Sin Implications

 

For the past few weeks we have been having lectures on the doctrine of sin. To me the subject is pretty much clear cut, Adam and Eve were tricked into the fall by Satan, sin entered the world and therefore it’s inherent within all of us hence the necessary reason for Jesus Christ, and his eternal sacrifice which echoes throughout eternity.

 

To me the fact that sin is so vast and infiltrates every aspect of our society is something that should concern us. When we truly think about the consequences with this we must then realise that our, doctors, teachers, leaders and whoever else who are not Christian, rely upon their own human hearts to direct the decisions of the free world. This is something that causes me to seriously have a ponder.

 

When I think about this, my mind turns to the many historic events in the past, and I see great changes in injustice shaped and directed by born again Christians. There are the traditional events which come to mind, the banishment of slavery, monogamy, British Empire, salvation army, civil rights, red cross, capitalism, defeat of communism and fascism and a whole bunch of other stuff.

 

And yet, sin is still in grip of the leadership of this world, in leaders who only have their own hearts to guide them. Genesis states that the Lord sees that in the hearts of men there is only wickedness all of the time.

 

Can we as Christians really accept this? Our leaders need and the world needs those who are governed by the Holy Spirit to bring about long lasting and beneficial change on a global scale.

 

I am truly looking forward to the day when Christendom, not in the manner of human driven theocracy rises up, but instead rises to bring about true change to the poverty driving systems that exist today.

 

The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. We need to change this and we must be un-accepting of leaders who follow the world.

 

In the book of Exodus God warns those who harm an orphan or a widow, or who do nothing to alleviate their plight. God warns us that he will hear their cry for he is a compassionate God and he will deliver his justice. Do our leaders realise this? Do we realise this and what can we do.

 

Should we move into politics or should we instead work within our local communities, building up a solid church, so that in time change becomes fundamental and long lasting on the strategic scene.

 

This week I read in a book about this man William Ross, who for ten years worked on a small scale before the Welsh Revival, his system was this,

 

1)      Churches to be opened every night.

2)      Every member of the church to do active Christian mission at work, at home and in public.

3)      Open air mission on a large scale.

4)      Work to be organised among the among people and children.

5)      Workers to have the opportunity of consulting frequently and of being thoroughly trained from time to time in their mission works.

6)      Above all the church should seek the Spirit of God and consecration and regard it as the highest honour and privilege to be employed in the interest of the Kingdom.

 

I think that this simple format is worth a think, and it’s important to note that change did not happen instantly, it happened over a period of ten years. We’ve got a quite the walk ahead of us. . .

More to do with College

I’m really excited about being here at the Bible College of Wales right now. God is  doing so many wonderful things in peoples lives that I truly feel blessed as a witness to his greatness.

I have been blessed at being the witness to a first hand testimony of a miraculous healing of cancer. I have been witness to Gods amazing provision to the African church, I have been witness to the developing heart changes in so many young people including myself.

I have been witness to prophecy and prayer, tongues and words, churches that are healthy and churches that are getting there. All of which I thank God for allowing me to be a simple witness to his great works.

Here at the Bible College I am encouraged, prayer is becoming a greater burden on the lives of more students. Here at the Bible College scripture is blossoming into the lives of nine individuals as I started a Bible Readthrough group for the second time.

Is this because of me? Or because of my friendships? Certainly not, instead it is through the hand of God and his great methodology of burdening people for a passion for his name that change is beginning to impact the hearts and souls of this place.

The prayer times on a Friday night are powerful, there is worship and Biblical prayer. People scream and shout to the Lord with everything they have, there are tears and silent beggings, there is laughter as well as sorrow, but most importantly there is Gods spirit.

I’ve never really been in a room before where I have genuinely been smacked by the power of God, and I’m glad to say that at these prayer times this is happening. God is burdening people and he is causing growth.

This is overflowing into lives and a subsequent passion for scripture, people are getting to grips with God and are deepening their spiritual lives with him.

I’m praying and asking you to pray that God would bless these times significantly and that we would see the prayer time double in size.

 Last week we were burdened by;

The Spread of Islam

False Teachers

Children of the UK

Sri-Lanka

Eritrea

Each other

College leadership

Re:Hope

Unbelief

Healing for Kieth Gillmore

 If you want to pray for any of these things then please do. 

