MEETING AN ANGEL!!

Today I brought a cup of coffee in Norwich, and took it out to a man outside Top Shop, and gave it to him.

I had done this three or four times before, asked how he was doing, purchased what he was selling and walked off.

He sells "The Big Issue"

Today I actually "met" Simon for the first time. We stopped and we engaged in conversation for 15 or 20 mins.

Simon is his name (that may be obvious from the above sentence, but I am clarifying that this is the first time I had really engaged with him), and he told me about his life over the past year. A "victim" of tough economic times, and the downturn of the UK Fishing industry in particular, he worked on various sea fishing trawlers and had just re located to the West Country to a new company and after 3 months of working for them the company went bust. The house he was living in came with the job and as a consequence he was out on the street. He has slept in doorways, under the stars with a blanket ot sleeping bag for cover, in various tents, and rarely on the odd sofa. He was fairly up beat and overjoyed today as he had just secured the rental of a small flat.

Simon has been trying to gain employment for the whole of his homeless period, however with no fixed address employers have been reluctant to say the least, to offer employment no matter how qualified he may be at the job. If people like Simon cannot find a job they cannot affors a place of their own, if they don't have a place to call "home" then invariably they cannot get a job. And that is The Big Issue. No pun intended but that is why that magazine exists. Not so you and I can feel good that we dipped into our pockets for £2 and gave it to some poor person on the street. But to try and enable these people to earn some sort of income to try and raise enough money to get accomodation to geta job.

If you had asked Simon 12 months ago about being homeless he would never have even contemplated it as a possibility.

So this is not a political rant over the rights or wrongs of our systems in the UK, or over rich vs poor. It is maybe just a call out to not so readily walk past the Big Issue seller in your street, but just give them a little support, it could be you or I one day.

The experience reminded me of how I met someone who has become a good friend, Daniel Harrison. And I relayed part of this story to Simon today, but I want to share it with you in full and want to encourage you about engaging in converstaion with strangers:

HAVE YOU MET AN ANGEL LATELY?


Hebrews 13 vs 2 says "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it"

Have you met any angels lately? Was he or she in a white robe? Was there radiant light all around them? Did they have large wings made of feathers?

No okay well neither have I........................................but I met Daniel.................he is one of God's angels but has no wings and does not have a white robe...............let me share......

October 16th 2008

My wife and I had a rare day off together and decided to go shopping in Norwich, one of our favourite "local" shopping areas. We had no children around us (all at school or work) and someone else picking them up from school, we thought we might start getting one or two bits together for Christmas. Now that may look a bit early (October 16th) but we have 6 children to think of so tend to start around this time if not sooner..............anyway...............

We walked through the shopping area and walked towards Top Shop where outside was a girl selling the "Big Issue". I always tend to buy at least one when I am in Norwich although my wife never buys any at all. However, I started towards this girl to go and buy a copy and then just felt a prompt (that’s in my head not physically) not to buy a copy from her so I carried on walking.

We were walking together and I was looking in various shop windows and as we were walking along I lost contact with my wife (Julie) and for a moment lost site of her. As I scanned round there she was with this bloke in a blue jacket and a black woolly hat and black fingerless gloves and she was chatting away and buying a copy of his big issue. Now that was the first strange thing the fact that she was buying something she would never normally buy. As they were talking (and as I was walking towards them) I could hear Julie telling this bloke how angry and upset she was.

Let me give you a bit of background here. Several weeks before we had been walking through Norwich and as with any city we saw some people begging for money or sleeping rough. My wife had seen one lady, whom at first she thought was a man, sleeping in a doorway in the middle of the day. She gave her some money but was very upset by what she saw to the point of feeling quite angry and is seeking someway of doing something (she doesn't know what but she is sort of searching on this issue) to try and help people like that. Then on Sunday 28th September a man had been killed after going to the aide of a man and his girlfriend who were being beaten up by a gang of youths (the man and woman were believed to be homeless).

So back to this man and the Big Issue - I came across and joined the conversation. Julie was telling him how upset she was and how some people didn’t really deserve to live after they did what they did to the chap who was trying to help others. The Big Issue seller just had a smile on his face all the time. It was strange and I really found I couldn't help but want to smile with him but I couldn't for the life of me think why as the subject of the conversation was pretty unpleasant.

