And so this is Christmas .....

Well, here it is again!  That time that is named after Christ and when everyone rushes around doing things they wouldn't think of at any other time of the year.

Suddenly I have to communicate with all the people who haven't heard from me for a whole year - I love that we stay in touch, but why don't I do it at other times to show that I really do care ... all the time.

Suddenly I find myself fighting my way through hoards of frenzied shoppers who all look stressed and tired, to buy presents for those who buy presents for me - in the process I blow the budget, and then stress out about how to find bargains for those extra gifts for the people I forgot would buy gifts for me.!

I have stayed up half the night waiting for the Christmas cakes to bake, because I didn't get organised enough to do them earlier, and then I have got up early the next day to be out before the other stressed shoppers to fill the cupboards with food, etc. etc.

So, here we are nearing Christmas and I am sitting here wondering what on God's earth does HE think about all this?

If I sound cynical, that is not the intention ... but I do want to make myself think about what I am doing, why I am doing it, and why on earth would I want to feel this tired without very good reason. :)

I remember that God took a man and a woman on a journey with a donkey (not your fastest means of transport) and brought them finally to a destination without having arranged any accommodation in the usual flash hotels.  I wonder how they felt when all that was going was that stable full of animals and straw.

What on earth would Joseph and Mary think of today's carry on?

A little baby came into the earth; the angels, shepherds and wise men had encounters that have never been forgotten ... heaven touched earth in a very humble place, and the whole of history was changed in an instant.

Could we maybe change some things?  Could we perhaps simplify everything we do, and move quietly and without fuss around our houses and work for a few days?  Maybe we could sit still and quiet in the night hours and look for the star, and wait for the heavens to speak to us again of the wonderful love and hope God has given us.

2000 and more years later could we just possibly stop and think, and REALLY take hold of all that was handed to us that night.

Lord may our hearts, minds and lives be touched again with your love and promises.  Would you let the heavens pour forth speech that resounds over the nations that are suffering with war, terror, and famine.  Would you remind us that we have had the greatest gift of all time, and let us sit in awe and wonder at what you have done for us, that we might be still for a moment and KNOW that you are God.

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

John 3:16&17 The Message.

THE REASON WHY ...

Yesterday I was reminded why we continue to do the art/craft class in the family centre.

Sometimes I grow weary in doing good ... it's the end of the year and the demands are great. My physical person gets tired, and in many ways I feel a whole lot less generous than Jesus would be with all the good things He has given me!

Yesterday a very tired and broken woman sat next to me at the table. She is expecting her 10th baby and had a demanding 18 month old at her side. She had never done anything creative in her life and was nervous and hesitant about beginning.

As we sat side by side she began to make some cards for Christmas, slowly at first and then with ever growing enthusiasm and skill.

When it came time for the class to end and the other women left, she worked quietly on ... lost in a world of her own, making something beautiful and distinctly her own. I was certainly not going to break in on the process!

Eventually she finished and began to talk to me about what she was going to make next week, already looking forward to it.

I write this with tears. How little we need to do to make another person's life just a little more joyful, and yet how wonderful it is to see someone find that place of peace and joy.

It was good to remember the reason why we love to serve Jesus, and the reason why He was born and died. There is truly wonderful meaning in the Christmas season as this is reinforced in my life once again. I am grateful, always grateful.

POWERFUL UNITY

I feel that God is giving us a new directive for this time, and that it is a way to move forward and to move in His power more than we have previously. We know that He is instructing us in fresh ways about prayer for this time, and this seems to fit amazingly with where we are at right now.

For a long time I have believed what He showed me years ago - that there will come a time when we weave prayer and worship together in a way that releases a new level of God's power and authority - way beyond anything we have previously seen.

In reading Acts 16 recently there was a fresh revelation, it opened up by the Spirit, and I saw something of what He has been talking to me about. I believe that He is giving us a pattern to work with in this nation in this hour.

In many ways prayer and worship are one and the same, and yet here in Acts 16 we see that they are deliberately stated as separate and yet happening at the same time. The end result of this is:
- a violent earthquake
- foundations shaken
- prison doors opened
- chains broken
- salvation
- baptism
- God’s authority released in the city

As we live in increasingly uncertain times, it’s good to remember that Paul and Silas had been:
- unjustly accused
- Stripped (humiliated)
- Beaten (severely flogged)
- Put in a cell with no windows
- Their feet were shackled
- It was midnight

None of these things would have made them feel great and would have provided areas to be overcome in order to be able to PRAY and SING HYMNS TO GOD. In other words, this kind of action did not happen in the ‘comfort zone’!

I believe there is something new to be undertaken in this kind of prayer. A change from worshippers getting on with songs and music while the prayers/intercessors look in from the outside and cover that activity. What is spoken of in Acts 16 holds the two actions separate but together. I see us as ‘prayers’ far more than ‘intercessors’ now, the prayer function having become more defined and much more a ‘life’ rather than a random action.

