Good afternoon! I hope you are well. Another week has come and gone and it is once again time for my blog.
I think it could be said that I wasn't quite ready for the week on Monday, apparently Monday was the gloomiest day of the year in the sense that it's the day where people are more likely to be miserable than not. I wouldn't say I was any more miserable than I normally am but it was a busy week and part of me was still in the relaxing, festive mood. That mood has certainly gone now and I am back to the reality of routine, not that it is a bad thing at all. The usual routine of the week once again presented many opportunities to meet and talk to people, on a Wednesday we have two lots of Parent and Toddler sessions, great opportunity to get to know people around the community. On Thursdays we have a coffee morning and again a great chance to meet people I would never have had the chance of meeting. Then Thursday afternoons we go into the local school and again help build a relationship with the Salvation Army and the school. So yes, things may have gone back to routine but that doesn't mean to say things go back to being boring! The Gospel never changes so why should the shifting of a season change the attitude in which I share it? God is working, He is moving. It may take time but I know the efforts to build relationships with the community will pay off, just in His time. Certainly not in ours, as frustrating as that can be.
This weekend, the Alove and essential team attended a territorial prayer gathering in Swanick. The theme of the weekend was all about "Prophecy" and the spiritual gift of prophesying. It was very interesting and I definitely felt that I was blessed coming away from the weekend. Although I felt that the whole idea of Prophecy, yes it helped me to understand it but I did not feel like it was relevant for me. It just isn't one of my spiritual gifts and that's okay! But the Prophet that was focussed on during the weekend was Ezekiel and the part of Ezekiel's story that really stood out for me was the well known passage in scripture when Ezekiel was led into the Valley of Dry bones. This really got me thinking, the message of this story is so straight forward. Has there ever been times in your life where things seem dead and stagnant? Or the Church/Corps you worship at and love seems to be lifeless and needs reviving? Do you look at yourself or your church and just see nothing more than Dry Bones? Well look what happened when God intervened and spoke to Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind to bring life to the bones, when God breathed upon these bones not only did they spring to life, they created a "vast army". When the spirit of God is upon us or when the spirit of God dwells within our churches and Corps and the whole Salvation Army look what can be done. God can revive and He can, and will, equip us for everything. It fascinates me to think what happened after this event, where did the army go? What did it do? Did God's presence continue to stay within them? I think these are the same questions that can be asked about our army. Where will the Salvation Army go? What is it going to do? Will we continue to seek God's presence within us? I do not know the answer to those questions but all I know is that we have a faithful God and a God whose Spirit can create an army out of bones, so what can God do, what is He doing with a worldwide Salvation Army who are not made out of bones, but people who claim to love and serve Him?
I hope you have a great week this week. Please get in contact with me if you have questions about anything, I will try to answer them!
God Bless.
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
Tuesday 28 January 2014
Monday 20 January 2014
Onwards!
Good afternoon and I suppose a Happy New Year to you, even if we are now coming to the end of January. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas but now it's back to routine and normality. I am now back up at Eston and ready to carry on the work I began last year and ready to pick up my weekly blogging, did you miss me?
So, my first week back and the week once more provided me with opportunity to meet people I would have had no chance of meeting before and on top of that to talk to them about faith and about Christ was just a blessing. I look back at the last 5 months and I have had so many opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, it's quite incredible. Whether that be with fellow Christians or through School assemblies or by simply talking to the person who has come to the Salvation Army for help. There is a lovely song called "God be in my Head" and a lyric in that song says "God be in my mouth, and be in my talking". A way for us to communicate God is by talking about Him, not hiding him away and pretending to get on with our lives. In November during a week of training with ALOVE (Youth department for the Salvation Army), we were on Oxford Street handing out leaflets inviting people to visit the Christmas Fair in Regent Hall Salvation Army. As I was doing this, a man walked past me very quickly and said "Jesus loves you!" and I heard him tell that to everybody he walked past on that street. I saw some people have quizzical look on their faces and some even laughing but has he not got the right idea? Okay, his methods are probably not the best but this man was telling everybody about Christ. What does it say in Matthew Chapter 28? "...go and make disciples of all nations...", "All nations", that means everyone should know about Jesus and the love He has for them. I echo the prayer of that song may God continue to be in my talking, may I have the courage to speak of Him to all people of all nations.
