I was also challenged as to how God the Almighty had used him. I say used when I should say broke and rebuilt him – and I never thought it could happen to me – cause my story wasn’t important enough and people would never listen to me if I was given a platform to share how God has transformed my life. In short - I listened to a lie. I listened to the voice of the Devil. Having been involved in pastoral ministry for a few years now I have tended to read books that involve ‘How to ….. ‘ in the title –equipping me with tactics, ideas and genius ideas to keep things ticking over nicely.

As of late I have stopped reading these books and have been listening and reading books that talk about listening to the voice of God – about the power of intimacy and the reality of the Gospel. I have also been reading the lives of people – reading the faces I meet for coffee – the hands I shake in church – the souls of the shop-keepers I converse with. And everywhere I see Jesus. Everywhere I see the opportunity to tell and share the gospel. So I started to share it with the electric guy who called at my door a few weeks back – and he took an instant disliking to me when I told him I was a Youth Pastor - in fact he wouldn't even shake my hand as he left my front door – all before I started to share the name of Jesus with him!

It annoyed me for a few days – then I watched the program about Cardinal Brady and it pissed me off even more – and I began to thank God that I am nothing like pedophile priests and ‘two-faced-church-going-do-gooders’. Then I began to realize I am like them – a sinner in need of grace but then a few questions stirred up in me - If I am like them yet not like them what happened to them and what has not happened to me and why do people listen to those shock stories and not the simple story of the gospel played out in the lives of faithful followers of Christ?

Still with me?

Ok – read on! (Please stay with me!)

It led me to think about the idea of ‘abandonment’ – the challenge to abandon myself to God – and what that looks like in the future. I think the problem of priests and do gooders and anyone else who appears to be holy but is nothing more than a blockage is the idea of abandonment – you see when we put our faith in the works we can do or the institution that we can control then things start to get weird. The possibility to distort the gospel rises and the question of who we are serving and how much we are serving Christ comes out to play. Nicky Cruz’s book has challenged me again about the importance of Christ as central to our lives. It is a book I would recommend people to read if they are a bit blahhhhhh in their faith right now – mostly because it revolves around scripture.  

The men of 'Room 212'

The 1375 food bags we packed and delivered

The BIG team - 326 people from 21 Nations

The week was a very humbling experience. Having been back for a few weeks now the impact of the life change that happened for all of us who were involved in only beginning to settle. We saw over 300 people come to faith that week and a church has been planted out of it. Last week 160+ people turned up for an Alpha course in that city. God is on the move - such a blessing to be a small part of that. My continued question to God is where can I be of best use to him? The week rocked my world - in more ways than one! I was challenged by the simple fact that God has authorised us and prepared us for greatness - challenged to claim this and take hold of it - compelled to never listen to fear. Go big or Go home!