be there when your child needs you

No matter what age you're child is they will always need you're love and affection. There will be many times during their life when they do things that annoy and anger you but that is maybe when they need that love even more. Teenagers rebel, we all know that and its been like that throughout history. Christian children are no different but we hope we wont have to deal with many of the issues that non-Christian children go through. As parents we do our best and try to lead by example. That's why we need to look at our own lives to see if we are living a christian life because our children need us to be an example of God's love.

I know I am a great dad to my 10 year old son and I try to live a life that lives up to what I ask of him. My son knows he can always come to me and we will find a solution to whatever problem he is going through. He wont wait until the problem becomes massive because he knows I am there for him and he trusts and loves me. We have built up a good relationship and it is how we build that relationship now that will mean more to him in the future.

If you come down hard on you're child he/she will not come to you with their problems and if you are so strict you can bet they will rebel even more. There is a happy balance and that is what you must reach.
We are a product of the environment that we grow up in.

When you have been hurt by the church

The pain caused by a church is a “silent killer.” This doesn’t mean that the words and events that “burned” and hurt your heart are not very ugly and public. It is a “silent killer” because of what it does deep in the fabric of the mind, heart, and soul of the wounded. If not dealt with, it will destroy future happiness, joy, and well-being. The collateral damage always negatively affects the ministry and outreach of the church, too, and some churches never recover. Recognize that the behavior which brought such devastation in your heart is not much different than the hurt any of us can encounter in the workplace, marketplace, or home. The difference is we just don’t expect God’s people to behave like those without Christ in their lives. The church is the one place almost everyone agrees should be safe, accepting, forgiving, and free from conflict and pain. Yet, in most churches, at least some elements of strife, conflict, and hatred creep in and shatter that dream.

It happens more in some churches than others. The spiritual health of people in a church and the strength of leadership determine how prevalent and to what extent that divisive behavior can gain control. Out of control, it has the effect of a termite infiltration that slowly and surely decays the foundation of the spiritual life of a congregation.

For you, it is important to turn your focus away from the people involved and the church itself and with laser focus identify the root cause of your pain, turmoil, and disillusionment. Honestly identify what you are feeling. If you are like most, here are some possibilities: anger, sorrow, disappointment, rejection, hurt feelings, jealously, threatened, fear, rebellion, pride, feeling foolish, ashamed, embarrassed, blame, loss… Find out what is at the core of your hurt—not what someone said or did to you, but what is really causing your pain? Then search the Scriptures to discover what God says about what is really hurting you. Take a Bible concordance and look up each word and read, think, pray, and apply the scripture reference. For example, you may think that you are angry when in reality you feel rejected. What does God say about rejection? He says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5); “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3); and, “Surely I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).

When you truly identify the root of your pain, God has a balm of wisdom, compassion, and love to generously apply to heal to your wound(s). If you call on Him for this, your focus quickly becomes riveted on Him rather than on someone else, or dwelling and rehearsing the event over and over that caused you harm. Admittedly, you truly may be harmed, injured, or offended. You certainly feel it. Those are by-products of deeper, more important realities that have derailed your passion for God, His church, and His purpose for your life. This has soured your taste, and if unattended, it will lead to a root of bitterness that will negatively affect every fiber of your soul and will rob you of any possibility of finding fulfillment in Christ. You do not want this to happen in your life.

How do we keep hurtful experiences from moving their destruction into the fiber of our souls? The book of wisdom from the Bible says we must “guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT). We guard our hearts by choosing the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and actions we hold. Guard your heart in this situation by refusing to rehearse what happened over and over, dwelling on the people who hurt you, and laboring over the weaknesses of the church. This will take humility. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34). It will take forgiving attitudes and actions (Matthew 18:22; Mark 11:27; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13) with no hint of vengeance (Romans 12:19). Mostly, it will take the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through you (Ephesians 3v16).

Don’t blame God for how His children behave. Don’t abandon the church, either. There are always many more dedicated, grace-filled, loving, and forgiving people than not in most churches. Seek them out. Spend time with them. If you cannot find them, find another church (it is rare that you cannot find them even in the most difficult church environment). The church is God’s idea, and He protects it faithfully even though He is pained often by its behavior.

There is a strong warning throughout this answer that a wound of this kind, if unattended, will penetrate deep into the soul and destroy any chance of living an abundant life in Christ (John 10v10). You can have hope because you are seeking healing. It is now up to you to do the right thing and turn your focus to the place, no, the Person, who will truly transform your life above and beyond this hurt in the following way:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
--Jesus Christ, matt 11v 28-30

Taken from got questions .org

IS YOUR REPENTANCE GENUINE

Is your repentance genuine?

