Facing the Canon with Andrea Williams

[Music] Andrea it's great to have you on facing the Canon I'm delighted to be here it's great okay let's start at the beginning your father was Italian he is so Italian it's Hallion Italian he is real Italian deep southern Neapolitan and I've still got quite a bit of that blood flowing through me he says you are a cheap off the older block now he was at seminary training to be a priest he was how did he find a wife ha ha the priests gave him this amazing education and he loved Latin he loved Greek he loves philosophy but he was a youngest of 10 children post-war Italy there's a lot of poverty it was expected that the tenth child 10th boy that he would go to seminary to become a priest he was walking out in a Piazza in Rome one day I caught the eye of a pretty woman yes which was fantastic we have we he cooks the best lasagna ever there is no nothing else can touch it no nothing else no nothing there's no not no one could else can make lasagna or pasta or in fact most things most things in the kitchen like my father the best tiramisu the best all of it and he is an amazing cook an amazing chef he would say Oh Andrea I'm not a cook I'm a chef yes yes but he then was travelling Europe and he came to Salisbury he was working as head waiter in a in a small hotel my mum was she was the seventh child and she was working as a secretary for poultry farm in Salisbury and she met my dad in the cafe and they went for a walk along the river and on their first date he said I will never marry an English woman yes one year later they were married married and then I came along and he's still here he's still here fifty fifty five six years later yes so now you I understand you came to know Jesus when you're around four years of age that's right yes that happen well my parents at the time but you were instrumental j-john in actually my mum in that mission that you did in down in Weymouth yeah I remember my mum looking up looking up to accept the Lord Jesus Christ when J John was down in in in Weymouth doing a doing a mission when I was 17 82 1982 and I was helping to run the Christian Union at Weymouth grammar school and we when I remember my fourth when we still did fourth year that would have now what year would that be now that's year that is year 10 is written in UK terms and I remember starting at the senior Christian Union at Weymouth grammar school and there was just a little handful of us but we were a dedicated Bunch and we grew and we grew a little and then you came and you were assistant missioner with Eric Dale all right and the whole thing exploded we couldn't fit into the science block where we where we met and we were so fired up after this mission in to Weymouth we were we got out our guitars we were running the school assemblies we were singing you remember those those courses I forgive and I forgive and I remember that one in particular that one in those years and stand the phrenic unashamed unabashed completely in love with the Lord Jesus client Christ believing that this could happen just all the time it was like a mini revival in the school a mini revival in Weymouth and I was just totally on fire but the thing that so that was my mum because at the tablet my mum and dad when I was little they weren't against games they didn't know they didn't know and I was but a local church local Methodist Church sent a bus to come to the local estate and where my father actually he you all getting to know my dad I knew he's just bad but he he built that he built a house he bought he built a house with on this localization new build he would go there every day the builders were building he'd saved his tips he'd saved the tips and to buy this house but the local Methodist Church sent a bus around the I ran this new estate and mum put me on the bus h4 and I went to Eastern Methodist Sunday school and there mrs. Hicks told me h4 told me all about the Lord Jesus Christ you know the chairs were in a semi-circle there was the red birthday chair and mrs. Hicks were stands at the front and she told me all about the Lord Jesus Christ and I fell in love with him so deeply there and then and I cannot remember a moment j-john when I have not really loved him not really and I really love him and and you can remember that moment when I was like just what is it's it's a moment of B I remember the room and I just remember I can't remember not loving him yeah I just remember that I was put on that bus at 4:00 and that's what I think is really important is that the porter what I take from that story and what I really carry now in my heart is how important Sunday school work is cause how I'm not to discount the faith of little children yes and that we in the church we that love Jesus and the parents of children we we must really know that when we when we nurture them and when we teach them the faith and when they say things and when they believe things then the Lord Jesus Christ he's taking it very seriously yeah and they were wonderful Sunday School teachers mrs. so there was mrs. hips and then there was mrs. Hicks who told me about a but to read the Bible every day I took her at her word I I got a Bible you asked for a Bible when you're seven from my for my birthday and you've read it every day every day since then there maybe have been an occasional miss but really I yeah I we have to be anchored don't read it I think this really critical thing for all of us as Christians but and especially in in a world that increasingly doesn't acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ and especially for those that leave ministry is that God knows all the secret places the secret things of our hearts and what it and and the practices that we have and therefore he knows the just the most intimate thing so you know but it's the thing about but where your sin will find you out and if we are to really be passionate about him to seek his holiness then we have to be in