Tag: fellowship

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The Electric Bike Sermon (Part 2)

If you haven’t already, then please read “The Electric Bike Sermon (Part 1)” before reading this post, it should make more sense if you do.

In Part 1 of these posts I wrote about the benefit of having an electric bicycle.
In part 2, I am looking at the charging of the said electric bicycle.

Having an electric bicycle is great, but if I don’t charge the battery up… well then, the benefit can slowly disappear.
If the battery becomes flat, then I’m left with a heavier bicycle that has none of the benefit of an electric bicycle.
Which can leave me struggling all that much more, (all over again).

As Christian’s we also have this need to keep charged up, or plugged into Father.
If we don’t, we can then effectively end up running on empty.

So, how do we keep fully charged?

Remaining in Father and his will is the first thing which comes to mind. But, just how do we do this.

Prayer, word and fellowship are the three words I’ve heard from the front of church many times.

Prayer, talking to Father (this also includes listening for his words to us).

The word. Reading the bible, God’s word’s to us to help, to instruct and lead us in how we should go.

Fellowship. Meeting with other Christians in order to help and encourage each other in the ways we should go.

To me, these are the first three things we should hopefully all be trying to do.

Listening to praise worship is another favourite of mine.
There is so much good music out there which is easily available (for free) through YouTube.

Bethel Church and Elevation Church music videos are often played on my TV and also on my work PC (through ear phones with the screen minimised) so that I can be effectively charging almost at anytime. There are also many semons available (again through YouTube) which can be listened to in order to build you up.

We can also praise God, or pray, wherever we are and at anytime. We can sing a praise song, or pray, even if it is just in our heads.
It all adds up to that charging effect of coming closer to Father.

We always have the choice available to us to seek His presence in order to find that something extra to see us through the day.
Whatever you need to do to keep charged up, please keep doing it.
It’s always going to be better and easier to deal with life in general if we do so while we are fully charged in God.

Father,
Thank you that you are there for us.
Help us to remain in You.
Help us to always keep looking to You for our guidance and help.
Thank you that You do love us and that we can look to You for all our needs.
Amen.

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The Electric Bike Sermon (Part 1)

I ride an electric bicycle to get to and from work.

It makes the task of cycling that much easier.

I have been called a cheater at times, along with the remark of, if you can’t do it all on your own strength then you shouldn’t do it at all.

These comments do annoy me and also leave me thinking, you just don’t have a clue about this electric bike business.

Who am I cheating?
The hill and the headwind?
I’ll endeavour to cheat them all day long. I’m not in a competition against other cyclists but just someone who wants to get to and from work who is thankful for a bit of help.

On a normal bike, I’ll be completely worn out by the end of the week.
On a normal bike the best I could manage would be 3 days a week with having a rest on 2 days of the week.
But even with the rest days I would still be worn out by the end of the week.

On the electric bicycle, with the assistance it gives me, I can manage to do all 5 days of electric assisted cycling and not be worn out at the end of the week.
I still have to put the effort in.
It’s an electric bicycle I have, and not an electric motorbike.
But come the end of the week (or a strong headwind) I am not looking for the nearest skip to throw the bike into as I can do it, with a little help.

So why am I telling you all this?

I see the electric bicycle as a picture of the Christian life and the standard bicycle as a picture of a non Christian life.

The Christian life means having access to that something extra to help me through life’s troubles.
Just like the electric bicycle gives me that little bit extra, being a Christian means that I can call on Father for his help and assistance when times are harder. (Actually I can call on Father at anytime).

When I do call on Father, then he is there to help.
I might not see it, but he is there.
He is able to provide that little extra so that I’m not looking for the nearest skip to to throw the bike into and sit on the floor in a mess.

To me it’s a no brainer.
Do it all in your own strength, or….. have that little bit of extra help.

For me I am soooo thankful for the help I have had from Father.
When I look at all that I have had to go through I don’t know how I would have done it without his help. Even though at times I might not have seen his help, it was there and got me through.

The Good News is that, the help I received is also available to you!

You can also ask for Fathers help too!
The first step is to acknowledge him and ask him into your life and heart. (Choosing to take the electric bicycle over the standard one.)
The next step is to ask for His help and guidance.
There is a bit more to it than just that, but taking the first two steps is a good start, and if you do, then Father will be there to guide and lead you onward.

