Are English people a bunch of thugs?

Many have been shocked and disturbed at the looting and riots across England this past week. How can a seemingly peaceful nation such as England see such chaos and anarchy? Why would I want to move my pregnant wife and daughter to this country? Most English people would say these riots are just a few 'idiots' and it is not the majority. The same as when football hoolignas give our nation a bad name when there are so many great English football fans. We get mad and angry at the few that give a bad name to the masses. I agree that these riots are led by a small number in a country with so many good hearted people.

However, I cannot get angry at the people I see causing chaos on the streets of my home country. Would you get angry at a blind man if he walked into a wall, or a deaf woman for not pulling to the side of the road when the ambulence is trying to get by? The blind cannot see, the deaf cannot hear until the ones who have the power to open eyes and ears start to do what God has called them to do. England is a nation that has forgotten the God who created it; our history and our calling as a nation to impact the world for the good of all mankind through Jesus Christ.

Before I came to America I wasn't aware of the wonderful heritage I have in simply being an Englishman. We helped to defeat one of the most evil regimes the world has ever seen only 65 years ago in World War II.  Men such as king Arthur, Churchill, Shakespeare, the Beatles, C.S. Lewis, William Wilberforce (who abolished slavery), John Wesley, Smith Wigglesworth (a great revivalist), Jane Austen and many other great men and women have come from my home coutry. Our generation has not had passed down to our sons and daughters the spiritual DNA that God had given us as citizens of a wonderful country. I want to be a part of reinstating God's name amoungst our children and in the home of the 'normal' English family. When we know who God is, Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we can again be the nation that the world used to call 'Great Britiain".

I heard a Christian man say the other day that America's public schools are beyond reconciling. They have removed God so much that there is no hope for them. How can God work through a church with this mindset? What my Jesus did on the cross 2,000 years ago not just for man but for everything in this wrold from schools, government, the land to nations was much too powerful to say something is beyond reconciling. I want my family to be a a part of God reconciling a once great nation back to what is capable of being.    

It's time for the English church to wake up and recapture the heart of the nation through the purest love of Jesus Christ.

The plant can only grow as big as the pot it is in!

My writing is not as good as my brides but our hearts beat the same for our Jesus and so I hope love will flow from my posts as much as hers.

I love how the bible talks so many times about farming, reaping and sowing etc. God has shown me that for us to grow bigger like a tree that bears much fruit he must up root us from our comfortable small 'pot' and plant us in new ground. The ground we are going to be put in will feel uncomfotable at first and the process can be painful, but to become all that God wants us to be we must make this transition. If we stay in the same 'pot' we limit the potential of Christ to create something through us we never thought possible. In this move to England I am hoping for explosive growth in all areas of life. If we completely focus our hearts on Christ why wouldn't he want to see his creation grow and produce a type of fruit that every one wants to come and eat from, find rest in it's shade and simply gaze upon?

-Jo

A New Path...

For several months now we have been feeling the call to go to England. However, with no timeline in place from God we simply waited and prayed and went on with life as usual. God is so gracious to us that when He calls us, He always lets us know when the time is to go. And that time for us has come...

So many doors that once miraculously opened for us here are now slowly swinging shut. We finish with our apartment ministry in November, Jo's job offered him fewer hours and reduced pay for the upcoming year, the inner city ministry is now being partnered with a church, and Jo's time at his soccer team here is winding down. God is closing doors so that we know for certain who controls the destiny of our lives. If we fight against Him, we only complicate things and make life more difficult. If we let His river take us where He wants it to lead, other doors will soon open and we will be taken to a new level of relationship with Him.

We are so excited about the amazing things God is going to do in England. There is a lost and spiritually dying culture that is simply waiting to be shown Love. Our prayer is that we become the vessels of this Love. That because of God's move in us, England will become a land for us that is "flowing with milk and honey".  God has taken us so far in just a few years. And our journey has only just begun...

A Hard Road to Travel

Sometimes the pain of life is overwhelming. My soul longs for it's eternal home and I am hidden behind a dark veil that seems will never lift. A month has passed with many hard lessons learned and more valleys than mountains.  There is a constant state of fatigue and an overwhelming sense of uselessness.  What is the point of showing the world His joy when I cannot even find it myself?  Is joy a thing that can only be a experienced every so often and only in fleeting glances? The answer that my soul longs for is "no". Sorrow will only last for a night but joy will come in the morning.  Yet this has been a long night for my soul. I am beginning to see a glimpse of the sun on the horizon but only a few rays.  Soon it will be fully risen and life will be once again colored with His light. But through it all, I know that He has never left me. Through it all, He has been standing right beside me though I was not conscious of it. I am never alone, no matter what my feelings tell me. And I live in that truth, in spite of it all.

Pleading with Him to leave

Matthew 8:34- Then the whole town went to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

How many times have we pleaded with Jesus to leave because something he did was strange, frightening or out of the ordinary? How many times have I? It is easy to condemn these people, but they just witnessed evil spirits come out a two men and into a herd of pigs that then went and jumped into the river.  Would I have asked him to leave? How many times in church have I felt uneasy or awkward because of something going on that I thought was strange?

How much have I missed of Jesus because I was uncomfortable with what he did or was doing?

The Cost

"It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity"
  -Frederick D. Huntington

Is it easier to follow God in a land overflowing with milk and honey, where even our poorest are in the top percentage of wealth on earth? Or should I wish to be in a place where I am daily reliant on God for everything, even my very existence? How do I get to that place of daily reliance when there is very little tangible things that I need from God?  Where are the miracles in my life that Jesus promised to His followers, that I would do "greater things" than He? Why doesn't my shadow heal a lame man as I walk by?

I know Love exists within me and therefore all things of Him dwell in me.  So then why do I not show them daily?

If I were truly asked to give everything I have up and follow Him, would I?  Would I really?  Would I give up all my savings, my retirement, my house, my clothes, my accessories?  What sacrifices have I truly made for Him?  Why have mine been so "easy" while people on the other side of the world are killed for what I believe in?

I love my stuff.  I love my country. I love vacations and clothes and buying things organic.  What if all that was taken away from me?  How much of "me" would be left?  Am I really that wrapped up in these things that I would lose a part of me if they went away?

How many people in America would continue to follow the Lord if he took everything they owned away from them?  Would I?

In this City

Song that is in my head and the cry of my heart...

Chris Tomlin "God Of This City"

"You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the light in this darkness
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done here"


God is moving. Lives are being changed.  Daily we see His hand's touching those around us.  May this city be known for it's Love. And may it start with me.