OK…very short blog.

I think the Holy Spirit is saying to some who read this blog, “I can give you the courage today to say, ‘I was wrong,’ .”

I guess I would have thought that “humility’ rather than courage is what is needed to admit we are in the wrong, but that was not what seemed to come to me today, rather there was this promise of courage. Perhaps there are some who are reading this who tremble at the idea of saying, “I was wrong.”  For one or more of a thousand possible reasons, some of them associated with deep memories and emotions, the tbought of saying  “I was wrong,” makes you feel terribly vulnerable and exposed. Well, in God, that is not only a safe place to be but a  blessed place  and a place of healing as well. If this is a word for you, I believe that God is promising fresh ripples of spreading joy to you as you take this step.

That’s  it for now…

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

I was reading not long ago of Thomas Merton’s thoughts as he watched an animal emerging out of hibernation. Merton thought the animal was emerging too early, that warmer weather had not truly come; indeed there was snow on the ground and snow falling. It turns out that the animal was right and Thomas Merton was wrong. Despite what Merton was truly observing, he drew a wrong conclusion about the seasons by observation alone. The animal going by something other than simple observation knew the times and the seasons.

Jesus seemed to know when spiritual seasons were changing. He looked at Jerusalem one day and realised mid-sentence a season had changed: “Would that today you knew the things that make for peace… BUT NOW, they are hid from you.”

If we are born again then we have a Kingdom of God awareness within us, for the Kingdom does not come by observation of outward natural signs, it is within. I am not sure how much teaching there is in the Christian Church to help people read Kingdom awareness within them. At times that Kingdom awareness will completely agree with what can be deduced by a non Christian trusting what their senses are observing. At times however, the witness of the Kingdom within will lead to thinking and action that differs from what a non born-again person without the Kingdom within them could know or choose to do according to their “light.” That does not mean we should despise observation and reason and logic. These are part of our God created humanness, and we should thank God for such things and make sure we are not so “spiritual” that we despise them. However at times the Kingdom within us which is not of this world will indeed tell us to do something  or give us an outlook that makes no logical sense whatsoever to someone not born of God.  Remember the cross is foolishness to the world, but to those who believe, well, we have received the revelation that it is the wisdom and the power of God. Flesh and blood did not reveal that to us. Without being born of God we cannot see the Kingdom, it is as simple as that. As God’s children, born from above of His Spirit, we should indeed “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” We need to remember that “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is death.”

We need to listen for the witness of God’s peace concerning any conclusions or decisions. In saying all this, please remember that when God asks us to do something that defies common sense and we are sure He is in it, that is one thing; to take a step off a cliff when God has not commanded us to do so, is quite a different matter….I think I want to pray for all of you who read this that you will know the difference, and save yourself from the torment of confusion and the taunting of the devil or our fellow believers who say “Where is your faith?” At times Jesus can say that to us, but remember the devil effectively said the same to Jesus; “Just jump, you know it says you will be rescued from harm.” “Oh God may we know the difference between Satan’s taunts and the challenge of our Saviour.”

I hate to say it, but much of the “challenge to greater faith” exhortations in those Charismatic circles which go beyond the bible as compared to Charismatic  circles where the bible is fully and faithfully honoured in its witness to the activity of the Spirit,  are actually “jump of the cliff ” taunts of Satan. Our Heavenly Father does not make a habit of goading His children and mocking their lack of compliance. I remember the ineffectiveness and the unsettling effect  of teachers at school who seemed to depend a lot on goading, cynicism or mockery in relating to those they were seeking to teach. Don’t feel pressured to oblige any preacher or teacher, when they seem to be exhorting you to do something against the peace of God within you. Don’t feel bad when you don’t blindly follow the blind (even if well-meaning and enthusiastic sounding)  guides, as though your faith has failed and you have been a coward. It probably hasn’t and you probably are not! Rather, God has perhaps saved you from presumption and the disaster it can lead to. He wants you to be a redeemed “you” not an obliging clone of a preacher or “teacher” who is frustrated with those they are exhorting or seeking to educate. Let God help them to face their own issues; complying  meekly with their every demand may stop that preacher or teacher from facing up to where they themselves need healing or even repentance… needs some preachers eventually face up to, to the relief and blessing of their congregation….but sadly, some never do and continue to weary and to blame the flock….

… back on the main track now! To be honest I distrust both terribly sensible Christians on the one hand and on the other hand, those who seem to continually challenge common sense as though it was a bad and untrustworthy thing. It is trustworthy, though not always or finally.

I started with Thomas Merton – not the most often advised reading by evangelicals or charismatics, I know, and even to a genuine certain extent understand: I want  to end with another of his thoughts. He says somewhere or other that our mission is “to feel the Spring.” In the context of today’s blog at least, I sort of like that. The Kingdom within knows that in the overall sense, the Kingdom season has been the same since Christ cried, “Finished” and “death could not hold its prey.” On one level the Kingdom within tells us it is always deeply, eternally, unshakeably  advancing Spring which winter can never challenge again…though of course there is  day and night, sun and rain, there are bright days and dark days, warmth and colder times,  even in Spring…

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

I was so blessed the other day through talking with a man I had never met before. Somehow my attention was drawn to him as he drank his coffee. I sat near him and began speaking to him as I drank my coffee. The conversation seemed to be surprisingly easy. Within less than two minutes he shared with me that he had mental health issues. Within five minutes he shared that these issues had got much worse when his mother passed away. Within two minutes more he told me he had seen a banner outside his local church inviting him in, so he had gone in. He found Christ. I am remembering as I write some of the phrases he used: “I am a changed person…My life is completely different from what it was… I have been born again, yes, that is what happened to me. I can hold my head up high walking down the street now…”

The simplicity of it all refreshed me… a banner outside a church that spoke of a welcome… finding Christ…life changed! We seem to be living in an age when the church itself is full of self doubt about its effectiveness, an age in which there is a mantra of cynicism about traditional ways and approaches to mission which we have to repeat (often to the hurt of those who found life in the things we mock and still do). Yet here was a man who saw a banner outside his local parish church, went in and was welcomed, entered the Kingdom of God and received eternal life which has begun now in him and will never end. Furthermore life is spreading through him. His granddaughter is now really excited to come along to church with him; he tells her to remember every day that Jesus loves her; in fact I heard 11 children are now going to that same church; not so long ago there were no children attending.

His testimony and hearing about his church fellowship refreshed me. I thought I was sitting down next to him to help him in some way, but I was the one who was blessed. I thank God for humble churches up and down the land in all sorts of places who faithfully bear witness in what might be looked upon as old fashioned ways, in whose vocabulary whom the word “missional” does not appear. They might not be thought to be at the cutting edge, they may even be mocked by those of us who have tasted and swallowed the devil’s delicious morsel  that  we are the people who are at the cutting edge (whatever that means!) The demise of local churches has been predicted since I sat in a church as a child before I was converted, but they are still there, opening their doors, putting up banners that offer welcome and help, doing good and caring in simple non dramatic ways.

I remember when the Toronto Blessing broke out in our congregation, St. Peter’s and St. Andrews in Thurso. In the congregation that night was a minister who summoned me to stand before his desk in great concern the next day as though I was a naughty schoolboy being called before a headmaster! He announced to me that having been in the service last night with his wife, they had agreed together on the way home that the Holy Spirit had left St. Peter’s and St. Andrews! Well, I believe that God alone saves. In that meeting that night God saved someone. He also delivered someone and met a horrendously abused person with consoling love, and began to deliver someone from involvement in the occult who had never been in the church before.

Tonight I praise God for the churches in Scotland, whatever their shape, size, type, worship style where God is still doing what only God can do; bringing people to a place where they know they are new creations in Christ Jesus. Let’s not be so quick to announce with authority, “God has left the building…Ichabod.” (See 1 Samuel 4:21.) Remember too when wood that is dried out catches fire, it burns really well! In faith and in the fear of God who listens and notes how we speak about our brothers and sisters in Christ, instead of being frustrated by dry wood and throwing it on the junk heap as useless and unfit for purpose, is it time to pray for it; perhaps even to pray for a particular church? God is sovereign. When the fire of true revival falls it usually causes offence because it begins in a place that many Christians would pronounce dry or dead. It often begins in out of the way places that makes many people scratch their heads and ask, “Why on earth did revival begin there? If I was God, I would have poured out the Spirit on…” Is there a church near you that you have dismissed as dead?

God bless you… and your congregation….and the church down the road over which you, not God, have said, presumed or thought, “Ichabod.”

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

I don’t fully understand the operation of the gift of “discernment of spirits.” I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit in the early 80’s which resulted in that gift being given without being asked for. It has remained ever since. One thing I know is that its operation depends on me being not childish, but child-like and willing to be taught by the Spirit. So so often, sadly, we bring what we have previously learned to bear upon a current situation and interpret what is going on according to our knowledge up until that point in time. When we do that, we are likely to draw conclusions more from what we know than from what The Spirit of God within us wants to help us see, hear, or understand in that precise moment and circumstance. Knowledge puffs up and can make me seem an expert; the love of God builds up by revealing true insight which only God can give by the immediate witness of His Spirit.

