Good News

Can there really be a God with all this suffering around?

2011-11-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

A question that has been asked through the ages. We look around us and see relatives suffering in pain with illnesses, a child cut short in the prime of life due to some accident, a earthquake killing thousands, an evil murderer living a full and happy life on some island. We see divorce, brokeness and economic problems. We say how can there be a God, if there was a God he wouldn't ignore all this or do nothing about it surely, maybe there is a God but he doesn't care, maybe he is distant, maybe he is angry and is letting us mess it up. Whatever stage you are at with this it is a big question. If you are asking the question in order to show there is no God I beg to differ, and please hear me out.
If you suppose there is evil in the world, ie. suffering. In order for us to know it is wrong or unjust or evil we must have something to measure that against, a good, otherwise how would we know it is evil. If there is a good and there is an evil then there must be a standard by which we can measure that, if there is a standard there must be a standard giver, ie a God and therefore the question refutes itself. Let me put it another way, the very fact we are outraged at suffering (rightly so) shows us that something is indeed wrong, if the world was a mere chance encounter, humans around by shere chance and then we have no leg to complain. If there is a God then we begin to ask why, the fact however that there is suffering doesn't negate there being a God, it points us to him!
When I ask the questions of suffering I have found only one belief system with an answer to it, most systems either deny it, i.e. atheist, or other faiths say that God is punishing and needs to be appeased. Only in Christ do I see a God that not only gives a reason for suffering, that man willfully turned away from its creator and brought the disease of suffering in but that the same creator entered into that suffering and suffered himself, being subjected to the worst suffering any human can suffer the full weight of God, the death upon the Cross was bringing you to a place where if you accept God will take you out of suffering finally at your death when he will wipe away every tear...

You can't really know...

2011-08-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Recently I have heard several people say this to me, "we cannot really know what's true, we cannot trust what we are told" - I totally understand that this is how life appears, I was in the same boat some years ago thinking how can you possible know what's true, there is no way of knowing, you cannot know the truth. Then someone kindly pointed out to me that I thought that statement that I had made was very true, that I sincerley believed the truth of what I was saying and I was living out my life accordingly! It hit me in the face, although that statement that we can't really know anything sounds so plausible, nothing else in my life lived up to that. It is what philosophers call a logical fallacy, logically it doesn't play true anywhwere else in life.
We can know the truth, we examine the evidence and we make up our minds. Don't hold that examination off like I did, I emplore you!

2011-04-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this video and it might really change your life, seriously, click it, watch it and let me know what you think at georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

http://vimeo.com/20960385

We can't really know...

2010-11-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

There is so much information out there, so many people all trying to get our attention, so many things claiming different things, from adverts promising whiter teeth to politicians promising real change. There are also so many different religious beliefs. A common objection I hear is we cannot really know the truth, know one really knows, we just follow our own path and that's it.
Check that last statement out again "no one really knows", if no one really knows then how do we really know that no one really knows! Head spinning yet!
The point is that how do we know anything, how do we know that you reading this blog was not some random chance or that a being higher than us directed your path this way. We know things through a variety of things, evidence, experience, others, trust. How do we know that our parents love us or that we are funny for example. We know by examining the evidence of our parents behaviour, or we know we are funny by looking at the evidence of how many people laugh. How you know anything in your life is applied in exactly the same way to faith, we examine the evidence, experience, others opinion who have tried it and on we go.
Have you examined the evidence? Have you checked on others experience? Your life depends on it, all I encourage you to do is ask questions....

Proof

2010-10-04T09:38:00.001-07:00

"I need proof before I believe anything..."

That is a common statement I hear when it comes to talking about a belief in God. I used to think that you cannot prove God's existence, and in the absolute sense of the word you cannot, much like you cannot prove he doesn't exist. So is the statement valid, do we need proof before we believe something, well we might need evidence and there is plenty of that.

Can I ask you a question, how would you prove to me that the wind is blowing? You might point to being able to feel it on your face, or ask me to look at the leaves on a tree to seem them moving, or a piece of paper apparently floating in the air on a windy day. All these things are not proof but evidence of something happening. You add these things up and you can quite comfortably say it is windy.

The same is true with God, how do I know that God is blowing through this world. I might point to my life and tell you I have experienced him, I might point to other peoples lives who have experienced him, I might point you to miracles, I might point you to the world around you as evidence that someone made it, I might point you to your own conscience. I would definitely point you to Jesus Christ, to the promises about him before he even came to the earth, to the miracles he performed, to the death he died, to the rising from the dead, yes I think I would point you to him, the problem is so many don't want to look, will you?

Seeing and.....seeing

2010-08-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

Just back from honeymoon and still feel a bit dazed and in another world! Anyway, welcome to my blog, don't worry this site is not all about me! The reason I mention my honeymoon and being in another world is I noticed in the last few weeks that when your mind is focused on certain things you notice things more. Let me explain.

In the run up to my wedding I was thinking about wearing a wedding ring, I have never been one for jewellery and always feel a bit camp when wearing anything. My mind being focused on this meant I noticed other peoples wedding rings, I think I can safely say before that I had never really noticed other peoples jewellery. Take another example, if I tell you to not think of pink elephants what is the one thing you do. Or if you have ever painted anything, when you spend time looking at something intently you begin to see lines you didn't notice before, colours begin to appear. Or how about one of those 3d drawings that you need to stare at and let your eyes go a bit crossed before you see the 3d picture.

The point of all these illustrations is that sometimes we miss things in life because we don't really look. We think that 3d picture is just a mass of dots, we don't notice a wedding ring because we don't really look. For years I thought I knew what life was about, thought I understood what I saw, then life took some turns and I realised I hadn't really looked that intently. I had not really seen what was in front of my eyes.

Could it be that you are missing something in your life, could it be like me that you think if I just get that thing then I will be happy, or if I just get that job promotion or if I just get that bigger house, or that car I will be happy.

I think we all have something missing in our lives, our purpose, our meaning, our identity until we meet with Jesus Christ. More than that, we have an eternity to think about, will you begin looking that bit more intently, just beyond the superficial MTV world and beyond... start looking?

A few good men

2010-05-24T03:37:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if you ever watched that film "A Few Good Men" I used to quite enjoy it. It is all about a top ranking army official who sanctions bullying on a soldier who ends up killing himself because of the bullying. There is a subsequent cover up and enter new hot shot lawyer Tom Cruise to draw the truth out from high flying army man Jack Nicholson. One of my favourite lines is "Do you want the truth, you can't handle the truth..." Jack Nicholson then confesses in a fit of pride.
The reason I mention it is because it throws up the biggest question for me, what is the truth and can we really handle the answer to that question. One of the things I find fascinating in life, is how you can have one person believing something and the person next door believing something totally different, how do you know which one has the truth, do they both have the truth, does it matter?
There can be only one truth, by that I mean all truth by it's very nature is exclusive. If an orange is orange it can only be orange, it can't be yellow and blue to. So the theory that all people can have the truth is absurd, the same as saying the colour orange can be yellow too and pink and so on. So there is only one truth, how do you find out the truth?
You examine the evidence, you look at both sides of the arguement as independently and as unbiased as you possibly can and then you draw a conclusion. My fear and certainly my experience tell me that many people dismiss the evidence before they have even begun, many people do not even start looking at the evidence about life, I think that this in part is down to the line in A Few Good Men - "We can't handle the truth....." We are scared by what we might find.
Can I encourage you to begin that journey, I used to have so many assumptions and objections, it wasn't until I investigated that I had my life completely transformed by uncovering some amazing truths.
We can't simply walk through life claiming we cannot know the truth, that in itself is claiming to know the truth, it is simply an objection to make us feel comfortable about not doing anything.

Please start looking into these things...

Is seeing believing?

2010-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but that thought that I need to see something in order to believe it is something a lot of people hold to when it comes to questions of belief, yet not in anything else in life. Let me explain what I mean...

When I talk to people about Jesus, people sometimes say that they would believe and in him and follow him if they were around when he walked the earth, or if only he would come to earth now. Or I would believe in God if I could just talk to him.

Let me initially challenge this belief in saying does that hold true when we get a text message on our phone, or the internet I am now typing on that is accessed somehow by wireless connection. I cannot see any of these things in the air yet I know they are happening by the outcome on my phone or on the screen on my laptop. I cannot see the wind yet I know it is blowing outside my window because the trees are moving.

I cannot see Christ with my eyes but I see the effect he has had on my life, the way he has changed my heart, circumstances have changed that simply cannot be explained away by coincedence. I see the effect that he has had on the world, the effect he had on the world when he was here on earth and now he isn't.

Although we sit in a chair we don't know it is going to hold our weight until we take that step of testing our weight in it, we can be sure through tests, through how it is made so that when we finally take that step we are as close to certain as we can ever get. The same is true with Christianity, you can test it, you can experiment by asking other Christians.

My challenge to you is how long are you going to allow the wind to blow on your face and deny its existence, there is coming a time when that wind will blow on your face no more and then you will be face to face with the one who was blowing and you will finally have your wish of seeing, yet it will be too late. Start investigating where that wind is coming from...today is the day of salvation. - georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Feelings & emotions

2010-03-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a feeling about something and you were totally wrong? Or ever got really angry about something and actually you had the wrong end of the stick?

So often I think we let our feelings dictate to us what the truth is. What I mean by that is if something doesn't feel right then we dismiss it, or if something makes us uncomfortable we don't think it is true. We live in a world that says if something feels right for you then it is right for you, but if it doesn't feel right for me then it is wrong for me. But our feelings are not the truth. Imagine if I said it feels right for me to jump off a cliff, and it feels as if I will be alright and live so I am going to do it. Would that actually change the outcome? The answer is obviously no and here in is a problem. The truth is not decided by how we feel, or what we think is right, the truth is the truth no matter what else goes on.

The bible says that the heart is deceitful above all else, it often feels a certain way that is not true basically. So therefore it is important to check the truth objectively. How do we know the truth, we look at evidence, we test things out, we perform checks and we make a conclusion. My challenge today is have we done that with our very lives? Have we tested what is going to happen to us when we die? Have we tested who Jesus is?

For years I shrugged it off, thinking in my heart that when it came to out, if there was a God I was pretty good and he wouldn't punish me in anyway. The bible claims something different, it says God loves us so much that he is going to do something about every wrong thing we ever did and everybody else did. We have a choice to make, will you investigate that choice?

Does it really matter what I believe?

2010-02-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

Imagine you are at the top of a cliff and you believed you could fly, or you would float, or that someone would fly and catch you and jumped off that cliff, would it really matter what you believe? I guess not, what we believe doesn't change the reality of gravity, we would still hit the floor. Therefore it is really important to know whether or not we are going to hit the floor. How would you know if you were going to hit the floor? I guess you could throw a stone over and see what happened, before you jumped you would weigh up the evidence, try and best determine what was going to happen to you.

Why is it when it comes to our biggest jump in life, when we die, that we simply believe we are going to fly or float or someone will catch us we base it on nothing more than a feeling inside. You would never do that near the edge of a cliff. Can I encourage you to think about that jump, to investigate all the evidence, to weigh up what is going to happen?

Start that journey today....

Conceptions

2010-01-21T06:29:00.001-08:00

Do you remember when you were younger and you had that really cool haircut, or you got those jeans you really wanted, or that bag that was just the best bag around? Now you look back at photos and you think what was I doing!!

I think we are like that in life, we hold onto things in our minds that at the time seem so right, so true and then life moves on and we realise we had things quite wrong. My challenge to you is to allow your mind to open to the possibility of a God who wants a relationship with you and has spoken in history. Instead of allowing those thoughts to rise that there is no way there is the supernatural, or there is no way you can prove the bible true, allow yourself to examine the evidence and wherever it points follow....

