Tag: Jesus

I got last week’s post, “Can You Hear the Beat of the Drums?“, as I cycled to work.

During that same journey, this weeks post happened.
It was a bit of a strange journey to work on my bicycle that day.

As I went down a dark side road there was a car parked in the road, blocking the way for cars.
Fortunately as I was on my bike, so there was still space for me to go past.
I believe the driver was delivering a parcel, as he was standing by the side of his car, with a parcel in his hand.

“What a wally” (The polite version), I thought!

“Couldn’t you even have put your hazard lights on, or just leave your lights on so that people could at least see you, if you really must stop as you just have?”

I went on my way, doing the usual bit of, “I forgive you for upsetting me.” 🙂

I cycle to work, mostly, all on the road.
But there is a part of my journey were it’s safer to navigate a junction by making use of the pavement. (At a greatly reduced speed).
I then find myself on the wrong side of the road, no problem really, I just need to cross over.

As I cross over I normally aim for the gaps in between the white central road markings. It’s just a bit of a nonsense game that plays in my head. Go through the gates and not over the fence, kind of thing. 🙂

This morning, I just went straight over the middle of one of the white lines (as I have probably done many times before, I’m not always playing games.) As I did so, a thought popped into my head, “Sometimes you just have to cross the line.” ….. ????
Bit of a random thought there. ….. I didn’t think too much of the thought, initially.

As I carried on my way, I then saw a second example of plain daft parking.

It was one of those 3 wheeled scooters, that has 2 wheels at the front. It was parked in what looked like the mouth of a left turning, thankfully with it’s hazard lights on, in such a way that it appeared to be blocking the road off.
Something going on here then??? ….. Is there???
As I went past, no it seems. The turning was not blocked, but just partly obstructed??? The rider was on the pavement, on his phone.
I have no idea what was going on, just that it looked proper weird… ???? (I didn’t need to take the left turn, so on I went with no problem.)

OK Lord, are you playing fun and games with me now???

Now I’ve had 2 people park in what appears to be non conformist ways, and You (if it was You,) give me a word about “Sometimes you just have to cross the line.”

If it’s not You, then it’s certainly freaky. 🙂

To top it all off, this happens at a time, when, about two days ago I’ve gone and written, what I thought was, a challenging email to send to someone in authority, basically saying/asking, do we need to turn things upside down a bit?

Then when I get to work I go onto the BBC web site (for a quick check of the news), and one of the stories is… “Gold coin proves ‘fake’ Roman emperor was real”.

Yet another example of lines being crossed. That which was thought of as being a fake…. Now appears to be real.
There seems to be a lot of coincidences going on here today. (To put it mildly.) Or are they something more….???

Lord, You know that I’m willing to cross lines, IF You direct me to.
I do need to know that it is You who is directing me though.
I’ve even written a previous post about this very matter, “To Conform or not to Conform, that is the question?“

Sometimes I just get words that even I don’t like.
I’m getting the feeling that this is going to be one of them.

I don’t actually like crossing lines!

I don’t like being the fly in the ointment!

Yet, You are Lord God Almighty, and You do have the power of veto over me. (A post still to be published, perhaps next week’s if I’m not directed differently.)

Jesus crossed a few so called lines while He was with us on the earth.
The authorities were not too pleased with Him, at times. (Putting it mildly.)

So, are you trying to tell me that it’s OK to break the rules of the norm…. at times…. if You direct me to…. ????

I’m not trying to say that it’s OK to go out and do whatever you feel you want to do.
I’m all for law and order, but, if (and this is a very big if) if the Lord Your God tells you to cross a line, ….. then are you going to say no to Him?

You DO need to make sure that it is The Lord Your God that you are hearing and not just your own thoughts, trying to justify why you want to do ……

Most of the time lines are put in place for our own good, and they need to be adhered to.

But, are there some lines that have been put in place, in our personal lives as well as corporately, that were meant for good, but have now become a stumbling block to us?

Is it these lines that we are meant to cross?

Lines that hold us back, and if we cross them…. well…. will we start to see a breakthrough, somewhere in our own lives??? ….. As well as corporately???

What would these lines look like?
What lines should we cross?
And what lines should we heed?

The Lord Our God, is The Lord Our God, and only He is going to be able to direct us, in order to try and start to answer those questions. Because, to put it politely, I haven’t got the faintest idea of where to start with those ones! 🙂

All I can do is look to You and Declare that You are The Lord God Almighty!
And it is to You that I look to for my help and my guidance.
Please Lead and guide me in the way that I should go.
I know that You can even turn my mistakes into great things for You are able, but I still ask that You would lead me away from mistakes.
Help me to always hear Your voice, so that I can know and follow Your ways, all the days of my life.
Amen.

