tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70787920805493271972024-03-13T04:42:19.317+00:00P is for pilgrimBlessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. Psalm 84:5Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-18982018333956882472013-12-19T14:08:00.000+00:002013-12-19T14:09:25.522+00:00This epic life<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its been almost three years now since we sold up and set off on our travels to North America. Little did we know back then, where the adventure would lead us and how much it would cost to leave the sanctuary of a familiar life in Exmouth. So much has changed in those three years, more than we could have ever thought possible. Our lives have been transformed, we have been given promises - many yet to be fulfilled - made friends, left friends, encountered Papa God in astonishing ways, been in lack, been provided for, been loved, been tested, been in awe. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One short blog is far too inadequate to describe the journey, words don't form easily to bring structure to what has been a time spent in hiddenness, a time nestled in Papa's heart, a time where faith has been forged within challenging circumstances.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Wales - left to right Moriah Chapel birthplace of the 1905 Welsh revival; Brecon Beacons; Caerphilly Castle.</i></b></span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our return from America last year - where we had hoped to move - we had a sojourn with some wonderful people in Wales then found ourselves coming full circle by returning to Exmouth. It has been a very strange return as we are not the people who left and the community we were part of is no longer our home. We live in a tiny cottage where we live, cook, eat and sleep in the same space! It has been a much appreciated sanctuary and we've enjoyed the peace we have found there.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><i>The Garth covered in snow near our home in South Wales.</i></b></span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mike launched <a href="http://spottedsheep.com/"><span class="s2">spottedsheep.com</span></a> selling greeting cards carrying his designs and those of other artists from around the world and has also latterly returned to writing. Nicky loves working as a home help to 96 year old Monty who she visits every day. Opportunities to pray with her and encourage someone who is frightened of dying has been an incredible privilege. She has also developed her creative gifts in painting and textiles, which she loves and is longing to get back to playing piano again!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><i>A great year for Beth and her fiance Josh - they both graduated and got engaged. Wedding in 2014!</i></b></span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We continue to live in the in-between where, as many of us do, we have promises that we long to see fulfilled. We follow in the footsteps of Abraham and Sarah who waited for what seemed like too long for the birth of their promised son. We feel like Joseph as he waited in prison to be commissioned by the King. We find ourselves alongside Jesus as he was lead into the wilderness. There are days when we don't understand the journey or the length of time we are kept waiting but we would choose no other path than this, as we know He is faithful to bring about what He has promised. We are continually finding treasure in this darkness, new aspects of Papa's heart, new life and more capacity to love. We have discovered that no matter how dark things seem, Papa always hides treasure within the darkness which bring glory, light and hope. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b>We had a wonderful weekend in Cornwall.</b></i></span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have pondered recently on how many epic stories we read about in blogs, in books and on Facebook. We have all of us become experts at celebrating what we consider to be the 'epic' lives of people, their epic triumphs, journeys or ministries. We have come to realise that every life is epic, every life is extraordinary, however ordinary they may appear from the outside. Our own lives have appeared, over the past year, to be very ordinary but we have heard Papa whisper over and over that we are extraordinary and this last year has been as much of a glorious adventure as when we were on the road. It's the same for us all. With Jesus life is a wonderful adventure full of opportunity to love and be loved, to cry, to laugh, to come alongside, to encourage, to be found faithful because He is faithful and to daily surrender to His ways rather than insist our own.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have no idea what this next year holds, apart from the wedding of Mikes beautiful daughter Beth to Josh in April (very excited!). We don't know how long Papa will keep us in this place of waiting, but we do know that He is as faithful as the sun-rise every morning and that our prison season will shift, that we will hold our Isaac and that we will leave this beautiful wilderness full of power as Jesus did. We are so thankful too for the love of family and friends He has placed around us, for His constant provision, for His promises and for each other. Life truly is an epic adventure, ours and yours, may we have the courage to see it and live it with our hearts set on the One who makes all things possible.</span></span></div>
Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-15020201559993935452012-08-07T21:59:00.003+01:002012-08-07T22:06:44.735+01:00Living with a heavenly perspective<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.miketemplephotography.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSyQQmUCn9FzzLQGxjTiYqiS-G7_1XabZt5MC1loyDrVs1RR87Ln3LGBD7uyIzy1O4LRdldv84o8_wqkJ3QU5Km6-MigDWl5jTYx9naUNgFDx0kAAD5rmCgirF4umnFOzDVXfCmkpxZZY/s400/IMG_9206.jpg" width="266" /></a>As believers we can often assume that when things 'fall into place' or when our circumstances line up, God must be in it, that we are in His will at that moment. Firstly, by definition, this means that when things are difficult or don’t go the way we want them to, whether consciously or not, we are believing that God isn’t in it. Secondly, in making such an assumption we can miss the purposes of Heaven in that situation.<br />
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Consider Joshua as he was about to attack Jericho and he met the Lord: "Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” ( Joshua 5:13:14) Joshua made the assumption that the heavenly being he met was either for him or he was for the opposition. I’m sure Joshua must have been surprised when the man replied “Neither.”</div>
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Heaven has a perspective that sometimes we just don't see or even consider. Like Joshua, we can assume that God is for us and He comes to fulfill our plans, when the Lord has something else in mind - seeing Heaven come to Earth. We can become consumed with our circumstances and with seeking the results that <u>we</u> want, like Joshua believing that God will deliver those results for us.</div>
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Whilst is true that God is for us, He also tells us that He 'works all things together for good for those who love Him' and that 'in all these things we are more than conquerors'. The 'things' spoken about in these lines from Romans 8 can be translated as ‘absolutely everything’. In absolutely every circumstance, absolutely every situation that we find ourselves, God is working for good.</div>
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<i><br />“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their (our) labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.”</i> Romans 8:28 AMP.<br />
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If we love God we can be assured that absolutely every circumstance is working for our good. It might not look like we had planned, it might not look like the desire in our hearts, it may even look disastrous in a natural sense, but in loving Him we can be confident that He is using those circumstances for good.</div>
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<i>“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”</i> Proverbs 19:21 NIV.</div>
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And so, having pursued the desires of our hearts in coming to America, desires for community, desires to share our lives with those we love and who love God, desires to make a home in this amazing nation, we find ourselves returning to the UK with none of those desires having been met. Does that mean God is not for us? By no means! Does that mean that He doesn’t want to give us the desires of our hearts? Not at all! He loves us beyond measure and His heart for us is only good, His desire that His goodness be displayed for His glory in our lives.</div>
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When David prays in Psalm 20:4 “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” It’s not a promise, it’s a request and David goes on in verse 7 to say “ Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” That’s the key - trusting Him when our plans don’t succeed, trusting Him when He doesn’t give us the desires of our heart, trusting Him when it hurts enough to bring us to tears. Trusting that even in the failure, the disappointment and the pain, He loves us and He is working for good.<br />
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<a href="http://www.miketemplephotography.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8XUC7YxelN01AENRqSreGTPNcE4bWF3mohwFldNka_Ca01Dh9TjAxZkh8LaM1EjJ9PQCJVGPISyYPK2Egpo4BcKtb3XILMFHZV-MBu3UOD4tVugjSeltI83G2GCbnKvldxZndvjSDcH0M/s400/IMG_9016.jpg" width="266" /></a> If we can learn to embrace the pain, to trust in God’s love for us, to recognise His goodness toward us, to surrender to His will, and like James to ‘consider it pure joy’ whatever our circumstances look like, not only will we receive the ultimate reward (the crown of life!), but the journey itself becomes our reward.</div>
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Battered and bruised as we feel, physically and emotionally exhausted as we are by the journey, and though it has literally cost us everything, we can unequivocally say that we trust in Him.</div>
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The last nine months have been very painful, we have been in a fiery furnace and, even when we thought it couldn't get any hotter, the angel in charge of the furnace, turned up the heat! Papa has stripped, burnt, humbled, consumed. He has emphatically answered our prayers of 'not my will, but yours be done'. It has happened in the secret place, in the darkness, within the mundane of four walls. This hasn't been a holiday that's for sure!</div>
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We head back to the UK as weary, ragamuffin pilgrims, feeling the effects of the furnace, yet we leave feeling peace, faith and hope, for He is incredibly good and His wisdom is perfect, even when we don't understand. There is such a relief, such a peace that invades at the place of surrender, at the place of having given up our rights, of choosing 'His will' above our own. There is a sweetness in having been broken by His fiery hand that is beyond explanation. As Graham Cooke puts it, ‘We kiss the hand that hurts, because it is true and perfect in love.' </div>
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We don't know what or where is next, but we know Papa has it covered, utterly, completely, wholly covered. He has not once abandoned us, not once turned away and He never will. He always makes a way, He always comes through for us. So we return in expectant hope, knowing that He who is faithful loves us beyond comprehension and has good and perfect plans for us.<br />
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Mike & Nicky<br />
xxx </div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com3Stroudsburg, PA, USA40.9867609 -75.194624840.9747749 -75.2143658 40.9987469 -75.1748838tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-22407829349392119712012-07-04T21:12:00.000+01:002012-07-04T21:13:44.205+01:00Savouring the moment<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It's been a while since either of us wrote here. It seems to me as if life has been a challenge and I feel like my energy has been used in simply getting through the days and weeks with not very much left for inspiration to put words to page. <br /><br />This 'getting through', this survival mode has been a little bell ringing gently in my mind and as I tune my consciousness into actually listening to the sound, I become more aware of why the bell has been ringing. It has been wanting my attention, it has been a whisper telling me that this surely is not what life should look like, this survival, this getting through each day, head down, lips pursed, making it to bed only to awaken and go though the motions again - I must survive, I must survive. Yet, how many of us live our lives like this, week in, week out, year in, year out. Just getting through with the occasional oasis of relief in the form of a holiday, a movie, time with friends, a bar of Cadburys!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.miketemplephotography.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Dragonfly at rest" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemfKa8yIAf7QvaVJoMOnZTjw-tLeTPTFz5wHghHJzq1O2s4eAhWjLVE0wgkVSHiHTOZV6LG4isUUxT61vGaYgIHMttsnCe8kQjRQxSKAZCXAxcoTXMqeKeu-4xRfd5DDVKWHr9eJXoOaK/s400/IMG_1612.jpg" title="" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I am realising somewhere deeper in my being that each day is formed from little moments, all joined together and that if I can learn to catch these little moments I go from survival mode to life in fullness. I am beginning to see that each moment is drenched in richness and fullness - the sound of wind in the trees, the sun warming my skin, the sound of rain on the ground, a mouthful of good coffee, a comfy chair, a smile, my favourite tv programme. If only I could truly learn to savour these precious moments, to become thankful for them - the small things, the everyday things that pass me by because I am surviving the big picture. These moments diminish the big picture and they take the heaviness out of having to have it all worked out. As I savour the moment I am able to remember that there is someone bigger than me, someone utterly and totally in control. I remember that I am known incredibly intimately and that He has it covered. I realise that He is flooding my life with promise and goodness in every little moment He sends my way, if only I breathe in and savour.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.miketemplephotography.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Widlflower meadow, Big Pocono State Park PA" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87nbDq4YbNwTwVzUigVMztnzDwRpqriwjrxshXHsByL5cUxbjHzc5K-8iwsmIL02Mr4qkrNEz8nWdu9rJSyp0VJBAoW2n0tY_cvhKfTdm5sVsr1MTCAMIkgQwJufh5nIQvyjJf7ckK2O4/s400/IMG_7633.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I was talking with a friend who was telling me about a woman she knows who really does know how to live in the moment. My friend tells a very funny story of when she and her family arrive at this friends house one evening. They walk in and the lady is animated and tells them to listen to the vacuum cleaner, she asks if they can hear the note that the vacuum cleaner is playing and she tells them to harmonise along with the note, so all four of them stand there singing along to the vacuum cleaner laughing their head off! I was so touched by this story let alone the fact that if I need a laugh I just remember it. I love the childlike delight of the moment and the ability to find life and laughter even in the sound of the vacuum cleaner.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxme3wUjrHU3fopokZHxj7te3OsxON00TbNG1Ox8POppX0I7UjacIb6qjzjgkbtDVVISyPSUYG2OMmLQ_OoY-gwyLGraUIMYeajugoXk53aJ2SVDjZCvXGy3ozTiH8KvV8dM44Uw8hD5V6/s1600/IMG_7675.jpg"><img alt="Mrs P doing the hoovering!" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxme3wUjrHU3fopokZHxj7te3OsxON00TbNG1Ox8POppX0I7UjacIb6qjzjgkbtDVVISyPSUYG2OMmLQ_OoY-gwyLGraUIMYeajugoXk53aJ2SVDjZCvXGy3ozTiH8KvV8dM44Uw8hD5V6/s400/IMG_7675.jpg" title="" width="265" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">I'm not very good at living in the moment yet, I get distracted by the big picture, I get pulled into survival mode, but I do know that if I could truly live the moment life would look so different. So I'm going to keep practicing and I may even find a little song in the vacuum cleaner the next time I use it! </span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com3Saylorsburg, PA 18353, USA40.8830685 -75.364536940.7870295 -75.5224654 40.9791075 -75.206608400000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-88830715968486648872012-05-04T17:34:00.000+01:002012-05-04T17:34:42.210+01:00Stormy Weather<br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnfwE4uGD2WTDg3nmPNjAWOrhx8KRjPwtk8GKG9Vf1SiUAu6LQeJrCCRiTIHiBLtGRcbeR0b3qI-Pb2nPlJVqhpmdEGafDiEQiz6XL7EyrWEMgJqMI3D4TC_Ep9h5k4vcTuprcQXIUVXF/s640/IMG_4689.jpg" title="Trawler returning to harbour" width="640" /></a></div>
