Barnabas Ministries UK

Rev. E. Anderson

WORRY WARS

Rob Parsons lets his imagination run wild

There are four basic emotions: anger, fear, happiness and sadness. I wonder which of them affects us most. I think for many us it is fear. The strange thing is that so often it’s hard to put our finger on what we are actually afraid of; it’s simply that somewhere deep inside us there is an ever-present gnawing anxiety. I remember my children reading the ‘Mr Men’ series of books. One of the characters was called Mr. Worry.

This dear man was plagued by fear. He would worry about his car, his dog, his house, his dinner. And when he had nothing to worry about, he got even more concerned for he was sure he had missed something important – and that bothered him more than anything.

I sympathise with Mr. worry. Sometimes when I am lying in bed in the morning I imagine having a conversation with somebody. They say something that annoys me and I reply angrily; they shoot back a stunning comment and I deliver a withering riposte. Then suddenly my thoughts run away with me and I start to worry about it all. And then, just as a headache is beginning to form over my right eye, I realise that the whole thing has occurred in my mind. Nobody has said anything nasty to me at all. I have not actually had a row with anybody. In fact, there is no real problem – and it’s probably it’s time to get out of bed.

But that’s only one of hundreds of times I’ve had those ‘runaway thoughts’. I’ve had them before annual church meetings, when I have imagined battles between opposing camps. (The actual events often turned out to be far less entertaining). And I’ve had ‘runaway thoughts’ about my health. In fact, when I was a child we had something in our home called ‘The Doctor’s Book’ which allowed you to look up the symptoms of various ailments. The only problem was that every time I consulted the thing, I became convinced I not only had the illness I had looked up, but the one facing page as well.

I had ‘runaway thoughts’ when my children were teenagers and they were a little late coming in at night. About ten minutes after their curfew I would smile nervously at my wife Dianne and start to make some tea saying, ‘He’ll be in soon.’ And then, just as I was filling up the kettle, my thoughts would race off and within moments I could imagine police cars pulling up at my door, hospitals ringing me with news of accidents, or phone calls from Gretna Green saying, ‘We’ve tied the knot. Do you want to chip in some money for the honeymoon?’

Jesus said a fascinating thing about fear: ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own’ – Matthew 6: 34. He was being practical and saying in essence, ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow because you have enough to worry about today.’ So many of our ‘runaway thoughts’ – ‘future fears’ – may never materialise. But we’ve often spent so long worrying about them, they have drained us. Mark twain said, ‘Most of my tragedies have never happened to me.’

The early explorers used to draw maps with boundaries as far as they had actually ventured, and then they would write along the edge of the map: ‘Beyond this there may be dragons.’ They had never seen a dragon, and there had never had been a dragon in any of the new places they had managed to penetrate, but beyond the edge of the map was the future – and the future was unknown. Actually, when they eventually got to the new territories, they found these were often places of wonderful beauty, rich resources, and staggering opportunity. But until then these undiscovered lands were represented by six words on the edge of a map: ‘Beyond this there may be dragons.’

The Bible tells us not to live our lives like this – allowing fear to take over. It says, ‘. . .take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ’ – 2 Corinthians 10: 5. I wonder if part of that could involve catching those thoughts before they run away with us.

Rev. E. Anderson

PATIENCE WITH IMPERFECTION
by Jon Walker

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)

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Humorist Dave Barry says, “A perfect parent is a person with excellent child-rearing theories and no actual children.”

The same could be said of a perfect world or a perfect family; there’s only one way to mess things up: People!

Living with imperfect people requires patience, and you – now I say this as a friend – are one of the imperfect people who requires patience! Unfortunately, I’m an imperfect person too.

Patience means putting up with me when you’d rather lose your temper; it means forgiving me when you’d rather nurture a grudge.

In addition, patience is a muzzle on a mouth full of murmurs that are passed along as prayer requests. Patience puts the long in long-suffering. Patience is love in action because “love is patient” (1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV).

Patience and a critical spirit are mutually exclusive. Even when your complaints are justified, patience pushes and pulls you toward forgiving and forgetting: “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense” - Proverbs 19:11 NI).

Being patient may try our patience, but we become stronger when we learn to love imperfect people. Patience frees us to develop godly diversity in our relationships, where we no longer require everyone to act and look and think the same way we do.