I see this action as being like the centre plait in a kete from which it takes it strength and from which the weaving of the whole basket is done.
As prayer and worship weave together in this way, moving side by side, it creates a movement like that of a waka. The prayer paddle moves through the water on one side, then the worship paddle on the other, in perfect rhythm moving the vessel forward smoothly and safely.
The strong sense I have is that in the working together there will be a definite rhythm established, one function pushing forward and then the other moving in and establishing that ground while the other pauses. It will be this definite rhythm that will keep the strength and the forward movement, and I believe the movement will be dictated by the Holy Spirit.

In the old testament the priestly functions were quite defined as in 1 Chronicles 9 (I have put a portion of that below). We are now all priests in His kingdom, but I see the praying people as having the gatekeeping function which keeps the temple guarded while the musicians stay inside and do their work. They are all taking up positions in and around the Lord’s house (which we are told is a house of prayer) and so are serving before Him constantly and together.

Probably the most powerful outcome of the Acts 16 prayer and worship is that of God’s authority being released in the city, and those who had previously oppressed Paul and Silas were now required to come and give them respect and escort them out of the city. In other words, the oppression was overturned, and events turned in their favour. They appear to have been completely focused on God, His greatness, and His ability – El Shaddai moved to turn the flow of events in the direction He wanted them to go.

