What is important?

So what is important and crucial in life? Pondering on this it is clear that what is important to me may not make the top ten list for someone else. Acknowledging and recognising that is perhaps crucial in any ministry. Yet what is crucial is how we make others feel. "People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." Unknown

The Acts of the Apostles describes Barnabas as a 'good man, full of faith and the Holy Spirit'. He was born in Cyprus and died in Salamis in the 1st century. His Jewish parents called him, Joseph, but after selling all his property and joining the apostles in Jerusalem, he got a new name: Barnabas, meaning "a man of encouragement."

In our lives, we all have feelings of weakness and weariness - none of us like these circumstances. We do not enjoy such experiences. These periods of helplessness, powerlessness and vulnerability have removed all our strength and make us prone to despair and self-pity. In the midst of these real experiences, the culture that we live in aggravates the matter. We grew up in a culture where criticism is the rule. We have been traumatised by criticism. Even if we grew up in a very encouraging family, the world outside of our homes does not have encouragement as a way of life.

When we encourage, we do not have to be gushing about another. Or to be too patronising. Encouragement is a sincere affirmation. When we criticise, we look for what is negative and find it so easy to give others the benefit of our opinion. On the other hand, encouragement is seeing what is positive and good and expressing it as readily as the tendency to criticise that is always with us. Criticism is the fastest way to stop another person from doing wrong; encouragement is the fastest way to make another person expand their good work.

Encouragement is remembering. You see, when a good thing has happened like a little improvement or a small change, when we express them as words of encouragement, the little development becomes fixed in the mind of the listener, and thus the likelihood of repeated success becomes greater. It makes a person take the next step to a new additional process of growth.
Barnabas did the same thing. He encouraged and thus he built communities of faith. We are built-up by a culture of trust and of consolation. We need a new culture in the world of positive reinforcement. With encouragement, we seek what is more. After all, we were made, not to destroy, but to build people.

Love abounding more and more

Today at our staff time of worship I read Philippians 1 reminding all gathered of the truth of the words "that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight". What is this love - Love for God, our neighbour, ourselves? This can be a hard challenge and today, with varying emotions, I have wrestled with.

So with those emotions swelling up inside I sat a listened to a beautiful song by Keith & Kristyn Getty - new words to a familiar song. Believe me this was saving grace today.

What grace is mine that He who dwells in endless light
Called through the night to find my distant soul
And from his scars poured mercy that would plead for me
That I might live and in his name be known

So I will go wherever He is calling me
I lose my life to find my life in Him
I give my all to gain the hope that never dies
I bow my heart, take up my cross and follow Him

What grace is mine to know His breath alive in me
Beneath his wings my wakened soul may soar
All fear can flee for death's dark night is overcome
My Saviour lives and reigns forevermore

So I will go…

(to the tune londonderry air - or danny boy as it is also known)

It has been a while........

I am starting to feel the itch to blog again. It might or might not be a regular thing, but at least I think I can start posting some new material here.

So why the gap? Partly a busy summer and yet a bigger part was knowing what to share and what not too if that makes any sense. There has been the intense joys over the last few months but also the moments of questioning and today was the day I thought I would begin the blogging expedition again.

Yet today.. after a few days with a bug and feeling increasingly disappointed with a few things I thought why not put pen to paper - or rather cursor to screen.

Is the theme and subject of disappointment something we avoid or minimise? After all we do have our hope in God. One thing that is common to all humankind is suffering and disappointment. Perhaps all of us have suffered varying degrees of heartache, but certainly all of us have known what it is like to be downtrodden and disappointed. So the question for the Christian is not if suffering and disappointment will come, but rather how will we respond when it inevitably knocks on our door? And what happens when it does - do we paint on our perma-grin like a clothing accessory and join in the chorus of the faithful with the liturgical response "I'm fine" when asked the quesiton of how we are. Are we given permission to speak out in truth to another to verbalise our frustrations and our fears?

I think we have to first recognize that suffering and tragedy are a central theme in the Bible. We don’t have to look further than Jesus to figure that out. When we ignore this fact, then we don’t know how to help each other. We end up giving each other pat answers and trite religious expressions that not only offer no comfort whatsoever but really make things worse.

