Chris Williams’s Blog

Just a quick plug for a toll that really helped me out fixing a computer this weel.

with a computer that wouldn’t boot into safe mode, command prompt, recovery console or anything else and that my liveCD didn’t give me access to the HDD but i still needed information off i found a tool called Bart’s Preinstalled Environment (BartPE for short)

it uses your windows installation disk to create a bootable mini windows environment, it is superb and enabled me to retrieve the data i needed before rebuilding the machine and i can highly recommend it.

here’s the link http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

enjoy!

Just a short one this … probably :o)

just wanted to mention something that helped me a lot when I was discouraged and depressed.

Feelings and circumstances can always make us feel discouraged, if you look hard enough there is always something that will make you feel down.

However we have a God who has given us a BIBLE full of PROMISES.

Do you feel abandoned by God -  You have a God who never leaves you nor forsakes you

You have a God who has promised  that where two or three are gathered in his name there He is in the midst of them

You have a God who is with us always EVEN unto the end of the age

The Lord Your God is with you

Do you feel unloved          -            You have a God who will quiet you with His Love

You have a God who rejoices over you with singing

God so LOVED the world that He gave His Son for us.

Do you feel God won’t bless you - You have a God who gives good gifts to those who ask him!

You have a God who has plans to prosper you and not to harm you

I could go on but I’m hoping you get the point.

All of these ‘counter-arguments’ come from the bible,

Why do we believe our feeling or our circumstances over and above the promise of God

Surely God’s promises should be the things we believe over feelings and circumstances as our God does not lie and is faithful.

So how do we put this into action

The only way that I’ve found (so far) is identify what is your key misconception/feeling/circumstance that you are believing above God’s word and to learn (by heart) the promises that counteract it and then when you find yourself sinking into the old routine stir yourself up by quoting the bible to your self i.e. “my God never leaves me nor forsakes me so how can i be alone”

This has been a huge help to me and i hope it will be to you. :o)

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so much for a short one

The other day i was asked to share something about a time when i was feeling very depressed and discouraged at church and after some thinking came up with the following and thought i’d share it here.

I remembered a time where i was in the middle of our church during a service and was feeling low, lonely, depressed, isolated essentially not feeling like part of the family.

After the sermon there was a call for people to go up to the front for prayer and i managed to psyche myself up for it (which though it may not sounds like it took a lot of guts)

Anyway i got there and because of the time it took me to psyche myself up there were already being prayed for so i did what made sense to me at the time (though was the wrong decision) and moved to one side where i thought it was obvious that i required prayer. it took around 10 minutes (which felt a lot longer) before someone came to pray for me. This wait just seemed to confirm to me all the things that i had thought previously.

Now i know what you’re thinking (because i’m thinking it too) I sound like a moaner (and i was) but from inside tht situation all the decisions made sense but it did at least make me think about what we can do in Church to help people needing (or wanting) prayer.

So because i don’t like to rant about God stuff without using some bible, here’s a high school style compare and contrast question

Mark 2:3-12  - Jesus Heals the Paralytic who was lowered through the roof by his friends versus Mark 10:46-52 Blind Bartimaeus gets told to shut up by the crowd

Now these are great stories but the bits that i want to talk about are paticularly Mark 2:3-5 and Mark 16:48

In the Mark 2 story the paralytic was brought to Jesus by his friends, then they didn’t turn back just because the place was full but broke someones roof, so keen were they to bring their friend to Jesus.

In the Mark 16 story Bartimaeus was crying out to Jesus and the people around him rebuked him (basically told him to shut up) until Jesus called on Bartimaeus. all i can say here is well done Bart for keeping on shouting despite those around him.

So what can we learn from this…

Bart had to seek prayer despite the crowd by shouting whereas the paralytic didn’t have to do anything until he was healed.

So please if you’re a ministry team member (or whatever it’s called in your church) be willing to pray for people who request it because even though my experience above is hopefully not usual and was primarily my fault it still knocked me and could have been easily solved by someone watching for who needed prayer.

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UPDATE

I’m glad to say that since i shared this at a cell group leader’s meeting in out church (which sparked a lively discussion) that things appear to have improved greatly in our Sunday morning meetings

Many thanks to the one elder who appears to have made it his personal goal to ensure that no-one who wants it goes without prayer.