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Just before we left to return to England from North America last October, a friend gave me a word about entering a storm. She also gave me a small wooden cross as a reminder of what to cling to during the storm. I had also recently been to a production telling the story of an Irish monk named St Brendan who set out to sea in a little Coracle boat and trusted the Lord to take him through wind and wave wherever his destiny ordained. My friend was right and I had no idea how the story of St Brendan would speak to me over the next months. The storm began pretty much as we left North America and has been raging fierce and sometimes calmer ever since!</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"></a><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilRTmb4dTDtKvy-rEjpLbJU-8RNniEcy1qDTRZIBtB3uD_stvDxd5MCQ6vnI-i6yQdTQl9eZAyv3GjH8xiwNxoBBayrxngRRH8eFOY9pevtuWD0YIdevbRjlodorpDbFA797bZJ-rynhw-/s640/IMG_0800.jpg" title="Raging sea" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have been pondering the storm and its effects over the past few weeks, pondering how we, as followers of Jesus, navigate the storms of life, how are we to ride the 'perfect' storm? How do we remain in victory through the storm? What does it look like to come through the storm without losing hope and remaining steadfast?<br /><br />St Brendan set out in a Coracle, a tiny basin of a boat made of wood, a boat with no sails. He was entirely at the mercy of the weather, the tides and the waves. I have been told that the best thing for sailors to do during a fierce storm is take the sails down and allow the storm to navigate the course. Fighting the storm can cause more damage to the boat and sails and render it useless once the storm abates. Sailors trust the storm, they surrender to it and rely on getting through it. I keep returning to this place, to the need for surrender, to trust the One behind the storm. Although all I hear is wind, all I feel is lashing rain, the dark clouds press in all around and I have no idea when the storm will end, I need to trust the One who IS in control of it. I need to trust that He sends me along a watery path that is exactly and perfectly where I need to go.</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGYrwRuC8GkcEw3RUBEofMaUFHT8hiHm5tMyn4RuZYqkEEBUPvaccl3edLuigvKiG_-PhUaWzZjXLNiyJVyQengDOOHqaqos_deCnj63jCc4GO7M7i1kemOzGaC_N23O1ekUFeO5fZ7dj/s640/IMG_4877.jpg" title="The storm breaks" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MW8mdnTOOUfRtATk78EPhAeCP-tYeP1zwcCmPC8FY56Ld6Nd9kxJNAR4ZOFDTxldm1s9g_AeHHJ7WoCIINZyXO9DlufeHNV09ZYWZqr5mL1pLxFx3tK52igubSg9-x8BGqRiU3uJrOPL/s640/IMG_3910.jpg" title="Light invades the darkness" width="640" /></a></div>
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Somedays during this lengthy storm of mine, I have been able to snuggle next to Jesus and sleep as he did during the storm on the lake. Somedays I have paced, I have shouted for Him to wake up and calm it. Somedays I have simply clung to the cross praying silently for rescue and to be saved from drowning. Somedays I have seen the sun break through the clouds and have felt its warmth on my skin, time to dry out as the sea has calmed and the noise has abated. I take deep, restorative breaths in these moments and enjoy what they bring.</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi02u-Pq08fbY6sOkh-yO5fqy0UfJAl9-dcXUITP5SH1NbxohyvwHT_KnEoy48x9I-m3pOdvi_qnW4ncupX_i7qwOlpy-01DZS5mhmypw3Po7cehQM16h7jzGni2-WTfduMtk7sDhQFxQNU/s640/IMG_7210.jpg" title="Simply to thy cross I cling" width="640" /></a></div>
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I recently listened to a great podcast from Danny Silk at Bethel Church in Redding CA. in it he told a children's story that was written about one of his sons called "One of those days". His son was young at the time and still at primary school and in this day everything went wrong - he got up late, dropped his bagel on the way out the door, forgot his sports kit, had to stay in during recess. Finally his mum got called in to pick him up from school and as he got into the car with her, he braced himself for the telling off. But his mum simply said "rough day hey?" and they drove to the grocery store. Whilst there, his mum looked at him and said "I'm so proud of you", he huffed a response and they carried on. Twice more during the ride home his mum said the same thing to him until finally he began to believe it and the shame and heaviness of what he had been feeling lifted and he was able to laugh with his mum knowing how much he was loved. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVx0jT3B_FNS4W_2lUeRHgZbIjSfdAFvZnhLFbIVIDveC9AjZykTYlHUC7XWREGjUK_sF2zxKBAi6KISXzdwgjY3v7sZzXkhIs7uIOQUw6pJyuPV3TkQZ3jcpno3Ipj1zUolQ6FX9MkMOc/s400/IMG_7206.jpg" title="Our hope is in You" width="265" /></a>Our storms often feel like 'one of those days' in which we're just getting it all wrong and bumbling our way through the wind and rain. It is so easy for shame and heaviness to set in but Papa is there, right there, closer than air, taking our head in his gentle hands and saying "I'm so proud of you". He loves us through the storm, pure, simple, powerful love that keeps no record of wrongs. Religion might measure how well we navigate the storm, keeping score of good days and bad - ticks and crosses. That is not the heart of Papa God. He knows storms are a messy business! He loves us through the raging seas and is not concerned with our response. He is concerned with loving us more fiercely than raging circumstances and telling us how well we're doing, how amazing we are! He never once abandons us. <br /><br />He has a plan, a great plan that He is forging through the storm. All storms end and as we keep hope, as we cling, as we yield through them we are transformed and transported to new places in Him. I'm not sure when my stormy weather will finally break, but I know it will. I believe that Jesus is good always, faithful always and kind always. He knows my heart, He understands me fully and loves me beyond imagining. So I can wait, I can ask for rescue and I can trust knowing that the sun will come out.</div>
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<img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS6Mk3os17sybNaVTRcXYAiO8pLeHvyVyYma0-zLuQGD6yDz18D0uNjOoU8yX7P3xBNDgEqv82A0IxMpfabs1n6g7HteDMIX1DpL_GWDYDxdB8u5O6ipDw0vESCVttulD609IdU_3s-eC/s640/Reepicheep.jpg" title="" width="640" /></div>
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Oh, and one final thought... In the Narnia film "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", Reepicheep sailed into Aslan's country in a Coracle. It was His means of transport into a new, perfect and glorious realm where the deepest desires and longings of his heart would be met.</div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com2Mülheim, Germany51.4309558 6.880746151.3517588 6.7228176 51.5101528 7.0386745999999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-54218003935266811132012-04-14T12:47:00.001+01:002012-04-14T14:28:28.145+01:00The next chapter<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Those of you who have been following us on this blog or on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheMikeTemple" target="_blank">Facebook</a> will know that we have been travelling the globe for the past 18 months, pursuing the Holy Spirit and following our favour throughout North America and in Europe. Our purpose and delight has been the pursuit of God’s heart, as we have willingly laid down our lives, and everything in them, for more of Him.</div>
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During this exciting and challenging time we have seen the most incredible sights, had the most memorable experiences, met the most wonderful people and made the most amazing new friends, as well as catching up with many old ones. We have heard and experienced the glorious and radically good news of the Gospel from coast to coast in the USA and in Europe.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-0Op5fa_KVwl-tzZpJ2arVKxoyuON0okrDYE_VD5zGMP1KELTgP-_nN1HaPASQ1DXCU3sLWOE9yHeawYOZvtWsZemGGDrZgtkJ6mC_fF3oyoCfgoGt6z9CGYFcWGI5OuKYHmINxwAq-w/s1600/IMG_4208.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-0Op5fa_KVwl-tzZpJ2arVKxoyuON0okrDYE_VD5zGMP1KELTgP-_nN1HaPASQ1DXCU3sLWOE9yHeawYOZvtWsZemGGDrZgtkJ6mC_fF3oyoCfgoGt6z9CGYFcWGI5OuKYHmINxwAq-w/s320/IMG_4208.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Randy and Bob from The Box</span></b></span></td></tr>
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We have been blessed beyond anything we could have thought or even imagined, and the Lord continues to work with such grace and loving kindness in our lives as He transforms our minds and hearts. He has changed us in so many ways, but we would be hard pressed to explain exactly how. We wouldn’t change a single step of this pilgrim’s journey, for many have brought us much joy, though too there have been many testing times, but they have all brought us to this moment.</div>
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For several weeks now, though, we have both been feeling the need for community, to belong somewhere and to enjoy the rhythms of a life lived in love for those we share it with. We long for a more settled existence in which we can share our lives and our hearts with people who share our passion for Jesus, and more practically, in which we can hang our clothes in a wardrobe rather than living out of our well worn suitcases.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0UTJhnvJUUm6kJ_g_Qcc2Vz42gtgOVmrGjumCkUCCXawTBha-33hdbwZincKgJFL-4rQW4JBqIVG76Lb0v3IEoEPsgxAzBevRGfMWj1KpvgHoc_IKLiUbwEyIrZqV4mX93IePADUroA9/s1600/IMG_1632-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0UTJhnvJUUm6kJ_g_Qcc2Vz42gtgOVmrGjumCkUCCXawTBha-33hdbwZincKgJFL-4rQW4JBqIVG76Lb0v3IEoEPsgxAzBevRGfMWj1KpvgHoc_IKLiUbwEyIrZqV4mX93IePADUroA9/s320/IMG_1632-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Us with the wonderful Young family at The Box in 2011</span></b></td></tr>
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It’s in the context of this heartfelt desire that we have decided to make our home with the wonderful folk of <a href="http://www.abwac.com/" target="_blank">The Alabaster Box</a> in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=East+Stroudsburg,+PA,+United+States&hl=en&ll=40.890677,-74.476318&spn=1.131564,2.469177&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.871902,79.013672&oq=east+stroudsburg&t=h&hnear=East+Stroudsburg,+Monroe,+Pennsylvania&z=9" target="_blank">East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, USA</a>. When we left for North America in 2011 we didn’t even know this amazing part of the body of Christ existed, let alone know the people who comprise it! However in a few short months God has knitted our hearts together in the most extraordinary way, and we were delighted to learn that they unequivocally shared our own desire to be with them too.<br />
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And so the flights are booked, though the visa that will ensure our long term stay in the States has yet to be secured, and to say that we are excited and expectant of great things would be an understatement of huge proportions! We would like to thank you all so much for your support, your patience and your understanding, even when you may not yourselves have understood the choices we’ve made! We ask that you continue to hold us before the Lord in prayer as we apply for our visa and as we build relationships and find our place within our new community.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9ct2a9uu2v0GOWODIL_cWgA9t91iAobmnXp9A7sHAV1-RYGX3811tfjG0G44OKu3oSvzO8ZhhcpDoLg68YXNiT4Q3g8BJpPL0AYts2IYWzHtllPdNWeut_jRwPyrhaKGiNnTrAieyCu5/s1600/IMG_2183.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9ct2a9uu2v0GOWODIL_cWgA9t91iAobmnXp9A7sHAV1-RYGX3811tfjG0G44OKu3oSvzO8ZhhcpDoLg68YXNiT4Q3g8BJpPL0AYts2IYWzHtllPdNWeut_jRwPyrhaKGiNnTrAieyCu5/s320/IMG_2183.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Open mic night at The Box</span></b></td></tr>
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We would also like to give you the opportunity to support us financially in this next chapter of our lives. Though <a href="http://www.abwac.com/" target="_blank">The Alabaster Box</a> is small in number, the generosity of the people there has been, and continues to be incredibly humbling. However, we don’t wish to be a burden to them, rather to bless them financially, as well as in other ways. To this end, we will be pursuing our own means of support through several business ideas, however in the meantime if you would like to give, please use the Paypal link on this page to do so. We would love for you to come and visit us in our new home too - it’s only 1 1/2 hours from New York city and you can be assured of the warmest welcome.<br />
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In this next chapter the journey continues, it just looks a little different...</div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-38487844040848499832012-03-20T17:49:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:29:48.185+01:00A different perspective<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1495376087" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCaZYNU26-6f0TaYnSA1SkEwNMSUXiJaoGF5miTn37SuPDAC7WzbSF7IDs24PBPaj__Q7BzTOw1NpT9gPmstAau8UY64RviOzzCplovLYQ0fPkXoNEuwpez-utESl5nIe-PudM-vOkeoF/s400/Spreers.jpg" title="" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Our little home is on the left,in the garden of our hosts' house.</span></span></b></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We are currently living in the smallest of worlds. Having travelled the globe over the past few years, the past few months have seen us confined to such a small place. Our day has consisted of time spent in our tiny home in our dear friends garden and often the only reason to venture beyond its four small walls has been to walk the few steps to their house to share breakfast, lunch or abendbrot with the family. Without a car too, our exploration of the region has been restricted to a ten minute drive to church with our hosts on Sunday, daily walks along the Rhine or the very occasional trip to visit friends. As I said, it’s a small world.<br /><br />Papa has been speaking much to us during this time of confinement and it has clearly been with purpose that He has brought us into this small space. It’s a place of hiddenness in Jesus; it’s a precious place of simply remaining; it’s an intimate place wrapped in His presence; it’s a challenging place of yielding to transformation; it’s a quiet place where we can hear His still small voice; it’s a confined space but holds such freedom in Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s in the smallness of this place that Papa is revealing the expansive nature of His glorious kingdom. During a recent worship session Papa took me to the very edges of time and space to show me that His kingdom is still expanding, that as the Creator God He is still creating, for it’s in His very nature. In this place, amongst the clouds that are billowing outward, extending the Kingdom, I saw a picture.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIDq03wCZeA0VDqIWInCBJ4zTbRzOcRJ_4D52VryjrnbpoY6hgX6doaisvqDd-W-ecW1sv3xHzcYK6p0N3EhrVNxPsACRNpp9P9sHNuU2NfD5HOK6RXUDeO7q_0R64wYg9_yqmwSJu4pk/s1600/Munster.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIDq03wCZeA0VDqIWInCBJ4zTbRzOcRJ_4D52VryjrnbpoY6hgX6doaisvqDd-W-ecW1sv3xHzcYK6p0N3EhrVNxPsACRNpp9P9sHNuU2NfD5HOK6RXUDeO7q_0R64wYg9_yqmwSJu4pk/s320/Munster.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">From one of our few trips out, this one to Münster.</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">In this picture I saw a row of houses that extended into the distance, but rather than getting smaller toward the horizon, these houses got bigger. I believe He was showing me things from His perspective, one of expansion, rather than the world’s perspective, which is one of diminishment. I tried to draw what I saw but couldn’t - it’s so contrary to what we see and understand in this world that I found it impossible!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Today I awoke with such a vivid and present sense of expansion, not just for us, but for His Kingdom, for us as believers and lovers of the Lamb. I believe as we begin to see things from God’s perspective, that the Kingdom is advancing whatever our current circumstances, then we will see Heaven bursting forth. I believe this expansion is into every dimension, those which are seen and those which are unseen.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEATpQXxtVZE9AGHqG3mVgB_foVg-Bo5F1BJV09cKeeH-tAJFU8hXPuyCfihsPWIinX08hB4vCQJu_pJ2iwJdHgBWoxQcREToS_PHQ8W5uD86mJMUSBVAvaw9yUqdj5e2kYQ__yduHtuy-/s1600/Clouds.