I have made the above mistake pastorally on occasion. I have brought what I know about a roughly similar situation to bear upon a fresh situation, rather than observing and listening afresh. Of course there is nothing wrong with using knowledge and what God has helped us to learn in the past, but when it stops us listening and being fully aware in the present we may miss what actually “is.” When people looked at Jesus with what they “knew” in the gospels, they missed what was actually there. The centurion did not have the Scriptural knowledge of the Jews, or the Jewish leadership, but he saw what was actually there: that this man Jesus truly was the Son of God, or as a pagan might say before knowledge is added to revelation, this man was a son of the gods.

I am honestly not sure if a gift can be imparted by a blog, nor am I fully convinced of the fact that gifts can be learned without being given by God. In fact though I believe in impartation, the proof it has happened is that it has happened, not that we have attended a conference and been told something has been imparted, despite there being no evidence of it. At times I know I have imparted this gift to others,at other times I have not, which has been an embarrassing not always private experience leading to the good fruit of humility. I have to say though, that the gift of discernment of spirits is not one I come across often in the body of Christ, and yet I am convinced it is a gift that God has poured out upon His Church. I wonder if that gift is waiting to spring into action within you? Perhaps the gift is lying there, unopened….

Here is my suggestion. Thank God for all he has taught you about spiritual life and truth as it is found in Christ. Don’t forget it. However from that basis, be prepared to meet the God who creates out of nothing. There is an emptying of our minds that is dangerous and wrong and is almost an invitation to any spirit around to flood in to the vacuum we create; this is the great danger of some forms of Eastern Mysticism. However, there is a Christian equivalent: remember the occult is a counterfeit of the true. So, pray to the Father, through the Son; tell Him you want to be taught of God; Lift the situation or circumstance you are in, or the person you are speaking with or about to speak with to Him, and offer Him your spirit, soul and body to hear, see and receive what God wants you to see, hear or know.

I guess this is Course 101 type of advice… maybe I will give you some more sometime…it may help me myself to think things through further…

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

From time to time I get a sense that I have to give a prophetic word rather than a teaching word. That feeling has been hanging around me most of the day, so here goes…

I feel the Lord may want to say this to some of you who read this blog:

“Don’t rush to that person to say what is on your mind and get something off your chest. If you do, you may feel better, even happier, but receive this warning: the relationship will be destroyed and there are no guarantees it will recover. The truthfulness of what you may feel you have to say is not sufficient reason to go ahead and say it.”

If this speaks into your situation today, please heed it. The sad thing is though that I think the Lord warned me that some for whom this word may be for will feel the potential glee of going ahead and saying whatever you feel you want to say… and you will do. There are few things more certain to cause shipwreck in spiritual life than an unteachable spirit which at times rears forward like a horse longing to run, or at times is as stubborn as a mule. In further humble effort to help you hear the Word of the Lord, I would ask you to think of the words of Psalm 32:9;

“Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.”

God Bless

Kenny

A friend on Facebook posted a few quotes from Winston Churchill, including this one: “You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every dog that barks.” Great quote! Who or what do you not need to respond to today? What anger or madness or insult or distraction coming from another person or situation should you refuse to dignify by attention or conversation? Satan may have  dangled some bait before you today or may do so soon. Don’t bite the bait! By the way if you are a leader, choose what you go to the stake over. The book of Nehemiah reminds us not to get distracted from what God is asking us to build at any given moment… don’t fight needless battles…

God bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

Well, we have now moved house…Morag has been through surgery….Christmas and new Year are past…and only now do I find I have the energy to get back to blogging. Things take longer and take more out of me and to get over with my breathing problems than at times I realise or make allowance for. The thing is, that is actually ok…so why  do I feel it is not? I guess the “Accuser of the brethren” and of the sisters too,  is as deadly alive and as unwell as ever.

So early on in 2017, but later than I had hoped, I want to ask you a question: What voices do you need to stop listening to, once and for all, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who died and was raised once and for all? I realise now that some of the pastoral advice I have given in the past was based on feeling well rather than upon the Wisdom and Word of God. It came from my experience of  a very happy, stable, loving and encouraging background and of good health, physically, spiritually and mentally: it did not always come from the heart or mind of God towards some person or situation, though it was well meant. For example: I have generally told people to hold their ground in situations that are spiritually discouraging. I think I picked up in the past that was the only right thing to do. It was almost an evangelical law: and you know what? Surrounded by encouragement and in possession of good health and support, it is within reach to do that. The trouble is that not everyone is blessed with such realities. Remember, in this New Year,  that Your Father in Heaven cares about you: He cares about the welfare of those who live above all things for Him and who serve Him. I am not wanting to direct you towards a change or a transition, but a “chance” encounter with someone I met yesterday makes me feel that perhaps there are a few valiant  but tired souls who need to be given permission to move….to move out of a difficult  relational, work or church situation. Not directing… but just giving you permission to rethink some religious but not necessarily biblical laws and rules about the right thing to do….

Thing is… I am sure  I was meant to learn this years ago…. perhaps if I had  I might not be in the state  I am in now and might have been more help to some people who I have not been able to help very much… ? Don’t know….Lord have mercy…. So, partly from personal experience, partly from knowing God in Christ better than I once did, please consider what I am saying to you in the love and the Name of Christ….It may preserve your life and health, your joy and wellbeing, your days on earth, your days with your loved ones and least important of all, prolong your days of active ministry….

God bless

Kenny

P.S: thanks for all Facebook Messages over the Festive Season from many who love us faithfully; please don’t take lack of response as lack of appreciation; it  is genuinely an energy issue in a way that I don’t fully understand and have still to fully accept. Some days the slightest extra thing seems beyond reach. Will get back to you a.s.a.p. which may mean a wee while yet!  Much love, dear friends. Kenny

God’s Word is never wrong. His Spirit is never wrong. The trouble can be with our hearing, but more often than not, it is with our trusting, or our obeying. Most of us hear  God better than we think we do, but trusting what we hear, obeying it? Mmm… “Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to Trust and Obey.

Has your  trust or obedience wavered this day? My trust wavered today despite a promise from God. I don’t like that it wavered, but it did.  I don’t think it failed, but “waver?” Yes, definitely, the cap fits, so I am wearing it and trying to learn from it.  If, as is sometimes taught, we just believe that Christ laughs when we get it wrong and congratulates us for trying anyway, then not only are we ignorant of the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the way He disciples people, but we dismiss the teacher that experience can become to us in the hands of Christ. All I can say is that the good thing I needed to happen, that God promised would happen, that my trust began to waver over, well, guess what it happened, even if it was all a bit last minute-ish. He really does bless us way beyond all that we could ask or think possible. Remember that.

I am so glad the prayer is there in the bible: “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” Here is the wonderful thing… He does. Not sure that I did very well with the faith and trust thing today, but at least I know it, acknowledge it… and just as truly as I heard a word that all would be well,  I am just as clearly not hearing a word of condemnation. Rather there is a gracious presence around me, the presence of Christ. Somehow with His help I look forward to faith being steadier when it needs to be, next time round. Remember that Jesus is “Teacher”: it is a teacher’s calling to get someone from A to B; a skillful teacher puts in the necessary steps on the journey for the student or pupil and helps them learn from their mistakes. The mistake that bible teaching ministries can make, and don’t seem to learn from in time to rescue the relationship between themselves and their congregation,  is that the “Teacher” stands on the platform or in the pulpit or at the lectern calling everyone to move over to embrace whatever it is that they are teaching without putting in the stepping stones of the journey that show an understanding of humanity. That is an unwise teacher, in fact whatever that is, it is not being a teacher at all. Jesus is referred to in the bible as “Good Teacher.” I know that is probably meaning some sort of moral commendation, it may also have been said on occasions in an insincere way, but do you think Jesus has a bad teaching technique? Of course not.

Only a  foolish teacher would bypass the opportunities offered when someone gets it wrong as though mistakes did not matter and could be laughed off; that would be neither kindness, nor grace, it would just be folly. It is a misrepresentation of the Son of God; indeed it is a misrepresentation of the Father and the way He relates to His children; it is a misrepresentation of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the way He teaches God’s children. God is kind and good; He is not harsh when disciplining His children and helping us to learn, but He is not an idiot either. It is the Kingdom of God we are to live in, not Disneyland. There is Discipline and sometimes it is painful; however when God disciplines us, not harshly but at times painfully, it proves He regards us as His children, as belonging to Him. At times there are hard lessons to learn. Mistakes need not be fatal spiritually, though they can be; the idea though is that we are children who learn from our mistakes with the help of a loving and good Father and a loving and good Teacher  and indeed help others to learn from out mistakes too, so that that coming generations of Christ’s people don’t need to re-invent the wheel, as it were.

Oh yes, I should also say am so grateful for all of you who perhaps  felt led by God’s Spirit to pray for me today. Somehow I know those prayers were part of the good thing happening. It is good to be part of a body, in fact it is wonderful!