So then how are we to respond? What is God’s answer? I think there’s only one place we can find comfort, and that’s in the sovereignty of our God. God is in control and for that I am eternally grateful. Please forgive me I am not being trite or pious it has just worked for me again and again and again. So when i cry, scream and shout at the heavens then there is peace because in giving I receive and then my shouts turn into praise.

When I am disappointed God is near.

When I struggle God does not.
When I am weak God is strong.

Just been thinking

Well I have been thinking..... hence the picture of the coggs - could not find one with coggs and smoke. I am leading worship tomorrow for our staff gathering - we meet each week and have worship together. I have been led to think about encouragement and considered Psalm 100:3

"Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."

I heard this story once - A school teacher recounted the times when sometimes the young students would have a quarrel amongst themselves, one would inevitably come running to her crying “So and so called me stupid!” The clever teacher would always reply, “Well — are you stupid?” Without fail, that little red-faced, button-nosed three or four year old would ponder for a moment, shrug back, look up at her and timidly say no. Well, okay then — so go and play! And just like that, the quarrel was over and playtime would resume as if nothing happened.

We need to take a lesson from those little students we need to remember who we are! We’re not stupid — we’re not ugly — we’re not defeated — we’re not useless!
On the contrary! We are fearfully and wonderfully made! We are loved and cared for dearly! We’re victorious! We have a divine purpose and calling to fulfill today!
Let’s not allow anyone to dictate who or what we are! God has already made it very clear who we are — loved, cherished and adored........ so there.... God bless

Is it help I am nearly forty?

Is it really help I am nearly forty? You know I am not so sure. No disrespect to those of friends of mine who are over 40 - you look great. But it feels really weird. If 50 is the new thirty then I must be 20....... what do you reckon?

Why it is weird I don't know. Has life turned out as I expected? As the exit door to my thirites approach what does it mean? 40 isn't really so bad except for the small fact that now I have got to be 40.

So I thought I know I'll look at Psalm 40 but the words "but I am poor and needy" jumped out and it didn't really help. So back to the drawing board and for a short time there was the consolation that my twin is also 40, though of course she reminds me that I am 7 minutes older than her.

There are of course some good things about being 40 (originally I had typed thongs which if you know me maybe inappropriate) it's just they take sometime to come to mind.

I will think though even more over the next week and a half until the day itself..... is it time for a change.

I think it is. I think it’s time for change that I can believe in. I think I am the change that I have been waiting for.

God in a box?

A small boy was at home with his Mum after coming home from Sunday school. Sat at the table he looked around the kitchen.

“Mum, today we learned that God is everywhere. Is that right?” “Yes, my love” said his Mum “God is everywhere.”

“So he is in the car?” “Yes Son”
“And in the house?” – “yes”
“And in the kitchen” – “yes love” said his mum wondering where he was going with this one. “God is everywhere”
“Hmm..” said the small boy as he got up. He moved towards the fridge and opened the door “is God in the fridge?”. Not quite sure what to say his mum said “Yes” so the boy quickly shut the door and said “got him.”

I was thinking about this over the weekend but over the last few days my thinking has taken a different turn. In exploring my own relationship with God and the revelation of God to us and our ability to understand God I wondered if God has put him/herself in a box? God has given us knowledge, both through Creation and through the Scriptures, but this is not complete knowledge - it is only and exactly what we need to know about God. We are told no more than we need and no less than considered beneficial.

Whenever we study God, we need to acknowledge that God defines the limits of our study. If we wish to know God truly, we must be willing to allow God to reveal to us what God wants us to know, with the freedom as to how it is revealed. Whilst we have a treasure trove we do not know everything – such is the mystery.

I guess God is not in a box – as surely our relationship changes with our context and the fluidity of God’s love seeps through anything which attempts to confine it.

We have the scripture to allow us to attempt to understand, but how far can our finite minds understand an infinite God. God is revealed through scripture in a way we attempt to understand. How can our language define the indefinable – how can our finite language do justice to what is infinite. There are no adequate words but what a delight that through a spirit of humility we can approach God’s word though always remembering there is so much more - “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

In Psalm 131 David affirms that there are some things that He can never understand. “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” David’s response is important. “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
May we be quiet, be still and know our God. For the infinite God revealed himself in Jesus and we can have confidence that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)

Is God in a box? That depends? Where have you placed God?