We all know the story of the little boy who cried "wolf" and when the wolf did eventually come no one believed him and he was eaten up. I am sure you have met people who say sorry for something and then turn around and do the same thing all over again. There words did not match their actions. They were saying the right things but were failing to follow through in the way they subsequently lived. In these two chapters of Hosea that is exactly the charge that God brings through Hosea to the people of Israel. Let me set the context for this part of the book of Hosea. In chapter 5 God pronounces judgment on the people of Israel. In verse 14 there is a dire warning of the people being taken off to the lion's (Assyria) lair and in verse 15 God wanted the people of Israel to admit their guilt and to seek His face and His forgiveness.

6 verses 1-3

In the opening verses we hear words of repentance spoken by the people of God. Look at the opening sentence - "Come, let us return to the Lord." It all sounds so promising. The right words are being spoken by the people and if we ended on verse 3 it would be a wonderfully positive response by the people to the judgment of God. In verses 2 and 3 the people acknowledge that the punishment from God is justified and that they need to turn and acknowledge God. They pray that in response God will bless them with the rains of refreshment and they base this on the knowledge of His faithfulness to the covenant - hence as surely as the sun rises … God will answer their prayer of repentance. As I said if we were to end here it would be wonderful and we would believe things had changed in the lives of the people of God in response to Hosea bringing the Word of God to them. The words are right and they are confident that God will hear and heal them.

6 verses 4-6

these verses shatter the illusion of verses 1-3. Verse 4 begins with two rhetorical questions and the only possible answer in light of what follows is 'nothing.' The repentance of the people and their love for God disappears as quickly as morning mist when the sun rises. It evaporates as it is has no depth and no substance. Their repentance is superficial. Their love for God is not the faithful covenant love which God has for them. It is like Gomer telling Hosea that she loves him only for her to go off with the first man who makes eyes at her. Her words, their words, do not have any meaning or depth. There is no change of character of behaviour with these words. God's word (v5) had brought judgment upon them for their spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness. In verse 6 God tells them what He desires from them. He wants mercy - covenant loyalty from them and not just the outward acknowledgement of His existence in sacrifices. In essence He wants His Bride's heart to be bound to Him in love, loyalty and faithfulness. No religious ceremonies or sacrifices can be a substitute for the heart of the people being committed to God. Just as Hosea wanted faithful love from Gomer so God desired the same from His people. The outward rituals were superficial if there was no inward reality. Please note that God is not condemning sacrifice but He is saying that if the outward ceremony is not matched by an inward reality then it is an empty gesture at best before Him and blasphemy at worst.

6 verses 7- 7 verse 10.

To prove His point God, through Hosea, lists the sins of the people. The continual breaking of the covenant and the commandments shows just how far the people have strayed from God. They talk about repentance and about coming back to the Lord God but their actions take them in the opposite direction. Please note that the breaking of the covenant and the commandments are done deliberately and knowingly. How true is that of so much sin in our lives today? We knowingly and deliberately break the laws of God.

Let me quickly run through the sins listed here by God. At the heart of it all is the breaking of the covenant, just as Adam did in the garden of Eden to bring sin and death into the world. Their cities are noted as places of sin and even their priests, who should know better and live faithfully, are leaders in sin. To the extent that God (in verses 9 and 10) describes what He witnesses as 'shameful crimes…a horrible thing.' The result of their sin is that the people of God have prostituted themselves before other gods and with other people. God does not hide their sin and nor does He seek to excuse it but simply states it for what it is. I want you to hear that this from God in the book of Hosea. God does not excuse our sin and He does not try to reason it out. Sin is not a mistake, it is not an accident and it is not something you stumble into. These people prostituted themselves to other gods and all the time they were telling each other "Come, let us return to the Lord." listen to me here, there are so many people sitting in churches throughout this land , who are telling others "Come, let us return to the Lord" and all the time their lives are full of prostitution and unfaithfulness before God to whom they say they are turning back.

If you read on in chapter 7 you get a fuller picture of the sinfulness and the hypocrisy of these people who speak words of repentance. God, through Hosea, tells of their sins in some detail. He tells how they have murdered kings in order for others to ascend to the throne of Israel. The depth of their sin is shown in that they held a feast for the king and celebrated with him but in the morning the struck him down. God describes their hearts desire for sin as being like the bakers oven which heats up over night without anyone seeing but by morning is searing hot. That is how God describes the heart of these people. That is how God describes their desire for sin - gradually their hearts get hotter and hotter for sin until it just ours out into their live for all to see. God goes on to speak of their arrogance (v10) and how it testifies against them before God. Ever noticed that about people? How arrogant they become when they are confronted with their sin. I am no longer surprised when people try to justify and explain their sinful actions. I am no longer surprised that people would rather leave a church and walk away than be corrected for a sinful lifestyle. Arrogance is the right word for it and let us be honest there are times when we have all been arrogant in and about our sinfulness. We have all spoken words of repentance without the actions that should follow.

