Peace

"You Lord give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in him." Isaiah 26 : 3
How many of us have perfect peace i was wondering to myself today. As you can see from my first Blog i certainly don't, do you?How i desire it and yet it always seems too far away. It led me to where it says "who keep their purpose firm." The NIV says "whose mind is steadfast". The NKJ says "Whose mind is stayed on you."
The question is, what is my purpose and how do i keep it firm?.
You see a lot of people are asking what their calling is or what is there in ministry that i should be doing, i have asked myself this question many times and seem to have never or very rarely get an answer.
May i suggest that we might be asking the wrong question?.
You see this is where i'm coming from, its not about me or my problems or my ministry. Its all about Jesus. Before time began it was about him.
Colossians 1 :16b says "Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." msg. Its all about Jesus. My purpose is the same as Jesus said, "my food is to do the will of the father." Because Jesus was the image of the father our will or purpose is to know him, love him, adore him follow him. When we do this we can then have perfect peace because we also then put our trust in him.
You cannot trust someone you don,t know can you?. So how do you get to know him?.
I meet so many christians that are week and feeble and don't seem to have power in their lives or a purpose. Usually after i have asked them 2 questions some of the reasons come out. Generally they are not reading their bibles and are not spending time on their knees before God. There are other reasons but these would seem to be the most popular.
If you had a friend and didn't spend much time with them how much of a friend would they be?. Would you know them well?. The answer has to be no.
God wants a loving relationship with you, he sent his only son Jesus to die for you, YES YOU. Yet all we have to do is have a relationship with him. The answers are staring us right in the face.
You want perfect peace in your life, get on your knees, read the inspired word of God,ask the Holy Spirit to direct you and he will never let you down. Trouble will still come your way, but because you are firm in your relationship with God and you trust him he will always meet your need
By the way, read THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE by Rick Warren, its excellent stuff.

God Bless


Steve Harvey

CHURCH TODAY

Hi anyone

As this is my first blog expect mistakes, they will come thick and fast. Its 11.37 on a Friday night and i am sitting in my kitchen typing this. Why you might ask?

Three and a half years ago my wife, Alison,myself and my two girls felt led by God to move to the small town of Dunoon in sunny Scotland (i have never seen such rain). God didn't tell us why, or did he, we might not of been listening. We immediately set about finding a church.

Let me explain, we have never been church hoppers, or spiritual gypsys as my friend calls us, but we wanted to find a church that loved each other and God passionately, taught the word of God, lived in community with each other and had something going for our children.

By the way this might offend anyone that lives in Dunoon but that is not my intention, It is maybe to show a different way, maybe just maybe like the early church.

What we found was small church with small church mentality who just seemed intent on disliking each other and the other churches. Of course this was veiled a lot of the time but obviouse to an outsider like myself. Might i add that not all were the same.

We are preaching the word of God right, no we are and so on. terrortries and boundaries, legalisim and the like. You know i could go on and on because there is so much to say about it but i wont all at one time as i can continue with that part of the story at another occasion.

By the way, we werent looking for the perfect church as those that know me know im far from perfect.

So what did we do?.

We prayed and fasted and under Gods leadership we set up Hope community, a place for the poor, the weary, the mentally ill, the addict,the lost, the lonely, the heartbroken, the not yet christian, the adulterer,the backslider etc. Where is this? Not in a building yet, we meet in each others homes as often as we can.

Its not about the size of a congregation, but a genuine love for Jesus and our neighbours. If size does matter to you, we have a massive total of 4 people.

We do however see more people in their homes, thats where we believe at this stage God wants us to be.

The reaction from some of the churches here has been terrible. They speak out against us and our characters and try and divide but you know God is the one who justifies.

We will continue to quietly go about our business showing Gods love and kindness to anyone and everyone praying that the Lord sends his holy spirit and starts to transform us and the people we deal with and the churches in Dunoon to bring Revival to this lovely wee scottish town.

God bless

Steve Harvey