So how did I do today? Mmh, not sure. However:

1 – I come to the end of today thankful to a God of grace, having learned  once again that He really does speak to us by His Word and His Spirit and we can stake everything upon His promises to us; I find myself wanting to respond to that more fully than I did today; it would not only honour God if I did, but it would save me from needless stress;

2 – I come to the end of today, sensing anew that Jesus is the best of teachers;

3 – I also come to the end of the day thinking that one of the worst things in the realm of human experience is having no one who prays for you…

Have you learned from your “today”?

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

C. G.  Jung has written many things that perhaps would not sit easily with bible believing Christians. However, I have to say that there are one or two things I have read over the years attributed to him that have brought the life and help of God to the deepest places in my humanness.

I have been sharing with you over these last few months something of the journey into the new phase of life that I now find myself in, which is becoming easier for me now to genuinely enjoy and thank God for. Ostensibly it is because of illness that this new phase has happened. However I refuse to give illness the glory. It is God in his goodness that is in charge of all my days – and your days too –  and in that I rejoice.

There have been darker moments in this story of readjustment which is now progressing well. I found a little book by Joyce Rupp very helpful. She is from the Catholic tradition. I have found that tradition very helpful in recent times. It is not they have changed my Protestant theology but sometimes Protestant theology is not so good at connecting the truth it has taught us to treasure with the experience of humanness, or at least that has been my experience. At times indeed it can be so self consciously a defender of itself that it can be a bit militant and insensitive to human need, looking at all questioning or doubting as an assault. For that reason, I have found myself seeking refuge and finding life in writers that I would previously not really have bothered looking at. Anyway, in her helpful little book, “Little Pieces of Light: Darkness and Personal growth,” Joyce Rupp quotes C. G. Jung. It is a quote that is now added to the 2 or 3 other helpful quotes from Jung that are stored in my memory from somewhere or other that have been helpful to me personally and in my pastoral ministry over the years: I quote this by kind permission of the publisher, Paulist Press:

“Resurrection occurs only after the tomb encloses a resident. Psychologist C.G. Jung indicates the tomb or cave as the place where “a person goes when there is a great work to be accomplished, an effort from which one recoils.” Renewal whether of the earth or the human heart, contains its own “Holy Saturday” when the darkness smells of death and shows no evidence of movement. Yet, unseen during this period, life stirs, moves, and changes into something surprising.(Page 28).”

I found these words helpful. Our “cave” or “tomb” experiences can mean the beginning of something new, after something or even someone in our life has passed away. I suspect that we all know that, but it is the emphasis that Jung places on the cave experience, or I guess you could say the desert experience, as being where we go “when there is a great work to be done.”

Perhaps like myself, some aspects of ministry are not open to you as they once were. Can you believe that the best may be yet to be in your life?  I hope you believe that your contribution to the Kingdom of God and indeed to life in general is really vital, unique and needed. It is important to mourn to acknowledge a sense of loss when we are carrying it, but never forget that ours is a resurrection faith. When you think you will be stuck forever in mourning, remember that. Who knows what good things from a good God are still to come? I am believing that my best days are still to be. It may be a less “public” life, but that suits me fine, in fact it suits me, my inner DNA as it were, really, really well!  I think this phase of life is a gift of God’s goodness to me and indeed to Morag. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!

God bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

This is a verse I mentioned only a blog or two ago, but it will not go away from the forefront of my mind. I urge you to think and meditate upon these words, and as you do may the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me…” Psalm138 verse 8

God Bless

Kenny

(Put this on Facebook earlier today but I know there are a lot of you get my blogs in other ways… so here it is!)

Had the roof down in the MX5 yesterday. I am not a poser… how else can you get 2 x 6 foot curtain poles home. Remember that when you are at church today… you may look at someone and be putting together an entirely wrong story…. As for me, well church is out for this morning at least, and looking increasingly unlikely for this evening too. Today my body is telling me what those who love me most tried to tell me in one way or another yesterday but I didn’t heed, “You did too much today.” In my dreams 2 nights ago, a voice said,”Take heed.” In my dreams in the early hours of this morning, a voice said, “Are you deaf?” If only we learned to read our own story instead of misreading others’ stories….

God Bless

Kenny

Just another thought: “Creative” has become a sort of in word for Christians and Churches in the UK and probably in other Western Cultures too, who give off an air of self belief that they are going somwhere, but personally, I believe from Scripture we are overdoing the “Creative” thing a bit, not only in terms of exaggerating its potential impact, but more fundamentally in this sense: in the bible only God is said to create.

The thing is when God creates He makes things very obvious – like his power and deity; you don’t need to be arty to work it all out. When we get creative what we end up doing is as likely to veil as to reveal and make things obvious. He seems quite childlike, happy to paint stars and trees and daisies, and to paint them again and again, and never get bored. We tend to create things that need a lot of explanation: “This painting is really about the conflicts that there are in the existential experience of the eschatological tension we all carry in our own being,”  sort of thing.

God is simple. He is perfectly well and sane. God’s creativity comes from wholeness with no axe to grind or point to make. Ours often comes from brokenness and can be a mixed blessing: some poems and songs  or paintings and drama come from very dark places indeed and for all their honesty can drive the listener  or the watcher into  very disturbed and dark places too. I have met someone who was demonised through watching a creative fantasy film – by the grace of God, she was set free. I write poems from time to time… not all of them would bless others. Some I would never read out loud to anyone….not because they are untrue but just because they wouldn’t really help… that is maybe the subject for another blog: just because something is honest or true does it mean it should be said and shared? Sometimes we need to be careful about what things we make that we choose to  bring out and share… what may be healing for me might depress or confuse others. Many “creative” types have a ministry in confusion, God love them and bless them! I am very confused by about a quarter of modern worship songs, both by their grammar, and by the fact that song writers seem to believe we  all simply love words that have to do double backflips and a few sideward rolls to  fit the tune…We apparently all love to sing in another accent other than our own: “intimut” rather than “intimate” is what  even those of us north of the border in the UK seem to have  to want God to be with us for quite a few years now…and we are all “gonna” do things (which at least has the saving merit of sounding as though it is vaguely and distantly related to slang Glaswegian), instead of announcing what we are “going to” do or become for Christ and the Kingdom.. AND WHILE I AM AT IT….WHO  IN SCOTLAND WOULD EVER CALL GOD “POPPA”?  We wouldn’t even call our earthly fathers “Poppa” because it isn’t a word we use in Scotland. If we did, we would get told to put aside our fancy talk, though we would be told so to do  in a less than fancy way. I wouldn’t expect American Christians to call God “Faither!”

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for “create” is reserved for God Himself, God alone. The rest of us according to the language of the bible simply make or do… we make with what He creates… humbling…. but then again we seem to be blurring the distinction between us and God in general. The popular teaching nowadays in renewal circles is that Jesus did the miracles as a man and not as God, so we can do them too… true and false at the same time. In the bible we are encouraged to do the works Christ did, but His miracles are also recorded as signs of His absolute Uniqueness as The Only begotten Son of God, a proof of his divinity….so that believing in Him, we might find life in His Name. Half-hearing is quite dangerous; you are more likely to get knocked down wherever you are trying to get to, albeit you are stepping out with good intention and nobility of motivation and purpose….

God bless you, especially all you who are the “making things” type: not as grand a word as “creative” but still pretty awesome… we need you…  we really do….

Kenny

Just to push the Charismatic boat a bit further out for you to think about. I referred in my last blog to supernatural fragrance. A good friend told me that one of the signs of epilepsy is that you can smell fragrances that are not there. Well, he was not dismissive at all of the claims I made, and has himself had many wonderful experiences of God and blesses me often with what he is learning about God in what is for him a difficult time… but maybe you are trying to find a rational explanation for what I wrote about?

All I know is that the fragrance at CLAN filled the whole building and was noticed and delighted in by thousands of people. Mass hypnosis? Well I guess some people have tried that argument with the five hundred who saw the risen Lord at the one time. What was particualrly beautiful was that some baby Christians from my own congregation, at that  time , St. Peter’s and St.Andrew’s in Thurso, ended up with their shirts drenched in fragrant oil. There was so much there was a pool on the floor around them. The lovley thing was they just presumed that this was the sort of thing that happened to you once you became a Christian. Oh for a generation of born again people who have not been told “God doesn’t do this, doesnt do that!”