There is much more to all of this, and it is hard to condense it in this way. However, there is a powerful anointing on what He was showing, and I have prayed for God to give opportunity for it to be expressed. So far where it has been spoken out people’s hearts have been moved, and I have seen that the Lord has given them understanding, especially the worshippers.

~~~~~~~

1 Ch 9:13 The priests, who were heads of families, numbered 1,760. They were able men, responsible for ministering in the house of God.
1 Ch 9:17 The gatekeepers: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their brothers, Shallum their chief
1Ch 9:18 being stationed at the King's Gate on the east, up to the present time. These were the gatekeepers belonging to the camp of the Levites.
1Ch 9:19 Shallum son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his fellow gatekeepers from his family (the Korahites) were responsible for guarding the thresholds of the Tent just as their fathers had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of the LORD.
1Ch 9:20 In earlier times Phinehas son of Eleazar was in charge of the gatekeepers, and the LORD was with him.
1Ch 9:21 Zechariah son of Meshelemiah was the gatekeeper at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
1Ch 9:22 Altogether, those chosen to be gatekeepers at the thresholds numbered 212. They were registered by genealogy in their villages. The gatekeepers had been assigned to their positions of trust by David and Samuel the seer.
1Ch 9:23 They and their descendants were in charge of guarding the gates of the house of the LORD—the house called the Tent.
1Ch 9:24 The gatekeepers were on the four sides: east, west, north and south.
1Ch 9:25 Their brothers in their villages had to come from time to time and share their duties for seven-day periods.
1Ch 9:26 But the four principal gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted with the responsibility for the rooms and treasuries in the house of God.
1Ch 9:27 They would spend the night stationed around the house of God, because they had to guard it; and they had charge of the key for opening it each morning.
1Ch 9:28 Some of them were in charge of the articles used in the temple service; they counted them when they were brought in and when they were taken out.
1Ch 9:29 Others were assigned to take care of the furnishings and all the other articles of the sanctuary, as well as the flour and wine, and the oil, incense and spices.
1Ch 9:30 But some of the priests took care of mixing the spices.
1Ch 9:31 A Levite named Mattithiah, the firstborn son of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the responsibility for baking the offering bread.
1Ch 9:32 Some of their Kohathite brothers were in charge of preparing for every Sabbath the bread set out on the table.
1Ch 9:33 Those who were musicians, heads of Levite families, stayed in the rooms of the temple and were exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night.
1Ch 9:34 All these were heads of Levite families, chiefs as listed in their genealogy, and they lived in Jerusalem

EMPTY BASKETS

 

Yesterday as I prayed, asking how we might help and reach the people around us, and how we might see them walk out full and purposeful lives in Jesus, I felt the Lord say that many come "with empty baskets".

As He said this, I realised that in many cases the whole emphasis is on people coming to know Jesus, but there is less importance given to helping them walk with Him and get to know Him better.  An hour a week in church wont do that for the majority, they need something a whole lot more personal.

It seemed to me that the challenge was for each of us to keep our baskets full, always containing something ready in season for where it would be needed.

The empty baskets appeared to be the outreaches, and good works that salve Christian conscience but cost the individual only a small proportion of their time and effort out of all the rest of daily life.

Coming with a full basket into daily life and into the midst of the communities in which we live has a constant and ongoing influence way beyond what we may ever see.

Are our baskets full enough to be carried daily, hourly, into the lives of those around us, giving our the live, love and hope that is ours for all eternity in Jesus Christ?

I believe as we allow Him to fill the basket, and then go out with what we have been given, we will find ourselves distributing the loaves and the fishes.  I don't believe the baskets will ever be empty but will be constantly filled, replenished as we empty them.  I believe our own lives will be enriched beyond anything we have yet experienced.

How full are our baskets?

The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time.
It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more. Colossians 1:5 & 6 (The Message)

OUT OF THE ZONE!

How we love to have everything neat and tidy, all taped up so that we can understand it, cope with it, never be unduly discomforted by what it might contain for us ... always working for the comfort zone; working for the dollars that buy us the comfort zone; using the dollars to buy the things that make the comfort zone comfortable.

Then something happens that shakes the comfort zone a little, rattles it around, and leaves us 'all shook up' and wondering how to do life when it is a little out of control.  Maybe the severity of the shaking means we might even need something our dollars can't buy ... maybe we would even need something man cant do for us, and we have nowhere to go.  Maybe we need something beyond everything natural to help us, or nothing can help us at all!

Now we have a chance to discover a wonderful truth ... miracles don't happen in the comfort zone because you don't need them there!  

Our television adverts constantly ask "Are you ready?".  They are talking of course about the constant possibility we live with of an earthquake or eruption that would require different action, different life, different survival techniques - way out of the comfort zone in an instant of time.

So, how many of us have truly faced the question of 'shaking', of a messing with our comfort zone without warning?  How many of us truly grapple with what we would do, and how we would get through it.

Maybe the first shaking we face is the looking beyond our comfort zone into the things around us that are already falling apart.  Looking at the lives that are broken and shattered, the families that are being torn apart by poverty, violence, addictions. 

"Are you ready?"  Ready to really look at the people and situations around you that have lost their comfort zone and have hearts crying out for help where there seems to be no help of any kind?

"Are you ready?"  Ready to extend a hand, a hope, a prayer?

As you begin to look and respond you begin to move into the realm where miracles take place.  Miracles of love, hope and restoration.  A place where we need more than money can ever buy us.

"Are you ready?"  To look for a source of love, hope, power and miracles.  Would you pray, would you love, would you go?

Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighbourhood.    (Mat 10:6) "The Message"   

DARK CORNERS

There is such a strong sense today of God seeing EVERY PERSON.
We know that NOTHING is hidden from Him, and I know His eyes are on EVERY ONE.

The person who struggles in the deepest, darkest place is known to the One who made him/her. His heart knows the pain and His eyes see the circumstances, and the struggle, as He looks for a way to penetrate the darkness and reveal Himself.

HE CARES, HE LOVES, HE DESIRES to be in relationship with EVERY ONE He created. Each one is alive because He gives them breath.

We avoid the dark corners, they are scary to most of us and way out of our comfort zone. Is there a dark corner with a struggling soul anywhere near you or me? Somewhere that bewilders and confuses us but we know we should reach in and bring His life?

We can reach into these places with prayer, and begin to bring a glimmer of His light as we do. As we persist, gradually the light increases and those things that live in the darkness to torment and disturb back away from the light.

NEVER say 'I can ONLY pray' - ONLY doesn't belong in the description of such a powerful weapon.

In what direction will each of us shine some light and life today?

John 1:4&5

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Ephesians 1:18