You know what is the most startling and frightening verses in this passage - verses 11-16 of chapter 7. What a dreadful and dread filled picture is painted here by God. The people of Israel are compared to a senseless dove which flies one way and then the next to seek security not realising that the very people (Assyria and Egypt) that they turn to are the means of God's judgement upon them. In verse 13 there can be no clearer warning what straying from the covenant relationship with God brings - destruction. Then we read some of the saddest words spoken by God in all of Scripture. How God longs to redeem these people but they will not turn to Him nor cry out to Him. We see how God has provided a bountiful harvest for them (v14) but they use the feasts and celebrations as a means to walk further away from God. He gave them strength and trained them in righteousness (v15) but they used that strength and training to plot evil against God and the things of God. In the end (v16) they are of no use and their demise is assured. How sad a picture is painted here? God longs to redeem them but they would have none of it. They pay lip service to repentance but there is no change in their behaviour. Just as Gomer said she loved Hosea when she married him but her behaviour showed that she loved no one but her self and the fulfilling of her selfish desires took precedent over the fulfilling of her marriage vows. So the people of Israel said they loved God but they committed adultery with other gods and showed that their own evil hearts were their god.

We could go on and list the sins of Israel and the numerous occasions when God called them to repent and for a while it appeared they had only for them to return to their wicked ways. We could stand here and acknowledge their sinfulness before God and how He was justified in His judgement of them but what about us? How does this passage relate to you and I in 2009?

I believe God would issue the same word of warning to every person heart .

some of you reading this are exactly where Israel was in these two chapters. There are some of you reading and you talk about coming back to the Lord God but you have no intentions of leaving your life of sin. You want your other gods and your other lovers and you want to be able to come to your church and sing God's praise and commit to live for Him but it evaporates before you leave your church car park, like morning mist. you know if God is challenging you about your faithfulness to Him and He warns you that if your life does not match your lips then He will bring judgment upon you. Some of you are great at saying the right things at the right time but there is absolutely no spiritual reality to your words. You can fool some, you may even be fooling yourself but you cannot fool God. God says to each and every one of us "I long to redeem you." The question is are we going to be like Gomer and the people of Israel in hearing those words but paying only lip service to them. You see there was no brokenness with Gomer or the people of Israel for their actions. They had remorse and regret, enough to go and offer a sin offering before God in the Temple but there was no true repentance because their lives did not change. The same is true for some of you . You have remorse and regret over your sin and you adultery before God but you have never been broken over it and you have not changed your way of life. The truth is you are a Gomer - living with one husband but sleeping with many others - claiming to follow Christ whilst being unfaithful with all the gods of this world and the desires of your own heart. Hear the words of warning from Hosea - God will come in judgement on your life for such behaviour but hear also the hope of Hosea when God says "I long to redeem them."

christ died for everyone

I took this photo of this man outside a Glasgow court, he was so drunk that he could not stand. Many that saw him clinging on to the wall mocked and laughed as they past him by. He was oblivious to their smirks and unkind comments. What struck me about the man was that he had made an effort to dress well for court, no doubt in the hope the judge would look favourably on him. At one point he was in danger of falling so I sat him down on the steps to avoid him injuring himself.
Many of us if we saw him on the street would walk on by. Maybe we would think "oh that's a shame" but that's as far as our compassion would go before we walked on. I am not one to hand money to drunks, drug addicts or homeless but like my mum I am more than willing to buy them food if they are hungry. Yet we know when they ask for money its not food that they want because their body craves whatever they are addicted too.

I sometimes see them in the city centre and instead of giving money or buying food I pop into the nearest charity shop and buy a jacket. It is a simple act of kindness for which I seek no reward other than to help my fellow man.
A friend of mine at Xmas no longer buys a gift for her work colleagues but puts the money in a small box and along with her other colleagues donate the cash to a charity. What a wonderful act of kindness. She is not a Christian and in fact has no belief at all, other than helping others less fortunate.

There are 100s of people like the man in my picture who this Xmas will be sleeping rough in some doorway. I know we cant help them all but if we can make a difference to just one, who knows how their life will turn out.

