Red Hot
I don’t live round here. The Release Potential office is in a quiet street somewhere near London. I am from Nottingham – somewhere in the Midlands. So I’ve been making the most of being in London and seeing my ‘southern friends’ during my weekends off.
This weekend, I went to a friend's 21st birthday party, where I met a fantastic girl called Santosh. Santosh just asked me, straight out, ‘So who’s your Christian hero then, someone you really look up to?’ She’s a bold and beautiful girl! I told her about the story of a missionary in Africa, called Simon Guillebaud, who spent 10 years in war torn central Africa, not expecting to reach age 30 but loving people and preaching Jesus. She liked the sound of his work! ‘Yeah!’ She said, ‘It’s like that verse in Revelation, if you’re not hot or cold but just lukewarm, God’s not interested! That man (Simon) sounds red hot!'
I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.
Revelation 3:15-16 The Message
If there’s one thing I want to be, it’s red hot. But we all know about the dangers of red hot things, don’t we… you can get burnt. Are we prepared to give God permission to rule our whole life, not knowing what that will look like? Not knowing if we’ll reach 30, or even 21…
The persecuted brothers and sisters I’ve met and heard stories about in these past weeks strike me as the best antidotes to lukewarm faith. When I see that they’ll look a police officer in the face and refuse to deny Jesus, even when that means prison or even death – how can I not step up to the plate? How can I continue to walk my race, not run it – wholeheartedly, with all I’ve got, taking risks and steps of faith.
Because “Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not mine, but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.” (Galatians 2:20 The Message) It’s a beautiful challenge.
Lucy – @ Release Potential on work experience
Who is Lucy?
A couple of months ago twenty-one year old Lucy got in touch with Release; she wanted to find out a bit about what we did, how we did it and why we did it.
So we said "Okay, come and hang out with us!" She packed her bags, left her hometown of Nottingham and joined us for a couple of weeks of work experience!
Praise God for released Iranian Christian!
Praise God!
Pastor Vahik Abrahamian, a 45-year-old Armenian Christian from Iran, was released from prison on Monday 29 August, after suffering greatly behind bars for a year, and has now rejoined his family.
