The father's Love

The Father’s Love

This Sunday in the UK and many other countries, Father’s Day will be celebrated. For many it will be an opportunity to express appreciation for a good father, or an opportunity for some men to ponder that perhaps they didn’t do too bad a job.  Sadly for far too many it will not be a good day as their experience of a father was painful.  At times I have been aware of those who stayed away from church on Father's Day because of unhappy memories.

In my own life, Father's Day provides an opportunity for me to reflect on the love and support that our long-term foster son deserved, and still deserves as a middle aged man (we had no children of our own).  Could I have done better?  Wel, there is still a job to be done.  It also calls me to reflect on my own father, who came back from WW2 rather traumatised and finding it difficult to bond with my brother who had grown up without him, having been born just before my father was called up.

The impact of the war on my father’s health made him a rather angry man.  It was not until he experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, many years later, that he radically changed, and we developed a very special relationship.  His final words to me, as he lay dying in a hospital bed was, “Barry, commit me to the Lord.”  I took his hand and prayed with tears, giving thanks for all that God had done for him through his life, and praying for a deep sense of God’s presence and peace as he faced what were to be his last few hours.  He spoke once more, this time to my mother as he took her hand and told her all was well.

Most of us move into adult life realising how little we understood of all that our parents have done for us.  Being a parent brings joys but also many challenges.  Jesus understood this, as is evident in the parable of the prodigal son (or should that be the parable of the loving father?).

How hard it must have been for the father to accede to the younger son's persistent badgering to get his hands on that for which he considered he was entitled.  I suspect that, while he may have done some chores, he never really laboured with his father and older brother to grow the family’s wealth.  But he was ready to spend it on ‘having a good time’.  His father must have realised that it would be a terrible waste of hard earned money but, in accordance with the usual practise, one third of all that he had was turned into cash and he bade his sone farewell.

Clearly, he was not happy to see him go as Jesus informs us that the father saw his returning son even when he was some distance away,  I get the feeling that he searched that horizon every day.  But the alternative - forcing his son to stay home - would not have helped either of them.  Love is costly.  So it would have been in the heavens.  Have you ever stopped to think how the heavenly Father felt as he watched over his Son through 33 years of life on earth. How did he feel as his Son pleaded with him to take away that cup of suffering, knowing that he could not do so if we were to be saved.  While Jesus seems to have felt abandoned on the cross, I think that the hymn writer has got it wrong when he penned, “the Father turns his face away”.

And when the prodigal’s father saw his son coming home he ran to meet him. Words of regret and remorse were cut short by the father’s delight at his son’s return.  He called for shoes, a robe and a ring.  They were not a reward for coming back home; they were tokens of the father’s unconditional love. Doesn’t that make you want to weep and share in the hug that must have lasted a long time.

“This son of yours” was how the older son defined his brother.  Not much love there for the moment!  But there is no hint of anger at his elder son’s shortsightedness. Instead he reminds him that “all I have is yours”.  This father just keeps on giving.  This time giving words of loving assurance and gentle correction.

Our Online Bible Study on Tuesday evenings has been working through Ephesians.  Last week we came to chapter 3: 14-24.  Here, Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus to experience and engage with God’s love.  The language is extravagant, but he makes his request to a heavenly Father who has great riches of love and extraordinary generosity. Almost as a passing comment Paul states that to understand what family life is meant to be we need to understand the nature of the fatherhood of God. Now, that’s something to celebrate this Father’s Day.

Why not take 5 minutes to listen to this Graham Kendrick song.

Barry - 21 June 2020

Overwhelmed by Love

Overwhelmed By Love

Over recent weeks, and in various places, I have shared something of my experience of encountering the love of God, and the way that has changed my life.  These have been truly overwhelming experiences.  Sadly, the word ‘love’ is often devalued both by the over-sentimental use of the term and its use when ‘enjoy’ would be more appropriate.  For example, I enjoy chocolate very much.

My first encounter with the love of God took place on hastings Pier on the Saturday before Easter Sunday in 1963 where I attended a meeting where Sylvia Smith, a TES evangelist was speaking about the forgiveness Jesus showed from the cross.  I went into that meeting with a head knowledge of what the cross was about, and left with my first overwhelming sense of God’s love for me.  It was a real experience.  I felt that love.