Rev. E. Anderson

Help My Unbelief!
by Jon Walker

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 (NIV)

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Recently, I’ve been thinking my life verse should be Mark 9:24: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

I do believe, yet I have so much unbelief in my life. I walk in faith, yet my faith is often more in the things I see than the things I don’t see. I follow God, yet I repeatedly find myself stumbling down the path of my own choosing.

I believe; God, help me overcome my unbelief –

•   I believe; help me live like I believe.
•   I believe; help me choose like I believe.
•   I believe, help me trust like I believe.

Help me to live like I really believe you are trustworthy. Help me to abandon my mythology of like I believe in you, where I believe I am more trustworthy than you, and so I live like I believe in myself instead of like I believe in you.

 “I do believe, but help me not to doubt!” (Mark 9:24 NLT).

What does this mean?

•   “Help my unbelief” – You cannot work yourself up to greater belief; instead, your belief deepens as you deepen your fellowship with God. Tell him, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”

•   Believe God, not yourself – As you face decisions today, ask yourself, “Is this decision based on my belief in God or my belief in myself?” Keep confessing, “Lord, I believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”

•   Focus on knowing God – Knowing God is more important than knowing the details. Oswald Chambers says, “Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason – a life of knowing him who calls us to go.”

Rev. E. Anderson

Empowered forService

 by Jon Walker

 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: Judge fairly and honestly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people. And do not make evil plans to harm each other.” Zechariah 7:9-10 (NLT)

You have the power, by God’s Spirit within you, to help people rebuild their lives, to give hope to people in despair, to offer others a fresh start when it seems they have nothing left.

God empowers us to:

·         Judge with an even-hand – We show compassion when we act as a voice for those who have no voice. Our compassion can help the powerless, the ignored, the forgotten, the defeated, and the falsely accused.

·         Show mercy·– When we show mercy to those in the wrong, it doesn’t mean we’re letting someone “off the hook”; rather, it means we recognize he/she is a flawed human, just like us, in need of salvation.

·         Be kind – In the graceless age, we can show kindness, even to those with whom we disagree. We can model civility and respect.

·         Use your advantages to help – Instead of focusing on getting the advantage, we can use what advantages and privileges we do have to help others. We can willingly put ourselves at a disadvantage in order to serve someone else, such as when Jesus, the leader and the Messiah, washed the feet of his disciples.

·          Protect others – Our compassion compels us to look out for the interests of others, in particular, those in volatile or vulnerable situations.

God says when we do this, our light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around us will be as bright as day: “The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities.” (Isaiah 58:11-12 NLT)

Here we see the cycle of compassion: God gives compassion to us; we give compassion to others; then we receive compassion from God and others in our time of need. “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.” (Proverbs 11:25 MSG)

This is the essence of a Christ-community – living together, serving together, and loving together.

What does this mean?

    · What would biblical compassion look like if you judged with an even hand in your home? At work? In the community? What can you do to be a voice for those who have no voice?

   · What would biblical compassion look like if you showed mercy in your home? At work? In the community? What are ways you can express compassion and mercy to those who’ve failed, done things wrong, or simply disappointed you?

   · What would biblical compassion look like if you exhibited civility and respect, even for those who show little civility or respect for you?

   · What would biblical compassion look like if you used your advantages and privileges to help those who are disadvantaged or those who have no privileges?

  · What would biblical compassion look like if you placed the interests of others above your own interests?

Rev. Steve Hill

OUR BIGGEST NEED - REVIVAL
Steve Hill

Many want 2008 to be different. They want fresh revelation from the Word of G.  They want their family members to become Christians. They want their churches to grow. They want revival to come to their land. Many others are in desperate need of physical or emotional healing.

Like most Christians, I too have a quite lengthy list of all the things I want from God in this year. But through the years, I’ve learned a few lessons on how to receive from God.

Most of us know the story of the blind man. Bartimaeus – Mark 10: 46-52. Here we have a man who desperately needed something from God, but was willing to go after it with all his heart, soul and strength. Perhaps you’ve heard of miracles that take place in other nations, especially in the Third W countries. Where the blind are seeing, the deaf re hearing and the lame are walking. Why do things happen so frequently?

It is because of hunger. Whenever you get a true hunger for god, He is sure respond and give what we ask for. The story of Bartimaeus can help teach us three important truths.

First, when expecting to receive something from God, we must recognize that we have a true need. I’m not speaking about a ‘want’, but I’m speaking about a real need, a legitimate one. Blind Barti­maeus was blind! He could not see and he knew it!