The Mask

I regret not posting a blog sooner, but insanely enough being in the Bible College of Wales my time seems to be evaporated in greater and greater quantities.

Wales is as wonderful as its ever been and I’m enjoying my time here more than ever. The students and I are buckling in for a crazy essay ride which is going to hit us some time soon, so I’m cramming as much Bible and prayer into my time here as I can.

One of the things about being in Bible College is that the people around and about you expect you to be perfect and make no mistakes. The youth at the Tribe camp – an excellent evangelistic outreach with over a hundred kids involved – all expect the students of the Bible College to be somehow walking on water, and this is from people who know nothing about Christendom, how nothing about God and yet hold us to what is a higher account than we hold ourselves. To me this is an exceptionally high and tremendous expectation to live up to.

But we must realise and so must others that we as Christians are not perfect, and no we shouldn’t and simply can’t pretend to be, but I am starkly reminded that while I’m here behind the high stone walls of the College, God is judging me and so is the world and I must keep this in mind when I go about my life.

The worlds accountability of Christians to a higher standard, is an expectation that we perform no evil and that we allow no mess to ooze through our shining armour. It disturbs me how much this attitude has and is reserved in church to the detriment of addressing the real problems in our lives, and how Christians expect a Sunday morning to be filled with nice middle class people, who all look really nice and sound really nice, and do really nice things.

I’ve come to realise that the masks we wear is more of a pandemic in our lives, that we view them as some form of indespensible medication that we can’t dare be without.

Is this entirely a bad thing though?

If we take it an extreme, yes denial of ones or anothers ability to mess up is not a healthy mentality, but we must also understand that some people just can’t cope with the mess of others, but should we delude ourselves with a picture perfect landscape portrait of Christian perfection all around us?

Certainly not as it will never work, it will only to be shattered by the invisible flowing grapevine that so often accompanies mask, there’s always the hushed whispers wondering what exactly is underneath it.

Instead I like the way the church is moving, I heard recently from a man I respect and like that “Church is not for nice Christians, instead it is a Hospital for the sick.”

In Hospital, should you ever go there, doctors won’t cover you in a plaster pretending that you’re not ill, or that the wound that’s causing you so much pain doesn’t exist. So why do we do it, why do we cover it up? Why do we in church pretend that there are no wounds, and worse yet why do we rarely address them?

I think it’s because the church has forgotten how to deal with messy people, and I also think that we’re afraid to confront the truth at times, yet for some reason God still blesses us, how much more therefore would we be blessed if we actually tackled this issue over all of Christendom?

I believe God sees things we don’t, and I believe that God is waiting for his church, his body to change. But I wonder, if we all took our masks off would anyone then notice?

Lack of Faith AND Pictures of BCW

Some things are easy to surrender, some things are easy to give up, but those dark things, the parts of us that delve deep into our heart, that reject the good news of the Kingdom of God, that clutch and cling to whatever strands of sin we nourish them with are much harder to deal with.

Temptation. Spiritual Weakness. Greed. Jealously. Idolatry. Hypocrisy, are some of the great difficulties that the Lord has wept upon time and time again as his people directly surrender and favour the shadow instead of the light.

 

I see so many things in myself, things that I despise and things I pray the Lord will change, I constantly resurrect the old self in denial by  opting out of the difficult path. I realise that change, not just the easy change, must begin with me. The Lord has played his immortal part in introducing revelation to my sin, but now after three years of being under the headship of Christ it is time that the Lord has decided for this sinner to change not just his ways, but also his heart. All of it.

And for that I thank that Lord and declare freely all Praise be to him for the gift of grace, for without it I would not be able to stand for the wretch that I am. Thanks be to Jesus I can walk with my head held high, as the Lord sees the glory of his son, instead of the wickedness of a man.

So why do we, I, doubt in the glory of the Lord. In his providing mercy? What do I have to gain by worrying that he will not deliver me in a time of crisis. The Lord has spoken to me about many things, he has pointed out that I am no better than the Israelites as they wandered through the desert.

They had seen the wonders of God, the miracles he performed. I have seen Gods provision myself, personally, close and true. And yet, just like the Israelites I groan under the Lord, I doubt him. I ask where is my Mana? Where is my Water? Where is the Justice in this land?

