Musings

A Necessary Focus

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Focus

In all our travels I have gained a sense of what the Holy Spirit is highlighting in various places, in saying this, I am fully aware that it is impossible to say ‘the thing’ ‘the one thing’ that people often want to hear of what God is saying, as I believe just as we are introduced to God speaking in the book of Revelation he is shown to be speaking seven different things to seven different churches in one region, therefore it is impossible to say the one thing he is saying,  but we can have some grasp of the constants, truth or focus that is being spoken or seen in many places across our globe. Seeing what is presented in many places, I think we should pay attention to this as “things are confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses”.

Sandra and I travel to the USA, Africa, India, Sri Lanka as well as in the UK and I would have to say that in all the noise of debate regarding the various aspects of truth that come and go, alongside the things we make the ‘fashionable sayings of Jesus’ as I call them, if there are such things, yet the church does appear to have its fashions, also the cyclic experiences and insights that come around every decade or so, there is, I believe, in our small world a sense of God’s focus on the one message that Christ carried and proclaimed.

I believe that until we grasp hold of this central message of Christ we will be confronted constantly by the Holy Spirit, until we embrace it in every possible way, through confession, teaching, and practice the central message of the kingdom of God will be spoken out constantly in the heavens.

In the opening chapters of the book of Hebrews we are told that God has spoken in these last days, making these words important for the last days, our days, and he has “spoken in his Son”, his Son, the Christ of God being the King that brings his kingship which means the Kingdom of God is on the front burner in the last days along with all the related details and implications.

Therefore it is imperative that we teach, preach, and practice everything possible to bring about the domain of God, “Heaven coming to Earth”.   We are encouraged to pray “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” but it is not enough to pray, we must pray and work until our world is one with Christ, which is kingship and rule. To some degree the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the same thing, is still to come to Earth, but on the other hand, heaven has already come in those who have welcomed Christ into their lives and they have to extend the kingdom rule of God. It’s about bring the implications of the Kingdom to bear in the cosmos first in our lives.

My aim in writing is to lay out the reasons why I proclaim the Kingdom of God, I trust this will have two implications, firstly it would clarify my mind and secondly I trust it will be of benefit for those who read.    My appeal is that we once again strongly announce, herald and preach the Kingdom of God with open hearts, not as those who have heard it before,or done it in the past. Got the tee-shirt, rode the ride, but with new eyes looking and listening again, before we all get lost in a sea of a ‘church only message’ or ‘church gospel’ which is around us all, but step up to re state the ONLY message of our Christ, the Kingdom of God.  Once again the message is required to be announced to empower, advance and deliver the people of God and our world.  Here are my reasons I trust that you will join and agree with me:

-The Kingdom of God reconnects us to the purpose, the why of all creation and the activity of God our Father. It confronts  us with a narrative of Scripture rather than getting lost in our fashions, fads, “now words”  but keeps is rooted in the ultimate purpose of God giving the reasons the cross, the ecclesia, the call of God in bringing everything under the rulership of Christ (Ephesians 1)

-The only message of Christ – the Kingdom of God gives Christ his proper place as King of Kings, the proclaim of the Kingdom and the rulership of God. To separate the gospel from the Kingdom is to take the Christ out of our message. ( BOY DO I WANT TO SHOUT THIS FORM THE ROOF TOPS)  In separating the Gospel from the king to only introduce people to a gospel that deals with an escape into the next life. To have a message without the kingdom is to deny the prophecies that speak of Jesus as the ruler of nations (Genesis 49:10, Psalm 2:9-11, 110:1-3, Isaiah 9:6, 7 Daniel 2, 4, 7). It is to bring a covenant with the father made with creation into practice.

-This sole message is the connection to the original mandate spoken to all humanity through Adam in Genesis 1:28, this passage must be seen as the starting point of the kingdom mandate, that of Christ proclaimed with the church continuing its proclamation.

NOW THAT IS JUST THREE REASON FOR YOU TO FIRST THINK THROUGH MORE TO FOLLOW I HAVE A GOOD LIST FOR YOU TO CONSIDER!    
WATCH THIS SPACE!

Let GO – part 2

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We began in PART 1 by looking at the art of Letting Go and considering the challenge us all but actually realising that it is a skill we need to learn “Letting Go”, some statements I made where:

“Letting Go helps me to make the most of now and enables me to move on with people, it is not about what I have to get right,  but more about can I let go to move upward”.

“The way we let go of the now determines our ability to take hold of what is coming around the corner.        There are questions that would help us learn and let go, I would like to  share a few thoughts that are produced by each.  The questions that would serve us all well to ask each other and more than that ask ourselves.
  • “Is there a fine line between control and influence?   And how do you know the difference”

One of the challenges of Letting Go is the issues of “control” we focused on and which we will continue with to conclude the though

Becoming an influence

Now that we have established that control is in actuality a personal agenda or a set of expectations packaged at the expense of others, what then is influence?        It is certainly not asking or seeing people taking on situations via delegation, but when they are not getting it  or not doing things your way,  interrupting them  by taking the reigns away from them.        This Is the behaviour of a control freak rather than that of an influence.

