All quiet on the blogfront

Realise it’s become abit of a barren place again on the old blog, have been snowed under abit of late, but trying to get ontop of things again.  Have been working abit on setting up a blog for Reachout, the summer outreach programme i’ve been involved in.  Hope to use the site as a portal for keeping them informed of whats happening, have had 30+ teens interested in a bible study following this summer which is real excitring.  Call by and check it out, pretty basic yet, but will hopefully add to it in the coming weeks

Distractions

It’s so easy to loose your focus and get distracted, and before you notice hours slip you by and your no further on.  I intended to spend tonight getting some stuff prepared for youth club and bible class, sat down and checked a few things online, and a couple of hours later I find myself still searching for upcoming bands on myspace and reading through feeds in google reader.  With the world at your fingertips, you can find yourself being overwhelmed by the information overload and get lost in the process.  So i’ve eventually found my way back here after much distracting surfing and nothing profitable done with my evening (in relation to youthwork prep anyway).

So note to self - Focus Focus Focus !!

The Tides of Life

I have been using the book Enjoy the Silence for my quiet times of late, following on from a more contemplative approach introduced to me at the Youth Ministry Summer School I attended this summer (see previous post here).  My meditation this morning took me to Jeremiah 23:16-24, and focused on verse 23: “Am I only a God nearby, and not a God far away”.  It got me thinking about the tides of life, and how at times we can feel God’s presence close with us, and at other times He may be distant and separated.  The thing is though that God is constant, like the waves of the ocean, and it’s me who moves from being close to him or far away.  As I allow selfish desires and sins of the flesh to creep into my life, allowing the Devil to take a hold, and pushing God out, I allow Him to become distant from me.  But despite my constant failings and selfishness, God in His mercy surrounds me in the waves of his grace and forgiveness and draws me back to His side.  Lord I am humbled, and indeed overwhelmed by your grace, thank you for your faithfulness despite my failings………

Organised Chaos

So as another term of youthwork stuff begins again this weekend, seems in a way never to have stopped with taking football and doing a couple of outreach teams over the summer, but normal service resumes from Friday night.  The moderator is opening our refurbished hall this weekend as well which i’m guessing must be a big deal judging by all the fuss, a major bun and sandwich delegation is underway.  If we were more passionate about reaching the lost perhaps, but maybe thats just me being cynical again, have to watch what I say sometimes.

Anyway I think i’m more dis-organised than ever this year, or at least it feels that way, but have the assurance that God will be at work despite my failings, and have to trust in Him and try and be abit more organised to serve him better.  Anyway my beauty sleep is calling, and boy do i need that!!  Adios to all who drop by, till I blog again………..

How quickly we fall

Well it’s the end of a busy week, and I realise again how i’ve fallen into the same old trap of busyness: in work, in church life, and in relationships in general.  The mundane rat-race of life whisks us away, and before you know it another week has passed us by in the blink of an eye.  Maybe it’s just because i’m older now, maybe it’s just me, but I guess sometimes you sit and wonder “Whats it all about?”, “Why am I here?”, “Is life just passing me by?”.  It’s usually in these whirlwind times that the one place of solace that never changes: spending time in the word of God, is pushed to the periphery.  So thats where I come to today, and read these words of comfort and challenge:

Jeremiah 29:11-14

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you, declares the LORD”

Father I thank you for your arms of grace that surround me when I fall, and pray that by your Spirit you will empower me to rest in you, and dance to a different beat than that of the world around me.  Break me, mould me, shape me that I may better reflect you in how I live my life here on earth.  Help me t run this race well.  Thank you Jesus

Alot to ponder…… A few thoughts

Back a couple of days from the Youth Ministry Summer School, still pondering alot of what was said and thought throughout the course of the weekend in the teaching, conversations, devotions and times of solace. A big thing that spoke to me throughout all that was said was the way in which we communicate the gospel: if we are not communicating in a manner in which they can hear and understand the gospel, then it’s impact will be limited. We need to find culturally relevant, creative ways to communicate the “Old but ever New” Good News of the gospel, looking to the great cross cultural communicators like the missionaries, Paul and Christ himself for guidance.

Another point that spoke to me was a warning against busyness, a trap I am prone to falling into, somehow thinking that the more I do, the more effective I can be. The reality is God can do it all without me, he simply in his grace invites me to be a part of what he is already doing, and enjoy that privilege and blessing of serving.

He calls us not to busyness, but simply to BE, to dwell in his presence, to be still and know he is God. And from the health of our relationship primarily with Him, our family and loved ones, and others comes the health of our ministry.

Heading to Summer School

Well i’m off to school in a couple of days, the youth ministry summer school that is, based at Loughry College.  Really looking forward to it, an opportunity to reflect, learn, network, chill out and be enthused in the role I feel God has placed me in doing youthwork in my home community.  The speakers at the event are world renowned experts in the youth ministry field, and I look forward to their teaching on carrying out youth ministry effectively to reach this generation with the “old but ever new” life changing gospel of Christ.  I will hopefully post some thoughts on my return as I reflect on the teaching and its application to the situation I find myself so watch this space……….

Change of Theme

Made a change to the theme, now with the MistyLook theme. Still playing about abit really. Theres an RSS feed on this page which you can subscribe to for updates on the blog which I will try and make more regular as I attempt to journal thoughts on this journey of fleshing out my faith in my world.

If you don’t use RSS feeds, they’re a great way of keeping track of updates on your favourite websites, BBC has an overview on subscribing to feeds here.

Reachout07

Well Reachout 07 finished a couple of weeks ago now, but I’m only getting round to post a couple of reflections on the week on this bank holiday Monday.
What a week, seems like an eternity ago now, the excitement and buzz has worn off somewhat, but I pray it’s impact will be everlasting. Reachout has confirmed to me yet again that God’s plans are bigger than our plans, that he hears and answers our prayers, and he gives us the abilities beyond ourselves. What a privilege to serve such an awesome God, what a privilege to be a part of his kingdom work : that he chooses to involve fallen sinners like me to be a part of extending his kingdom just blows me away. And I guess he has re-affirmed my belief that He is rising up a generation to redeem his church, a generation of passion-filled, Jesus following, community changing young people. As is often the case when you serve, you receive so much blessing from God. The encouragement of 50+ young people chatting openly about their struggles, seeking to live distinctive lives in their schools, stumbling at times, but determined to keep going after Jesus, and just needing a loving hand to lift them and point them to the cross of Christ.
I’ll finish this post by leaving two verses that have been on my mind recently:

1 Thessalonians 2vs.8
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

Ephesians 3:20
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

O may we pray for this generation, that He will rise up young men and women of faith seeking to live against the flow of a Godless society that surrounds them, seeking to live salt and light, distinctive lives, following the way of Christ and impacting their worlds for Him.

New blog, new start

Well i’ve just setup this basic site on wordpress having previously had blog over at blogger. Will see how I find this form of blogging and may move permanently to wordpress, have been having trouble importing posts from blogger, so this may be a completely new start. The blogs have been pretty in-frequent of late, so this new site may give me fresh impetus to blog again more regularly. Watch this space………….