Interrupted By God

It's Festival Season!  Soul Survivor and New Wine both begin this weekend, and one of the speakers at both festivals is Robby Dawkins.  

Robby believes that the powerful and life changing things Jesus and his disciples did were not just for Bible times.  In his ministry to hurting people, Robby sees ordinary people touched by God's power, through simple faith in God's Word.  He has seen this time and again, but it wasn't always so.

When God reached out to Robby, he was a discouraged youth pastor working in a small, dysfunctional church.  He believed God could do miracles (in theory), but the truth was that he was thoroughly turned off by the hype, manipulation and abuse surrounding many ministries.  He was stuck, resigned to a faith which mainly involved trudging from day to day without expecting too much.

* * * * * * *

The day that God chose to interrupt me, I wasn't thinking of anyone but myself.  I had been hired as a youth pastor, but my vision of ministry had pretty much been brought to its knees by the reality of answering phones and doing the menial tasks that consumed my days.  That particular day, I was in a terrible mood.  I felt deeply unappreciated by my senior pastor and his family.  I felt far from God and from all of the things He had called me to.  I was angry and hurt.  This was not in any way my shining moment as a Christ follower.

 

The phone rang, and I answered it halfheartedly.  Probably another sales call, I thought, or maybe a message for me to deliver.

 

The woman on the phone introduced herself hesitatingly.  "Look, I don't really know what to ask," she began.  "I don't go to church.  As a matter of fact, I'm not even a Christian," she offered apologetically.  "I just picked a church from the phone book because my father's going in for heart surgery right now.  He's in bad shape, and the doctors say they really don't think he's going to make it.  We had to press them to go ahead with the surgery."

 

She sounded fragile and worn as she explained this was her father's third bypass surgery, and it most likely meant the end of his life.  She didn't know where else to turn, but it had crossed her mind to call a church.  She hoped someone would burn a candle, rub some beads for her father, sing a hymn or say a prayer for him in his final stages.

 

As she tried to rationalize to herself and to me why she had reached out to us, I could tell she was a little embarrassed.  Maybe she even regretted that she had bothered to call at all.  What could I do?  I offered to pray for the surgery with her, though I didn't really want to.  It sounded as though her father definitely wasn't going to make it.

 

"Well..." I paused reluctantly, "I could pray for him..."

 

* * * * *

 

The prayer which followed began with little hope or expectation of this man's recovery.  Yet as he prayed,  he felt God speak to him: "Get out on a limb."  Then, "Take a risk."  With no real idea of what he was about to say, he found himself saying that God was going to heal the woman's father and give him a new heart!  He was horrified and tried to pull back what he had said...

 

* * * * *

 

"What you need to know is that I've never prayed for anyone and seen them healed before.  You should know that most of the time when I pray for people, they get sicker, and some have even died.  I know that God can do things like what I just prayed, but He's never used me to do them.  What I just said probably won't happen."

 

I was panic-stricken.  What if this woman got her hopes up and wound up terribly disappointed?  It would all be my fault.

She interrupted me.  "You said God is going to give my dad a brand-new heart?"

I gulped out, "Yes, but -"

 

She cut me off with a brief "Thank you!" and hung up the phone.

 

When the woman called again crying hours later, my heart sank...  "Your dad," I said, "he's ...dead?"

 

She said, "No - he's doing great!"

 

Nobody was more surprised to hear that than me.

 

"Yes, that's right..." She pressed out the story through her tears.  "When the doctors opened him up, they said my father had a brand-new heart!"  She explained how several years ago her father had had a valve replacement.  The doctors had implanted a heart valve from a pig to save his life.  All of that was gone.  All the scar tissue from the previous surgery was gone.  The doctor said it was like the heart of a thirty-year-old man.

 

I was absolutely stunned.

Do What Jesus Did will be available at all Soul Survivor and New Wine venues, through bookshops, and on line.
It is also available as an ebook.

ISBN: 9780800795573
Paperback
£8.99




"Robby does a marvellous job of letting the reader know that if he can walk in a miracle lifestyle, anyone can.  He acknowledges the reality of the dead not always getting raised, the bills sometimes barely getting paid and healing not always manifesting as we think it should.  It is honest and without hype.

Then there is the fact that miracles sometimes happen in spite of faithless prayers.  It was this experience that sent Robby on a dive into a Gospel that does what it says it will do."
Bill Johnson, Bethel Church, Redding - from the foreword.