My second encounter took place about 14 months later in a little AOG church where I was present as a visiting mission team member.  I had thought myself to be a truly dedicated Chrisrian and almost the epitome of Christian love.  I had thought that the person preaching that evening was preaching at me about an experience of the Holy Spirit I had not received, though I had sought it passionately for over a year.  While the preacher was an excellent evangelist, some aspects of his character were very unattractive.  So while I should have been listening, I rehearsed before God my colleagues hypocrisies and failings.

Suddenly I felt the Holy Spirit leave me, though I would have had difficulty in describing how I felt his presence before that moment.  I immediately knew the Spirit was grieved by my judgmental attitude (the very thing in my list of accusations against my colleague).  As I asked God to take away my bitterness and baptise me in his love, I received a powerful sensational experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.  While I remained aware of my colleague’s failings, I found a very real sense of brotherly love towards him.  It was not a love inherent of myself; it was God’s love the Spirit had poured into my heart. (See Romans 5:5)

An overwhelming love for God

But wonderful as past experiences are, I continue to find myself feeling overwhelmed by this love.  I remain amazed at the love of God towards me.  First and foremost, the plan and price of my salvation.  I will probably never fully understand all that Jesus endured on the cross, and the emotional rollercoaster he went on through that time. But the love of God has for me, with all my failings also amazes me.  Despite my disappointing him he keeps loving me and proving that love with daily blessings.  I know that he loves me as I am, but too much to let me stay that way.  For all of that I love God.

Love of my friends and family

Doreen and I never had children, but we had the joy of fostering teenagers, all now middle aged.  Michael, who lived with us until he was 20, warmed my heart with his Father’s Day card and phone call in the past week. Regular phone calls and messages from my sister and brother, nephews and nieces, plus my sisters-inlaw make me aware of the treasure of love I have around me.  Added to this God has given me good neighbours and many good friends.  But all these are not here so that I feel loved.  They are here for me to love and seek to share with them God’s love

Love of myself

I have to say that I find some subjective comments about loving oneself hard to understand.  I am aware that I have failed many times and in many ways.  There are plenty of ‘if onlys’  but knowing how much I am loved by God despite my failings, enables me to accept and love myself.  I am his child, a co-heir with the Son.  I could not be valued more, and I revel in that knowledge.  I am not always loveable but I love the me that Jesus loves.

Love for the unlovely

There is a line in the hymn, “My song is Love unknown” that goes “Love for the loveless shown that they might lovely be.” There are many unlovely people in this world doing unlovely acts.  Sometimes people have done or said unlovely things to me.  But instead of feeling anger, God has enabled me to feel love.  That’s not normal and it never excuses bad behaviour, but I cannot deny the extraordinary love.  Do I sometimes feel hurt?  Yes, but there is always that response of love.  My late wife’s sad experience of Alzheimer’s Disease robbed her and me of the personality with whom I fell in love.  So, I asked the Lord to help me love the new person with whom I was living.  He did, and every day brought fresh challenges, but with them those overwhelming experiences of deep love.  Wonderfully, Doreen changed again at the end and showed very real love and affection to me and to her carers.

Love for this present world

I regret that early influences in my Christian life tended to present this world as a bad place, not to be loved. But, of course the “world” we are discouraged from is described as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John 2: 15-17)  This is not the created world, but the sinful realm.  When I was a young boy we used to sing a hymn in Sunday School that starts with the words, “The world looks very beautiful. and full of joy to me; The sun shines out in splendour on everything I see”  (Words : https://hymnary.org/text/the_world_looks_very_beautiful 

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuC-FINREgc)

The beauty of the created world is a real joy.  But I also love the beautiful aspects human beings bring to it.  Beautiful social interactions in real life or portrayed on the screen and in books, beautiful music, beautiful art - are all enjoyed and accompanied with laughter and tears of joy.

Love of scripture

I never tire from reading and exploring scripture.  Recent online Bible studies in Philippians and Ephesians has been like drinking fresh water from a pure stream.  There are vital truths tucked into the nuances in Paul’s letters that are fabulous.  I finish our online Bible studies excited and reinvigorated.  I just love God’s word - it is such an amazing book.  Furthermore, though written long ago, it speaks into my life every day..

These are just some of the aspects of the love that overwhelms me on a day by day basis. Paul writes about God’s love in a prayer in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus.  He prays that they might be able to grasp the immensity of this love, to know it experientially, and be filled with all the fullness of God.  (Ephesians 3: 14-21)

I hope that my reflections on this overwhelming love for God and all he brings into my life, will deepen your own love for God and the beautiful things he brings into your life.  Why not take a moment to ponder this amazing love and revel in it.  I find it has a wonderful way of eclipsing those temporary experiences of physical pain and disappointments.

