The first thing I do each day is place myself into God's hands once again, thereby ensuring that I will walk according to His will for another day. I pray for the opportunity to be a living witness to the love of God shown us through the Living Christ. After all, what other way is there for a Christian to live? Surely, our purpose is to carry out God's will for our lives and to fulfil the Great Commission of sharing the gospel message.
I cannot imagine being without Jesus in my life, for without Him there would be a great emptiness. Every time I sing the hymn 'What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought . . .' it reminds me once again how much it applies to my life. I accepted Jesus into my life way back in September 1969 at a meeting held in the Friend's Meeting House in Bath, which was led by the evangelist Peter Scothern. After my entry into full-time ministry I had the privilege of being invited to share my testimony at one of his meetings held in Chester. Just one small step on my journey that I was able to share as part of Peter's journey.
One thing I've have learned over the years is that life is good with Jesus and empty without Him. No matter what else we achieve in this life, if it is without Christ then it's of no real benefit in the long run. I'm convinced that as long as God blesses us with breath then our purpose is indisputably to carry out the work that we are privileged to do for Him. So, as we are bid, I give thanks in all things, and in all things I praise my Lord!
I've been looking back through this Blog since I started to write it. What a variety of things it has contained, ranging from international concerns to more local political issues, from the terrible problems that still continue in Zimbabwe to opinions related to the current problems that we face in the UK related to the recession, the coalition government and the swingeing cuts that are affecting each of us. I've certainly moved around the Globe a bit! In addition I have done my best to brighten your day, dear reader, with some great photographs and a little gentle humour.
I have shared news about my songs and music and updated you about the way that The Voice Christian News & Views magazine, now in its eighth year has grown. It has been blessed to such a great extent over the past year, and continues to expand the readership base on a weekly basis. Now distributed to subscribers in 19 countries, the main change this year is that, as yet another victim of the recession, we have changed from a bi-monthly to a quarterly publication.
Memories have figured in these columns as well, and I have enjoyed sharing a few of them with you. It's interesting to note that whenever I have travelled down Memory Lane on the blog I find that when I check the readership statistics there has always been an increased readership. Perhaps, like me, you find such things let you escape from the humdrum of the daily turmoil that so often intrudes upon our lives in today's troubled world. I guess that I need to give the grey matter a little shove now and then and stir up some more memories!
The important thing for me is that I have had you, dear reader, to share my journey and walk a little of the way with me. There is always enjoyment to be had from the company of fellow travellers, and I've certainly enjoyed yours. I hope that you will continue to walk with me along the way! Certainly, over the past six months or so, the daily readership of this Blog has continued to increase greatly, so a big 'Thank you' from me.
A couple of years ago I went to a family dinner, held at the home of one of my brothers, just a few miles from the town where I was born and raised. We stayed over the weekend, and on the Sunday morning I went off to church with my nephew, travelling several miles to get there for the 2-hour Service, whilst my wife, not feeling like such a long Service, went with my brother and his 4-year old daughter to the Parish Church of St Bartholomew, which is in the town where I grew up. It was my wife's first visit to the church and she commented about it when she returned. It stirred many memories for me! It was as a small boy that I walked amidst the other choirboys to lend my voice in praise. Sometimes we would be asked to sing at weddings too, something for which we would be paid the princely sum of 2/6d (about 12.5 pence in today's currency). Like most small choirboys we used to mess around a bit in the service and get told off for it afterwards, but all in all my memories of those times are good ones.
I guess that it was singing in the choir that helped to nurture my love of singing and music, a love which has never left me and which I retain to this day. I no longer sing in a choir, having problems with asthma which make it difficult, although listening to choral singing is something which gives me great enjoyment.
Of course music and singing has been a great part of my life, and that applies even more so today, whether it be listening for pleasure, singing hymns of praise in church, or composing new tunes. I cannot contemplate a life without the joy of music.
There are probably three things which define my life, and they are :
- my love of and trust in, God.
- my love of music
- my love of writing
Each is inexorably linked. I have given my life over to God and committed myself to serve Him for ever. One of the ways that I have been able to do this is through my hymn-writing, and another is through the medium of my Christian verse. Hence, in serving Him I have been richly blessed by being able to do what I love so much.
From that evening service in The Friend's Meeting House in Bath over 41 years ago the one thing that has been a constant in my life has been Jesus, and so I can return to my earlier statement and, using the title of the hymn, I can say What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my life.
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