Grace and Forgiveness

Meditations on Psalm 51

This psalm doesn’t offer self-repair.
It offers mercy without denial — and truth without despair.

There are few biblical texts as familiar — and as easily misunderstood — as Psalm 51.
Prayed for centuries in private confession and public worship, its words can become so well known that they are no longer truly heard. Yet Psalm 51 was not written as a devotional comfort piece. It emerged from moral collapse, prophetic confrontation, chastening that was not bypassed, and mercy that proved strong enough to restore without denial.

Grace and Forgiveness: Meditations on Psalm 51 is a slow, serious listening to this
ancient prayer. Written with restraint and theological clarity, the book allows Psalm 51 to speak in its own voice — without being softened, hurried, or reshaped to fit modern expectations.

Rather than treating repentance sentimentally or forgiveness superficially, this book traces the psalm’s full moral and spiritual logic:

• forgiveness grounded in God’s righteous mercy
• discipline understood as fatherly care, not condemnation
• restoration that unfolds truthfully, not triumphantly
• usefulness recovered without illusion or entitlement

You’re invited!

God’s invitational love is totally unconditional. It is the most inclusive love that has ever existed. He offers his love to people of all races, generations, beliefs, social standing, sexual orientation, or any other distinguishing factor.

Your child has been missing for 8 months. And still you look for him at the gate, every moment of every day. With each knock at the door, each buzz on your phone, your heart stops. Is that news? Has he been found?

Your friends, your neighbours, your family, even the police, warn you to expect the worst. Still you wait. Still you hope. You long for your son with an unbearable longing.

Love, pure love and, when it comes down to it, heart-sickening love is never more intense than when the one you love is missing from you. Maybe never again to be with you. What parents go through in such situations is unimaginable.

Take that pain and multiply it by a gazillion. Maybe then you might touch the surface of the unfathomably profound longing God has for you.

He has been called ‘the Hound of Heaven’ whose passionate pursuit of you is incessant. The ‘Furious Longing’ deeply desiring you, like the waves of a raging storm relentlessly beating against the rock of your resistance.

Stronger than the love of the most ardent lover. Purer than the love of the most devoted parent. More zealous than the most passionate paramour.

Jerusalem, O Jerusalem how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks.
I died for you with my arms outstretched. Can you not feel my love reaching out to you?
Child of my love, I long for you with intense longing.
Can you not see it’s me your heart truly longs for?
Sons of Adam, where are you? Daughters of Eve, what has happened to you?
Come back home!
I’ve made everything ready for you.

God loves you more than any lover, more than a mother, a father or a brother, and more than your closest friend. But he is not dependent on you. There is no weakness in him and nothing lacking in him. He loves you because he loves you, not because he needs to. And he will never force his love on you.

Sin breaks relationship with God. But he has gone to infinite pains to open the way back. The most famous verse in the Bible says,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life! (John 3:16).

Jesus’ death was not merely an example to follow, or a martyrdom to marvel at. Much more than a personal statement, it was the ultimate expression of unconditional love.
However, a holy God, no matter how much he longs for humanity, cannot deny his own righteousness. To bring us back to him, a price had to be paid that would satisfy both his justice and his love.

At the cross, Jesus stood in our place and died the death we deserved to die. He willingly took our punishment and, as God in the flesh, there was no third party involved. Just God and us.

Christ died for sinners and he invites us all to turn to him and receive his love. Today, he is earnestly reaching out to you through his invitational love. How do you respond?

Walking with Giants

Some Giant Redwoods are the largest trees on earth and over 3,000 years old.

Mentors and allies in the Christian Ministry

C.S. Lewis, the formidable author, broadcaster and Christian apologist is often quoted as saying, “We read to learn we are not alone.” While he may or may not have actually said this, it is certainly true to Lewis’ way of thinking. But it is also true to life. We all have an instinctive need to connect with others and reading their works can get us at least part the way there.

Literary geniuses like Lewis and many others can help us connect with what we ourselves have felt and thought but never quite had the words to express. 

This is one way of walking with giants. Many giants of the past and present have expressed themselves in writing, passing on their knowledge and experience and giving us access to their inmost world. I habitually benefit from such giants in my own life and ministry. 

