Category: Devotions

I’ve moved away from where I was.
Ruth 1:1-5
Elimelech’s name means ‘My God is King’. But it doesn’t read well. God was not king in Elemelech’s life. He made a decision without consulting His God and King. His decision was based on what he could see in the physical and not the spiritual. His desire to provide for his family was at the expense of losing the blessing of God. That decision took him to Moab, there he made a further bad decision when he allowed his sons to marry Moabite woman. This was an abandoning of God and His land for the land and people of the enemy.
He could have chosen to walk by faith, to claim the promises of God and to obey His Word. In spite of what we see, how we feel, or what may happen, God is looking for us to live by faith, not by sight.
If only Elimelech had woken up at some point and said we’re here but we should be there. It is wise to ask yourself where you are and where you are going. Is where you are now on the way to where you should be? If not, then you must turn around. You must know ‘My God is King’ again. He is God over mishaps and He is God over lost time. He is God over my bad decisions. He will lead you back to the place you should be at.

Be honest
Ruth 1: 1-5
One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is this: Where am I in my life?
You get into trouble when you do not know where you.
If you can answer this question it will lead you to become all that you can become.
I’m in a tough time and a tough place.
v1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land”
During this time life was tough. There was no king.
Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.”
This is Israel in one of its toughest times in history.
We are living in these times today. There are many living in unbelief and disobedience they do not walk with God. We live in a world without a king and lawlessness abounds.
Bethlehem means House of Bread. It was here that the famine would have been felt the most. In the Old Testament, famine was often the evidence of God’s discipline. During the time of the judges Israel repeatedly turned away from God and God had to discipline them to cause them to return to Him. The righteous had to suffer along with the unrighteous, even in the House of Bread, even in Bethlehem.
But in the days when the judges ruled comes one of the most beautiful love stories ever told.
You may be in a tough time, you may be in a tough place, but because you know Jesus as Saviour and Lord no matter how tough the times may be, you are part of a beautiful love story.
Something beautiful will come from this time and place that you have found yourself to be in.

From today for the next few weeks I will be blogging some thoughts from the book of Ruth. I hope they bless you. If you get chance try reading the book in one sitting.

Matthew 1
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ … Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife… Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

Ruth was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite, a son of Naomi, whose family had moved to Moab to escape a famine in Bethlehem.
Moab is mentioned often in the Old Testament as a wicked people whom God would judge for their sins against Israel.
The first time Ruth is mentioned is as a woman of Moab, an outsider, a stranger to the kingdom of God.
The last time we read of Ruth in the Bible is in Matthew 1:5, “…Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.” She has been honoured by being placed in the genealogy of Christ.
Ruth moved from obscurity to significance.
God wants you to know that you can become all that you can become.
You are unique in the sight of God, in the eyes of many you may be just another number, a statistic, but from God’s point of view there is no one like you, you have a unique mission from God. Don’t try and become somebody you were never meant to be. Don’t emulate someone else, don’t copy. Don’t plagiarise yourself. Don’t dream other people’s dreams or attempt other people’s call.
Be your self. Reach for the destiny that is yours.
Each one of us can move from obscurity into significance.

Carlton Hill, Edinburgh.

Overlooking this amazing city is Carlton Hill. A place to see the views of the city and further beyond. But its reason for being is that it is the burial place for the famous over 300 years ago:
Muir, Palmer, Skirving, Margarot and Gerrald were all political reformers imprisoned at one time for sedition.

David Hume is known as one of the greatest philosophers and atheists. His mausoleum is inscribed as he insisted, his name and the year of his birth and death, he decided that “posterity will add the rest.”

John Playfair, son of a vicar, scientist, mathematician and geologist, he expounded other people’s theories making them easier to understand and taking them to new levels. His grave is adjacent to Hume’s but is run down and no one would really know of the huge influence he had.

William Blackwood and Archibald Constable, rival publishers. The difference would be the future. Constable’s business was passed down the generations and today it is the oldest independent publishers in the English speaking world that still holds the name of its founder.

So there I was on Saturday evening looking at the great views, with the countless tourists and these dead men and I asked myself:
When I’m dead will anyone have been impacted by my life?
Am I leaving footprints behind me?
Whatever the answer I decided that when it’s over for me I do want people to see further than I can because of my life. Let the tourists come to my grave and see perhaps what I couldn’t.

“He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean? tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.” Joshua 4:21-22

In the future, the kids will ask what are these and you are to tell them the story.
Build a story of faith and of courage that can be told. Build your story today.

WHEN

When the Church were gathered together it happened to be Pentecost.
When they were sitting a sound could be heard.
When they looked they saw tongues of fire.
When they began to speak in tongues the Spirit enabled them.

If the WHEN doesn’t happen then we are all asking “WHEN?”
Pentecost is definitely a partnership.
Are you ready?