Father,
Thank you that You are real and able to to help us.
Thank you that we can come to You for help and guidance.
Thank you that You do accept us where we are, and will help and lead us to a better way.
I ask that you help us all to come to You that much more and help us all to open our hearts and lives to You that that much more so that we can all know You, all that much more!
Amen.

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How do you react when you are having a bad day?

Lets face it, we all have bad days from time to time.
We all can have days that leave you crying out AAARRRHHH!!!!!!!!

So how do you act or react when a bad day comes your way?

Do you scream out at anyone near you? (unfortunately those closest to us can bear the brunt of this.)
Do you go and hit something? (hopefully not breaking whatever it is your hitting, and most definitely hopefully not a person or pet.)

Or do you just crawl off to a quiet place to hide and wait for the day to end singing, The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, will be OK. (Just like the little girl with red cotton candy curls sings in a film.)

None of the above options really help us that much.
They may be a small release, but is there a better option?

I believe there is a better option.
Like all better options it’s not an easy one to put into practice but it can bring a release that goes to another level.
One that can bring in a victory.

So what is it I hear you say?

Seek the Lord your God and call on him to help you!

Simple really, isn’t it…???

Maybe not so simple when all you want to do is all of the above.
So How can you do it?

You could try the, singing a song idea.
No not the song mentioned above but a different one.

Incidentally, do you know who the true author of that song, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” is …???
I’m not talking about who wrote it but the one who inspired it…???

I believe it is the enemy himself, the deceiver, the father of lies.
Before you go off and call me whatever it is that’s in your mind right now, please, just give me a chance and I’ll explain.

What is the message of that song….???
Give up on today! Today is done! You have been beaten today, so just give up and try again tomorrow. (It sounds all the more convincing if you say the above with a bit of a growl in your tone of voice.)

The problem with singing that song today is that tomorrow still has troubles of its own to deal with, which will try to lead you to singing the same song over and over again.
A song of eternal defeat.

This is why I believe this song is a song from the enemy!

There is a different song you can try to sing in its place.

This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
I WILL rejoice, I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made.
I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!
This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made.

As I have said it can be a hard thing to put into practise, but it can bring about a victory. (Even if it is only in your heart and mind but this is where the victory has to come first).

There is an incidence in the bible where we can see this principle in action. Can you guess which part I’m thinking of….?

Well, I’m thinking of Paul and Silas when they were locked up in the inner cell of the prison, with feet fastened into stocks. And this was after having been stripped, beaten and flogged. Acts 16 vs 16-40

Well, they were having a VERY BAD day!
They were Roman Citizens and should not have been treated in such a way.

We may think we have human rights but they had Roman Rights!
They should have been protected by Rome!
We can see how they should have been protected in Acts 22 vs 25 when on another occasion when Paul was about to be flogged he asked
“Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t been found guilty?”
On that occasion Paul wasn’t flogged because of his Roman Citizen Rights.
But back in chapter 16 he had his rights abused.

He had every right to complain!
He could have said “I am a Roman Citizen, How Dare you treat me this way!”
But he didn’t. instead he (and Silas) looked to their citizenship in GOD!
He looked to a higher power.
Father in Heaven.

How did they look to their Father in heaven?
Well they were both were singing, even though they were beaten, battered and bruised.
They were singing even though they had had such a very bad day.

When I first read this passage I had a bit of a romantic view that God must have enabled Paul and Silas to worship after having such a bad day. After all, how else could they have done it? Surely God must have inspired them with power from on high…???

I now think that the reality is some what less dramatic. I now think that they were singing because they needed to. You see, I think they knew they needed to draw close to God and singing was the method they were using to do this.

This turned my thinking on it’s head.
They were singing because they needed to, not because they were inspired to by a power from on high. (How ordinary.)

What happened after they had been singing for a while?

They not only saw the victory in there hearts and minds but also in the reality of their situation.

There was an earthquake, the doors were opened and even the jailer and his house hold came to salvation. (You need to read Acts 16 vs 16-40 to get the whole account.)

This all happened because they made the decision to sing rather than complain.

The miracle happened after worshiping.

So can we do likewise?
When things don’t go our way instead of doing all the wrong things can we instead turn to God, using whatever method works for you to enter into his presence?
Can we try to seek His face, His help and His assistance?

