Colin: Living by Faith

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who booked into RiverFest. When we started to plan this event my faith goal was for 320 people. I’m delighted to say that a little more than 320 of us are going away together for a wonder-filled weekend in July.

The God who loves to bless continues to pour out His blessing abundantly. I am already blessed in the planning. All those who go will be blessed through our love for one another and the powerful ministries of Dary Northrop and Carl Wills. The whole of River will be blessed as our churches are filled with the fresh inspiration and energy the weekend releases. And our communities will be blessed because we’ll love them more deeply and bring more of heaven to earth. Please pray for the final preparations and that the weekend will be filled with wonder as we all come face to face with the God who loves us.

The Holy Spirit keeps me meditating on Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him”. I feel His encouragement to step out in faith and to adventure with Him. Not to settle for past victories or to live safely within the bounds of previous experience. He is challenging me to fresh faith and I believe He is encouraging us all to grow in faith. It doesn’t matter how much faith we have, but is it exercised? Like Peter stepping out onto the water, are we stepping out into the unknown, trusting He has spoken?

When I first came to trust in Jesus, to pray aloud required fresh faith, to hold my hands up in worship felt uncomfortable, to tithe my income challenged me, to tell someone how wonderful Jesus is was awkward and to speak in tongues seemed an impossible dream. Later, saying yes to lead a small group required new levels of faith and trust in the Lord. But Living by Faith: Colin Barnes with each new step of faith, Father kept meeting me and encouraging me and the Spirit kept drawing me on. Now for me to pray spontaneously in tongues and to twirl about in worship is natural. Now I walk in the realm of faith required to lead the whole of River. My point is that each new step of faith is scary. It requires us to step over fear and into the uncertain, to trust we won’t sink and that His unseen hand will hold us up.

Another aspect of faith is that it requires us to do things that only make sense if there is a God who loves us and is asking us to do them. If we only do what good sense dictates or take the routes others expect, that is simply wisdom. Wisdom is good, but it is not faith. Sometimes, living by faith means doing something that wise people might think strange or foolish. On the other hand, some people think that faith normally requires us to act strangely, but always choosing the less wise option is not faith, it is foolishness! The question for each one of us is: What will I do today, whether wise or foolish, that I am only doing because I believe He has spoken? That is living by faith!

As a leadership we believe God has called us to become an apostolic resource centre. That’s why we’ve restructured ourselves around becoming a regional network and set a budget £20k greater than last year’s. The good news is that God is already meeting us in this step of faith and I have been weeping in gratitude at your generosity and His faithfulness. Firstly, The Pastures, a church in Wycombe, is seeking to join Pioneer linked through River. Secondly, we’ve had some incredibly generous gifts recently, giving us confidence we will meet this year’s budget and can look to employ a youth leader! 

He is faithful and will be glorified in us as we step out. So let’s continue to take steps of faith based upon His goodness and His upward call in Christ Jesus!

Jan: Don't Lose Heart!

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Sometimes it is too easy to lose heart. When we look at the news from around the world, the violence, hatred, manipulation of nations, it is hard to keep hope alive that this world will become heaven on earth. There is still a way to go!

It is easy to lose heart when the things we have worked for and poured our hearts into are seemingly coming to nothing, when relationships break down, and health problems persist. Our hearts can even sink when our broadband is not as wide as we would like it or our waistband is wider than we’d like it!

Lately I have been thinking about 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For this momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Losing heart is not a good thing! It is such a dulling sensation of hopelessness. It has such wide ranging effects on those around us and robs us not only of the joy of who we are as beloved children of God, but also diverts us from the productivity of an abundant life. Losing heart tends us  towards dryness and barrenness with little overflow to bless the world.

It would be helpful to find the keys to “not losing heart”! Looking at the verse above there seems to be a clue. “Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” Discouragements and disappointments, though very real, are not the whole picture. There is an “eternal weight of glory” being given to us!