relationship with him and we do of course the first place to go is cause word now you have you got chicken pox I got chicken hell then you had to stay home I said while you were home you're watching crown cause and that's where yes when you decided that you would be a barrister yes I did i watch crown Court on the television I had chickenpox it was lunchtime and for some reason in this story I always remember that you know we there was a sausage roll you know we had sausage rolls at my mom watching crown court on the television and I said to my mum when I grow up I'm gonna be a barrister and I'm never going to change my mind and you know this again what an extraordinary thing there I was in Portland in Dorset so a little Peninsula on the south coast my father had saved all his tips by this time we moved from that little house and he purchased the guesthouse which he began to extend because my dad was quite entrepreneur so I grew up on a business and so this place was very busy but how come I watched that program so I'm not in a catering business in a hotel but I watched that program when I say to my mom I'm going to be a barrister and I'm never going to change my mind and that night I went and I prayed on my basil brush carpet get it battle ready battle price caught these things that was the era the era and and I think some of this audience remember the era yes and so I prayed on my buzzer carpet fresh carpet and I said my usual progess god bless mom got his dad block of God bless my sister god bless and the cats and and so on I had a list of people and then I said amen and then it was and dear Lord Jesus if it is your will please may I pass the 11 plus so that I can go to the grammar school so that I can become a barrister but as I figure that the only way that a little girl like me had any chance of becoming a barrister was if I went to the grammar school yes and I prayed that prayer without fail and you did pass your 11th class I did you did go to the grammar school I did you did become a barrister I did and you're a barrister was it how many seven years yes for you and your husband got a job in America and you moved to Atlanta and in two weeks while in Atlanta you found yourself in the streets yeah with a baby yeah talking to who yes well this was the most extraordinary thing seven years practicing as a criminal family barrister in the inter court in to dr. Johnson's buildings and then bolt court and I loved I mean I loved the courtroom I loved being a criminal barrister and my ambition was some of my ambition was to become I wanted was I that was really to be a judge I wanted to be a criminal judge that was where I was heading in my current in in in in my heart I think at the time but the greater passion even the law was Jesus yes and so during that during those years I was also pioneering the student work at the lawyers Christian heavily involved there and also noticing that our laws in England were in England in the England and Wales were we're really moving away from Christian principles then got married in 1990 and we had our first child and more sadly lost our first one I had a and made up an ectopic pregnancy and they were so therefore it was just it was just amazing to to RIT to suffer and then and then to come to have this beautiful my beautiful Lily I had an imaginary family which was it was three boys and one girl and they were called Lily Laurence Luke and George in the end that was my imaginary family that I had with my husband and then we had Lily Florence Luca and Nancy Rose have you got any girls and a boy any other imaginary friends to get to America and we've got so we saved my husband as as I have Lily and had taken negotiated a year out of chambers I have and my husband is given the opportunity to go to America with Beatty was working facility at the time and so we move across to the States and I had I'm sorry to say actually but I mean I didn't well I I had a bit of a I didn't ever wanted to go to the States I loved Europe I'm was Italian and I study French I I liked you're early I didn't want to go to America I thought oh I think that it's all a bit big and over-the-top even though I'm a bit over the top so I so I thought oh anyway I arrived there into Atlanta the sky was blue and blast everything was vast the space his son and I remember going past a church and I and and I said and it was the year of the Olympics the Atlanta Olympics were coming and I said I said to my husband that must be an Olympic site well in fact it was the site of this church perimeter Church and so we went to Perimeter church the pastor was ran to pope he's done an incredibly faithful work there I'm still there now and my first prejudice will overcome of the mega church I got there and we understood and meet we were welcomed there was amazing coffee and amazing books though all of these things were in this church but I understood exactly where the church that we packed those are welcome weekend but that first the first sermon first eat day that we were there first Sunday Randi preached amazingly but also in this in this sermon in this - in this service a woman got up and spoke to the whole conch of several thousand and we were talking about there were about fourteen thousand people that come through and she taught of her abortion and the impact that this had had on her life on her relationship with her subsequent children and also with her husband and I thought I've never heard anyone talk about abortion I don't we didn't I've never heard this and I was surprised yes and then I I mean I knew that I thought that God wouldn't would be very sad about that but I had already thought in that at that level about it and what was amazing she was doing confidential Bible studies with women that had had abortions within the the church but also then another lady got up called Karen black with a ministry called women for women and she got up and again one of my prejudices came out she