Kingdom Connections Part 1

Last Sunday I went down to Marks and Spencer's to pick up a few items from their food hall. Incidentally, I recommend their whipped chocolate-covered fudge - truly delicious! Anyway, back to the food hall...As I was waiting at the checkouts for my turn, a Mum and her teenager son got in the queue behind me. Not untypically, this teenage lad was talking (rather loudly) about something and was gesticulating wildly and hopping about at the sheer excitement of it all. His Mum warned him to be careful of 'that man' (i.e. me) at which he retorted (at full volume), "I AM BEING CAREFUL OF THAT MAN!". Oh, the joys of adolescence.

In that moment, God spoke to me. How do I know? Well, over the years you learn to work out the 'still small voice' of the Lord and to differentiate it from the millions of other voices which bombard you life on an almost daily basis. It was like a "Thought Juggernaut" - a sequence of words (unconnected with my previous train of thought, which, if I recall correctly was obsessing over M+S chocolate fudge bars) simply pushed their way into my thinking. The words were, "He needs help with his maths homework."

Oh dear. What should I do know? I wish I could say that I boldly stepped out and asked this lad if these words meant anything to him and there, in the M+S Food hall, a great salvation took place with much tears and repentance.

But I can't because I bottled it. A stream of different thoughts flooded my mind (which I do not believe were from God!) giving me 50 reasons why this was a very bad idea; a very bad idea indeed. The result of this was I paid for my items, left and remonstrated with myself as I drove home wondering what could have been if only I'd been obedient. What held me back was fear. If I had simply waited and asked God to help me then my story might have been very different today.

I believe that there are many, many 'Kingdom Connections' in our lives an a daily basis. This week in Energy we talked more about how God can bring His Kingdom here on earth through the exercise of gifts like words of knowledge. Tune in tomorrow for an insight into how Jesus did it and some fresh opportunities for all of us to have a go ourselves.