Britain's 'Broken Society'

Being away in Llanelli for PCY Camp last week (will blog on the incredible things that God did later this week!) meant that I wasn't privy to the News and it was with great shock that I saw a newspaper during the week with pictures and comments about rioting in the country.

This is something I have never seen before and I naively thought that it was a thing of the past.

Despite all the different theories flying around, I agree with David Cameron when he attributed it to a 'broken society' and 'moral collapse'.

Blaming the riots on the economy is foolishness. Everyday necessities were not being stolen, luxury items were. This was down to sheer hate from the groups seeking to cause trouble and sheer greed.

I have seen signs of this for a while now indeed, the breakdown of communities, the highest prisoner numbers ever and the increased signs of depraved behaviour in the country. It is as if evil behaviour has become 'cool' and the normal way to behave in Great Britain.

It is no co-incidence to me that this happens to parallel to decreased influence of the Christian Church in society and the recent attacks on it from militant Athiest groups.

You see, this is the problem...if God doesn't exists then neither can morality.

Without God, it is simply a matter of personal opinion. 'I believe this is wrong' or 'We believe this is wrong'. This doesn't work because not everyone has the same ideals. Does a pedophile believing molesting children is right make it right? Does a society believing that adultery is acceptable make it acceptable? NO IT DOESN'T.

God is perfect and has no evil in Him. He created the world and set down laws for the people to abide by. Not because of a power trip, but because He Loves us and wants us to enjoy our lives. The truth is that sin doesn't help us enjoy our lives, it actually destroys lives.

Because God is so much higher than us, and has authority, it means His Law is the only form of morality we can realistically rely upon.

So when Great Britain decides that it doesn't need God anymore and it's own opinions are more important, it spells TROUBLE.

The only hope for 'Broken Britain' is that the hearts of the people turn to Christ and follow Him. Otherwise, we will just continue in a vicious circle of selfishness, hate and greed.

Deuteronomy 5:29

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children for ever!

Encouraging Courage

Thanks to Tim Middleton for sharing this on Facebook today :-)

"Courage is defined by mission, it is to be called to something

To be couragous doesn't mean I am not afraid. I will always look couragous if I draw more upon my Father's resoures than the strength of man.

I would be justified in being fearfull if God was not sufficient for every problem. But He is... so there's no excuse :) "

Extracts from Loritts courage sermon

David Wilkerson

Yesterday the legendary Christian pastor David Wilkerson passed away after a car crash at the age of 79. He is most famously remembered for leading gangster Nicky Cruz to Christ and telling him, when Cruz threatened to kill him before his conversion, that if he cut his body into pieces that every piece would cry out that Jesus loves him and always will.

On the day he died he posted on his blog and I wanted to share all of his post as I think it is wonderful and such a great thing to go out of life on earth saying..

"To believe when all means fail is exceedingly pleasing to God and is most acceptable. Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those that do believe and have not seen” (John 20:29).

Blessed are those who believe when there is no evidence of an answer to prayer—who trust beyond hope when all means have failed.

Someone has come to the place of hopelessness—the end of hope—the end of all means. A loved one is facing death and doctors give no hope. Death seems inevitable. Hope is gone. The miracle prayed for is not happening.

That is when Satan’s hordes come to attack your mind with fear, anger, overwhelming questions: “Where is your God now? You prayed until you had no tears left. You fasted. You stood on promises. You trusted.”

Blasphemous thoughts will be injected into your mind: “Prayer failed. Faith failed. Don’t quit on God—just do not trust him anymore. It doesn’t pay!”

Even questioning God’s existence will be injected into your mind. These have been the devices of Satan for centuries. Some of the godliest men and women who ever lived were under such demonic attacks.

To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.”

Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world."

Wilkerson is now enjoying his reward in perfect eternity with the Lord :) Let us be inspired by his inspirational faith acted out in his life and rejoice that he was saved :)

Spring Harvest

Last week I went to Butlins in Minehead for an annual event known as Spring Harvest. It is a Christian event aimed at the Church where Christians meet together for worship, teaching, encouragement and fellowship.

I went to accompany a friend and to be honest, whilst I looked forward to it, I wasn't overly excited as I had a few bad memories from being there previously (nothing to do with the event, just a personal situation I was in that partly happened during my previous time there).