was a woman that would go down and do sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics um so I thought oh cuz I just thought oh that's a bit that's a bit much good good good I should go into the clinic a bit radical and I found myself signing up for the training program for women for women because I I was new I had a little baby but I had this I was new to Atlanta I signed up got myself onto karen blacks training and then found myself outside the abortion clinics in downtown atlanta with a baby with my baby with not with literally with baby Lily as she was just she was just six months at the time and so I was there I began to see women turn away from the doors of the abortion clinic then I became part of helping women to turn away from the abortion clinics and I was seeing these women come to life I was seeing babies being safe of course then what happened was I became friends with the women and I was then assigned the sort of the mentorship role of helping the woman through the pregnancy helping them get beds and tables and whatever it was that they needed those relationships and those babies that were born in in in in in those in those years 1996 and 1997 they aren't still amongst the most precious relationships in my life because to be there and see this really happen and then to know the boys and the girls that were born to still know them to know that they are alive and wouldn't be alive but for that ministry and to know that there are thousands of children that are alive as a result of one woman doing that a warm woman having the courage to do that yes and it took that turn it was it was right that it was radical it worked and all we had to do was be courageous enough to reach out and to speak life to speak life and to be courageous enough to do it and he was a woman that was actually doing it so I got quite revolutionised in terms of in terms of the idea that we really could point a different way and that it was loving to point to a different way and you know it went from that but you returned to England didn't go back to the bar so what happened then well I kept on having babies I can't try to go back to but you were committed to procreation about do you know I actually wish I'd had a few more I still have not I feel like I've got at least at least two missing probably four missing because I love my children so you had babies yes but did you did various things as well yes I was really very very involved with the lawyers Christian Fellowship all through that period and I I mean one of the a game one of the god-given things of my life was getting to know lord denning yes and he quite took me under his wing I was just I was a student and there was the student work of little ways Christian Fellowship so we sometimes with all my babies in tow and sometimes leaving them with a babysitter but I used to go round colleges used to speak used to do reduce to lots of evangelistic events about tying we used to fill the Savoy with a thousand people had chuck Colson over lord denning hosting Neville Knox foul grieve all these great all these great people that but I also began to remember there I knew Valkyrie felt oh I know such a wonderful man that book idiot he's the Christ Christ yeah yeah lawyer looking at the case the evidence of the resurrection that was much used yeah it was it was amazing yeah and so that what you were just engaging in those things okay right let's speed up okay so what what prompted you to start Christian Concern it was really from that work because it was in the mid to late 1990s and we had the Human Rights that's coming into place and because I was trained as a lawyer and because I was beginning I was challenged to create a Christian think-tank and so I was doing monthly seminars where we were looking at the laws that were coming through at the time and I was getting me bringing in legal experts to take a look at them and I began to see very clearly that the way in which our laws were moving would mean that the speaking of Christian treat and all that flowed from it would begin to be at odds with what was being legislative for you see we have to understand that we do legislate morality when we legislate we either legislate towards God or we legislate towards the devil we wouldn't we legislate one way or no that's a very strong thing to say but it's light or darkness there's light or darkness and the great and our nation has been beautifully and wonderfully blessed why because our laws go right back to the common law dating even before the Magna Carta the common law rooted you would love this circle you know this page on in the Ten Commandment think of all in the Ten Commandments rooted right back to which God came up with you did I do you know what I love about take varmints there's simplicity cost and they're not ten suggestions are they yeah so what what did you yes and then well then what happened was that there were laws that meant that for instance the protections not there was a the protections around our very freedom to preach the gospel if some of you here remember this 2003 2004 the religious hatred bill our very freedom to preach the gospel was under threat we had the liberalizing of laws all around life issues so all of these issues collided they all align it were called by God prompted by God yes to birth an initiative that would respond to these because what was happening from within the laws Christian Fellowship we were we were lawyers we were speaking a briefing into Parliament but we knew we could see that there needed the church needed to hear about these things that it was not just an issue for lawyers it was an issue for the people that love the Lord Jesus Christ in this nation to know about and to see as a truly a gospel issue because we did because this was vital truth at the heart of our nation keeping the doors open for the light of the gospel and every sphere of life was to be absolutely vital and I could see that that