I have an inner sort of compass of awareness of how people really think of me as Kenny. It is simply this. I know how they regard me by how they treat my wife. That shows me whether or not they care about me or if their relationship with me is not as genuine as it may at first appear. That rule is not a million miles away from Jesus telling us that our relationship with Him is seen for what it really is  in what we do for the least of His brothers and sisters, those He loves. If we care for them in practical ways then we show that we genuinely love Jesus.

For some reason the thought that sparked that train of thought was a memory of being in a church mission planning group many years ago. It was ecumenical in nature. Most of the gathering were young…ish, in our 20’s and 30’s. There was one older man. I could not help but notice that he was ignored. He didn’t have up to date theories that he had read about in the latest must-read Christian book; he didn’t have a robust presence in the group, many of whom gave the impression that this was really a gathering for the movers and shakers. I remember feeling distressed and I remember trying to draw him in. To this day however I remember with shame that no space was given to his opinions or thoughts, many of which I believed showed the wisdom of the years. In fact he was ignored. I guess that day Jesus looked at that gathering and knew what it thought of Him by how it treated that elderly man. I actually never went back to another planning meeting because of how that man was treated. What was the point? How could God’s blessing be on any of the planning when Jesus was not wanted?

I think that one of the best preachers on the planet is T.D. Jakes.I love listening to him from time to time. He has such wisdom. He has a style that is natural to him and suits him. I believe the reason for his powerful gifting of communication from a human point of view is that as he was growing up he said there were those who dignified his thoughts even as a child by listening to him. That gave him a confidence that he had something worth saying.

I think this blog today has a very simple message: Jesus knows whether you and I have time for him by whether or not we give time to honouring people who are dear to His heart. The story is told of a wonderful man of God, Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda. Revival was happening and he was about to set out to a revival meeting, after having had an argument with his wife! He kissed her on the cheek as he left. As he got into his car he heard the Lord say, “Go back into the kitchen and be reconciled with your wife.” He made excuses as to why he had no time to do that. The Lord said it to him again and again more excuses were made. After this exchange of words had gone on for a while,  the Lord said, “OK! You go to the meeting. I will be in the kitchen with your wife!”  The Bishop went back into the Kitchen! He used that day to teach a lesson: revival in the kitchen comes before revival in the church.

Willingness to give time and space to people Jesus loves this very day is a sign to you and to me as to how our relationship with Jesus is going. It seems it is all He looks for as the ultimate evidence  of the genuineness of any claimed discipleship. At the last, some will come before Him boasting of their ministries and miracles and He will say,”I never knew you.” Others who feel perhaps they did nothing very noteworthy will hear the King say, “Come blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world… in as much as you did to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me.”

Perhaps this day you can give time to someone. Perhaps you can listen to them. Perhaps you can give money to them. As I wrote  that last sentence I remember a large gathering of about 12,000 people where I was doing some preaching and teaching: in the course of a week only 23 people had signed up to sponsor a child through “Compassion.” I could not let the week end without making a comment about that in my last morning talk… I don’t know if it had any effect or not! Pride stopped me finding out!!

It is not our place to judge people’s hearts at all. However I told you a few weeks ago that Rev. Jim Graham when he was sharing something from the bible used to pause and say, “I am not making this stuff up! I am only telling you what the Book says!” That is not a bad principle at all, for a preacher or for that matter for a blogger: I am only telling you what the Book says, and what the Book says the King will say one day : “In as much as you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me.” Read it for yourself if you want, just to check I am not making it up. You can find these words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 25.

May God help you and I to remember Jesus’ words as we go through this day meeting who we meet, welcoming those we welcome, avoiding those we avoid, ignoring those we ignore. What does it all say about where we are with Jesus Himself?

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

After you have read my proper blog for today, you might like this to help you relax at the start of your working week!

http://devour.com/video/dalek-relaxation-tape/

Kenny

I am used to straddling two worlds – the charismatic and the evangelical. I guess to caricature both, the one seems more obviously slanted towards the Spirit and the other more orientated towards the Word. However even as soon as I have written that I am remembering Dr. R.T. Kendall, a wonderful bible teacher, on the first of several memorable times he came to speak at CLAN Gathering in St. Andrews asking me why I had asked him and John Paul Jackson, who had a strong prophetic ministry, to come as speakers that year. I think my answer may not have been what he was expecting. I said I had asked John Paul Jackson because he was a man of the Word, and I had asked him, R.T., because he was a man open to the Spirit. I stand by what I said then.

However I was thinking today that it is not enough to honour both Word and Spirit in general. Whatever our claim to honour either or both, the proof of that is how deeply any truth or claimed experience is related to the cross of Christ, the very centre of our faith. Does any truth I claim to have seen or encounter I claim to have experienced carry something of the story of the cross? It may show the victory of the cross, or its suffering, it may show the truth of rejection or the truth of acceptance, it may carry the death of Jesus or the life of Jesus or both.

For me this is the great test of orthodoxy. If what I am speaking about from the bible or what I am sharing in terms of charismatic experience cannot ultimately be related to the cross then it is probably bogus and the result of too clever an intellect or too fertile an imagination.

Let me give an example of what I mean. For me one of the most powerful charismatic experiences in my life was meeting with God in the so called Toronto Blessing. People speak for and against that movement and I don’t want to get into that argument, nor will I allow you to use this bog to enter into a debate about that. That would be to misuse this blog for your purposes not the purposes for which I think God called me to start it. There are many sites pro and against The Toronto Blessing, most of them descending eventually into slanging matches achieving nothing. All I can say is that for me the Toronto Blessing was yet another an experience of the cross that I had years earlier at my conversion. It was an experience of the power of the cross to completely bring me into the security and assurance of the Father’s love. It felt as though as I lay on the floor under the power of the Spirit I was looking through a movie camera into the grace of God. The camera drew back a bit and I saw that the grace of God was wider, higher, deeper than I had seen. It drew back some more and I saw it was still wider, still higher, still deeper. It kept drawing back until I understood that I could not understand the depth, width and height of the love of God my Father in Christ Jesus. It was an experience ultimately of the saving and reconciling power of the cross. The face of God the disappointed father or worse the angry judge disappeared and the face of the Father came to the fore. THE TRUTH OF THAT MOMENT, THE POWER OF THAT MOMENT, THAT CHARISMATIC EXPERIENCE OF THE  BIBLICAL TRUTH OF THE CROSS HAS NEVER LEFT ME.

Charismatic friends, it would help our evangelical brothers and sisters if our claimed experiences did not sound like Walt Disney cartoon experiences with not real tie in to the truth of the cross at their foundation or in their fruit. Evangelical friends  it would help our charismatic brothers and sisters if the cross was the centre of all exposition, if everything led to and from there, rather than descending into a rant against liberal and charismatic heresy or a biblical lecture with no movement to or from the experience of the crucifying and resurrecting power of the cross.

The cross is God’s provided way to unity. Evangelicals can often look for unity based on doctrine and theology before being willing to call someone brother or sister. Charismatics perhaps at times only honour someone as such on the basis of some experience of the Spirit, whatever that experience may be called by friend or foe. God invites us to meet at the cross, in truth and experience. It is His ordained meeting point.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

For some reason today I found myself remembering the words of a homeless man after a church meeting he was attending with other folk who were homeless.  He said to me, “I tried to go to a church one night, but they said I was not the sort of person their church was looking for.” He was a stone the builders rejected.

I remember the fury I felt closely followed by a conviction that the sin of that church was my sin at least in measure. How often in the past have I shown favouritism to those who could bring something valuable to the church in terms of helping to build my vision? Thankfully God has healed me of the sin of the builders over the years. I delight now to find the presence of God’s Kingdom and His grace in the fellowship of those who could easily be passed over and be the objects of rejection by the world, certainly, and sadly with almost equal certainty be the objects of rejection in many churches.

Minister, Leader, Passionate Christian; there is nothing wrong with having the eye, the vision of a builder. In that you share something of Christ’s heart and vision for He told us that He too is a builder. However, if you have the heart of a builder, make sure you don’t fall into the sin of the builder too, valuing people mostly for what they can contribute to what you are building. People will eventually feel that and the building may well collapse. Anyway, if the rejected do not have a place of honour in whatever we are building, perhaps it is time to look at the plans again…

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Over my younger years as a believer any time I heard sermons on “The Lord’s Prayer” I was told that of course it should not really be called “The Lord’s Prayer” but “The Disciples Prayer.” Such cleverness impressed me as a teenager and I would stroke my as yet non existent beard and moustache and nod gravely and seriously as I took delight in that little intellectual morsel and noted it down so I could impress others with it. One of the reasons given for that re-naming was that Jesus was sinless and so of course could not pray for forgiveness of His sins. However wise that sounds, it is actually quite dumb. I have lived long enough to see that preachers and teachers who criticise long standing traditions are rarely right in what they say, though occasionally of course they can be. On the occasions where they are, they can indeed change the course of history ,as for example the Reformation bears witness. Such moments though, are rare. I have usually had to repent of thinking I have seen some novel interpretation of some Scripture that no one else seems to have seen ,which I have then inflicted on a long suffering congregation!

The most useful quote I remember from a book on Church History by a writer whose name I cannot remember is “Heresy is born out of the itch for something new.” The correct name for the prayer if we need to name it is indeed “The Lord’s Prayer.” Why? For this reason: Jesus numbered Himself with the transgressors, so of course He could pray “Father forgive us our sins.” He is as intimately one with His imperfect and sinful followers as the head is joined to the body.

I was challenged by my own thought for today’s blog to look at how I pray for the Church in Scotland. I am so quick to see what I consider faults and wrongs in my own denomination and in others. It is something I dislike about myself intensely and quite often cry to the Lord saying, “Lord, will this ever die in me?” The challenge of the fact that “The Lord’s Prayer” should indeed be called “The Lord’s Prayer” is this: do I see the sins of the church, whether of my own or another denomination as “our” sins? Do I pray to “Our Father” or do I always simply pray to “My Father” for “them,” disassociating myself from the failings, the faithlessness, the disobedience, the imperfections, the impurities in doctrine and practice, the lack of zeal, the moral compromise and worldliness that I see in “them”? Do I see their problems as “theirs,” their needs as “theirs,” their worries as “theirs,” their struggles in faith as “theirs” while I sail on unspotted on a spiritual adrenalin surge, exhilarated by my ability to discern the errors of other believers, other leaders, other churches?

