Take a pier walk

I went on a retreat (advance?) recently to Southport.

I was walking along the shore line at 9 a.m. and the sea seemed miles away. Just a line along the horizon. On the beach there was evidence that the tide had once been there with pools and channels and small streams. Things had been left behind by the sea.

Some people can look at the 'tide' of God and live as though He's never returning, like He's a distant line on the horizon. They satisfy themselves with the pools that were left behind by the last outpouring but don't expect more than that.

Others think He will come in and flood us again but not in our life-time. It's so far out and so far away that we don't live as though it's ever going to affect us. And so they build castles on the sand thinking they are safe and their 'buildings' will last forever.

Some however take a walk along the pier.

In this year of seeking God and praying to see Him I want us to take a walk along the pier.
At the end of the pier you can see the sea. You can see what it's doing. You realise that things are moving, that the sea that seemed so far away is actually coming in faster than you first thought. You can see the movement and the direction and the force and the awesomeness of what the sea is doing and about to do.

As we walk along the pier this year and reach out for revelation and a vision of what God is doing then we can return with a better understanding of the urgency of our ministry.

The tide is coming in and the direction it's taking is towards us and those we love.

We have a choice to stay at the end of the pier and just watch, or wait on the shore where the rest of the church is waiting and preparing itself for Jesus, or we can turn towards those who don't yet even know there is a sea or a tide or a return.

When the tide comes in it won't stop at the shore-line or be hindered by the barriers or walls or buildings. The Lancashire flood plain will be exactly that and those who thought there was no sea will be drowned by it unless we prepare them.

It tells us in Matthew 9 v36 that Jesus 'saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harrassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.'

Are we ready for the flood? Are those we love and live near ready? Are we on the shore waiting for our redemption or are we spending our time drawing others to the tide of love that God wants many more to experience?

In Organic Church by Neil Coles he says:-
'It is when we are in deep intercession for freedom of souls that we are closest to the heart of God ... Pray first, pray last, and in between pray hard.'

I don't believe we are anywhere near the level of prayer that God is calling us to as a church but I do see hope rising and a stirring of the Spirit in people that creates faith in me.

Lord we 'beseech' (Luke 10 v2) you to raise up and send out the workers, that You may anoint us again to witness to Your name and Your return.

stop the bus

I was travelling in to Ormskirk by bus this morning. There was a thick mist on either side of the road.
Now and again I caught glimpses of trees and farm machinery but they soon disappeared again behind the mist.

Many say they don't believe in God because they can't see Him.
Some say they can't see God from where they are and so don't believe in Him.

Did the trees not exist because I couldn't see them? Had the fields and landscape left me becuase my vision of them was hidden by the fog I was travelling through?

I could have walked through the mist and eventually seen what was there but I was on a bus heading in a direction I had paid for along a road where there were no stops.

The truth is that God is with us. We may be travelling through a mist at times and yet God is with us. The bus we are on may be travelling in a direction we've paid for but God is there and it's time to press the bell, shout at the driver 'stop!' , and jump off - to get to God.

Why do we worship? Why do we pray together? Why do we bother meeting? Because we are all travelling together and from time to time someone shows us the way that lifts us again.

We need each other's wisdom and encouragement because these are gifts from God that He has invested in others for the sake of us all.

Thank you to the people of OCF who move in those gifts and who care enough to be there and who are brave enough to ring the bell, shout 'stop' and lead the way back, sometimes through the mist, to see God.

You shall be rebuilt

Have you read Word for Today today (Thursday 14th Jan)?!
' I have loved you with an everlasting love.. I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt..' Jeremiah 31 v4
'What life has torn down, God can rebuild.'

As I watched the news yesterday morning of the earthquake in Haiti it caused my heart to go out to those people who have lost everything. Here I am bemoaning my fate because it's cold outside and there's snow on the road, whilst people's lives and homes have been destroyed!

Suffering is always comparative yet Jesus said 'Fear not, I have overcome the world.'
Sometimes we look around and we wonder what is happening. Why it is happening. And a frustration grows within us for things to be different - good.