Walking in a forest of giants

Both in my extensive physical library and online research I have at my fingertips the very best of Christian theology, biography, research and debate, not to mention the quality fiction and non-fiction works gathered from the wider world. It’s like walking in a forest of giant redwoods. I am in awe of the richness of historical and contemporary mentors and allies available to me through their writing. Pastors, Christian leaders and church members do well to cultivate such relationships which will challenge and spur them on.

 We all, consciously or unconsciously, are standing on the shoulders of giants. Those who have gone before leaving behind a vast legacy. They have fought historic battles, the spoils of which we continue to enjoy today:  the battle for the true identity of Christ in the early church, the battle for divine intimacy in the Middle Ages, the battle for gospel truth in the Protestant Reformation, any other countless battles for the enlightened freedoms we enjoy today.

The era of global harvest

I think of the early Pentecostals shunned for their “speaking in tongues” and belief in supernatural signs and wonders. Also, nearer to our own era, I think of the 20th Century evangelists who were champions of the faith: Billy Graham, Reinhard Bonnke and others who contended for the simplicity of the Faith and unashamed proclamation of the gospel. They ministered to the world and grew the church in an era of global harvest. 

All these heroes of the faith have handed to us the very platforms upon which we stand. This is all so obvious that I am sometimes staggered by the arrogance of those who think they can reinvent the wheel as if the history of the Church in general, or the particular church in which they minister, only began the day they took up office. This is the arrogance of immaturity. It is an isolating and miserable place to be.

Contrast this with those who actively seek out not just the giants of yesteryear, but the giants of today. Giants exist in every city, town or village. The 90-year old house-bound lady who is a champion of intercession. The aged minister who still burns the midnight oil searching out the deep things of God. The young warrior who, like David, seeks the Goliaths of our age who defy the armies of the living God. The pioneers who blaze a trail for Christ to reach the homeless, the loveless, the confused, the unevangelised and the rejected. The innovators, the reformers and those sold out to Jesus.

Find yourself some guides

If you want to avoid loneliness in Christian life and ministry, find yourself some guides, those who have been there already and can help you go faster and further to where you want to be. Modern day spiritual giants are not necessarily feted on the front pages of Christian magazines, or those who have bestselling books, or the most followers on social media. Giants are those who have something to say, something to pass onto you. They wish for nothing more than for you to go further than they ever did, and to achieve even greater things in your life.

True guides are mentors and allies. This is what we need in these days of professional jealousy, personal ambition and competitiveness in ministry. But a new generation is rising up. looking for authenticity. This generation is ready to listen and to learn from honest mistakes their mentors have made as much as the reasons they have succeeded. Don’t walk alone. Find yourself a couple of giants, mentors who will walk with you as you walk with them.

Correcting a Pastoral Model in the Contemporary Church

Walk with Teams

I knew “the buck stops here”, with me. But I had wonderfully gifted people around me to sound out my ideas, check my leadings from the Lord, and make up for my deficiencies in ministry and wisdom, as together, we looked for an agreed witness of the Spirit in our deliberations.

In this series, I have been presenting the case against pastors seeing themselves in a “sole leadership” position. Not only is this a sub apostolic practice, it isolates pastors under a burden of responsibility no-one is equipped to bear.

In New Testament times, the terms ‘pastor’, ‘elder’ and ‘overseer’ all referred to the same calling. ‘Pastor’ describes function, ‘elder’, qualification and ‘overseer’, role. Local churches were led by teams of acknowledged pastors/elders/overseers.

Fivefold ministry

Within this overall leadership category, the 5 ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11 function: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Each of these specialise in different kinds of ministry. They are the gifts of Christ distributed to his body, the Church. He had them all and we need them all.  If any of these ministries operated translocally, they had no governing authority independent of the local eldership or leadership team. Translocal governorship does not appear to exist in the New Testament church.

Apostolic teams had a translocal role in establishing new churches and appointing elders, but their on-going role was not perceived as translocal eldership. For a while, Paul continued to oversee the churches he planted, but it seems he was not an on-going part of the local church governing body. That was the responsibility of the local eldership team, the pastors and overseers.

In the local church, there is always a plurality of eldership, but this does not rule out a ‘first among equals’ or a ‘presiding elder’, such as appears to be the case in the Jerusalem church, where James seems to have that role (Acts 15).