It is the better option.

Father.
Help us to always look to you.
When times are good and also when times are not so good.
Help us to seek and trust you always.
Amen.

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A Straw to Breathe with.

The second lockdown.

When the second lock down started we initially tried the prayer walking again but this time it just felt wrong.
In short, any peace in what we were doing was just gone.

Time to listen to Father that little bit harder.
I kind of had the thought of,
“It’s time to do what you need to do and not what you want to do.”

It’s never easy when what you need to do and what you want to do are in opposite directions.
But Father is Father and he needs to be listened too.
Others were also saying similar kinds of things. So we decided to stop meeting as we had been for a while.

So now what?
We all still needed some sort of connection, but none of us are fans of the virtual meetings.

The choice we had was zoom meetings or no meetings.
After meeting in the park and upholding each other in prayer and fellowship we had a good group connection going (and still have).
So, could zoom meetings work???

We had to try.
Not quite what we were looking for but as people say, something is better than nothing.

As we were a small group we had only a small number of zoom sessions open, this helped greatly.

We had some technical difficulties. On a couple of times we could see but not hear people.
Time to call each other on the phone and guide each other to what button to press. OK, I can hear you now, time to hang up said phone.
Yes that was me at the start, but by and large we could do this.

Not what we wanted but what we needed.

On on my way home from work one day I had a picture.
It was a man with his head under water, desperately wanting to put his head above the water to take a breath of air but there was a barrier stopping this from happening.
A straw was then offered to the man through which he could then breathe.
How silly would it be to say no to the straw when it’s the only air being offered!

This is where I felt we were at.
Wanting desperately to meet, but just not able to, other than via zoom.

I shared this with my Mum the same day and then she told me about a strange dream she had just had that same night. (I’m not the only one to have them) 🙂

The short version is,
There was a baby in a pushchair, upside down, but happy and content.
As the baby was content the carer of the baby just thought, He’s happy and content, I’ll leave him alone.
It then started to rain and the pushchair started to fill with water.
This did not bother the baby. He just carried on smiling and gurgling.
The water level was rising to the point were the baby could drown. (It was upside down after all). But the baby was not bothered.
The thought that was with my Mum was,
Why is nobody helping that baby? … Why don’t you help the baby?
Then she woke up.

As she she told me this, it made perfect sense to me.
It was another picture, similar to the one I have already shared, but from a slightly different view point.

The baby was a person who appeared to be content
Not wanting any fuss to be made over them, but is in actual fact in great danger and in need of help.
The person might be aware of their need of help or they might be in denial about the help they need, but help is needed.
If something isn’t done then the consequences could be very bad!
Who is going to be willing to help the baby (person in need)?

Is it just a coincidence that my Mum had this dream on the same day that I had the picture?
Or was it one of those God coincidences?

To me it was saying:
You need to meet for your own good and you also need to meet up to lift others up who are struggling.
If you can’t meet up for your own good, then can you meet up in order to help someone else, for there are some who need to be picked up.
Are you going to let someone else fall just because you don’t want to meet up?

When Both myself and my Mum shared this at our zoom encouragement group, another person then shared that they had been thinking about the coals on the fire.
When one is removed and placed on the side it goes cold.
But when it is replaced back into the fire it starts to glow again.

Now that was three pictures all along the same theme!
I took this to be that we were indeed doing the right thing.
We may not like zoom but it is the air we need to breathe, just like the straw to breathe by, and an opportunity to help lift somebody up who is struggling.

So, how do we run these meetings?

The format of our meetings is very simple.
We turn up, (or log in).
Say hello to each other.
We have an opening prayer time. (Good to say hello to Father too.)
We try to have time for everyone to pray. If the silence is going on too long then anyone can say a loud AMEN. 🙂
We then try to share something of what Father has been speaking to us during the week. (This normally leads to a discussion.)
We then pray for each other. (We try to share the most pressing need and not our entire prayer list). 🙂
Then zoom may well kick us out as time has run out. 🙂
We could always log back in if needed.

I do think that limiting the number of zoom sessions to no more than four means that everyone should then hopefully be a participator rather than a spectator.
It’s harder to hide when there is a smaller number of people.
We can all have the tendency to hide in a large crowd if we are feeling a bit down.
Having a smaller number also means that there is a greater chance that you could bless someone, which in turn leads to you being blessed.