Influencers understand the importance of not robbing others of their experience which in turn allows them to grow.  Trying to control every little aspect of life and the life of others does not work for any one.

Control robs you of the chance to truly live, to be truly alive, to be truly passionate, have you ever felt I wish I could be as passionate as others with God?  Do you find you excuse yourself from apathy or lack of lustre due to time, our environment and situation keeping you so busy, keeping a handle on your selves that you convince yourself that you are not  like that, but in truth it is control that has robbed you the freedom to be fully passionate in who you are..

We are not designers we are not to be Chief Executives or CEO’s of the universe overextending ourselves with the minute details of others lives this was not in the original plan.

Becoming an influence requires a commitment to maintain healthy boundaries with ourselves and with those we love

Try this, be honest with your self

•                Identify key responses and behaviours within your day life that stem from control rather than influence

•                Each time you are tempted to ‘control’, ask yourself ‘What am I afraid of loosing?

•                What personal agenda am I trying so desperately to preserve?

•                Actively manage what your life could be like if you would allow others the opportunity to own truly their own growth process and master their personal learning curves

•                Commit to becoming an influence and exchange your stress, needless worry and fear with peace and joy

Let Go life will flow better!

Let GO! – part 1

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Letting God

I have watched in the coming and going of life with all its unpredictable circumstances and surprises that pop up seemingly daily without warning and relentlessly appearing.      In all the challenges and joys that life swings into motion I have learned or probably am still learning would be a better way of saying it, that each one of us has to deal with the ability of “Letting Go”.

We are challenged to let go at different stages of life,  as we mature and change we have to let go of one stage to move into the next, trusting so much to get from this place to the next place I have to let go – life has taught me  that  I need to let Go or die, or fossilize.
Learning to let go becomes an art – my emotion, my mind,  my inner space, my whole person is engaged in Letting Go.
I have even realised that letting go is so important in my walk with God, can I let go and  forgive that lie, the wrong, the pointing finger, the accusation that is unfounded?
Letting Go helps me to make the most of now and enables me to move on with people, it is not about what I have to get right,  but more about can I let go to move upward.     Letting God is not about bearing the issue or circumstance, it is really letting it God to gain a condition as if it never happened, deciding not to have the ability to even recall it any longer.      Letting go to gain the new ground, letting go to move away from a painful event, letting go to get certain people loosed from the entanglement of my mind these are all letting go issues.
So what lessons have I learned?
What will we all have to learn?
The way we let go of the now determines our ability to take hold of what is coming around the corner.        There are questions that would help us learn and let go, I would like to  share a few thoughts that are produced by each.  The questions that would serve us all well to ask each other and more than that ask ourselves.
  • “Is there a fine line between control and influence?   And how do you know the difference”
You see letting go is also to do with empowering and influence,  and the issue of control.     We are not to Lord it over people or control people but rather empower people to reach their fullness.     Are we free to empower others or do we discover the  need of control within ourselves?   Control has such a subtle manifestation in our lives?   Do we find the need to have people listen to us, expecting people to do what we say, that it becomes my way or the highway as it were.
When I discover the need to control, no matter how small it seems, do I have the capacity to give up my control and allow myself to become an influence instead?  Can I let go and allow things to be done differently?
Let’s consider some questions
  • Can you identify the evidence of control within your life?       What does it look like on a day-to-day basis?     Do I get upset when things are not checked or sounded out though me, when I do not know what is going on?
  • What kind of things do I mistake for control?        Some times it my own rightness, my personal ideas and thoughts  that I think need to be implemented, I think  this is ok, but r it reality it can simply be a form of control.
  • What kind of experiences make you feel out of control?        What do you find fearful or threatening?        How do you find you respond when people say ‘God said’, or when some one else determines the  scope, agenda and running of meetings, the when, where and what is talked through?
Knowledge is power, applied Knowledge is much more powerful because it gives birth to wisdom       The wisdom to know when to apply and when to wait, the wisdom to understand that no circumstance or person, including myself, fits perfectly the whole picture.
The mystery of it all throughout our lives is learning to be patient, forgiving, merciful and flexible.
You cannot control any relationship, it is a trap an illusion to think that we can.   Attempting to do so is just and exercise in futility.    I can not prevent disagreements, arguments or mishaps.   Should we really have the power to control  all of those things within our relationships it  would mean that we would miss out on the advance and the bond in relationships that  follows.
  • What illusions do you have?
Control can stem from un-addressed pain – our efforts to avoid pain (sadness, let down, hurt etc)  we may appear to be successful in our control,  in that we are no longer  vulnerable and exposed and therefore  have reduced our chances of being hurt.   But the avoidance of pain causes us to ‘step back from life’ and causes  us to have a less passionate life.
Letting go is a key to your future in life, every work and relationship as well as in leadership situation.
  • Let go, I have, without strings attached as I continue to do this I have found that it  brings liberty for my daily life and for the future.

