We’ve all heard the question and maybe asked it, ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ Any man worth his salt would tell you the truth at this point but the problem is whether or not the truth is really wanted! When a question like that is asked, the question bearer has to seriously ask ‘do I want the truth or am I looking for a compliment even if it’s not the truth?’

The Bible says, ‘Speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in all things’ (Eph 4:15)
Having the truth told to you is no easy thing – no-one wants their weak points pointed out because it’s an intrusion into areas of life that can be sensitive. Body odour, bad breath, sharp tongue, lack of patience, to name just a few! Who wants to broach such subjects? You are likely to suffer backlash and you may even lose a friend either permanently or for a time…. Speaking the truth can be risky business! BUT if we want to grow up in ALL things, we need someone in our lives who will be bold enough to tell us the truth whatever the reaction. If we want to be the best we can be, then we have to realise that there are things in our lives called blind spots – things that everyone else can see, and we can’t, hence the reason they are called blind spots!

So, here is the question: Who tells you the truth? Have you got anyone? Or, did someone try it once but, because of your reaction, backed off and has never done it since! Have you got someone in your life who is ‘allowed’ to tell you stuff that may sting a little but, if they are right, and if you will listen and take it on board, then you take a step closer to being a better person.

It must be stressed that the person who tells you the truth must be a person who loves you and also wants the best for you. It CANNOT be a person who just wants to be mean and continually point out your faults! Who wants that?

Everyone needs a coach – their job is to help you get good things into your life and bad things out! If you haven’t got one, get one!

And, if you’re not sure you want the truth, think twice before you ask, ‘does my bum look big in this!’

Feel free to share! Until next time, D x

My relationship with Face book has been an on/off affair over the years… Sometimes I love it, other times, it drives me insane! I have often asked myself the question, what is it for? For some, it is the only way they get to communicate their emotions, for others, it gives them a moment of significance if someone ‘likes’ their status and for that fleeting moment, you may feel important and if no-one ‘likes’ it, then the opposite is true…’Oh no! no-one likes me!’I have found myself checking every few minutes to see if anyone has commented on my status and I know, so have you! I have sighed and been mad at some of the things I’ve seen and wished that I’d never seen them because if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t be thinking about it and I wouldn’t be mad! Facebook can be very emotionally driven and it is very easy to write something for the world to see which you regret afterwards, but it’s too late! It’s out there. You can’t take it back. It’s very easy to read into someones status something that is not true and before you know it, you’ve made an assumption and a judgement that isn’t what the person meant at all. Maybe you’ve been tempted to write a response to justify a situation – I know I have and I can type so I could do it quickly, press the ‘send’ button and live to regret it!

I have been off FB for about a month now…. What do I miss? I miss being in contact with friends from overseas,family members and friends that are not in my everyday life. What don’t I miss? Status’ that tell me how fed up someone is, or that tell me they went to the dentist today or invites to play ‘Farmville!’ Is that still a game?

I tried to go back on the other day and had the bright idea that I would just be friends with the people who I don’t see…. But when it came to deleting friends, I just couldn’t do it! It felt too ruthless…So, the question I’m left with is, do I stay away so as not to have my day interrupted by things that I just don’t want to know or see or do I put up with that and delete as I go those who tell me those things so that I can benefit from being in touch with friends and family that I never see?

So…Facebookers- a word of caution… especially if you’re a Christian, before you press that ‘send’ button, make sure what you’re about to announce to the world is positive. Even ask God to help you if you’re not sure, but my guess is, if you’re not sure, then don’t press send! There’s enough negative stuff in the world today so let’s use Facebook as a positive tool to influence for good… Think before you type!

Most people will be aware of the saying, ‘ignorance is no plea in a court of law’ In other words, you will not be found ‘not guilty’ of a crime you committed, just because you may not have known it was a crime. If you murder someone, you’re guilty due to the law. They won’t let you off if you say, ‘Oh I didn’t know murder was a crime’

If I picked up a live wire, whether I knew it was live or not will not stop it giving me a nasty shock or possibly killing me! Law is law. The law of electricity, the law of gravity, the law of the land and so on….

I believe it is the same in God’s kingdom. He has put certain laws in place for us to obey and we have a choice to either obey those laws or ignore them. Whatever we decide to do, however, will not stop those laws either working for us or against us. Let’s look at the most important one that every believer should live by. ‘love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself’ Jesus commanded us to do this, he didn’t just ‘request’ it. So many of our churches have ignored this by and large and still we expect God to turn up and do miracles…. Church splits, divisions, bitterness and un forgiveness all stop God’s hand – why? – because He commanded us to love one another and he won’t over rule his commands to simply give us what we want.

I’ve written before that all of God’s promises have ‘if’ clauses and we have a responsibility to know what those are so we can apply them to our lives and then see the fulfilment of those promises manifest in our lives.

