Poem: Through the Brokenness

Sometimes we get hurt and then decide to lock ourselves away so that we can't be hurt again. Here's a little story. 

Blood runs down his arm from what’s left of the heart he once wore on his sleeve

A gentle spirit is now imprisoned in an icy palace of indifference

A heart once so trusting is now given to lusting after items to build the walls higher

The women and the drinks, the motions and the winks making people think he cares for nothing

His spirit shivers in its cold prison dreaming of daylight

Hateful glances and cold, harsh sentences patrol the perimeters to ensure no one gets in.

Or out

The distant drums of a siege echo in the surrounding valleys

Hours, days and years pass by as the walls grow taller. And yet, weaker

The piled up sexual relationships, the empty bottles, the glass promises shattered to bits

All packed together, impenetrable

His spirit is becoming restless, pining for outside daily now, visited only by loneliness

It writhes in a silent, melancholy, agony until the pressure of desperation squeezes a tiny cry from within that echoes through the palace walls and beyond

“Help me...”

The walls begin to tremble

Outer defences were weakened by cannonballs of encouragement

Catapults of promises from above brought him to his knees

Scowls fight with all their might but they’re falling fast and giving way to smiles

Random acts of kindness scale the towers of pessimistic expectation and raze them to the ground

Panic spreads among the palace guard

Hearing the sound of battle outside his spirit cried out again

“Help me, please”

The king of the attacking army rose from his throne

“Please I want to get out, I want to be free”

The king put on his armour

“I’m sorry I ever built this place, I’m sorry I ran away”

The king mounts his horse and begins his assault in the wake of his army

Walls become roads before the power of his charge

Barriers become pathways in the wake of love’s fury

His eyes of fire see right through the walls to the inner chamber

The man’s spirit trembles

Face to face with Grace’s embrace, his heart would race if it hadn’t already stopped

The love of Love looks him in the eyes seeing all that he is, sighs and says

Follow me

Real People, Real Relationships - Weaknesses

     Continuing on the theme of people in the Church being real with each other, I'd like to bring up another issue that I've noticed in myself that keeps me from growing and perhaps someone else will be able to relate.

     I'm finding that if someone challenges me on something I do or say sometimes I can be lightning quick at shooting down their challenge with my laser-guided razor sharp justifications. Unfortunately for the person bringing the challenge, they just haven't realised how perfect and flawless I am yet (go back and read that with a tone of sarcasm) so it's my job to explain to them that the weakness they think they've seen is actually one of my greatest strengths! Still don't know what I mean? Maybe an example will help:

Friend: "Hey Bob I was hoping I'd catch you today, I just wanted to share a little something with you because you know I love you and I feel like I should point out something you might not be aware of."

Bob: "Of course friend, you know I love and appreciate your wisdom in my life. What is it?"

Friend: "Well I've noticed that you have a bit of a habit of talking a lot about people when they're not there and speculating as to what is going on in their life. I've seen you do this on a number of occasions and some were particularly harsh and negative. I know you wouldn't do this intentionally but I think you have a problem with gossiping." 

Bob: "Haha! I'm so glad you brought this up! I can totally see where you're coming from but let me explain. You see I'm just a very caring person and so I care what's going on in other people's lives. I also have the gift of discernment so I can usually tell what's happening in others' lives. I'm an external processor so I have to think out loud so talking to people helps me to think. So you see there's nothing to worry about."

Friend: "..."

Bob: "I'm glad we were able to clear that up. This was a good chat."

    Any of that sound familiar? Now I'm not for a second saying that Bob's response couldn't hold an element of truth in it, I just wanted to expose what the surface level of this issue could look and sound like. Bob is likely to start conversations with "I probably shouldn't tell you this but..." or "I'm only telling you this so don't tell anyone but..." Bob clearly has an issue with gossip but he's learned how to dress it up in Christian terms so that he doesn't have to recognise or deal with it and he may even convince his friend of this so the challenge won't be repeated. In fact the more he does it the easier it gets as his conscience gets "seared" leading to a deadening of his conviction (1Tim 4:2) to avoid gossip.

I'll try another example.

Friend: "Don't take this the wrong way Terry but I think  you are quite aggressive and controlling in group settings. It's like we always have to do what you want to do or you get into a mood or try to make us feel bad."

Terry: "Come on friend, don't be such a wimp! You know what I'm like, I'm just a passionate and decisive person! So much of the time everybody is just faffing around someone needs to make a decision so I do. I don't always have to have my way.

Friend: "Last week you said if we didn't play articulate you were going to leave."

Terry: "I was just joking..."

Friend: "You sulked in the kitchen the rest of the night... Was that a joke too?"

Terry: "Well articulate is just better than all the other options."

     Does any of that sounds familiar? When Terry's friend has tried to point out a weakness (aggressive and controlling), Terry has turned it round into an apparent strength (passionate and decisive). Terry's behaviour at the party is the sort of behaviour you'd expect from a toddler but his ability to cover it over with excuses makes it difficult for his friend to get through to him how he is making people feel.

     I think that we all have weaknesses and our ability to recognise those weakness in ourselves or when others bring them up is key us being able to grow together as a church community. I think we need to never get beyond the point where we're willing to have people challenge our behaviour and thoughtfully consider what they say and ask the Holy Spirit to help us take a proper look at ourselves. This takes a massive amount of humility and maturity especially if it's not brought in the way you'd prefer. God sometimes challenges our humility and maturity by sending messages through means that we don't like. For further information see the way Israel's prophets spoke to them... Proverbs 27:6 says that you can trust wounds from trusted friends. I totally believe that but I think we can go too far with that and start to disallow anyone else to speak into our lives. After all our friends won't always be right. We can be tempted to hide away in an ivory tower and surround ourselves with friends that know love us but that we also know largely agree with us and perhaps trap ourselves and end up protecting ourselves from receiving truth which of course is stupid. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying let's have everybody speaking into everybody else's life, although there will be times when people bring us challenges out of the blue who have little or no relationship with us and instead of writing them off straight away we'll need to be in a place where we can hear them out with true wisdom and discernment. I am saying that we should be approachable though. I went through a time in my life where no one would confront me because I gave off a vibe that a) I am pretty perfect and b) You aren't nearly spiritual enough to challenge me. I'm still on a journey of breaking that down but I'm feeling the benefits! I think remembering that God speaks through people will really help us  in this.