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I thought that I had finished this post, but it appears that The Lord may want me to add one final thought.

What’s more important, Neat and Tidy, or Potential for Development?

If you want your read deeper, then click the link above. Summary below.

Neat and Tidy is good, but is it the Best that we could see/be?
Is Potential for Development better?
Potential for Development may be messer, but will it leave the door open for “Break Through“???

A final, final word is from scripture. Have a read of 1 Samuel 15 for the whole account.

Brief summary.
Saul is sent on a mission by God via Samuel.
Saul hears and knows what the mission is.
Saul doesn’t fully complete God’s orders.
Saul makes his excuses.
Then Samuel gives Saul The Lords verdict in 1 Samuel 15: 22-23. They are not nice reading. Let us all endeavour to keep in step with His Drum Beat, so that we don’t put ourselves in the position where He, could say the following to us.
He is Our Loving Heavenly Father, but He also wants our obedience to His ways and His thoughts!

1 Samuel 15: 22-23

²² But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
    and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

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I thought I had finished this for the second time with the above…. It seems that The Lord has different ideas. 🙂

I’ve had so many instances occur in front of me that could be considered as crossing over the line. I can’t tell you all of them, and you’d probably get very tired of them. (I know that I am :-))

But this last instance (please, let it be the last one,) just has to be told. It could be considered as one of those stranger than fiction things. I’ll try to keep things as short as I can.

The headline could possibly read, “Man pushes past disabled person’s carer, and carer says it’s OK!”

Me and my wife were at the shops, Christmas shopping. My wife insists “I need a loaf of bread.” We go to a shop we have never been to before, for said loaf of bread.
At the till a man pushes past us (from the exit side of the till.) He then picks up a basket from somewhere and declares “I’m next!” He then pushes in front of the person behind us.
“Bit rude”, I think. We pay for the bread and try to leave. Wheelchair in front of us in my left hand, wife in the other (with her walking stick), taking nearly all the space of the Isle (as we tend to do.)
Suddenly the pushy man is behind us.
He tries to get past my wife, no space there, tries with me, no space there either. He has a final look at both spaces, and then just pushes pass past me.
“Excuse me! My wife is disabled!” I kind of shout out, as he runs out of the shop. Thankfully everyone is OK. “It’s just as well that he went past me and not my wife.” I say to another baffled looking shopper.
We leave the shop and the man is coming back with a suspect in a bear grip. He says something along the lines of, “This one has been taking hundreds of pounds of stock from us recently.”
It seems he was a plain clothed store security man, chasing after a serial offender!

The headline again, Man pushes past disabled person’s carer, and carer says it’s OK!”

OK, Lord.
I get it. Sometimes you just have to cross over the line.
Please help us all to see which lines to cross and which to heed.
Help us to hear Your Voice clearly on these lines.
And then enable us to follow Your lead.
Our Loving Heavenly Father.
Amen.

I had a picture of a sail being hoisted into position on a yacht.
The sail was only part way up. The wind was light and didn’t have any real direction to it, as such the sail was flailing about a bit.
The top of the sail was always being drawn towards the top, following the line that it was attached to. The rest of the sail followed.
In its part way up position you had the top of the sail leading the way, the middle part of the sail flailing in the wind and the bottom part of the sail resting on the deck.

I felt that the picture could be a picture of the church.

The top of the sail is the leader of the church, following the way set before them by God.
The next part of the sail is the leadership team (these could be both staff and non staff people) who are supporting and following the leaders guidance.
Then you have those who are up and doing what they can, when they can.
Then you have those who are just getting off the deck, to join those who can and do.
Lastly you have those who are still on the deck, waiting to see if they will join those who are off the deck or just stay where they are.

If you are part of the church, then where about on the sail would you be?

Are you with those who are off the deck flailing around in the slight wind, not quite sure of what’s going on?
Are you on the deck looking at those off the deck, thinking, that looks a bit messy up there, I think that I’ll stay just where I am?
Or are you on the deck just waiting to join the fun of those who are already off the deck, just waiting for the wind?

When the wind does comes and properly inflates the sail, then the real movement will happen!

But how much of the sail will be in the wind?

1%, 10%, ….. 100%, or somewhere in between?
How much of the sail is off the deck will greatly determine how much movement occurs when the wind comes. A sail that is 100% up will catch more than one that is only 10% up.

When the wind comes, then will you be part of those who are where they are meant to be, off the deck?
Or will you be part of those who are on the deck, thinking, if only I was up there?

While we are waiting for the wind, well things may appear to be a little bit unsettling. Try not to focus on the flapping about, instead focus on the goal and where we are heading to.