I wonder, if Moses came from the Holy mountain and looked upon me, would he smash down the commandments given from God and scream “Where is your faith?”

I have no doubts that there are idols in my life, and my fear and worry is that with every drink I take, the water is tainted by its Gold.

What do I do?

I can only do one thing. Pray to the Lord. Praise him for Christ. Rejoice in the grace afforded to me by Gods sacrifice. Believe in prayer. Believe in deliverance from my sins. And tear down the idols that I hold so readily and so loftily.

Prayer works. Intercession is a must, and yesterday I received great joy in interceding by the leadership of the Holy Spirit for a preacher. The Holy Spirit led a time of prayer, carrying me upon his back to yearn for a leaping of joy, a shouting of praise, an un-containable excitement for the deliverance in the good news of the Gospel.

This was one of my first major experiences of the Holy Spirit leading, demanding, insisting upon prayer, on which the Spirit showed me his fruit.

And so, I’m always puzzled by my own self. By my own doubts. How long the memory is for hate, jealousy and lies. But when it comes to mercy, kindness and truths, why do I so easily forget the greatness of my God?

Below are some pictures of my time here at the Bible College of Wales. In them you will see my good friend and brother from China Ron, who is one of the most faithful people I have ever met in my life.

A group pic of all the guys.

Christmas Dinner Pics - The guy being lifted up is a guy called Josh.

 

Me in front of Sketty - this is the building where we stay.

 

The BCW library filled with good books and good people, though there is one welshman who smack of heresy.

 

The main house.

 

The Gardens.

 

Another part of the Gardens.

 

Down the beach with Ron.

 

 

 

The All Seeing Eye.

God Moving part one in a three part series.

God Moving.

 

It has been quite a while since I’ve blogged, and to be honest I’ve been putting it off not really knowing what to write about or what to say. I’m conscious that so far I’ve yet to post up any images of Swansea, but hopefully I will be doing that this week, with a few mega posts in picture format of the place which I’ve come to call….. home.

 

Over the Christmas break, I was leaving Swansea full of excitement to be back in Scotland, back in Glasgow, back around my church the people I love, the friends I have, involved in the deep community life that our church has, and just being able to spend time relaxing, resting and reflecting.

 

Of course God allowed me to do all of those things, but the Holy Spirit sometimes has other ideas of what He defines as “resting” in God. This all begins with the typical drama that seems to follow me from town to town, from day to day.

 

It all started on the very Sunday when I had flown in to Glasgow. The picture as I met Stephen was absolutely serene, walking up those stairs of Re:Hope was even more alien to me, and then into the place of which I had become so familiar the sanctuary, seeing my pastor, friends, and fellow workers of the church, and then seeing the congregation which had so obviously evolved, and changed. It was a shock just being back in a place and a life which had become so strange to me after little more than three months away.

 

I loved the service, I loved hearing Brian preach and Andy lead Worship, and as usual God had decided to pick a topic to convict me on, and challenge me in returning home to Fort William for Christmas - those of you who know me will understand how difficult that even the mere notion of doing such a thing is for me, but if the Lord says Jump, we have to ask, no matter how much we don’t want to, How High?

 

Anyway, the drama all begins when I went back to my Summer home at Tony Gastons for the Sunday night, where I found a whole host of banking correspondence which I had completely and utterly forgotten to forward down to Swansea. The pile was quite ridiculously huge, each letter referring to one of the biggest mistakes in my Pre-Christian life, and that was taking out a Student back account with full overdraft facilities.

 

When you enter into the first year of University, the mere thought of over a thousand pounds of free finance is simply overwhelming, and of course as the adorable little atheist/moron I was, I decided to take the bank up on their offer and quite simply proceed to spend, spend, spend and spend some more, until I had reached the upper limit of one thousand pounds negative.

 

Simply thinking about it is quite ridiculous, being in debt to the tune of over one thousand pounds, which has unfortunately stayed with me until this year, through my entire Christian walk, and has been a growing burden and gnawing of the Holy Spirit to begin the repayment and freedom of the yoke of the bank.