He looked at Julie and said "I know it was a really bad thing to happen to those people but you know I think God would have been there holding there hands, and whilst He couldn't stop it He was trying to comfort them and be with them through the ordeal".

Now that really isn't an answer I expected to hear let alone from this Big Issue seller. I had paid for the Big Issue but at this point I didn't want to leave.

He said, "I'm a Christian and I have been since I was 17. Things are a bit tough right now but God still looks after me".

Julie and I looked at each other and both turned to this chap and invited him for coffee.

We went to a coffee shop not too far away and took Daniel for coffee and some cake.

We spent the next two hours in the company of one of the most amazing people I have ever met.

We were so alike. Both of us came from the same area in Essex. Both of us were born in 1962, I on March 2^nd and he on April 2^nd. He had recently gone through a divorce and that was the reason for him being homeless. He was in a flat but only until the end of October when he was going to be kicked out again. He attended a church in Norwich and we found we both knew some of the same people.

My wife and I listened to the things he shared with us and the time flew by.

He volunteered at a drop in centre for anyone who just wanted a chat and the night before no one had turned up so the three people who led it, him and two others, held a time of prayer.

They had each prayed that they would meet a Christian who was struggling and needed encouragement. Oh WOW that was so my wife who was finding things really tough. Daniel spoke with her for ages, the smile never leaving his face not even when he talked about having nowhere to go at the end of the month.

When Daniel nipped to the toilet I told my wife I was going to buy a Big Issue from the lady by Top Shop, and she told me that she was going to do the same but something had stopped her.

Well when Daniel came back we exchanged email addresses (he accesses the internet at the local library) we shared a prayer together and gave each other a hug.

After that meeting we didn’t want to shop anymore and didn't. We just went home and talked about Daniel and what had just happened.

We saw him again the following Saturday and now it was like greeting an old friend. He was there selling his Big Issue and I got some of the guys we were with to buy him out so he could finish his day early.

The third time I met Daniel face to face was over a year later - after contact through email - when I attended his wedding.

Julie and I have met Daniel and AnnMarie on several occasions and they are both an exciting encouragement. So very positive in everything despite (or maybe because) things being tough. Daniel has his own window cleaning round in Norwich and is working daily to bring money in for the family and we email and Facebook regularly when we cannot meet up face to face. 

So - when you walk through your town and there is a Big Issue seller there and they are really annoying and asking if you would buy there magazine, think twice before you walk by.

You may just meet a Daniel!!

God Bless Steve

THE POWER OF HANDS

On Thursday evening I was taking what has become a fairly regular flight back from Schipol Airport, Amsterdam Holland, to Norwich in Norfolk England. For this trip I was sitting in row 17 - an aisle seat - that is at the very back of the aircraft and as this was a small Focker 70. As the engines blocked the rear windows I wasn't really able to look out at the nights skies during the short 30 min flight home.

As I sat in my seat I looked down the length of the cabin and observed the stewardess speaking to her colleague. I had no way of knowing what she was saying, and I certainly cannot lip read, but I was fascinated by the amount of hand gestures she made during what was clearly animated and happy conversation (she laughed a lot) and it got me to thinking.

I am not sure there are many (if any at all) converstaions that I have where I do not use my hands in some way. And I am sure that is probably true for everyone. We use hands to emote anger, compliance, frustration, sympathy, hate, love, disspaointment and celebration. They say nothing at all yet they say so very much.

I stayed focused on our hands and our use of them and turned my mind to thinking how Jesus used His hands whilst He was here on Earth.

Apart from the one incidence where He "cleared the church" of money lenders and traders who had defiled the sanctuary in favour of personal gain and profit, and so He turned over the tables; obviously using His hands, in what could be described as anger, at all other times He used His hands for positive and powerful means. This is how it rolled out for me:

• He used hands to feed the hungry - He took the five loaves and two fish and broke it all up and fed the 5000 gathered to listen to Him
• He used His hands to heal people on numerous occasions
• In His early years he would have used His hands in practical ways as the son of a carpenter
• He used them in prayer
• He used His hands to break bread with His freinds

So He used His hands in practical and spiritual ways. And as always He should be our pattern for how we live. We can add to the list the lifting of hands in praise and worship as we are called to do in the Psalms and I am sure during the times when Jesus would spend time with His Father He would have lifted His hands too.

There is real power in the way we use our hands. So we need to ensure that we are using our hands for the benefit of others wherever possible and not for our own benefit. Let us persue the pattern that has been set for us by Jesus, our example.

