Nelson Mandela - A true giant has passed.

I haven't blogged for a good while but feel prompted to after hearing the news about the death of Nelson Mandela. I went to South Africa to live for nine months back in 1990. I arrived in March, just a short while after the great man was released. The only time I had heard about him was when Elvis Costello and the Specials AKA released the song "Free Nelson Mandela" back in the early 80's. Little did I know of the huge impact this man would make on his nation and worldwide. The longer I spent in this amazing nation the more I realised how complex and diverse the place was with all the different tribes, nations and cultures that existed in one place. I was intoxicated by the vast array of colours, smells, idiosyncrasies of each people group and the beauty of the land. I also saw the huge amount of friction that existed not just between the blacks and whites, but between the Afikaans and English, the Xhosas and the Zulus and other groups that were dotted around the country. I saw the evil effect that Apartheid had on all non-whites and the anger that simmered below the surface of so many. I felt sick at the sound of many older Africans addressing me as 'boss' due to years and years of engrained subservience that just caused a default response to any white man. It was an incredible time and an incredible privilege to live in such a wonderfully colourful nation that was richer than any place I had ever been to. After being back in the UK for a couple of years I heard that elections would be held and Nelson Mandela would be standing for presidency. I like many others all over the world knew that it would be a foregone conclusion that he would win, but also feared that there would be one huge bloodbath. How could it be avoided? What was to become of this amazing nation? And yet one nation rose to its feet to embrace the man who had every right to bring judgment upon those that took away his freedom for so many years and who was so quick to forgive and be reconciled to them. Here is true greatness. Here is real humility. Here lies true power. Nelson Mandela was a man who was truly a great leader. He didn't do it through violence, wealth or backstabbing politics, but with grace, mercy and humility. Yes nations were praying for him and God raised him up for such a time in history, but we need to honour the man for all he was and for all he did. My prayer is - God please raise up more great leaders to take his place. Men and women who aren't in it for personal gain but for the good and freedom of others. God bless you and God bless South Africa at this time of mourning.

Following in Joshua's footsteps.

We are entering a new season called Autumn. Personally, I don't like this season as it is basically saying that the cold weather is just round the corner. It also tells me that we will soon have dark mornings and dark evenings and very little sunshine. Yeah, I get the beautiful colours of the leaves and the crisp Autumnal air, but it isn't the Summer! I am a sun lover and it makes it even more disappointing that we had a pretty rubbish summer with regards to sunshine and now I have to wait about seven months for any possibility of that. Sorry to be so negative at the start of this blog that I haven't actually written in x months! However, for me a new season is fast approaching that I am very excited about. As a church we are about to embark on a move to a new venue. God told us to move a while ago and in two weeks we are about to see this move become a reality. The cloud of God is moving and we are following Him to go to a more spacious place. God recently spoke to me about Joshua and the move into the Promised Land. Out of this I felt that we need to draw some important lessons. Crossing the Jordan 3 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits[a] between you and the ark; do not go near it.” 5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” 6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them. 7 And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’” Firstly, we are to follow the presence of God before we go anywhere. The Ark of the Covenant represented His presence and His people were only to move when they saw the Ark move. Someone wrote recently that the church has often camped itself around the sermon or the worship session at church, whereas the Israelites camped around the presence of God. Our first calling is to worship or to just spend time in God's presence. Moses said unless your presence goes with us we aren't going anywhere! First and foremost we need to be following His presence. Secondly, when you spend time in His presence you will then know which way to go. So many people say to me that they don't know where they are going in life. My answer is: "Have you spent time in His presence, by just being?" I imagine the Father saying "I haven't spoken to my child for years...I can't get a word in edgeways!" We often come to God and talk and talk and talk and talk on at Him and then leave that place and wonder why we haven't heard Him speak to us. Give Him a chance! Wait in His presence and listen. Thirdly, consecrate yourself for tomorrow I will do amazing things amongst you. Wow! What a great promise. Why did Jesus see so many amazing things? Because he set himself aside for his Father's purposes alone. He gave himself fully to fulfilling His Dad's will. He only did what he saw his Father do. How did he know what his Dad was doing? He set time aside to watch Him in his devotional time. Do you want to see amazing things happen tomorrow? Set yourself aside purely for His purposes. Lastly, start living by your faith eyes and not your natural eyesight. The leaders of Israel had to step into the mighty River Jordan and expect God to make a way through for all of God's people. There's one thing getting excited in God's presence and believing Him for anything, but it is another thing to leave that place and attempt to do things that are naturally impossible. It is a new and exciting season. Are you ready for some amazing things to happen in you and through you?

