Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
I feel a wee bit weak doing a family update as the last article was so powerful and so much what God is talking in my life, but I feel that it is right to give you a wee update on the stuff that is happening at Tigh Na Mac Gafraidh
As the title suggests, Tabi is teething and although I only see a wee bit of this due to natural distractions such as work and the like, (Chelsea tends to take the day shift and I tend to do the late afternoon shift!) but it is not easy to watch the child that you love so much in a wee bit of pain, you know it will be worth it as these teeth will help her eat solid food.
You see, as a baby she is okay getting natural milk, it is enough to keep her growing and will be enough to sustain her for about the first 6 months of her life, soon and very soon we will be moving onto food, she will continue to grow and develop and be less dependant on us as parents.
That day will be nice, but it will also be sad, you see, I have got used to holding Tabi tight and keeping her entertained, it is great fun for me and a great delight to me to hear her laugh.
I know that my baby will mature physically, but as her father it is my job also to make sure that she matures spiritually also.
This kind of reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians to the believers who had been established for a few years at this point and who were not as spiritually mature as they should be.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able. 1st Cor 3:1-2
I pray that I will do by job well and the areas that I am currently not doing as well as I should, please help me to do better!
Also, I wish to congratulate the Grenier family on the arrival of their baby Emma, who arrived on Tuesday and I pray for Robert his family and the grandparents that the LORD will protect this baby!
May God bless you one and all and feel free to comment
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
This is quite a strong title to start with as this is something that has been on my heart for a wee while now and I feel that I must get it off of my chest!
These letters are directed at the Christian church as a whole and not at any one body or denomination, should you see things that you recognize, please feel free to come in and comment!
I could very well be way out of line also, so if you feel that is your viewpoint, then please feel free to tell me that also. The comments field is below.
I don’t think anyone would argue that the church is there to help people, whether that be spiritual help, prayerful help, counselling or even looking after the needs of its most needy. I think, as a whole it is not doing this. Here is a few characteristics of why.
Charlatans in the Pulpits
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15
Please be assured, I am not saying that all folks are bad, but there are some crackers out there. I read on Phoenix Preacher that Todd Bentley is back in business. (I say business as his ministry is more like a sideshow and corporation than a work of God)
I am not here to pick on brother Bentley though, there are some doing it on a low scale, on a local level, fleecing the flock with no care for serving God or the people that they tell folks they have been called to serve. They are Pastors in name only and God has blessed their ministry despite the fact they are there, not due to it.
Erroneous Doctrines
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For [it is] a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Hebrews 13:9
And also
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6
I am astonished what passes for Christian theology sometimes these days, when I teach a Bible study, I ask that the participants follow along and test what has been said and what is being taught and make sure that it aligns with the word of God. Many teachers do not want folks to do that, they do not welcome accountability because they might actually get found out.
I am heartened by a second hand quote I got, the quoter (to me at least) was Pastor Marty Sondermann, I believe he was quoting Greg Laurie when he said
“Don’t follow the Pastor unless he is following the Master”
That is sound advice even if the original speaker is not correct. Please also do not assume I am speaking about myself also, I am not a Pastor (and in many ways I am a million miles away from being one)
People need to pray for a spirit of discernment to be able to judge what is right and what is wrong, I am way far from perfect and I am writing this with no pride in my heart, but as a broken man who has a broken heart for the church at large.
Non-Missionary Churches
In this I am not referring to churches that currently do not support missionaries around the world, not every church is financially able to! I am on about something completely different.
I came from a missionary church at Calvary Chapel in Glasgow under Pastor Matt Mc Goldrick and he had the right idea, he followed the three basic principles of missionary work
- preach the gospel unto salvation
- disciple until a solid believer
- send them out into the mission field
Now, by the “mission field” I don’t mean that everyone has to leave the country they are in and go “globetrotting for Jesus” (Unless you feel called to do so) but I mean it is now the person who got saved in point one’s turn to go get more disciples.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Matthew 28:19
Now many churches are not doing this, they are happy to invite you in and allow you to warm the seats on a Sunday and have a weekly relationship of “how you do” and so forth. These churches usually grow either by sheep stealing or church splits, otherwise it forms a social club mentality.
