but the thoughts from last Sundays sermon keep coming up and I feel have to at least be part of the reason it has cropped up as often as it has. The thought was that Jesus knew the woman before she even spoke, He knew everything about her and her life, He knew all that she had done. Not only this but despite the fact she should have been an outcast to Him and despite the fact that she had not always led a good honest life He still loved her. He wanted her to know Him and He wanted her to come into a knowledge of the Father. He also had a use for her, as imperfect as she was she was able to run back to her village and tell others of Him and her belief that He was the Christ. From this the others in the village came to Christ and heard what He had to say, and so they too became believers in Him.

God knows the very thoughts of our hearts, He knows when we are up and He knows when we are down. He has His plans for us and knows how best to use us so that we can be part of His bigger plan, but He also knows what He needs to give us to do that. He knows that as humans we are weak and that we have doubts in our abilities but He gives us the support and through Him we gain strength for the tasks in hand. We have been promised that He will always be there for us for all time, that He will guide us and pick us up when we fall. Better than that though, if we let Him He will be there for us and provide us with strength so that we can bear the load, if we allow Him He will ensure we do not fall. Trust in Him who knows best, and know that we know nothing at all that has not come from Him.

All that I am

People may know that I am currently in a running battle with my Dad about me choosing to take a wild change in career to follow what I believe God is calling me to do. Because of this we are both looking for opportunities to push our points home and win small victories. This weekend I score a victory in the mission to win my Dad over to my point of view.

It was when the choir in our Church sang a song called All that I am;

(Chorus)
All that I am,
All I can be,
All that I have,
All that is me,
Accept and use Lord,
As You would choose Lord,
Right now today.


Take every Passion,
Take every skill,
Take all my dreams,
And bend them to your will,
My all I give Lord,
For You I live Lord,
Come what may.


(Verse)
Often I come with my problems and cares,
Running to you when distressed,
But I must give You the whole of my life,
Lord I must give You my best.


(Chorus)

(Verse)

Life has no purpose unless it is yours,

Life without you has no goal,

All that fulfils me is doing your will,

Knowing that Your in control.

(Chorus)

                             (William Himes)

I don't know how many people outside of the Salvation Army will have heard this song, but it is one of my favourites and is possibly one of the most beautiful songs I have ever had the privilege of singing or listening to. There is a beautiful but tragic story behind the song which has caused there to be a haunting melody to this song which in my opinion makes it even more powerful as for me I feel that you can sense the presence of God within it. The composer wrote this song as his wife was dying of cancer as a way to help himself cope and try to make sense of what was happening in his life and the loss he was preparing for. I think it speaks volumes for the faith of William Himes that he was able to write such a powerful song about serving God in such a dark time.

There are two lines in particular which resonate deeply within me every time I sing or hear these words and I have highlighted them above. "But I must give You the whole of my life, Lord I must give you my best". The reason these words resonate with me and why they have helped in the disagreement with my Dad about the direction my life is taking is that I have a couple of options with what to do with my life. 

On the one hand I could go out in to the world and continue in the career I have begun and become a wealthy and potentially a well known scientist. With this route comes security and a clear direction and progression into the future, I would be in control of my life and would be able to support my family so that they would have no worries in life any more. 

The other is to follow a calling which is only getting stronger the more I think about and consider it. In following the direction I believe God is calling me would require turning away from 8 years of education, a significant financial investment and any control over where my life would lead. In this option I would go where I was sent, when I was sent and would earn only a tiny fraction of what I could following the other option.

However God keeps teaching me that money is not important and that when I need it the financial aspect of things will be taken care of. He keeps showing me time and again that if only I trust in Him he will make sure that I want for and need nothing. Also if I am to give God the whole of my life and my best then surely I must give Him them now.

My Dad's argument is not that I should not follow God's calling, but that I should go and work in science for a few years, earn and save a decent chunk of money and then follow God's calling. And while on the surface of it this sounds sensible, it is not following what God is saying, it is not giving my all and my best and it surely is not relying on God to provide all things as He has promised. It may be hard, it will surely be a challenge but I know that if I trust in Him I will make it through, if I trust on His goodness and Grace there will be nothing too big to get through. Hopefully through my actions and faith my Dad can learn that he does not need to do everything on His own and that trusting in God is a more viable option than relying on oneself. 

Pray when you hear a siren

As predicted I have heard a huge amount of sirens this week, from the 5 ambulances I have had to call myself for work to the countless many I have heard through each work day and on my commute to and from work. Until this week I knew that I heard a lot of sirens in a week but had not realised quite how many sirens I come across day to day.

However this challenge has gone very well I think, it has become so much a second nature to pray when I hear a siren that this morning at Church I found myself praying 5 times before I realised the siren I was hearing was from one of the children's toys.

Over the first day or two of the challenge I developed a quick one line prayer that I can easily fire off as soon as I hear a siren. This has enabled me to be able to pray for each individual siren even when a number of emergency vehicles fly past me at high speed.

The prayer that I have been using and with all likelihood will continue to use on hearing sirens in the future goes as follows;

     Lord, I pray for those who are at work in the services, and for those who are in need of their services,
                                                             Amen.


I have to say this has actually been one of the most enjoyable tasks so far and has been of real benefit to me and my faith. I also hope that through my prayers some people may have experienced some benefit from them.

