Sunday 3rd October

Ken's pictures - totally amazing!

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Sunday 26th September 2010

The Thames Barrier - some body's vision / dream made reality!

Let me share with you a paragraph from a book called “The Heavenly Party.” The book is by Michelle Guinness, who was a Jewish lady who married a vicar. She writes from a Jewish perspective but as a born again follower of Jesus.

“I don’t know whose idea it was to make Western Christianity so lifeless and dull, but it certainly didn’t come from God. From the beginning of time, when he gave human beings a glorious garden setting where they could rest, play and sport to their hearts content, through the Jewish Scriptures with their details instructions for festivals, pageants and lengthily extended holidays, to the Gospel parables where Jesus describes heaven as a fabulous banquet to which everyone has an invitation, it is abundantly clear that God loves nothing better than having a good time.. And since no one not even God wants to party alone, he made us to share in the fun. In fact he so enjoys our company that he regular manages to out party all of us.”

Christianity, being a follow of Jesus opens the door to a new dimension of life, once we choose to accept Jesus as our lord and Saviour the colour of live in all its intricacies and all its details begin I would like to suggest to make sense of the world around us, we live in the now being part of the not yet. We live in the time between the first and second coming of Jesus. We lives as citizens of the heavenly kingdom but with a mission to bring that kingdom in on earth, as we live out and dreams the dreams and enable the visions that God has given us to become reality.

Acts 2:17-18
This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Acts 2
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

Peter Addresses the Crowd
14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

We live in the days between Christ's first and second coming. We will realize that he is coming back again and that we need to live in the truth of that promise.

Let us pray for people who don't know Jesus.

Let us dream dreams, let us allow the Holy Spirit to move us and shake us as we become th people Jesus needs us to be.

Isaiah 61
The Year of the Lord’s Favour

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

The picture tells a thousand stories - I am challenged again and again by how fortunate I am.

He came to heal the broken hearted, he came to make the blind eyes see...

Lord may each one of us be obedient and open to your call on our lives.