Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Things that have inspired me lately:
1 All the stuff that went on the other weekend at the conferences run by my church and thameside church
2 24-7 prayer
3 the book 'red moon rising by Pete Greig
4 music by Sigur Rós
5 Christians who put everything on the line and live by faith to pursue their dreams... I've heard a number of stories recently about people who literally put everything they had on the line to pursue what they felt God was calling them to do, and seeing God miraculously provide and look after them. When I hear stuff like that I'm very challenged, as these people are putting their money (or lack of it) where their faith is and trusting God for absolutely everything, and see him come through. It really makes me think is it God that i'm putting my trust in, or is it my job, my bank balance or the way of life that I have here in southern England? The frightening question that comes into my mind is how do i begin to trust god more in my life? When I've been on missions in the past I got caught situations where i was so out of depth it was ridiculous and I had to pray my way through....a time where I got lost in pre tourist destination era Bulgaria with little money no phone no language skills and no address, springs to mind. The crazy thing was I look back on that trip and remember feeling the most alive that I ever had been before then, and came back a changed man. Living sold out for Jesus is hard and costly and scary, but adventures are never safe are they??
if any of this doesn't make sense, or if you have any questions about the whole jesus, god christianity then please send me a mail on ghoward81@hotmail.com
It's wierd this post ended completely differently to what i was intending!
1 All the stuff that went on the other weekend at the conferences run by my church and thameside church
2 24-7 prayer
3 the book 'red moon rising by Pete Greig
4 music by Sigur Rós
5 Christians who put everything on the line and live by faith to pursue their dreams... I've heard a number of stories recently about people who literally put everything they had on the line to pursue what they felt God was calling them to do, and seeing God miraculously provide and look after them. When I hear stuff like that I'm very challenged, as these people are putting their money (or lack of it) where their faith is and trusting God for absolutely everything, and see him come through. It really makes me think is it God that i'm putting my trust in, or is it my job, my bank balance or the way of life that I have here in southern England? The frightening question that comes into my mind is how do i begin to trust god more in my life? When I've been on missions in the past I got caught situations where i was so out of depth it was ridiculous and I had to pray my way through....a time where I got lost in pre tourist destination era Bulgaria with little money no phone no language skills and no address, springs to mind. The crazy thing was I look back on that trip and remember feeling the most alive that I ever had been before then, and came back a changed man. Living sold out for Jesus is hard and costly and scary, but adventures are never safe are they??
if any of this doesn't make sense, or if you have any questions about the whole jesus, god christianity then please send me a mail on ghoward81@hotmail.com
It's wierd this post ended completely differently to what i was intending!
Saturday, November 19, 2005
quick update from the past couple of weeks
Played piano at a big conference in Reading (about 1 hour west of London). Had a lot of fun playing with full band, electric guitars, big PA system etc. we had a few mishaps on the way, including my keyboard spectacularly dying during the soundcheck. On the friday night I watched in astonishment from the stage as someone in the meeting that was being prayed for stood up out of her wheelchair, no joke, no dodgy televangelist stirring up hype or staging a healing, this was the real thing. if you have any questions about this sort of thing or God or anything like that email me at ghoward81@hotmail.com
Today I'm off to Bournemouth for Steve Hancock's (a friend from university, also was on the mission trip with him) party. I am taking a spare load of clothes as the last party he had ended up with water fights (yes in november) people throwing cornflakes and cream everywhere....i don't think it'll be that bad this time but i'm not taking any chances. I'm also in a sad way quite excited about going to the sheeshka/hookah bar as well....
I haven't posted anything deep and meaningful for a while just updates on how my life is going, perhaps living like a student for a weekend might stir some creativity and i'll start writing some deep and meaningful stuff about church again....
hope everyone who's reading this is well
g.
Played piano at a big conference in Reading (about 1 hour west of London). Had a lot of fun playing with full band, electric guitars, big PA system etc. we had a few mishaps on the way, including my keyboard spectacularly dying during the soundcheck. On the friday night I watched in astonishment from the stage as someone in the meeting that was being prayed for stood up out of her wheelchair, no joke, no dodgy televangelist stirring up hype or staging a healing, this was the real thing. if you have any questions about this sort of thing or God or anything like that email me at ghoward81@hotmail.com
Today I'm off to Bournemouth for Steve Hancock's (a friend from university, also was on the mission trip with him) party. I am taking a spare load of clothes as the last party he had ended up with water fights (yes in november) people throwing cornflakes and cream everywhere....i don't think it'll be that bad this time but i'm not taking any chances. I'm also in a sad way quite excited about going to the sheeshka/hookah bar as well....
I haven't posted anything deep and meaningful for a while just updates on how my life is going, perhaps living like a student for a weekend might stir some creativity and i'll start writing some deep and meaningful stuff about church again....
hope everyone who's reading this is well
g.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Highlights from this week:
1) Taking Megan and Lauren (my two neices, 3 and 1 years old respectively) to an indoor play park/maze in Bracknell this morning, what was fun was that me and my sister had to supervise the kids in the maze, which basically meant we crawled, slid and dived around the maze with the kids as well, took me right back to my childhood. It did make me realise i'm getting old though, as I looked around and realised a lot of the parents were my age...it's wierd everyone is settling down, buying houses, getting married having kids etc, and there's me more than ever up for travelling and living a random life.
2) Having a mamouth 6 hour practice session for the healing conference in Reading next week. (By the way if anyone is in that area, it's next thurs-sat at the loddon valley leisure centre 730pm) The best thing about the practice was that the musicians were up for messing about as well, so in bosh style we broke into funk, jazz, psychadelic riffs in between doing worship songs. Church music can be very musically restrictive sometimes so it's good to have a bit of fun along the way.
1) Taking Megan and Lauren (my two neices, 3 and 1 years old respectively) to an indoor play park/maze in Bracknell this morning, what was fun was that me and my sister had to supervise the kids in the maze, which basically meant we crawled, slid and dived around the maze with the kids as well, took me right back to my childhood. It did make me realise i'm getting old though, as I looked around and realised a lot of the parents were my age...it's wierd everyone is settling down, buying houses, getting married having kids etc, and there's me more than ever up for travelling and living a random life.
2) Having a mamouth 6 hour practice session for the healing conference in Reading next week. (By the way if anyone is in that area, it's next thurs-sat at the loddon valley leisure centre 730pm) The best thing about the practice was that the musicians were up for messing about as well, so in bosh style we broke into funk, jazz, psychadelic riffs in between doing worship songs. Church music can be very musically restrictive sometimes so it's good to have a bit of fun along the way.