That is simply not good enough, we need to invest in these people, we need to help them to impact others lives for Christ! That is how the church is meant to work! (Regardless of the size of the assembly) If you have a large church this can be achieved by small group’s and one to one discipleship.
Unqualified teachers/Teachers who openly have no regard for the words of the Bible
There is simply no easy way to say this, there are folks out there who do not want to follow Biblical principles when establishing leadership in some assemblies, there are women in the pulpits and now we have openly gay leaders. This flies in the face of what is described as acceptable for the leadership of the church.
Look at what Paul tells Timothy in 1st Timothy 3:2
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
I am not going to be legalistic here but notice that Paul, leaves no doubt that the leaders should be:
- male (a husband)
- a monogamist (of one wife)
- not gay (notice the word wife, not husband)
The word wife is gynē where we get our modern day gynaecologist and means
- a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow
- a wife
That is without going into the Levitical law that God declares relations between two men as an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22)
Lastly, on this we have the teaching of man made philosophies in church such as “evolution” or various other stuff that flies in the face of the Bible. We can’t pick and chose which bits we like, for me it has to be the whole deal!
Not helping folks on an actual level
We need to provide for folks on a one to one level, whether it is providing groceries for the poor, visiting the sick in a hospital, counselling alcoholics or drug addicts, whatever you have on your heart to do to enrich another’s life, get in there and do it, but do it in Jesus name.
There are many issues in the world and we need to meet people at their level, show them an actual love of Christ, that’s what changed my life and that is what will change many others also.
This is something the false doctrines such as the LDS and the JW’s do really well is actively involve themselves in the community; they use it as a “witnessing” technique. In many cases they are regarded as “model citizens” for doing so. They are simply following Matthew 5:43-47
In conclusion
As I said previously, this is not the church as a whole, but there are some elements within the church that are like this. I write this with a heavy heart as I love the church (of all denominations) but I hate to see how it is attempting to bend to seek modern “kudos” and compromising on what it should be teaching “The Word of God”
Personally I pray for the modern church and I ask that you do too, this is simply skimming the top of some of the issues that are plaguing the church today and if I was to document them all it would begin to look like Luther’s 95 theses.
Feel free to leave comments on what is, I am sure a controversial issue
God bless
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
In my experience there are three types of brothers in this world, which are true brothers in the literal sense. These are as follows:
- Your literal blood brothers
- Brothers from the family you married into
- Christian brothers, the adhesive folks from the church
It is not often I laud one over the other but someone from the second (and third) category really came through for us today.
You see, my wife Chelsea has two brothers, the eldest Shannon works for a local gas company, now Shannon is also an awesome man of God and has a heart as big as a London bus! He would go massively out of his way to help you and that is just who he is!
Well last night I went to the Exeter Monarchs game (Exeter won against CVC in case you are interested!) and I came back to find the house freezing, our heater is run on propane and we ran out (My bad for not checking the levels!) best of all it was a freezing night!
Well Shannon works for the company that services us with that and he really helped us out. He went on his day off, got in a truck and drove all the way to our house and serviced us so that we and our baby would not freeze! What a guy! Also what an advert for his walk with Jesus and also for the pride he has in doing his job!
Our house was 54F (12.22C) this morning when we got up, we decided to stay in the bedroom as much as we could as it is a small room and we have a wee heater that keeps that room toasty (and believe me, compared to the rest of the house, it was!)
So we are blessed (not to mention thankful to God!) to first have this guy in our lives and second to have this guy serving in the church we go to also! God has done amazing things in this man’s life!
Feeling really blessed at the moment and feeling all warm, inside and out!