light was going out and also extraordinary for you had ever told me in the 1980s when I was at Cardiff studying law if you'd ever said to me that um I would be looking after representing people who had lost their jobs for wearing a cross or a nurse for offering prayer or a teacher for giving her testimony Ida says that's cueing another planet and I think what's also difficult is that I would never have imagined a magistrate let's say a case from early in 2018 a case where a magistrate for saying in a retirement room that children do best with a mum and dad and should stay with the foster parents with who were American marriage mom and dad that that person would be removed from the magistracy for saying that I mean that's or a teacher would lose his job for saying well done girls to a group of girls but one of them was identifying as a boy I mean this this is the land of make this is the land of make-believe but it's also and it is the land of make or actually it's the land of where we are its Great Britain today but I will talk more about that yep so you birthed another baby Christian Concern and Christian actually Nancy Rose yes I'm not gonna take you right back to 2002 but very quickly then I was going back to the bar because I was beginning to speak of these issues and find it and when mom's doing straight evangelism I've seeing some people here that would being with me all of just caught the eye as someone that was working with me when we were doing straight evangelism asking people to you know move in to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ at that time are we doing events people quite liked it yes but when I began to contend for the unborn child I suddenly became not so popular amongst people that I thought really my friends and they practiced him and that was a difficult thing and I remember really doing that in the late 90s into the early noughties and I was really happy to be running back to the safety of my chambers oh I'll become a judge and I'm gonna carry on I'm gonna run back to the safety of my chambers but God gave me no heroes now I know how to procreate you know I know how it happens as a you were talking but but but Nancy Rose was a surprise fancy raised as a surprise and my husband said to me he said that's because God wants you where you are and I knew from that moment onwards that I was never going back to the bar but that he was given he given me Christian Concern of the Christian legal city would give this is what he was birthed and with others because this isn't just with 25 staff there are other stories that they're the founders of this organization that came in different ways but this is my story to you today okay so we'll talk about the issues in a moment Christian Concern is 10 years old yes okay just expect without explaining the issues what is it that Christian Concern does Christian Concern is passionate about speaking the truth of Jesus Christ into public life in the United Kingdom very specifically but really what's going on here in the United Kingdom has an impact across across the world and because of our great history because our laws have been historically so great and the losing of them is so tragic and we are here to be a voice to be a witness in the public space on where his truth has been the truth of Jesus Christ has been abandoned at the heart of public life it's about the gospel ization yes of the whole of life and then within Christian Concern you have a number of different areas so the legal yes the Christian Legal Center Christian Legal Center and that exists to do what well who'd have thought that in that we we get about a thousand calls a year from Christians who want help they am I allowed to say this at work can we go out on the streets to evangelize yes or I've just been suspended for wearing my cross these sorts of inquiries coming in all the time cases coming in all the time to us at the Christian Legal Center and you those cases and you represent yes a number of them yes you also have the Wilberforce Academy yes what does that do that is a very exciting initiative it's now in its ninth year and there were seeking to raise up a generation of young men and women who understand the times know and stand with one another in these times and really apply the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth the gospel to every sphere of life and I think that one of the things that I have felt myself and was one of the catalysts for the will Force Academy was the loneliness of this walk yes but I I I do have one when I think about it I often talk about the loneliness because that's how it feels having said that I know I've got the best friends ever so but the the catalyst was I don't want people to feel like this and I want the politicians in Parliament so those well before I want the Christians that come through this world Force Academy can we have a prime minister please for instance I will I want the politicians to understand that out out out on the streets where you've got social revolutionaries the ones that are doing the protests that you're one of the same where you've got the voice that that is that there is that perhaps some people label is shrill but they're loving the Lord Jesus Christ that that voice is not a book that's a voice to understand where God's place them on the pitch but there's actually we need all of these people on the pitch and it's to know and to love one another and to hold with one another because the workers are you know the the harvest is there to be reaped but the workers are few and we and we it was about understanding that and getting to know one another and it was not so much for this thing to be a conference a week conference work but for us to build a commune see of believing young people who were equipped and mentored and who would carry on and take the light of Jesus Christ to the nation and I am praying I am praying that from that Academy that that that that chasm