Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future? Part 2: Living in the Present.

Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future?

Part 2: Living in the Present.

Has I sit here writing this post, My mind is thinking about last weekend,  and a very important Rugby Match that that was played at the Millennium Stadium,  Cardiff on Saturday 17^th March 2012. For those who are wondering what he is on about !, it was the Wales v France Rugby Match in the RBS 6 Nations Championship that happens every year and is played by England, France. Italy, Ireland, Scotland and of course Wales!

The match between Wales and France was the decider to see if Wales would win, the Grand Slam which goes to the Rugby Team who have won all their matches.  This would have been the 3^rd Grand Slam Trophy Wales would have won in the last 7 years, Wales having won in 2005 and in 2008.   There was a great deal of pressure on the Welsh Rugby Team to repeat their previous successes and win the Grand Slam. Having already beaten Ireland, Scotland.& England away, and beaten Italy at home. they faced the challenge of beating France at home in Cardiff. I watched the Game on TV, and I could feel the electricity of the Welsh Supporters in the Stadium, and I knew in my heart of hearts, that Wales could and would win the Game.  Just a few days before the game, the tragic news of the death of Mervyn “Merv the Swerve “Davies who had Captained the Welsh Rugby Team in the Glory Days of the 1970’s, was announced. Not only did the current Welsh Rugby Team have to face the pressure to repeat the success of 2005 and 2008, but to win for the memory of Merv the Swerve.

There was great deal of hype,  for Wales to win the Grand Slam again, and to go on to bigger and better success in the future by playing and hopefully beating teams like Australia  and New Zealand in the coming months.  I noticed that both the coaching staff lead by Warren Gatland and the players lead by Sam Warburton focused on the present and not on the past, (the wonderful Welsh Team of the 1970’s or the previous Grand Slam wins of 2005 and 2008), nor did they focus on the future by thinking ahead to playing and hopefully beating Australia and New Zealand, they focused on the present and committed themselves to win both the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam.

This lead me  to think,  that sometimes we focus our minds and past success and sometimes failure, disappointment, hurt etc, and try to live our lives in the past, Maybe it’s sense of regret, a sense of safety, and sense that our best days are behind us, so we set our minds (because we think things can’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t get better today) on yesterday, then again, because of the disappointments etc of today, we day dream or  dream about tomorrow, hoping and praying that our tomorrow will be better than today, isn’t it better to live in the present ,  than to live in the past or the future ?, because God is in control of our lives,  and despite the pain and heart ache of today, God is blessing and will bless more as we live for Him today.

In 1904, God moved in Wales and tens of thousands were born again, for years since them Welsh Christians including myself have prayed that God would move in Wales like he did in 1904, we make monuments of past success and make our current models of mission copies of the past, But God has a new and better thing and we miss out what God wants to do today because we’re focused on what God did in the past!

I love reading, and for many years I read and re-read books of what God has done so wonderfully in the past, and would dream or day dream that I was in those times and in those places, but I’m not, I’m reading a book at the moment on the great Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth, who died in 1947, it’s great and challenging read but this is 2012 and not 1947. I’m not knocking what God has done in the past, but we’re called to live in today’s world not yesterday’s world.   When I was in my mid to late teens, we sang a song, (don’t worry, I’m not going to sing it out aloud!)I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation, See here for the full words.

The Apostle Paul said in Acts 13:36 ESV, “David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption”

God has called us to love, serve, obey and follow Him by living in the Present, we can praise God for what He has done in the Past, and we can Pray for what God will do in the Future, but we can Praise Him for what He has done in our lives so far, and Pray that He is doing a better work in our lives today than yesterday.

 The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3: 20-21,  ESV,” ²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us then, stop trying to serve God’s Purpose’s for past generations, or try to imagine what are God’s Purpose’s for future generations, or try to serve God’s purposes for other places or people, Let us instead serve with whole hearted commitment God’s Purpose’s for our lives, the places He has planted us alongside the people He has called us to walk alongside and share live and faith with. Let us therefore, “Live in the Present”

“I want to serve the purpose of God, in my generation
I want to serve the purpose of God, while I am alive
I want to give my life, for something that will last forever
Oh, l delight, I delight to do your will.”