Selah: Before we conclude this article

Promising Sounds

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What? Can't hear?

Having recently returned from Africa we are greeted with many things, meeting family, reconnecting with friends and colleagues or better co-workers in the work of restoring and redeeming this world so that it will display the Christ.    How good it is to see familiar things around, things that we have grown up with, things that bring back memories of good times.   What would life be like with out these?

Being away for 8 weeks brings its challenges,  things that were so part of life when we left, we had forgotten,  but the minute we return they rush back in on us.   One of the biggest things that greets us as we arrive is a world full of sounds, some sounds bring a smile and some sounds are simply just noise.   Certainly we left a world  in Africa where the silence is deafening, the kind of silence that invades you and makes itself known inside, bringing tranquil times.

A world with full on noise, this is our island.   We live close to the M6 by the constant drone of tires turning on tarmac highways, all the shops have their music, the bustle of people with their own internal chatter and noise, a world where you find difficulty some times to find silence.   We are never that far away  however from finding that silence that is stilling and ministering.   I wonder what sounds are near to you as you read this, what sounds fill your world and endorse or disturb the inner Sabbath?

What is your ear tuned to now as you read, your own inner thoughts, music in the background or just the noise of your house creaking and making sure you know it’s there?       What comes your way through this one channel of hearing, this gateway into your inner life?

The Psalmist presents to us a sound in his ear Psalm 92:11, he tells of what has invaded his still life, his inner listening.   He tells us to open up, that a certain sound will break through  a sound I would suggest that would transform many worlds.

He says “…My ears are filled with the sounds of promise: “Good people will prosper like palm trees, Grow tall like Lebanon cedars; transplanted to God’s courtyard, They’ll grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green, virile still in old age. 

Sounds of promise, our world so often volunteers to people sounds of let down, disappointment and criticism and this world is hearing a different sound a sound that our world too could embrace.   A sound filled with sounds of promise, a sound that will groom and direct, that would live and empower that would change your view of God and your self, if only the promises are kept living.     Sounds of promise!

Promises, be bold and recall, bring back to memory a promise, promises that have been spoken.   But you don’t understand you might say they disappointed me, my challenge to believe then that creates a sound that governs once again.   Let them arise promise of old that were yours once and should be again.   We are to be people of promise and promise – blessing.

You see we say “faith is the hope of things” so hope is necessary to come to faith let me put into you that memory is the seed or foundation of hope.   The world around knows if I can fill your memory with negative, if I can rob your memory no hope will come so faith cannot be born.   The fight is not with your faith it’s often in the realm of memory.   Sounds of promise let memory bring them back and let them live again.   Let your era be filled with sounds of promise again.   We become a promised  filled people.

The psalmist in this passage outlines three things I notice here as a character of those who have turned to you in and the experience of life they are involved with.

1      What a beautiful thing – thankfulness, presence, continuously, adding to beauty by my voice and motion

2      You made me so happy – joy, magnificent work, thoughts made known.

3      Ears filled with sounds of promise – Gods people impartation to

So this person, you are to be filled with beauty, joy, promises.    For they live in such a way that they look for beauty, joy and promises a trinity of life.

Looking for beauty, adding to beauty, being part of beauty that brings forth beauty and changes the environment around you.    That joy then flows first by being happy in recognising Gods beautiful works towards each other.   Rather than looking for more like a consumer,  there is a contentment in what God has given us that keeps us pressing for more of him.

Listening for sounds – sounds of promises that they are kept in your ear in your consciousness it seems not far from your audible senses.

Living in beautiful things, happiness and joy from your realisation while keeping the ear filled with Gods word to you.

How to cultivate this life?   What a contribution we would make living this way to life’s onward and upward goal.

Beauty

Joy

Promises

Attitude/disposition – Inner person – and gave thanks as a way of life.

Saw – and was happy.

Listened – held promises in my ear, keep before my mind, eye, heart.

Three lines to change your life:

1      What a beautiful thing, God

2      You made me so happy, God, I saw your

3      My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:

Beauty is when I see and God fills me with ability of seeing him everywhere, happiness/joy comes when you see him in what he has done, the sounds of promise is Him so my hearing is Him – its all God my Father!

“How should we respond?”

