Neighbours! Everybody loves good neighbours, with a little understanding..........
My next door neighbour is moving, a sold sign has appeared in the garden. We will be sorry to see her go. A good neighbour - everything one would want in someone living next door. It made me wonder.............. what kind of neighbour am I? What am I like to live next door to, to work in an office with, to share a holiday, to meet in the street?
A man travelling on a road in his neighbourhood was mugged, stripped and robbed. Two passers-by, with apparently all the right credentials of similar belief and blood- line, ignored him and quickly moved on. A Samaritan man, one of mixed race and different belief, stopped, helped and paid to aid the recovery. The ones you thought would be the good neighbours were not, the one that stopped and helped was the surprise.
The question is not ‘who is my neighbour?’ The question is ‘what kind of neighbour am I?’
To somebody with a different belief system or no belief, same colour or different colour, lived here all their life or just moved into Narberth, UK born and bred or just landed and learning the language……Am I a good neighbour?
What house are you living in?
As a child I was taught about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. I was resolved that in my life I would build on rock. It was many years later that I discovered another common denominator concerning the two men and it was not design of foundations, soil mechanics, or houses. It was simply that even if you built on rock, you still had to take the storm. However, because of the way you built you survived the storm.
On October 19, 2010, a test was conducted at the Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina. Researchers constructed two 1,300-square-foot houses inside a $40 million laboratory and then observed how a simulated hurricane would impact the homes.
The first home was built according to conventional standards. The second home included reinforcement straps that connected every level of the building, from the foundation all the way to the roof. Then the researchers turned on giant fans, creating gusts of wind up to 110 miles per hour (equal to a category 3 hurricane). In the first two experiments, which lasted under ten minutes, both homes survived the intense winds. But when they tried a third experiment, turning on the fans for more than ten minutes, the conventional home began to shake and then collapsed. In contrast, the home with the floors and roof reinforced to the foundation sustained only cosmetic damage.
Tim Reingold, an engineer working on the experiment, summarized the results with a pointed question: "The bottom line you have to ask yourself is, which house would you rather be living in?"
Never lose the smell of sheep from your clothing
21 years ago I travelled to Poland for the first time and met a young man Marek Kaminski. We became very good friends and where I travelled throughout Poland, he accompanied me as the interpreter. After several years, it was clear roles had to change. Rather than Marek serve me it was time for me to serve him. So when I came to Poland for a week or two, Marek would arrange ministry and I would go where he requested. The church where he was senior pastor always, but also where young pastors were pioneering churches. That has continued for 21 years, but recently Marek was elected as the Bishop of 220 Polish Pentecostal churches. He kindly aked me to speak at the annual synod of the churches, also with Stuart Bell from Lincoln. The privilege and responsibility is always huge, but the night I spoke I thought back to the early years, the miles of travelling throughout Poland to churches of all shapes and sizes. Here I was speaking, Marek intepreting, but both ministering to the leaders in a nation. God is so gracious. When we had lunch together the next day, Marek collected the dishes. I said to leave them for me, he replied with a line I had shared with him many years earlier ' never lose the smell of sheep from your clothing.' Tho' a Bishop, he still wanted to humbly serve. Well done. This is my beloved friend in whom I am absolutely delighted. - Paul
Sometimes the answer is direct, delayed, different and also at times denial, but I believe prayer is always answered. The challenge arises when the answer is no. There are times when you have, for you, a brilliant idea. It is the most obvious thing to do, and the sooner it is commenced the better. King David wanted to build a house for God, after all he was living in a palace and a tent was accommodating the Almighty. What a great idea, until God said no. The denial was not a rejection or discipline, in fact the thought was most commendable. It was simply that King David was a soldier, a warrior and not a temple builder. How many today think they're temple builders but actually they are better serving in the trenches or rallying the troops?
