And he Himself, gave some to be Apostles

This is my 5^th worship service in 3 days!  The Lord has filled me with so much joy I feel like I’m ascending to heaven right now.  God is so Good!  As some of you know we were at ladies conference the last few days and we had such a great time!  I was telling Pastor Shaw how when we came out of that church we were so filled with joy in the spirit… Julie stood over the car to bless it!  So Pastor Shaw says was that a Chrysler?  I said It’s a dodge.  He says well she had to pray over the car… those cars have problems you know.   My jaw dropped… you know you could lose your crown for that!  Don’t you know my car has Hemi!

Lisa, I am honored that you would ask me to speak here today.  It shows how welcome I am and how much you want me here and that you trust me to speak not only from my heart but that you also believe my heart is in the right place to do so. I love you so much!  I love mom too!  Today we are celebrating our Pastor’s to show them how much we appreciate them.  I thought on this quite a bit, what gift could I give the Shaw’s to show how much I appreciate them?   

Last year I spoke of this being the church of my dreams.  I talked of how broken I was when I walked through the door and how ready you were to help me.  Today I’d like to talk to you about the things that led me through the door.  As I do I’d like you to remember what the Lord said “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

So about a year before I came here, I was at a place in my life where I had accomplished all of my goals and no longer had a direction to go.  A few choices were in front of me but I didn’t know which way to go as I had no strong desire for any of them.  My heart wanted one thing while my mind wanted another.  So being divided only my soul could tell me what to do.   So I said Soul…I’ve never asked you before… please give me your opinion.  I’ll wait for it… but please let it be known to me.  I fell asleep and dreamed and I was given a prophecy of what would happen along that path if I chose to take it.  At the end of the dream in the most authoritative voice I could hear, the Lord said “It will be as it is written” I was in total shock and awe and fear that God has spoken to me.  I wanted to find something to hide under I was so scared.  But I did nothing.  Two months later my brother died and I was broken.  I didn’t care anymore about anything.  There was no amount of money or possession or friends that had a word to say that I cared about.  Nothing mattered except that my brother was dead.  I called out to the Lord…. I don’t know why you would let this happen, but I need you to lift me up and help me get through this because my parents and my family need me to give them strength to bear this.   I had another dream.  Again, I saw many things.  This time the Lord asked me to do something.  I turned to him and said No not me….. I do not have that kind of faith….you need to get a priest or at least a holy person….I don’t have enough faith to do that.  And he said then what will you do?  Will you just stand by and watch and let this happen?  You are the only one that is here and even your small faith will work.

So when I woke up I knew to do what the Lord had asked I needed to increase my faith.  I realized I had to find a church and learn.  My heart was shattered at losing my brother and I needed help.  I knew the only place to get that help was in church.  So I researched.  I had already spent many years looking at various religions and denominations and I had been mainly inspired by the Pentecostal.  So I looked for the closest one and found Lifepoint on the internet.  I wasn’t sure so I read the entire site.  I was a little perplexed on a few things but then I found the sermons and I listened.    Adam was preaching, tears streamed down my face, not in sorrow from my brother’s death but in joy.  I felt the presence of God in that room with me.  I felt that he was speaking straight to me through Adam’s voice. Funny enough,  Adam was the first to greet me when I walked through the door.  Pastor Shaw was the second.  Guess I was here too early that day for the greeters.  I was a bit eager to get here. 

 The anointing the Lord has placed on Adam is a blessing to all of us.  I am grateful the Lord has given him to us that we receive his teaching.  It was that voice that led me to the door.  You would think that would be it then.  All glory and blessings from there on out.  Ya, I thought so! 

