Culmination of Things

So much to say, so little time as Take 6 once put it. In many ways it is the culmination of a number of strands that have been buzzing around in the atmosphere for the last two years or so. I would love to be able to write at length, but time does not afford me to do that at this time.

Here’s what is going on in nutshell. Throughout 2009 there have been a number of developments through each quarter of the year that got me seriously thinking about some of the things God has been bringing to my attention.

In the first quarter of this calendar year (Jan-Mar) there was the big deal about moving from COG Phase 1 to Phase 2, which was a pressured and stressful time for me and me family.

In the second quarter of the calendar year (Apr-Jun) we as a family moved house to a more spacious location, but as you know I hate moving and the process itself was pressured and stressful.

In the third quarter of the year I moved the location of work from the main hub of accommodation activity to the COG Centre which held lots of promise of space to do stuff, but that process was also pressured and stressful taking place at a particularly pressured and stressful time in me life for a number of reasons that maybe God will grant me the grace to share at a later time should the return of His Son permit.

Now you don’t have to be Columbo to know that there’s a common thread in the activities of the year thus far. In the light of that I reflected on some of the thoughts I was having earlier on in the year about being in my element for my season and really moving away from being a misfit that doesn’t fit towards fitting exactly where God would have me to be.

Part of the pressured and stressful element of my life was grappling with enacting some serious decisions to do with that and as I approached the final quarter of the year I enquired of God what would be next to complete the set. Moving church building, moving home, moving work place location – what next? Could it be moving church? How about moving from work altogether? What of moving home? I was prepared for one of the three in the light of the grief that I’d gone through in the year.

As it turned out, God had it mind to do all three. Hence the lack of blogs lately – that and as you know the failing IT situation, which is till ongoing, I’m typing this on a proper desktop computer!!! Can you believe that?? Yes indeed as things would turn out there was a call to move on from church (local expression), from the job and from Stoke-on-Trent and in the last month or two it’s been about working on enacting those decisions.

These are not light decisions as you can appreciate and indeed they have taken the previous stressful and pressured situation through the roof, leading to some most unfortunate scenarios including personal illness, disappointing work performances and strained relations. Still in it all God has remained faithful and in accordance with His Word has allowed me to experience His peace as long as my mind has been stayed on Him. I’m not doing these things on a whim or because of personal issues or general discontentment; this is part of being obedient to what He calls of me in line with the ethos of Psalm 1:3.

So at present we’ve just completed a move from the house we only moved into in April to our new home in Greater Manchester. Just working through the work deal but to all intents and purposes the North Staffs YMCA season in my life is over for the time being. As for the church situation … watch this space for more interesting details on that.

Hopefully an IT solution will emerge in the next week or so in order that I’ll resume regular service especially in the run up to the end of the year.

Indeed as He leads me it really is as if He reads my mind and prepares me in advance for the stuff that’s coming my way and assures me that He is in control however pressured and stressful the situation may be. This is a most comforting thought and will need to be so for the challenges and excitement ahead. Keep praying for me and the family as we enter unchartered territory and see what God has in store for us there.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Foretaste

I read and hear people often talk about heaven and what it would like to be in heaven and how they would like to experience heaven on earth. I’ve found these musings intriguing from a background that always left heaven for where God is and where we’ll never go as I’ve read me bible. In any case the paradise picture that they all endeavour to paint is very much one based on what our imagination can put together from current experiences and the level to which it is liberated to explore all possibilities. For some heaven is about having all your pleasures given to you and sensual overload of that which is pleasing to you. I don’t have a problem with utopian thinking indeed I reckon its only limitation is that it doesn’t quite match the vision of eternity with God. That’s the only problem.

Still, I was doing a reading onto tape for my dear friend, Ray. First one I’ve done and I really enjoyed it, I’d want to do more of those if the opportunity arose. The book was Alex Robertson’s Manifesto for a Revolution: The Kingdom of God on Earth. The nature of the recording challenged me to at least retain some of the points made by the author as I summarised what was going on from tape to tape. That beat the way I usually read and also helped me to grapple with some of the issues better. Among other things mentioned in the book is how things like healings that we see in our day are actually foretastes of that great kingdom to come when Jesus’ millennial reign ends and He passes it onto His Father who wipes all tears from our eyes and removes sickness, suffering, pain, etc.

I like the concept of foretastes. I see them in scripture, littered in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. They are identified in church history and for those privileged enough they even pop up in our lives. Those glimpses of the glory ahead when Dad says enough is enough to this decaying, rusty old world and ushers in a new heaven and new earth so He can be with His people and His people can eternally be in Him.

