Hacked!

No Perfect People

No perfect people is our current series on Sunday mornings. I have been so challenged lately about the need to reverse the way the church over many years has tended to respond to those not part of it. Sadly with a them and us attitude where the church effectively says that acceptance is conditional on comfomity to the ways of the church and to believe what it believes. Now don't get me wrong - the truth is important but God loves us unconditionally and has accepted us as we are. We must strive to do the same with those around us and in our community and allow God to do his work of changing people's lives. So come as you are and allow God to do his work.

Praying for Healing

I've always been uncertain about those devoted souls who declare with absolute assurance that any sick person prayed for with enough faith, will be healed. Maybe my problem is that I don't have enough faith. - yet I know of many people with greater faith than mine who have prayed with passion and perseverance for someone to be healed but it has not happened. There have been those occasions where God has revealed his purpose for someone I have prayed for and that has happened. But often I'm in the dark.
For example we are praying as a church for a little 5 year old boy O.... who had an accident with an iron gate several days ago. He is now breathing without a ventilator but is still unconscious and severe brain damage is suspected. If he gains consciousness what will he be like? Might it be better for him to not recover? I have no real certainty of the mind of God in this. So though it's virtually impossible I am trying to put myself in the parents shoes and asking what they would want. I reckon it would be for any brain damage to be reversed and for their beautiful son to be made perfectly well. So that's what I am praying for. And if it really is true that it will be according to my faith then I pray God please increase my faith. Mind you Paul's thorn was not taken from him and God's grace was sufficient and his strength made perfect in weakness. So I'm no further forward but at least I know what I am praying for.
And I know God does heal. Last week-end I had a very severe back pain. Now I don't generally have any back problems and I haven't the faintest idea how this should suddenly have happened. All I know is that by Sunday morning I was in a lot of pain and wondering how on earth I would stand up let alone stand up long enough to preach - we don't have 5 minute homilies in our church. Well I know I could have sat down! But I didn't need to, because in the prayer meeting before the service the lovely people who gathered there to pray, laid their hands on me and prayed for me that my back would be healed and I would be free from pain. God touched me I jumped up out of the chair and preached my heart out and haven't had even a twinge since. How wonderfully good is that!! . Maybe that happened just so as I could let folks know in the evening service by way of encouraging them and us all, to just carry on praying for healing even if we don't have all the answers. God is good.

Celebration

Having just spent a lovely time in France I was very interested in this weeks Normandy D day landing reminiscences and celebrations. One French lady remembering how it was in her village spoke of how everyone cheered with almost disbelief when British soldiers walked through her village signalling freedom.
I got to thinking about celebrating. Its quite amazing really what people will celebrate. What about you? The best thing of all is celebrating what God has done for us. Moses and Miriam knew how to celebrate Israel's freedom from Egypt (Exodus 15) But what got me was not just their celebrating what God did but how what he did revealed to them something of what he was, and then they celebrated that too. Which actually became much bigger and greater than what he had actually done for them.
God has done great things for us but God is greater.