Friday, 16 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
One of the most insightful things that I’ve done in my life was to do a life planning course called Storyline.
This course encourages you to think about your life as a set of stories. Most stories have a very similar pattern, starting with an inciting event.
An inciting event was the opportunity that set Bilbo out on his journey; moved Abraham to Canaan and Moses towards a conversation with Pharaoh.
Inciting events happen to us every day, some more dramatic than others, we can choose to use them as a way of taking the initiative, or we can let them pass us by. It’s not the inciting event that produces the story, it’s our response to it.
How are you going to use your inciting events today?
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
Thursday, 15 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
We all like compliments. What would be the best compliment someone could give you right now?
Sometimes someone may say, “There’s something different about you.” Other times people may be obvious – “I like your new hair style.” “That’s a smart suit.” “You’ve lost weight.” “Are you working out?” “That’s a great job you did.”
We love it when we hear something that builds us up, especially when we have been trying and someone notices and encourages with a positive comment.
But what would be the greatest compliment someone could ever pay you? The Apostle Paul gives a great compliment to the church in Thessalonians. He says they became a “model to all the believers” 1 Thessalonians 1:7. That’s not all. He tells them he thanks God for them, for their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love and their endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:3
Something caught my eye in the Pennine hills the other day. Sunlight caught the window of a vehicle I was too far away to see, but the sun’s reflection dazzled and caught my eye.
So what would be the greatest compliment you could wish for? If we are reflecting Jesus, wouldn’t it be great if someone said, “There’s something different, even dazzling about you, you are just like Jesus.”
“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory.” 2 Corinthians 3:18
P.S. Pay someone a compliment today!
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
Wednesday, 14 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
The motto of the Keswick Convention is ‘All One In Christ’ and this motto has remained unchanged for over 140 years – why? Well in the New Testament we read the verse that twhis motto came from – it’s over 2000 years old.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
This was a theme that was important to God then and has remained.
When the church comes together and works together as one we see great things happening. Let’s work towards seeing our common goal of growing in Christ and letting others know about Him surpass our differences, preferences and prejudices.
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
Monday, 12 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
“Have you lost confidence? Has life eroded your assurance? If so, let’s address the root causes and apply the solution: a fresh realisation that you are a child of a God who is 100% committed to you, giving you power, love and self discipline.”
Do runs to be confident, we have to know what we are being confident in. We spend so much of our life trying to be confident in our own abilities, in the abilities of other, in our savings, in so many thing, but the reality is that we can only be confident to a certain point.
When we realise that God is wholeheartedly committed to us and that from that platform we can have confidence, it makes all the difference.
Shifting the focus of our confidence isn’t always an easy thing for us to do, it’s a bit like a muscle it needs to be worked to grow strong. Also, you can’t expect a muscle that hasn’t been used for a long time to be able to lift a huge weight. If you’ve had your confidence broken you to start small and build up, but start with God.
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
Thursday, 8 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
In one of the toughest times of my life, I could hardly pray at all. I was utterly exhausted both emotionally and spiritually. It was all I could do to hang on to God, even though I had gotten to a scary place where I was not even sure He was there. And that hanging on seemed like only a slender thread. In those days, I prayed a simple liturgy I had learned and have now, for many years known by heart. I just hung on.
Looking back, I would say it was both the toughest time of my life and the best. I learned so much through it. It was a testing time. I learned among other things that whilst I was hanging on by a slender thread, God in love, hung on to me with a strong, relentless grip.
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
Tuesday, 6 March 2018 | Blog, Catching the Wave
Wow what a question to be asked:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Luke 18:35-43
I’m sure for many of us it might be do the washing up, make me a meal, do the ironing, clear out the garage or some other household task. Here though Jesus is asking something much deeper and in someways asking the obvious, but Jesus wants to hear what’s on our hearts – what are our needs?
What a privilege that we have someone who will listen to us when we tell them. Why not tell Jesus today just what you need in your life today. It may be resources, health, energy, wisdom, insight, comfort. Whatever it is he is waiting to hear from you – his heart and ear is towards you.
There’s still time to get involved in catching the wave, it’s not too late to get started. If you want a book there’s still some available from Fulwood Free Methodist Church. There’s also an option to get the daily prayer thoughts delivered to your email via our friends at trypraying via this link. Enter your name and email address and you’ll be subscribed to the list once you’ve verified who you are by clicking on a link in the email they send you.
These 40 days of prayer are part of our Focus on 40 as we look forward to celebrating our 40th Anniversary as a community this next weekend. We don’t want to just be looking back on the 40 years that have already been, we want to be looking forward to the next generation and all that God has planned.