Stay safe and stay blessed.

Barry - 25 June 2020

Taking Reasonable Precaustions

Taking Reasonable Precautions

These days the words “reasonable precautions” is bound to make us think about the Covid-19 virus that has been taking away loved ones, generating fear, and rocking personal and national finances.  The important question is what is reasonable?  When the outbreak began I was still caring for my wife who had Alzheimer’s Disease.  At the beginning of March, a fall put her into hospital for three weeks, and by the end of that, the virus had moved to the top of the agenda.  Working with Adult Social Care and our main Carer, I managed to get her out of hospital and back home on a hospital bed with a lot of equipment.  I could see the dangers both in the hospital ward with five other very ill elderly patients, and the risks in Care Homes.  It certainly seemed reasonable - and indeed sensible - to get her home.

The past few days have seen an easing of the lockdown restrictions.  Unsurprisingly, it has also seen the outbreak of stupidity.  Some people have been acting as if there are no risks to life, like the 20 people clustered in a recreation field that I passed on my walk yesterday evening.  They were indulging in drinking alcohol and having “harmless fun”!  I gave them a wide berth, and emerged from the Recreation Ground just as the police were arriving. 

What would have been your reaction if it were you that had to walk past them?  I guess it might have been to think, “How can people be so stupid?”  But my reason for writing this piece is that there is an important spiritual principle, and the Bible also warns us to take reasonable precautions.  Here are two scripture references.

“Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1Thes. 5:22 KJV).  As a young Christian I was exhorted to guard my testimony.  “Even if it only looks bad”, I was told, “it could still ruin your witness.”  But this verse is not so much concerned about how things might appear to others.  Rather it is concerned about the risk to our own spiritual welfare.

As a teenager before God had got hold of me, another lad and I were chasing after some girls who had walked through some public gardens and were sitting in a bus shelter formed from a small concrete wartime air raid shelter. We planned to cross a flower bed to the top of the old shelter and lean over the top.  It sounded fun and in the fading light of day,  the apparently shallow layer of grass cuttings looked safe.  Unfortunately, the top of the shelter had been used for dumping grass cuttings for a long time.  Suddenly we were up to our waists in foul smelling slimy liquid.  

In this case it had the appearance of being safe and a lot of fun, but we should have taken a more careful look at where we were going.

The second passage of scripture that comes to mind is, “keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27 NKJV)  Some translations use the term unpolluted  but unspotted is the better translation in my opinion.  But this raises the question as to how the world could stain or put spots on our lives.

On one occasion when I was part of a team working in Devon we had been given excellent hospitality on a farm belonging to a Christian couple.  After a large Sunday dinner most of the team were relaxing in the living room, but I decided to follow the farmer who had gone off to milk his cows.

I found him in a herring-bone milking parlour.  The arrangement is that cows enter on either side into stalls separated by metal bars.  A chain is then hooked up behind their rear legs, presumably to make it safer for the person doing the milking.  As I arrived at one end of the parlour I could see the farmer trying to hook up a chain with one hand while having to hold onto something  with his other hand.  It was a long stretch and he was clearly in difficulty.  I immediately offered to help, but he knew my clothes were clean and was anxious they would get spoiled.

I assured him that I would walk carefully around the milk chambers and apparatus in the centre of the parlour.  So I wrapped my raincoat tightly around me with one hand, got to the chain and with finger and thumb carefully hooked the chain in place.  I then retreated the same way I had come in.  I managed to avoid brushing against anything dirty both times.

Then I looked down at the front of my raincoat and found it spotted all over with cow dung!  I had taken care, but I had gone into an unclean environment and suffered the consequences.  As  Christians, keeping unspotted from the world is not easy.  TV programmes, sexuallised commercials, the jokes and conversations of unbelievers around us, selfishness and greed, can all provide an unclean environment from which it is impossible to escape.  If we recognise the alien nature of this to holiness, we can then take reasonable precautions, and seek cleansing if we do get spotted.

Take care, and stay safe.

Barry

Rev Barry Osborne

CEO Rural Mission Solutions

They could never have imagined...

They could never have imagined...
During the past week, the 75th anniversary of VE Day has been much in the news and I found myself wondering about how much the world has changed over those years in ways that survivors of WW2 would never have imagined.

The ability to travel around the world by jet aircraft would have been unimaginable, not to mention space exploration and satellite technology.  Computers were more of a concept than a reality and were mechanical rather than electronic.  So being able to carry a sophisticated computer in our pockets or handbags would have been thought to be fiction, even if it could have been imagined. Automated washing machines, domestic freezers, and microwave ovens would not emerge for many years.

