All of us in our life are faced with opportunities which are God given. And a Christian there are always two paths for us to choose – the easy one or the one with obstacles. It is the choice that we make, makes the person that we are. Even when we made a choice to follow Christ, we knew that life is not going to be easy. I loved it when Alex said this week – That often when we go through problems of fire, we just jump out. What sort of refined gold would it be, if it keeps popping out? But when we see around, we don’t see many refined people – do we? That is so very true!

This is just an insight into some of the great teachings that we get to feed on at our church. We are at a very important phase at our church. God has opened opportunities AND there are obstacles. At this crucial juncture at our church, let us all join together in prayer so that we come out victorious in the planning application that we are seeking and defeat the enemy. Let the church not only be a blessing to us, but also have the capacity to seat more, reach out more and touch more live as it has done for me and Gaby and for many many others. As Ps. Paul in his prayer said – ‘For Your name and Your cause to be blazoned over this city. A light to the nations in Manchester and beyond.’

The irony is that it is easy to believe in great big promises. Every week many people play the lottery with the belief that one day it might be them but how many have already begun looking at £1m houses in anticipation of the big payout? Every promise, no matter how big, has a small practical origin. It seems obvious to me at least that if Abraham was going to father many nations then he would at least have to start somewhere.

Of course the same is true for us. As a church we have heard unbelievable promises spoken over us which have become part of our DNA - centered very much around being a lighthouse to Manchester and to the nations. This is an easy promise for us to believe until it starts to get personal. When a church is promised something the promise isn’t to the pastor, the leaders or a vague organisation - the promise is to me and you; the Average Joes of the congregation. The big huge promise has to become personal to us if we are ever going to see the fulfilment of it.

When Abraham made the promise personal his first reaction was to laugh. He could not envisage his role nor figure out the practical implications of believing the promise. He looked for a natural way to fulfil the promise by pushing Ishmael forward. Fortunately God likes to go beyond our expectations and will often ask us to do something we feel is beyond us or that we are not suited for. It may not seem it at the time but God’s way is infinately more satisfying and exciting.

If you come to LCC do you want to see the fulfilment of everything God has promised us? Then God may ask you to do something and your first reaction might be to laugh. There is no getting away from the fact that there has to be some practical outworking of that promise. We need minibus drivers, cleaners, sunday school teachers, greeters, youth workers, administrators, technicians - the list goes on and on. We need people to pray, be enthusiastic, to go beyond themselves in worship and encourage others. There is a you shaped hole waiting for you to fill it! Our future depends on it.

“Lord we cry out to You for the sake of Your name and Church witness. Turn the hearts of those in authority. Give us favour with them Lord. Send Your word to their lives. Apprehend their thinking. Step in oh Lord into their thinking. Let negativity become captive to Your purpose and plan oh Lord. Let Your work prosper oh God! Remove opposing obstacles. Transform views that are negative. Rearrange meetings, appointments and consultations so that it all fits with Your will and purpose. Let them be confounded! Let the mighty become weak and the weak become strong as you intervene by Your authority which is sovereign and total. Almighty God, plead our cause. Defend our rights; let our cause be triumphant. For it is not for ourselves we seek victory nor for our fame or repute. It is for Your work and Your purpose here on earth to be made visible. For Your name and Your cause to be blazoned over this city. A light to the nations in Manchester and beyond. Let it be in our city, in our day – at this time appointed.

Amen & amen”

In other tv news over on EastEnders Sean is nowhere to be seen as Roxy’s wedding day dawns and Ian feels smug giving advice to Billy. Nikki and Will assess their careers on The Bill and Lorraine Kelly goes shopping with Gok giving me further reasons to put my foot through the television. So nothing to stay at home for - get to Pray Direct.

This evenings Pray Direct will be the last opportunity for the church to all get together and pray before the council meet and make a decision on our planning application thus making it much more significant than anything you could watch on Bid TV.