Oh and He used His hands for one other thing too..................

He stretched His hands to the left and to the right, and as they drove in the nails He was saying "I love you this much"

Blessings

WHO WILL ANSWER

Revelation 3 vs. 20 says: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends".

There is a famous painting depicting Jesus standing before a door with His hand raised simply knocking. I am sure you have all seen it at some time.

You are also likely to know that the picture is not significant because of the character of Jesus in it, or because of the artist that painted it. No, it is the door that is the significant thing in the picture. From the outside there is no handle and therefore Jesus is unable to open it.

And when I hear people talk about that picture, or even about the verse at the top of this post, that inspired the picture, I hear them talk about Jesus knocking on the door, the heart, of one who does not know Him and then use it to talk about Jesus coming into someones life for the first time, when that person gives their lives over to the loving Father and becomes a Christian.

Well that is all well and good and the "picture" as it is is fine. We have a loving God and He will not force Himself onto anyone and therefore it is the individual that must open "the door" and allow Jesus to "come in" rather than Jesus opening a door and stepping "in".

However this particular section of the book of Revelation was written to the church at Laodicea. So this was not written to those "outside" of the family of God, rather I would say that it is directed towards those who are already in that "family", who are already Christians and part of His church. The verses before verse twenty have some hard things to say. Paraphrased they talk about a luke warm, tepid, church just content to chug along  doing their own thing and not focusing on what God had called them to do. Content to invest in the riches of the world around them rather than in the riches of the Kingdom of God.

So when verse 20 comes along Jesus is speaking to people who already "know" him. He says He wants to do what friends do, invest time in getting to know us and sharing his time with us. The passage talks about Him sharing a meal with the church.

To often we keep God locked away in a small box somewhere, and that "box" we have closed shut and only you and I can open it. We need to remove the walls we have built up between ourselves and Daddy God and spend some time really getting to know Him like real friends would want to do. We should be throwing that "door" wide open and welcome Him in with open arms, and embrace all that He has in store for us.

Verse 22 at the end of that section emphasises even more that this passage was to those in the church rather than those outside when it says: "Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches".

I have learnt, and I am still having to learn, to remove those barriers I have, not enough time, too busy "doing" things for the church, family commitments (although extremely important), and just other stuff we all put in the way. I have "opened the door" because I want to get to know Him like I want to get to know my close friends. I want to be intimate with Him so I know what he is going to do before he even does it, isn't that just how friends are. I think so.

So I ask at the top in the title "Who Will Answer"?

I will.

Will you??

Blessings

REFLECTIONS (The Final Piece)

Purpose And Unity

So the final part of my “reflections” following the Prayer For Revival meeting I attended last Monday (October 10^th) I would like to continue with these thoughts:

One thing that stood out for me and was amazingly brilliant was the clear unity and purpose that those people gathered in Norwich stood for.

There is a hunger and desire to see a restoration for the people of our county brining them into the family of God.

The biggest picture of that unity shone out when all the ministers who were at the meeting representing so many different churches all stood at the front ahead of offering some ministry time.

As I looked at them (there must have been 30 or 40 I guess) I realised that I do not think that would have taken place as short as 12 months ago.

For me it shows a new and exciting chapter in the life of the church family in Norfolk and I believe there are exciting times ahead for us all and they start now!

Amen.

REFLECTIONS (Continued)

Credit Where Credit Is Not Due

Continuing my “reflections” following the Prayer For Revival meeting I attended last Monday (October 10^th) I would like to continue with these thoughts:

During the meeting it was called out that we should rise up and take back that which the devil has taken from us!

Now I am all for entering into spiritual warfare and standing firm on the promises of God knowing that God has already defeated the devil by defeating death, and certainly as God’s people we need to reclaim the ground that belongs to Him.

However, as I contemplated this on Tuesday morning (11^th October) and also reflected on things I had previously heard through teachings, sermons, Bible studies and during my own (sadly infrequent) quiet times, I just wondered whether in fact we as a God’s church are too quick to give “credit where credit is not due”. In fact are we giving too much credit to the devil when he has not earned that credit? Let’s stretch this out a bit:

·        The devil is not omnipresent – he can only be in one place at a time

·        He is not all powerful and can only carry out one act at a time (although I accept he may use some of his fallen angels – his followers – to act for him)

·        And something brought home to me recently – the devil is not all knowing – he does not know what may happen in the future and knows as much about the future as you and I

So quite frankly I do not think I want to be giving the devil too much credit, if any, for “taking” the ground away from the church of God.

