Look Full in his Wonderful Face

God loves me and He wants to meet with me in a very personal way. I have listened to people who were with me at New Wine this year talk to me about the way He met with them, the words he has spoken to them, even in one case the song He is singing over them. It would be so easy for me to expect Him to meet with me in the same ways that they have talked about, but I think that what He is saying to me is that I need to wait for Him to choose to meet with me in a way that is very personal to me and my life situation. It may be a song, it may be a vision, it may be a dream or a voice in my head, or it may be something completely different. Whatever way God chooses to meet with me I need to wait in expectation. If I do not expect Him to want to meet with me then it simply won't happen. I do know that when it happens nothing will ever be the same again. Normal things in life will cease to matter: "things on earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His Wonder and Grace."

Last night I went to bed praying that God would give me a sign that I was going in the right direction. I even challenged Him, that I wanted the sign the very next morning. At 9:00 this morning my mum phoned to say to me that she had a verse from the Bible for me...she does not do this very often... and that I was to read Romans 15: 13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I do trust in him. And I feel that joy and peace bubbling up inside me as I write this!

God's Promises Part 1

John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I see this Promise in two parts
• In this world you will have trouble
God does not promise those who love Him an easy life. On the contrary, in this verse, he actually promises us that life will not be easy. Trouble will follow us in this life. Look at the early Christians, were they not put in chains, persecuted and even killed for their faith? Perhaps then we should rejoice in our hardships?
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. John 15: 18-19
• And the second part of the promise : But take heart! I have overcome the world.
So, having promised us hardship, God tells us to take heart! He has already overcome the world through his gift of Jesus Christ, and we are free! So whilst we may suffer hardship on this earth, ultimately we have no need to be afraid.

Perhaps the new year is a good time for us to look at this promise and see how we will claim it in our lives.

When faced with hardships in life, we can either allow them to knock us over and crush us or ride them and when we come out the other side, put them behind us.

Boston with Christ!

I have just listened to an amazing sermon. Boston is in need of God, and Christians in Boston need to get together to fulfill this need. We are many. We need to step out of our comfort zones and be Jesus to the people of our town. I am praying that I will not be complacent about this. I need to be pro-active and expectant to see God's amazing works.

What have I done?

Well so far I have signed up to help at the soup kitchen which has been running around a year now, but I feel that I am being called to something else. Street Pastoring? Perhaps...

Watch this space!