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Undelivered post…

Before Christmas I heard a sermon where Gabriel was referred to as ‘God’s FEDEX guy of good news’. The phrase made me chuckle. Since then I have come back to that idea a number of times and it has sparked a few different thoughts in my mind around post! 

If God has a FEDEX guy it implies he has good news he wants to share with us…this is of course absolutely true!! God so loved you that he gave his only son, so that if you believe in him you can live with him forever. Now Gabriel wasn’t telling Mary that specifically – he was telling her she was going to have a baby…and that baby was the only son of God, who would one day make a way for all who believe to be in close relationship with God forever.

If that’s the good news that is being delivered then surely we want to make sure we are going to get it! 

Have you ever missed the postman and got one of those annoying little notes saying ‘we came but you weren’t in’? I was once sat in my house and heard the letterbox go, so I went to see what was there and one of those notes had been pushed through…that made me feel really cross. I was in but the postman had decided I wasn’t. If God has good news for you, are you in to receive it? Are you available for God to knock on the door and give you your message, or are you so busy going here and there that you don’t have time enough to slow down and give God the space to tell you whatever it is you need to hear?

Normally those annoying little notes give you a bit of an ultimatum…we tried to deliver to you today but you weren’t in. Your parcel has been returned to the depot and you will need to arrange to pick it up…God won’t give up trying to deliver your message to you. He doesn’t get fed up of no answer, he doesn’t have a store house of good news that he takes your portion to and then abandons it until you come looking for it. God is always up for one more try at getting through to you.

Another thought that came to me from that phrase ‘God’s FEDEX guy of good news’ was piles and piles of undeliverable post. Some people make a living out of opening and selling on undeliverable post, like redirections gone astray, wrong addresses or missed house numbers. Then there are people who have moved on and not told the sender, incorrect postage paid and not topped up and damaged parcels where the address is not readable. Is there undeliverable good news that is meant for you but you don’t know? Have you wandered so far off track that the good news meant for you cant get through? Maybe you have cut yourself off from the avenues through which such good news could be delivered? Do you have undelivered good news for someone else but your too scared to attempt delivery again? 

Over the Christmas period I reflected on this idea of God having a FEDEX guy of good news and wondered if we all have potential to be delivery people for God. Who do you bring good news to, and who brings good news to you? Maybe this year you want to intentionally put yourself in a group of three or four people who will all be good news delivery people for each other. 

If you want to get into this find a few others and start with the question ‘Where have you seen God this week?’. If you need help getting it going deeper we wold love to give you some other resources and pointers. Why not get in touch?

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Is the bible really that important?

Many years ago in north Wales lived a young girl called Mary Jones.

She longed to learn how to read but there was no one to teach her, so she prayed about it.

In response, and to Mary’s surprise, the little chapel where she worshiped each Sunday with her parents was going to also become a school! Mary was delighted to learn alongside her friends, and she loved learning to read because she really longed to be able to read the Bible.

It was Mary’s love for Jesus that inspired this, and once she was able to read she longed for nothing more than to own her very own Bible, in the Welsh language. Bibles were very hard to come by in those days, especially in Welsh – and they were expensive. The odds were stacked against Mary as she came from a very poor family, but nothing would quench her determination!

In 1800 she turned 15. After scrimping and saving for 6 long years, she finally had the funds to buy the book she treasured. The nearest place where they were likely to be was about 25 miles away.

She set off early one day on the long journey, most likely barefoot, and she walked. And walked. And when she grew tired she walked some more. It was a risky journey – there was no guarantee that there would even be a Bible at the other end, not to mention the perils of a young girl taking such a journey on her own, and with all that money too.

Thankfully, Mary went back home with her very own Bible. To her it was the greatest treasure there could be, for it helped her know her saviour better, plus she read it with her own children years later. This true story of the girl who was so determined went on to greatly inspire those who who sourced it for her – so much so that it led to the foundation of The Bible Society. Here is what they say about their mission: “We believe the Bible is God’s gift to the world. We want everyone to discover its message for themselves”.

Wow! And so because of one young girl’s devotion to God, people all over the world are having the opportunity to meet Jesus.

Thank you Jesus for Mary Jones, and her legacy which carries on to this day. Please help everyone in the UK and the wider world to read or hear Scripture in their own language, that they may come to know the joy of knowing you (and your word) like Mary did. And to those of us who have our own Bibles, whether they are actual books or an app on our devices, may we value your word more than we currently do, but may be value the Author more!

