The Bible in a year!!

I thought I would try it again reading the Bible in a year!! Now that I have the YOU VERSION app on my phone it should be so much easier - you can even set yourself a reminder. I have given myself a head start by starting on 26th December :D 

Today I read Genesis 6 and found a very interesting verse that got me thinking!!

Genesis 6:4

New International Version (NIV)

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

So I googled Nephilim to see who this interesting race was that existed at the same time as the human race 

This is what I found :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim - very interesting reading if you like that kind of thing.

I just found it interesting that after 37 reading the Bible (maybe not all of those years all the time) I had not really thought of their existence. I had heard the thought that their were giants around a some point and maybe that Goliath was one of them but I had never thought of them has being another race and that 'the sons of God' might also be different to human beings.

Interesting stuff anyway and its not even New Year yet :)

Putting it into practice - don't stagnate GROW!!

How true this quote is....... In my own life I know this to be so true. When I was 22 I decided to get baptised and until that point I didn't really feel I had to be baptised. I was a stubborn teenager and thought that it didn't prove that I was better Christian. I remember going to a baptism and feeling very strongly that I should do it!! After being a Christian for 13 years I finally took the plunge but it was after my baptism that I really started to be convicted again about my gifts and what my purpose as a Christian was. I can remember going to a gift finding seminar and they just could not fit me into one of their boxes, which was usually the case for me at anything like that. They decided I was a 'pioneering pastor' which kind of confirmed what I felt God was saying to me when I was 15 at Spring Harvest one year. I remember a sermon on Ephesians 4 v 11 onwards hitting me like a ton of bricks, and I needed to know what my gifts were. Anyway after my baptism when I was 22 I felt really overwhelmed with the sense that I needed to know what my calling was and I just was not satisfied with the Status Quo and my everyday life in the office. It was then I went to Bible School and ended up working there. I soon found my gifts then and developed some gifts that I didn't know I had. Serving is essential to the Christian life. If we don't serve we stagnate.

It wasn't until I started to serve that I started to grow as a human being. This is my experience and I just wish it could be the experience of so many Christians. I am very passionate about seeing Christians reach their full potential. Christians were not meant to just sit in church every Sunday and pray during the week. The Great Commission says GO!!!.. into all the world. There is movement!! God's church is a movement it should never stay still it should always be moving forward, following God's vision and helping people move closer to him. I feel so sad when I see a church full of spectators, going to church on a Sunday and hearing God's word, sometimes even twice on a Sunday. They need some exercise they need to put what they have learnt from the sermon on Sunday into action on a Monday Tuesday Wednesday etc.

 Someone once said (well probably a few people said it) 'we only know as much of the Bible as we act upon!' In other words if what you read from the Bible is just head knowledge and you don't put it into practice you don't really know it!! You are not really experiencing it!! Studies have shown that we take far more in of what we learn in actions than we do by just listening to a lecture. I think we remember about 10% of what we hear 30% of what we write down and 60% of what we act out. There is no use just listening to sermons or just reading your Bible you have to act upon what you have learnt before you can grow and really say you know God's Word!! Ask God to show you what your purpose is, what your gifts are, and how he wants you to serve HIM!! You are his ambassadors. When he back to Heaven he passed the baton on to you and expects you, as a Christian to do His job for him, be his representative here on earth. He has given you gifts and everything you need to serve HIM!!

5 Reasons to Believe in Jesus this Christmas!!

1.  God provides the best explanation of the origin of the universe.  Given the scientific evidence we have about our universe and its origins, and bolstered by arguments presented by philosophers for centuries, it is highly probable that the universe had an absolute beginning. Since the universe, like everything else, could not have merely popped into being without a cause, there must exist a transcendent reality beyond time and space that brought the universe into existence. This entity must therefore be enormously powerful. Only a transcendent, unembodied mind suitably fits that description.