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1495376101" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEATpQXxtVZE9AGHqG3mVgB_foVg-Bo5F1BJV09cKeeH-tAJFU8hXPuyCfihsPWIinX08hB4vCQJu_pJ2iwJdHgBWoxQcREToS_PHQ8W5uD86mJMUSBVAvaw9yUqdj5e2kYQ__yduHtuy-/s320/Clouds.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Kingdom of Heaven is expanding</span></span></b></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So I come back to our small world which, perceived through the world’s eyes is one of confinement and even diminishment, but from God’s perspective is one of liberty and expansion. The picture of the row of houses I believe holds another significant truth, for though the house nearest to me was small, it was a small beginning that grew to huge proportions. We can all rejoice in the smallness of our world, hidden in Christ, knowing that it’s from here that expansion happens and His Kingdom comes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1Duisburg, Germany51.4344079 6.762329351.276030399999996 6.4464723 51.5927854 7.0781863000000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-65306998566206191812012-02-27T21:12:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:32:27.594+01:00Germination<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour! As many of you know we are in Germany right now, staying with friends; finding ourselves, temporarily at least, part of a church; and doing life as best we can in a land where we can’t speak a word of the language! But that’s not the funny bit! Soon after we arrived here we had a clear word from God that we were undergoing a process of germination... germination in the German nation! Boom boom tish!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3R7zSnAkyM7WT6AIAtll17IpNQz4hJ54j5oJGI_gqfW7BtWwPh_URofXXxm1CAkYUnLANZ3rfMQdHPXCuWVnoq2rnbeQzeAB7KprywiQk0QdUrWemHBbI68yTbkjWjkDps4q2-g3e20t/s400/Holzhausen.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So what is germination and what does it mean for us? Well, here’s a literal definition:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>ger·mi·nate </b>[jur-muh-neyt] verb, -nat·ed, -nat·ing.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: small;">verb (used without object)</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">1. to begin to grow or develop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Botany.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> a. to develop into a plant or individual, as a seed, spore, or bulb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> b. to put forth shoots; sprout; pullulate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">3. to come into existence; begin.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: small;">verb (used with object)</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">4. to cause to develop; produce.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">to cause to come into existence; create.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In the process that is germination, seeds begin to grow or develop when they are hidden away, buried in the darkness of the soil. It’s a place where the seed can’t see or be seen. If you have read our previous blogs, this confirms earlier words from God about entering the darkness, the hidden place. In our experience, it’s not an easy place to be, but we know it’s where Papa wants us and we continually have to bring ourselves back to a place of rest, and trust in the process... of germination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We have been encouraged too, by a something Graham Cooke said in a series of talks on <i>The Process of Maturity</i>: <i>“Unless you spend time in the hidden place, you are not going to see the things that are hidden.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So germination happens in the hidden place, in the darkness, but it is only here where the right environment for growth exists - the temperature is just right, and God has certainly been turning up the heat!; moisture is required, and we continue to feed from the River of Life; finally oxygen, the breath of the Holy Spirit. These elements are what’s needed to grow and bring forth the life that is inherent in the seed.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2P3TybSRpsVxMHpfZQdvGOIVspWhDYogn6vuIXB0-uYutUOkxRT26T5jo7p0BxG_EDlNkxX4YjEoV0pzMoXffXWr1aKhnXjqnLI6yI-mF8EubOJhn_KN2ESj4FnIF_lpPZwmJhBx031C/s400/Roots.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The process of germination is also when roots are established as a seed establishes itself. For us, it’s about going deeper - deeper into Papa, as Moses says in Exodus 33, ‘To know You more’. Anna Rowntree, in her incredible book <i>Heaven Awaits The Bride</i>, detailing two visits to Heaven, puts it so well: <i>“We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, we can’t go any higher. But we can go deeper.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">When it’s ready, like the birth of a baby after nine months hidden in the darkness of it’s mother’s womb, the seed bursts from it’s shell into life. For us, I believe that the revelation which God gives us, of Him and of who we are in Him, bursts the shell of our current understanding and thinking, renewing our mind with the truth. The old mind can no longer contain the new understanding as new life emerges, in the same way that Jesus tells us that we can’t put new wine in old wineskins, we have to be made new, by the renewing of our minds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Finally the plant emerges from the soil, from where it can’t be seen, into the light, to reveal the fullness of the glory for which it was created. The potential for that glory was in the seed all along, but now it’s revealed, bringing its beauty into the world and glory to its Creator. This too reminds me of the familiar words of Song of Songs 2 which resonate with us so clearly at this time:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.”</i> v.11 & 12</span></div>
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<img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7naraM8H2h_9Y9w4vjzRhUVdRQEdme3AKawf9QlrfmK5hfxHCU3r89cinkPzeF4XBThNb60PNPSkxncwAOjTkogB8b7E2t1P3F6g6lDd4QOM9R9NNVcUWWFVS-wvdbu1FeNx5LYRx_kQ/s400/Flower.jpg" title="" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So as we germinate in Germany, hidden from so many of those we know and love, we are believing that God is at work in us, though much of that transformation is hidden from us too, and with creation, we wait <i>‘in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed’</i> (Romans 8:19). Roll on spring!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As a parting thought, when considering what to write in this blog, I was reminded that every word is a seed, it carries with it the promise of something (Isaiah 55) and we have a choice as to which type of seeds we plant. The power of life and death we are told is in the tongue, so let’s choose to plant seeds of hope instead of fear, seeds of faith instead of doubt, and seeds of love instead of judgement. Then we will see those seeds grow into the full potential for which they were created.</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0Duisburg, Germany51.4344079 6.762329351.276030399999996 6.4464723 51.5927854 7.0781863000000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-49778775497844719552012-01-25T09:10:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:49:50.572+01:00Through the small door<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqbLQgRWJbDt8gy_2BVbIE_ZOZTnM30GlaZLjO16NDxETzYBNGM-icUAWIk0nydyizXG-_2RChAkDeUwaIRrXmQ6jEb5QBC123z3yuc9Ivk8G4k1eh6EkAR_3dGpFSsW_dLWm4Ef62L1f/s1600/CGDu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;">Hello from Duisburg, Germany! We've been here for almost a week now and already feel at home, loved and welcomed. We're staying with the Spreer family – Martin, Heike and their five children. Our abode is a little 'hut' right next to the main house, made up of living area, kitchen, bathroom and loft bedroom. It's cosy and warm and we feel very blessed. It's so good to have a mixture of family time and meals with them as well as our own space. Yet again we are overwhelmed at Papa's kindness through the love and generosity of others. We have been embraced into family and have already fallen in love with them all!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqbLQgRWJbDt8gy_2BVbIE_ZOZTnM30GlaZLjO16NDxETzYBNGM-icUAWIk0nydyizXG-_2RChAkDeUwaIRrXmQ6jEb5QBC123z3yuc9Ivk8G4k1eh6EkAR_3dGpFSsW_dLWm4Ef62L1f/s1600/CGDu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1495376179" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX3C8gi7AecZN35LBVjCIZG0r3jVdx8iDJRUcXltQeB01zys24MqK2J44y06qWSRjfrPqAjG7AG8dpId8EHyIgJYKTHZF0kBaN_u3RFiAjdqntrHcPK8JGB9jfZAqq6rDoZCV73tfYA3RS/s400/Golden+Ladder.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Golden Ladder in the centre of Duisburg</span></b></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Martin and Heike lead a great church here that we first came to in April 2011 for a conference. It's a wild, Holy Spirit infused place where the presence of Jesus is thick and there is tangible life and love. We had an incredibly warm welcome on Sunday, we even had our own interpreter during the service, and we came away with two invitations to lunch!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1495376174" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqbLQgRWJbDt8gy_2BVbIE_ZOZTnM30GlaZLjO16NDxETzYBNGM-icUAWIk0nydyizXG-_2RChAkDeUwaIRrXmQ6jEb5QBC123z3yuc9Ivk8G4k1eh6EkAR_3dGpFSsW_dLWm4Ef62L1f/s400/CGDu.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><b style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">April-Konferenz 2011 Christus Gemeinde Duisburg</b></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Before we came here, someone had a picture for us in which we walked up to a large mountain and, as we did so, we could see that our way through the mountain had been blocked by a rockfall. It was only as we got right up to the mountain that we saw a tiny door to the right of the rockfall that was open. The person giving the picture said that the tiny door was actually going to be a much better way through the mountain. So we believe Germany was the tiny door, yet now that we're here it feels much bigger!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSvT6K84zJZcTVA5M79KA5JJ515ojFdqRzXbU77eg8Y1wQA654RhYznuCT2e2K3H10Zem7aqBpi_5iU30aaiMWHxEF2mzYjzeL5ANOere8Mk202L1xcKXxl7VPKhiEAUOk3ZiMjyZIQ18U/s400/Mountain.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There's such a sense of expectation here, like a heavy pregnancy about to birth something amazing. It feels exciting to be </span><span style="font-size: small;">making relationships </span><span style="font-size: small;">in Europe and it feels as if there is a strong bridge between here and the UK. Revival is coming and the waves are going to get bigger and stronger - it is Europe's day!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpziZuR6DxAxI_X6shBS3oEKYZCqP2S3ERqURzh8B483jws0VRuu0HVFwRusOuPp_XCbkSTlZM_xEID2X04_DaZ74typm_BBQxSUf20ufwxmFKzmMciSQ9ztKmMaLtXqwy0ITNXPufIPwp/s400/Surfer.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I think there's going to be a lot of change in 2012 and we're going to see the Holy Spirit move in powerful ways - the invitation already goes out to ride the waves even if it feels uncomfortable. It means letting go of the old - having both hands raised in worship and surrender to His ways, and with a willingness to abandon our own ways and thoughts. If we are willing, we can become part of a huge outpouring of glory and revival the like of which has never been seen on earth before. We can be the conduits for bringing heaven to earth as we trust Him and flow with the Holy Spirit. The new wine is already beginning to flow! <br /></span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0Duisburg, Germany51.4344079 6.762329351.276030399999996 6.4464723 51.5927854 7.0781863000000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-49256255551446634812012-01-04T17:41:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:51:56.520+01:00In the darkness<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Well, this journey is nothing if not exciting! As many of you will know, before Christmas we had been planning to go to Sri Lanka then on to New Zealand. You may also know that this didn’t happen! We didn’t get the provision we needed to make the trip and so we found ourselves traveling back to Devon to spend Christmas near to family and friends. It wasn’t that we ever had clear direction or a direct promise from God for this particular trip, however we do know that our travels are not over, that we have more connections to make and things to learn on our journey.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/miketemplephotography" target="_blank"><img alt="© Mike Temple Photography 2012. Not to be used without the owner's permission." border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ij8Ou7h3XIo/TwSMXOWpr3I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/O_3Ts00s1LQ/s400/Signpost.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And so we stepped out, following our heart's desire to be with friends in Sri Lanka, believing that the door would open, but also totally prepared for God to direct our path and change the direction in which we were setting out. We also wanted to speak, think and act from a place of faith regarding this desire, so we traveled to London without money for flights but believing that, if Sri Lanka was where God wanted us, He would get us there even though it looked impossible. Ultimately the door remained closed, and we don’t profess to understand why, nor do we expect others to understand, but we do know He has used the journey to forge faith and trust in us yet again!<br /><br />One thing this experience has taught us is that it’s easy to think that when circumstances line up and things seem to fall into place, God must be in it. Equally, it can be tempting to think that when things don’t go the way we expect or plan, when things look messy, that God is not in it. To us, and to many people looking on, these last few weeks have seemed very messy, but we believe that God has been in it and He continues to use our outward circumstances to transform us within.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> As the door closed to Sri Lanka, another door opened to Germany - so we are going to walk through it! Last April we connected with some lovely people at a great church in Duisburg, near Dusseldorf, and have kept in touch with them since. They have graciously opened their hearts and their homes to us and we know a warm welcome awaits. However we leave not knowing where this will ultimately lead, or for how long we might be there, but simply holding Papa's hand and trusting Him to make the path clear with each step.<br /><br />It's been quite a journey since we arrived back in England at the beginning of November. Before we left America we had both had visions of Papa leading us deeper into the darkness, not into a place of fear or danger, but into a place that would require more trust and dependency upon Him. We had words from others too which echoed the visions we had, as Holy Spirit was gently and graciously preparing us for this tough and challenging time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />During this time not only have we continued to feel a deep sense of loss of things past and things we have given up, the cost of following Him, but we also recognise that we have given up belonging. We find ourselves without the security, comfort, acceptance, worth, fellowship and sense of belonging that emerges as lives intersect within the context of a local community. We feel a sense of 'rootlessness' and not fitting. For us right now our community is made up of people dotted all over the globe, not found in one place. It’s an odd feeling and drives us deeper into intimacy with God, to find our place of belonging, our home in Him above all else.<br /><br />As we enter this new year we remain largely in the dark, sometimes to our own frustration and the perplexity of many of those looking in. We don't know why it’s like this, but we have given up any right to understanding, instead choosing to trust and believe. We abide in the ‘nowhere’ (now and here) of the moment, a place of believing without seeing, of loss without gain, of stepping out without seeing the road stretched out ahead of us. It looks to the world like foolishness, and somedays it can feel like foolishness to us too, but we cannot turn back and nor would we want to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We trust this pilgrims way and the One we follow, the One who forges the path ahead of us. We are incredibly grateful for those we meet along the way, and to those who journey with us in friendship, support, encouragement and love. We rest in confident expectation of His kindness and goodness as we learn to embrace all things, knowing that He is working in them for good and that He carries us close to His heart. Most of all we are grateful that we are loved by Him and that all our tomorrows are written in Papa's book.