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside, England


See Part 1 of this series "Living in the Past" 

One of my favourite Songs, You're Beautiful by Phil Wickham

Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future? Part 1: Living in the Past.

Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future?

Part 1: Living in the Past.

I often wonder what is the attraction of TV Programmes like ITV’s Downton Abbey and the BBC’s Upstairs, Downstairs. ? Is it Nostalgia  for an earlier, seemingly more innocent age ?, perhaps with all the upheaval that we both see around us and read about that directly or indirectly affects our day to day lives, is living in or thinking  about the past some sort of safety net?

I live in Southport, Merseyside, and our local radio station Dune FM on Friday night from 7pm to 10pm plays 1980’s Music and I enjoy listening to some great and not so great songs from my younger days ! but I wouldn’t choose to travel back in time, like some Welsh version of Dr Who and try to live in those days.   I grew up in a small village in the South Wales Valleys called Melin Court, and spend time not only there but in other villages like Resolven and Clyne. Overall when I wear my rose tinted glasses I enjoyed my time growing up there, but if I could ask my teenage self the same question what would the answer be?

I enjoy music, and did Cse Music in School, (I also played on one of the School Chess Teams) I had the opportunity to visit the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool with a friend several weeks ago, it’s one of the places the Beatles played, it was packed and overall I enjoyed my time there, there was a live band playing cover versions of songs by The Beatles and The Who. The atmosphere was electric, but one thing struck me, here’s a young band not playing their own songs but playing the songs of a previous generation!

My time at The Cavern Club lead me to think about why we sometimes try to live in the past, we let the circumstances of  our past, the influence of others,  past hurts, past disappointments,  feelings of hurt and sometimes bitterness govern our lives. We let the things that happened 5, 10, 15 or even 20 plus years influence how we live today, perhaps the hurt of a breakdown of a relationship that has happened in the past we don’t allow ourselves due to the fear of rejection or the fear of a failure to move on to a better relationship. Sometimes we try to eat the fruit of past blessings, happiness, success which like all fruit that was picked and not eaten, has become rotten, instead of picking and eating the new fruit for today.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43:18-19b, NivUk

“¹⁸ Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.    ¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

It’s easy to try to live in the past, but God calls us to move on and move forward to both bigger and better things.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13-14NivUk

“ ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead,    ¹⁴ I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”

So let us turn away from our past, because it’s a new beginning, a new start and a new season for us all.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

*”I have no regrets about what happened in my younger days”

 

Times, they’re a Changing:

The Poet & Philosopher, Bob Dylan wrote one of the most memorable and often quoted protest songs of the 1960’s, “Times they’re a changing”.

When we examine our lifestyles today in the early 21^st Century we are governed by time, the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:17b. “For there is a time for every matter and for every work” please read Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 for the context.  Yet today we never seem to have enough time.  We often feel like Lewis Carroll’s Character; “The White Rabbit” running ahead of ourselves to make up or catch up on time.

One of the growth areas in the Business World is the concept of Time Management; there is even a Dummies Guide on Time Management.  My late Grandfather was brilliant in many, many ways, one of which was his time keeping, Has a boy I would walk to and from Church with Him, (which was an honour, privilege and a blessing, because it was our time together), people would often say to Him, because they knew that at 9.30am on a Sunday Morning, he would walk past, that they could set their clocks by him, because he would walk past at that exact time on a Sunday.

Time is one of our precious resources and indeed one of our most precious gifts, we all have 24 hours a day,  7 days a week, 4 weeks to a month, and 12 months to a year, the question is how do we use or spend our time,  we all have access to watches and clocks and even our mobile phones have a way to tell us the time, In the New Testament,  there are two Greek Words that are translated into the English Word Time, these are Chronos and Kairos,  quite simply Chronos means normal time and Kairos means an appointed time for the purpose of God.

We all have friends and family, people who we love, care for, support, bless and encourage,  perhaps, today we can all think of those people around us that we can give one of our greatest gifts, the gift of time, which can be emailing, texting. Phoning, sending a message on Facebook or even going to see or meeting up for a Coffee.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys