So Are We A Church?

Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

When teaching on the subject of self growth and positive thinking many Life Coaches advocate the idea of only mixing with positive thinking people. They encourage you to socialise with the successful and avoid those who express any negative views or thoughts. Looking from the human perspective it does make sense. Being immersed in an environment where success is the only way to think will undoubtedly rub off in the end. One would no doubt start thinking in a successful and positive way.

So am I advocating that we should only mix with successful, positive thinking people?

No, not at all. I was thinking more about associating with Christians. Should we only mix with like minded people; those who follow Christ and and those have similar views on life as ourselves?

Well I answer this very ambiguously by saying Yes and No. I'll explain the "no" bit first of all. Our saviour Jesus Christ didn't continuously surround himself with believers. He mixed with sinners. He had a message to preach, souls to save. By surrounding himself with the people who got the message, those who knew and believed in all he said meant that he would not be spreading the word. He needed to address the non believers, the sinners in order to help save more souls.

Likewise we are called to witness. We are called to spread "The Gospel", the good news. This isn't going to happen if we preach to the converted. We need to engage those who don't believe, those who don't understand if we are going to fulfill our calling.

Now to answer the "yes" part of me sitting on the fence. I think it is very important that we also mix with fellow Christians and that word "fellow" means we create fellowship. If we go back to our group of success thinking people we recognise that their way of thinking rubs off on each other; they encourage each other. Likewise, being amongst other Christians our positive thoughts on life, our faith and testimonies encourages each other as we continue to experience our Christian adventures, journey on our Christian path through life. When we pray together our prayers can be so much more effective if we pray as a group.

And people coming together in the name of Christ is a church. A church isn't about the bricks and mortar that makes up the building; it's about the people. In countries where Christians are persecuted people come together in the name of Christ in secret, behind closed doors. This constitutes a church every much as the ones that we attend on Sunday mornings. I attend a wonderful bible study group that totals just seven people but we have some lively and encouraging discussions mixed with prayer and worship and I see this group as part of my church also.

So as Christians we have the opportunity of weaving a wonderful tapestry as we envelope ourselves with the good and the bad, the wealthy and the needy.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.christian-charity-world.com/

www.christian-charity-world.com/shopwindow.html

http://www.cryinthedark.org/

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Welcome to Thoughts at Christian Charity World.

Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Hands up all those who have complete, utter and absolute faith in God?

Can we really say that in our most dire and stress ladened moments that we don't worry or panic because we put all our trust in The Lord?

I've heard it said recently that worrying is not scriptural. I also read that to worry or be anxious is a sin. And yet it is very human to worry. Particularly in this economically burdensome times it is extremely difficult not to fret over where the next penny is coming from, how to keep the family clothed and fed. Yet the scriptures have many wonderful verses to dwell on in times of trouble. When the chips are down we can turn to the bible for help and inspiration.

From the moment I rediscovered my Christian adventure, it took another eight years before I actually understood what faith is truly about. It was my first real involvement with a Christian charity that opened my eyes to the meaning of faith, a trust in God and the power of prayer. Seeing how this charity had started with nothing; no money, no assets, just an amazing faith in God to help build a wonderful orphanage in Romania, is an incredible testimony to a belief that God will provide. And now seeing the fantastic work of many Christian charities as they do God's work with limited resources yet achieving such amazing results, strengthens my faith in God.

Let me give you some thoughtful Christian quotes about worry:

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.- Corrie Ten Boom

Knowing that God is faithful, it really helps me to not be captivated by worry. But knowing that He will do what He has said, He will cause it to happen, whatever He has promised, and then it causes me to be less involved in worrying about a situation.- Josh McDowell

Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet it is a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other.- John MacArthur

　

When we worry we ultimately concentrate on the problem. What we need to do is focus on the solution. If we pray to God we can then let go of the problem and allow God to come up with the answers. We can rest knowing that God will look after us if we positively believe he will.

　

How many times have we prayed to God for an answer when all else fails?

　

God ends up being the last port of call when really he should be the first. Our strength in a crisis doesn't come from our own making, it comes from God, and we should do well to remember that and give thanks and praise to him for it.

　

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.cryinthedark.org/

http://www.christian-charity-world.com/

www.christian-charity-world.com/shopwindow.html

Delight in Doing The Lord's Work

(Psalms 40:8) I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart."

I recently attended the 50th birthday party of an old school friend (kind of gives away my age). It was a great evening and naturally at the end of the evening he gave a little speech. In this speech he imagined himself having a conversation with a stranger in a cafe. It went something like this.

