Relationships that are deep are not flaunted in public. Lovers express their deepest love in ways that others never see. It all happens behind that bedroom door. It’s private, it’s special, it’s not meant to be shared with the world, but the influence of a happily married couple who love each other deeply does influence others positively doesn’t it.

If this is human communication at the deep level, and if we know and love God even more deeply, should we not meet with him in private for a beautiful time that builds us up and sustains us for the whole day, each day?

Prayer is something so many find difficult, but when we really meditate and spend time talking to the love of our lives, it is not difficult, it is fantastic! We need to spend time to look at the beauty of God, to think of the wonderful things he has done and will do for us! We need to feel the power of his loving presence with us and ask Holy Spirit to empower us.

We need to tell Him the things we see ourselves as failing to do correctly and thank Him for the things He has helped us with.

We need to bring to Him the topics of great concern to ourselves, those around us, and those happening in the world today. Ask God to help others, protect them. Bring into mind those who need His love and help. Carefully consider each situation and discuss it with Him.

Intimately tell Him our fears and joys and ask Him to walk alongside us all day guiding us in everything we do.

This is power prayer! This is true connecting! This is prayer that gives us back what no other person can know or experience! Not the babbling publicly broadcast view of our connection with our God, but the gentle strong powerful experience of his true power and presence. Not lots of words, but few, focused, well considered and lovingly said.

That intimacy can then be with us all day long as we go out from behind that bedroom door.

That’s my experience of today.

What’s yours?

“Why should I give to others?” she asked, a frown wrinkling her brow. “Surely what I have worked for  is mine?”

“You have a child?” he asked.

“Yes, she is just three years old now!”

“If she was to become disabled, would you reject her because she was incapable of meeting your needs?”

“No of course not! That would be inhumane” she replied.

“Why should caring for others who do not have the ability to care for themselves be different?” he asked. “We should love everyone the way God loves us, shouldn’t we? “Perhaps we need to correct our human response don’t we?

He continued. “Surely, you wouldn’t reject your daughter because she was consuming your time and money would you?

She is three years old, others are older but just not free to help themselves! You have a child, that is a good, wonderful gift from God. What you have worked for is yours! However it is fantastic to help her isn’t it?

How about helping others freely? What is more amazing when we do this is that God returns  value in life to us that is inconceivably good. Perhaps we need to help others out of own excess abundance? 

Now how should we give? Jesus says we should "Be careful not to do our 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If we do, we will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”[1]

If we tell everyone what we do, we have already received our reward! That is good and may give us a nice feeling but really we cheat ourselves.

If we are quiet and don’t let others know what we are doing, then God himself takes note of what we are doing. God sees everything and also fully experiences the other persons gratefulness. God will make sure we get rewarded for our actions in a way that exceeds those of the praises of our friends and associates.

So next time we get asked to help out and have some change in our pocket, perhaps we need to bless someone who doesn’t even know who we are.

That’s the Christian way!

I just read an article on Ray Bradbury by CNN. He gives the impression to everyone that he is a Christian and in the article seems to suggest perhaps he is. It says

“Bradbury's favourite book in the Bible is the Gospel of John, which is filled with references to love.”

Sounds good doesn’t it. He also says “"Jesus is a remarkable person," Bradbury says. "He was on his way to becoming Christ, and he made it."

That doesn’t sound so good!

Then he says "I'm a Zen Buddhist if I would describe myself," he says. "I don't think about what I do. I do it. That's Buddhism. I jump off the cliff and build my wings on the way down."

Thanks for being true and pointing this out Ray. Now, I don’t think you even understand who Jesus Christ is. . .but you have a wonderful cosy self delusion about him! Being 90yrs old, I guess you will be leaving Earth soon and perhaps the "Monsters" that you write about will be waiting. I hope and pray that is not true and you meet the real son of God, Jesus instead of your false one!

Okay, so let’s be honest, its difficult to work through the mess of religions and false discussions on Christ to figure out what a true Christian is. It was no easier when Jesus walked this Earth. People missed the truth then as well. A big crowd got onto a false path called Gnosticism soon after Jesus died and rose.