Mary Jones and her Bible can be purchased here for just £2.99, and Mary Jones Pilgrim Centre (formerly Mary Jones World) can be visited in Bala, North Wales.

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For Christians the word ‘mission’ can be explained in different ways. Churches Together in England explores what mission is here.

I LOVE this quote from J. John: “Go on a missions trip – walk next door. It’s cheaper, and you don’t have to fundraise for a year!” (It can be found in this video if you’d like to hear it).

Naturally there is a place for God to send people ‘on mission’ to far-flung places, whether long-term or short. We have experienced the latter a number of times. Having said this, mission is also everyday, everywhere.

Most of us are not called to travel a long way to find our mission field, but we are all called to be on mission with the Holy Spirit in our daily lives, and so each one of us will have a person, group or place that is our mission field.

Matthew 9:35-10:1 says:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

Even if you are saving for a mission trip, how about listening to J. John’s advice? We don’t need slick sales pitches for Jesus; we just need to live as though the hope we have in Jesus is real – because it is!

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Growing up…

Since becoming a parent I have found myself saying things I never expected to have to say…

’Please don’t pick your nose with my finger’ 

‘Don’t you dare lick Gary’ 

‘Felt tip pens are not for drawing on bottoms’. 

Sometimes I forget that my children are relatively new to being human…they don’t have 35 years experience so they need guidance sometimes on what is appropriate and what isn’t. It is my job as their parent to walk alongside them and teach them. Thankfully I am not doing this alone, I have a husband, family and friends who are all supporting and playing their part in helping raise Zoe and Keziah.

Now, it’s one thing to tell my three year old not to lick our friend who has come for tea but if I’m still having to tell her that when she is 13 or 30 then we have a bigger concern on our hands. This is what Paul was saying to the church in Corinth when he wrote his 1st letter to them. In chapter 3 he says: 

“Brothers and sisters, when I was with you I found it impossible to speak to you as those who are spiritually mature people, for you are still dominated by the mind-set of the flesh. And because you are immature infants in Christ, I had to nurse you and feed you with “milk,” not with the solid food of more advanced teachings, because you weren’t ready for it.”

Paul was despairing that the church in Corinth, despite having received some of the basic teachings of Christ, and having made commitments to live a certain way were not digging deep into their relationship with God and learning more from those around them, but beginning to form sides and state their preferences as to who they thought was the best teacher or the most important. They were behaving like spiritual 3 year olds when actually they should have matured past that stage. Paul is frustrated that he is having to go back to basics and re-teach them the foundations of the gospel again. 

Don’t read this wrong and come away thinking it isn’t okay to be a baby believer (metaphorically). If you are new to the faith or you are just beginning to explore what a relationship with Jesus is all about then explore away!! Paul loves to encourage new believers in their faith…what he is frustrated about is those who don’t bother to grow. 

If, having told Zoe that tongues are not for licking people, she continued to try and lick those she was comfortable with it would be very frustrating (and frankly really gross!). She wouldn’t be exercising her ability to control her impulses, she wouldn’t be exploring other ways of connecting with people and showing them they mean a lot to her. She wouldn’t be growing up! 

What Paul does, and what we hope to do with Zoe and Keziah is point it all back to God! Only God gives the growth. Paul isn’t saying you need to study me more and do as I say, although he was a good example for them to follow to begin with. He is saying get to know God more and you will receive direct from the grower himself. I’m not telling Zoe exactly how to behave – goodness knows my way of showing affection isn’t always the best, but what I am trying to do is lead her, by example to begin with, but ultimately to lead her to a point where she can know God and receive directly from the grower.

If you are new to the faith and want to explore more of what it all means we would love to hear from you and give you some pointers and resources.

If you have been a believer for a while and you don’t think you are growing, don’t panic. Maybe getting together with 2 or 3 fellow believers and exploring what it means to walk closer with God would be helpful. Get in touch and we can give you a few pointers to help you get started.

If you’re in the depths of parenting toddlers, or any age children for that matter, and you’re desperately trying to do your best to point them to God, know that you are not alone! That old saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is so true. Why not get together with 2 or 3 other parents either at your stage or a few stages ahead to pray together about how to be the best conduit to God that you can be? 