<br /><br />Thank you to those of you who remember us in your prayers, our desire is that you would echo Paul’s words in Colossians 1:9-12 in your own prayers for us, as this is also our prayer for you:<br /><br /><i>“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.”</i><br /><br />Happy New Year to you all. May you know His love and presence wherever the year takes you and may it be a wild and glorious adventure! <br /><br />Mike & Nicky<br />xxx</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1Budleigh Salterton, Devon, UK50.630998 -3.32021450.610853999999996 -3.359696 50.651142 -3.280732tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-22494904889850208962011-12-15T17:50:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:52:28.715+01:00Step by step<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I'm not enjoying this part of the journey. With Christmas around the corner, I want to be in the home I don't have, decorating a tree with the children I don't have, listening to Christmas carols and getting excited about the season. I want to have been able to do Christmas shopping and wrap gifts for friends and family. I miss being part of a community. Instead we leave for London tomorrow, stepping out in faith believing it's what Holy Spirit is leading us to do. We hope 'against all human odds' for tickets to take us to Sri Lanka in time for Christmas, but only He knows where this step will lead us. My heart aches and I feel the cost of the narrow path again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Yet, I always come back to love, hanging upon a tree, and to the fact that I am a new creation, that I have been given a new life and that I am loved beyond all measure. In His incredible love and divine wisdom, this is the best path for me, right now, today, and that here on this path there is treasure in the darkness. This part of the journey, even the pain, is transforming me and preparing me for what is ahead. I need to yield to this, to be on this step because this step leads to the next one and is vital. I trust my Beloved Jesus, I know Him to be wholly good and overflowing with loving kindness towards me, so I know that this momentary affliction will pass, will do it's work and the darkness will turn to light again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>“We seldom get to choose our circumstances, but we always get to choose our responses. Men and women of God understand that nothing is coincidental, they take advantage of everything in order to discover God and find themselves.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I am also comforted in remembering that life on earth is just a whisper of time compared to an eternity of living every day in heaven, face to face with Him. I only have one opportunity here on earth to choose Him, to yield even when it hurts and to say yes. I know that all loss will be great gain whether in this world or in Heaven. I also know that I am storing up a weight of glory in these circumstances for eternity.<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison."</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />If your path is dark and stormy, take heart that 'this too shall pass', that He is with you in it and using every circumstance to produce a greater weight of glory for you. He is already leading you to the next step, which will be different to this one. He already has victory in mind. He keeps you close to his heart and He knows and sees the end from the beginning. He sees the full picture and knows that it is good. Remember His kindness, be confident in His love, keep going and expect good things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><i>"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. That Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1Exmouth, Devon, UK50.619957 -3.41370250.5796595 -3.492666 50.6602545 -3.3347379999999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-53659338022020955722011-12-05T09:06:00.001+00:002011-12-05T09:25:39.953+00:00Feeling the pinch<div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Pummelled, crushed, squeezed on this narrow narrow path. Tears, pain and
discomfort. This dark unknown. Walking, stumbling, trusting, blindly
moving forward holding the hand of love and breathing in the aroma of
heaven. Wrecked by love even here in this dark place. He is worth every
breath, every tear, every cold, damp night, every inconvenience, every
discomfort. He is worth it all, even when it hurts and the way ahead
seems totally blocked. My soul feels bruised and circumstances are
testing yet my Spirit yields in the knowledge that His ways are wise and
good and He is holding a banner of love above my head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">You are worth it Jesus. My devotion is on you. All that I am is turned
towards you. In this place where I feel naked and exposed and there is
nothing to hide behind, no other comfort. I remember that you really are
enough. That i am clothed in you, hidden in the Father, safe.</span>
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You really are all I want. You are enough Jesus, you ARE enough. I trust
you. I know that you love me and I am convinced of your goodness even
in the storm. There is no other my heart desires, there is no other
lover for me besides you. I don't know how long this battering storm
will go on but I shout to the skies, I shout as loudly as I can that you
are worth it and my heart belongs to no other. I run this race and I
cannot turn around for this path is too narrow for turning.</span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Heaven is my home, heaven is where I dwell. Earth is a fleeting moment
where pain and suffering is real but even now with my feet in the
natural, I abide in the heavenly realms, pulled in by their wild
gravity. This is the place where I find rest and sink into Shalom. I
know I am found by you. I know your thoughts reach me, I know you are
with me here in this dark place. I sing for joy for this is the path you
have chosen for me and I walk it gladly trusting in your wisdom and
your kindness. You will not fail me. You will not let me down. I
surrender. I am yours. I praise, worship and adore you. Abba, Papa,
friend, IN you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Nicky xxx </span>
</div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-59139392251579358292011-11-21T18:49:00.000+00:002012-05-05T20:54:11.373+01:00Beyond the shadow of doubt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"> We landed in the UK as October gave way to November, and the warm weather of North America gave way to the cold and damp of England. Our trip had been rich with treasure. Not of the monetary kind, though we found generosity and love as we followed our favour across the continent and back, but in the form of precious friendships and a bounty of prophetic words and promises from Papa. Before we left back in April, God had made it clear that a significant part of our trip was to be about the connections we made, His purpose was reticulation, connecting us in to the body of Christ, and this was most definitely our experience. The rich promises He spoke into our lives, through many prophets and prophetic words, were also clearly part of His divine purpose.</span></div>
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As we travelled, we continued to seek God each day, as has been our practice for the last three years or more, enjoying His presence in the moment, as well as seeking wisdom and revelation about His destiny and purpose for our lives. We may not have changed outwardly, apart from a few extra pounds (Mike) and longer hair (Nic), but we are acutely aware that we have been, and continue to be, transformed by the renewing of our minds. Papa has been so gentle and kind as He has led us on the path of preparation for what is to come.</span></div>
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And so we find ourselves back in our home country, but without a home of our own. It’s a situation that has proven challenging, but once again God has gently been encouraging us to make our home in Him wherever we find ourselves in the world. We also have a sense of not fitting in the UK, not right now anyway. It’s a strange and somewhat disconcerting feeling, when we have spent 40+ years of our lives here, but once again we can see God’s hand at work, for we believe He is calling us on and that now is not the time for us to settle back here. In fact, God had told us that we have more ‘spices’ to collect on our travels, to add to those He has already given us, before the recipe is complete. In this sense, our journey has been and continues to be, like a school, training us for the life in ministry (for want of a better word!) that He is calling us to.</span></div>
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We have been visiting family and friends in London and Devon since our return, and are planning to spend time in Wales and Scotland before we leave the country again. Our intention is to leave for Sri Lanka to visit friends there for a few weeks, before going on to New Zealand, again to stay with friends for up to six months, followed by South and North America. Though we will be travelling once more, this stage will look a little different as we aim for a more settled existence in each location - to enable Mike to find a daily rhythm in which he can write (something Papa has been on his case about!) and in order to experience community in a way that constant movement from one place to another doesn’t allow for.</span></div>
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All of which brings us pretty much up to date. Our journey has been one of ruthless trust, of learning to depend on Papa, because He is totally dependable. We have felt an increasing call to lives lived in faith for our every need, not just because the funds from our house sale have slowly dwindled to the point now where they have been used up, but because we believe He is able to meet our every need. For us, and we recognise that such a path is not for everyone, this means not seeking paid employment, but continuing to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, trusting that all these other things will be added.</span></div>
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Our journey of learning to trust has not just been about trusting God, but also about learning to trust that we hear from Him, that as His beloved children in relationship with Him, He speaks to us. Not in a booming voice, not in the wind or the earthquake, but, like Elijah, in the gentle breeze. Our plans to continue our travels are not in response to a loud and clear command but a quiet invitation. We are choosing to believe that we have heard His voice and that, in spite of our circumstances and lack of finances as we write, He will meet us with the provision we need as we step out in faith.</span></div>
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We are excited as we anticipate with confident expectation our Papa providing for us. It’s not an easy path to tread, but a daily choice to persevere and let our beliefs determine our experience, rather than the other way around. And so we wait patiently, for the most part, and in the waiting God continues the process of transforming us, shaping us, preparing us for all that He has for us in our lives and all that He wants to do through our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Mike & Nicky</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">xxx</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-73798802521719046902011-09-15T19:32:00.000+01:002011-09-15T19:32:10.373+01:00The emperor's new clothes<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality.”</i> Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
I have for many years lived with the burning desire to know the reality of life as a believer; to experience what it truly means to live on earth as it is in Heaven; to be able to discern the facts of a life lived in Christ from the fiction of a life lived outside of Him; and to reveal the freedom-giving truth of this reality to others. All the while, aware that the great deceiver is actively working to get us to believe a false reality, to deny who we really are.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>“Our expectations are always fallacies, attempts to control reality and manipulate mystery... Our expectations are our greatest obstacle to union with God in the present moment.”</i> Brennan Manning, Lion and Lamb</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Reality is such a slippery subject, it’s difficult to grasp. When you think you have a handle on it, your experience can rise up to bite you, and the lies can creep back in, redefining your expectations and telling you that what you believe is not really true at all.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
As a believer though, there are some immutable truths which define my reality. However, these truths are not always ‘seen’. For example, I know that Jesus heals, that I, through Jesus victory on the Cross, have the power to heal, but I personally have never SEEN anyone healed through my prayers. Does my experience deny the truth of the healing power of Jesus in me? No.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
We also believe in Heaven, the paradise of Eden where we can walk as Adam did with God in the cool of the evening. I haven’t seen it, yet I believe it is real. In fact, I am seated with Christ in heavenly places right now! It’s a reality I simply haven’t seen. Yet.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
We believe our sins are forgiven. If we don’t, we’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel! Yet, though we are forgiven, many of us live on a tightrope, expecting to fall from grace if we sin again. Perhaps the problem is believing a Gospel that is SUCH good news - one in which His grace is more than sufficient for all our sins, past present or future.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
We believe that God is good. All the time. The entire Bible, culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, reveals the heart of a loving Father, prepared to do anything to be reconciled with his beloved sons and daughters. And yet our daily experience of life lived in a broken world, with all its pain and suffering, might seem to provide evidence to the contrary.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Another truth, though is that just because we see something, it doesn’t mean it’s real. By the same token, the things we don’t see aren’t necessarily unreal. The Bible tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1) Faith says ‘I’ll see it when I believe it’, doubt says ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’. There is NO room in faith for doubt: faith + doubt = unbelief.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>“If you want to see things you have never seen before, you must be prepared to do things you have never done before!” </i>Graham Cooke <br />
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Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again whilst expecting different results. Using this definition, the world might classify faith as insanity - just because to date I may have seen the same result in response to my prayers for healing, provision or change, I still expect a different result - our victory and His glory.<br />
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Equally, are we prepared to do something different, to respond to circumstances in a way that is contrary to the world, to step out into the ‘unknown’ and the ‘unnatural’ in obedience to Papa’s prompting, in order to see His Kingdom come and will be done? Even when we do find enough courage to step out, do we always see His power manifest in our lives? In my own experience, I can’t honestly answer ‘yes’. Does that mean I stop expecting to see it? Despite my own experience, I can honestly answer ‘no’.<br />
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<i>“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”</i> 2 Corinthians 4:16-18</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
For most of us the ‘reality’ of our daily lives consumes our thoughts: we agonise over hands without work, stomachs without food, bank accounts without funds, retirement without a pension, a home without enough room, or no home at all, (add your own here). The brokenness is real. I’m not denying that we live in a world where we experience pain, loss and hardship, or suggesting that we do not have compassion for those whose suffering is all too real, but I am convinced that there is another reality in which we, and they, can experience joy, peace and freedom.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Often too, the colour of the grass that others feed upon seems so much greener than our own, and this presents us with another illusion - that our lives would be so much better if only we could have what they have: their house, their family, their friends, their job or even their husband or wife. But, as John Eldredge in Wild at Heart puts it so well, “The answer doesn’t lie in the arms of another woman” (man, house, job, money, etc.).</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
