Reternity

24 JULY 2010
Domine Dirige Nos (Lord Guide Us)

For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name’s sake, Lead me and guide me.
Psalm 31:3

To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:79

Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.
Psalm 73:23-24

A Call to Return to your own Dictum: London, who will steer for you?

Apparently every municipality has one, a maxim, a slogan that emblemizes the pulse of its heart. According to that endless font of information, Wikipedia, Chicago's is "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden), Cork, Ireland's is "Statio Bene Fida Carinis" (A safe harbor for ships) and Austin, Texas' is, my personal favorite, "Keep Austin Weird". For London, somewhere ago, sometime ago, it was evident that only One was going to be setting the course of this conurbation and defining the points on its compass.

Essentially there are only two options: the frail, faulty, foolish and finite man or the Most High God, perfect in power, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Scripturally, the Bible tells us God is not only our prefect choice because He knows everything, but also because His infinite care for us drives His every decision. While our plans are for our own best, so is God's: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11) So, who will steer for you?

We have two competing pilots fo rour life, ourself and God. Both want our best. So, let's call that a tie. But that is as far as our roads travel in parallel.

For truly my words are not false; One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. (Job 36:4) While I may want my best, I don't even know what that is or what will beset meeven a breath from now. How can I be prepared for that I know not of. The Lord, on the other hand, knows all perfectly. So who will steer for you?

…it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) While our own hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, and we can easily be duped by our own emotions, God not only is never misled, He hoodwinks no one. He is straight forth, up front, and absolutely faithful. So who will steer for you?

But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3) While our desires may be for our and other's benefit and our decency, our histories are glutted with moments where we have veered from good to something infinitely more destructive. Honestly, we can not think of ourselves as our best proponent. The Lord, however, lives to intercede, gives, guides and guards, all for our benefit and His pleasure. So, who will steer for you?

Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
Psalm 143:10

08 JULY 2010
Going to the Need

When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Mark 2:17

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?"
Matthew 18:12

And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
Matthew 8:7

“…for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Luke 19:10

The man at the pool couldn’t get to the water when it was stirred. Under the jibing shadows cast on the five porches where he lay he was absolutely helpless.

Then Jesus came.

For a woman with five former husbands, gathering water in the assault of the noon sun, she wouldn’t weather the unwelcome stares of Jerusalem to quench her taunting thirst for worship.

Then Jesus came.

Like the physical tabernacle before Him, Jesus was mobile. Much of Israel boasts of being ground made sacred by the beautiful feet of the One who brought and is the good news. En route He would heal lepers, give blind sight, raise children from their mournful graves. His feet were shod with the preparation of peace’s gospel and the tattered bottoms of them proclaimed the simple fact, “He came to Seek…”

Something we may not consider, those who need saving, most often first need seeking out. The dead can’t run, they can’t walk, they can’t come. Some, it is from the burden of guilt. Like the five porches of the law they hopelessly bane in their inaptitude. We come in Jesus name and bring Grace and Mercy. Some their hunger for worship is mucked by previous experiences misrepresentative of the biblical Love of God. We come in Jesus name and bring truth.

By the book of Acts the church already seems to pivot to the mundane. Evangelism is replaced with a political hierarchy. But up north in Syria the Holy Spirit is setting apart servants who will “Go into all the world…”. And from that point onward, the focus of the book moves the 300 miles north to chronicle it.

We have sat with churches lately that appear so under the burden of their calling which Jesus promised would be light and well fitting. They haven’t any outreach but expect people to come. Perhaps a few, discontented with their current fellowship may peruse their hallways. But they too will leave when the next hot thing comes to town. Remember, it was God who sought Adam. It was Adam who hid.

Being out on the streets of Camden has been spectacular. We are being often told that we are the first Christians many of them have ever met. When asked “Why?” the most common answer (in paraphrase) is “they just don’t wind up being any place I am”. Last night we met Chris, from Glasgow. He was nestled between huddled groups of Thursday night revelers. Chris was hungry for truth. He was hungry for care. He listened intently as we shared with him the love God displayed for him on the cross of His Son. Chris said yes to Jesus last night. He wouldn’t have stepped into a church building, but last night the church went to him and last night, Chris’s darkness was conquered by light.