Truth

2009-12-01T08:19:00.001-08:00

I have recently been to Romania and it was an amazing trip. On the plane on the way home I got talking to a Hindu guy, a really nice chap called VJ. We commented that it was a shame that our society doesn't allow us to talk about eternal things, it is almost a taboo subject. We therefore put that aside and got into an interesting debate, one of the points I would like to bring up here....
VJ basically commented that we should live and let live, that saying I had the truth in Jesus Christ was simply to dogmatic, to exclusive and was in some way responsible for the intolerance we see in society. So many people, he said, think there view is the right one, what we need is to accept everyone, that the answer to life is what you make it yourself, each to their own.
I agreed with him that we should tolerate others, that we should accept everyone, however I pointed that his arguement was doing the very thing that he was arguing against. He was basically saying his view was the right one and others had it wrong. Unfortunately the thing with the truth is that it is always exclusive, by definition the number 2 cannot also be number 3 and 4. It can only be number 2, that is the truth, therefore this excludes all other numbers. The important thing is to establish that truth.
Every worldview that I have explored accept for one says that you have to reach a certain standard in order to be accepted. You have to be a good person in order to get to heaven, this then gives rise to pride which is really the cause of so many problems. You see if it is about attaining a certain grade, then either you are going to succeed at that (pride) or you are going to fail (failure). The result is the ones who succeed are your buddies and the ones who don't are your enemies, the good and the bad.
You see Christianity works on the basis that actually we have all failed to reach the perfect standard or required pass mark, therefore we are all equally as bad. However someone has sat the test for us and obtained perfect marks, given us the pass mark. Therefore it is not down to us, (removes pride) and allows us the freedom not to feel like a failure, to be completely humble, we have nothing to fight over. We also therefore don't have the need to turn to drugs, drink, work, money just to try and feel better about our failure, because we haven't failed.
Everyone holds to a truth, even if they say they hold to no truth then that is holding to something! The question we should ask is what is the truth, for Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to God except through him. Now either that is true or not, have you examined it for yourself? Please do, your life depends on it!! georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

If it works for you?

2009-10-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

I get the opportunity to share some of my story in schools, prisons, events and it is a real honour. I don't get to do this because I am anyone special, far from it, I get to do it because I have had my life completely transformed by a living God. I have moved from the position of God being a possibility to having experienced him and seen him at work in my life.
I often get the response to this something like this, that's good for you mate, I'm pleased that has worked for you, whatever works I guess. I even read a newspaper article yesterday that advocated going to religion to help with mental health issues, stating if it works why not. This is so much of the culture that we live in, the message is truth is found within yourself, what works for one wont work for another, it is relative to each person.
This is so dangerous and so illogical when we use this theory on other areas of our lives, imagine me saying I don't think jumping out of this plane will mean I crash to the floor I will just float, another says you will sprout wings, another says you will softly hit the floor. Does what those people think or feel change the situation, the truth is that they will all hit the floor at breakneck speed. The thing you and I do before we jump out of that plane is find out what the truth is, we begin to understand gravity, that a parachute is probably the best method for reaching the ground safely. We conduct some tests, we watch others, we examine the evidence and we then feel certain we have it right, we excercise some faith to jump out of the plane.
This is logical, so we need to apply the same logic to our own lives. You see we are all in a plane and that plane is going to crash (death) we need to decide what method is best going to take us through this crash, we need to find that parachute. Some people are going to come to you and say so many different things, you need to weigh up the evidence, listen to the experience of others who are jumping or who have jumped, you need to find out the truth. There is only one method that will get you out of plane safely and that is to slow you down to such an extent that you don't hit the floor with a crash that kills you.
Jesus Christ is your parachute he is the one who came to rescue you, can I challenge you to start thinking about some of these questions;

Where did we come from?
Where do our morals come from?
Why is there so much suffering in the world?
Why is there so much order in created things?
Why was there so many predictions about Jesus Christ before he ever walked the earth?
Why was Jesus able to do so many miracles?
Why is there so much evidence for Jesus, in written form, in archeaology, in human experience?
Why is there something missing in our lives, this eternal hunger for something more?
Why has the Bible never been proved wrong in thousands of years yet so many other things, theories just come and go?

There are answers to these questions, the real question is do you want to hear them?
georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Sand & Rock

2009-10-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

I have not long been a Christian in real terms, about 4 years now. One of the things I always used to think prior to becoming a Christian was how sure life seemed. It seemed obvious to me that there was probably no God, that we were some random accident, we die and turn to dust and there you have it. So why do I believe the polar opposite to this now?
One of the things I noticed since being a Christian is how my previous beliefs were very often simply what others thought and what others had told me. There is a general agreement in the western world that we are merley matter, to be honest that is a very comfortable thought that way I don't have to think about my behaviour and I can do exactly what I want when I want! However I soon realised that I was excercising a set of beliefs based on what I thought was the truth and really I had never examined the evidence for what I believed, just kinda hopped on the band wagon and agreed with whatever the culture said. Then as I looked into Christianity I realised there was a wealth of evidence here, a wealth of experience of millions of Christians and that these beliefs had not changed since the dawn of time. I looked back at my own beliefs and saw how often I had changed what a I thought depending on whatever philoshpy had blown my way, in fact when I looked back 100 years I saw how differently everyone thought, then again I looked back another 100 years and sure enough the culture thought something else and so it went on. The thing I noticed is that Christianity hadn't changed, sure there was some mild change but the core of the message was that we are sinners in trouble and Christ has come to resuce us if we turn to him. I realised that my belief prior to Christianity was an act of faith, ie. trusting something without having 100% proof. Then I saw that we all have faith in something, whatever our world view is. I then came pretty quickly to the conlcusion that there was just soooo much evidence for Christ and what he did that I couldn't run away anymore. Have you investigated the claims of Christ? If not, drop me a line, I would love to help you do that, Jesus said build your life on me the rock not on sand that is ever shifting with time....your life depends on it! georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Do all faiths lead to God?

2009-09-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

All roads lead to God was a statement that someone gave me this afternoon. It is quite a common belief, in our modern culture it sounds very untolerant to say that only one faith is true, surely they all have some measure of the truth, God knows what is going on and when it comes to the crunch we will all enter heaven.
On the surface that sounds quite plausable. However, I want you to imagine for a moment that you are standing at the top of a cliff and you say I don't believe in gravity, you jump, unfortunately for you it wouldn't take long before you hit the bottom. The point is, what you believe doesn't change the truth, there is a truth and we need to know what it is otherwise we are soon going to hit the bottom of the cliff. The difference in faiths is huge and they all differ, they all claim different things, they cannot all be true. We each have a view of the world, it is important to know which is truth. How do we know which is true?
When trying to find out the truth we examine the evidence and weigh it up for ourselves. You put all the pieces together and see what you come back with. The beauty about Christianity is it is all based on Jesus, all based on him coming to earth, on him entering history. Therefore we can examine it, he performed miracles, he rose from the dead, he rose others from the dead, he calmed storms, he has been written about over 300 times before he came to earth, he......
Before I became a Christian I looked into some other faiths, however the claims made by other groups were usually made by one person in a cave, in a secret location, just on their own or something similar. One person had said something and was very persuasive. Whereas I found with Christianity that it was a huge event in time that had been spoken about hundereds of years before, where people were willing to die testifying to what they had seen, where a church sprang up like nothing before or since. This surely warrants investigation, please don't make the mistake I did thinking it will be alright in the end, God will be accepting, my fear is that you may be walking to the edge of that cliff withouth preparing for the fall...

Who do you say he is?

2009-09-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

One of the questions that Jesus asks his disciples was "Who do you say I am?" it is a question that has run through every generation since. I therefore ask you that question today, who do you say that Jesus is? Often I hear these responses;

-We cannot really know, the bible is simply chinese whispers
-He was a great teacher, a great man and that is it really

I used to think the very same, how can you trust an old book, times have changed, we can never really know what has been said. Can I encourage you to invesigate this, don't make the mistake of simply going along with your own thoughts. The Bible is the most attested book in the whole of antiquity, there are thousands of copies of what was originally written. The translations we have now are taken from the earliest copies we have, not passed down through the generations. What is amazing about the amount of copies we have is rather than one source we have a multitude of sources and therefore we can compare what we have, the accuracy of doing this simply with 100 copies is astounding, we have over 10,000 copies!!!!!!!
The new testament part of the Bible was written during the lifetime of the eye witnesses to the events and we see a huge explosion of Christianity at that moment in history. If this was falsified then people would have spoken out to deny the truth of it, in addition people gave their lives in order to defend what they saw. People often give their lives for a belief but not for a lie, i.e. Jesus appeared after his death. They were willing to die to testify to it. There is so much evidence it is overwhelming and I simply don't have space here to do it justice, but I would encourage to start your investigation.

The second objection is often that Jesus was simply a teacher. If you read the accounts of his life, you simply cannot make this an option. Jesus was put to death for claiming to be God, they had no other accusation against him, he had led a sinless life, his death was his very claim that he was God. CS Lewis a Christian Writer gave us three option for Jesus, either he was a lunatic, he was lying or he is Lord. Really him being a teacher is not in the picture. So, who do you say he is, do you think he was a lunatic? Do you think he was telling lies? Or do you think he was who he said he was?

If Christ is who he said he was then this means we must take action. Jesus said he came to seek and save that which is lost. We have all turned from God, rebelled against him and have a death sentence hanging over our head. He desperately wants to rescue us from that, so much so that he is willing to take our place, to be our substitute. It is not a lifestyle choice, this is a hand being held out as we move closer towards real danger, a life jacket is being offered, what will you do with that offer?

What is love?

2009-08-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

A nice simple question to answer today, what is love? Why is this question important? - Let's start back to front, why is this question important - I think we are all looking for love, I don't mean just finding a life partner, I believe we all want to be happy and they way we find that happiness is to be fully loved. Watch a movie at the cinema and 9/10 films will be about a love story, or a story where good overcomes evil. For me cinema often depicts what is going on in our hearts, so why do we all look for love. I believe it is the way we have been made, that our hearts are yearning for this something, the bible says that God has written eternity on our hearts, a longing, a searching for happiness and love, we look in so many places but the bible says there is only one place to find it.
So, what is love? Is love being head over heels for someone who looks beautiful, if so what happens if there beauty is lost, is love when someone makes you really happy, if so what happens when that person makes you angry. Is love when someone follows a set of rules or obligations and the closer you follow those the more love you have? The bible defines love as - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. - Wow, where do we see this love? 1 in 2 marriages end in divorce in the UK, we have had the bloodest century since creation, we are scared to talk to people on the train on the way home from work. So where do we find this love, people often end up falling on pets these days, one of the reasons for this I think is that animals often love you unconditionally even if you forget to walk them they still run up to you tail wagging, even abused animals love their owners.
What we see in Jesus Christ is this very picture, someone who loves us even though we abuse him, someone who says I love you even though you turn away from me. He says I love you without condition. He laid down his life in your place. Imagine you are in the dock, the questions that the judge asks you is have you ever lied, ever stolen, ever looked at someone with lust, ever hated someone in your heart, of course we are guilty. We face the death penalty and in walks the person we have committed the offence against, Jesus, he walks up to you and says "I love you so much that I am willing to take your place if you will let me?" He offers you this sacrifice, so you don't have to face the consquences of what you have done, amazing. It is what the bible calls, grace, something we don't deserve. You see the love you are being offered here is not dependant on whether you are beautiful, whether you behave well enough, whether you live in the right part of town, whether you are nice to people, it simply depends on him, now that is true love. He gives you all that you are looking for, you do have to make a decision, you can remain in that dock and take the debt yourself, face hell on your own or you can turn to him accept his offer and let him love you with a depth that we can never fully fathom.
How do I know this is true, because he has given it to me, I have experienced it, tested the evidence in history, witnessed it in countless others and felt this love that has completely transformed my heart, my lifestyle, my living, my job, my girlfriend, my everything....just investigate it, he says those that seek will find him. - georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Sacrifice