will be part of a vocal and visible witness in public life that is unashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ and all the truth that flows from him so okay you you think and breathe all this all the time okay paint a picture of how you perceive currently the state of our nation what's going on how would you sum that up what's going on we're in chaos and I think what's been interesting about the whole brexit issue is that it's it nobody knows known what's going to happen from one day to the next and that makes me think God knows so Lord what are you going to do and I'm waiting and I'm watching but what's quite being quite interesting for me is that I've always felt where there's a bill to fight a case to fight I know what to do but in all of this confusion it's as if I've felt slightly confused I know that God has not got a confusion but lord what is it that you are doing you see the government is a reflection of the church within the nation we can say oh well these MPs are doing this and the lawyers are doing the judges are doing that no no who does God have to speak only us and so there's a sense in which it's a moment where there are enough of us in the nation enough people that love the Lord Jesus Christ for us to find our voice but the chaos were in is because we the Bride of Christ have not spoken clearly on the truth where it's under attack but also may I say this well I think when I further reflect on it the church is a reflection of the leaders of the church and if so the leaders have just to train their congregation and I use the word train train that under congregation to understand the times we're living in if you're going if you see because our schools our places are not in many cases are not safe places they're really being taught that it's not scientific to believe that there's a Creator God for instance so that's one thing holy sight that science goes around the idea of a Creator God being made that the world is created by God because science is in God that literature is in God he is the author of Education he is the author of science he's the author of maths I was never very good at math but he's the author of all of these things beautifully and wonderfully coherent and that's how children thrive and instead we are being taught that there they are being taught that it's just random and somehow they've got to find meaning somewhere I put I mean the reason j-john the reason why I loved being at your mission when I was 17 years of age was because my heartbeat was then and is now really deep down to see evangelism to see people come to Lord Jesus Christ the only time I've ever been tempted to give up on faith it's because I couldn't stand the idea when I was quite young in my teenage years so I was quite young but I couldn't stand the idea of anyone going to hell not what I don't want one person to be lost not one person to be lost and I couldn't and in my young mind and you know how could the good this is all loving God how could that how could there be a hell I couldn't stand it we have so it's not loving to leave people in chaos and and and and and there's sin because we want that because because there was an eternity there is an eternity and we want people to know the joy of the Lord we want people to know him in eternity we want people been to know all men and women to know that in look at the cross at the foot of the cross in known Jesus Christ there is forgiveness and redemption and wholeness and beauty and it's the most wonderful way to live so why is it that we shrink the gospel why do we let false teachers come in why do we not discipline false teachers because we love them actually because we love him it would be the loving thing to do and instead we let them and we're terrorized we are frightened and were terrorized but I'm more frightened because I only fear the Lord mean it what can I mean what can the world do well I'm not frightened and that's an Christian Concern says we're not frightened we're not ashamed we love the Lord Jesus Christ so much we will keep on standing we will keep on speaking and we keep on standing we keep on speaking because we love you and you may say that we hate you you may say that we hate you but we there I know j-john I know this cuz I examine it all the time if I get if I get onto this platform or any platform and have a hard heart or an unloving heart or if I speak with any of those things then in this kind of context then then the God can't use me and I need to be shut down and I tremble at the idea I trim I have you know that's something I take now let me say on all of that because before it that's absolutely Who I am and how I get up in the morning and get up get up and carry on and do the cases and go into sin odd and do this stuff well I very often them not therefore what I often then quite often take it out on is the people that shouldn't take it out on so the staff team some of whom are here you know because I walk in through the staff door at the door and there's all this stuff coming or or you know her at home or whatever you know but it's just that I know that when I when you we could go out and you take you speak of these issues it's just like it's like a war zone people want people want to take you down people say false things about you they say unpleasant things about you and the worst place of all is the misunderstanding within the church is it and it's the people it cannot see how the attack on life is and if it's it is anti gospel its anti gospel the attack on freedom to speak is anti gospel and it's funded and it's fundamentally attica's and if we can't if we if we don't speak if we don't speak on these things and actually lament and corporately ask for forgiveness then how can the Lord see revival in our nation there's enough of us for there to be a grand Awakening but I think we've got to get flat on our faces and repentance before that complicate so we've got the church we've got the