Meetings..meetings..meetings

“Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23 - 25


I have been thinking alot about meetings and of course the variety of them. Part of this thought process was stimulated by a work experience student who was considerably surprised by the number of meetings we attend... so this led me to think. Firstly, our meetings should be worship by that worthy of God. We gather at a meeting in order to hold tightly to the hope God has promised us. Meetings should be used to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. The idea is not to stop meetings but rather to use meetings as a source of encouragement, an opportunity for teaching and especially a call to Godly action. Somehow perhaps I have missing the point.

Before any meeting I have started to contemplate the following:

Is God invited? This is about priorities. More than a perfunctory prayer or devotion, this question is a spiritual challenge: Are we vigorously seeking to follow Gods will?

Do you know where you’re going? This is about organization. What will you accomplish? Is there a clear agenda to follow? Are you prepared to answer reasonable questions?

Are the committee members with you? This is about communication. Does the committee have enough information? Is everyone participating in a healthy and creative discussion?

Will the meeting end with smiles or frowns? This is about encouragement. Does the meeting end with the anticipation we are following God’s will for our church?

And of course is there cake and coffee for no other reason that hospitality is a gift in which we share with one another.. What do you think?

Oh Thomas - the doubter

I so identify with the disciple Thomas. Is it because we are both twins? Is it the doubting? The questioning? I don't know what it is but I am right there with him. "My Lord and My God........."


Everyone but me,
where was I?
that I should miss this grace?
My grief,
I could not be consoled by the others
it drove me to the streets
to the edge of the city
to the temple
to find my twin for understanding
hoping for a sign.

What did Jesus say?
What did Jesus promise?
Healing so many and yet this has to be so.
I feel a little betrayed - YOU promised.
Maybe Judas understood more than me, more than the others.
Are we wrong?

I couldn't stand there at the cross,
to watch as my hope was destroyed.
I shrank into a corner of deep despair and heard your words
"My God.. My God,, why have you forsaken me..."
"It is finished"

How can I trust, how can I believe?
The others say they have seen you.
"Peace," they say. "He is alive."
I merge from the shadow and seek the proof I desire
They scorn me for that - but did they always believe? Or did they need to see?
Why is more asked of me?
I need to see--no, I need to touch
I need to hear your voice again
speaking to me---to ME.

They call me the doubter, ME
but didn't they all doubt at some point?
Peter on water? Philip with the loaves
counting away wondering how all can be fed.

God I've made mistakes, too many mistakes
and if it is true all I can count on is your forgiveness
"My Lord and My God"

Contemplation of Easter

On Thursday metal thrown onto the table. Try and imagine the noise of 30 pieces of silver and 3 nails as they clattered on table and over the floor.

Metal - one a payment to Judas the other a payment for us.

On Friday - three denials, three crosses, three nails and the threefold love of God -Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Reflecting on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in the Central Partnership has been challenging and emotional. There are so many dramatic events throughout Holy Week for us to consider. It began on Sunday with the Triumphal Entry, the cleansing of the temple, teaching on a variety of subjects, and leads to eating with friends and then crucifixion. The Last Supper is key to setting up the events to follow. Among other things, the Last Supper was Jesus’ last opportunity to directly minister to his disciples before his death and resurrection. So what did Jesus teach at this final gathering?

The Gospel of John goes into the most detail about the Last Supper, spending five chapters recounting Jesus’ words and actions that evening (more than he does describing the rest of the Easter story!).

What stands out the most in that story? For many readers, Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet is the most striking event in the entire account. So on Thursday gathered in the upper hall at Bold Street we remembered. We sang, chatted, ate and drank together, hands were washed and we remembered. Leaving the building in darkness we met at Latchford the following morning.

It was Oswald Chambers who once observed that drudgery is the truest test of genuine character. Foot washing was a lowly job, an oft-recurring job due to sandals and dusty streets—a job for a servant. But here, the menial task was instead performed by the master, their teacher—the Son of God.

And the influential truth of Christ’s identity is that He still does what is analogous to washing soiled feet: our deepest sorrows He feels, our sorriest actions He accepts, our smallest prayers He hears—our every transgression He forgives, our dusty, tired hearts He washes.

