RELAY:3:DAY:3

Again Day 3 started with a glorious morning outside. I always find it so much easier to learn from God in a place such as that as the surroundings just speak who God is so clearly. It was the same when i was in America and doing Bible School in the middle of the Colorado Rockies. How could you not believe that God really existed when all creation cries out!

The Church that works (1 Cor 14:1-19)
Supposedly Maurice was telling us that alot of people were very shocked when he was telling them that he was going to speak on these passages. And looking at this section you wouldn't disagree in a CU context but Maurice tackled it by simply preaching what the passage said. He remarked "We shouldn't come to the passages asking questions which it simply doesnt answer". A challenge to me when im preparing talks and bible studies. But we saw as we looked at this passage is that the biggest principle of all gifts is to pursue love for the building up of the church. So the reason that the passages says prophecy is better than tongues is because it builds up the church. Tongues is only for one person and God whereas Prophecy should edify the whole church. Unless we can hear and understand what is being said whats the good. So when were praying out loud we shouldn't pray in tongues as some cant understand. PURSUE LOVE=BUILD THE CHURCH. Practically this means alot of things - Dont go to 2 churches, one for worship and one for teaching! We must pray intelligebly so that people can say "AMEN" at the end of it! And again we must pursue love which sometimes may mean that we dont use our gifts! More on this tommorow.

On the evening we have a prayer and praise session. It is something which in some ways i dread as i sometimes find them abit funny. Usually because people come to the front and say soemthing like "were going to do a deal with God" Not sure about that. But this prayer and praise was great and encouraging and challenging too. We prayed for our 121's which was cool. We prayed for those on Homestart (Jools, Chris O and Alison going to Chile/Argentina, Japan and Brussels respectively) It was great to do this and see their heart for their countries. Especially encouraging as always was Chris Oldfield as he has such a passion for Gods word that its infectious! He sets a big example to me about being passionate about God. We also prayed for Thailand and the desperate state there and then i think for UCCF. It was a good night this time and people really prayed and cried out to God for his mercy and grace not for a "bargain deal"!

Fellowship Group 4

Passing on the Relay Baton's in our fellowship group

The Classic UCCF Photo opportunity

TIP: Never take an arty photo when your looking directly at the sun!

Sunsets! I do love em

Heres a break from the relay ramblings! On Sunday night me and sarah went to Bempton Cliffs after church as the weather was awesome and we wanted to see the Sunset and the Puffins. Stupidly i didnt nick my dads camera whilst mine is still broken but i did capture some of it on camera. It was an amazing night and the sunset looked awesome setting over the cliffs! These pictures cant even capture a quarter of how good it was! And here i am the next morning so Christs love for me is more certain again!!

RELAY:3:DAY:2

Day two started early with a dribble under the shower but the most amazing thing for me was sitting outside each morning to do my quiet time. At 7.20 i would sit on the lawn and just look out over shropshire as the day woke up and the birds woke up! It was amazingly hot at that point in the morning but really quiet too and was a great chance to hear what was happening in the world.

The Church that shows Jesus (1 Cor 12:12-30)
For me this was one of the most challenging talks as we looked at the body of Christ. In Church we all aim at the same thing but as we saw yesterday we can aim at it in slightly different ways. The passage starts off with the statement that Christ is the church and the church is the body of Christ. So as a church we are meant to be reflecting who Christ is. But we then moved on to look at how we can act like we are inferior or superior. We saw how no part of the church is weaker and we need each part of the church to survive. When it says i cannot survive as an ear by ourselves it is eactly that. We cannot survive as Christians unless we are part of a church. Therefore we should rejoice again in the variety of church and how we are all different. But the challenge for me came to think about how i can sometimes act like im superior and above people. We are all important in the church and therefore each gift id just as valid as any other. This is vital to a church and being part of the church and living as a church! This is only a brief overview so do ask me if you want any more info!

Work- See Sean Clokeys Blog

Keeping Spiritually Alive
For our final session of the day we looked at how as men we should keep alive as christians. It reminded me of a set of books ive read and found very challenging by a guy called Stu Weber and especially a book called "All the kings men". This session reflected alot of what was in this book and the need to be encouragers of one another as men to live the Christian Life. Some practical tips and verses were given shown below.

