Have just deleted a sarcastic/humorous post about Christian T.V. channel “what I wrote,” to quote Ernie Wise, after watching it in the wee small hours due to sleeplessness. The thoughts in the now defunct and discarded post may have been true enough, but it was not kind. Remembering that we are judged in the same measure we judge and that if we judge not we shall not be judged should lead to the sound of knives dropping to the ground more often than that sound is actually heard… If you want to make any comments about the difference between judging and being judgemental, please don’t. You are missing the point.

I should say that a non-shouting, Jesus-in-her-face-and-voice woman who just came on screen ten minutes ago, was the instrument God used to make me think again….

So, I have set in place again my normal rules/ self imposed guidelines which I usually try and follow. Along with questioning, “Is the thing I am about to say true?” there are another couple of questions that are worth asking. “Is is kind?” and, “Will it help anyone in any way?” By the way, that does not mean I am giving up my Glaswegian humour! That is a gift of God to the world at large and to a far too often far too serious Christian Church. If you want to write a comment about that, please don’t do that either. Just laugh your annoyance off. You will feel better if you do.

There is all the difference in the world and in the eyes of God for that matter between “cleverness” and “wisdom.” Cleverness seems to like to vaunt itself with many words. The bible is not a very big book. The words of eternal life are few in number…

As Sunday approaches, try dropping the knives, rather than carrying them to the pulpit or the pew.

God bless

Kenny

In John Chapter 16, Jesus tells us to use His Name when we come to the Father in prayer. He does not tell us to misuse His Name. If you want an example of what it means to misuse a name, look at 2 Kings 5. After Naaman is healed of leprosy through obedience to the word of the Man of God Elisha, Gehazi, Elisha’s servant thinks he will benefit from the miracle. He runs after Naaman asking for money in the name of the Elisha, money which Elisha had been offered but had turned down. With a made up story to which he attaches Elisha’s name he asks for money. He gets it. He also gets leprosy…

Early retirement for me was not the result of an attack by Satan upon my health designed to stop my ministry. It was a step of obedience to my Heavenly Father, a learning to walk a new path with Him that I had never walked before. There have been difficulties on that new path for sure, but nothing compared with the blessing of fellowship with Him. it has been a path showered with the presence of His kindness and compassion, a path which has been marked by experienced generosity, often coming through the care of other individual people (some of whom know me and some of whom scarcely know me or Morag at all, who have listened to God on our behalf and responded), but also through my own denomination and the state and even the tax man!

The other night I had a dream in which my name was not Kenneth ( Gaelic meaning: Handsome!!!) but Dorothy, Ha ha, ( God’s Gift )! That is the Prophetic title I have chosen to write over this phase, this new path. I refuse to give Satan glory. It is a path called “Gift of God.” In the dream there were doctors of the laws of illness and healing pouring over their books, which looked very thin and insubstantial, furious at the phase of life illness has released into being called “Dorothy, Gift of God,” furious with me for accepting such a name to describe my life at the present. Fortunately I had discharged myself from their “care”, their fundamentalism and legalism, their diagnosis and judgements, their insubstantial books and learning, and chosen the path of freedom and belovedness, obedience and trust.

Who knows what other steps of abounding and being abased in all sorts of ways may yet be on this path? At times, I may be brought so low in one way or another that no one would understand how I could call this path, “Gift of God.” At other times I might so overwhelmingly abound that you may be tempted to jealousy at how much God chooses to bless me spiritually, materially, physically, and in any other sort of way you can name. The raising of “ jealousy” levels seems to be an acceptable biblical method of evangelism, by the way, and who knows might even at times work for God’s own people to bring them deeper into Christ. Paul was happy to endorse it’s potential good fruit. In it all, I pray that I will hold on to the secret of being content however discontent the story may make others feel.

God bless

Kenny, pilgrim on the Dorothea road…..

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1: 8-9.

This is too small a goal for many church leaders, to the extent that sometimes such a goal is never allowed to be celebrated in the terraces. Sundays have become too routinely a place for envisioning, pumping up the church for its tasks and mission and not much more in some cases. The effect is the opposite of what is intended. People limp home from the match under the burden of feeling they have failed, with thoughts of an exhausting punishing training calendar still filling their ears.

Hoping today that in the churches of Scotland, God’s born again people will be allowed to simply rejoice in the One whom having not seen we adore, the one in whom we have believed, the One who has saved our souls, is saving them, and will save them. GOAL! Perhaps if we were allowed to simply celebrate more the story of our salvation, the roar of the joyful celebration would be lingering about our faces, our words, our actions wherever we go in the days of this new week, invading the pitch of the world where the goal was scored and the victory was won.

Frankly, along with many of my fellow Scottish believers, I am too aware at times of my failings, unhealthily and unhelpfully so, and I don’t need to be told “Come on Church…” and lectured about my demerits. Nor do most beleivers who are doing their best to live for Jesus faithfully through the week. I do need to sing songs of celebration and rejoice in the one who drank from the Cup and still holds it above his head in triumph, causing a spontaneous roar from all who follow Him. I need space alone and with others to think about His glorious victory again and again, His never ending glory days.