Rather I raise the question as to whether God’s church has been so complacent in the UK in particular (but other areas too), so laid back, protected, unafraid and unchallenged, that actually we have simply allowed the Christian values and viewpoint be watered down, washed away and totally diminished within our societies. So rather than the ground being taken from us, I put it that we have just sat back and allowed it to be taken.

Oh but, I hear you cry, no it’s not us it’s the government of today, of yesterday, it’s the interference of the European commission imposing rules and regulations upon us.

Well some of that has happened but as we are the electorate, then we have allowed these things to happen by not sounding out a loud enough voice standing up to be counted for what we believe in and not taking a stand against the erosion of God’s values.

This is not a “political” blog, it is purely my reflections, but we need to be making a stand against the removal of biblical standards in our society, in our schools, we need to re-learn the value of respect, of caring for our neighbours, not the society we have become which focuses on “me”, “I want it now”, “what do I get out of it” as principles and philosophies.

We all have a part to play in shaping our society, of supporting the Christian candidate when he or she does stand, so that Christian influences can be part of our government. And those candidates have stood. And I wonder how much support they received from their own people, (the church), how many nights of prayer did we have, how much fasting did we do? Isn’t it more likely that we simply wandered down to the voting booths placed our “X” in the box and returned to watch TV? (The truth is I know that’s what I did L )

Do we do enough to prevent God’s values being eroded away? I certainly do not think we have in the past. So before we credit the devil for something please let us look at what we as the church have not done and therefore what we have allowed to happen.

We need to reverse the flow away from God and I believe the prophecy on the Churches from Norfolk and the promise of revival will require us to introduce God’s values into all that we do, everywhere we do it and not just on a Sunday morning behind closed doors.

Blessings

REFLECTIONS

“The Morning After The Night Before”

These “reflections” took place on Tuesday October 11^th 2011 over a three hour period in the morning when I wrote them all down. This is the first of three pieces based on those “reflections”

So last night (Monday 10^th October 2011) I attended the monthly “Prayer For Revival” meeting for churches from across the Norfolk area to come together to seek after God’s will and His calling for us all across our county.

The meeting was held in Norwich at the buildings of Norwich Family Life Church (NFLC) and the evening was led by Rev. Phil Thorne of City Church Norwich.

I was originally due to be part of the worship team that evening but personal and business circumstances the previous Friday were such that I was unable to make the rehearsals. The worship was superbly led by Mark Watson of City Church and a guest leader Richard Lewis. The worship team skilfully brought us into the Throne Room and the feeling of God’s presence in the building was palpable.

The speakers spoke with power and authority and the messages they brought were simple and straightforward. I was delighted to see Pastor Mark from Carlton Rode Baptist speak just before the communion as this man had been on a prayer call put out by a friend of mine at his church as he had suffered a stroke in 2010 and only really started receiving his speech back in January of 2011 but powerfully so in July of the same year.

Anyway…………………………

There was much spoken of which after mulling it all over and just thinking on it has led me to three distinct areas of reflection:

          Planning Permission

          Credit Where Credit Is Not Due

          Purpose And Unity

So I am going to look at these one at a time over three days. Once again these are simply what came to me whilst I put pen to paper and focused entirely on what had happened and been said the previous evening.

“Planning Permission”

In part of the service Phil directed the peoples attention to some wooden pegs (stakes) that a member of the church I attend, Fakenham Baptist Community Church, (FBCC), had made. The idea was that people would take one and then place it into the ground in their community making a physical act of “staking” a claim to the ground that through them God would take back.

On one side of them it had a scripture reference from Isaiah 54 vs. 2 & 3. Those verses say this:

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities”.