Strive for Godliness (Titus 2:11-14), Church (Hebrews 10:24-25), Bible (1 Thess 5:17, 1 Pet 2:2), Evangelism (Col 4:1-6, 1 Pet 3:15, Philemon 6), Christian Worldview (Romans 12:1-2), Gospel (2 Pt 1:12, 3:1), Accountability (2 Pt 3:10)

RELAY:3:DAY:1

So on Monday we set off for our last relay conference down to Quinta in the glorious sunshine. I guess for me i was looking forward to it although monday morning was a big rush trying to finish off presentations and applying for jobs. But we arrived and as usual for me i felt abit out of place but after a short while soon got back into normal conversations again.

Where have you come from?
We had our first session led by Anna Mackenzie on Psalm 129-131 remiding ourselves just how delicious the peas are aka how amazing the gospel is! We looked at the passages and saw how our hearts can decieve us but we must turn back to the gospel and trust in his promises. W were reminded too just of the certainty of the promise! Christs love for his people is more certain than the sun rising in the morning. Therefore whenever we see the new day come we should rejoice at Christs sacrifice for us being more certain!

The Church that has the Spirit (1 Cor 12:1-11)
Our Second Session was the first in a series by Maurice on 1 Corinthians 12-14 (the passages about the body, love and gifts!) We were challenged to look at these passages as a whole and i was reminded again about Paulas wisdom from pure "Dont bring your experience to the bible but stick to the truth!" So the fist session made many challeneges. First of all we saw how the spirit acts on us to bring the Lordship of Christ. We should use our gifts not for our own gain but to show that Jesus is Lord and that should be able to be seen. Then we saw how the spirit acts to bring variety in the Church. We shouldn't be in churches of a certain type but should see variety expressed across the church and this again should show the work of the spirit. For an interesting argument on this see Maurices blog on homogenous Church.

I was really excited after this talk and what was going to come next! This is something ive been thinking on for a while and in my elective study so it was great to hear some great bible exposition on the topic!

Relay 3 - The Report!

Well heres the start of a big blogging session! Its like waiting for a bus. None come along and then a few appear at the same time. My inspiration is a great week at Relay 3 Conference. For me this was easily the best of the three simply because i felt like some of my friendships developed and i had some great encouragements. The weather was glorious! It was 30 degrees all week and this in itself made it a brilliant week with plenty of outdoor fun had by all! But the talks were very challenging on 1 Corinthians 12-14 about church and listening to everyones 3 minute presentations it was great to hear how everyone had been challenged in different ways but they all came back to the gospel. Also it was great to catch up with my fellowship group again. We learnt loads of different things about the passages but especially not trying to be artistic with photos when you have to look into the sun!!! Evidence of this to follow!

Genius ideas from Burley

Its official! Nathan Burley is a genius or spends too much time on the net. He's provided me with two new insights. Firstly as you will see ive now got a 24 stylie clock on my blog! brilliant! (If you've never watched 24 then you've never lived! pretty much!)
And also you have to look at this link if you like neighbours and want a laugh. (disclaimer: i dont really watch neighbours anymore although i watched it an awful lot in my first year!) Keep them coming nathan!

One Liner

Born Once - Die Twice

Born Twice - Die Once

Have you got a crayola Jesus?

A talk at my home church on Sunday made this challenge part way through. Looking at Revelation 1 and who Jesus is we were challenged by Gary Aston, Our guest speaker from Pontefract to think about who Jesus really is not just who we want him to be. In revelation 1 it describes "Christs face shining like the sun in all its brilliance". He started to make the anaology that if you ask a kid to draw a sun they will pick up a yellow crayon and make a circle and maybe a few lines coming from it. But if you ask a scientist to describe the sun they will tell you that its a ball of chemical reactions so hot that nothing natural could survive in it. Its the centre of the universe and the planets around it are in perfect balance because of it. If it wasnt there neither would we be.

So have you got a crayola Jesus or do we really realise who he really is?

Lets get posting again!!!!

Until just now i didnt realise how bad i had got at posting! I knew that i hadnt posted for a while but when your last post is march 21st then thats terrible! Shame on me and after a rebuke by Helen Lockwood ive decided to wipe the last few months clean and start again hopefully back to my regular posts!!! so here goes oh and a pic of where i went at easter. mayeb more to come!