You don’t need to be here long to see that the Pastor’s vision is to grow this church. His vision has put systems in place ready to receive visitors from all walks and circumstances.  When I came through that door you were all ready.  Some of you helped me learn to pray and taught me the bible. When I came through that door and received healing I thought that would be it.  It would be smooth sailing but I was about to go through more.  I would lose more of the closest people I had in my life.  I have been tested at every turn.  I have had as much pulling me in as I’ve had trying to pull me out.  The devil has thrown people in my path that ask me questions, complete strangers grill me on the meaning of this and that in the bible.  At times I’ve gone through day after day of these examinations.  

I am the queen of detours!   Sister Claudia and Julie will tell you I am the queen of detours.  Sister Julie said to me today “yes you are!  But they aren’t all your fault!”  Thoughts have come into my head that I’m going crazy, none of this is real, I don’t need to live this life, my old life wasn’t all that bad.  Even some of you have rejected me rather than helped me. I have nearly determined myself three times to not ever come back here.  Thankfully, there have more of you that help hold me here and have helped pick me up from every stumbling block that has been thrown in my path. 

Everytime I’ve stood up and said I believe I’ve taken another blow. I’m standing on the sidelines watching as my mother and my son lose all hope, all joy because they don’t have the spirit and the devil is giving them a beating.  In fact last Wednesday night as I’m rushing myself out the door my son says to me he wants to commit suicide.  So the devil is not just trying to destroy the ones I love but he’s trying to stop me with everything he’s got to keep me from going to the Lord.  Well enough already.  There comes a time when you say it doesn’t matter.  Knock me down, beat me with a strap, throw whatever you want at me.  I’m going to worship the Lord and I’m going to praise his name no matter what the devil wants to do about it.  I am for Jesus!

30 years ago Mike Shaw made that decision for himself.  And thanks to that decision how many have been saved?  How many has he inspired to become pastors, teachers, apostles, prophets, evangelists, men of God?  Does that sound like someone you know? 

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,

The man who has submitted his will and purposes entirely to God, carries God with him in all his works and in all circumstances.
..................................... Meister Eckhart

A year ago I spoke here about this being the church of my dreams.  Here is what I said

The church of the warm heart, of the open mind, of the adventurous spirit.

The church that cares, that heals hurt lives, that comforts old people, that challenges youth.

That knows no divisions of culture or class, no frontiers, geographical or social.

The church that inquires as well as answers, that looks forward as well as backward.

The church of the Master

The church of the People

High as the ideals of Jesus, low as the humblest human

A working church, a worshipping church a winsome church

A church that interprets the truth in terms of truth

That inspires courage for this life and hope for the life to come.

A church of courage, a church of all good men.  A church of the living God.

When we take our last breath, we will join those who have gone before us in Christ.  Eternity will be spent with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  The relationships we have with each other are important.  Do we not normally welcome new members to our family?  Are we not overjoyed for each one that is born?  So is the Lord when we are born in Christ, even the angels sing.  Lets rejoice with him, welcome them and have relationship with them.  We are to be made into his image.   So when they walk through that door let it be Jesus that they see in you. Not just Julie, not just Claudia, not just me, Let them see that The lord has sent them to us because we are his church.

See that its not just Pastor Shaw’s vision we are standing behind.  It is the vision of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Love of God overflow.  Permeate all my soul.

"say it aint so Joe"

A famous question asked by a small boy to Shoeless Joe Jackson about the accusations of baseballs Chicago white sox throwing a world series.

In this case we need another small boy to ask “say it is so Lance” its time for Lance Armstrong to come out and admit what we have all known for a long time that he doped.

I have been a cycling fan since I was a kid watching the Tour de France on ITVs World of Sport programme (for non UK readers it was a Saturday afternoon sports programme that run for 20 years, covering lots of different sports).

Getting into the 1990s much more sport was shown on mainstream channels as they expanded the numbers from the 3 or 4 to hundreds so instead of those highlights we got to see live action in all its wonderful glory, the stunning scenery (unsurprisingly one of the biggest sponsors is the French tourist board) the drama and sheer romance of the worlds greatest race.