2009-08-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

The heart of love is sacrifice isn't it, a married couple need to sacrifice some of their own needs in order for the marriage to work, parents need to sacrifice their own time and money for the well being of their children, love of a job means a sacrifice of time back home, the point is we all make sacrifice for the thing we love, the important thing is do we love the right thing. Speaking as someone who struggled with addiction, I often sacrificed my health in order to get high.
What do you sacrifice so that your heart can get what it loves? I don't know about you but I sacrificed so much to so many different things that in the end all of them fell short of providing me with the love and satisfaction I was looking for. A job always lets you down, a partner will always make mistakes, a car rusts, money doesn't quite cut it, we go on.
The perfect sacrifice that is made many of us don't even see, I didn't for years, the perfection of Jesus' sacrifice in our place. He gave the biggest sacrifice ever, not only time but his own life, there is no greater love than when someone lays down his life for you. This at a time when we don't even care for him or love him. Some people say to me why can't I pay the price, why can't I do good things and why can't God just let me off some of the bad things I have done, we all make mistakes.
Let's imagine for a moment that you have a car, you crash that car into your neighbours. Now there are a couple of options here, you can pay for the damage, or your neighbour can pay for the damage. Either way somebody has to pay for the consequence of your action, there is always a cost. Take it another way, say your son smashes a plate, he says sorry and you forgive him, however it has still cost you the plate. You see the same is true for us, we have all broken God's laws and we have a fine we need to pay, unfortunately we don't have the means to pay that fine, we need somebody to pay that fine, it is the highest costing fine in the whole universe therefore it is going to take someone with the biggest heart of love to pay that fine. It is going to cost so much that someone needs to give their life as a ransom, as payment, as the bounty if you like.
In steps Jesus Christ who sacrificed himself so that debtors like you and I can have all our debts wiped clean, all we need do is come to him acknowledging that we have nothing to offer as payment and turn to him and he will provide it for us.
God doesn't call you to come to him with your goodness, it is like going to the neighbour of the smashed car and offering him 20p, it's an insult it cost far more than that. If you feel you are going to stand before God at the end of your life and offer him 20p as a merit for getting to him, that is a huge insult, especially when he has paid for it himself.
Look, this isn't about us breaking a few rules and trying to make up for it, God is your father who wants the best for you, he wants to love you, much like you would with your own children provide them with rules that is going to give them the best, God is the same. He is offering you the biggest help, the biggest satisfaction, the biggest joy, the biggest freedom and we turn away from him and play around in the mud when there is an offer of paradise for free!
drop me a line georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Faith

2009-07-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

What do you think of when you hear that word, faith? What image does it conjure up in your mind?
If I am honest to me it sounds like a vain hope, something you cannot be sure of, something you do with your fingers crossed, or perhaps a shop where you buy shoes or even a piece of music by George Michael. I think it is safe to say though that this word is misunderstood, I want to peel back the misconception of this word and see what it really means. The wikepedia definition is as follows;

"Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Confidence, trust and belief"

The definition sounds quite different to how we would normally associate the word. There is also a misunderstanding that faith is blind and that faith is only reserved for the religious bunch and people who are illogical. However we all use faith every day of our lives, I am sat in a chair that I am putting my faith in, I am trusting that it will hold me up, this is based on experience of sitting in this chair, evidence that chairs are made to hold people of my weight (or maybe less!!), I lean back and sit in it and trust it wont collapse. The same is true when I get in my car, or walk on my legs, or watch television, or....I hope you can see my point, you see you excercise your faith in these things with confidence because you examine the evidence, you remember past experiences, you see other people sit in the chair, you can be sure that it will work, however you can never prove it at some point you need to excercise your faith and sit in that chair.

The other misunderstanding I think is interesting is more directed at Christianity, there is a popular belief that those who don't believe in a God are sure logical people and those that do are irrational and strange. However I challenge you to think that both sets of people are putting their faith in something, the non-believer is saying based on his experience and his evidence he sees no reason to believe there is a God and he puts his faith in that even though he cannot prove it. Respect. The Christian does likewise, he says based on my experience and the evidence I have seen I think there is a God and that God is Jesus Christ, faith, respect.

So really what it comes down to here is weighing up the evidence, your experience and making an informed decision. The sad thing for me and I was as guilty of this as anyone is as a non-believer people often sit back and say there is no God but are not willing to look at the evidence, to seek the truth. For me I was afraid that if there was a God he would want something from me, to be honest I wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do and not be told what to do by what I saw as an dictatorial God. What a mistake I made for years.

Upon investigating the claims of many different relgions and beliefs I have been astounded by what I see as the overwhelming evidence for Jesus, his miracles, his resurrection, his life changing impact to this day. I also now have the amazing honour of 4 years experience of God being tangible in my life and wow! It is so real to me that I have left my job, I have given up wealth, God has changed me in such a dramatic way that I cannot begin to tell you all the things I have seen him do. I have suffered much since being a Christian and so I am not saying this is a life style thing I am saying this is the truth. I guess I am trying to warn the non-believers out there that if you sit in that chair of unbelief you are going to fall, the chair will not stand, I have tried and tested it and come up wanting, please come and have a look at this chair of Christianity, please come and let me explain to you how it was put together, why it will hold you, why millions upon millions have tried and tested it to be true. Just come and look at the chair? drop me a line georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

God calls

2009-06-27T02:27:00.000-07:00

Often I think we chose our options in life as some sort of shopping trip, we walk down the aisle of life and take a little of what we like and leave what we don't. Unfortunately we tend to take what makes us feel most comfortable, we like the things of Christianity that say love your neighbour, we dislike it when it says Jesus is the only way, we like Budhism when it says live at peace, we don't like it when it says we have to meditate for hours on end.
The point I am trying to make is if we allow our hearts to rule everything then we end up with a mix match of beliefs and we end up creating a god to suit our own needs which is really no god at all but a cardboard cut out...
The important thing to do is really find out what is the truth, this can be a maze with many people calling out to follow this way or that. Ultimately you have to find your way to the middle, however God does call, he has sent his own Son to come and show you the way the truth and the life you are after...drop me a line

Irony, time and wake up calls

2009-06-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Reading back my last blog seems somewhat ironic in light of what has happened this week. Unfortunately I found my Father dead, the coroner informed me that the cause was his heart. I hope you can see the irony in my last blog stating that the heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart, of course I was talking spiritually but nevertheless.
Perhaps you will allow me the indulgence of a few lines to the old man. One of the saddest things is that he was trapped in a cycle of drinking that was a prison, the only thing that made him happy was drinking yet the irony was it was that which made him most sad. The bible says that we have dug out broken cisterns instead of coming to fountain of living water. The thing with a broken cistern is it never quite fills up, no matter how much water you put in it, never does it reach full. Speaking from first hand experience no matter how much booze my Dad put in himself it never quite satisfied, it was never quite enough. Your might be filling your cistern up with something else I don't know...
What a gentle, kind man he was simply trapped by a lie that drinking was the answer. Thank you Dad for all that you were, for being a loving Father, I love you so much.
Times like these it is a stark reminder that death looms, I do pray that you will investigate yours before it comes and bites you...
georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart....

2009-05-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

Ever wandered why a lie pops out of your mouth quicker than you can say european elections? Ever wandered why you cannot help looking at that image on the internet? Ever thought why you cannot help to judge that person with the new car, new hair cut, new...? Ever stopped and thought why can't I live up to my own standards let alone a perfect standard?
I went out with my sister and her family yesterday and it was great to be out with my sister, however I am sure she wont mind me saying that it was great to see her children. They are such amazing fun, especially my niece who is 2. As the day went on, her face slowly became more and more dirty, chocolate cake, yoghurt, snotty nose all made for a pretty picture. One of the things she really dislikes is having her face cleaned, she sees no problem in walking around like that.
I think we are all a little bit like my niece, actually we are all walking around with a dirty heart, people cannot see it quite as easily as the face but it comes out in our actions like telling lies, getting jealous, judging others and so on. Unlike my niece we cannot wipe it away with a cloth, the problem is within us, it is like the heart is diseased. What do surgeons do with a diseased heart? They remove it, they transplant it. That is who Jesus is, the great surgeon, he came to sacrifice himself for us, a bit like a heart donor, by dieing we could take a new heart. Can I testify that when you get this new heart you get a whole new set of desires it is awesome, I love people I never cared for, I have stopped things I never thought I would stop, I have given where I never even looked.
Jesus didn't just die to give me a clean up, he died to rescue me, because without that new heart I was going to die, in the spiritual sense, I would have been without God forever and that is something you cannot possibly want.
Please drop me a line with any questions - georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Is there a God or isn't there?

2009-05-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

The age old question that has been rolling down the centuries and will continue to do so for time to come. Really you have to examine the evidence and decide for yourself, one of the things however that I find shocking is people aren't willing to investigate it. If there is a God that has some massive implications, if there isn't then that is fairly big news too.
If you are anything like me though you are probably quite happy with how things are going, life has its ups and downs but generally speaking I am quite fine without a God and who really cares, church is boring and out of touch, science seems to have shown that this place is just an accident, there are so many different faiths all claiming to be the one true way, religion is the cause of so many problems and on we go...
I can only speak from my own experience but if I am totally honest I went through all the above objections and used them as a way of blocking my need to investigate any further, I reasoned that even if there was a God I am generally a good person and I would be one of the ones to make the grade when it came to crunch time.
My aim in writing this is really to try and get you over these obstacles not to try and convert you but to try and get you to look for yourself, I will give a short answer to the above objections;
Who cares - If there is a God you owe it to yourself and those you know to find out, if there is a God it has massive implications, it is not like choosing a new house this is the biggest thing of your life! We do care really, it is simply easier to put it to the back of our minds, however we never know when time is going to be called on our life...
Church is boring and out of touch - There are so many different churches, some are boring but trust me some are amazing. Some are out of touch. Church is defintely boring without God, without that belief it doesn't really make sense. A bit like the apprentice without Alan Sugar, Buckingham palace without the Queen, McDonalds without burgers. All that aside you are not being asked to go to church but to investigate God, church is really about people and not a place. Seriously don't let this aspect put you off...
Science seems to have proven this place is an accident - this is simply not true. The debate rages on in this field but there are thousands of Christian scientists which shows that Christianity is compatible with science. This deserves a proper discussion but seriously this is not an obstacle to God.
So many different faiths - This used to throw me out all the time, all these people sincerley believe different things. The bible says that we all have eternity written on our hearts, we all have this awareness that there is something more to life and God has put it there so we seek him. However we seek in other things and this includes other religions. The most amazing thing about Christianity is Jesus, according to the bible God has come to earth to show us who he is to rescue us, he came into history and can be tested, the older part of the bible written before Jesus came gives hundereds of predictions about Jesus, where he would be born, when, where he would die, how etc etc and then he comes and does all these miracles including coming back from the dead. No other religion comes close and that is partly why Christianity spreads to every people group, culture, country in the world at the rate it does. Everyone has their own truth claim even if you are not part of a organised religion, an atheist claims his own and so on. It really is about looking at all the information on offer and saying which one is the truth? I can't see how you can get away from Christianity...
Religion causes problems - I agree. Religion has been the cause of so many issues and this includes Christianity. This works both ways however and those that have no belief in God have caused untold damage in the name of science and evolution. What religion unfortunately creates is the thought that you earn your way to heaven, by being good we get into heaven, this then creates cultures of people who think they have it right and better than others, they look down on those that don't follow their way. What would solve this problem is a belief that we get to heaven through none of our effort but all of someone elses, this free gift gives rise to humility and utter dependance therefore no one is able to boast. This is what we find in Jesus, he has paid the debt we owe to God and if we turn and surrender to him he offers us this free gift. This love then catapults you to turn to every neighbour and love them...
I have not done any kind of justice to those questions, please drop me a line with your questions - georgeosborn@hotmail.com, investigate, you owe it to yourself.

Prison

2009-05-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

I have just come back from a couple of trips and most recently visited Dartmoor Prison in the UK. What an overbearing building that is, dark, damp, grey and powerful. It was a real privilage to be in there speaking with men who have all made mistakes and been sent to prison. It is easy to explain what Christianity is to people in prison, they understand the concept of doing something wrong and facing the consquences. They understand the idea that Jesus is willing to pay the price for the wrong things they have done.
A chap I went with often talks about us all being in a prison, how true this is. Prison can be an addiction, prison can be an image problem, prison can be a lie we have told, prison can be a dead end relationship, prison can be a job...prison can take many shapes and sizes. Jesus said he had come to set men free, sin really is when we look to other things other than God, that is prison, when we look to God we are truly set free....If the Son of God sets you free you will be free indeed.

Thirsty...

