Designed for Life

So what a weekend I had in The Salvation Army’s William Booth Training College. Alway exciting for a small time suffolk boy to visit London on train and had a great trip there and even saw a few sites of the capital while on the way. 

Now I’d love to do a massive blog about the weekend but I’m told to always keep blogs short. But as soon as I arrived I saw friends for Home that now live there and nice I’d seen my digs for the next two night I was relaxed and ready for the weekend. 

I’d gone with n open mind and soon got chatting to a few people over lunch. Food was good and all the people on the course including staff seemed laid back and great to get on with. 

Throughout the weekend we had meetings and small group times. Now I could say so much about the weekend and about the friends I made. But I’m writing about it somewhere else so hopefully you’ll read that too one day.

But what I wanted to bring up here was the importance I realised about being in a group of Christian. I here so many people these days say how church isn’t an important part of being a Christian and you don’t have to go to church to believe. But that weekend I herd from so many different people and spoke to so many new faces. Their influence and passion spoke wonders to me and I hope I made a difference to some of them. 

Like a sports man trains and a scholar studies, as Christian we need that too. And by joining together we can all teach, listen and learn from each other! 

General Andre Cox summed it up better than me by tweeting “Our faith is not worked out in hidden isolation; it is worked out in community and relationships.”

Just Where I Am

All day I’ve been singing an old Sally Army song. No idea where it came from and no idea why it was on my mind. But you know how it is, once in your hear you just can’t shake it and you spend all day singing or humming it. 

Now I’d be struggling to find a reason to join the band at church. I’m not in anyway gifted in music and didn’t want to join just for something to do. After all all the band must have a reason they play. 

But suddenly after thinking and praying about it I realise that maybe this wasn’t something I was doing for myself, but for god. Maybe he wanted me in the band. Maybe it the step he wants me to take that is part of his plan for me. 

Suddenly I realised the lirics to the song in my head was “just where he needs me, my Lord has placed me” maybe sometimes it’s not our will but the will of God that opens doors for us to walk through. 

Maybe you at a place thinking, what’s the point. I don’t want to be here. I have ambitions to be greater than this. Well be assured, where you are right now is where he has places us! 

Bin It!!!

This year I have been having work on the flat and made a third bedroom. This involved a new bathroom and kitchen. I'm so happy with the outcome and although still a little decorating to do Im happy with it so far. Just before the work started a friend came over to help get rid of some Junk. this I found so hard because I'm just rubbish at throwing things out, and still my flat is full of things I don't really need.

the hardest part was throwing out my boys stuff, unsure what to keep and what to dump. I'm pretty sure I got rid of 10 bin liner that week and need that friend to help motivate me and tell me to "Bin It". which I did reluctantly. The rule she used was if I've not looked at it or used it in 2 years then its going.

Why is it some things in our lives are just to hard to get rid of. These are the things that we really dont know why but store them anyway. things that are really no use or have little value. I guess for me it was a time to start over and kick of 2018 with a good feeling.

The bible tells us that God was the beggining and end. and when we come to him and ask for forgivness and ask him into our lives the bible say we are a new creation and born again, the past is whipped clean. its like throwing 10 bin liners of junk away. Starting afresh.

At times we have so much in our lives that takes up room, and stops us to move forward. Sometime in church you'll here "leave in at the cross" this i guess is another way of saying bin it. Jesus died on a cross to forgive our sins, we are also told that h makes all things work for good.
 

Shut up and Listen.

I’ve always been one of those guys that no matter how much you try and tell me, I just try and come up with the answers myself. This has pretty much been the same in my faith.

I find I have to ask questions, I have to explore possibilities and till I come to the conclusion that the answer has already been given to me. I’ve very rearly taken someone’s word for it. I was on a weekend last month that explored how God wanted or could use you. Or even how we could use our skills and pations for his good. People around me where finding things out and seeing what god was wanting of them. 

People kept telling me what they could see was my “talent” and what I should be looking into, but for me it just wasn’t clear. Then right at the end a guy stood up and said “don’t doubt what you’ve been hearing, go and explore it” 

That really hit me, the fact people had been clear in what they could see in me, people that I’d only me a day before. Strangers that could see something in me that was of God. 

Sometimes we want to ignore what we don’t like, sometimes have ideas above our station. And sometimes we just don’t believe what others say because it does come into our life’s safety zone. And I guess when that guy stood up and said not to doubt it was God saying to me “shut up, and listen” 

Dalai Lame once said something like “when you speak you only repeat something you already know, but when you listen you learn something new”. What a great way to hear from God through others around you.