I occasionally write poetry. Well, I call it that anyway. It is mainly for me and I seldom share it. I find that the starting point 99% of the time is a memory, and more specifically a remembered feeling that is sparked off by something in the “now.” Today, the remembered feeling is one of trembling excitement. It was the simply glorious weather today that sparked it off. It took me back to my first visit to the Mainland of Orkney when I was in the early stages of feeling the call of God to go to Orkney to minister. The day Morag and I first set foot in the islands  we were met by the interim moderator – sorry that is Church of Scotland speak: it means the person in charge of a vacant church until they get a new minister. He took us out for lunch. I suppose lunch lasted about an hour to an hour and a half as there was much to talk about. I do not remember a thing about the food. I certainly remember the kindness and integrity and warm encouragement of the interim moderator, Rev. John Waugh. The other thing I remember is a passing thought that he must have wondered if I was being rude, because I was fascinated by the changing weather framed by the window behind him as he talked. It was almost like a speeded up video, that compacted a year into an hour! Every season seemed to cross that window. There was sun, rain, snow, wind whipping up leaves followed by  calm. I had never seen such changeable weather! It was an early but definite sign that if we followed through the sense of call, we would be  coming to a place which was different in every way to what we had been used to and I felt  a tingling sense of nervousness mixed with a sense of an adventure that was beckoning.

By the time we had been in Orkney a couple of years, I got used to the rapid changes in weather so much so that I hardly noticed them.  I got used to the constant wind across the treeless sea-hugging island we lived on, so much so that if the wind ever stopped blowing, it unsettled me and I could not sleep! It felt as though something was wrong! I was soon just like the locals in that I would call what we in Scotland would call a storm, “Just a breeze!” I got used to the very dark days of winter and the wonderful long spring and summer days. These long summer days are bound to become a poem or a blog or both someday or other whenever I manage to name the feeling they awaken as I think of them. It is not just fiction by the way; you really can read a book outside at midnight if you so choose; you can also play golf at  that same hour, though in Orkney golf courses are rather rarer than hen’s teeth! But today it was the remembered first thrill of that changeable day that came forcibly to mind.

Somehow I was helped as I remembered. I guess  that for me these last three years have been a time when nothing has seemed quite as stable or straightforward as I might have wished. My health has been unpredictable and unreliable. Squash had to give way to golf, which had to give way to riding a bicycle which has had to give way to walking along flat paths beside the canal.  Changes are coming with where we will live, lifestyle etc. I am retired at least 8 years before the right season. Somehow that remembered day in Orkney  lessened the fear of rapid change and brought back somewhere on the wind of the Spirit  the call to adventure, the lure of  fresh places to go in God, wherever and whatever they may look like. Change with no anchor points of course is a fearful thing. Let me tell you two things that I have been thinking about today that are helping me move away from the anxiety end of the scale towards adventure. I don’t think I have successfully completed that journey but I am getting there, even if at times it is one step forward, two steps back. If you are facing changes you find  it difficult to negotiate, I hope what follows might help.

Firstly, there is one thing I know I can be certain about.  Brennan Manning says that if a Christian is asked what is certain in this life, before they answer along with the world “death and taxes, ” they can say, “the love of Christ.” I don’t always handle the changes that come my way as well as I would like and sometimes fall into self condemnation. Thankfully though my trust is not in me but in Christ in me, Christ for me not against me. His love is constant, it does not change like the weather. Perhaps you are going through changing seasons of life at the moment.  Perhaps the weather in your life is constantly shifting. You may be coping well. But perhaps you are not. It is so easy to  pour upon ourselves how we “ought” to be or “should” be  coping as a Christian. Somewhere in my mind I remember a preacher asking a question, “Which is greater; your capacity to mess it up, or God’s capacity to love you?” If you are tempted to say that you are making a hash of your life at the moment, that the way your are coping with the weather in your  life seems stained with the word “failure” then let me quote to you words the source of which I do remember. Duncan Campbell says in a tape recorded sermon that, “The blood of Christ can cleanse as deep as the stain has gone.” That is a wonderful thought. Please believe it. Whatever mark you would give yourself for coping or not coping with changes you are trying to negotiate, there is nothing more certain than the love of Christ for you.

Secondly, if you are struggling to get some sense of continuity and order to your days for whatever reason, let me share help I found in Henri Nouwen. Frequently in his writings he draws attention to the way in which Jesus life was ordered. There were 3 anchor points; solitude with His Father, fellowship and communion with his disciples, and mission/ministry to the world. Especially in times where not a lot is certain and a lot seems to be changing, I have found these 3 anchor points useful to keep in mind. They help keep anxiety at bay and bring a sense of balance and some sort of order. I am not wanting to be prescriptive here about what these 3 concepts would look like in your day or week or month. Find what works for you.  I am simply saying where I have found bread and  want to share it with you.

God Bless

Kenny

PS – 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.

Today, for reasons that would take up too much blog space, I found myself thinking of the concept of “yearning.” I was thinking of places or experiences or whatever that I yearn to visit again. I got a very great surprise as I did. I thought I would yearn for a repeat of my conversion experience, or  of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, or the time I felt kissed by the Father’s love in the days of the Toronto Blessing , or of one of the times when I have experienced  a miracle such as transportation. However, strangely enough I did not find I yearned for any of these things. They happened, they are real, and I thank God it is so. However strange this may sound, let me tell you what I yearned to revisit.

The first place I found myself yearning to revisit is a mountain pool somewhere in Bavaria. We stumbled on it during a school trip. I probably could never find it again, but today I found myself yearning after it. There was something about it: it was ice cold and refreshing both to drink and to swim in; the clarity was almost mystical; it was somehow clearer than air, with a shimmering beauty. The colour, well I cannot describe it, but I have never seen a jewel more beautiful, alluring or captivating. I really wish I could describe it to you.

The second experience I found myself yearning for, was when I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room a good few months back. I was feeling incredibly vulnerable, perhaps never more so in my whole life to date. However, the presence of Christ came. I was touched with the gentlest  of loves. He did not come to rebuke lack of faith and tell me I should not be anxious, as I was trying to tell myself in angry frustration. He came to do something about my anxiety. He met me with a love that would not break a bruised reed.

I was thinking about the link between these two experiences. I think the link is “beauty.” The prophetic hope offered in Isaiah is that  we “shall see the King in His beauty.”  I have always known that beauty ministers to my soul. I think of my friend Sylvia and her beautiful home where the CLAN team used to meet. There was something about the house itself, something too about its setting and the beauty of many of the objects in that house that ministered to me as did Sylvia and her amazing gift of hospitality. But the beauty somehow mattered…

Are you giving enough time to contemplate beautiful things? C.S. Lewis once said that we must not allow the devil to hold joy to ransom. Sometimes it is easy in the world such as we know it is, to feel it is wrong to laugh, or to be happy, wrong or even escapism to think about beautiful things in a world where there is much ugliness and brutality and injustice. Sometimes modern versions of Christianity can make us feel that if something does not help to minister to injustice or solve some need in the world it is illegitimate. This sounds convincing but it suffers from inadequacy as do most politically correct statements.. We know from the bible that Jesus was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, but according to Hebrews Chapter 1 He is also anointed with the oil of gladness beyond anyone else in the universe. If our Christianity is simply turned into  a “how to”  for solving the world’s problems we have really gone down a wrong road. Some versions of Christianity remind me of an Orkney farmer in his 80’s who lived on the island of Stronsay which along with the neighbouring island of Eday was my first charge. Some incoming people had set up a water-skiing club. I asked him if he was going to try the water skiing? He was pensive for a moment and then he said, “No, I don’t think so. I never saw the use for it!” If Christianity has become only something that has merit because of its usefulness then we have  lesser spirituality than the bible encourages us towards.