So the passage speaks of is enlarging your tent (or house, or dwelling depending on the translation you read) and not just a small enlargement but to the right and left (east and west) and that the enlargement when it takes place will dispossess nations. He is talking about covering a whole area with His Glory and transforming Nations and Cities. I went on to wonder - what if the passage had been written today and we carried out those instructions (as we are being called to do) in our neighbourhood, so if I took the passage and applied it to doing this in real life a few things might happen and some things would need to happen:

·        Neighbours might complain about what God intended to do

·        God would need to have architectural plans

·        God would need to get planning permission

Well on the face of it you may say I was being very irreverent, but is it as irreverent as it at first looks or sounds? I think not:

I actually think God has this completely covered and all of the three sections do happen and will happen and what is probably most likely needed is some action on our parts:

“Neighbours Complaining”:- well unless everyone is asleep it takes no genius to realise that in the supposedly “Christian” country we live in, in what is supposed to be the new “tolerant” nation, that wherever Gods people are trying to follow His will and His calling they are criticised, hated, complaints are made against them, dare I say persecuted even if by comparison to some persecutions that go on around the world it is minor. We can read and we know that Jesus faced complaint and criticism as He went about carrying out His Fathers will.

Oh and shock, horror!! Some of that criticism came from within the established church of the time. Of course that could never happen today………….could it???

Throughout His ministry Jesus remained focussed, spoke the truth, did not retaliate harm received by giving out harm in return and He showed us how to continue doing the Fathers will in the face of criticism and complaint.

A small note here: something tells me that if we do not see criticism and resistance to what we seek to do, then maybe we are simply “talking the talk” without really “walking the walk”. We are made to be overcomers – that means conquering a battle knocking down walls and obstacles – not warming a seat or a pew in our church!

“Architectures Plans”: I am no building expert – just ask my wife or my brother – but if you want to extend your home then you need to have accurate and robust plans in order to do that. These plans would need to be carefully prepared by someone with the correct skills and knowledge of what you would require in order to carry out your extension. A sketch on the back of the proverbial “back of the fag packet” simply will not do!!

So as God has called us to carry out the prophecy from Isaiah 54, then we need to have detailed and accurate plans of how we are going to achieve that drawn up by an expert in the field of enlarging God’s house and presented in a way we can understand them so we can follow them.

Well thank God that He saw fir to do exactly that by providing us with the plans we need and not relying on a committee or, dare I say it, a Church Business meeting, to pull those plans together, because if He had we would still be debating them when time came to an end.

God did two things. One: He gave us His written word that just like an architects plans we need to study and fully understand and ensure we are fully equipped to carry out the task. Secondly: He gave us a real living role model who walked the paths that we walk and lived on Earth as we do, His Son Jesus Christ. And let’s not hear people cry out “but things were different” and “times have changed”!! Were they? Have they?

He was tempted, but did not succumb to temptation, He was taunted, but did not retaliate with abuse and insults and He was wrongly accused of crimes He DID NOT commit. So sure our physical living conditions and surroundings have changed but the principles of God’s plans for His people and the pattern he laid out for our guidance have never changed and are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago.

“Planning Permission”: Going back to my “building project”, I have received complaints from the neighbours that their “view will be spoilt by my extension”, I have my architectural plans drawn up and my house design is completed, I will still need to get planning permission from a committee of people before I can move ahead with the plans I have. Oh and there is a cost – not sure but several hundred pounds I believe to get the planning committee to look at my plans with no guarantee that they will be approved.

My Daddy God is Awesome, all Powerful, Merciful, Mighty, Ever Present, all Seeing and all Knowing. So in fact He could just “do” anything that He wanted. But He chooses not to. See He is a God of love, allowing us freedom of choice, allowing us to do what we want to do. So he chooses not to force His will on us.

God needs your permission to carry out His plans for your life, His plans for revival.

Freedom of choice comes with a cost. We do not have to pay that but Jesus did pay it on the cross. But freedom of choice comes with consequences that we are responsible for. If we choose to turn our backs on Him then by consequence we choose to live a life alone, facing certain death and demise with no hope for the future. If we choose to follow Him to listen to His call and look to follow His plans for us, then their may be a cost in ridicule, there may be a cost financially but there will certainly be a need to submit our own selfish will and allow God’s will to be done in and through us.

And He needs our Planning Permission! He needs us to receive the call He is making and He needs our permission to let Him use us to achieve the plans that He has. We can block Him out, we can refuse to give Him that permission, you can call that free will, or you can call it stubbornness.

This is why he is a God of love, He allows us to make a choice. If we refuse to let Him work His plans out through us then He will find someone else, some other church, village, town, county, country, continent – His plans will come to pass and if we do not rise up to the challenge and opportunity then He will move on to a people who will

I for one want to be part of brining new revelations of Gods love to those around me and I for one am having to learn to lay aside my stubbornness and just let God work out His will in my life. I do not want to miss out on the good things he has planned for me or Norfolk right now!!