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enLIGHTened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you .........

MORE ....

Yesterday I spent the whole day with a group of beautiful women.  All just growing in their relationship with God.  I listened to amazing and very inspirational speakers talking about the wonderful evidence of God's hand in their lives - He has most certainly done amazing things.  It was a good day in every respect, and there was nothing at all in the day that jarred or jangled. 

On the way home, however, I found myself back on what has been a constant track for so long now. As I drove along I felt the Lord's presence in my car, I loved that nearness that is only found alone with Him, and it forced a great cry from the depths of my being.  How I long to know more of Him, more about Him, to walk even closer to Him every minute and hour of the day.

I'm not talking about some hidden away place, but about all that He is totally permeating my being; flowing through and out of me in such a constant stream of His life that it flows wherever I am.

There are so many pursuits offered to us today ... all of them good in themselves ... but I find my heart in pursuit of one thing and one thing only.  No longer can I pray for 'revival', 'glory', 'healing', manifestations of the Holy Spirit, because they are not what my heart longs for.

My thought yesterday was this.  God, You are Love, so will you let your heart overflow towards me, so that it will fill my heart to overflowing and that love will pour out where it is most needed.  Surely if God is Love, then that is the essence of all things, the One Thing that is needed, the One Thing that will bring all the answers we seek?

I love how The Message expresses Psalm 90:14-17: 

Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we'll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times; we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime.   Let your servants see what you're best at-- the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

That is my prayer:  Come and surprise us with love Lord, and let that love affirm and confirm all that we do.

THIN ICE

Recently I had an unusual picture while praying. I saw a person leaping from one piece of cracked ice to the next. These thin pieces of ice were floating on deep water as they melted and rapidly became thinner and more fragile.

I held my breath watching this picture, knowing that at any moment the ice was going to crack and the person fall through it. That person could first and foremost be myself!

Obviously the question arose; why this picture and why see it now?

It seemed that the implied message was that we are moving now into a new season, and into much deeper waters. To be able to swim and survive in deep waters we need to be unencumbered and have strength for the long haul! If we fall into deep water we have to discard heavy footwear and clothing - in fact anything that isn't absolutely necessary - in order to lighten up and swim well.

How did this relate to the guy on the thin ice? Well, it seemed that he thought he didn't need to do much more than jump from one piece to another in order to survive, and wasn't prepared to take some time to take stock of his situation or the changing climate.

At the beginning of this year the Lord encouraged us to 'seek wisdom' for this time, and perhaps wisdom would dictate that changing seasons are time to take stock and see that we are well prepared for the next one.

Maybe these are the times to make sure the foundations in our lives are strong enough to take us through the coming changes. If you are going to add another level to your house you first check that the existing foundations can take it's weight.

I wonder if in the Christian family we are looking at the outworking of something called The Peter Principle, which Wikipedia describes like this:

The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." While formulated by Dr. Laurence J Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1968 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded" by Peter, the principle has real validity. It holds that in a hierachy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain. Peter's Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence".

I am not suggesting that we should live in a hierachy, but that some of what this suggests can apply to our personal lives. God uses us all for His purpose and is not looking for perfection, but I do believe He is always looking for flexibility and willingness to be clay in His hands.

If the ice is going to melt under my feet, then I want to be able to swim.

URGENCY AND AGENDA

So often we come screaming to the Lord, overflowing with urgency and agenda, desperate that He will move and fix this thing that we see cannot be fixed. We move with a flurry of desperation and very little faith.

We forget that He is not feeling urgent about it, neither is His composure disturbed, BUT AS WE ENCOUNTER HIM our urgency decreases, our agenda falls away, and we are caught up in heaven's atmosphere and the KNOWING that our God reigns, He is on His throne and very much in charge. We come into His presence and it changes us, then the things around us begin to change!

Can we learn to carry the thoughts of heaven in our hearts, so that when the urgent situation arises, we turn instantly to the source of our help, our hearts quiet with faith that He knows and He will do whatever is necessary in His great eternal plan. Our work is to continue to 'remain in Him, and He in us' in order that the cry of our heart will be heard and the answer will come.

What is the cry of our heart? YOU ARE GOD, You have said 'I AM' and right now I agree that you are indeed are who you say you are. I believe in You, and I have faith in your great power and ability, in the fact that YOU ARE ABLE TO DO MORE THAN I CAN ASK OR IMAGINE.

All creation groans waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Who might these sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God be? Maybe they are those who KNOW their Father and have great trust and faith in His goodness, His greatness, His power. Those who are able to remain in His presence and therefore reflect something of His life and light into a dark world.

I wonder if those He will send away from Him because He does not know them will be those who have never stopped moving in urgency and agenda, and have therefore missed the wonder of seeing who He truly is, AND what He can so wonderfully do?

These are the days when we will need to know our God in order to stand and survive in the face of great challenges. Lord we ask that You will reveal your trustworthiness to our hearts, and secure us in the knowledge and love of You; helping us to rest in You and let go of our urgent agendas. Thank you that YOU make all things beautiful in YOUR time, that nothing is hidden from your gaze as your eyes range to and fro over the earth looking to show yourself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are turned towards you. We are lovingly grateful.

Teach us Lord to be still and KNOW that You ARE God.

A Tribute

Many years ago I read some books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn that impacted me greatly.

This week the author died, leaving a legacy of having persevered under great difficulties, and holding firmly to what he believed regardless of all that was taking place around him.

I have kept a copy of the following in the back of my bible, and it seems a good time to share it now with any of you who wander through here! May it encourage and inspire us all.

I LOOK BACK IN WONDER (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

How easy for me to live with you, O Lord! How easy for me to believe in You!

When my mind parts in bewilderment or falters,

When the most intelligent people see no further than this day's end, and do not know what must be done tomorrow,

You grant me the serene certitude that You exist and that You will take care that not all the paths of good be closed.

Atop the ridge of earthly fame I look back in wonder at the path which I alone could never have found, a wondrous path through despair to this point from which I, too, could transmit to mankind a reflection of your rays.

And as much as I must still reflect You will give me, but as much as I cannot take up You will have already assigned to others.