Never let her go !!!

Last night, I got a chance, to speak to a girl for a while in the street. At first we spoke about the usual stuff but as the conversation carried on, we got chatting about her ambitions for life.

This amazing Girl has so many dreams and passions, she loves to sing ( she sang for me and she had such an amazing voice.) she loves to cook and wants a future in the navy. Yet at the same time, she told me her main concern was for her family, they have no money and are struggling.

Sometimes her family go without, everything she earns from her weekend job she gives to her mum , so they and their brother don't go hungry. And she told me about her brother, how he keeps attempting suicide, as he is going through depression and yet, when he listens to her sing, it brings him out of the dark place for a small while.

So is so young yet you could see the weight of the world on her shoulders... people had spoken negativity over her dreams and you could see the strain....

To be honest I was angry... how could this beautiful young girl be going through all this on her own. She saw her main focus in life, providing and takeing care of everyone else, even at 17....

I haven't been able to get her out of my head, and I heard the song above this morning and I knew it was talking about her...

Hopefully God will make our paths cross again.... but until then 'God be her farther and rain down into her life. God never let her Go '.

What kind of servant am I ?

If one is truly a servant of the Lord, it can be demonstrated by a simple test: by how they react when someone treats them as a servant. Many are pleased to be servants for people of our own choosing or in circumstances of our own choosing. But that isn’t really being the servant of the Lord....

Interesting....?

'So, your adventures are over then? '- Wendy

'Oh no, to live is an Adventure' - Hook

From a different angle..

'Reading life'

I finished Rob Bell's new book 'Love wins' Yesterday. Now if you are expecting an array of insults and piercing reviews I am afraid you won't find it.

To be honest. its not that different from any of his other books, lots of questions laced with more questions, but this time you get the vibe, he is opening himself up abit more in terms of what he believes. I came away not thinking any more or any less, just thinking arghh Rob Bell has no more insight into Gods beautiful plan than the rest of us... Whew... He struggles with it all as well...

I am reading a book about a biblical view in Astronomy. (sounds like a barrel of laughs) but I have a new love and he's called Professor Brian Cox and does the ' Wonders of the universe' programme on the BBC (he also does Stargazing Live, my fave).

Its amazing, again even if I don't agree with it all. It is still good to see different points of view. whether in book or TV show form . It always makes you think about the truth in what you believe,and why you believe ? and this can never be a bad thing.. to keep you daily grappling with Gods truth. A freshly squeezed glass of thought processes... leading to some new nutrition going into the body...

Ummm...

BlackPool....

Good day at the seaside...Sunshine, Sea and roadworks everywhere...

Where are the lines ?

This week has been a hard week, in terms off God teaching me stuff.

I knew this season was coming in fact God actually gave me a few Visions to hold onto, whilst in this season, he prepared me, but it's amazing how quickly you forget. But I am not Struggling...just being shoved in places where I want to shove back, but I know I need to be shoved and deal with it....

I am Having to think about Lines and where they are.... like where is the line in the workplace of outreaching to the people that I feel we should be engaging with but making sure that I don't cause my other work colleagues to feel threatened or uncomfortable ? This line is hard for me, In my mind everyone is okay around drunken homeless people! this is not the case. I need to learnt to respect that.

Or the line of Giving Grace to your leaders but also knowing that God gave you a passion and a fire for a reason and the idea of having to cool that, annoys me ! but I think its more an Authority issue and trust issue.

Or the line of 'I like new clothes and like to go out and eat at nice places and have a vodka and coke, but not being wasteful and not finding my identity in the things I own, e.g. not being consumed by consumerism...

I know I sound like I am moaning, but I am okay I am here , I know I cant move into the next season if I don't deal with these things in my life. I find it interesting that God has placed me around different people who are dealing with these area's in their lives also....

This week I definitely feel like a tree, with God cutting and shaping me for future growth. An Oak of Righteousness ...

'For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal. ' - 2 Corinthians 4 : 16-18 KJV..