At this difficult time in my life it is often a source of great encouragement to get triggers to those foretastes that I’ve read, heard, seen and especially experienced in my brief time on the planet. Those triggers and those foretastes have not happened in the stereotypical places of church services, but often in the quite amazing places – one happened whilst shopping in Tescos, can you believe it? God even shows a glimpse of His glory in Tescos!

Like last night watching Law Abiding Citizen and the consciousness of the three major forces that opposes the disciple of Christ – Satan, the World and the Flesh (aka me). How the world’s system is so inherently corrupt that the only option is to actually subscribe to a kingdom that is not of this world and which will one day completely overwhelm all worldly kingdoms. It makes sense not to try and oppose the system or even spend too much time investing it, but to actually focus on living for the kingdom come that One before ushered into our hearts by Calvary, the empty tomb and Pentecost.

The whole point though is of foretaste and the triggers thereof, and as you know I have to slum it using the wife’s laptop, which sucks for me who cannot be doing with all this cutey-cute small keys and small keyboard business. Anyhow it’s been a while since I’ve been able to watch YouTube stuff, and I had the song Golden Lady in me head and looked for covers of it especially looking for Frank McComb’s version, which is out of sight.

Then I came across this cover. I never heard the guy before in my life. Never heard of him, etc. I listened to the version and was suitably impressed by the quality and their own arrangement of the song which put another stamp on a beautiful song, adding another dimension of brilliance on a Wonder creation that Stevie must be really chuffed about. Then after listening to the song I took the time to watch the video itself and saw musical harmony interspersed with genuine enjoyment of the musically act and the unity involved in both and the mutual submission of sax to vocalist and vice-versa before trying a riff together.

That gave me a foretaste of a time without bickering, division, antagonism, but mutual submission, harmony in praise of our glorious Father and peoples of all ethnicities gathered round to sing those songs in a way that reminds me of this musical effort. One day. One day. And until then God grants me the privilege of being a member of the Body of Christ and in the small ways and relationships with brothers and sisters of Christ I get to play a part in reflecting that quality to a world watching on to see what the alternative looks like.

Foretastes – I love them. I would love to experience more and get others too share in it as well. This is not all there is to life, but there is something that we get glorious glimpses of now even now whilst we wait and work until the Master comes. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Stevie Helps Me Love My Enemies

Your patience on the Dark Knight review is exemplary and so to help you exercise this patience further I ask that you hold out a little longer. The reason for the delay is … well you’ll see when I eventually come out with it, it’s worthwhile.

Anyway I’m here at the laptop and it’s past the midnight hour and I had Stevie Wonder in my head since I got back home from a study session we have on Wednesday nights on spiritual warfare. I was singing Send One Your Love and then segueing that into From The Bottom Of My Heart (trust me, if you arrange it right you can segue the two almost seamlessly). So no sooner had I got on the ol’ laptop having made the wife a cuppa and did some petty little domestic stuff in the kitchen.

I, of course, get me blog out of the way, that is the brand new blog entry on the Stoke COG blog, and then after during all that I get me Stevie Wonder playing a wide variety of tracks like I Go Sailing (brilliant track – check the lyrics for some powerful stuff about where to get a real thrill for me), Feeding Off The Love Of The Land (this has got to me one of the greatest conscientious songs that mankind has ever penned) and With Each Beat Of My Heart (grossly underrated love song that outweighs most stuff that’s been put out by anyone … ever). Just the tip of the iceberg really of the great stuff I’ve been listening to.

Anyhow I was listening to this live version of For Once Of My Life that he does with Diana Ross. As I watched it something that came to me was that I’d like to know how to love like Stevie Wonder. I don’t mean that in a fawning way as though the sun shines out of his posterior, but there’s something really big-hearted about a brother who can extend love and graciousness to a number of people who wouldn’t necessarily be the top of my list of people I’d like to do business with. That must really be love for the enemies in action right there. Embracing, encouraging and edifying someone whose character you’re not too keen on has to be something spiritually gifted from above.

This is not all that unusual when I consider that Jesus expressed this same love to enemies of God, i.e. us in extending sacrificial love, befriending me and highlighting the grace of God in the cross, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me to reflect that in a love that’s as much for the enemy as is it for a loved one.

Now all I need is a lot of help in living that out!! Still I can do all things through Christ.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
da man cd