Various thoughts

Well, it's Friday 6pm and I'm all alone, Heather's not back from working at the church yet and Ben doesn't arrive for about another hour, so I have some free time and maybe even enough mental umph to write a blog entry which I haven't done in forever.

I've no idea what I'm going to write, one of those let's see what falls off my fingers blogs, and sorry if you make it to the end of this and find nothing worth reading, but then that won't be anything new for about 90% of pages on the Web :-)

So, what's been happening? Well, church life has been a mixture - we started lifegroups about two months ago and they have gone down really well. It's not a Bible study group but a life group - you do life together which may involve a bit of Bible study too. God has clearly spoken to us as a leadership team that as well as seeking His presence in all we do, our current focus needs to be building family within the church. This isn't to exclude other activity, but we realise that what we do needs to come out of who we are rather than our church simply be a 'doing' place. We've been at churches in the past where it's just about doing, but what do we have to invite people to? People can get 'busyness' from any old place, but what can we offer them that they can't get elsewhere? Jesus said the world would know that we are His disciples not by our intense activity, but by our love for each other. This is what we're building with lifegroups.
The main focus of a lifegroup is building family over a meal together each week and sharing your lives with each other. We are involved with two groups - we host and lead the young people's life group and then we are members of one of the regular lifegroups. They are quite different from each other but we're really enjoying both.

So lifegroups are going well, but we had to face one of the harder elements of church leadership when one of the ladies in the church died after a few weeks trying to recover from an operation to remove her bladder that was full of cancer. She was very up and down, with some good days and a number of bad days, but eventually she went downhill and then died a couple of weeks ago. Last week we held her funeral service which although a time of encouraging reflection of the life of a wonderful Godly lady, it was still hard emotionally and took a lot out of us all. We shall miss Jean but rejoice that she's with her Saviour in heaven and free from all sickness, weakness and pain.

So church life is good, if tough, and very rewarding, it's amazing to see how God has taken us forward when a year ago I was wondering if we would still have a church we could call home. We've had some very tough times over this last year, but God's presence is still very much with us and we look forward to where He leads us over the next year!

As for the more immediate future we're off to Canada before long, first stop Ottawa for Russ and Jenny's wedding and catching up with some very good friends then off to Lloydminster to see a whole pile more friends with a trip to Saskatoon thrown in for good measure. Finally we fly back to Hamilton where we spend a night in a hotel overlooking Niagara Falls and then return home. Phew!

It's funny, the first time I heard of Niagara Falls was from my Uncle Bob and Auntie Rose who went to Canada for a holiday and brought me back a banner with Niagara on it. I don't know whatever happened to it, it was on my wall for years but I never really thought anything of Canada - it was just another country. Then a few years ago it suddenly came alive to me and now it's like my second home. I know that God's called Heather and me to Morpeth for this season, but I'm convinced He has future plans for us that involve Canada - it still holds a large place in my heart.

Well, there are a few random thoughts and at long last a new blog entry.

God bless you,

Steve

The trouble with washing your car...

Well, often it's an effective rain dance, but yesterday's washing the car hasn't brought a deluge of rain, but a deluge of bird poo!

Getting in the car for church, Heather noticed that some jackdaw had done a serious number on the passenger side door, as shown below, but that was all there was as we left for church.

The extent of the poo before church - some big bowelled bird!

On getting out of church, I found some other birds had decided to join in the fun, and so here is the full barrage that our car came under - I only washed it yesterday!! :-(

Photos of the car after church!

Bet you weren't expecting a blog about bird poo!! Still, at least we've been having the beautiful weather that demands you wash your car.

Blessings,

Steve

Tagged! - 6 Quirky things you'll love about me

I've been tagged by Jenny.

6 weird things...

premise: blog a blog about six weird things about yourself. Then "tag" via intarweb 6 other people to do the same thing. Don't forget to let them know on their own Bloggy Mc Blogs that they've been inter-tagged.

End result: everyone gets to learn about your lovely little quirks

I have quirks? Okay, so I guess I can think of six, Heather reckons my problem will be keeping it down to six - ouch!

So here they are...

