coffee break bites of words, wit, and wisdom
OK – I know pride comes before a fall but I’m not proud of myself but of people within my family.
Last weekend Mrs H and I went to visit my family and on the Saturday evening we went to watch my cousin playing in a cafe/bar/restaurant with his band Sould. It was great going out for a nice evening and we also met up there with some other members of the Hartley clan for a chinwag and just a relaxing evening.
Back in the mid-late 90s there was a tremendous move of God that swept the world. Revivals were taking place in all sorts of places, the Holy Spirit was changing lives in new ways and there were Visions and Dreams aplenty.
I’ve not said anything about this particularly simply because it’s taken a good few days to sink in and meditate on.
The weekend just gone was a huge one for our family and immensly busy for us all. Starting with a few days getting loads of jobs done around the house, baking cakes and bacon & egg pies, shopping and more we then headed towards that girliest of girly things – the sleepover!
Instead of a party, as such, we suggested that our girl could have a few friends over for a sleepover… and it was a brilliant idea that she thoroughly enjoyed but left us all shot to pieces and still reeling from only getting 3 hours of sleep!
The Sunday was a HUGE time, and the biggest hi-lite of the year so far – our girl got baptised!
There were 18 people who got dunked in the first service, and 19 in the second, and our daughter was one of the ones proudly being baptised. Well, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us as she took the plunge – and there were a good few others with leaking eyes as well.
I don’t honestly think there was a prouder couple of parents in the building that day and it’s the start of a really great road for our girl!
Do you have your Ouch-es?
These are the sore points that come out and don’t so much prick your conscience as give it a totally huge kick.
Evenings such as the recent Comic relief night are seriously good for causing Ouch-es – did you see the video that showed the 12-month old boy dying from malaria?
Another good source of Ouch-es are the weekly sermons we hear at KingsGate.
Don’t get me wrong – Ouch-es are GOOD things, not negatives and, received with the right attitude, can be life-changing moments.
We can sometimes have the nice warm & fuzzy sermons, and they are great… but the ones that have the biggest impact, and the most effect, are those with the OUCH factor.
The current sermon series is looking at Jesus: close up and yesterday featured some seriously big OUCH-es (yes, they were that big they deserve to be written in capitals!!!)
Right now I am pondering all that these ouches are going to mean to me, to my walk with God and to my life in all.
And the core of my prayer – May I receive it well and… More Lord!
We’ve just started a new series at Church looking at “Jesus: Close up”, an ideal subject for the build up to Easter (my favourite time of year!) and the sermon this Sunday was looking into “Who is Jesus?” [you can download here!]
It’s not necessarily as straight-forward to answer as you may first think because there is just so much to who He is and even though I’ve grown up knowing about Him, I still learnt a fair bit from the session and it was really good having a refresher session on areas I probably havbe taken for granted.
Dave Smith (and Karen) has just returned from a mini-sabbatical and really seems fired up in a new way following visits to many churches around the world and there is a passion that fills all he says which makes the talks even more powerful. There seems to be a real sense that we are entering the “second chapter” of the churches history and that there is something big on the horizon.
At the end of the sermon we were shown a video clip which I have since found on YouTube and have put here for your enjoyment 🙂
Have a listen, enjoy, be blessed… and be challenged!
P.S. Hope you’ve noticed the new Worship Videos on the right-hand side? This is a playlist I’ve made on YouTube and will change every now and then.