It's been a long time...

"Time flies when your having fun!" so the phrase goes. But I have realised that I haven't blogged since 7th December, which is very poor. So Happy New Year to you all...a little belatedly though. The great thing about this time of year for me is that the winter is pretty much over and now I can look forward to the joys of Spring and hopefully a decent Summer. The bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick! Well for the last three or four years I have hoped for a great sunny summer and for three or four years my heart has been sick! So this year I am not getting my hopes up even though I am an eternal optimist. I read this recently that while the optimist and the pessimist were arguing about the whether the glass was half empty or half full, the opportunist came along and drank it! We can waste so much time looking to the future and wondering what will happen next, that we lose sight of today. There are so many great things happening in our time now that we need to just stop and take it all in. That is what rest is all about. God took six days to make everything. However at the end of each day He stopped and admired what He had done and took pleasure in it. And then at the end of the week He took a whole day out to look at everything and enjoy His handiwork! We are busy, busy, busy. There is a culture of busyness that pervades society. I hear people boasting about how busy they are. They list all the things that they do in a day that seems to go on and on. And then their friend, not wanting to be out-busied, lists their very busy items that they have accomplished that day. I think that a lot of the time God is sitting on the edge of His throne shouting: "STOP!!! Take a chill pill." God commands us to rest. He tells us to take time out and review all that has been accomplished and actually enjoy what we have done. To enjoy our amazing family. To enjoy our amazing handiwork and to enjoy His even more amazing handiwork. Martha was a classic example of busyness. Flap, flappity flap, goes Martha. "I'm serving the Lord! I'm busy doing things for Him so that He will be pleased with me!" "Jesus, look at me. I'm flat out on my feet, whereas my lazy lump of a sister is just sitting at your feet doing nothing!" Martha is expecting a - Well done Martha from Jesus. But what she gets is -

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10)

There you go. Did you get that? Only one thing is needed. One thing! And that is - Stop, sit down at Jesus' feet and listen to him.

Now of course we need to work. We need to do the daily stuff at home. All of that is important. But the main thing we need to do is hang out with Jesus. He sustains all things by his powerful word. His word is our sustenance. Therefore, we need to stop what we are doing and munch on some of his words by sitting at his feet and listening. This is rest! Today I hold my hands up and confess that I am too busy and that is not a noble thing. Chitty, stop for a bit and take a deep breath, look at the view and see how awesome it is and how great out heavenly Dad is.

The right response

I love Christmas! I love all the tacky decorations, the cheesy songs on the radio and in the shops and the various degrees of bad to good adverts on the tv. I love the Christmassy food that gets put out on the shelves just once a year, such as brussel sprouts and Christmas pudding. I also love the corny Christmas films that come out every year without fail. Christmas is that occasion you look forward to in the middle of a dark, cold winter where if you are like me, can't wait for springtime. But this year, I am so excited about Jesus! I know you are now shocked and can't believe you just read that. But Neil, you should be excited about Jesus all the time! Well yes that is true. But recently I have been more and more blown away by the incredible revelation of who Jesus is and what He did in order to make our adoption secure.

I preached recently about the shepherds. What a story. Here are a bunch of nomads who were seen as the lowest of the low in society. They were the outcasts of their community. Their life was their sheep. If anything happened to their sheep then they were as good as dead! And then out of all the people that Father God could have revealed the good news to, He chose these smelly hill dwellers who everyone else had rejected. He didn't choose the religious leaders, members of the ruling party or the king. He chose the poorest on the earth. It was the moment in history where everything changed. It was the moment where the angel announced that a Saviour had been born, the Messiah of God. This is the moment where the Kingdom of heaven invaded earth in the form of a baby boy. The curtain of heaven was torn open and thousands upon thousands of angels couldn't help themselves but burst upon the shepherds with jubilant singing to God Most High. So what was the response of the shepherds? We are in danger of creating a church culture where we are more excited about angels, glory dust and other signs than the most important thing. Now I am excited when God reveals his glory with various manifestations. But join with me and the shepherds and the right response to these signs. The shepherds didn't go back to their homes to tell everyone about the angels and the glory! They left their precious sheep and ran to see Jesus!!! As I mentioned earlier, the sheep were their life. No sheep, no income. No income, no food. No food, no life! But they didn't care about their earthly stuff because they were about to meet the Saviour of the world who could offer heavenly stuff that would last for eternity. Their priority was worship. And when they had seen Jesus they told everyone and everything that had breath the good news. They returned to their sheep glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard. Wowwwww!!! This is the grace of our Daddy. That He should ever let us in on this amazing story and give us the chance to know Him personally because his Son stepped into our world. Our response has to be to leave all we have and run into the presence of the King. Whatever you have in your hands right now, drop it and run into His throne-room and worship Him. Glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. Have an amazing Christmas.

Decisions, decisions!

I realise that I haven't written a blog for a while and I know you must be missing them. Life has been a little crazy recently. Trying to juggle our house build, our church growing and everything else that needs to happen is proving interesting.
I have never realised that major building work can be so stressful! Well actually it isn't the building work and the complete chaos that ensues that is the problem, but it is all the decisions. Which kitchen to have, what lights to have and how many, which bathroom, which toilet, which taps, which shower head, what type of flooring in what room and the list goes on and on and on. As my daughter often asks - "What was it like in the olden days Daddy?" Well in the olden days you chose one hanging light in each room, you chose a white toilet, a white sink and a white bath. You chose lino or tiles for the kitchen and carpet for the rest of the house. Decision making was so much easier. I can't travel anywhere nowadays without looking at people's front doors and what colour they are and what they look like. I go into people's houses and check out the brightness of lights and what type of floor covering they have. It's hard to relax when you know you have to make important choices. After our house is complete I really don't want to make another decision about anything where there is so much choice. (Unless someone invites me out to a nice restaurant!)

But today, when I have been thinking about decisions, I remember a decision that was made that impacted the world like no other decision. It was at a time that mankind was in a desperate condition. When you and I were helpless to get out of our pit of sin and rebellion and facing eternal suffering apart from God, a decision had to be made in heaven. A Father and Son looked down from their amazing thrones and saw the situation that we were in and made a decision. They didn't deliberate about it. They didn't discuss it for hours on end. Actually, they had already agreed on the decision before all of creation came into existence. The decision was more about the timing. And then suddenly, heaven was torn open and God stepped into the world in the form of a helpless baby. This decision would change everything. Think about it... God came down and clothed himself in flesh so that he could be tempted in every way to prove that he was the perfect sacrifice for our sin and rebellion. This choice, this amazing decision, sent Jesus to the cross. Dad in heaven saw you before the creation of everything and said to the Son, "I want that little one to be my own child. But the only way that is going to happen is for a perfect sacrifice to die so that their sin will be removed once and for all." And that my friend is exactly what happened. If you don't know that there is a Father in heaven who loves you and wants you to know Him intimately then you have the most important decision to make in your life. It is a decision that will affect you for the rest of eternity. If you want to know more then you can leave a comment here. If you have already made that decision and received His amazing gift then praise God. You are now assured eternal life in a mansion that is especially designed for you. It will be a place where you won't have to decide what flooring to have or what colour the walls need to be, because your Dad knows exactly what you like and is now preparing it for you. How cool is that? Many, many blessings on you...

The builders have descended!

On Monday morning of this week our family were greeted with the sight of three happy builders arriving to our house to start some long awaited work. We are now bracing ourselves for a few months of chaos, rubble, maybe a few tears and a new extension! As I was thinking about what has just begun I am aware that it all started about three years ago. It would be crazy to decide on building something, phone up some builders and say to them: "We want it there, just get on with it!" What we had to do was decide what we wanted. We had a vision in our heads of what the building would look like. We then told our architect to draw and design it. It then had to go to the planning department at the council. Then it got turned down so we had to redesign the plan and resubmit it. Then we received planning consent. Then we had to get a structural engineers design drawn, which gives the builders a detailed plan of what they need to build. Then they had to be submitted to the buildings regulations department to be passed. Then we had about five different building companies come to give us quotes. We then had to go through each quote and decide on who we wanted to employ. Now, hallelujah, we have lift off. What started off as a desire and a dream is now becoming a reality. But there has been a lot of preparation and planning in the interim period. We have had to be very patient and at times considered giving up with the idea. We still have a way to go, but it is happening!