2009-04-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well the marathon at the weekend was a hot one, no I wasn't in it that really is a step too far! I have been known however to take a gentle trot down the road, one of the things that keeps me going on such times is the thought of an ice cold water when I get back, especially if the sun is beating. Imagine you have been in the desert for a couple of weeks without water, someone offers you a car, or a fantastic job in the city, £50,000 or a glass of water. Which do you take? That gloriously cold glass of water no hesitation.
I think this is a great illustration of life, we are deeply thirsty for something, we try and quench our thirst with cars, money, work, relationships, sex, family and so on, however what we need is that glass of water, that thing that will give us what we really need. God makes the same offer, he says why do you go to all these things that will not satisfy when you have the living fountain on offer. Don't mistake what I am saying for meaning coming to Jesus means all your problems fade away, you still face hardship, you are still in the desert for the time being, however you will not die because you have that water. You will make it out of the desert...

Hope

2009-04-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining and all seems well with the world when the sun is out, it gives us hope, it's just nice to sit in the sun and bask in the rays to be honest.
That has got me thinking about hope and the fact we have just celebrated the most hopeful event in all of history. Easter is all about Jesus being crucified and then rising back to life 3 days later. As a Christian I follow someone who is alive, that is one of the key differences all other worldviews follow people who are dead. The biggest black cloud that threatens to block out our sun is death, we can climb a mountain, run a marathon, get a promotion, have a family but we cannot beat death. However if Jesus really did then this gives us hope beyond hope.

One of my main objections to the Christian faith just a few years ago was the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Come on I said "his followers just said that to get a following", "they were hallucinating" "they were grieving and really wanted him to come back". Besides all those people back then were fairly primitive and they believed in miracles and resurrections we know now that these things simply don't happen.
I am going to break those down into three areas
Made up story
Hallucination
Primitive

Made up story - There are so many factors here, as always this blog will not do justice to all the evidence. When Jesus had died, the Roman authorities wanted to make sure that no one would take the body, armed guards were posted on the tomb. A large stone was in front, this could not have been removed without someone noticing. Both the Romans and the Jews at the time did not want this body to go anywhere. The first people that discovered the empty tomb where women, so what? In the culture women were second class citizens, there evidence was not permissible in a court, they were not taken seriously. Look, if you were going to make up a story you definitely wouldn't have used women as your initial eye witnesses. You would only put something like that in there if....it really happened. During the days that Jesus was dead his followers had literally deserted him, they had put all their hope in him only to find that he had died. They ran away and hid, we have accounts of them hiding in a room for fear of the people. They went back to their jobs the following week because they thought it was over. We then see as they begin to visually see Jesus this radical change in events, they begin to move out into the cities, other countries proclaiming what had happened. This was under huge danger to their lives, in fact many of them die for their beliefs. Now, you and I might die for something we sincerely believe but would you die for a lie? They claimed that they had seen Jesus alive, now either it was true or it was a lie, they died holding on to their statements. Now either these people died for a lie or they were telling the truth, I know which one I opt for.

This brings us on to an argument people often given - hallucination - maybe these people simply wanted Jesus back so much that they really thought they saw him. You hear of stories now where people have seen dead relatives maybe that is what happened. Again let’s look at the evidence, when Jesus came back people like doubting Thomas touched his side; he also ate with his disciples, separate sightings of him. But for me the crucial evidence is Jesus then appears to over 500 people, including the apostles, other followers, a large group who he talks to, his doubting family members, you can have one hallucination but a group cannot all see the same hallucination. We could go further with this, but seriously this is such a far stretched idea. Please drop me a line if you feel I haven't answered it.

Primitive - this is a commonly held theory that 2,000 years ago people were fairly backward, they didn't really understand the world, they thought it was flat for goodness sake; surely they had a view of the world that meant they expected Jesus to rise from the dead that's just how they saw things. This expectation gave rise to legend and things got out of hand and by the time we get on the scene who knows what really happened. - The first thing I would like to correct is that the world view of the day had any expectation on resurrection of the dead, the religions of the time never thought this likely. The jews believed there would be a resurrection at the end of time for everyone, but not in bodily form now that would be absurd. This was not something they expected, far from it. So much so that even Jesus' followers when they found the empty tomb thought someone had stolen the body rather than he was raised, even though Jesus had been telling them time and again that he would be raised! The people weren't primitive by any means; you only have to read the literature of the time. What would case this sudden rise of the Christian movement in a hugely dramatic way, just think for a moment how you would react if you saw him alive? You would probably pick your jaw up from the floor and then run and tell people, what happened, exactly that and this movement began that has seen billions and billions of people turn to Jesus, lives changed, I cannot explain it any other way. Do you know that serious critiques of the gospels even agree that Jesus appeared but they try to explain it away by suggesting that Jesus had twin brother, rather than come to the truth with humility. It really happened.
When a lawyer takes evidence, he takes the facts and they paint a picture of what happened. There are so many facts that the painting is almost painted for you, you can see the truth you just need to take that plunge....
Anyway it has been a long blog and I could write pages! If Jesus rose from the dead it really means that he is God, that he has conquered death. That what he said is true, that we need to turn away from our own way of doing things and turn to him. The Son is indeed shining and all will be right with the world, will you come and bask in his rays or will you stay in the dark?
Please drop me a line with your thoughts - georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Is Christianity exclusive?

2009-04-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

Doesn't Christianity seem a bit exclusive, the claim that Jesus is the only way to God is offensive. In fact it is that sort of claim that causes war, fighting and division. Christianity needs to get with the times. How can there possibly be only one answer, what about all the other religions? Haven't we all got a piece of the truth, whatever works for us and makes us feel the happiest is the right way?

That is a strong objection and one that I had against Christianity for quite a while. I then realised how exclusive the above claim was, I also realised that truth by its very definition is exclusive. If I say that this type font is size 12 then that excludes all other possibilities. It cannot both be size 10 and size 12, it can only be one or the other. So we need to know what the truth is.

Saying that we should tolerate everybody and that anyone that claims otherwise we shouldn't tolerate is a contradiction. It appears on the surface so tolerant to say everybody is valid, but then you don't tolerate those people who disagree with you. Let me give you an illustration. There are 4 blind men who believe they have the true religion, they walk into a room with a large elephant. One goes up to the leg and says God is like a thick tree with wrinkles on it, another walks up to the trunk and says God is like a long snake that moves around. Another walks up to the tail and says no God is like a small worm with a fluffy bit on the end, another walks to the body and says it is like a huge expanse. - Now the theory goes that all these people have some part of the truth, some part of who God is, that these people are like the different religions in the world who have some part of truth and really they all lead to God. However look more closely and notice the viewpoint of the person who is telling the story, that assumes the one telling the story knows the whole truth that it is an elephant they are feeling. That is exclusive, to say that all religions have some part of the truth and I know the whole truth. You cannot escape the fact that truth is exclusive.

How about we have a religion that says we are all equal, a religion that says we are saved not by our own good works, which creates pride and says I am better than you, how about a religion that breeds tolerance by saying love your enemy and friend alike. How about a religion where God comes and gets involved to show us what he is like so we don't have to walk around blindfolded feeling our way, how about a God who shows us rather than tells us? How about something we could test to see if it were true, an event in history that we could examine......

georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Humble

2009-03-22T02:44:00.000-07:00

Humility, or being humble, is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modest person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others. The opposite of humility is pride.

I strive for humility but fail on some many counts. However can I encourage you to approach your investigation of Christianity with that attitude, not thinking you have all the answers. God promises that if you do that he will supply you with his grace, he will help you...

How do you know which one to pick?

2009-03-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot of questions over the past few weeks about different religions, beliefs and so on. The question has generally been, there are many sincere people all holding on to their beliefs 100% how do you know which one is true? A muslim, genuinely believes in Islam, a Hindu in the same way, an atheist and so on.

That is a great question. For me it has to come down to the claims and evidence for those claims. How do we know anything is true? If I was to say I was 6ft 10in tall how would you know whether I was telling the truth? Firstly I think you would look at me and know I was telling porkies, however you may get a measure out and test it, you may get me to stand next to someone else who is 6ft 10in and so on. You would test it, you would investigate it, you would examine the evidence and then draw a conclusion. So many people I meet have never investigated what they believe, they put it off saying one day, make a commitment to investigate is the first starting point.

Christianity has some massive claims and really they all centre on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Some of the core claims are;
Jesus is God, the Son of God
Jesus died and rose again 3 days later
Jesus is the promised messiah

There are many more claims, but these are central. Let's face it if this Jesus fellow was killed and then rasied from the dead 3 days later then that is pretty watertight evidence for him being God. I think we can all agree that only God could perform that miracle. One of the strongest pieces of evidences for this is to see the reaction of those closest to Jesus at the time. Everyone disowned Jesus when he was going to be killed, his best mate Peter denied he every knew him. They all sold out, the bible records that they all hid together, they thought this Jesus was a fraud and that the end of their journey had arrived. They went and hid in a room. Jesus then comes back to life, appears to these people and many others at different points and the result is truly amazing, these cowards (they were and so would I have been) were transformed into men who literally went out to die for Christ from then on, they risked their lives to simply tell the news that Jesus was who he claimed to be. They were tortured, beheaded, stoned, beaten and all sorts but nothing stopped them proclaiming this news. What had transformed them from blubbering wrecks into the instigators of the biggest movement this planet has ever seen? You decide that one, I've made up my mind.

Some people say, yeah but the church just fabricated this to make it look that way. These reports are written within 15-20 years of Jesus, other historians who were not Christians have written about this. There is more evidence for what Jesus did and the result than anything else in the ancient world. If people made this up they wouldn't have written that the disciples were cowards, that the empty tomb was found by women, that the LORD was killed on a tree. you know that saying you couldn't make this stuff up, that is true for this. There is just so many clues to this that Miss Marple wouldn't even show up to investigate. You apply this evidence to any court case today and it would be over by the end of the day.

The problem we have is that God demands something from us, you see if what I am telling you is true than it means we owe our lives to God because he made us. That is scary, but let me assure you when you stop running away and start running to it is the most amazing thing. I so want you to meet him...drop me a line georgeosborn@hotmai.com

The heart of it...

2009-02-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

What is the biggest cry of our hearts? What is our greatest desire? What do we want most in life? I don't simply mean, we want something nice to eat at the end of the day, or someone to value us. I mean what is at the core of our being, what are most films about, what was valentines day all about, what are they fairytales all about that you read as a little child - love! We all long to be unconditionally loved, to be told I love you, not because your good at something or because you have behaved well (we know we all haven't done that) but to be loved just for simply being us, warts 'an all.
Most religions say the only way you are going to get right with your creator is by behaving well, following a set of rules. This then gives rise to pride, I am better than everyone else because I am sooo good or rise to guilt, I am soooo bad I am never going to make it.
Jesus says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Turn to me and I love you so much I was willing to die for you. I know all of your sins. He spoke to a woman who had 5 husbands and had lived as an outcast, she acknowledged her sin and he welcomed her. Prostitutes came to him, tax collectors real scum of the society back then. Why did they come, the came because they knew they had screwed things up, they weren't proud. They came and he set them free from being a slave to prostitution, this grace so overwhelms people that their lives completely change. God has graciously shown me his love.
There is a story in the bible about two sons, one of them asks his father for his inheritance early. Basically Dad, I want you dead all I want is your money. He goes off with his fortune and squnaders it all on drink, women, fun and all that jazz. After a while he runs out of money and is desperate, he ends up living it rough until he decides to go back home and at least see if his Dad will give him a job somewhere. He knows he has to go back grovelling, he is going to have to work hard to make this right even if his father will talk to him. We then get this scene where the Dad is sitting out front of the house (paraphrased) and sees this figure a far off, he runs to greet him, he is overjoyed, there are tears rolling down his face, he is consumed with love for this lost son. They meet and he embraces him, he instructs the workers to get the best calf for a party, to give his son the best robe.
Now did he deserve that treatment, not at all. However the Fathers love is the centre piece of the story not whether or not he deserved it. The father is obviously God.
There was also another son in the story and he was fuming that the son should get all this treatment, but I have kept all the rules, I have been good. The son missed the point, the father loved him too but not because he kept any rules, because he was his son.
You cannot earn God's love. It is a gift, pure grace, underserved, all he asks is will you come to him.

How can you trust an old book?

2009-02-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Bible, an out of date and out of touch book or the meaning to life? A big question. I know when I first started looking at Christianity I thought how can you trust a book, and so much of what is in the Bible goes against what I believe, isn't it a legend that has built up over the years, there are many good things in the bible you just shouldn't insist that everything is correct.

3 ways you can trust the bible - historically, culturally and personally.

