Maintaining the passion

The danger of becoming insular. As I contemplate my journey of faith thus far, this commercial comes to mind of how we can become insular and passionless in our walk. When I came to Christ some 5 years ago, I was full of dreams with a passion to bring about change in my home congregation. Having now been involved in the "local church" and its youthwork, how are those dreams materialising, am I being an influence of change where God has placed me? Or am I becoming comfortable and insular, like the flea's in this clip no longer breaking out of the mould.
I gotta admit it's a struggle, a frustrating journey at times, but something I feel God has called me to. I just gotta keep my focus on Him, allow Him to transform me and work through me, and continue to keep alight the flame of passion he has placed in my heart. O help me God!!

Maintaining the passion

The danger of becoming insular. As I contemplate my journey of faith thus far, this commercial comes to mind of how we can become insular and passionless in our walk. When I came to Christ some 5 years ago, I was full of dreams with a passion to bring about change in my home congregation. Having now been involved in the "local church" and its youthwork, how are those dreams materialising, am I being an influence of change where God has placed me? Or am I becoming comfortable and insular, like the flea's in this clip no longer breaking out of the mould.
I gotta admit it's a struggle, a frustrating journey at times, but something I feel God has called me to. I just gotta keep my focus on Him, allow Him to transform me and work through me, and continue to keep alight the flame of passion he has placed in my heart. O help me God!!

Have setup a new blog over at wordpress, will hopefully get back to more regular posting again. If anyone reads this blog still you can update your links.

Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time

Just finished the week of CSSM, and again have been reminded of how God moves when his people serve and obey.  On a team like this your totally reliant on God for everything, and daily you see his answers to prayer as he gives you the strength and enthusiasm to keep on beyond your own abilities.  Its also an amazing experience to see God use a group of diverse yet gifted people from different walks of life who share the same common goal of serving their Saviour and proclaiming the gospel in word and deed.  What a privilege to be involved in Gods kingdom work in this way and share in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ in serving Him.

Now the preparations for Reachout begin, another fantastic opportunity to proclaim the Good News of the gospel in word and deed to the young people in our community, and through them to the wider community.

Almighty God, what a privilege that you choose to use fallen sinners like me in your kingdom work, may your name be glorified and your grace abound. Break me, shape me, mould me, use me in accordance with your will. 

North Antrim Coast

Long Time No Blog

Well it's been a while, have kinda got out of the way of blogging this past while, busy times and all that and not really taken the time to journal thoughts or musings.

Youthworks on a bit of a break at present, enjoying abit of a much needed rest for a couple of weeks there before CSSM and Reachout in the incoming weeks.  Was off work last week and it was bliss, spending some quality time with my girlfriend, taking in the beauty of creation on the North Antrim coast, and generally chilling out.

Back to the bread and butter of work again next week, but will try and get back into the habit of blogging again, I find it helps me reflect and flesh out my faith somewhat as I try to journey through this life.

My devotions of late have taken me into the book of Amos, some pretty prophetic and thought provoking stuff in there.  Got me thinking about how we perhaps need to re-learn from the prophetic voices of old who spoke in similar times as these when the Israelite people had stopped listening to the voice of God and were pursuing their selfish pleasures and greed-driven, pleasure-seeking existences.  Into this void Amos prophesied of the coming judgement of a just God who would judge the people because of their sins. 

Amos was a simple shepherd, but he spoke prophetic words of truth from God to a nation that had fallen from his standards.  He didn't compromise or water-down the message, but spoke the truth in love, using the plumbline of the word of God as his guide, no matter what the personal cost.

Amos 5 vs. 14

"Seek good, not evil, 
that you may live. 
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, 
just as you say he is."

Quite an example, and something for me to ponder on as I seek to obediently follow God where he has called me to be in this place at this time.  As I stumble along the way I am assured that his Grace is sufficient in my weakness

AMAZING GRACE

Preparing some material for bible class today, continuing our study of James, looking at it's teaching and relevance in our lives today. Were now into chapter 2, looking at the section dealing with faith and works, where James challenges the church of his day that faith without works is dead.

Thought it appropriate to look at the life of William Wilberforce, with the upcoming release of Amazing Grace in the cinema's, and the associated The Amazing Change and Stop The Traffik campaigns. Check out the links, some important food for thought as Christians living in the world today, seeking to be a Christian voice in society, standing up for the values of Christ and seeking to follow his example.



Is our faith expressed by our works? Food for thought indeed...........

