Roger Aubrey

Twitter update

Well, I have been tweeting for a couple of weeks now (that's what you do on Twitter), and I have to say that, despite my long held reservations about the whole thing - I really enjoy it! I thought that the whole thing was just having people send inane sentences into the webosphere ('I'm looking out of the window/brushing my teeth/blowing my nose'). And that does go on. But Twitter is much more than that. You can get information about pretty much anything very quickly; communicate with all kinds of people; follow developing news stories (the Michael Jackson one was educational, as is Iran); express your thoughts and views; have a say; and even have famous people 'follow' you (they receive all your tweets).

So, will I keep tweeting? Definitely. Now I'm getting the hang of it I appreciate its benfits and its usefulness in communication and sharing Jesus.

If you want to follow me, join Twitter then go here:

http://twitter.com/rogeraubrey

Alone with your thoughts

I took this photo of a British veteran in November 2008 when I was in Ypres (Ieper) for the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. I'm sure this old soldier had many memories.

Enthroned laughter

The One enthroned in heaven laughs. (Psalm 2:4)

When you occupy the the place of righteous rule and authority, ungodly ambitions and machinations are no threat. God was not alarmed when Lucifer attempted his overthrow; he cast him down with a swat of his hand. God's throne was never at risk; that's why he laughs at the conspiracies and plots of those who try to displace him.

It's the same for Christians. As those who are seated in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2), we have a righteous right to our position. We too may laugh at our enemy; he has no authority over us or right to plot his evil against us. Cue laughter.

Majesty

Today's post is dedicated to my dear friend Steve Brady from Grand Rapids MI, who went to be with the Majesty of Heaven yesterday. He was a lover of Jesus and a faithful friend.

When icons die

Yesterday saw the deaths of two icons: one expected, the other a total shock to many. Farrah Fawcett, original Charlie's Angel who later became an accomplished actress, died after a long battle with cancer, aged 62. Michael Jackson, self styled king of pop, died suddenly at the age of 50. I happened to be watching Sky news last night as the story of Jackson's collapse and death unfolded. Then I turned to Twitter; it was amazing to see literally thousands of messages each few minutes popping up on the screen. Fawcett's death had been reported earlier in the day with measured and prepared tributes. Jackson's passing seemed to be a media event: helicopters over his house; footage of the ambulance leaving the home; his sister and other members of the family caught on camera in their moment of grief. Even in death he had no privacy.

While one is naturally saddened by these deaths, especially since both Fawcett and Jackson were relatively young, such events make us think of our values and hopes. I can remember that in the 70s every girl wanted Fawcett's hair and teeth and be able to beat up villains; we all thought that we could dance like Jackson! I can remember him as a young boy with the Jackson 5 singing 'I want you back': just great pop music. But values and hopes must have more substance than that, because icons die. Their memories live on, but they are gone. It's true they leave us values, but the fact that they are no longer here leaves a terrible chasm in the heart of their followers.

That's why for Christians, all ultimate values and hopes can be placed only in Jesus Christ. He is not an historical, popular, dead icon, but a living person. Many people confine him to the pages of the New Testament as a man who lived and died two thousand years ago. But Jesus is the Eternal God who became a man, and still is one today. Christians should never look back with nostalgia to history and a past life, as fans of Fawcett and Jackson will have to. We don't live with the memory of Jesus; we live with him. He is alive today.

Forty day training session

The forty days between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus were important in his training of the disciples for their future. Acts 1:1-2 says that Jesus instructed them through the Holy Spirit; this was the difference between how Jesus had trained them over the previous three years. After he had risen from the dead, and having his resurrection body, he breathed on them and they received the Spirit (John 20:22). That was the moment they were 'born again'. At Pentecost they would receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But for Jesus to instruct them through the Spirit logically means that they now had received the Spirit.

Now the disciples had to learn to relate to Jesus in a new way: not through their natural senses, because he was going to leave them, but would come to them in the Person of the Spirit at Pentecost. Therefore, Jesus spent as much time as possible preparing them for their new way of relating to him. This is important for us: it demonstrates that none of us can know Jesus through our natural senses. We too can only know him through the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus makes no sense to the natural person - the person without the Spirit.

Image of the day

I took this at Derwentwater when I was in the Lake District a couple of weeks ago. It's on the memorial to John Ruskin that overlooks Friars Crag.

 

Right from the start

Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do. (Acts 9:6)

Jesus started with Paul the way he would carry on the rest of Paul's life: he told him what to do. There was no appeal to Paul to submit and follow, only a command. The issue of the Lordship of Jesus was settled in Paul the moment he heard the voice and fell to the ground under the power of God on the road to Damascus.