     There's also a responsibility on those bringing challenges to be bursting at the seams with grace and love so that they do all that is in their power to ensure that a word of correction is well-received. I've heard a lot of people (including myself) bring direct and accusative challenges to other brothers or sisters under the banner of "tough love" expecting people to listen to them and change. In the second above example, Terry was likely to feel somewhat under attack from the way his friend challenged him and that put him on the defensive. Danny Silk, an american minister would say that the goal of any confrontation among friends should be intimacy or in-to-me-you-see. That is, is challenging one another's behaviour our first objective should be to allow the other person to see how their behaviour is affecting us (or others) on the inside. A simple way to think about this is not starting our sentences with "YOU". "You are selfish and evil." But rather starting them with "I". "I feel like sometimes you make yourself and what you want more important than me and that hurts." This means we accept that our perception might not fully reflect reality but we're showing it to our friend who believe cares how we feel and allowing them to process it. (Gents this isn't going to win you any MAN OF THE YEAR awards in the world but you'll definitely be a candidate for sonship Matthew 5:9)

     Lastly I think remembering that no-one has it altogether keeps us from being afraid of exposing our weaknesses to ourselves and to others. I've found it hugely liberating and empowering to discover that other people in the Church have issues that they're are still working through and God still loves them, speaks to them and uses them! Without making a parade out of I think exposing our weaknesses also encourages others to work through theirs. An English minister Christen Forster said something like "When we hide from God we hide from ourselves, when we hide from ourselves we hide from each other and then we end up thinking we're pretty righteous." Let's not run from truth and transformation because we don't like the packaging it came in. See the Pharisees for further details. and let's encourage and empower each other to grow and become more like Jesus by being challenging one another with boundless grace.

Final thought: "Accountability is not just someone pointing out your faults, it's about someone holding you to your calling." - Ian Rossol

Do have a read of the post "Real People, Real Relationships - Honesty" for further thoughts on this area.
http://tony-campbell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/real-people-real-relationships-honesty.html

Poem:Love Stories

I used to love writing love stories and plotting them out in my mind
Star-crossed lovers or long-lost brothers, stories of every kind
Tales of legendary deeds performed by ordinary men
I used to think I was the author, now I'm finding I'm the pen.

The greatest Poet ever known has taken hold of me
And dipped my heart in His liquid love so that every eye can see
The way He moves my life across the pages that I meet
Enabling me to demonstrate the love that poured from His hands and feet.

His hands, his hands, that heal the sick and bind up the broken-hearted
That stretch out so warmly to embrace those whose loved ones have departed.
As His life pumps within my veins I get to feel His pleasure
Each time I come face to face with another who is His treasure.

He places me right where I need to be with extreme precision and skill
To see Earth just like Heaven perfectly reflecting His will
Re-writing people's history, His light banishes the dark
Signing each situation with love He always leaves His mark.

Holy Spirit help me to submit to the Author and Perfecter
The Cameraman, the Leading Role, the Producer and Director.
Jesus live Your life in me, I'll keep my eyes fixed above
And look forward to the next person I meet who's written into Your story of love.


Jesus loves you, that's why you met me :-)

Real People, Real Relationships - Honesty

John 1:14 - "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Proverbs 16:24 - "Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body."

I'm trying to think of a better opening line than "They say honesty is the best policy" but I really can't so just imagine I said something really profound and slightly amusing. Truth is, it is!! So much of what goes wrong in our relationships with each other comes from an inability to be honest and open about what's going on with us. When people hurt us or annoy us we have a tendency to do one of two things: conceal it and ignore it or express it through our behaviour instead of communicating it through words. I've been listening to a series called "People Helping People" by a man called Danny Silk and his wife Sheri. He really emphasises the need to be honest about our thoughts and feelings with those around us and especially those close to us through words instead of actions that are confusing and easily misunderstood. It can be hard to find the right words to bring correction or a challenge to someone and so changing your behaviour is often the easy option. I don't actually think that what we say is the issue. I think it's more about what's going on in our hearts. The mouth says what fills the heart right? (Luke 6:45)

I love the way John describes Jesus as being full of grace and truth. He brought truth which is honesty but he wasn't just filled with truth. The word grace there is also the word for kindness and I think this where we can learn a lot about how to be honest with another. Sometimes we decide to be harsh and "honest" with people who've crossed us and we call it honesty or enough "tough love". I do think love needs to be the starting place for everything we do including our honesty so the way we deal in honesty needs to be intentional and not flippant. If honesty comes out of us from a place of frustration it can miss the mark and do damage. Proverbs 27:6 says that wounds from a friend are better than kisses from an enemy so if we're wielding the sword of truth it needs to be tempered and guided by love. If friends are opening their hearts to us we can't afford to bring truth to them out of our frustration. Kingdom honesty is not the constant display of internal emotions. Our emotions need be kept in check and we've been given the power, love and self-control we need to do that (2Tim 1:7).

Before we decide to be "honest" with someone that we have an issue with I think checking the state of our hearts is pretty important. Being honest for honesty's sake is not nearly as good as being honest for the sake of love. I often find I want to be "honest" with someone to get them off my back about something or simply because they're bothering me. In such cases my desire for honesty isn't for the development of that person's life but rather for my own selfishness and comfort. My "honesty" therefore is more likely to come out sharply and with little thought or consideration of the feelings of others and it doesn't bring peace to the person I'm sharing with.

I really believe that the principle of honesty does not negate our personal responsibility to exercise self-control to temper what we say with love and with wisdom. In Romans 12:18 Paul says "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." so there comes a point where we can't be responsible for the reactions of others but we have plenty of power to present our honesty fully and completely but with grace to bring peace instead of conflict. Honesty should always be allowed to marinate in love before it is served. It tastes better, it goes down easier and it leaves people wanting more. Although we may sometimes have the right to rebuke people or command them to do something, I think we can all learn a lesson from Philemon who said "Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love." (Philemon 1:8-9)

Kingdom honesty is an act of love and a means of grace for spiritual growth and relational development. Let's figure out how to do it right and build each other up.

Thanks for reading.

Poem: Meekness

Meekness isn’t weakness but its strength under control

It’s the power of the spirit to rule the body through the soul

Even though it’s able it’s not compelled to react

To any single situation that will take it off its goal.

Meekness isn’t weakness it’s a gun in its holster

It doesn’t need recognition for self-esteem to be bolstered

When the time comes for a sacrifice of self

Meekness brings it altogether and just lays it on the altar.