 

The letters, were quite simple. The bank had decided to call in their overdraft without any notice, which is their perfect right to do. They had asked that I give them the entire sum of money which was of course one thousand pounds, right away otherwise they would begin proceedings to take me to court and “further escalate the matter”. Naturally, me not getting any of these letters at all, for a period of three months slightly aggravated the bank, and further made the situation worse, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

So, I felt absolutely sick when I read those letters. Never before had I seen anything like them, never before had I been in a situation where I was incapable of providing for myself, where no one I knew was able to help me, where no one, nothing at my disposal was capable of dealing with this matter quickly. I was trapped and completely thrown onto the floor.

 

I myself believe that this was an attack of the enemies doing, and at the same time a test from the Lord. I believe that the enemies servants had decided to use one of the last remaining parts of my old life to strike at me, to try and destroy me, to make me fail and reject the Lord which I have come to proclaim as God and saviour.

 

I was afraid, and decided to leave Tonys right there and then. I returned to Michaels flat, where I was staying and came under immense spiritual attack. The enemy put three options before me, Go to your parents and family for help. Go to your Church for help. Go into the bank and lie through your teeth Dan, you can blag your way out of this!

 

Let me say right now, that all three of them were tempting, all three of those options I seriously weighed up. But the Holy Spirit ministered to me. The Lord said to me that this is where he provides. This is where his word says he provides for his people, and this is where I must rest in him. The Holy Spirit told me that the Lord says not to worry, and so I decided to trust in the Lord, through his ministering, his guidance and his direction. I fell upon the bed and started to fall asleep.

 

As I was going under that realm between awake and sleep, the Holy Spirit said to me, that I was to attend prayer the next morning, and that everything would be sorted out.

 

I attended prayer with Wade, Andy and Tim Macdonald, I told them the situation, and my brothers prayed for me as I prepared to meet with the bank. What could I do? What could happen for me? Would the Lord deliver? I was nervous and afraid, I had no idea what was about to happen.

 

As I got up to leave, Tim, stopped me and pulled out an envelope from his bag. He handed it to me and said “Dan, I feel that the Lord is telling me to give this to you.” I looked down, and I just couldn’t believe it. I took the envelope and put it in my bag and headed to the bank from Starbucks.

 

I walked in, and there was people being served at every desk, and lines at most of them, but there was one empty desk so I walked up to it. I told the cashier the problem and asked to see the bank manager so I could sort out this problem. Instead the Lord delivered. She reactivated my account, she stopped the pending legal action, she saw to it that the bank was informed that I had never received the letters, but, she asked for a deposit.

 

I was utterly and completely broke, I had no money on me, I had no finances available, I had nothing I could do, apart from one envelope which the Lord had pushed into my hand through his servant.

 

I opened it right there and then in front of her, the teller not knowing the significance of this gift, not knowing just how much it meant to me spiritually and financially. I handed over the money inside the envelope, and that was exactly the amount the bank needed as a sign of good faith, though they were still wanting the outstanding amount repaid.

 

So I returned to the Bible College of Wales, wondering how I would ever repay this debt. I went up to the college leadership and told them the situation, and the first and simple thing they said to me, was repay the bank with the money that should be paying the college. The money you’re getting for your fees. And pray through faith for all your tuition.

 

When I was coming to the Bible College of Wales, I had read the Intercessor inspired, amazed at how God moves for us all. I was wanting to see the Lord move for me as he had for Rees Howells, and God has answered my prayers. He is my backer, he is the Lord, and in him I trust, and look forward to seeing him provide in the future.

 

If any of your who read this, ever consider getting a student overdraft my advice to you is this.

 

Don’t. It’s unbiblical, it’s not Christian, we should only ever have one debtor in our lives.

 

The Lord, God Almighty.

 

And so friends, I close this posting with a hymm.

 

I have entered the valley of blessing so sweet,

And Jesus abides with me there;

And his Spirit and his blood make my cleansing complete,

And his perfect love casteth out fear.

 Oh, come to this valley of blessing so sweet,Where Jesus will fullness bestow;And believe and receive, and confess him, That all His salvation may know. 

There is peace in the valley of blessing so sweet,

And plenty the land doth impart;

And there’s rest for the weary, worn, traveller’s feet,

And joy for the sorrowing heart.

  

There is love in the valley of blessing so sweet,

Such as none but the blood-washed may feel,

When heaven comes down redeemed spirits to greet,

And Christ sets His covenant seal.