The Clouds Reflection, The Seeds Sown and The Trace

The Clouds Reflection

Over the past several weeks I have been flying back and forth to Holland for work.

From Norwich this is just about a 30 min flight so once we are up and the stewardess has come through with a drink and a snack, back through again to collect the waste, we are on the descent into the airport to land. So there is no time to work and no time to do much else so I will often just catch a quick 40 winks and rest.

Now when I first flew ten years ago I was fairly nervous, even scared, after all if God had wanted me to fly I would have been a bird with wings – wouldn’t I? There was no way I wanted to look out of a window and see what was going on.

However, over the years I have learnt to overcome those nerves and actually enjoy, during any flight, looking out of a window at 30,000 feet or thereabouts and just see the blanket of clouds underneath. So two weeks ago as we are flying over the North Sea at around 23,000 feet I was looking out of the window. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining strongly and the clouds were broken up below me rather than in one giant blanket. They were many different shapes and sizes and some were very thick and some quite thin. As I looked further through the clouds I could see the sea.

All across the surface of the sea was a reflection of the clouds dancing on the water. The sun was shining way above these clouds but it’s strength meant it shone through casting these shadows on the water.

I was prompted to think about how much that was like father God shining His glory down onto us and that Glory continued through and was reflected through us (the clouds) onto those we meet each and every day (the reflection on the water). The fact that all the clouds were different shapes and different density was absolutely right. We are all made differently, we have different roles to play, but that is just it – we ALL have a role to play in portraying Gods rich blessing and Glory onto the world around us.

At the same time my mind turned back to a picture I was given back in November 2010 regarding the sowing of the seed and the different roles we play.

The Seeds Sown

06 November 2010

I was in the car that morning and had 15 mins where I was on my own before I took Matt to his girlfriends to deliver her kitten and just ahead of meeting Bob for coffee.

I decided to spend 15 mins in "soaking" and just resting in Him. I played a CD's I had in the car and I had a dream/picture:

I was in a field and it was absolutely huge. And I was just going forward and making holes in the earth and dropping a seed or what looked like a seed into each of the holes I was making. I knew/felt that I could not stop that I had to reach the end but I couldn't see the end of the field - it just went on and on and on.

I took a glance back from where I came and closest to me I could see the tiniest shoots pocking through the earth, then further away I could see a stalk or two poking up and then on the far distance I could see the fully grown plants...........they were all different - there were flowers, there were bunches of corn, there was just lots of fully grown plants of different varieties (I am not a gardener - I actually hate gardening - so although I could see plants I have no idea what they all were)...........anyway..........

Beyond these plants I could see people coming (although I could not see faces as they were a long way away from where I was standing) along and picking the flowers or cutting the wheat/corn etc - and my immediate thought was "Hey hang on that’s mine I put that seed in the ground and that should be me picking those flowers". I then felt something making me turn around and see the empty field in front of me and a voice saying "There's more to do you need to keep on making those holes and placing the seeds into them". So I turned my back on what was happening behind me and carried on making holes and putting seeds in them and looked up and still could see no end in sight.

I wasn't really too sure of it all and it seemed a bit random especially as I hate gardening or almost anything to do with gardening. But as I sat there I realised that we can never know what happens to the seeds we sow in our lives. The "Hello" to someone no one else talks to, the time taken to speak to someone working in the Supermarket, stopping to help someone in need, placing a coffee or a sandwich into the hands of the beggar on the streets of Norwich, buying "the Big Issue", loads of just simple practical stuff and then the times we share what our faith is all about when it appears to fall on deaf ears........all that goes on in our lives and we sometimes never see the results of that seed sown. But surely we are meant to continue sowing that seed in whatever way we do it and then allow God to water the ground and add the fertilizer to it (His Holy Spirit) and then other workers can come along and harvest the crop. I believe I was being shown that we may not all get to be harvesters but we can all sow the seed.

I think I am right in saying any word or picture from God should be uplifting, encouraging delivering something positive and be supported by scripture - and it was the scripture bit that I was looking to confirm with.......and I think it is John 4 vs. 35b - 38:
"The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

So planters and harvesters have different roles but are there to work together. It seems as though I am one of those "planters".