And so on Friday we meet at the foot of the cross. We heard the story, sang the familiar hymns, reflected and cared for each other. What did we remember? Jesus is on his way toward the Cross. His disciples have fled and he is alone. Alone to face the wrath of the Roman Empire and the fury of the crowd. Alone and feeling abandoned by God. Yet not alone for all of humanity walks with him. We stumble and fall as he did. We are abused and spat upon. We feel despised and rejected - by ourselves, by others, by our world. Free us from our prisons and bring us new life

God who created us suffers because of us
God who died upon the cross suffers for us
God who dwells with us suffers with us
And in God’s suffering we find hope

God, you suffering brings us salvation
Without you the horrors of human suffering would be unbearable
Your story of life, death and resurrection gives life meaning
Your suffering frees us from our prisons

May we live this day in the knowledge of your pain
May we live this day in the assurance of your love
May we live this day in the hope of the resurrection.

Grace and Blessing

May I walk this day
in the company of grace,
walking with You
my feet firmly on your path,
my heart loving all,
my words and deeds alive with justice.

May I walk as blessing,
meeting blessing upon blessing at every turn
in every challenge, may there be blessing,
in all opposition, may there be blessing,
in harm’s way, may there be blessing.

May I walk each step in this moment of grace,
alert to hear You
and awake enough to say
a simple Yes.

Giving Up for Lent

Sorry to post so late. Sometimes weeks and days don't go as planned. Now a month on I thought I would catch up. So why the delay? Namely a broken wrist has made quite a few things difficult. Along with other things the doctor at the hospital said I was upside down....I knew what she meant but won't go into detail. However, I have been thinking alot about things being upside down.

How does life get turned upside down? Why do we feel under pressure to do? Do we sometimnes feel as though all our intentions,tasks and relationships have caved in on top of us?

Jesus said, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”

That is, following Jesus leads us to become a certain kind of person with a certain kind of life; namely, one that doesn’t get buried under the pile of sand.... This begs the question, “How did I get so upside down again?” Answer: "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

The thought of trying to keep my own head above water is a worrying thought. Worrying because I know my foot slips and my head goes under. Yet when my feet are on solid ground then it is easy for the head to be above water. When I am not worried about what I am standing on, when I know how firm the foundation then I can be focussed on the one who offers a foundation.

I love following Jesus, there is no other place I would rather be. I admire and respect him because of his courage and consistency. Jesus knows what to say and do, and how to say and do it. He leads us. He does not pretend to be something that he’s not. He is what He says, and he says what he is. He faces hardship with strength and prayer. He fears no-one, yet he gives himself up even his enemies.

His path is straight and good and walking in it gives a sense of identity and direction, a security that is not about comfort, but confidence and hope.

When with him, all is well and the pile of sand falling around does not seem so bad, after all it is the follish one that would start digging and building with it. For me solid ground that is it......

Contemplating continues...

Tim Hughes song "When tears fall" have the wonderful lines

"When hope is lost. I'll call you Saviour,
When pain surrounds, I'll call you healer"

The book of Lamentations and Psalms offers us all the words of hope and faith building techniques to help us in our journey. Many of the psalmists practised the discipline of recalling God' faithfulness as a stepping stone towards worship and hope. Psalm 13 offers us these words
"How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?"

beginning with a desperate cry the psalmist continues to statements of trust in God
"But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me"

We have from the psalmist a wonderful truth that remembering releases rejoicing. When we cannot perceive God amidst the wilderness and pain, as clouds of uncertainty close in the way forward is to remind ourselves of what we know to be true and dependable - that is the grace of God.

Found myself wondering......

Over the past few weeks, which have been pretty awful with ill-health, - I have been reflecting alot. In doing so I have been drawn to the words of Matt and Beth Redman's song Blessed be your name. Profound words which echo the cry of many a heart. Where is God in it all or through it all? There are so many dichotomy's in life and for me this song personifies it.

Blessed be God in the sunset and the snow
Blessed be God in the nose bleeds and headaches
Blessed be God in the chicken dinners and chinese meals provided by others
Blessed be God in the words of tenderness and compassion
Blessed be God in the words of retaliation and anger
Blessed be God in the aunt and the uncle - one departed and the other nearing a new chapter
Blessed be God in the cards and flowers
Blessed be God in the tears and smiles
Blessed be God in the family and friends
Blessed be God in the known and unknown
Blessed be God forever and ever

Blessed be God in the wilderness for we humans only inhabit that place for a short time.

Said I would do it Tom?

Well done Tom an A in Maths GCSE and a year early - wahey good going mate. Love ya. AJ xx