One of my favourite bible stories is the story of the Tax collector and the Pharisee at prayer. You can read it in Luke Chapter 18. If anyone could have genuinely prayed the Pharisee’s prayer legitimately, “I thank Thee that I am not like other men, robbers, evil doers, or even like this crooked tax collector over here… etc” it would have been Jesus. I cannot prove it but I think you would often have found Him instead beating His breast and using similar words to the corrupt tax collector, “Father have mercy upon us.”

To rename “The Lord’s Prayer,” “The Disciples prayer” shows that while we may have a perfect doctrine of the Atonement we have a very imperfect doctrine of the Incarnation. God’s Son was numbered with the transgressors, not just by His enemies but by His own self-identification with us. It is why He came. He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. One day when all His flock are gathered together He will say with joy as He presents us to The Father, “Here am I and the children You have given me!”

Yesterday, Today and Forever, Jesus is the same. If you could listen into the prayers of the ascended Christ, He so carries you and I in his heart that at times you would hear Him, the Sinless One ,who lives and reigns in the power of an endless life, praying for you and for me and for His Church thus: “Father, help us in our weakness. Forgive us our sins, Father. Give us all we need for this day. Help us to honour your Name. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil!”

It was indeed His own prayer that He taught us to pray.

May you know the fellowship of Christ’s Presence and sense the closeness of your fellow believers the next time you close the door and pray in secret. He is faithful to His calling as our High Priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities and so is able to deal gently with us. May we be faithful to our calling to be a Kingdom of Priests and carry one another in our hearts in gentle hopeful love into the presence of “Our Father” and join our prayers to Christ’s perfect intercessions.

“God bless us, every one” is a pretty good prayer!

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I was thinking today of a couple of things that have been said to me repeatedly over the years after I have preached whether in a church setting or a conference setting; one by the Lord and the other by the Lord’s people. I want to share them with you in the hope that if you have any sphere of service or ministry, however small or extensive they might help you. Please know that I recognise we are all different, and I hate ever sounding like an expert because I am not; nonetheless I pass on these two words for you to think about.

From The Lord to me: “Get more simple still.” This was something that I believe I heard from God on a regular basis for the first 25 years of preaching, till eventually I got there. I used to ask Him every so often if there was anything He had to say to me that would help me bless more people more deeply in my preaching Sunday by Sunday and for all that there were occasional additional words to me, the thing I believe He said to me most often was, “Get more simple still.” So I leave that with you to think about.

The Second thing I want to leave with you has been said repeatedly by the Lord’s people, lost and found: “I really appreciate your gentleness.” Despite what I said above about us all being different, there is a charge laid upon all of us as we seek to live for The Lord and serve Him: ”Let your gentleness be evident to all.” (Philippians Chapter 4 verse 5.) These words were written by Paul not to particular people with particular personalities but to all people in a local church whatever their personality make-up. Usually when people have mentioned appreciation of gentleness they have gone on to speak about the effect of that upon them with a reference to some sort of healing that had been brought to them. Friends, there is not much gentleness in the world. Sadly often there is not much gentleness in the church. More than often there is not gentleness on the conference scene but a lot of shouting through microphones, strutting on stages and sweating, which somehow is believed to indicate anointing. It stirs up passion but doesn’t do much beyond that. Miraculous healings that happen in such a charged atmosphere seem to have equally miraculously disappeared by the next morning. So I leave this with you too: “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Is there no place for taking hold of the Kingdom violently? Yes, but keep your violence for where it should be directed namely against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places, rather than for impressing a gathering that you are truly God’s man or woman for the hour. Keep the fist shaking for there not for those you minister to, but remember if all that you have is fist shaking without anointing you might come a cropper. Demons recognise the difference between fist shaking, strutting, shouting and sweating compared to anointing. They are not as gullible as we are.

So to sum up. 2 words given repeatedly to me that might be worth thinking about though you and I might be very different in many ways:

“Get more simple still.”

“I appreciate your gentleness.”

God bless you to love and serve the Lord

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I was thinking today of getting a new bible in which I would underline nothing! The reason? Well, I was remembering something that Juan Carlos Ortis said in his book “Disciple.” He said that there were five gospels; Mathew, Mark, Luke, John and the one written by Saint Evangelical! The last one is made up of all those bits we underline in our bibles. Saint Liberal and Saint Progressive, Saint Missional Movement, Saint Fresh Expressions and Saint Renewal all have their own bibles too. Ortis’s suggestion was it would be good to go back and read the bits in our bibles we have not underlined, that we hear the Word of God there.

I think we are all a bit selective in reading the Bible, or at least we give emphasis to certain things we read and only turn half an ear to some other themes that ruffle our feathers a bit. So that is why I am thinking of having an unmarked bible for the first time in my Christian life. If it is all the Word of God, it all matters.

The immediate spur to such a thought was reading these words from Philippians: “Do all things without grumbling or complaining.” I don’t think I ever underlined these words in any past bibles I have owned. I found life in them today. Perhaps there is life in them for you. Grumbling and complaining get us nowhere except into wandering around in a desert in a fellowship of grumbling and complaining until the grumbling and complaining is burned out. It is a waste of energy and time that could be otherwise used. I was thinking today of how often after the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland I would end up grumbling, as evangelicals often understandably do after the Assembly. The grumbling usually lasted about 3 weeks. That means that since my licensing I have spent two years of my life and ministry grumbling and complaining over that alone! Fruitless!

I meet Christians and indeed ministers who seem to live in the desert of grumbling and complaining most of their days. If we believe that God is in control of our steps when we humbly commit our ways to him, then let’s get on with who we are called to be and what we are called to do without complaining and grumbling believing that this is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus. It is a happier more fruitful way to be.

Maybe I should end with a particular word for my fellow ministers and other friends in the C of S. If you cant stay and serve without grumbling and complaining, it is maybe time to go and see if you can serve somewhere else without grumbling and complaining. You will not bless your people or yourself by stoking the fires of grumbling and complaining in yourself or your congregation. That does not mean there is no place for godly mourning, but that is quite a different thing. Into that God speaks his promise, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Grumbling leads to the desert. Mourning leads to Revival.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I guess we are all different. I am saying that in case you take an odd dislike of mine too personally: I don’t like symmetry of the 2 identical candlesticks each side of the fireplace type! Please don’t be embarrassed or angry if your attention has just gone to your mantelpiece… it is just a Kenny thing but it is real and it is strong. 2 candlesticks on either side of a mantelpiece has the same distress, nerve jangling effect upon me as the sound of fingernails on a blackboard causes to others! Weird I know, but there it is. I am so glad that truly symmetrical faces are quite rare otherwise being a pastor meeting people one to one could have been immensely difficult  for me over the years!

I am glad Paul abandons the language of direct symmetry quite often as he writes. He tells us  in Romans for example that where sin abounded, God’s  grace abounded  all the more. The thought is not that the extent of grace and the extent of sin are somehow equidistant  but opposite points from some central point on  a scale , or equal but opposite points you can plot on a  graph. His thought is more along the lines of compare the size of a mouse with the size of an elephant! In that same letter there is another mouse to elephant moment, when he tells us that he is convinced that , “Our current sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory which shall be  revealed in us who are called according to God’s purpose”

Well, today, as I waited to see how God would led me about this blog, it was another mouse to elephant verse  that came to mind: Paul is in prison and he is writing to the Philippians, wondering out loud in his letter whether he will be put to death or be released. He is pretty sure that he will be released and go on living on earth as he is needed. He also says that it is “win win” for him either way because, as every believer can say, ”For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” However he also says if he was indeed to depart this earthly scene and be with Christ, for him as for any believer that would be “faaaaaaaaaar better!” No equal measurements, no equal and opposite symmetry.

There is no easy way to break the thrust of this blog to you. I am thinking of those of you who have had to face the untimely deaths to those you have loved and who loved you; those who left this life not peacefully after a long and full life, but perhaps with a great struggle, perhaps at what seemed faaaaar too early a stage, when they had all to live for and when they had much to contribute to life still. I think the most difficult deaths I have had to deal with pastorally have been the deaths of children or young people or babies. Even within the family of faith such things are hard to bear. So much hope, so many sincere prayers, so much promise, so much “life” just ended.  One of my first funerals as a young minister was for a young and beautiful 12 year old girl, a triplet,  who was knocked down in my island parish of Stronsay. My last funeral before retiring was for a much wanted and prayed for baby . Then of course there are the husbands, the wives, the brothers, sisters, the close friends whose deaths came so suddenly, too quickly to prepare for as best as one can prepare for such happenings.

I am talking within the framework of the family of Christ. Can we believe that it is always true that “to depart and be with the Lord is far better?” Sometimes despite tears we can say a genuine “yes.” At other times perhaps our “yes and Amen” is a bit more shaky.

One of the great things about blogging for me is it not only gives an outlet for whatever I used to do in preaching or teaching, but it gives an overtly pastoral outlet as well – though for me pastoring and teaching should be part of the same thing, I hasten to add. Tonight, I simply want to pray for those of you who follow Christ but who feel immense pain and even anger as you think of this claim that to be with Christ is far better.  I will do exactly that  as soon as i have posted this blog. I pray that somehow the God who helped Paul to say, write and believe that claim with great assurance will help you too.

If I were writing this for someone outside the family of  faith, my prayers after writing would be even more pained. As Kenneth Steven says in one of his poems, in this all grown up world where we have abandoned God, we have to cope with the death of children  (or any untimely death or tragedy) on our own now. At least, as believers in Christ we have someone to bring our “whys” and tears to, who can help us cope. “Whys” and tears for us are not a cry in the dark, but a cry in the ear of our Father…It is a Heavenly Father thing; He can’t help but see and hear and feel.