The Trace

Now God doesn’t leave too many loose ends. And He sort of wrapped all this up for me when a friend of mine, Rob Curl, spoke at our church the other week. He used a phrase that I cannot fully recall, but referred to a Forensic Scientist, and there were a set of “rules” that I think were named after him and Rob referred to the first rule which was something to the effect of “whenever someone passes through anywhere they will leave a trace of something”.

When I heard that I was reminded immediately of “The Clouds” and the “Seeds”.

Wherever we go, in whatever part of our lives we leave a “Trace”. We can never know the impact that “Trace” may have. We can never know when we have said that word, or offered that help, or just “been there” for someone, when we have left the “Trace” that may impact someone’s life sometime in the future when we are not even around.

So the encouragement is surely to continue reflecting Gods glory, to continue sowing that seed even if we do not immediately see the results and to leave that “Trace” of Daddy’s love for mankind. Don’t give up, don’t stop, just keep pressing forward and continue that journey with Father and keep letting people see His love reflected in me and you.

The River Of Blessing For Norfolk

So this is something I received at 01:30 am on Saturday 2nd July this year (2011) and with some stuff thats been coming at me over the past few weeks I want to share:

God is bringing His people out to do a great and new work. He is enabling us to be warriors for His kingdom. He is preparing us to take out into our communities what He is blessing us with within our Church families.

His word declares that the river of blessing that must flow out to our communities has to come from the blessings first poured out on us:

Ezekiel 47:

1 In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. 2 The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.

God is blessing His children NOW! He is doing so in order NOT that we retain it for ourselves, not that we keep it hidden away within His “family” – He is blessing us to overflowing so that the overflow can pour out into our communities. We need to be continually refreshed by Daddy God. We need to continually be refreshed by His Holy Spirits power but only so that we can take that blessing out. And as we give that blessing away we come back to the temple, and we continue being refreshed. It is an ongoing process and it doesn’t stop once we are filled. We are told to keep on being filled not just “be filled” but be “continuously filled” with His Holy Spirit. And when we do this amazing things will happen. Ezekiel 47 carries on saying;

7b When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. 8 Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea.[b] The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. 9 There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows.

We have a country, a county, in great need. Sickness surrounds us, financial hardships hit people everyday, homelessness increases, the poor get poorer and they don’t know where to go for help and find themselves in desperate situations. Well we have the answer to their needs. We have the secret that they don’t even know they need to hear. And so many times it stays locked up in our churches.

Well there is a call on us to move out, not to stay in the pew, not to stay “safe” in our “comfort zones” – but to be that river flowing out into our communities. He has a great plan for this country and He has called on US to execute that plan. To be a mobilised army not a delicate whimper hidden safely behind our closed doors, the walls of protection we through up around ourselves. We have to push through those walls, enable the flow of blessing that we have, do, and will receive flow out. And when we do that, when we release that flow of Gods Spirit into our communities something new will take plane. Isaiah 43 has this

15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. 16 I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. 17 I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. 18 “But forget all that, it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. 20 The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and owls; too, for giving them water in the desert.   Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed.

I want to be a part of that great out pouring. I want to be part of the blessing that is going to flow out. I will not let the stones declare Gods praise, to declare His name by remaining silent. I will declare that Gods Kingdom is here now and I will seek His blessing and I will look to break down the barriers in my life, I will look to destroy those walls I have allowed to be built up around me creating a safe and comfortable place for me to sit and be a “good Christian”.

No more will I be the complacent ineffectual person the devil and his minions are not worried about. Satan is delighted when I keep all the blessings God gives me to myself. Well no more.

Wherever I can I am going to take the opportunity to make people aware of the blessing that God wishes to shower upon them, and I am going to agree to be an avenue of delivering that blessing.

I will not limit God by placing a limit on myself. I will not restrict what He wants to do with and through me because I have restricted myself to what where and when I will talk about Him or share His blessing on others.

I am going to walk where he walks and wants me to walk. I am going to talk when he wants me to talk. I am going to say what He wants me to say. I am going to listen so I can hear His voice guiding me. I am going to take His blessing into the valley of lost souls, and I am going to see my community changed.

My God is an Awesome God and he has shown me how awesome he is, I want others to have that experience, to know for themselves just what it’s like to be loved by the Father of all mankind. To receive a cuddle from our Heavenly Daddy. To know that they are loved. To realize they are of worth and not worthless. To know that they can enter into His family and become members of His royal household.

I will be what God wants me to be. I will be the instrument of His blessing pouring out on my community.