Thankful For His Steadfast Love

My prayer today, a day of Thanks:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into His presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, and the sheep of
His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
and His courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless His name!

For the Lord is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
and faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100

Lord, please help me to hold on to this truth.
To cling to you, forever.

Jesus, Thank you for offering yourself -- the greatest act of love -- for me, so that I can know and live in you.

Thank you for the freedom your love provides & the joy that overflows.

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"And He said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'" Luke 9:23

For me, taking up my cross and following Jesus has led me to London, England; a journey unlike any other. It's taken faith in things unseen with trust in the God who sent me, and who came before me. Both faith and trust coming from Jesus Himself. Coming over to London with a one-way ticket and a bag wasn't an easy venture. Coming to a land that rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- while my sole purpose of being here is to speak His truth with grace & love -- isn't easy either. But, (and that's big but) the Lord has shown me how sweet it is to walk with Him when I depend upon Him for everything. I have never experienced the Lord like I have since being in London. He has revealed and unfolded Himself more and more everyday, and I love it.

But honestly, I haven't a clue what I'm doing. I can't save a city or persuade them to become followers of Christ. Only the Lord can and does that. What do I do then? I beg the Lord to act, to soften the hearts of the city, to bring repentance and revival to her streets, and to fill the same streets with people worshiping the One True God again. I don't have a routine. I just go and move as the Holy Spirit leads on a daily basis. I literally don't know what I'm doing tomorrow, let alone when I'm coming back to the states. All I do is go where the Lord leads and daily take up the cross He's strengthening me to carry.

At the moment, and the foreseeable future, I am living in a hostel on the edge of Soho. Why Soho? Basic answer: the Lord told me to live here. It's an area in the center of London that has every sinful desire one could dream of. A dark place where the people are far from the Lord, but He's placed hope inside my heart that He's going to redeem here. At the moment, every Sunday afternoon I go and speak the Truth of the Gospel at Speaker's Corner; another place the Lord has called me to act. The Lord has led me to Reality London where I help in anyway I can. My weeks fill up though I can't tell you how I'm going to spend them before hand. What I do isn't a job. Its life. By the grace of God I get to talk to people about the Lord and learn more about Him; a focus on Heaven, and not on earth.

Where is this going? Right here: the great commission, where Jesus instructs His followers to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us. Simply, Jesus tells us all to make disciples through Him. But there are those who He commands to "go" and those people He instructs to send. Jesus has clearly called me to go -- to come to London and make disciples through His powerful name.

Will you prayerfully ask the Lord if you are to send me?

What does sending me look like (Send-a-Seth): Prayer is absolutely huge -- Not just for me, but for the city, for Reality London, and for protection. Join the prayer email that I send out, so that you can lift up London in detail. Encouragement -- Send a brother some encouragement. I'm human and the enemy is real, so encouragement is cool. Real talk, I miss you guys. Accountability -- Keep me accountable to what the Lord has called me to do here. (Preaching & teaching the Gospel, loving the homeless, helping Reality London, being a light in Soho) Financially -- I'm an American in England who doesn't have an income, but needs to eat and have shelter (preferably). Honestly, I give more money away buying food for the homeless and addicts, then I myself consume. Its an easy way to express the love Christ and I get to know them over food or coffee. And, I honestly have the weight of college loans needing to be paid, but the Lord knew this before He sent me to London. I have no doubt that He's faithful. Workers -- Whether its for a week or 8 months, the harvest in London is plentiful but the workers are few (Matt. 9:35-38). I would love to have some folks come alongside me to serve the Lord & the people of London. In fact, I'd love for you to pray and ask God if He wants you to come over and serve here. If honest, this is the area of most need. For people who love Jesus Christ and love telling others about Him, to come to London and do just that.

Please, don't feel like you have to support me in any way. Don't do it out of obligation or guilt, because that motivation is all wrong. Please pray and ask the Lord if He would like you to support me, to support what He's doing in London. And then ask Him in what way to serve. Pray and then take whatever action He leads you to take.

"Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need." Acts 4:32-34

One heart and one soul -- that's the Body of Christ.

seth.guthrie@gmail.com
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Salvation

Redemption is a beautiful aspect to life--as well as the most important--and I pray we all experience this through Jesus Christ.

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A Week & 1/2 ago

A week and 1/2 ago, Wednesday, November 11th marked my two month stay in LondonTown. I celebrated in a unique way. Let me unfold it for you.

The Lord has provided for me financially for the past few months and He's done it in absolutely astonishing ways. Someone would email me or get in contact with me, telling me that the Lord told them to send me some cash. This happened every time my funds grew low. And without me ever mentioning it to anyone. I would simply pray for my needs to be met.

Fast-Forward.

Wednesday morning I woke up with my reservations at the hostel expiring and £15 to my name. I prayed like crazy. Yeah you know the kind, the selfish prayer. I was hoping and pleading for God to provide me money so that I could stay in my comfortable, well acquainted room that I shared with 7 other dudes. I prayed a selfish and comfortable prayer even though the Lord had already spoken that I'd be leaving the hostel that morning. (The Lord spoke clearly two days before that I was at that hostel for the sole purpose of meeting Blake, who you'll learn more about tomorrow). I was fleshing out like crazy (Translation: sinning).

I had a unique feeling. I was confident the Lord would provide, but I wanted Him to provide in a certain way. A way that would keep me where I was. Well, I packed my things into my backpack and headed up to a cafe to read/pray/see what the Lord had in store for the day. The more the day went by, the more I felt peaceful and calm about being homeless. I've gotten to know the homeless people in the area, so I had the lowdown on where I could sleep and stay dry. But, the Holy Spirit gave me a peace that went past the thoughts of being homeless. The day past quickly and by 7pm I walked to our Prayer Meeting that we have here at Reality London (http://www.realitylondon.co.uk/blog/) on Wednesday nights. (yes, that was an unashamed plug...) Everyone looked at me all crazy like because I had all my stuff with me, including a pillowcase over my shoulder... I told them my situation and Christian, a Londoner who attends Reality, offered me to stay with him for as long as I needed. As long as I didn't mind living about 20 minutes outside the center of London. Of course, I went home with Christian that night.

I traveled back to his flat where I have been sleeping in a room by myself, with my own bathroom, and relaxing. Thanks to Christians generosity, I have been able to eat for free and eat well. I've had duck, ribs, chicken, and full out breakfasts... food I wasn't able to afford before. I've been able to recharge and relax for a week -- where I feel rested and ready to get back on the streets.

My point? To express how God moves and works. I fought leaving my comfortable and familiar hostel, not because I loved it (well I did in a weird way), but because I knew it; familiar. I was fearful of what was next. Fearful that what was next could be the streets, homeless, and cold. But God had better in store for me. Actually, I haven't stayed in a bed or room or apartment or ate food this nice in about 4 months. But to get to it, the Lord had to remove me from what I knew and what felt comfortable to me. He was leading me to the best but I was settling for comfortable and familiarity. To put it bluntly, I didn't trust Him.

My question is, where is God leading you, but you're dragging your feet in refusal? Some advice -- just go. Take the leap. Jesus will provide for you. His provision might not be the way you want or the way you think it should be done, but it's always the best way. Do what we're called to do, and follow Jesus. What will happen if you don't? I don't know, but I do you know you'll be robbing God of Glory He deserves, robbing someone else a chance to show generosity, and robbing yourself the chance to express Jesus' love to others (which leads back to robbing Him of Glory...).

He's faithful and He'll lead you. It's how He rolls.

A little bit about Soho

Tonight, at 6:30p (1:30p EST) Reality London will be doing a prayer tour of a square mile area in London called Soho. Soho is London's red-light district, meaning an area overgrown with prostitution, sex shops, strip clubs, homosexuality, and drugs. The Lord has placed this area of town on my heart and brought me here a few times to see what goes down at night -- it resembles Sodom & Gomorrah all too well.