If you think being meek is weak, try being meek for a week.

Build Me Up Buttercup, Don't Break My Heart...

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."
1Thessalonians 5:11

"Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."
Romans 14:19

"What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."
1Corinthians 14:26

     Have you ever had a friend or known a person who just goes on and on and on about how great they are at something? In every conversation they will find a way to talk about how they're better at something than everyone else who's every tried it. At first you humour them and maybe give them a pat on the back. Over time the pat on the back gets harder and harder in the hopes of knocking them off their high horse and into the mud to learn some humility! You find yourself picking out their flaws and showing them. "You're good at that but you suck at this!" You take every available opportunity to take them down a peg. You might even justify it by labelling it Tough Love and telling yourself it's for their own good. I'd like to challenge that way of thinking a bit.

     Steve Thompson, an American Christian teacher talks about Jesus' disciples and the way they always seemed to be arguing about which of them was the greatest. (Matt 18:1; Mark 9:33-34; Luke 9:46; Luke 22:24) He points out that Jesus doesn't rebuke his disciples as they bare their pride and arrogance but instead tells them how to become great! He doesn't tear them down and start pointing out their flaws to humble them but instead gives them the keys to true greatness! On the night of Jesus' arrest they all got a rude awakening as to how great they really were. I think in this area we may have gotten our job descriptions mixed up with God.Steve's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWhZpaooOTM

     We as believers, brothers and sisters are the ones who are called to build one another up, with our words and our actions. This can be easier said than done when we believe that someone thinks far too highly of themselves. In Matthew 7:1-6 Jesus guides us to think of our own sin as a plank in our eye and our brother's sin as a speck and so the first place we turn should be ourselves! It's easy to think "Aha! I've spotted some sin there! Better jump on that dear brother and put my fingers in his eyes for his own sake!" How often do you get a positive response from cutting someone down? If someone really is getting ahead of themselves, chances are they don't know it and they're not going to appreciaite you raining on their parade. But imagine if instead we took time with the Lord to consider how we got this plank in our own eye, ask him how to remove it and then stay close to him to make sure it's not going to get in there again. Wow! If our brother actually sees us doing that successfully, how much more willing will they be to listen and receive our God-given wisdom and love? 

It's not unlikely that we'd find once our plank is gone that their speck was never actually there but rather our vision was obscured by our whopping great plank! Sometimes insecurity causes us to not want others to celebrate their triumphs because we don't get to. This makes room for the spirit of jealousy in our lives and as long as jealousy is present in our lives, no one close to us gets to grow because we'll try to keep them at our level, we may cut them down with our words, we may withhold positions of honour or responsibility from them, we may take people's opinion of them down with gossip...snip, snip, snip. STOP!! 

     Jesus tells us that pruning is the Father's job (John 15:2). He's the one with the shearers, not us. I think we find it easier to cut people down than build them up because we recognise that their character still needs work and that they need breaking down somehow in order to grow properly (it's also just easier to find nasty things to say). I reckon this exposes in us either a lack of understanding or a lack of faith in God's ability to prune. To prune you must allow something to grow and bear fruit and then cut it so that it bears better fruit. God lets us grow in our character for a while and sometimes all that growth isn't positive but it's necessary. After some time he cuts off the bad stuff so we can keep the good stuff and grow in it. For example God may want a young man to grow in his love and compassion for people. As this happens the young man's love and compassion may grow a little too close to young ladies and so at that point the shearers come out for pruning. The young man retains his retains his new-found love and compassion but the dangerous aspect is removed.

     The gift of prophecy is given to the Church to encourage us and build us up (1Cor 14:31) so the Body functions best when we encourage (not flatter) each other and spur one another on while trusting God to highlight the areas for improvement. Paul reminds us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to but rather in accordance with the level of faith we have (Rom 12:3). This doesn't say don't let others think more highly of themselves. Hmm here's a thought: "Is it possible that someone we think is arrogant actually just has more faith in the work God has done in them than we do?"

Father help us to put down our shearers and pick up our tools for building and to go to work putting strength into each other's hearts. Help us trust you to do your job of pruning us so that we can be fully committed to building one another up in love. Holy Spirit please teach us how to use the spiritual gifts you've given us to draw out the best in each other so that the worst gets pushed out. Give us your eyes to see each other as we truly are in Christ instead of simply seeing each others' sin. We love you Lord.
Amen.

Go find a brother or sister and tells them what you love about them!
    

Big Time Daddy Issues

     I was blown away by this statement Dave Emmett one of the leaders in my church made while preaching:

"God has placed so much honour on Jesus that when someone accepts Jesus, they get the Father too."

That's crazy! Check out Matthew 10:40 where Jesus is talking to his disciples: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

     I've been thinking lots about the Father since I heard Dave's comment and the importance of us having a relationship with him as well as with Christ since Jesus said that no one can even come to him unless the Father draws them first (John 6:44). He also said that no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). I think that's pretty interesting. Why would the Father draw people to Jesus only to have Jesus lead them back to him? Why not just lead them straight to him? I think that at least in part it's because the Father wants to be introduced to us by the One who knows him best! So clearly Jesus is the best man for the job! (John 1:18 + John 6:46) I think it's vital for us to get that being in Christ is supposed to start us on a journey of relationship with the Father and if we focus solely on Jesus we can miss some of what he died to lead us into. Don't get me wrong, It's all about Jesus but he makes it clear that while he is God, he is not the Father.

     Where does the Holy Spirit come in? His role as God is to make us more like Jesus right? So the Father draws us by his Spirit to Jesus. Our union with Christ in salvation and our cooperation with the Holy Spirit's work in our lives makes us more like Jesus. So what is he like? His relationship to the Father is essential to Jesus' identity. Jesus' relationship with his Father while on Earth is massively important for us if we are to understand the Holy Spirit's work in us. He'd always make room to spend time with him, he'd only do what he saw his Father doing, only say what he heard his Father saying and his communion with him was so close that when the Father spoke publicly biggin  him up to everyone Jesus was actually able to say "This voice was for your benefit not mine." (John 12:30) He was so secure in his identity already because he'd already heard the inward affirmation of the Father's voice for years. Imagine being so solid in how God your Father feels about you that when he shouts from heaven "I'm behind this one!" you don't even blush!

