Winners or losers

So people keep asking when I will start blogging again. Truth is since the pandemic I’ve not found a church to settle in. 

I guess being a single guy who’s kids have their own opinions on going to church I personally find it hard. 

One thing I do know is that God hasn’t left me and I still maintain a strong faith, and off course I know the importance of being part of a church and having Christian freinds and family around. 

This week I was encouraged to try and re look at my blog and remember why I started it. At first it was to take my mind of the world around me during a time of depression. Then I realised people where reading it and “getting it” and it became more about bring a message in my own words that people seemed to understand even if spelling and grammar wasn’t perfect.

So after a long break I’m attempting to restart this blog and hope to include more features including vlogs and interview with other Christian’s. Also I’d like to look around my local community to look how churches in my area differ from each other and how they impact the local community

So it’s maybe apt that this blog is being written on the Saturday before wit Sunday. Wit sunday being the day the Christian church first Christian and the Holy Spirit comming down from heaven. 

Reports of high winds comming though the windows of where they would worship together and Tongues of fire landing on each of their heads. Going out into the streets and speaking in tongue to the people outside and them understanding. This is the edsact same experience I had when I finally got the whole Christian thing. (I hope to do a video on that) 

That day, God sent his spirit down to live among us. 40 day I think it was after Jesus had reterned to heaven after he conquered the grave and resurrected. A sigh that we have a life after earth if we want to choose his way. And that same Holy Spirit is in every Christian that sincerely invites him in to there lives. 

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

And even though (hands up) I’ve not been going to a church every week I have kept my faith knowing the holly spirit is guiding my life like he always has done through my parents and family and freind and now he lives in me!

Guiding light

Just outside where I live is the suburb of Walton. Walton was at one time The main town in the area. Just at Walton high Street was the road now called Maidstone Road and turns into grange road at the railway bridge That continues to Pewitt hill. At the bottom of Pewitt hill was the shore. 

The Walton was built at a point or equal distance from the two local rivers and seafront. The road to Pewitt HillWould have been the main road for fisherman to bring up the catch for sell. 

As Walton grew so did the need for other Goods from around England and other countries. The shore at the bottom of peewit Hill would have been busy with goods coming in and out.

The dockland now at felixstowe Are the biggest in the country but that's not the Point of this blog.

At the bottom of Pewitt Hill now is a roundabout that lead through the customs checks into the Port along with a Mcdonalds, offices, a supermarket and other buildings

Pewitt Hill Is still busy with people walking or cycling to and from work at the docs. It's an unmade road very uneven and un suitable for vehicles put i can still imagine horse and carts going up and down heading to and from walton. 

At the top are houses that would gave been there in those days. One noticeably an old brothel intising the sailors to take rest for the night. Another of these houses had an important roll to play. 

The nearest light house was 10 or more miles away and there had to be something to guide the boats in to walton and this house that is still there today was effectively the light house. 

Each night the keeper of this house would light a candle and using a pulley system would lift the candle up into a glass box at the too if a false chimney. 

It was said to have been seen for 3 to 4 miles out to see and although the jetty was well lit it was some times to low to be seen in rough waters and fog. 

Yhis light became a life line to many as they focused on light in the sky to guide them close enough to safely see the boats in close enough to see the jetty where they could rest once the cargo had been taken of. 

Life can be tough. It can throw us some had blows at times. At times we cant see the end of our bad situations and, well some Give up and decide turning back is the better way. 

The bible is full of stories of people want to give in.They dont feel worthy or feel strong enough to get to that Jetty. 

Focus on that light, focus in Jesus and his promise to you, so he can lead you safely to shore and all he has promised.

Maybe someone near you id struggling trying to find their way in the darkness. Well why not be a light for them too. 

Bear Grylls

Testing The Paths

So people keep telling me to start blogging again. and after a couple of messages from strangers that read the blogs Ive decoded to try and start blogging again.

trouble with blogging is finding the inspiration to turn it into a blog, even then when i try and start I cant find the words to start the blog (like now).

But in the past I have found if I start typeing then some hom the blog starts to take shape and many times leads to a whole different place to what you thought when I set out.

when I started blogging I was trying to battle with depetion, it was a way to clear my mind and fill it with other things rather than dark thoughts. some of the blogs where well recieved some not so much, all filled with spelling mistakes and bad grammer (like this one)

As I look back on those blogs I find reading them now a reminder and good self advice, it was never meant to be read by others but a personal journey. but it soon came apparent people liked reading and sometimes started discussions I didn't expect.

At the end of 2017 I said i wanted to follow Gods paths, or at least do what I could do to continue exploring his purpose for me. Sadly since then Ive not really done much about it, so this maybe the start of walking forward and building on something that both gives me something to work on and also hopefully gets people thinking and talking.

we all sometime struggle to find a purpose, never really understand why so many around us seem to play an important role while we wouldn't be missed if we was around. but the bible tells us we all have a role to play in the church family. the bile explains it by calling it the body of Christ, explaining how it has many parts tat all work independently yet in unison to achieve the same Goals.

Into the begining

A couple of stories I saw this week got methinking. The first was of a lady that was brought up in America to white parents, only to discover her mothers parents where African American and mix race. This meant her mum who looked white was in fact coloured (which she found it stated on her birth certificate).

She looked back and said about the little clues her mum had given them. Like always powering her face which a light powder, never going out in the sun, and never wanting to talk about her past. 

The second story was of two ladies.adopted at 5 months old now in their 40s both discover they where twins.

The record showed how one was adopted a taken away two days before the other. Which not only highlighted the question why where they adopted but also how different it would have been if the other one was taken first. 

In both stories the people where left with a lot of what ifs. And maybe realising they are not the people they had thought. And suddenly realised they had a different past, different history to what they knew. 

I used to have a card on my mirror in the bathroom that read 

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43:18-19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This was God talking to the people about how they can trust him. And that the past has been and he had lead them to a new life. He was giving the people new freedom. A new start. He was doing new things and they need not worrie about the life they lived before or the things they had done. 

Later we understand that what God told those people many years before, Jesus had taught to his followers and as they spread out across the world the message of hope and joy and forgiveness was what they preached 

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Ok I’m not saying forget our past. Some of our past we should find some pride in. But we all have stuff we wish wasn’t remember. Or shameful things we may have done! We might even wish we could change the past or miss someone in our live was still here. God can’t change your past but what he can do is put it right. He can even use it for good. By you accepting him as a light to your wold. You become a new creation entering a new stage of your life. The past is pasted, it is no longer. 

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