That's why God achieved so much in Paul: there were no wasted years waiting for Paul's will to become one with God's. In a moment, in one encounter with the living Jesus, an independent, arrogant, cruel, self-willed, religious bigot became clay in the Potter's hands.

Tweet

 Ever the adventurous one, I have taken the plunge and joined Twitter. I feel a bit like when I started blogging almost five years ago: I resisted it for ages until the blogfather - Erling Thu - convinced me I should.

I want to see what all the fuss is about; so in the grand old 'don't knock it till you've tried it' tradition, I'm going to give it a go. If you're on Twitter and want to follow me (see how quick I catch on with all the tech speak?), feel free. Should be an interesting lesson, if nothing else.

If you have no idea what I have been talking about in this post - don't be condemned. You may be the only sane ones left.

Prophetic essence

David was a prophet...Seeing what was ahead he spoke... (Acts 2:30-31)

This is the essence of the prophetic. David was a prophet; he saw what was ahead. He spoke what he saw. The prophet sees what is ahead, what is to come. What he (or she) sees in the future he speaks of in the present. In doing so he creates faith in his hearers for the future, even if that future is only a minute away. His word creates faith.

A prophetic word that doesn't create faith is not prophecy. Even a prophecy of judgement will have faith in it; everything God speaks demands faith of us. The prophet speaks only what he sees/hears from God. God has already spoken his word to the prophet and the prophet must have faith that what he has seen/heard is from God. The prophet brings the future into the present, because faith is always active in the present. Therefore, every prophet must see what is ahead.

Flight 447

I'm sure you will have heard of the recent tragedy of Air France Flight 447 that went down in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago. 288 people lost their lives. One of the victims was an eleven year old boy, Alexander Bjoroy.

Alexander's grandfather, Bill Dougill, is a member of All Nations Church. Bill loves the Lord very much; he recently turned eighty and gave testimony of the goodness and faithfulness of God to him over his life. Naturally, Bill was devastated by the loss of his only grandson; nevertheless, the Sunday after the crash, Bill was in our Sunday meeting. He told me before the meeting that he needed to be at home with his family - the church. That Sunday I spoke on having a faith that perseveres; when I had finished I invited Bill to come forward, because he had told me he wanted to give a testimony about what had happened.

I want to encourage you to listen to what Bill said. It's at the end of my message. If you subscribe to our podcasts get it from iTunes. Or visit the ANC site to listen online or download it.

Radio 1 DJ talks up Church

Back after a refreshing break in the Lake District, walking the Fells and around Derwentwater and Ullswater. This is an interesting clip (thanks to Jonathan Cooper for telling me about it). It's from Chris Moyles, who has the breakfast show on BBC's Radio 1. He tells how fascinated he was by seeing some baptisms from a church here in the UK on TV. Enjoy.

Most Britons would like to meet Jesus

A poll for the DVD launch of the Primeval Series 3 has revealed that most Britons would like to meet Jesus. The study has found that one third of the 3,000 people polled put him at the top of their choice as the dead person they would most like to meet. Princess Diana came second. Included in the top ten were Elvis Presley, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Martin Luther King.

The good news about this poll is that people want to meet Jesus. And he should never be included in a list of dead people - he is very much alive! And what's more: anybody can meet him!

Here's the full article.

I will be away the rest of the week: Dianne and I are taking a few days off.

See you next week.

Thought for the day

If you don't discover the difference between the shakings of God in your life and the attacks of the enemy on your life you will end up fighting against God.

Faith is not positive thinking

Have faith in God. (John 14:1)

Once faith is removed from its root in the nature of God it becomes mere positive thinking. Now, faith will make you think positively and it's good to have positive thoughts. But positive thinking in itself is not faith. Faith must have a basis, a root. And that basis is God. He is what makes faith possible. Never remove faith from God; don't have faith in faith or just have faith for something. Have faith in God.

News from the Philippines

More news from Noralv Askeland and the work of Ministries without Borders in the Philippines.