What about the law of sowing and reaping… If you don’t sow, you won’t reap. No matter how hard you pray for seed to grow, if you haven’t planted anything, you’re not going to grow anything!
I could have a lovely patch of soil and fast, pray, shout, lie on it and command stuff to grow, but if there is no seed in the ground, I’m not getting anything! – why? – because laws are at work….This is not just a principle for finances by the way, although that is definitely included. It could be anything! Love, health, friendships, you have to plant something if you want to reap something

When Jesus died, he did it to offer us a FREE gift of salvation! Incredible! We didn’t have to do anything to earn it, we certainly didn’t deserve it, but he gave it anyway! And for those of us who accept it, when we die, we will live forever in paradise! Amazing!

However, once we’re over that line, we need to understand how the kingdom of God works and seek to apply all the conditions of God’s promises and to live in obedience to His laws. Once we do that, we will see all of the promises fulfilled in our lives and we will be able to say along with Abraham, ‘When Abraham was old and well advanced in years, he was blessed in every way!’

I want to get there and I hope you do too! Find out what the Word says about your situation, apply the ‘law’ and it will work out!

In 1998, me, my husband, John and our two kids, Chris and Beth, left the UK for the adventure of a lifetime! We moved to Tanzania in East Africa!
We had to begin life again really because we didn’t know anything of Africa’s people or its land – questions were a massive part of our first few months – 12 to be precise! Where do we shop, where’s the doctors, can we drink from taps, what’s the kids school like and on and on it went! It was hard to settle into a new culture, but eventually we did! And we still love Africa! In fact, today (22nd October 2012) our family (except our lovely daughter-in-law) along with 19 others are going! We are taking this large group on their adventure of a life time!

When we lived there, John’s job was to look after three hundred churches that covered an area 10 times bigger than Britain! We would sometimes travel together in our amazing landrover and see sights that most can only dream of. In 2000 our world was shattered when we had to return to the UK because of an illness that got hold of John. He is perfectly well now, and hasn’t suffered with anything like it since that time but that is a whole other story! We could not understand why we had to come back, we had just got used to it! We went through some dark times and it took us a while to come through. We were told our African adventure was over for good- God had another plan…. We have been back most years since we left and at least 60 of our church have been with us. We continue to influence the lovely people of Tanzania and to influence people of the UK for Tanzania! Even to the point of taking school kids from the Rhondda valley! What a privilege!

The reason for this blog? You may sometimes go through darkness and wonder what on earth is happening. You may ask questions such as ‘where is God?’ (He never goes anywhere by the way, it can just feel like it sometimes) IF you keep your heart right and keep connected to Him, he is always working behind the scenes. He is working on stuff you can’t even dream about….. If we’d have not been compliant in His plan and let Him lead us, we would never have been in such an amazing position to be doing what we’re doing today… God says, ‘ALL things work together for the good for those who love him’

As with all of God’s promises, this is conditional too, my job is to love him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and then confidently believe that ALL things means ALL things!

If you’re going through a dark patch, don’t let go of God’s hand, He won’t leave you, love him more and believe that it will work out for good! How long do you fight? until you win!!

My blog next week will be written in Tanzania!! How exciting!!

Leap of Faith/Fake

John and I watched the film, ‘Leap of Faith’ recently. If you haven’t seen it, it stars Steve Martin as a fake TV evangelist, Jonas Nightingale, who rolls into various towns along with his huge entourage and they basically scam people into believing he can heal, deliver etc…. He takes up offerings and he dances about the stage in his snazzy suits and he even slays people in the spirit in a fashion which is extremely close to what we see on God TV at times. The producers researched this movie in some detail and, although at the end it says none of the characters are based on real people, we had to beg to differ! It was too close to the truth. The team would talk to people on their way into the tent and find out information about them, then they would relay that to Jonas via mouth and ear piece and he would then in turn have a ‘word of knowledge’ for the said people! Sadly, this is based on fact too. This has happened for real!   The film has a poignant ending which I won’t say – I don’t want to spoil it if you’re going to watch it!  suffice to say. God does do a couple of real miracles which makes Jonas think hard and his last line is ‘Thank you Jesus!’ but this time, he really means it!

I’ve seen the film many times! It was made in 1992 over 20 years ago. I watched it then, I watched it recently. I am left wanting the church to stand up and be real. I am left longing for miracles – genuine miracles that can pass the trades’ description act, that make it into our daily newspapers and that cannot be refuted! I have seen many family, church and financial miracles in my time and a few real healing miracles. Jesus said that ‘we would do greater things than him!’ I don’t see much of that in the UK. I see meetings where people queue up for their healing and for the touch from the man/woman of God. I have seen claims that bad backs, knees, bi-polar has been healed yet, in the same meeting, a person is left in their wheelchair….. Now, you could be reading this and have seen many genuine miracles but you have to admit that much of what we see is less than what the Bible promises… We seem to be satisfied with convincing ourselves that something has happened when, in reality, it hasn’t. There is, generally speaking, no accountability on the person’s life who is in the prayer line. They may not have prayed for 3 years, not been to church for 6 months, hold bitterness and un-forgiveness in their heart yet they are lead to believe that if they just stand in the prayer line, God will give them a miracle! I don’t believe the Bible teaches that that’s the norm. John 15:7 says, ‘If you remain in me and my word remains in you, ask whatever you want and it will be given you!’ What an incredible verse! I don’t know many people who are getting whatever they ask for in prayer and I know that that’s not God’s fault so it must be ours. We’re not ‘remaining’ to the degree that we should. We’re not obeying his commands, we’re not fulfilling all of the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I know that God does miracles – I want the world to know that God does miracles and not just the church.