TV  broadcasting was embryonic when war broke out, so the idea of multi-channel colour TV would have been well beyond comprehension.  Long after the end of the war most people still had to go out to a booth to make a phone call.  Then there's artificial intelligence..... The list goes on and on.

The big dream after the war was for world peace, but millions have died in conflicts since then. That too would have been unimaginable.

Alongside these reflections, I have been pondering the significant cultural changes since I wrote my first book on rural evangelism in 1990.  At that time there was still a marked contrast between suburban and rural life, though the population movement from towns and cities into the countryside had begun to drive change.  Today, the boundaries between suburban living and rural lifestyle have been almost entirely eroded in some parts of the country, and to some degree in almost all the remainder.

Today, as we continue the struggle with a pandemic, we find ourselves wondering what kind of a world will we emerge into after lockdown.  I live in a country town that has been growing over the past ten years.  Through the past months I have benefitted from the kindness of neighbours who have helped with shopping and passed culinary delights over the garden fence.  Meanwhile I have heard the daily chatter across gardens as people suddenly find they have time, and that it's good to talk.

Churches have risen to the challenge brought when we were not able to meet in buildings.  Now, with many more people attending online services than used to come to church, we are wondering what the pattern after lockdown should look like.  We need to ask some hard questions and do some imaginative thinking if we are to grasp the opportunities that societal change has brought.  

Intriguingly, it makes rather prophetic, the piece I wrote several weeks ago about churches being fit for the future.  Could we have imagined, even then, what church would look like today?  So how are you and your church grasping those opportunities to share your faith? Have you told your neighbours about the online services in which you are sharing, and why you are watching and listening to them.  Or is that meant to be a secret?

What the first Christians could never have imagined is how easy it is today to communicate with millions of people all over the world through the use of Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Emails, etc.  The early Christians had the enthusiasm but not the technology.  We have the technology but not the.......  

That, they could never have imagined!

Barry
Rev Barry Osborne
CEO,Rural Mission Solutions
9the May 2020

Amazing Words! Faith brings light into darkness

Amazing Words!
It must have been the darkest time of their lives.  For several days their brother's health had worsened.  There was no hospital to which he could go.  In desperation they had sent a message to their friend to get here as soon as he could.  He, they knew, had extraordinary powers and could heal the sick.  He would be sure to come when he got the message.  What they were not to know when the message was sent that it would be too late.  Their friend could never have got there in time.

Now it felt as if their hearts had been torn out.  Friends uttered kind words and offered sympathy, but nothing could chase away the darkness that had descended on their lives as they laid their brothers remains to rest in the garden tomb.  But now word had reached them that he had come. He was here, and people were saying that if only he had been here, their brother would have been alive.  It was Martha who went out to meet him, unable to rest at home with her weeping sister, and needing to see his face, to hear him speak, even to just know that he was with them in this dreadful darkness.

She found herself echoing what others were saying, and what she knew wee;  "If you had been here my brother would not have died..."  There was no recrimination in those words.  She knew that if it had been possible, he would have been there.  Then came those absolutely amazing words from her lips.  "But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask."

"WHATEVER"!  Did she actually believe that?  Whatever?  Could she have imagined what would take place in a few moments?  Her amazing friend spoke of life after this life but, more than that, that he was the source of eternal life.  Quietly she affirmed her faith in him, still not knowing what would follow.

In the darkest moments of our lives, it is easy to dwell on the "If only..." moments.  Her sister, in her grief, seemed to be stuck in that limited imagination.  "If only you had been here my brother would not have died".  But Martha was looking up and looking forward, refusing to allow disappointment to cloud her vision of what still could be.  "But even now" are truly amazing words.  It has always seemed a paradox that the sister who chose to sit at the feet of Jesus listening to his words, is not the woman of faith at this time.  But it is not about what we hear or read that make the difference.  It is about what we believe.

So it was that, after tears had been shed,a call rang out for the dead to rise again, and Lazarus came out from the grave in which he had lain for four days.

For many people in the world today, the darkest moments have come as their loved ones have been lost.  I too, have experienced loss as my beloved Doreen has passed into the presence of the Savior she loved and served.  45 years of marriage brought to an end by the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease.  A few years before it had become apparent that the person with whom I had fallen in love had faded as the disease took its relentless toll.  But I had determined that if the woman I had fallen in love with was no longer available, then I would deliberately learn to love the woman I still lived with.  And so I did, in the good moments and the bad.  And towards the end, the woman I fell in love with some 46 years before returned to me, as if risen from the dead.  Moments of deep affection and words of deep love repeatedly passed one from the other.

