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Showing posts from August, 2014

A Psalm for Today

The Lord cries out “Have you forgotten me? Have you forgotten justice, righteousness and love Where are you going? Some of you have an obsession with guns And you act surprised when young men lay dead on your streets, or a child kills a teacher by accident These are consequences of an inability to walk with me Selfishness, nationalism and anger breed extremism You kill those unlike yourselves Borders are argued over; killed over. You kill in my name. You drag my name in the gutter, depositing your sin on me You extremists, your activities are repugnant to me You Fundamentalists, you make me want to cry out in frustration You are all so full of your own ego I know longer recognise you You call out Lord, Lord but I don’t know you. Stop the Killing, do you think I want sacrifice Stop the Killing, I want justice peace and honesty I spread my arms in the gutter for you once Absorbing all your hate and vile You don’t need to carry on Hav
Well, I am coming to the end of my training period as a local preacher.  I have completed all the assignments and they are currently at the markers. Today I led the service at GMC and chose to make as my message the theme Repentance, Redemption and Renewal.  As in all Churches there have been a few upsets and I felt urged to bring the whole church on a journey back to God.  The sermon is on my previous post, and I am pleased to say that the comments received immediately after the service were positive.  I received this text message after the se rvice that is very uplifting. " Todays service left me feeling thoughtful but also uplifted in the knowledge that we all have struggles but can turn in our repentance to a God of love and forgiveness who will always restore us back onto the road he has planned for our lives. He is always there beside us and will replenish us time and time again. It was also very humbling to pray the Lords Prayer with others. Humbling in the sense of rem

Repentance, Redemption and Renewal

The theme for today’s service is Repentance and Renewal.   I guess for some of us that can sound a bit scary.   “What’s he going to say?”   “Is he going to deliver a judgmental sermon?”   “something out of the fire and brimstone draw?”   perhaps even someone might be thinking “What right has he got to preach about this?” Well, you can all relax.   What I hope to do is to lead us as a group of believers; brothers and sisters; sons and daughters of God in a journey towards God.   At the end, I hope you might even decide that we ought to do this regularly. As it turned out, I have just enjoyed a recent visit to Berlin.   Berlin in an ongoing work of repentance, redemption and renewal if ever there was one.   There is still a long way to go in some areas of the city, and in some of the people especially in the east of the city where we stayed.   We did have the pleasure though of attending a service at the Berlin International church, which is a clear indication of the presence of

Cities Dis-united

Cities Dis-united Divided Cities, divided families, Fractured people, broken lives Division caused by fear, anger, loss and lies Satan is busy. The old theme; Divide and conquer, we are easier to pick off one by one. Belfast, Glasgow – sectarian hatreds Football loyalties,   lines of denomination Catholic, protestant; Rangers, Celtic; City, United False markers of Community Become border lines of difference Berlin, most famous of all A concrete wall pierced through it’s heart Families, lovers, friends pulled apart: A wall; symbol of demonic torture Now a tourist attraction, an art gallery Like the people; broken into myriad parts A battleground of ideology With lives still littering the ground Such a price to be paid Broken promises, shattered dreams Tattooed flesh, braided hair Symbols of pain and rejection of generations How much longer Lord? Gaza, a concrete snake strikes through a people Along faith lines: Jew – Muslim