Cycling ever since its early days had a drugs problem with the riders taking all sorts of concoctions.  This was bought sharply into focus in the 1960s with the death of the British rider Tom Simpson[1] which at the autopsy they found traces of amphetamines.

A great BBC documentary “death on a mountain” on what happened can be found on YouTube here 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tGJsxGFhxg

These drugs and concoctions were really rather minor to what come along later but what they did do was to make it kind of acceptable with the later consequences that a sort of blind eye was in effect not realising the advance in drug technologies. This almost killed the sport.

Moving into the 80s and 90s much more effective performance enhancing drugs were starting to be used Steroids, Testosterone, Human growth hormone (HGH) and then into the 1990s come along what can only be described as manna from heaven for the drugs cheats in endurance sports like cycling, cross country skiing etc.  The name of that drug was Erythropoietin[2] more generally known as EPO. What this drug does was to produce more red blood cells turning the blood stream thicker and making it a super highway for oxygen. The drug itself only had a few legitimate uses (red blood cell replacement in chemotherapy for instance) sales were expected to be low but by one stage late in the 1990s it was the 4^th best selling drug in Europe  

At the time it was undetectable so the authorities used a test called the Hemocrit test which checked the count of red cells, the normal person would be expected to be in the mid 30 to low 40 range so what they did was set a limit of 50 and if anyone found over that were stood down for further tests as it was possible at times for normal reasons the number goes above, and also could be a sign of a serious illness.

EPO gave an increase in performance of around 15% which is absolutely enormous at the elite level of sport so along with testosterone and HGH the performance was truly extraordinary but there was a cost that a risk of a heart attack was a serious danger. In those years there was a high amount of young fit athletes from across the spectrum of sports dying mysteriously in their sleep from heart attacks. There had been stories flying around of people sleeping with heart monitors on which woke them up so they could be found on their bikes on rollers to keep the thickened blood circulating.

After the Festina scandal of 1998 when a team car was found with a huge amount of drugs being carried including EPO, steroids etc that it was certain that some teams were def using.

With this huge increase in performance anyone that wanted to be competitive at the top level would have had to dope.

Lance Armstrong then wins 7 tours from the late 90s until 2005 which in those years and against other caught and admitted dopers is just inconceivable that he didn’t.

Take this YouTube video from 2003 of Lances assent to Luz Ardiden which is a sky resort in the Pyrenees where he is almost sprinting up it, this is not a little ramp. Of the group chasing him just about all of them have been caught, banned or admitted they used EPO. If you watch them cycling up it now it’s much slower and then compare to those days you can see plainly how ludicrous it is trying to claim that it wasn’t drug fuelled. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEqQW1-casM&feature=related

Finally from about 2006/2007 the sports authorities finally got a handle on the situation with better testing and targeting of riders and since then its become a much cleaner sport, I can say with great confidence that the last couple of winners in Cadel Evans and Brad Wiggins that they are winning clean cant of course say for definite as to prove a negative is not possible.

In defence of cycling I would say now that its one of the cleaner sports around as they have tried to do something about it, some sports even now just pays lip service at most.

Cycling and all sport will never be completely clean as there always be some that will cheat at whatever they do in life but hopefully will be a minimum.

So come on Lance say it is so and we can then move on from those years.

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Simpson

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietin

Where is the socialism of which you speak?

Every few days I seem to end up with an argument where I comment [1] on economics & politics about socialism and what it’s done to the world over the last 30 years.

1945 until early 1970s

After the Second World War we had an informal agreement between capital and labour of what was the called the post war consensus which was really a social democratic system, yes tax rates for the richest were very high around 90% and above in some countries but it worked we had good growth and an acceptable wealth gap.

Company directors etc worked with a reasonable 6-12 times general workers salary.

Keynesian lite policies were used and the western nations become very prosperous and generally fair places to live unlike the communist east at the time. Full employment was the accepted norm although has to be said that was for men but this was a different time.

