Sorry folks .. been such a busy time since I last blogged. So much to tell but so little time to tell it! Had a good weekend - Powerhouse was great and Cornerstone Utd was superb. Really enjoyed. On Monday I got one hours sleep because I was at the gates of Sefton Village giving out numbers to parents who wanted their kids to come to our school. Maybe later this week I will let you know what happened ...
...but today I want you to be absolutely totally blessed in the assurance of a very important fact ... OUR FATHER IS TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY FAITHFUL. I have been thinking about, and praying about the faithfulness of God, and I want to share the following few thoughts with you. I warn you, this might be a longer blog than usual!
1. 90% OF WHAT GOD DOES FOR US GOES UNNOTICED AND UNSTATED
We are great at talking about the faithfulness of God when things that we want God to rubber stamp pushes through. We talk about His faithfulness when a financial need is met; when one of our prayers are answered; when we come through a trial or difficult circumstance; when we celebrate a birthday, wedding or anniversary. We are so good at attributing God's faithfulness when we are the recipients of His blessing.
But over the last week, I have been asking myself, "What are the things God does for me that I never thank Him for and seldom ever think about?" This train of thought started when I was at one of our early morning prayer meetings and we started in darkness. As the meeting went on I saw light coming from the East. Within minutes the sky turned a shade of orange and within minutes the sun rose with all her glory. The day took on a brand new complexion as the birds began to sing their welcoming songs.
Now, I have been on this earth 37.75x365=13700 days. But last Wednesday something in my spirit was overwhelmed by the fact that our faithful God had sent another day. I remember thinking, "God ... you've done it again!" As I write this I am thinking, "Either I am crazy or this is a revelation from God. I trust it is the latter!
I came up with a few other ways in which God is faithful...
* The air we breathe. Every breath is a gift, an opportunity. Yet we never truly appreciate it until we are almost at our last. Seize the Day..
* Food - today I was challenged again. There is a family nearby whom we have started sharing about the Lord. The mother of that family went to the home of one of our members this morning. She asked,"Can I wash any clothes for your family?" Our member replied that they had none to wash and asked "why?" The woman responded,"I have no food in my home, no money to buy breakfast and my children are crying."
I've never been there. I don't know what it feels like. For me, I have known God to be a faithful father who has always fed my family.
* Protection - heaven alone will show the ways in which the Lord protected us from illness, curses, accidents, injuries and even death. He has sent His angels to minister to us and watch over us ... and mostly we are unaware they are even there. Amazing.
* Grace and Mercy - I am trying to work through the ways in which God shows grace in my life. If I were to start to write down all the ways in which He has demonstrated His grace to me, I would be here for days. And I cannot tell you all the times He has shown me His mercy.. when mercy was the last thing I deserved. He is the God of the second chance (at least!) Simply put: Grace is when God lavishes us with things that we do not deserve; Mercy is when God keeps us from not so nice things that we do deserve.
* Health & Strength - we don't appreciate it until we don't have it. The cry of a man whose health has been taken away is always 'if only I could turn back the clock.' When we have it we don't realise the potential of a healthy life and the true strength of strength.
There are so many other ways in which God is faithful in His faithfulness .. and so much of it goes unnoticed and we are unaware. Let's recognise His faithfulness much more.
2. GOD'S PROMISES ARE GREATER THAN MY CAPACITY TO REMEMBER THEM
In our walk with the Lord, there are times when we receive a promise from the Lord. God is interested in us as individual sons and often He will show us something that He wants to do in our lives. Sometimes he will show us a place He wants to take us, or something He wants us to do or someone He wants us to meet. these times when the Lord opens up the intents of His heart for us are precious times, for in these moments our destiny is shaped.
For example, when I was around 15 my dad felt a real burden to go to Asia for 3 weeks to take -or should I say smuggle! - Bibles from Hong Kong into China. To me, as an insular wee lad from Fraserburgh, China was the furthest of far away! And my dad, yes MY dad, was going there to be God's smuggler. Wow. My didn't have the looks or figure of James Bond ... but to me he had the heart!