 

There’s a song in the valley of blessing so sweet,

And angels would fain join the strain,

As with rapturous praises we bow at his feet, crying,

“Worthy the Lamb that was slain!”

 

Amen and God Bless You.

  

I have no idea what to call this.

 

Well here it is, almost time to go back to Glasgow for a little stunt of joy, and I am truthfully excited in almost every way. I can’t wait to get back into the city I love, I can’t wait to get back to my church, and I certainly can’t wait to have a much needed rest.

 

The Bible College of Wales is certainly a place where you learn, you are shaped, and you are challenged by the bad and the good. I see a college that is in a lot of need of spiritual repair, but at the end of the day I would agree with what Gordon Williamson said on the first day of term.

 

The Bible College of Wales is a place that shapes character.

 

It is certainly that. There are people from many nations, and from many nations there are many cultures. I have learned to cook authentic Chinese cuisine. I have learned to cook authentic Finish rye bread, I have seen how the Koreans prefer to do church and I have witnessed how the Welsh like their Sundays. I have learned about the African church and made new and amazing friends which will last me until the end of their or my days.

 

I have seen how other churches do things, I have had convictions challenged and knocked down, I have become more firm in my faith and less resistant to heretical challenges. I have learned more about God and myself, and become more rounded in my knowledge of scripture.

God is good. He is a God of Change.

 

I came upon one of the greatest sermons I have ever heard/read a few weeks ago. That’s my King by the late Dr. S. M. Lockridge.

More musings on our church!

My blog, endeavours to be as truthful as possible to my experiences and my thoughts, it is a journal that is online for everyone to see and for everyone to read. It expresses what I feel, what I think and what the Lord has been pressing upon me. There are no lies here, just interpretations that I hope are biblical and spirit driven. Last blog, I wrote what I felt in regard to our church, this week I will write again what I feel about our church!

I will be truthful in saying quite bluntly, that I’m missing my church like crazy. So far I’ve been looking on what I’m learning and seeing how it can apply to my ministry, Re:Hopes ministry, the British churches ministry. Last blog it took the form of what our church does not have, but after spending my time in a Bible College its becoming quite obvious what our church does have.

We have….
We have a praying church.
We have a growing church.
We have a bible based church.
We have a humble church.
We have a unashamedly advancing church.
We have a church committed to change.
We have a church that views the bible with open eyes.
We have a church that looks to God for answers.
We have a church that seeks to help the weak and the poor.
We have a church that gives to the needy.
We have a church that advances the kingdoms by helping leaders grow.
We have a church that invests in leaders.
We have a church that invests in people.
We have a church that focuses upon Jesus and not Theology.
We have a church that is simple.
We have a church that promotes community.
We have a church that is community.
We have a church that defends community.
We have a church that loves our city.
We have a church that loves our country.
We have a church that loves our world.
We have a church that loves our God, and not our theology.
We have a church that is free.
We have a church that is not bound by fear.
We have a church that is moving in Glasgow.
We have a church that strikes fear into the enemy.
We have a church that is breaking chains of bondage.
We have a church that is bringing people closer to God.
We have a church that is a light in a dark generation.
We have a church that is Godly.
We have a church that is maturing.
We have a church that is given to us by God.
We have a church that is a cross of nations.
We have a church which we all love.
We have a church which I love.
We have a church which God loves.
We have a church that has a KING.
We have a church that honours that KING.
We have a church that shouts praise to the “I AM.”
We have a church that recognises the Spirit.
We have a church that reads the bible.
We have a church that recognises the gifts of the Spirit.
We have a church that uses the gifts responsibly.
We have a church which is in a building.
We have a church that is prayed for, from all over the world.
We have a church that has sent and is sending out missionaries.
We have a church that is full of dedication.
We have a church that is not lacking in the trousers.
We have a church with propane heaters.
We have a church dedicated to truth.
We have a church dedicated to morality.
We have a church that supports those who stumble.
We have a church that opens eyes.
We have a church that challenges.
We have a church that says the things we don’t want to hear.
We have a church that offers accountability.
We have a church that seeks to work in the kingdom.
We have a church.
WE HAVE A CHURCH!

AMEN.