God bless

Kenny

I have just been reading John 16 this morning. What struck me among many other things was the theme of “asking.” The disciples are in spiritual confusion because of what Jesus has been telling them, but for whatever reason, they seem reluctant to voice that. I guess it is hard to admit our ignorance, especially if we are meant to be spiritual leaders in the work of God!  From that point on in the chapter,  Jesus seems to be encouraging them to make asking from a place of confusion very much a permanent  part of their spiritual walk. He is going to the Father, with all that means for opening up the way to His Father as their Father. They can come to the Father for anything at any time but especially to bring Him their questions  in times of confusion and tribulation and stress, and ask for all they need to see a path through these times. That primarily seems to be the type of asking which Jesus is encouraging in this particular chapter.

I have grown to love the New living Translation of the bible.  No doubt there will be those reading this blog who will point to its deficiencies, but I have found it often helps me to see and visualise truth with a new simplicity. In verse 23 we read these words on the lips of Jesus: “…ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name.”  Here is what is ignited in my imagination by these words:

I stand at the door marked “Father’s House”  and knock. I hear a voice from within the house: “Yes?”

“Jesus sent me. He told me I could come here and say he sent me. He told me I could come to you and ask you for anything. He told me….”

… my  introduction of myself is cut short! The door flings swiftly, even wildly open, as tbough it could not be opened fast enough, as though it would burst its own hinges!  The smiling, excited and astonished Father says to me with eyes and voice sparkling with something impossible to express in words,  “Jesus sent you, you say? My Son told you to come here, to come to me? Come in friend, come right in! Whoever he sends my way, never gets turned away from my door, or goes away empty handed! Any friend of Jesus, my Son, is my friend too. Come in, come on in! You are more than welcome!  Sit down.  Let’s sup together first of all….Now, what is it you are wanting to ask? Tell me about it.”

“Well, Father, I am confused. These are troubling times. I need wisdom, I need understanding, I need faith, well, I don’t know all that I need, but I need you to help me overcome, Father, to help me to be like the one we both love, Jesus, who overcame the world.”

…and the conversation, the speaking/listening, the round of questioning/answering begins…. and I find something of that indescribeable sparkle I noticed  begins to sparkle deep within me. Deep calls to deep. I begin to believe that I, even I, can be more than a conqueror through Him who has loved me, and always will.

May you see the door to the Father’s house being flung wildly open to welcome you this day and every day. Begin to ask and sparkle!

God bless

Kenny

One of the reasons false written gospels were dismissed as such, was that they contained stories where Jesus used miraculous powers to gain advantage over others, even in His childhood! That was a good call. However, there is one story in the authentic gospels which has always left me a bit uneasy. I was reminded of it a few days ago, in my daily reading in “Sanctuary” by David Strutt (a book I highly recommend if you are looking for a new daily devotional book). It is in Matthew 17, where Jesus sends Simon Peter fishing. He tells him that in the mouth of the first fish he catches there will be a coin sufficient in worth to pay for the temple tax for Peter and for himself.

Sundays, I get up earlier than other days of the week,  to take a medicine that I only take once a week. It has to be taken an hour after I have been up and I cannot eat anything or take other medication until another hour has passed. As every Sunday, so this Easter Sunday, however, what is a bit of a chore was a joy today. Thought these thoughts in the still brighntess of Easter Morning and share them with you here:

Has a smile dawned on your face yet, this Easter Morning? May joy and laughter bubble up from your resurrected spirit, the place where the truth of the empty tomb is most deeply known and never doubted, and may your body, mind and emotions be refreshed in that overflow!

Especially if you are troubled in mind or emotions or your body seems anything like a blessing, take time to listen to the gurgling stream permanently rising in your spirit: “Lives again our glorious King! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Once He died, our souls to save, where thy victory O grave?”

Despite the coldness of the weather, what an added blessing as I look out the window…the sun is bright, the primroses are blooming, there is colour and life! Everything in God’s temple of creation shouts, “Glory!” Join in with the primroses! Who knows what lingering night darkness in your soul may be frightened away by your shout of praise?

One thing distracted me from praise: a messy eater! Annoyed big time at a tiny wee bird, at the feeder. For every seed he/she eats he/she is scattering a hundred more to a 2 metre radius. Could he or she  not reat my generosity with more respect?  All that seed being flung about carelessly will attract rats, vermin…..The Holy Spirit laughs within and says, “God loves a messy eater!” I look again. 20 birds or more are happily hopping about the ground, feeding on the overspill of this bird who unknown to himself/herself was causing me such anguish of mind!. So the Holy Spirit seems to want to say this: “Stuff yourself full of Christ this Easter, but be a messy eater!”  Even if others think you are a bit ill mannered, eat enthusiastically and leave a mess of seed wherever you go.

Because of the ministry of messy eaters known by name or unkonwn,   there can be  baptismal services such as the one  I hope to get out to tonight. It will be packed out not only with beleivers but with non beleivers, there in curiostiy and love to support a family member in what they are doing. I will need to be there early to have any hope of finding a seat. What better way to celebrate the aliveness of Jesus than to rejoice in the ongoing story of lives saved and changed through the seed of Christ and His Kingdom being shared and spread abroad?

God Bless

Kenny