Monday, 7 February 2011 | The Bible in a Year
Today is 10% day in our journey through the Bible in 2011 – congratulations!
About now you may be asking yourself the question – how do I keep this real? It’s all too easy to get into a habit of scan reading through the daily verse. While this might get you through the reading it doesn’t mean that you are getting any value from it.
One way I’ve been trying to keep it real has been to write out a verse from each day’s reading and to use that as the basis of a short time of meditation. The Bible that I’m using has a highlighted verse so I could just pick that, but I’ve been starting my reading with a short prayer asking God to reveal to me something that He would want me to think about that day. On most days I’ve felt drawn to a verse that is different to the highlighted one and I’ve been amazed by how many times that verse has been applicable to the challenges I’ve faced that day.
While I believe that there is some value in the reading process itself, the real value is in making the “living word” part of our daily life.
Do you have a way of “keeping it real”?
Monday, 31 January 2011 | The Bible in a Year
One of the best ways of completing a big goal is to split it into a set of smaller goals and to celebrate achieving each of the smaller ones as you go along.
For those of you who are reading through the Bible this year – well done, you’ve made it to day 31. That means you’ve made it through a whole month and I hope you are learning a lot.
It’s generally accepted that it takes 21 days of repetition for something to start to become a habit, and hopefully that’s becoming your experience too.
We’d love to hear about some of the things you’ve learned so why not leave a comment…
Wednesday, 26 January 2011 | Family
On Sunday night, at our Celebration Service, Joyce Parkinson shared a little about her great grandson (nickname Scooby) and the medical difficulties he is going through.
If you want to know more and keep up with events one of the best places is Esther’s blog – You’ve Got Your Hands Full.
Esther recently wrote:
There’s been another slight change in Scooby, mainly in his hands and face. He’s had moments in the last six months of stammering and getting twitches in his cheeks but it seems to be much more frequent recently. Sometimes it’s like watching someone in a faulty video – you know, if the tape’s slightly chewed, and the screen flickers? That’s what I keep thinking as I watch him talk and his mouth or cheek seems to move the wrong way, like little spasms in the muscle. He’s completely undeterred by it, and will keep talking anyway, sometimes starting his speech again if he feels it’s not coming out right. Occasionally I’ll stop him and get him to rest if his cheek’s moving too much because it seizes up and he starts to panic.
Read more…
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 | Talks Series Information
We’re about to start a whole new set of series at Fulwood.
In the morning we are continuing to look at our vision for 2011 and the areas where we would love to see God stretch our faith. In the evening we are looking at the advice the Paul gives to the church in Corinth through his letter to them – 1 Corinthians.
That got me thinking about the various series we have progressed our way through over the years. The following graphics cover most of the series since 2006.
How many of these do you remember?
Sometimes they are based on a topic. Sometimes they are based on a book in the Bible or some Bible characters.
I know that the team who pray and plan these series have a desire to be relevant to real life and to be truthful to the Bible – the whole Bible.
We’ve not always picked the easy bits and we don’t shy away from the tricky bits.
Sometimes the focus is on the Old Testament, sometimes it’s the New Testament.
The podcasts on Major Messages from Minor Prophets, which looked at those little books at the back of the Old Testament continue to get visitors because they aren’t regularly covered.
Series help us to focus on the breadth of a subject rather than just dipping in or skimming over the tope of everything.
The podcasts for each series are grouped into categories so you could go back and listen to everything from a whole series if you chose to. Check down the right-hand side for Series and you’ll see them all listed there.
The topical series have covered issues from Work Life Balance to The Second Coming, from miracles to failure.
“What would Jesus say…” is unique in being the subject of two series – but what better subject could there be for a revisit. The words of Jesus should always be at the centre of who we are and what we do.
In the Fresh Hope series we came together with other churches in Hope 08.
The leaflets for the series are mostly still available on the web site if you’d like to revisit the subjects.
There have been some series that have been particularly significant for me personally. They’ve influenced who I am and my relationship with God.
I’m really looking forward to the new series.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011 | The Bible in a Year
This year we’ve all been encouraged to read more of the Bible, and for many of us that has meant a challenge to read through the whole Bible in a year.
Personally I’m using a new One Year Bible that was very kindly given to me as a Christmas gift. There’s something very tactile about a new book.
I’m trying to set aside the same time every day to read so that it becomes something of ritual. Sometimes rituals are a good thing. I’m fortunate enough to have somewhere private where I work which enables me to sit down and start my day with a time of quiet and reading.
Sometimes, though, I don’t carry my new One Year Bible with me. This is normally when I cycle and I’m trying to keep the weight on the bike down. So I’m also tracking my reading through YouVersion.com which has exactly the same reading plan online.
The great thing about this way of working is that it doesn’t matter whether I have my Bible (book) with me or not, I can still access the readings for the day either via my laptop, or via my BlackBerry.
By signing up and ticking off each day’s reading I get to see a great little progress report which today shows this:
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Wednesday, 1 December 2010 | FFMC
We are really starting to get geared up for our Christmas events now.
This week our new edition of Heart will start to go out focussing on Healing Hope, Marriage Hope and Redundancy Hope. Some of this comes out of our journey with the Life’s Healing Choices series. Inside Heart we’re also sending out a Christmas Greeting from Fulwood Free Methodist Church along with details of all of the upcoming events.
We’d love to see you there…
A big thank you to Rich for all of the graphics.