2.  God provides the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe. Contemporary physics has established that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent, interactive life.  That is to say, in order for intelligent, interactive life to exist, the fundamental constants and quantities of nature must fall into an incomprehensibly narrow life-permitting range.  There are three competing explanations of this remarkable fine-tuning: physical necessity, chance, or design. The first two are highly implausible, given the independence of the fundamental constants and quantities from nature's laws and the desperate maneuvers needed to save the hypothesis of chance. That leaves design as the best explanation.

3.  God provides the best explanation of objective moral values and duties. Even atheists recognize that some things, for example, the Holocaust, are objectively evil. But if atheism is true, what basis is there for the objectivity of the moral values we affirm? Evolution? Social conditioning? These factors may at best produce in us the subjective feeling that there are objective moral values and duties, but they do nothing to provide a basis for them. If human evolution had taken a different path, a very different set of moral feelings might have evolved. By contrast, God Himself serves as the paradigm of goodness, and His commandments constitute our moral duties. Thus, theism provides a better explanation of objective moral values and duties.

4.  God provides the best explanation of the historical facts concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Historians have reached something of consensus that the historical Jesus thought that in himself God’s Kingdom had broken into human history, and he carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms as evidence of that fact.  Moreover, most historical scholars agree that after his crucifixion Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty by a group of female disciples, that various individuals and groups saw appearances of Jesus alive after his death, and that the original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe in Jesus’ resurrection despite their every predisposition to the contrary. I can think of no better explanation of these facts than the one the original disciples gave:  God raised Jesus from the dead.

5.  God can be personally known and experienced.  The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Down through history Christians have found through Jesus a personal acquaintance with God that has transformed their lives.

The good thing is that atheists tend to be very passionate people and want to believe in something. If they would only put aside the slogans for a moment and reexamine their worldview in light of the best philosophical, scientific, and historical evidence we have today, then they, too, would find Christmas worth celebrating!

The GOSPEL vs RELIGION a Christmas message.

This Christmas I would really love people, especially those who are churchophobic to break through some miss conceptions of Christianity or the Christian faith. Christmas is based on Christ!! or should be. So it is important to look again at Christianity. I am under no illusion that this festival that Christians have taken over to celebrate the birth of Jesus was not originally Christian, but Christians had a habit at one time of taking over pagan festivals and claiming them for their own!! That can, in my eyes, only be a good thing! I just wanted to be clear about some misconceptions of what we are actually celebrating. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of God News!! God's rescue plan!! It doesn't matter to me what time of year Jesus was born, its rumoured it was round about September, its the message to me that is the important thing!!

The great reformer Martin Luther rightly said that, as sinners, we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in one of two ways. The first is religion/spirituality and the second is the gospel. The two are antithetical in every way.

Religion says that if we obey God He will love us. The gospel says that it is because God has loved us through Jesus that we can obey.

Religion says that the world is filled with good people and bad people. The gospel says that the world is filled with people made in God's imagine who are either repentant or unrepentant. The image of God in us is a shadow that is darkened by sin.

Religion says that you should trust in what you do as a good moral person. The gospel says that you should trust in the perfectly sinless life of Jesus because He alone is the only good and truly moral person who will ever live.

The goal of religion is to get from God such things as health, wealth, insight, power, and control. The goal of the gospel is not the gifts God gives, but rather God as the gift given to us by grace.

Religion is about what I have to do. The gospel is about what I get to do. Religion sees hardship in life as punishment from God. The gospel sees hardship in life as sanctifying affliction that reminds us of Jesus’ sufferings and is used by God in love to make us more like Jesus. Religion is about me. The gospel is about Jesus.

Religion leads to an uncertainty about my standing before God because I never know if I have done enough to please God. The gospel leads to a certainty about my standing before God because of the finished work of Jesus on my behalf on the cross.

Religion ends in either pride (because I think I am better than other people) or despair (because I continually fall short of God’s commands). The gospel ends in humble and confident joy because of the power of Jesus at work for me, in me, through me, and sometimes in spite of me.