"However tempting the flight into unreality may be, there is no comfort in it."</i> Mary Craig, Blessings</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
So how do we live in the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, when we dwell in the brokenness of this world, when we live with the temptations of the flesh and when we find ourselves in dire need? It is here that we learn, perhaps,<br />
why the poor, those with literally nothing, choose to put their trust in God - because there is nothing else. And the reality is that there really was nothing else in the first place!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
I have heard it said, and have probably been guilty of it myself, that some people are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. But doesn’t the Bible tell us to set our minds on things above, to seek first His Kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added to us?<br />
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<i>“We only believe what we can see, so I make sure I'm looking at the unseen.” </i>Seth Dahl, Bethel Church</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
We are also invited to share in the sufferings of Christ, to love in spite of sin, rejection, torture, alienation, misunderstanding and betrayal, as Jesus did when He went to the Cross. To suffer for the sake of Love is God's strategy for overcoming evil - not to resist evil, but to overcome it by surrendering to it in love and obedience. Love moves forward to face evil not to fight it, finding victory not necessarily in immediate, tangible results, but in the transformation of the world around us.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>“Because you are identified in the Name of Jesus Christ, you can afford to always overflow in gratitude to the Father, (not for everything that happens to you but) in spite of everything that happens to you; you are not under circumstances but above circumstances because you are in Him!”</i>
Ephesians 5:20, (Mirror Translation)<br />
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In the upside-down, back-to-front, Kingdom of Heaven, to surrender is victory. God brings good out of evil - even greater good than if there had been no evil - and the trial will have been an immense good for us. When circumstances would seem to indicate the opposite of His promises that we can ask for anything in Jesus name and it will be given to us, if we choose to trust in God and His love for us, He can and does bring good out of any situation.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>“No matter what the circumstances are on the outside, I live with the inner revelation that Christ is always with me. He knows me, He holds me and He loves me.” </i>Mick Mooney, Phillipians</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
In every circumstance. we are faced with a choice: to either let our reality be determined by what we see, or by what we believe. Either to let our experience determine our beliefs, or to let our what we believe determine our experience. In choosing to accept the reality of who God is and who we are in Him, despite our circumstances, we align our expectations with Heaven, rather than the world. Only then will we see and experience the reality of the Kingdom in which we live and breathe and have our being.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>“Losing our illusions is painful because illusions are the stuff we live by. The Spirit is the great unmasker of illusions... God strips those falsehoods from us no matter how naked it may make us, because it it better to live naked in truth than be clothed in fantasy.”</i> Brennan Manning, Lion and Lamb</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
To live in the truth of the reality of who we are in Christ, sets us free from the illusion of the safety net we build for ourselves and the pain we experience when that illusion is unmasked, when that safety net fails. To live in the light of the truth of our adoption and in the fullness of our inheritance as sons and daughters of the Living God, in spite of our circumstances or experience, exposes us to the reality of Heaven on this earth. If we stand on this truth, hold to this truth, embrace this truth, believe this truth, I believe we really will see.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<i>"Jesus was matter-of-fact: Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, 'Go jump in the lake'—no shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it's as good as done. That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything.”</i> Mark 11:22-25 (The Message)<br />
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I cannot deny the reality of pain, suffering or hunger, any more than I can deny that gravity keeps my feet on the ground, but to deny that some things are impossible for God, that somehow my problems are too big or difficult for Him to handle, or that I am just not important enough to warrant His divine intervention into my life, is to deny the sufficiency, power and love of God in Jesus to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory.<br />
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It is at the Cross that the stark reality of brokenness, loneliness, hunger and pain is met with the sweet reality of love, healing, provision and compassion. The Cross is where we died with Him and, through His resurrection, have risen to new life in Christ. Such a life, lived to God, in this broken world but not of it, is a journey of discovery in which, as much as I may have seen or experienced thus far, there will always be much more of Him than I have ever known or experienced. And so I simply cling to the Cross, pursue His presence in intimate relationship with Papa and let Him define my reality.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mike x</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-58870973385846637032011-08-24T17:11:00.000+01:002011-08-24T17:11:37.733+01:00We're dead!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUviCyOnFQmVySJQJy-rWTCJbtyI54A7TDmAVDxT0LAdaPhSjmXac5KNN8cxPsT3YoQi_ZgDcpAflCAqimKiIrPqH4BA7Z9fo3UKoWgt_dz4q2-j65plG6tIJHJU-nf3QXEHwOn2SR3d-L/s1600/IMG_1286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUviCyOnFQmVySJQJy-rWTCJbtyI54A7TDmAVDxT0LAdaPhSjmXac5KNN8cxPsT3YoQi_ZgDcpAflCAqimKiIrPqH4BA7Z9fo3UKoWgt_dz4q2-j65plG6tIJHJU-nf3QXEHwOn2SR3d-L/s400/IMG_1286.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just over 2000 years ago we died. Nailed to the cross in perfect union with Jesus, we died a full, one-time-only death. The nails that went through His hands and feet pierced our hands and feet. He became our sin. He took our broken, fallen, depraved, futile life and an incredible exchange took place. We went into the grave with Him, we were crucified with Jesus and yet He was the one who felt the pain and anguish of our sin and brokenness. We were given a pain-free death in return for the most amazing new life. He became our sickness so we could be healthy, He became our lack so we could live in abundance, He became our depression so we could be happy, He became our sin so we could be perfect. <br />
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This is the most awesome news that we could ever be given. It is stunning, it is almost too good to be true. It blows every grid of thought and when you begin to grasp it's truth, it changes everything! <br />
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Not only did we die with Jesus, but we were also resurrected into new life with him. We came out of the grave with Him completely transformed. We were resurrected into 'kainos' life - this is a Greek word used in the New Testament when describing this new life. It means "new as to form or quality, of a different nature from what is contrasted as old". This kainos life is not an improved version of the old, but a completely new version altogether. It is superior to what existed before and actually takes the place of the old. This is the new life we were born into when we came out of the grave in perfect union with Jesus.<br />
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The Distilled Bible says:<br />
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"I consider myself having died and now I am enjoying a second existence which is simply Jesus using my body."</i> Galatians 2:20<br />
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The Mirror Bible puts it this way:<br />
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<i>"My co-crucifixion with Christ is valid! I am not making this up; in His death I died to the old system of trying to please God with my own good behaviour! God makes me alive together with Christ. The terms co-crucified and co-alive defines me now. Christ in me and I in Him."</i> Galatians 2:19-20<br />
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We have been totally set free from the law of trying to please God, of trying to be free from sin, of trying to do better. We have been given an entirely new life which is abundant in every possible way. He has done it ALL. Everything to do with our old life has been eradicated and we now live a new life where Jesus has taken full possession. We do not need to work out our salvation by trying to be better, it is a done deal, once, total, finished. We are now free to enjoy a life of co-reigning, seated in heaven and feasting on it's glory. All the joy, completeness, peace, life and fulfillment of Jesus is ours. We have become the fourth member of the Trinity merged into Jesus, represented by Jesus and we appear spotless and perfect before our Papa.<br />
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Anything we now offer based on the law of self works, of trying to please God, of trying to do better or be better are futile. We are only seen through the perfect, finished works of the Cross - this is pure grace, pure gift. 'Me' no longer has a role because it has become all about what He has done. <br />
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Francois du Toit, in his book God Believes in You, says:<br />
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<i>“The cross is a success! God is fully persuaded about us, he does not need any further proof; His concern now, is to persuade us about ourselves.”</i><br />
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Jesus believes in our innocence. He really sees us as perfect in every way. We are the ones who need convincing of this truth! Imagine the possibilities that would open up if we really did believe this, if we saw ourselves though this lens of this truth. We are now fully alive to God, in union with Jesus. We are dead to the old life and have been gifted with brand spanking new kainos life! <br />
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<i>"For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus." </i>Romans 6:10-11 (AMP)<br />
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Nicky x<br />
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</div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-65831517711533122252011-08-03T16:02:00.001+01:002011-08-03T16:07:49.761+01:00You can't improve on perfect!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">What makes Jesus death so special? It’s not simply the fact that He laid His life down for us; men have been laying their lives down for their friends on battlefields around the world for centuries. It’s not even the fact that He rose again; God has been giving life to the dead for centuries too. No, it’s the fact that He is perfect; and only the perfect sacrifice of the Son was enough to pay for the sin of the world and open the way for us to be with Him, to bring us back to Him, for His delight and pleasure.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwqzMdUnYdzNS8EUvoAafadi9nPZpt8pdVVgA8Xm4pzbGKC_G3IJYaU8FONoDXwhnd1nlfQe7H-hwJDHNAXFNq3h6owLdLNgQUbyvWtnSBXqIwOAtWPcRuyfWa0bA9aaWOIoWrb79Ry0G/s1600/shepherd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwqzMdUnYdzNS8EUvoAafadi9nPZpt8pdVVgA8Xm4pzbGKC_G3IJYaU8FONoDXwhnd1nlfQe7H-hwJDHNAXFNq3h6owLdLNgQUbyvWtnSBXqIwOAtWPcRuyfWa0bA9aaWOIoWrb79Ry0G/s320/shepherd.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was meditating on <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2040:11&version=NIV">Isaiah 40:11</a> recently where it tells us “He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.” As I did so I had a picture of being in Jesus arms as He carried me into the presence of the Father. Then, as I stood before God, I was the one carrying Jesus, the pure spotless lamb. My offering was His perfect sacrifice, the only sacrifice that’s acceptable and pleasing to Him.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204&version=NIV">Genesis 4</a> tells us the story of Cain and Abel, and God’s response to their respective offerings. <i>“In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering – fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnfXvYO3sy-hPh3VopzJYGNKQ5dDdhatGNT5uRuTnD3cbAJOTUAWE4hAmCqumE6Xy4UaVF6E8XG1HjvJtpZw13Yz04s6cs6__sfb2KVuepMOst1jRP2kw9zcV4ObTjZpwTa5HLhSW3AZQ/s1600/lamb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnfXvYO3sy-hPh3VopzJYGNKQ5dDdhatGNT5uRuTnD3cbAJOTUAWE4hAmCqumE6Xy4UaVF6E8XG1HjvJtpZw13Yz04s6cs6__sfb2KVuepMOst1jRP2kw9zcV4ObTjZpwTa5HLhSW3AZQ/s320/lamb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Abel’s offering was a shadow of the firstborn lamb, a picture of Jesus’ sacrifice, and God was pleased with it. Cain’s offering was of the work of his hands; by his own efforts he tried to please God, but God would not even look upon it. And so it is for us; Jesus is the only sacrifice which is acceptable to God. In fact. He will not even look at our own efforts – whatever we do, we can in no way add to the salvation we have in Jesus.<br />
<br />
This got me thinking too, about <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2024&version=NIV">Psalm 24</a> where it says <i>“Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”</i> I figure Cain’s hands would have been dirty as he worked the soil in his effort to produce an offering for God. Yet for all his endeavors, his offering was not acceptable.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS8nt8UA6zFO27H8repySHuxyKiHNGMHQH2QEnKBeWWxxMoHidpWCTUScBUFNpL7YwQ79Z3GEWffmp9hCpRH5BzgL1MtlhLv43CWRtTY0SV7NbkJk1BgLYfq3HnCAALD72OXgoIaZc7v7/s1600/dirty-hands.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS8nt8UA6zFO27H8repySHuxyKiHNGMHQH2QEnKBeWWxxMoHidpWCTUScBUFNpL7YwQ79Z3GEWffmp9hCpRH5BzgL1MtlhLv43CWRtTY0SV7NbkJk1BgLYfq3HnCAALD72OXgoIaZc7v7/s320/dirty-hands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It’s the same for us. Only the perfect sacrifice of Jesus is pleasing and acceptable to God. Only when we stand before Him with the pure spotless lamb as our offering does He look upon us with favour. The wonderfully GOOD news is that Jesus has done it all, ‘it if finished’. We have clean hands and a pure heart, sprinkled with His precious blood and made new in every way, so we can stand in the holy place of His presence, where Papa want’s us.</span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anything else just makes our hands dirty!<br />
<br />