Also this last Wednesday night saw the launching of our first bible study at yumchaa, the tea house in Camden. It was wonderful to see who came, engaged, and became engulfed in the Lord of their Saviour. There was lots of praise, teaching (which is already on our website I am told) and ended with each table gathering for prayer. It was also wonderful to watch others patronizing the shop, stand in the wings, discreetly positioned to hear without making display of it. Unknowingly, truth had come to them, was seeking them out.

Friends, is our Christianity a mobile one? Do our shoes proclaim our broken heart for the needy, the empty, the lost? Jesus, when seeing the Leper in Mark was “moved with compassion” and he came to him. Real compassion moves us. Real tenderheartedness brings us to action. Please join with me in praying that our hearts would be meltable, moldable, breakable, and touchable today that we, driven by the prodding of His Spirit would Go. Go, go, into this world seeking the need and bring the answer, Jesus directly to those who wouldn’t or couldn’t go themselves.

Friends, it is such a wonderful thing to be serving Jesus with you all! Praises be to our King and God bless you ridiculously today!

24 JUNE 2010
Part One: “Let me warn you, it is hard soil here...”

For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
1 Corinthians 9:9-10

Once there was a man who hated vegetables; absolutely loathed them. Being forced to consume them as a child, although told they were good for him, all he knew was they weren’t sweet to his taste and therefore were unnecessary. This boy resolved that when he was an adult, he would rid the world of these nasty plate inhabitants. So he researched, plotted, and developed a plan.

He knew if he were really to remove the world of this culinary nuisance he would have to go to the source. He set his sights on the village farmer. He quickly ‘befriended” the farmer, clad in overalls and mud boots. The farmer, hungry for camaraderie, was quick to accept his company.

The man began to unfold his plan by explaining to the farmer issues with farming he was sure the farmer simply didn’t know.
• The man was more an expert on soil types and in his estimation the soil was hard, rigid, and unreceptive to the farmer’s seed. Farming that field would be a futile exhausting endeavor with no real and lasting results.
• Current polls showed that vitamin pills had replaced vegetables and therefore his seed, and also his farming were obsolete and outdated.
• Continuing to farm this outdated seed would therefore cause him to be viewed as the village idiot, the butt of the village jokes. The farmer hadn’t spent any time thinking about what others thought of him. He had previously been too busy bringing them food.
• New technology had replaced traditional farming with “virtual-farming” (which involved neither seed nor soil) where farming was now exclusively for highly educated experts while old farmers were only to become spectators to this new revolution.

So the now insecure farmer, convinced he was too ill-equipped and too uneducated to farm, left the farm to start a support group for defeated inept men of the soil. His once love for that soil now turned to apathy.

Soon the village started to weaken and become horribly ill. Death and desperation, once distant concepts, now became prominent residents in this once thriving village. Despondent and empty, the farmer knew he was made for more than the life he was living.

One day, on a restless walk he found himself back at the farm, and much to his surprise there were sprouts encircling his feet! Apparently, enough seed had clung to his old clothes that at his leaving simply fell in the soil and began to germinate. The farmer realized he had been lied to. The power wasn’t in the farmer, but in the seed. And the seed had, for as long as he knew, throughout every culture and generation simply and reliably grown. All it needed was someone to move it from the container to the soil. That was something the farmer knew how to do.

Such is the case of modern Christianity. I have yet to meet a country where it’s gospel preachers don’t call the land “hard soil”. We were told that of the central coast when we arrived there 17 year ago, and warned of it before arriving in London. Truth of the matter is, soil gets hard only by neglect.

In the bush of Tanzania, just outside of Didomo there is a land so barren, so hard, it feels like concrete. The Pastor then turns to me and says “this land becomes a lush garden of Eden in the spring”. How is this possible? The winter rains. All the land really needed was some living water to soften the ground and even the most irreparably hard ground becomes fertile. The real question is, if the ground were fertile, am I ready with seed to throw?

Truth be told, some soil isn’t hard at all. Actually it is full of weeds and thistles laid there by the enemy, with no competition from the good seed it was created to foster.

Jesus makes clear in Matthew 13 that we are not the only ones throwing seed, and not all seed is good. If this is true, then a hard soil may be a merciful condition. At least it isn’t blooming with noxious seed. Apparently the enemy’s actions prove he has more faith in his seed than we do in ours. If our walk with Christ is founded on earthly programs and not God’s word, we will trade His simple effective tools for the arduous devises of men.