Many of us have a desperate need in our lives but lack the ability to recognize it. For example, many people want revival in their church but rather than going af­ter God they go after the latest bells and whistles. They don’t recognize that the true need is fresh fire from heaven, which only comes from going after Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus recognised that.

Second, when receiving from God, we must have faith in the one who can meet that need. Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus. He didn’t appeal to the disciples or His friends, or to members of the crowd but he cried out to Jesus (v 47)!

Friends, we must go after the One who can meet that need. This is why so happen in foreign lands.

People recognize that medicines, doctors and financial ­institutions are not going to fix their problems.

They must have a touch from God.  \they must have faith in the one who can meet their need.

The third thing we can learn from Bartimaeus is that he went after Jesus alone.

If you receive anything from this article, it should be the importance of going after Jesus by yourself.

Every move of God I’ve been part of has come from pursuing Jesus on my own. My personal hunger was met as I’ve fought to receive something from God.

I’ve fought in prayer, I’ve fought in fastings and I’ve fought in binding distractions. God always responds to my personal desperation.

Despite going after Jesus alone, never be afraid to take wise counsel, and ap­preciate that the Lord can use others to speak to you.

The Bible says that Jesus commanded Bartimaeus to be called. Jesus did not respond personally, he sent someone else.

Are you willing to receive from a pas­tor, an evangelist or another messenger from the Lord? During this year, God is going to allow other people to speak into our lives. Be willing to receive from them and you will see how they will bring you closer to Jesus.

What is your real need this year? Bar­timaeus was a man with several needs, yet he went to God with the greatest need. No doubt, he was in poverty - he probably had no clothes or house, yet he focused on his most important need - he was blind.

n the UK, alcoholism isn’t the prob­lem, nor drug addiction. Crime rates are not the biggest need, nor financial crisis.

The biggest need is revival. Once God moves and answers the biggest needs, watch all the other things follow.

Rev. Steve Hill

Re

Rev. E. Anderson

Serving Your Generation in Your Time
by Rick Warren

“After David had served his generation according to the will of God, he died….” Acts 13:36 (NLT)

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My life verse is Acts 13:36, where we’re told David is purpose driven: “… After David had served his generation according to the will of God, he died….” (NLT)

Imagine having that statement inscribed on your tombstone: “He served God’s purpose in his own generation!” “She served God’s purpose in her own generation!” In my opinion, you could receive no greater honor than that.

He served God’s purpose …

God’s purpose for the church is also his purpose for every Christian. As individual followers of Christ we’re to use our lives in worship, ministry, evangelism, discipleship, and fellowship. The church allows us to do it together. We are not alone in serving him.

That’s why I love the church with all of my heart. It’s the most brilliant concept every created. It has outlasted cultures, governments, skeptics, enemies from within and without, and it will continue to do so until Jesus returns.

We must love the church as Christ does and we must teach others to love the church also. “… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.… After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of his body” (Ephesians 5:25, 29-30 NIV).

In his own generation …

The truth is you can’t serve God in any other generation except your own!You may want to but it’s only wishful thinking. We cannot bring back the past. Ministry must always be done in the context of the current generation and culture. Whether we like it or not, we must minister to people in the culture as it really is, not in some past form that we may have idolized in our minds.

We don’t know what the final chapters of your story will hold, but we can be confident of this: “… that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 NIV)

God finishes whatever he starts. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. There are many factors that influence your life, things you have no control over: your background, nationality, age, giftedness. These were determined by the sovereignty of God.

But there is one important factor that you do have control over: how much you choose to believe God!

You, my friend, can believe God as you serve your generation according to the will of God.

Rev. E. Anderson

Some things in life are obvious, says Andy Twilley. And it’s obvious that if you don’t read the Bible regularly, your faith won’t grow.

READ IT AND REAP . . . .!

Have you ever thought to yourself, it’s obvious, anyone would realise that? For instance you don’t put petrol in your car then wonder why it stops!

It’s common sense, obvious. So why is it that, as Christians, we don’t use similar common sense when it comes to certain basic issues of faith?

‘I don’t read the Bible regularly. Why don’t I grow in faith like some of my friends?’

‘People at church don’t read the Bible regularly. Why is there so much aggro in our church?’

‘Only a few people I know read the Bible every day? Why is the church declining?’