The power of teams

If this analysis is to a certain extent correct, then it shows that pastors should never walk alone. They function in teams with each duly appointed leader having a helpful and distinctive contribution to make. While there are many different styles, collegiate and co-operative leadership is essential.

Throughout my time in ministry, I have always worked in teams appreciating what others bring to the table. I never saw myself in monarchical leadership and was all too aware of the dangers it brings and its tendency towards becoming authoritarian, dictatorial and severely truncated. Who, apart from Jesus, can bring the full complement of ability and wisdom to the table? We need each other.

That is why I worked hard to break down the so-called clergy-laity divide. Those who led from a full-time position in professional or occupational life were equal to those whose sphere of ministry was centred around full time work in the church. That meant, though I often felt lonely, I was never actually alone. I knew “the buck stops here”, with me. But I had wonderfully gifted people around me to sound out my ideas, check my leadings from the Lord, and make up for my deficiencies in ministry and wisdom, as together, we looked for an agreed witness of the Spirit in our deliberations.

Celebrating our differences

Maturity in life, ministry and the workplace all came together in the gift-mix of our teams. We looked beyond ourselves and drew from the spiritual wisdom of the whole church. We recognised and celebrated our different gifts and areas of expertise. We discerned the full range of Christ’s gifts among us from the apostolically-minded to the didactically-gifted, from the prophetically-motivated to the pastorally-equipped and the evangelistically-enthused.  

For too long, churches and denominations have paid mere lip service to these New Testament principles. It is time for a bold and thorough-going reformation. We must move intentionally, albeit probably gradually, establishing these uniform principles and expressing them in the myriad patterns that can emerge from them. One size does not fit all, but we must nevertheless fully embrace the principles laid down by the Apostles.

What price failure?

The first casualty is the traditional-style pastor who inevitably functions below potential. Loneliness, discouragement and burn out often set in, sometimes compensated by increasing defensiveness, insecurity and self-referential promotion. The next casualty is the life and health of the church whose truncated leadership can never build the body of Christ correctly or bring it to full maturity. Finally, the casualty is our mission which a weak and ineffectual church can never fulfill.

Walking with Sacred Companions

We were never intended to make the life pilgrimage alone. And attempting to make the spiritual journey on our own is particularly hazardous.

Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction (David G. Benner)

In this blog series, I am launching an attack on the common idea that Christian leaders are somehow expected to go it alone. A false hierarchy has emerged, partly due to a bogus clergy-laity divide. It places ‘ordained ministers’ in a separate category of constant helper possessing special powers, the one with all the answers, and not the fellow traveller on the same spiritual journey that every pilgrim of Christ undertakes. The resulting pressure is too much to bear and one that God never intended. Loneliness, isolation, depression and burnout are never far away.

One significant corrective for Pastors and leaders (and indeed every follower of Christ) is to have what David Brenner calls ‘sacred companions’. We all need one or more companions with whom we share regularly in a spirit of mutual openness and trust. God is at the centre and the sole motive is to help each other become everything that he intends us to be.

One of the hallmarks of the Spirit’s presence in our personal and communal life is submission. Not submission to some institutional or hierarchical structure. But submission to one another in the fear of Christ. The awesome longing to be like him, and the total lack of resources in ourselves to make it happen. This is why we need each other. Sacred companions connect at a level of depth with no judgment but in total confidence in the Spirit’s power to bring mutual transformation. 

But first, we must clear the way. Obstacles include fear, suspicion and self-protection. These things are real. Many church leaders close up when invited to be vulnerable. Who can you trust? I know many Christian ministers who fear losing their status or their job if they were ever to open up about their inner struggles. There are many spiritual policemen ready to prosecute a weakness or a failing. But we have few fellow soldiers who are prepared to stand with us shoulder to shoulder in the trenches to help us fight our battles.

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If you are making significant progress on the transformational journey of Christian spirituality, you have one or  more friendships that support that journey. If you do not, you are not. It is that simple.

Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction (David G. Benner)

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Despite the intense need, the reality of connected spiritual relationship runs counter to the culture of much contemporary church life. Superficiality, from the pulpit to the pew, has led to pretend community rather than the Spirit-led, cross-forged and Father-facing common unity of connected relationships. Surface-to-surface communication must be replaced by in-depth, heart-to-heart focus on genuine spiritual companionship. It must begin with the church leadership who set the tone and establish the pattern of true Christian fellowship. 

