Pray for a Day

No, we are not advocating that we only pray for a day as a novelty but we have put aside a number of days when Pill Corps Prayer Room will be open for prayer from 9 am -9pm. Today is the first one of 2009. It is an opportunity to simply spend time with the Lord but we have decided to focus our intercession on the needs of our local community and the persecuted church. However we will need to be ready to be led by the Spirit throughout the day.

I am reading daily from the writings of FB Meyer. Here is what he has to say about prayer which is very good advice.

" We can only believe for a thing when we are in such union with God that his thought and purpose can freely flow into us, suggesting what we should pray for, and leading us ot that point in which there is perfect sympathy and understanding between us and the Divine mind. Faith is always the product of such a frame as this. Be sure that you are on the line of God's purpose. Wait for him until the impulses of nature have subsided, and the soul is hushed and still. Then the Spirit will lead you to ask what is in the will of God to give and you will know instantly that the Spirit intercedes within, according to the will of God."

God bless

Carol

In the secret of his presence

I am using a little volume of daily readings by FB Meyer. In the hectic and often public life of Christian service I need his reminder of Christ's words from Matthew 6:18

"And your FAther who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

Meyer goes on to say,

"It is impossible to perform our religious duties before men without insensibly considering what impression we are producing and how far their estimation of us is being enhanced. And in so far as we seek these things the stream is contaminated with mud and silt and becomes turbid. We have just as much religious life as we show to God in secret, just that, no less, no more. Whatever is not wrought between you and God with no record but his eyes is chaff which the wind drives away."


God bless

Carol

Playing Catch Up

I feel a bit as if I am playing catch up. December was really full on. It was a great time but we ended the year exhausted ready for a good rest, which we got and really enjoyed. But then because we had a rest, there seems to have been so little time to tidy up the old year and prepare for the new season. Hence there has been little time to blog so I'm sorry its late but

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am trusting that this is going to be a great year of reaching out and growing the kingdom. We've had encouraging signs already.

In our cell groups we encourage all members to make a prayer list of people with whom they have regular contact who they are going to pray for to become Christians and actively seek to win for the kingdom. I have been praying for a lady who comes to Toddlers and another lady who comes to our Coffee Morning. They are both unchurched but they both came to our Carol Service!! Wheyhey!!

But what I really love about this is how God works. The lady who comes to the coffee morning used to go to Church but her husband is completely non-religious to the point where he is antagonistic towards any mention of God. Anyway I prayed and my cell group prayed. The week before Christmas she came to me and said that she couldn't really believe it or understand it but her husband had asked her find out when our Carol Service was, because he wanted to come. And come they did. Last Saturday at Coffee Morning she said that it had been the highlight of her Christmas celebrations and was on a real high. I am going to pray some more and see what happens!

God bless

Carol

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas.

God Bless you,

Carol & Alan

Personal Appearance
We have had lots of Christmas cards and I love them all but one from some good friends of ours had the following verse on the front of it.

"But when the kindness and love of God appeared he saved us....." (Titus 3:4)

I don't know if you approve of the Vicar of Dibley but I thought of a particular scene in it when I read this. The village fete was coming up and someone said that they knew a certain Reg Dwight. Everyone got very excited because Reg Dwight is the real name of the rock star Elton John. Reg Dwight was invited to come and open the proceedings. News spread far and wide that Elton John was coming to Dibley and the crowds were the biggest the village had ever seen. There was one problem. The man who appeared with his guitar wasn't the famous rock star but just plain, Reg Dwight. The crowd were not happy and the whole thing looked as if it was a complete disaster, when amazingly Kylie Minogue calls at the Vicarage and she steps in and saves the day.

On Sunday Alan reminded us in his sermon that Jesus was no last resort Saviour, but God's best choice. When he appeared he was the authentic Word of God. We need no substitute.

Jesus did much more than saving the day by sparing us embarrassment but saves us from hell itself.

These days if you want a A list celeb to make a personal appearance it will cost you. But the appearing of our Saviour cost him, not us.

Jesus makes a personal appearance but if we welcome him into our hearts he comes to live with us by his Spirit.

And what is more, he will appear again. "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command...." (1Thess 4:16)

Word of the Father

Now in flesh appearing

O come let us adore him

Christ the Lord!

God bless

Carol

Pausing for breath

Apologies for the lack of blogs. Christmas. It has been a mad few days. All great stuff. Carolling, (I love it) sermon, meetings, Christmas party to organise, shop for, bake for, Carol Services, hospital visiting, Christmas letters and cards, sort out our house which looked like a bombsite...........

Pray, ah there's the rub. I have been praying and I have been reading my Bible, worshipping in the midst of the madness but its the lingering in his presence that's so difficult, it's being still enough not just in body but in mind to hear him speak.

Today, there is still a lot to do but not quite as pressured so sorry if this is not a long blog but I'm off to see Jesus for a minute of two.

God bless

Carol

Be a hero

Back in 1951 my uncle Edgar Evans, whilst doing National Service met a remarkable Arab Christian lady called May Ladah in Bethlehem. Her eyes had been blown out at the age of 8 and she had been brought up in a Christian orphanage where she gained an education and impeccable English grammar! By the time my uncle met her, May was running a home and school for blind and handicapped children.

For the last 60 years Edgar has continued to support the work, as a major fund raiser of what is known today as the House of Hope. I never did get to go on one of the "trips" to Bethlehem that he organised but as a child I was privileged to meet Aunty May Ladah, when she came to our house for tea. She was an inspirational lady.

Aunty May has long since gone to glory but the House of Hope continues to be a work of faith and labour of Christian love amongst the blind, mentally and physically disabled who come from all sectors of the local community. There are currently 57 day and residential students. It also runs a small workshop for ex -pupils and blind adults making floor brushes. No fees are requested and many of the young people come from remote villages around Jerusalem where conditons are still very primitive.

Circumstances in Bethlehem in 2008 are still difficult, for example the speech therapist who visits HOH three times a week faces a tortuous 2 hour journey even though he only lives a couple of miles away because of the number of times he is stopped for security purposes. Unemployment is widespread since the construction of the Security Wall which has devestated tourism and consequently the livelehood of the producers of carved olive wood and mother of pearl products.

A few years ago my uncle managed to organise and fund members of the Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative Society to have a stall at the Bath Christmas Market to give much need support to people who are struggling against poverty, hardship and community breakdown.

In 2004 Steve Court and Wesley Campbell brought out a book called Be a Hero which encouraged ordinary people to mobilise and become heroes to broken humanity. Since he first met May Ladah, Edgar Evans has never been able to get away from the calling to do something and be a hero to all the children who have passed through the doors of the House of Hope.

To whom has God called you to be a hero?

God bless

Carol

PS Visit the Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative Society webside
http://www.holyland-handicraft.org