The Campbellog

New town, new job, new blog: The Campbellog

He giveth more grace

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Annie J. Flint

West Wales's most appetising snack

R.I.P. SSRIs 2001-2007

Six and a half years ago I was prescribed my first anti-depressant medication. A couple of weeks ago, I took my last (God willing!). Am I cured? No. But I'm much, much better than I have ever been, and am able to cope now without the meds.

This is a good time to look back, and testify to how good God has been to me through the illness.
He has given me so many good gifts:

* Medications which help to alleviate the symptoms of depression

* Doctors who prescribed them with caution and care

* Cognitive behavioural therapy - if you've had it, you'll know what I mean!

* Family and friends who have patiently loved me through the ups and downs

* My husband, who vowed to love me in sickness and in health, knowing more than most how hard this would be!

* Great promises in His Word

1 Corinthians 10:13 "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

- although I sometimes believed things were too hard, and God couldn't keep this promise, He did.

* Himself - most importantly, through all of this He has been with me. He is my comfort and my strength, He is the One who keeps me and guides me through all the hard times, and the easy times. If the depression had not been from His hand, I couldn't have borne it - only the knowledge that this is from Him, for His glory and for my good, kept me going, and will keep me going, in the darkness. Psalm 56:8 says that God keeps all our tears in a bottle. None of our pain is wasted, and none of it is ignored by our Father. He loves me, and will keep me til the end. Praise God!

Take That, Marks and Spencers!

I opened the paper on Saturday to find Take That sponsoring Marks & Spencers. Or is it M&S sponsoring Take That? Anyhow, it made me chuckle. Bless them, they're not the best models you're ever going to see, but they've obviously graduated from 'boyband' to 'manband' now. It's a beautiful thing ;)

Remember everything; forgive nothing

So reads the tagline for the final Bourne film. In the pursual of justice, Bourne must remember all the offences committed against him, and punish the perpetrators.

This makes me think about God's justice.

"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23) - by rights I stand condemned. God knows everything about me, and is under no obligation to forgive me. In fact, in order to be just, He must punish me.

But praise God, He has made a way to be just AND to forgive me, in Jesus. God punished Jesus for my sin, so that now I am righteous in His sight.

In Christ, God remembers nothing and forgives everything!

He says "I am he who blots out your trangressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43). Because my sin was dealt with on the cross, God will not punish me.

David wrote in the psalms "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin" (Psalm 32).

This is a revolutionary kind of justice that the world cannot comprehend. An innocent man (God Himself made flesh) is punished as if He had committed my sins, and I go free. Now God chooses not to remember my sin, but to give me Christ's righteousness. This is the greatest kind of justice, where God satisfies His anger at my sin on the cross, and I experience His grace and mercy, and eternity in His presence!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" 1 Peter 1

Stranger than fiction

Will Ferrell is an IRS agent who one day starts hearing someone narrating his life, and becomes alarmed when they state that he is soon to die. From this moment, he desperately seeks out whoever it is that is writing his story, to beg them not to kill him off. Maggie Gillenhal plays his love interest, and Dustin Hoffman is hilarioust as a professor of literature theory, who helps Ferrell deduce who the narrator is.

This is a very clever and entertaining film, but also really, really tragic. Because it's based on the premise that this life is all there is. So the most important thing for Ferrell's character is to find the narrator, and stop her writing his death. There are some really touching scenes as Ferrell comes to terms with the inevitability and immediacy of his own death - for the person without God there is nothing but terror when faced with death. There's no hope. Death must be avoided at all costs, because with it comes the end of all happiness.

How very different from the hope we have in Jesus Christ - that death is not to be feared, because Christ has the keys of death and hell! He has conquered death, and so all it holds for us is life eternal, in the presence of God, and the absence of sin and suffering.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1v3-5 :)

Through Gates of Splendour

Just finished reading a biography of five missionaries and their wives who served in Ecuador, and God gave them a burden for the Aucas, a tribe who had been mistreated by white men for generations. The five missionaries tried to befriend them, and earn their trust in order to share the gospel with them. Here's what one of the men, Nate Saint said, two weeks before all five were killed by members of the tribe.

"As we have a high old Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for those we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.

Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear of ambush on the jungle trail... those to whom the bark of a gun means sudden, mysterious death... those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that now seem dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ.