Stranger: How many children do you have?

Friend: I have six.

Stranger: Wow, and where do you live?

Friend: Oh I live in a good part of town. I live in a five bedroom house and we overlook the neighbours swimming pool.

Stranger: And you have cars?

Friend: Yes my family have two cars.

Stranger: And your children, which school do they go to?

Friend: They go to a private school.

Stranger: Fantastic, and where do you go on holiday?

Friend: The last few holidays have been spent on the beach in Thailand.

Stranger: I'm so in awe of you. You must be extremely rich?

Friend: No my family and I haven't got a penny to our name.

When you look at the detail, my old school friend's lifestyle isn't quite as it seems. Yes having been married 18 years he and his wife have been blessed with six wonderful children.

The house they live in is owned by one of the organisations that he works for.

He does have two cars but he confesses that to call one of them "a car" is flattering said vehicle. The other acts purely as a family run-around.

The private education for the children comes courtesy of part time work he does for the school.

And the holiday? Well that is the give-away. He has spent the last eleven years in Thailand doing mission work. You see for the past twenty five years he and his wife have been doing God's work. His mission work has taken him to many countries visiting the poor, the sick and the vulnerable and he has spread the Word of the Lord where-ever he's gone.

He counts his blessings. He can see that the Lord has provided him with a wonderful life but he has willingly given his life to doing God's work. His faithfullness has been rewarded.

My old school friend may not have "net worth" but he has much more than that. He has the love of God, the love of a wonderful family and the love of some great friends.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.christian-charity-world.com/

www.christian-charity-world.com/shopwindow.html

http://www.cryinthedark.org/

Reasons to be Cheerful

Romans 1 verse 7. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a wonderful new patio thanks very much to one of my neighbours who gave freely of his time to help me lay the slabs. If I'm honest about it, he laid the slabs whilst I looked on and tried to learn. The time it took would have cost me hundreds of pounds but as a neighbour he just said "I'm sure there'll be opportunities to return the favour". As friends and neighbour this is what we do. We help each other out and then we return the favour.

When we're subject to such neighbourliness we often feel the need to return that favour as soon as possible. That feeling of being in debt to somebody, albeit not financially, makes us restless until that debt is settled. We seek the opportunities to help our neighbours just to ease our minds.

Are we indebted to God?

Have we the same desire to settle any debts with God?

God has bestowed upon us so much in the way of blessings. He floods us with his grace and mercy despite our many sins. I may not be the richest person in my community but there are a heck of a lot more poorer people in the world than I. I have always been fed and watered and have a loving family and this is just the start of the blessings that God has given to me. He's even given me a brand new patio.

How conscious am I of what I owe to God?

How conscious am I of the debt I have to God?

How conscious am I of the debt that I owe to Jesus Christ?

In hindsight, not enough. I'm conscious of what I owe to my neighbour but I forget what I owe to The Lord. I can be conscious of what I owe to the bank in the way of mortgage payment but I forget about my monthly, weekly, daily repayments to God.

Through Moses, God rescued his chosen people from their sufferings in Egypt, but these same people soon forgot about God's grace and mercy. They fell into the ways of sin deviating greatly from the life that God longed for them to follow.

So how can I/we settle that debt with God?

God will continue to poor his blessings upon us. To show our gratitude we must try to live a holy life. By that I mean a life that is good, righteous and free from sin and in God's name. And we do this because we desire to please God. It may be a tall order I know. Only Jesus Christ led a sin free life. But if we truly want to please God we will endeavour to live a life as close to that of Jesus as possible. And when we do stray away from the straight and narrow, we know that if in our hearts we are extremely sorry then God will forgive us and continue to envelop us with his grace.

How fantastic is that?

A Wish or A Prayer

A good Christian friend of mine was recently challenged to explain the difference between a wish and a prayer. Hazel Butler is an accomplished writer and so consequently chose to answer in the written word in the form of a poem. To me these are beautiful words and Hazel has allowed me to share them here.

                                                            Wishing
I plunge my knife in virgin cake,
My eyes screwed tight, my wish to make;
Or pull the greasy chicken bone
My wish to others never known.
As coins I throw in wishing well
My hearts desires I throw as well.

And now it's time for Christmas lists
To Santa - That's if he exists!
So many hopes, desires, dreams;
The list is enless, yet it seems
That with the passing of the years
They fall on ever deafening ears.