Rest is also something that figures way too low on my list of priorities!

But, PRAISE GOD, I had a wonderful time!

The Big Top where the main services are held

So many wonderful things happened during my five days there. Firstly, God encouraged me so much spiritually. The last few months have been very busy and demanding for me so I really needed God to remind me how much He loved me and to encourage me that He is using me for lots of good and will continue to do so. I felt so empowered in pretty much every area of my spiritual walk but most particularly in prayer. I saw that it was a tool from God that I had not utilized enough in my life.

The Bible teacher at Week 3 was Stephen Goukroger. Gaukroger is an experienced Bible teacher who preached coherently, sensibly and humourously showing a great love and enthusiasm for scripture which inspired me in my own love for scripture.

God also helped me rest. I do so much and it was nice just to sit back and let things happen without having to do something myself. To prove He really worked magic, I felt great in work yesterday and was noticeably (in my eyes anyway!) more productive!

My kind of deckchair! Just my size!!

God also helped me banish the bad memories. I was staying with a close friend of mine and also had other close friends on site and we had a lot of great moments...getting our faces painted (or in Adrian's case...his arm...coward :P), mucking about on the fairground rides, Football tournaments, swimming. I can now go back to Spring Harvest and think about those times rather than the past ones. Thank you Lord!

Feeling tigerish

So I just want to thank the Lord for a brilliant time (He always works when we are a bit reluctant to go somewhere...maybe that's something for us all to think about! Think about Jonah..his teaching saved a whole city) and encourage everyone that wherever you are or whatever has happened...God has a way out for you and we just need to keep seeking Him out and walking with Him to find the light in the darkness :)

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Happy Good Friday

I am currently at Spring Harvest with my good friend Adrian Southgate and others! I hope you are all having a blessed Easter!

Thank you God for all you have done for us, 2000 years ago, in the last few years and everything you will do in the future!

Hallelujah! He is Risen!

Video of the Day!

The speaker at Church this morning made a great point today and I want to repeat it on the blog today.

We have high points in our lives and in our faiths. Today we looked at Abraham with him getting to meet God and for God to tell him about the great plan God had for his life. But Abraham fell after this high moment and went back to Bethel, the place where he had this great moment with God.

In football the moment when the team is argubly most weak is right after they have scored a goal (hence the video haha). It is the same for us with our faith. Right after great events that bring you so much closer to God such as Soul Survivor or Camp you can immediately have a bit of a downer. I've experienced it and know others who also have. Right after having God show Himself and overcoming the Baal-ites so amazingly on Mt Carmel, Elijah was scared away by Jezebel.

In these times it is great to look back on our 'Bethels', when God revealed Himself to us and the places where He did that....whether it is at a certain place, or a certain Bible verse or through a certain person or whatever.

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Living out great stories...

I have absolutely loved the advert that Sky are showing for their new channel at the moment. The advert is Dustin Hoffman talking about great stories and although I really love the backing track I have also been thinking about the idea of great stories.

I had a late Christmas present about two weeks ago from a very dear and much missed friend and part of it was a book by a Christian author Donald Miller called 'A Millions Miles In A Thousand Years'. In brief Miller speaks about how he realised he was living a boring life and was only writing stories and not living them. The book (haven't finished it yet so can only go so far!) then goes into some of his efforts to live 'great stories'. I think this is a challenge for all of us because God put us all on this earth to achieve something. He put us here to tell the story of a beautiful relationship with Him, with us realising our sin and humbling ourselves before Him and God being faithful through it all and forgiving us, ultimately seeing us rejoice with Him. God also has wonderful plans for us in our relationships, our career and in our dreams. He isn't a party pooper, He wants us to live out the great story He has written for us. What great stories do you think you are waiting to write?

^{JEREMIAH 29:11} For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

What's in a Name?

I love my name. I think it is really cool. I know everyone probably thinks this but I will explain why I think the name 'Michael' is special.

In short, it is because of what the name means.

Michael is a Hebrew name and it means 'Who is like God'. Pretty awesome stuff!
Now I am certainly not crazed enough to think I anything close to who God is, but it is something I treasure because it reminds me of how God changes us to be more like Him and how He has changed me since I gave my life to Him.