I would like to encourage you all to connect up with someone in whatever way works for you.

If your not connecting with anyone at the moment, then could you start your own zoom encouragement group? (Or even a park meeting group? Now that we are allowed to.)
If you think it could be what you need then ask Father to help and guide you to know how best to do this.

Father, please help us all to hear you more clearly.
Help us to know how we can continue to keep connected with each other.
Help us to lift each other up and to keep close to you.
Amen

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Social Distancing is Difficult

Back to our meetings in the park.

Social distancing is difficult. We may all mean to try and keep our distance but it is just not normal.
So, how can we meet and still keep our distance?

We have found that it helps to set boundaries. (Literally)

Theses boundaries could be anything.
A picnic blanket, which you stay on (a towel makes a good blanket).
Off the top of my head, a jumper, coat or even a bag placed on the ground could be used as a marker to say, you stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine.

It all sounds a bit silly but in order to keep social distancing then something is needed.
We just have this tendency to want to group together and when social distancing is required then something needs to be done.

So What do we do?

We have chosen to do the slightly crazy.

We have a white electrical cable (a thin multi core cable, cheaply bought from Wilko) which is 6 meters long. In the middle of the cable there is some black insulation tape added (in order to show the middle point).
The middle point is then used as a corner so that when the cable is laid out on the ground it forms two edges of a box.
Another cable with the same set up is then placed opposite this and then we have a cross on the floor (+).
We then have four boundary lines down for four house holds to have there own space in.

It’s easier to do this if everyone brings their own cable themselves to the park.

We have now learnt to all keep our distance from the cable.
This wasn’t always the case as we still had the tendency to want to move up to the line instead of keeping our distance from it, (I told you social distancing is difficult.) 🙂

If we were still struggling with keeping our distance from the lines then we could always have two more cables and then make a expanded cross.
What I mean is we could all have our corner to sit in with a gap between each cable that is big enough so that we do keep apart from each other.

This is not a normal thing to be doing, but it does actually work.

Whilst we were in tier 4 restrictions we met as described above.
We all kind of thought, is today the day when we are told to move on or receive that fine we really don’t want.
The COVID marshals were in the park, but we still carried on as we had been.
A marshal did walk over to see what we were doing, as we were singing and praying at the time. (The BBC web site did say that religious assemblies were allowed), so there we were having a religious assembly in the park! No problem with that…is there…???
The marshal looked at what we were doing, stayed for a few minutes and then walked off. PHEW. 🙂

At the end, as we were leaving he came back and said to us that what we were doing was good.
We took this as we are OK to carry on, whilst in tier 4.

One of the things I have heard in church is “the worlds problems are the Churches opportunities”.

I know this may sound really silly and on a very trivial level but I do think that we as a church (of people), are demonstrating to all, how anybody could meet together during this time in a socially responsible manner.

Anyone could follow the steps we are taking and meet in a socially responsible way. You still need to keep your distance when coming together and leaving, but it can be done. We try to stagger when people leave. Arriving is a bit easier as we don’t all arrive at the same time and keeping distance is easier at the start, for some reason.

When lock down came we then had to stop meeting together.
For the first one which was only about 4 weeks we broke up to smaller groups of two house holds (I think that it was mostly just two people) who met for prayer walks and fellowship instead. It was only going to be 4 weeks or there about anyway.

For the lockdown which happened in the new year and went on a wee little bit longer, well something else had to done.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, that should be the next post which should hopefully go out soon.

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To Conform or Not to Conform, that is the question?

This was written as I was questioning whether we should even be trying to meet up in the park in order to have some fellowship.
So below is…

To Conform or Not to Conform, that is the question?

Well, with a title like that have I now got all the non conformist’s interested yet?

So what do I mean by the above?
In the church aren’t we meant to be kind, caring, helpful and above all loving?

Hopefully the answer is yes to all the above, especially the Love bit.

So why would I even ask the question of “Should we conform or not?”

From knowing that we hopefully aspire to be loving and all the rest then surely the answer is to conform?
So why should we ever not conform?

I think that where I am trying to go with this is that sometimes we can fall into the trap of not wanting to upset anyone as far as is possible.
Not a bad thing in itself but, can we really avoid upsetting everyone all the time and more importantly should we?