With my time in the South of Wales, I am growing increasingly aware that the nature of our church is unacceptably uncommon within the Kingdom of Jesus Christ

With my time here the Lord is being very clear to me with revelation, on just why I am here. When I arrived, I wondered just what the crazy the Lord was playing at calling me to a place that I would justifiably call, immature in Christ – a bible college…..

But, I can assuredly say that his purpose is becoming so very clear.I’m not here so I can just look upon Re:hope but he is commanding me to survey and learn from the disaster that is the Scottish, Welsh and English church.

Re:Hope is uncommon. It is commanded by the Lord to guard what he gives. How are we guarding such a bright gift in such a dark land?

Update and Musings on our WIMPY MAN CHURCH?

Praise the Lord, the money I was waiting on came through. If you prayed then blessings to you, and if you didn’t, then blessings to you as well.

But this main blog entry, isn’t on me, instead I decided to write about our MAN CHURCH and how I’ve decided to call it the wimpy man church.

Now I could lose my listings on a few blogrolls because of this, but I’ve decided to say it out loud and not proud, that at this moment in time Re:Hope is mostly a congregation that loves to act hard, loves to mock and joke, loves to be well MANLY all of the time, but only when it’s in our comfort zone.

My time spent in Swansea for only a little over a month has made me realise just how far we’ve got to go when it comes to outreach. When it comes to giving our testimony’s. When it comes to maturity, but most importantly when it comes to courage.

My realisation of this has come out of a conversation I have had recently with a gentleman the other day about “Evangelicals”. He started talking to me about the great commonality regarding the way in which they operate and express their faith, just as evangelicals have the same opinions on Charismatics. (This man was of course a charismatic.)

“Sure, they may do the bible and prayer well, but when it comes to things such as talking to people and evangelism, they just don’t have what it takes. They always buckle down as though they’re stepping into a bath that’s either too hot or too cold. They lack courage.” (A brief summary, but that’s pretty much what he said.)

My, that certainly made me uncomfortable. Re:Hope is a church that professes to be a gutsy church but when it comes down to it, we’re as timid as the baptists, and even then, I’ve seen them do some street preaching in the city centre!

I remember having conversations with people in our congregation before the feast, and asking them if they had organised the three people they were going to invite. Consistently I kept on getting the same answer. “I’m just afraid to ask because of what they will/say/think/do.”

Now let me say this. Yes God is moving in our church, yes he is blessing us, and yes he is answering prayer. But it is not enough.

We need a church that has the courage to give a sandwhich to someone without crippling fear. If we can’t buy a sandwhich how are we supposed to give the Gospel?

Now I know what you’re thinking. Sure this stuff will come about in time, and yes we will grow. A Congregation that’s growing must grow with courage. We want to be different so lets be different. It’s that simple.

We have seventy odd believers in our church give or take a few. Seventy odd believers most of whom struggle to give Gods word to those that need it. The simple and harsh truth is that we need to grow in this area, we need to push forward if we’re to have an impact on Glasgow.

Or we could stay the same, let our church grow slowly, taper off most likely, shrink and die like so many others.

Which one do you want? Which one does God want? Which Re:Hope does Glasgow need for the future?

Think about it, I know I haven’t

News and Prayer Requests.

 

Well its been a fair amount of time since I last updated this baby, so here we go. Over the past two weeks, I have been having one of the busiest times of my life, in regard to sheer learning and work requirements.

The reading never ends, the writing has yet to begin, and the listening goes on and on. Being surrounded by Christians is perhaps one of the most stressful environments in which I can be in, especially one where there seems to be an endless line of meetings and conversations about….. feelings. So suffice to say, me and my MAN CHURCH background is not completely satisfied with all this talk and emotion. Plus I’m just slightly jaded.

Since this is really the first time since I have ever left Scotland I will confess that I am starting to get a little bit homesick for the land of the thistle. Things are just different down here and it’s amazing how the small differences can in fact be vast in reality, and it’s all adding up to stress.

The intensity of the community environment, work load, lack of sleep, and crazy health problems returning are all adding up to a Dan that’s in need of a few good days back in Scotland.

But Gods been awesomely good to me during the past month and a bit. He has provided me with a free bike. He did provide me with £1000 to attend the college, and now I’m praying that he will provide me with patience, humility and a free laptop.