Historically - the arguement goes, who knows who the real Jesus was, the stories were made up to create a following and build an empire. However, the new testament accounts are simply written to early for legend to be built up. The gospel of Luke says it is written as testimony from the eyewitnesses of the day. Paul who wrote some of the letters in the Bible wrote them within 15-20 years of Jesus' life. Most of the people would have been alive when he wrote this public document, he could only write that if it were the case. He even quotes a hymn that talks about who Jesus was as God and his resurrection, this hymn would have been written even earlier than Paul's writting. Therefore from the begining Jesus was being held up as risen from the dead as God. Imagine I said that there was an explosion today in London and two buses were destroyed, if this didn't happen (and it didn't) then it would simply be disregarded and never hold weight. In addition there are so many things in the bible that wouldn't have been put there if it was made up, the disciples are made out to be cowards, making silly mistakes, women as eye witness testimony when women held no credit at the time, if you were making things up you would never say things like that. There is loads more than this, too much to write here. There are so many prophecies in the old testament of the Bible about Jesus, there are over 5 seperate references to him. Including where he would be born, when, to whom, town, how he would die, what name he would be given and on and on....

Culturally - don't make the mistake of thinking our culture (whatever our culture might be) is the right one, just think back to 1800's and how silly we think their behaviour was, make no mistake in 100 years your family will look back on this time and think primitive. Our culture is not a dictate of the truth, these things are ever shifting. Also don't simply dip into the Bible and think that you have the teaching correctly understood, a bit like dipping into 2 minutes of the middle of a film and saying I will never watch it. If there is something you are struggling with, please ask someone or investigate it. There were so many things I thought when I first started out, this is weird and actually it turns out I was weird the teaching was totally opposite. A bit like when you are at school and your teachers tell you that you'll miss school when you leave or your parents say what till you have kids, the point being we let our surroundings give us blinkers and prevent us seeing more. Let me give you an example our culture may say what the bible says about sex is old fashioned, however what is says about loving your neighbour and forgiving people is great and helpful. However take that to the middle east and they would say the sex thing is great, but loving your enemy and forgiving is foolish. The Bible is going to contradict every culture at various points, that doesn't make it untrue.

Personally - SO many millions of people have had their lives transformed by the Bible's teaching it is untrue. Are these all made up? A trick of the mind? Just convinced a bit like a placebo? Turn that on its head, maybe you have been convinced by something? Who has the bigger motive here, I know for me the if the Bible was true then it meant a total change of life, that was reason enough for me to ignore it for a number of years! However once I came to God and said I give up, I need help, I surrender to you, wow, he got involved and has given me a new heart and it has cost me everything yet it has been everything.

I encourage you to visit these links for help and some typical questions, they are so helpful.

IS the bible reliable? - http://download.redeemer.com/sermons/Literalism_Isnt_the_Bible_historic.mp3

How can God allow suffering? - http://download.redeemer.com/sermons/Suffering_If_God_is_good.mp3

Don't we all just find the truth for ourselves? - http://download.redeemer.com/sermons/Absolutism_Dont_we_all_have_to.mp3

Drop me a line if you need anything - georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Idols

2009-01-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

The ten commandments can sometimes seem harsh, cold and judgemental. In fact I received a speeding fine this week, there were circumstances leading to this but the law does not care about these and rightly so! There is no grace in the law, like a over bearing teacher it sticks to the rules no matter what. This feeling, thought and notion then gets directed towards God, isn't he cold, judging and uncaring.
Take the first commandment for example "you are to have no other gods before me, to love God with all your heart soul and mind..." - doesn't this just speak of God as a dictator, jealous for his own attention? This needs to be broken down and therefore I want to look at what other gods are being referred to and then why we shouldn't worship them.
Initially you might think well I don't worship any gods, in fact I don't believe in god at all. The worship of other gods here is referring to anything you put in God's place to seek your pleasure and joy. What if it was taken away from you would cause your world to collapse, if you lost your job, your phone, your family? Where do you get your identity from? Let me ask it a different way, what in your heart if you had it would solve all your problems? We all walk through life thinking if I just get that job, just get husband, just have a child life will be sorted. These things in and of themselves are not bad, however when they are the end seeking of our heart, when we look for our satisfaction in them, then this is what is called idol worship. Is it money, sex, sport, the right body...we could go on.
Now the reason that God would forbid these things is that you were made to be in relationship with God, that longing in your heart has been put there by God. A toaster is made to toast bread, a chair to be sat in, a keyboard to be typed, you were made to be with God and you will not find your wholeness and being until you find him. Therefore God asking you to come to him is the most loving thing in the whole universe because that is what you are made for. The Bible says why do we dig out old toilets and drink water from broken cisterns when we have the stream of living water in God. So God is not cold, God is totally seeking after your happiness which is only found in Him.
The real message about God is that he loves you so much that he is prepared to come and die in your place so that you can have this perfect relationship. Through Christ we can be free of slavery to these idols, we don't need to seek our happiness in a bottle, in what people think of us it is all in him, now that is total freedom. He doesn't demand it and therefore has given us time on this earth to come to him. He has appointed a time when he will say that enough is enough....where do you stand? I know how alien this sounds, I used to be in the same boat, all I would encourage you to do is to investigate...georgeosborn@hotmail.com

If it works for you...

2009-01-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

One of the common phrases given to me about my Christian faith is "if it works for you mate". There is a thought that you pick your faith based on what works for you, my motivation was seeking the truth and in the process I have found the ultimate joy!

I know for people who don't yet believe it is really confusing, what about all the other religions, what about evolution, what about aliens etc etc. Firstly all roads do not lead to the same place. All religions contradict one another and therefore each one is claiming to be the truth, so how do you know which is true? All require an element of faith, this simply means trust without knowing for 100% certainty.You are likely sat in a chair reading this and therefore you are putting faith in that chair that it will support you. You put faith into your partner that they will love and care for you based on past behaviour and words that have been spoken. Evolutionists have faith, atheists have faith, Muslims have faith, Buddhists and so on. Each person should evaluate the evidence, pray and make their decision, it is important to look at all the evidence. I am not going to go into the merits or otherwise of each belief but implore you to examine them all, I shall speak here of why Christianity is overwhelming for me....
Creation - look around you, this did not come about from an explosion, only look to the middle east at the moment and see that explosions do not create things they destroy them
Conscience - where does this come from if not from a moral being...God
Jesus Christ - a historical figure, miracles, healings, an event that can be tested in time
Resurrection - again a historical event that was witnessed by seperate groups of people over 500 in all...
Changed lives - new Christians at the time of Jesus completely swept over the land, people wouldn't have died for a lie (Jesus rose) people die for something they sincerly believe not a lie, so they claimed they saw Jesus alive and died for it time and time again. Millions and millions and millions of people since have had their lives transformed by a living God in the name of Jesus. Miracles.
Revelation in the Bible - the bible is an amazing book filled with prophecy upon prophecy, where Jesus was born, how he would die, what would happen to him, what he would say at his trial, who would come before him, what would happen to him on the cross, why he would come....and on and on....

Investigate it....please. - georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Intolerance, stress and hell - nice and light!

2009-01-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

Well it was over a year ago that I last wrote...well ok a few days! I had a mixed Christmas, always feel a bit greedy and self-indulgent over Christmas.
I did hear a couple of funny comments over the festive period though. Two people I know said different comments although amounting to the same thing -
"Life is all about avoiding stress" said one friend...
"I like Christianity that makes me feel good, I don't like all this talk of hell.." (paraphrased from another friend)
So why do I find these interesting, I think because they both sum up the culture we live in in many ways. The first comment says the best life is the most comfortable stress free life, don't bother me, let me do exactly what I want to do, me me me.
The second comment in many ways is the same, I don't want to feel stress, I don't want to think about things that are uncomfortable, make me feel good, I want to be comfortable. Our society says that you cannot say somebody else is wrong, we will tolerate anything but that. The question has to be asked how is that tolerant, the old way of doing things was to say you can say anything you like and I will defend your right to say it although I may bitterly disagree with it. Now we say you can't say something that disagrees with other people, that is not PC - this is bizarre. In order to tolerate something you need to let it happen, you can't tolerate something that hasn't happened. This is the intolerance of todays tolerance! Rant over.
I would like to address the hell issue however, it is one that makes many uncomfortable. How can a loving God send people to hell, if God is love how can he hate people by sending them to hell, isn't hell just a bit harsh? There are a few questions there but I would like to try and answer them, with the awareness that this blog and little George (ok not so little) cannot adequately answer them, but here goes...
How can a loving God send people to hell - unfortunately we are all moral criminals, by that I mean we have broken God's law. We have all lied, taken God's name in vain, taken something that doesn't belong to us. God even says our thought life will be judged!! Imagine putting all your thoughts on public display for 24 hours eeek! Now I want you to imagine for a moment that someone you love is shot and murdered (heaven forbid) and they catch the criminal bring him to court and the judge says "because I am a loving guy, I am going to let you off you are free to go" you would be fuming, the reason is for the sake of justice that man must be punished. Now I want you to imagine that you are in the courtroom at the end of your life, God is bound by the same justice he cannot sweep your breaking of the moral law under the carpet, he must punish sin to remain just. Your good deeds do not make up for your crimes either, in the same way they don't in our courts. So there is a hell because God must be just, imagine also if God let liars, thieves and so on into heaven, it wouldn't be heaven it wouldn't be perfect. Now God has done the most amazing thing, he sent his son to die in your place, you're in that court of law and Jesus has paid your fine, God can legally dismiss your case! You must turn away from your sin (breaking the law) and make Jesus number 1 and he forgives you. Awesome, anyway getting sidetracked.
If God is love how can he hate people and send them to hell - hopefully the above has helped answer this question. However another illustration that helps show other situations where our love means we hate. You may love children and therefore hate abortion, you may love people and therefore hate murder. It is exactly because of his love why he must punish sin. In punishing sin it also shows God's worth, he is protecting his value. If he says it doesn't really matter if you ignore me or use my name as a cuss word or abuse people, he is then saying that he is not of value, he is not worth anything. Another illustration - let's imagine a stood on an ant and killed it, would I go to prison or be punished in anyway? No way, what about if I stood on a dog? I would probably get a few words from someone but no prison. What about if I killed a small child? I would definitely go to jail, be treated as scum by all of society. Why? Becuase that child is worth so much more than the ant and the dog, so the punishment shows the value we put on the victim or the crime. Which probably goes onto the next question...
Isn't hell a bit harsh - Above I have discussed that the punishment shows the value. This is really hard to put across in words. But the value of God is infinite, he is the highest being in the whole universe, he created all things, all the galaxies, the electrons, protons, sunsets, relationships, sex, laughter, we could go on and on...this is the complex bit, if you offend an infinite being we therefore deserve an infinite punishment. That's why say spending a 100 years in hell and then going to heaven simply wont cut the mustard. That's why offering GOd some good deed is such an insult to him, he is infinite, begining and the end, alpha and omega. If I said that the person who murdered the little girl gets 1 year in prison, you would be outraged and angry, now ask yourself why? She is worth more than that, insulting God or committing a crime against him personally (which is what our sin is) is of more offence than killing a million million little children. He is the most valuable thing in the whole universe! Does this help or not at all? georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

guess one of the benefits of having a blog is you can moan about what you want to moan about! I don't normally like moaning but one thing gets my goat is when people say xmas instead of CHRISTmas. This season unfortunately is more about presents and father Christmas than Christ for many people. I have a dream, I have a vision, I may not get there with you but I wanna see Christ back in Christmas! Spare a thought for who it really is about this Christ..mas

Good deeds don't outweigh bad ones!