God Bless

Kenny

A story of connections of thought today! Thought 1: I found myself thinking about “Roman Camp Mary,” better known as Mary Magdalene. What perhaps we don’t realise is that Magdalene is really more like a nick name, a name of scorn. Magdala was where the camp of the Roman occupying forces was situated. So “Roman Camp Mary” gives an indication of how Mary was regarded. Perhaps it was the Romans who used her who called her that, perhaps it was the Jews who sought to shame her who gave her such a nickname.

Somehow thinking about Mary who plied her trade amongst the Occupying forces led to Thought 2; my mind wandered away to thinking about what it must be like to live under an occupying power. Some of the places where this blog is read were indeed occupied by the Nazis during the years of the last war. There may even be some who read this who are actually old enough to remember from personal experience what that was like. Whatever, I would imagine that each infringement of freedoms would have been sorely felt, no matter how many freedoms remained.

That led to Thought 3; I remembered when God set me free from what had been an occupying force stopping me from entering fully into the freedom with which Christ has set His people free. For years I laboured under some compulsion that I had to have a growing church and I had to have a “successful ministry” – I had views about what that looked like which I have thankfully abandoned. For years though this vision of success occupied my thinking. As a result my view of God became skewed. I felt He must surely have been disappointed with me. My view of Him was that I saw Him as a dissatisfied judge. My view of the church became negative, critical, jaundiced. In a moment of time I was set free in the mid 90’s. I didn’t know I needed to be set free. It was only once I was set free that I realised how captive I had been. In a moment, heaviness was gone. The face of the disappointed judge was gone to be replaced by the Father who simply loved me because He loved me. I felt the true power of the cross in an experiential way. I remember distinctly the feeling of something leaving from the very depths of my being and thank God though it has sometimes hovered around, it has never returned to take over territory in my life again. The occupation was over! I was set free to rejoice in the love of my Father, and set free to resist a lie which previously had rampaged through my life unchallenged.

I don’t mean to be needlessly controversial, but all I will say is bar one person who became a Christian on the same night they were delivered, all my other experiences of deliverance from evil powers, though not many, have involved the setting free of Christians form enemy occupation.

Thought 4 – for you to think about; what occupies you? is there anything that has an unhealthy control in your life that to a certain extent determines how you act, how you feel, how you relate to God, to others and to life, and to yourself? It may be obviously harmful of course, but it may not be obviously harmful at first. Remember what occupied me seemed a good thing, the desire to have a successful ministry, but that thought represented enemy chains and robbed me of my freedom in God. Sadly I meet many Christians who at least in part seem under enemy occupation. Sometimes, indeed most commonly the manifestation of occupation is a fear of one sort or another often becasue of past events or dysfunctional significant relationships. It may of course be that there has been some involvement in the occult or surrender of control to drugs or to alcohol; it may be something morally askew that has allowed an occupation by the enemy of a certain aspect of life, but there need not be a moral lapse. I think there are many demons around who seem in terms of their human host to be perfectly moral and orthodox in their manifestation, even defending the truth of God to the hilt. Such is the enemy who appears as an angel of light. When such a spirit is occupying a preacher or teacher, or any believer, they may speak words of grace perhaps but actually they sound more like teachers of the law, quick to point out fault, gatekeepers and judges seeing the demerits in everyone, deciding and pronouncing who is in God’s favour and who is not. As a result, the one flock of God becomes disturbed and sometimes decimated. I sometimes have the feeling that this has caused particular carnage between the various strains of Presbyterianism in Scotland, whatever its manifestation may look like in other countries and cultures.

Thought 5; does the love of Christ and that alone occupy you and I? His love for His Father; His love for His Father’s truth and words and works; His love for His bride; His love for the lost; His love for you? May we all be free with the freedom with which Christ has set us free and let’s help one another into that freedom too.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Dear fellow ministers of Christ. A couple of thoughts. Perhaps we need to repent of the vision of reforming the Church of Scotland? Was that vision birthed in humility or on the strength of an at one time rise in the evangelical constituency? Jesus didn’t reform Judaism. He simply proclaimed truth. He did not seek a majority in the Sanhedrin. He just spoke truth, washed feet, loved sinners and pursued his call to the end despite the mockery that was designed to make him look ridiculous! Fellow evangelicals why don’t we try it Jesus way and trust what is not of God will fall. Turn your ear fully to the call of God. I am now in the position of retiring through ill health. I can only say my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Despite what others may say we have not yet seen the whites of the eyes of THE Enemy. Fortunately Jesus has. May He help us stand our ground and not turn and flee come what may.

Kenny Borthwick

Sundays are still quite difficult for me since stopping preaching. At the same time they help to make this central truth all the more certain: “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine and His banner over me is LOVE!”

When you have “one of those days” remember nothing can make a dent in that wonderful truth. Remind yourself of it often. That can help to remind you that “one of those days” days along with every other day is the day that the Lord has made so we can rejoice and be glad in it!

God bless

Kenny

My thoughts go towards preachers on Saturday nights and Sundays for understandable reasons. I hope when I speak to preachers I don’t sound like a boring know-it-all…but I will take that risk. I would never dare to write a book about preaching but I have been preaching since 1979,so I guess if there is nothing to pass on for people to take or leave from the experience of those years, it would be a poor do! So, here goes…

The main theme of this blog: please, preacher, don’t make too much of people’s reactions of praise or anger. Of course if you give these things no thought your are probably a psychopath rather than a preacher!  Remember it is the task of a teacher to help people understand rather than get bitter  and angry at them for not understanding or appreciating what  you are saying. It is your job to help the sheep move from A to B, it is not the sheep’s job! I hope you are whole enough to be aware of others; empathetic enough to be as loving and sensitive as you can be as you declare truth;  and secure enough in the love of your Heavenly Father not  to attach too much weight to praise or anger. Jesus in John 5 makes a distinction between seeking honour and praise from one another and seeking the honour and praise that comes from the only God, telling us to seek the latter.  Insecure preachers who lack security in the love of God seek the former, indeed hunger after it with an insatiable hunger and will indulge in amazing antics to get it! I hope you can rest in your Heavenly Father’s  honouring of you as His beloved one, this Sunday. Preach and pastor, lead  and pray from that place always. Only then can we be faithful ministers, whatever the main thrust of our ministry that we have been entrusted with.

So go out there this Sunday and speak the truth of God with as much simplicity and grace as you can. You do not need eloquence. But I hope you have prepared and are not sloppy. The Bible extols the value of playing an instrument not any old way but skilfully unto the Lord! If you do all of that, then don’t worry too much if the sheep bleat! It is what sheep do…

I mentioned a few blogs back a couple of  John Wimber prayers that I often used before preaching, especially on those Sundays where there seemed to be not a moment’s peace before getting up to lead and preach: “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…” and “HELP!” There is a third prayer of my own  that I often prayed on  Sundays that is not as funny, sounds more Presbyterian and Scottish than Charismatic or American, but was as equally sincere  and not as falsely grave or pious  as it may sound to you at first reading: “Lord, help me to honour You as I seek to bless Your sheep. Bring honour to Your Name, O Lord.” You can use that prayer if you want, it is not copyrighted! It is not a myth or a pious hope to say that He really does honour those who  seek to honour Him.

God bless you brother or sister preacher, and God bless doubly those in your congregations who faithfully pray for you and God bless many times more those who can’t stand you or the gospel with fresh ears and hearts!

Kenny

P.S. I just want to update this with some words from a Daily Readings book of  Henri Nouwen’s  writings that I read after I had written this blog. I suppose it is possible that some of us may think that to care only about what our Heavenly father thinks of us could make us insesnsitive. With that thought in mind here are the words from H. Nouwen:

“Jesus is called Emmanuel which means “God-with-us” (see Matthew 1: 22-23). The great paradox of Jesus’ life is that he, whose words and actions are in no way influenced by human blame or praise but are completely dependent on God’s will, is more “with” us than any other human being.

Jesus’ compassion, his deep feeling-with us, is possible because his life is guided not by human respect but only by the love of his heavenly Father.“

Simple but brilliant! I like it!

K

Many of you who read this blog will have learned today that the last ever CLAN gathering takes place this Summer. It is always difficult in church and wider church life to know when to stop something. I have mixed feelings hearing about CLAN coming to an end as for many years I was part of the leadership team. I remember vividly when God gave me a dream about the name and the purpose of that Gathering.  Hundreds of churches and thousands of belivers from every postal are in the land and every conceivable type of church rallied around that vision for many years. It proved to be almost like an umbrella under which many could gather despite any differences of church practice etc.,  though not an umbrella which stopped the rain of God’s blessing falling again and again over the years. It has been a humble and yet enormous blessing to church life throughout Scotland. There are mininstries and chuches floursihing today that would testify to the encouragment CLAN gave them to step into new things for God and to expect great things from God. However I am confident of “the seed falling into the ground and dying” principle that we see in nature and we find being spoken about in Scripture. When a seed falls into the ground and dies it bears much fruit. If it does not go through that dying process then it remains a single seed. I truly believe  that which has been of God in CLAN will indeed continue to bear fruit for the present and future purposes of God in Scotland and pray that God will honour the decision of the current leadership for things to stop.

Actually, the principle of the seed dying and bearing fruit is one that I have seen in action in my own life in recent months. I have not got the health to preach at the moment but somehow what that represented in terms of calling has been through a metamorphosis and resulted in a blog which reaches more people and countries than my preaching from a pulpit or a conference platform ever would. By the way, when I say that, I have not discounted preaching again in time to come! Many are praying for my healing. I am simply stressing the seed dying and bearing fruit actually works.

Now, remember not every blog will seem relevant to everyone equally every day!  I guess today’s blog leads me to ask, “ Is there something you should be stopping? Something you have been doing in church or even as a church which needs to come to an end?” Perhaps you have been wondering about a question like that and this blog may be part of God’s leading or guiding. I take my hat off to those who have served in a role in church faithfully over the course of many years. That is commendable and yet it bothers me in church life that sometimes we don’t give people the chance to stop doing something. Whatever that “something” may be, it gets tired and the people enabling it to happen get tired too. I found that there was a level of guilt associated with my decision to step down form being a minister. I couldn’t actually do it without my G.P., the Ministries Council of the Church of Scotland, the elders of the congregation as well as those close to me giving me permission to stop. Perhaps this blog will be a permission giver for you.