James and Joanna

I met this couple in my office yesterday.
They are young.
They are full of energy, positive on life, expecting God to use them.
They get married in July.
They become yet another of our fantastic missionaries.
They go to Rwanda in September with the gospel in their hearts.
I know God will use them for great things.

I believe it is possible for us in this time that we live to see a large number of young people to begin to say NO to what is normally expected of them: a house, a car, 2.4 children, a career, wealth etc. There isn’t anything wrong with those things and actually we need people to be the supporters of what I am anticipating.
However, I believe it is possible to see a large number of ‘James and Joannas’ say YES to global mission! To GO with a passion for Jesus and a love for others and to step into new cultures, find God is already there and then live for Him as shining lights in dark places.
This can happen. I am anticipating more of this.

1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

The young can be an example to those older than them, in their language, behaviour and belief.
The young will always have people try and rule over them. They need to be loosed not restricted.
The young don’t serve their elders they serve God.
The young can do a lot to stop the despising by their living.

Come on the young! Get out onto the mission field!

Oh and by the way James and Joanna need your cash!

How it ends that matters.

When I joined Elim as a Pastor there were 2 national names, one had an amazing children’s ministry, the other was a sought after Pastor.
Yesterday I was talking to a couple who had attended the funeral sadly of the sought after Pastor. It wasn’t really a Christian funeral, in fact one of the eulogies came from a work colleague who said “when he started at work he told us he was a Pentecostal Pastor but then he became one of us” he then quoted something that he was well known for which wasn’t fitting for any Christian.
At the same funeral my friends met the amazing children’s minister that was. He was not the man that he once was. He was no longer national, nor a minister nor working with children.

What makes man and woman move from such places in God to become shadows of who they were?
What do they think about when they’ve walked away?
Do they still pray?
Do they rubbish their experience of God?
Did they have anything to walk away from?

2 Timothy 4:10 Demas deserted his place and Paul writes about it.
I may want to desert but I choose not to.
I choose to be careful with disappointment so that I am not dis-appointed.
I don’t want people to write about me as a warning but as a wonder.

Keep focused.

Rumour

Yesterday Andy, one of our missionaries, told me a wonderful story that emerged from within the Nepal earthquake.
The earthquake hit on a Saturday and many were off from work and a large crowd were in the zoo. The officials of the zoo tried in vain to get the people out of the zoo once the earthquake struck, However, they wouldn’t leave. The zoo had cost them so many rupees and they were not for moving, they wanted to see the animals!
So the zoo officials told the crowd that the tiger compound had been wrecked and that 2 Tigers had escaped. They hadn’t. But the crowd believed them and soon exited the zoo!
And that’s how the rumour started!

We exist with rumours.
But some rumours are damaging.

Juicy information sharing.
Passing it on for prayer.
Sharing in confidence.
Bringing a reputation into question.
Unconfirmed reports.

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ”. Ephesians 4:15

Let’s do all we can to keep stories in the light.

10 random notes from a meeting I went to yesterday where the speaker was Bill Johnson.

Disciples belonged before they believed.

Honour is to celebrate who a person is without stumbling over who they are not.

If we are salt of the earth then we should add flavour where we go.

God is interested in groups not just individuals.

Whatever touches us changes us into the nature of what touches us.

We have a bad habit of answering questions that no one is asking.

When Jesus said he had All authority it showed that man had lost it but A MAN had to get it back.

Who made David a man of war? = God did. What was God saying? I don’t build with war-like, blood-shed ministries. There are a lot of angry Christians but He doesn’t build with that.

The devil is empowered by agreement, when you believe a lie you empower the liar.

Grab one of these today and dwell on it.

Can you imagine not able to go shopping without being recognised?

Yesterday I was privileged to spend time with some of the leaders of the Church of Pentecost from Ghana and the UK. In Ghana they number 2.1 million people. One in twelve people are a member of the Church of Pentecost. The question above was one of the difficulties the leaders faced within such growth!
Whenever this leader goes through the town he is meeting members!
72% of the Ghanaian population is Christian.
The challenge that they face is discipleship and the fact that possibly only 55-60% attend church. In the UK the figures are around the 10% mark so we are lagging behind even on their challenging figures!
How do we get people to connect into Church?
Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in 2007 realised that discipleship was low. He wrote:
“Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much”.
What we think is important sometimes isn’t.
When getting people into Church is not focused on the Church (an indicator of its success) and becomes focused on the person attending then maybe they will come.
When Church leaves its 4 walls and establishes Church where people are then maybe they will
When Church focuses on loving people then maybe they will come.
When Church addresses the reality of life and becomes relevant then maybe they will come.
But most of all when the Church has a bigger world-view, even of its own town and city, then maybe they will come. See what kind of work Paul appointed his elders to in this verse: Titus 1:5 “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you”. Leaders of the city know their city and are known by their city. May we all be recognised in the shops today!!