‘Why are so few Christians fired up for mission?’

‘Why is there so much compromise among Christians?’

Without systematically spending time reading the Bible, we will never mature into the people God intended us to be.

We won’t come to understand how God wants us to live, nor the wonderful promises he has made for us as his people. God’s hopes and plans for our lives will remain obscure and, somehow, we will would be never know that wholeness of life which God longs for us to enjoy as His children. And as for the Church, tragically it will remain impoverished and impotent, church growth remaining a far-off dream, instead of it being the dynamic organism God intended it to be. It’s not rocket science.

So why don’t more people engage with the Bible regularly? I suggest five reasons:

Some people claim to have no time. Of course, that is nonsense we will all have time for what we want to do.

Others are simply lazy: they can’t be bothered and are unwilling to prioritise it in their daily life.

Some believers don’t realise they need to. Maybe they’ve never been told it’d important. Or for others, they have become arrogant. ‘I know enough, thank you!’ Yet no matter how long we have been Christians, all of us need to read the Bible.

Lack of knowledge: This is a major issue. So many Christians today simply do not know the individual Bible stories contained within its pages, let alone how they all fit together. Imagine for a moment starting to read a novel partway through. It wouldn’t make sense, the main exciting storyline would be missed, there’d be no coherence, the relevance of the main characters wouldn’t be understood, and their relationship to everyone else in the book would be unknown. It’s the same with the Bible if we simply dip into odd bits of it and never see the big picture.

Some feel the Bible to be irrelevant and not connected with life today. Many Christians don’t know how to engage with the Bible. They don’t understand the different genre it contains, let alone how to apply its teaching to 21st-century culture.

The Bible is a tough book to read, and to be understood correctly,  and applied appropriately, people need to be helped.

There is a lovely saying.. Give a person a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for life.’ So the challenge is simple; if you’re a church leader, make sure you equip those in your church to read God’s Word for themselves; to understand its context, and apply it appropriately. Then they will be able to feed themselves.

If you’re a Christian, prioritise the Bible into your life. Someone once said: ‘if you’ve got time to shave, you’ve time to read the Bible.’ I took up the challenge and have had a beard ever since!

Rev. E. Anderson

The Great Commission:  

Starting Where You Are in Your Life Mission
by Rick Warren

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 (NIV)

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Everybody’s life mission is unique, and only you can fulfill your life mission. The moment you become a believer, the moment you step across the line and give your life to Jesus Christ, God has an assignment for you.

Parts of your life mission are unique, but one part all believers have in common is this: God wants you to tell other people about what’s happened to you. He wants you to share your testimony, your lifestyle, and your witness.

The Bible says it like this in Acts 20:24 (NCV): “The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me – to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.”

Once I become a Christian, a major part of my life mission is to invite people into God’s family. Jesus said in John 20:21 (GWT), “As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you.”

What has he sent us to do?

The Bible tells us in Acts 1:8, “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, in Samaria and in every part of the world.” This is a very, very important verse: it not only tells us what we’re supposed to do; it tells us where we’re supposed to do it.

First, it says, “You will be My witnesses.” Have you ever watched a courtroom trial? You know what a witness is – a witness is somebody who shares from personal experience. “I saw this … I heard that … I watched that ….”

Witnessing does not mean you have to be a theological expert. It doesn’t mean you have to be a pastor or preacher. It simply means you share what God is doing in your life.

Besides, people expect pastors to talk about Jesus. But when your pastor talks about Jesus Christ, some people think, “Well, he’s just the paid professional. He’s the paid salesman. Of course, he’s going to talk about God.”

On the other hand, when you talk about what God’s done in your life, you are demonstrating that you’re the satisfied customer! Who has more credibility—a paid salesman or the satisfied customer?

You are the authority on your life. Nobody else can share your witness. If you don’t do it, that part of your life message will never be heard on this earth, and that’s a tragedy. If you don’t say it, nobody else is going to say it for you. We are to witness and share what God has done in our lives and what’s happened to us since we became believers.

Where are we to do it? We’re told to take the message to four places:

“In Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and in every part of the world.”

What does that mean? Am I supposed to get on a plane and go over to Jerusalem to share my faith? No. Remember, where were the disciples when they were hearing these words from Jesus? They were in Jerusalem.

Here’s the point – start where you are. What’s your Jerusalem? It’s your family, your friends, and your co-workers. That’s your Jerusalem. You start with the people closest to you. You don’t have to go somewhere else first. You start with the people in your own sphere of reference.