I've called the blog "Onwards", and my thinking of this comes from the idea of onwards we go into the new year. Now, I may upset a certain generation of people who read my blogs but I am not a big fan of the song, "Onward Christian Soldiers", I like the words but the tune really annoys me. But sticking to this idea going onward really hits me. 2014, apart from the 20 days that have already been, this year is unknown, no one knows what it is going to bring and for some people, including me to an extent, this scares them. The idea of them not being in control and not knowing what lies in store really bothers them. But my message for this blog is very simple, although we don't know what lies ahead and things may change and this year may bring all sorts of concerns and surprises, God's love remains the same. Gary picked an excellent song yesterday written by the late General John Gowans which says those words, "His Love remains the same". So why do we fear the unknown of 2014 if we know that God's love won't change. The year may have changed but God's love hasn't. I pray for myself that I may go onward into the unknown of this year with the confidence that God loves me and I pray that you reading this will too know the unchanging, unfailing, unconditional, incomprehensible Love of God.
I'm looking forward to this year, so many exciting things are going to happen and I am so thankful for the situation I am in; I have the most wonderful people who love me in the form of my family and Sophie, I have the privilege to be here to learn from the wise and lovely people Gary and Lorraine and I have a God who has been faithful and has got me this far, I think I'll trust him for the future.
God Bless.
Get in touch-
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
So, my first week back and the week once more provided me with opportunity to meet people I would have had no chance of meeting before and on top of that to talk to them about faith and about Christ was just a blessing. I look back at the last 5 months and I have had so many opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, it's quite incredible. Whether that be with fellow Christians or through School assemblies or by simply talking to the person who has come to the Salvation Army for help. There is a lovely song called "God be in my Head" and a lyric in that song says "God be in my mouth, and be in my talking". A way for us to communicate God is by talking about Him, not hiding him away and pretending to get on with our lives. In November during a week of training with ALOVE (Youth department for the Salvation Army), we were on Oxford Street handing out leaflets inviting people to visit the Christmas Fair in Regent Hall Salvation Army. As I was doing this, a man walked past me very quickly and said "Jesus loves you!" and I heard him tell that to everybody he walked past on that street. I saw some people have quizzical look on their faces and some even laughing but has he not got the right idea? Okay, his methods are probably not the best but this man was telling everybody about Christ. What does it say in Matthew Chapter 28? "...go and make disciples of all nations...", "All nations", that means everyone should know about Jesus and the love He has for them. I echo the prayer of that song may God continue to be in my talking, may I have the courage to speak of Him to all people of all nations.
I've called the blog "Onwards", and my thinking of this comes from the idea of onwards we go into the new year. Now, I may upset a certain generation of people who read my blogs but I am not a big fan of the song, "Onward Christian Soldiers", I like the words but the tune really annoys me. But sticking to this idea going onward really hits me. 2014, apart from the 20 days that have already been, this year is unknown, no one knows what it is going to bring and for some people, including me to an extent, this scares them. The idea of them not being in control and not knowing what lies in store really bothers them. But my message for this blog is very simple, although we don't know what lies ahead and things may change and this year may bring all sorts of concerns and surprises, God's love remains the same. Gary picked an excellent song yesterday written by the late General John Gowans which says those words, "His Love remains the same". So why do we fear the unknown of 2014 if we know that God's love won't change. The year may have changed but God's love hasn't. I pray for myself that I may go onward into the unknown of this year with the confidence that God loves me and I pray that you reading this will too know the unchanging, unfailing, unconditional, incomprehensible Love of God.
I'm looking forward to this year, so many exciting things are going to happen and I am so thankful for the situation I am in; I have the most wonderful people who love me in the form of my family and Sophie, I have the privilege to be here to learn from the wise and lovely people Gary and Lorraine and I have a God who has been faithful and has got me this far, I think I'll trust him for the future.
God Bless.
Get in touch-
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
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