More on ‘The Right Way’… but first

March 3, 2012 § Leave a comment

Hi gang,

Well! I hope you have all had a good week. If you have had food to eat, clothes to wear and a place to sleep you have had a truly blessed week.

Mens breakfast:

What a start to the weekend, what a breakfast, what a word!

This morning saw the men of City Praise Centre, Gravesend, doing life together by gathering at a chosen beefeater for a mens breakfast. Not the first time and it most certainly won’t be the last. We normally have an attendance of around the eighteen to twenty-two/three mark. Our highest that I can remember, is about thirty-two. Today though was special, our pastor, whom I will refer to as Tom, had a special word for us and to go with this the Lord brought along fifty men, wow! Go Jesus, go Jesus, go!

The bonding was great as usual, sitting with at least one person you have not spoken to before and getting to learn a little bit about them. That does not always happen. Sometimes some of us get wrapped up in our own little friends world, me included, and just don’t want to reach out, but there was something different about today.

Breakfast finished, for most that is, there is always the odd bit cutlery clattering in the background. Tom stood up to bring us the word that he had for the men. Lo and behold! An elderly couple came into the restaurant through the french doors at the far side of the building leading in from part of the car park. I could not hear what the lady said but that was really irrelevant, most of the men just heard Tom retort ‘I don’t work here’. As you can imagine all those expectant mighty macho men roared like the lions they are into a rib tickling, gut busting laughter, to the very slight embarrassment of the gentleman’s wife I believe. Eventually recomposed, Tom and the message got underway.

MEN OF THE HOUSE

Ezekiel 22:30 “I looked for a man to stand in the gap” There was the crux of the message. Stand in the gap for the Lord and bring the word of God to His house, His children, His lost children. Brother fellow-men, be there for them, support them in times of hardship in the spiritual sense of the word. Mentor them if they are new to the fold. Let them see the six core values in you.

CORE VALUES:

FAITH,                                                                                                                                                            EXCELLENCE,                                                                                                                                                DEVOTION,                                                                                                                                                        STRENGTH                                                                                                                                                         HONOUR                                                                                                                                                      CHARACTER

Pray to God and ask Him to lay on your heart, the names of at least six or more people who He wants you to be a trusted brother to.

Be a MAN OF THE HOUSE:

There are three key habits that as MEN OF THE HOUSE we need to adopt.

They are:

  • GIVE BIBLICALLY
          Let them see the word of God manifested within you by what comes out of your mouth. Partner with them. Start a new focus group and invite them along to listen to pre recorded DVDs as part of a set programme.
  • ATTEND REGULARLY

Attend the house of God regularly so that they can see your FAITH shine, your DEVOTION to the house, the bride of                                 Christ and your HONOUR to God. Let them see your EXCELLENCE in the word of God, your spiritual STRENGTH and your CHARACTER that has been built within you by the impact of Gods word on your life.

  • PRAY DAILY
          Pray for your church daily, pray for the anointing of God upon your church. Bolster your six brothers up in prayer every day. Pray to God to give you the strength to allow Him to bring forth the anointing that is within you. To be the Jesus that He wants you to be for His children that do not yet know Him.
          It is not word for word as Tom gave it to us this morning, but the message is the same.
Come and join us at our church and be one of the MEN OF THE HOUSE. 
This is just part of what Tom, along with other members of our church have been talking about and praying for, to bring the men of our church inline with the word of God and make them stronger so that they can ‘stand in the gap’ for the Lord.
Don’t forget, we will now as MEN OF THE HOUSE meet every first saturday of the month and be brothers together over a high cholesterol breakfast. Amen
Another diversion then onto ‘The Right Way’
Book jacket for The Right Way by Robert O Russell
          Well, this is a slight diversion but not entirely. There is at this moment on http://www.theparchmentgirl.com                       a giveaway. If you know what a blog is you will probably be familiar with the term giveaway.
 It started at 8am this morning and has been sent out internationally so I have been informed. If you would like to enter to try to win a free copy, go to the above website and log in.
As the author, I have put up one book as a prize for the best post received by the host, and is worthy of first place in her opinion at the end of the giveaway run time, which I believe is two weeks from today.
 Chapter 3-Purgatory
          This was without any doubt the hardest chapter to write. It was only after I started to write that I realised, I had not managed to put this episode of my life behind me as I thought I had. All I had managed to do over the years was to bury it and bury it deeply, so I thought.
          Because God called me to write this book, I soon realised that I could not just skimp over this chapter, and I was not allowed to either. I relived many parts of it many times over the few weeks that it took to finalize, and my fiance on many occasions cradled me in her arms as the tears flowed and flowed and flowed. I came to a point where I just could not cry any more. Periods of sobbing over many days had literally cried the pain and heartache away, and in the end I knew that God had healed me from this vile act that men and women use to gain pleasure from innocent and vulnerable young children.
          Now freed from guilt from letting this happen I was ready to move on with the book. Oh no! Not yet, God was not finished yet. When God cleanses you He really cleanses you. I had to accept that I had to forgive myself before I could forgive the perpetrator, only then could God begin to rebuild me in that area of my life.
          I knew when God had cleansed me fully though because I just sat down and typed out the whole episode of what happened and not a tear was shed from my eyes, not a pain went through my heart, and I even felt compassion towards the perpetrator. Although I am totally comfortable with the memory now, I will not name names as the memory for those who loved him would be soiled for no reason.
          A scary time of my young life, yes without any doubt whatsoever. A worrying time when I got older, you bet. As I approached my fifties I was scared inside that I would actually start to abuse, but praise God that period of inner pain passed after about two years or so. I cannot fully remember because as God heals and cleanses, the dirt and rubbish is cleared away and you really cannot remember with any clarity, because it is not buried it is gone.
But there will be times when I know that God will give those thoughts back to me for a specific purpose for His glory.
What if:
          What if I did not know God, what if I was an ordinary kid with no dad, a mum who was not there for me as a mum should be.
Where would I be now. I don’t know really, and it is not a very appealing idea having to think about it. However I will as I feel that the Holy Spirit wants me to delve into the other side of things.
          Pornography I had never been into in any form, it just made me sick to my stomach which in hindsight was a blessing. Who in their right mind would want to look at pictures of young children being made to perform indecent sexual acts. But this is a road that I could easily have gone down, if God had not been at my side. The thought of having to be totally intimate with another male is inconceivable in my mind, but it could have happened. Thinking about things as I write, I am so grateful to God for taking my biological father home, otherwise things would have been so different. Yes, God is my father and I am a child of God.
          I wonder now what torment the perpetrator actually went through, did he suffer when he was a child. This sickening lifestyle is an abomination unto God and cannot be treated lightly. It needs constant prayer for the protection of young girls and boys. It also need prayer for the perpetrators as well, for they are not perverts they are ill. They have inside them an evil spirit the spirit of perversion, and this desperately needs to be prayed against, in the mighty name of Jesus of Nazareth.
May God bless you and your families throughout the coming week.
Look out for Poets Corner… coming soon.
Meanwhile, stay good – you know you should, and if you tried you know you could.
#Faith#Jesus#Spirituality#Truth#God
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And yes there’s more