<i>“From eternity, the Father placed the responsibility of making us holy and blameless, and of bringing us before Him, into the hands of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”</i> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.perichoresis.org/">C. Baxter Kruger</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mike x</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-24370867998159127232011-07-29T22:36:00.001+01:002011-07-30T01:22:37.375+01:00In Him we live and move and have our being.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbsnOIROegMADRXo7mXxu6EikBJnSKR7PvA3z-67Cand43ow6S0b0G4cjrXK3xu-svv8i3PlTradnCDpjyCcF-tx6txuZWKhSJjPfx8MguV_2EfsbEHrBsu1hOHcseeRNXevXV7A0x-xH/s400/deepspace.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I walk up to where He sits, bathed in glorious light that radiates a thousand different colours which hide His frame. The nearer I get to the throne, the more my heart is consumed in love, fountains of overflowing love, a love that has been towards me for eternity's past and envelops me in completeness. He reaches arms out to me and pulls me up onto His lap. Papa. My Papa. He holds me close and I burrow my head into his neck and breathe deep long breaths aware of nothing but this moment. We stay awhile in this place, there is no other thought in me but Him, and He keeps pouring His heart into mine as if we are blending, in mystical union, I am caught up in the Trinity, three become four in this dance of love.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPBVt8CA5c-NZNY3ykkGFe8T3YZXPoB6E7V6wo_kZ5rRNi-AoLMGK1Bq5vC1OF2iNuLRiGYVwaMyoT3i03oujf_NSiZsYuGTXaEfnGtOs32GnDQwSlA92WR0WVOLWheJ20y8Q9ZNUsdk0/s400/Space.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I then become aware of a tugging, a pull. I am being drawn in even deeper, I am being pulled into His very being. There is a tunnel of darkness and then I am released into vast galaxies. I float as if in space and yet this is different. I know I am inside the Father, I have been drawn into the depths of Him. I have no control over my body, I am carried along by his very heartbeat. Even the space is filled with love. Love is everywhere, in everything. As his heart beats, colours pulsate all around, they explode and then diminish and no sooner does one beat end than another starts. The rhythm is so constant, so reassuring and I realise that this rhythm holds every planet, every ocean, every part of humanity in its place. I know that within this vast expanse of my Papa is every kingdom and nation, every created being, everything to which he has given breath. Each one perfectly and wholly known and loved with immeasurable, wild, intoxicating love. Not one is out of His thoughts or vision.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-bgSxaLGHLewQMfp6qk8WWa5vseNLXY_jiYotoQSSUN32EOW5RE0Mz8y2izLv683Bi3wm2CIqix_tQB8RARRCY2CK9_3J458eSgrsE139dLwmUjrfmHJIzAQHRVoY-5WC3Z242v4ltAE/s400/Hubble.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The love within Him is too powerful to describe, too expansive to contain and yet all are contained easily within. Within these vast oceans of His being are clusters of incredible light and colour, alive with glory, all shapes and sizes and dimensions. I am pulled into brilliant white and held within this comet of love. I am shot out to be consumed by a massive sphere of brilliant orange burning with fire. Jealous fire burns around me and yet I am unharmed. Next a whole ocean of milky blue, translucent, moving like tides. I enter and know a peace I have never experienced before. I feel like I am exploring facets of my Papa's heart and personality and this process is transforming me. I know I belong here and, even better, I know I never have to leave. I know too that there are many more contained within Him. It’s here that we live and move and have our being. All things flow from this place of perfection. It’s here that we are held together. It’s here that our days are written before one of them comes into existence. There is no place for fear here, only the perfect, safe wonderful love of the Father. He is in control, He does it all, He directs the course of my life and each one of my days.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Papa, I don't want to leave this place".</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Beloved, you don't have to".</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nicky xxx</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2014:20&version=NIV">John 14:20</a><br />
<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2017:24-28&version=NIV">Acts 17:24-28</a></b></span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-85313647998374135042011-07-01T21:22:00.000+01:002011-07-01T21:22:46.614+01:00The three R's<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When we first meet them on our travels, many people ask us “What’s your journey all about?” or words to that effect.<br />
<br />
At first, we would just look at each other and reply with something along the lines of “We’re on a pilgrimage.”<br />
<br />
That sort of sums it up but it’s pretty unhelpful huh?!<br />
<br />
Two months in to our trip, it feels like things are becoming a little clearer. It’s not that our desires have changed - we are still passionate about His Presence, we still simply want to follow the leadings of Holy Spirit, we still yearn to encounter Jesus face to face - but God’s plans for us on this journey are slowly becoming apparent.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsr9Q61CS6L9y5MBr8PFNlUdF5EcKeRoECMhRMYHXZX7CI18yzIUpivJW7n80hwlc5YPFWsW8znjgJw6qXwx9qqP9nlYXLjfx_L6z6dogIlyW3gv6xcDxxqZ0YUYrKG3A_EIliz8hIzCTE/s1600/Gorilla.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsr9Q61CS6L9y5MBr8PFNlUdF5EcKeRoECMhRMYHXZX7CI18yzIUpivJW7n80hwlc5YPFWsW8znjgJw6qXwx9qqP9nlYXLjfx_L6z6dogIlyW3gv6xcDxxqZ0YUYrKG3A_EIliz8hIzCTE/s400/Gorilla.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Rest</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
“What? More rest!” I can almost hear you exclaim. “But you haven’t worked for the past three years!”<br />
<br />
That’s true, but it’s not that kind of rest we are discovering, and besides the response we would get during those three years when we went to Papa to ask if I should get a job was always a resounding “No!”<br />
<br />
Anyway, I digress.<br />
<br />
No, the rest we are learning is the rest that comes only in a place where we totally trust Him. You see, trust with any hint of doubt, any drop of anxiety, any shadow of fear is not really trust at all.<br />
<br />
If we say we trust God, but harbour doubts about His goodness or ours for that matter; or worry about having nothing in the bank account or even our pockets; or are scared by the thought of not knowing what comes tomorrow, let alone next month or next year, is that really trusting?<br />
<br />
It is only when we come to that place where our trust is absolute, or ‘ruthless’ as Brennan Manning would have it, that we truly find rest. That’s the place where we are learning to abide. It’s not that we’re there every minute of every day, but it’s the place we keep coming back to, the place where He keeps gently leading us.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfkEURi0tvarrGltloR3ItlUbOrFolE11W-vJdxze3Ek6LBqBS0Pdi_JG4HDO5ZOFVxKmWoJ5rF5yF9XstvhAIzK1gGVMHy-ZFu4G9n0NA-mpMpOFNSizXvnjl-roW5QEuP4F_SMoOjL2/s1600/leaf_veins.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfkEURi0tvarrGltloR3ItlUbOrFolE11W-vJdxze3Ek6LBqBS0Pdi_JG4HDO5ZOFVxKmWoJ5rF5yF9XstvhAIzK1gGVMHy-ZFu4G9n0NA-mpMpOFNSizXvnjl-roW5QEuP4F_SMoOjL2/s400/leaf_veins.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Reticulated</b><br />
<br />
For the past few years I have had the joy of God using words to speak to me in my dreams. I’ve rarely heard of the words He gives me, if at all, and I never, ever know what they mean! In fact, I always have to look them up in a dictionary before I know what He’s saying. Cool huh? <br />
<br />
So, the day before we boarded the plane to Canada, I had a dream. And I had a new word. Reticulated. And here’s what I found when I looked it up on-line:<br />
<br />
re·tic·u·late<br />
1. netted; covered with a network.<br />
2. netlike.<br />
3. having veins or nerves disposed like the threads of a net, or a leaf.<br />
4. to form into a network.<br />
to cover or mark with a network.<br />
<br />
It seems God was telling us He was weaving us into a network, plugging us in, getting us connected. And it was only a matter of minutes before He started doing just that. Well actually, as it turns out, He started doing it 20 years ago!<br />
<br />
Back then, a couple came from California with a group to visit a church in London, where they met Nic. To cut a long story short, Nic ended up visiting this couple later that year at their home in California.<br />
<br />
Cut back to the day I had the dream, and that same morning Nic had been listening to a Bill Johnson podcast whilst out on her run. Bill Johnson is the pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, the destination at the very top of our list of places to visit on our trip.<br />
<br />
Now you have to know that Bill never mentions names in his talks. But this morning, what does he do? He mentions the name of a couple who have been attending the church for over 50 years. Yup, you guessed it! It was the very same couple who Nic had met all those years ago.<br />
<br />
I know, this was supposed to be the short version of the story, sorry!<br />
<br />
Anyway, we find them on Facebook, they are delighted to hear from us and now we are going to be staying with them when we visit Bethel Church in September. But that’s not all, because it turns out that they are connected right into the heart of the church, to Bill himself - they are in fact his in-laws! How cool is that?!<br />
<br />
And this is a story that has repeated itself over again on our journey. We are being reticulated, plugged in to a network, connected in at the very heart.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzt_FQnFgd6sLRNgbrzP3PuSjHz31lpTTGUi5EX2WowWk9RI7UNp3ryHZTh_MxetdyU4zziMLxVHF1Oq3-SIOG8yxBqaO9m_8lMMDYJWg9rkdrQJc8UGcEoWzJRSuHPqZgLefXCzG70z5D/s1600/retro+specs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzt_FQnFgd6sLRNgbrzP3PuSjHz31lpTTGUi5EX2WowWk9RI7UNp3ryHZTh_MxetdyU4zziMLxVHF1Oq3-SIOG8yxBqaO9m_8lMMDYJWg9rkdrQJc8UGcEoWzJRSuHPqZgLefXCzG70z5D/s400/retro+specs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Retro Specs</b><br />
<br />
Another night. Another dream.<br />
<br />
And this time it wasn’t a new word I was given, but a new take on an old one.<br />
<br />
In the dream, I was given a pair of glasses, or ‘retro-specs’ as the person giving them to me called them, and was told to put them on.<br />
<br />
God was telling us that we might not be able to see or understand the real purpose for our trip while we are still journeying, but that in ‘retro-specs’ (retrospect) as we look back all will become clear.<br />
<br />
So now, when we are asked what our journey is all about, we can respond with a little more certainty. We can tell them it’s about trusting, that we are being connected into a network, and that all will become clear when we look back in weeks, months or even years from now.</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-72837574541542281072011-06-22T20:33:00.004+01:002011-06-22T21:48:24.891+01:00A journey of ruthless trust<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_E6KumE2jN8VLjwpxQTdS3YCmfbK-quLwGRJrR9x5Ox6dlnTACel7-dptwdfRvgAeQHncQhbxrX0rzj0SgfrsC9HIgA_i5ptONP_g6NAvnoEXuNhaSaU0lY9GOSMURRJxAMdvMIsn5RZ/s1600/IMG_1630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_E6KumE2jN8VLjwpxQTdS3YCmfbK-quLwGRJrR9x5Ox6dlnTACel7-dptwdfRvgAeQHncQhbxrX0rzj0SgfrsC9HIgA_i5ptONP_g6NAvnoEXuNhaSaU0lY9GOSMURRJxAMdvMIsn5RZ/s400/IMG_1630.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Mrs P with Robert & Susan Young and some of their delightful family</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So... we arrived in Harrisburg PA, to stay with more new friends in John & Magy Comeaux and their wonderful family, in expectation of encountering Jesus at the Zoe conference at <a href="http://www.lcmi.org/">Life Center</a>. Apart from a night with food poisoning from a good ol' American diner, our expectations were met and more besides. Georgian & Winnie Banov were hosting the event, with Benjamin & Stephanie Dunn, and teaching us the gospel according to Paul! This is a message we've been ravenously devouring for the past couple of years, and it's a very different gospel to the one we've heard for most of our Christian lives! It was so good to hear it again from such joy-filled people who are truly living in the fullness of life that the gospel promises. This pure, non-religious, non-churched message is so incredibly liberating and life giving. It is simple and completely effortless, and awakens the senses to such joy, peace and intoxication – far too good to be true! We recommend reading the Happy Gospel by Benjamin Dunn, or listening to his podcasts on <a href="http://www.joyrevolution.com/">www.joyrevolution.com</a> to find out more :)</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvEAb-ePmmjO3xBNJxum_qhaeNTsECPF25Ja5SoEwZapIRjDDy4LGFndL0fs-Vuqc4s6rD4Ah-Uc5eujZ4hb4fotX9vkTa_GV1Q3_HwrwwM-qtkeJBNLi7U5_PQADZ48TwVRJbyIFn6ZG/s1600/IMG_1760.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvEAb-ePmmjO3xBNJxum_qhaeNTsECPF25Ja5SoEwZapIRjDDy4LGFndL0fs-Vuqc4s6rD4Ah-Uc5eujZ4hb4fotX9vkTa_GV1Q3_HwrwwM-qtkeJBNLi7U5_PQADZ48TwVRJbyIFn6ZG/s640/IMG_1760.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>At Radnor Lake, Franklin, TN we saw this and many other deer,</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>including the cutest little fawn with its mother - wonderful!</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We enjoyed Life Center church on Sunday morning, including lights and smoke machines during worship – great fun! Then on Monday we drove 13 hours through beautiful countryside to be re-united with our long-term and special friends Chris & Laura Dupre in Franklin, TN. How wonderful to be with them again. We've enjoyed hanging here with them for a couple of weeks, during which Mike has also made the long trip to Texas and back, to visit his friend Blain, who he first met at a Wild at Heart Boot Camp in Colorado a couple of years ago. He had a great time and we hope to visit there together before the end of our trip.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-H3RjJBfiJnBaQDuffnrmGaqTOa3qgq91Benat_nhKnvUFezHMuN9qP9D8C4kur61h7S0glLBvxT1N2CYG1WNH-80RMb8kkNEBdlMR0DvUCspPUNJM3M6GjoZ7q6K2qFEVwzBepWQLvIe/s1600/IMG_1819.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-H3RjJBfiJnBaQDuffnrmGaqTOa3qgq91Benat_nhKnvUFezHMuN9qP9D8C4kur61h7S0glLBvxT1N2CYG1WNH-80RMb8kkNEBdlMR0DvUCspPUNJM3M6GjoZ7q6K2qFEVwzBepWQLvIe/s640/IMG_1819.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Blain & Doris Eubank's ranch, Canadian, Texas</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">On Tuesday this week we head off again, to North Carolina, staying with friends Chris & Amy that we met in Harrisburg, and for a few days at Amy's mother's lodge at <a href="http://www.moravianfalls.info/">Moravian Falls</a>, on the mountain renowned for its angelic activity! From there we go back to Stroudsburg, PA to be with Robert & Susan again, and hang out at <a href="http://www.alabasterboxworship.com/">The Alabaster Box</a>, before driving to Toronto to begin a 3 week Leadership School of Ministry at <a href="http://www.ctftoronto.com/">Catch the Fire</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VdmnAfR-jx3EPdwpJdoBxu6xF6kYTw_NfLjQLgEI42toCfKrd0bAPmF28GURDQs1_EIqFKbcFvEo2PDMAykFLNAmiunU3aDLuu3OQ6VOGaNMKngKDBQcRHH3D1-JM6rOYi7u5h_r0NQh/s1600/IMG_1634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VdmnAfR-jx3EPdwpJdoBxu6xF6kYTw_NfLjQLgEI42toCfKrd0bAPmF28GURDQs1_EIqFKbcFvEo2PDMAykFLNAmiunU3aDLuu3OQ6VOGaNMKngKDBQcRHH3D1-JM6rOYi7u5h_r0NQh/s640/IMG_1634.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> The Alabaster Box on Main in Stroudsburg, PA</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">(For the 80's music lovers among you,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">notice The Blue Oyster Cult playing at the theatre next door!!)</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Our trip continues to be a journey of ruthless trust, which at times is proving very uncomfortable. We are challenged daily to act as if the Bible is really true – well duh, of course it's true we hear you say! But I realise how many times I have read Matthew 6, where I am commanded not to worry, that all my needs will be taken care of, only to find myself anxious that there will not be enough; or that though Jesus healed every sickness on the cross, I am battling illness; or that I have been given life in all its fullness and through the cross have been given joy in every circumstance, only to find that I am feeling blue and life-less. We feel such a hunger to believe all that the Bible says and all that Jesus has freely given, and we know we need to be ruthless in this belief.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The other day I decided to change my watch from my left wrist to my right – it felt alien and strange, and I kept looking at my empty wrist to tell the time! Well, this journey feels a little like that – it's a huge renewing of the mind, transforming us to believe the true gospel, the gospel Paul preached, and to live as he did. It feels uncomfortable, odd, but in time, as we keep believing and acting as if the Bible is absolutely true, it starts to feel natural. Out of habit I'm still putting my watch on my left wrist, only to realise what I've done half way through the day, and I still don't really like how it feels on the other wrist, but if I stick with it, it will feel like its always been there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I think about changing my watch over, and feel like it was a prophetic act of something God is wanting to do with all of us. He is bringing so many out of the grip of religious, 'churchianity' and leading us to drink in the 'bliss of realisation' of the true gospel. He is bringing more and more into amazing encounters with Him and His Kingdom. He is opening eyes to heaven and all that it contains. There is a generation emerging of wild lovers who are not concerned with the worlds ways, but only His. Yes, it may feel uncomfortable, but I am convinced it is His invitation which is being extended to all. Through the cross we are in union with Jesus, merged with Him. We areh in Him, He is in us. Heaven is in Him, and so we are in Heaven. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20). As we believe this incredible truth, things dramatically change, we get drunk on the grace of His love and all things become possible. This is how I want to live even when, like today, it feels uncomfortable and my faith is blind. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We still don't know where this American odyssey is leading, but we do believe Papa is right here in the midst of it, guiding our steps, providing for our needs and increasing our joy every day. We miss friends and family and are so grateful for those that journey with us in spirit. We are convinced that there is more for all of us than we could ever dream possible, and if we only believe, that we will live lives beyond all imagining.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Much love.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nicky xxx</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1Franklin, TN, USA35.9250637 -86.868889935.8489847 -86.9690104 36.0011427 -86.7687694tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-80455864405713897202011-05-31T22:26:00.001+01:002011-06-11T14:54:46.934+01:00The journey so far...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVetg7yZFBN9JXIEDYCol7O9p8BNLqB8tEqpztroR8-G9Jdc0-dXo-VM4BN_KsdC9lvvFh2gHVaRSnwtUOi6DXIubVYP13eoiTSW0NpIeA6h356UlZ94IAsyrf432WyVexkuaR-ePHgfo/s1600/DPP07DB0509162301+Effect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVetg7yZFBN9JXIEDYCol7O9p8BNLqB8tEqpztroR8-G9Jdc0-dXo-VM4BN_KsdC9lvvFh2gHVaRSnwtUOi6DXIubVYP13eoiTSW0NpIeA6h356UlZ94IAsyrf432WyVexkuaR-ePHgfo/s320/DPP07DB0509162301+Effect.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><style type="text/css">