1. Many people have an alarm to tell them to get up, I don't but I have one set on my phone to tell me to go to bed.

2. I'll quite happily eat cheese cooked into things or on top of a pizza, but I can't stand any type of uncooked cheese - yuck!

3. If I have to eat ice cream I take forever. I balance it in the middle of my tongue trying to keep it away from my teeth or the roof of my mouth and then wait for it to melt - I hate that brain freeze or cold things on my teeth.

4. When I'm bored at work or need a little distraction, I pick up my fluffy orange keyboard brush and dust off both of my keyboards (I have one on the laptop and another attached to its docking station - however I generally only use one keyboard at a time!)

5. If a plate has a pattern with an obvious top and someone puts it down in front of me at another angle, it takes great effort to not rotate it so the top is actually at the top - I don't always manage to resist the urge.

6. I'm a guy and I put both the toilet seat and the lid down after I've used the toilet - now how weird is that??

I'm sure there are quirkier things in my life, but that's what came to mind!

So now to tag some others - I choose Vikki, Prince Stephen and RandomGoth.

Steve

Hide and seek

Inspired by Jenny's comment "When's the next post going to be?" I figured it was time to post a blog. The trouble is that what's going on in my life in church leadership isn't always appropriate to post as a blog entry and as that seems to be a major part of my life along with writing software, I'm not always sure what to write about!!

Still, I thought, maybe I'll just share what God put on my heart recently and has then confirmed again and again. The other week I was preaching that the most important thing that we need as a church and as individuals is not prayer, is not preaching, is not worship or praise, is not fellowship with each other or anything like this, not even reading the Bible, although they are all important for individual and church life. The most important thing that we need individually and as a church is the presence of God. Without His presence we are nothing and can do nothing of value. It is His presence that makes the difference. Our prayer, our praise our worship, our fellowship, our Bible reading should be bringing and nurturing an environment in our lives and churches where God's presence is welcome. I don't want to be part of a church, or live a life, that is mechanical and religious, I don't want any part of a legalistic lifestyle that says I have to do this and I must not do that, I must only eat this or mustn't drink that, of course there are things that are beneficial and things that are not, but a life led by the Spirit whispering into my heart not a life dictated by a rulebook is what God is after. (Jer 31:33, 1 John 2:27, Col 2:20-21)

I want a life that is filled with the inspiring presence of God, where I can expect Him to speak, to manifest His glory where I am, where I can anticipate knowing His direction and guidance rather than just making human decisions, where I expect to prophesy, see healings, miracles, words of knowledge that bring liberty, healing and salvation. I want to be someone who God wants to hang out with and who sees Him at work in our world in my day and in my time. (Habakkuk 3:2)

We might argue that God wants to be with us all, and of course in one sense He does, we might argue that He has no favourites, and of course He doesn't. Yet at the same time, we must recognise that we can make Him welcome by our lifestyles, or we can do the opposite. God makes it clear that as we come near to Him, He will come near to us, that as we seek Him He will be found by us, the implication is that if we don't bother with either of these things, then we won't meet with Him in the way He would want us to. God has given us the invitation, it's now our decision as to whether we will accept. Will we be hungry and thirsty for Him, or will we be satisfied with what the world offers? We can make do with the world's offerings, but as for me I want to have life and have it to the full!!!

I think it was John Bevere said that we will develop an appetite for what we regularly eat, it may take time. If you always eat burgers and have an appetite for them, it may take a time to change yourself to have an appetite for an healthy salad instead, but it can be done. What appetite are we encouraging - a hunger for God or for the things of the world? What do we keep feeding ourselves with?

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul thirsts for the Lord (Psalm 42:1). Is what the Psalmist says descriptive of us, or are we friends of the world as James describes it (James 4:4). The choice is ours. We don't have to wait for some special event, some amazing Bible conference or incredible meeting where we are impacted with the presence of God to start on this track, we can start with a simple, heartfelt prayer that says, "Lord, I'm not sure I'm thirsty for you, but I know I want to be, Lord give me a thirst for your presence again, renew my hunger for You." God finds it difficult to resist an honest prayer like this and if we are determined to find His presence, He will make Himself found. Like hide and seek, we can decide whether we'll play the game or go and do something else and never meet with God. God wants us to play hide and seek with Him, and though it may take a while to find Him, to discover how to find His presence, He always makes the wait worthwhile.