"I loved the inspiring stories, as well as the practical insight into how to hear from God and relay what He is showing you to others.  A very interesting, inspiring and encouraging book."

Randy Clark, founder and president of The Apostolic Network of Global Awakening

Learning to Dance in the Rain

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” (Author unknown)

Like most people I know, I don’t like to keep broken stuff around.  But I had never given it too much thought until our accident.  Some people were goofed out by our brokenness.  I think they didn’t know what to say.  Or seeing wheelchairs and stuff just made them feel so bad, they didn’t know how to process it.  Some of our friends didn’t call as much, or seemed in a hurry to get away, or were just bored since we weren’t really cool or fun or spontaneous anymore, especially not now.  We had so little to offer, yet needed so much attention, and we always felt like a big, hairy spectacle.

One of my favourite passages is Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”

These verse are a nice reminder to reach out to the broken, I’d thought as I highlighted them the summer before our life went nuts.  And I liked that heart-stopping moment when Jesus read these verses to the Jews in the synagogue.  And like an artist who pulls the veil off his work, a priceless sculpture, Jesus went on to say, “I’m the one.”

But now what caught my attention was later in the passage, when the Lord called a motley crew of prisoners and the depressed and broken-down people “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour” (verse 3).

God gave the lowly ones the task of rebuilding His flattened Kingdom.  Not the people I would have picked for my task force, but if pressed, I would have to admit that those I consider the heart and soul of our church are those who have waded through dark, dark times… I was getting the idea that God Himself found great value in those the world deemed ruined.

The above is an extract from a book called My Life and Lesser Catastrophes  by Christina Schofield. 

On her 30^th wedding anniversary Christina and her husband Allen set out for a ride on their motorbike.  After skidding on loose gravel they ended their day in hospital.  Christina had concussion.  Allen had broken his neck. 

This is not one of those ‘we prayed and Allen was immediately healed’ kind of books.  Christina talks honestly of the enormous difficulties of coming to terms emotionally, spiritually and practically with the accident.  Yet this is not a depressing book either, but rather an uplifting one which truly does challenge the reader despite being written in very conversational language and therefore being easy to read.  Christina’s faith is severely tested.  She cries out to God, and often finds only silence in response. Yet she holds on, and her faith comes through in her book as something real, important, and living.

 

This is not a brand new title, but sometimes it is good to remind folk that some books which have been around a little while still have a very valid voice!

Beauty in Brokenness

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” (Author unknown)

Like most people I know, I don’t like to keep broken stuff around. But I had never given it too much thought until our accident. Some people were goofed out by our brokenness. I think they didn’t know what to say. Or seeing wheelchairs and stuff just made them feel so bad, they didn’t know how to process it. Some of our friends didn’t call as much, or seemed in a hurry to get away, or were just bored since we weren’t really cool or fun or spontaneous anymore, especially not now. We had so little to offer, yet needed so much attention, and we always felt like a big, hairy spectacle.

One of my favourite passages is Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”

These verse are a nice reminder to reach out to the broken, I’d thought as I highlighted them the summer before our life went nuts. And I liked that heart-stopping moment when Jesus read these verses to the Jews in the synagogue. And like an artist who pulls the veil off his work, a priceless sculpture, Jesus went on to say, “I’m the one.”

But now what caught my attention was later in the passage, when the Lord called a motley crew of prisoners and the depressed and broken-down people “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour” (verse 3).

God gave the lowly ones the task of rebuilding His flattened Kingdom. Not the people I would have picked for my task force, but if pressed, I would have to admit that those I consider the heart and soul of our church are those who have waded through dark, dark times… I was getting the idea that God Himself found great value in those the world deemed ruined.

The above is an extract from a book called My Life and Lesser Catastrophes by Christina Schofield.

On her 30th wedding anniversary Christina and her husband Allen set out for a ride on their motorbike. After skidding on loose gravel they ended their day in hospital. Christina had concussion. Allen had broken his neck.

This is not one of those ‘we prayed and Allen was immediately healed’ kind of books. Christina talks honestly of the enormous difficulties of coming to terms emotionally, spiritually and practically with the accident. Yet this is not a depressing book either, but rather an uplifting one which truly does challenge the reader despite being written in very conversational language and therefore being easy to read. Christina’s faith is severely tested. She cries out to God, and often finds only silence in response. Yet she holds on, and her faith comes through in her book as something real, important, and living.