My friend,

Your heart is heavy, your unanswered prayers still hang in the air.
You try to gather your thoughts, and piece together what is going on.
How can things be like this?

After a sleepless night staring at the stars, you now leave the house, the low morning sunlight hits your face.

You find yourself silently questioning:
Why does He no longer listen?
Has he forgotten about me?
Does he still see me?

First know this, no matter how much it feels like it, you are not alone in this.
Every Christian you know, they also have been through this.
Share with them your situation.
But, there is even greater news, read Psalm 147, even just the first 5 verses.
The stars that you spent last night looking at through tears, the sun that lit-up your downcast face this morning, even the breath with which you cried out in desperation, all of this is maintained, perfectly controlled, and totally known to your sovereign God.

Look at verse 4, your God and Saviour not only made the stars, but he has numbered and named every one.
Stars that we will never see, that we will never even know that exist, He knows and has numbered them.

Just a small glimpse into the total power of our eternal God.
The one who controls the whole universe; every galaxy, star, and atom, is the same God also described in verse 3.
If He has saved you, then He has not forgotten you.
The One who sees all things, He still sees and knows you.
He will not abandon you, He will never forget you. You are His precious child, redeemed by the blood of your Saviour.

You are His for eternity, nothing can seperate you from His all powerful hold.
Keep on praying, keep on reading His word, keep on joining to worship with your brothers and sisters.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up your wounds.

Keep on fighting, keep on the race, keep on serving and worshipping your King.

The God of the universe, of life, of time and reality itself. He is the same God that saved you, whilst you were dead in your sins, a rebel against Him.
The same God that turned your heart from stone to one of flesh, the one who sent His beloved Son to suffer, die, and endure His wrath and punishment on your behalf.

He keeps you, and will keep you, until the calls you home to be with Him for eternity.

This is your Saviour and your God.

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
— Luke 12 : 4 – 7

I’m writing this, coffee in hand, from a dark corner of Glasgow airport. This will be a short one just a few thoughts – mostly because my battery is almost out and the charger is hopefully making it’s way to the correct plane, along with the rest of my luggage…

We have the instruction to be ready in and out of season. Well I’ll be honest, at 6/7am I am the most ‘out of season’ that you’ll find me.
For a wee treat to myself this morning I thought I’d get an Uber, Mohammed picked me up – a pretty cool looking guy in his mid 20’s, he had been up and working a long time before my alarm went off this morning.
We got chatting, covered the usual topics-  however, my answer of “Oh, I’m a student” didn’t satisfy him, he dug a bit deeper, so I explained that I was attempting to study to eventually become a minister.

Learning from previous previous experience, I sat back a bit and awaited the awkward silence, it didn’t come. Mohammed had plenty more questions and by the end of the relatively short journey we had covered large swathes of Christian and Islamic teachings.

So why do you care about my Uber journeys?

It dawned on me that we were able to have much of that conversation because we had both read some of the content on the other side of the fence. He was able to reference Scripture, I could bring to memory some badly mangled passages form the Qur’an.

I wan’t to make clear that this advice is not for new or even for younger Christians, the day will come, but not yet.
But if you’ve been on the walk for a while now, I would advise at least having a basic knowledge of the main differing viewpoints you will face as you go out with the Gospel.
It helps when talking to a Muslim or a J.W or a Mormon, that when they talk about Jesus, salvation, redemption, forgiveness etc. that they mean something totally different to you and I.

Study Scripture first, make sure you have a good working grasp of the theology and doctrines, always make sure that you read far more Scripture than you do any other text.

I’l be honest, once I began to look into the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon, my heart broke – its quickly apparent that these are nothing but man-made documents, written  for the benefit of the original authors, and not as the Word of God.

I know some of my dearly beloved family in Christ disagree with this method, but I fully believe that having even a basic working knowledge of the beliefs of those you talk to can enable you to share the Gospel in a more pointed and beneficial way.

[Of course, this is all humanely speaking, as with all out witnessing it is the Spirit that convicts and converts, God deserves all the praise and glory! But He does choose, in His perfect plan, to make use of us weak jars of clay]

If you want to get an insight in to basic JW/ Mormon/ Muslim teaching, Rev. Dr. James White is my go-to guy:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7BRjbGVISI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzXazxES4mk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru3GbBB_pIs

It’s okay to just enjoy the music (for a wee while anyway!)

When I left my wee Island for the big town, I knew I would certainly be in for some new experiences – I was left speechless by the fact there’s more than two supermarkets, my brain near melted at the prospect of a bus that runs every 10 minutes rather than 4/6 hours.
 What I was not prepared for, however, was to find myself in a jam packed concert hall, surrounded by the type of people who use more than one type of fork to eat their meals, out to listen to two hours of orchestral music – it’s just my usual scene.
 At the very kind invite of a beloved friend (who I won’t name to avoid him being associated with such an uncultured commoner) I found myself about to embark on a whole new experience.

 Well, within the first few minutes of “The Chairman Dances” by John Adams.

I was captivated!

The mix of rhythm with percussion and powerful violin paying had me pretty captivated, and it only got better from there on in. 
But for all that I enjoyed it my friend enjoyed it that much more, he is a musician. And a vey talented one at that. Spending years playing brass and the piano.
 In fact, he had previously worked alongside the conductor.
We both enjoyed the music, but on VERY different levels!
I could appreciate the melodies and the talent of the musicians, the obvious passion of the conductor.
He appreciated these things, but he also appreciated: the acoustics of the hall, the placement of our seating for optimal listening enjoyment, the personality of the conductor, the technical difficulty of some of the pieces etc.

Sometimes when I talk to new Christians they are worried that they just don’t have a deep enough grasp with various points of theology, they are concerned that they can’t follow the conversation of older Christians. This can be a pretty real and worrying concern for them.
My advice would be just enjoy the music whilst it is still new to you.
You are hearing the orchestra for the first time, relax, close your eyes, soak it all in.
No, you can’t stay this way forever – you will have to grow soon.

Paul often used the terms milk and meat to describe the maturity of believers, at the beginning you are newly born again, start of with milk – if you start with the harder and deeper things it will be a lot harder to digest it.
“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” – 1 Corinthians 3:2

But, just like any child, we cannot keep drinking milk forever – if we do we will never grow properly. Paul offers a warning in Ephesians 5:
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. 
You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

In these verses we do see an encouragement from Paul, milk is good and necessary for while but if then you are not attempting to study the Word in a deeper way, if you are not seeking to grow in your love, knowledge, and service towards God then you are not living or serving properly. 

If we don’t study the ‘tougher’ things about Scripture then how do we defend our hope and our faith when these things are questioned.
One of the biggest issues among young Christians is a real lack of depth in their understanding of the Bible. The more we love our Lord the more we should want to know Him – and how do we do that?
We read and study and engage in the very words He has given us!

If you are new to the Orchestra just enjoy the music, enjoy the experience, but if you have heard a few concerts now it’s time to start learning and appreciating the deeper beauty and wonder of the precious music of salvation.