Let me place these words of Paul before you. You could never accuse him of being so heavenly minded he was no earthly use. Actually I have hardly ever met this specimen of Christian. I think the problem is that more often we are so earthly minded we are no use for heavenly purposes here on earth. Think  about these words;  they may help you to live better and sleep more peacefully.There is a lot of talk these days about the Apostolic. Well, most of it I think has no backing in Scripture. It is not I doubt that the gift of the Apostle is a real one for today’s church. I just don’t think that many who say they have that gift really have, according to my understanding of the Bible. The gift of spiritual entrepreneurship is not the gift of Apostleship, though it is often presented as such. This is wrong teaching I believe, tthough often it comes from good people and is well meant… but that is for another day! But I do know Paul was an Apostle and hopefully, whoever you may think is or is not an Apostle today, you believe Paul’s Apostolic Authority is still in place for us all as  followers of Christ. Whatever church or gathering you are part of, it would do us all good to listen to these words:

Philippians 4:8King James Version (KJV)

“ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things…”

God bess you with his beautiful  love.

Kenny

PS – I would commend to you again the Concept of Christian Mindfulness which is relevant in the light of this blog.

Go to

Welcome to Christian Mindfulness

I am finding this so helpful myself.

PPS – 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.

Today is Sunday.  I find myself thinking  of those of  you who are preaching, leading worship, working with children and young people, or leading in some other way  at church this morning. I am thinking most especially of those who are running ragged and a bit behind time! There is still time to pray some John Wimber prayers. Let me share two that have helped me a lot over the years:

1 – “ O God, O God, O God…”

2  – “Help!’

God bless you, as you seek to bless others today.

Kenny

PS – 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 hope this helps….

Yesterday I felt a sort of grief in my spirit, a concern given by God for those of you who are in difficult places as you have sought to follow the will of God. By that I mean that you followed what you felt sure was the call of God but have ended up in a situation perhaps in the church world, perhaps in the secular world of work that seems to be destructive of your well being. This was the thought that seemed to swim to the surface as I spent time with God.

I felt I had to put off writing a blog about this until today, as I don’t want to write something that may lead you to make a mistake as to the question, “Is it time to move?” or “Should I stay.”

In one sense, either could be right. Paul in the last chapter of 1st. Corinthians seemed to see opposition he was facing in Ephesus as one sign he was to stay, though it was only one of the factors that led him to beleive that. The other was that there was an open door to effective work. On the other hand, Jesus said that if His disciples  are not welcome in a place as ambassadors of His Kingdom, they are  to move on. Christian history is full of people who have persevered despite great discouragement, so much so that we can almost begin to think that is the norm, but perhaps when we overemphasise a truth it can become an error. This “staying in a difficult place” has been pressed at times to the exclusion of every other consideration. We need to respect the whole counsel of the Word of God.

There is a principle in Psalm 35 verse 27 that I feel I have to draw to your attention. It may not be the only principle to think about in deciding whether you should go or stay in a church situation, a relationship, a work place situation that is difficult, but I feel that God wants to raise the status of this principle in your thinking. Maybe you should allow this thought to swim to the surface rather than push it down  and drown it as illegitimate or  the thought of a spiritual cissy.  “God delights in the welfare of his servants.” Do you realise that your welfare is a matter of delight to God? I know it is possible to be well in situations that are not good, but I am just saying that I think God wants some people reading this blog today to put more stress than their inherited spirituality is allowing them to place on the principle mentioned in this verse: God wants you well, whatever may be included in that word. That glorifies Him.

I am just going a bit further with what I fee the Spirit is saying…. How do you know things will alter if you stay? The same Paul who knew there were times to dig in, also knew there were times to move on. In 1st. Corinthians 7 he writes into the possible situation of a Christian who is married to a non-believer and because of the problems that mixture is bringing about, there is no peace in the house.  The same Paul who writes about how godly behaviour can win someone around, also says that a non believing partner may walk out on the marriage. He is realistic enough to say, “How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife?”  “But… but… if I just go after them and we try again….” He seems to say that there are times to move on, because God wants us to live in peace, which sounds very similar to wellbeing. Lift that principle into other settings. Perhaps the congregation will never change no matter how long you stay. Perhaps there will be no reformation of a situation in the work place just because you are there. Somewhere in the back of my mind is something that Jean Vanier said. “Jesus did not come to reform the system.” It may not be a direct quote I am remembering, but that was the flavour of it.  In a sense that was perhaps John the Baptist’s confusion. In his cell, he begins to doubt he had got it right in testifying to Jesus. The system had not changed. The Sanhedrin, The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the political situation had not changed; it did not look as though the axe had been laid to the root of the tree. Jesus simply went around being light. Some people came to the light, others wanted to snuff the light out. Jesus did not try and change systems, He simply bore witness to truth. The systems actually didn’t listen and didn’t want to be changed.

So, I am not wanting to be directive here. I am not saying to those for whom the question “Go” or “Stay” in a situation is relevant, which you should do. I am just saying that in all your deliberations can you hear that God cares for you? Do you need to elevate this principle of Scripture so that it is heard as legitimate, heard as loud and clear as any other principle. Your wellbeing is God’s delight. Are you giving your wellbeing the same status as your Father in heaven?

I pray that you will be helped forward in knowing whether through the pressures you are facing your Father who delights in your well being is saying, “Grow” or “Go.”

(I am updating this blog to include a comment from my brother-in-law, Rev. Stewart Birse. What he says is so true and helpful: Thanks Stewart.)

“Thanks, Kenny. This applies to friendships too. If there are friends who are constantly pulling you down then sometimes we have to realise that this is not what a loving Heavenly Father would wish for our friendships. Yes, he cares for our welfare. But it is not easy leaving a friendship.”

PS – 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.

In these blogs, I  have often mentioned the name of Hugh Black, a headmaster and Pentecostal pastor and preacher who had a great influence upon me. There is one thing that did frustrate me about his wonderful Spirit filled preaching. Sometimes he would take about one third of the sermon, or so it seemed to me, to tell us all how the sermon had come to him!

Well, let me do a Hugh Black on you and take this blog to tell you how blogs come to me.  It is all very new to me. No one has told me how to do it. I am just stumbling into it, one step at a time. It is actually a different process from preaching or teaching as the pastor of a congregation, which I no longer am because of my health, or rather the lack of it. I guess that in that setting a minister has to look at what the sheep need in order to be strong and well as a flock.  However,  through blogging I have a nameless and faceless congregation and I am not your pastor or church leader. I find therefore the inspiration comes in a different way. I asked God to help me share it with you. I hope it helps. Anyway, here goes:

As I think of each blog, I find that my spirit is  like a sea, full of life. It feels as though there are ten thousand possible thoughts  and indeed ten thousand more after that which I could share with you, all of which could bring life. They are swimming around there. Some of them seem to be quite comfortable swimming around in the depths of my spirit for a bit longer, but I am aware of one or two that seem to be kicking their feet to come up the way out of the depths. They must get to the surface…. right now. That is how I go about sharing. I simply trust  that as I share the thoughts that come to the surface of my spirit, they may bring life to some.

For example, I had a thought today: “Jesus did not see himself as coming to reform the system.” I felt it was a word for some of you that a time is coming for a move. I will drop that into this blog today and come back to it tomorrow or in a couple of days. I mention it today in case some of you are thinking.”Go or stay?” God is on your case. What I have to say about that sort of issue may help you…

…but  perhaps this explaining of how a blog comes will help you whatever your situation to learn a bit more about how to hear God. That thought seemed to break through to the surface ahead of the other one!

1 – First of all, be sure of this, that if you are a Christian, you will find that your spirit knows life giving truths. There are truths swimming about in you, put there by the Holy Spirit Himself who knows what is in your depths and brings us the depths of God. I am so grateful for those the Spirit has used at times to birth these thoughts. Preachers, teachers, friends, family, even the most damaged of people in whom I have seen God at work and learned from what was happening in them. Many people and situations have gone into the life that there is swimming about in the sea of my spirit. By word, deed or experience many over the years have shown me things about the Kingdom, so there is some sort of a store within me from which treasures can be drawn, some of them reecently learned  treasures and some of them old, just as Jesus said.  SUGGESTION: TAKE TIME TO THANK GOD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE INSTRUCTED YOU IN THE TREASURES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

2 -Added to all that life giving truth where the source can be traced, I am also aware there are some things that are just there and have been taught by no one. I just know them. Perhaps that is because the Spirit of God can show us things directly. Although God blesses us with preachers, teachers, pastors etc. actually every believer is taught of God directly as well. The Apostle John tells us that we have an anointing from the Holy One that teaches us. SUGGESTION: THANK GOD FOR THE DEEPEST SWIMMING TRUTHS THAT THE SPIRIT HAS BROUGHT TO YOU AS A WORD FORM GOD, WITH POWER AND MUCH ASSURANCE.

3 – Try and make a quiet moment to listen for the truths that are swimming to the surface. It is not hard. Just take time to be alone, commit those moments to the Spirit of God and see what treasures new or old come swimming up. SUGGESTION: FIND A QUIET PLACE…

I don’t know what church or theological camp to put myself in any longer; Evangelical..Charismatic?…. Perhaps from what I have shared today some of you might think I simply belong in Camp Weird!  I am quite happy with that so long as you add Wonderful to the word Weird. It is actually the place I like living in the most personally…. and through this blog today,  I am offering you hospitality. Come into the place I am learning to live in as I enter this new phase of life and ministry, the place of swimming things, of sparkling  water, “kick of the feet thoughts” coming to the surface; treasures new and old from God.

PS – 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.

In yesterday’s blog (“Marks out of 10”) I mentioned that there were one or two “tools” that I have found pastorally helpful over the years. The first “tool” is in the aforementioned blog, so read about it if you haven’t done so yet. Let me today share something else that  I have found helpful. It might be useful for you to think about this for yourself, or even use it to help someone you may be concerned about.

Often I find that people’s lives are hampered by lies they carry around about themselves which become almost like “strongholds” in their thinking. They form how a person thinks of themselves, of life, of others etc. These hidden sentences really have a powerful influence upon us. But when they are lies they need to be challenged.

Let me explain one way you can do that. Going back to yesterday’s blog, the truth about every single person reading this blog itoday is   that your worth as a human being is 10 out of 10. I asked yesterday if that is the mark you would give yourself? If not, then it is good to try and work out what has gone wrong. Here is how I would begin to help you if I was speaking with you face to face:

1 – Take a sheet of A4 paper and for a few days or a week, write down the sort of sentences you say to yourself about yourself. We all speak to ourselves about ourselves, mostly in our heads but sometimes even out loud.  Here are some examples:  “There you go again, making a mess of it.” “You idiot!” “You were foolish to think the good times would last.” “Don’t be stupid no one could ever truly love you or like you!” “You are such a waste of space.’’ “You are a disappointment.” “You are boring.” “How ugly!” “I hate you.” “You disgust me!” You will never amount to much” “You are getting above your station.” “You will never change this.” “You will never be free.” “You deserved this suffering and unhappiness because of who you are and what you did.” The list of possible examples could go on a lot longer…

2 – One you have your list  on the left side of the page, take a look at each sentence and ask a very simple question: “How did that get there?” Give some time to think about that. What or who caused that thought to be there? Look especially at significant relationships. Were these words put there by someone else, by what they said or how they treated you? Why have you come to believe that sentence?

Now….pause and tell yourself a really good thought that  I heard Bill Johnson mention:  “I cannot afford to make room in my mind or heart for a thought about myself that isn’t the way my Heavenly Father thinks of me.” To all those in Christ the Father says, “I love you as I love Jesus. You are my son, my daughter with whom I am well pleased.  You bring me great joy!” How am I going to move on from stages 1 and 2 towards truly believing that I am who “I AM”  says I am, rather than believing the lies the sentences are telling me about me?

3 – Either on your own or with someone else look at what the Bible would say about the thoughts and sentences you have listed. On the right hand side of the page write down the truth of the Word of God that counters the lies on the left hand side. So for example, perhaps on the left hand side of the page you have written a sentence like, “You never deserve to be forgiven for this!” Well,  on  the right hand side of the page you would now write  a bible verse such as the declaration from Romans Chapter 8: “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or again, if  on the left hand side of the page you have written that you are unloveable then  on the right hand side of the page you would write something such as  the declaration of Jesus in John 16: “The Father Himself loves you affectionately and warmly!”

Do you get the idea? Do that with each troublesome sentence, so that you have a list of Bible verses on the right hand side of the page. THAT LIST BECOMES YOUR SPIRITUAL MEDICINE. TAKE IT 3 TIMES A DAY FOR A MONTH AND THEN SEE HOW YOU ARE GETTING ON. I literally mean that 3 times a day you sit down and take time to read the truths that God will use to set you free. I promise you, strongholds will start to crumble. There is something about truth getting through that sets us free.

Charles Spurgeon suffered from depression. If I remember aright it was his grandfather who one day took him aside and encouraged Charles to take the thoughts he was thinking, dangle them before his own eyes as it were and ask one simple question: “Did this thought come from my Father in Heaven who loves me?” Charles’ grandfather said if it did not pass that test then it was a lie, one of the devil’s brats and that Charles should kick it out and give it neither head nor heart room!

Perhaps you should begin a course of spiritual medicine soon…. Perhaps there are a few brats that need kicked out your head and heart….

God bless you if you go ahead and choose to try and work with this tool…. and God bless you, even if you don’t!

Kenny

PS – 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.

Yesterday’s blog was very long! So here is one that is mercifully short, but may have more impact for all that. I hope it will leave you to do your own thinking!

There are one or two “tools” that I find I have used more than once as a pastor over the years. I want to share one of them with you today. I cannot remember where I first read or heard of this, so if it was “you” I learned this from, please forgive me for not acknowledging your ownership of it!

Here goes:

Question: “On a scale of 1 – 10, what is a baby worth?”…I think we would all say 10.

Question: “On a scale of 1 – 10, what is a baby with a disability worth?”…Again, I hope we would all say 10.

Let’s just pause there. Most of us reading this blog probably believe in the sacred worth of every human life, regardless of race, colour, creed, ethnic or religious background or whatever. We believe a child born in poor circumstances has as much worth as a child born in better circumstances materially, and so on. I don’t think I need to labour the point…. so….

Question: “On a scale of 1 – 10, what are you worth?”

If you say anything less than 10 then I simply want to ask you one more question; “So where did things go wrong?”

You might want to pause again, gently shut your eyes  and think about that quietly in the presence of the Living God who is near you right now because He loves you and wants you to discover He is for you not against you….

Much love

Kenny

PS – 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.

Today I was visited by a wonderful lady who greatly encouraged me by her presence and prayers. She is a friend of my Session Clerk, Ann,  which got me thinking about her  too today. I am particularly fond of the way Ann prays. I was trying to work out again today what it is about her prayers that I particularly feel blessed by. I think it is the fact that they are free of cliches and full of thoughtfulness. She tends to pray about a person or an issue with a slant that no one else has seen. It is very refreshing.

I like unusual thought when I come across it.  I think that is why I like looking at the sermons of Spurgeon every  few years. The end of his sentences often unfold in a way that you would never predict from their beginning.  C.S. Lewis and G.K Chesterton do something similar in their writings. Again it is refreshing. Whatever it is about  poetry I have come to like, I know that part of what I like is poets who have the ability to use phrases to describe events or places or feelings that I would never think up given the same starting point of whatever is being observed or talked about. Today as I read more of Kenneth Steven’s poetry in a new book freshly arrived from Amazon, I read about a lady called Peggy who was “kind as a whole glen and generous as a harvest”; I read of children collecting conkers being likened to the way pirates used to treasure and count pearls; I read of birds on telegraph wires being like musical notes in a score on a stormy day; I read about a sheepdog called Fleet flowing down a field “like a bouncing waterfall of black and white.” (all thoughts and quotes from ”Salt and Light” by Kenneth Steven.)

So, I really do like sentences, unfolding thoughts, descriptions in poetry that end in a different place from where you would predict. Perhaps as you look at the title of this blog you are anticipating me speaking about the turning over of the tables in the temple by Jesus. Actually that is not where that title at the beginning is leading to; I am rather thinking of the day that Jesus told a story that  ended up in a completely different place from where the story had begun;  the story of the Good Samaritan. That story which you will probably know well comes about as a result of a question Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbour?” If we are to love our neighbour as ourselves, it sounds like a legitimate question to ask.( I have just updated the blog to say if you have not read the story you can find it in Luke Chapter 10.)

I am not sure how much genuineness was attached to the question when it was asked that particular day by that particular questioner, but the interesting thing is where the story leads to from that starting point. Perhaps the questioner was really asking, “Where are the limits of this “love your neighbour” thing?  Jesus you dismissed my spiritual questions with such easy sounding answers, that I feel foolish.  I need  more intricate, more complicated spirituality than you seem to be speaking about. So, “Love your neighbour as yourself?” Well, just exactly who is my neighbour? Let’s get a bit more profound to show how profound my original approach to you really was: is it literally the person next door  whom I am to regard as a neighbour, the people in my street, my community? Define “my neighbour”…..

…But Jesus turns the tables. He does not tell a story that defines who my neighbour is but to put the challenge back to the questioner and to each of us to be a neighbour . “Who then was a neighbour to the man who fell among thieves?” “The one who had mercy upon him,” and  out of that mercy helped him, replies the original questioner. “Well then, go and do likewise.” Having started with a question about who is my neighbour, the original questioner has had the tables turned. “Who are you being  a neighbour to? What does that mean? It means crossing the road to help.” Do I have  the heart and actions that show I am a neighbour? Do I cross the road to help where I see need?

I have a love/hate relationship with this story. It was very much a cornerstone in the church  I attended as a young teenager immediately before I became a Christian. I got the impression that Christians were just people trying to be good.  It was a message that almost tended towards preening as though Christians were  the good people in a neighbourhood. Then I heard the gospel of God’s grace to us all as sinners, how Jesus had died on the cross to save me and that I was to live thankfully and with gratefulness for his saving love and grace not to earn my salvation but as a response to being saved by the blood of Christ shed for me. I grew to hate this story of the Good Samaritan  because of the way it had been so wrongly preached upon almost in a way that made it sound as though Jesus never had to leave heaven for the cross to save us, we could get to heaven just by trying to be good! I managed to get my dislike worked through eventually and now come back to this story often. Sadly many preachers in many denominations preach that  blasphemy I encountered against the cross still and deny people the good news of salvation at the cross of Calvary – and nowhere else. So averse  are they to the idea of being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us, that they hardly ever mention it and thus confine their congregations to a lost eternity.  One famous Irish preacher  of the past  called it “unbloody Christianity from unbloody liars.” You may stop reading these blogs now, but before you do, do you count yourself as a sinner saved by Christ taking the blame for your sins?  Did you believe that once but now scorn it? Are you telling others so they can be saved too? Even if you block this blog now  because you don’t like my theology, at least you wont be able to say to God when you stand before him to give account that nobody told you, nor can you plead ignorance that you didn’t  know you were to tell others, even those in your own family or your own congregation.

Who I cross the road for shows who I have been a neighbour to. It almost worries me now that in the Christian circles I became most familiar with since the day of my conversion and salvation, I have hardly ever heard this story being preached upon. To be sure that is less damaging than it being preached upon wrongly, but it is sad nonetheless. Evangelical and Charismatic circles tend towards an introspection that can become either narcissistic or morbid. It is not there is not much good in these stables which  is broadly where I still belong really, but as one of that circle and having had a significant degree of leadership in a more than local setting before my illness, I can see my faults, our faults, too clearly, and sometimes worry if I furthered these faults and deviations. Evangelicals can often be obsessed with their own spiritual pulses and how far along the road of sanctification they have got and how deeply are we growing in our knowledge of the Bible and am I praying well enough etc.?  Charismatics, sadly perhaps, don’t think often enough about such things but on the other hand  can be narcissistic;  glaringly, boringly and unattractively obsessed  about everyone seeing my calling, making way for my gifting, that we are the ones that the whole of Christian history has been waiting for in order that the church may reach its full effectiveness!  Actually even King David had the humility simply to serve the purposes of God in his generation and then fall asleep. There were generations before him there were generations after him. At most all of us are simply intermediate points in the story of God, until the return of Christ; no less important than that, and no more.

I guess most of those reading this will tend to be evangelical or charismatic in  theology because somehow you have had a connection with me in the past or have decided to make a connection because of what you have read already.  Some of you may have a good relationship with me even if you don’t like what I believe. Today I am  mostly thinking of my fellow evangelicals or charismatics as I write. Do you need the table of your spirituality turned on you? We are good at calling other forms of Christianity religious, but “evangelicalism” and “charismaticism” can be horribly  religious too. I referred to Tom Smail not long ago in a previous blog. He was a sort of champion theologian in the earlier days of charismatic renewal and what he said then is very much still worth reading and applying now. There was an occasion when was speaking to John  Stott who was less warm towards charismatic truths, to be as generous as I can in this  regard to that great man of God.  Tom Smail said in their conversation that he personally as an insider believed that 2/3rds of Charismatic Christianity was of the flesh and  not really of the Spirit of God at all. John Stott seized upon that thought and  asked  Tom  if he could quote him in a book. Tom Smail said, “As long as you say that  I think 2/3rds of Evangelicalism is of the flesh as well!”

All of us even in the theological camps we feel are most right are capable of horrible behaviour and stupid  nonsense. I am asking particularly today if  Jesus would turn a table of undue obsession with your own spiritual pulse, your own sanctification or your own giftedness? This to me is one of the weak points of the stable I am in. Everyone  according to current teaching is apparently born to be a superstar.  I love the love of God for me in my sheer ordinariness! The beginning of spirituality is actually saying, “I thank you God that I am like all other men” as Thomas Merton once said. In the Bible much of the instruction is about ordinary things that ordinary people need to learn in life: teaching people  how to be husbands and wives, how children can get on with parents and parents with children, how to be a good worker or a thoughtful boss; how to stop being impatient and start loving.  So much is about how we are in relation to others and to the world God still loves as much as when He sent his son to die for us.

So be honest! Is crossing the road to be a neighbour a vital part of the expression of my Christian faith? It should be. One of the historical interpretations of this parable is that Jesus is  the good Samaritan. I think that is a hysterical interpretation even if it is historical! But I can see why it came about.  Think of the wideness of the road Jesus crossed to come to help us. “You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord we lift your name on High!” Think of the roads of culture and religion Jesus crossed to give value to those who had none.

We have grown to love the phrase “a relationship rather than a religion,” haven’t we? We tend to confuse non-believers by being smart and telling them we are not religious but we have a relationship with God. LISTEN, CHARISMATICS AND EVANGELICALS, MY BELOVED BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE LORD: FOR ALL OUR SMART TALK ABOUT RELATIONSHIP RATHER THAN RELIGION, WE ARE AS RIDDLED WITH RELIGION AS ANY OTHER PART OF THE CHURCH. LETS STOP CLAIMING A SUPERIORITY. BEING NON RELIGIOUS IS AS MUCH A RELGION THESE DAYS IN THE SAME WAY  AS AETHEISM HAS BECOME A  FAITH. When will we let Jesus turn the tables on Charismatic and Evangelical religion with the phrase “Go and do likewise,”? THINK OUT THE WAY! Whatever else following Jesus is about, it is about crossing the road to help. No amount of bible reading or exercising of spiritual gifts or ministries can replace that or mask its absence from the eyes of the Lord.

PS – 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.

Just a thought; much of the Father Heart Teaching  that has been prevalent in the last 20 years or so, isn’t, or at least is incomplete.  It tends to be  about the child or the orphan spirit more than it is about the Father, which of course has value and the potential for bringing people healing, and has done so innumerable times.  But, I think  the only folk who can really understand the Father heart of God are good parents who have been wounded by their children, and right now are longingly awaiting the sound of footsteps coming up the path and the  return of sons and daughters who have rejected them. Take some time today to think of the story in Luke Chapter 15.

The thing is that the prodigal son in Luke 15 was not an orphan. He had a good and loving father but was living as though he didn’t. The elder son had a good and loving father too, but didn’t know it. There was a stronghold of delusion about the way he saw things.  He was not living in truth or reality. He nursed a lie about his Father and  nursed the silent building up of rage that deep seated lie produced  until it exploded in unjust accusation. The Father was not to blame, yet he was the one who had to suffer and learn to conquer the possible response of living in a spirit of rejection and abandonment and keep an open door. He had to hear unjust things being said about him and not respond in like manner. The story of the bible, whatever else it is about,  is about the Father heart of God continuing towards a  rebel world hat has rejected him in word, deed and spirit. It is about God loving rebels who have had His goodness and love showered upon them. This rebel world has a Father. It is not an orphan without a Father.  It chooses to be a rebel against a Father of goodness and love. The story of the bible, in the Old Testament and the New and supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ, is the story of God calling out like a Father to his children saying, “You are not an orphan! You have a Father who loves you. Let me be who I am to you! Come to Me! Turn to Me! Run to Me! Stop rejecting Me!”

We hear so much about the wounds parents give to their children, and these wounds are real. They range in scale from the sort of childhood pains we all have to conquer, for no parents are perfect, right through to truly horrific abuse. Yet to truly understand God’s heart we need to hear from parents who have been wounded sorely  by their children. Maybe there is someone out there who might be  able to write a blog or a book about that experience, or just maybe it is such holy ground that no one will ever write a book on “The Rejected Father.” The nearest I have seen to that title is “The Forgotten Father” by Tom Smail – it is excellent by the way. In the present rush of so many to tell their story of being wronged  and satisfy a market for spiritual voyeurism that seems to be almost insatiable,  perhaps the holiest stories of some of the deepest pains will have to remain ever untold or unshared. Thankfully they are not unnoticed by the One who understands these pains only too well.  I think it shows Henri Nouwen’s insightful brilliance and understanding of humanness that when he speaks about the pain of rejection he does not only speak about the rejection that children experience, or spouses rejecting one another ; many other writers, Christian and secular  write about such painful experiences. It takes little intelligence or insight more than the slightest observational awareness  to see these wounds all around us. However Nouwen includes in his lists of possible scenarios of rejection, the rejection that parents can experience at the hands of their children. I think it is the rejection that dare not speak its name….

Just as no sermon is equally significant for everyone every week, neither are blogs.  My prayer today is simply for parents who have been rejected. At great cost to yourselves there are things you can help us understand about the Father heart of God that many others could never teach us, even those who can share stories of the grace of God healing them from wounded childhoods.  I pray that something of what you have come to know of the Father Heart of God will leak out to the church and to the world somehow in a way that is not crushingly painful or humiliating  for you. You have been crushed and humiliated enough, I think.  I pray too  that like Jesus you may yet see fruit for your travail and be well pleased. God bless you with His consolation today and every day.

PS – 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 friend sent this to me saying the only difference is that I have an immaculate hairstyle. Actually he is wrong. As my friend, he should know my favourite cup is blue…..

Hopefully by now you will be used to me saying things in these blogs that at first reading will strike you on a scale as being anywhere from helpful to insane! Well, I am only sharing where I have found bread.  If you can’t eat wholesome bread maybe you are eating too much spiritual cake… there is a lot of it around!

I will send this out on  Sunday but actually it is being baked  on Saturday Night. I am taking a Sabbath break from my blog for a day tomorrow like a good Scottish Presbyterian! However as I think toward the Lord’s Day I am reminded that worshipping on a Sunday centres us on  what is at the core of our faith, namely that Jesus rose from the dead. Of course we can worship Him any time, place, or day, but it is good not to lose the focussing  or re-focussing benefit of Sundays to bring us back to fundamental things. We believe in the resurrection of Christ and we believe in the resurrection of our own bodies too!  We actually believe that this world is not all we are living for, though we are to care for it and its people. Paul once said that if we were only living for this life then of all people Christians should be pitied the most; he wrote that at a time when Christians were being mocked and persecuted. His words may come into their own with a fresh measure of reality in these days when many of our Christian brothers and sisters are being persecuted with horrendous brutality. Heaven probably  takes on more importance in such times. Perhaps we are too at home in this world and have forgotten this is not our truest home. Actually we are aliens here according to the bible. If you are still reading this blog, then along with me, hopefully, you are still waiting for your truest home.

In my mind today is an experience that I will leave you to think about. Someone I knew was dying. I found myself sitting in the bath singing over them in my spiritual imagination, “God sent His Son they called Him Jesus, He came to love, heal and forgive…” In particular I found myself moved as I sang, “And then one day, I’ll cross the river, I’ll fight life’s final war with pain . And then as death gives way to victory, I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives”  I started to clap for the valour this person was  showing as the end of their life on earth drew nearer and I went on to sing the chorus, “Because He  lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone: Because I know, I know He holds the future and life is worth the living, just because He lives.” I sang and thought no more of it. Only later did the man’s wife share that as her husband was nearing the last moments of his life he heard a choir of angels  sing, “ Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow!” Did I join with the angels? Who knows? I don’t care one way or the other.  I only know that the Gospel is that the Kingdom of Heaven is close. So why should we not join with the angels? Why should we not expect the lines between time and eternity to be fudged a bit? Why should we not expect miracle, heavenly things to happen that cannot be understood in earthly terms? I am sure I am not the only one to have met an angel and benefited from their ministry to God’s people… but that is for another day….!

It may be that some preachers will read this blog before going out to preach. Can I encourage you to believe that something heavenly will happen in someone’s life as you share the Word of Life? I always believed something would happen for at least one person when I preached and when I get the strength to preach again will believe for that still. As I honour the gospel of the Kingdom being near, I trust that the God of heaven will be close to touch someone’s life with heavenly grace and help and even with transformation.

Most of you will not be preachers. If you have the health  and feel emotionally it is within your reach even if with a struggle, then go and join with God’s people this Sunday. When you do, remember the God of heaven is close to meet with you. Can He not meet with me anywhere? Of course He can. But He is helping us truly to be the body of His Son, where each part or member blesses the other. So often heavenly help comes not direct form God or through the angels but through that very ordinary person sitting next to us in the pews. David Watson once shared that he was at a conference where everyone was asked to turn and say to their neighbour, “I could not live without you!” I guess the idea was to give a practical response to the idea that as members of Christ’s body we need one another. David Watson said that sitting next to him was the most strikingly beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life! He kept his eyes firmly to the front! I hope though, you get the point! Believe in the closeness of heaven. Believe in the singing of the angels and their ministry to us. But believe also that the people in your local church, who  you may well have issues with, could be the touch of heaven to you too. It is so irritating when God at times insists on meeting with you that way! Don’t dismiss the angels, but don’t disconnect with people, even if you have got issues with them. The Word of he Lord to you might simply be. “Get up out your bed and go back to church!”

What if you are on your own this day and for good reason cannot be at church? Well, the gospel is still wonderfully true for you. The Kingdom of heaven is close. May the touch of that Kingdom be upon you. The Risen Christ can meet you this Lord’s Day, even if you cannot be with His people for good reason. I am thinking especially, but not exclusively of  those who would love to be with fellow believers but they are right now imprisoned and even being tortured for their faith. Richard Wurmbrand shares that on one occasion when he was in solitary confinement during his many years in prison for his faith,  he asked the Lord to speak to Him, and The Lord Jesus did;  Jesus screamed….  This is Holy ground where even angels would fear to tread but would veil their faces: when someone’s body  is being hurt or in pain, the head of the body screams. Perhaps today the heavenly thing that will happen for you will be that you really do realise one of the holiest and most precious of “heaven being near earth” mysteries;  Jesus, the head of the body is touched with the very feelings of your infirmities and mine.

…Changed my mind. Am sending it out tonight. Had a feeling someone needed to read this before tomorrow morning…..

PS – 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.

You have probably read a personal statement put out by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the wake of his discovery in recent months that the man he thought was his father was not in fact his father. The following words are part of what he has said in response to that fact:

“This revelation has, of course, been a surprise, but in my life and in our marriage Caroline and I have had far worse. I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes. Even more importantly my role as Archbishop makes me constantly aware of the real and genuine pain and suffering of many around the world, which should be the main focus of our prayers.

Although there are elements of sadness, and even tragedy in my father’s (Gavin Welby’s) case, this is a story of redemption and hope from a place of tumultuous difficulty and near despair in several lives. It is a testimony to the grace and power of Christ to liberate and redeem us, grace and power which is offered to every human being.

At the very outset of my inauguration service three years ago, Evangeline Kanagasooriam, a young member of the Canterbury Cathedral congregation, said: “We greet you in the name of Christ. Who are you, and why do you request entry?” To which I responded: “I am Justin, a servant of Jesus Christ, and I come as one seeking the grace of God to travel with you in His service together.” What has changed? Nothing!”

These are words of tremendous comfort and challenge to those of us who are pursuing healing from the difficult part of our life story. The comfort and challenge is the same: as a follower of Jesus you are who you are in Christ. Sometimes when I meet pastorally with people, the place I am trying to get them to by the grace of God is helping them to see that this is my identity; “I am who I AM says I am.”

A Christian is described in many ways in the bible, but one of the commonest ways that reality is described is that a Christian is someone who is “In Christ.” If  I am in Christ then my deepest identity is in Him. If I am in Christ then the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ says over me what He says over Him. Nowhere in the bible do I find God the Father saying about His Son that He was an accident, a mistake, unplanned for, a problem, a disappointment etc. etc. Instead I find the Father saying over His Son, “ You are my Son, whom I love and you bring me great joy!”

Whatever life has said about you, others have said over you, will you take time today to remember who you are in Christ? You are His son, His daughter, whom He loves. You bring Him great joy!

PS – 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 have just found out that Rev. Jm Graham, the former senior pastor of Goldhill Baptist Church has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. In a public statement he asks for our prayers for himself and his family.

I have been thanking  God for the influence of his ministry upon my life personally as well as to the church in general. I am remembering today times when he used to come up North to Thurso to speak at conferences. Whatever else people may remember from these days I remember being stuck to my seat by the presence of God that attended Jim’s ministry to the extent that I could not get up to close a meeting, and Jim, the visiting speaker, had to do that instead of the host!

Jim is one of these people that I always think of with a smile but also one of these people who intrigues me still. His ministry among us in Thurso was so powerful and blessed. Why?

I can think of 2 or 3 reasons, which I want to share with you briefly. Whether you are a pastor, leader or not, I think they are lessons which could help us all to carry the presence and fragrance of Jesus in the way that I think of when I think with continuing thankfulness of Jim today.

1 – He has always been someone who honours the Word of God as the Word of God. One of the things he often said when he was with us in Thurso, when teaching something that he knew might be difficult to receive was, “I did not write this stuff. I am only telling you what it says!” God honours above all things His Name and His Word according to the Psalms, and He blesses the man who trembles at His Word, who reveres His word. A word for preachers and teachers;  have you forgotten to tremble before the Word of the Lord and are you seeking to earnestly and correctly divide the word of truth for your listeners? A word too for those of you who don’t preach; are you carrying something in your heart each day from the Bible, seeking to live it out? That will help give your day direction and make you aware when opportunities to live out what you have read come along.

2 – Jim has aways been someone open to the Hoy Spirit. So often you get preachers and teachers who are open to the Word, others who are open to the Spirit. In my experience I am not sure I have ever met anyone who honours both in equal measure better than Jim Graham. I recall a time when he prayed for me personally, Things were going well in the church, in fact we were the fastest growing congregation in the Church of Scotland. However things were not going well with me. I had worked myself to a place of exhaustion and was not at rest in the Father’s love. For years I had carried about a feeling of not being good enough or successful enough. Over these years I used to have a recurring dream of looking into the picture gallery of heaven. I would see portraits of those who had achieved great things for God. I would wake up distressed, longing that there was a place in God’s picture gallery for me. Jim, not knowing about this recurring dream started to pray for me. He stopped after a moment and said, “Kenny, I don’t understand this but God is saying there is a place in his picture gallery for you.” I was stunned and started to cry gently. I said, “Jim, are you just making that up?” He became quite serious at that point and said, “Kenny, I don’t make this stuff up. This is what God wants you to know.” That moment became the start of a journey which a month or two later led me to find rest in the Father’s love, a love that is not there because of my achievements but because, I, Kenny am simply loved. In a sense my whole minsitry as it is now, flows from the God encounter of that day.

A question to us all based on that  personal experience: Are you open to hunches given by the Holy Spirit. Follow through that hunch today to say something, to do something that inexplicably you find laid on your heart, so long as it passes the tests of being strengthening, encouraging and comforting. By the way if you are particularly passionate about truth, something being true is not the go-ahead to say it in an unacceptable way. Ask also will it help and is it kind? That may not alter the truth but it may alter the way you which you say it.

3 – Jim has a ministry in encouraging the church. It is easy to see the faults in any congregation. That usually takes no prophetic ability or insight of the Spirit. In fact as Dr. Jack Deere said once at CLAN gathering, always seeing what is wrong with a person or a church, does not mean you have a prophetic ministry, but it may mean you have a psychological disorder that requires treatment! It takes the Spirit of God and a loving heart to see what is good and to encourage it. Jim certianly did that when he ministered in the far North.  He made me personally feel as though he had been waiting all my life to meet me, which he made everyone  he met feel. But he also talked about good things about the church. In these days there is a lot of cynicism about the church, which seem to come as a mix of bright new ideas but a rather scathingly superior, sarcastic and judgmental  tone towards the church as it is at the moment. Those whom God significantly uses harness more than the frustration of disaffected people. People like Jim Graham have a love for the church, not blind to the faults of any situation but very keen to encourage the good.

Paul had the temerity to say on one occasion, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Jim would never take these words and apply them to himself today, so I will do it. These words are applicable to my memories of Jim. I hope that the brief thoughts I have shared about someone you may or may not have met will give you fodder for thought and for life this day.

PS – 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.

