Day: August 3, 2011

Love of God, it’s His Essence…

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The face of Africa

Just a short note and a testimony, well one of my short notes:- Note – I depart Thursday 4 August for Zimbabwe and Zambia, to kiss the soil of a wonderful Continent, it will be a busy schedule so please pray the love of God towards  us enabling us to minister to the people we meet in every way.     The 1st weekend will be at a  Family Conference with Cleopas Gwavava, followed by the next week a Leadership School in Gweru with Charles Kudzerema and Bernard with leaders from Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the 2nd weekend in Zimbabwe will conclude with a Celebration Conference for the Churches there about.   Will then travel up to Zambia for the Restorers Conference in Mwinilunga, Zambia with Roma, Catherine and our family there.

After being with Cleopas  7 of August will be privileged with the arrival of John Casey along with Peter Topliss for further time in Zimbabwe, they depart on the 15 August following the Leadership School and Conference, leaving me to travel into Zambia where I will be joined by Gary & Janet  Pleasant along with Pat Broom and one or two others from the USA.     A busy few weeks ahead, I will commence my return on the afternoon of the 24 August arriving home in London  at 7 Am on the 26th August.

Please pray for the mind and heart of God to be seen heard and touched as we minister there.     I thought I would also take this moment to tell you that  I will not have internet connection for quite some time, so my weekly attempt at  blogging will not come to pass, sorry to all readers, but I will be back-end of August or September.

Now for the story, where can I start, where better than to state, God is so gracious to us all!     I was involved in a conversation today, with a friend and ministry of Christ of mine, talking about the love of God,  and his whole aim to bathe the whole of creation-Cosmos in his love.   God is Love we say, its his essence, who he is, discovering the God of love is so important to each one of us.  The way in which we discover his love, whether it be through an action, a feeling, a concept, Fathers heart, mothers touch, his nurture, also tells us about ourselves.       The important matter is that  we are overwhelmed by the love of God.   The challenge is that the love of God,  his own essence is to be shown through us, we are to be an extension of his love in the world in which we live.    We are told that the world may know him, as we love one another, as they see his essence in and through our lives, in other words the essence of God captures, overwhelms us and we become the extension of him becoming that love, his essence to our world,  what ever world we work and live in.

Zambia & Zimbabwe

I believe that creation is really God bringing of himself, everything that was in him, making it seen,  the garden was in him, humanity being expelled from with in him, the cosmos was in him, we are returning back to him at the end of time, returning from where we where sent the mind and heart of God, and his ultimate purpose in the eternal Son will continue to be displayed.   We are thrilled to encounter his love in so many ways so that we might become one with his essence and be the continual flow of his essence to our time space world.

In Deuteronomy its says that “the love of God was made evident upon his children”, what does that look like?   The evidence of his love, so many ways, inner peace, a life filled with the realm of God breaking in on us, a continual consciousness of Christ in life, his supply as we have need.     Let us be the display of His love every day throughout our lives.

Back to last weekend, Sandra and I had the joy of being with Gods people in Exminster, not the usual Sunday meeting but truthfully a gathering of Gods people around food, brunch in the open air of Devon, we share food, life, Christ and the word together, it was great to touch life with the love of God.    Allow me a moment to paint a little background here for you , so that you will fully understand this testimony,  on leaving Africa in early May Sandra and I concluded that  we needed to get a 4 wheel drive vehicle to enable the ever-increasing influence in Southern Africa, acknowledging that some roads, towns and villages can only be negotiated by  4 wheel drive vehicles, both in SA and in neighbouring nations in which we work.    On leaving Africa we just said, some time, don’t know how or when but we need to seek God for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, we don’t have any money for it, but we will have to see when we are ready.

Anyway back to Devon after returning to Adam and Karrie’s home we had a visit from a couple called Paul & Sarah ???? who are part of the church there, they asked to speak privately with us.  They had heard us share during the morning and both agreed that they needed to do something, and that it was right.   God had spoken to them, to pass on a Land Rover Defender to us for the work in Africa, WOW how amazing, and moving for us, God heard our thoughts not even prayers but our conversation back in May.   God, His love made manifest in Paul and Sarah’s heart and made manifest to Sandra and I, to receive the  fulfilment of a need for Africa HIS LOVE IS SEEN in this matter.   We never cease to be Amazed with Gods’ miracles, his protection, cover, healing and provision he is a miracle God and a God that supplies through His people “as every joint supplies”.   I know that Paul and Sarah will find God, sowing in the way they did,  will bring a return from a loving generous God, a God who wants us to sow ourselves, displaying his essence, and becoming the supply of God.   Now all I have to do is get the sign of his love to Africa, donating it to a charity for us to extend the gospel.

