Month: January 2024

Hear God’s voice

January 30, 2024

One of devotions I do regularly is The Word for Today. Todays one was about hearing God’s voice. I thought I would share it…

Hear God’s voice

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ Revelation 2:11 NKJV

You can read the same Scripture on different occasions, and it will speak to you in totally different ways. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with saying, ‘You never step into the same river twice.’ And you never read the same Bible verse the same way twice. That is a testament to its heavenly author. And His illumination is based on His intimate and unlimited knowledge of your circumstances, your desires, your fears, your past, your personality, and your destiny. But you must take time to listen and cultivate your sensitivity to what He is saying. The story is told of a music trainer hired to work with opera singers who could not hit certain notes even though they fell within their vocal range. It was a musical mystery. The trainer did extensive testing on their vocal cords, but he couldn’t find any reason why they couldn’t hit those notes. Then, on a whim, he tested their hearing. And what he discovered was that these opera singers could not sing a note they could not hear. The problem wasn’t singing. The problem was hearing. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ (Revelation 2:11 NKJV) Until you hear the voice of God, you won’t be able to sing His song. Why? Because you’re out of tune. That’s how we get trapped in sinful lifestyles and negative cycles and destructive patterns. But when you open up the Bible and truly hear the voice of God – His loving voice, His affirming voice, His graceful voice, His convicting voice, His authoritative voice, His powerful voice – your life begins to harmonise with the Holy Spirit.

Book I want to read

January 27, 2024

What books do you want to read?

I have to admit I was never a great reader at school. Getting me to read was like pulling teeth for my teachers. I loved sport and maths, but reading was not my thing.

After leaving school this continued until my early twenties. All of a sudden though, I had a desire to read the Bible. I did not have one so I went to the local church and purchased one.

After getting a Bible of my own I found I actually loved reading for the first time in my life. It was nothing to read for an hour of more. Looking back I now know this was God drawing me to His Word and enabling me to do it.

Many years later the Bible is still my go to book. I very rarely read other books as I prefer to listen to them while I am travelling. But I can always just sit down and read my Bible. I can pick it up any time of the day or night and just read.

I just love the fact that the Bible has 40 different authors, it is made up of 66 books, was written over a 1600 year time period, but it has one central theme – God’s love and saving message for mankind. He loves us all and He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

This is why I love the Bible so much. It tells us how we got here, who we are, that God loves us and He has a plan for our lives. For me there is no other book that compares or even comes close to it.

So which book do I want to read? It is the Bible for me by a long long way.

Good leadership?

January 19, 2024

What makes a good leader?

Leadership is something that is vitally important in all areas of life. We have all had good leaders that we loved and bad leaders who we did not love as much.

When I was at Bible college I had to do an assignment on what we thought was good leadership. We had to come up with five points with both Biblical ideas and reflections on Christian leadership sources.

Surprisingly I found this harder than I expected. There is so many examples of Biblical leadership and thousands of resources on Christian leadership.

In the end I distilled my idea of principles of Christian leadership to the following five points.

1. Christian leaders need to cultivate an intimate relationship with God

2. Christian leaders need to have a servant heart

3. Christian leaders need to be shepherds of God’s people

4. Christian leaders need to live with character and integrity

5. Christian leaders need to be committed to making disciples

For me personally I really thought long and hard about these five things. Thankfully my lecturer agreed and gave me a good mark for it.

If you are interested you can read an online version of my article on my website below. It is a cut down version of my assignment.

Five Principles of Christian Leadership

Felt loved?

January 17, 2024

Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

I have to say in answering this question that I am a very blessed man. I feel loved by my wife every day and when I see my adult children they always give me a big hug and tell me they love me.

But one instance when I felt really loved recently was on the last day of school in 2023. I was walking around school doing my usual work as a Chaplain, when I large group of students came and gave me cards. I got lots of high fives and fist bumps from them all too.

On the cards were really nice messages of how they loved and appreciated my work as their Chaplain. They said things like thanks for always being there to listen and encourage us. One card from the oldest students was signed by all of them with personal messages.

I really love my job as a school Chaplain and times like that make me feel loved and appreciated too.

Reducing clutter in our lives

January 16, 2024

I guess if we are honest we all have extra clutter in our lives. Those things that just seem to pile up over the place over the years. Anyone who has moved house recently knows about excess clutter!

In reflecting on this question my mind quickly went from clutter around the house, to the clutter in our lives. By this I mean the extra things we do because we think we “should” do them.

If we pause and reflect for a moment, we all probably have things in our life we do because we think we should. Sometimes it is our own expectations, sometimes it is because other people expect it of us.

This year while I have been on holidays I have put some very intentional thought in to the things I do and looking at the clutter in my life. I have titled it “My roles and goals for 2024”. 

On this list I have intentionally stripped it back to the basics and included things that I feel God wants me to do. It includes God inspired goals, but also my private goals that do not conflict with His. And I have included my roles I have in my work and family.

Doing this is to give a clearer vision for 2024 and the things I need to focus on. This will give me more time and energy to focus on key things. And more time for downtime and rest. Which is just as important. We all need to enter in to God’s sabbath rest.

Years ago I read of what a well known Pastor did in his first years of ministry. Everyone had expectations of him. He was working seven days a week to fulfil them all. He had little rest and little downtime. He narrowed his focus to four key roles and said no to the rest. This helped shape the next forty years of his ministry. It gave him longevity.

I know personally it is hard to say no to many of the requests I get. As helpers we want to help. But as the older Pastor learned we have to narrow our focus if we are to serve long term and not get overloaded. We have all probably heard the old saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person, they will get it done”. 

This is where God’s call on our lives comes in. What are we really called to do? We are called to our families first, then some type of paid work and some other ministry outside our home. Our callings and roles will all look different, but understanding them can help us keep focussed.

So returning to the question of “Where can you reduce clutter in your life?” For me it is about the extra things I do that are not really part of my calling. The things I do because of the expectations I have or others have for me. This is where I am starting and I believe it will give me a clearer focus in 2024.