And off he went. He came home with photos and stories and experiences that made me wide eyed! I was so proud of my dad. I remember saying to the Lord,"I want to be like my dad. One day I would like to follow in his footsteps and 'smuggle' Bibles into China." I felt that day that the Lord really heard my cry.
Zoom forward to 2002. I've been a fish salesman ... Bible School ... Edinburgh Church Planting .. Africa ... Marriage ... Whitburn Church ... blah, blah blah ... and here I am now in the Philippines. I get a call from an AoG Church in Hong Kong to ask if i would preach at their anniversary weekend. No problem. We go with 8 pastors from the Philippines. When we get there the Pastor asks us, 'Would you like to go to China?' I was reading the 'Heavenly Man' book and I really wanted to go. So off we went. A few minutes into the drive to the station, the Pastor said,"It is a waste if we go into China empty handed. The Brothers in China need 'bread'. So we went first to this big old house in the middle of Hong Kong somewhere.
A little Malaysian lady saw me with all these Filipinos and said, "Who are you?". I gave my name. "Where you from?", she continued. "Scotland but now the Philippines," I replied. The next question floored me - "Do you like making and eating mashed potatoes?" My goodness, what was this woman on? Anyway, I said I preferred to eat them!
She went upstairs and I heard her thumping about looking for something. She came down with a Visitors book and pointed to a name -"Know this guy?". I could not believe it. It was the signature of my dad! He had stayed there in that exact house in the middle of nowhere for three weeks in 1986! Everyone ate rice .. but he always made potatoes. I was dumbstruck!
As that moment I took the book and went on a little walk. I cried. I felt God say this to me -"Mark, this is my promise I gave you all those years ago. You forgot, but I have been planning this moment for many years. I never ever ever forgot what I promised you." I cried even more. For at that precious moment I realised for a certain fact the truth ... THAT GOD IS FAITHFUL. ABSOLUTELY. TOTALLY.
I have another 2 or 3 points to make, but that can wait until tomorrow. Be assured that our Father is faithful ...
Selah.
...but today I want you to be absolutely totally blessed in the assurance of a very important fact ... OUR FATHER IS TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY FAITHFUL. I have been thinking about, and praying about the faithfulness of God, and I want to share the following few thoughts with you. I warn you, this might be a longer blog than usual!
1. 90% OF WHAT GOD DOES FOR US GOES UNNOTICED AND UNSTATED
We are great at talking about the faithfulness of God when things that we want God to rubber stamp pushes through. We talk about His faithfulness when a financial need is met; when one of our prayers are answered; when we come through a trial or difficult circumstance; when we celebrate a birthday, wedding or anniversary. We are so good at attributing God's faithfulness when we are the recipients of His blessing.
But over the last week, I have been asking myself, "What are the things God does for me that I never thank Him for and seldom ever think about?" This train of thought started when I was at one of our early morning prayer meetings and we started in darkness. As the meeting went on I saw light coming from the East. Within minutes the sky turned a shade of orange and within minutes the sun rose with all her glory. The day took on a brand new complexion as the birds began to sing their welcoming songs.
Now, I have been on this earth 37.75x365=13700 days. But last Wednesday something in my spirit was overwhelmed by the fact that our faithful God had sent another day. I remember thinking, "God ... you've done it again!" As I write this I am thinking, "Either I am crazy or this is a revelation from God. I trust it is the latter!
I came up with a few other ways in which God is faithful...
* The air we breathe. Every breath is a gift, an opportunity. Yet we never truly appreciate it until we are almost at our last. Seize the Day..
* Food - today I was challenged again. There is a family nearby whom we have started sharing about the Lord. The mother of that family went to the home of one of our members this morning. She asked,"Can I wash any clothes for your family?" Our member replied that they had none to wash and asked "why?" The woman responded,"I have no food in my home, no money to buy breakfast and my children are crying."
I've never been there. I don't know what it feels like. For me, I have known God to be a faithful father who has always fed my family.
* Protection - heaven alone will show the ways in which the Lord protected us from illness, curses, accidents, injuries and even death. He has sent His angels to minister to us and watch over us ... and mostly we are unaware they are even there. Amazing.
* Grace and Mercy - I am trying to work through the ways in which God shows grace in my life. If I were to start to write down all the ways in which He has demonstrated His grace to me, I would be here for days. And I cannot tell you all the times He has shown me His mercy.. when mercy was the last thing I deserved. He is the God of the second chance (at least!) Simply put: Grace is when God lavishes us with things that we do not deserve; Mercy is when God keeps us from not so nice things that we do deserve.
* Health & Strength - we don't appreciate it until we don't have it. The cry of a man whose health has been taken away is always 'if only I could turn back the clock.' When we have it we don't realise the potential of a healthy life and the true strength of strength.
There are so many other ways in which God is faithful in His faithfulness .. and so much of it goes unnoticed and we are unaware. Let's recognise His faithfulness much more.
2. GOD'S PROMISES ARE GREATER THAN MY CAPACITY TO REMEMBER THEM
In our walk with the Lord, there are times when we receive a promise from the Lord. God is interested in us as individual sons and often He will show us something that He wants to do in our lives. Sometimes he will show us a place He wants to take us, or something He wants us to do or someone He wants us to meet. these times when the Lord opens up the intents of His heart for us are precious times, for in these moments our destiny is shaped.
For example, when I was around 15 my dad felt a real burden to go to Asia for 3 weeks to take -or should I say smuggle! - Bibles from Hong Kong into China. To me, as an insular wee lad from Fraserburgh, China was the furthest of far away! And my dad, yes MY dad, was going there to be God's smuggler. Wow. My didn't have the looks or figure of James Bond ... but to me he had the heart!
And off he went. He came home with photos and stories and experiences that made me wide eyed! I was so proud of my dad. I remember saying to the Lord,"I want to be like my dad. One day I would like to follow in his footsteps and 'smuggle' Bibles into China." I felt that day that the Lord really heard my cry.
Zoom forward to 2002. I've been a fish salesman ... Bible School ... Edinburgh Church Planting .. Africa ... Marriage ... Whitburn Church ... blah, blah blah ... and here I am now in the Philippines. I get a call from an AoG Church in Hong Kong to ask if i would preach at their anniversary weekend. No problem. We go with 8 pastors from the Philippines. When we get there the Pastor asks us, 'Would you like to go to China?' I was reading the 'Heavenly Man' book and I really wanted to go. So off we went. A few minutes into the drive to the station, the Pastor said,"It is a waste if we go into China empty handed. The Brothers in China need 'bread'. So we went first to this big old house in the middle of Hong Kong somewhere.
A little Malaysian lady saw me with all these Filipinos and said, "Who are you?". I gave my name. "Where you from?", she continued. "Scotland but now the Philippines," I replied. The next question floored me - "Do you like making and eating mashed potatoes?" My goodness, what was this woman on? Anyway, I said I preferred to eat them!She went upstairs and I heard her thumping about looking for something. She came down with a Visitors book and pointed to a name -"Know this guy?". I could not believe it. It was the signature of my dad! He had stayed there in that exact house in the middle of nowhere for three weeks in 1986! Everyone ate rice .. but he always made potatoes. I was dumbstruck!
As that moment I took the book and went on a little walk. I cried. I felt God say this to me -"Mark, this is my promise I gave you all those years ago. You forgot, but I have been planning this moment for many years. I never ever ever forgot what I promised you." I cried even more. For at that precious moment I realised for a certain fact the truth ... THAT GOD IS FAITHFUL. ABSOLUTELY. TOTALLY.
I have another 2 or 3 points to make, but that can wait until tomorrow. Be assured that our Father is faithful ...
Selah.
2 comments:
Just read your blog.Its so good to be reminded of gods fathfulness in our lives.What a faithful God have I.
love Mam
I knew that story about you in china but its really blessed me again today to be reminded about our faithful God what can I say Hes amazing and were so blessed enjoy singapore and say hello to my friend eddi tang if u see him Werent we blessed there amazing lol miss u have a great time love u
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