No Greater Power (2)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.

                John
1: 14

No Greater Power

There is no greater power than a community discovering what is cares about.
Ask "What's possible?" not "Whats wrong?" Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear.
Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more that certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what's possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert in something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don't fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations change your world.
Rely on human goodness. Stay together.


                                             Meg Wheatley



Thanks to Steve Pettican for bringing this to my attention

In Defense of Traditional Marriage

I became a Christian when I was 15 years old. Since then,
the Bible has been my companion. It’s been a good book to base my life on.

More importantly, our nation is based on the Bible- on a set
of Judaeo-Christian beliefs. It has been a good book to base our nation on. We
don’t always get it right, but the belief system we have developed has served
us well and given us solid foundations.

I saw our Prime Minister on the news last night. With little
thought to our foundations, he intends to remove one. The Bible is clear-
marriage is between one man and one woman. That’s what our nation is based on
and we have historic records to that effect. Marriage goes back to the dawn of
time. Marriage in our nation is written into our laws. Over 3000 laws refer to it.
Many would have to be rewritten to remove the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.

Cameron wants to change marriage. It’s not something that
was in his manifesto. He has chosen to ignore the considerable reaction against
his views. And, more importantly, he is trying to remove a foundation stone,
whilst expecting the building above it to remain unaffected.

Marriage is bigger than the same-sex debate. It’s bigger
than a Prime Ministers whim. It’s a foundation on which we have built our
nation. It needs defending.

Mountains

You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.

Tom Hiddleston

[We are] created to walk in precarious places, not on the easy levels of life.

Amy Carmichael

Keep Going (2)

....and sometimes we need to get up off the floor...



CLICK HERE:  Heather's Race

 

Keep Going

Sometimes we just need encouragement to keep going.

 

Oh God! He believed what I taught on Sunday!

‘John, John! Come quickly, It’s Sean. He’s been stung.’

 Not just one sting. Three year old Sean had walked into a swarm of bees. He was covered in stings which were visibly swelling in front of John and Carol Wimber’s eyes.

John prayed. ‘Dear Lord, please heal Sean now’.  Nothing happened. ‘Please Jesus, please.’ John and Carol became more persistent in their prayers, breaking off to speak in tongues- what the Bible calls a supernatural prayer language. The longer John prayed, the more confident he became.

Then in happened. In front of their eyes, the swelling began to go down. Sean slept and by the time he awoke, there was only one red mark left on the whole of his body.

Another time, Carol Wimber recalls a phone call with a member of the church asking John to go and pray for his wife. John panicked. He prayed to God “Oh God! He believed what I taught on Sunday! I said you wanted to heal us! What am I going to do now? Oh, please heal her Lord! Please, please, oh, please!” That was his inward prayer. What he actually said outwardly was   ‘why yes, I would love to pray for your wife’! And the result? As John placed his hand on the sick wife, she was instantly healed!

These early healing encounters back in the mid 1960’s were to launch John Wimber (1934 – 1997) into a lifetime of healing and teaching on healing. His impact on the modern church is considerable. There are now over 1,200 Vineyard Churches worldwide as a result of Wimber’s ministry. Wimber’s teaching in the UK was particularly effective. His influence on new churches and on the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church is such that many of their modern day practices with regard to healing can be traced back to Wimber. In addition, the Alpha Course, which has reached over 19 million people in 169 countries has a significant content that relates to Wimber’s teaching at Holy Trinity Brompton and other Anglican churches in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

A gifted teacher with a good grasp of theology, he was also self-depreciating, describing himself simply as a ‘fat man going to heaven’. His passion was Christ and the life changing effects of a faith in Christ.

 

Further Reading:

Power Healing - John Wimber

The Way It Was - Carol Wimber (second hand only)

Revival Cries

‘What’s the matter son?’ The teacher couldn’t help but notice that the boy, usually well behaved, was unable to sit still.

‘Sir’, said the boy, ‘I need to know Jesus. I need to be sure.’

Without hesitation, the teacher sent the boy out with an older boy who he knew had a faith in Christ.

Some time later the two boys returned. ‘Oh sir, I am so happy – I have Jesus in my heart!’ The effect on the rest of the class was immediate. Boy after boy slipped out of the room. After a while, the teacher stood on a desk to look out of the high classroom windows. There he saw numbers of boys ranged around the edges of the playground against the school walls. Each was in prayer, some in tears. The older boy was moving between them, praying for them, helping them pray their own prayers as they asked Jesus to change their lives.