world obviously within the church our choices on morality have affected our theology so we need a revival within the church and revival has to start with the church but then we're also trying to understand what's happening in the world and respond appropriately so if we just like just quickly touch on these issues ok so take the example abortion what's happening in our nation regarding abortion yeah this is an example of how a law that were in 1967 until that point English law said that life is sacred and to be protected and in 1967 for the first time we passed a law which said it that in certain that very exceptional circumstances an abortion could occur the mother's life but was at risk or the physical or mental risk of harm to her was greater if she continued with the pregnancy than aborting that was illegal but for one of those examples but it gave a there was a in the law and as a result of that abortion began to occur first years statistics for England Scotland and Wales were 27,000 it very quickly up to a hundred thousand abortions per year now it's two hundred thousand two hundred and ten thousand depending in England Scotland and Wales every year nine million abortions since the passing of the abortion act in 1967 five hundred abortions every single day so you know the that the that part that legislation and the sexual revolution you know the kind the having the pill so sex becoming recreational not procreation or has been that sexual revolution has actually been very bloody and it's been and it's all done in law it's no one speaks of it it all looks very civilized something that is death is is portrayed as the solution to a problem when actually the solution is always life and if we the church don't speak but on this then well who else does God have to speak but we also have to be this is my trial the church where my challenges is that it says of what do we do today we've got we've got to think about we are now we've got to become the healing centers well touch on that in a minute tell us about the other issues tell us about ethics research what's going on there yeah area so well remembers and so on the boy and I welcome move straight into it on abortion you know there are moves in Parliament to remove the criminalization of abortion and have abortion on demand up to birth so the decriminalization of abortion what we've also got is course the taking pills the art and which has been increasingly extended for 40 14 days post conception and I think what's very sad there's we're going to see young women going back home or even not young women and aborting on the bathroom floor and so I think that we you know it's it's serious going on in terms of we've got in terms of embryology what you've got is there again once you say that life is not to be protected and sacred what we then had in this country was the ability then to create life in the laboratory that was the IVF but then what happened in 1990 was that we began to create embryos because we now could with the express purpose of experimenting upon them and then destroying them in 2004 we have the first cloned human embryo cloning is man making man in the image of man and then in 2008 you have with the human fertilization the embryology acts you have the first animal human hybrid embryos that's the mixing of cows eggs with human sperm and so this is lit that's literally defacing the human race and let me say that again as all legal is all lawful but it's very and depleting animal and human is legal yes and what's the intention of that it's always presented as something that's very kind it's for therapeutic purposes and so I remember during that those days so that was 2007 2008 and when I was do the television rounds on these issues would be I remember very clearly one lunchtime news a boy with muscular dystrophy in his teens was was by my side and he was saying I want I want I want this to pass because I believe that there will be a cure for me and of course this science isn't working you know that that's the reality and it was never go there was no real chance that it was going to work but I thought then you know that just can you imagine that visual optic there was me there was a boy with muscular dystrophy how can you stop this what I wanted to say we want you to we want to find a cure for you but this cannot be the way and it's all this I mean it gained this whole point about being able to create embryos what we've done is we now have thousands and thousands of embryos that have either been destroyed so there's abortion statistics 9 million do not count for the embryos that have either being destroyed or are currently frozen and the government doesn't keep their statistics and sometimes we've had cases at the Christian Legal Center where mums have become Christians actually and gone back to try and get their frozen embryos and because the dad didn't consent the embryos were destroyed and the moments decried she wanted to go back because she now has thought were the frozen embryos that's that's a sibling to the children that are already born and you see these things are about these things about contending sure for for the most vulnerable in society which of course God cares about most the people the unborn deed that the ones that cannot speak for themselves but also but it is contending for life being made in his image he's pointing the way to how he is his compassion is kindness and the fact that God has eternity said eternity in our hearts just highlight what other issues well tending Li yes we've got a big push on assisted suicide yes the generation that killed its children will be killed by its children we see all around us you know in creating massive push for on in a massive push for assisted suicide despite the fact there have been 13 attempts in 11 years and this is one issue that we have actually been able to push back on we thank God for that a quick injection of potassium chloride is a lot quicker and