Dear Oaks

Dear Oaks,

There are many times in life when we face problems that we feel unable to solve ourselves. It may be financial or relational or perhaps a problem at work. As a church leader I am often faced with questions about how we can become more effective in mission and particularly in evangelism.

Yesterday I stood with Mark Bishop at the top of a tower block (no neither of us had plans to jump) on the south Acton estate and surveyed the scene before me. I could see the city of London in the distance and I could imagine some of the concerns facing the banks and financial institutions. Closer to hand I could see the new Westfield shopping centre and imagine the strains and stresses of the businesses there. Much closer I could see the hundreds of windows of the tower blocks and who knows what problems some of the residents living there are facing?

I found myself wondering once more just how we might reach the lost; the lonely and the so called least that live apart from God. To be honest as I pondered this matter over the past 24 hours I found myself getting more and more disheartened by the scale of the need and the lack of an answer.

But then as I read on the tube this afternoon, God took me to a passage in Mark 6. Here Jesus takes one boys packed lunch and gives it to his disciples to feed five thousand people. Please note that whilst this miracle is down to Jesus, he uses his followers to be part of it as well. Later in the same chapter the disciples are in a boat caught in a storm and they are terrified (v50). Jesus comes walking on the water to sort the storm out and calm his followers but then we get a very interesting comment in v52 “for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.”

What does this mean? I think it means this: When they were faced with the problem of feeding 5,000 on one small lunch, God provided. But when they were faced with the problem of the storm they did not take with them in to that situation what they had just learnt. Namely, if God can feed miraculously through them, he can calm a storm or protect them through one.

Truly, they had not learnt the lesson of the loaves!

As I look at problems or challenges as I described earlier, I saw often forget how God has solved problems previously. I so often start from the position of, my hands are empty rather than the fact that God’s hands are full (of provision).

Repentance is the ongoing process of thinking what God is thinking. When we do that we start to ponder his answers and his provisions rather than our empty handedness!

As I consider the need to evangelise Acton I see many more than 5,000 souls. I also feel that we have less than a few loaves and a couple of fish. But the issue is not what have we got to offer, but what can God do to multiply our little in to his great.

Yours in the name of the great provider,

Mark