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“…Osama Dead – Censored Video Leakedon.fb.me   Osama is dead, watch this exclusive

CNN video which was censored by Obama Administration due to level of violence, a must watch. Leaked by Wikileaks…”

I had this sent to me on Facebook and refused to watch it, I am some times amazed at us, we who should “explain the Father” as Jesus did so John 1:18 (NASB) tells us, we humanity being the reflectors of the image of God, it begs the question does the world know more about the Father, creator God through my words actions and love?

Our news channels were filled with surprising news, is this the beginning of a confrontation or an end to a long-standing confrontation, giving us news of things that we were previously unaware of. I have a challenge for us today having watched the worldwide announcement on the death of a man, a man who many have longed to see the end of or the conclusion of a struggle.    Without doubt Osama Bin Laden has caused much fear and caused much damage during his lifetime. My writing is not however about this man, to elevate or put down I’m not here to pass judgment on him at this time, but more about the state of affairs in our world and the people we find around us.

It challenges us, especially those of us with faith, we are especially challenged in how should we respond?    Our screens have been filled with attacks in Libya in the name of liberation, the fight for liberty within Syria, African nations battle within its boundaries, with all we know that is going on in our world, how do we, with the faith respond to the problem of evil in our world. It seems as though we so easily join those who ignore evil until it hits us right between our eyes, but the question remains, how do we respond?

We have seen Celebrations surrounding the death of this man flooding in to the streets, the concerned conversations of retaliation in political corridors, the soul-searching comments and questions on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs like mine let alone the news.   The spiritual representatives uttering different view whether by the Archbishop of Canterbury or by the Dalai Lama, comments that conflict some times.   We see one nation flooding in celebration to the streets and another nation struggling and condemning the celebration of this death.

I note the number of Facebook and Twitter comments re-stating Martin Luther King Jr’s powerful quotation ‎“I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.      Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.   Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.    Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

We can be fully aware of evil in its actions and movements and do nothing about it, governments can be fully aware of the axis of evil, Al-Qaeda, the forces that seem to undermine our world, terrorism and its operation and nobody moved to do anything, or wanted to know about it until the twin towers fell, or more lately our banking world collapsed.    Until it hit us face on.     We are certain that the factors and forces involved were moving and breathing before the disaster, and were even under surveillance but no-one wanted to take it too seriously until it was too late.

The challenges of this evil goes on and we are all fully aware of the problem that faces the developing world with chronic national debt and HIV threats to whole populations but nobody in the West wants to take it too seriously.  In the poorer countries of our world the challenge is in the conscious of all the poor who are being de-sensitized by being offered Pepsi and sweetness from the developed world who in turn are tapping into a huge market  for themselves, but adding  health problems due to excess sugar to the already chronic problems  of our world.   The banking challenge that we are still facing was there for everyone to see but nobody wanted to take it seriously until it was too late.   Today the changes, the implications it has brought about are still to be handled with the rise of the ‘BRICS’ nations and their perhaps rightful demand for change in the IMF, United Nations, it’s far from over, it was plain to see but it was just too late.

Let us not ignore changes and evil except when it hits us between the eyes; let us know how to respond.

How should we respond?

Today I have to admit I’m challenged, disappointed and stand emotionally wondering how should I react?     Do I, do we reacting in immature and dangerous ways, we Know that we can no longer be isolated and removed in our actions as our media immediately delivers the emotional explosions right in our living rooms, whether it’s a Libyan politician protesting after very so-called attempted on taking the life of his Presidents or whether it’s people flooding out onto the street celebrating the death of one man.

Our world that celebrates the killing, with joy the TV screens report in my living room, of a killer who celebrates killing I am not sure what to make of the life we live and times we breath in?  Is our world just out of control in our immaturity?

How should I respond?

Surely not by lashing out at something you simply know by media.  Is it a sign of strength to just tolerate human atrocities?  Surely neither of these is the way to build a stable model society. The appalling acts of his unprovoked horror and anger but we must avoid knee jerking reaction, unthinkingly, immature lashing out will get us nowhere and will get misunderstood otherwise we will divide people into acceptable and unacceptable people groups which again is immature.     Lashing out as those you perceive as being evil in the hope that we deal with the problem will certainly not solve anything for anyone

‘Evil’ is a four letter word that surely can only be dealt with by another four letter word ‘love’, but how do we love?     I don’t hold any particular answers at this time, I am sure that this will frustrate some, but I would say that we should find within ourselves a means for the love of God to be shared abroad for us not to ignore evil, not to lash out and react, but to be wise.      How can I display a better way of living with difference?      Rather than joining those we see as evil.

I hope you will consider how you and I can counter the quick spiral into evil and prevent the downward spiral of evil and violence from being ours too.      Remember the four letter word of God that the ‘love’ of God to be shed abroad and bring healing to the world in a small way, if we all play our part, it would be a big thing.    So what do you or who do you see as evil that the LOVE of God can be shown?

How should I/we respond?