MWBPI has arranged six camps and summer-schools for more than 700 youth and children the last two months. We are encouraged by the many that have received Jesus as their Lord and savior. Let us share the story from one of the camps: More than 50 youth from 14 -20 years of age, gathered at our new camp site at Core in Mindoro. We had a good mix of youth from the Mangyan and other Filipinos. We make it a point to reach youth that don’t know the Lord yet. Our theme for the camp was: Disciples of Jesus! Everybody heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. They learned how to be a follower of Jesus by faith, repentance, and baptism in water and in The Holy Spirit. Through preaching of the word and dialogue in small groups, 36 youth received the Lord and were baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit. The team from the Bible school in Bergen was a great help. We had a very precious time on Saturday morning, when Jesus baptized them in the Holy Spirit. We went from that gathering to the South China Sea to bury the old life!  Nothing can compare with the joy of seeing young people come to give their lives to Jesus and become His disciples. Our new camp site at Core turns out to function very well. It will be a great tool in the years to come! The Filipinos are very good in arranging camps. Just look at the flags each group has made! We are grateful for all your prayers and support. I just wish you could be here to hear the testimonies of people meeting Jesus and have their lives totally changed!

Tone and Noralv

 

 

Worthy is the Lamb & Amen Chorus

The closing part of Handel's Messiah.

Marmite Jesus

Apparently Jesus loves Marmite. His image has just appeared on the inside of a lid. For those of you who can't stand the taste of Marmite, this must be a shattering blow. For us Marmite lovers it's great to have the Lord's endorsement. The sad thing is that the family who have made this discovery are from Wales. And we were doing so well.

If you really want to read more about this headline-grabbing story, here's the link.

Inner working

Last Sunday here at All Nations we had a very important meeting. We recognised a new elder; three new deacons; and four new helps ministries. For us it was a very formal time; those of you who are used to our meetings know we want more than anything the Holy Spirit to have liberty among us. Admittedly, the people did celebrate with all their might at the end, but the rest of the time was spent in explaining what these eight would be doing, giving them their charge, laying hands on them and praying for them. All this, too, was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

This came home to me afterwards as I spoke to some of our visitors. We seem to be getting quite a lot them in recent times: folks coming from all over to see what the Lord is doing among us. They just seem to turn up. It's exciting and humbling at the same time. I was ready to explain to these visitors that our meetings aren't always that formal, half apologising that they had come all that way to witness this aspect of the church's practice and belief. Their responses, however, were rather interesting. They all commented that they had been incredibly blessed, even blown away, by what they had experienced. Several of them said that they had never been in a meeting like it in their life, and that they had been deeply affected. When I asked them what had impressed them, they said that they had opportunity to see the inner workings of the church. They had a glimpse of the infrastructure which enables the life of Jesus to flow among us and out from us.

It was a timely reminder that the fresh wine of the Spirit must always be held in wineskins that can contain it. The Spirit is concerned with proper order and right structures, not religious rigidity or a slapdash do-as-you-please-make-it-up-as-you-go-along 'freedom'.

Thought for the day

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)

Sowing no-thing

(I came across this post from 2007 the other day. Thought you might like to see it again).

Don't kid yourself: you reap whatever you sow. (Galatians 6:7)

There's nothing you sow that you don't reap. It's a law that God has put into his creation and it always works. Even when we choose to sow nothing, that is what we are sowing - nothing, no-thing. We make a conscious decision to sow nothing; it is what we have decided to sow. And that is what we reap: no-thing. In fact, because we always reap more than we sow, when we sow nothing we reap back less-than-nothing. We actually suffer loss when we choose not to sow. So I will always be a something sower, never a nothing sower.

Thought for the day

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes. (Clement of Alexandria)

The Three Gs

The scandal of our MPs' expenses continues to dominate the headlines and conversations in the UK. Each day brings fresh revelations of systematic abuse and downright dishonesty. It has even reached the Speaker of the House of Commons, who is facing calls for his resignation (the first in over three hundred years).

In these past days, as the reputation of our elected representatives and even Parliament have been torn to shreds, I have been reminded of the wisdom that was drilled in to me when I came into ministry almost twenty five years ago. It came from my friend and fellow worker Bryan Shutt. He sat me down and told me the importance of integrity and transparency for any leader of God's people. He told me about the three Gs: three areas where the devil attacks leaders, and which need to be dealt with.

The three Gs are: Girls; Gold; Glory.

Girls: the man of God has to keep himself morally pure in the way he behaves towards ladies (the same is true for a lady in leadership in her behaviour towards men). Far too many servants of God have fallen morally, or been accused of improper behaviour. That is why we have strict codes of practice concerning the counselling of the opposite sex, for example.

Gold: leaders have access to money, lots of it. It's very easy to become wealthy on the backs of God's people. Again, we here at All Nations have financial systems where every penny spent has to be approved and accounted for. No leader has an expense account; we don't even decide what we are paid. Our accounts are audited and subject to Charity Commission investigation. These are steps we consciously took to be seen to be transparent.