Then it says you go to Judea. Judea was like the county. What is your Judea? At Saddleback, we live in Orange County, with 2.5 million people. Many of them still need to hear the good news, and, no doubt, there are many in your Judea who also need to hear the good news.

Then Jesus says you’re to go to Samaria. That’s like the county next door. But the Samaritans were culturally and ethnically different from the disciples. The third place you take the message is to people of a different culture, language, or ethnic group than you.

Do you know anybody who speaks a different language than you do? Since I live in Southern California, I can tell you that there are 187 different languages spoken within driving distance of my church!

My point is this – you don’t have to go very far to find your Samaria. It’s right next door. Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant? There’s your Samaria!

Then Jesus says go to “the ends of the world.” For hundreds and hundreds of years, Christians couldn’t literally obey that part because the ability to travel was extremely limited. In fact, for many years the human race didn’t even know the world was round. But today, there are many opportunities for believers to go on short-term trips that lead them to the “ends of the world.”

So that’s the mission. Start with your Jerusalem. Move on to Judea, then to Samaria – and then to the ends of the world. While you’re there, share the good news. Invite others into God’s family!

Rev. E. Anderson

How Do You Develop Self Control?

by Rick Warren

God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NCV)

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Successful people have one obvious trait in common: personal discipline. They are willing to do things that average people are unwilling to do.

It’s my observation that successful people express their self-discipline in six ways:

· Successful people master their moods – They live by their commitments, not their emotions. They do the right thing, even when they don’t feel like it. “A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls” - Proverbs 25:28 NLT.

· Successful people watch their words – They put their minds in gear before opening their mouths: “Those who control their tongue will have a long life ….” - Proverbs 13:3 NLT.

· Successful people restrain their reactions – How much can you take before you lose your cool? “People with good sense restrain their anger; they earn esteem by overlooking wrongs” -Proverbs 19:11 NLT.

· Successful people stick to their schedule – If you don’t determine how you will spend your time, you can be sure that others will decide for you! “So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days” - Ephesians 5:15-16, NLT.

· Successful people manage their money – They learn to live on less than what they make, and they invest the difference. The value of a budget is that it tells your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went: “The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get” -  Proverbs 21:20 NLT.

· Successful people maintain their health – That way they can accomplish more and enjoy their achievements: “… control your body and live in holiness and honor” - 1 Thessalonians 4:4 NLT.

Now, where do you need to develop self-control?

The disciplines you establish today will determine your success tomorrow. But it takes more than just willpower for lasting self-control. It takes a power greater than yourself. Think about this promise from the Bible: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” - 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT.

The more I accept God’s control over my life, the more self-control he gives me!

Rev. E. Anderson

Releasing Your Regrets
by Rick Warren

People who cover over their sins will not prosper. But if they confess and forsake them, they will receive mercy. Proverbs 28:13 (NLT)

How often do you play the “if only” game?

· If only I had it to do over.

· If only I had listened sooner.

· If only I could erase the past.

· If only I could forgive myself.

Because no one is perfect, we all have regrets. We’ve all made bad choices, said foolish things, wasted time, and hurt ourselves and others.

How do you release those regrets?

Here are some strategies that don’t work:

1. We bury them. Burying the past doesn’t work. Like creatures from a horror movie, unresolved regrets come back to haunt us over and over. Minimizing (“It wasn’t a big deal”), rationalizing (“Everyone does it”), and compromising (lowering your standards) are ways we try to bury our regrets.

2. We blame others. This tactic is as old as Adam and Eve. When Adam sinned, he took it like a man – he blamed his wife! We use blame to balance out our guilt.

3. We beat ourselves. We try to pay for our guilt unconsciously through illness, depression, setting ourselves up for failure, and other forms of self-punishment. The problem with beating up on yourself is this: your conscience never knows when to stop! Many spend their entire lives in self-condemnation.

What does God want me to do with my regrets?

· Admit my guilt – Own up to it. Don’t make excuses. The Bible says, “People who cover over their sins will not prosper. But if they confess and forsake them, they will receive mercy” (Proverbs 28:13 NLT).

· Accept Christ’s forgiveness – He’s waiting to clean your slate.Ask him to clear your conscience, and then remember “there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NLT).

· Forgive yourself and focus on the future – “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19 HCSB).