When we consider what God has achieved for us through the person of Jesus Christ we come to realise that there is more to church than simply turning up.

As coach and a trainer I spend a lot of time learning and teaching about personal transformation; after all, who would’t want a transformed mind and body? But, did you know the New Testament has something utterly amazing to say about being transformed? Stream or download this weeks audio to find out more.

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There are some very good reasons why corporate powers banned the Lord’s Prayer from being advertised in our cinemas.

1 – Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name

Do we really want the claim that there is a moral and holy God, unleashed into our corporate and entertainment worlds? People might get the idea that their lives do matter and that they should live intentionally.

2 – Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Why would we want people to get there are eyes off of themselves and onto a call to see the will of God in the earth? A God who got himself killed when he stood against the prevailing culture of his time. We need people deep inside their comfort zones and seeing the world as we want them to see it.

3 – Give us this day our daily bread.

Daily bread, seriously? Corporations need you to want a lot more than that, so that we can all survive.

4 – And forgive us our sins.

Who are you to say we have sin, why do we need need forgiving? Go and talk to a terrorist or someone.

5 – As we forgive those who sin against us.

Get real! Kill, bribe or subdue your enemies. What sort of world would it be if we simply promoted love and reconciliation?

6 – Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Please don’t put the mediaeval idea of evil on us, we grew out of that years ago. Good and evil are obsolete, we want people to choose what they feel, the world is as it should be, do not give people the idea that their God would intervene and make a difference.

7 – For your is the kingdom, the power and glory, for ever and ever.

Seriously? A heavenly kingdom in the earth, now? A Supreme Being overflowing with power and glory, who lives beyond the reach of space and time. No chance… Is there?

Seriously folks…

Alright, I don’t agree with anything I have just said, and let’s be honest, I was being a tad cynical. But the arguments that come forward against the advert will have such thoughts in the background, or perhaps they will say we don’t want Mormons and Muslims advertising etc.. The reality is, man doesn’t want God interfering, but then we see the appalling acts of evil such as in Paris and suddenly #prayforparis starts to trend, just as the the Church of England prepare to release their Just Pray campaign. Why would people who believe there is no God, purpose or existence beyond the material want to pray? Because in our heart of hearts we know there is more to life regardless of what we say; atheists, deists and new age followers all pray when life becomes unexplainable.

I think that whatever the outcome, with what I believe to be a sensitive and well thought out advert, we need to remember that Jesus isn’t a religious brand competing among others; instead He is the worlds true Lord, He is crowned King and has unleashed God’s new creation plan smack bang in the middle of the old one. The world is looking for answers, peace, hope, love and meaning, and God gave us Jesus.

The C of E have had a really good thought, perhaps we should all, Just Pray.

Go well my friends

If this has helped please share, and if you want the advert seen by more people use #justpray in your social media.

https://youtu.be/bxgwWzh0h-w

For 2,000 years Christians have been anointing sick people with oil and there are countless testimonies from this who have claimed to have received miraculous healing. This being the case, where does the power come from?

Do we have to pay big money for special oil, or does the oil have nothing to do with the miraculous?

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Merry Advent!

What is advent anyway?

At the risk of sounding nerdy, the word comes from the latin meaning, coming; which in turn, comes from the Greek word, parousia, which the New Testament uses to describe the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is traditionally a season where Western churches anticipate the nativity celebrations and Jesus’ eventual reappearing.

For the rest of us, it’s the beginning of the Christmas season.

This is the time when we reflect on not just what God has done for us, but what He has become for us.

The angel quoted the prophet Isaiah (Isa 7:14) to Joseph, when he was looking to divorce his pregnant, supposedly virgin fiancee.  The message was that Mary’s miracle baby would be called Emmanuel (Matthew 1:18), meaning God with us. This miraculous scandal was the answer to Israel’s longings; they were God’s chosen people, but through their unfaithfulness they were sent into exile. For generations their prayer was for Yahweh to return and two thousand years ago that prayer was answered. God sent Himself to the whole world in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

Today we still long for Yahweh to return, but this time it is to complete what was started when Jesus arose from the dead. The old creation with it’s death and suffering is passing away and the new created order that we now belong to, will one day be made visible as corruption puts on incorruption, and death is forever done away with.

God may seem far away when we watch the news, but when we remember His name we know that God is with us.

Come Emmanuel.

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Go well my friends.

P.S. The link is to Jeremy Camp’s interpretation of one of my all time favourites.

There is a temptation for preachers to take the victory of the Gospel beyond the the age that that we live in. The reality is that we all face failure and suffering, but this doesn’t mean that we have failed as Christians or committed some terrible sin. After all, the apostle Paul spent years in prison and was eventually beheaded; was that because he ignored the will of God, or because he followed it?

