REVIVAL IN LEICESTER (11) - SUPERNATURAL PREACHING

I had heard it happen to others. But it had never happened to me. Until that night, that is.

I had just returned from a leaders’ meeting at Chroma Church. It’s important to note that leaders’ meetings at Chroma are a little different- around 100 of us gathered and for most of the time, it was a time of celebration as we listened to the amazing stories happening in and around us.

At the end of the evening, we all went through a ‘fire tunnel’. This is a kind of prayer tunnel with each of us walking between two lines of people as they pray prayers of blessing and invite the Holy Spirit to move upon us. And He did – move, that is.

By the time I got to the end of that praying tunnel, I was drunk in the Spirit. This is not something to be feared but something entirely Biblical (Acts 2: 15).

I drove home drunk (unlike alcohol, it’s considerably less dangerous!) and I went to bed drunk.

It was then that it happened. I dreamed I was preaching at Chroma. Nothing particularly strange there - I was due to preach in two Sunday’s time. But the strange thing is that as I awoke, I could remember every word of the preach, including the Bible verses I had used.

For me – for most of us – when I dream, it’s forgotten the moment I awake. But not this time.

My planned preach was ditched and two Sunday’s later, I spoke the words I had first received in that dream while still drunk in the Spirit.

It was on revival. Of course it was. We are still in revival at Chroma, and so grateful for all the Holy Spirit is doing with lives changed, new people finding a faith in Christ, and many being healed physically.

And the talk? It can be found here, starting at the 1 hour and 9 minute mark. Enjoy- and do visit us if you are not part of Chroma Church!

Furlough

Suddenly a word is in the news that has had little usage in recent years.

Furlough.

It is traditionally used to describe a time away from the front line for soldiers. I first came across it in a church context. As a young Christian I went to a Brethren church and was told that a lady missionary was coming to visit on furlough. I thought it must be some kind of vehicle!

Actually it is a vehicle of sorts. It’s one that allows you to take time out. To rest.

For many in the UK the word is not welcome. Its newer definition is being laid off from work with 80% of pay due to the effects of the Corona Virus on our economy.

But maybe in this lockdown, we can all experience some furlough in its original sense? The root of the word is ‘verlof’. This is Dutch and means ‘permission’.

We have permission to take time out right now. Permission to dream, to plan, to think. To do something different. Not to waste the time but to use it as time away from the front line.

So what will we do? Read a book we have always intended to read? Pick up the watercolours again? Study a language? For those of us with a Christian faith, to go deeper into a book of the Bible?

I appreciate that some reading this will be experiencing furlough with kids running around their feet and the sense that they have less time than at work! Yes, but it’s still a different time. There will still be moments that can be used in a different way.

I don’t expect that most of us reading these words will ever get another furlough. Let’s appreciate the blessing along with the challenge.

Just Another Brick in the Wall?

The song from Pink Floyd was anti-establishment; a protest song. There was a bitterness to it. A cry from a generation of kids brought up in a system that meant they would be nothing, do nothing – just another brick in the wall:

We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teacher leave the kids alone.

 ‘Just Another Brick in the Wall’ was number one in the UK charts for five weeks late in 1979. It followed a tradition of similar songs, attracting the attention of teenagers with angst. ‘Schools Out’ by Alice Cooper was the one I remember from my schooldays. Banned at school, we were put in detention if we were heard singing it.

The thing is, we’re not just bricks in a wall. Every one of us has a story. Every one of us can affect history, write history, change this world.

The Bible tells us we each have a destiny – if we find it, it changes us and those around us. In a world with the perception that we are ‘just bricks’, this is good news!

“For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” (Jeremiah 29:11)

I’ve just put a brick in the wall. And it’s not ‘just another brick’. It’s a brick of declaration.

Let me explain.

The Wall is a project to build a sculpture of a million bricks honouring Jesus – it’s a declaration of the Christian faith; a National Landmark of Hope to remind generations of God's goodness. Every brick is sponsored. Every brick tells a story of answered prayer. Once built, next to a busy motorway, over 140,000 people will pass it every day. (Picture shown is one of 5 possible designs).

