Feel I always need to make this sort of intro as there are a wide variety of folk who seem to read either my Faecebook ramblings or my blog. ! From time to time when praying, I seem to be given a word from God which is to be shared as it is a specific word for a specific moment, probably for a specific person, but may be a word in season for several as often there seems to be seasons in God, and for that matter seasons of attack where many beleivers find themselves facing something similar to one another at the same moment. Occasionally, I am given names, but that is very occasional and very unusual for me, probably something to do with levels of faith at any given moment. Sometimes a face appears connected with the message. Sometimes I tell the person whose face I see as the word comes to me, but sometimes I fear that may be seen as being too manipulative and I just put it out there hoping in faith that the right person will see it, weigh it up and have faith this may be God speaking to them to encourage, strengthen and comfort them, the purpose of the new Testament gift of prophecy, which I only experience intermittently to a small degree compared with many.

OK, I know it is still the 12 days of Christmas, but my mind is going on to thinking about hopes for the New Year. My hope is that we will get hold of what the essence of the Kingdom “here but not yet” is about: Justice. In First World Charismatic Christianity the Kingdom has become sort of one dimensional sadly, in that there is a fixation about physical healing and how we can see more of it. That shows how pampered we have become and how out of touch and meaningless we can seem to be in a world that for billions is unsafe and unjust and where wrong often triumphs over many generations. I love the words of this old hymn, and make it my prayer for this and every New Year:

The battle “not against flesh and blood” had to be won in flesh and blood like our own and in flesh and blood circumstances. True then for Him, true still for us. May The Word be seen in flesh throughout the parishes of Scotland. May victories secured in heaven’s throne room by worship and prayer through our Saviour’s virtue and merits, be served on earth in acts of mercy, kindness, compassion, care, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to bring light into deep darkness. If it is not so, then our claimed victories in heavenly realms are simply an earthly vanity, an unprovable assertion amidst all the empty claims, promises, imaginings and loud mouthed shoutings of the passing centuries of pride and lostness. “As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.”

God Bless

Kenny

Getting ahead of the season a bit. Thinking of how it takes faith to see answers to prayer. Simeon and Anna saw in baby Jesus God answering prayers and fulfilling promises for the consolation and redemption of Israel. That was not obvious to the eye of flesh. Only hearts and heads full of Scripture mixed with an experience of the immediate witness and revelation of the Holy Spirit could have led to such insight.

Getting even more ahead of the spiritual season into the next big season (thought not as speedily as Cadbury with  their cream eggs in the shops already!), what about this verse from Hebrews? “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his godly fear (5:7).” It would not have looked at all obvious around the foot of the cross that the One who could save Jesus from death was at work, but He was. Who could have looked at the cross and believed for rescue and salvation of a lifeless man marred beyond human semblance except through a gift of faith and holding on to the insight of Scripture that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and then enter His glory?

(Put this short thought on Facebook earlier today. Thought I should put it here for those of you who don’t have Facebook, either by acident or design!)

I love the story of Mary visiting Elizabeth. True fellowship when the Spirit of God is at work involves affirming the presence and action of God in one another and growing to an understanding of God at work in us that we could never have arrived at alone. Is there someone you could affirm in the waiting time before the dawn of Christmas Day?

God bless

Kenny

OK, all ye misery guts out there, we know it is not true that the little Lord Jesus no crying he makes. Here’s the thing though. I have seen many people over the years cry good healing tears at that line: older people, abused people, folk who have hit the gutter or never got out of there in the first place….it allows stuffed down stuff to surface, as well as a longing too for no more tears.

Only a week tor two ago, I heard an almost exclusively male gathering of men sing it with laldy at The Haven, a place that helps people get free from addictions in the Name of Jesus Christ. Some of their stories almost unbearable to hear let alone live through. “Away in a Manger” sounded like the song of a marching fully clad army with blazing weapons! Astonishingly blessed!

So, all ye demythologising zealots, allow us to sing “no crying he makes” and forbid us not. Myth sometimes takes us deeper into reality than scowling faced, bald, angry truth. Yes, I know you think emphasising that the baby Jesus cried like us would surely help the hurting more, but the “surelys” of our hearts have a logic of their own that the “surelys” of our minds don’t always quite get.

God Bless

Kenny

I cannot check the details, as I had to get rid of the book the two words I quote below came from. It was by Helmut Thielicke. It’s title was either “The Meaning of Life” or “I believe.” I had both, but I had to give them away along with hundreds of other books due to their potential danger to my lungs! To buy a physical copy of either of them now could cost qnything from 1p. to £800 from some sellers! Fortunately there are electronic versions available which means the danger to lungs posed by second hand books can be avoided at a reasonable cost!