The Seed has always been God’s Gospel, which was, is and will continue to be the power of salvation for anyone who will believe.
The Living Water will always be God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus promised me that if I were to come to Him out of me would torrent living water, not trickle, not drip, but torrent. I don’t have to force it, tense every muscle to squirt it, or create this downpour. I just need to come to source and stay there. I am not the font. I am the hose.

Jesus promises to do the rest. Do I trust Him to do so? And in trusting Him to do so, do I already have seed in hand?

Today we met Christine. She is seen by most as of one of the village loons. Most merchants know her as the relatively harmless little crazy gal. Today she encountered our Father, and with depth of sanity said yes to His offer of life and adoption through Jesus Christ. Everyone in the area seemed to know her and simply write her off. Her soil seemed so resistant to anything and anyone. But the Holy Spirit washed over her and the Gospel of Jesus Christ took root.

Prayer requests:
• We are obviously preparing for the launch of our study, Wednesday, 30th of June. Please pray that it would be amazing to all of us in every way God wants.
• Landon is heading to America (east coast) for a small procedure and will be gone a few days from us. Please keep him in your prayers.
• Erin is a friend of a friend of Landon. She has come to Camden just 2 weeks ago and met all of us tonight. She immediately went out street preaching with us. Please pray for her as she gets to know the group.
• Olesya may be coming as early as July 10th. Please keep her move in your prayers.
• Believe it or not, the redundant (unoccupied) church just down the street from us isn’t allowed to conduct religious services. But we wound up looking at the town hall. It is really beautiful and perfectly set up for what we may want to do on a Sunday. We are awaiting a quote from them. Please keep it in your prayers.

Friends, our heart’s desire is to make a video soon to send to you to put some images to all these words. Please pray we would have the time and wherewithal to accomplish this soon!

We are sooooo thankful for your partnership. Thank you so much for your prayers, time and resources you have given in our direction. The Lord bless you abundantly and magnificently precious friends.

Pastor Antonye Holyde
Jeremiah 9:23-24

08 JUNE 2010
Awake!

And it shall come to pass at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency who say in their heart “The Lord will not do good. Nor will He do evil”.
Zephaniah 1:12

What fear punches my heart at this verse? Stored in the cellars of me is the clear recognition the Lord is going to punish evil-doers; those that leave bereft the widow, shun the orphan and build empires on man’s weakness for gain, but the complacent? Then His tender voice speaks to me, “Love slacks not. Complacency is, simply put, rebellion in an evening gown”. God not only calls me from a lifestyle of demise and misery, but also to a life of action; from striving to thriving. Even my idle words will be judged (Matthew 12:36) as they are but styrofoam versus the life changing living font of His word.

Within the museum of complacency sits stale and musty indifference, apathy, and knows no sweet fragrance of holiness or brokenness. So how does the perfume of my devotion sour to the stench of complacency? The answer is in the rest of the verse, “The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil”. Notice this mindset doesn’t negate the past miracles the Bible chronicles, but rather makes a monument of them as the present nearness and power of God becomes intangible, impersonal and unrealistic.

We start to see God as the hero of Yore, mighty to have parted seas (Exodus 14, Joshua 3, 2 Kings 2), made suns stand still (Joshua 10), even the One who gave Samson strength (Judges 13-16) and Gideon Courage (Judges 6-8), but 1000s of years and miles insolate them from their being no more than motivational children’s tales.

It is no wonder the lost world around us sees us as simpletons mindlessly clinging to ancient fables.

What a wretched man am I to with calloused nonchalance flippantly look past Christ’s wounds, numb to the reasons He suffered them, anesthetized by the lame world’s propaganda to somehow resolve Jesus as aloof, uninvolved and emotionally detached from me? Where are the Abrahams today? Where are the Joshuas and Simon Peters and Davids, very human men with a passion and “go for it” in their spirit?

Have we forgotten that the same word that promises us eternal life today also tells us that our Saviour is the same yesterday, today, forever (Hebrews 13:8). This Word of God is active and alive (Hebrews 4:12), and let me not forget it, also endures forever (1 Peter 1:25). It never expires, ages, loses youthful vivacity, nor power. Neither does our God. He is still as active as ever before, even if we cannot see the rivers segregated or sun halted, He is still doing His greatest work, saving souls from the lifeless manacles of Death. Perhaps that is why He is so intent on warning us against lifeless inanimate Christianity.

