Friday, March 30, 2012

Gloria's Testimony

This is what my wife Gloria wrote regarding her reaction to her dad’s recent death. This is a paragraph taken from a letter she sent to her friends in which she tells them of her loss:



Tim said to me that he had dreaded the time that I would lose a parent, because he knew what I was like several years ago. I would have been hysterical, and would have had panic attacks, crying all the time and no doubt go into depression. However I have changed with the help of God, by putting my faith and trusting in Jesus before anything else. It doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen to us, but by having faith in Jesus and truly believing that He is our Messiah, gives us the strength to get through those hard times knowing that we are not alone. I turned my back on God once and felt very alone, and promise that I will not do it again. God gives me hope which I haven’t had for a very long time, and it truly is a comfort to me. I feel for those that do not know God, and I pray that they seek God before it is too late as we only have this life time to reach out to Him.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

2012: the first months.

I’ve clearly done very little blogging in recent months. My four blogs on this account have been neglected for some time, partly due to access difficulties. But I’ve also been very quiet on my new wordpress blog. Most entries there have been short.


This year hasn’t had the best start. So far there’s been my father in law’s death, followed by my newly widowed mum-in-law being evacuated from approaching flood waters. In addition to those major events there were quite a few smaller scale difficulties that I would have liked to avoid.

But despite the clear negative aspects to all of these events, we not only survived them, we found ourselves encouraged and uplifted.

I know my wife would have been an emotional wreck if she had lost one of her parents several years ago, so something has clearly changed. She was able not only to cope with her own grief; she supported her mum through the funeral arrangements, the funeral itself and through her first two weeks without her husband.

She later wrote to several friends to tell her of her father’s death and detailed the reason for her strength. I hope to post part of that letter before too long sharing in her words the change that made the difference.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Clarification and free David Pawson mp3 sermons.

For some time now I've been unable to access the main page of my blog and can't add replies in the comment box.
In response to Kevin Jackson's comment related my last article I want to make it clear I was not referring to David Pawson. Not only did I keep the link to Pawson's ministry in the side bar, I've added another (thanks Kevin) through which ALL of Pawson's sermons are now available for free download.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Sad time.

How should we feel when a ministry that has played an important role in our life takes a wrong turn?

I am going through that kind of experience now, seeing a ministry that has had significant influence in my life and the lives of many others I know rapidly going downhill. I see there are several inter-related reasons, including:

1) a casual approach to prophecy and prophetic gifts,

2) a lack of discernment (or lack of care) regarding the sources of ideas being shared.

3) a refusal to be accountable,

4) a refusal to admit error when clear evidence is given.

On one hand the ministry has built a following and a reputation through its exposure of dangerous trends seducing the church – on the other hand it recommends resources (such as articles, which individually may be good in themselves) from people involved with those dangerous trends, without warning about the fact that other resources from the same source should be viewed with caution.

Sadly the ministry in question has been going backwards for some time and without humble repentance will head in one of two directions. Either the Lord in His mercy will shut it down completely, or it will push forward regardless and the Lord will take His hand away all together, allowing it to sink further into error.

I have now removed links to that ministry from this blog sidebar.