Now choosing to look at the good things which are seen can be very encouraging and life-giving. We can receive a lot of inspiration from walking in nature (the seaside is good for me), watching children play, eating good food and watching You Tube clips of puppies! Hearing what the Lord is doing around the world lifts my heart: the news of our missionaries both home and away, the stories of sacrificial love and laughter that is present even in the darkest of situations. These restore my hope in goodness.

So how do we look at the things which are unseen? We shift our focus. I love the verse about prayer in Matt 6:6: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” God is unseen to us and yet we are not unseen to Him! So a key is to look at our Father who understands and desires to reward.  

What is another key? We “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2-3 )

And to complete the trinity… we fill our hearts and minds with the Holy Spirit. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

There is a lot more going on in this world than we can see. As we live from the unseen, looking at God as Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, then we will not lose heart for our world but be filled with hope, and keep on loving the ones we do see. 

afterTHOUGHT (May '14)

Missionary position by Andy Oxley.  

Somehow, eons past, I managed to get through the 11 plus exam and found myself ensconced at Dr Challoners Grammar School in Amersham. In those days the masters wore academic gowns during lessons, and the headmaster a mortar board at assembly. It was somewhat of a culture shock for me, having been brought up in relative poverty and at that time living in a council-provided wartime pre-fab bungalow. Although that bungalow was amazingly well designed, I still remember ice forming on the insides of the windows in winter. It did have an early form of central heating though, which consisted of an open fire in the centre of the building. We soon upgraded to a pungent paraffin stove lit in the hallway during the night. Utter luxury. 

I well remember my first English lesson at that school. All of us, a sorry bunch of credulous urchins, were anxiously considering our fate at this renowned pillar of British education. The master did not disappoint. I sadly can't remember his name, but he flowed into the room with a long black cape billowing behind and stood directly at the front of the now silent class. We were faced by a being so ancient he had no right to live, with long lank and dirty white hair flowing down to his shoulders. There was a fascinating, slight brown, tinge beneath his dangly nostril hairs reminiscent of years of snuff sniffing. His encrusted brown teeth had, as yet, been untouched by recent fluoridisation. The final touch was a grubby Vicar's dog collar circling his scrawny neck. This man was religious! I had never met anyone properly religious before and although this man seemed to be a flawed version, he was still interesting if singularly unnerving. 

The weeks went by, accompanied by smacks with his ruler and his adept method of pulling a small boy to his feet by his sideburns. We listened in awe as he regaled the class with his life experiences. It turned out this man had been a missionary! A Christian missionary, no less, and had done his missionising(?) in Africa. My only knowledge of that mighty continent had been gained watching Tarzan movies. At that time, the furthest part of our planet I had travelled to was Felixstowe.

One missionary story remains in my memory above others; it was, the master said, a near-death experience. He had travelled with a few others deep into the jungle to evangelise a tribe known to be head-hunters, finally arriving to a warm welcome as the tribe was obviously having a family feast and was in the process of heating up a large cauldron. Now even I knew what head-hunters did with large cauldrons. Thankfully so did the missionaries who spent the next few hours sitting with their backs to a large wall and preventing anyone creeping behind them. It seem that these natives would only cook you if you had been prepared in the correct manner, which entailed a blow to the back of the head. An early form of food safety regulations, no doubt.

(I wondered at that time, being reluctant to think evil of the head-hunters, if they had misunderstood the word evangelisation. It’s a long word after all, and so similar to evisceration, that it may just be they had the wrong idea about the missionaries’ intentions. Hence their response in heating up that black pot. Just a thought…)

This early missionary experience inspired me. I had not been raised in a Christian home and therefore had no idea about such things, but I was sympathetic to the faith. I remember considering the sacrifice and dedication needed to become a missionary, the devotion and faith which would be sorely tested in ways I could not imagine. When, a few years later, I became a believer myself, I was so thankful that I did not receive the call. I probably did not listen out for it much, to be fair, but I do so love England.