Glory: pride was the issue of Satan's rebellion and fall. Once we replace the glory of Jesus as the sole motivation of our ministry with the promotion of the ministry itself, that ministry is finished. It's all about Jesus. All we have is from Jesus and for Jesus. Ministry brings prominence and in some cases, fame. That is a good thing, and a man like Billy Graham is an excellent example of a ministry who exists for the glory of Jesus (in fact, he scores high on all three Gs).

I'm grateful for what Bryan instilled into me as a young man starting out in ministry. By the grace of God, they have kept me and many other people in ministry, who live by the same principles. In these days when confidence in our government, our politicians, our banks and financial systems, have all been shattered, it's vital that the credibility of Christian leaders is seen to be the real thing.

Benedictus

Cartoon time

Thought this was rather apt right now considering what's going on in our Parliament:

The pig trough

The reputation of our Members of Parliament reached an all time nadir this week, with the revelations of wholesale abuse by all major parties of their expenses system. (If you are unaware of what's been going on, just visit the BBC site or that of any UK news organisation or newspaper). The daily flow of news has revealed that the majority of our elected representatives have little or no respect for those they represent. While ordinary people are struggling to get by, these men and women, including our Prime Minister and most of the cabinet, have been like pigs in the trough. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money, probably millions, has been spent by these disreputable, dishonest and dishonourable people, claiming against all sorts of things from a bath plug to fixing the moat on their stately home. Some of them have ostentatiously refurbished their homes; others have bought and sold properties, making thousands of pounds of profit, which they have pocketed. They claimed that they were only acting within the rules; but they made the rules. It stinks.

Only now are apologies beginning to trickle out. One of our MPs, Hazel Blears, a member of the government, had the gall yesterday to wave a cheque for £13,000 in the air to indicate she was repaying a proportion of her share. No words of contrition accompanied this gesture. And how many of us can just sign a cheque for such an amount? The only reason why MPs are responding in such ways is that the Daily Telegraph has obtained this information and is publishing it. The House of Commons intitially was more irate about the fact that the paper got hold of this bombshell than concerned about its contents.

At times like this I think of prophets like Amos, who railed with the word of the Lord against a corrupt government and ruling class who thought themselves above accountability: They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Amos 2:7). Amos took no prisoners in his accusations, even describing the society women as drunk, fat cows (4:1). God judged that society: within a generation Israel was over-run by the Assyrians and was no more. History shows us only too clearly that societies and nations cannot ride roughshod over righteousness and integrity. The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to a people (Proverbs 14:34). Right now, the nation is in disgrace, because these things have been perpetuated by the very people we put there to govern and represent us. We can't go on this way.

Image of the day

Sons are more than children

For all whose way of life is the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)

Sonship in Scripture is nothing to do with gender; it's all to do with status and maturity. In the Spirit, a son is more than a child. A child is a son; but a son is a child who has grown up. We are called to be sons of God, not merely children. A child has little or no responsibility; he enjoys all the benefits of being a child. But in the Spirit, the son is the child who has matured to responsibility. The son is not infantile in ways, attitudes or thoughts. He has put away the infantile ways; they are no longer the controlling factors in his life. A son is childlike in faith but not childish in attitude.

Eternal childishness of the sons of God is an embarrassment to the Father. Mature sons make him proud, because they are like his only begotten Son, our older brother.

Dying for the cause

I was deeply saddened by a story that appeared on Sky news yesterday. It involved a young Kenyan football fan, Suleiman Omondi, who hanged himself after his team, Arsenal, lost to their great rivals Manchester United in the semi final of the Champions League on Tuesday night. Omondi was so dedicated to his team and so devastated by the loss that he took his own life. He was only 29 years old.

As I tried to get my head around such an action I wondered what it is that drives a man to be so dedicated to a cause that it cost him his life. I am a sports fan, and there used to be times when I was younger that if my team lost a big game I would be devastated. But suicide over a loss? Never. There's always next season.

And yet, in a perverse way, I can understand Omondi's dedication to a cause he believed in, although I cannot justify or approve of his actions. He had found something he believed in, which controlled his whole life (he was wearing an Arsenal shirt when he was discovered). As Christians our cause is Christ and his glory; his victory and honour; his pre-eminence and fame. Such dedication to Christ does demand death - certainly death to one's own ambitions and self interests. But it can also lead to physical death: martyrdom for the sake of Christ. It is said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Today in certain parts of the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ are literally dying for the cause, persecuted and murdered for their faith. In the West, we may not have to pay that price, but we still have to die to ourselves so we can live for the cause of Christ.

Happy Day!