2012 got off to a good start, after a few days in Istanbul with the whole family we returned to Thessaloniki...

After a week, I headed to the UK, leaving Lynn in Thessaloniki, as usual she reorganised the house, saw some friends and caught up with herself! 

In the UK, I had a number of important meetings, visited friends and family and spoke at the Men's conference “From Purity to Identity”. This was the first of a number of retreats that we are a part of or leading in the coming year... it was a very good event and really quite anointed; the feedback has been very encouraging.

So now I have been back in Thessaloniki for a week, Lynn & I are now preparing to head back to Albania at the end of the week. Towards the end of February we have a retreat with some local folk and expect 15-20 to come along. Another is planned for the end of March in Bulgaria and in May there will probably be another in Albania … interested parties should communicate with us! In April we have a team of 12 joining us from World Harvest Bible church in Manchester for 6 days .. so the diary is filling up.

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

There is a freshness, naivety and vulnerability that God desires for those who dwell in his kingdom. Those who live like this have with a strong sense of dependence upon the Lord. He is the source of all life, he enables us to see that which is pleasing and eat that which is good... he provides.

Only one tree is forbidden to those in the garden... the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the face of it, it can seem strange in the present age when Knowledge is so energetically pursued. However, the Apostle Paul reminds that Knowledge puffs up, makes us proud and self centred. Perhaps as we start this year we need to be reminded that all that is based on human knowledge will pass away and only that which is born of the Spirit will endure. Natural insight is not the stuff that Kingdom people are made of... but we are those who are fed from the tree of life and the goodness of the other trees found in the garden...

So in the coming year avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at all cost !