I have a dream.............

What do you do when you see a need? A need that breaks even the hardest heart? Cross the road? Ignore it....you are busy with so much after all! Tell yourself you cant make a different maybe?

When you see figures like 27,000,000 Stolen or sold! Human trafficking! Children sold like cornflakes. That figure is like the population of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern England! Imagine! Its hard isn't it?

However, it becomes very real when you think of a thirteen year old girl you know. Imagine one day she disappeared. Imagine if that same girl was taken to one of the most evil places on the planet and was abused daily. Having to have sex with smelly old men. Imagine her crying out daily. Imagine her numbness. Her pain. Her tears. Are you angry now? Sad that thousands of thirteen year olds live this nightmare today?

I have avoided being graphic to protect your innocence. However these thirteen year old kids need to be heard. Liberated and cared for. They deserve a life before death not a living hell.

Now I know many of you have not had the joy of meeting many of the liberated girls we support. I can tell you many stories all day long.

So to my dream? I dream that I will have your support. Yes YOUR support to push a shopping trolley from Tesco's most Northerly Store to their most Southerly store in Scotland. The trolley will be redesigned to receive £1 coins. We will look to fund raise at every store and all along the path. Stopping at churches, shopping centres and anywhere were people are. About 350 miles.

You see that thirteen year old girl needs a voice. YOUR VOICE.

The money will support the awesome work done in Nepal by people who spend every penny wisely. You may never get to meet the girls who are rescued and rehabilitated. Or maybe you will be so moved you might go there yourself. I might get to share their stories but I will live forever knowing I did not ignore her voices.

How can you help. Firstly, send your pound! Could you push a trolley in the rain and cold believing and share the message that children ARE NOT FOR SALE? Could you drive a support vehicle some days? Could you support us on facebook. Could you care?

I hope as you have read this blog you have heard the girls voice. Please do not cover your ears...............

Hungry but what for?

I have recently been challenged by fasting. What is it really all about? Was it just for the Jews in a different era?

In my search for truth on this subject I have discovered that many doctors who have no faith have started to recommend regular fasting as being healthy and prolonging life. I guess God knew what He was doing when He encouraged us to fast.

Fasting is not a way of twisting God's arm or heart to give us something we really want or think we need. It is a way of helping us focus on the "real bread of life." Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." As we leave food for a period we often are able to focus so much more on the spiritual and hear more clearly from God. Our lives stop being about feeding the flesh and start being about feeding the spirit.

Strongholds in our life suddenly lose their strength to hold us back. We can experience a new fruitfulness in our devotional and ministry life.

It is yet another example of the "Upside Down kingdom." The world says eat loads and be strong. God says when you are strong in the flesh you are weak. Seek Me before food.

In these days more than others in my short lifetime I feel having a hunger for God is more important than food, money, status or the thoughts of others. If regular fasting helps develop that hunger, count me in!

I strongly recommend you begin your own fasting adventure. Beware of a couple of pitfalls though before you start your own fasting experiences.

• Understand that God can NOT love you anymore. Fasting will not make God love you any more for its impossible for Him to do so. He loves you as if you are the only person on the planet.
• We are saved by the precious blood of Jesus and not by works. Fasting wont get you into heaven!
• Legalism kills the spirit. Fasting is great if your heart is to know God's more.
• If you have physical health issues consult your doctor. You may well be surprised what he says.

Please share your experiences of fasting for others to be blessed...............

The results in the past few months in my life? I have a deep inner joy that I would trade for nothing. I have seen ministry bare fruit that was not happening for a long time. Fear has no stronghold over my life. Thank you Jesus.

Are we winning?

Last night there were something like 1200-1300 people gathered in the Royal Highland Show ground praising God and giving generously to "Heart for Haiti".

At the same time a youth event called Powerpoint was happening in the citycentre with other 200 "youth".

So on Friday the 11th June we had over 1500 people praising God and praying on a Friday night on the very day that the World Cup began.

This represents only about 0.3% of our Edinburgh population. However if you were at the Royal Highland Show ground as I was, you might have thought that good times have arrived. Four awesome, album selling, worship leaders. Christians expressing their interest and care in foreign mission. Speakers full of passion talking about the heart of God.

Reflecting on the event the day after; I want to steal a phase from the long forgotten "Gordon Brown." He often spoke about the "green shoots" of recovery. I have seen many signs of those recently in Edinburgh. More testimonies of people experiencing a "born again" experience. In the last seven years a good number of new church plants that have been established and have survived. Pastors actually talking to each other and starting to have a Kingdom view and not just a vision for them and theirs.

So to answer my question "Are we winning?" If winning is more people knowing there is a God who cares and chosing to worship Him, then I think we are making steady progress. My heart would be to see many of the bible believing churches start to gather together to pray. Imagine if God's people really desired God's purposes for Edinburgh. Could Scotland's capital once again become the city of Godly preachers? Could the land of the book have a real message for a modern world today? Could we begin to send more missionaries to foreign lands that any other nation again? With God it is possible. Who are you believing today?

What is worth fighting for?

This week I have heard of so many situations where people are at war with each other. Their reasons seem so silly when we remember we are eternal being on a Real Mission with a commission from a REAL God!

As I ponder back over my life I think how silly I was to lose relationship with someone in order to be "Right." Is it an age thing or Christian Maturity?

The Jesus I claim to follow said I must die to self. I must become less so that He can become more. It's another opposite to the world view that says, "YOU HAVE RIGHTS! YOU MUST BE HEARD." Folks, I believe that is rubbish. As we make it first priority to live as Jesus would have us live we start to experience life, and life in all its fulness.

Oh how easily we are robbed of a blessing by our need to be right or recognised. Who are we out to impress? God sees every little thing we do! That's scary and also a great comfort to me. Scary because I often make bad choices. A comfort because its His job to look after "my rights" or not as He chooses.

Friends, keep relationship were ever possible. The evil one loves to divide and pick us off one by one. Remember scripture tells us today we only know in part. So before we go to war lets be sure the cost of winning is not a lot less than the cost of not winning. Lets be willing to be wrong, misunderstood and forgotten about in order that His purposes can be achieved without "our rights" getting in the way.

Prayer: Lord, Help me be focused on the Real Mission. Help my attitude be the same as Jesus who demonstrated humility in every earthly step He took.

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.