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!

If God exists why doesnt he prove it?

Ive just been doing some preperation for my lunchbar at Liverpool in just over a weeks time. Ive been thinking through how to approach the subject recently and trying to get my head round this question. So as you do i started to draw a spider diagram to put my ideas down about how people think God would appear if he did. It was an amazing experience as i sat down and brainstormed and all the reasons i gave had biblical answers and came down to Jesus!! So i thought id scan it in and attatch it to my blog.
It would be great if people could add to this diagram by adding comments on the same question or anyways in which my thoughts have been wrong. Hope it all makes sense too!

Re:Vision

Last weekend we had a CityCU Exec reunion which was great. We had a vision weekend before our time on exec and a devision weekend after and a year on we decided to have a revision weekend. It was a great time to catch up with all the old exec who i hadnt actually seen for ages and also to have fun with those guys again. We had a strong sense of unity and friendship whilst on exec and it was great to come back after a year and see that friendship continuing between us even a year on. Mr Gates (Pres) sent an email out with this verse on afterwards as a prayer which is an encouragement and a challenge:

"...that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God...."

Anyway ive posted some pics of the weekdend below! Derbyshire is gorgeous countryside i just wish i had more chance to investigate it without falling down hills! (Ask me if you want to know more) Hopefully a video of the guys race up a hill will be coming soon - wait for it as its classic! Men running up and down muddy hills in trainers - bound to be some problems!

Cars are great until someone crashes into you

Well Saturday night was an interesting night as i was involved in my first car accident. A Ford Mondeo driver went into me on a roundabout after dropping someone off after CU. Im fine but my car isnt so ill let the pictures below show you that! Will update you more about the cars future when i hear as im waiting to hear from the Insurance company. Please pray for wisdom and grace with the insurance companys and that i will be able to get it all sorted out!! Pictures Speak louder than words sometimes!!

Finally some snow!!

As you will all know i spent my first gap year in America in the middle fo the rockies. So one thing i loved was having snow for six months! Now see my disgust when the rest of the country has been getting snow for the past few days and here in York its been bright clear blue skies and ive been able to walk around in a tshirt just about. But i was overjoyed yesterday afternoon to finally look out my window and see the snow coming down in big snowflakes and after an hour and half about 2 inches on the ground!! So to celebrate i thought id take some pictures with my phone since my good camera has given up the ghost!! The First is out fo my window and the second is from York Uni campus