God bless
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
I have been up since 5:45am this morning as I wanted to try and give my wife a wee break. She had been up, quite literally all night and allowed me to sleep as I had work this morning.
I did something that I love doing; I held my daughter close whilst she was sleeping and she took rest in my arms!
Tabi has had a wee upset stomach and it is hard for her, she is in Pre-communication mode and although she is trying to find words, she just hasn’t managed it yet! So telling us that she has an upset stomach or has pain or has gas is just that wee bit harder!
This is hard on the baby also, make no mistake about it, she is not awake for fun or awake just to keep us awake, if Tabi had her choice she would be asleep! Please do not think I am painting myself as the hero as Chelsea is also sick and she was up at least once an hour dealing with Tabi all night. I just did the last one!
So at 5:45am she was a wee bit fussy, she needed attention. Well, boy was she happy that I picked her up; she gave me a look of tiredness I have never seen before from her and smiled as much as she could and rested on my shoulder and in my arms.
Within a few minutes of reassurance, rocking back and forth and holding her lovingly, she drifted back to sleep and I laid her down again. She was comforted and then it stuck me, we are often like this in our lives, we are sore, we are restless and in many cases we are also tired, we can get resolution like Tabi did!
You see we have a father who we can seek rest and comfort also, most often we get to burning out point before we realise this however, but should we seek his rest, he will gladly give it to us.
I have watched Tabi develop from a baby that was helpless and really couldn’t do a lot, to who she is now, a lot bigger can flip over and can almost speak, she has got closer to both Chelsea and I through daily interaction with us. We need to do likewise with God. If we are not becoming more God-like, then chances are we are not spending enough time with God!
I certainly don’t want to miss a second of Tabi’s development and this has opened my eyes to the way that God see’s us, he wants to bless us, to see us grow and develop, we also need to put in the effort!
God bless you one and all
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
This is a hard article to write as it is for a date on the calendar that changes every year but is so poignant to me and I will let you know why below.
One thing that has never really been discussed by me is that I used to be in the British Army, I signed on to the Territorial Army Royal Engineers (Reserve Forces) in Coatbridge (124 Field Squadron) and that is really where I progressed from boy to man.
One of the first things we are taught as Engineers is a respect for those who have gone before you, the ones who gave their tomorrow so that we could enjoy a free today. This is not about patriotism or holding an ideal of what your country should be like, or simply thrusting your union flag in someone’s face to declare yourself more British than your neighbour. It is simply about giving the men and women who fell defending your country, the respect that you can no longer pay them as they are no longer here.
So spare a thought for those who have seen action, whether it be in the World Wars, whether it be in Vietnam, whether it be in Northern Ireland or in the pursuit of terrorists at both home and abroad, some came home no different, some came home broken and some did not come home at all. The Americans have a flag for all of their personnel that are Missing In Action, I wish the British did likewise.
Please spare a few moments to reflect on the sacrifice that has been given by these people who have gone before you, in the UK every year, I used to buy a poppy, as a piece of symbolism to show my support, not just for the Earl Haig fund or for the Royal British Legion, but for the folks who have done their best (and in some cases gave their all, more than they imagined they would, their life) to preserve British interests and the interests of the commonwealth globally.
I pray for everyone affected currently by the current campaigns that the British Army is engaged in, especially in both Iraq and Afghanistan, let the people who make the decisions make the correct one’s based on the needs of the people of those nations and not due to popular voice back home.
To fill you in, if you are not familiar with Remembrance Sunday, it is the Sunday that is closest to the anniversary of the ending of the 1st World War on 11th November 1918. Below is a video that is common of what happens that day, the main figure being H.M Queen Elizabeth.
I will be wearing a poppy red shirt today at church to pay respect in my own way. I pray that you all make a tribute in whatever fashion is easiest for you. Please remember All gave some and some gave all.
God bless you one and all
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