Out of frustration and out of yearning and out of hopelessness God will plant and rebuild.

It was so exciting to hear of baby Daniel Burgess being born yesterday. A new life in the middle of now, a new person here, someone who is unique - in all this there is hope because each of us is called to be rebuilt, to be reborn and though we may be in a time of frustration it is just the birth pangs of new life.

As we continue to pray and seek Father He will, at the right time, respond to our desire and our yearning (get your big boots on and start standing and stomping - the enemy will NOT have his way much longer!)

We have started a new series on the prayers of Jesus and Russell spoke of a God who is accessible, available and loving. Steve Hepden on Wednesday night spoke of the divine favour of God as we speak to the rock (Jesus).

Next month we are calling the church to a night of piercing the darkness when we will intercede throughout the night for God to break in with His light to situations we are yearning to see God move in and seeking God for the things He wants us to move in!

We shall move into a year of healing as we persevere in prayer. God will build us and rebuild us because He loves and He calls us to love Him and share this 'everlasting love' from the overflow.

For

Sue Latham came to speak to us on Sunday:-
We are called to walk in the newness of life; forget the former things (Isaiah 43v18)
Out-work the old and work out the new - but do we like the old better? Are we hanging on to the past.

Take everything to the cross - not just the bits that WE think we need redeeming but everything - even the bits we think are OK, that we judge to be acceptable - bring it all to the cross and let God be the judge - for fruitfulness.

Why does God want to do this in us? Because we are priceless in His sight and He loves us.

knock and stay!

When we lived in Birch Green near one of the many subways we would often be sitting in our living room when there would be a knock at the door.
We would leap up to answer it only to hear the feet of children running off into the distance or under the subway.
We'd settle down again and then another knock and as we got up to answer it once again the feet could be heard dashing off to safety.

D.L.Moody said "Thus is it often with us. We ask for blessings, but do not really expect them; we knock but do not mean to enter; we fear that Jesus will not hear us, will not fulfil His promises, will not admit us; and so we go away........ A great many people pray in that way; they do not wait for the answer."

Yes I believe that we are in a season of openess to God and a time when God is responding to the prayers of His people, yet that does not mean it is always in the manner that we expect or desire.

God is sovereign and in faith we must come to seek His living, rhema word knowing that He is speaking and acting continuously for us. Knock and then wait for the answer - enter in and see what God wants to say and do.

Ask, seek, knock.

Increasing

'It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence.' - A.W.Tozer (The Pursuit of God)

'Where is our sustenance coming from?' - the sluggishness and emptiness that besets us all from time to time cannot be overcome by anything other than feeding ourselves on God's word and prayer.
An army marches on its stomach and we need solid food - let's soak in His true love.

Philippians 3 v12 - we press on because our citizenship is in heaven and so let's make our life here on earth count. May we be small men and women who are full of a big God.

Death and suffering and doubt and misery and discouragement and pain are intruders. The tomb is empty and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is in us too. So we too will be and can be raised.

These are some of the things that were shared this last Sunday in church.

Let's get encouraged by what God is saying and this Christmas see that He can make a way where we thought there was none, as we also prepare a way in our own hearts and have the privilege of being used to prepare a way in others.

imagine

At Christmas we are reminded that Jesus, who once had been the unimaginable, who once had dwelt in majesty and glory in a dimension beyond our understanding, became imaginable to us in His incarnation.

He took on flesh so we could see Him and so He could be with us and for us.

Imagine:-
His IMAGE IN Earth
His IMAGE IN Eternity
His IMAGE IN Everyone

What a wonderful message. Jesus, born in Bethlehem in the image of man who had been formed in the image of God.

We too must carry the image on. Be image-bearers of the once unimaginable.

To enable others to imagine the glory of a God who was and is and is to come.

The God who came so that we could behold Him, behold His image, imagine the truth of who He is for us now and for who He has always been for us at every twist and turn of every breath of our past and will forever be there for us now and always.

Christmas is the unimaginable at last imagined, revealed and experienced. For us to know and see and share.