February 26, 2012 § Leave a comment

Hi there,

Another week gone by, where does the time go to. I used to think when I was younger that older people sometimes spoke a lot of rubbish, especially with some of the old wives tales that used to be prevalent at that time. I remember hearing many times the words, time goes much faster when you get older, so make the most of your time while you are young.

I used to get fed up with time when I was young, sometimes a week would seem like a lifetime. Funny how things change. Now I wish there were more hours in a day, more days in a week and that the weekends were longer.

Because time seems to pass by so quickly makes me think did I, or do we do things the right way. This brings me to my blog update for the next few weeks. Having recently written an autobiography called ‘The Right Way’ I have decided to examine different sections of the book. To look at what could have happened if I had done things differently. What do I really mean by ‘The Right Way’ and is the right way the correct way.

Join in with me as the weeks progress, leave a comment, do you agree or disagree.

Week 4, Blog 4 ‘The Right Way’

So is ‘The Right Way’ right or wrong. In a nutshell it depends on  what you want out of life. Do you want a good life, one which is full of love, happiness, joy and salvation then yes it is the right way. On the other hand if you enjoy torment, vulnerability, uncertainty and sadness. The idea of being used to hurt and deceive others, then yes this may be the right way for you. But it is the wrong way to go.

I can say the above through experience in many areas of life which are open to us if we do not want to follow Jesus.

Let me delve further into my younger years as mentioned in my book ‘The Right Way’. The amniotic membrane that was over my head is said to have spiritual significance when birthed in that way. If it did or not I had no idea and it has meant absolutely nothing to me for the last fifty nine years. Now though two and a half years after writing ‘The Right Way’ I have had time to reflect on what I wrote and of course what has happened since. It makes me wonder where I would have been if I had followed the correct path that God had planned for my life all that time. For me I know now that things could have been very different spiritually, I would not have been in some of the dark situations that I have encountered from time to time.

I cannot say with any certainty what would have happened in my life for only God knows that answer. All I can say is that I am at this moment in my life very happy, content, a work in progress where the Lord is concerned but I know I am going ‘The Right Way’

What about the other way, what could have happened. Well, for a start if things had carried on where motoring convictions were concerned I would have probably have ended up in prison. Married women, if that had carried on I would not like to think what may have happened. I was once threatened with having my throat cut from one ear to the other just for talking to a man’s wife and someone else getting the wrong idea and talking out of turn.

That episode in itself taught me to mind my own business, it didn’t make any difference at the time but I did know. The incident with the coach, if the Lord had not had His hand on my life and my foot had just squeezed a further two MPH out of the engine I could well have been looking at a very long manslaughter sentence. Now is any of this what a well balanced person want for there life, the answer is no and because we would be off balance with our weight of sin brought about by allowing the enemy to be in charge of our lives.

Although I have had visions and revelations over the past six years that I have been back with the Lord, some of the visions over the last two and a half years have been really breath taking. In the main they are to do with the growth of our church but at times they are for an individual within our home connect group. I even get visions for my wife which just cements for me what God laid on my heart when we first met, that we really are soul mates.

Join me next week when I will expand on another section of my book ‘The Right Way’

Meanwhile, stay good-you know you should, and if you tried you know you could.

God bless

Robert

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