     Jesus is so secure in his relationship as a son that he happily brings in more sons and shares his inheritance! (Heb 2:11) I so would not have done that!! Imagine it! Jesus who sat on the throne of heaven with all power and glory being continually worshipped and adored put it all aside to come to Earth and be bound by time and space to suffer and die at the hands of people who would reject his outrageous love so that he could defeat death and tear down the walls of sin that separated God and Man so that he could offer people the right to live their lives inside his eternal life and so become sons of God as well sharing in all of his rights and privileges and sit on his throne?!?!? WHAT???!!! (John 1:9-13 says it's true!) As new sons (male and female) we therefore have a blueprint laid out by the model Son. The more we become like Jesus and the more he reveals himself to us in worship, the more time we want to spend with his Dad getting to know him because he just shows us what the Father is like (John 14:9)! 
     I believe there's a spiritual maturity that comes only from hearing the Father's voice to us as individuals. The Father's voice puts something in us that we can't get anywhere else! It gives us the power to become whatever he says about us because it's the same voice that formed the universe. When he spoke the words "Let there be light" there wasn't an awkward pause in heaven because God got it wrong and light didn't exist. It received its existence from his voice, just like we do. (that's why God can't lie, whatever he says becomes true haha) The Father's voice makes us more like Jesus because it was the Father's voice that formed Jesus' identity. When the Pharisees would try to make him prove his sonship, Jesus refused to perform for them. When satan tempted him in the wilderness to prove his sonship Jesus refused again. He had nothing to prove. Hearing the Father's voice internally keeps us from performing to meet the standards of others. Whatever he names us becomes who we are even if we weren't what he said 1 second before.

     Holy Spirit, continually lead us to Jesus and his finished work on the cross that removed everything that could keep us out of relationship with the Father. Lord Jesus, thank you for opening the way to the Father where we can find healing for our hearts and the strength to walk as you did. Father we open our hearts to receive your love and your affirmation, to be named by you so that we can reject the labels of others.

Clearly I'm not the first or the only person to be talking about the God the Father at the moment. If this is a topic you'd like to read more about, here's a link to my friend Mark's blog where you'll find a ton of insight and revelation to help you on your journey. Enjoy!
http://lovedfreeandpowerful.com/

Intimacy and Growing Closer

12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:12-17

     Often it seems that we want to be involved with perfect people. "You're too..." or "You're not...enough" we say. We may not always verbalise it but we can easily give that impression. Maybe we think "I just can't deal with you and your issues now!" Funny thing is, if these people did become perfect we'd want to spend even less time with them because their lives would reflect badly on us! Haha

     I've been thinking about intimacy and closeness lately and I reckon we miss out on the opportunity to grow and develop in real genuine closeness with people because we distance ourselves from them waiting until they become "better" (or even until we become better!). If we look at the closest people to us in our lives, I think that we'll find that they are that close to us because we were together during difficult times and came out stronger on the other side. We have a deep and special love for the people in our lives who've stuck by us even when we  were being stupid! There's a warmth in our hearts for people that we've seen grow through tough situations and come out on the other side!

     Let's look at our relationship with God (for those of us who have one). We develop a deep sense of trust and vulnerability with Him not because He waited till we were perfect to speak to us but because He walks with us while we struggle. We can look at areas of our lives that would be in tatters without Him. Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Over the years He's shown Himself faithful even when we've been faithless and this has caused us to grow in intimacy with Him. Intimacy with Him leads us to greater vulnerability as trust is developed which then leads into greater intimacy and so on. Intimacy is developed through process. Intimacy is developed on the road.

     Those same people that we love because of hard times we shared, we probably also love because we remember incredibly fun adventures we've had together as well! We've shared jokes that no-one else understands! We've laughed until our faces hurt! The passage from Colossians talks about bearing with one another and this leading us to greater unity and bringing us peace. This means getting involved in the nitty gritty of each others' lives even when it's not so convenient. You can probably think of people in your life who've sacrificed time to spend it with you. You love them! Admit it!

The most fantastic husbands and wives that I know have a deep intimacy that is impenetrable by anyone else because they've basically grown together as close as two people can without becoming one person. I once read a quote that said some thing like "God help the man who won't marry until he finds the perfect woman, and God help him still if he finds her!" I think sometimes searching for perfection in the people we associate with robs us of the glory of growing together and being the ones to draw greatness out of each other.  The Bible says "as iron sharperns iron, so one man sharpens another." Let's look deeper than the surface for what can be sharpened by love.

Read through the Colossians passage again and plan with God how you can grow in intimacy with others and with Him.

Thanks for reading.

Poem: Her Face

This is a poem about girls whose insecurity causes them to cover themselves up with make-up. It's not a judgement on girls who wear make-up but it is a challenge to why make-up is worn and an encouragement for all of us to see ourselves as God does. Please enjoy and leave your comments. If you're a girl/woman I'd particularly like to hear your thoughts on this. I'm aware that I'm a guy and have no experience in the area and so all I have said, I say from my perspective as a man of God wanting to see young people live in the fulness and freedom of their identity.

Her Face

The very concept of make-up is a tragedy

An idea that in some ways can border on blasphemy
The audacity that we human beings think we can "make-up" for what we perceive to be God's mistakes is a fallacy.

In not all but some cases a compact mirror becomes a reflective prison for the true identity of the young woman.

She's locked in a cell staring at the ones on her face
Everyday the jailer opens the gates to paint her with insecurity before slamming them shut again.

Her foundation was once on Christ the Rock, who freely gave her grace when He bled for her and died

But now her foundation is on a dusty brush and it's manually applied.
On this foundation she builds a fortress, an impenetrable disguise
Her natural skin gives way to an outer wall of lies.

“Concealer” lacks the subtlety to require exposure making onlookers blind

While lipstick can do its job of sticking lips together to keep her from speaking her mind
No one cares that she doesn't know who she is as long as she can paint on a new face everyday and decide.
She sleeps at night hoping to keep the identity she stuck to her face
But the stained pillow of the morning-after brings her back to reality.

The role of the models on the TV is to make her wonder why she doesn't look as good as them.

"Maybe she's born with it, maybe she can develop it... maybe it's" ...maybe it's make-up!
Maybe it's something else but one thing's for sure, there's no self-esteem being sold at that shop.

She just wants someone to tell her she's pretty.

