More Service !

Some of the things we discussed this week at house group in and around SERVICE.

*Ideas and some thoughts from The Richard J. Foster book Celebration of Discipline.

The service of small things as opposed to the big things. The service of small things is a daily / frequent service, usually. Large tasks require great sacrifices the small require constant sacrifices. Most of us would rather a hundred times make the great sacrifice however violent & painful on the condition we be freed from the tedium of the small . We would rather the big deal, in and out. The small stuff puts us at odds with our sloth & idleness.
But nothing says I love like 'constant' needful service .

What small services do you know off that ...
1/Have been done and moved you for it?
2/Might need done?


The service of Guarding Reputations of others.
This service guards against backbiting & gossip. It's about holding ones tongue and remembering that we should not be party to such a things neither starting it or adding to it.

1/ How strongly do you feel about Gods/ Christ's / church (pick one) reputation?
2/ How far would you like me / us to go in protecting your reputation & why?
3/ What's the best encouragement you could give me on this service ?


The service of being Served.
It's allowing others to serve you, hard or easy?

1/ Your most difficult piece of service given to someone? No names lets protect them.
2When / what was the most difficult piece of service you received (difficult for good reasons). Think about it. Someone did something so gracious you couldn't 'believe' it. Maybe they went the extra mile or saw you at your worse and still boasted how good you were, something like that.
3/ Is there something we can do for you now ?


More to follow next week.

House Group lesson on Service

On Submission..

It's been a while. Stuff from the house group about Submission a wee reminder with Task List.

Click on image.

And my Prayer is this ....

Prayer was the continued topic in House Group having been started the previous week.
We talked about, well, if we believe, do we have to pray about the same thing again and again hmmm? Also some felt it was hard to pray for long periods of time, where as some felt much merit in talking a person at a time before God which led to longer periods of prayer engagement.

To me prayer is more than just praying, I find myself meditating more at this time on the subject as well as praying. Also as well as praying I sometimes find during prayer I 'hear' answers and that starts a dialogue and/or another prayer request.
Go figure.

Been away.

I've been away for a few weeks, kind of missed H/G and church, kept thinking about what I was missing there. One good lesson can make for a great change and although I read, pray even mediate, (haven't tried fasting yet) I feel that a valuable part of learning is missing. I don't miss the people so much, sound terrible I know but let me finish, I don't miss the people so much because I know I'm coming back home soon, but once a lessons gone it's gone, usually (for at least a year :) )

Of course I'm hoping all this learning is working out in action and bearing fruit, I think it is but, I might be bias ?

Hot Stuff!

It was with some sedulous effort that I set about Sundays lesson. Which in it's self is some what sui generis as I'm a little desultory in bring a lesson together, still with no great confidence only a wish to do my best and be imitative of my brothers before that I stood up to meet the waiting congregation by now it was all ineluctable and I did my thing.

Can you tell I have been trying to improve my vocab?

Basically, I said all in my heart I needed to say and I'm bold enough to say God did the rest and then some. I hope it was well received brother and sisters and that the challenge has not been forgotten. It's one thing to hear it another to act on it.

The image of a Chilli helps me encapsulate it, it burns and you need to be pretty committed to chew on it.

So go fourth with Zeal & fervor, that is with Purpose, Commitment and a Burning Desire to serve the Lord in view of his Mercy, Kindness, LOVE.

Forgive me Father

In his novel Cancer Ward, Solzhenitsyn wrote of self-induced healing, which is a much better term than "spontaneous remission." Solzhenitsyn chose a rainbow-colored butterfly to symbolize healing. The butterfly represents change and the rainbow represents all of our feelings and emotions. We need to let the butterfly of change and emotional growth touch our lives if we are to heal.
One of the gloomy patients in Cancer Ward reacts to the talk of self-healing with this complaint: "I suppose for that you need to have a clear conscience." He is right. You do have to have a clear conscience. When you do the work necessary to clear your conscience, then the joy of living returns and the physiology of optimism restores you.

This is an extract from an article that can be found at http://www.shareguide.com/Siegel.html.

In house group we have been talking about confession and telling our sin's to one another, as Jim McG would say , Hmm.
It has sparked some debate because it is something we never really talk about and so we are looking at the scriptures and all the in's and out's of it
and their is strong opinion on both sides. The one sure thing is it does go on. We do it, and get something from it. It's those BRAVE souls who trust themselves
to a brother or sister and tell about there 'dark' side that receive healing while us that are more buttoned up and not so brave that suffer, but hey we look a little holy-er.

It was one of the things mentioned from James 5 about sin and sickness that I saw in this article. It's the 'after life' of sin, that it can still continue to damage after the act, as it were,
in some cases. One clear point from the night, we are all sinners, so don't be tempted to look at a Brave confessional soul and think, My God how awful, compared to God yeah awful but compared to us not so.
And the healing part of the confessional? God saves, we are under grace not the law sometimes someone needs to remind us of that, Amen.

How are you getting on?

It was very much the same task as last week in the house group, but perhaps with a renewed sense of what we are about and the whole in action, in deed thing. And the 'Quality' of the sacrifice as well, not lame animals.

So here's to a lifetime of sacrificial living (gulp).

Romans 12: 1-2 are a good meditating read, that help.

God is with us.

God is with us.
We left house group with this very much in our mind.
To go about our week with a real sense of him there, in everything, to think in that.. way.. fashion, that He is there with us in the day to day, like we should be doing but I guess being human we get complacent.

We spoke about worship and we all came up with that one thought, Sunday service.
We kinda forgot about ~(no not forgot but not there on the tip of our... brain), the other form of worship, the Living sacrifice, the spiritual act of worship. Involving being active, engaging the mind, heart, will and being obedient in our service / daily living..

A thought.

If I didn't make it to service and I didn't attend a maintenance night, all on a Sunday, am I still able to worship in other ways during the week? Is that acceptable to other Christians?