Single dad CHH star reaches out to people lost in the streets!

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You reign!

You Reign
Simon Brading

Though i walk upon ground

That is rugged and uneven Your faithful hand won't lead me astray
Through the rain and the clouds, Where the sun is barely shining Your grace surrounds my life everyday, everyday (x2)
You reign Yesterday today forevermore, forevermore You reign in every circumstance You are good, You are good
And You hold in Your hands Every star, the sun and moon Yet those hands are marred And wounded from nails.
Precious blood at the cross Was poured out for the nations And this love that drove salvation never fails Your love never fails

You reign Yesterday today forevermore, forevermore You reign in every circumstance You are good, You are good You rule the world You rule the world, You reign You are the name above all names The King above all kings, You reign.
You are good, You are good

Called and empowered!

Dear sisters and brothers, I share this video with you as I hope that Derek's message will encourage you 
Blessings and love
N.A.

Jeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

1 Peter 2:10 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Luke 12:32  ESV  “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Sunday 3 November 2019

Talk by Pastor Derek Chittick at Come and worship in the Salle Annexe
Civray 86000

Who was Obed-Edom ?

Obed-Edom 

servant of Edom.

"The Gittite" (probably so called because he was a native of Gath-rimmon), a Levite of the family of the Korhites ( 1 Chronicles 26:1 1 Chronicles 26:4-8 ), to whom was specially intrusted the custody of the ark ( 1 Chronicles 15:18 ). When David was bringing up the ark "from the house of Abinadab, that was in Gibeah" (probably some hill or eminence near Kirjath-jearim), and had reached Nachon's threshing-floor, he became afraid because of the "breach upon Uzzah," and carried it aside into the house of Obededom ( 2 Samuel 6:1-12 ). There it remained for six months, and was to him and his house the occasion of great blessing. David then removed it with great rejoicing to Jerusalem, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle he had pitched for it.

A Merarite Levite, a temple porter, who with his eight sons guarded the southern gate ( 1 Chronicles 15:18 1 Chronicles 15:21 ; 1 Chronicles 26:4 1 Chronicles 26:8 1 Chronicles 26:15 ).

One who had charge of the temple treasures ( 2 Chronicles 25:24 ).

Strive to enter through the narrow door..

24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 

Luke 13:24

If you want to enter, you must unload! How narrow is the gate? What is in the basket in the context of Luke ch 13 ? It's sin. Sin is like a cat a door! 

Who was Gideon? find out!...

When God rescued his family from a nation called Midian, he did it through a guy named Gideon. At first, Gideon didn’t think he was strong enough to lead God’s people, but God gave him the strength and help he needed.
Gideon Defeats the Midianites

7 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” 16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

17 “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”

19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”

So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.

The Kingdom and repentance: lost and found!

News update July 2019

Dear friends and family in Christ, here are the latest news!

July's gone already and here is a new month.

Even though I'm retired now, time seems to go as fast as it used to go when I was teaching.
As I'm taking it easy, I haven't drawn a personal timetable yet. I think I should really!

The only pattern that does not change is the following
- delighting in bible reading in the morning
- praying together
- breakfast or brunch whenever
- afternoon, out with my hubby 

However I am easily distracted and will joyfully go on YouYube to listen to worship songs or messages. I am also reading an excellent book : Creating a culture of invitation in your church by Michael Harvey

Last week was a treat, Steven's sister Pauline visited us we enjoyed this special time. She came all the way from Wales.

My sister in law Pauline

We went to Angoulème, the comic strip capital, here are a few photos!

A painted post box

the market at Angouleme

An old poster for a photo festival

Today's verse: 

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord,

He is good;

His love to Israel endures for ever.

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, 

because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 

But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, 

who had seen the former temple, 

wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid 

while many others shouted for joy

Ezra 3:11 - 12

At calvary!

A beautiful worship song 

Courtesy of Susan Tuck

Calvary

Thank you Lord, you bore the pain
You wore the crown, took all my shame
And thank you Lord, you died for me
Upon that cross at Calvary

Chorus
At Calvary, at Calvary
At Calvary, at Calvary
You took my sin and set me free
And now I live to worship thee

Thank you Lord, that I should know
The Son of God, Your Love to show
And thank you that you died for me
To set this lonely sinner free

Chorus

Risen Lord, eternal King
God’s only Son, above all things
I bow before Your heavenly throne
And seek Your kingdom, eternal home

Chorus

Let not the wise boast of their wisdom...

