I told and it became real.........

Sometimes things only become real when we share them. It only feels like your birthday when others know this is your day. When the first person says, "Happy Birthday" and the postman delivers cards it suddenly feels like YOUR birthday.

We are created to live in community and function best with people around us. For years I worked as a counsellor and was amazed at the power of words. A client would come in nearly suicidal, looking withdrawn and sometimes even scarely. As we unpacked truths about who God says we are and focused on Him and not the problems, it was often like someone had turned the lights on in a dark room. Visibly the client looked different. They now had hope.

I often meet Christians who say something like, "I wish I had your faith." I strongly encourage them to share what faith they have. As we verbise God's love it becomes very real. We nail our colours to the mask and declare we are now living for God. What else happens?

Strangely enough, people get saved! I have met a dozen or so exceptions to the rule, but most people come to know God through an introduction. They hear the gospel. The Good News. There are maybe some people that you have a influence on. Friends, family or colleagues. Maybe just maybe; you are the messenger of truth and love for them.

The crazy thing is as you share it your faith grows. God seems to draw nearer as we say, "Use me Lord to reach the lost."

In my experience not everyone does respond there and then but some do. The bible tells us that God wants NONE to perlish! It also says the labourers (the people who share the Good News) are few but the people ready to hear are many! Go on tell someone today. Share that wonderful story you have and watch the beautiful things that will happen in your life and theirs.

Prayer: "Heavenly Father, please give me the words to speak to the lost people around me that you have put into my life. May I be used a vessel of salvation to my generation."

I Know BUT....................

I am amazed sometimes how easily I am distracted by "shiny things." I am driving down the street thinking about thinks that matter and then, without warning I see a "shiny thing." The term "shiny thing" I created as I watched a magpie in our back garden. It was attracted by a bit of shiny paper. Worthless yet able to distract this bird and cause it to fly into my garden.

My shiny thing yesterday was a black E Type Jaguar sitting in a show room in Roseburn in Edinburgh. A little voice said, "Wow David, this car was made for you!" It looked amazing and the price was a good £5,000 less than I thought it should be. Before I knew what was happening I was driving this car in my mind up the A9 and heading for the Highlands.

At that moment I had stopped behaving like the eternal being God had created and instead was more like the magpie spending my time lookin for worthless treasure. My frustration was how easily it had happened. Does that happen to you?

In recent years I had learnt that all the treasures here are going to rust and that the best investments will probably at some point cause us much grief. Imagine if we could grasp the eternal vision at all times down here. How would it effect our lives? Would we miss a holiday out and instead help fund an extension to an African orphanage? Would we worry less about pension planning and more about investing in the Kingdom thats eternal.

My biggest "shiny thing" has a big for sale sign on it. I purchased it some years ago. It was a dream to own an ocean going boat and to experience the freedom of the seas. I now feel more than a little embarrassed about it. Its so easy to lose focus on whats really important and to start behaving magpie like.

Jesus once told a story about a person so focused on this life he had forgot what matters. The person was busy counting their wealth and building bigger vats to keep it in when they died. Imagine how sad it would have been if my life was only about sailing the high seas. This small bit we call "life" here and now is a tiny part of eternality. Our focus should be on building up treasure but not on earth were it rusts.............

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to focus on what matters for ever. May my eyes be more like yours and less like the magpie. May your kingdom come in my life today.

So if you think you are standing firm............

I am so thankful that I live in one of the worlds finest cities. As I walk and drive about I see incredible buildings and so much history. Famous Universities, a castle, a palace, a parliament and the Royal Mile but to name a few highlights.

If you stand at the top of the mound and look over Prince's Street you suddenly become aware of many church buildings. Most of these building have towering steeples and a real presence. My mind wonders and I imagine Edinburgh in the 1800's. It must have been like a massive building site with so many houses, churches and public buildings being built. I image the thoughts of the stone masons as they worked week after week and in some cases year and year in all weathers building another place of worship.

What would it have been liked being a Christian in Edinburgh back then? I guess there would have been a real feeling of "winning." New churches appearing all the time. More worshippers. More coming to Christ. I guess they never thought a day would come when alot of these buildings are no longer churches. Some have been knocked down. Some are used as shops or even a climbing centre. Alot are no longer bursting at the seams but rather have an aging congregation that is dwingling every year. Did it happen over night?

Then that verse in 1st Corinthians comes to mind, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." (1st Corinthians 10.12 NIV). Over the years I have had the honour of sharing my faith in many different churches. The Free Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland, The Baptist Church, The Brethren, The Evangelical Church, The Assemblies of God, The Methodist, The Scottish Episcopal and many independants. I love listening to the history of each of these movements. Nearly all started off as extremely radical. Out there for God moving the boundaries. Yet some really seem to have drifted from their early roots. Tradition often replaces new life. Some are maybe still celebrating what God did back then forgeting He is never static and today is doing a different thing.

So the challenge for us? I see God speaking to us and holding us accountable in three main ways in His word. Firstly, on a personal basis. We need to learn to hang onto Him on a daily basis and not to allow a slow drift to happen. To daily come to His word and presence. Without feeding ourselves spiritual food our spirits will be extremely weak.

Secondly, He speaks to us as a church. Let us not be so unwise to think that it is impossible for the same thing to happen to us. Let us have our pride in our God and not our movement being the best. Let's be those who faithful pray for our leaders and trust God to speak through them.

Finally, God speaks to cities and towns. This greatly concerns me. As I travel about I hear many ideas. Some say pray and revival with come. Others we need to start sharing the Gospel again. Yet another, "It's Friendship evangelism." "It's hearing the Holy Spirit for others". My thoughts? As we begin to drift away, the first thing that happens is we lose the passion for sharing His love with others. Oh we might still go to church, maybe in a leadership role but we just don't have that same desire to see people won for Christ. We justify this by saying it's not my gift or I am busy doing this other good thing..........and another generation dies.

Let us not go into a guilt trip but rather let us pray that today and every day we might be able to grasp God's heart for the lost.

Prayer: Lord, help us to CLING to you daily. Not to be distracted by shiny things all around us. Please share your heart for the lost with us. May our generation be a winning generation in Jesus Name.

The Real Killer?

I was reading today about the biggest killer in the world. I guess I thought it would be alcohol, war or cigarettes. No its malnutrition. WHAT? In the EU we spent millions of Euros destroying food! Yet the biggest killer in the world today is lack of food. Twenty percent of the earths population have eighty percent of the food. We live in a society that honours selfishness. We seem to value lives in the West differently from lives elsewhere. This is often demonstrated by the order of our news articles:

1. A British soldier was wounded today in Iraq.

2. Two American Marines disappeared while on patrol in Afganistan.

3. Police killed 70 people today in Thailand.

4. World Food Organisation say more die today of malnutrition than ever before!

Surely this was the number one election issue? No saddenly foreign aid does not win votes in a country that honours selfishness. I was asked recently why God allows this. I answered by saying I have no idea and I was scared to ask him. "Why"? Came the reply. In case He asks me the same question.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to focus on more than me and mine. Help us to experience your heart for the lost, the hurt and the hungry. Let us be a people who demonstrate our faith by our works.