The amount of work that’s needed just can’t be done in the college library any more, and I’ve just realised, that when I leave for Glasgow and other places during the holidays I’m going to carry A LOT of notes with me.

So I’m praying, praying that God will provide me a laptop or the funds for one.

Some of you now know that this Sunday past I was out preaching at a local church in Swansea, the congregation was pretty small, but it was still fantastic to be up, in the pulpit and preaching Gods word to a bunch of people whom I had never met before. The message was on tradition, and reaching out to the youth of our time and it seemed to go over very well.

I stressed on the application of the message, the need for works and the need for obedience to faith, an area which isn’t as lacking in Swansea as it is in Wales.

Now two things struck me after preaching. First of all the respect given to you simply because you preach from those in the congregation. People came up to me, asked me questions, shook my hand, thanked me and then, tried to offer me money for preaching.

That was something that I felt very uncomfortable with. First of all, I don’t want to be paid by other churches for preaching Gods word. I want to go there without them feeling the need to pay me, and without the expectation of receiving a financial gift. Although that’s the norm in Swansea for guest preachers I just can’t accept it. It can bring such a dangerous situation in ones own convictions for wanting to preach. Will I preach for declaring Gods word, or because I’m a little short in Cash?

So I told them to donate the money to the Bible College instead or the missions fund they were collecting for.

The first Bible Readthrough Group has been established in Swansea, and it now takes place on a Tuesday afternoon. The group consists of a bunch of guys that meet in a local pub at the shore front.

It’s fantastic to be leading and discipiling the future leaders of the church, and getting them passionate about Gods word. Suffice to say, the Re:Hopeification of Wales has begun.

Please Pray for me regarding the following:

1) Good Health - The pain is returning that spiked up and down my left side. I’m getting consistent headaches, and just generally stressed out.

2) Bangor University has messed up the paperwork for my money to paid into my account from the government. I’m down to my last £20, please pray that it will come through soon.

3) Free Laptop, the workload and amount of paper that’s surrounding me is getting ridiculous. Please pray that God will provide me with a laptop or the means of getting one.

Sunday and STUFF!

So, yesterday was my first day outside of Re:Hope worship in a long time and boy can I tell you I missed my church a lot. The church that’s linked to the Bible College of Wales is a Lifelink church, highly charismatic and highly vocal in the use of spiritual gifts such as tongues. This is a significant oddity for me since well, to be honest I’m not the most charismatic person in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the gifts God bestows upon us all, but sometimes it’s just off putting when I myself try to worship. The worship itself was okay, wasn’t as good as Andy the Hobbit Ashworth but it was still pretty good. The message was excellent, a man called Alan Scotland preached, head of the board of trustees of the Bible College of Wales and it was a real honour to hear him and his story. The man had just flown in from South Africa, he had a good accent whenever he raised his voice, all African like, and the content was above everything BIBLICAL.

But I find myself not too comfortable in the lifelink church. Is it because the financial officer was sitting right next to me, simply eyeing up my knee caps because of my debt? Or was it the fact that I was just outside of my comfort zone.

I have particular opinions on gifts of the spirit and how they should be used during a church service, lifelink church pretty much being all the opposite of those, which is good, because it is a challenge to me, my viewpoint and my understanding of the body of Christ of which I am a part. Imagine a foot not being able to understand the leg? Chaos would follow.

Now for evening worship I went to an Elim church which is in the city of Swansea itself and there I felt right at home. The worship set was EXACTLY like Re:Hope and the quality was that of Andys. The preaching well there was no preaching because it was a Youth night which meant absolute direness on stage, in an effort to bore people into accepting Jesus Christ. But hey, if it’s effective.

 I’m thinking I might start attending the Elim church rather often. I had a good conversation with a church elder and his wife, two people that I connected with rather quickly. I found out that they attend Ellel Ministry seminars regularly and I’m looking forward to learning more from them.

There’s so much more I have to talk about, but I will probably give another update shortly and when I can be bothered to type.

For those of you who want to know my new address.

Daniel Ward

The Bible College of Wales
Derwen Fawr Road
Sketty
Swansea
SA2 8EB
UK

Oh yes, I will be preaching in a church on the 14th of this month so prayers would be good.