The Touch of God

 God is love. He wants to touch you with his love. His touch is gentle. He does not want to hurt you. He wants to touch every part of you with his love.

God touches your spirit and your soul, your thoughts, and your feelings, but not only that. He also wants to touch your body. His touch is a healing touch. His love is a comforting love.

About 50 years ago there was a stirring of the Spirit of God among all kinds of people. Traditional Catholics and Protestants experienced the touch of God. Many drug addicts and hippies had amazing experiences and became followers of Jesus. I believe we are about to see something even bigger very soon.

At that time I was a young man and a newly converted Christian. We loved to sing this song.

God’s not dead, He is alive. God’s not dead, He is alive. God’s not dead, He is alive. 

I feel him all over me.
I can feel Him in my hands
I can feel Him in my feet
I can feel Him in the Church
I can feel Him in the street
I can feel him in the air.
I feel him everywhere.

It was literally true. We really did feel the Spirit of God in our bodies and all around us. 

I am now 74, and I still often feel the presence and the touch of God, but the glory has faded a little. I want a refreshing. I believe it is coming.

Many conservative Christians are nervous about dramatic or emotional experiences of God.

There are even many Pentecostal believers who see their bodies as something not entirely spiritual.

According to a popular doctrine, you are a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body.

Many people have died, or nearly died, and come back to life. They report that they have left their bodies and had amazing experiences. Outside their bodies they could see, hear and think with even greater clarity than their natural physical senses permitted.

We are spiritual beings. When your body dies, you don’t cease to exist. 

But is your body only an unimportant housing for your soul?
We can overvalue our bodies. We can be obsessed with feeling good and looking good. 

We can be obsessed with sex and sensual satisfaction.

But God made your body, and he loves every part of you. God wants to awaken your spiritual senses but also bless your natural human self, including your body.

Everywhere Jesus went, he healed physical ailments and disabilities.

In the Old Testament, the prophet David wrote.

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. Ps 63:1 NKJV

God loves you, not just your spirit. God loves you, every part of you, just as you are. 

 God wants to heal, refresh and bless your spirit, your mind, your soul and your body.
 

Cancel Culture

 Traditional conservatives in Western Countries want us to believe that Cancel Culture is an evil revolutionary movement invented by angry black people and left wing activists.

Sometimes cancel culture can go too far. Some very significant men in history did very bad things. If we no longer celebrate their positive achievements, our understanding of history will suffer.

• King David had too many wives, and he was not always a good father.

• George Washington was the first president of the USA, but he owned a lot of slaves.

• Martin Luther persecuted Jews and Anabaptists.

• Johannes Brahms was a misogynist.

But wait a minute. Is Cancel Culture really a new thing? 

I am a lover of classical music. Over 100 years ago there were no women playing in some elite symphony orchestras. Now there are numerous wonderful composers and conductors who are women.

I am 74, and I have loved classical music all my life, but only in recent years I have heard a lot of music by female composers, which was previously ignored.

Very recently I heard of a woman who worked closely with Einstein. She was a genius and her ideas had a big influence on Einstein, but he got all the credit while she was forgotten.

When Spanish conquistadors took over Mexico and South America, they systematically set out to suppress indigenous languages and culture. Cancel Culture.

When European colonists invaded North America and Australia, they committed genocide and suppressed indigenous languages and culture. Cancel Culture.

I once met an African preacher who migrated to Australia. He told me that dancing was not permitted for Christians. For Africans, dancing is like breathing. Cancel Culture.

When I was a child in Australia, I went to a Church of England Grammar school. We learned about British heroes and colonial pioneers. 

We learned that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but we were not told that an Australian professor and a German Jewish refugee shared the Nobel Prize for penicillin, when they took Fleming’s discovery and turned it into a life-saving medicine. Cancel Culture.

As a Christian, I had heard a lot about the Welsh Revival in 1904.

Some years ago some Welsh preachers visited our church in Australia.

 We learned that one of the most powerful ministries in the Welsh revival was the preaching of a 15-year-old girl. When she preached in city streets, crowds came to be blessed: politicians, business leaders, prostitutes, and everyone in between. 

She is ignored in most Christian history books. Cancel Culture.

Cancel Culture has been practised for centuries by conservative white Christians.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Ga 3:28 NIVUK84