2008-12-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

There is a misconception out there that by performing lots of good things we can somehow make up for all the bad things we have done. There is so much danger in this, not least because it gives rise to pride "i'm better than you because I have done more good", Christian churches are full of this mentality and I have been guilty of this myself. We want to look at ourselves and say how good we have been, surely all the good I have done makes up for those mistakes I made?
Try that in a court of law, you are before the Judge for murder and you say "I gave money to charity, helped Doris accross the road everyday, worked in a charity shop, feed hungry people..." The Judge would reply that is great what you have been doing but you are on trial for murder and these things have nothing to do with that, you are guilty of murder and he would meet out your punishment, it is called justice.
God is a just God and he must punish our breaking of the law, so if you have ever told a lie (who hasn't), taken something that doesn't belong to you, looked at someone lustfully, been jealous over someone elses things and so on..then you are guilty just like me! We have no leg to stand on. If we are honest would we be guilty, I am and everyone is. Therefore would God allow people like that into heaven, it wouldn't be heaven would it, he must punish and that is what hell is all about. He doesn't want us to go there, he loves us that much that he sent his son to die a cruel and painful death on the cross in order to take our punishment. It is like you are sitting in the electric chair and Jesus walks in and takes your place, your debt or fine is paid by Jesus's death on the cross. Justice is satisfied. There is no greater love than someone dying for you, someone who dies for you even though you don't love them! This love transforms your life, God says there are two things you must do to receive this forgiveness, 1 be willing to turn from the wrong things and 2 make Jesus number one in your life - wow.
Drop me a line at georgeosborn@hotmail.com with any question, statement, help, anything....

Getting out there...

2008-12-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

Since being a Christian and spending more time in church it has surprised me at what it actually means to be a church. A church is people not a building, when God talks about building his church he is talking about building people. Where we meet together is where we get patched up, fed and sent back out into the world, as Jesus said "GO into the world..."
I have just been out on the streets and meet a few people, one lad is serving in the Navy and lost his father at a young age. He was really touched to hear the Christian message and let me pray with him, he speaks with his chaplain when times are tough. I spent about 15 minutes with another bloke who just hadn't thought much about it and had loads of questions, he has agreed to come on a course in the New Year, we exchanged numbers. He really wants to investigate it, you can't ask more than that.
One of the common things we do, I certainly did, was say I'll get around to it one day, do you know there are 150,000 people who die everyday, I bet the majority of them said the same thing...
We have a course coming up at my church on th 27th January to ask questions and examine the evidence, why not get around to it? If you are not local then I am sure there is a church near you doing the same?

Genius!

2008-12-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

Some quotes from Einstein you might like, he is often quoted as being an atheist, I'll let you make up your own mind...

“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views”
“We know nothing about [God, and the world] at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren. Possible we shall know a little more than we know now. But the real nature of things, that we shall never know, never.”
“I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of the pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions so how can it conceive of a God before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one.”
When asked about Christianity he said “As a child I received instruction in both the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”
When asked about the historical existence of Jesus he said “Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
About the Creator’s existence he said “I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”
“What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos.”
He wrote in a letter “The fanatical atheists, are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who – in their grudge against traditional religion as ‘the opium of the masses’ – cannot hear the music of the spheres.”
In other words, because of their hatred of traditional religion, they cannot see the genius of God’s handiwork in creation.

Salvation

2008-12-14T09:33:00.001-08:00

Had a topsy turvy couple of days and the pair of slippers someone gave me on Friday are quite apt, Mr Bump!
Friday I was part of a youth event called Amplify (http://www.amplify-uk.com/) and gave the talk. It was around what salvation is, a word we don't often use. Salvation means saving from evil, a good picture is a crushed car that is taken from the compound and restored. That is exactly what Christ does, he takes our lives and restores us, bringing back together the most important relationship of all the one we were made for...knowing God. Don't you want to know God, I promise you that if you come to him humbly through his Son Jesus Christ then you can know him!! Wow. You know we spend weeks investigating what car to buy, months looking into what house to buy, years looking into what partner to be with, yet when it comes to our eternity, our relationship with God we spend next to know time! Make this Christmas the start of that investigation, you will not regret it!
There are among other things 5 clear ways that God is trying to shout out to us, 1. his death on the cross, 2. Christians, 3. Creation, 4. Your conscience, 5. rising from the dead...drop me a line with any questions

Empathy

2008-12-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

I think it is so important to put yourself in other peoples shoes, even just for a moment. I therefore want to extend that to anyone who is not yet a Christian. I know what it was like from the other side, these weirdo's keep going on about a God, these weird smiles all over their faces, Holier than thou attitudes (or so it appears!) Can I implore you to put these aside and simply examine the information without throwing it to one side thinking you know what people are going to say...

One of the strong pieces of evidence for a God is your own conscience, the bible says that God has written right and wrong on your heart. Con means with and science means knowledge, therefore when we do wrong things we do them with knowledge. That's the feeling of guilt you get when you do something wrong.

Now at this point people often say to me that their parents taught them right from wrong and it has nothing to do with God. Let me answer that by asking a question (true politician style) if they taught you to lie or to steal would you say that was right or wrong, obviously we would say wrong. At this point people say well then society teaches us right from wrong. I use the same analorgy and take someone like Hitler for example who taught his society that killing jews was an acceptable thing to do, our hearts cry out that this is wrong and we demand justice. Therefore if it is not our parents, not our society that teaches us where does this internal demand for justice come from. I don't see many monkeys, gorillas, fish or any animals with courts of law, spanking for their children or forms of justice. This is because the bible is very clear that God has written it on our hearts, God says that man will be without excuse. He also says that man has been given a rescue plan, will you investigate it?

All glory to God

2008-11-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

We doubt, we fear, we get used to the norm and we forget what is possible. Do you remember those toys called weebles? The slogan was "weebles wobble but they don't fall down" I like to think of Christians in the same way. The weebles were made with a round bottom so no matter what you did they would spring back up! Well our weapon is Christ himself, and seriously with him you never fall down.
All our shame, guilt, fear gets nailed to the cross with Christ and we get to live an amazing new life with the risen Jesus. We are free, truly free. How would Christians live differently if we really believed this, I think we would have a permanent smile on our face and that is just for starters. We would tell everyone the news, we wouldn't be able to help it. You know when you get a new girlfriend or score a try at rugby, get married, have a child, what do you do but tell everyone?
If you are not a Christian and you are reading this thinking yeah whatever, please drop me a line. I thought exactly the same way and there is so much out there to discover that there is no greater joy for me than to help in any way I can?

The light shines more brightly the darker it gets!

2008-11-18T02:49:00.000-08:00

Last night was Outside Light and it was a tough night, a few comrades had fallen to colds other engagements and so on. It left a team of 3, there is a passage in the old testament of the bible that talks about God reducing an army right down from 30,000 to about 300 and winning the battle against all the odds. Basically with God on your side your not going to lose is the message.
We managed to have a great night, prayed with people and get into some interesting debates.

Some people I meet often say to me but you cannot prove there is a God - If I showed you a beautiful painting would you demand proof that there was a painter or would you simply know there must have been. The bible says the same, it teaches that man is without excuse when it comes to seeing God, his creation is all around us. Atheists and evolutionists try and explain away a God, this to me is the equivalent of saying there is no builder, or this is no car maker for that car, there is no painter for that masterpiece. Now we can all see that the world around us is far more complex than any car or painting, even the most simplest cells is made from thousands of parts. Lets imagine for a moment that I gave you a tin of sardines and said leave that for a few thousand years and when you open it you will have several live and kicking sardines, you would call me a loon. Yet you are expecting me to take a gigantic leap of faith further with evolution, that the cells within those sardines found themselves together and somehow got life put into them, let the scales fall from your eyes and allow yourself to see the truth...

If you have questions about how you can be sure there is a God or you disagree drop me a line, it is good to debate these things

All to Jesus...

2008-11-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

Somedays you get a lot done and today was one of those, thanks to Jesus for setting it up with a great reading from the bible about why Jesus came. He is the person who gives and we are the ones who receive, it really is that simple!
Parent group this morning met another couple of mums and hooked up with a Dad, we have also set a date for a intro to Christianity course in Jan on the 28th during the day time.
Went into Winston churchill school to continue weekly detached work and had a great time, people coming to me now to ask for information. I explained to one lad why Jesus came, what Christians believe and encouraged him to make up his own mind. I think there is a misconception out there that Christians somehow try and brainwash people into there beliefs, one of my main challenges to people is to investigate it yourself and make up your own mind. Sadly so many of us get wrapped up in life, that we give little thought to what the true meaning is or why we are here, life is so fast! We need to slow down and spend some time thinking and talking, as we see now life is not about money that so easily comes and goes...
The CU saw an increase in numbers today which was great. Heard some news about my visit to the school on Monday and people wanting to know more.
Drop me a line with anything you would like to see on this site or any help I can offer anyone.

what have I learned...

2008-11-11T09:14:00.001-08:00

I often think what have I learned about God recently, however I think a more appropriate question, certainly this last week, would be what have you forgotten?
I have forgotten to some extent God's grace, his underserved, unmerited, unwarranted loving of people who seek his mercy. We need to stop being religious and simply be people of faith who enjoy God and therefore come to him because we love him not because we can earn favour. Jesus has earned all the favour we need by dieing on the cross, trying to fill up this imaginary gap is, I think, an insult to Jesus.
I have had a good few days learning more about God and his promises that he never breaks!
I went to a school in Cobham yesterday and was able to share the gospel with about 30 people, a few feathers rustled and one boy was very convicted and wanted to know what he could do to get right with God and Argos (he stole a pen from there).
Today has been lots of admin and some time out in the parish giving out tracts and trying to talk to people although that did not go great guns. Alpha course tonight, which is a great opporunity to talk about the gospel and see others learn more about God.
One of the things about this blog is the joy of seeing God answer pray, and reflect on what he has been doing.

To face trials is normal, to overcome them is faithful

2008-11-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

I have been having a really tough week, I have a sermon to do on Sunday and it is all about being attacked. Well guess what I am being.
Today has been a great day although I haven't felt like it all day! Our feelings are so often not a good indication of the truth.
Had a couple of really good conversations at Winston School today, ones that you long for and went well. Some more information given out and relationships built.
I have something on my wall that says will I go and meet people even when all is against me, today feels like all is against me! I asked God for a strength and the last thing I wanted to do was meet people therefore God had me - prayer meeting in the morning, Parents group, into school and then out on the street meeting people! That never came from me, our weakness is God's opportunity to shine!! 3 lads, all listened to the gospel and we had an interesting debate about the world and other religions. Keep pushing on.

Think about it...

2008-11-04T02:43:00.000-08:00

Met a young lad last night who has never really thought about life, just kinda bumbled along. I explained to him about the gospel and challenged him to at the very least think about things. The Bible says that God has written eternity on our hearts so that we have this longing within us, he has written that hope in order that we do search....

Nothing compares

2008-10-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

The Outside Light group went to visit a family we have been speaking to for a number of months. We had particularly been speaking with the son, however he has been in jail for the last couple of months. The last time we visited the family we got the opportunity to talk to the mum and the sister and had an amazing conversation. We prayed for them and it was a touching time, the sister gave me a present to say thank you and it was a special evening. The mum used to be a Christian a long time ago but had fallen away due to arguements and unforgiveness, they went back last night and she has returned to church. She has been going for the last few weeks on a Tuesday! Thank you Lord, we don't do this for fruit but when it comes it is a real blessing. This is what it is all about, the Father is now asking lots questions. Please pray for him.

Treasure the other side....

2008-10-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

This afternoon went really well. I met someone who thought he was Jesus, he had basically led a perfect life. Met some workmen who were not afraid to die and had a great gospel conversation with one of them. People are generally open to talking about the spiritual, it is us usually who put up the barriers. It is like a hurdle with a piece of treasure the other side, you need to jump over the hurdle to get there but how worth it.
Met a sweet old lady from a church up the road who was really touched to have had the meeting, as was I. A lad gave me a hug who I had met from school over the last couple of weeks and another was really keen to stop and talk. You really don't know what goes on behind the scenes of peoples hearts, I know someone who does though...keep looking to Christ.

A thousand excuses, only one reason...

2008-10-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

There is a huge hunger in me to share my faith, there is also a huge monster in me called fear. It is a battle that gets quite exhausting sometimes. This morning I made a firm commitment that I was not going into the office until I had shared the gospel with someone. About 7 people passed me over the next half hour, all of which had there valid reason, in my mind, for not being able to stop and listen to the gospel.

I then heard a cry in my head saying are you ashamed of me, gulp! I was afraid of what people would think of me. I saw a lady walking along and took the plunge. It was well worth it, she was committed to Christ as a child but felt she had been dealt to many blows to carry on with her faith. I shared the gospel and prayed for her at the end. Pray with me that she is convicted and hungry to come back to Christ. I am going back out in a couple of hours, I can't wait and really don't want to go, the paradox that is so often the case...Keep going for it!