                                                           Praying
My new found love - With Him I walk
Our hearts entwined, we laugh and talk.
I tell Him of the day that's gone
Of how my love for Him just shone
Because I knew how much He cared;
Oh! How I relished all we shared!
Of all we did and said and thought;
Of how His loving ways I'd caught;
How all my plans had Him in mind
And all my thoughts were re-defined
To how to please Him - Make Him smile
As we drew closer mile by mile.
His hope, ambitions, now made mine.
Our plans and wishes intertwine.
For now I clearly understood
His greatest longing was my good.

So prayer is love's communication -
Silence, worship, supplication.
Opening my inmost heart,
Allowing Him to have, not part,
But all my thinking, hearing, seeing,
Every part of all my being.
So I'll grow much more like Him
Not shooting prayers at every whim,
But resting in a love so vast
That it is safe for me to cast
My every need, concern and care
Into His hands - He's always there.
This mighty friend, who's endless power
Created sun and earth and flower,
Reveal Himself in many ways
But most of all within the maze
Of complex lives like yours and mine,
He reaches down with love divine
And then, in answer to my prayer,
Transforms with love the mess that's there

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.cryinthedark.org/

http://www.christian-charity-world.com/

Climb Every Mountain, Ford Every Stream

Job 12:7-10. But ask the animals, and they will teach you; or birds of the air and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you; or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the lord has done this. In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

In my earlier years when I hadn't really started my Christian journey I probably had alot of un-answered questions. I believe I was a good man but not really a Christian because I didn't understand or even know Jesus's part in a Christian's life. I didn't go to church save for the usual weddings, christenings and funerals. Yet that one question that always stood in the back of my mind was "How was the universe created?"

I had heard the "Big Bang" theory of how the universe came about; one single atom exploding to create galaxies, suns and planets but nobody could answer the question as to how that atom got there in the first place. And no doubt if some boffin scientist comes up with a theory we would still be left with the question as to how that came about. While to some the Big Bang theory is completely plausible we still don't know how the detenator was driggered.

This question was one of the reasons that I eventually came to faith. I reasoned that a greater power, an authority that we couldn't possibly understand must have created it all. It dawned on me that something far more intelligent than us human beings must be in control of the process. I have read somewhere that some mathematician had calculated the odds of this universe being created by chance. It stacked up at 10 to the power of unimaginable and his conclusion was that it was impossible that the world and all that surrounds it was created by chance.

Recently I was listening to a Christian radio programme and a pastor was delivering his thoughts on creation. He pointed out that if the sun was 5% closer to the earth then much of this world would be to hot to survive on. 5% further away and this world would be to cold for much to live. The sun has been placed in exactly the right place for life to be supported. The world is tilted on its axis at 23.5*. This is exactly the right position to give us the four seasons that we experience. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter produces all its wonderful colours and glories because earth spins on exactly the right axis.

Could all this have developed by chance? Could all the glorious creation that we see around us be the product of some fluke? Or was it designed?

I certainly believe that God was the great architect and constructer of this world. He has sculpted every mountain, routed every stream and breathed life into every living creature. We only have to watch and observe the wonders of his creation to know that we are here by design and not by accident.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.cryinthedark.org/

Be Still and Don't Make a Noise

Psalm 46
Be still and know that I am God

It's been an extremely hectic last two weeks. A thoroughly rewarding week in Romania with the charity Cry in the Dark was followed by seven days with the family in Blackpool. It has been a very socialable time having met many old friends and made new, and of course having two boys at the ages of seven and eleven, there is never a dull moment. This constituted my holiday for the year and at the moment I don't do "restful". It almost seems like I've come back to work for a rest.

For all the hustle, bustle and enjoyment there was always something missing and coming back to work kind of emphasised this as well. It was the quiet time. The time I have with God.

Granted I prayed to God and read a bit of the bible when I could catch a moment but I couldn't really say this was "quality time" with God. I wasn't really seeking God. A good part of my working day is spent alone. I drive to work and the majority of the time I work by myself. I am quiet and I have time to pray, think, look and listen. For some people this may sound boring and I know from the past it can be very easy to dwell on the negative aspects of life. But now that I am on a journey, my Christian journey, I can focus on my relationship with God and the joy that it brings. These are positive thoughts that fill me with hope rather than despair. I have peace in my heart and I have time to strengthen my faith.

If we can get away from all the man made structures of city life and immerse ourselves in God's creation, the countryside, we can feel so much closer to God. Being quiet and soaking up the stillness and the harmonious sounds of nature leaves us peaceful and rested. God offers us rest if we turn to him in times of trouble and we can find him if we can just be still.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

http://www.cryinthedark.org/