Whatever, in the context of talking about a favourite photograph of his, of a nativity play in a prison in which the prisoners played all the parts ( even the angels!), Thielicke warned about making a “snobbish judgement” about folk who don’t perhpas have much to do with God at other times of the year celebrating Christmas. It is a good warning. See in that reality something of the power of the light of Christ to touch, even in our day and age, those who may be afar off. Don’t dismiss it all as sentimentality. Some of it no doubt is, but not all. It is the reach of His hand and Kingdom into the darkness to give even a little passing light. For some it really is the spark of something divine beginning.

I was given a coffee for free in a shop the other day by someone who as far as I know takes no interest in the things of God. In a small way, profit, buying and selling were set aside to allow something else to emerge. There was genuine good will behind it. It led to quite a lengthy conversation about “this time of the year.” Just saying…don’t be a Christian, born again, bible believeing, Spirit-filled  snob about Christmas.

God bless

Kenny

Woke up with the image of someone who has served the Church so well. I know who they are, but I think they were representative of many who have done that and become tired out and a bit disillusioned, which may be you! Whatever, into that God seemed to speak. This too may be for you:

“You have stored up so much knowledge about the church as system. You have understood its components in a detailed and intricate way. You have been a true workman in a shed. That shed is full of shelves that speak of painstaking work and analysis achieved through involvment and getting your hands dirty in the good sense. Many paid lip service to your knowledge but few embraced it or put it into practice. An expert damned by the faint praise and insincere smiles of appreciation of people you sought to serve for Jesus’ sake and glory.

Somewhere in the shed, hidden away in the furthest corner from the door, is an overcoat and some boots, on a coat stand, gathering dust. Put them on. Whatever the future of your expertise, leave that to me. There are times and seasons for everything under the sun. For you, this is a season of recovery from church as system, a system which often chews up and spits out the very best of God’s offered blessing and goodness. Put on the coat and boots. Come afresh into the open air of God. Often people know me and long for me as fire and warmth. I am inviting you into a walk with me that is like the thrill of the coldness of a frosty morning under the clearest of bright skies that will shock your spiritual senses awake and bring back child like mirth. I can restore your enthusiasm, your filled-with-God-ness, so much so that even in those intensely dark moments which oppress you, you will know that with coat and boots on, you can go out and find frosty glistening light shining like twinkling stars on the darkest path. For you, this is a season of lightness of spirit being restored. Believe again for a joy that knows no limit.”

Hope this helps a few of you.

God Bless

Kenny

“Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.” (Luke 9:16)

“Jesus kept giving…so the disciples could distribute…” The miracle is always the Work of the hand of Jesus, the Son of God. Disciples’ hands distribute in His Name.

Every true ministry happening this day is really just a distribution and delivery service, whether it be local ot international. Remembering the distinction between who gives and who distributes might help close the gap between grand proclamations and the works of God actually being made manifest among and through His people.

I wrote this on facebook a few days ago after I had been reading Romans 10:

“You don’t need to search the heavens for a sign or strain to see to the horizons of the deepest widest sea for rescue to appear. Emmanuel: God with us. May God birthed faith be awakened or re-awakened in you and in me to know that, remember that and hear that. He is at hand: He is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace: near, with, within, whichever you need to know: not unattainably high or an ocean depth and width away.”

These words came back to me this morning with a personal relevance. Allow me to explain and expand here!

It is just the way my mind works. I think it has been made worse by steroids. What am I talking about? Well, from time to time, especially within a certain period of time after taking my medication in the morning, a hint of facts until then unknown to me, is too much for me. For example this morning I was up early due to having to take a certain medicine after being up for an hour and before I have eaten anything or taken any other medication. I put on the T.V. I heard a story about a ship that was wrecked off the Isle of Wight during the second world war. It was full of South African soldiers.  A huge number of people perished. In fact I think it was mentioned it was the second worst shipwreck ever in British waters. Of the number who perished a huge percentage  were black. They were required in the service of the British Empire, but the South African Government  would not allow them to bear arms therefore they had to serve as carriers and cooks. My mind started working overtime with those little bits of facts. It wanted to delve more into the story, especially to find out the reasoning as to why black soldiers from South Africa could not carry armsarm. Then, a  fear arose within me: there is so much in this story alone that I am ignorant of, so much I do not know. Researching that story alone could take me down roads of learning and knowledge that I know nothing about….

