Rise again and live

Like most believers, I have longed to see the authority of the church restored. I always felt that signs and wonders should flow from the cross.

Last night I was hit by a comparison I had never seen before. Elijah and Jesus were synonymous with incredible signs, which shook a nation. Then they both went up a hill, not to the top, but halfway up: the former to Carmel, the latter to Moriah.

Watch me Dad

One of the most primal cries of all children, is "watch me Dad". It is driven by a human instinct for approval.

The symbol of that approval is inevitably our highest known point of reference and it timing in our lives is akin to a pilot setting his gyro compass and altitude before taking off, so he can have a reliable reference system for navigation.

End First

Stephen Covey said that we should always start with the end in mind. The bible does that too. A key example is a verse in Ephesians 4:13, which says "... until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man".

God is preparing His people for war, His children for battle

This is a prophetic word for families.

The bible foretells a merging of ages, so that in heaven the old will be young again and the youth will be mature. But God is already shortening the days, so that you may endure what lies ahead. Forty day journeys will become 40 month or even 40 week journeys and maturity will come quicker because of the demands of the age. Blessed are the sons and daughters of the saints, for to them will be given wisdom beyond their years and character beyond their station, so that they can take their place alongside you without weighing the family down. As they acquire years, so you will lose yours, thus regaining vitality and strength.

Who are you?

Society is facing more moral dilemmas than ever. For ages homosexuality was a closet sin and so were many other social issues, but now it has become a social sin to suppress what was once frowned on. It is now more wrong to speak right, truth has become an opinion and society has opted for the ten suggestions.

We have a litany of social issues, but in decrying the symptoms have lost sight of the causes. Doctors may treat root cause, not symptoms, but more money can be made from symptomatic treatments. Rather than understand why we feel the way we do, we revert to placebos, pain killers, anti-depressants and so on.

About men: Fatherhood

This cartoon says it all on this Father's day 2010. A busy father was nagged by his son to go fishing. Eventually he could not put it off so he cleared a day in his diary and did it (I don't like fishing either, but I love being with my sons). Afterwards the father wrote in his diary, "worst day of my life". The boy subsequently died in an accident and the father had to tidy up his room, a process that stumbled on the boy's diary. As the father sat down to page through the book he came to the day when the two went fishing - the inscription said, "best day of my life".

The lesson in this story is for fathers to never underestimate their value to growing chidren. There is evidence that the sexual identity of boys and girls is derived from their fathers as is their concept of an angry, absent or loving God.