Tag: Jesus

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 Life; The Care of Sheep and Goats SHEEP IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL LARGE NUMBER OF SHEEP IN PALESTINE From the days of Abraham down to modern times, sheep have abounded in the Holy Land. The Arabs of Bible lands have largely been dependent through the centuries upon sheep for their living. The Jews of Bible times were first shepherds and then farmers, but they never abandoned entirely their shepherd life. The large number of sheep in the land can be understood when it is realized that Job had fourteen thousand sheep (Job 42:12), and that King Solomon at the Temple’s dedication, sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep (I Kings 8:63). Fat-tailed sheep the variety mostly in use. The fat tail provides reserve strength for the sheep, much like the hump does on a camel. There is energy in […]

OMG! My talk from our last baptism service, and a BIG resource for free next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U5cYL6oUqk You’ve heard people say OMG a lot. You’re going to hear a lot more about OMG in 2014. Thanks to the amazing people at UCB there’s a mini-book in preproduction I’ve written which will see 50,000 copies handed out next year, together with multiple thousands of FREE booklets, a DVD, a website full of OMG moments – and a FREE follow up course and book to help people who change their minds about God through it learn what it it is to follow. You can get a free sneaky peek at the content by watching this talk which a lot of it came out of. Let me know what you think, please.

Leadership Network Interviewed Me…

about our experience of connecting to their High Capacity peer learning group for Europe, which has been fantastic; their notes from our telephone interview have just been posted widely and I reproduce it below.   In September 2014, Leadership Network will launch a High Capacity peer learning group in Europe. Anthony Delaney, Team Leader of Ivy Manchester (UK), tells his story of participating in Europe’s Rapid Growth Leadership Community. When Anthony Delaney took over as leader, Ivy was known as ‘Ivy Cottage’ and he reflects, “I saw great potential, but we needed to move out of the cottage and into the city.” With the help of Leadership Network, that’s where Anthony has been leading Ivy over the past five years. In this time they’ve planted three churches and started several missional projects. For Anthony it began when his friend Andy Hawthorne (founder and director of The Message) invited him to join a Leadership Network Leadership Community. Within a few months Anthony was at his first meeting. It was at these meetings that he began to make great friendships and was introduced […]

Jessie Jo Jacobs – Revival of love

Everything we want to do comes out of love. Jesus sets a very high bar; don’t look at her with lust, she’s your sister Don’t look at him with anger; he’s your brother The fasting he requires is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, loving those that have nowt. He asked Simon Peter: do you love me? Yes Feed my lambs then If you love me – love them What else can save the world, our cities, but this love. A people caught up in love. The bible is a love story Not a rule book Matt 13:3-9 parable of the sower 19-23 unpacks and explains it. Jesus is sowing seed on planet earth Some – hard ground; ‘I just don’t and won’t believe that love story.’ Some had no root; shallow relationship. The first joy of the first date. No depth to the relationship. And some – it’s wealth that gets in the way. The cares of this world, consumerism is choking out the gospel in the world. Britain is full of rich young rulers who won’t give up […]

How much does God love you?

As I’m preparing for another Ivy wedding, looking at their chosen reading from Ephesians 3, I  just read this, by Francis Chan –  on GETTING the love of God. Let me ask you: How much do you think God the Father loves his Son? Try to imagine that. How much does God the Father love Jesus? It’d be a pretty perfect love, right? That’s why John 15:9 is a difficult passage for some of us to embrace. In John 15:9 Jesus says, “Just as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Did you catch that: Just as? In so much as, in the same way as the Father loves you, Jesus, that’s how much you love me? Come on. Shouldn’t the verse read, “Just as the Father has loved me, cut that in half, or a third, and that’s how much he loves you.” That’s the way it feels sometimes, right? Some of you get the love of God, and praise God for that. I’m so grateful for you, and I learn […]

The Biggest Challenge Of My Life So Far – Please Help Me Out!

I’m WAY excited! Carl Brettle from UCB recently challenged me, “If you wrote an evangelistic resource that will connect to 21st Century people, I think we could make thousands of copies available to give FREE to churches.” Woah. I met him a week or so after to see if he was serious or whether that was just a rush of blood. We discussed an idea I’d had about a year before that I’d been thinking and praying about and following that I’m just about to start writing and producing what will be at least two resources. I can’t give you the titles etc yet but there will be… 1) A short, punchy booklet and DVD resource linked to a website full of amazing testimonies challenging people to follow Jesus Christ 2) Another free resource for those who have done so (or are still on the edges of it) to help disciple them to make disciples. Both resources will have dedicated websites to really help people who engage with the material at every level and we are planning on having tens […]

No Such Thing As Private Morality.

Tomorrow we finish a series I have loved us going through at Ivy, all about David. We’ve been in his life for months and learned a lot. But as we draw a close on his life, I’m left wishing he finished better – and praying that I will finish well. David was a man after God’s own heart. But as we track through his life we know that David’s heart was often broken. All of our hearts are broken by sin. By wrong things we’ve done and things done to us. Last week we saw how at times, temptation won and sin reigned in David’s heart and controlled him. If you want to check out my video teaching on that fall with Bathsheba it’s available free on ‘Ivy Player’ on www.ivymanchester.org now Now while David was forgiven of that because he turned to God in repentance, consequences came back to bite him. That’s something we often forget ahead of our sin, or even post confession. Consequences. There were consequences with regard to how much God could bless him, because that […]