Saturday night - Commissioning - Wembley Conference Centre (no air conditioning!) - hot - humid - late...
I notice that my nephew, who's Mum and Dad split up last year, is getting into the prayer meeting (he's twelve)... I ask him if he'd like to go to the cross and pray? I'm not sure which comes first the enthusiastic yes, the tears or the enormous look of relief on his face.
We go and pray, I pray for him as I would pray for an adult, I lay hands on him and sense God's power moving down my arm, through my fingers and into his young frame. The tears flow, the spirit flows and Danny verbalises his own prayer - God hears and responds.
Later in the evening he says to my wife "when I was at the Mercy Seat I felt the power of God come down and claim me" Hallelujah!
The same night, my youngest daughter Bethany asks to go to the cross and pray I take her by the hand and as we walk down the steps she looks up at me and says "I know what I want to do with the rest of my life - I want to be an Officer" - she is 8 in September!
Then this morning I read Gordon's blog and discover that God was moving in the hearts of other children too.
Then on my way to work my IPOD delivers the following song...
Saviour, while my heart is tender,
I would yield that heart to thee;
All my powers to thee surrender,
Thine and only thine to be.
Take me now, Lord Jesus, take me,
Let my youthful heart be thine;
Thy devoted servant make me,
Fill my soul with love divine.
Send me, Lord, where thou wilt send me,
Only do thou guide my way;
May thy grace through life attend me,
Gladly then shall I obey.
Let me do thy will, or bear it,
I would know no will but thine;
Shouldst thou take my life, or spare it,
I that life to thee resign.
May this solemn consecration
Never once forgotten be;
Let it know no alteration,
Registered, confirmed by thee.
Thine I am, O Lord, forever,
To thy service set apart;
Suffer me to leave thee never,
Seal thine image on my heart.
The tears flow again... this time they're mine.
Yours set apart by Christ, for the lost, in the Army.
Andrew
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2 comments:
I am delving into "heart matters" at the moment which you can read about on my blog. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things. With that in mind I am sure that we can kid ourselves quite easily about the level of our devotion and even really mean it when we say that we give our all. We just don't expect God to take us that seriously or realise how precious something is to us until we are at the point of letting it go. We can then wriggle out of turning our words into action quite easily by comparing ourselves with others.
The other thing I wanted to respond to was the inevitable "however". You began with all the blessings of Commissioning but there was a "but"
I struggle with this all the time. We had a great holiday but I found the worship superficial and irritating. We had a good Friday Night outreach. Unchurched people heard the gospel but so and so didn't come.
To be completely positive is often to settle for less than the best. On the other hand am I like a critical parent who rather than rejoicing with their child that they got 99% asks what happened about the 1% they got wrong.
How do we balance discerment with thanksgiving?
My other comment was really for yesterday's blog.
Great to hear about the Lord really touching the children. I for one never dismiss a child's declaration that they are called to officership. It was at Commissioning, aged 11 that I knew God wanted me to be an officer.
We'll keep them in our prayers.
God bless
Carol
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