I believe God is still recruiting cowards and weaklings, the impetuous and foolhardy, anyone with a child-like enough faith to step out of the stillness and believe He is still mighty to save (Zephaniah 3). After all, He did save us here and now didn’t He?

Arise Christian soldiers, awake, rise to action! God is on the move and would love to show Himself strong through you! He is near, He is invincible, and He wants to use you!

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Romans 13:11

Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
Ephesians 5:14

Update for this week

1. After Softball this week, I finally bit the bullet and joined the team (with David) for the after game pub wrap-up. By the time was over I had shared my testimony with the team. Even the guy who wears the 666 “Lucifer” on the back of his jersey sat quietly and listened intently.
   
   
2. Yesterday we had a couple of appointments with a couple food vendors at the Camden lock market. I shared an abridged version of my testimony with both him and his girlfriend. (Note: every time I share my testimony I always make really clear it all boils down to a simple choice to receive the gift of Jesus’ payment on the cross, believing He rose again, and granting Him authority over your life) He said “that is the most amazing story I have ever heard” and wants to talk more about this.
   
   
3. The second meeting was with a virgin-piña-colada salesman. He is an Ethiopian Christian with little secure foundation in God’s word. We are going to be going through verse by verse building that foundation together, God willing. While I was sharing with him, Landon was sharing with a couple who run the next booth. The listened intently.
   
   
4. David and Trista have been sharing with the street sweeper. I don’t believe he has any background in where they are coming from. It is so cool to see them so driven to this man.
   
   
5. We shared the power of forgiveness and how Jesus makes people brand new to a couple from Israel. I shared how my adopted grandmother in Israel came to Jesus and then used that to reach Terrible Vladamir. I shared that was what Jesus does to people who trust in Him, make them completely new, and the choice was theirs too.
   

Thank you all of you who sent in prayer requests. It is an honour to be in the field with you watching our Awesome God do such wondrous things. Man it feels good to be out in the trenches again.

We are also in prayer about a possible Saturday night outreach service in Camden right off the main drag and a possible Sunday morning service farther north. Please keep us in prayer as we seek God’s wisdom for us and favour for those we are dealing with at the facility sites.

01 JUNE 2010
In a moment...

…God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did...
Romans 4:17

(Genesis 1:2 / 1 Corinthians 1:27-28)

In one moment God looked into the darkness, the void, the vast nothingness and spoke universes into existence.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to look not at the vacuum, but through it and see galaxies in their radiance, mountain tops, valleys and oceans breams in their majesty, sunsets in their placid beauty, and then, without a sinew of striving a word comes from the Creator of all, His Spirit moves and it all comes to be, just like that.

At this veranda of thought I begin to realize how utter nonsense it is to wonder what he could possibly see in me, as if I just wanted to discover what raw materials or potential He inventoried in me that drew Him to initially call or use me. The humbling truth is that I came to Jesus a dead (Ephesians 2:5), sinning (Romans 5:8) enemy (Romans 5:10). I came to Him with nothing. The great news is that God works well with nothing. The Universe incessantly testifies of this fact.

Praise God He saw through my nothingness, my void, my darkness and saw the new universe my life would become the instant I encountered the Life He is.

The Bible is woven with the fabric of individuals who would be appraised as “nothings” in the world’s eyes; weak, cowardly, frail, seemingly insignificant with nothing of girth to bring to the table. Then, in an instant, God rises up through these foolish, weak, base, and despised, and transforms the world. After all, doesn’t that just sum up Jesus’ lot?

What a motley gaggle of rural riffraff that ultimately saw the world touched through such profane vehicles. This thought challenges my lenses. Who will be the next world changer? Who’s nothingness will become the next glorious alterer of the universe?

There was a man, homeless, drug riddled, literally believing he had only half a face, that met Jesus and now oversees first response for Red Cross as a pastor.

There was a street fighter of a man, sitting in his house with a loaded shotgun waiting to kill both his family and himself that is now one of the most gifted and prolific evangelists today.

