Tag: me

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We’re going on a Big Day Out… Part 1

For those who were there, either this year or last, the above title will probably have you humming an annoyingly catchy little ditty written by the one-and-only Graham Kendrick as the “un”official theme song for the Big Church Day Out.

Yes I know it’s been a few weeks but life has been really crazy since we got back from our exodus down sarf and I’ve only really started to catch up on all my thoughts – but sit back and let me tell you of miracles, divine intervention, mini-reunions and some of the best Christian music that is out there right now.

For those that don’t know, the Big Church Day Out has just had it’s 2nd annual event in the grounds of Wiston Hall. It’s a family orientated affair featuring a main stage full of the biggest names on the music scene, a second stage featuring lesser known (but not lesser talented!) artists and then a load of activities, stalls, charities and more to ensure that there is no way you can possibly get bored (unless you’re a tired 9 year old boy but that’s a different matter really)

We’d decided, after going to the midlands event last year, that we would take advantage of the free camping offer (due to there NOT being a midlands event this year) and head down for the two day event – figuring that it would be fun camping for the first time as a family and that doing both days would allow us all to enjoy the main artists at least once, making it less of a stress if the kids didn’t want to sit through your favourite artist. My brother was immediately up for it, and we made a last-minute decision to invite one of our daughters best friends (2 teenage girls – was that *really* wise??? read on…)

Continue reading “We’re going on a Big Day Out… Part 1”

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Cleansed, Challenged and Changed

Encounters with God are meant to be life-changing, releasing and sometimes very humbling events. This should be something that happens on a regular basis within our Churches, and I’m very pleased to be part of a Church where that is often the case. However, for one weekend in June, KingsGate Community Church becomes a highly passionate focus for life-changing freedom as it hosts an annual retreat for people who have done/are doing the Cleansing Stream course – including many from different Churches across England.

Cleansing Stream is a series of teachings designed to help unearth and, more importantly, tackle issues that have a profound and often crippling effect upon peoples lives. The course itself isn’t without it’s detractors and has courted some fairly controversial reviews, especially across the pond. All I can say is that, doing the course myself this year, I have no doubts as to it’s legitimacy, it’s effectiveness nor it’s biblical foundation. I also have a huge amount of trust and respect for the discernment and knowledge of the KingsGate leadership, and know that they wouldn’t be a part of it if this was in any way unbiblical.

The teaching evenings include a time of worship, with a group of intercessors being present to pray for all the participants by name and who then go into a seperate room to continue to pray whilst the teaching is delivered. Because the subjects are so very personal, there is further study work that helps to get us thinking about the issues discussed and examine how they might be a part of our own lives.

Continue reading “Cleansed, Challenged and Changed”

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Alive! Death could not keep Him, the grave had no power, hell was defeated!

After the sombre meditations of Thursday and Friday, the main event and the reason for it all came to fruition on the third day.

Today is the real birthday for all Christians, the day that Christ came to Earth for – to free us all from sins grasp and to give us an open road to our Father in Heaven.

I *love* Easter – with a passion. Something in my spirit, in my soul and in my body just leaps for joy at this time of year. I know that I have a future, there is a great eternity for me all because of Jesus breaking the stranglehold of sin and the grave.

The story is not yet over – we don’t know when the final chapter will take place – but the fact is that there is only our pride and our own minds that can get in the way of us knowing Gods Love.

I rediscovered it 3 years ago, and there’s not a day goes by where I don’t rejoice in that fact.

My prayer is that if you haven’t discovered this joy, that you will come to know it.

JOY!
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More than one man can take

It was 24 hours that would make a day in the life of Jack Bauer seem like a cuddly fuzzy teddy bear.

It started with a dinner party with the closest friends a man could have, followed by a sing-song and a walk in a garden, then some deep soul-searching. This was then rounded off with the cruellest of betrayals along with the desertion of friends and even being denied by the closest of them all, a farcical pretence of justice, a beating to within an inch of his life, humiliation, one of the most tortuous deaths known to man, rejection by a father and a descent to hell that no man can begin to comprehend.And that was just the first 24 hours – the story wasn’t over there. Continue reading “More than one man can take”

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To all the pioneers–??????? (that’s thank you if you didn’t know!)

Forget politics, budgets, priorities, ethics, religion, race – put them all to one side for now and just think for a moment. Fifty years ago today the human race took flight and left the earths atmosphere for 108 minutes.

Major Yuri Gagarin from the USSR climbed aboard Vostok 1 and left Baikonur Cosmodrome Site No.1  in what is now Kazakhstan and headed out to become the first human to go into space.

It’s remarkable, humbling, amazing, outstanding and mind-blowing. The human spirit for adventure, for exploration, for pioneering never ceases to amaze me (and yes, I know there are cynics who will say that this was just about the US and the USSR trying to outdo each other) – we’ve seen it throughout all of history, let’s face it we wouldn’t be where we are today without pioneers. We see it all the time with people pushing boundaries and trying to do more, be more, find more, go further and understand more.

The Russians made it into space first, the USA made it to the moon and then the motivation and the drive to take us forward got lost. The US lost interest in moon landings and started to see how much it was costing, the Russians had lost the ultimate race and had money concerns of their own along with the struggle to match the western world for weaponry in the cold war.

Continue reading “To all the pioneers–??????? (that’s thank you if you didn’t know!)”