Long may it continue. :o)

Apologies for lack of posts but have been adjusting to new shift.

suddenly going from 7am - 3pm to 9am - 5:30pm oddly makes my evenings a lot shorter and have only just got anywhere near used to this.

so hopefully you should see some more for me in the near future, however so this post isn’t completely pointless i think you should all take a look at the following website http://asbojesus.wordpress.com/ cartoons by a very prolific and talented chap who looks at all different aspects of the church, some (if not all) of them have really made me think/smile/laugh/cry and what more can you ask.

Genesis 40 v 8 - Context

Joseph is in prison, the cup bearer and the baker of pharoah have been thrown in prison they have dreams then want them interpretation

“…Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”"

Then again in Genesis 41  Pharoah has a dream and the cup bearer (now released from prison) remembers Joseph, Pharoah calls for him

“Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

Twice Joseph (with no mention of any word from God) is confident that God WILL give the answer.

LATER IN THE BIBLE :o) (1 Kings 17 to be exact)

Verse 1 the first mention of Elijah, he goes to the ruler of the land and say

“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

a huge statement and on which i had always assumed came after prompting and prompting and more prompting (you know the same way God manages to make most of us give a word in church)

then there is a mind blowing statement in verse 2

“THEN the word of the LORD came to Elijah:”

I believe Elijah’s proclomation of drought came NOT from direct revelation  of God but from his word Deut 11:16 & 17 states

Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you

It can hardly be coincedental that just before Elijah comes on the scene (1 Kings 16:29-24) Ahab reigns and is described as doing …

“more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.” ,

and serving baal, setting up altars for baal and raising asherah poles.

Elijah knew from the word that God hated what ahab was doing and that God had already said what would happen if Israel fell into Idol Worship and so he went to Ahab and proclaimed it, THEN God spoke to him.

So again what does this mean to us.

Elijah and Joseph both showed supreme faith, they knew what God was like and what He had said before and were not afraid to act on it without prompting.

Can we get to a point where for us we don’t need to see writing in the fire in the sky to believe God loves us, cares for us, wants to prosper us, wants us to talk to people about Him, etc etc etc without waiting for ‘a sign’ and then when the signs come (and they will) we won’t be suprised but strengthened

As the Romans 4 say about Abraham

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

To act in this way i believe we need to:

1. Know what God has said/promised to us directly and through the bible

2. Remember the promises that God has given to you individually and believe them without wavering and

3. Remember the promises that God has given to us all corporately and encourage others with them.

Then we can become a Church of Supreme Faith that doesn’t need constant coaxing to suggest that God loves us but can stand on His word in belief believing that God had power to do what he has promised

While preparing a brief bible study for our church small group meeting i was drawn to a passage in John 6

Twice in a few verses (well 25-70) it says that the people grumbled and Jesus came straight out and stated that they should “Stop Grumbling”.

This got me thinking about what grumbling can do to our relationship with God and specifically back to the world record holders of the bible the Israelites when they were escaping from Egypt (Exodus 15 to start with)

The context

I tried to go into this in detail but it took far too much space and time to read so…

Main passages I’m taking from are Exodus 15, 16 & then on to Numbers 13 but heartily recommend reading all of the story of the exodus from Egypt and the promised land.

OK now you’re all up to speed  onto the points I want to make:

1: God can answer grumbling

Quite a few times the Bible says that God heard the Israelite’s grumbling and provided what they needed.

2. but Grumbling has consequences

Because of the Israelite’s grumbling, lack of faith and disobedience the generation that was brought out of Egypt is kept out of the promised land (apart from Caleb who had faith that God would do what he said)

3. Praying is better

I fully believe that if God had been able to answer their prayers instead of having to listen to them grumble amongst themselves, and if the Israelites had done what God said they all would have come into the promised land.

4. Faith does the job as well

The only people from that generation that avoids missing the promised land are Caleb & Joshua who had faith that God could do what he was able.

What Caleb did in Numbers 13 is quite impressive the other spies had confirmed that the land was everything that God said it was BUT was full of scary people in a big city with other people that might not like them nearby when Caleb silences them and says

“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

it doesn’t stop the other people ranting but he has stated his understanding and put his faith where it should be in God’s promise.

So in summary i believe that

Grumblers can miss the point and the blessing

so please try to avoid it and if you know me and see me doing it please remind me not to and to put my faith in God

P.S. if this post seems short and seems like i don’t explain myself very well please comment as i had a HUGE post but decided to summarise it so people would read it :o)