 It would be unfair to say that it wasn’t without problems but what system is perfect?

Early 1970s onwards

The oil shock of the early 70s caused some severe push/cost inflation, with full employment at the time this then caused demand/pull inflation with a wage price spiral leading to the famous stagflation [2] of those years. Keynesian lite policies didn’t seem to provide an answer to these problems.

The rise of the right

Into this mix come along Milton Friedman and the Chicago school [3] of free markets and dislike of the state who stepped up a campaign to get their policies adopted. They were lucky enough to find Ronald Reagan for the republicans and Margaret Thatcher (already a big admirer of the free market economist Freidrick Van Hayek) for the conservatives who would listen to their ideas and put them into practice. This gave rise to the movement of Neoliberalism[4] (also known as Neocon in the US)

Into the 90s

The Neoliberals took over more and more as we moved into the 90s and even into the late 90s when Clinton for the Democrats and Tony Blair for “new” Labour come to power there really wasn’t much difference, you really couldn’t if you looked at the policies closely actually find much difference between the parties. They may have been a bit fairer but that was really it. The deregulation started by Reagan and Thatcher was carried on with even less particularly in the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) sector after all the Neoliberal mantra that markets are self regulating and tend towards equilibrium, globalisation and movement of capital across borders, jobs off shoring for higher profits. At no point was there a socialist government who said stop lets have a look at what’s going on.

A completely free market & free capital movement is total anathema to a socialist so I am always very confused at the accusations or is something more sinister at work?

More on that next time.

Andy

---

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_of_economics

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Eurozone falling apart

Dumb idea to start with without having fiscal & political union was never going to work

A couple of articles or three that attracted my attention including one from Germany/


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/29/spain-riot-police/

 http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/28/greek-police-send-crime-victims-to-neo-nazi-protectors/

 http://www.theblaze.com/stories/thousands-protest-across-germany-for-higher-taxes-on-the-wealthy/


Going to be keeping a watch over the next few weeks as it looks to me like we are at a crucial juncture.

Austerity is it a new thing?

Sabrina reminded me of something and its sparked something intresting to me with modern economics.

I was christened into the Anglican faith, although my parents had moved from Devon to London before I
was born so summers when i was a kid were spent in the lovely devon countryside. Every sunday we were
required to go to church but even as a youngster I felt there was something wrong (and this may be the
connection with my later athiesm) it was depressing something almost puritanical about it.

As ive got older and had part of our group of friends who were Catholics after the pub on christmas eve
we would invariably end up at midnight mass which seem to be much more joyful.  Later visiting cathedrals
and churches as i love the architecture it struck much how much more intresting Catholic churches in
general were (the Vatican museum is an absolutely stunning group of buildings) Sabrina linked me
to some of her pentecostal sermons and reminds me of the Baptists as well of the feeling of the sermons
much more joyous.

Going back in time it appears that the anglican faith was related to the first Lutherian churches of
Northern central europe and puritanical in way that hard work and a simple life is the only  way to God.

Lets step forward into the Industrial revolution and into free market economics. The driver of course
in the Industrial revolution were the British especially what became known to the Germans as "manchesterism"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_capitalism

This form of capitalism was pre eminent in the Industrial revolution and was directly descended from
the protestant form of religion and hard work that the puritans had admired. Classical economics and
later Neoclassical economics are to come from this and spread right across the Northern European
countries that were and are mostly lutherian type protestants but for a long time they were sidelined
as a type of Keynesian Economics which was a synthesis of Keynes and Neoclassical economics, what us
Post Keynsesian types refer to (Coined by Joan Robinson, a Professor of Economics at Cambridge) as
bastard Keynesians.  Although was a mix it wasnt actually too bad at the time but had some major
flaws in trying to synthesise the 2 schools and when the oil crisis of the 1970s come along it failed
to predict or have any effect on it causing stagflation.
Waiting in the wings were the hardcore right wing of neoclassical economics, Milton Freidman, Friedrich
Hayek etc who were heavily influenced by Manchester capitalism and the free market economics of that
period. Although in the USA they were from northern european stock and therefore influenced in some
way by the puritanism of the forefathers?