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Browser change

I'm now trying Firefox as my internet browser, blogging this using the performancing addon. Fully customisable, quicker to load than IE and pretty impressive thus far. Will post further comments in weeks to come

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Have just been listening to the funeral service of Michael Summer, Director of Agape Puppet Ministry who left this earth a year past in October. Mike was a great man, an ambassador of the faith, and someone whose godly example changelled me to faith in Christ, and showed me how to be a true man of God. The thanksgiving service for his life was a fitting tribute to the inpact of his life on many, and the vision he bore to reach children worldwide with the gospel of Christ through Agape puppet ministry.

Its got me thinking abit I guess about a couple of things :

• what it is to be a real "man" of God, something that is in stark contrast to the worlds view of "manliness"?
  

• what legacy I am leaving during my time here on earth, am I concerned with pleasing men, pleasing self, or pleasing God both here and in eternity?
  

How you live in this life matters, impacts others, and is of eternal consequence. Something for me to ponder as I consider my future, my relationships, my attitudes, my concerns, my passion.

Can I echo the words of the apostle Paul who in Phillipians 1 vs. 21 exclaims " 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

May that be my motto for living also, to live a fearless and passionate Christ centered life


 

First post of 2007

Well this blog has been a barren land of late, have become totally snowed under with work, finding I have little time for anything like writing the odd blog post. 

Working weeks have been more like 50+ hours instead of the 37 1/2 hour week I'm contracted to work recently, and hence the posts haven't happened.  But I'm off today on flexi and thought I'd get caught up on some stuff which I haven't got the time to do much.

This week was the first week of housegroups starting in our church fellowship, something which has met a fair bit of opposition from the older members who are less comfortable with this format, but I feel is necessary to develop genuine fellowship and community within the body. 

Our youth events have been carrying on as normal, becomes abit of a routine which I'm not totally happy with, but with a lack of time and other pressures it's the only way at present.  Bible class has been encouraging as we have been working our way through a study of James, just breaking into the 2nd chapter now as the 1st chapter took us from September to complete.  It has been abit of a struggle again for myself as I am preparing the material from scratch each week, trying to make it as relevant and interactive as possible.  Would be alot easier to just follow some pre-prepared material, but I don't feel it would be as beneficial for our young people, or for my personal development either.  So I'll keep struggling away at it, and try to manage my time abit better.  I know God will equip me to cope with every challenge placed in my way, guess I've just gotta learn how to trust in Him more and more, and rely on Him and not my own short-comings.

Lack of posting

Well the posts on the old blog have been somewhat non-existent in the past month or so, due largely to the busyness of work and life.  Work has taken a more 8-6 look in the past month, lots of stress and many times wondering why I bother putting myself through it for the poor payslip at the end of the month.  Have been feeling sorry for myself on a number of occasions, abit disillusioned and wondering what the future holds.  Then I catch myself on and think how selfish I can be, and how thankful I should be for what I have - health, job, car, family, girlfriend....................  It's easy to complain, but as I've been studying James with bible class, looking at how God uses trials and difficult times in life to mature us in our faith.  I can really relate to this in my own experiences and coming to faith, and the challenge to "consider it pure joy" rings true still today. 

With that in mind worries, complaints and the like all pail into insignificance.  The assurance God gave Jeremiah is a promise that I cling to today;

Jeremiah 29 vs.11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The four Evangelists as depicted in the Book of Kells, well worth a look if your in Dublin 

It's been a while

Well here I am again, quite a while since my last post, thought i'd better spend abit of my day off catching up on a few things.  Spent yesterday in Dublin, hadn't realised the marathon was happening, but made the most of the lack of shop's open by visiting Trinity College and viewing the Book of Kells.  Always something I had intended to see, quite amazing detail and craftsmanship in producing it so many years ago - blows your mind really.

Brought home how fortunate we are to have our Christian heritage, but equally sad to think how far society on these shores has fallen and how little interest the majority of folk have in the Christian faith.  We've fallen into a "pick-and-mix" mentality where we make a religion that suits our lifestyle and doesn't involve the sacrifices necessary, a consequence of our consumer society I guess.  But this is the world into which we are called to go into and make disciples, quite a challenge. O how we need to pray..............

The Ups and Downs of life

Been a whle since the last post, the regular updates are somewhat irregular, but here goes.  A reality for me right now is that life has it's fair share of ups and downs, seems to be more downs than ups for me right now, but theres always 2 sides to a coin and 2 ways of looking at things.  Guess i've always thought of myself as abit of an optomist, the glass is half full and all that. So recently when some things haven't quite went my way and i've found myself asking "why me" I guess the glass has looked more empty than full.  Sometimes the futures looks scarily dull and not so bright, and it's at times like these that the promise God gives Jeremiah rings true to me, and i'm content to trust in Him with my life, my plans, my all.