If we see that something is wrong, should we just ignore it and conform to what people are asking of us just because we don’t want to upset them?

This is not one of those yes or no questions where you can say for sure the the answer is …..well, yes or no.

There are times when it is right to conform and times when we should not conform.
The real question becomes why are you acting the way you are acting?
What is at the heart of the matter?

If by conforming you are just trying not to cause a fuss and keep everyone happy, then are you doing the right thing?

If you are trying not to conform just in order go and cause a fuss, then you are most probably in the wrong place.
Hopefully this is a place we try not to visit.

How helpful is non conforming for the sake of non conforming going to be for anybody?

So, is there a time to be the fly in the ointment?

If it is needed, then the answer could possibly be yes.

It needs to come from the correct heart though. One that is looking to improve a situation.
I do think that this is the only time to be the fly in the ointment. When you are trying to improve, correct or build up something that needs to be done, even when it appears that it isn’t wanted.

Be warned, if you do need to be the fly in the ointment then don’t expect to make any friends in the process.
It can very much so be the lonely road.
After all,  who will want to come close to you if you become the trouble maker?

If you do manage to gain a following then please try to make sure you haven’t just formed a band of trouble makers, just out to cause as much mayhem as you can all in the name of your cause.

It is better to seek an open and honest dialogue with all the people involved in order to seek understanding on everyone’s part.
You need to understand others point of view as much as you may feel that they need to understand you.

The enemy seeks to destroy. He will use anything he can to do this.

Misunderstanding is one of his greatest weapons.

If we are in a place of feeling frustrated or annoyed with someone then we need to see where these feeling’s are coming from.

They’re not from God. Feelings of frustration and anger are from the enemy.
If we find ourselves in situations of the like, then we need to try and remove the emotions from the situation.

Such an annoying phrase.

It’s like, I’m so wound up and annoyed at …. and your just telling me to ignore it???

No, not quite. What I’m trying to say is you need to leave the emotion at the door when dealing with difficult situations.
You still need to acknowledge the emotions. They are real after all,  but try to not let them rule you.
Be led by something else….Someone else….

Our Father, the Lord of Lords. The One who knows all and see’s all.
He is the one with the answers after all.
If we can all see our Fathers will then the question of “to conform or not to conform” should hopefully become redundant as we all seek to follow his will.

We all need them ears to hear with, and hearts to follow.

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The start of meeting in the Park

The Best place to start with is… the start. 🙂

So how did we start meeting in the park?

My wife felt moved to call a friend to say… well, hello (basically).
So she did just that.

I then took the phone and also said hello.
It was during this conversation that both me and my good friend were stating that we were both fed up with not being able to meet up at church at the present moment.
So we then said that we should just meet up in a park.

The problem with the word “should” is that it can, so often, be code for never.

At some point during the conversation we agreed that we WILL do church in the park on the next available Sunday.

This, in essence is where the seed was planted.

Some people were not so keen on the idea of us doing this though as COVID restrictions were in place. Although groups of six were allowed at the time.
I believe that some thought that it just wasn’t worth the risk and that everyone needed to be sensible in order to beat COVID.
There was more to it than that but in essence I think that was the main objection.

There was the threat (probably more in my mind than anywhere else) that the authorities could descend on us at any time and at the very least tell us to move on or issue fines for a “not allowed gathering”.

We did plan to keep our distance and had some funny ideas of how to do this. (Details will probably shared further down the line.)
But we were still left asking, should we even be doing this?

As I thought about this I wrote my next post (even before I was blogging) To conform or not to conform, That is the question?

As it’s already been written the next post should be posted up very soon 🙂

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Strange Dream (Part 2)

If you haven’t already, then I would suggest that you read Strange Dream Part 1 first as this is a continuation from that.

The dream with the rich mans electric car being moved into his lounge then continued in it’s strangeness.

After the car had been moved into the lounge a large water fountain was then moved into the room nearby, one that really belongs in a pond, and the cable was plugged into a wall socket (for the pump obviously).

It was then switched on and water began to spray out of it’s top and fall all over the carpet. (No I didn’t see the water supply connected, the water was just there, it was only a strange dream after all.)

The rich mans wife was then suddenly all aghast and screamed, turn it off, turn it off and take that thing outside!