FEAR OF FALSE OR COUNTERFEIT FIRE CAN MAKE US SETTLE FOR NO FIRE AT ALL.  IT CAN MAKE US SPEAK AGAINST THE REAL FIRE AND TAKE US PERILOUSLY CLOSE TO THE TERRITORY OF BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT… by the way, “Charismatics” are just as likely to tread this ground as anyone else… so much rivalry, so many movements speaking against other movements, writers speaking against other writers etc. Hope you are not frowning as you read this. Do you find it hard to believe that God can do beautiful things just because He wants to and that He can  call into being things that are not? God making copious amounts of oil seems quite biblical to me…and I don’t see why He would choose to make it to smell rancid…

Oh by the way I had a conatiner full of the oil: It is all used up now. It had no particular powers that it added to ordinary prayer; it would have been easy to assume it would have  had such powers and for superstitions to develop around it perhaps to counter the question, “What was the point of it?”   There are a lot of pointless daisies in the world.  Our God is the Lord of hosts, which basically just means “many.”  We really don’t need as many stars. We could even do with less music, colour etc. I guess God likes daisies, stars and colours a lot – he makes hosts of them.  Maybe He even likes the daisies you hate in your lawn! Why should God only make useful things? Can’t  He make something that has no other purpose but to be beautiful and make us smile?  Oil can be both useful and beautiful. In this case, it simply was beautiful…. oh yes, there was a fleck or two of gold in it as well which was quite curious…I know that one day, face to face, “We shall see the King, IN HIS BEAUTY!”

God Bless

Kenny

Something I heard Duncan Campbell say once in a sermon came to mind a moment ago, so even though you should all be in bed by now (UK time), I thought I would just “blog” and share it without saying too much. He once defined revival as “the impact of the personality of Christ.” It got me wondering what a life looks like, what a church looks like, what leadership looks like, what mission looks like that has been impacted by the personality of Christ; what does it sound like, feel like?  What does it look like to have our own personalities impacted by His? As I mused, the fire burned…

I remember being in a Christian campsite once in the West of Scotland  and smelling the fragrance of Christ; I never asked for that experience, it just happened. All I know is that it was utterly beautiful, and I longed to smell it again and over the next few nights visited the same spot on the campsite, but I never did …. but then it is not an “it” it is a “Him.” “It” is one of the things that has happened in some revivals in times past, even in Scotland. I remember the late Rev.  Jack MacArthur being moved when he spoke at CLAN Gathering because he smelled the same fragrance that he had known in revival days. I long to encounter such beauty again! The impact of the personality of Christ whatever else it may invovle, is an impact that makes you long above everything else for Him, just for Him above every other aspect of Christian living and Service; beyond even every God given vision and calling that we may be faithfully attending to:  He makes everything that the world and a worldy church with worldly ways and methods  and goals chases after seem so lifeless, dead and pointless and even rather ugly looking by comparison.  “Oh when shall I behold Him?” He really is, as we sung a few years ago now, “beautiful beyond description, too marvellous for words, too wonderful for comprehension, like nothing ever seen or heard…” I found myself singing that as I walked on a quiet beach not long ago. It seemed to say what I was longing to say. It seemed to keep me out of the picture apart from saying, “I stand, I stand in awe of you…” Oh at times I have hated the focus of attention that  being a minister/leader/conference speaker/CLAN leader brought to me…WHEN, WHEN, WHEN WILL WE GET OUT THE WAY ENOUGH TO LET THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST IMPACT US ALL? GOD DELIVER US FROM OUR FASCINATION WITH PERSONALITIES OTHER THAN THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST.

Bruce Collins, one of the very best church leaders I have ever met, used to lead the International work of New Wine and is now deeply invovled in New Wine Wales. He said in a sermon once that Jesus is the most beautiful person he knows. He said it with a voice slighly breaking with emotion.  I have never forgotten the simplicity and the integrity of that moment. The impact of the personality of Christ….

My Dad used to  love Harry Secombe’s singing voice; indeed he thought he was Harry Secombe! I remember hearing Harry Secombe singing a song on a rather scrathcy LP that seemed to be played ad nauseam in my childhood home: “The Lost chord.” It was about an organist who struck a certain magnificent chord while playing randomly and feeling weary and ill at ease… and he could never find it again. I wonder if there is a lost beauty in Christ that we are in danger of forgetting about in our modern day church angst about church, and where it is heading and how it needs to change and so on…

Let me ask you if you are a parish minister, do you know enough about the beauty of Jesus to speak about him every Sunday Morning of your ministry, or do you need to fall back into using (misusing?)  Sundays to  mobiize the church towards something other than Jesus Himself?

I am still frightened of a vision I had once before I spoke at a conference of Jesus “waiting in the wings” while everyone and everything else took centre stage and took the applause. I know when a vision comes from God and not just from myself; I cannot change it, no matter how hard I try to imagine it differently: I have never been able to change this awful sight of  of Jesus in the wings and everything being brought to an end before He was even allowed to come on stage. Maybe the problem is that if we let Him take the highest honour, no one would want anything but Him. Our ministries, our worship leading, our preaching  would not be as sought after, in fact we might not be able to minister, we might be out the picture, no part to play, forgotten about. Our theories and talk might look a bit like the Emperor with no clothes. When I was involved  along with others in leading CLAN Gathering, we had some unspoken rules that guided our invitations to speakers: they had to have scars; in other words they could not just be speakers, but needed to be people who had done the stuff and paid the price; they couldn’t just be experts going round the conference scene with wonderful sermons and stories and some theories to share. I had another rule which I kept a little more secret: I would only ask speakers who in my heart I knew would not mind if they spoke or not during the week when they were with us. Many wonderful speakers were never asked to CLAN, though their presence and names on a programme could have boosted the numbers! If Christ’s personality impacted a meeting, all eyes would be upon Him, everyone would desire Him and fall at his feet overwhelmed….or hate Him with deadlly, jealous, all consuming hatred. By His impact the hearts of many are revealed…

God Bless

Kenny

We were sorting through Christmas decorations the other night. My mind went back to this time of the year many years ago in my early childhood. I held in my hands on that occasion a tiny house with bright baubles for slates, frosted walls, beautiful red glass windows, and I said to my mother, “Would you like to live in a house like that?” “Oh yes,” she replied, “I would love to live in a house like that.” Well, that evening as usual I was being tucked up in bed, prayers were being said and my mother left my bedroom to go downstairs. The nightly ritual at that point was that I shouted out “Night night!” She replied, “Night night!” Then I would shout out as she got further down the stairs, “God Bless!” “She would reply, “God Bless.” If it was my Father that had tucked me up in bed, the same conversation ensued. However from the day of that passing interaction about the little Christmassy decoration of the  beautiful house, I added another shout to my mother, “You won’t go away to another house, will you?” To which she replied, “I won’t go away to another house!”

The thing is, I was such a secure child, deeply loved and I knew it. However it did not mean I didn’t need to hear that reassurance that I was loved, that I would never be abandoned. Did that extra question represent loss of faith in my mother’s love? That would be a harsh verdict to pass on our night time conversation. It simply represented humanness.

Today, I read a verse in Psalm 138 that greatly blessed me. In verse 8 of that Psalm, the psalmist says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.” However that assurance does not stop him from voicing the words that follow: “Don’t abandon me…” Was that a denial of his previously stated faith? No, it was just humanness.

At times I used to get myself tied up in knots about the whole faith thing, It happened increasingly the more I listened to “faith” preachers. Some charismatic teachers seem to unhelpfully confuse biblical and true faith with psychological certainty, so if, for example, you have prayed about something once with true faith, you never need to pray about it again, for that would represent you didn’t really have faith in the first place! At times, this psychological certainty view of faith is represented as not being double minded, which of course Scripture tells us we are not to be. Indeed, Scripture tells us if we are double minded we will receive nothing from the Lord. However absence of psychological certainty is not what being double minded means. To suggest it does mean that is bad Scriptural exegesis… but more of that another time…

There are forms of Christianity that are violent to humanness. However the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord knows out frame. As a Father pities his children so the Lord pities His children who are seeking to walk in His ways. He remembers that we are dust.

If you need to cry “Father, don’t abandon me!” you might be nearer true faith in God than you realise. In Romans 8 we read about the Spirit helping us to cry out, “Abba Father.” There has been a lot of teaching in the last decade about the Father heart of God, much of it very good, but some of it not so. The prevailing impression is that God wants to bring us to some dreamy, balmy assurance that we are loved by the Father, that our heavenly Father is some kind of Disney-like Papa (if our God is British) or Poppa (if God is American) or whatever. However Romans 8 envisages something very different. It speaks about crying, “Abba Father.” I remember hearing Dr. Sinclair Ferguson preaching many years ago now in my own home church in Glasgow saying that the imagery here was of a child who had fallen in the street crying out for help! “Daddy, help me! Daddy, don’t leave me.” Rowan Williams puts it even more strongly. He says “The cry to God as Father in the New Testament …is the Child’s cry out of a nightmare…It is the cry of outrage, fear, shrinking away, when faced with the horror of the “world” – yet not simply or exclusively protest, but trust as well: “Abba Father, all things are possible to Thee…” (Quoted in “Celtic Daily Prayer” Book One, Copyright The Northumbria Community Trust, page 28.)

If you feel you need to cry out today, “Daddy, don’t leave me!” then do so. It does not mean you are weak in faith. It is what God birthed and true faith sounds like in a human being. The cry will be heard. It will not be disregarded. It will not receive harsh judgement. When a father hears his child crying because they have fallen, if he is worthy of being called “Abba” he picks them up, helps them, consoles them with reassuring love and helps them to their feet and to have confidence to walk again; when he hears a cry out of a nightmare, his compassion runs towards the sound. Well, how much more our Heavenly Abba….