 

Jeremiah 29 vs.11 (MSG)

"I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."

 

What a promise, what a re-assurance, what a hope, what a God.

And suddenly my worries slip into insignifficance, and I see this as an opportunity to stretch the limbs of faith and trust in Him, after all He knows best, nothing happens outside of his will and His plans will prevail

Worth the work

Well this years bible class is taking abit of a different slant, split the classes, so i'm now taking the 3rd form upwards.  Really wanting them to take ownership of the programme, keep it as conversational as possible in approach, and as relevant to their lives as possible. Would be alot easier from my point of view to simply churn out some pre-prepared "off-the-shelf" material each week, but don't know how beneficial that would be in encouraging them in their journey in faith.  Their programme ideas have been interesting, think i've a fair bit of research to be doing over the incoming months to prepare and help lead discussion, filtering it all through Gods Word as our benchmark.  Topics from peer pressure and relationships, how to pray and read your bible, growing in your faith; through to more in-depth ones like biblical interpretation, creation/evolution, prophesy, world religions, where our souls go when we die and suffering/poverty.

Challenging, but hopefuly beneficial  as we share together on this journey, exploring these topics using Gods living word as our guide.  Any good resources anyone can reccommend would be much appreciated. 

Find it amazing how the bible raises such diverse questions and thoughts in our minds, and also has something for everybody throughout its pages. 

Opera, not the musical kind!!

Have recently switched to a new web browser, a change does you good as they say.  Now using Opera, some nice additional features, loads a fair bit quicker than IE and is hopefully more sucure and virus free.  Still finding my feet with all it's keyboard and mouse shortcuts, tabbed browsing and RSS integration are nice features.  Will see how it goes for a while anyway

Gone wireless broadband

Well we've finaly gone broadband, and wireless at that.  As cheap a package now for broadband than dial-up, so figured we might as well enjoy the surf where you want and talk option of Bt's wireless broadband.

Hopefully it will mean more regular postings on the old blog, can't really get less than recently as they have been rather scarce.  Anyway work in the morning so i'm off to bed having got connected after abit of hair pulling!!

Alot to ponder

Well i'm not long back from the PCI Youth Ministry Summer School, a 5 day retreat at loughry college where we collectively thought through the challenge and responsibility of fulfilling our biblical mandate to:

"....tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done."  Psalm 78 vs.4

We were lead in the main sesions by Chap Clarke, Duffy Robbins and Andy Hickford gave us much food for thought, coming away with plenty to ponder and contemplate as we think of how it impacts the ministries we are involved in.  We were also fed spiritually in devotions by Maggie Robbins, as she led us in some contemplative worship techniques, encouraging us to "Enjoy the silence" in the presence of our Heavenly Father.

I personally benefitted from the week, the fellowship shared, the networking opportunities to think through how we reach this generation with the gospel, and the space provided away from the busy-ness of life to spend time in the presence of our creator, God.  Still mulling over some of the issues raised, and how it imacts the ministry I believe God has called me into in my home church.  Alot of challenges lie ahead in trying to make what I now feel are some necessary changes become a reality, but I seek to follow God's guidance, and am assured of his presence and help in carrying out what I believe he is calling me to.

A couple of thoughts i'm reflecting on currently:

• "How are we reaching out and embracing a hurting generation that longs to belong?"
• "The process doesn't always look like progress: are we prepared to journey alongside our young people for the long haul?"
• "Its about loving our young people like Jesus would, seeing the pearl within, and encouraging them to find their worth and significance in Him"
• "Developing a genuine sense of community that values our young people and journeys with them in their faith"

Windows Live writer

So this is my first blog using Windows Live Writer, seems to be a useful tool for managing updates to your weblog using a MSword-like interface.  So there we go, hopefully this will assist more regular posting

Long time no blog

Well I think this blog could officially do with a ressurrection as there has been a noteable lack of postings (i.e. none) in the recent past. I've been intending to get back into the habit for a while, but busyness has taken over. Having experienced God moving last week at ReachOut06 I kinda realised that I had been letting busy-ness push Him outta my life. It's something I have to be very wary of, not just doing stuff for God, but making sure that i'm spending time with God and listening to his voice. Think this blog helps me to put thoughts down and think things through, so I guess i'm hoping for more frequent postings on the blog-scene. Watch this space then I guess.............