May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich.

Lord God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy Holy will and the joy of walking in it. Amen."

Adoniram Judson and Wives

I've just finished reading "Storming the Golden Kingdom", a biography of Adoniram Judson and his wives Ann, Sarah and Emily. Adonirum went as a missionary to Burma, a Buddhist country with his new wife Ann. Over the next thirty or so years he would learn the language, translate the Bible into Burmese, see many come to Christ and face the concequences of their profession in a country which vehemently opposed it. He discipled Burmese Christians to lead the church there and spread the gospel amongst their own people. He would know the joys of having children, and the distress of losing many of them. He lost Ann, then remarried, then lost Sarah, then remarried, and then Emily had to see her husband die.

His testimony is such a challenge, to live all out for Christ, to know the joy of sharing in His sufferings, to see His kingdom extended. I recommend reading anything you can about hiM!

Self harm: new page on my website

My little sister is doing Relay this year, and for her elective she's been studying self harm. This is a massive area, and a huge problem amongst those who suffer from mental illness. It's important that, when caring for such people, we respond with sensitivity, but also with some understanding of the issue. There isn't much literature on this from a Christian perspective, so it's really exciting to have this:

http://www.freewebs.com/christianstudentsmentalhealth/selfharm.htm

The wedding...

So Pete and I got married five and a bit weeks ago, sorry for the delay in posting! We were away in Ireland for two weeks, then I got the flu, and then I had to catch up on work, settle into my new home, etc...

Anyway, the wedding was great :) We really felt that it brought glory to God, and it was just thrilling to have all our friends and family with us for our special day.

As it was our wedding we got to pick some of our favourite hymns! We had 'Object of my first desire, Jesus crucified for me', 'Immortal invisible God only wise', 'The Lord's my Shepherd I'll not want', 'How deep the Father's love for us', 'We rest on Thee our Shield and our Defender', and 'Jesus Jesus all sufficient'.

The readings were both from 1 Peter, firstly 1v13-21, then 3v1-7. Allan preached clearly on the need for Christ to be at the centre of our marriage if it's going to have any chance of lasting, that He is the one who will help me to be submissive, and Pete to be considerate (1Peter3), and that Christ is the only hope for all of us - we need to be saved!

After the service we had coffee & cakes at the Community Centre opposite the church (just as well we didn't have to go far, as it was raining all day!), where we got to chat to lots of people, which was lovely.

The reception was back at the church, our ushers and friends from church did a lovely job of transforming the hall for the evening, and then transforming it back for the service the next day! Everyone enjoyed the day, it was nicely informal!

We praise God for a day which we feel honoured Him, and seek Him for the rest of our marriage, that He would use it to bring Him glory, however He sees fit to do so!

Saturday

On Saturday I become Mrs. Campbell!

This site will have piccies (hopefully) soon after the event :)

Psalm 23...

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever"

Read this this morning, God is so gracious. My mind's so busy at the moment I'm struggling to think straight, or to sleep soundly. The end of Psalm 23 is such an encouragement. God's goodness and mercy (or steadfast love) follows me each and every day. That includes today. And tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. And the wedding day, and beyond. And when there are no more days left, I get to dwell in His house forever. How generous my Father is :)

There just aren't enough hours in the day!!!

This is something I've been thinking a lot lately - there's just not enough time to get everything done! But then it struck me - there are enough hours in the day. There are exactly the right amount of hours in each and every day. When God created the world, he created the days, and they were just the right length. So there is just the right amount of time to get all the things on my list done!

This probably sounds really obvious, but with 22 days til I marry Pete (big cheesy grin appears on my face at this point), I've been getting really snowed under with all that needs to be done. But the LORD is sovereign, He is good and generous to His children, so I can praise Him that each day lasts 24 hours, that there are 7 days in a week, and that this is just right. He is my kind and loving Father who has provided for every need, without fail. He will provide for the next few weeks, just as He has every other day of my life. There's no cause for stress, I can have peace knowing that He reigns :)

*ah*

Now I would really value prayer for the wedding: half the congregation will be unsaved, so do pray that those who've been invited will come, will hear the gospel preached clearly, and will be saved!! Also pray that it would be a real time of praise to God, and that our marriage would be centred round Christ from the start. We want to serve Him, and to reflect Him in our life together.