Someone commented not long ago as a response to a blog, that they disliked a phrase that has become common in church; “Lord, we give you permission to do this,” whatever “this” may be. I am with him on that. I have an intense dislike of any theology, any spoken words that make us too big and God blasphemously small. God can do what He wants when He wants with or without or permission, with us giving our will or against our will! I have met people who were converted totally against their own will and intention. God did it! However, the language of permission is appropriate when it comes to you and me. If, like me, the idea of stopping doing something cuts across the grain and feels unbearably uncomfortable I pray you too might find permission givers along the path if this blog seems to speak to where you are at. May that help to reassure you that indeed God is saying to you, “This is the way; walk ye in it…”

… and may there be extra grace if you are a church leader announcing this weekend that something that has been a treasured part of congregational  life is going to stop!

God bless you this day and always

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I was talking with my beautiful daughter Sarah today over a coffee. Somehow the father daughter conversation got on to deliverance! I have not been used in direct face to face deliverance that often in the course of my ministry but the few times that has occurred have taught me a lot. I was remembering one of the most dramatic encounters today: a girl who could not read or write, who was hearing voices saying they were going to kill her. How did I know it was not mental illness which clearly can have the same symptoms? That is where we need the gift of discernment otherwise we could really cause damage. The Holy Spirit bore His own witness to me that this was demonic and it was going to be dealt with that very night. She was indeed set marvellously free. However I don’t really want to go into the story of the deliverance. What I mentioned to Sarah was that this girl told me that when she saw Christians in the supermarket she felt power coming from them and knew they could help her somehow and get this thing away.

Dear blog readers, in Christ you have more authority and power than you know. Perhaps an opportunity to stand in your authority in Christ will come your way this day or soon. May you know at that moment that Christ in you is greater than anything you face. Be assured of the absolute supremacy of the Lordship of Christ.

God bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

It is always encouraging to get feedback on blogs. I don’t usually follow them up in terms of taking ideas for future blogs from them, but a friend , Rich Johnson who heads up a ministry in Christian Mindfulness, who has had a medical condition for many years suggested that there is much teaching around about healing but not much around about suffering and death. He said that we actually need a theology of suffering and death. It doesn’t sound too cheery a subject but many who read this blog may be looking for that too, especially as there seems to be renewed emphasis in recent years tending towards believing everybody is meant to be healed.

I never want to discourage faith for healing, nor am I academic enough to offer a theology of suffering and death, but I am in the situation of having an illness when the part of the church I most belong to believes in healing. That belief is actually becoming stronger and more vocal which can leave people like me feeling a bit vulnerable. I think it is time for charismatic Christians to come out of the closet and say boldly,” I am a Charismatic christian who believes in healing, who is still praying for it, who has been prayed with for healing countless times in conferences, in local church, by big names on the healing scene and by many more unknown believers, but I am still ill!”

Well, actually if that describes you, you are in the company with those in heaven now. Those who have died and gone to be with the Lord have not yet experienced healing of their bodies. Their bodies  are still here on earth. Just as there are those in heaven who are living there with the injustice of being martyred for Jesus, well there are countless more who are still unhealed. What do I mean? Well, somewhere or other, whether in officially claimed sites or elsewhere, Paul’s body is still here on earth. It is headless, and modern medical science if they found the body would be able to tell us what his thorn on the flesh was and settle the argument once and for all. Paul’s body was sown into the earth in dishonour. The day is still future when it will be raised in glory.

In other words, there are a lot of unhealed people in heaven. For heaven too, the Kingdom of heaven is already here but not yet. My father is one of them for example. He knows no pain, he knows no suffering, but the dust of his body is still around on earth. In the joy of heaven now, he waits his final healing.

So for you my bothers and sisters who are feeling left behind in the rising insistence that everyone is supposed to be healed, well if you are not  then don’t worry; you are experiencing on earth what is reality in heaven. I am not sure how many healed people there are there. Jesus and mabye Elijah,  perhaps Moses and oh yes, Enoch. That is about it. Everyone else is of course  rejoicing. With Paul they have discovered that it is better to be with the Lord than here on earth!  But with Paul in the Lord’s nearer presence they  are saying, “How long O Lord? How long until our bodies are healed  and raised incorruptible, how long until justice reigns? How long O Lord?” Heaven is not yet perfect. Saints on earth and saints in heaven are one in this: we are a waiting people.

Away with faulty notions of what “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” really means!

Your battling blogger

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Well, today was one of these days that was not great for me.I didn’t have the energy to get up until lunch time, went out and about but was glad to come home and rest again. However, I did feel the Lord was with me, that in the deepest sense everything is OK and there is no need to be unduly alarmed. Furthermore as I lay in bed in the early evening just resting, I felt the Lord speak to me. Verses from 2 Timothy came to mind. Paul is speaking to Timothy and he has to tell his son in the faith this: ‘Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner.” (2 Timothy Chapter 1 verse 8) That is actually an astonishing verse. Effectively Paul was telling Timothy that as he proclaimed that Jesus is Lord, the one who has conquered sin and death and hell on our behalf and is now seated at the right hand of God in the place of highest honour, he wasn’t to be embarrassed or find it awkward that one of the chief representatives of Jesus’ reign, namely Paul, was an ambassador in chains awaiting death. Can you get the idea? Ambassadors in chains are hardly a good advert that Jesus was the Christ on the throne of the universe, that He is indeed Lord!

In a world where learning and physical or military prowess seemed to count for a lot, someone in chains would be despised and certainly any philosophy or deity he stood for would be despised. So, Paul could have been seen as an embarrassment to the cause, a liability.  His condition could be used as an argument by the opponents of the Christian message to pour scorn upon the idea that Jesus once crucified was now “Lord.”

Sometimes, not often but sometimes, I have met people who are anything from mildly confused to red-faced embarrassed by the fact of my ill health. I have stood for the fact that healing is a sign that Jesus is Lord and His already here not yet fully here Kingdom is real, but I am not healed. It is no embarrassment at all to me because I really do believe that the Kingdom is already here but just as truly not fully here. Biblical faith is believing what the bible says rather than believing what we wished it would say. However to those who believe that in heaven there is no sickness  now therefore on earth there should be no sickness now, well I do sense the embarrassment they sometimes feel talking with me. I would have hoped rather the fact I am not healed, as yet, might make them question whether the argument no sickness in heaven now so no sickness on earth now is indeed true, but ideas are hard to budge especially when they have charismatic people behind them endorsing them.

I thought it was really sad a few years ago to see that one of the foremost proponents of “health and wealth” secretly had an operation on his knee. He didn’t want anyone to know about it. I am not accusing the man of being hypocritical. I don’t think he is and there is much about him I admire, but does what he did mean he was embarrassed or ashamed of himself or feared being a cause of embarrassment?

Dear blog readers, the fact that at the centre of our faith is the Son of God on a cross should make us aware that one of the central beliefs of Christianity is that we are called to go through things which allow the world to mock our claims for Christ and our faith in Him. “Where is this God of yours” is a taunt that will be thrown at every genuine believer sooner or later in the face of suffering or injustice of some sort that they are experiencing in life. I am sad though if you have experienced a similar taunt from your brothers and sisters in the Lord speaking with insensitivity to you.

So today, I praise God for those of you who are ill and have not been healed; I praise Him for those of you who know that your Heavenly Father provides and yet still find your bank account needs  month to month resuscitation, and needs it  just after the end of week one of the month; I praise God for those of you who believe God makes promises to believers and their children but have seen your children going completely off the rails: you are not an embarrassment to the Lord, He is not ashamed of you, nor am I if that is any small consolation. Please do not be ashamed or awkward or embarrassed about yourself. Thank you for putting the shame of the cross in the place of highest honour and for challenging a cheap understanding of the Lordship of Christ. You are my heroes! The Kingdom needs you. Your King needs you!

God bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

This may be the shortest blog I ever write. Are you waiting for a sign from heaven that you don’t really need? When I eventually embarked on the process of stepping down from being a parish minister , ultiamately the thought within my mind that helped me to do that was, “Kenny you are no longer fit to do a week’s work for a week’s wage.”

I just felt today that perhaps there are some of you who read this blog who need to make a decision based on good old fashioned common sense. Being able to think things through and come to a decision is part of God’s common grace to  humanity as much as the sun and the rain. Of course God can lead us at times to do something that makes no sense to those looking on or even to ourselves, but let’s not make that into a principle or a law. Today, is there some decision you need to make based on common sense?

Just a thought,

Kenny

I didn’t expect this thought to swim to the surface. I kept on thinking it was too small a thought  for a blog and instead of catching it, it should be allowed to swim about until it was a bit bigger, then I could reel it in and serve it up. However, this small thought in the form of a memory seems to be insisting on being the “catch of the day.”

The thought, the memory is this: I was at a Church of Scotland Conference where a wonderful parish minister and former moderator of the Church of Scotland, The Very Rev John Miller was speaking. He had been the minster of an area of Glasgow that would be termed a Priority area; an area which by many different measurements would be considered an area of deprivation. He told us all  that he was once asked by a six year old  girl in one of the Primary Schools in the parish,  “What does a minister do?” Maybe you are thinking, “Actually I have always wondered that too!”  Well, John Miller  thought for a moment and then he said this in reply to that wee girl: “A minister helps people to know there is away to be happy, even after bad things have happened to  them.” When I heard him say that I felt angered. In fact I was fuming! I sat there thinking to myself, “But what about the preaching of the gospel? What about the declaration of the Kingdom? What about the preaching and teaching of The Word…. what about… what about…?”  I   felt  such a definition of parish ministry was woefully inadequate. However I felt the anointing of God on what he was saying and I have learned that anointing teaches  us all things truly, whereas our own minds and thought processes can be so faulty.  I knew that God approved of what John Miller was saying, however much it angered me! By the time I went to bed that evening I was weeping because I sensed the sheer beauty and loveliness of Christ in what he said to that six year old. Over the years since, it has become one of my favourite definitions of parish ministry and moreover it seems to accurately sum up what my ministry, particularly my time  in Wester Hailes, has largely been about. Sadly, even by the age of 6, there are so many people who need to hear someone telling them there is indeed a way to be happy … Maybe you were one such 6 year old and the 6 year old within you still needs to hear that 50 or 60 or 70 years on…

So, that’s it for today; the memory and the thought. “There is a way to be happy even after bad things have happened.” I simply give it to you along with some sentences about why it would not go away, all beginning with “Perhaps…”

Perhaps, quite simply, bad things have happened to you and you need to know that with Jesus there can be a way to be happy again. “Though weeping endures for the night, joy comes in the morning.” Jesus really can give us “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” It is my job as a minister to tell you that and pray you will experience it to be true.