The noise was such that the girls’ class on the upper floor of the school, could hear the boys crying out. Without any communication from the boys directly, the girls seemed to know want was happening. One by one they slipped from their seats to kneel on the floor and to ask God to forgive them and to change their lives as well.

The year was 1859. The school was the Irish Society School, Coleraine, which played its part in the 1859 Ulster revival. The author was a local pastor, the Rev. William Arthur. He concludes his narrative with the words ‘the united cry [of the children] reached the adjoining streets, and soon every spot on the premises was filled with sinners seeking God.’

Further Reading:

The Ulster Awakening - John Weir

The 'Fifty Nine' revival - Iain R. K. Paisley (second hand only)

The Year of Grace - William Gibson

 

He That Honours Me, I Will Honour

‘I wonder if I’m doing the right thing?’ Doubts clouded his mind. But only for a moment. ‘No, no, I’m sure I’m right’. And so the decision was reached. Sunday was the Lord’s Day and Eric Liddell (1902 – 1945) would not be running for his country in the 100 metres at the Paris Olympics.

Instead, Liddell was entered for the 400 metres, an event he had not previously trained for and for which he was given no hope of winning. So much so, despite getting through the heats, he had the outside lane at the final, and hence had no idea how the other runners were doing.

In his hand before the race was a note. It was given to Eric by the athletics masseur who attended to the British team and read: ‘In the old book it says “he that honours me, I will honour.” Wishing you the best of success always.’

As the gun went off on the afternoon of 11^th July 1924, Liddell was away at a 100 metre pace. No one believed he could keep it up, but as he entered the home straight, running with his head up, he seemed to be increasing his lead! He crossed the line in first place with a new world record time of 47.6 seconds.

The Olympic motto is ‘faster, higher, stronger’. What was to follow the Olympics showed Liddell to be all of these. He had proved his speed. As he travelled to China as a missionary, he was to prove his strength, serving the Chinese people and refusing to leave as the Japanese invaded during the Second World War. And finally, as he died in an internment camp in China of a brain haemorrhage, he was taken higher.

Fifty-six years after the 1924 Paris Olympics, Scotsman Allan Wells won the 100 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. When asked after the victory if he had run the race for Harold Abrahams, the last 100 metre Olympic winner from Britain (in 1924) who had died two years previously, Wells replied, ‘No, … I would prefer to dedicate this to Eric Liddell’.

There is a memorial headstone on the site of the former internment camp in China, recognising Liddell’s service to China. The scripture reference reads "They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary."

As we approach the 2012 Olympics in London and the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ is re-released, we do well to remember a man for whom running was so closely linked to a faith for which he died.

Further Reading:

Eric Liddell: Pure Gold by David McCasland

The Flying Scotsman by Sally Magnusson

Further viewing:

Chariots of Fire, produced by David Putnam, 1981

Sea Change

Ten years on, and what had he achieved? Seemingly so little. Across the way, morning services were continuing. Hundreds of well dressed men and women singing of their salvation but without the least idea of the needs across the other side of the world.

It was a frequent vision for Hudson Taylor (1832 – 1905) - him standing on a rock trying to pull thousands of dying Chinese out of the swirling sea. As he stood on the beach at Brighton that day, Sunday, 25^th June, 1865, with the noise of the waves in his ears, he heard another sound- that of God speaking to him afresh. Gone was the doubt, away went the frustration. He began to believe that God could do a work through him, even him. A literal sea-change moment.

That evening Taylor wrote ‘I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the Lord conquered my unbelief…. There and then I asked for twenty-four fellow workers, two for each of eleven inland provinces which were without a missionary.’ And so began the China Inland Mission.

Taylor and his team of over 800 missionaries were to reach the whole of China with the message of salvation through Christ.

A moment in time on a Brighton beach. It was enough for a lifetimes’ work.

Writing home on one occasion he said ‘If I had a thousand pounds China should have it—if I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for Him? Can we do enough for such a precious Saviour?’

May we each of us have a ‘Brighton moment’. May we each of us know God’s call on our lives.

Further reading:

‘J. Hudson Taylor: A Man in Christ’ by Roger Steer

‘It is not Death to Die: A new Biography of Hudson Taylor’ by Jim Cromarty (second hand only)

‘Hudson Taylor and Maria’ by John Pollock

The Handshake that Changed a Nation

Despite the fact it was meant to be summer, it had been raining most of the day, and by the evening it looked set to continue. The fine rain blew in his face but George was a man on a mission. Having met Charles, the younger brother, George was on his way to meet John and the rest of the ‘Holy Club’ as they were called.

A scrawny youngster with a squint, George wasn’t much to look at as he ran across the quadrangle at Oxford. Through the rain and down more university corridors, up a staircase and eventually to the door.

John heard the knock and answered. George offered his hand. As the two men shook hands, early in the summer of 1733, the future of our nation was to be radically changed as a result.

George Whitefield (1714 - 1770) and John Wesley (1703 - 1791) were to head up one of the most far reaching revivals ever to affect our shores. Their open air preaching (unheard of in those days) was to be talked of through the country and thousands from every walk of life responded to the good news of Jesus Christ. It is said the revival throughout the UK was the key reason that the bloodshed and anarchy in France never reached our shores.

Further Reading:

'John Wesley' by John Pollock (second hand only)
'George Whitefield and the Great Awakening' by John Pollock
'Great Revivals' by Colin Whittaker (second hand only)

A Candle in the Darkness

Germany. The early 1500’s. A dark time in our history. And as we look in, it’s dark now - its past midnight. The candle is burning low, but the monk at his desk doesn’t seem to notice.

In front of him is a translation of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. His eyes are wide. He reads and re-reads the passage: ‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”’

That’s it! What he’d been looking for, for so long. All those days of trying to please God were behind him. If he wanted to know God, it was by faith- nothing to do with working hard. Nothing to do with trying harder.

Even though the candle was dying, it was as if his monk’s cell was filled with light. ‘Faith, first to last’! It is God who reveals himself. It is God who saves lives. It is by faith we are saved. So different to the rules and regulations of the Catholic Church. How had he missed it for so long? That night, God revealed himself to an Augustinian monk called Martin Luther (1483-1548).

Here are Luther’s own words:

“I sought day and night to make out the meaning of Paul and at last I came to apprehend it…. The righteousness which availeth with God….’the just shall live by faith’. Straightway I felt as if I were born anew. It was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown wide open.”

Luther was not the first to have stumbled on the truth, but he was God’s appointed man for a new revolution, a Reformation. The newly invented printing presses played their part. Luther’s ’95 theses’ were soon being read throughout Europe. The hold the Pope had on the church was broken. The cruel teaching that forced to poor to give to ‘buy’ their dead loved ones out of hell was revealed for the lie it was.

The Pope fought back, but too many protested. And the protesters were called by a new name: Protestants.

Further reading:

'Here I Stand - A Life of Matin Luther' - Roland Bainton
'Martin Luther - The Man Who Started the Reformation' - Thomas Lindsay
'Revival - Principles to Change the World' - Winkie Pratney

A Little Thing

'A little thing is a little thing. But faithfulness in a little thing is a big thing.'

As he read Hudson Taylor's words, something hit home. There was a rise of faith, an expectation that God really COULD use him. His heart beat faster, he was giddy with the thought.... maybe, just maybe, God could use even him.

So started a lifetime's work with the Lisu tribes of South West China. Starting out at the age of 22, James O Fraser (1886–1938) faithfully served God in the little things. Living among the mountain people, working with them, sleeping in the mountain ranges, eating with them- on occasion the only meat he could find was rat.

Sometimes we just have to keep pushing through. It was eight years until he saw God move in power. Eight years and just one solid convert. But he continued serving in the little things, giving of his time and energy, talking to the tribal people, writing a whole new language for them.

And then it came. Eight years on, prayers were answered. In the next two years, over 60,000 Lisu people came to salvation in Jesus Christ. The Lisu are still one of the largest tribal Christian communities to this day.

A little thing is a little thing. But faithfulness in a little thing is a big thing.


This is the first post in a new blog. My prayer is that as you read the small stories of a big God, you too will realise that God can use you- even you!


Further reading:


- 'Behind the Ranges' by Mrs Howard Taylor (second hand only)
- 'Mountain Rain' by Eileen Crossman