THAT'S GOOD NEWS!! (Gospel) I just wish people could receive it this Christmas!!

HOW SERIOUS IS IT???? something I wrote over 4 years ago

HOW SERIOUS IS IT??

There are times when our bodies give up under the strain and God sets you aside because you need to rest and in my time of rest this morning I was writing in my journal and it was as if God just took over my pen – this is what I wrote :

June 21^st 2009 - the longest day!

How can I get across the seriousness of what you want to do GOD at West End Impact? This is your church Lord and its serious stuff, you lead me to read Ezekiel 22v30 the other day where you saw a nation in ruin and you were looking for a man to STAND in the GAP and you found no-one who was willing to stand up against it and help fight the injustice, and wrong doing, and destruction that was going on in that nation, and to rebuild the ruins so you had no other choice than to destroy it.

Well my hope is that you will look down on Morecambe and see West End Impact you will see an organisation a church Morecambe Community Church, willing to stand in the Gap! I see and know that the government is failing and that has been a real heart ache for me to see good initiatives failing and in financial difficulty. You see organisations that are proud and just want to stand up and look good and say they have a monopoly on everything, but none of this will work, only YOU can make the difference LORD GOD!! Ultimately only YOUR people who are prepared to stand up against the wrong evil ways in this area willing to stand firm, make a sacrifice and get their hands dirty will see God’s plans fulfilled. Only those living righteous, upright God filled lives will see God working through their lives. Only those prepared to get on their knees before God regularly in prayer will see answers to prayer on a daily basis. Only those prepared to really serve God will experience His fullness. Only those who are prepared to make a difference will see a difference, only those wanting to see others blessed will be blessed. Only those who are truly giving, even when it hurts, will receive in abundance from GOD.

Those who want to carry on living their own life, their own way in their own little world will do exactly that, but don’t expect God to come into that world with you, because HE has bigger, better plans. He will surely pick someone else if you’re not prepared to follow! Don’t expect God to change your life if you want to build your own kingdom and carry on down the path of destruction, addiction, greed, self-pity, jealousy, apathy, or not even be prepared to trust GOD with your life.

Wake up! God wants you to step into HIS ways and plans – but YOU have to take action. GOD’s not going to force you to change your ways – but do you just want to sit their planning your own little selfish world, while the rest of the world lies in ruins? Or are you prepared to make a change to step up and step out, and make your life count in Jesus plan of Salvation in a needy world.

Think it through, don’t take it lightly, because it will mean, sacrifice, tiredness, feelings of helplessness, frustration, disappointment, desperation, feeling like the load is too hard to bare, times of weeping, anger and almost giving up, but its an amazing adventure of fulfilment, passion, knowing God’s pleasure, His protection, and His joy. Miracles are seen on a regular basis, and we see God’s plans slowly unfold and lives start to be changed, affected and transformed by the living GOD. We start to see the ‘dry bones get flesh on them and some are even having God’s breath of LIFE breathed into them’ (as in Ezekiel 37) We want to see more LORD, but you are looking for men and women prepared to STAND in the GAP.

When I look at some of the issues we face on a weekly basis at IMPACT it’s overwhelming, but I know with GOD’s help and much prayer it is possible to make a difference. Issues like addiction, people who have been involved in serious crime, homelessness, abuse, mental illness, bitterness, guilt, fear, debt, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, unemployment, people who feel everyone’s just out to get them, people who don’t trust anyone, loneliness, anger, people who don’t know how to be a parent because they never had any, people who’s lives are falling apart around them, people who don’t seem to have any problems but who are just muddling through the routine of a life full of material things and empty stuff and there is much more Lord. We are dealing with real life issues and only you GOD can truly breakthrough!! No government strategy, no new project or fancy plan, only GOD’s healing power and transforming work and that’s why we make IMPACT available for you GOD to facilitate that plan of Salvation, but we know GOD is looking for more people who are prepared to STAND in the GAP and make an IMPACT.