Perhaps you will need to be a minister today, and bring an assurance of the possibility of happiness to another person, lend them your faith in that truth when they have no faith in it for themselves…

Perhaps, if you are a parish minister or church pastor  you need to rethink what ministry is about for you…

Well, there are more sentences I could have given beginning with “perhaps.” The danger is that if I suggest too many you might not think for yourself what this thought for today maybe has to say to you,  so I simply leave it between you and the Lord to think about.

God bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I didn’t expect this thought to swim to the surface. I kept on thinking it was too small a thought  for a blog and instead of catching it, it should be allowed to swim about until it was a bit bigger, then I could reel it in and serve it up. However, this small thought in the form of a memory seems to be insisting on being the “catch of the day.”

The thought, the memory is this: I was at a Church of Scotland Conference where a wonderful parish minister and former moderator of the Church of Scotland, The Very Rev John Miller was speaking. He had been the minster of an area of Glasgow that would be termed a Priority area; an area which by many different measurements would be considered an area of deprivation. He told us all  that he was once asked by a six year old  girl in one of the Primary Schools in the parish,  “What does a minister do?” Maybe you are thinking, “Actually I have always wondered that too!”  Well, John Miller  thought for a moment and then he said this in reply to that wee girl: “A minister helps people to know there is away to be happy, even after bad things have happened to  them.” When I heard him say that I felt angered. In fact I was fuming! I sat there thinking to myself, “But what about the preaching of the gospel? What about the declaration of the Kingdom? What about the preaching and teaching of The Word…. what about… what about…?”  I   felt  such a definition of parish ministry was woefully inadequate. However I felt the anointing of God on what he was saying and I have learned that anointing teaches  us all things truly, whereas our own minds and thought processes can be so faulty.  I knew that God approved of what John Miller was saying, however much it angered me! By the time I went to bed that evening I was weeping because I sensed the sheer beauty and loveliness of Christ in what he said to that six year old. Over the years since, it has become one of my favourite definitions of parish ministry and moreover it seems to accurately sum up what my ministry, particularly my time  in Wester Hailes, has largely been about. Sadly, even by the age of 6, there are so many people who need to hear someone telling them that. Maybe you were one such 6 year old and the 6 year old within you still needs to hear that 50 or 60 or 70 years on…

And that is the memory and the thought. “There is a way to be happy even after bad things have happened.” I simply give it to you along with some sentences about why it would not go away, all beginning with “Perhaps…”

Perhaps, quite simply, bad things have happened to you and you need to know that with Jesus there can be a way to be happy again. “Though weeping endures for the night, joy comes in the morning.” Jesus really can give us “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” It is my job as a minister to tell you that and pray you will experience it to be true.

Perhaps you will need to be a minister today, and bring an assurance of the possibility of happiness to another person, lend them your faith in that truth when they have no faith in it for themselves…

Perhaps, if you are a parish minister or church pastor  you need to rethink what ministry is about for you…

Well, there are more sentences I could have given beginning with “perhaps.” The danger is that if I suggest too many you might not think for yourself what this thought for today maybe has to say to you,  so I simply leave it between you and the Lord to think about.

(This was really a thought being written on Tuesday night to be sent out on Wednesday. Somehow though I feel it is to go out tonight, as well as tomorrow… so here it is, a few hours earlier than planned.)

God Bless,

Kenny

For the first time I realised last night how precious the opportunity afforded to me by this blog really is; to be able to share the Word of Life in this way is a joy, but I found myself praying for those of you who read it with a new sense of responsibility. “What do I really want for those who read this?”  was the simple question I asked myself. Well, I hope you are blessed by the words and experiences I share, but I want this blog to be more than reading words like reading a menu. I want you to taste and see that the Lord is good. I want you to know Living Water bubbling up in fresh measure within you. I actually hope these blogs help you to encounter God in fresh ways, or at least create a longing after the Living God, as the deer pants for streams of water. It is always a slightly risky thing when one writes of one’s spiritual experiences as I do quite regularly. That can either encourage faith or it can discourage folk at the same time. A feeling can arise, “Lord, if you met Kenny in this way you can meet me in this way!” Conversely it may be that you feel at times reading these blogs, “Why has nothing like that happened to me? What is wrong with me?”

Let me just say that blogs like Christian books can be deceiving. It is so easy to give a false impression unintentionally. What I mean is that a blog or a book gives you the chance to tell your best stories. You can do the same when you are a conference speaker away from home. That can give the impression that amazing encounters with God happen to you  every day. It can lead to people expecting too much when they meet you and being disappointed by you or your ministry!  I am actually very ordinary and most of my Christian Life and my ministry is very ordinary and run of the mill. Most of the time, in fact the vast majority of the time I simply go by the Bible and by faith in what I read there. However at the same time I don’t want to hide the fact that God has at times broken through into my life in very tangible and palpable ways. Indeed part of my praying for you last night – quite briefly I have to say, but with at least a touch of fervour –  is that over the course of your life  you will have times where God would meet you in such power and presence that you will find yourself saying what I have said at such moments  when they have happened to me; “Oh, it’s real! It is all real!” I know you know “it” is real but nonetheless I pray that moments will come when you just have to say, “It’s real! It is all real!”

That then  is what I want for you, that is what I pray for you. If you don’t want that, well I have prayed  it for you anyaway. I am remembering as I say that several Dutch pastors who seemed a bit upset when they were prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The setting was a conference which Ian Macdonald the Associate Minister at Holy Trinity and I helped to lead in the Netherlands at the invitation of Dick Westerkamp from Houten. God answered the prayers for several of these pastors by giving them a gift of tongues that they hadn’t wanted! Who said God is a gentleman or that He respects everything we believe or don’t believe, want or don’t want? So some of you may not want an “Oh, it’s real” moment or say you don’t need it. When it happens you will know what I mean by that phrase and that you did need it after all! However I know that by contrast some of you really do hunger for encounter with the Living God for an “Oh ,it’s real” encounter. If that describes you, don’t get discouraged if you have to wait.  I prayed for years before my first “Oh, it’s real, it is all real” encounter. Don’t give up asking, seeking and knocking. When such moments come you will be able to say, “This is our God. We have waited for Him.” It worries me a bit that there seems to be teaching going around that seems to say there is no place for waiting as we have it all: well, as Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Got it all? Got it all? Then in God’s name I ask you, where is it?”

Praying this for you as I hope from time to time  you will pray the same  for me. There is “more” for all of us. There is always “more.”

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Not long ago I asked our son, David, if he wanted to go and see the house we will be moving to. He seemed interested, even thought it was getting dark. He did look confused though when I took him to two rows of bricks surrounded by earth and asked him, “What do you think then?” He smiled, half laughed and looked a bit caught between bemusement and embarrassment as to what on earth he was meant to say! Until that response I did not realise that was  a ridiculous question to ask him! There was almost nothing there to think anything about! However that did not stop me asking him a second question: “It’s nice isn’t it?” Well, now there was more than half laughter!

For me however, I have seen an example of the finished thing  in a Showhouse. It is easy for me to look at the plot and to imagine the finished house. Please don’t go all cynical and email me about snagging and builders  and delays and so on. Don’t be too quick to pour scorn on me and burst my bubble of joy and excitement! Actually I know all about such possibilities… but nothing you may say can take away from what I can see when I look at these two rows of bricks. Actually I confess that I go and just look at them reasonably regularly! Such are the things one finds time to do when one is retired on health grounds…

You might dismiss such visits as crazy, but actually they are motivated by a type of faith. After all according to Hebrews Chapter 11, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.” I have no doubt what will appear in that plot, despite any setbacks, delays or whatever. I can see it with at least some degree of clarity.

I wonder if you have something in mind when you think of God’s purpose being increasingly completed in your life? I do. According to the bible it was  a purpose decided in Eternity which is the same for very believer. We are predestined to become like God’s Son. That is the main purpose of our being on earth and becoming followers of Jesus. Every other difference between each of us is incidental  or at least much less important compared with that. So, have you got in mind an image of Jesus? As I have asked before in a blog does it fit with Matthew Mark Luke and John, or does your image that you have picked up from someone,somewhere, somehow,  need questioned or even abandoned as non authentic? 

Biblical faith in God does not mean anything at all that I can imagine I can have. There was a teaching going around like that in Charismatic circles twenty years ago, but that is not faith in God. That is more like witchcraft, a seeking to manipulate spiritual power to my advantage. True faith according to the bible comes from hearing the Word of God. It is a response gifted by the Spirit of God to hearing the Word of the Lord, and the Word of the Lord on the eternal purpose for a believer’s existence is that here on earth we should become like God’s Son. One  day, when the process of transformation on earth has reached its limit then it will be time to go home through the valley of the shadow of death to become a completed work. Or it may be that The Hope of Christianity  will be fulfilled during your life time  and mine with Christ coming again. When that moment comes in the providence of Almighty God, the bible tells us something will happen:  believers alive on the earth will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Despite all that we maybe do not know about heaven or eternity to come the bible says we know this, that when Jesus appears, we will be like Him.