This year the youth camp is being held on our very own campsite so you can imagine the team in Romania have been extremely busy erecting marquees and building showers and toilets. It is an exciting time for us as we see massive expansion in our future both at home and abroad.

I first saw them in a church in Leigh and last saw them at Alton Towers in 2007 (their matching white suits made my eyes burn). They were always amazingly good live even if people did feel the need to do the ‘Jesus’ chant during the quiet bits. Stu G sometimes wore a kilt but it was better when he didn’t!

Here is a youtube tribute with some of their best songs:

Rain Down

Paint This Town Red

I’m Not Ashamed (which even now is giving me goosebumps)

I really wanted to include Hang on to You but the only youtube video I could find had bad audio and weird people. Check it out if you are feeling brave -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHq0LSrwRaw

If I want to avoid spending my life sleeping on the couch there are certain things within my marraige that I must work at. I must keep promises, help out around the house and spend time with my wife. But perhaps the biggest factor to the success of a marraige is faithfulness. In fact I expect my wife to remain faithful to me and she expects me to do the same. I’m sure that God wants me to remain 100% faithful to Him but even when I don’t He incredibly remains faithful to me.

When I mess about “behind God’s back” with petulant sins I am glad that He never turns away from me. He never gives up on me but continues to love me. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is not removed from me but impossibly when I am at my most unfaithful to Him His faithfullness to me is shown even more powerfully.

Philippians 4:5a

“Let your gentleness be known to all men.” In the NASB we read “gentle spirit.”

Gnetleness is often interpreted as a defect especially in men but this is not what this means. Don’t interpret this to mean let’s all be push overs and keep quiet and if someone is nasty to us we shrink up into a corner and get on our knees and apologise.  Paul is simply encouraging here the saints to be strong yet soft. Bit contradictory? hmmm….I say this means its good to be physically strong and big but be gentle in our attitude and behaviour.

So to be gentle spirited in a world like today’s sounds hard, it takes strength, only strength that Christ can give and thats exactly why we should be gentle. A christian can only experience  a gentle spirit and peace if they have recieved and experienced and peace from God and they can only exhibit gentleness if they have Christ and his peace in their lives (Kingdom of God, Shalom etc - another post for that haha).

So this gentlness is NOT to be hidden away and I stress again I don’t mean be an emotional, geeky push over, I mean be the calm one, the happy one, have a sense of genuiness about you and be assertive in a positive way. These qualities shine out as light and in our dark and cruel world the light of our Saviour and King and His gospel truth will shine through in us.

The benefits of this are amazing; not only are we giving our self a sense of peace, but we are drawing ourselves nearer to Christ and preparing ourselves for Heaven and we are glorifying our amazing God who deserves all the glory by shining out as Christians in the streets and even if someone walks into Church. It helps us as Christians to relate to children, and we need so many children’s workers, help us relate to the older generation who know so much and have so much wisdom and if for example and alcoholic walks into church looking for an escape from reality, from the chaos of this world and their messed up lives we will have the key qualities to relate to them , help them and show them Christ.

They are just are just happy to be out in the free air and be with nature. Most children love animals, they love to play with them or even just be in their company.

We could learn alot from them because they fear nothing. They will trust and make friends alot more confidently.

The reason i am writing this entry is because i was inspired by this song. The song that i’m speaking of is ‘Can I Stay Here Forever’ by a canadian rock group called Starfield, i recommend their music with all my heart as it has really helped me when i’ve felt down.  It has made me rejoice and sing to their songs with great delight. This song is off their first album which is self titled. They currently have three albums.

Anyway back to my point, in the song it says ‘like a child i take you at your word’ this line is so truely mind blowing to me as it is so true, if we were still children and we had learned about GOD, we would embrace it with everything we had in us.We wouldnt even think twice.

So now i find myself asking why do we let doubts get to us? and let the words and abuse of others rule over our lives.Well i’m asking you today to just be a child or see it through a childs eyes and take a chance!

Listen to GOD and take it in. Dont let what he says to you slip past you or go through one ear and out the other!

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,MIND AND SOUL!!