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

Looking back over the years once again….

… I have always wanted something more than the brilliant logic of  The Apologist, which if there is nothing more, leads to winning and belittling smugness on the one hand, or alienation and humiliation on the other; a clapping Christian crowd applauding their champion fighter and a defeated foe who of course may have asked  their “question” or made their case with or without genuineness, but whatever, is still made by God and sought by Him. Apologetic debating victory when it comes from and by the grace of God may indeed save some and “Hallelujah” does indeed do so, but when it is mere cleverness rather than the wisdom from above, it can send many a prodigal still a great way off back to the far country to feed themselves on pig swill, feeling more lost and wretched than ever, mocking themselves for ever hoping that a kind or welcoming rather than a publicly shaming and condemning God might be there after all…

…I have always wanted something more than to be someone who teaches accurately, though I hope I have correctly divided the Word of Truth over these last decades as part of my calling to be a parish minister. If there is nothing more from the pulpit/lecturing lectern, that accuracy can turn a listener’s soul into a dry and arid place built on sand even though it seems convinced it is providing good grass which the sheep will eat, or offering bread for the soul and rock on which to build a storm-surviving life and a judgement-surviving eternity. Orthodoxy without the Spirit’s fire (and by that I do not mean anything to do with style or delivery or emotionalism) may fill the preaching centres to the rafters but it stunts the church it thinks it feeds and also delights the devil, for it can hinder the expansion of the Kingdom of God into a lost world…

… I have always wanted to be more than a strategist who can enthuse people with a vision – in fact come to think of it I have never remotely wanted to be a strategist at all… Vision Sundays are a close second to Stated Annual Meetings in my book for the most dreaded Should do/Must do occasions in the church diary!  I am glad I had a team at Holy Trinity who I  could get roped into such things along with somehow managing to manipulate the Preaching Rota so that I hardly needed to do a children’s address for 11 years!  My Session Clerk realised when I said to one or other of the Ministry Team at our weekly Team Meetings, “You would be terribly good at that,” it was meant but it was not the whole motivation behind what I was saying! Strategy is good and I praise God for those who are gifted in this way even if over the years I have made them feel I am disinterested in what makes them tick and  deaf to what they want to enthuse about and have perhaps even studied or thought about  and prayed about for years. Strategy and Vision may lead to influence and impact of to varying degree, but if that is all there is, it has a limited life span, a firework sort of life for a few years or a decade or two:  it may greatly excite and mobilise some of God’s people but it will also wear out some of God’s people; it may unintentionally alienate other faithful believers who battle just to get to church themselves in the hope that there might be something said or sung that might give them fresh hope and energy to live. The keener someone’s gifting in Strategy, the more easy it is to walk along the knife edge of putting something helpful into the heart of the church and the risk of placing, however unintentionally, “The Vision” or “The Project” or “The Movement” or whatever, higher than “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering…” from which every lesser vision (that sometimes thinks itself grander) must spring.

… I have, however, always wanted this: fire-words. I still do … and I want it for you too dear zealous Apologists or Apostles or Evangelists or Entrepreneurs;  I want it for you dear listening-to-God Prophets and devoted Teachers or Transformational Strategists; I want it for you my fellow pastors and for all of you, my dearly beloved Brothers or Sisters in Christ, whoever and wherever you are. Tonight I simply offer you this poem that I have never forgotten since I first read it. When ill health is making itself felt, or when energy is low as it was unexpectedly for me today, well, to be honest, I forget this is what I want at times … but then I remember. The Poem is  by Amy Carmichael, a missionary of the 19th. Century whose life story and books are well worth reading.

Fire – Words

“O God, my words are cold:
The frosted frond of fern or feathery palm
Wrought on the whitened pane –
They are as near to fire as these my words;
Oh that they were as flames!”  Thus did I cry,
And thus God answered me:  “Thou shalt have words,
But at this cost, that thou must first be burnt,
Burnt by red embers from a secret fire,
Scorched by fierce heats and withering winds that sweep
Through all thy being, carrying thee afar
From old delights.  Doth not the ardent fire
Consume the mountain’s heart before the flow
Of fervent lava?  Wouldst thou easefully,
As from cool, pleasant fountains, flow in fire?
Say, can thy heart endure or can thy hands be strong
In the day that I shall deal with thee?”

“For first the iron must enter thine own soul,
And wound and brand it, scarring awful lines
Indelibly upon it, and a hand
Resistless in a tender terribleness
Must thoroughly purge it, fashioning its pain
To power that leaps in fire,
Not otherwise, and by no lighter touch,
Are fire-words wrought.”

I still want this….I think…I still want to ask for this with trembling faith…I think….

God bless,

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

​A lot of you liked a post I put on here saying spiritual exaggeration is lying. If you don’t know me you might get hold of the wrong end of the stick. I believe God is who He has always been and does what He has always been doing. I know a man who was transported supernaturally from one place to another a couple of times, who has seen a few deliverances and healings, who has known seasons when God came down, who has known other biblical experiences of the one holy, true and living God.. if I wrote about that man’s experiences I would not be lying or exaggerating..but as for me I will only boast of my weakness….

God bless

Kenny

Somebody who reads my blogs sent me this quote from Duncan Campbell. It brought back memories of a time when I had made a long journey to  go to a meeting where I believed genuine healing was happening through a visiting evangelist. Perhaps it was, I cannot say one way or the other, but there was so much hype that I felt deeply grieved in the core of my being. It left me so so hungry for the Living God by comparison. Fortunately there was a Christian bookshop nearby where I found some tapes by Duncan Campbell, tapes which include the words quoted below. It was like Manna to my soul and I wept with relief and joy as I listened to them back in my B and B. The disappointment of the meeting was entirely undone. I was reminded of God.. not man…God. I hope these words create a spiritual thirst in you for true revival as compared to revivalism or renewal.  Have we any idea what it would be like to be where “God came down”? Are we praying for a day when we will say in  the words of Scripture, “This is our God and we have waited for Him”?

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones mentioned in a recorded sermon I listened to once that the “Oh God” note needs to come back into our praying. I think I know what he meant. I hope this creates an “Oh God” longing in your heart. Let’s not settle for smoke which does at least show something is happening, but go after the fire!

“There are two things that I would like to say in speaking about the revival in the Hebrides. First, I would like to make it perfectly clear that I did not bring revival to the Hebrides. It has grieved me beyond words to hear people talk and write about “the man who brought revival to the Hebrides.” My dear people, I didn’t do that. Revival was there before I ever set foot on the island. It began in a gracious awareness of God sweeping through the parish of Barvas.

Then I would like to make it perfectly clear what I understand of revival. When I speak of revival, I am not thinking of high-pressure evangelism. I am not thinking of crusades, or of special efforts convened and organized by man. That is not in my mind at all. Revival is something altogether different from evangelism on its highest level. Revival is a moving of God in the community, and suddenly the community becomes God-conscious, before a word is said by any man representing any special effort.”

God bless

Kenny

What if “more of God” lies in the very place you wish you were not in and are trying desperately to get out of prematurely…? Can you pray tonight in surrender, trust and peace, “Hineni”: Hebrew for “I am here, I am ready,” Lord?

When the Son of God came into the world, He said to His Father, “Here I am.” The outworking of everything  depended on Him saying that. Will you ask Jesus to help you say to His Father  and yours what He said?

God Bless

Kenny

Can healing be rescued from inflated claims and exaggeration? Can Prophesy be rescued from meaningless generalities? Can being slain in the Spirit be rescued from being dependent on pushing? Can…oh well, I will leave it there for tonight…Friends don’t worry for me. I am still a charismatic by belief, conviction and experience. I am not spiritually depressed, but am sick of charismaticism. I still believe in Revival but not revivalism. I would rather do without that and wait upon God even as I do what I can as at this point in my journey with God. The good thing is, it is making me pray…Longing as much as ever I have for the real… for me as much as anyone, for all God’s people whatever the label, for Scotland. I want to beleive for Isaac rather than settling for Ishmael….

God bless

Kenny

Please, please, please  tell me/us something more specific than “there is a new season coming…” I already know from nature that our God changes seasons, it is just part of what He does. Fortunately when He changes seasons, I can see clear signs that the seasons have indeed changed and so can everybody else. When many prophets tell us in the Name of the Lord, “Lo, I tell you, you are about to enter a new season. I say to you that it will not be like this last season…” I feel confused. I have no idea what the last season was, no idea from what is prophesied what the new season will be like.

If I were Pope, I would put out either a Papal Bull or Encyclical (I guess if I were Pope I would know which it should be) banning certain phrases from being used in prophesy: In addition to a ban on unidentifiable unprovable “change of season” prophecies, the following would be banned: “God is moving us up to another level.” (Worse still, “God is going up a level!”) “This is a time of transition…” (Well, nothing very prophetic in that: the whole of life is permanent transition.)

I love real prophecy just as I love real anything that is from God. It brings the awe of God and causes strength to arise in the hearts of God’s people, but non specific stuff all the time is not helpful; in fact while it causes fires of hype to burn higher, it destroys rather than encourages faith. Why have we dumbed down the gifts? Prophecy has now become quite confused with the gift of the word of Knowledge. On the other hand it has become so heavily weighted to ‘forth-telling” or speaking the Word of God into a situation (which is indeed an element of prophecy), that there is not much of the foretelling element, indeed that is usually just dismissed with a brief nod of the head. In the bible, prophetic foretelling is a sign that we worship the one true Living God, the God who announces things before they happen. This genuine gift is of course found in counterfeit form in the occult as are the other gifts and experiences of the Spirit God gives. They may look the same but they are not from the same source: this is a very basic and simple mistake people make when writing or speaking against charismatic gifts. By the way, it is not just prophecy that has suffered this dumbing down. Healing has now become a “Where on a scale of 1 – 10 is the pain?” (Usually and embarrassingly asked when someone is standing in front of a crowd of people…) As I hinted at in another blog recently, I believe that a dumbing down has happened to the gift of “The Apostle” as well; basically that has become dumbed down to being a spiritual entrepreneur or pioneer.

I know, I know that this sounds cynical. Actually it is not. Limited energy, which I am experiencing at the moment, tends to make you want to separate wheat from chaff in terms of what you give time to or pursue; it makes you more honest about what is good and helpful for you and what is not and can be left aside. I love it when God is in something and feel disappointed not just for myself but for God’s people when He is not. I am disappointed when for example the charismatic contingency in Scotland gets excited about some visiting prophet from somewhere or other who basically comes claiming to carry a significant word for Scotland, and actually says next to nothing, despite building up to this revelation for an hour or so in talking. The ensuing conversation in the car or bus afterwards between people goes something like this, “So, what did he/she say? Did you get it?” “Mmm… I am not sure….I think they were meaning….” “Oh…did they say what that would look like?” “Mmmm…not really. I think they were maybe meaning….” “Oh….oh well… it’s cold tonight isn’t it? It feels quite wintry almost, doesn’t it?” “Yes it is, I think the seasons are changing…”

I have been on the receiving end of wonderful prophecies from people. The real thing is awesome even fearfully so. The real thing really does exist and it changes lives and even saves lives, quite literally. I personally have received revelation to give to people on 2 occasions which if I had held back may have led to their death.

The wonderful thing about the gifts of the Spirit is that they are for all of God’s people, even the youngest believer: as John Wimber famously said, “We all get to play.” However, please don’t play with my emotions and hopes and fears and the secret struggles and longings of my heart that need strengthened encouraged and comforted by a true word from the Living God.

Let’s go after the real….

God bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

I think I have said before in my blog pages that since having to battle with health issues, retirement and the effects of a plethora of medication, at times the way I used to read the bible and pray is a physical and even an emotional or spiritual impossibility at the moment. Realising that makes me wonder if in my preaching in the past I have  been guilty of the sin of spiritual guides contemporary to Jesus who we meet from time to time as we read the gospels: loading burdens on people’s backs that are heavy to bear? What might have seemed at times a reasonable ask for me to issue to folk, some of whom were struggling with dear knows what,  I now see could have been insensitive to some weakness, tiredness, depression or just plain “worn-out-ness” that some of those listening had  not chosen but were having to learn to live with.  If we are preachers,  what we think or hope is inspiring folk to better things, encouraging a greater devotion and zeal for the Lord, His Church, or His mission in the world,  might be crushing  and demoralising at least some who hear. I was constantly and consistently amazed in each charge I was called to, Eday linked with Stronsay in Orkney, followed by Thurso in Caithness and lastly Wester Hailes in Edinburgh as well as in my  prior Assistantship at St. Michael’s in Linlithgow all the way back in 1982 , at what some people  may have to struggle with in their lives,  in order to appear at church. Some of those who sit in a congregation on a Sunday should be applauded just for turning up, even if they don’t manage to stay for the whole service. I could of course go moralistic and religious, and talk about those who struggle with far less and don’t even try to get to church!  Indeed, ever since Linlithgow onwards I have often witnessed some of the so called “Housebound” people on a church role apparently miraculously restored to strength enough to contend  with a force 9 gale, leaning at a 90 degrees angle to get to the Bingo! To use the Charismatic term, they apparently did not manage “to hold on to their healing” until the following Sunday.

However in this blog, I want to stop the slide into compounding the afore-mentioned  preacher’s or pastor’s  sin through not lifting a finger, at least, to help you or to help you help others.  The help I offer comes from a terrible confession I have to make as a Presbyterian: I have been finding Liturgy helpful! I have been using a Book called “Celtic Daily Prayer. Book One: The Journey Begins,” and finding it to be help from heaven. There are daily prayers for morning, mid-day and evening, along with 3 Scripture readings, a mediation, encouragement to pray and on some days all of that can be augmented with learning about Christians in the past. You can even end the day with Compline… no, not Complan, though if that helps too…!

I know that Jesus warned against vain repetition, but for me this is fruitful, not vain repetition. When my concentration despite my best efforts is all over the place, I find it  a tremendously strengthening and joy giving focus to say each morning, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Even though it is “I” who am coming to Christ, using the word “We” has been a beneficial “put a smile on my face” thing each morning!  That little, seemingly insignificant word,  reminds me that I am part of a world wide community of people who follow Jesus; I am not on my own, fighting my battles alone, stubbornly persisting  and insisting to my palpably weakened  body and soul that doing my own thing in terms of daily devotions is somehow more meritorious. At Midday, it is helping me to set aside a few minutes to say among other things the words of Scripture, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish Thou the work of our hands…” That helps me on days when I question the worth of my contribution to life. In the evening I can say, “In the shadow of your wings, I will sing your praises, O Lord. I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. O wait for the Lord! Have courage and wait, wait for the Lord.” These verses as well as being to all  God’s people remind me of something I believe the Lord promised me  quite specifically at a vulnerable time when I was feeling very unsure indeed, for good reason, about how things were looking for me health-wise.

Perhaps one day I will get back to my old way of praying, which seemed to be about remembering to tell God as much Scripture as I could and preach to Him about Himself. Actually, I know that sounds as though I am mocking my old ways and maybe even a way of prayer that is life-giving to you, but I am not. I love reminding myself of who God is, what He has promised etc. At the moment though, this simpler shorter repetition of beautiful Scriptural verses, this guided , perhaps what at first seemed to me to be  a less spontaneous type of daily devotional practice, is bringing life to me. I may stick with it even as health improves. It may prove to be a new spiritual home for my devotional life. Whatever, for the time being, I cannot tell you the pleasure and excitement I feel as look forward to saying the Daily Office whether Morning, Midday or Evening! I have released myself from “oughts” and “shoulds” that have been helpfully/not helpfully imposed/self-imposed upon me: I have found fresh life in praying in what is a new way for me and in reading the bible in a manner different from what had become my norm.

I guess I am trying to free at least some who may read this from guilt in the area of personal devotion and urging you if within the body of Christ  you seek to encourage others in their walk with Jesus, not to load heavy devotional burdens on people even if it is out of the best of intention. Perhaps I am also suggesting to you something very simple: a change is not only as good as a rest, it may be the very will of God for you right now.

God Bless

Kenny

P.S. Perhaps if you are able so to do, you could buy the book I mentioned above for yourself or for someone else this Christmas? No “should” or “ought” just a “could?” 

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

​Exaggerated spiritual claims are not only lying and bearing false witness to God, they are almost  converting me to find refuge and strength in  monkhood!…to  seek with fresh delight the God who does not lie but is always true to Himself and to the humble community/communities of His watching/waiting/worshipping/working/welcoming witnesses to another Kingdom….

God bless

Kenny

After the long title, the shortest of thoughts…

Spiritual exaggeration is lying. There’s a lot of it around…..let’s not be dishonest witnesses…

God bless

Kenny

I miss the generation who possessed the art of noiseless speaking. Do you know what I mean? Conversation would be going along quite normally but then all of a sudden certain words would be mouthed rather than spoken. Les Dawson was brilliant at it! Some had a greater noiseless vocabulary than others extending to a whole host of topics and words; to talk with them was like trying to follow the conversation through a microphone that intermittently cut out without warning which was tedious and for me at least, resulted in curiosity giving way to no listening at all! Leaving aside those who over tested my lip reading skills, when such ability was called forth, I always thought when a word was spoken without sound I was on holy ground. Something was being spoken about that was to be considered with reverence. At times of course this art of noiseless speaking could create a sense of shame; when it was used like that, well, I don’t miss that at all. It wasn’t so used in our family. I was brought up in a large extended and genuinely Christian family and the feeling noiseless mouthing of words from my elders left in me, was that whoever that noiseless word was being spoken about , they were struggling with something beyond the norm. Usually afterwards there was complete silence with not even lips moving or being read before the conversation moved on again. I actually quite often felt the presence of God in that silent aftermath: it felt like a silence that God honoured with His own presence; I would have liked to have stayed there pondering it for longer.

So many people carry such hidden shames or pains that I guess it is good that we live in more open times…but…I regret it in a way. Things that are the cause of deep pain and human struggle are now spoken about so blithely and freely that it reduces struggle to gossip, or at best to mere information. I guess I am saying something that makes me sound older than my 58 plus years: “Is nothing sacred any more?” Coming into the open about some experience when I am being drawn that way by God and His Word and His Spirit is one thing, but the modern force of an across-the-board, inviolable commandment attached to doing that, is quite another: it is devaluing the human condition. Sometimes I face something of that struggle in writing my blogs: I want to be open about “me” when it is helpful, but that does not require that I tell everything about “me.” There is a time when it is wrong to cover things up, where revealing will bring much needed release and healing to oneself or others, but there is a time when grace allows us to cover things in silence; it is best for me and it is best for others. Remember that God has put two rows of bars in front of our tongue; our  teeth, and if they are non-existent or have a few gaps for unwise verbosity to escape, our lips.

Open sharing of everything under the sun can put a burden on me rather than bringing relief and it can put a burden on those who hear as well, that they need not have been forced to carry. I think of some of the stuff that nursery school children are supposed now to be taught in Scotland: our love of openness which is meant to produce a generation of children who carry less shame and put less shame on others may well bring up a very troubled and mixed up generation indeed; robotic conformity  mantras with no freedom to think otherwise, seems an odd method of education to use; it is in fact child abuse by the state. In the name of “Diversity” straightjackets of forced “Conformity”  are being imposed upon even the very young in a thoughtlesss and merciless way.  I am praying as I write for those of you who will be worried for your own children or grandchildren because of  militant secularism and increasingly “big government” that we are seeing trying to assert itself  in Scotland, as freedom to think differently is under attack or at least only allowed within increasingly proscribed and at times even policed  limits.

“How did this blog come about?”, you may or may not be asking! Well, I found myself reading part of the story of Ruth. I was thinking about the fact that nowadays it is more common to hear reference to Esther than to Ruth. When I was strictly conservative evangelical (still am basically), Ruth was often referred to; since I added in charismatic belief and circles to the mix  (still held basically), I seem to hear much more about Esther. I will come back to thoughts beyond the ones in the next paragraph, about why this is, another day…perhaps.

Esther certainly appeals to a love of the dramatic with it’s “being brought to the Kingdom for such a time as this” feel. It is a magnetic story for  “World Changers” which is what we are usually encouraged in charismatic circles to think everyone has to become (no comment, for now!) Actually Ruth was a world changer too; it’s just there is not an obvious or loud  and dramatic “World Changers” verse to quote!  It is a quieter story centering around the beauty of someone who was not even by birth  one of the people of God; Ruth was by birth a foreigner, though seems to have absorbed by contact something of what it meant to behave with honour as one of His people.  The setting of Esther is that really she was a backslidden member of the people of God living where she should not have been living, as the story begins. I know that takes the romance of the story away a bit! Sorry if you got a shock just now! Here is another shock: It is the only book in the bible where you cannot find the word of God being mentioned at all in any shape or form. Karl Barth who emphasized the primacy of the word in his theology was once asked where the word of God appeared in Esther: He said hat he was still looking for it!

Perhaps the lesson of Esther is that even when you are a backslider living with backsliders, when you are living in a place a child of God should not find themselves in among people who never even mention the Word of God to one another, the God of grace is still there in mercy, faithful to His covenants. Humility is a quality in God Himself and part of humility is behaving the right way even if others have not treated you the right way and doing so without  making a song and dance about it.  With Christmas coming within shouting distance, we should remember that Jesus came into a rebellious world  – where  the earthly king of God’s covenant people has to ask for  a search and an answer to be made to find out  the answer to such a basic question as to where the Word of God said the Messiah was to be born –  as the God who humbled Himself (See Philippians 2). Astonishing; a reason to be lost in wonder, love and praise. The story of Esther works out as it does not simply because of her beauty, but because of the mercy of an ignored God. Without His presence, we would never have heard of Esther  or the Jewish contemporaries whom she lived among,  save in some sort of Psalm, either of “lament”, or even of “warning” type: “This is the disaster that comes on those who forsake God. Look, read and consider their fearfully tragic end and learn wisdom.”

The Bible is often quite open about people’s struggles and even their sins, however not so with Esther. Is the writer whitewashing her story by not giving us the true setting or so as not to take the gloss off the romance of the story? I don’t think so. The silence of the writer gives us such an important lesson to consider: Not everything needs to be brought out into the open all the time. Paradoxically, I felt I had to write about that today and about the true setting of Esther to make that point.

You may be feeling a relentless pressure to speak about something, not because you want to but because it is the mood of the times. Well, moods are not helpful. Fortunately we worship a God who does not have moods good or bad  and who gives us strength not to be ordered about by our moods or others’ moods or by changing moods of culture. Why not take time alone with Him today and ask a question, “Is this something, Lord ,that it would be helpful to bring out into the open, or is your grace allowing me to cover it for time and eternity and move on?” If it helps to speak out, then speak to someone who you know will revere the sacred quality in what you are doing as you speak out; but perhaps this blog is giving you the liberty to think, “Do I need to tell someone this… or do I have your permission, Father, with joy and relief to bury this deep in eternal  and merciful silence and  there let it be transformed by your grace?” The advice is often given, “You really need to speak to someone about this”. Often that is advice from God and needs to be heeded… but it ain’t necessarily so. Just saying…

God Bless

Kenny Borthwick

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

Just a short blog tonight. My own bible reading today took me to Hebrews Chapter 11. In that chapter in verse 7 we read of Noah: “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who warned him about things that had never happened before…” I seem to remember Dr. R.T. Kendall saying almost in passing at CLAN Gathering that everyone that we read of in Hebrews 11 faced things that had never happened before. They could not look back in their experience or even in the experience of others in the family of faith to know how to walk a new path. I just wanted you to know if you read this blog, that I have prayed for those of you who are facing things that have never happened before to you or those you love up until this point in your life. May God be with you and your loved ones. I pray that He will guide you step by step as you negotiate territory that you have not passed through before but are facing right now.

God Bless

Kenny

We’re annoyed at the form of “Democracy’s” feet,
From the starting box “Anger” has come  pounding out,
In corridors of power or out on the streets
“Shout” strains with “Whisper” to beat “Blasted Result.”

“New Saviour and Hope” tells what we need,
“Evangelist”, mane shaking, has started to neigh
at those who won’t yield and give up their creed,
” Just admit it, this is why you voted this way…”

“Marriage” or “Gender”, “Him and/or Her”
What meaning will win is anyone’s call;
Will “Person of Person” beat “Son of the Father”
“Redefined Word” make  nobodies of all?

With unwavering pace, runs “Sown and Reaped”
So  Cannabis from Budgie seed  at times can spring;
Of what freedoms do mind altered winged birds dream;
Do they crawl like slugs or dine with kings?

The sweat of the race flies round like dung falling,
Landing on territory so fought for and won,
“Usonlya” is the name of the strong plant that’s thriving,
“All Count” just in front from “Heil to the One.”

Further to my last blog, I would read a book on Apostleship right to the end if it did not mention non-biblical clothes it wants to drape upon that word: “entrepreneurial, strategist, pioneering.”  We need entrepreneurial, strategic and pioneering folk desperately but I think an Apostle in the bible’s terms is something other than that, and they may have or may not have some of the above mentioned abilities. Perhaps we need to learn from our brothers and sisters who officially recognise Apostles within their denominations from biblical conviction and have done so for decades before the rest of us caught up with them and muddied the waters with well meaning, but non biblical clutter and values. Sorry to offend, but it alarms me that in some Christian circles all sorts of folk are being called “Apostolic”, every Christian is being called a “leader”… I could make a list of such things but most of them have such a head of steam to them already…..the horse seems to have bolted.

I should say I have met people over the years and the only word I can use for them is “Apostolic.” These encounters have been very few and far between, and I could not even tell you what it is about them that makes me feel it is the right word to use about them. I wish I did. I have found that most books on the gift of being an Apostle tend to rely on other books on the same subject. The claimed authority seems to be a circular footnote in one book referring to a footnote in another book, but no authoritative source outside the world of footnotes to footnotes. I wish someone would tell me what the bible actually says about it, though as far as I can see  there is probably not enough there to write a book or hold a conference me thinks…. but then that is probably true also of most of the things we turn into courses or conferences these days… what Jesus said about them would hardly fill a postage stamp…. but it’s Sunday night….

It seems to me in the clearest/most scary/most prophetic  moments I experience in these days of not so good health and medication,  that Jesus is no longer even allowed to be Teacher of His people and that the Word of God is no longer the supreme rule for faith and life and the source of true doctrine and practice, even in reformed/evangelical/charismatic circles…. but apparently Jesus laughs when we get it wrong and encourages us to laugh now instead of expressing extreme frustration and talking of our “little faith.” Despite being told by Jesus to “call no man ‘Father'” or whatever there seems to be a cult of greatly admired individuals arising especially in the charismatic scene, but all our idols have feet of clay.  I have to say whenever in the past  I heard my name being associated with something good that was happening, and heard that association being made too often, I knew it was time for me to move on for my sake and for the spiritual well being of others; I am not saying that needs to be a rule for everyone, but it was what the Lord required of me and I felt I had to share that with you!  Today’s popular Jesus would certainly not say to error and those who make it, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”… but rather would laugh and say “Well done for trying.” By the way He most certainly does say, “Well done for trying” at the right time in the right circumstances, but we seem addicted to the teaching of men and women, so addicted that when it is in error people can get very angry when error is pointed out, the same way an addict would be if someone withheld their drugs or the so called replacement for their drugs, “methadone.”

Even though I once helped to lead conferences and spoke at them throughout the UK and in other lands for many years, I have not been to many lately… I might though, if it was about something that was a priority in the life and teaching of the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and of the first Apostles and was more than words and claims…. I would even go to a postage sized one on the gift of “the Apostle” for then I would know it was probably going to be biblical.

By the way, I felt I was to write about this just the same way as  I have felt with other blogs. If you want to know more of my way of operating over the years, well I wait for the butterfly wing of a thought from God from whatever the passage of scripture may be that I am looking at , and then prepare a framework for that one central thought by the Spirit’s grace and help. Sometimes I do not know the full reason why I have to write/speak about something, but sometimes I sense a troubling in the air that goes beyond something I may or may not be feeling strongly about….I take a leap of faith when that familiar thing happens that the Lord wants to speak. No doubt by the time what He wants to say is filtered through me it means  there will be stuff for you to filter out, but my plea is that you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. I believe there is something of God in what I am writing, though probably postage stamp sized or less. That “something” may or may not be listened to…

God Bless

Kenny

I put this on Facebook and I am blogging it here. It might annoy people but it might just save the growing interest in the “Apostolic” ministry from disaster.

“The essence of Apostolic leadership? Not strategy or seeking influence…just leaders in washing feet….time to get back to Jesus example for our definitions I think…”

Time to take off the worldly clothes of our own making that we have draped upon this word.

God Bless

Kenny

All sorts of good thoughts going through my mind today. Was blessed unexpectedly with a beautiful meal in “The Balmoral Hotel” in Edinburgh. Before I share anything else, they say there is no such thing as a free lunch but there is such thing as a free dinner when there are generous and kind Americans around! Thank you…you know who you are… you fed me even though we may disagree about Trump!

Well, a couple of simple thoughts for tonight from many thoughts. These are the two that seem to be coming to the surface. Thought number 1: the Saturday of Holy Week has become incredibly important to me since retiring, in a most helpful way. To be honest there are some things about being a Church of Scotland minister that I am glad to be free from now, but at the same time this has been for me a time of grieving at the loss of ability to do things that were life giving to me. In times past I have always thought of the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday as a bit of a non-event. From a watching the story point of view, there seems to be nothing interesting happening compared with Christ offering His life as the once for all Sacrifice for sin on Good Friday and the joy of resurrection Sunday. However over this last year I have come to treasure the Saturday. You could look upon that Saturday as death increasing its hold and destructiveness of Christ or you can look at it as the womb of His resurrection. At times since retirement I have concentrated on the hold of what was being taken away through ill health, but I am choosing to look upon this time now as the womb of resurrection – to what? I am not sure yet… I would encourage you to look upon dark times you have as the harbinger of resurrection even though at times it may feel as though it is darkness asserting its power. Being an “Inbetweener”, living in the Saturday rather than the Friday or Sunday as it were, is not always easy… that thought has just led to many more which I will leave for the time being….!

Second simple thought. For me it has just been a fact that what has come to mind most readily without any encouragement over this last while have been the harshest interpretations of Scripture that I have heard preached and taught over the years. Today it was, “Do you want to get well?” This was the question Jesus asked a man who had been ill for 38 years in a place where healing miracles happened regularly. I have heard this preached upon several times with a harsh interpretative key, I might even say a right-wing political interpretative key! It goes like this: “Jesus was wanting to know if the man really wanted to get well, because if he did well he would have to earn a living and face up to responsibilities, instead of living by begging and charity” etc. Unexpectedly, I felt the grief of God earlier today that his Son and His compassion has been so misrepresented by those who claim to be preaching the Scriptures. If I had asked my children when they were younger, “Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?”  – which, when we were living in the far North, was a rare occasion, and costly in terms of money and time as it meant a  roundtrip of over 200 miles from Thurso to Inverness and back, and prior to that 2 ferries, Stronsay to Kirkwall and back, overnight accommodation bills etc. – there would have been no thought in my mind that I was challenging them to get a Saturday job rather than simply offering them something joyful that they could never do for themselves! (Incidentally that has just reminded me of many secret trips of made at this time of the year, up to about 600 hundred miles to get the “must have” Christmas presents!) I would ask that question about the cinema with delight in my heart, despite knowing that I would have to endure “Happy Meals” at Macdonalds in Inverness! I was  offering something without demanding anything in terms of changed lifestyle. The very question would be to inspire hope, joy and faith;  since someone who loved them had asked that question and said what I had said to them, it was about to happen… if I as an earthly father…HOW MUCH MORE our Father in heaven…So earlier today I said goodbye to the nagging and tormenting  question, “So many people have prayed for me, do I really want to get well?” I simply rest in the nearness of Christ who cares with great compassion for my well being and who recognises my not wishing some aspects of ministry back is a sign of perfect sanity rather than malingering! Of this I am certain.

What sermons have you heard that secretly have been a persistent  source of condemnation to you? If they are a source of condemnation, even if they seemed to be an explanation of Scripture, they did not come from Christ. He is for us not against us in all our struggles and our weaknesses, our sinfulness and our vulnerability of body, mind or spirit. When there is truth that really does need to be faced up to he helps us do so straightforwardly rather than with riddles: “You have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband”; “Go sell what you have and give to the poor.” More importantly He offers hope should we choose to accept it, the hope of the offer of living water to quench every thirst and the hope of treasure in heaven if we leave what He asks us to leave in order to follow Him. Anyone can offer condemnation and guilt. A Saviour offers hope. So, “Goodbye harsh Christ! ” was what I found myself saying to a devil masquerading as the Christ of light and love today. Perhaps you need to say the same. You will not lose the real Christ if you say such a goodbye…

Well, it is very late, but I guess if you are meant to see and read this, you will.

God Bless

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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

This blessed me a lot. I hope you find it helpful. It is quoted with very kind and generous permission, as I acknowledge later,  for which I am very grateful.

“ … routinely, am I capable of looking at how I’m thinking and how I’m feeling with a bit of distance, a little coolness? Am I capable of taking my intense feelings, positive and negative, out of the depths of my guts for a moment and putting them where I can look at them – and where Christ can look at them?

It’s what the ancient spiritual traditions mean by ‘dispassion.’ It’s a terrible word, and it’s not much better in Greek, because apatheia sounds remarkably like ‘apathy’ and it is indeed the source of our English word. But dispassion, apatheia, in the spiritual understanding of the early Christians, involved exactly that capacity to stand back a fraction from how we are feeing, what we think we are wanting, and what other people are wanting. We are saying, “Just a moment – can I make some space around these feelings, these instincts, these emotions, these desires? Can I create a bit of air around them and not allow my reactions instantly to be dictated by them?’ And that applies equally to feelings of enormous ecstasy and enthusiasm as to resentment or misery. Stand back a little, give those feelings room to breathe; give yourself room to breathe. Look them in the eye and say, ‘Now come on, how real are you? What’s this really about?

Self-awareness, and this rather alarming word ‘dispassion’, are to do with developing some sense of freedom from the projections, the expectations, the busyness, that constantly threaten to hem us in. And we only really get that when, in our prayer and in our life generally, we make enough space to hear our name spoken by God…To sustain ‘life in the Spirit’ under pressure, we need to retain the ability to say to God, ‘Tell me who I am.’ Because I’m not going to settle with what everyone else is telling me – I’m not even going to settle with what I am telling me. I need to hear it from God, the God who tells me. Because then I know that I exist, I live, I flourish, simply because of his speaking. ‘I have called you by name,’ says God, ‘you are mine’ (Isaiah 43.1).”

(Taken from Being Disciples (pages 77-79) by Rowan Williams, SPCK, London, 2016 used by permission. For more information please go to  http://spckpublishing.co.uk/product/being-disciples-essentials-of-the-christian-life/”

Some of you might even want to gently sing these words from my childhood and perhaps from yours as a prayer; the words come from the hymn, “O Jesus I have promised…”

“O let me hear thee speaking
in accents clear and still,
above the storms of passion,
the murmurs of self-will.
O speak to reassure me,
to hasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen,
thou guardian of my soul.”

God bless you with true apatheia! Dispassion is s as much needed for spiritual health as passion it would seem…

Kenny

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

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

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