So, I've been doing the only thing that I could do for Soho and that's prayer. I want to invite you to join us in prayer for this sin riddled part of town and for Jesus Christ to be Glorified here, redeeming and healing those He draws close.

Here's some history of Soho:

• Farmland until 1536 when Henry the VIII turned the land into a royal park.
• The name Soho, a former hunting cry of the Anglo-French people, came about in 1636 being used to describe a group of houses in the area. It is also said to be used as a rally cry by the Duke of Monmouth in the Battle of Sedgemoor.
• In 1667 the Crown allowed Richard Frith to begin development of the area.
• Soho was (and is) known for its tolerance and cheap living so many immigrants made it their home causing most aristocrats to peace out. The French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Polish, Jews, Swiss, Greeks, and the Chinese all have immigrated to Soho over the years.
• Prostitution became vibrant in Soho in the mid to late 17th C, running rampant for 200 years.
• By the mid 1800s music halls and small theatres moved into the Square mile.
• Early 1900s cheaper eateries opened by the multiple nationalities came about attracting writers, musicians, and artists to the area.
• 1959 the Street Offenses Act came into play pushing the prostitution in doors where stores and night clubs would run as fronts for the services. By the '60s nearly 100 strip clubs could be found in Soho.
• In the mid '70s sex shops thrived into business littering the area.
• 1980s brought the police closing in on the clubs, brothels, and sex shops, and a reduction, or at least restricting occurred.
  
• And by 2000 the red-light area had been reduced to areas surrounding Brewer Street and Berwick Street, but sex shops and prostitution are still widely popular, with tons of shops around the area and prostitution being a huge force at night.
  

Needless to say, Soho needs our prayer for the Holy Spirit to reveal and draw people to Jesus Christ.

" And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us with him and seated us with him in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not at result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:1-10

Pray that God, just as He did for us, shows His love, mercy, and grace to the people of Soho, redeeming them into His Kingdom. Pray for the people to receive the gift that He's offering.

Speaker's Corner

Every Sunday, all day Sunday, you can find a crowd at a corner in London’s Hyde Park. Speaker's Corner is a place full of history where the likes of Karl Marx, George Orwell, & Vladimir Lenin came to both listen and speak their views. This corner is a place where men (seldom women) come to speak their minds and lavish the crowd's ears with persuasive arguments about the man’s religion, political view, and/or nonsensical tales. However, most men come out to debate against Jesus Christ. Why? Because most men who currently come to Speaker's Corner practice Islam.

Now I have zero speaking cred, but Speaker's Corner is no doubt one of the toughest places to speak about Christ (not including countries that persecute Christian men and women). The main reason that Speaker’s Corner is so difficult to profess Christ and speak His Truth is because the Muslims out number everyone by about 200-250 people. That fact alone would be difficult, but these guys know their stuff. Well, at first it seems so, but what most men do to discredit the Bible and Jesus Christ is misinterpret, and cherry-pick verses. So this can be a massacre (and has been for me a few times) to a Christian who doesn’t know why they believe in Jesus Christ, or how to communicate it.

The beauty of Speaker's Corner is that it makes me think. There have been countless times that the Holy Spirit has spoken through me while being there, but there have also been those times where I've been stumped. It's those times of ignorance that the Lord speaks the loudest to me. He speaks every Monday morning, or fairly often all day Monday, as I search through Scripture to find the answers to questions that a Muslim or I think of while debating. The Lord has led me to the answer and unfolded my questioning every time -- absolutely every time -- my knowledge has failed. That's how awesome God is. He wants us to search Him and ask when we have questions -- He always holds up to my pondering and leads me multiple steps forward into His goodness.

I want to share with you what the Lord has led me to. Maybe you'll find it helpful. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will empower you through the Truth He leads me to, so if you are placed in the same situation(s) you can accurately represent the Truth of Jesus Christ. I will be posting a series of questions/answers that have been thrown my way and that God has shown Himself through.

Please pray that Speaker's Corner be transformed to a place where Jesus Christ is worshiped and where God receives Glory.

to be continued...