TIME NO LONGER......

BUT CERTAINLY IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP!! And I especially like this cartoon because it has EVERYTHING.

I mean the cockerel is the symbol of a Waker Upper - Early, LOUD, irritatingly continuous. Yet this one is standing on an Alarm Clock which does not appear to have gone off - it has a very obsolete look about it, almost as if it no longer works; DEAD. Perhaps a comparison of a Believer and the Church

Friends Esther and I are poised, God being Gracious to us, to return to our appointed place in Kenya, Africa. We have a ministry there amongst needy children. BUT more than that we have a ministry to EVERYONE we meet - it is to Tell what we have come personally to KNOW about Jesus - about the LIGHT that God Almighty has given to mankind to lead him through and out of the Darkness of this world. And we had better believe that this IS a darkening world. Esther and I have realised, in these two months of travel and visitation through two thirds of the UK, that we had ceased to CROW - the 'alarm' mechanism within us was somehow on 'sleep' mode. We DID witness to our own opinion that

the Last Days were upon us in extremis.....BUT we were not SHINING BRIGHT to show the way of Salvation to the whosoever. We must have spent hundreds of hours greeting people, passing the time of day, sharing family matters, telling about our children in Eldoret! BUT we had left JESUS out of the most of it! I mean we did not take the opportunity of sharing, on a very personal note, what HE is to us. The Light in us had dimmed, did not catch the eye or brighten a heart for Jesus. Our light was enclosed in a 'shuttered lantern' - enclosed by the business and the worries of our world. Suddenly we were no longer the EXCITED Bearer of Good News - THAT WONDERFUL NEWS - that God SO LOVED me that he found a way to SAVE me out of all my distress, and that BECAUSE He did this for me He can do it for YOU too. COME and SEE Jesus whom I have just MET. We have ALL been BORN to do this - to proclaim and shout out about the Love, the Wonderful LOVE of God. The FIRST thing Phillip did on coming to know Jesus was to go tell his brother Nathaniel - The Gospel of John 1v43-46. He just HAD to tell someone. The DAY I myself came to realise Jesus was alive I just HAD to tell someone, and I went on telling URGENTLY what I had come to know about HIM, and how it had changed my life. WHY do we cool down on this activity? Somehow we shy more and more away from being the Evangelist we were meant to be - nay even commanded to be! GO! said Jesus - And TELL others about Me. Yes GO, and tell about it everywhere. If we do not WAKE UP to the fact that we are NOT DOING it we may find ourselves left behind when the Trumpet sounds, or at best be amongst those who will suffer LOSS when it comes to Rewards for well doing.

You may say to me - "I am not a missionary, a pastor, a Bible teacher! I am just an ordinary person trying to live a quiet, Christian life in an ungodly world. Isn't that 'Light' enough?"

NO it isn't. We are all CALLED of God to get up out of darkness, and go forth in and with the LIGHT into this dark world to Proclaim the Salvation of God to everyone - regardless of whether they will listen or not. We are ALL Evangels of God's Message of Love. We are all full time TELLERS of whatever He has SHOWN to us who know Him. Lose sight of this truth and you lose sight of a NECESSITY without which all other service becomes worthless. NO, Go into all the world; Tell about Me in the valley, on the mountain, EVERYWHERE - to EVERYONE you meet, or who meets you! There is not much time left. Your opportunity to snatch your neighbour out of the 'Fire of Hell' may soon be gone.

BE READY

at every opportunity

to give the reason for the Hope that is within YOU!

++++++++++++++

AS WE RETURN TO KENYA, we return with this RENEWAL within us, and with the resolve to TELL others about our personal experience wherever we go with power, and with signs confirming. Hallelujah. This is our avowed intent - as volcanoes erupt, as the earth splits asunder in diverse places, as war and revolution, famine and pestilence increase, and as the gloom and despondency of these dark times engulf the whole world. We are LIGHT BRINGERS. LET THERE BE LIGHT .......... Who knows what might happen if WE all - ALL those who KNOW they are Redeemed should begin to say so, LOUDLY, to all they meet. It is what we OUGHT to be doing. Psalm 107v2

God Willing this is our last week-end in the United Kingdom. Sunday we shall have our last Church Meeting in an Anglican Church - Christ Church Barnston. Then a day in London with our son Michael and his wife Janet, and then (provided Virgin Atlantic Airline is not on strike) we shall fly to Kenya late on Tuesday evening. We know we are coming to even greater challenge within our ministry than when we left. But we come with Confidence in the Author of our Faith. We come with renewed Vision and Vigour. We come with JOY.

RISE AND SHINE dear friends. Let us all stand together, shoulder to shoulder with our Lord and King.

Lovingly in His Name

John and Esther