And now I have my "Even now..." moment.  For me, the passion to help other people find salvation in Christ, to know him as Saviour and friend, has been rekindled as I think of the thousands passing into eternity without the hope that burns in my heart, leaving behind grieving loved ones without that "Even now" comfort.  As millions of Christians rise to the challenge of being good neighbours to friends in need, I pray that somehow, God will help us to share something of our faith that can look through the darkest days to a better and more glorious future.  People need to hear the good news.  They need Jesus!  There is an amazing opportunity for us to be God's instrument to bring hope to replace despair.  We need wisdom and courage to find and use the appropriate words, but we must never let the opportunity slip.

And in your dark moments, may you so trust in Jesus that you can say with confidence,"Even now..."

Please join us online at 8.00 (BST) this Easter Sunday Morning when Gordon Banks and I will be leading some Easter thoughts and worship.  You need to register in advance.  TO DO THIS PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK NOW.

God bless you.  Stay safe.

Barry
Rev Barry Osborne
CEO,Rural Mission Solutions

Coping with Corona

"I will build my church...." When Jesus said these words he added, "and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it"   Here in the UK (and probably on other countries) church services are suspended from this Sunday because of the COVID-19 virus.  Its is a wise step to help combat the disease and hinder its spread.  But it's Mothering Sunday!  "and COVID-19 will not prevail against it." JOIN US ONLINE ON SUNDAY FOR A MOTHERING SUNDAY SERVICE So, we in Rural Mission Solutions have come up with a solution.  We are holding a short Mothering Sunday Service using the Internet.  The service is open to all and will include prayers, scripture reading and a short talk (mini-sermon).  Gordon Banks and I will lead the service between us.  If I can find a good recording of an appropriate hymn we may include that. As with all our webinars you will need to reserve your place by clicking here.  This will get you another link to use on Sunday.  Use this around 9.50 to get you into the event in time.  Why not spread the news to others in your church?  The easiest way is to forward this as it includes the link.  However if you need it in full it is https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7820473670757907979 As churches close we have to find new ways of being church 2x7.  One way is to set up a pastoral scheme.  I devised  plan to ensure that everyone had three links.  I will see if I can include it here.  If that fails, email me for a copy. We need to remember that the church is God's instrument for blessing those outside the church.  We all should look out for anyone who needs help in these days.  Let's be Good News. If this first online service is successful technologically, we will repeat it.  I am also offering a Bible Study Group.  This will be interactive. Remember,we are not limited in our faith or in being church difficulties can turn into opportunities.

Matters for Praise & Prayer Pray for those whose lives have been overshadowed by COVID-19 especially those who have lost loved ones. Pray for those in government and others trying to make the best decisions and care and provide for all who are affected by this crisis. Pray for those who, like me, find their pattern of ministry and Christian service. Pray for the leaders of churches as they try to develop alternative strategies. Pray for me and others in Rural Mission Solutions as we develop appropriate strategies to help rural churches.  Pray for creativeness. Pray that there will be a good attendance for the Mothering Sunday Service online on Sunday. Pray fro people to come forward who are willing to take part in online ministry, including ministry to children.  We have the facility to offer such ministry which can be delivered from home.  We can also provide online training. Pray for our need for an Internet Ministry Support Worker will soon be filled. Pray for Christian charities (including RMS) as the crisis is likely to affect crucial income.

The Busy Man

A long time ago I may have made a big mistake.  I have always been interested in people’s life stories.  I have a shelf on my book case that’s devoted to biographies of men and women whose lives have had an impact on others for good.  Often I find myself challenged by reading these, and long ago one significant Christian leader became someone I wanted to emulate.

Charles Haddon Surgeon will be a name known to most Baptists, and possibly others of my generation.  There are several things about Spurgeon that might have stood out to me, but in fact there are just two.  Probably what inspired me first was what Spurgeon was able to achieve in his life. A faithful pastor of a large congregation, he somehow found time to establish a training college, engage in wider aspects of the Baptist Union, set up orphanages, be a driving force for missionary endeavour, and write copiously.  How could one man achieve so much (most of which still continues today, 150 years later)? I wanted to live a full life of service for God if I could.

