What should our response be when we come under fire spiritually? The Bible is clear, we are simply to ‘Stand Firm’. For many of us the reaction is to retaliate. But the Bible teaches us that retaliation is not what God wants. Jesus who was so tempted did not retaliate, he simply used the word of God to stand firm on its truth and authority.

Why is simply standing firm so effective? Partly because is shows God’s authority at work in out lives to others, and also because it shows that we ourselves mean no harm to our oppressors. We want them to reflect on their actions, to see the need for repentance and to make that change of heart only possible through God himself.

I have been under attack myself during the last year. I can testify to God’s amazing protection and his power to enable me to forgive my oppressors. In no way do I say this to boast but to encourage us all not to fear but to know that God will not allow us to be harmed if our foundations are securely rooted in him.

However, we are not to condone evil. This is another reason to ‘Stand Firm’ – to demonstrate that condoning is not acceptable and that oppressors have to be prepared to change if they are to be reconciled to God.

‘Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace’. Ephesians 6: 14-15

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Do you find yourself going round in loops of negative thoughts?
You push them away only to find you’re back in the loop when you least expect it.
You can’t seem to get rid of it and it leaves you feeling down and anxious with no real desire to talk with God.

What’s going on? Is this how God wants me to feel? I know God’s in control but it doesn’t feel like it, perhaps he’s busy somewhere else.

Then in my cry of help, where are you God? He reminds me of the other person trying to control my life … Satan!

Yes, I’d forgotten about him. To be honest I’d never really taken his influence that seriously, after all Jesus has defeated him (Col. 2:15).
With a little bit more reading especially from Paul’s letters I realise I’ve been playing right into Satan’s hands. The more I don’t acknowledge his influence the easier it is for him to undermine me and leave me feeling fearful and distant from God.

Satan wants people to believe that he is not active today.

Paul says; (1 Pet. 4:8) ‘Your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’

If Satan went after Jesus, he will certainly come after me. So it’s time to be prepared. First thing to do is to take my head out of the sand and realise I’m in a battle and need to stand up and fight.

I know that he will use my weaknesses, things I repeatedly fail at and also my strengths as opportunities for pride. That he daily baits his hook with tailor made temptations. But we have God’s word, we have his promises, his truth, our trust and now more awareness of Satan’s tactics.

Some days I know I will fail and bite on his hook but now it won’t be from ignorance and it may take me down but not out because this battle is one we can take to Jesus and know we can win.

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As we live in a world where Twitter has restricted information to 140 characters, we thought it would be interesting to apply this format to a list of ‘Ultimate Spiritual Goals’

We would like to make an anonymous list of these ‘tweets’ to show the variety of our goals in our walk of faith. The list may be published.

Please finish the sentence “My ultimate spiritual goal is …”

Use a maximum of 140 characters … not including the first 5 words!

This is a way of looking at your life that may be useful to you. There are no ‘correct’ answers.

You may like to do the exercise in a small group and share your goals.

If you would like to share in our larger group please email your goal to Eddie James (eddie.james @ cvm.org.uk) by 17 May. You can also tweet it to us @cvm50plus or post it on our new CVM 50 Plus Facebook page.

Many thanks for taking part in this venture.

This blog is not about using super-spiritual language referring to the congregation or a fellowship, but is actually about being a shepherd.

Now this is not my normal employment, my job takes me all over the country delivering support and training for businesses, but every year I take a couple of weeks off and look after a good friends flock of sheep whilst the mothers try and run away from their lambs.

In many ways I simply teach sheep to count up to 2 (the ones I look after have twins) and sometimes the advance class can go up to 3!!
So for the past two weeks I have been looking after these sheep. Now sheep are not as thick as people may think. In truth they are cunning, plotting and planning animals that will take advantage of you as soon as you as you drop your guard; running through the smallest of gaps because you didn’t quite tie up the gate as well as you should; deliberately aiming for your knees rather than going round you as they run past, ignoring their lambs so you need to bend down to their level just in time for you to receive a swift blow to the temple by one of their horns.

Believe me, sheep are not thick – they know exactly what they are doing!!!

It was after just such an instance that I found myself beginning to lose my patience with one ewe in particular. She had been nothing but trouble all day. First she forgot she had two lambs and was ignoring one of them, then she bolted as I was moving her to a place where we keep mother and lambs closer together, she had butted me as I tried to get her own lambs to suckle and finally she had jumped out of her pen whilst I was feeding other sheep.

