Our vision.

Today's message brought to us by Col could have been spoken for me alone, it was so appropriate that it made me cry, several times. Not the despairing cry that leaves you feeling lonely and sad but the joy filled emotional cry that makes you realise once again how glad you are to be alive and on the amazing path that God has planned for you.

I had a bit of a rotter of a week last week, doubt had started to creep back into my mind about where I'm at in life and I began to wonder whether launching into a three year university course was what I really wanted to do. I began to question the ins and outs of nursing. Will I end up doing lots of paper work and not have time to interact with patients? Am I too old to do twelve hour shifts? Can I keep up with the hours of study? etc.. In fact I talked myself into a right old state and consequently cabbaged my own head....again!

On the way to church this morning I wasn't really focused, but I silently prayed for direction and straight thinking and that is exactly what I got. Col said "God has a vision for every one of us" He gave each of us a gift and it's in our hearts and our minds. He asked us if there was something that kept coming into our thoughts, something that we have always wanted to do but never got round to it, well that is our vision, our gift from God. Sometimes we spend so much time on the negative things in life and worry our days away but that precious time could be spent looking closely at what our gift could be and taking active steps to make it happen. God has a plan for us, He had it before we were born and He brings those thoughts back to us time after time, it's just up to us to listen, and act.

My sister comes to church with me now, she's been there the last two weeks and I can't begin to say how special that is for me. Life has thrown it's fair share of tough times at her and recently she's had a really hard time, but the look on her face today as she contemplated what God had planned for her was amazing. I know my sister is gifted and God knows that too, how exciting the future is going to be for her when she opens up her heart and realises her vision in life.

It has been the most special day today and I feel so positive that the road I am on is the right one because if it wasn't then the passion to become a nurse would not keep coming back to me would it. I am truly Blessed to have been given such a loud and clear message through Col today. Praise God!

Obsticles

First off I just want to say how great it is to be in the presence of God, there are no words that could put this feeling down in writing, it's 'special beyond special' (that's my best attempt).

Ian spoke today about the barrier that stands between us and God and the chasm in between that prevents us from connecting with Him. Imagine a life that's ok, but every time one of those obstacles comes along it causes us to crash in a major way. I know, because I did it many times way back. Now imagine a life where those obstacles still come along, but we don't crash in a major way. Yes, it's still hard and it still hurts, but there's something different.

The day I was baptised and asked God into my life He sent me a ladder to cross the chasm, that ladder was His son who died for my sins and made me whole again. I'm still climbing and will be for a long time, but I strive to continue this 'work in progress' because the other life was one with a great big chasm in it.

Everyone needs compassion
A love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations

Saviour
He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
Forever
Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender all.

Thanks Ian, Bless you for today's word.

Chris Moyles on church.

I've pinched this video from Chris's blog.....awsome!!

Stepping out of the boat.

I haven't written about our Sunday service for a while now, but each week as I'm leaving church I do have every intention of blogging about the message for that day. However something always seems to come up and I end up not getting on here.

I'm home a bit earlier today and feel compelled to get it down in writing, regardless of the hundred things that need my attention. They can wait, this can't, because I'm feeling inspired.

William spoke today about stepping out of the boat in faith. Peter was the only disciple who experienced walking on water because he saw Jesus and asked 'Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water' and Jesus replied 'come', that was all Peter needed to step out in faith. While walking on the water his attention was diverted to the wind and he became afraid and started to sink, so he called out to Jesus 'Lord save me' and Jesus took his hand, asking 'why did you doubt'

God wants our lives to be full, challenging, exciting and rewarding, he doesn't want us to live a groundhog day, but we need to take a step out of the boat and try new things. Yes, it will be scary to move away from the comfort zone that we know so well and it might not always work out in the way we planned it to (remember my being convinced I'd be the greatest evangelist who ever walked the streets of the Wirral, and I wasn't), but if we live with a spirit of fear and doubt, we'll stay put and be convinced we can't do anything about our situation. When we live in fear we open the door to depression, stress and defeat, but if we step out and try, God will use us in ways we never dreamed were possible.

When we lost Chris it was the perfect opportunity for a spirit of fear and depression to come into my life, but it didn't, instead I was given peace and a life that continues to be full of excitement and new things. I asked God to save me and show me which direction to go and He has been my salvation. I pray that I continue to have the courage to try new things even though they might be out of my comfort zone, because when you step out of the boat in faith and try, God will hear you.

This is the day the Lord has made, be glad and rejoice in it.

Live life then give life.

Three years ago a special person and their family gave the gift of life to somebody they would never meet and they will probably never know just how much that meant. It was priceless for us to see our precious son greet the day with the words 'how brilliant is this' and then swan off for a shower after a hearty breakfast. Normal stuff to many people, not to us though, and we will always be grateful that we got the chance to see Chris enjoy life again.

Missing you more than ever Chris and praying for the family who had to say goodbye to their loved one three years ago, but who made that terribly hard decision to be an organ donor. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

www.lltgl.org.uk

Living God.

Wooohoooo!!!

Our God is a living God, He was here yesterday, He's here today and He'll be here tomorrow.

Our Mike mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he worked with a guy who is a Christian, he said this person prays, not only for the major things in his life, but also for small every day problems he encounters. Such as what, I asked? Well, say for instance he is having a problem getting a nut or bolt undone, he'll stand back and pray for help and sure enough the thing will come out. Now, Mike is still angry with God for taking his brother away from him and he says it has to be a coincidence that the nut or bolt comes out each time this guy prays. I've never really thought of asking God for help with the minor things in life because it seems to undermine all the huge important issues that are more deserving of prayer.

However, I decided to ask for help to find my garage keys, they've been lost a week now and because I can't get at my mower the grass is starting to look like a wild meadow thing. Two days ago I sat down and said, 'Lord please direct me to where I should look for the keys' and straight away it came into my mind that they were in the flowers not far from the garage. I searched there for the umpteenth time and gave up because my hubby and my friend had also looked thoroughly through that flowerbed. This morning as I was cleaning it popped into my mind again to search the same flowers, it was as clear as a bell, so I dropped everything and went out to look again. There they were, right at the end of the flowerbed under some lobelia, I couldn't believe it.

The neighbours were treated to a very happy me, throwing the keys in the air, laughing my head off and shouting 'Thank you Lord' at the top of my voice. I won't be making a habit of praying for the small things in life, but I'll never ever doubt that it's ok to do so sometimes.

First time.

Well I did venture out and about and I fully expected to have a huge crowd around me, listening intently to me sharing God's word. However it wasn't quite like that, I wasn't very good at it actually and all I managed to do for the whole hour, was, to accept a Christian leaflet from a nice man who wasn't with our group. I know what it was, it was fear of rejection, I've always struggled with that one.

I'm not daunted though and I will try again, because I want to.