She met a girl who told her she once had the same desire

But she found a book that made her set her standards even higher
As she dropped the Compact she found this book was an Impact mirror, transforming the way she saw herself
Seeing through the flaming eyes of Deity her blemishes melted away in the intensity of His love
His purpose spun her perspective

He looked past the prison bars of her ma-scarred eyelashes and she came out to meet Him

A chokehold was broken along with the Alabaster
Face to face with her Creator for the first time in the pages of a book!
The staring contest continued on, the make-up bag? Forsook.

She still wears make-up to this day but there's nothing to hide

Her face now bears the outward grace of the beauty that is inside.

Poem: Yours for Mine

Your eyes, my mirror

Your words, my bread

Your love, my air

Your peace, my bed

Your voice, my music

Your side, my throne

Your hand, my shield

Your heart, my home

Your face, my treasure

Your Spirit, my breath

Your hope, my assurance

Your life, my death

Your joy, my strength

Your mission, my labour

Your image, my person

Your Son, my Saviour

Thank you Father for the words to love and thank you with.

Worship and Packed Lunches

     Been thinking a bit about corporate worship in church gatherings. I joined the worship team last year as a singer and have been on a pretty crazy and exciting journey exploring the dynamics of ministering to God and encountering Him through music in a corporate setting. I've noticed a few things and so I'll try to share them.

     I LOVE worshipping God and I love worshipping God with other people! I think there's something very powerful about worshipping God with others that goes way beyond the power of mass hysteria! (I've been in very small gatherings that were far more powerful than larger ones!) I think that there's real significance in the fact that we're doing it together. We could all just worship God at home by ourselves but instead we come together sometimes. I reckon we should all be more mindful of this as there must be a reason behind it beyond vain tradition. While I fully believe corporate worship is about God, I do think there is a factor of "us" in there as well. We are there after all! It just seems a bit odd to me sometimes when a load of people gather together but don't engage each other at all. We sing songs about Jesus and how great He is and what He's done for us but often we never even look at each other! Not all of our worship songs are directed towards God and so maybe sometimes it wouldn't be so weird to look at each other... Some might not like songs that aren't about God but I think that rejoicing in what He's done for us and who He is together as a family is just as much worship as telling Him how great He is!

     A lot of people follow the idea and practice that the worship team and worship leader are supposed to be in control of everything. We kinda come in and the band plugs us in to Jesus. Sorted right? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Our gathered worship times are supposed to be an overflow of our personal ones. It's a time for us to come together having walked with God and explode with praise and adoration for Him together and expect Him to show us more of just how flippin great He is! It's a journey that we go on and we have to travel together. God has graciously given us people to lead in the journey (i.e. the worship team) but it's a journey we're all supposed to go on. Imagine setting out on a walk with a group and some people stand at the start and allow the leaders to do the entire walk without them. They cannot claim that they've been on the walk. I think that's why a lot of people sit bored through worship meetings and then leave uninterested and unchanged. We don't really understand what's required of us. This is the point in the blog where I realise I've just opened a pocket in my brain that will make this blog huge so I'm going to stop here for now and do a short one for once!

Thanks for reading :-)

Getting Hurt: A Crash Course

If you go through life without getting hurt by something, you are probably not healthy. Numbness in your body is quickly diagnosed as being a bad thing. The ability to feel, whether pleasure or pain, is good because it helps you interact with the world. I used to LOVE playing outside when I was a kid. Running, climbing, jumping and rolling everywhere with my friends was one of my favourite things to do! I'm getting excited now just remembering! Haha. I have plenty of minor scars on my body and a fake tooth to show for it all. As children we pick up bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes from everywhere. It's amazing. I can't wait to be a parent to sit down with my kids at the end of the day to hear their stories about where today's latest battle wounds came from!

Just before and definitely after we hit puberty, we enter into a new, more intense battlefield. The deep realm of emotions. We feel like the mines of rejection await our every step as we duck and dodge bullets seemingly aimed at our hearts. We fearfully move forward all the while wondering if we're going to feel a knife in our backs. When we're little, a bump or a bruise is pretty much the end of the world...for a few minutes. After that, everything is ok and we just get over it, move on and let it heal. Our emotional wounds however are internal and the pain can last us a lifetime. If we let it. I reckon (not a scientific observation) there's 3 ways that we typically respond to pain in our lives: 1 - Bearing with Pain, 2 - Indulging in Pain and 3 - Numbing Pain. I'll talk a bit about my thoughts on them but please hear my heart, I'm not trying to speak indifferently as I've probably been involved in all of them at some point.

Idulging in Pain
Indulge definition: Become involved in (an activity, typically one that is undesirable or disapproved of): "indulge in gossip".

This is where we experience a hurt and we do something to either prolong it or intensify the pain we experience. For example we might go through a painful breakup where a relationship ends against our will. What do we do? We listen to music about people being in love or love being rejected or unrecognised. We watch films about romance and happily-ever-afters with 3 people's share of ice cream and then just feel terrible afterwards. Maybe we punch something really hard to make our knuckles hurt or get into fights we probably won't win. At the end of the day we're indulging in pain which I don't think is healthy and in fact is massively dangerous for our physical and mental health.

Emotional pain puts a strain on us mentally and sometimes even physically and so the longer we hold onto it the worse it can be for us. It can lead to various mental disorders and bodily illness. People who indulge in pain for a long time can begin to see it as their friend or even their saviour which can manifest in the form self-harming (which I'll probably mention later). This can open the door to various forms of further uncontrolled indulgence e.g. over-eating, masturbation, binge drinking etc. There's a notable link between indulging in pain and bearing with pain.

Bearing with Pain

     Pain is a part of life but I don't think that means it's supposed to be a life-partner. One of the issues with indulging in pain is that it can become so familiar we forget who we were and what we were like before the hurt took place. This means we then want to hold onto the pain as some form of security. If we get taken in by that trick we can become people who Bear With Pain. You probably know a pain-bearer in your life and you might have been/be one yourself. It could be that person you see is calling you and you let it go straight to voicemail because you just don't feel like you've got it in you to listen to their story again about a hurt that happened so long ago! It might be that person who somehow manages to bring round every conversation to that time they got hurt. It might be that famous singer whose songs make you cry because they're all about the pain they felt and still feel. However it shows up, pain-bearers are among us and they are those who hold onto their pain for dear life! (That paragraph didn't sound massively compassionate because you can't hear my tone or see my face and awesomely expressive hand-gestures! Sorry)

     I think a lot of us think that bearing with pain is the same as dealing with it or even getting over it. If I step in dog poo and just carry on walking no-one would congratulate me on dealing with it! It would still be very much on my shoe and would go with me wherever I went along with its fragrance! Picky people might say if you walked long enough eventually it would be gone because it would wear away. You'd be forgetting that I would have been in my house and friends' houses, my car, my school or work place etc. It would find it's way into all of my life, staining things and remaining as a constant reminder of that one time I stepped in dog poo! Ewww! That is not how to deal with dog poo! (This metaphor could go on for a while so I'll stop it there. Feel free to send me an extended version if you think of one!)