Today was a day when in a quiet moment God reminded me how important it is to remember! That is one of the lessons from Psalm 42. At a time when the psalmist was not feeling in tip top condition, he said among other things, “Therefore I remember…” He remembers joyful times and somehow as he does that, hope in God is reborn.

Today  as I remembered to remember, I found myself remembering 2 people in particular and as I did that, I felt a bit like the first time I saw the Niagara Falls. Morag was not with me on that occasion, and somehow the joy of the experience was lessened by the fact that  she was not there to see what I was seeing. I so wished she could have seen what I saw and shared in the  sheer wonder and blessing of it all. I am glad to say that we did subsequently see the Falls together! Well, leaving places aside, there are people I have met over the years that I wish all of you could have met and  been blessed by.  I wish you could have seen what I saw in them and been blessed as I was. Let me tell you about the 2 people I metnioned at the start of this paragraph.

The first is the minister who was my “bishop” when I did my probationary time as a Church of Scotland Minister. His name is Rev. Ian Paterson and he is now retired. I learned so much from his quiet wisdom when he was minister of St. Michael’s Linlithgow, as have many other people serving in the ministry. I was remembering one lesson in particular. There was a discussion among the elders about the introduction of individual glasses for communion. I could not believe the passion with which some people spoke, especially those who were against such a thing happening. One elder ranted, his face going red then purple,  then  worryingly black, as somehow he developed his case that introducing individual glasses was undermining the very existence of Presbyterianism! When he sat down, I asked myself how on earth a minister is meant to handle situations like that and people like that. Mr. Paterson looked quite unconcerned, smiled his usual smile and simply said, “Thank you. Any more comments from anybody?” I was seeing the gift of wisdom in operation, part of which we know from the ministry of Jesus is about not stepping into a trap. You don’t have to automatically go into fight mode over everything! You can avoid confrontations when they are neither helpful nor necessary. So through my time today  of “therefore I remember,” I had a look to see whether I was getting het up over anything that really I could adopt a calmer approach to. So since I have looked at myself already, are you getting involved in an unnecessary fight? If you are the type of person who goes to the stake over every blessed opinion that you have, that may be a good question to ask yourself. Can you allow other people to make their comments, to have different opinions from you and be comfortable with that? Right now are you involved in unnecessary confrontation perhaps in your family, your work place or your church? Is there something that you simply need to calm down about? Perhaps your  Heavenly Father  would actually say to you, “Do you know what my beloved? This doesn’t really matter as much as you think.”

As I continued with my “therefore I remember” private session, I found myself thinking of the islands of Stronsay and Eday in Orkney which was my first charge after completing my probationary time in Linlithgow. I was thinking of a man called Willy. I remembered how if he met me on the roadside he would stop his tractor and speak as though nothing else in the world mattered, or at least could wait. I am remembering the laughter of sitting at a  fully laden table with him and his sister eating cake after cake with laughter and without guilt. I am remembering the joy with which he spoke of his annual holiday in his childhood to the village on the other side of the  7 miles by five miles island, and of his one trip off the island to to the nearby island of Westray to buy a horse called Sheila! I am remembering when a mischief making 70+ year old lady was eventually taken on a police barge to spend a night in the cells in Kirkwall that after a good laugh Willy said with tears in his beautiful eyes, “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” I remember him too telling this city boy the names of flowers and weeds on the roadside, delighting in their colours and shape. Life always felt like a good thing after a visit to Willy of Burrowgate. He was considered by many to be an eccentric but there was no house in the island that I more enjoyed visiting. It was so much the opposite of that intensity that marked that elder I mentioned above. There was simply a joy of life about Willy that perhaps not even his fellow islanders quite understood.

As I thought about Willy I realised I had not noticed today that the sky was blue, the sun was bright. I had not noticed the beautiful baby who was looking at me smiling as I sat in Starbucks drinking my Americano. There was so much that I had neither noticed nor rejoiced in…

“Angst”  does not make the gospel attractive, yet it seems a common thing among Christians. Knit-browed intensity does not really commend our claim that in Christ we have found Life in al its fullness! So as I remember Willy I want to ask you a couple of things. Firstly, are you worrying about something that Jesus never actually asked you to worry about?  Secondly, did you notice today the sky or the wind or people or whatever? Did you hear the birds and notice the flowers which according to Jesus Himself  are  messengers saying to us,  “Don’t worry, your heavenly Father knows.

Well, that is my “Therefore I remember” sharing. Perhaps tonight before you go to bed, you need to let go of undue intensity and start remembering experiences or people that brought you life. There are things of course that need to be forgotten, but in the light of this blog is God reminding you of the wisdom of the Psalmist? “Remember to remember.”

PS – 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 reading again today the story of the death of St. Columba. He knew when that day and hour was coming. He did not want it to be at Easter to disturb the Easter Joy of his friends, so he put on hold his desire to depart and be with the Lord until these celebrations were over. On the day he knew he was going to die, there is a story that says that his faithful white horse came to him and rubbed his head against the old man’s head and started to weep into his lap. There may be a lot of legend surrounding Columba, but I have no difficulty believing that there is at least truth behind this story, even if not every detail may be trusted. Columba remarked that men did not know that the hour of his death was coming, but the horse was instinctively aware!

According to actors, we must never work with animals and children! I hope this wont offend you… well actually if you need your pride offended I hope you are offended! We can learn from animals and children. They have not had sensitivity to unseen things educated out of them. I heard a snippet of conversation between a toddler and her Mum the other day. I don’t know what preceded what I heard, but the wee girl was saying with tremendous happiness on her face, “I am not talking to you.” “Why are you not talking to me?” asked her mum. “Because I am talking to Jesus.” It is so so sad that children nowadays have spirituality indoctrinated out of them. It is a sort of abuse.

I simply want to say that your cat and your children or your neighbours cat and children can teach you a thing or two! They can probably hear and see better than you or I.

You will be used to me saying things that probably make you wonder about my sanity. Well, just add this to the list. Watch the cats and watch and listen to  the children…. and by the way if your child or grandchild tell you they have heard or seen something, don’t be too quick to shut it down out of anxiety. Of course as they grow they may need help to work out what is real and what is imagination, but pray God’s blessing on all that is genuinely of Him. They may well help you to be truly born again and see the Kingdom.

The line of a song is playing somewhere in my memory:

“I want to be a child again, I want to see the world through 5 year old eyes…”

Abba’s child, if these song words cause a yearning to rise within you, give that yearning a name if you can and then  turn it into a simple prayer to your Heavenly Father.

PS – 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 said in an earlier blog that if I could put a book in everyone’s hands it would be R.T. Kendall’s “Total Forgiveness.”  That book arose out of a situation in which R.T. himself had to totally forgive. I think truth that is proved in personal experience has real power to help others. I was brought up in a spiritual tradition that seemed to say  it was wrong for  preachers ever to speak about themselves. I know there can be dangers in doing that and there needs to be some limits so that the sharing becomes a help to people rather than a burden of concern for them to carry, but I would encourage all of you, preachers and non-preachers, to share your experience of God in you. That can be self indulgent but it need not be when we are sharing to glorify God and out of love for other people. Henri Nouwen says that we are most universal when we are most personal. People are looking for something that works these days, that helps them to do life. In a sense there is danger in that, in that it pushes concern for truth and rightness aside and can lead people to embrace what seems to work with no questions about right or wrong or consequences. “Does it work?” seems to be the prime question in many people’s hearts. But behind that there is fertile ground for the gospel. We can share our story of something that has worked and continues to work in my life.

I like R.T’s honesty in his book. He speaks about total forgiveness, but then is honest enough to say that when he saw the people who had wronged him, he could feel his peace disturbed and he had to forgive them afresh to recover that peace. My thought to share with you today is simply this; is there some victory in your life that needs to be renewed? Is there some area of your well being that seems to be coming under familiar attack? Go back to what helped you and renew the victory.

