This month's most popular posts

  • Sheep and Shepherds Preparing for next Sunday's Video talk, which we're filming later today, I found a great deal of interesting detail from this source, reproduced at www.baptistbiblebelievers.com Manner And Customs of Bible Lands by Fred H. Wight Copyright @ 1953 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Shepherd ... posted on December 10, 2013
  • Why Paul told Timothy he was so FOR women leading, and I want to be too! Why would Paul name two men getting it wrong then apparently write ‘so the answer is don’t let women teach?’ Writing something which for 2000 years since has been used - by men - to clobber women into submission at ... posted on March 19, 2021
  • Curses and Blessings, Balaam & Barak It's not just the strange tale of a talking donkey. Numbers 22 has a lot to tell us about blessings and curses and how words work God's way. posted on February 11, 2023

STAND IN THE GAP

 Notes from talk by @PastorChoco Wilfredo De Jesus Prayer is necessary, but it’s not a crutch not to do anything. You cannot let your budget dictate your faith. You have to trust God that he will meet your needs. We must MOVE to action Ezek 22:30 God’s looking for someone to stand in the gap. Found NOBODY! Who would stand there. A gap = place of danger, vulnerability and danger. These days the gaps are wider. God’s still looking for those who will engage the gap. You must engage your community. See your city as your church. Jesus sat with the lost. People who didn’t look like him. Demon possessed men, Samaritan women. He went to them. He wasn’t afraid. What is sacred is the MESSAGE, not the METHOD. We can use all kinds of methods to reach people. Fear is the absence of faith. Nehemiah is living large, then he asks a question that changes the course of his life: ‘How’s Jerusalem?’ If you are not going to do anything, don’t ask! Nehemiah had to do something. With revelation comes […]

When Jesus Got Mad @glynbarrett at Ivy Church

Glyn is a great friend doing an amazing work at !Audacious Church in our city and it was an honour to host him at Ivy Church (Kingsway) this morning. Here are my notes on a fabulous talk. Mark 11:15ff ‘My house will be called a house of prayer – but you have made it a den of thieves.’ This is that moment – when Jesus gets mad. When my wife gets mad I get nervous When my mum gets mad I get nervous But here’s where Jesus got mad – because he’s come to the house of God, expecting one thing – gets another. Like when you turn up to a holiday hotel, expecting something fantastic – and get a B & B. When the expectation is high, but it’s terrible when you get it. You buy the car and it breaks down in the first week. May our church, our house, never be a disappointment to Jesus! Church is a house, not a ceremony Royalty expects a ceremony. But Jesus calls this a house – it’s a place you […]

‘After The Giant.’ LEAD – Life Church Bradford Charlotte Gambill

Lots of our teaching is about how to make it through the valley/ the storm/ the fight and there’s an aspect of that which is wonderful because when you’re in crisis you lean in hard and listen up, But how about the place where you relax, and then you become careless. At the place of victory, the mountaintop, not the struggle in the valley. In those moments we make the silly choices, when we let our guard down. We have all preached about David and Goliath. Such a rich, overcoming story of the boy with the pocketful of stones who takes a giant down. But how about what happened immediately after the giant? When something happened more significant than the giant. Your momentum follows after your moments of victory. How you handle success matters. Don’t be so in love with your giant killing moments and his head being cut off that you switch your brain off. The giant took David from zero to hero.Now he has the light shine on him. But don’t get so enamoured by your moment by […]

Steve Gambil – LEAD Conference. ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR’

Steve Gambil – LEAD Conference. ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR’ Remember God wants to help you lead, after all He is the head of the church. Psalm 110:3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power Why can’t a church own a generation, in our time? Because we don’t think we can. And if you don’t think it’s possible you won’t do much. Let’s be daft enough to believe God that we can do great things in our generation. There’s always gap between what we dream of and what we’re seeing. We want to close that gap. How do we get people involved in the mission? Luke 10. Talks about how Jesus APPOINTED some people. That talks about an assignment and an arranged meeting. So you reprioritise, then replan, and then you see new results.Jesus is the great strategist and here he designates, selects and sends out 72 people to go into 36 places simultaneously. That is genius. What if we could send people out to go into there neighbourhoods for Him. Oh – but you say the people […]

How old are you really?

Next year I’m 50. I’m a grandad to three boys. If you’d described someone like that to me when I was a kid I would have thought you didn’t have your own teeth and were on the way to the boneyard. I genuinely don’t feel ‘nearly 50.’ I’ve tried to eat well (thanks Zoe), go to bed every night forgiving everyone and wake up every day knowing I’m forgiven. I have very little stress in my life even though I’m busy because Jesus told me I don’t need to worry about anything. I try to keep fit by exercising hard 5 days a week, I have a day off. None of that necessarily means I’m going to live forever, and quite honestly I don’t want to because to be with Christ is as Paul says ‘Better by far.’ One day I’ll get a whole new body that’s not subject to decay. But right now this one is, and I’m going to look after it as well as I can – so I am going to go next door now and […]

GROWING – How different people change us into different people. Brad Jersak at Ivy Church Didsbury @bradjersak #Bgbg2

Bible Gateway Blogger Badge

What if you don’t make particular people your target group for your church- but make the Trinity your target group, then God will come, and bring His friends.

Watch the EPIC new Ivy Video – ‘Helping You Find Your Way Back To God.’

As I think about the adventure we’re on and the lives changing every week, seeing these people and knowing so many of the stories represented I still can’t watch this without either; – Gasping – Laughing – Skrieking (Fellow Mancs will understand this word, others can click here to save my embarrassment) – Clapping Because I’m part of the biggest and best thing happening on Planet Earth today, and I get to do that here, with friends who love me. Our new website is soooo good. I’m spending time now flicking round the beautiful wonder of it. Thanks to Dan, Steve, Wozza and Andy, a fantastic design and web team who worked so well to deliver excellence. And Sparky’s video? I love it. So good I want to get it as an advert in Cineworld where we meet too so people going to the cinema get to hear about God’s love for them. So good, I’m going to Ivy Didsbury tonight!

5 ways to get amazing people to read your blog post. Number 3 is the bomb!

1) Give it a title with a  number like in it, like 5.   2) Entice people to think they’ll be amazing/ productive/ attractive/ better/ slimmer/ wealthier/ better just because they read it   3) The Bomb!   4) Put a picture on it – small animals, people with coffee, anything really 5) Leave them wanting more, but probably not from you because what you just did was annoying.   Oh and one more thing… Invite them to share it with all their friends, because you won’t have any now.    

TIME TO KICK THE ROOF IN!

In Luke 5 Jesus is in a house teaching, the crowd checking him out was so large inside and out that some friends bringing a paralysed man couldn’t get into the house. No disabled access! No way in, nobody moving to make a way through. It says there was NO WAY TO DO IT. So what did they do? ‘Sorry pal, we’ll have to take you home again?’ No! There was no way so they made a way. They got creative. Dangerous even. They climbed up on the roof and kicked the roof in so they could lower their friend down on a bed in front of Jesus! This appeals to me from ex police days, where one of my favourite jobs was to be ‘Donger man’ on raids. The Donger was what we called that battering ram which provided a useful key for the majority of locked doors with 14 stone behind it. I’m terrible at DIY, but if you want something smashing, I’m your guy. What those guys did to the roof and how Mark’s account says when Jesus saw […]