The church gets challenged much by the secular media when we say we see miracles. I remember reading one person asking why doesn’t God heal the guys who come back from war with their limbs blown off? Now, that kind of miracle would get God noticed wouldn’t it?

It’s time to make sure that EVERYTHING we do is by faith and not by fake!! God doesn’t need representing by stuff that isn’t real. He needs to be represented by a body who are genuinely performing miracles!! Don’t settle for less than real!!

Now there’s a question for a Monday morning!

Let me explain…..First of all, let me emphasise that I believe wholeheartedly that compassion is a very necessary gift that is needed for God’s church today and I am not speaking against that. What I am saying though,  is that I think, for too long, the church has given compassion to people who maybe need a, dare I say it, a kick up the bum instead!!, – oops! I said it! So, as you read on, please understand that I am not taking about when peoples’ storms are severe – during those times, the church needs to show compassion. BUT, there are times when compassion does a person no good whatsoever and those are the kinds of issues I want to tackle today.

When we first came into the pastoral ministry, we really didn’t have a clue how to do it. John did it because he loved people and we both naively thought that if we just loved people, all would be well! How wrong we were! You see, when you are loving one person or a group of people one way, you’re not loving the other person or group! Loving your congregation by having a short sermon, for example, is not loving the part of the congregation who want longer! Fast songs, slow songs, communion every week or once a month…..the list could go on and if you try and love everyone in the way they want, you are heading for a padded cell! (OK slight over exaggeration) But, having said that,  there are too many pastors and pastor’s wives on anti-depressants which is serious enough and, as far as I’m concerned, shouldn’t be. Read John 10:10 if you don’t believe me.

We have had so many people pass through our church who have said things to us like, ‘this is the best church we’ve ever been to!’ ‘top drawer sermon Pastor!’ ‘What a great church!’ and then, as soon as we have said ‘no’ to something, e.g. their ministry being developed in the church,or   leadership position, or music ministry position, or practical help, they leave! I shake my head as I write!

If your pastor, and his wife, for that matter are not tickling where you’re at right now, will you give them a break! If they don’t visit you because you’ve got a cold, let them off! If she didn’t speak to you yesterday, so what? You have no idea what she might be dealing with. They are fighting the devil everyday to advance God’s kingdom on earth and they don’t need you pouting because you’ve got the sniffles! Grow up and stand on God’s word for your own healing. And here’s a challenge, don’t talk about them more than you pray for them – Ouch! that’s one for me too – Although, I don’t talk about my pastor, I think he’s awesome!! – I am biased of course!

Ministers are under great pressure to ‘love’ everyone who walks through the doors and, for some, if it means the people will stay, sadly, they will give in to their wants and needs. How many men/women have been made elders, or given leadership positions because of their perceived success in the work place and then made the Pastor’s life hell? The pressure to please people is enormous. It’s numbers that matter…. Once you have given a position to a person, it is much more difficult to remove them. If you’re in ministry reading this, take heed and don’t put anyone in position until they have proved that they agree with your core values, don’t think ‘It’ll be OK, we’ll change them,’ believe me, you won’t. I speak from experience. It’s not that the people are bad people, it’s just a clash of core values.

What about a Christian who is constantly up and down? One minute they’re on fire for the Lord and the next minute they think they’ve lost their salvation, one minute they’re at every meeting and the next you don’t see them at all! Maybe an arm around the shoulder the first few times is necessary, but if we keep just putting our arms around these kinds of people, I believe we do them a dis-service.

What about long term depression? Firstly, I know that depression is a real illness and I know it’s an earthly reality for many Christians, (John was there 12 years ago – so we know all about it)  BUT! BUT! BUT! If you’re still depressed after years then something is wrong and it isn’t God. Just imagine, if you will, a world where no Christians are on medication for depression? Is this far fetched? John 10:10. I don’t think so. I think the world would notice and look on in amazement! Now, I am not saying throw medication away, I am grateful for the NHS, and, if it’s necessary, for a time, to help, then go ahead.  I just long for a day when the church is victorious in these kinds of areas. Is it possible? God seems to think so ……Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.’

The world in which we live in today is changing and the ONLY hope for our nation is Jesus. He isn’t on earth in bodily form anymore, he’s left it to us! and if we produce a church that only delivers compassion and not victory then we will simply get weaker and weaker and our message won’t convince anyone that we have the best way to live.

Come on Church, it’s time to grow up and head to that place where we are mature and complete, not lacking anything!  (James 1:4) When we get there, the World will know that God is real!