If you were to line your phone up on brick number 12335 and press the App, this is what it would say:

UNCLE BEN'S PRAYER

In the early 1960's letters started arriving for me, from India. They were from my Uncle, Ben White, a missionary in south India. He was telling me about Jesus - and my parents (not believers at the time) were most concerned! I don't remember any of the contents of the letters- as a child, the stamps on the envelope were more interesting! But God was doing his work and my Uncle's prayers were answered. Both my sister and I became Christians as teenagers, and my Mum became a Christian on her deathbed. Later on, God called me to India- speaking to me in an audible voice. I married an Indian girl, Rohini. My wife and I have been working into India for nearly 30 years now, taking teams most years, rescuing children, supporting churches and declaring the message my Uncle Ben so wanted me to know.

Not just another brick in the wall after all.

Ready to Climb?

I don't often post my own preaches, but this one is to do with mountains. Preached in Cape Town in July 2018. Enjoy the climb.

ACCESS FROM SITE (Click back to 22/7/18 or type my name next to 'search'):

JoshGen Sermon Site

Leicester City - The Financially Impossible Story

An amazing thing has just happened in my city. Leicester City Football Club has won the Premiership. Outside of the usual ‘big spenders’, Leicester are only the second club to manage the impossible (Blackburn Rovers being the other club in 1994/95).

They won it on team spirit, togetherness, courage and determination. In the end, money can’t buy determination.

It’s worth looking at the financials here. The chart below, from the BBC, shows how Leicester stacks up in terms of cost, against the biggest spending club, Manchester City:

Yes, that’s right. Leicester has just won the Premiership with a team valued at 7.5% of the ‘top’ club.

And that’s not all. Leicester City have also attained the greatest financial ‘over achievement’ when measured against wages. Here’s the proof courtesy of the Financial Times no less (via Pensions Playpen):

Much has already been written about this impossible success. And I’m sure there will be more to follow. Cold finance says this achievement is impossible. The dreamers at Leicester City say otherwise.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
T. E. Lawrence

Modern Day Lascars - Abandoned and Rejected

I’m a Christian. It may be something that you have noticed about this blog. I believe God can speak in dreams, words and visions. It doesn’t happen often, but I do get the odd dream and vision I believe is from God. This is the story of one of them.

Some months back, I had a vivid dream. In it, I saw an abandoned ancient city. It was in ruins. But there were still people living there.

As I approached, these people came out of the ruins. They were in rags. They looked at me and said ‘We are the Lascars’.

With that, the dream ended.

I didn’t recall ever hearing the word ‘Lascar’ before, so I looked it up. It turns out that Lascars were early sailors, primarily from India, as far back as the 1800s. They signed on to ships in the European navies and served around the world. Many served on British ships and this brought them to the UK. They settled in London and other ports. Many became lonely and destitute. They had been abandoned by their own country but not accepted by their new country.

I spent a while praying about this. What was the dream meant to signify? How was I supposed to respond to it? It struck me that for the last 17 years, I have been working into India each year, taking teams and offering support to poor communities. So I guessed it was no coincidence that God had taken me in a dream, to the Lascar people.

As far as I can tell, most if not all of the Lascars are no more. They died out - as did the term ‘Lascar’- in the 1950s.

But Lascars still exist. Every person who has stepped away from their childhood faith as a Hindu or Muslim and embraced Christianity is a modern day Lascar. Many who have simply moved away from the structured society of their parents into an adopted one of the nation they now live in is a modern day Lascar.

For the most part, they have been abandoned by their mother country and their original society, but have not been adopted by their new culture either. Abandoned and rejected, they live on the outside of both their original culture and their adopted one. Abandoned by one and rejected by another.

In my adopted city of Leicester, there are many modern day Lascars. Of Indian or Middle East origin, often brought up as a Hindu or Muslim. But now, having left their roots, they find they are rootless. Unable to assimilate into British culture, more by way of rejection than through an active decision.

The modern day Lascars. The rejected of today’s societies and cultures.

If the dream was real, then I have a part to play in reaching out and welcoming such people. My prayer is that, just as in the dream, I will meet them, and by God’s grace, introduce them to the most wonderful welcoming, inclusive and generous society of all.

If you get to read this and feel either to join me in this task, or that you are a modern day Lascar and need help, contact me.