Another aspect of his life was the realisation of the importance of supporting ministry in prayer.  I believe that when he was preaching at the famous Tabernacle in London, he would always have a group of men who would meet in a room below the pulpit and uphold his ministry in prayer.  To a lesser extent that this has also been a model for me, which is why I write these bulletins and encourage people to become faithful prayer partners.

A TOO busy man?

But now, some 56 years since I first heard God’s call into ministry and mission, I wonder if I have been too busy.  Personally, I think I am not busy enough, but perhaps I try to do too many things (trying to follow Spurgeon’s achievements), and should have put more time into fewer things.  I have tried to keep my prayer life in balance. Martin Luther is recorded as having said “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”  Most of my hours of prayer a sprinkled through each day as I work and pray, with occasional times of stopping to listen to the other side of the conversation.

Since mid-November I have struggled to work as I became afflicted with arthritis in my hips and spine and acute sciatica, such that it has limited my mobility significantly.  So I have had enforced reduction of activity and had to focus on fewer things. This has also come at a time when my wife’s health issues are a priority. Usually, whenever I have had a bout of illness, my ‘Job’s Comforters’ are quick to suggest that I am too busy and my illnesses have been God telling me to do less or even to take a break!  This time, I have had two marked encounters with God as a result of the relative stillness.

The first is a fresh encounter with God’s grace.  We are probably all familiar with God’s response to Paul’s pleading to be delivered from his ‘thorn in the flesh’.  But “My grace is sufficient for you” does not mean that there was just enough to get Paul through.  God’s “sufficient grace” is actually abundant. While on the one hand I have been more than able to keep praising the Lord despite the acute pain, I have also noticed God’s grace in other ways.  Sometimes help has come just when I needed it.  

I have also had more than the usual answers to prayer with the provision of convenient parking spaces.  Over the years, when it has been relevant I have asked for and found a useful place to park my car. Bit over the past six weeks, time and again, I have found the perfect parking space to limit how far I have to walk.  After a few weeks of this, I was driving to do some shopping and made my usual request for a space in the free time-limited parking area. But I began to wonder whether I was being a little selfish or taking advantage of God’s ability to provide these ideal parking spaces.  So as I drove I added a postscript to my prayer, asking whether I was taking advantage of God’s grace. As I turned into the packed car park I had to laugh. As I moved towards the free area, three cares pulled out at the same time, all of which were perfect for me!   Coincidence?

It would be nice to be healed and delivered from the pain, but I have been encountering and understanding God’s more-than-sufficient grace in new ways.

Another important aspect of this enforced relative stillness has been a series of dreams.  Night after night I have awoken from a dream related to the mission to which I have felt called.  I have found myself working with small rural churches and having to cope with a variety of challenges.  But these have not been ‘stress dreams’ as I have felt detached from the realities in the dreams. Some time before I awoke today I found myself in the company of a successful business man who also lectured on time management.

This was an opportunity not to be missed so I shared with him my problem of never having enough time to do what I feel I should do each day.  As part of the conversation in which I engaged, I explained that no matter how carefully I planned my work time, important phone calls and emails come to interrupt and frustrate my plans, leaving some tasks undone.  There is insufficient space here to share all the good advice he gave me during this dream. The embarrassing thing is that it was all common sense and exactly what I teach to others!  

Wasit my subconscious mind addressing my work anxiety, or was this, and the whole stream of dreams, God’s way of helping me to do what I should do better rather than try to take on other tasks that get thrown at me.  Amusingly, at one stage in the dream I was sitting at a table listening to this man when his wife passed by with a plate of biscuits. Unnoticed by her, a few biscuits fell from the plate onto the floor. I instinctively broke away from what I was doing, rose and picked them up.  I could have left it for others to do. It seemed God was saying, “Why do you feel you have to respond to every need you see?  Stay focused”

The wise advice on time management I received in the dream, I have started to put into practise.  Please would you pray for me. I have reached an age where I still have unfulfilled visions and dreams, and I do not want to waste the time I have left or the accumulated wisdom that could help others.  Pray for wise management.

But, so that this is not wasted time writing this, I ask you, what do you feel God wants you to do, how have you planned to achieve this, and how are you organising your time to avoid waste and inefficiency?  We only get the one chance, so we need to get it right.

Thank you for reading through, and thank you for your prayers.  Do let me know if you have found my ramblings helpful. No other prayer requests this week.  Fewer engagements at this time of year, no school ministry during holidays, but prison ministry continues mid-week, and this is a time to plan and get organised for the coming year.

God bless you super-abundantly,

Barry

30th December 2019