Can I see in the eyes of the most needy before me the next masterpiece of God that will be used to altar the world as I know it?

This week we met a young homeless 20 year old gal beside the Besize tube station. All she asked for was a travel card to get to a hostel on the east side. Then, God spoke, His Spirit moved and although, the universe may not have appeared to change yet, Hannah’s did, just like that.

Hey you guys, I am so blessed to know you are joining with me in prayer as we watch God about to roll up His sleeves and start emptying hell in front of us. Thank you for being part of this ministry. I cherish your partnership.

25 MAY 2010
"It’s a dark place isn’t it?"

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:5

Within humankind there are a pool of genes; little codes that make up a person. That is a birthday gift from your parents that determines things like how tall we will be, what color hair, and even how much of that hair we may have in our autumn years. Be it that it takes a man and a woman to make a child, and both bring their respective genes to the table. What determines which set will win in your making?

Well, God, in His infinite wisdom has set some to overcome the others. These are called “dominant genes”. The ones that lose are called “recessive genes”. Red hair, for instance is a recessive gene. It seldom wins over the other hair color competitors when the forming of a child is considered.

What an orderly and Wondrous God we serve!

Well, somewhere in the camp of the Lord, someone decided to view the darkness as the “dominant gene”  as if darkness was an offensive force that roars so intensely that light’s only wise response is to sheepishly flee. Nothing could be further from the Biblical truth. Remember, darkness is not the over-comer of light; it is the absence of it; just as black is not considered one of the colors, but their vacancy.

In John we read that “Light has come into the world… and the darkness could not overcome/comprehend it”.  The word “overcome” in the Greek is “KataLambano” (kata = according to/against and lambano = to take) Think of it as a wrestling term. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness couldn’t get a grip/hold on it. That’s the idea here. You see, Biblically, the light is the dominant in the gene pool.

Now consider two applications to this concept:

1. 1. The only place that is dark is where the light isn’t, so go there! (“Even darkness is light to You” Psalm 139) And now He calls us “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) So wherever you go with Jesus, darkness leaves. So Go shine your light! John in 1st John tells us we walk in the light as children of God.
   
   
2. 2. From the moment you came to Jesus you became a new creation, and in being that new creation your Heavenly Father has given you a new set of spiritual genes, making you a child of light (Ephesians 5:8) And ALL your Father’s genes are dominant ones! In the end they will win out over who you were as you become more like Him.

Dear Saint, praise Him for creating us anew, where we were once darkness, until that light shone in our hearts and now we are light! What a glorious and radiant masterpiece we are becoming as the darkness is passing and the light is already shining!  Arise, Shine, and march into this current darkness with out lights un-busheled, and our hearts alit with great victory in our King!

22 MAY 2010
Scouting the Land

Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan. 
Numbers 13:17

Perhaps the greatest landmark of failure for the whole nation of Israel in the torah is here. They were driven to this land on the heels of an unprecedented deliverance, carried on the wings of His Promise and led by God’s Divine and obvious pillar of presence. So why spy out a land God had already given them? They were sizing up a battle as if it really were theirs to fight. They knew the current landlord wouldn’t vacate without a fight. So the people inquire the size of that strongman. “Go up… and see what the land is like; whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many… whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds…”

God never commands us to size up our opposition. When we do that we tend to make giants out of mere men and render God as, at best, a hope to win in the 11th round. God had already taken down Pharaoh to free them, and Sihon and Og on the way. But how quickly those victories are forgotten in the daunting face of a new battle. Their appraisal is reiterated in Deuteronomy 1:28; “The people are greater and taller than we” (they are scary) “the cities are great and fortified unto heaven” (they are unreachable) “We have seen the sons of Anakim there” (those people creep me out!)  

But Joshua simply brought evidences of God’s promise; the fruit. David’s greatest struggles in Psalms were always when his heart trembled in the shadow of a larger enemy. The man who fell Goliath also banes “How they have increased who trouble me! Many are they that rise against me!” What God commands is that we size up our God, the King of Glory, the Lord, Strong and mighty, the Lord, Mighty in Battle…” (Psalm 24:8) How can we be intimidated by mere men when the One who spoke the heavens into place, who splinters the cedars of Lebanon with a mere clearing of His throat, goes before us into battle? 

