Refuse to soldier

I am not an American. I live here in Texas, but am well and truly British, and as such have had the benefit and opportunity to view the world through a few different cultural windows.

America has a lot of good stuff going for it - the economy (believe it or not), pretty good family values, and Christian heritage and roots, but within the Texas Christianity there are some troubling additions. Last sunday was memorial day, and as I have often done before on patriotic holidays, I listened to a sermon which aligned Americas will and Gods will, which said America was fighting for our freedom in the same way Christ died for our freedom. 

I don't think I agree. Coming from a nation with a history of invading other countries and being generally mean, I don't claim that Britain is any better, but I certainly dont claim that our armies, or the armies of any nation, fight for and/or represent Gods will.

I am growing more and more to think that blind patriotism has no place in the pulpit. I think we should be proud of our faith and religion, but we cannot align being christian with being American, just as we can't align being Arab with being muslim. We're all people, and as Christians are part of a movement which makes all nationality irrelevant - Christianity. 

In his book irresistible revolution, Shane Claiborne says "A troubling sign I've seen is a red blue and white t-shirt that says 'jesUSAves', with emphasis on the USA". We cannot know for sure the motives of those in high government who send the troops out to fight, whether they are defending their homeland, or spreading their own agendas. We cannot know if the armies are protecting the interests of their nation, or trying to enforce their nations ideology on another country, and so is it right to hold the armed forces in the politically correct high regard which they hold in Texas? Im not sure. 

I've heard people I respect out here talk about how important the right to bear arms is, incase the government needs to overthrown by an uprising from the people, and Ive heard so many times from different pulpits that Gods will and the decisions of the American government and invasions of the American armies are somehow intertwined. To me, an outsider, this approach sounds like America dictating to God, rather than following Him, and Americans keeping a small place in their heart where they pin the colors of the American flag just a little higher than their commitment to Christ. 

Friendships and family

So far in my life I have lived in many different locations. Richmond, Manchester, Newcastle, London, Texas, and I have lived the touring band life, moving from one city to the next weekly for a year. I'm a very social person, and over my life I have made close friends in each different place I have stayed, but it is amazing how few friendships have been maintained once distance is established and we live in different places in the country or world. 

There have been moments after moving to a new area when I've stopped and counted the close friends I've stayed in touch with and who have stayed in touch with me, and usually can count them on zero fingers. Throughout my whole life there have been maybe two or three friends who have stayed in touch since I moved away from their area, but thats it - apart from my family. 

My family has that unique bond where we always stay in touch, we always make the effort, and always make it important to stay on good terms no matter where in the world we may be living at that time. This is true of no-one else in my life. I suppose that is why family is such an important and securing thing. Although growing up, our relationships were often strained and turbulent, as me and my brother have grown into adulthood, we have become best friends, and me and my parents remain close as ever. 

I don't know how many more years I will live here, but I won't be surprised if when I move on I lose touch with everyone once again, except my family. Im realizing that right now this is just reality - wherever I live I will make friends, but probably none ever as close as my family. The few friends I have who have maintained friendship with me and vice versa are very precious to me, and very rare. I'm also realizing that the most loyal friendships deserve to be priorities to me above the others. I need to invest in my relationship with my wife, family, and most loyal friends first and foremost, and those others which I know will fizzle out to nothing after I move somewhere new must take backseat. They are still important, because who knows, one of them could develop into a great friendship, but not as important as family.

Hidden Potentials & Un-Validated Healings

I had 4 wisdom teeth and 1 other tooth out a week ago and am now in constant discomfort as my gums tickle and hurt constantly, incessantly, all the live long day. Wow it is infuriating. I was lucky enough to find an audio bible online for free a few days ago and it seems to be the rare thing that alleviates the irritation. Refreshing, and calming. There is something supernatural, something more than just the meaning and surface text of the words of the bible, the words of God. They contain healing.

Perhaps a clue as to how and why God's remedies are not 'instant gratification' can be seen woven into the very fabric of the world we inhabit.


Genesis: 1 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

We can see in Genesis that God made the land, the soil, the dirt, but said 'let the land produce vegetation". God did not make plants and stick them in the ground, that was the ground's responsibility, if you will. Not that I'm saying the ground has a personality, or a brain that can conceive of its responsibility to produce vegetation, its just that God made the ground filled with the potential to create plants. In the same way God created man filled with potential. We have doctors who prescribe drugs which bring relief. God made man loaded with the potential to learn about himself and also made the ground loaded with the potential to produce all kinds of plant life.

God created the man who produced healing remedies through the things present in the earth, such as the plants which the ground produced, which God provided. So in the bigger picture, God really did provide the healing and does so every day. All medical knowledge is made possible because God made us that way. All medicine is available because God made the ground which produces it.

Sometimes we wish the healing would be instant and 'signs and wonders'ish. I pretty much always wish that. But God knows best, and I look upon doctors and medicine as an incredible gift of God and example of how God has provided for our healing and recovery.

It is not a lack of faith to go to a doctor for physical healing instead of persevering with lots and lots of prayer, because doctors are the gift of God.