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV)

23 This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom

    or the strong boast of their strength

    or the rich boast of their riches,

24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:

    that they have the understanding to know me,

that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,

    justice and righteousness on earth,

    for in these I delight,”

declares the Lord.

Obeying Christ!

2 Corinthians 10:5 New International Version (NIV)

5 We demolish arguments

 and 

every pretension 

that sets itself up

 against the knowledge of God,

 and 

we take captive

 every thought

 to make it obedient to Christ.

Dear friends, I hope that you are having a lovely day. It's very hot here in Civray (Vienne) as the forecast announced it. We've just had lunch and about to go for a walk at our friends'house to water their garden while they are away in Portugal. 

You may wonder why I have highlighted this verse in 2 Corinthians 10:5. Though I've had to check where it belonged, I keep my 'sanity' thanks to that verse. In effect, among the thousands thoughts that invade our conscious mind every day, quite a few are annoying and we must not dwell on them for fear or being dragged to the bottom of a pit. This verse gives us authority to counteract the plan of the evil one so we can stay on the narrow path and listen to the Holy Spirt without being either distracted or dejected. Does it happen to you sometimes? We must be ready to 'analyse' 'every thought' and decide it they are contrary to the will of God and get rid of them with the help of the Holy Spirit who is by our side! All glory to our Lord who cares for us and whose love is unfathomable! 

No other name...

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men in which we must be saved.

 Acts 4: 12

17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:17

Franciscan prayer of discomfort

May God bless you with discomfort at eay answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless  you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed  for those who suffer with rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference  in the world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
And the blessing of God who creates, redeems and sanctified be upon you and and all you love and pray for, this day and for ever.
In the name of Jesus Amen!

Have a peaceful week-end!

Good evening dear friends, I hope you will all be blessed and have a peaceful week-end. We've had a busy week, especially my hubby who had to drive miles away from Civray, right, left center as the saying goes! 
Why am I wishing you a peaceful week-end, probably because

Evangelising in France!

Neil Cole is talking about evangelising, giving us lots of examples and answers to questions! It's an amazing talk!

These are only a few notes!

We have  been called to be light in the darkness!

What is darkness? Darkness is absence of light (Einstein) so you are not shining, go in the darkness, bring Jesus with you because light overpowers darkness.

The new converts will take the gospel in the next house. We have to have confidence that the gospel will spread!

When you come in a community who does not have Jesus, what you are looking for is one person that is receptive to the gospel and when that person becomes a christian this person will have an influence affect somebody else. This is a peace person.

What does this person look like?

She knows everybody in the community and the community knows her. It could be somebody who is well respected or a low character and they are greatly feared. Either one is OK. When they become a follower of Christ, I call those people a domino. There has been a the New Testament, Matthew, good character? he was a tax collector which means he was unpopular, Jesus was a friend to sinners and tax collectors who are the worst. Jesus looked in the tax office and he said this is my apostle. Matthew threw a party and brought Jesus to the party.

What about Lydia? She is an Asian woman who lived in Europe and a business woman. Paul meets her by the river, 

The Ethiopian eunuch, a politician, Philip shares the Gospel with him. The Coptic church traces ...

What about Cornelius?

The Samaritan woman?

Remember the Lord!

Don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord,

who is great and awesome

and fight for your brothers,

your sons and your daughters,

your wives and your homes.