I have to apologise to the more sensitive, because I do have a bit of a rant

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To reign in life, that is a nice thought.

When Paul wrote this in Romans 5:17, what did he have in mind? Was it a picture of us sitting by a pool and being waited on by lesser people – people by the way who are definitely not reigning in life.

We know instinctively that the Christian calling is not one of laziness and luxury, but what was Paul saying?

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

The picture we have here is one that goes all the way back to the garden, the time when mankind fell from their high calling. What was that calling? We were created to be image bearers; those who reflected God’s good and compassionate reign into the world and then reflected the worlds praises back to Him. A royal priesthood, no less.

When sin entered we hid from God and  reflected creation back to itself, which in turn unleashed all the corruption and horror that we see through history and to the present day.

Everything changed when Jesus went to the cross. There He defeated sin and death on our behalf, and now we have forgiveness and resurrection. We have a new covenant, the new creation has begun and those who turn to God can start to reflect the Divine to the dying. We pick up the mantle of the One who died and rose again, and reign in life. Not as overlords or tyrants, but servants who reflect the loving, suffering giving heart of God and declare the more than good news, that Jesus is risen and He is Lord.

Go well my friend.

I can’t do this post justice. God planned from eternity the resurrection of Jesus, I am about to fly out to work with a school in Italy and have left myself about 5 minutes for this post. Good job I wasn’t on the heavenly planning committee for the resurrection.

Ever since that Sunday 2000 year ago people have been trying to disprove the resurrection, but of course they can’t. Believing in Jesus and what he did isn’t like believing in fairies, there is no superstition involved. Our faith is opened eyed and rooted in reality.

History proves that Jesus lived and died; the only rational explanation to what happened next and the 3 billion people who follow him today, is that Jesus rose from the dead as he said he would.

What does that mean to us? Here are the headlines on the greatest work of God:

• Sins are forgiven – anyone can receive forgiveness from the God who loved them before they were created.
• The powers are defeated – Satan and his cohorts were defeated by the weakness of God (think on that one when you can’t sleep).
• New creation has started – Forgiveness, new creation and resurrection are really part of the same thought and they were proven and initiated when Jesus rose from the dead.
• Hope for all – Jesus’ resurrection means that the plan worked and that anyone anywhere can know God in the knowledge that they too will have a resurrection when the material realm is restored.
• Though we die, yet shall we live – that is about as good as it gets! Death no longer has the victory, the battle is won and our future guaranteed.

The hope Easter brings is off the scale, and I would like to leave you with this paraphrase of something JJI Packer wrote – When God is holding you, you are not strong enough to break away.

Love and blessings my friends

Most of us are aware that God responds to faith. The way to salvation is not through religious works but trust (faith) in God. Jesus congratulated people for their faith and rebuked other for the lack of it.

I think the biggest challenge to prayer and seeing God move is our unbelief, and I don’t mean that in a cruel or condemning way. I look at some of what I need in my life, I think about the people Sandra and I pray for and there are some very difficult things to deal with.

The problem we face is not a lack of goodness on God’s side, it is just the fact that we are not sure we can trust God to move in these areas. We find ourselves caught between believing in God and yet not believing at the same time.

The good news is that none of us are alone in these things. In Mark 9:14-29 we read the story of Jesus coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration and facing a boy afflicted by a demon, who the disciples were unable to help.

There is a lot going on here, but for now look at the father’s desperate cry; those of us with children can relate to this. Perhaps disappointed by the disciple’s failure, he looks to Jesus and asks, “if you can do anything’. Jesus’ response and value of the individual is amazing. He gives a gentle but real rebuke and says, “If I can?”. The following verse is amazing, but brings with it huge responsibility. “Everything is possible to the person who believes!”

“I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief”. That cry has reflected the experience of millions of followers for 2,000 years and still does today. Look at how Jesus responds, despite the faithless crowd, despite the father’s self-confessed unbelief, he helps a struggling dad take that first difficult step into trusting God when circumstances are beyond his control. The outcome? Jesus comes through where others failed.

Of course, we have only looked at one aspect of this multi-layered story and there is more to come in the proceeding verses. But for now, what are you facing that is beyond your trust level? What is there you know God can do, but are afraid to ask? Well perhaps you can join us and countless others in confessing to God that you do believe, and then asking for His intervention to help you overcome your unbelief. You may not see and immediate breakthrough (though you might), but God will immediately go to work in your life, the outcome of which will be amazing.

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Go well my friend.