A mans town was about to flood, and he was warned by the police to evacuate as soon as possible, but, being a devout, faith-filled Christian he said, "Im not going anywhere, I trust God to save me". And so the flood came, and the man clambered onto his roof. The water was up to the 2nd floor. A rescue boat came by and called out to him to come aboard, but he refused help again, saying 'God will save me". In no time the bottom half of his roof was covered in water and he was perched on the top. A helicopter came down and dropped a rope, telling him to come aboard, but he gave them the same answer as the others. Eventually the waves overtook him and he drowned. In heaven he asked God, "I trusted you to save me! What happened?" and God replied "I sent you a policeman, a rescue boat and a helicopter, what more could you want?"

The man on the roof is the man waiting for a supernatural healing, and the cop, the boat, and the helicopter are the doctors. God provides for us, but often through people. He wrote every book of the bible through people, so why should this be any different?

Healing and why God doesnt bother with it (sometimes)

The gift of healing is an awesome thing. I whole heartedly believe in healing, and I have experienced it firsthand. When I was 12 years old I badly sprained my arm after falling down. I was taken to hospital and after x-rays my arm was put into a sling. A night or two later I was sat in a meeting for kids my age and they played my favorite worship song at the time, 'showers of blessing'. All the kids except me went down the front to jump about to the song, and I sat miserable at the back.

One of the helpers who I only knew by his nickname 'Jamie J-Cloth McHairbrush' came to the back and asked me if he could pray for my arm. I said ok. He prayed for me by putting his hand on my arm and asking Jesus to heal it. I remember thinking to myself, 'go ahead and pray, nothing is going to happen' but as he prayed I felt a tingling like pins and needles all up and down my arm, and when he finished he asked me to try and move it. I did, and it was totally better, completely healed, no more pain. I was able to take my sling off and go down the front and jump around with the rest of the kids.

So why did God do it? I have no idea. In my life I have broken over 20 bones, sprained and hurt countless limbs but this was the one that God healed. There have been incidents where I have been praying earnestly for something which to me seemed a much nobler cause, and with much more faith than I had in the arm incident, and nothing has happened time after time. The vast majority of the time, in fact, nothing happens. People are taken ill, people die, often slowly and painfully, in spite of fervent prayer. 

Because of the healing I personally experienced I can never deny the truth that Jesus heals, but I don't have any way to deconstruct the example and explain what was different and why God healed me. 

There are lots of scriptures which I hear quoted at 'healing meetings' and the like, such as James 5:14; Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.


I have been prayed for by the elders of my church, anointed with oil, and full of faith that I would be healed, but repeatedly have not been. So what is going on? In my opinion the answer can be seen by looking at the broader picture of scripture. God is a person, with a personality, an opinion, and he makes his own decisions. Often, for reasons of his own, he simply chooses not to heal, and that is just that. It is a wonderful thing that now and again he does bless someone with healing, but most of the time he does not in the biblical miraculous sense.

The fact that God is a person is a much more prevalent theme in the bible than when and where he heals. Jesus said that the most important thing was to love the Lord with your everything, and that is a person to person thing. He also gets irate with people when they keep badgering him for miraculous signs and wonders when the most important thing is loving God himself.

Although there are certain ingredients which should be present for healing to take place (faith, prayer etc) the bottom line is, if God wants to heal, He will, and if He doesn't want to, He won't, simple as that, because God is a person, not a slot machine.

Church and reaching the unchurched - my thoughts

Today I left the sunday service at a church I visited, and thought to myself that if I didn't have the commitment to be at a church every sunday, and was running purely on instinct, I would have regretted getting out of bed.

When it comes down to just the instinctual 'human nature' side of me, it takes quite a lot to get me enthusiastic about being at a church. 

The element of commitment was developed in me from being raised in a church and making a firm decision for Christ at age 17. However, those we are trying to reach, the 'unchurched' do not have this kind of commitment attitude towards attending church. All they have is the gut reaction of 'do I want to go or not' or 'did I enjoy that or not'. It is very unlikely that a 1st time non-christian visitor will leave thinking 'I wasn't entertained as such, but at least I got to hear something spiritual'. For some of us, that can be all a Sunday morning church service may have to offer - the feeling of having done something 'spiritual' and thereby fulfilled our weekly duty to God. No actual enjoyment.

It takes years to develop a serious commitment to attending church based on the bibles teaching (Heb 10:25 - let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing) and in the meantime we need something as an anchor to keep us attending. For me it was playing guitar in the church band every week. For others it can be a hot guy or girl in their youth group that keeps them coming. Whichever it is, most people need an anchor which acts as motivation to attend church, and as they attend hopefully they grow in knowledge of Christ to the point of making the decision to attend out of commitment to Him, not out of any ulterior attraction.

So what do we do when we want to reach those who aren't musicians who want to play in the worship band? What do we do to provide an anchor for those seekers who we might be able to see saved?

Well, what attracts people out in the big wide world? Why do people go to events, clubs, or groups in their spare time? Very often because it is fun. It is entertaining. People often don't come to church because they think it's boring. People sometimes attend church and find that it actually is pretty boring. 

I've heard it said quite often that people shouldn't be coming to church to be entertained, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with coming to church and being entertained. It doesn't have to be one or the other. When we mature in our faith we begin to attend out of commitment to Christ, but in the meantime we have to have things which are an attraction to those who are seeking, or are just babies in their faith, or we will find ourselves only bringing in those who are already saved.