…so I decided to switch programmes. Gardening was on the next channel up. It idid not take long for the familiar fear to arise again: the right sort of soil, what to plant with what for what reasons…so much I do not know. Again, multiple possible roads of learning seemed to beckon.

I am so glad that finding God does not involve searching endless roads of learning. There is a sort of approach to spirituality that Gandhi suggested, namely that God was so worth finding that it was worth looking for Him as  patiently as picking up one drop of the ocean at a time with a straw. In contrast to that endless search approach, we have the story of Christmas.  In  a specific place that can be found on a map, at a time which can be measured in history,  in a baby named Jesus the Son of Mary, God came to us.

It sounds strange but it is thankfully true, that though there are so many things in the world that I cannot ever hope to learn and know,  I can come to know the One who is greater and creator of all that can be known. To find Him is not hard. Religion when it goes wonky thinks it is hard to know God involving  some sort of endless search which never comes to an arrival point. Where is the step ladder by which I can strive to climb up to heaven and meet God? How can I mine the depths of the mysteries of life and death to find the Lord of both? Maybe I can never discover the mystery which is God until beyond death?

The bible says that we do not need to climb up to heaven as though Christ has never come down to us. Nor  need to wait until we go through the valley of the shadow of death to meet with Him as though Christ had never made that journey first.  He has done so. He has lived our life, died our death and offers his risen victorious self for relationship from the other side of the grave to us this side of the grave! He is simply a step of faith away, or better a step of faith near to us.

God is not an idea for the philosophers alone to attain to, not a branch of endless learning better understood  by the intellectually gifted. In fact, i the bible,  God in terms of what we need to know about Him and His heart and purposes for us and for the world,  is a  mystery revealed, uncovered in Jesus,  not a concealed knowledge for the few. There is an approach  to spirituality that seeks to cover up the revelation with mystery again. It can be the mystery of mysticism itself, the mystery of profound language, interesting speculation, or even the mystery that only those who know the most subtle nuances of Greek or Hebrew can ever hope to decipher.

I hope you have the most amazingly simple and  non-mysterious Christmas. May you find in Jesus the one who helps you to worship, for as you discover Him you will find the word “Wonderful,” rising on your lips in praise. May you find His help near to you in day to day decisions in your life, for He is “Counsellor.” May you find Him giving you strength where you are aware you are weak for he is “the Mighty God.” Whatever age you are, may you find the security in Jesus of having an “Everlasting Father.” I pray too He will be “the Prince of Peace” in situations of tension and turmoil within you or around you.

God has made Himself so findable, He plants himself in Jesus in the ordinary soil of our humaness. He dis-covers Himself there to our gaze.

God bless

Kenny

Today I was remembering a walk in a beach a long time ago now, when I believe I saw supernatural in-breaking of the Kingdom of God accompanying the meeting of  the very human need and desire of a small child ,who had been through a time of strain, to walk and play  on the beach. I won’t go into the whole story as many of you will have heard it before anyway. But the result of that day is that ever since I have carried a vision of God’s Kingdom that has a more human need based face than I had before. Oh there was always a human need aspect to what I thought of when I thought of God’s Kingdom breaking in: men, women and children would find their deepest need for repentance and reconciliation with God met. For me there is no greater need than that, but in a sense my vision up until that walk on the beach was a bit limited.

This is the season when we will remember that a child is born to us a Son is given to us… and the Government shall be upon his shoulders, a government that will increase and know no end.

What does your vision of the Kingdom of God breaking in and becoming real look like.

Today I made some rough notes as I was reading some of Henri Nouwen’s writings and also some bits and pieces from Brennan Manning. Here are some half-quotes and the attendant thoughts scribbled in my notebook. Allow me to share them with you with slight alterations to make them remotely sensible to you and not just to me:

Sparked off by H. Nouwen: “When I think about The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is there room in my  vision for some of the phrases and thoughts awakened by verses about God’s Kingdom in Scripture that H.N.  uses in his writings?

‘… a peaceable kingdom in which all violence has been overcome and (in which) all men, women and children (are) living in loving unity with nature….

…every time we forgive….make a child smile…. show compassion…. arrange a bouquet of flowers….offer care to tame or wild animals…..prevent pollution….create beauty in our homes and gardens….work for peace and justice…..we are making the vision come true…’

I feel thanksgiving arising for Flower Festivals in Churches (never thought that day would come in time or eternity, I have to say!) and Donkey Sanctuaries….Love it!” I wonder if a Pentecostal has ever written a book called, “God’s KIngdom: In praise of Flower Festivals and Doneky Sanctuaries.” Mmm…maybe….