 Be his essence in your home, work place, street where ever, that his love, who he is might fill all, that Christ might fill all in all, as Paul put wrote it

Mission – Missional – Missionary

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Face our Mission

Mission? What’s it got to do with me?

How, and where do you start when you are asked to write something on mission,  my thoughts go to the challenges of a coming Kingdom and the changing of the  world around us, causing me to conclude  that mission has to have a focus towards  the Ultimate Goal of God,  i.e. “all things summed up in Christ”, “Christ filling all things”.

I was once asked by a well know teacher  “are you doing anything today that will continue when time is finished and Jesus returns?”,  “yes” I replied, he continued with a further question, “are you doing anything that you will not be doing after his return?”  My answer was “yes” his reply  “why?”   In others words keep your eye on the ultimate, in all you put our hand to.

I cannot read any scripture without realising that the Father and the  Holy Spirit have a preoccupation with the Christ.    Our work and involvement must therefore, have this same preoccupation, we must be fully occupied with Christ, other wise the task ahead will overwhelm us and we will lose our way.   As a matter of fact the entire occupation of the heavens is Christ.    It is so easy for us to focus and emphasise one particular spiritual truth, value, virtue, gift, or good work and yet miss Christ, Christ who is the embodiment and incarnation of all these things.

All mission and commission looses its way and purpose without holding on to the ultimate of goal of God.

I was recently provoked by the following question “why was I born in the West, with all  the privileges of the culture  I find myself in?”   As I pondered on this question my first thoughts were ones of a great gratitude for all I have been given and entrusted with.  Then, I compared my lot with the 2/3rd of the world around me and began to ask why, why God was I born here?   As I considered the privileges we are surrounded by I was amazed at what God has made available to us.  The privilege of freedom, the privilege of finance, even in a world that is in the middle of recession we have so much compared to those that live on less than a $1 a day.

I cannot depart far from the scripture story that started with the debate for position amongst the young men and women that followed the Christ,  debating who would get the best seat in the house.     While this debate went on Jesus told them of a landowner who distributed money to each of his servants, for them  to invest /steward the entrustment in-order that on his return a profit would be seen.   This profit in turn would open up  further entrustment opportunities, not of finance but of city rulership – those who are faithful with little becoming  rulers of much.

This narrative deals with a number of thought patterns, for example the disciples idea of Kingdom coming NOW.  The immediate and sudden NOW, putting Jesus on the throne NOW.  The story is however a story of PROCESS, this being working with and stewarding our entrustment to bring about Gods’ full intent.   We are living in days when regardless how much or how little we have been given, we have to see this PROCESS OF STEWARDSHIP.  We must deal correctly with what we have been given in order to see the influence of God, and Christ filling all in all taking place, as we do, so we will be entrusted further.

So why were you and I born in the nation you were?  which ever nation that may be ,  we must  steward correctly that with which we have been entrusted, so that we might bring an end to poverty,  never mind how tight things are in the midst of recession, we still have a charge to steward the little and the much.

We have been positioned and entrusted with ability to

1          Redistribute – wealth, justice, liberty

2          To bring Christ into every sphere of life and society

3          To break poverty – and dependence for all

Poverty is not fundamentally the  lack of money, but it is the imprisonment into a dependence on others for liberty, finance and personal freedom.   I would like to eradicate ‘dead aid’, where money has simple been poured in time and time again with no sense of building creating only  future dependence.   I would like to  invest in people, and take away the cause of  dependency on some one else for resources. Through our kindness and giving of money  in some cases, often unknowingly, we have added to the poverty mindset and sustained  imprisonment.    We have given much, equipment, tractors, seeds, houses, computers, etc., when our hearts and emotions moved us.  What we failed to realise was that  when what ever we gave  broke down, needed  new tyres, parts or repairs the people once again became dependant on  another hand out – lets break poverty and take away dependency.   It is  not about ceasing giving, far from it, but it is about wisely entrusting to men and women, training in self sustainability and providing them with the mind-set of continuing long after the initial help.  This is long-term empowerment, this is our mission.   Giving people the ability to advance handing them the stewardship of their own advancement.

 After all the advancement of each person in a way that is Kingdom of God thinking will bring about heavens occupation “Christ filling all in all”