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Devotion?

I just listened to a song called ‘Devotion’ by Gas Street Music, which can be found here.

I wonder to whom, or to what, you are most devoted? The song uses the word ‘all’, and it names the things that the singer wants to give to Jesus, out of devotion to him (“All my affection, all of my praise” etc).

The first Christians in the world ever were absolutely devoted, not just to Jesus and his message but also to one another. Check it out in the book of Acts, chapter 2 verse 42: 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 

They faced a lot of opposition, but because of their devotion and their unwavering commitment to the cause, the message of Jesus and the Church spread like wildfire. Of course the Holy Spirit had a big role to play too.

What gets in the way of your devotion to Jesus? Why not use this song or the Bible verse above to help you to realign your devotion to him? Better still, why not join together with a couple of friends who want to do the same thing, and start a discipleship group together! If this is you, we’d love to hear from you so please let us know if we can encourage or even mentor you in this.

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Living in scarcity?

I recently had the ‘joy’ of speaking to a number of mortgage lenders and advisers. All of them gave me the same prognosis: You don’t have enough for us to lend you more. Matt and I don’t have a huge monthly income but we also don’t have huge monthly outgoings. We have been told over and over again that we need to be earning twice as much as we currently do to be able to borrow the amount we would need to buy a 3 bed house. Lender after lender told us we didn’t have enough to repay the mortgage even thought our current rent is more than the mortgage payments would be.

There are all sorts of flaws in the affordability calculations that lenders run and we do not fit the mould when it comes to our finances. All of this has combined to make the last few weeks very frustrating. I have found myself feeling like there is little or no hope for us ever owning our own home meaning we will always be lining the pocket of a landlord. I have also found myself questioning if we do have enough money, which is silly. 

Two weeks ago I wasn’t questioning our finances; I was living them, knowing that we budget carefully, live within our means and trust God to cover any unexpected expenses. I thank God regularly that we have an amazing group of individuals, organisations and churches who cover us in prayer and financially underpin us also. But being told we don’t have enough was making me wonder if we did in fact have enough? Maybe we need more? Maybe we should both get ‘proper’ jobs so our household income is boosted? Are we satisfied with what we have? Is what we have good enough? 

Thankfully there was one conversation with a wonderful lady at Kingdom Bank which snapped me out of it all. If you haven’t heard of them, Kingdom Bank is a Christian savings and investment bank with a passion to see churches, charities and Christian workers thrive. It was so refreshing to have a conversation with an advisor who understood our financial situation, who sadly was saying that they still couldn’t lend us the amount we needed but who could suggest ways of reaching a point of being able to do that. The end result of the conversation was that we need an extra £64,000 to be able to buy a house that we liked the look of. I laughed a bit and said “Really only £64,000?” She heard the humour in my voice mixed with a bit of sadness. I was thinking ‘How are we ever going to raise that much??’. I suddenly remembered a fridge magnet that we have, it is a picture of a cow and simply says ‘The cattle on 1,000 hills are his’. As though she knew what I was thinking, or maybe God put the same thought in her mind, Jackie said ‘I know £64,000 might feel like a lot but the cattle on a thousand hills are the Lord’s so £64,000 is nothing. Pray about it and tell your supporters the need. You never know what will happen until you make people aware of the need. You would may be amazed by how generous people can be!’

That conversation with Jackie stopped me in my tracks…why was I questioning if I had enough? The God I am in relationship with owns the cattle on a thousand hills (that’s approx 1.5 billion according to the World Animal Foundation). He is providing for my every need and more. Jackie reminded me that we need to play our part, that we need to express our need and trust God to provide. Now, he might not do that how we expect, but he will provide. I am challenged to continue to live into God’s generosity. Instead of seeing how I can scrimp and save, I am pondering how I can be generous with what God has given me whilst being a good steward of it all. 

The house we liked has gone. Someone made an offer and we weren’t in a position to match it. We refuse to allow that to shape how we live though. We do not live in scarcity but in abundance! How are we going to share our abundant blessings with those around us!?

This post was originally written in August 2023. We are still renting and are continuing to pray hard about our housing situation. Although nothing is changing right now our landlord could choose to raise the rent at any time, like he did shortly after writing this reflection. It is not a comfortable position to be in but we know God calls us out of our comfort zones so here we are. If you want to know more about our housing situation, our hopes for the future and what needs to happen for us to get there do get in touch, we would love to share more details with you.

