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.”

Half marathon information!

Spring Harvest was absolutely amazing and I will blog on that later this week but I have something very important to share today :)


My good friend Laura has been working very hard lately on getting stuff together to raise money for Doctors Without Borders/Medecines sans Frontieres (MSF). e believe in the good work that they do all over the world, providing medical care in some of the most challenged areas of the world.  They work in the places people don't often willingly go to because they believe in baring witness and speaking out against inhumane conditions and treatment of all people.

MSF are an international medical humane organisation.  In 1999 they won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.  They define themselves best:

"Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols."

MSF are 90% independently funded world-wide.  They are not government funded and so are able to be impartial, they have no agenda except justice.

We are running this race, rising to this challenge because we want to support the work of MSF.  By donating to our project your money will go directly to Doctors Without Borders and you can join us in making a stand against injustice. 

This is an American website so it should be noted that you will be donating in $ and not £.  The minimum donation is $10 which is just under £7, if this is too much for you then please don't worry, you can always raise money for us by using our search engine or by giving it to me directly and then I can pay it in.


Please support us in this, we are only making a small difference but I believe this is only the beginning and if we can keep making small differences it will add up to something more meaningful and this will certainly inspire us to carry on. Maybe you will be inspired to do it yourself someday!


The website for giving is here - http://www.crowdrise.com/runningwithoutborders


Even if you cannot give any money you can always use this as your search engine to raise a little extra - http://www.everyclick.com/runn
ingwithoutborders

Thank you guys!!!

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!

The Wonder of the Cross

This is a great song by Vicky Beeching and reminds me of how amazing it has been since I gave my life to Christ and is a great reminder of how awesome it is that Jesus died on the cross for our sin...a topical thought right now!

Our Cross

I spent most of last week with my family in Saundersfoot and whilst there we went to nearby Oakwood theme park. I think following Jesus is a lot like going to Oakwood and this is why...

Theme parks divide opinions, there is those who love it and will go on anything and the scarier the better (me haha). There are those who have a limit,  they will go on a lot of the rides but some of them are just too much for them...or they go on ones they don't want too but don't enjoy them much and are glad when they get off. Then there are those who point blank refuse to go on anything remotely scary (used to be me! Which are you?).

I used to be really scared of theme park rides and would not go on anything too bad and wouldn't even enjoy those that were slightly bad. I got a bit ill but it was mostly in my head that I would happen to be on the ride that kills someone and it would be me. I had false preconceptions about how risky the rides were and what they were like. I was blind to how fun they were.

I don't know when I began enjoying rides but I know it began with me swallowing my fear and going for it and thus having my eyes opened to how good it was by how much I enjoyed it.

Christianity is like this. People have so many wrong ideas, that it is untrue, that it is boring, that it restricts you from having fun. I had some wrong ideas and only by swallowing my own ideas and going for it did I find that it was true and the most exciting, wonderful thing.

Luke 14:27
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.


Jesus doesn't ask us to literally be crucified here, He is asking us to swallow our wrong ideas and trust Him, even when you think it won't be that good. The cross seemed like a huge defeat for the Disciples and followers of Jesus. Two days later, with Jesus having returned from the dead, it looked perfect.


I promise that if you choose to trust Jesus and swallow your doubts and fears, you will find a whole new reality and it will be so much better than you ever imagined.

God of the Gaps

'God of the Gaps' is usually what Atheists refer to as Christians filling unsolved scientific and philosophical problems with arguments such as 'God did it' thus refusing to consider an option that isn't of God. These atheists are hypocrites as they do exactly the same thing, saying that Science will answer all of these problems and refusing to consider that maybe the reason these problems are unsolved and all scientific research has failed is because it really was an act of God. ANYWAY.....I am not going to blog about that, I am going to blog about Easter and how almost 2000 years ago God literally filled a gap and it changed my life and it can change yours too.

In PCY last night Alun drew a great picture describing what Jesus did by going to the cross to die, He could have easily saved Himself...He was God. He chose to die and this is why....(I'm a poet and I didn't know it!)

Romans 6:23 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nobody can claim to be perfect, Jesus aside. We all have things we wish we didn't do, we wish we didn't say and we wish we didn't think. We cannot even manage a perfect day, maybe not even a perfect couple of hours, probably not even a perfect couple of minutes. We were made perfect by God, but by through the disobedience of the entire human race since Adam, we have been made imperfect. Once something is imperfect it cannot be perfect again. When we work we receive wages, the wages of our imperfection is death, which is not going to Heaven for eternity. Our sin means are not good enough for Heaven, so somebody else had to be for us. That man was Jesus. The gift He offers is Himself, His Perfect live. In exchange, He took on all of the sin and shame of mankind and paid the price for it. If we choose to believe and trust in Him, we get His perfect life in return when we go before God, only then are we good enough for Heaven. As you can see from the image above, the gap between us and God is filled by the cross! Make this Easter the most incredible one ever and make the best choice I ever made!