It is good to believe for what God says He can and will do. He can and will  make us increasingly like Jesus. That is the goal to which we are to orientate our faith. I hold that vision for me. I have held that vision for the church for many years now. A vision for a church that looks like Jesus where the lost are saved, where people find  fullness of life, the sick are healed, the oppressed are set free and the Word of the Lord causes as much amazement to hearers as a miracle. At times I have seen that being within grasp. I have been in moments now and then when all I can say is that it seemed as though God stepped down from heaven to make his Name known on the earth. But usually at such moments people get in the way with another vision, or franchise and package something that God is doing as though it belonged to them. 

Is your vision for you and for the church simply “Jesus”?  No point to prove to anyone; no agenda to manipulate in the church; no other passion than that individually and together we would become like the Son of God?

“Oh God, have mercy on your church and on each one of us. Nothing else matters than the glory of your Son in our lives and in the Church. May the Lord Jesus become our only obsession. May Christians speak about  His excellencies when they gather together. May His name be upon our lips as we speak to a needy world. Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be!”

Don’t fight the wrong battle for the wrong territory or life goal! There is nothing that has happened to you good or ill that God cannot take and work for this good purpose; to make you and I like His Son! Even those things that are hard to bear, that may have happened to you this very day, look on them in this way: “Even if the devil of hell meant to destroy me through this, I trust that my God and Father can use this to make me like His Son; that is my only battle I set myself in whatever may be happening in my life!”

“But you don’t know Kenny what happened to me today or recently, or way back in time!” You are right, I don’t:  I understand the resentment that might be bubbling up slowly as you read this blog today. But I am reminded of Richard Wurmband. Tortured for Christ, when released he used to quip that the Communists were very good to them in that they even gave them musical instruments to praise the Lord – the “clink clink “ of their chains, which Christian prisoners used to provide musical accompaniment as they sang together, “This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.” Perhaps when you hear that story, any rising anger against  the principle of this blog may sound more like an embarrassing whimper….

God bless you as He takes all things and works them together for His good purpose;  to make you like the Jesus we read of in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Do you actually know what He is really like or are you mesmerised by another Jesus? It may be time to start reading the book and by that  I mean in this instance the New Testament from the beginning again. May faith , true faith ,come to you by the Word of God…..

God bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

“Mmm..The fish is not the most important thing…interesting…” That was a thought that came to mind earlier today. I was reading about a keen fisherman describing what he liked about fishing: he liked the countryside, the heathery smell of a fire, the preparing of his bag for setting out. In fact he liked the total experience so much that actually catching a fish was a bonus in the whole experience.

I feel the same about the coffees I drink in the places where I usually, but not today, write these blogs. I like the atmosphere in the places I write whichever cafe it happens to be. The quality of the coffee is not the prime thing. It is the whole ambience that I like. They tend to be relaxed places where people are getting on well with one another, happy to be with one another; the background music seems relaxing too. I like the fact that the vast majority of folk are younger than me usually, which fills the place with a buzz. I like people talking about things that matter to them at some tables which though publicly situated seem to be cocooned in empathy and compassionate looks and tones, while at other tables there is almost a sense of expansive fun that makes others at other tables smile. I like the different languages you hear in cafes in Edinburgh. I like the occasional very old person I see there feeling happy to be anywhere so long as it is with folk who love them but looking a bit bemused at all that is going on – so much fuss over a tea or a coffee? So for me the coffee is nice, but it is not all that I appreciate.

I was thinking today about what I miss about church when getting there is a step beyond what I can cope with quite often these days such as last week and today. It is more than the preaching of God’s Word, either in terms of me delivering a sermon which for so many years has been my calling, or listening to others exercising their calling to that task and joy. That of course is central along with worship, not a bonus like catching a fish while enjoying the experience of fishing as a whole, and I do miss hearing Ian and Ollie and others who have come to the fore due to my illness, preaching. But there are elements of the whole church experience beyond that which I miss too. I miss the reliable love of reliable church people who perhaps don’t always seem the most involved in every new venture, but they are faithful as they have been faithful over a lifetime often, and can be depended upon. I miss the mixture that should be part of a church gathering, young and old, families and single people. Such a mixture is a powerful witness to the fact that Christ and his cross draws people together . I have to say I dislike churches where there are too many splits and specific gatherings according to age or gender or a shared interest. To me that seems to deny the power of Christ and His cross to bring differing people together across the barriers there are in the world… but a blog about that can wait.. back to what I miss: I miss quiet smiles and nods in my direction into which so much love and kindness and genuine concern is woven. I miss the young folk, even the most mischievous whose antics will probably make at least some of the ministry team and others go grey haired sooner than otherwise would happen, but whose energy and humour and speed of talk and movement make me feel young again; and I miss the children whose insight into spiritual things occasionally astounds me and makes me laugh at the same time due to the words used to express that insight! I miss people being able to give thanks out loud for good things that have happened and the atmosphere of trust and faith in the face of life’s alarms. I miss the something extra of the presence of God that is promised when people gather together in the Name of Christ. I miss the very building. I know full well the church is not the building, but sometimes I think if people went silent and the stones of Holy Trinity Church could cry out like Jesus said the stones of Jerusalem would do… well, they could tell stories of salvation, healing, being set free, the recovery of equilibrium and steadiness, value being discovered and shadows lifting. The very stones of that place, or more accurately the poor quality bricks, are precious to me.

There is a lot more to church life than preaching of the Word, and I am saying that as a preacher and someone who values preaching and teaching immensely. Indeed I am remembering John Wimber speaking about a town he visited to do some church growth seminars. He asked the minister of a growing church why his church was growing: “Because I preach the Word!” was the convinced sounding answer. He asked the minister of a church that was declining why he thought it was declining: ”Because I preach the Word!” was the reply said with equal conviction. I suspect that one church was growing and the other declining because of what was offered in terms of totality of experience of what constitutes “church” beyond the preaching, important though that may be.

My Blog at the start of this Sunday was facing up honestly to the fact that there are many people suffering from sheep bite throughout the church world. But, as this Sunday draws near its end why not pause and give thanks for something good about what “church” means to you, even if like myself you didn’t make it there today.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

One of the truest remarks I have ever heard in the course of a sermon was at CLAN Gathering. I do wish what I heard  was not true, but unfortunately it is. Dr.Jack Deere was preaching and he said that all over the world he discovered people in churches who were suffering from sheep bite! He said this is one of the first revelations to come to pastors;  sheep do bite! Sheep can bite sheep; sheep can bite the Shepherd; Shepherds can bite the sheep! Bites hurt….

If you go to a church this Sunday, whether you are a sheep or a Shepherd, I really do hope that no one bites you. Unfortunately that cannot be guaranteed as it is not guaranteed in Scripture and experience tells me there are quite a few horrible Christians around!  However by God’s grace and the asked for help of the Holy Spirit you can be  in control of you. If you are a sheep I pray that you will realise it is in your control not to bite and not to bite back. If you are a Shepherd, don’t bite the sheep in your sermon especially if you are carrying a lot of sheep bites at the moment. Pastors, as one who understands your calling, I know how  easy it is to be misled by a counterfeit anointing of cleverness which can lead us to try to cut the legs away from any who may be opposing us under the guise of preaching the gospel, and to forsake the anointing of true  wisdom from above that pastors especially need and which has good fruit if we are patient. Resist the deliciously clever remark that comes to mind to slip into the sermon because you have just seen so and so is there in the congregation. It is unlikely to be of the Holy Spirit but is more likely to be your flesh bursting through. They will either miss what you say, or misuse it. Cleverness usually makes matters worse.

As far as it depends on you, shepherds and sheep, may God help you to have a bite free Sunday. May the Chief Shepherd who was brought alive again from the dead be  with His appointed shepherds and with the flock. When He was reviled He opened not His mouth: this the Lamb of God and this is the Shepherd we follow.

May the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you.

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

For me “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” are reminders of a very happy childhood. Hearing a couple of decades ago that Julie Andrews can swear like a trooper in real life tarnished the memory slightly for a year or two, but it recovered! Even now in my late 50’s I watch them every time they come up in the T.V Schedule. For some reason I don’t like to watch them on DVD at my leisure any time I want: one of my many quirks that I don’t quite understand!  Actually when I think of it I don’t need to understand that oddity. I like my oddities and eccentricities that are a mystery to me and often to others. In fact I love them! Although it was not a particularly catchy tune, and perhaps not even the type of song a child was meant to like, I found myself in awe of the song, “Climb Every Mountain,”  the first time I heard it in a cinema in Sauchiehall Street in  Glasgow which is no more. I think it was called “The Gaumont”  but I might be wrong about that. Whatever,  I was inspired by the thought of that song as well as by the incredible voice of the person who sang that song whoever she was. However unguarded truths or truths that are revered beyond their proper reach can be destructive. The thought of climbing every mountain sounds very noble and appeals to those who like to think of the indomitable human spirit. However Jesus showed that there were limits to such a noble truth. He said that there are mountains we were not to climb but to simply command to be removed from our path.

I wonder if some of us have the mentality of being spiritual Munro baggers? There is something about a mountain, that makes us feel we have to climb it and notch up another victory over another challenge. Well, I am asking you today to consider if there is something you are trying to climb that the Lord has never asked you to climb? Perhaps it is the demands of your church. Church and indeed church leaders can become mountain makers for people, asking us to climb the mountain of the leader’s dreams or aspirations, or the pressures of a congregation without being allowed to question. But perhaps the leadership has become like a Pharisee or a scribe or a teacher of the law in Jesus day who all effectively in one way or another loaded up on people’s backs burdens that were hard to bear that Jesus actually came to remove. There are times when church leadership oversteps its authority and starts telling their people in quite some detail what they are allowed to do and not to do. It reached a damaging height in the charismatic movement back in the seventies and eighties in what became known as Heavy Shepherding or The Shepherding movment – leaders effectively interfering and commanding in every aspect of a believer’s life. Is it time to say “no” to someone who is asking too much of you, who is wanting to make you a mirror image of themselves and their vision, instead of encouraging you to be who you are in God?  Is there a mountain in terms of “church” that God never asked you to climb but somehow you are wearying your truest you out trying to meekly comply?