I have mentioned the name of Hugh Black more than any other name in these blogs. He is in glory now but he is someone whose words come back to me often. I remember an occasion when a friend was in deep trouble and distress. He had received great blessing through Hugh Black’s ministry but at the point of time I am telling you about was not in a good place spiritually. I phoned Mr. Black and asked him to go and see my friend. There was silence at the other end of the phone and then Mr. Black said, “No Kenny, I am not minded to do that. He knows where he got help.” In other words it was up to my friend to return to the place, to the people, to the truths that had brought him help before. There was no special treatment necessary. Mr. Black was always straight to the point like that! I put down the phone in a state of shock… but within minutes I saw he was right. There were steps my friend needed to take back into spiritual health. A visit could have pandered to his unwillingness to do what he needed to do. Perhaps some pastors reading this need to take a lesson form this that will release you from guilt. Is someone in your congregation in the huff with you and shown that by stopping coming to church?  Are they manipulating you by their absence, almost forcing a visit from you? “They know where they got help.”

I am presuming that most of you reading these bogs are neither preachers or pastors.  You too are looking for what works, but hopefully have not abandoned the concept of right and wrong. You want to do life as a follower of Jesus. I feel I have to say to everyone today, “You know where you got help.”  If that is not a relevant phrase today for you, keep it on the back burner somewhere. Today or someday  all of us will need to revisit the places where we found help, freedom and peace; give up resentment and go back to the church that brought life to you; re-read the books that brought life to your soul; what truth from God brought you help before?  What victory or deliverance is in danger of being stolen from you? Renew the victory in your life. Do it now and recover or re-enforce one of Christ’s most precious gifts to his disciples: His Peace. Perhaps the longer we do try and do life as a follower of Jesus while living in this world, what we value tends to change. I am not sure as a young believer I much appreciated the preciousness of what Christ was offering when he said, “My Peace I give to you.” Now, in a phase of life where I am confronted by my own weakness and fragility I think there is nothing more precious. May you seek, experience and appreciate  that precious gift today.

 I was going to stop writing there and sign off. However a story is coming to mind.  I am remembering the testimony of someone who was resiting a move of the Holy Spirit in revival in their island community. This person and her friends did not want”it.” They did not want “what” was happening to others they knew. But then “it “happened to her, and she said to her  best friend with joyful amazement, “Oh Fay dear, we have been so  blind ! It is not an ‘it.’ It is a ‘who!’ It is the Lord Jesus Christ!” When you revisit the place you found help, you will discover a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a “what” or  a “where.” It is about a “who.” It is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. When I talk about places where you found help, I am ultimatley inviting you to a fresh discovery of Him.   It is a “who” I am offering to your question as to “what” works. I am offering you the Living Bread Himself. May the mouthwatering smell of the Living Bread reach your spiritual nostrils today. May you taste Christ.

PS – 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 hope Kenneth Steven’s Book, “Coracle” has known increased sales figures  since I started blogging!  I have mentioned it at least twice before. In one of the poems in that collection he speaks of men collecting agates from a ploughed field to take home for cutting and polishing to bring out their hidden beauty. However as they make their way out of the field, the “narrator” in the poem starts to think that perhaps the best stones are maybe still lying out there, undiscovered.

It is a thought worth musing upon. We live in an age where people are discovered through talent (?) shows and so on, but it stands to reason there are perhaps better musicians, singers, comedians etc. than have yet been discovered. Probably somewhere there is someone who can run faster than Usain Bolt, but no one knows about them and maybe never will. Probably someone can hit a golf ball further than Donald Trump. (Oh hang on a minute, lots of folk can! Sorry Donald you will need to find another reason why you should be President.) Probably there are treasures under the desert sand somewhere that are greater than the ones found in the tomb of Tutankhamen.

I think the more I follow the Lord the more I discover fresh treasure. It is not so much it has been discovered by no one else, but more  and more I discover treasures that other believers from other traditions have learned to appreciate, but I have not

I was thinking about that today. I don’t really follow the Church/Christian Year as such but I might be converted, at least temporarily, to give it a try. What might push me into that is discovering today what some of you out there already know; yesterday, the  second Sunday of Easter, is called “Divine Mercy Sunday” by those who give particular Sundays a particular focus.

I don’t think for a minute that those who do delight in the Church /Christian Year mean that God’s mercy is not available every other Sunday or every other day for that matter. But I guess giving a Sunday a name like that acts upon a truth like the banks of a river which focus the flow  of  water giving it added strength and  power. Whatever, I cannot think of a better name for the Second Sunday of Easter than “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Mercy was much needed after Easter! It was needed by Thomas who disbelieved what Jesus had clearly and repeatedly said  about the resurrection. It was needed by Peter who disowned Jesus. It was needed by the confused disciples who as they walked to Emmaus were increasingly damaging one another with a toxic despair… they needed help for they were not helping one another at all.

Perhaps today you need the Spirit of God via this blog to focus your thoughts on divine mercy.  As I write this today, I find myself thinking of a mistake I used to make as a new believer, which I continued to make for years. The mistake was that when I was aware I had gotten it wrong in my discipleship,  I felt I had to prove myself by getting it right for a few days before I could expect the Lord to welcome me or receive me, forgive me or help me. I can’t remember the day on which I suddenly saw that it is precisely when I sin that I need to come to Jesus afresh for mercy, nor can I remember the particular sin that became the route to that revelation. But this truth, of coming right away to God for mercy struck me with the force of a mighty river as I was going upstairs in the manse, and so right there and then on the stairs I got down on my knees and said to Jesus, “Jesus, I need you right now.”

I have found that going on my knees to confess my need of mercy is a good thing. I used to kneel for a bad reason only, namely when I was begging the Lord to let me out of something I knew he wanted me to do but I did not want to do! I have found that going on my knees when I need mercy brings me a beautiful sense of the Lord’s nearness. It is clear throughout the bible that worship involves our bodies, not just out cerebral thoughts or sung words. Going on our knees in humility, asking for mercy is a good thing. Do you need to find a place to kneel today, in fact this very minute?

The only bodily movement I see involved in worship in many churches trying to do things differently from usual is a sort of sloppy sauntering out to get a coffee and a cake and sauntering back in again, presumably an indicator of how relaxed I am with God and what good buddies this particular church and the Almighty God are. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that  perhaps for many of  us in the more Evangelical or Charismatic wing of the Church,  God’s mercy  is no longer something we receive with awe.  In Isaiah’s experience, mercy came after a feeling of being completely undone before the Lord’s holy eyes. (Isaiah Chapter 6.) The particular thing he was convicted of was the sins he committed with his mouth, unclean language. It may be that too many “OMG’s” have escaped your lips, or language of a type which the bible explicitly says are not to be a part of a believer’s speech. It seems to be becoming common as we dismiss more and more of the bible’s instructions to believers as being “religious.” Have we forgotten there is a religion God likes and that pleases him, part of which is keeping ourselves pure and unspotted? There is a religion that proves a relationship we may claim to have with God is real. Sins of the tongue may or may not be  why you most need mercy. It might be something completely different. But coffee, cake and “OMG’s” are becoing so common that they are the new demand for Christians who want to be really up to date, which seems to mean being as like the world as I can be but still be saved. There seems little space for bowing of the knee or even falling as one dead before the glory of the Lord.

Do those from more obviously liturgical traditions have some treasure to share as yet undiscovered by those of us, like me myself,  who have had little contact with that way of doing things? Why not find a place and a posture that shows you are taking the joyful news of God’s mercy seriously? Perhaps you need to find that place and posture right now!

PS – 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.