Fancy a game of hide and seek?

Steve

A glimpse of snow...

Well it's not exactly the blizzards folks have had in Sasksatchewan, but today we had our first glimpse of snow this winter in Pegswood. A few millimetres thick but pretty nevertheless! Doesn't really compare to the three foot deep stuff we had out at Jim and Val's last year though.

So here it is viewed from our front and back windows...

Blessings!
Steve

What could be better?

I am so blessed!

I have a wonderful beautiful wife who is always telling me that she loves me and doing things that show that it's not just words.

I have a fabulous youth group who are such a great bunch to be with. I've split my sides laughing with them a couple of times recently.

I have so many great friends and family both sides of the Atlantic who are so good to be with and who are such a support and comfort.

I have a great church that God is blessing and I am delighted to be a part of.

I have a lovely house that is warm and cosy.

I have a programming job that I love to do, that is rewarding and the project I have been working on is really taking off now.

I have another job instructing distance education Bible college students that is an incredible privilege.

I have such a wonderful God who has blessed me with all this and so much more.

Sorry some of my postings can seem downhearted, I know I can look on the negative side of things too much, but today I just wanted to consider how blessed I am!

The chances are that you who are reading this are one of the blessings in my life - thank you for being that to me - I trust I am to you! Love you guys.

Blessings!
Steve

PS - I also have a very comfy bed and I'm heading off there now after publishing this blog :-)

Happy New Year

Needless to say, a White Christmas remained a thing of our dreams in Northumberland, but Christmas and New Year were good anyway. They weren't the hilarious fun-filled days we had last year, but it was good to spend much of Christmas Day with Ben and then New Year's Eve and Day with my Mum and Dad.

Of course I had Heather to share my time with which makes all the difference and we've had a lovely relaxing time together just appreciating the chance to enjoy each other's company rather than being busy or just plain tired, so Christmas and New Year were very different, but still very good.

Last year was quite a year with our first Winter in Canada, a trip to the Canadian Rockies, a sunrise wedding, having a cat (okay so we had the cat late 2005), eating more steak and ribs than I could imagine, making smores over open fires, having almost the entire church congregation in Lloyd come forward to pray for us on our last evening in Lloyd and then of course the heartache of leaving Canada in the summer. The uncertainty and stress of our home church situation (plans to merge with the local Baptist church) hovered in the background over all of this and then we had to come home to it, a very strange summer indeed, and then I found myself back in church leadership with the merge not going ahead. Also in the summer we had a lovely few days in Ottawa, a great time back in England with Steve and Jenny and meeting Russ, Jenny's boyfriend, September brought a relaxing week in Scotland, then in the autumn Jenny came to live with us again for 10 weeks that went too fast. Then a bout of mental and nervous exhaustion arrived - not related to Jenny living with us :-) and another Christmas came with me signed off sick for 6-weeks.

So those are some of the things that come to mind as I sit and think about 2006 - a mixed bag, but then that's the way life seems to come - the nice bits and the bits we'd sooner forget, but it's the tough bits that show us what we're really made of and who our friends really are and what they're made of. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends on both sides of the Atlantic. As I think of heaven I realise this is what it will be about - relationships - knowing God, knowing Jesus (John 17:3) but I believe it will also be about knowing each other and being together. My heart won't be torn any more over which side of the Atlantic I'd rather be, I'll have forever to be with the people I love knowing that I'll always see them again someday - those are my thoughts of heaven anyway!! :-)

Although I have little idea what 2007 may bring (apart from a wedding and a trip to Canada at some point), I know it will contain joy and delight, friendship and love, laughter and fun, even if there may also be pain, tears and sadness. I hope the former will significantly outweigh the latter!

There is already one wonderful thing that 2007 has brought and that is the fabulous news that Jenny and Russ got engaged on New Year's Day! YAY!! Congratulations to a wonderful couple.

May there be many more wonderful pieces of good news this year. Have a great 2007 and may God's blessing be with you throughout.

Steve