Move forward into the early 1980s and along come 2 uber free market types in Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagen amongst the backdrop of the ongoing cold war. It can be no surprise to learn that Thatcher
in particular was influenced by Hayek.  Straight away workers rights were eroded, the free market was
let loose to the final damage we are now seeing.   This become known to a lot as Anglo Saxon economics
but again driven by the Northern Europeans& the USA but including Germany & The Netherlands. To us
on the left its Neoliberalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Forward again to the Eurozone, it can be no surprise that the so called sinner states are Catholic
or in the case of Greece Orthidox that dont have the puritan anglo saxon work and austere thinking.
Being in the Euro these periphery states have no choice but to have this "austerity" enforced on them,
The UK conservative government doing the same thing, calls from the US right to do the same thing but
which makes no economic sense.   France dont be fooled is Catholic of course and will be next in line
to be shot at by the bond vigilantes and seems to be just be going along with the protestant countries
for now.

It seems to me that all this talk of austerity being the way out is some hold over from the differences
between the original protestent break from the Catholic church. Is the old split between northern and
southern Europe alive and kicking?

Andy

From right to left a journey

Sabrina put up a nice post about her journey, I think its worthwhile to bring up my own.
I am completely surprised at where I am now.

Up to the middle of 2008 I had always considered myself to the right of centre, conservative
with fiscal policies etc although to be really honest about it I had no real interest in
either politics or economics. I would suggest I did care about what happened to other people
so there was an element about my make up that wouldnt make me like a Randian style of world.


September 2008 the Great Financial Crisis come upon us and although it didnt have an effect
on me as such I was very curious about what happened as we had supposed to have learnt from
the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At first gravitated to blogs that where to my political leanings lay which were blaming competiveness, the
welfare states, national debt being a problem frankly the whole of right wing thinking economics
wise.
One day a question was asked by a blogger

It was "why do governments borrow except for in wartime? its madness"

Now the question was rhetorical really as he then went on to make a whole argument why they
shouldnt. But I was intrigued why indeed do they borrow? I knew the usual answer that it was
the difference between taxing and spending and that they borrow to make up the difference but
a quick check showed me something odd in that for most of the last 300 years the UK had borrowed
just about every year as by that standard we should have been broke as a country a long time
ago.
I decided to look a bit further as it didnt really make sense so I searched until a few searches
in a website was suggested

http://rodgermmitchell.wordpress.com/

Rodger was explaining something he called monetary sovereignty which was an understanding
of how a FIAT money system works and claimed that deficits were not only desirable but
actually necessary. In that kind of system it is the government that create money that is
used by the private sector and that a growing economy required an expanding quantity of money.
That government borrowing was actually an illusion, that taxes dont fund the government and
bonds dont play a financing role in todays system.
The government own the printing press and nothing backs that money ie gold, silver etc.
This was mind blowing to me and straight away knew without doubt that he was quite correct
and that it had to be that way. This was a few months after the general election in the UK
that had the prime minister to be saying "the country has overspent on its credit card" and
now ive found out thats a misleading slogan at best a complete lie being the worst. My whole
political beliefs were based on a non truth.

Reading more of Rodger (who is a lovely man I should add)it couldnt be this simple
but I kept coming across a reference to something called MMT which I found stood for
something called Modern Monetary Theory that Rodger said was related and a lot of the
comments on his pages were by people calling themselves MMTers.
A quick google and I found this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartalism

Where I found it was a school of economics that used the nickname MMT. On further investigation
I found it was part of what is called Post Keynesian Economics, now I knew a little bit
about John Maynard Keynes but what I didnt know that the Keynesian economics that the press
and the right like to believe is a school called NeoKeynesian economics who one of the
people that profess to be that are Paul Krugman. Further that the Post Keynesians claim to
be the real descendants of Keynesian theory and that the Neo Keynesians are part of the mainstream
current dominant school of Neo Classical economics.