The Garden of Your Soul

In the last post, I touched on the need for those in pastoral ministry to resist the lone ranger approach. I highlighted an unfortunate tradition in many churches of looking at the Pastor as the one who is “in sole charge of the church”. Apart from the loneliness and isolation produced, it sets us up for failure. God has much more for us to accomplish than we could ever achieve on our own.

In this post, I am looking at the minister’s walk with God. We never walk alone if we walk with the Lord. Self-reliance is one of the biggest traps in the ministry. And it just does not make sense. 

Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). 

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (John 15:4).

Partnering with the Holy Spirit is a core value when it comes to serving God. He has all the gifts and abilities you could ever dream of, and his best intention for you is that you move forward, upheld and sustained by his empowering presence. Your natural gifts are enhanced and you also find yourself doing things that you never knew you could do, because it is not you, but he who is doing the works.

A pastor friend of mine once told me that he was about the resign from the “ministry” and become an Uber driver. I pointed out that Uber drivers have many opportunities to reach out to people and pass on some spiritual insight or help answer peoples’ questions if they enter into conversation. That is ministry.

But my friend was really wanting to find a new dynamic in his own personal life and ministry. Quite simply he was discouraged and felt disconnected from God. No wonder he was thinking of changing his vocation.

Your true vocation

I explained our true vocation was to get to know God and to learn to love him and enjoy him in the garden of our own souls. All that before we step out and reach relying on the Holy Spirit to make Christ known to others.

Once, I was also at the point of resigning from the “ministry”. I told the Lord I was tired on my ministry. Amusingly, I felt God communicate with me the fact that he was also tired of my ministry. In fact, I did resign from my own ministry. Instead, I decided to engage in God’s ministry through me. 

Futility or fruitfulness

We have shown God what we can do. Now its time to ask him to show us what he can do when we turn our ministry entirely over to him. I felt God say to me, “You have seen the futility of your own ministry, now let me show you the fruitfulness of my ministry.” It was a turning point for me.

But all this depends on cultivating deep intimacy with God. You must come to the place where you delight so much in the person of Jesus Christ, totally captivated by his overwhelming love and his mind-blowing grace, that everything else takes second place. Now, all you do for God flows from your experience of him in the secret place. Service of Christ grows out of your intimacy with him.

The Edenic vision was set in a garden, called ‘the garden of God’. It was no doubt idyllic. I picture, rushing streams of clear unpolluted water and endless rows of luscious plants with delicious fruits and much more. But it would have meant nothing without God’s presence. It was all about him. No really. ALL about him.

Entering into any place of worship with the service in full swing, you can tell straight away whether the ministry of that house is about God or something else. No matter how many times those presiding over the worship or preaching or participating in the service declare that their focus is on God, the whole atmosphere is devoid of genuine devotion. Practiced and polished presentations, slick communication techniques and all the other elements of “attractional” ministry are utterly meaningless without God’s presence impregnating everything that happens and charging the atmosphere with a deep sense of God.

So Pastors, begin with the garden of your own soul. Invite God’s presence deeply and meaningfully into your inner life. Determine that you will make no attempt to do anything for God that does not come from your genuine delight of God. That way, you will never stand or walk alone in your ministry. He will be with you every step of the way.

For more information on my ministry mentoring programme email me on admin@colindye.com

There will be a great shaking of ecclesiastical and denominational structures, as well as the promise of revival-type blessing for all churches and denominations which open up to the Holy Spirit.

New expressions and new forms of church life and ministry will arise, embracing both reformation and revival. 

Some will have a specialist emphasis on worship, intercession, prophecy, social action, training and equipping, market place ministries, and missions and evangelism. 

Others will begin to model the synergy of the full fivefold ministry springing out of apostolic hubs particularly in Nonwestern nations, but also in Western nations.

Expect an increase of passionate and fearless evangelism accompanied by signs and wonders in the streets and fields as well as the market places. Some of our High Streets will become Highways of God’s glory. 

There will be waves of repentance beginning with professing Christians, leading to the awakening of a growing remnant. This will include both renewed believers and surprising conversions of some high profile people. There will also be significant conversions of previously unknown people who will be given extraordinary grace to lead God’s people into the new things he is doing.