I told you it was a strange dream 🙂

Any interpretations for this bit…???

I have had some thoughts but it’s still all a bit strange to me.

At the moment we are not able to meet in church as we would like to, COVID restrictions and all.
Even if we are able to meet up then we are still restricted to what we can and can’t do.
Singing is currently not allowed in church.

I have been fortunate enough to have connected with a group of other Christian believers who have like wise had enough of not meeting together and as such we have been meeting in the park. (Whilst keeping socially distanced.)

One of our number is a very good musician and as such he brings his guitar and we are able to sing. We are able to sing and worship in this this current day and age!
It’s sooo good to do something we all took for granted for so long.

You might have guessed where I’m going with this now.
I’m thinking that the fountain is people singing.
At present that is not allowed inside.
Are we being told, take our singing outside?

I don’t know where I heard it but a phrase keeps coming back to me.

Take my Church outside!

I have seen a few things on the TV where this has happened and it might have been one of those where I heard it.
Where ever I heard it (or dreamt it) it still keeps coming back to me.

A thought has just occurred to me as I write this.
Could the car and the fountain be one and the same thing?
Could it be that Father is calling us to bring his Church outside?

I’ll try just writing the next bit, and just see if it resonates with you.

The car and the fountain are indeed the same thing.
For too long now you have been hiding away in your buildings.
It is time to bring my Church to the outside for all to see and hear.
It is time to stop hiding in your own little space.
At present you are just tied up in knots, even if you do meet up inside a building. Only so many people allowed at any one time and even then, not even allowed to sing or interact as you would like to.
Enough is Enough!
Take my Church outside and worship Me in the open, where all can see and hear that the Lord your God is GOOD!

That is a message that is easy for me to hear and receive as I am already doing just that, on a small scale.
Does it resonate with you though?
If it does, will you act upon it?

The next question is how can you act upon it.

I can’t give you a definitive answer of how to answer that question.
You need to hear from Father for the details of what you can do.
I can take you through some of my journey though with the next couple of posts.

There’s more to come so come back soon.

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Strange Dream (Part 1)

I woke up last night. I took one look at at the clock and saw it was 4 o’clock something, and just thought, oh great, it’s 4 o’clock something and here I am wide awake.
I’m not quite sure why but the next thing I thought or spoke was OK, speak Lord your servant is listening.

I must have fallen straight off to sleep after that because the next thing I know is I am waking up again after the having had one of the strangest of dreams.
If you are ever wide awake and not able to sleep you could try saying, speak Lord for your servant is listening. It worked for me 🙂

In the dream I had, I was in a rich mans garage.
There was an electric car in the garage. It was one of those classy expensive ones which actually worked. It had a decent range and could be recharged quickly.
In short it was an electric car which worked and looked good.
The type of car which would be noticed for all the right reasons, if it was used that is.

And this is where things went a bit strange.
The car was never used. It only had 2 to 3 miles on the clock!
The owner never wanted to use it. He wanted to keep it for himself.

The rich man then wanted it moved into his lounge, so a child was put into the driving seat (who was then having a whale of a time) and every one else then had to push the car into the lounge, whilst trying to convince the child to concentrate and do the right thing. I told you it was strange.

It left me thinking, What on earth was that all about…???

As I have pondered on it during the day I have possibly got an interpretation, of sorts.
If interpretation is your thing then you could ask for an interpretation before carrying on reading and see if you are given the same thoughts as me. 🙂

The thoughts I got was:

How silly is it to have an electric car and never use it.
How silly it is to have a car that doesn’t pollute, works and will gain attention for all the right reason and yet never use and instead only want to keep it to yourself
How silly and selfish it is to have an answer to a problem and never want to use it.

How silly is it to have Jesus in your life but never allow him to be seen.
How silly and selfish it is to have the solution for the world but to only want to keep him to yourself.

For the rich man to use the car all he would need to do is sit in the drivers seat and drive it on the open road.
He wouldn’t need to try and look good, all he would need to do is drive it and people would just notice it for all the right reasons.

If we take Jesus with us all the time and not only when we are happy too, then how much difference could it make to us?

Could we then have that something different about us that people just notice? Not put on or just trying to be a good witness but just naturally that something special that’s just there.

If we took the child out of the driving seat of our relationship with Jesus and took the driving seat for ourselves then how much more could we see and experience and how much more would others then notice?

