ST JOHN'S CHURCH AINSDALE
ST JOHN'S CHURCH AINSDALE
Church Weekend
Here are some pictures of our church family at the weekend away
Our church weekend this year was on the 14th- 16th May 2010 at Cloverley Hall. Each year our weekend is based on a different theme.
The theme of this weekend was based around John 10v10
Session1: Food
Jesus wants us to savour every last bit of life like a dog licking every little bit of marrow from a bone. If we think of God a bit like a three course meal the starter would be Jesus, the main course would be God the Father and the dessert would be the Holy Spirit.
We need to develop our Christian life in all three areas.
Acts 22 Paul often referred to when he first met Jesus – “My life changed when I met Jesus” Can we say “My life is different now?”
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
If we substitute the word ‘me’ for the word ‘world’ it changes our perspective.
Jesus knew God as his Father, ‘Abba’ his Daddy, not a distant God in the clouds; he doesn’t force us into doing what’s right.
Our relationship with God is what sustains us, if we’ve not taken enough food in when the hard times come it will be difficult because we won’t have enough energy to cope, it is the same with our relationship with God.
The Spirit is not an optional extra.
It is The Spirit who brings Scripture alive, we should pray scripture and use it in our prayers.
Without acknowledging The Spirit our faith will be weakened and will not be able to stand temptation and attack, the Devil and forces of evil are still active today. We need the Holy Spirit’s power to help us fight off spiritual attack.
Paul had lots of head knowledge ABOUT God, but it was when he met Jesus the relationship changed, we need The Spirit to fill us and bring us alive.
We need to exercise our faith in order to grow spiritually. Just as an athlete can become muscle bound if they concentrate on one particular exercise too much, we need a balance between God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We need to recognize our talents and use them to bring others closer to God. We grow by helping others.
In the Early Church – the church identified people who were good at things and sent them off to do it. We all have God-given talents that God will use to bring others closer to him, we have to exercise them.
Christian Meditation is a way we can get close to God, for this to work you need to
1. Find a quiet place to sit or lie down
2. Play some calming music
3. Still yourself and relax
4. Empty your mind of day to day things, just think about yourself and God and your relationship with him
5. Concentrate on your breathing, deep and slow breathing letting all the anxiety out of you.
6. Keep yourbody relaxed
7. Control your thoughts, think about the word of God and what he wants for us also our relatioship with him
We need to try and spend a little time every once in a while just YOU and GOD.
Click http://www.cloverleyhall.com/ For more details about Cloverley Hall