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</style> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>St Stephen, New Brunswick </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">We are sitting on the porch like a couple of good ol' timers writing this blog. You don't feel like doing much else in the 90 degree heat, though we did punish ourselves with a run this morning. I don't think we've ever sweated so much before! We can't complain though, as our trip started very differently...</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">...after a wonderful few days in Germany, where we met and made some precious new friends, and encountered God in amazing ways, we spent a few days back in London, before catching a flight to North America, where we will be until the end of October (at least!!). We drove from Toronto to be with our friends Jeremy and Rachael Barham in St Stephen, New Brunswick – that much we knew when we left the UK, beyond here though, things were very sketchy!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">After two wet and cold weeks in St Stephen, where we were thoroughly spoiled by Jeremy and Rachael, we did intend to head West across to the other side of Canada, the second largest country in the world, though it has to be said, neither of us were relishing the thought of driving over 1,000 miles a week across to Vancouver and back again! This had been our plan as we understood that we could only enter the USA for a period of 90 days before we would have to return to the UK. St Stephen is a border town and a discussion with a local border guard (a Top Gear fan!) soon put us straight.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">In fact, we are able to enter the USA for a number of 90 day periods, we just have to leave the USA before the end of each period, before returning again for another 90 days. So, two stamps in our passports and several Top Gear stories later, we were free to enter the United States, which we could see so tantalisingly close across the river running through St Stephen. So we were less than two weeks into our trip and already our plans had changed!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XO4NKcEcIuKAKJSMQQ1xd03_vgQRkrSrkdSCmoXctNxu_2ZArHJP_fKW21lKPpM_FDGne3n9w2dVkL3S9JGpWlvZhqC1oTlUP6SnmbOVQsdUsR8MyFXh3M-v9SHxXfk99lUaFqnk0lr8/s1600/IMG_1260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XO4NKcEcIuKAKJSMQQ1xd03_vgQRkrSrkdSCmoXctNxu_2ZArHJP_fKW21lKPpM_FDGne3n9w2dVkL3S9JGpWlvZhqC1oTlUP6SnmbOVQsdUsR8MyFXh3M-v9SHxXfk99lUaFqnk0lr8/s320/IMG_1260.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b>Ben & Jerry's, Waterbury, Vermont</b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">We bid farewell to the Barhams and headed across Maine to Montreal (yes, we know it's in Canada) to stay for a few days with the leaders of the Vineyard church there. We spent two days exploring the city and meeting some lovely people from the church, before crossing the border once again into Vermont. We wound our way through beautiful countryside towards Boston, stopping at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory for a tour and to sample their latest flavour – which included clusters of chocolate covered, salted potato crisps. Bizarre!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibWTcC_l7t56U1xFX3gXE_NDimmvNmm43i0okdzzIqgULSjGd3sgi8RTiDH453EJNjZid_RzuoTyrfNa8lD_ZWH6Nzqb5NeNHJV5BgFFzIdfHexMpIumPu3ueZuJKof8txY6m6JV8WrBY/s1600/IMG_1285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibWTcC_l7t56U1xFX3gXE_NDimmvNmm43i0okdzzIqgULSjGd3sgi8RTiDH453EJNjZid_RzuoTyrfNa8lD_ZWH6Nzqb5NeNHJV5BgFFzIdfHexMpIumPu3ueZuJKof8txY6m6JV8WrBY/s320/IMG_1285.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b>Walking the Freedon Trail in Boston</b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">We loved the relaxed atmosphere, friendly people and architecture of Boston, where we walked the Freedom Trail and visited Harvard University. Then we followed the One down the east coast to New York, stopping for a picnic lunch on Charlestown's delightful sandy beach. Some more new friends put us up in their upper west side Manhattan apartment, giving us the opportunity to explore the crazy city that is the Big Apple. Our aching legs, the island's subway and the famous ferry carried us to Staten Island, The High Line, Times Square, Central Park, Chelsea, Soho, The World Trade Center (where rebuilding is well underway) and many of the cities Starbucks!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47NC1zOwpon0zNcQKilT2E2jRPlpe-naaD_Z8ZesTGeLDtMxdZEq2g88vFLwEoKryCHZap7r4tIW3oYZRb8ADH_SddANAsDVd_8N-1jjaaN_sUG0ZENOf9K6OeAiEhL8a2uTEyRJhv3jo/s1600/IMG_1421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47NC1zOwpon0zNcQKilT2E2jRPlpe-naaD_Z8ZesTGeLDtMxdZEq2g88vFLwEoKryCHZap7r4tIW3oYZRb8ADH_SddANAsDVd_8N-1jjaaN_sUG0ZENOf9K6OeAiEhL8a2uTEyRJhv3jo/s320/IMG_1421.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b>Times Square is an assualt on your senses</b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">As much as we enjoyed the sights, we were pleased to leave the tourist trail behind as we headed west into Pennsylvania, to spend a few days with even more new friends in Stroundsburg, enjoying the peace and abundant wildlife as we sit on the porch like a couple of good ol' timers. We love it here with Robert and Susan Young and their family, the pioneers of The Alabaster Box – a house of prayer, worship and creative arts, that is reaching out the community from its base on Main St. See <a href="http://www.alabasterboxworship.com/">http://www.alabasterboxworship.com/</a> for more!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, where do we go from here? Well, next we're off to Harrisburg, for a Zoe Conference hosted by Georgian & Winnie Banov and Ben & Stephanie Dunn, at The Life Center <a href="http://www.lcmi.org/">http://www.lcmi.org/</a>, which we are really looking forward to. After that, we travel to Franklin, Tennessee to be with our friends Chris & Laura, who we are very excited to be seeing again. Beyond that, we're attending the three week Leadership School of Ministry at Catch The Fire in Toronto in July <a href="http://www.ctftoronto.com/">http://www.ctftoronto.com/</a>. And after that? God only knows!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's our physical journey so far, but what has our spiritual journey looked like? We believe that the connections we are making with people are significant ones, though quite why may not be immediately apparent. It's also a continuing journey of trust, not just for His provision for us, but that we are in His will, even though things don't always look as we expect. We also believe that in Retro Specs, we will see His hand and purposes clearly.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's all for now folks. We won't wait so long before we write the next one!</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Much love,</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mike & Nicky xxx</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-74618002561567059722011-05-03T19:57:00.000+01:002011-05-03T19:57:35.664+01:00On the eve of departure<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> <style type="text/css">
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</style> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKKAcTPUWv2uJwAOGnD3nY8koT8BzXwttl54VQ8L9WaOEBVWlTL7Vve9J6aLz9_P7pMPFCanEFkfYTGq36pYERZl4nzyzFMqYYHgmXVoAE7OAjiOa8ekOQfq3In8Ck2yFAsbCqjgZTcdJK/s1600/210349_10150228627582082_701347081_8413781_3158918_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKKAcTPUWv2uJwAOGnD3nY8koT8BzXwttl54VQ8L9WaOEBVWlTL7Vve9J6aLz9_P7pMPFCanEFkfYTGq36pYERZl4nzyzFMqYYHgmXVoAE7OAjiOa8ekOQfq3In8Ck2yFAsbCqjgZTcdJK/s320/210349_10150228627582082_701347081_8413781_3158918_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's the eve of our departure to Canada, the day we thought would never come. Bags packed (travelling light amazingly!), tickets booked, old friends waiting, new friends to be made. It is another step along the unknown path. This journey of daily trust, daily surrender, leaning on Jesus. Only He knows what lies ahead and the treasures He has waiting for us to find. My heart is settled having come through a wobble when the house actually sold and I feel ready for the next step in this adventure. Papa has shown Himself faithful over and over and He will not divert from His promises. He will remain true to His word and faithful to His plans. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Already the journey is unexpected. We were in Germany last week – a last minute invitation to get involved with a conference in Duisburg near Dussledorf. We had the time of our lives. The conference was wild - a riot of Holy Spirit drunkenness and masses of fun! The cloud of His presence was strong and many were touched deeply. Salvations and healings broke out on the streets as the glory of heaven invaded and many were hijacked by love. We met incredible people – amazing that on Monday you don't know someone and by Friday you love them! Papa met with us too with deeper revelation of His love, with words of encouragement for what is to come, through prophecy. Truly loved up by the God who loves like no other.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlTLsOpDp5uRIMqvh1FkJ2G9eGQNYy1aCUUwqMJpGkZVjaUljHUT4ZzLTMCAQeKkQI7D1Yt2JzX2q-CpjObPC9nBqoLRJWUyWzTzsVzo_jthjxa42VBytnM4YJAVW1kYFA4mxrezKfk5v/s1600/202009_10150228628687082_701347081_8413786_1660010_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlTLsOpDp5uRIMqvh1FkJ2G9eGQNYy1aCUUwqMJpGkZVjaUljHUT4ZzLTMCAQeKkQI7D1Yt2JzX2q-CpjObPC9nBqoLRJWUyWzTzsVzo_jthjxa42VBytnM4YJAVW1kYFA4mxrezKfk5v/s320/202009_10150228628687082_701347081_8413786_1660010_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had a vision of Jesus the lion standing in front of me roaring and as He did my skin was blown off – shedding the old to reveal the new. The next day we found ourselves called to the front with a handful of other couples receiving a word about our old mantles being taken off and new ones being put on. We were not to look back but to live in the new. Great preparation at the start of this new adventure :) We fell in love with Germany – the place and the people and we hope to return.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next step Canada for 3 months and then into America in August. Not what we had planned. Again I discover that my plans and expectations need a constant willingness to surrender to His and I love it. I have a fierce hunger growing in me to be resolute in my trust, resolute with my gaze, to have nothing but Jesus and to follow no-one but Him. I am more aware than ever that just a little leaven affects the whole loaf. I either trust wholly or I am not trusting. It may look ridiculous to the world and even to the church it could appear utterly foolish, but I don't care! For this is the path I choose and I want to walk further along it. I want to get completely lost on it, go so deep that I don't find my way back to normal or comfortable.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I know this is His path and we are all invited onto it whether we are travelling, working or raising children. This unknown path is beyond beautiful. It is fragranced with heaven itself , it is lined with angelic presence, it is made of the colours of the Kingdom and there are daily treasures to be found. Joy is common on this path – a joy that pervades any circumstance and can laugh in any adversity. And those that travel it are true companions – those that love deeply and wildly and cheer you along at every step! </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">So bring it on! Deeper I am pulled into the heart of love. Not a work of my own doing, but of grace. The grace to trust, the grace to lean, the grace that calls me His. We have no idea what is to come but we go willingly and excitedly because He is good and totally trustworthy.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nicky xxx </span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-34069890764896274012011-04-14T00:35:00.001+01:002011-04-14T00:38:55.956+01:00And so it begins...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AQcct8mQrAkq_m164kOWgim1BuD-Z3NNIXk1SohpinkWfvr4jRItHGRYt_-LAEieKhXqvY0tSg2Szh6W-_yCzK8hJorRsrMfUn8VOaPi0YdKdvs2rA6s8xKZ5vVcZdBXNIHA1gHM73Go/s1600/IMG_2539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AQcct8mQrAkq_m164kOWgim1BuD-Z3NNIXk1SohpinkWfvr4jRItHGRYt_-LAEieKhXqvY0tSg2Szh6W-_yCzK8hJorRsrMfUn8VOaPi0YdKdvs2rA6s8xKZ5vVcZdBXNIHA1gHM73Go/s400/IMG_2539.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><style type="text/css">
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<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, the house has sold, our possessions are scattered to the four corners of Devon, and we have finally set out on this magical mystery tour with nothing but our suitcases and a burning desire to follow Him. “Where are we going?”, “Why are we going?” and “What are we hoping to find when we 'get there'?” are all questions we have asked ourselves, almost as many times as we ourselves have been asked.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, there's no mystery in the first answer, at least not for now – after short trips to Scotland and Germany, we will be heading off in May to North America for six months or so. What comes after that, we're hoping will become clearer nearer the time! As to why we are going and what we're hoping to find, I could tell you we're on a pilgrimage, which we are, but perhaps it would be best to illustrate what I mean using Exodus 33 which continues to have real significance for us.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.8 “And whenever Moses went out to the tent (of meeting with the Lord), all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">We have a real sense that we too are being 'watched', that this journey isn't just for us, but somehow it's also for those watching on. We really appreciate the love, support and encouragement we've received from every one of you, and believe that, although we are the ones doing the travelling, you are very much with us.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2485"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.11 “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">John 15:15 tells us that <i>“I no longer call you servants ... Instead I have called you friends...”