Or perhaps the mountain that you are trying to conquer is a mountain of having to be a certain type of believer, with a certain type of personality etc. You aspire to be like someone you greatly admire and wish you were more like them. You are persuaded by the lure of a false “you” which somehow for some reason you feel you must aspire to. Why not tell that mountain to get out of the way? God made no mistake when he made you or made me. According to Ephesians every believer is God’s work of art! Not everyone appreciates every artist’s work of art, indeed sometimes we might wonder as we look if there is anything artistic going on at all! You might feel incredulity at the idea of you as you being a work of art, as much as the incredulity  I felt about a contestant’s work of art in the Turner Prize which I saw a photograph of in the papers yesterday – a man clutching his buttocks! But it was someones work of art, I guess. I am still left thinking  today though, “Who is kidding who here,” with regard to calling what I saw in that photograph “art.” But I know for sure you are a work of art without having to guess.  I have no doubts about that. The bible tells me it is so and I believe it. You as you are in God, to God are priceless. You may feel incredulous and want to say, “Who is kidding who?” It is, however true!

“Climb every mountain” now belongs in that quiver of spiritual arrows, waiting for the right times and seasons to draw it out, which is not in the face of every mountain. I have other arrows there as well. The prayer used in Remembrance Services about how as Christians we should fight and not heed  the wounds belongs there  in that quiver for arrows which should be used sparingly and at the right time, otherwise spiritual and indeed emotional and physical carnage can be the result.

“Stop climbing every mountain.” Could that be the Word of the Lord for some who read this? Do you need to face something today to tell it to get out of the way of the purposes of God for you?

My health makes climbing mountains unlikely unless I want to get to glory sooner rather than later! But my physical limitation health wise also means I need to take stock spiritually and ask which mountains My heavenly Father who loves me means me to climb and which have been put there by the expectations of others or by my being harsh toward myself. What I can manage spiritually and physically for that matter is a steady walk on level ground. Well, in Scripture we are commanded to make level ground for the Lord and for ourselves. Don’t put unnecessary mountains up against His approach. Don’t climb unnecessary mountains that are not His purpose.  May God give you strength when you are meant to climb and strength to walk on level ground when you are not being told to climb. Maybe this is a day to be bold and command mountains out of the way of you being you in God.

God Bless,

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Maybe it is just because I mentioned A.W. Tozer in a blog a few days ago that I have been thinking today of a recorded sermon of his in which he recounts the story of visiting a certain church one day who  had  invited him to their service to preach. This particular church was very strong on the fact that Christians should be crucified to the world and the world to them: in other words they put a lot of effort into being “holy” which actually just means being distinct or different or separate from the world. It is good that they were serious about that, as the bible tells us without holiness none of us will see the Lord. Salvation by grace is not a licence to be unholy! Cheap grace is not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which saves us. However often in church communities that do set out to take holiness very seriously there can be a taking of a truth too far or perhaps more accurately the truth gets distorted somehow, which in the case of “holiness teaching,” can lead to legalism and judgmentalism in outlook towards those within that community of faith and indeed towards other Christian communities. For example in the community that Tozer speaks about in his sermon the men wore ties with square ends rather than pointed tip ties, because if they wore pointed tip ties they would be pointing down the way to hell. Well, some of the leadership were getting a bit concerned that they were maybe taking things too far and asked Tozer what they should change. He told them, “Change nothing. I am fed up meeting Christians who haven’t gone far enough!”

Well, I was surprised by what Tozer told them. I could see the point though as he talked about imagining we were building an underground shelter to escape the effects of a nuclear bomb. He said that he didn’t think he would ever meet anyone distraught because they discovered actually it only needed to be three stories down rather than the 4 that they had dug. They wouldn’t mind finding out they had gone too far.

I do worry that the modern approach to Christian life in many circles seems to be to try and present to the non believer that actually we are really just like them. We are as cool as the coolest, trending as well as anyone in how we dress, our socialising or entertainment habits,  the cars we drive and how we do up our houses and where we holiday, but we are just different round the edges really in that we like this Christian thing or church thing.

Another story from Hugh Black’s ministry: a titled lady was looking for a new coachman; the interview consisted of the applicants driving her in her coach around a marked out cliff top road. Applicant 1 kept a moderate distance from the edge of the cliff. Applicant 2 drove as far away from the edge as the course would permit and almost seemed to be over cautious. Applicant 3 showed tremendous skill by driving as near to the cliff edge as possible and as fast as possible. He thought, as indeed the other applicants thought he would be offered the job considering his obvious skill. However the job went to applicant 2. Why on earth would the lady have wanted someone who would think nothing of putting her safety at risk? The job went to applicant 2 because he had stayed as far away from the edge as possible.

Never be afraid of taking holiness too far. I don’t think that is today’s problem somehow. Of course being distinct can descend into petty legalism. I am not advocating that, however I am thinking of Tozer’s words: “I am fed up meeting Christians who have not gone far enough.”

I guess we will see God’s glory fall in our times in proportion to how seriously we take what Scripture says: “Be holy as I the l Lord am holy.”

As to what the essence of holiness is, well, I think I can make the case that it is ultimately about mercy and grace. However, how I got to believing that will need to await a blog on a future day, but don’t wait another day before putting the essence of holiness into action. If you love with mercy you will never be more like God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Well, here is a wee extra blog going out very late UK time when few will read it.  In fact if you are reading this tonight (Thursday) and live in the UK, what on earth are you doing? For any favour, will you put off the light and go to sleep!!  For those of you who can’t sleep, well here is something to think about in the night hours  that might help to put you to sleep….

Just a night time observation: my blog two days ago entitled “Blasphemy” got twice as many hits twice as fast as today’s blog entitled “Be Happy in God.” (If you haven’t read them, it might help to do that before you read on.) Now what does that say about the outlook of Christian blog readers? Does it mean we are secret heresy hunters wanting to find fault with someone in the Christian world, especially if they seem to be successful, well liked and pastor a mega church? Does it mean we are suspicious of happiness as a Christian virtue? Or does it mean nothing at all? Just wondering out loud…

Here’s another thought: if I shared that I had a positive  word of commendation  from the Lord to share that was for some of you and I also had to bring a hard word from the Lord to some of you because all was not well with  you in the Lord’s sight, which would you believe must be for you? What does that tell you about you? You struggle to believe in grace? You secretly think, “It is only a matter of time before God tells everyone the ugly truth about me and exposes me publicly,” ? Or does it mean nothing at all? Just wondering out loud…

And one more thought… when I preach in a congregation or at a conference a word that is full of challenge and may be pulling people up in some way, I get more positive responses, more people saying “thank you” afterwards than when I speak in a more overt way about the Father’s love or tenderness? What does that tell you about Christian gatherings? Do we sit there thinking, “They needed to hear that!  I hope they were listening…?” Do we think God’s sternness more so than His kindness leads us to repentance…? Or does it mean nothing at all? Just wondering out loud….

Your friendly, wondering, not yet sleeping  blogger…

Kenny

Today I found myself wondering if some of us have a predisposition to think negatively, pessimistically or whatever the word may be that I am searching for. I am thinking for example of years ago when the church where I was pastor required £90,000 of restoration work. (Actually in the course of time the final bill rose to over £400,000!) At the meeting of the elders where we began to face up to the scale of the necessary work, one man spoke out a strongly negative word: “Oh we are never going to manage to raise that amount of money.” I suggested we pray and ask God for His enabling us to raise the money and also asked for an early sign that He was with us in the task. The very next Sunday, someone who had not been at the meeting came into the vestry to speak with me before the morning service. He just wanted me to know that he was intending to give us £50,000 and was sorry that was all he could give at that present moment. Being a typical Scot, before I had finished my lunch back home after the service I was convinced I had misheard and he maybe said he was going to give us £50. But no, it was indeed £50,000 that was bing offered. I decided to tell the elders the good news, that God had answered our prayers: that He had shown He was with us in the task, just as we had asked.  When I told them about the generous offer, the same man who had spoken so negatively, still spoke negatively!  He said, “We had better keep this quiet because if people hear that we have got so much money they are never going to give!” He somehow could not allow himself to rejoice and be happy. He is in glory now and will have learned the truth of what C.S.Lewis said: “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

P.G. Wodehouse said that a Scotsman and a sunbeam would not be easily confused! Our natural tone seems to be a bit towards “lament” rather than rejoicing. However I am not so much talking about a national characteristic, but asking about personal characteristics. ARE YOU ALLOWING YOURSELF TO BE HAPPY? ARE YOU ALLOWING YOURSELF TO REJOICE? Do you tend to dwell on what is wrong about your situation, your circumstances, people? Does everything look like a potential problem? Did God bless you today and do something good for you, but all you saw was what has not yet come right for you?

Someone asked me after reading a past blog if I believe that there are apostles today. Well, I certainly believe every one of us is Apostolic in this sense: according to the letter to the Ephesians  believers in the church today are built upon the historic foundation of the first Apostles such as Paul. I will leave you guessing whether I believe there is such a ministry as “An Apostle” in the church of today!! Wherever we stand on that issue, perhaps  some of us reading this blog, or perhaps a great many of us,  need to be true to the foundation of the Church and hear a very basic, twice repeated Apostolic command given by Paul; “Rejoice in the Lord always!” We can take things too seriously in a not good way. Even our devotional life can become a bit staid and lifeless. I remember when someone who was a great influence on my life, the Pentecostal pastor Hugh Black, gave a rare insight into his own devotional practices at a time when I was hungrily seeking a life of a fuller experience of the Holy Spirit than I was living.  He simply shared in one meeting that when he woke up each  morning he spent the first ten minutes “being happy in God.” I think God was reminding me of that today because although not  a negative person I can let the negative side of circumstances run a-mock in my thinking sometimes. I am simply passing  on what I was reminded of as something that may be of benefit to you as well.

Being happy in God sounds like good bread to start the day with. I saw the results of that in Hugh Black’s life and ministry and fruitfulness. It is good to learn from God’s people when they share the secrets of the Kingdom victory hat they have discovered. Why not give it a go? Take 10 minutes tomorrow morning just to be happy in God. I am going to try and remember to do that myself.