Back to my story so I started reading some of the MMT sites (links to a few on my profile)
This was much more sophisticated than Roger and showed a truth to the system that I realised
we were not being told and it seem to be something certainly the right wing parties were seeking
to obscure.

My base for how the system works has then been changed, what else could be wrong?
It seems pretty much all the right wing ideology is based on Neoliberal/Neocon beliefs in the free
market and the equilibrium which then ensues is completely and damagingly wrong, its exactly why we
are in mess we have.

Next time you hear a politician say we have run out of money, stop think and ask yourself is this really
true?

Andy

Walking with God

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos 3:3

There was a time when I loved the world more than God.  I wanted the desires of my own heart and my own will.  I loved the world.  The things of the world and worldly things were my desire and refuge.

The Lord saw the world under his curse, and I loved its favour and its blessing--seeking  to enjoy that which God had denounced.  The Lord saw that the world was full of evil, whilst I saw it full of good. Therefore we could not agree.

In order to be agreed with God, we must have God's thoughts in our heart, God's ways in our soul, and God's love in our affections.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:8

We must strive for them to become one.  When God's thoughts become our thoughts and God's ways our ways, when we have the mind of Christ and see with the eyes of God, then God and we become agreed, and being agreed, we can walk together.

What is it to walk together?  It is to enjoy union, communion, fellowship, and friendship.   A few weeks ago I was on a roadtrip with Jesus.  I was listening to some old CD’s – non christian.  As I was listening the songs meanings changed in my mind as they were being sung.  In some songs I was singing to Jesus, in other songs he was singing to me and in others we sang together.  The Eagles song “Take it Easy” , lyrics “just find a place to lie your head and take it easy”  Jesus was saying just go where your feet take you and trust in me.  You have no need to worry, I’m right here with you.  Song after song this went on… for hours!  I was so excited I was dancing in my seat.  Jesus was with me!

As we are brought to agree with God, we walk with God.  Do we need to walk with God?

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with Confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  Hebrews 4:16

As the eyes are enlightened to see the truth of God; as the heart is touched to feel the power of God; and as  affections are drawn forth to love the things of God, we meet at the mercy-seat.

It is sprinkled with blood; it contains and hides from view the broken tables of the law. There God meets man in gracious friendship, and enables us to pour out our soul before him and to tell him our troubles, trials, and temptations. Every now and then he sweetly relieves us by dropping in a gracious promise, applying some portion of his sacred truth, encouraging us to believe, and still to hope in his mercy.

"And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." Psalm 107:7

"He led them forth." Forth out of the world--forth out of sin--forth out of a profession--forth out of a name to live--forth out of everything hateful to his holy and pure eyes. "To go to a city of habitation." They had no city to dwell in here below; but they were journeying to a city of habitation above, whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise; where there are eternal realities to be enjoyed by the soul; where there is something stable and eternal; something to satisfy all the wants of a capacious and immortal spirit, and give it that rest which it never could find while wandering here below. If we have a city here, we want no city above; and if we have a city above, we want no city here.

This then must be our state and case; either to be pilgrims, journeying onwards, through troubles, to things above, or taking up our abode below; seeking heaven here, or heaven hereafter; resting upon the world, or resting upon the Lord; panting after the things of time, or panting after the things of eternity; satisfied in self, or satisfied only in Christ. One of the two must be our state and case. The Lord reveals it clearly in the hearts of his people that they are on his side; and give us to know and feel that our very restlessness and inability to find food and shelter in the things of time and sense, are leading us more earnestly and believingly to seek after the things that have reality in them; that finding no city to dwell in here below, we may press forward to  being citizens of that city which is above, "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God!"