     Unresolved pain is not your friend, it's gangrene. People who indulge in pain tend to be bearing with pain and going through cycles of it. If they somehow manage to actually get over a hurt, they often panic and look for a way to cause themselves pain, consciously or subconsciously! Classic case is the good girl who always goes for the bad guys. Once she was innocent but some guy probably broke her heart and she developed a relationship with her heartache. She then goes from bad guy to bad guy to keep that pain sustained so that she can feel safe and if she ends up with a good guy she sabotages the relationship. It sounds insane to say it like that doesn't it! This can easily lead to numbing.

Numbing Pain

     Numbing pain seems like a rational, logical thing to do. Most of us don't like physical pain. Most. We dodge it and lessen it wherever we can. If someone threatens us on pain of violence we'll probably do what they want. We don't go in for surgery and say "No anaesthetic for me thanks! Slice and dice doc!" If you've ever had major surgery you are probably in love with anaesthetic! Today we're even able to medicate natural bodily occurrences of pain and I'm sure a lot of us are grateful for that too.

     Sadly we often try to take the same approach towards our emotional pain. This is when the pain is so unbearable or has been so prolonged that we find ways to remove it from ourselves or to remove ourselves from it. We do this with a variety of different tools. Most of which are actually really bad for us in the long run and distort our relationships with other people. Some of us have enough will power to just decide to stop an emotion's access to us. Sometimes we numb the pain by first indulging in it until it so overwhelms us, it becomes part of us and so we can't feel it any more. Maybe we put up a rough, tough exterior to prevent people getting close enough to us to hurt us emotionally until eventually that rough exterior becomes our new identity because it's so familiar (this often looks like the bully, the driven business person, the hard-working athlete or even the mean parent). Commonly we replace it with other stuff, sex, drugs, music, work, money, video games or some other hobby. This is incredibly dangerous because numbing pain does not mean that it is absent or that it has been dealt with. If you've done this yourself you might have experienced moments when your pain subsititute is removed and the pain comes back with a vengeance! You then grope madly for the nearest painkiller. We can make ourselves cold and indifferent but the trouble is, it seems like it's near-impossible for us to reverse that on our own.

So what do we do? Indulging in pain and befriending it is a terrible idea... Ignoring it is too... Now what? Pain has to be dealt with and it has to be acknowleged. We have to say "yes it hurt and yes it was wrong." We accept that a wound was indeed inflicted so that we can really assess the damage. inspecting the wound further can show us why it hurt in the first place and maybe reveal something about ourselves that we didn't know. You learn a lot about yourself when you find out what hurts you. It's no coincidence that we often get hurt the same way over and over. I often find that if I get hurt by someone emotionally and I actually check myself I find an area of particular sensitivity. Once I know this is there I can better protect it (or get it healed) maybe by letting close friends know that that is not a strong area for me. We can often (especially Christians) acknowledge we were hurt and then pretend to be over it because that's what we're "supposed to do". Rubbish! Denying pain leads to numbing. Bad times. From this point we can begin the healing process which starts with forgiveness.

The Good News!!
I think that understanding that you were NOT CREATED TO LIVE IN PERPETUAL PAIN is massively freeing and key to moving forward. The issue is a lot of us identify so closely with our pain that it becomes a part of our identity and our self-perception. If we see suffering as part of our identity then in the battle for freedom we'll fight half-heartedly because we afraid of who we'll be if we win! Check out what the bible says about Jesus, he was "...despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care." (Isaiah 53:3) What does that mean? It means Jesus knows pain and understands it. He knows your pain and understands it. He understands the temptation to press your face into your pain and never come out! But he didn't do it, he had something else in mind.

     Elsewhere it says that "He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed." (1Peter 2:24) If you don't know this already, Jesus took a serious beating before he died. He was stripped and whipped and beaten. We even created a word to express the unbearable pain of crucifixion - excruciating. While on the cross he was actually offered wine mixed with gall which helps to numb pain but he refused it! He faced the pain of our sin head on! It's all wrapped up in this phrase: "By his wounds you are healed." Jesus went to the cross and bore all of that pain so that we could be freed from the rule of pain which comes from sin. But how?

     The bible is beautiful so I'll give you some more...Jesus wacked out this sweet line at one point: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." If you're into pain-indulging, pain-bearing or a pain-numbing, you're carrying something that Jesus doesn't want you to have to carry. He's taken that responsibility on himself. It's a little strange when you're carrying something heavy and a stranger comes over to offer to carry it for you! We reject them (especially if we're British) and choose to struggle or we treat them with suspicion. If we're smart, we should just let them carry it. 

     How do we let Jesus carry our pain away? A good way to start is by talking to him about it. Tell him about your stupidly heavy burden! Tell him how bad the pain is! Tell him how much you want to get rid of it! Another outrageous Jesus phrase is "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." Ever felt like your pain has left you emotionally bankrupt? Ever felt like your hurt is inescapable prison? Ever felt like you've been blinded by past experiences and are unable to see the future in a positive light? Then Jesus is saying "Hey, I came here for you! Let's end this and start a new life. You see if you give your heart to Jesus he gives you his. The same heart that enabled him to die for those who hated him. The same heart that enabled him to love those who rejected him. The same heart that prayed for the forgiveness of those who were crucifying him. It's filled with love and in love there is the power of forgiveness.

     I'll end with this. Forgiveness is the enemy of emotional pain. Emotional pain latches onto us through unforgiveness in our hearts and unforgiveness becomes the leash around necks. A very wise man called John Eldredge once said this: "Forgiveness is setting a prisoner free and then discovering the prisoner was you." Jesus holds the power of forgiveness and he wants to give it to you so that pain is no longer your master. Not so that you won't encounter pain but so that you won't be ruled by it. Let Jesus take your pain away and show you who you were born to be. Do you want to be free? 