Train spotters

Thankfully the rain has let up but as its Scotland this has been replaced with a lovely cold spell. The old joke about the Scottish weather is true, rain sleet snow sunshine and that's just in one day.
If I was not born in Scotland I would not choose to live here. Sure we have the hills and the glens but in all honesty most Scots don't bother to visit the highlands and lets face it, once you've seen one mountain or glen they do seem to merge into one big hill. I did climb Ben Nevis, which as you know is the highest mountain in Scotland, so I don't feel compelled to climb anymore. One thing I have never understood is people that put "hill walking" as a hobby on their CV or dating profile. Just because you put on boots and walk up a hill does not make it a hobby and no matter how many photograph slides you may want to inflict on others they will fain interest until their ears bleed.
Its like train spotting!!!!
Who in their right mind does that?
I was once trapped on a train with 100 train spotters coming back from Fort William and believe me it is a sight to behold.
1. They do all wear nylon jackets
2. trousers that don't go below their ankles
3. carry more pens than a stationary shop

There is no way they own a mirror and I am positive their parents buy their clothes for them. Ah but I am being too cruel towards them, well no I am not.

One of them actually sat beside me and opened his photo collection and with the enthusiasm of a child at Xmas or a Labrador puppy (but not as cute) he began to show me picture after picture of trains, only stopping to quote their engine numbers.
Suddenly he looked at me and with a glare he gathered his stuff and left to join his fellow spotters, no doubt noticing I was not one of them. Suddenly they broke in to glee as a train past by on the other track and I Kidd you not, some of them where jumping up and down with excitement.

Yet how wonderful for them that they all had this one hobby that brought them altogether. This hobby was the focal point and friends where made, telephone numbers, emails and addresses swapped. There was a connection that unless you too where excited by it, would never understand it.

I am sure you feel that way about God....see always a message

shell suits and buckfast Abby

Many years ago I was chased by 3 shell suit wearing gentlemen intoxicated I am sure with some of the finest wine that buck fast Abby could make. I had no doubt that they were not interested in congratulating me on the new jacket I had just purchased nor do I believe they wanted me to share in their enjoyment of the fore mentioned wine. There are many things you learn about yourself as you are being chased.
1. You remember all that cross country racing you done at school and no longer look at it with disdain
2. You suddenly have the ability to run faster than cars
3. You can pray while running in complete fear

There is also the fact that drunk people cannot run for a very long distance, nor do they have the ability to shout threatening comments while gasping for breath. Now if you are ever in this situation remember all of the above but don't get cocky and shout some stinging remark at them because for the most part it will be a waste of your time. Mostly due to their lack of intellect which I'm sure buck fast Abby can take some of the blame.


I myself enjoy the odd class of wine (corked not screwed) but have never felt the need to shout at others or break into football songs, nor have I insulted anyone over the validity of their parents marriage certificate. The happy group of lads that were chasing me, did make their way back to their home turf (see I am hip and down with the lingo of the street dude) and I'm sure after much back patting and words like "yeah we showed him" all the while holding back from vomiting over the pavement.
Now I wonder how much of the night they will remember.
Will they awake with a bright and cheery grin welcoming in the new day or will they groan and wonder how they are in a jail cell.

Please don't get me wrong, not everyone that drinks will end up in a jail cell but if drinking until you can no longer remember your name is what you call a good night, the chances are you may just have your breakfast passed to you through a small hatch in the cell door.


Oh yes the Christian moral to it all.

Don't drink too much.

Well this was a simple post

Ahh in case Buck fast Abby sue me I had better say " Their fine wine may not be the reason most teenagers end up in jail"

questions

My 10yr old son asks me question after question about God. And you think you have it hard when your child asks "are we there yet or demands more pocket money".
I have to answer; "If Jesus is God why did he shout my God my God why have you forsaken me and why did God allow Satan to sin and were is the garden of Eden and why is there so many churches if their is only one God". Yes the list goes on but thankfully we are building models from war-hammer because my small brain can only take so many questions.

I have brought my son up to question and not just accept. When I was at uni I studied sociology...yes I know most think it is a waste of time but I love the way it engages the mind.
In my house there is no such thing as "I said so" When my son comes to me at the weekend we discuss and reason things out. I may be dad but I still want him to have his point of view and understand my reasons. We study the bible and talk about it but when he is back at his mums he does not have that christian input.
So I am thankful that I do bring him up in the Christian faith but will never force him to go to church if he decides he does not want to go, even at this young age.

I remember being forced as a catholic to go every Sunday and I hated it. It was more boring than watching paint dry and more painful than watching England win the 1966 world cup (which they love to show all the time). The catholic church has not changed that much with regard to children but there have been many positive changes.

At the moment I am not attending any church. I was put off organised religion by a friend and pastor who could not find it in his heart to apologise. I suppose I had built so much around him and this dented my own faith. So for the moment I am looking at other churches and I am sure I will find the right one for me.

Anyway, keep asking question and work out your faith for yourselves