There will be a return to the New Testament practice of meeting in homes where believers will be accountable to leaders who operate within simple and reproducible church structures.

APOSTOLIC ALIGNMENT

Many believers feel disappointed, displaced and disconnected from existing churches and Christian communities. Some need healing and restoration from spiritual abuse and manipulation. Others are seeing, as never before, their need to be in genuine, connected, spiritual relationships within the body of Christ, within the context of a healthy 5-fold ministry as revealed in Ephesians 4:11-12.

New apostolic networks arising. These will be relational, not institutional. They will exist to connect churches, ministries and leaders who are looking for new alignments in this new season. The Holy Spirit himself will birth these divine connections. It will not come about by human persuasion, pressure or manipulation. 

There will be no authoritarian control or human-based power structures. Instead, there will be a genuine respect for the ministries God has given and a releasing of these ministries in the freedom of the Holy Spirit. God’s authority will be manifested in grace and truth.

Many churches and denominations are fearful of apostolic and prophetic ministry. Rather than being passionate for the kingdom of God, their desire is to protect and preserve their own institutions. 

Often this makes them defensive and inward-looking, resistant to apostolic initiatives and the voice of the prophets. However, apostles and prophets are needed in every generation to promote expansion, provide stability and offer spiritual direction to the body of Christ.

Chaos and Confusion

As Christians, our focus is on the times and seasons of God. We want to know what he is doing in the world. We want to line up with his plans as he unfolds them in 2023. Pray into the points below that resonate with you.

God is shaking the nations so that his kingdom will manifest. God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. It is our one stability in an unstable world. The forces of Chaos will not overcome God’s people (See Hebrews 12:25-29). 

During these troubled times, we can overcome anxiety and the fear of lack by focusing on the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

Align yourself with the things that cannot be shaken. See Matthew 6:33-34

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  ESV

We overcome the powers of chaos, disorder and confusion by holding firm to the kingdom. 

GROWING CHAOS AND CONFUSION

The ‘spirit of chaos’ will continue to assert itself in 2023. Every realm will be affected. Pray about the prophetic pointers below. Intercession can moderate both their severity and outcomes. 

Spiritual Realm 
On-going spiritual rebellion and opposition to the purposes of God (and his kingdom) will have on-going effects on the earth. We will see new and continued attempts to bring about the overall plan of the enemy in our times: 

• Destruction
• Devastation
• Control
• Deception
• Spiritual blindness
• Falling away of the faithful
• Attacks upon churches (leaders and members)
• Significant ministries being targeted. 

Demonically-inspired and supercharged attacks coming through the usual temptations of money, sex and power will be even more intense and pervasive in the coming days. Hold fast to the Lord.

Our adversary is spawning division, false doctrine, false spiritual manifestations, and compromise. Collaborators with the powers of darkness operate through false wisdom. This wisdom is earthly, unspiritual (soulish) and demonic . See James 3:13-18, which shows that jealousy and selfish ambition bring disorder and every evil practice. Christians leaders must be vigilant.

Physical Realm 
The effects on the planet of spiritual and human rebellion will continue to be seen and will increase: 

• Earthquakes
• Famine
• Floods
• Pestilence
• Disease
• Draughts
• Extreme weather
• Storms (disrupting shipping and sinking some vessels)
• Extra-terrestrial events in our solar system causing anomalies in telecommunications.

Political Realm 
Political, economic, transportation and trading systems will be shaken. Food supply chains will be broken and reshaped according to changing political priorities. More control by governments over their peoples. More extreme and widespread persecution of Christians. New political and religious alignments will be formed which will reshape the geopolitical and geospiritual contours of the world. Wars and threats of wars will continue.

Attempts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war will be made during 2023, but a lasting solution will be elusive. The conflict will begin to draw other nations into alignment with Russia in a solidifying East/West axis involving China, Iran, and possibly India, some Latin American and Eastern European nations.

There will be a sudden and dramatic rise and fall of political leaders across the globe. Entire political systems will be shaken globally and nationally.

CAST OUT FEAR WITH THE SPIRIT OF FAITH AND CONFIDENCE IN ALMIGHTY GOD

THE CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

“May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”