cheaper than beautiful care love and I think the loneliness that we're seeing see very now the generation that is dying the generation that is old they are the genitive they are the 1960s generation and so that they are the sexual revolution generation and what we have seen it sadly in many lives is disintegrated families people in living in different parts in different sorts of family units and therefore really looking after the extended family has become more complex and and we're seeing elder abuse and we're seeing loneliness so again that's a huge demographic to win for the Lord Jesus Christ so because again we want to say we want to give them the hope of Christ course the hope of Christ the hope of eternity at this point in their lives and let me say in all of this your people sometimes say well why'd you take it to the media well I thank God that we've taken things to the media because at least people know that this is happening but there are so many cases that we can't take to the media or we don't take to the media and they're crying out to be told but you know I used to think when people see this they'll wake up the church will wake up well I think I'm gonna die before that happens because I'll be going a long time on these cases now and there are a lot of them and a lady Karen I was with a nurse this morning who's been owned for 20 years in nursing in the London area and she was taught to take off across that she'd always one always one and this you know Joey has worn his jabs are worn and so on and so forth and this new boss made a real really big point of it I thought no one's gonna be interested in her case it's not news I'm interested in a case sure I think but you but but you see how far we've come that was big news in 2005 I was there so very often when I travel around people come to me and say I wish I'd known about you sooner because I resigned people agencies clothes people's self-censor we ought we we're scared it's as if we've forgotten the power of the gospel judge and not you but is it but the power of the power of the gospel just the speaking of it do we read does the church in this nation believe in the power of the gospel we ran the you know we started the hospitals we started the schools yes and we've not and this not even hospitals women out we've allowed the the world's agenda to come into the church to come into our leadership it's it's even in the church Saint ministers are scared to speak about abortion well in fact speaking about abortion will bring life because we never we don't condemn we're all sinners we're all sinners in need of the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ and how can our women know how can people know how can our children know purity in us were taught it to them I'm a half how come in own and they need to be trained in purity now because they're saturated this saturated all day long how come how can our women in this nation know that from the moment of conception God knows the person that's within the womb when if it's hold it's just a blob of sales and not really a human being and if they've been propagandized how are they supposed to know we are responsible we are the elders with the grown-ups we're the leaders we're the mums with a - were the grandparents and if we love will speak the truth and watch rain and will nurture and if we love in our churches we've got a really look after our young people sure do you think there's a biased against Christians at the moment the so there's a yes but there but it's a blindness it's a spiritual blindness but we are it's a it's an D and there is and we we know there is a there is a spirit it's a spiritual battle we're in cult for warfare and the church doesn't know how to fight and the and the church doesn't see where the gospel is under attack in public life and the gospel it and it doesn't speak clearly on the issues where the gospel is under attack and the gospel is under attack on the lordship of Jesus Christ and all his truth so what do we the church have to do well we have to get ready for the battle and we have to sow so you know we are not it's like sometimes we think we've was always like we reflect the world that we don't set the standard for the world so as as if in our churches you know it's a bit of therapeutic deism at the end on a Sunday I do love the church but I don't because I'm like I'm too down on the you know but but point is I had cancer and one of the things that I did coming back from cancer was start running and I love the running club and I get bus because I go to the running club again and I get in the dremen here then I left the flapjack and the social stuff afterwards I get a great hit from going to my running club it's a lot simpler than going to church well I got a church I can go up quite often feel a bit contour contort it because I know all the stuff that's going on and I'm thinking are we really addressing this are we dealing with because we where we need to be we've got a we got a train for battle and the battle is out there seven days a week 24/7 and it's as if we're a bit like the running club we come in for a bit of coffee something that would Gia's up for the week and it's like we leave it there but we're going into a war zone parents you know we've got these kids we we hand over our children into the education system where they're told they come from monkeys or something where they're where they where they're told and that they can have sex when they're ready and weeks and we we throw them into that situation we first of all we've got a question whether or not we should even do that I think we should keep our children safe and I think go start thinking about that is the church that has the church but what do we really expect our children to deal with that to deal with that propaganda it's our job to help to keep them safe that's the primary that's our primary responsibility and then we should be we should be these beacons in