So, how do you know who’s a true Christian and if you are? Well for one thing we don’t reject parts of the bible just because we don’t like them.

For example it does say "God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.”[1]  Ray Bradbury believes in a Jesus but doesn’t believe he is the Son of God. That’s one pointer.

Then we need to understand and agree that we do selfish, ignorant and nasty things that we shouldn’t (sin). It says. . .

“You have been set free from sin. God has made you his slaves. The benefit you gain leads to holy living. And the end result is eternal life. When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.”[2]

So this is the next thing! If we think we never sin, or that there is no eternal life, or that Jesus is not the key to eternal (good) life, then we have the wrong Christianity! If we think there is no Hell (nasty place where people go after life if they reject God’s free offer of life) then you have the wrong branch of Christianity as well!

So Ray my friend, you need to drop the Zen stuff and find the real God because we would love to party with you in heaven!

Good intentions, loving attitudes, doing everything for the poor is not enough if we don’t have the resurrection power of God’s Holy Spirit in our life.

I am really negative to many people who call themselves Christians because so many have such a soft relationship with God that they almost cannot be distinguished from those who aren’t. We should stick out like a wedding cake at a wedding. Good, sweet, fulfilling and generating happiness and love. We need to serve all, try and give others strength, but fundamentally we should point to the great romance between God and his church, i.e. the people who are true Christians.

That’s my plan for today, what’s yours?

Quite the claim!

It would have to be backed up with solid proof to be believed and seeing as this was at the end of  Jesus time on Earth and after he had risen from the dead, and they had walked the dusty roads of life with him, it was obvious he had impressed them sufficiently to agree with this statement.

Today in Mexico we are finishing the house. The previous team had little experience with taping the cracks in the sheet rock “drywall” and “mudding” over it with the plaster. Mudding is the process of taking a plaster and applying it over irregular parts of the wall to smooth it.

So our morning is spent fixing up the dry wall and putting the last electrical fittings. We add locks and handles to the door and a ladder to get up into the loft. Finally we complete the home. One large room, two smaller bedrooms with a loft over the two smaller bedrooms.

At about 1pm we hand over the keys taking photographs with the visibly emotional family. The team surrounds the home and placing our hands on the walls we all pray individually for the family and their home. The swath of prayer must have been visible in the throne room of god because it was so intense, personal, powerful and accompanied with tears of love!

With sadness we say goodbye to the two contractors who had led the building effort. Already we miss them. “Next Year” is the English/Mexican farewell!

We pick up all our equipment and head out to the site where we know the Mexican children are waiting for us. As we arrive and setup our makeshift sound system, they appear from the homes and hovels around us. Missionaries carry them on their shoulders. The children hang onto their legs and hands and hug the missionaries so much it is hard to move let alone minister to them.

We play games, sing songs and then the story of David and Goliath is told. We now have a core crowd that is responding to the activities.

Not all is good! One young boy, maybe eight years old pulls out a screwdriver and threatens another trying to stab him. I step in and send him home. This removes the disturbance and the group settles down singing praises to god in Spanish. Next is a  testimony from a young man, Jonathan! He is an American Jamaican teenager from Houston. He steps into the center of the group gathering the children around him. He tells them his story and they grow quiet as he explains to them who god is and then he asks them if they would like to have Jesus in their hearts today. Heads nod all around. He leads in the sinners prayer and the voices ring out as one. It`s amazing to see these little faces in rapt attention. We ask who has accepted Jesus and hands go up.

We give out commitment cards for the children and write their names on them. 27 children claim to have given their lives to Jesus. We know a pastor in the area and organize to let him know.

Next is face painting and almost every missionary has two to three children sitting with them as they paint faces.

Time comes to go and the tears start to flow. One expects the girls and women to be upset but to the glory of God we see young men with faces wet with tears. Love for these young children fill everyone’s heart which become strained at the thought of not being their to continue touching their lives. They have touched ours! All agree they want to be able to more of this work!

The cost of hard ground sleeping, dir, heat, freezing cold showers, minimal food and tiredness is considered insignificant to us in this moment. We are loving as Jesus wants us to! Praise him!

The evening concludes with us responding to that great call on our lives.

`Therefore go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you`, said Jesus.