Oooh it's exciting :)

This makes me chuckle...

This image has been plastered on buses around Swansea, and it makes me laugh. Today Glamorgan, tomorrow who knows? Well, yesterday Glamorgan, today office admin. Hmm, maybe I'm not the best advert for them....

I'll write something more useful soon - just snowed under at the moment with busyness!!

Where have I been?!!

Ok so I haven't blogged for ages, I've been out and about doing this and that, lots of wedding planning (and stressing), also went to Aber last week to do the kids work, which was great...


On Monday night we heard Gwyn Williams preaching on James, how we need to be doers of the word, not hearers only. The kids we were working with have all been hearers of the word from birth, but very few know the reality of Christ in their lives. This was a real challenge, to exhort them to trust Christ as their personal Saviour, not to just rely on their knowledge of the truth.


Thursday night Liam Golligher preached on Psalm 2, and the certainty of judgement. This was also a big help, to be reminded that without Christ we will all perish - this gave greater urgency to what we were doing with the kids. And what an amazing privelege to be able to share Jesus with them!!

That's all for now, I have to pack up my house and clean it before I move out on Saturday!!!

Christian Students' Mental Health

Ok, so this was my Relay elective thing last year, and in the grand tradition of relay electives (oops, sorry Andy), I didn't get round to doing it properly. Well, I'm having a go now at putting it together properly, you can see what I've done so far by clicking here.

Any comments, criticisms, additions would be gratefully appreciated.

Compromise is not an option!

The first two chapters of Judges have really convicted me about the sin in my life.

So at the start of Judges the people are entering the promised land, Canaan. God has explicitly, repeatedly told Israel that when they enter a city, they must utterlly destroy the people there.

1v28When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.
[This pattern is true for Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali.]
2v1Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you."

The more I've thought about this, the more it's gripped me. Israel are God's people. He tells them to be holy, not to allow any uncleanness in their land, because they belong to a holy God. So the locals must be destroyed. And Israel think, "Ok, so we've conquered these lands now, and we're really strong - we won't kill the locals, we'll keep them as slaves. We know what God said, that these people will lead us astray, but we're strong - we can contain them.". But God says NO - I gave you a specific command to get rid of them. You haven't obeyed it, and don't think I'm going to give you the strength to contain people I told you to detroy!!

What a clear rebuke to me. Why do I keep favourite sins in my life, thinking I'm strong, I can handle it, it won't take over? How ridiculous! God says to get rid of ALL sin in my life. If I think I can keep some little ones for myself, then He isn't going to give me strength to deal with them! God doesn't give us power to manage sins, but to pluck them out! God has redeemed me, made a covenant with me, and called me to live a holy life, because He is holy. So NO sin is acceptable.

Praying that the LORD will continue to deal with the areas where I compromise on holiness!

If I should die, think only this of me...

I've found the text I want for my funeral...

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,
that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For this we declare to you by
a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of
the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thess 4)

Wow! What a fantastic hope we have in the Lord!!

If we can eat prawns, why is gay sex wrong?

So reads the subtitle of John Richardson's excellent little booklet, "What God has made clean". In it he addresses the growing movement of Christians who defend homosexuality as a valid lifestyle choice, who argue that we cannot stand on the Laws of the Old Testament against homosexuality, because we clearly don't hold to other levitical laws (such as not eating prawns, not wearing clothes of differing fabrics, etc).

He explains how we should approach the levitical laws, and why some of them are relevent to us today whilst others aren't. Aside from the sexuality issue, it's really helpful to see why some laws still stand, while others have been abandoned. He also gives Biblical reasons why homosexuality cannot be a lifestyle choice for a Christian, taking us right through the Bible to explain this.

This booklet is helpful in understanding what the Bible says about sexuality, and defending our standpoint. I probably wouldn't give it to a friend who was struggling with these issues - it's more of a theological standpoint than a pastoral aide. But it is good to see this issue addressed in a clear, sensible way (without the unhelpful comments that sometimes appear in Christian books on the subject, like 'get yourself a husband/wife and you'll be ok!).

Other good stuff on the issue: True Freedom Trust produce some excellent booklets, IVP's Straight and Narrow is helpful, and 'Still Learning to Love' is really good addressing the whole issue with great insight and sympathy.