Much love

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

A couple of days ago, Morag and I were invited out to lunch in the home of two of our friends. The food was wonderful and so was the company, not just the adult company, but the presence of their youngest child, Harris. As babies and toddlers have a way of doing without trying, he became the object of most of our attention and fascination after lunch was over. I couldn’t help but notice something that reminded me of something I read not long ago. This young child’s words, or more accurately his noises, inarticulate to Morag and I, seemed to have a magical effect! His mother and father knew what these noises meant and duly complied with what was being “requested” or perhaps more accurately “demanded!” That is what reminded me of the book I had read about the development of language. There is a stage at which a very young child thinks his or her words have almost magical power. When they make a noise, any noise, and even more so when these nosies become more specific words, they notice how powerful an effect they seem to have. The thing they need, or want or whatever seems to happen in response to these sounds and words they form.  Now of course it is not that the words have magical powers. If anything what has the power is the relationship between the parents and the child, particularly  the insightfulness of  parental love, care and compassion. That love can interpret what seems like indistinct sounds to onlookers  and is moved to  very specific and appropriate action.

It disturbs me that over the years I have heard some teaching and preaching especially in the fold of the church which has been my main spiritual home, namely the evangelical/charismatic wing, that almost sounds as though many grown up believers have not moved much beyond “word magic” in their thinking about God. Getting God to do something is often made to sound as though it depends on getting the right words, praying or saying the right formula. If something doesn’t happen, then it is because we are using the wrong approach in the words that we are using in our praying or whatever. How small a god is that – that he apparently needs to hear his worshippers using  the right words before he acts or conversely that he can be made to act like an automaton, if the  right words are uttered? “Word magic” is not unknown in the Bible. Jacob wanted to know the name of the one he wrestled with one night at the Jabbok river – it turns out of course he had been wrestling with God. Jacob was into magic, into the occult, as stories in Genesis make clear. He felt that if he could know the name of the one he wrestled with then he could use that name magically to control him. Such belief was common at the time. Get hold of the secret name of a person or a god or the city of your enemy and you could control them. But Jacob didn’t need to do that. The only God there is, with whom he wrestled, had already renamed Jacob to call him “Israel.” The reason God gives for the name change is that Jacob  had fought with God and man and had prevailed. I can see that Jacob’s cunning and cheating helped him prevail over men, but for a long time I could not see how he had prevailed over God… until it came to me. It was Jacob’s sheer weakness and fallibility, his inability to be anything other than Jacob the cheat, that had prevailed. Our weakness is noticed by the compassion of God. The power in our relationship with God is weighted towards Him always. The power in the relationship is in His compassionate understanding love for His children.

Do you need to get rid of “word magic” ideas of God? A good proportion of you who read this blog will be charismatics, so I know you probably do need to get rid of some wrong teaching popular around that scene past and present: teaching that makes God too small, us too big and ultimately causes more disappointment and loss of faith than any blessing and help it brings. Do you need to get rid of the tormenting notion that someone you loved might not have died if only you had prayed in the way you have just heard at a Christian conference on healing you should have prayed? What nonsense! In fact what blasphemy against the Living God and the love of our Heavenly Father! Friend, child of God, you don’t need to do anything to move God. Our weakness and need of Him, our inability to do life already moves Him. “As a Father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him. He remembers we are dust.”

Don’t get over tied up in the right words or the right formulas. Sometimes we are praying most deeply and truly when we are praying in inarticulate sounds and groans. Our Father understands them.

Oh God have mercy on the church when we think we have any other power over God than our weakness!  Away with small minded teachings of a tiny God! “Our God is in the heavens, and He does whatsoever He pleases,”  says the Psalmist. Fortunately for us, it pleases Him to respond to even our most inarticulate sounds and weakest cries. He understands weakness from the inside, all the away from the weakness of babyhood to heaving out a last breath. So just speak to Him… half sentences are fine; incoherence is ok; no sound at all is just splendid! He just loves His children! He can work out what we really mean, better even than we can work out ourselves what on earth we really mean! In fact with that last sentence I too join the rank of blasphemous charismatic teachers, God forgive me. He doesn’t need to think and “work out” what we mean…He already knows… “Your Father knows…” It is good for that thought to be our spiritual breakfast and our evening supper and our bread through the day.

May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ bless you.

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

I really want to learn to be “fully present to the present.” I think the first time I heard that phrase was from the lips of someone who has suffered more than most. I had often noticed a far away look in their eyes almost as though they were focussing on something other than the moment, and when I remarked on what I noticed they said, “Yes, I find it hard to be present to the present.” The events of the past drew their attention and their energies almost with magnetic power. Sometimes it is not the past but the future that can draw us away from the present, either future dreams, hopes or fears about what may or may not happen. I have often mentioned Henri Nouwen in these blogs. He makes the observation that whenever we lose our way in a time of prayer it is usually because our minds have gone on to something in the past or something in the future and away from God in the present moment.

I simply want to ask you, “Is God with you right now?” Well, of course He is. Through Christ He has made a promise of His presence being with us always even to the end of the age. If we really believe that however, we would be more present to God in the present and probably think a lot less than we do about the past or the future. Henri Nouwen puts it like this in his small book, “ A Spirituality of Homecoming: “The  art of spiritual living is to pay attention to the breathing of the Spirit right where we are and to trust the Spirit is breathing new life in us now.The beauty of the spiritual life is that we can be where we are. We don’t need to be anywhere else. We are already home. So let’s be there…. Prayer is being with God in the present.” (pages 54 and 55.)

I realised not long ago that I had lost something of the felt peace and presence of God. I saw clearly one day that  had come about because perhaps understandably my mind was living a lot in the future in anticipation  of changes and uncertainties that stepping back from parish ministry will bring about. When I refocused on God in the present moment, felt peace and presence were restored almost instantaneously.

I fully understand why the past and the future can have amazing mesmeric hold over us. I pray that God may break that power if that is what you are experiencing and that you may be fully present to God in the present moment.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.

There are some words I come back to every so often because they bring life to me. Brennan Manning’s preaching clips on Youtube would be an example of what brings life to me  every time I listen. Take a listen yourself. Sometimes though there is a different tone I need to hear.  Today I thought with sadness and yet with hope of the words quoted below written by A W Tozer. The times are not favourable for such words to get a hearing in much of today’s church, even in those parts which have a reputation of life. My prayer is seasons will change in the church and the day may come when we embrace such words with godly regret, repentance and sorrow. When that day comes the Day of God’ s power for which many faithful souls have prayed over the decades will surely quickly follow.

THE OLD CROSS AND THE NEW

“Unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental. 

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique — a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.

The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure.…

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist… preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level…  

The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect…. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross. 

The old cross is a symbol of death…. The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life. 

That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die.

God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death…. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God’s stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.  …the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.“

Longer version here: The Old Cross and The New

I don’t mean to be pedantic, but today I was thinking that the phrase “my spiritual life” is not the best one to describe what is meant by it. I have been very aware  lately in this present phase of life as it is for me, that by spiritual life I really don’t mean something that I possess as though it was my own and deserves credit. Rather by spiritual life I think I mean the life of the Spirit of God within me. I found myself thinking today of a verse which Paul addressed to the Corinthians. In the opening chapters of 1st. Corinthians Paul acknowledges how blessed a church they were. They had been gifted with the visiting ministries of significant Christian leaders such as Paul and Apollos; they had been gifted too with many spiritual gifts. Unfortunately all of that had produced to a  significant degree a sort of arrogance or pride that in turn had produced the bad fruit of division. Paul has to say to them, “What have you that you did not receive? Why then do you boast as though it were your own.”

What do I have that I have not received as a gift from God? That may sound gloomy, pessimistic and Calvinistic in the extreme. Actually if you receive that truth the way I did today it gives tremendous hope. What do I mean? Well, of course I have responsibility to nurture and take care of what God gives by His Spirit, but ultimately I can only do so much. I don’t mean to make it sound as though I am passing the buck on to God, but ultimately if spiritual life is the result of the gift of His Spirit, then there is always hope. If spiritual life depended on me that would be worrying. But if it is a gift from God then when I am aware for whatever reason of things not being as they should be there is always hope, for Jesus has told me and told us all that our Father loves to give good things, loves to give His Holy Spirit to His children. At times when I have felt no great energy, indeed have felt blankness in my walk with the Lord, times where good things do not cause me to rejoice and sin does not really bother me, I have relied on the thought of Paul in 2nd, Corinthians Chapter 1, namely that we can set our hope on God, that having delivered us once He can do so again. God can do what I can’t. It is a slap in the face to our pride that actually all spiritual life is a gift from God, but it is our hope and a great relief as well.

I wonder if you are trying too hard to be spiritual, as though it is something that lies completely within your domain. Ultimately spiritual life is the life of the Spirit within us. It is all gift. If you are reading this and you are going though a blank time spiritually, I assure you on the basis of the Word of God and of my own personal experience, that God can turn that around. He can cause deep to call unto deep when all seems pretty dead and lifeless within. He can help us desire Him when we have no such desire in ourselves. There is one prayer I have never found God say a “No” to, and that is when I am genuinely unable to make any progress myself, and when that has ceased to bother me, I have called on him to deliver me from my own spiritual deadness yet again. Sooner or later, He always has. When he does deliver me from that deadness, I have cried over what I could not cry over before, rejoiced over what previously I felt blank towards. When I ask for help sooner or later something begins to stir with longing for God that seemed to have gone out. FROM CHRIST AND FOR CHRIST AND TO CHRIST ARE ALL THINGS. Ask Him to assert the power of His life within you.There is nothing to boast about save Him. Call out to the God who can bring life where there is deadness. Something will begin to stir within you.

I read a beautiful line in a poem today about “Restless Africa” stirring in the hearts of swallows just before they migrate. May the Spirit of the God who yearns jealousy for you make a restlessness felt within you, until wild horses could not drag you back from seeking the One you may currently be cold shouldering. If it does not sound too irreverent to mention this, sometimes the medication I am on makes me uncontrollably ravenously hungry. The cause of that hunger does not originate in me. I think I just want to say to you today, especially to those who have lost a desire for God,  that Christ is the hunger as well as the bread. Set your hope on Him.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.