Father help us all to let you in that much more.
Help us to know how to take hold of the driving seat all the time and to be that much more serious with you all the time and not just when we think it’s convenient for us.
Help us to let you be the true Lord of our lives so that you just shine through us.

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Are we like the Church at Laodicea?

If you haven’t read the previous post “Are we too pleasant to each other (at times)” then please do go back and read that one before reading this one. It gives an indicator of where the heart is when writing this one, an introduction if you like 🙂

So, are we anything like the church at Laodicea? (Revelation 3 vs 14-22)
Our knee jerk reaction to that question is almost certainty no. After all who thinks that they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked? (vs 17)
Not me we can all cry out together in one voice.

Well now we have that sorted out shall I just end this post here and say nothing more on the subject…
No. I do think there is a little bit more to look into and to be said about this.

I think that the first thing we need to look at is who were the Church at Laodicea?
What did they look like?

I believe that the short version is that they were wealthy, prosperous and self sufficient. After an earthquake they refused Rome’s offer of help to rebuild, insisting that they could take care of things themselves.

It sounds as if, by and large, that it was a good place to live.
Wealthy, prosperous and self sufficient to boot. Sure there might well have been a poor area but in general life was good for people.

Does that sound anything like how we live today??

Today in the modern society we are wealthy.
If you are reading this then you have the resources to do just that. You probably have a roof over your head (owned or rented) and probably have food available to eat. We are blessed.

We may well have a lot more in common with the church at Laodicea than we first thought we did. We could possibly even say that we are in a better position than the church at Laodicea, with modern technology and medicine to add to the mix.

So we are very much so blessed, just like the church of Laodicea.

So the next question is why did God bring such a tough message to a church which looked as if things were generally going OK?

You can almost hear the church of Laodicea’s knee jerk response to God’s message.
All the things you say we need, well God, we already have them…???  Don’t we ???

God looks deeper than we do though!

God knew they were wealthy and all that they were doing.

As they were wealthy they might even of had some measures they could point to and say, look at what we do to help others, what ever they may have been. 
God would have seen and known about it all.

So WHY does he bring the message that he does?
How can he say that they are  wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked

Did God get it wrong???   A resounding NO to that last one.

God see’s all and knows all. It still leaves the question of why did God bring the message that He did?

Perhaps we should try to see this from God’s side, if we can but try and obtain a glimpse of his point of view.

So what did God see when he looked at the church of Laodicea?

I believe that he saw a church who could do better!
I believe he saw a church who needed to be shaken up in order to be lifted up to a new high.

In short I believe that God saw the level that the church was at but also saw the level they could reach (which was much higher) and knew that they needed a tough message to reach it.

It could possibly be that they had become complacent, because of their success and we’re relying on themselves too much rather than on God.

Is this sounding like it could be more relevant to us than we would like it to be?

How much do we rely on ourselves rather than coming to our Father for his help and guidance?
Are their times when we follow our own instincts rather than following Father’s prompting and guidance?

Saul followed his own thinking in Samuel chapter 15 and it didn’t work out too we’ll for him. As I read it just recently I couldn’t help but think that he was blind to what God wanted. (Have a read of it and see if you think likewise.)

Do we suffer from that same blindness?

The problem with the message when I look at it in this way is that, I could think that it always applies to me.
You see no mater how good I can get to, there is always going to be the next level to reach for.
So is Father always saying to me that I’m “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”?

I don’t think that Father is constantly saying that to us like a broken record. He is our Loving Father after all.
He’s not just waiting for us to take our first steps just to push us down again, as my older brother used to do to me when I was learning to walk. (He is only a year older than me, so was very little at the time 🙂 )

The question then becomes are we blind to the possibility that he could be saying it to us on any level?

Are we open he hear his voice to us regardless of where it will lead us?
Are we only open to hear the nice things Father has to say to us?
Or do we want to hear all that he has to say to us, not just only the pleasant things but also the tough messages?

As Father says in Revelation 3 vs 19 “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.”

Do we want to be counted as among those of whom he Loves?

If yes (and I hope it is very much so a yes to that one) then are we willing to hear his voice even when he brings a more challenging word?

Father help us all to hear you more clearly, to know your voice that much better and have a heart that is willing to follow you wherever you lead us.