every town where the pregnant woman or the lonely person or the self Harmer is coming where the lonely kids where the lonely kids ever are weird to be the 24/7 Church you know we should be so it's good to be the book it'll be the healing house the Education Center we've got a wig you know what we grow it really really hard the workers are few but the harvest is great with a visit this you know our facilities should be open all the time we need to be getting we need to have rooms where we're housing the homeless where we're taking the drug addicts we want to set and we believe the Gospels so much that we will see lives transformed that's what we'll have is the business what this nation needs that's what this nation needs it needs wholesale revolution social gospel revolution mean I mean don't be social gospel I mean gospel Revolution and the outworking of that is very social because we get very social because we see the transformation of Jesus Christ we and we promote purity and we keep our own people safe we keep our own people safe I mean the statistics of young the next generation being lost the evangelicals is horrifying and so I'm I'm very much about I'm really passionate about this I want to see our nation lost and ever but there are enough churches a Life Church where people love the Lord Jesus Christ that if they could get this in the skin but we that we wouldn't be lost yet we wouldn't be lost in this nation if we could really be there's the the lighthouse is not salt well it is salt of course but salts and sea okay and we operated quite a lot like that we do the meals on wheels we do the kind of we get we do the street class which I love I love it but we kind of ever so nice we do all the social work but we've come like social workers but with gospel workers so it's the big lights you know it's not salt unseen it's the salt yes to keep things healthy but it's a great big light and we're shining me that we are all with this know this lights the beacon in every community here you will find life here you will find a safe place for your children here your child will be saved from death here you will find sexual purity I'm here you will you will be welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus and there is nothing that he is too much frame to bear he bore on the cross there is nothing that is too much and there is nothing that you cannot be changed from you know this this idea that we have to stay in our sin whatever that sin might be whatever that sin might be that's the life in the devil of course of course it is because Jesus Christ sets us free you know and the truth sets us free and that's why all these issues is where the gospel is under attack because we've said oh they're just secondary issues you know Jesus is whether or it's your friend or whether or not you'll say it's much hot beyond much more beyond just being saved as important as that is so we need to reevaluate our biblical convictions and I I think there's a lack of understanding of what those biblical convictions are but I think we need to reevaluate them and know what we believe and why we believe it and we need to be courageous in being source and light in the world don't we courage is the flower of conviction yeah and when you really love him and when you're steeped in that word you will be courageous and attempt something so great for God that it's doomed to failure and let C be in it I mean with it said when we you know when when we are that was a perimeter that was a perimeter motto and it was we're gonna go save the Atlanta babies we're gonna go to school i when I would die when I went to lunch I thought Christian schools and home schooling and then of course I arrived there God made the world you know the children walked through an arch that says God made the world I thought wow the children are walking through an arch that says God made the world and then you know I see and I then see this this church as I say it's the babies and the the sport all these sports facilities and all these kids coming in and playing basketball and and all of that stuff going on I think yes yes we can have a great and glorious building we can be the safe we can be the light and America and I was when and I just you could we can dream big no for the for Jesus so if anyone wants to know more about Christian Concern how can they find that yes come on to our website Christian Concern www concern com we inform we have a weekly newsletter so I get the weekly newsletter every Friday and you just give a summary of what's happening in the nation issues that are happening yeah and it's just you it's just great to be informed because you can miss all that and you can just sign up for that yes absolutely yeah it's not over till the fat lady sings I don't know who this fat lady is but it's not over the thing is Andrea we've read the last page we know how it's gonna end and amidst all of this chaos God is God amen and he's not applying for the job and as the Lord prayer instructs us to pray that his kingdom would come and his will will be done and we need to pray that and we need to pursue God Christ and be vehicles of truth grace and justice in the world and our prayer for you Andrea is that you will God will continue to give you wisdom and grace patience and courage thank you keep on doing what you're doing thank you for you keep inspiring us and you certainly stirred something I'm not sure Andrea Williams thank you [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Facing the Canon

Views: 18,280

Rating: 4.810585 out of 5

Keywords: facing the canon, j.john, interview, jjohn, j john, philo trust, philo, trust, christianity, Jesus, Lord, God, Holy Spirit, Andrea Williams, Christian Concern, Legal, Rights

Id: ATVQYyc1Pbg

Length: 56min 55sec (3415 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Knopwood]

I was all set for a conversation between Jeffrey John and Andrea M. Williams and this did not deliver.