I am not ashamed of the good news...

2008-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Had a great opporunity to share the good news with a young lad I have been speaking to over the past couple of weeks. We went through a new presentation I have using a pad and dry wipe pen, it is great to have something visual when sharing.

Been out and about following up contacts and building on some relationships with existing people at our church this last week. We have lots of people who come to church but probably don't know a lot else about the Christian message...some good conversations.

Out and about

2008-10-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

When you leave your diary to God, things happen! I had planned to go for a walkies around the village today, get up to date with some visits and see what would happen. I had a strong sense that God wanted me out today, I prayed he would lead me where he willed.
I bumped into two people, one of which I never knew lived in the area, I had shared the gospel with her some weeks back and got another opportunity. The second I had not seen for a number of months, he goes to another church and I had the chance to pray with him. He is out of work and struggling on his benefits.
The visits went ok, not many in, left some messages and spoke to a couple, I hope some fruit comes from it. Keep stepping out.

Farmer George

2008-10-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

I was out walking the other day and cut through a path into a freshly ploughed field. I have been talking a great deal recently about ploughing ground, preparing people to hear the good news of Jesus coming to rescue.
I then thought about my role as teaching others these principles of ploughing, sowing, watering, harvesting, threshing. my next train of thought was to think I am a farmer really. What dawned on me next I can only describe as God's sense of humour and an example of what I think it means to be in a living relationship with God. For years I had fought the meaning of my name, you know when someone gives you one of those mugs with the meaning of your name, or a place mat with your name's meaning. The meaning of my name is farmer, can you believe it? Now this probably doesn't seem odd to anyone else, but for years I have shunned that, believing that my name was more likened to a kings name or someone of huge importance. I have received so many lessons from this, the main one is my pride all those years at thinking so highly of myself. The second is over the past months I have been enquiring of God what my name is, Paul was formally Saul, the disciples got named again and this is something we see often in the Bible. So I had been asking God what is my name or more importantly who am I to you? The reply was, I believe, you are a Farmer. The even more obsurd thing is how happy I am to be called this after all those years of fighting the thought!
I think God is one of the funniest people I know if not the most...

Life in the gospel...

2008-10-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

The bible often talks about fighting a battle, that our battle is with the spiritual and ourselves. Recently I have been fighting myself, all within me cries out don't share the gospel no one wants to hear it. God's word is often called the sword with which we fight, so I put up Mark 15:16 where Jesus instructed us to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel! That's good enough for me...

Last night had a conversation with a builder on his way home down the canal, I shared the gospel with him and challenged him to really think and investigate these issues. Please pray for him.

My friend has encouraged me to use some new techniques and visuals when sharing the gospel and I tried them out at Winston School today for the 1st time. It was amazing, it is a small book that goes through the gospel and you fill in the blanks with a pen as they give answers, it includes them in it and the biblical principles behind this simple message are great. About 7/8 people were all listening and struck by the gospel. It was like pennies were dropping, they understood, I pray it drops into their hearts and other Christians get a chance to keep building on thier hearts. We are all in this, keep telling people the news.

One of the results of sharing was I could not wipe this silly grin from my face, I was in joy as it reminds me again of the gospel and what a honour it is to be telling others the news, not a chore or something to be feared. Don't let the lies in...

Alpha and Omega

2008-10-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

Where does it all GO, the time I mean, where, one minute its September and the next it is October! Psalm 103 - As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blowws on it, and it is gone... the Lords love lasts forever.

I met an interesting chap at the weekend who was telling me how he sees the Trinity in everything, he said look at time for example, past present future! Then he said why did Jesus say I am the light, we had an interesting conversation about light, what is it, you can't touch it or really look at it. When you break down the light what happens, it is reduced to...3 colours, think back to your prism experiments at school. God really is in everything!

It has been a great week for outreach, Outside Light on Monday, our Alpha course began on Tuesday, Wednesday into Winston school, Thursday ladies bible study talk, Friday Amplify, Saturday in Wales with Avanti ministries, Sunday praising God! That to me is a pretty perfect week.

Amplify is a youth event (www.amplify-uk.com) and we had mixed things up this time and it went amazingly well. A good crowd there and the talk was simple and very effective. I had a strong sense that God has really done a work in peoples lives that night. I had a couple of conversations with people who were on the edge of making decisions and investigating Christianity, they found Amplify really helpful in doing that.

Saturday I met up with the Avanti team in Wales, Tony Anthony who heads this organisation has agreed to be my mentor. He is sold out for Jesus and his teaching is awesome. It was a great reminder for me to get away from focusing on results in evangelism, Jesus simply instructed us to GO into the world and tell the news, to love people and the greatest love is what Christ did. So much of our church activity has turned into come to church, rather than GO! I am going to be going on a mission overseas with Avanti and cannot wait. In the evening on Saturday Tony gave hs testimony and then delivered the gospel message in such a clear way and a number became Christians. A privilage to watch and be a part of.

We had a Bryn Haworth concert at our church and although I couldn't be there it is a great success and a touching evening.

I really want to challenge any Christian reading this to keep the main thing on the agenda, that is telling people the good news. Get some tracts to give to people, learn the gospel message for yourself so you can share it readily. Commit to being a part of the army of Christ who will risk everything and lose all so that they may gain Christ and see others doing the same.

Christ is all we need, he has all the time in his hands, He is the Alpha and Omega...

Stepping up!

2008-09-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

It is so easy to get distracted and knocked off course! I had a really good night with Outside Light last night. I had been feeling discouraged that gospel conversations weren't always resulting in the outcome I wanted. This is not my job, I have been tasked with proclaiming the truth not the results, not the way people react. It is a bit like working in a restaurant and being told to peel the potatoes and then getting upset that people aren't eating the carrots, its got nothing to do with me.

Jesus told us to GO into all the world and proclaim the gospel, that's it, he does the rest! Thanks to Phil H for reminding me of this.

I had a really clear gospel conversation last night and the boy asked me for the next bit to the story, "I really want to know the next bit, what do I have to do.." I pray that he went home that night and got on his knees and prayed.

Have lots of dates for outreach and equipping in the diary so just need the people now!

Alpha starts tonight
Amplify 3rd Oct - www.amplify-uk.com
11th Oct - 10.00am outreach at St Johns
12th Oct - 11.30 am equipping session and valuable teaching
1st Nov - Outreach, town wide at St Johns
16th Nov - Asif Mall, sharing your faith with Muslims @11.30am St Johns

Gave a tract out after shopping and the bloke was very perplexed that I should be giving him something for nothing, he couldn't quite work it out. I pray it builds a foundation with him, that other can build on.

Psalm 103, we are but grass in the field, here today, gone tomorrow so make the most of today!

God overflows with grace

2008-09-24T02:09:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting few days. Sunday was an Outside Light barbecue and it was great, only reservation was I had to preach at the evening service so my heart was in overdrive and I wasn't great company! It was great to meet some more of my brothers in arms family and get to know people better, we also got the chance to view the promotion video and it looks good.

I have been challenged to stop looking at God as someone who is ticking off lists or shaking his head everytime I get something wrong. God is totally for those that turn to him and surrender, He is our Father not our dictator. He loves us not because he needs something from us but because he overflows with his goodness, there is no bad in him. He is holy and that is awesome.

Last couple of nights have been out with Outside Light and Monday was a challenge, some of the team had taken some hits and we went out with the walking wounded. Other members had gone missing in action and we continue to pray that more soldiers would be enlisted.

On Monday there was a group of lads who had a few beers and were talking very derogatory about women and to be honest nothing worse than I have ever said in the past, however an anger rsoe in me at the offense that this caused Jesus. I think we often forget that treating people in this way hugely offends God, it hurts him, he cries over it. I get a sudden sense of this as they were talking and so I went over and said "You've just broken the law", they looked a bit worried as to what law they had broken, it then paved the way to talk about sin and the gospel. A debate started with a gentleness and respect that lasted most of the time I was there. My background has been in sales, however I want to encourage people that sharing your faith is not a sales game. We are called to speak the truth, to tell people the news, I prefer to think of myself as a news reader, telling people the facts. God does anywork of convicting, changing, shaping, moulding, death to life stuff. Just tell them the truth. I think half the battle comes when we try and water down the gospel because we think it wont appeal, we soften our language so it doesn't sound too bad, we talk of Jesus helping with life and giving us purpose, all the while the gospel looses its life giving power! It is true that being with Jesus is great, it is true that you have purpose. However the gospel in its simplest form should include - What is sin, What Jesus has done, what we must do and consequence of not, the cost of following Christ.

I also followed up on some old contacts on Monday from our church door knocking programme, there were some really positive results and a willingness to talk. Please pray that people will keep their promises and come along to hear God's word.

Tuesday I met up with a contact at Christ Church and he is really keen for the evangelism teams from the different churches to come along to St Johns outreach, get some training and support one another. Great news and looking forward to that development.

I also went to see some of the team at Emmaneul Mayford and they went to pick up the priority of Evangelism and develop this within their church, it is really exciting. They want to use some of the resource at St Johns and things are starting to roll....

Tuesday night, there were pockets of gospel sharing going on all over the place. It started as looking like a slow evening with only a few out. However before long, people were giving out tracts, talking about science and religion and generally getting God on the agenda. At the start of the evening one of the young people now joins us for prayer and then at the end of the evening two others joined for prayer. This is quite something and I pray these lives are saved by Christ.

Just got back from Winston and had some good conversations and opportunities. They still love the coins and as soon as you get them out it draws a crowd. Pray that they will understand the message and be drawn to Christ rather than the coins!

Going into Winston CU now and then off for a talk this evening, God is great.

Ordained moments and meetings...

2008-09-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

This week has been a mixed bag of highs and lows, fears and grace. We had our Outside Light meeting last week (www.outsidelight.blogspot.com) we are fast approaching setting up as a registered charity and exciting times ahead, our publicity video is nearing its completion, the team seems to be growing.

I guess it makes sense that this week was a bit of a low, there weren't many young people out on Monday and I was feeling really tired. My eyes were firmly fixed on me, I had not got centred on Christ and the truth is it affected me on Monday as I went out in my own ability. I am glad I failed, it taught me a valuable lesson. Keep your eyes fixed on the author and perfector of our faith, everything else pales next to Him. I am speaking at the service on Sunday and God has graciously been teaching me this week that my joy and his glory are wonderfully intertwined, they work together, God is totally for His glory and therefore he is totally for me! A key verse for me over the last few weeks has been Heb 11:6 -And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. - Wow!

So if we want to please Christ, we need to trust him, believe that he exists and that coming to him means he is going to give us something! That reward is...Him. Keep seeking him.

I have had some great opportunities this week, I was having a pray walk around the village and asked for a opportunity with someone. Next thing a chap was walking alongside me, I initroduced myself and told him what my job was and we began a conversation about the gospel. My route in was to talk about creation and then discuss the ten commandments and explaining what Christ has done for him. He took a small booklet and was really intrigued as to how I came to faith.

Wednesday I went into Winston churchill school for the 2nd time and it was great, I have some gospel tracts on silver coins and they love them. They were flocking over and it gave me a chance to discuss morals and some of the gospel with them, I also gave out some challenging small books on turning to Christ. Please pray for clear opportunities with people. I saw my old PE teacher who didn't recognise me at first, I told him my name then he exclaimed "George Osborn, but you've got no hair!" Thanks Mr Harrison!! Another opportunity though to explain what I was doing and it would be great to get alongside him.

The harvest is plentiful. I was walking back to church from lunch and smiled at an elderly gentleman and he asked where I lived, strange question but it gave me the go ahead to ask him a few. We discussed life and then religion and creation, I invited him to a course at the church but he doesn't come out at night. I gave him a book on Why Christianity please pray he reads it and is challenged.

I saw Peter Searle this week and he is such a humble man of God. He asked me for prayer as he has 5 people who may be interested in Alpha, he said if they cannot make it he may run the course in the old peoples home himself, go for it Peter. Amazingly encouraging for me, keep the main thing the main thing. Christ. Please pray for Peter, he has such a faith and commitment to Christ, he needs our support.

I am looking to follow up some of the contacts our church has made with the community over the years, next week and would value your prayers and support.