You can check out what your name means here:- http://www.meaning-of-names.com/

At Christmas it is wonderful to think about what God did for us by giving us a Saviour in Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born to a poor family in a dirty manger over 2000 years ago, God knew what was to happen to this child even if the world hadn't guessed it yet.

The name Jesus means 'God Saves' or 'God is Generous'.

Hebrews 9:22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

To be Saved, we need to be forgiven of our sins. This is not possible without the shedding of blood. Jesus did that bit for us on the cross. We couldn't do it because we are not perfect sacrifices because of all our mistakes. In the Old Testament, only the best lambs etc. were acceptable as offerings before God. So only the best was acceptable to God to forgive our sins. Jesus was the best.

If you want to be forgiven and find new life in Jesus, tell God that you want to be forgiven for your sins & accept Jesus as Saviour & Lord. I wasted too much of my life before I did this myself and I haven't regretted it once since :)

Is believing enough?

The 2001 census showed that 42 079 000 in Britain identified themselves as Christians. This equates to 71.6 percent of the population. 'Operation World' 2001 puts the percentage at 67.6 percent.

About 6 million of the population are regular Churchgoers. This is a massive discrepancy. Whilst not going to Church doesn't necessarily mean you are not a practising Christian I doubt anyone of any belief reading this blog would argue that 71% of Britain are practising Christians!!

So what is the difference between someone who claims to be a Christian and someone who truly is:-

I read John 3 this week and I think it is very relevant in this matter. I have picked out a few key verses and will explain them.

John 3:1-2

 ¹ Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Nicodemus believes in God. He is a teacher of the law for one. He also can see that Jesus is a bit special and believes that He is from God.

John 3:30

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again

So believing isn't enough?

John 3:5-8

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]

We are all born of the flesh, otherwise we would not be here today! But being born of the sprit takes more than just believing. When we ask for forgiveness from God we ask Him into our lives and He enters through His presence on earth, know as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes us to become more like the people God created us to be, in His image.

The word Christian was an insult to the early believers meaning 'Little Christ'. Being a Christian is not just about believing in God but it is about believing in Christ which is shown by following Him and becoming 'Little Christ's' ourselves, which we cannot do without the Holy Spirit's help. Jesus promised His presence with us always in Matthew 28 and this is it.

Maybe you want to become a Christian or make your belief real in your life through the Holy Spirit. Please message me on facebook if you want to talk about it more :)

To be honest...

I am just going to come out with it today, today has been hard!

• Still not sleeping well because of the cold, constantly cold in the house and it is making me ill!
• Gutted about England losing the World Cup bid. I didn't think I would care at all, let alone this much. I think the fact we only got two votes when we clearly had the best bid was very hard to take.
• Got my university books today - four books, four hundred pages each! Lots of work to do, it was a big shock but I know I can do it. Going to be tough though and sacrifices will have to be made.
• Not feeling right before God, just was unusually bitter over the World Cup stuff earlier and constantly feel I am not going the right way before God. Judging myself & being harsh on myself is exactly NOT what God wants me to do so I feel worse! God even spoke that to me last week!

I don't like saying stuff like this because I feel it burdens & discourages others but I am not a liar and I refuse to be a dishonest person so rather than come out and pretend everything is great I will write the truth, which is a passion of mine. I love truth, Jesus is truth and I know I have to be a genuine & honest person too if I want to be like Him.

What is good about being honest is that the Christians among you will pray for me and God always answers prayer! Maybe not always in the way we would like. But I know for sure that He listens and our sometimes inane (well mine anyway!) ramblings are important to Him :)

What is also great about being bad is that God is so good in the bad times. Looking back, one of my favourite times of my life was a time of great sadness because God revealed Himself so much to me through it. He is always there, helping us get as much good from it as possible and come through it in His time :)

It is summed up in this:-

2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

One of my bestest friends loves this verse and I can definitly see why, it so true, so powerful & so comforting in our trials :)

Also (the verses are coming to me now!)

Romans 8:18 - I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

and my favourite right now:-

James 1:2-3 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Tomorrow's a new day! Bring it on...