Sparked off by B. Manning: “What does the Government that was placed upon Christ’s shoulders look like. I guess it is the mantle of the cross and its outworking as it grows on the earth is cross shaped too:

B.Manning: ‘accepted suffering is not just a good way of doing things, or an ideal to be carried out when convenient – it’s the only way to overcome evil. The only way. This goes cross grain to every molecule in me, Father. Yet, I pray not my will but yours this day.’

Jesus’s Kingdom will grow on earth through me this day, when I conquer evil in the ways it seeks to destroy the will of God in me or in others I meet this day in my life or theirs, my circumstances or theirs, in the continuing story of God in me or in them. It cannot be reduced to programmes or movements. The weapons at times look inferior, less forceful than the weapons evil uses, but Jesus showed they worked: the cross could be mocked, but the weakness of God (astonishing phrase) was the power of God. Violence, injustice, betrayal seem so hideously strong, but if the government is upon Christ’s shoulder it means despite all appearances, mercy, non retaliation, love, prayer, weakness yielded to God are more powerful still.”

Further thoughts over night:

The cross, the government laid upon His shoulders:

What a comfortable place the uncomfortable Kingdom of God is to live in when you spiritualise it all…..de-flesh the Word, adhere to principles without doing the deeds, turn an altar of comnsuming blazing fire into smoke machine smoochy ballads, remove the life long debt of gratitude from the debt cancelling cross.

I hope my jottings bless you. If not, well they blessed me anyway when first jotted them!

God Bless

Kenny

A couple of thoughts to spark off your own thinking. No need to post your thoughts unless you want to!

Many churches think about John the Baptist at some point in Advent:

Firstly: John the Baptist, according to Jesus, was greater than anyone else born of women, including all the prophets, yet he performed no miracles unlike Elijah in whose spirit and power he had appeared and lived and ministered. There was something about him more important than miracles ( as indeed there was about Elijah) that merited honouring from Christ. What was it?

God Bess

Kenny

Was challenged by a phrase in a book of Advent Readings by Thomas Merton. When we meet or discern error in a church setting can we confront that without being “rebellious or indiscreet” ? Perhaps as evangelicals our zeal for truth sometimes results in our being too ready to shout out about the errors of whatever church, denomination etc. we belong to. That may bring us a certain admiration in the small pond in which we are considered to be a big champion type of fish but doesn’t do much beyond that small pond of preening and mutual admiration.

If we see a wound in a church setting, let’s ask God what we can do to heal it in His grace and by His wisdom.

God bless

Kenny

Over my years as a parish minister, people often spoke with good will into my situation who were not in my situation or in the place of my calling. (Incidentally I had not usually asked them to speak into my situation. Occasionally I had the courage to calmly and politely tell them so, which shocked  and unnerved them!) Sometimes their thoughts truly helped me, often they were pretty useless and unhelpful. When they were unhelpful, it was usually because they were programmatic and glib as though the recipe for “success” being offered was fail safe and unquestionably true for every situation.

These thoughts were awakend this morning, by a book of daily readings I have turned back to many times over the years by E. Stanely Jones. His thoughts for this day were based on Luke Chapter 4 and on two verses which are a mere ten verses apart. In verse 4 of that chapter we read of Jesus being full of the power of the Spirit. In verse 24 we read of this same Jesus announcing a truth that a prophet (himself) was not always welcome in his own country.

The soil matters. I hope that encourages those of you who are maybe in church settings that you know the Lord has called you to, but there is not much fruit to show. You have maybe felt condemned by the implications of some people that there must be something wrong with you, your spirituality, that you are lacking in the Spirit’s fullness or whatever.

The soil matters. It does not all depend on you, man of God, woman of God, tested in the wilderness and full of the Spirit. Don’t allow a charge to rest upon you that is unjustified. May God assure you this weekend that you are in the place you are meant to be and even  in the condition you are meant to be in.

God Bless

Kenny

I have no idea who Kevin O’Shea is but I read something he said and I like it. It helps me be honest about whether or not I am living in “the wisdom of accepted tenderness,” (Brennan Manning).

Here is the quote:

“One rejoices in being unfrightened to be open to the healing presence, no matter what one might be or what one might have done.”

Today, may the God whose kindness and love appeared in the world in Christ to save us (Titus 3:4) help you, whoever you are, to be able to replace with conviction “One” with “I” in the quote. May the church fellowship to which you belong be able to replace “One” with “We.”

God bless

Kenny