I was tempted to pick the flippin’ thing up and chuck her back in the pen with the sort of force that reminded her that I was meant to be the clever one in the shed, not her!!

As I lunged for the ewe (and I was actually quite proud of how quickly I made it across the sheep-shed to catch her) I was suddenly reminded of a bit of scripture, which I later found was in Matthew ch. 25: “You were faithful in a few things, come and be in charge of many”.
Here was I getting frustrated with an animal, and deep in my heart I want to be able to guide my fellow believers. If I can’t control my frustrations with sheep, how will I cope with the complexities of leading people?

Every day we have a choice to respond to the opportunities we are given in a few, small things to learn how to deal with the many, bigger things God has in store for us to be part of. I don’t want to lose my opportunity to serve the Living God – even more because I can’t deal with the frustrations of the few things He gives me to do now.

Steve Laugher – Area rep for Ripon and the Dales, Methodist Preacher and member of the Leadership of Masham Methodist Church.

Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

 Are you listening, are you acting?

The challenging words above from Jesus’ brother are unequivocal. They call for us not only to open our ears and pay attention to the preacher or teacher, but to absorb the Word into our deepest being so we are marinaded in it to the extent it breaks forth in action out of love for God and our neighbour.

So, are you serving or are you being served? Hopefully both. But so many in our congregations are consumers and not contributors. Excuses, excuses, excuses; too busy with work, family, health, wealth issues. Busy, busy, busy. Really?

The importance of being Ernest (or Tom or Dick or Harry)

I responded to a message such as this 20-odd years ago when my children were very young. Sunday School teachers were, and sadly still are, in short supply.

What are your memories of Sunday School?

Carly Fiorina (erstwhile CEO of Hewlett Packard) in her interesting autobiography Tough Choices recounts how she was given a coaster at Sunday School that read;

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.”

Clearly these words are foundational for her and gave her direction. My own memories are less inspirational and are more along the lines of being inoculated against organised religion! Fortunately that immunisation has long since worn off and I have found enormous reward in teaching Sunday School, even now as an empty nester.

I teach 11-13 year olds in a wonderful team that consists of two couples and a young man. This means our pre-teens have four men in their class at different times throughout the course of the year. This is unique in my experience and so valuable as the children, particularly the boys, see male role models in a predominantly female preserve. Hopefully this gives the boys, at least, some incentive to explore their own faith at a key moment in their physical, emotional and spiritual development.

For me, the empty nesting season in my life has led to less busyness and allows me more time to plan, to teach, to lead; although I miss my own children’s help in finding the cultural references!

As the academic year comes to a close we face the perennial problem of staffing for the forthcoming year. How is that? With 25 children registered in my class that means there must be close to 50 potential teachers; how light the load would be if they all stepped up next year!

Are you listening, are you acting?

S0 where does that leave you? If not here, Sunday School, where? If not now, when? If not you, who?

Are you being served or are you serving?

My burden and passion for the evangelisation of the ‘older Generations’ has grown and deepened over the past few years as I believe I have sensed the burden and passion of God’s Heart. These statistics give an idea of the mammoth task which still lies ahead of us as Christians and as a Church;-

• Since 2008 there have been more people over 65 in the UK population than under 16
• By 2033, 23% of the population will be aged 65 and over compared to 18% aged 16 or younger
• The fastest growing group is the over 80′s. In 2008 there were 2.7 million or 5% of the UK population

What an amazing demographic shift in our Nation and in many other Nations too — one we have to get to grips with. When we talk about mission to and among the ‘older-generations’ we are talking about reaching out with the love of Jesus to those who are ‘on the edge of eternity’, with possibly not that many years left to hear and respond to the Gospel. As I write this it is less than three weeks to Easter when Christians will celebrate and remember afresh the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May it be a time for each of us to commit ourselves afresh to proclaiming this wonderful and great news.

There are millions of older people waiting to hear, but how will they hear without a witness? Unless someone goes to them they won’t, so will it be you?

Outlook Trust came into being in November 1992 and ever since has been committed to evangelism amongst the over 55′s. We are fully committed to this task of proclaiming Christ through word and action, always trusting in the Holy Spirit to empower and guide us to fulfil what we believe is a ‘God-given task’ – to build the Kingdom of God in Older-People’s lives and prepare them for eternity. Our resources both practical and in expertise and experience are available to any who share in this passion and burden from God.

In Luke 2 v49 we find Jesus replying to his parents as recorded in The Message: “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” Jesus had put God’s work as his first priority. The question facing us is where do we put God in our daily order of priorities? And how honest are we going to be in answering it? Do we put him first in all things?

We have responsibilities to our family and employer if we are still working but do we sit down with our Father and sort out how He wants us to plan the activities we are involved in. Jesus knew His priorities but do we? And if we do are they in line with His?

To be able to make the right choice we must have clear and consistent communication with our Lord and know Him as our Father anchored by grace and mercy in his family. When we are sure of our position in Him we will find He will show us the order in which He wants us progress and how he will lead us to achieve them. As we follow Him and obey His commands He will show us the results that will be mind blowing.

Clarity of vision means clarity of purpose so that every time we step outside the front door we will recognise that we are going out and about on God’s business. As we make our journeys we are going to see how He is giving us constant encouragement as His agents for change.

Jesus knew His priorities and vision and through Him so can we. Are you up for the challenge that he has given?

I was born in 1940, by 1955 I was in a skiffle group playing the tea chest! Then along came the ‘Boomers’, those born 1944-64. They developed our musical ideas and invented rock and roll along with the pill, computers, hydraulic excavators and even digital drum kits!!

Those post-war-bulge babies are now retiring, they have plenty of money, energy, ideas, imagination, management experience, social skills … they certainly don`t think they are ‘old’, they just embarrass their kids, as we always have!

The ‘Boomers’ are the last generation who went to Sunday School and Crusaders in large numbers, they know a little about the life and ministry of Jesus, they know that Easter is more than eggs. They drifted away from church for a variety of reasons, it was not relevant, their gifts were not being used, it was boring.

How do we re-engage those who have a residual Christian faith but have left church? Many have a nostalgia for their past, they have explored alternative spiritualities and found them empty. They are talented and experienced and are looking for a challenge and adventure. They are looking for a lot more than an invitation to a ‘guest service’, this is far too passive for most.

But they might well respond to a partnership in social or development projects, to work alongside the church community to the benefit of our localities. If you make disciples, you’ll always get the church. But if you make the church, you rarely get disciples.

One definition of ‘Civilisation’ is ‘how a society cares for the vulnerable … the sick, the old, the homeless and the weak.’

There are 376,000 older people living in 10,000 care homes in England. Many do not have access to a geriatrician, who could significantly improve their quality of life by taking an overview of their complex age-related health problems. Of those that do have access, some have to wait as long as 18 weeks to receive treatment. The average life expectancy of an older person entering a care home is 18 months!

A recent pilot study for a national care group on the ‘Spirituality of Older Men’, highlighted the importance of men from the local church befriending men in care homes and taking them out. Men in care homes are outnumbered significantly by women so the culture is inevitably feminised leaving men marginalised. Their spiritual and social needs are very varied: one to one Bible discussion, invitation to a men’s breakfast, a pint down the pub, a trip to a football match or a car ride to a good beach.

The majority of local churches are not involved with visiting the men in care homes. Such visits require a dedicated team who are flexible and imaginative. Advocacy skills within the team will be important to enable any dissatisfaction or frustration to be brought to the management’s attention. Residents often feel unable to complain on their own behalf. It will take time to build up relationships and trust with both the staff and residents. Remember also that about 40% of residents have dementia … just one more thing to embrace!

I am an artist and have often walked across a landscape and gasped in amazement at the beauty and wonder of God’s creation displayed in the natural world. When I look at the way humans are designed, their abilities, their creative imagination and potential I also see the wonder of God at work. However if we stop for a moment and compare nature with humanity we see interesting differences.

Nature – If left alone it is self sustaining and able to manage its own development: nature has an amazing ability to look after itself without the need of help – even when an animal kills another for food, there is no evil intent, it is simply an act to enable nature to be maintained – the natural world is one of the most important symbols of God’s sustaining power.

Humanity – Human beings seem unable to live in peace and harmony with each other. Through wars, violence, poverty, greed and other sins, humanity has caused much disharmony and damage to the natural world.

So what can we learn from these differences?

We see that God’s original plan for humanity changed direction when sin entered the world. Humanity is now a mix of good and bad and none of us are perfect! We need to be restored to a correct relationship with God, each other and nature – we desperately need God’s help.