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What actually IS Embers?

Sometimes people ask us what we do, or what ‘Embers’ is, and there are lots of possible answers.

We tailor what we say depending on who is asking, to help them understand it well.

If you would like to know more about the training we provide, or how it could impact your life, your  church and even the world around you, take a look at the photo.

If you have any questions or would like to talk about it we’d love to hear from you. Click here to find out how to get in touch.

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Caged or free…

A band called ‘We The Kingdom’ sing a song called ‘Cages’. Click here to listen.

Any one of us could be stuck in a cage. It could be a fear of something, an addiction, maybe lies that we’ve believed about ourselves, or other circumstances that make us feel trapped.

Every day the devil seeks to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus said he came to earth so that we may have life, and have it to the full (found in John 10:10). He is talking about a rich, satisfying life; one of abundance – life in all its fulness. The Greek word is ‘Zoë’ and, according to Google, it means life that is real and genuine, active and vigorous, devoted to God, life that comes directly from God.

One of the lines from the song that I find poignant is “What I wouldn’t give to be known”. We were made for relationship and for community. No matter how introverted we are, or how much of a hermit we can be, I reckon every human being wants to be known, deep down. Not just known though – loved also. 

The type of discipleship groups that we encourage people to try out are life-changing. It’s really powerful to know that people are becoming known and knowing that they are loved too. As the song says, “What if I took my mask off? What if I took a risk?” Of course, this needs to happen with safe people and in appropriate ways, but the risk / step of faith can reap incredible and life-changing rewards.

God doesn’t want us to live in cages, and in Jesus he has given us the keys to live in freedom, to take our lives back so we can live them for him. Why not get in touch with us to find out more about small discipleship groups? Let’s open up the cages and see what God wants to do!

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We need each other…

According to a song, The Beatles apparently got by with a little help from their friends.

Simon and Garfunkel sang ironically about being a rock, and an island, feeling no pain and never crying.

These song lyrics show two different ways of living – choosing community or choosing isolation, and pretending all is well.

We were made for community. There is an African proverb which I love, called ‘Ubuntu’. It means “A person is a person because of other person’s”. It links in with the one about it taking a whole village to raise a child. No room for any ‘kingdoms of isolation’ here (sorry, Elsa). For the Church, John Wesley had this to say: “There is no such thing as a solitary Christian”. Wow. 

In the Bible, Paul writes “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). The reference is on the bracelet in this picture, along with the words “WE NEED EACH OTHER”.

Most of us don’t like asking for help – probably because we think it looks weak (it doesn’t) – but if we receive help we tend to be grateful for it! Jesus sent his disciples out in twos – never alone – and even the trinity or ‘Godhead’ is three-in-one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all in perfect community.

I wonder what you make of all this? From whom do you need to say the brave word ‘help’ right now? And who has a need that you can meet? Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 

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Come with me, lets take it to Jesus

Sometimes a song can break through your logical brain and speak straight to your heart. I’m sure there is some theology or psychology behind it but I don’t need to know that…all I know is that this song is breaking through for me right now. 

I could pick the song apart and explain why each bit is hitting a nerve but instead I’ll just say this… “Come with me, let’s take it to Jesus” is plural and invitational. I don’t have to do this alone…I also don’t need to have all the answers – we can go together and take everything to Jesus.

Click here to watch and listen to the song on YouTube

Take it to Jesus by Anna Golden (Ft. Kari Jobe)

I have no idea what to say right now
How could any words ease the pain right now
Something like this will never make sense never make sense at all 
I have no idea what to say right now

If you wanna come you can stay for awhile 
I know a place we could go right now
Pack all your pieces, broken and bleeding, all of your grief and doubt 
I know a place we could go right now 

When your questions don’t have answers and you just can’t understand it 
When your mind just won’t stop running and the tears just keep on coming 
You don’t have to explain it
He hears you before you can speak
Come with me, let’s take it to Jesus

This is the place you can rest for a while 
If you need to just fall apart 
Lay down your worry, he’s not in a hurry, take all the time you need 
This is the place you can rest for a while 

When my questions had no answers and I couldn’t understand it 
When my mind wouldn’t stop running and the tears just kept on coming 
Didn’t have to explain it
He heard me before I could speak 
Even now, I still take it to Jesus

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