When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work

Nehemiah 4: 13-15

This passage in the Old Testament is so encouraging for us even in our days.
Further down, we read that Nehemiah tells all his fellow Jews:

Our God will fight for us! Indeed our God did just that many times all through the Old Testament, helping his people even in this present time of distress, He was helping them and He is helping us now

For those of you who haven't tackled the Old Testament yet, here is an explanation I share with you:

God, in His long suffering, gave people a chance: by sacrificing an animal without blemish, the people could get forgiveness. Once a year the high priest could enter the Holiest of Holies, carrying the blood of the sacrifice, and obtain atonement for the people. Through the spilling of the blood of an innocent sacrifice, the debt of sin could be paid. (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22)

However, the blood of animals couldn’t take away the root cause of the problem, the sin in human nature. After their sins were forgiven, the people continued to sinTo commit sin is to consciously do something that you know goes against God’s will. This can be in word, deed, or even thought. (James 1:14-15)... More

, meaning that they had to come back and sacrifice again, year after year. Not even the high priest could help them; he himself was a sinner, and the sacrifice was for himself just as much as for the people. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

God hated this frightful state of affairs. His longing was to have communion with people and to save them. He looked for someone who could lead the people out of the vicious circle of sinning and forgiveness. But, despite the fact that there were righteous, God-fearing people throughout history, none of them were blameless, and none of them could “stand in the gap” between God and mankind. So then God sent His own Son to carry out this greatest work in history. (Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 41:28; Isaiah 60:16; Isaiah 63:5; John 3:16-17)

Jesus was the Son of God, but He willingly “emptied Himself” and became the “Son of Man” – a human being in every sense of the word, with the same human nature as all of us. This meant that Jesus was tempted as we are. But Jesus was also born of God’s Spirit, and this Spirit accompanied Him His whole life, giving Him the strength to carry out the task He was sent for. (Luke 1:30-35; Philippians 2:5-8; Isaiah 61:1-3)

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8. It was as a man that Jesus had to learn obedience, because, being a man, He had His own self-will, or sin in the flesh, and was tempted. There He learned to deny Himself, “take up His cross daily” and put that sin to death. The result was that He never sinned and was without sin. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-8)

Being blameless, the only human being in all history who was completely pure and without sin, Jesus was the only one who could “stand in the gap,” the only one on whom Satan had no claim. He was the only one who had not deserved death, either physical or spiritual. But, fulfilling the purpose for which He had come to earth, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself. 

He was crucified as the ultimate, blameless sacrifice. 

He died as the Lamb of God, the atonement for all mankind. 

He bore the punishment of all our sins, and died, the just for the unjust. (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18)

Not only did He die a physical death, but He even experienced separation from God while He was hanging on the cross Jesus was physically crucified on the cross at Calvary. 

Though blameless, He took upon Himself the punishment for sin, which was death, so He could pay our debts and forgive us our sin if we are willing to believe in Him and follow Him. 

The Apostle Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ…” (Galatians 2:20) This is a metaphorical... More. (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) Through this sacrifice, all those who believe in Him are able to obtain forgiveness.

Jesus’ death on the cross

When the cross is mentioned in the Bible, it most often does not refer to a physical wooden cross, except when specifically describing Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary.

 “Taking up your cross” refers to the metaphorical cross that Jesus’ speaks about in Luke 9:23. “Taking up your cross” is the act of denying the sinful thoughts that come up in you...

  More on Calvary, though absolutely one of the most momentous and powerful events ever on earth, is actually only part of the Christian story. 

By the strength of the Spirit that was with Him from birth, Jesus had “suffered in the flesh” by denying it and not giving in to the inclination to sin that He had in His nature as a human being. In this way the sin in His flesh was condemned and He “put it to death,” “crucifying” the lusts and desiresThe desires that we experience that go against God’s will. In other words, a desire for anything sinful.

 See James 1:14. Also called “sin in the flesh.” Although the expression “youthful lusts” is often thought of in connection with sinful sexual desires, lusts include anything that go against what is good and right in God’s eyes. 

(2 Timothy 2:22.; Galatians... More. So though He was tempted, He never sinned. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:16)

When Jesus died on the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!” At that moment, every last shred of the sin He had inherited in His human nature had been crucified, and His work on earth was finished. When Jesus died, the heavy veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The debt had been paid; the way back to the Father was open.

Jesus’ victory over sin“Victory over sin” means that you do not commit conscious sin – that which you know would be sin at that time when you are tempted. It doesn’t mean that you are without sin, but that temptation is overcome before it can become sin. (Romans 8:37; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Revelation 2:7)... More was also a victory over death. He did not remain in the grave, but arose from the dead with a glorified body, containing the whole fullness of God’s own nature. Forty days later He ascended to heaven, where He is sitting today at the right side of His Father. (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9)