If you want, you can pray something like this:

     Jesus I'm coming to you with all my pain. ____ hurt me and it's still affecting me. I give you my heart and ask for yours in return so that I can be released from my pain and have the power to forgive others. I want you to show me who I was created to be and I want to see myself as you see me.

Thanks for reading, I really hope this impacted you and has helped you recognise negative patterns in your life. It's time for you to be free! If you want to talk more about giving your life to Jesus please contact me. I wrote some thoughts on forgiveness last year so please look into them as I found them helpful.

Part 1 - http://tony-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/09/understanding-forgiveness-part-1-free.html

Part 2 - http://tony-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/09/understanding-forgiveness-part-2-paying.html

Part 3 - http://tony-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/09/understanding-forgiveness-part-3.html

Part 4 - http://tony-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/09/understanding-forgiveness-part-4.html

Living Stones

      When Christians move to a different area and/or begin looking for a church they often have a checklist that they go through mentally (or maybe even literally, who knows!?) before deciding whether they will stay or leave. The most common ones I've found are something like "Do they have good doctrine?" (i.e. it's the same as mine) "Do they play music I like?" "Do people make me feel welcome?" Or sometimes even, "Are the chairs comfy?" (my tone may sound ungracious through the medium of text) A lot of this to me sounds like questions we'd ask to help us decide whether we'd be staying in a hotel again or not. It seems to demonstrate that our attitude towards church is a service that should be provided for us that can be measured on its quality. It's seen pretty obviously in the use of the term church "service". This thought both scares me and upsets me. Ever heard of "Mystery Shopper?" (http://www.mystery-shoppers.co.uk/) Me neither until I heard of the website "Mystery Worshipper" (http://ship-of-fools.com/mystery/uk.html) which sends undercover spies into churches on Sunday mornings to sit through meetings and then write a report about them. I'll give you a second to satify your desire to go and have a look and see if they've been to your church...

      The general points of analysis include how long the sermon was, which instruments were played, how full the building was etc. I think a lot of us approach churches in this way. I know lots of people who have not returned to churches because no one spoke to them. This is not an attack introverts but these people often didn't get spoken to because they didn't speak to anyone. I'm not saying it's ok for church members to ignore newbies but I am saying that I think we (me included) need to change our attitudes. How about asking some questions? How about rolling our sleeves up and finding out where we can serve? How about finding people we can hang out with? I think it's time to stop treating churches like hotels that we come to be cared for and start treating them like the families that they are in which everyone has a part to play.
 

     If we enter churches and we feel unwelcome, perhaps God is leading us to introduce the gift of hospitality! Maybe if they're not reaching the community, God has put us there to lead people in evangelism. If we don't repair our attitudes, church becomes the hotel we check in to each weekend to be pampered in preparation for the rest of our week and nothing more. We "pay our money" receive our "service" and then we check out. The difficulty is these churches may have massive numbers of people turn up because people love to be pampered while their relationships with God and with each other remain shallow if not non-existent.

     We tend to wait for special titles and recognition or at least a request before we start serving in our churches which exposes our desire to be acknowleged and affirmed by people sometimes (which isn't evil in itself, perhaps another blog post sometime). I think God really values those who serve in secret before they get a title because they know they're serving the purposes of God and they're serving God's people. I know a few people who've been involved with planting churches and speaking to them about their experiences has somewhat change my personal perception of being part of a church. (I'm not claiming to know anything about church planting haha) If you plant a church with a small group of people, you understand very quickly what it means to be a member of that church. You understand that you are a leader even without a title and that you are an essential part of that group. You quickly discover that if you don't get a job and tithe and give offerings, the church has no money. If you don't preach the gospel, the church doesn't grow. If you don't make time to spend sowing into individuals and sharing your life with them, people can't grow and develop and community doesn't exist. If you don't personally invest time into your relationship with Jesus, the church feels the lack.

I believe in being part of a church plant you gain an understanding that you have a personal investment in the life of the church and you understand that it's not a part time thing but a lifestyle. Suddenly the Church of Jesus becomes part of you and you become a part of it. For real. Sadly as churches grow this mindset is often lost and we are able to sneak in the back of Sunday meetings and disappear without taking on any responsibility whatsoever while still claiming to be part of that church. I can remember being a teenager and being asked to stay behind after the Sunday meeting to clear chairs away. After a while it struck me that if nobody did this, it wouldn't get done. DUH!!! This opened my eyes a bit more to my place in the church as an individual member. The Bible says that we're living stones and together we make up a temple for the Lord (1Peter 2:5). If we're alive it means we're supposed to do something right? Otherwise we might as well be dead bricks. Instead of coming to meetings to be critical we can try getting stuck in to serving, living and loving the Church and see if that works out.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts! :-)

Leaving the Church

     I've been thinking a bit about people leaving the Church. Lots of Christians seem to get to a point in their lives where they start jumping between churches without really committing anywhere or they abandon the idea of being part of a local church altogether. Some try to maintain their relationship with God alone (which tends to lead to mixes of different religous theologies and philosophies) while others "lose faith" or walk away from Him because of their experiences.

     While I was at university there was a lot of talk and activity based around finding the right church. This has created some issues for me in my thinking so I'm going to try not to sound ranty because that's not my heart.


     During a conversation with a friend who said he was a Christian but wasn't part of a church an interesting thought occurred to me. He said that he and his wife had left a church because the people were too judgemental and had then stopped being a part of any church. As carefully as I could I asked him if he had thought about the fact that referring to people as being "too judgemental" was in fact a judgement in itself. They'd left the church because they had judged the people and decided they were too judgemental. Mental! The feeling of being condemned by others is a BIG reason for people leaving the Church. Even people who aren't part of a church often feel judged and condemned by us! I reckon this is worth looking into...

     It's really easy to make judgements. I might even go as far as to say it's human nature. Judgement is something of the nature of God in us. When He created the world, He judged everything and His judgement was "It's good." When He made us He said we were "Very good." Take a moment to feel warm and tingly inside........................................................................................................................... :-)
In the Church however we seem to allow our judgement to spill over into condemnation at times. People feel our glares when news/gossip surfaces that they've done something wrong or they haven't been seen around for a while. Think about this, when God declared Adam and Eve to be "Very good", He knew what they were going to do! He knew they were going to mess up big time. I reckon we need to recapture our ability to look beyond people's faults and mistakes before, during and after they've made them so that we can see the image of God in them and declare them to be "VERY GOOD!!"