I met with Asif the new Across worker for Woking and he is a great guy with some real insight into the Muslim faith and some amazing information for showing the truth. If you want advice or help he is the man, he does a weekly TV show in Erdu on Sky television and is therefore known by some of the muslims. A target therefore who needs our prayers. I am hoping to get him down to give some training in the near future...

I am going to be starting up a monthly workshop at our church to equip and train, challenge and motivate the church to prioritise evangelism. So if you want to come along please give me a shout it is on the 12th Oct @ 11.30am...

Our next group outing into the village is happening on the 11th Oct

Bryn Howarth (http://members.aol.com/brynsongs/) is visiting us on the 4th of Oct and tickets still available if you want a great evening of entertainment let me know.

Opportunities everywhere...

2008-09-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

Have been trying to set up wireless broadband this week, nightmare, speaking with the phone companies, vendors, manufacturers etc etc. However it struck me what a great opportunity to sharing the gospel, there I am answering loads of questions how about they answer a few too!!

I had a great chat with a Indian man, a spirit filled moment, I prayed with him at the end and I told him he needed to get a Bible, he was touched. Take the plunge and ask what they think life is all about and it is really interesting talking to people and hearing their views...

Keep me posted.

Telling others...

2008-09-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

In a few weeks I am going to help out at a evangelism training day in South Wales. A few months ago I met with one of my hereos of the faith, Tony Anthony, I read his testimony some years back and it had a big impact on me getting more involved with the church and staying on course.

Tony has agreed to endorse my ministry and provide support for me, he wants to mentor me over the coming months. There is lots that I can learn from him, he has written the book "Taming the Tiger" and he travels the world to share his testimony but more importantly the gospel. He is a humble man with a big heart. Please pray this relationship bears much fruit for the Kingdom. He has some great teaching on evangelism and a passion to see people turn to Christ.

Go and make disciples of all nations...

2008-09-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but when I read the passage where Jesus commands us to go into all the nations I get images of Christians donning their rucksacks, packing up home and venturing off to the four corners. I do not think this is what Jesus had in mind, what is a nation - A nation is a human cultural and social community (according to Wikipedia!!). If this is the case then we have nations surrounding us here in sunny Woking in the bucket load...

Last night was Outside Light in Old Woking. My day leading up to this had been somewhat strange and as I settle into my new role one of the challenges I am facing is being able to switch off, knowing when work stops and rest starts, trying to find those quiet moments to re-charge. In all honesty I felt really tired, arriving at Old Woking was encouraging, not in ways you might expect. Everyone was feeling awful, tired, family issues, work obstacles, illness and so on. We had prayed the night before for a big night, we were expecting more from God we just hoped it would be someone else doing it! As we have learnt before, these are usually the best nights, when we are at our weakest God is at his strongest.

We decided to visit the young lad's family, the lad that is in prison. We approached the house and were once again welcomed in. We had been speaking with the prison about arranging an official visit, this option was only open to official ministers. Tonight we wanted to talk to the family about visiting and see how the young lad was.

We spent the next hour in a God ordained, Holy Spirit filled, Jesus centred meeting of people. This gypsy/traveller family were so open and welcoming and it was fascinating to hear about their backgrounds, their stories, their lives. The Mum has a strong background of knowing Jesus personally herself although this was some 20 years ago, when she spoke of it there was a tenderness and from my part you could see Jesus in her albeit tucked away. She had been a committed Christian, however another family had treated them appaulingly, death threats, accusations and all the hallmarks of Satan's handiwork. Unfortunately this had created unforgiveness and eventually this kept her away from the church, if your reading this please pray with all your might and wrestle with the Lord for him to bring his daughter back. The young lads sister was there and she kept saying "this is really nice, I am really enjoying talking to yous, keep praying for us". We prayed for them at the end and it was a touching moment, my heart was so touched for this family by God when I was praying and all through the night. The sister went off and brought back a leather bookmark that she wanted to give us, it was a real token of how touched she had been. This was a present bound for her brother but she wanted to give it to us. They have talked about coming to church, keep praying.

Before we go out each evening we pray and talk through the plan. Two of the young girls who we usually meet, arrived at the church and wanted to join us. We asked them to wait in the lounge as we didn't want them to know the initmate details of those we were praying for, however halfway through they entered the room and sat there praying with us. We prayed for them. The room was full of the Holy Spirit and it was a special moment. One of the girls said to me afterwards, "did you pray for me because you love me". My answer is not important, God is touching their hearts.

Nancy and Helen had some special moments with some of the young people on the rec, some persecution too. There is a sense of deepening relationships and a bonding between us on the team as we go out to serve, I felt so much unity in our struggles and supporting each other. Helen and Nancy had some one on one time with some of the girls and the difference in their mood when they came back was tangible.

I hope as you read this you don't feel that we are parading good deeds before men, announcing our news with trumpets. We really want to encourage people, more than anything, that God is moving and he is using us ordinary, sin filled, jars of clay to do his work and it is amazing and inspiring. We want you to share in that, come and join us. Take that plunge...

Faith jumps, fear looks!

2008-09-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am now officially 3 days in to my new job and although I appreciate these are early days, I think I have found the best job in the world! There are going to be some huge challenges along the way, I can see them coming, however I cannot wait! Nothing to do with me simply that God has put a spark in my heart and a desire for this work that is unquenchable at the moment.

Monday saw my first staff meeting, relaxed, peaceful and not in the least bit competitive, something that is far removed from the business world. I then had some admin bits to do and later a meeting with John Durrant of Holy Trinity to talk about Amplify (www.amplify-uk.com) and Outside Light (www.outsidelight.blogspot.com). The evening was a big event in OL calender, a end of term barbecue, let me quote some of the write up from that evening because God is awesome and He moved...

Not for the first time I felt dazed when arriving at the rec. We have faith that there is some sort of plan before we arrive but you just don't know what you're going to arrive into. For a bit of fun, try and picture us as an army, God's army going into battle; weapons of the Spirit ready, barbecues armed, hot chocolate machine on, sword of God's word ready to fire. We didn't quite arrive in helicopters, however I think that what we do on a Monday parallels quite nicely with the approach an army might take to a theatre of war situation. What struck me last night (other than a beautifully cooked burger), was that on arrival it was hard to know where to begin. Picture groups all over the field; where do you 'attack' first? I radioed for back-up, my commanding officer sent me off in a couple of directions, (not both at the same time, thankfully).

He is a great commander as he knows exactly what is happening all the time, what to do, where the biggest need is. I saw my colleague Captain Hazelden off in the car park conducting an information raid. I found an area where the young lads were coming to me, telling me stuff about their lives, talking about starting college etc. One lad was scared of being in a minority, he doesn't like big groups - which was kind of ironic given the feeling the residents have about him and his friends. He fired a shot of reincarnation at me when I asked him what he thought life was all about, we kept getting interrupted by sniper attacks and I couldn't get a decent shot off. My commanding officer assured me he had some inside information and this man would soon be back in our cross-hairs. It wasn't long before operation Outside Light had thrown in a couple of smoke bombs, the smell of the barbecue hit the car park and drew the crowd over to the field.

Brigadier Durrant was flying back and forth to barracks bringing in supplies. Field Marshalls Hill and Pepper were cooking up a storm on the barbecue. But the distraction and genuine acts of love and kindness had lowered the barriers for me to come in with some heavy artillery, I hit about 20 of the young people with gospel tracts. One group were determined to fight back and I took a couple of hits, persecution and ridicule mixed in with some swearing. I radioed in to my commanding officer, He sent the weapon of mass construction, (the Holy Spirit), closely followed by this group asking me some great questions. The Holy Spirit enabled me to share the gospel with the four of them, the big guns came out and they were really struck by this black book with the words "holy Bible" written on it. It penetrated and we were soon into some deep debate, I was struggling to hold all of them, then Major H Morrow swooped in to cover the rear and was engaged in battle with two of them, which allowed me time to focus on the other two.

We had a great conversation, one of the lads allowed me to link up with our Commanding Officer and to pray for him, I challenged him to do his own praying at home later that night. I loved it; no, I love Jesus; I love Him. Before I go into battle I hate the thought, I dread the conversations, I am not sure how I am going to start them; but if any of us didn't feel fear and anticipation then it would be all about us. Thankfully it is all about Christ - without him none of us would be here and we would certainly not be talking to these people in power without Him!

We are part of an army, lets not give up fighting the good fight. Operation Outside Light needs more soldiers; full training given, the best weaponry in the universe provided, survival not guaranteed, rewards are immeasurable...let me lay a challenge, if God said he would give you £10,000 every time you went out or shared the gospel would you do it? I am ashamed to say I know I would do more, yet we are serving something of infinitely more value than money and with infinitely greater reward...Outside Light needs you, God wants you!

I let you look around the Outside Light blog for the rest and what happened on Tuesday night!

The rest of the week has involved meeting up with some contacts, hooking up with one of young people from the church who said something profound about the journey I had been up until this week - "Sometimes you need to go off and be on top of the mountain and survey the valley, the valley being what you are going to and the mountain top being some time you spend with God getting prepared then off you go into your mission" - He didn't know that last week God had called me up a my own mountain, I had sat on top of a huge hill and spent some amazing time in prayer with God. He was now confirming the mission.

I have had some great conversations on the door in the parish, it is just great talking to people about eternal things rather than earthly things. I had a good conversation with a Muslim outside Winston Churchill who believed his goodness would allow him to go to heaven. We discussed whether we had both broken the Ten commandments and the reality that none of us are good, it opened up some real thought and he took a book I offered...

I met with the area Evangelism co-ordinator too and she has given me some great ideas, I hope I her too.

I am trying out a new motto that I read in a book recently, faith jumps, fear looks! I like it, not always easy but when God catches you it takes your breath away...

Ephesians 3:14...

Keep looking to Christ

Why the blog?

2008-08-21T13:02:00.001-07:00

It seems somewhat self indulgent to write your own blog, however this is not about me, even though my name is at the top it is really about what Christ is doing. I am shortly to embark on a full time role as an Evangelist with my local church, I cannot wait.

So what is an Evangelist - An evangelist was someone who carried the good news of military victory to the King, he would unravel a scroll called the evangel and announce the news and this act is called evangelism. So that is what I will be doing, announcing the good news of Christ, unfortunately not before I have gone through some bad news, checkout www.needgod.com for an idea of the message I will be announcing. I will also be helping with practical support wherever I can of people I meet, God meets peoples needs head on with love, Jesus healed, fixed, forgave, cared, cried, ate and so on with the people he met. He has laid the perfect example for us to follow...

This site also aims to keep up to date those of you from within my own church updated with what is happening with evangelism and the things you are involved in! Your support and prayers are invaluable and it is great to know we are in this together!

I will try and keep this updated regularly with news, photos, website links and so forth.

What is Church?

2008-08-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

Taken from an extract of Outside light....

There are many different interpretations and meanings for this word. For me, the closest definition is what happens on a Monday and a Tuesday evening. This Tuesday evening I saw one of the young people we had prayed for last week; he and his friend were both appearing in court the following day. Unfortunately the other lad had been sent to prison for 12 months; he was the chap we had played snooker with and who had listened to the Gospel a few weeks later. Initially I was dismayed thinking this young lad had been taken out of the picture. Phil however suggested we go and see his family and try and get permission to go and see him; love in action as well as word.

When we arrived at the house we could hear the family through the window saying, 'It’s the people from the church, invite them in.' After we’d knocked on the door they asked us in and were so warm, the kettle was put on and we talked through what had happened to their son, brother and father of a little boy - who was strutting around the house. They asked us to pray for the family and the mother was open to coming along to a church service, she had been to a church a few years back and God had definitely been working in her life. Myself, Phil and Malcolm sitting in this house were quite a sight, it reminded me of when Jesus went to the tax collector's house, everyone else thought he was mad however Jesus knew that everyone was a sinner and everyone needs help.

For me the church is Christ’s body here on Earth, the church buildings are hospitals where we go to get patched up and receive instruction for battle and then out into the field with the weapons of the Spirit – truth, righteousness, salvation, faith, God’s word, the Gospel – this was church for me on Tuesday night….Please pray for this situation, that all glory would go to Christ and we would see a transformation in the whole of this family, they would fall on their knees and cry out to Christ. We need prayers so much…George

First time...

2008-08-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Well, welcome to the first edition of George's blog.