Hi!

 I haven’t written a blog in a while! I do love writing! And I must get into a better habit of writing blogs! If you have any subjects/questions you’d like me to tackle, just let me know. I’ll have a go at anything.

 John (my wonderful husband) and I celebrating 5 years of being at Kingdom Life Church, Newcastle. (May 2024).  We were initially asked to do 1-2 years, but we’re still here, loving it and, we believe, about to enter the best season of our ministry.

 As I reflect over 35 years of full-time ministry, what do I see? I see an incredible life of adventure. A life of storms, mountains, rivers, and valleys. It hasn’t been boring. We’ve lived/ministered in South Wales, Tanzania, Blackpool, Halifax and now Newcastle and Whitley Bay!

 I have no regrets. Of course, there are things that we probably wouldn’t repeat, but, life, no matter what, is a great teacher if you allow it to be.

 I’ve just finished a life-transforming book, ‘God is good, he is better than we think’ – Bill Johnson. It’s safe to say, it has changed my life.

 I’m 55 years of age and here is the thing I am learning and wish I’d have known back when we started. My bar, for life, is Jesus. Jesus said, ‘Come and follow me’ not ‘put your hand up in a meeting and go to church every now and then’. If we want to see the UK turn to following Jesus, the church is going to have to lead the way.

 When you know your bar is Jesus, it takes much of the mystery out of life or at least it should. So often, we say, ‘what about Paul, he had a thorn’ or ‘What about Job – he lost everything (he also got back more than he’d lost, we don’t tend to focus on that as much). Well, what about Jesus? He didn’t have a thorn, he was never sick, depressed, angry (apart from righteously) or nasty and the list could go on. He was fully God, we know that, but when he came to earth, he let go of his power and took on human form.

 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went around healing all who were under the power of the evil one.” Acts 10:38

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 1 John 1:14

 ^5 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8

 Everything Jesus did was through the power of the Holy Spirit. He healed everyone, delivered everyone, walked on water, calmed the storm, put a coin in a fish’s mouth, fed 5,000 plus with 5 loaves and 2 fish!

 The body of Christ today: (generally speaking)

 Is committing adultery.

Getting divorced

Massaging and wrestling young boys

Spiritually/emotionally and sexually abusing those within our care.

Struggling to heal ourselves of a cold.

Struggling to get out of bed to pray.

 I know what you’re thinking – we’re not Jesus. But here’s the challenge, we’re meant to be like him, or at least aiming to be. We should be walking like he did when he was on the earth.

 Don’t believe me? 1 John 2:3-6

“We know that we have come to know Him (Christ) if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in Him… This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

  ¹² “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me^[a] anything in my name, I will do it.” John 13:12-14

 If you are a follower of Christ, I don’t know how those two verses make you feel. They make me pause, sigh, wonder, and question. I don’t question God; I question myself and the wider body of Christ.

 By and large, we’ve created a lazy theology. What do I mean by that? We make our theology fit our circumstances, our outcomes in life. It’s easier to put everything bad that happens into a box called ‘The mystery of God’ and, whilst some things do belong in there, God is God, we are not, we can’t shove everything in there and make our theology fit that. Maybe sometimes we must admit we got it wrong, or the devil stole from us, or they didn’t look after their body – lots of questions that so often get swept under the carpet because, like Bill Johnson says, it’s easier to do that than to admit we’ve not been as successful as we’d like to be.

 We’ve been asking the question for years – ‘why don’t we see the greater things?’

 Maybe it’s a very simple answer, we’re not walking like Jesus did.

Paul isn’t our bar.

 Job isn’t our bar.

 Jesus is.

 

Think about it…

 

Until next time

D x