God spoke to me years and years ago about leading a church. It would have been foolish at that point to suddenly drop everything and start leading a church. I would have been too young and far too immature (I sometimes feel that now). There had to be a lot of planning and preparation and years of waiting for this prophetic vision to be fulfilled. God had to remove a lot of rubbish and unhelpful roots from my life before He could start on the foundations. It is great to know that our Architect and Builder is God. His design and His workmanship are perfect. He is never early and never late. I think about all the great bible heroes and the promises they received. Many received them at a young age and yet had to go through a preparation period before they saw their dreams come true. David was anointed to be king as a young boy but had to wait years before God could entrust the throne to him. Joseph was promised leadership when he was a youngster and had to be taken through a series of very difficult circumstance before he got to rule Egypt and save the known world from starvation. Abraham had to wait twenty-five years before Isaac popped out. Abraham at one point tried to fulfil the promise by himself and ended up with Ishmael.

I don't know what promises are over your lives at the moment. But don't try and make fulfil the promise in you own strength or apart from God. You will just end up with a dodgy building that will be dangerous for you and for anyone else who comes close to it. You wouldn't want a bunch of cowboys building your house. You would want the best builder that money could buy. And yet our Father is the Architect and Builder. Not only does He make the plans but He does the building! How can we not submit to His ways and allow Him total freedom to be in control of our lives and trust Him to prepare us for the work ahead. Allow him to clear our whatever needs to go in your lives, so that he can lay the strongest foundation for the building ahead. God is on the move and He is constructing something monumental in our generation.

I am excited to see what our builders will produce, but I have to wait a few months for the final result. It will be painful at times and frustrating. But I only need to endure this for a little while before the joy of the new extension is finished.

For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross! What was the joy set before Him. Well, go and look in the mirror and there is the answer!!!
Whatever promise you are waiting for, be patient and submit yourself to Him and then enjoy the outcome. It is so much fun...eventually! God bless you as you read this. He is good!!!

Dad's day is coming!

I love Father's Day. It is that time of year when you get gifts from your kids that are just so precious. My kids are great at choosing me presents. I have had a Best Dad mug, a My Heart belongs to Daddy mug, men's moisturiser and some Batman pants amongst other things! Father's Day is great day to celebrate Fatherhood. We are living in a society where the role of the Father is being continuously eroded and undermined. More and more I hear and read about the fact that children and adults have never had a father present in their lives. I am reading a book on Winston Churchill at the moment. He wrote that he remembers only three significant conversations that he had with his dad in his lifetime. His dad died of a sexual disease at the age of forty five. Churchill said that as soon as his dad died he felt free from having to perform and prove himself to his Dad. Tragic. We can never underestimate the massive importance that fathers play in our lives. I sometimes watch World's Strictest Parents. It is about wild teenagers, who have turned completely rebellious and are then taken to a family in a different country for a week to sort them out. The parents of that family are very strict and lay down firm boundaries. Nearly every teenager who has been on that programme mark the moment that they became really rebellious when their parents split up and the dad left home. Now I know you can't blame everything on the father, but it is very significant. But when you think about it, satan has had a field day. Think about it: The main calling on Jesus was to reveal the Father to a people He wanted to include in His family. Now if the only way that you can relate to God as Father is through the relationship you have had with your own father, then satan will do all he can to give you a bad experience of that relationship! Most people I meet have no problems relating to Jesus and they can relate to God as being the Creator and the Almighty. But God as Father! That's when it becomes a bit more tricky. More and more people that I look after and pray with can identify their root problems being wrong identity, rejection, self worth, self-hating and many others and these often stem from a wrong view of who God is and who they are. I am passionate about my kids. No matter what they do I am proud of them and love them deeply. Now they haven't done anything to earn my love. If they were to do absolutely nothing for me, I would still love them the same. I love them because they are mine! It is the same with our Dad in heaven. But His love is far more powerful and pure and selfless than mine could ever be. If you are reading this as a believer or unbeliever then you need to get this - my Dad in Heaven loves you far beyond anything that you can possibly grasp or get your little head around. He loves you not based on what you do or don't do but based on the fact that He is Love and that's what He does. He is passionate about you. How passionate is He for you? So passionate that He sacrificed His own, very precious Son on the cross so that you could be adopted by Him and included into His awesome family. He wants to bring freedom to you. He wants to deal with stuff in your life that stops you seeing Him in all His Fatherliness. (Don't know if fatherliness is a proper word but hey-ho!). If you are reading this and you struggle with your identity as a son or daughter of our amazing Father in heaven then contact me at info@bethanycc.org.uk . To all you Dad's out there - You're GRRRREAT!