Can I look into the face of a person, tattered, altered, hostile and see the evidences of God’s promise in them? Are they not one whom God Himself knitted in their mother’s womb? Did God not know their days and collect their tears in a bottle? Does God not see their oppression, hear their cries, know their pain?

Did not the precious Blood of Jesus flow for them too?

The Earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness.
Psalm 24:1

So what are you intimidated by? Where is your focus? It seems to me what captures my gaze becomes bigger the longer I stare at it; bigger in importance, bigger in thought. This week the Lord again performed the impossible. He gave us a home in a ridiculously beautiful part of town, Hampstead Heath. It is only two stops from Camden Lock and within walking distance.

This week also saw the arrival of Luke and Frida, Landon and Tobi. With all the House hunting, moving in, and meeting people at the airport, I have been antsy to get the sweet love of Jesus out to the precious people of Camden, but with every meeting, it is an appointment to throw the seed of hope, God’s perfect love for mankind and His gift on the cross to make it so.  

Please pray for Stephen, a man who works at a fruit stand in Camden. He confided in me that he is currently suicidal over money issues. We have talked and prayed. Please pray that Jesus would become very real to him today. Also, please pray for the Clapman Panthers, a softball team that I had the privilege of playing with this last Thursday. After winning, the captain took everyone else to the pub for a round on him. Apparently, winning was a rather new thing to them. I just received an email from the captain, Garrie, who said he wanted to know more about the church.  

Also please pray for a possible opportunity to start our study at a local tea house called Yumchaa. I have been given the number of the boss there and it may be possible to have our Bible study there! It is a beautiful place for sure. Please pray for favour.

And a challenge this week. Read through as many Psalms as you can and mark out all the references to God’s greatness. Then, at night, before you go to bed, read what you have highlighted. And pray, pray for those around you, to have the compassionate eyes of Jesus that would travel any stormy sea just for a man, legion possessed, or come to lay hands on a leper, or still a crowd for a once bleeding woman just to say “Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well…”  

06 MAY 2010
Set back or set up?

Hello there precious Saints!

Okay, so picture this – there once was a family (see them a bit tired but smiling) on their way to the airport! Then a Volcano erupts in an obscure land. Now picture the same family having to not go yet!

Setback you say? Think of what a setback is; it's when something WE planned doesn't quite happen when or how we wanted it to. Exactly how many things really do? Then we are forced into a rerouting maneuver and the "enjoyability" strictly depends on how well we deal with surprises and change. Is that about right?

Well, let's lay a foundation. Proverbs 16:9 says "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Psalm 37:31 says "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way." You aren't driving, and since you are not driving you might as well enjoy the ride! Don't forget the intent of the Driver. Jeremiah 29:11 says "For i know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." So the Driver only has plans for our benefit, peace, a future, and hope. And don't forget, He is perfect, so he never get's lost or forgets where He is going.

Now are you currently in a "setback"? I wonder what He is "setting you up" for?

Paul's "setback' from Istanbul (Bythinia) set him up for the Macedonian call. So I wasn't let into China this summer - it opened me up to get my "call" into Europe. Paul's setback to go to Rome - "I have often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now) that i might have some fruit among you..."

A "setback" isn't Satan's victory, but God's "set up".

So we didn't fly when our initial tickets stated. Since then we have seen my brother in Huntington Beach - and then skipped over to the Bible College where we have been refreshed and greatly encouraged. And, the Lord has seen fit to put some space between our departure form the central coast and our arrival on the shores of London (per se).

In this mindset (what a difference it makes on the trip) yesterday as a last big hurrah before our departure we were intending to go early to Legoland (about 60 miles away) but first needed to go to the bank. Well, to shorten this, I was there over an hour just for a simple transaction and I was thinking "I wonder what God is setting me up for" as I waited. We did finally make it to Legoland (and the girls were AMAZING at waiting this whole time, by the way, until we got there) and there at the pay station there was a man who came upon us and gave us two extra "children free" coupons! Had we left when initially intended we would have wound up paying over a $100 more!

Now, what is God setting you up for right now? Even if a hill under a glacier in Iceland explodes and sets your initial plans at nought, enjoy the ride dear saints! Now (picture this again) there is a family, refreshed and more ready to traverse the airport, many air miles, and London!

Jesus be your peace and joy,
Pastor Antonye