Legend of the Forest
As dawn awoke within the Forest glade, the rising sun broke through the leafy shade;
Quotes
Looking Forward & Backward
‘Over and over again in life, we stand in the shoes of the disciples in this passage [feeding 5000]: surrounded by human need, faced with a challenge, knowing we do not have the resources, in our own wisdom, wealth, and strength, to meet the need, to stand up to the challenge. This story motivates us to get up out of…
Heaven’s Gates Swing Wide
Last Friday as I was doing an 8k training run I was listening to ‘Awakening: Live from Chicago’ by Jesus Culture. The track ‘Break Every Chain’ has a fantastic chorus: All sufficient sacrificeSo freely givenSuch a priceBought our redemptionHeaven’s gates swing wide The last two lines stuck in my head as the run continued. When I got home I posted the…
Holiness
Holiness is consecrated closeness to God. Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating God, keeping His law, taking His side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshipping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ. In relation to God, holiness takes the form of a single-minded passion to please by love and loyalty, devotion and praise. In relation to sin, it takes the form of a resistance movement, a discipline of not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but of putting to death the deeds of the body. Holiness is, in a word, God-taught, Spirit-wrought Christ-likeness, the sum and substance of committed discipleship, the demonstration of faith working by love, the responsive outflow in righteousness of supernatural life from the hearts of those who are born again.
In All Comes From Here*
Last Saturday the second Youthwork Summit took place in Manchester. I attended along with about about 750 other youth workers/ministers, paid & volunteer, full & part time, along with 20+ speakers, the Rend Collective Experiment, Mark Yaconelli, and the amazing team who put the event together and served us on the day. It will take a while to properly reflect…
How to Not Mess Up the Great Commission Too Much
I’m not a Children’s worker: it’s not my particular gifting. But I’m being increasingly challenged about the importance of work (particularly evangelism) with children. More on that later…but for now my mantra will be: Aim LowerThink SmallerGive UpGo and have a cup of coffee * And here’s why: * to be fair, this has always been part of my personal…
Ten Commandments Rewritten
Just seen this version of the 10 Commandments, rewritten for kids: Put God First: God is number one, everything else comes second. Nothing else is more important than God Don’t say ‘God’ when you don’t mean it Have a restful day – chillaxing every week Respect. Treat adults how you would like to be treated. Don’t hurt anybody Stick together/look…
Letter to the Editor
The following is a letter I’ve written to the Editor of the MK Citizen in response to a recent article regarding concerns at Oakhill Secure Training Centre:I read with interest your article last week regarding ‘possible abuse’ at Oakhill STC. I am an occasional visitor to Oakhill and have always found it to be an incredibly positive and supportive environment…
Evangelistic Imperative
‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates…
Life of the Beloved – Henri Nouwen
Today I started reading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen for the Worship & Spirituality module at CYM. I’m half-way through which for me is a record (ok, it’s a short book and fairly big text) and so far I’ve found it really inspiring and challenging. I’m looking forward to getting my head around it when brain-capacity allows. I…