</i>. Now I cannot claim to have spoken face-to-face with God as Moses did (yet), but I am His friend – He has chosen me, and He desires my company and companionship as much as I desire His. Relationship with God is what Jesus died for, and relationship with Him is what we live for. (Romans 6:10)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2487"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.13 “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you.” </i></span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2488"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;">In the intimacy of relationship with Him we want to know Him - not simply to know about Him, but to understand His nature, to discern His heart, to know His will, to experience the friendship of one who is closer than a brother, and live in the favour of His unceasing love. Teaching in this context is not about sitting in a classroom or reading books, but spending time with Him, learning by living in His Presence so that, just as Jesus did, we can do what we see Him doing. (John 6:19)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.14 “The Lord replied, 'I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.'” (TLB)</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">God is coming with us! I believe His promise to Moses is as relevant for us today as it was for Moses then. This promise of His Presence provides such relief, such confidence, such hope in the rest that comes with trusting Him completely, absolutely, entirely. If our journey thus far has been about anything, it has been about learning to trust Him, whatever each day may bring. (Psalm 91)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2489"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2490"></a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.15-16 “Then Moses said to him, 'If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?.'” </i></span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is our prayer too. We want to remain in His Presence, to be led by the Holy Spirit each and every day. We recognise that this will not always look like we are making obvious or even sensible choices, but we want to be enslaved, willingly, to His will, and free from having to conform to the world. Our desire is that we might have ears to hear Him and the strength and courage that accrues with the knowledge of His abiding Presence. (Joshua 1:9)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2492"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.18 “Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory.'”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most of us, perhaps, would be satisfied with God's promise of friendship, favour and rest - and these are indeed wonderful things. For Moses, however, that was not enough. What Moses sought, what we are seeking is an encounter with God, to see Him in all His glory. King Saul, having been anointed by Samuel, had such an encounter with God:</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>1 Samuel 10:6-7 “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you … and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is our deepest desire to experience such an encounter ourselves – a spirit-empowering, life-changing encounter with the Living God. We are in pursuit of the promise that Jesus himself gives us in John 14:21. Following his encounter, Saul was released into his destiny, and it is our destiny, our assignment that we long to be revealed and empowered to fulfil.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2493"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>v.19 “And the LORD said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.'”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">When God reveals Himself to Moses, it is in the glory of His goodness. It's our desire that His goodness is revealed in and through our own lives, to His everlasting glory. My heart has long held a passion to make a difference, a real and lasting difference in the world and in the lives of His beloved children, be they lost or found. I can't do this by my own might or power, but only by the Holy Spirit in me. (John 15:16)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">After his encounter with God, Moses obeys His command to chisel out two more stone tablets to replace the ones he had broken, then to present himself before God on Mount Sinai. Here God makes a covenant with him:</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7078792080549327197&postID=3406989076489627401" name="en-NIV-2507"></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Exodus 34:10 “Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">This promise is our inheritance too, but now it's through us that he chooses to reveal signs and wonders that point to the one true and living God; miracles that make a real and lasting difference to people's lives; and awesome works that reveal His compassion, love and faithfulness in all the nations of the world. The kingdom of God is at hand - and we long for it to be revealed here on earth in our lives. (John 14:12-14)</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Watch this space...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Mike </span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-40055099154241516962011-03-18T18:58:00.000+00:002011-03-18T18:58:09.075+00:00True rest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFL-ih_vhXVquMwEIJvYUjlc_ddMsDM2xptWad3A1WANk32pZKqyGh_eRNgbIrfIHOQsxIU1NDys8JVY2r_fEADRv28ubAk6jXIAKsrQ_KpRl8j_UvItpfOPxb9a3kT78N177fnuKHErKW/s1600/0044+Lighthouse+Bed+Close+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFL-ih_vhXVquMwEIJvYUjlc_ddMsDM2xptWad3A1WANk32pZKqyGh_eRNgbIrfIHOQsxIU1NDys8JVY2r_fEADRv28ubAk6jXIAKsrQ_KpRl8j_UvItpfOPxb9a3kT78N177fnuKHErKW/s320/0044+Lighthouse+Bed+Close+up.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> </div>I have suffered with insomnia for many years and come to accept tiredness as the norm. I've pretty much just got on with life, managing things around my lack of sleep. In the past few weeks however, my lack of sleep has taken on a whole new dimension - with night after night of as little as 2 hours sleep. As a result I got myself into a bit of a tiz! Another way to describe a bit of a tiz is fear, anxiety, what if? In desperation I facebooked friends to ask for prayer. <div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">That same morning Papa de-tizzed me! A couple of friends had responded to my request with a gentle reminder of rest. Not simply the physical rest of doing little, but the wonderful, addictive, intoxicating rest that comes through the finished work of the cross. The deep rest that comes from trusting Jesus and all that He has given. Jesus has finished it, completed the work – He has given me everything in fullness.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">My inheritance is wildly rich and contains way more than I could ever need or want. I can rest in in the truth that He has already given it, done it all to me and for me. What a relief, what a deep satisfying sigh this brings to my being! The fullness has been given. Even my ability to believe it and see it manifest in my life is up to Him. He is the one who renews my mind and transforms me to believe. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">During the de-tizzing process, another gentle invitation came “beloved, do you trust me?” This question, as it always does when it comes, hits somewhere deep within me, it hits the fear and I realise that in this place I have walked out from under the finished work of the cross, I have stopped believing that He has done it all and given all. The thing is, it's very difficult to rest without trust! What peace then, my decision to trust Him in this brings, another deep sigh, phew! He has it all covered, completely and utterly sorted. I know this affliction will end because my inheritance is deep, restorative sleep. As I wait though, to experience healing, there are great treasures in this darkness and He will see to it that I find them. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I'm not fighting any more, I'm not fighting sleep if it comes in the day and I'm not fighting wakefulness if it comes in the night. In fact I am getting to LOVE my times of being awake in the small hours when all else sleeps and everything is still. In it, He is knocking the 'fight' out of me and causing a greater trusting dependency on His constant goodness. I am discovering another, deeper place of rest and it is wonderful.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Trust is addictive, rest is addictive, drinking deeply and feasting on what He has done and given is addictive. I cannot live any other way. When I choose His way, joy becomes a constant regardless of circumstances. I lose myself in Him, | trust Him and I let Him completely take over. I get to live in the sweet, soft, melting core of Him where nothing is a big deal, where nothing is scary or overwhelming, and where I get to snuggle day after day in restful, perfect love.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Nicky </div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-60470754882468015762011-02-09T17:47:00.000+00:002011-02-09T17:47:59.138+00:00The Glorious Unknown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYeRxWJScu6PVk6fCy-ylCItw1FymKXXdROrbqQ6FNN0uX9zH6fSKRtpgp7RYab6vvxd8cenbKzq47wIyWpfytvmenuqlUt0EdIzqXXCWeHx_8MZ8DUNr12T6V1vl8PfeFEt4X7VzjM1d/s1600/n701347081_736882_3372.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYeRxWJScu6PVk6fCy-ylCItw1FymKXXdROrbqQ6FNN0uX9zH6fSKRtpgp7RYab6vvxd8cenbKzq47wIyWpfytvmenuqlUt0EdIzqXXCWeHx_8MZ8DUNr12T6V1vl8PfeFEt4X7VzjM1d/s320/n701347081_736882_3372.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><style type="text/css">
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</style> <div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm on a journey into the great, awesome, glorious unknown. I have been captured by a love that transcends all reason, that is way bigger than myself and I cannot turn back. I am being drawn by the gravity of this love into increasing comprehension of its depths, loosing myself to it, forgetting who I am outside of its consuming glory. </span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am going beyond the horizon, way beyond what I know and what I can see. Into the unknown places and spaces, dimensions and realities of Him. I am being drawn beyond my comprehension, leaving my own miniscule thoughts and ways behind – they are smaller than tiny dots compared to the vast ocean of His. I am leaving all that is familiar, all that I have known to journey into the glory of the unknown. I have to let go of the old and the familiar. I have to let go of all I have experienced and understood thus far. I have to take courage and be willing to journey into mystery and allow the discomfort of this new to be a constant companion. I know if I want to live in the fullness that is mine, if I want to see His glory change the world this is the path I must travel. </span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am already in, I know that resistance is futile – a force way greater than me pulls me in and in and in until I cannot see behind, in front or around. I let go of me because all I want is Him. I want to be lost in the knowledge of Jesus, I want only Jesus, I loose myself because He is all that matters. </span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">This feels like it goes beyond Mary sitting at Jesus' feet. Since the wonderful, glorious cross, I am united with my Christ. I am free to go further than sitting at His feet. He has made the way for me to merge with His very being, to be in union with Him and to experience the joyous bliss of the new covenant. He has placed the fullness of the Godhead within my being and His river of life and glory flows from within wherever I place my feet. This is about being not doing, about resting not working, trust not strife, about sinking into the finished work of the cross where He has done it all. Being will lead me there – a path unfamiliar, alien to most. Nothing required, I don't need to lift a finger because He has done it all. I can trust His gravitational pull to draw me into the cloud of His presence and from here all else will flow. From here the sick are healed and the broken mended, the lost found and the abandoned adopted. </span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is all about Him because He has done it all. He has caught me up into this incredible, transforming, intoxicating journey and I am happily helpless to resist.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nicky</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">xx</span></span></span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-50134435798182459502011-01-13T09:42:00.001+00:002011-01-13T09:43:01.607+00:00Expect the unexpected<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbuyCeMxPR7K8jfjzg6YrFp129GhMIha4cpoiJ9DXJu_xGP8Z8E2ZaIgdJ5SAmHyY-EFUHyOKJIrm5t_i2KEfRBZ2K5nKaTLjdRJ_rlLR3PrUTeprV0RXcUQ9ptOJyBqiIJiOlVwpavDR/s1600/tales+of+the+unexpected.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbuyCeMxPR7K8jfjzg6YrFp129GhMIha4cpoiJ9DXJu_xGP8Z8E2ZaIgdJ5SAmHyY-EFUHyOKJIrm5t_i2KEfRBZ2K5nKaTLjdRJ_rlLR3PrUTeprV0RXcUQ9ptOJyBqiIJiOlVwpavDR/s1600/tales+of+the+unexpected.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've been thinking about expectations lately because I've had many come to nought this year, in fact when I come to think of it this isn't actually a recent phenomena but has been occurring my whole life! </span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><style type="text/css">
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</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">So many times over the past 18 months I expected to sell our house, to leave the country and visit new pastures. Each time my expectations have been dashed there has been a little more transformation in my heart. Each time I have yielded a little more to His ways rather than my own. I am learning to trust that His ways are perfect and mine are not even when I don't fully understand what He's up to. I am learning to let go of expectations in the little things and the big things and simply to trust.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">This place is the life I'm seeking. It isn't about “whatever will be will be”,rather a relentless refusal to do things my way. It is the ability to flow with the Holy Spirit with my hand in His. To give Him all the space He wants to do with my life what He will and lead me where He knows is best in the day to day and in the biggies. It takes time. I am so good at creating my own expectations that to dismantle what is second nature takes dedication. It comes back to letting go, it comes back to trust, it comes back to love – His passionate, perfect, always good love to me. It feels as if this is big and and that if I remain willing and yielded there is something amazing out the other side. I'm learning that there is such freedom and joy in expecting the unexpected and letting Him take control. It always turns out better than any of my best plans and has a way of working out perfectly!</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nicky</span></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">xx</span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078792080549327197.post-22810679630437910942011-01-08T11:43:00.000+00:002012-05-06T18:19:19.960+01:00Five stones<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">Several months ago, I was doodling in my journal as I spent the morning with Papa. I looked down at what I'd been drawing to see five smooth round pebbles. I was immediately reminded of the story of David and Goliath, though it had not been part of my studies recently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Like me, you are probably very familiar with the story, but as I turned to to find it in the Bible this time, I was struck by the fact that David had chosen five stones from the stream with which to face the giant Goliath. Five stones. Not one stone, but five stones!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Did David think he might miss with his first, or even his second, third and fourth stones? He was so confident in his God, that he stepped forward when no one else would, to face the taunting Palestinians. And yet he picked five smooth stones from the brook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I remember thinking that this story may hold some significance for us in our efforts to sell the house, though at that time we were only on sale number two. As our fourth stone fell short of the target this week, I couldn't help but be reminded of it again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Will our house sell at the fifth attempt? I honestly can't say, but as I considered this, what I felt God say was that He could have slain our giant at the first attempt all those months ago, and had He done so, we could have been on our merry way to pastures new.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Though there's been pain in the process, I am so glad that He had other ideas. You see, as each and every sale has faltered, our trust in the love and goodness of Papa has grown. As we have endured the pain of plans frustrated, of hopes dashed, we have learned to dive deeper into Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I am so thankful for this opportunity - to know Him more intimately; to experience His unfailing love; to understand that I really am His beloved son; to learn to trust Him completely; to grasp the reality of His goodness; and to discover the freedom that comes with surrendering to His will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We could have hit the target with our first stone, but if we had, we would have missed out on the priceless treasures God has revealed to us in the process. And so we thank you Papa, that you love us so well... and that we didn't hit with our first stone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Mike x </span></div>Mike and Nickyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12076837994959903872noreply@blogger.com2