To the leaders, try not to be put off by the flapping about but instead focus on where you are being led, and as such continue to lead the way, that we all should go.
Can those who are off the deck encourage those who are on the deck to join them, so that when the wind comes, we will then have a bigger sail?
If you are on the deck then can you join those who are moving up to where they should be?

Although this picture has described the church as a whole, can we apply it on a personal level?

If the wind of God came today, then how much of your sail would you have available?

Is your sail fully up, ready and waiting for the wind?
Or is it all on the deck, where the wind could come and go and then pass you by?
It’s going to be best to have as much of your sail up and waiting, as you can, so that when the wind does come, then you can be moved by the wind to where you are meant to be.

Father,
I ask that You help us all to know where it is that You want us to be, so that we can then say yes to You, and be where You want us to be.
Help us to know and trust You that much more, so that we can follow You, and be ready to do what You would like us to be doing.
Amen.

I had yet another strange dream the other night. (I don’t think I’m eating too much cheese before I go to bed. 🙂 )
I’ll share as much of the dream as I can remember, even though I don’t fully understand certain parts of it in the hope that it might be just what someone needs to hear. (With a better interpretation than I currently have :-))

In the dream I was in a queue waiting to purchase an electric bicycle. The queue was not on the ground though. We were all on wooden wall bars, like the ones I remember from school times.
There was a ledge somewhere where I was putting my extra purchase of a fancy lock and other bits for the bike I was about to buy. As the queue moved along I would move my purchases along the ledge, just like everyone else was doing.
In the dream it all seamed perfectly normal, but looking back at it now, it seems utterly mad.

The next thing I remember is being at the till.
I paid for the electric bicycle and then went onto pay for my extra purchases, which included the fancy lock. The lock needed some explaining on how you use it. The sales assistant duly gave a demonstration on how the lock worked, then put everything in a bag and then sent me on my way.

I was then walking down the street looking through my bag at all the items I had bought, with a bit of excitement.
All of a sudden I realised that I didn’t have the electric bicycle with me, that I had just bought. ?????
As I turned round to go back to the shop, the sales assistant was suddenly present with the electric bicycle. Then I woke up.

My first thought was, what was that all about???

I then had a thought, if you don’t take Jesus with you, then what’s the point? It’s like buying a bike and then leaving at the shop as you walk out.

OK, let’s just ponder that one for a bit.
If you do great things for God, but you don’t have God with you, then what benefit do you have?
If you have a great program of events to do for God, but you don’t have God with you, then how much value do you have?
Could these things be thought of as having bought and paid for a bike, and then leaving it at the shop?
If you are doing something for God, then make sure that you keep in step with Him. Don’t go running off leaving the One who it’s all about behind.

There is a bible passage that comes to mind as I’ve been thinking on this, it is…

1 Corinthians 13-3.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

The importance of having Jesus with us wherever we go is something that we should never let go of. I have a previous post that follows something of this thought process called, “Don’t get carried away, instead get carried along“.

I do think that it is relevant that the sales assistant was suddenly there the moment that I turned to go back.
God is waiting for us to turn to Him.
The moment that we acknowledge that we have gone wrong and turn to seek Him, then no sooner is He there to help, lead and guide us in the way we should go. Just like the Father in the prodigal son, who runs to greet, and welcome back his wayward son. Luke 15: 11-32

I do think that it is relevant that the bike was an electric bicycle. Yes, it’s another post I’m going to point to for the answer as to why.
The Electric Bike Sermon, part 1
Brief summary of that post.
There are 2 ways to live. With God and without.
The electric bike is with God where as a normal bike is without.
On a normal bike headwinds and hills could cause you to want to give up, where as on an electric bike, you just have that little extra help to see you through it all. Just like being a Christian means that you have access to One who can be the help you need to see you through ……….

The strange way of queuing still has me a bit baffled. It can only make any kind of sense to me if I consider that the electric bike represents Jesus coming into the life of the purchaser. Then is it a picture of how people could be feeling without Jesus in their lives?
Just hanging on in there, just the same as everybody else, not quite sure of what’s going on around us, but just going with the flow all the same??? (I told you it had me just a bit baffled :-))

The good news Is that if you are in the queue waiting to meet with Jesus, then He is ready, and just waiting to meet with you.
You just need to say Yes to Him, and He will then lead and guide you in the way that it is best for you to go.
As The Wannabe Christian Doorman, I can only encourage you to say Yes to Him, for He is …….
The Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
The one who is above all and knows all and is in all.
He is The One who Loves you with an everlasting Love that goes on beyond measure.
He is just waiting for you to ask Him into your life, so that He can then be all that you need Him to be, for you.

If you haven’t already asked Jesus to come into your life then I do encourage you to do so. The starting point could be to say the words below.
Jesus,
I ask you to come into my life.
Help me to know You, to hear your words to me and to follow You and your ways.
Amen.