     I think a lot of Christians place a lot of emphasis on verses such as Luke 6:37 and Matt 7:3 where Jesus warns us about focussing on our own sin and not judging other people (Please get your teeth into Romans 14, it's amazing!) I think that it's great to understand that we're not to judge one another but it's also important to remember that Jesus is present whenever the Church gathers and His holiness may reflect on sin in our lives and so I think it's important to ask ourselves if we're feeling condemned by people or convicted by the Holy Spirit. James 5:20 tells us we can cover a lot of damage by helping to bring people to repentance but this doesn't work without real, genuine and obvious love. God rebukes and disciplines the ones He loves (Proverbs 3:12) and so I think it's right that we do the same. In the Church people should feel loved and accepted even while they struggle to walk out their faith.

     Everybody has issues that they are working through in one way or another. Some choose to hide their issues and slap on the "Sunday Smile" (expect a blog on that sometime!!) even during the week and pretend as though everything is great. We use this face because there is a fear of being judged by others or being seen as unspiritual for having struggles. The fact that we know we're hiding something changes our perception of the way others are peceiving us. We can become paranoid and defensive or we can become jealous of the "perfect people".

     One of the leaders in our church spoke a while ago about reminding ourselves of the individual journey we've been on with Jesus and how our relationship has grown with Him. Doing this rekindles passion in us as we go over fond memories and see how far we've come! (seriously try it!!) I think that it also births compassion in us because we realise that we in no way have it all together and we never have! Remembering this can really help us to be gracious.

     Often people leave the Church with a warped view of God because of what they've experienced of His people. We commonly pray things like "God let people see you through us" but the implications of that can be a little scary if we don't act like Him.

Holy Spirit please teach us how to live from the new heart you've given us that us full of grace, love and compassion instead of condemnation. Help us remember that it's You who brings conviction and that it's Your kindness that leads us to repentance. Help us Jesus to mirror you so that we can truly say to people as You did "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."
Amen

The Naked Bride

     Welcome to all who came for the controversial blog title! Since you’re here... Picture the scene. It’s Sunday morning. You’ve not had the best of weeks. You fell into that sin you said you’d stay away from and you’re feeling the emotional effects of it. Your faith in God is feeling more and more uncertain. Someone comes up and asks you how you are. What do you say? Or let’s try this one. A special guest speaker visits your church. They’re a big time evangelist. They share all the intimate details of their drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll testimony, how God reached in and pulled them out of thick darkness into light and restored them. There’s not a dry eye in the house. 

     In the Church it has somehow become unacceptable for us to have problems. Getting dressed in your Sunday best must include the “Sunday Smile” that assures everyone that everything is great and you’re going from glory to glory! We celebrate testimonies about trials and struggles of various kinds but the story cannot be shared until the final battle is fought. I believe this attitude is crippling the Bride of Christ.

     To the rest of the Western World, the Church has often been recognised as a beacon of judgementalism, double-standards and hypocrisy and I think this is part of the problem. Somewhere along the line we've instilled fear into people that comes from judgement and we've forgotten 1John 4:18 which says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Although we desperately need help when we’re struggling or things aren't going well, fear keeps us from coming clean. It may be fear of being judged by members of the church, fear of being punished, fear of losing the appearance of being a Super-Christian. Whatever. Ultimately our actions are being dictated by fear and that is not a healthy way to live.

     I think we’re forgetting the kinds of people Jesus hung out with. I'm not just talking about the “sinners”, look at the disciples. They had issues with anger and problems with greed. They were elitist and argumentative. James and John had homicidal thoughts (Luke 9:54), Peter was always read with something stupid to say (read any of the gospels!) and Judas was a thief and... well...you know. There was a level of openness and honesty that Jesus had with the disciples that is missing in the Church today. Think about it. If any of us were hanging around Jesus we'd be on our best behaviour trying so hard not to slip up! There's something about the presence of Jesus that brings out the best in you - to be celebrated as well as the worst in you - to be corrected. They felt so free to be themselves around him that their faults would be exposed and when they were He would either gently point them in the right direction or outright rebuke them and then they would make changes in their lives and carry on. Jesus says that when as little as two or three Christians gather together in His name, His presence is made known (Matt 18:20). We should expect to encounter the same freedom as the disciples when we meet with other believers but for a lot of us, sadly that isn't the case.

     There’s two sides to this problem. On the one hand I think we can be quite wimpy when it comes to being corrected. Many of us are so immature that when someone challenges us on sinful attitudes and practices we take it personally and rebel against them (Proverbs 9:8). “Who do they think they are telling me that when they do this?!” or “What I do is none of their business!” We even sometimes use Scripture to justify ourselves! On the other hand we suck at rebuking each other in love! We see correction as a duty we must fulfil in order to be right with God. I think this is a mistake. While the Bible tells us to bring correction into each other’s lives we must remember that it is for our mutual benefit as the Church. So all of our rebuking has to come from a place of love. That’s how He does it (Rev 3:19) Without love we end up hurting people and causing them to react badly. I had a priceless friend as a teenager who would come to me and say something like “You know I'm for you and not against you right?” I’d then brace myself because I knew some loving correction was soon to follow and I'd take a shot in the pride. I truly knew she loved and valued me and wanted me to grow in God so I was happy to hear what she had to say. I've written a longer blog about this which you can find here: http://tony-campbell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/real-people-real-relationships.html 

     Isolation is one of the devil’s main weapons against the Church. Whether it’s physically or emotionally the devil wants you alone. Secret sin is a massive killer of Christians because it cuts you off from the life-giving love and restoring forgiveness Jesus has instilled in the Church (John 20:23). I believe that something we NEED to see appearing in the Church now is an increase in openness and acceptance amongst believers. I'm NOT saying we all have pity parties where we confess sin to each other and pat each other on the back. Instead what is needed is a greater revelation of God’s forgiveness for us (which will keep us from trying to judge anyone else) an increase in supernatural love for each other so that our seeds of correction find good soil and a deeper understanding of community that leads to us supporting each other through the tough times that are real until we’re made whole. Finding people who will constantly speak our true identity over us and remind us of who Christ has made us is vital as well as taking up Paul's charge from 1Thessalonians 5:16-18. We should be celebrating the testimonies all the way through the process!

     Mankind was created to be naked in their relationship with God vulnerable, honest and without shame (but definitely with clothes...) Let’s get back to His original intention. If Jesus isn't ashamed of us, we must have nothing to be ashamed of. (Hebrews 2:11)

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments!