Lifes struggles

I have been going through quite a difficult period recently. I have felt quite a lot of pressure, and found that my every day life was becoming increasingly stressful, and without going into too much personal stuff, I was feeling pretty miserable! It seemed like everything was going against me. I often thought how is it I can feel so down in the dumps and yet lead a congregation in Worship? This also added to my pressure as I felt very guilty about this. Thankfully God uses us, even in our weaknesses. In fact he can use us more powerfully in our weaknesses, as its only when we recognise how useless we truly are on our own strength and allow him to take over, that exciting things happen and God moves. 

I was encouraged to read this evening Isaiah 40, where it says that strength will rise as we wait on the Lord. In this time of feeling battered, bruised and weak, I need to learn to wait on the Lord and draw my strength from Him.

Last Sunday we sang the words taken from Colossians 1v27,  ....."Christ in me the hope of Glory" These words are wonderfully profound. On my own abilities I will always fall short of Gods Glory, but my hope is not in myself, but in Christ who lives in me. My only response, should be one of Worship and Thankfulness to Him for is presence and his Spirit. He is my strength.

Verse for today

Matthew 6:33-34
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

This is my verse of the day and its one that I often need to remind myself of. At the moment I am going through a few changes and am trying to figure out where my life is leading. Very often I can get carried away with my own plans. The danger for me is that I can make my plans without placing God FIRST in them. I need to cast all my worries and anxieties for the future on Him and continue to just seek and pray for the Kingdom of God and His purposes. This is what is important and its what Jesus said that we ought to be doing.

Some Snaps

OK so I have absolutely no photography experience and up to recently I would have said also no interest, but during my recent trip to Romania I decided to take some shots of the countryside and well this is the result. Just remember as you are scrolling, that sometimes the best photographs are the ones that initially seem crap, but as you study them deeper a whole world of beauty opens up!...........

Camp memories

This is Darius. He is the kid who I refer to in this post and my memory of how I noticed God move in his life.

I think a few weeks leading up to the camp I was a little apprehensive and not so excited about the prospect of putting all my energy and expertise into the work ahead. The reason for my apprehension was probably closely linked to the fact that I had no energy and no expertise!! I guess I didn't feel like I was in a place to give and serve as I had been discouraged and disheartened. My prayer life was struggling before the camp and I had made the classic mistakes of using biblical verses to support my own desires. Verses like Phil 4:6 where it says by prayer and supplication make your requests known to God. I just wanted to pray that God would grant me my own desires, and when He didn't I began to wonder whether prayers were really answered, or if that was something us Christians liked to think. I guess I had chosen to overlook verses like Col 3:1 which tells us to seek things that are above or Matt 6..... seek first the kingdom of God. Anyway there is a reason for this long-winded opening to my camp memories and Ill try get there in the next few lines. I didn't really believe in the power of prayer, purely because of my own circumstances and I wasn't praying in accordance with the spirit. I wasn't seeking Gods will in my prayer life. Well on this trip I saw God work very powerfully through prayer and not just answer our prayers but multiply and increase the blessings.

A few days into the camp we felt that there was a spiritual warfare going on and that we were under attack from the evil one. We had just had probably the most difficult day that we had ever experienced on an Samaritans Purse trip. It seemed like we had lost all control and were being governed by the kids, who were running riot, making our work quite difficult with no regard for discipline or authority.

We sat down in the evening and prayed and in particular we prayed for Darius who seemed to be the ringleader in all the madness.

The very next morning, we instantly noticed a change in attitude and particularly in Darius who actually won person of the day that very next evening. He was well behaved, more helpful than most the other kids and started to show how much of a good example he could be. Also the team members felt refreshed and strengthened that day. It was a complete turn around.

At one stage, toward the end of the camp, Nicola and I were talking and she said how she didn't expect the camp to impact her as much as it did. Well I have to agree with her, as doing an SP trip can often make you think like you are just an instrument used in this great work, serving the children and that we aren't there to learn or receive anything. Well I learned a very important thing this week. Prayer is incredibly powerful and we can overcome and avoid any arrows the enemy throws our way because God does answer prayer.

Romania 09

Ok so Ive just returned from another very successful Samaritans Purse summer camp and thought I would share a couple of photographs from our trip.....

Gods Will..

I have recently been following sermons by Paster Charles Price online and last weeks was dealing with the will of God. He (Charles) says how he was once approached by a student who asked the question, a question which I often wonder about........ "What is Gods will for my life?"

Charles continues to say how this is a good question but perhaps not the best question. What we should be asking is "What is Gods will?".

This is a very different question as it takes the focus away from ourselves and is focusing on God. It focuses on Gods agenda in the world and to be a part of Gods agenda is the greatest privilege for us as his people. Jesus gave himself totally to Gods agenda and if we are to be like Christ, well then we need to focus on what Gods agenda is.

Gods will may not always be our own will and so we may suffer for Gods greater agenda but God has a wonderful plan for the world. There may be a cost for us individually! We must be careful not to desire Gods will, from a selfish perspective, where we say "what is your will?" and then decide if we want to go along with it or not.

Before we look at Gods personal will for our lives we should focus on his general will for everyone. Charles points to the following verses listed below which look at Gods general will.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:3= You should be sanctified or holy...... the context here is to do with sexual immorality.


• 1 Thessalonians 5:18= Give thanks in all circumstances


• 1 Peter 2:13-15= Submit yourselves to those in authority..... this may mean our boss or our political leaders.


• 1 Peter 4:19= Suffer according to Gods will

If we disrespect the general will of God we then begin to lose touch with the personal will of God.

Once we are living these things in our lives then we can discover what Gods personal will is for our lives. When we think something is Gods will for our lives we may need to ask the following questions:

• What do my inner convictions say in a situation?


• What does the scripture say?


• What do my circumstance say?


• What do my mature Christian friends say?....... advice


• Where does the compass of our hearts seem to point?

What we need to pray is that Gods will is done, not our own will, and that he will direct our paths.

We often forget, but God never forgets

Have you ever felt like one week you were so close to God, that you could feel His presence in every little thing, whether it be in dealing with colleagues, enjoying his creation or reading a book in the quiet of your bedroom?

I have, and they are wonderful times of uplifting and appreciation for all that God has done in my life. However, I sometimes can have a completely contrasting week, where I feel like I couldn't be more distant from Him.

Unfortunately, for some of us Christian people, we are only as enthusiastic as the strength of the memory of our last experience of God. There are indeed times in our walk when we may not feel like living for Christ, and may not sense his presence. I have started to read another book recently by R.C. Sproul entitled 'A walk with God' and in this book he makes the following statement..... "Even if you never experienced another blessing from God or sensed his presence again as long as you lived, you would have no justification to do anything but live each day in praise." .......You see we could do nothing but be thankful to Him for everything he has already done for us. Before the time of Jesus, there had been 400 years where Israel had not heard from God through a prophet. 400 years of silence. I'm sure some people could have forgotten the promises of God and felt like I do sometimes,..... Spiritually Dry! Thank God its not all about how I feel on a particular day of the week. What is important, is that God did not forget his promise. When God makes a promise, He keeps it. So he deserves all our praises.