Here's to the next week. XXX

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

Front line Story

We had a guy com into the shop today asking about a DVD... we got chatting (well I was a nosy git) and he started to open up about his journey in life in the last 6 months.

He had been going to a Church Of England spiritualist church. FYI- it doesn't exist, I even asked the next CoE minister who came into the shop. As he started to go the this place (I ain't calling it a church), he noticed that his personal life basically went downhill pretty bad and very quickly...

It got to the point where he was considering ending it all.... and yet he thought it was okay, it had CoE all over it and the Reverend (the leader was called that) wore a dog collar and it all seemed like it was all above board . (they cant be bad, if they have the gear on, was his thinking.)

It was only when he took a bold step and asked for help, that he realised what a illusion he had been living under.... and that he had been tricked.

He has been going on an Alpha course and has given his life to God and is getting rid of the scales from his eyes....

I am always amazed how the enemy, seems to be so good at Distracting us and tricking us...me more than anyone.

I sometimes forget I am in Warfare...it seems so odd, I don't see the scenes of a battle field in my average Monday. Yet I am on it. The devil tries to cover it up with the daily slug of the everyday norm. But We warriors know we are in it...

'The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making the world think he doesn't exist' I think this is a quote from 'the usual suspects' ... So True

So to my warriors 'Our God is greater' Thank you Lord for another persons eyes being opened...

'Our call to love, to love the captive soul, but to rage against the captor' -Lyrics from 'o church arise' .

Cool ! Yes or No!

'Living intentional, selfless lives isn’t cool.'

I was reading a blog today and slap bang in the middle was this statement... and it punched me in the side of the face...

Why you may ask? Lately I have been thinking about my sense of who I am percieved to be... Am i percieved to be a cool twentysomething with a random collection of funky watches .... and if not or if so, how does this make me feel ? DO I WANT TO BE COOL ?...

I can take it much further.. what does being cool look like today? A hipster intouch blogger. media savvy yet with an iphone in one hand and a starbucks cup of Coffee in the other and some serious sneakers on their feet. If this is what my perception is, Am I in this group. I am afraid to say I do tick some of those boxes...(not the iphone).

I remeber Shane Clairbourne in his book 'Irresistible Revoloution' speaking to some kids and them saying 'yeah it's okay for you to be a Christian and live like you do, look at you , you are cool with your dreads you have the whole , ragamuffin alternative vibe going on' in reply to this shane cut off his dreads then and there... did their perception of him just change then and their to be honest I bet they still thought he was quite cool..

But in his heart he was'nt that bothered about being in the group that everyone else would put him in. Is that the clue right there.. you are who you are in God.

iphones ad starbukcs and funky watches are not bad, as long as they don't give you, your status... making the choice, living completley for God is the focus, what people put on you is not your issue, but being able to say at any moment, this is not who I am.. and cut it away or give it away... showing you are only defined by God is what its all about...

Am I ?

Question: How do you go from being a Holy Spirit filled Christan for God with passion and belief in his word as truth, to a Christian Fundamentalist ? Is there a Difference ?

I have had afew incidents this week where I have been very honest to people about who their Gods are and making sure they heard the Gospel of truth not the warped version they have in their heads. And have just been really honest. (I did feel very prompted by God and it was in love). But a colleague still said 'some people would call you a fundamentalist.'

At first this freaked me out... ( I saw news images of extreme fundamentalist blowing up things) Please I am not one of those! But then I realised, I don't care.

Gods word says something like 'how will they know unless you tell them' I don't want people having false Gods rule their life. Or distorted ideas about God being their perception.

I have to stand up for what I believe.. And sometimes you have to say ' I disagree with you' .You can do as much good work as you want, but eventually you are gonna have to tell them about God other wise your just another Charity worker (nothing against them by the way) and that might clash with what they believe at the moment. But surely you shouldn't let disagreements stop you from telling the truth ?

Oh i don't know, its a minefield... but all I know is, I ain't going to hide Gods love and truth from people...

Jesus said ' I am the way, the truth and the life...' I cant not be passionate about that...