So what task has come forth from that hat this week for me to do? The task selected is to read the book of Mark. This task will be one I can have a little fun with as I have just invested in an e-reader and so if I can find a download I will be able to carry the book with me and read it in my free time at work. But to find out how it goes and my thoughts on the book check back next week. Also feel free to check out the challenges already completed by visiting the Soldiers Challenge tab above.

Dreams

I don't know about other people, but I do not dream very often. Or at least I should say, I don't remember dreaming very often at any rate. However last night I had the most vivid and strange dream that I can ever remember having.

In the Bible there are stories about dreams and dream interpretation, the most famous one we all will know is Joseph and Pharaoh. But for me while the dream was strange and the meaning did not seem at all clear, at the end of it, knowing it was a dream, I tried to figure it out and was given the meaning almost straight away.

I'll tell you the dream before I talk about the meaning. The dream began with me surrounded by all the things I love doing some of the things I find most enjoyable and was in the company of many of the people I love and many strangers but who were the easy going fun loving kind of people I love to be around. After some time it was time to leave and go home and so I headed back to my car.On leaving the place I had been I ended up in the biggest multi level car park I have ever seen, it was cavernous like some kind of sci-fi space hanger, it just seemed to keep going.

At this point although not like anything in my life nothing strange had really happened yet, but the next part is where it began to become a little different shall we say. So I began walking to where I knew I had parked my car, but it wasn't there, I looked around the area where I had parked my car and though I saw cars the same, none of them were my car. Feeling slightly annoyed at myself for not remembering where I had parked my car I began to wander the car park in the walk of shame of someone who didn't think to remember properly where they put their car.

I searched all over this level of the car park where I knew I had put my car, but it was nowhere to be seen. And now I was fully doubting myself I set off to check other levels of the car park. This is where the dream really began to be a little weird. I went down a level and ended up in an outdoor car park in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sand. Again wandering round I searched for my car but to no avail. Now feeling absolutely lost and confused I was just wandering round the car park feeling sorry for myself when someone I know through mutual acquaintances showed up. At first he was trying to wind me up but in the end after seeing how distressed I had become tried to help me.

It was at this point my Mum woke me up asking if I wanted to go shopping, I decided I was too tired and rolled over back to sleep. Now knowing that everything that had been dreamt before was a dream I tried to figure it all out, why did it happen, why did the main theme of the dream seem to be being lost and confused. No sooner had I begun to think about this when a leather bound Bible floated in to my sight. Now I have not yet had time to check if the words that appeared to me are in the Bible, and if they are if someone could point me to them I would much appreciate it. The words I saw said, "You were lost because you are not yet doing what you should be doing. The life you are living is not the life I have set for you."

Now I think I know what this means, and I am sure I know what God has planned for me in the short term at least, maybe this is God giving me a bit of a shake to say get on with things and stop dragging your feet. But I need to think about it a little more. If there is more to the message than I have so far worked out I will be sure to let you al know.

Sharing faith

How are you at sharing your faith? Do you find it easy or hard? In the past I really struggled to share my faith with people. I became so good at hiding it that even I lost sight of it and eventually I lost it all together. However since finding it again I have begun to be a lot more open about it. I think there are two reasons for this, the first is that I am now sure in my faith, I know what I believe and I know it to be true. The second reason is that because I have spent time learning about my faith I am confident in it, if anyone challenges me I know I can respond with an intelligent and constructive answer.

Sharing faith is an amazing thing, not only do you give someone the opportunity to come to know God but you experience such a buzz from doing it. In sharing your faith you are giving a gift that can not be measured, sometimes it costs you very little and other times it can cost you a huge amount. But neither cost should put you off from professing and sharing faith in our saviour Jesus Christ.

Today I was presented with a fantastic opportunity to share my faith with an individual who is usually very challenging and often tries to wind people up. However today he approached me and confronted me about my plans for the future, my calling and why I believe it to be true. Unusually for this individual he sat and listened to everything I had to say, and the few questions he had were inquiring and constructive to progressing the conversation in a positive direction.

These days I really enjoy talking about my faith and exploring truths with fellow believers and having constructive conversations and friendly debates with doubters, unbelievers and those of other faiths. I know that in the past I have avoided these conversations and shirked my responsibility as a Christian. I know that in the past I turned my back on the Saviour who died for me. From these past and present experiences I would encourage anyone who has a faith in God to go out and tell the world. Do it in a way that suits the person and the situation, or better yet allow them to come to you after they have seen you living your Christian life. God can work with even the smallest seeds that we sow out there in the world, and the benefits and blessings you will receive will be huge.

Put a memory verse on your fridge

The challenge that I have been doing this week was to find a memory verse and to write it out and put it on my fridge in order that my family and I would see it everyday. As a family that is actively Christian there is no one in the house who would object to me doing this task, and in doing so I have the opportunity to select a verse that says something fitting to the situation I am in at the moment.

As I am still trying to get my dad to accept the plans that I believe are in store for me and so I decided to select a well known verse from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
      For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I have not had any comments so far on it, but I am sure everyone has had a chance to see it and hope that they will take the time to read it and consider its meaning and significance.

The challenge I am going to be attempting this week is to pray every time I hear a siren. As I work right in the centre of a busy city I know that I will hear a large number of sirens this week and so I will be praying often with this challenge. Check back next week to see how it goes but until then, have a great week and God bless.

Jesus

Gospel

Foundational

Sin