Tag: General

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Ouch

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!

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Who is Jesus? Do you know Him?

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.

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You WILL relax and chill and take it easy

Determination.

That’s probably the one word that underlined Christmas, and the days just before and after, for me. I have never been so determined to enjoy a season as I have this Christmas. I resolved to go with the flow, not let anything upset or anger me and just enjoy myself and celebrate the festivities as much as possible.

And you know something? It worked! Shocked? I was.

There were no sharp words on Christmas day, no frayed tempers and no tension or nervous twitches – just a complete peace and relaxation, the sort I haven’t felt for a considerable time. Continue reading “You WILL relax and chill and take it easy”

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You give me fever…Fever!

Sigh…

As in the last post – illness has been doing the rounds in the Hartley household 🙁 And it’s still going around.

The coughs and colds refuse to go away and so, unfortunately, does the seriously nasty fever bug that has been going around. All the kids have had/still got it and so too has Mrs H now.

With fevers hitting over 39c (thats over 103f!) all we can do is keep the Calpol and Nurofen flowing on regular cycles and keep praying that it’s going to break. Unfortunately it’s really vicious as it will hit one day, be fine the next and then hit again the following day… and it’s been like this for nearly 2 weeks now.

The doctors have come out with the usual “it’s a virus” line and have told us to carry on as we are – the only useful thing we have heard is that there’s “a lot going around and people are struggling to shake it”. So useful to know that really.

And so we keep praying, keep plodding along and keep getting little to no sleep at all at the moment… and just when the year is at it’s busiest 🙁

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Oh irony sweet irony…

So it was week 9 of the “Making Life Work” series at Church this week… all about “Seeing Red” (i.e. Anger!)

It was one of the sessions that was really key for me in this whole series as I can, at times, be erm…. let’s just say somewhat erm….. sensitive in a non-constructive manner.

Oh alright – if I’m being totally honest I can fly-off-the-handle sometimes and it’s something that I dearly want to manage a bit better than I do now.

Continue reading “Oh irony sweet irony…”