The World of Rich Lush

What defines Christianity?

2009-07-12T20:13:00.000Z

Below is a look into the question of what defines Christianity in response to a question asked.

Firstly this is taken from a website, and is a pretty good description, but isn’t all of the details.

“What defines Christianity? What sets it apart from other 'religions'? what makes Christianity the right way and others the wrong way?

If you were to look at other religions you would see something similar of sort, they all promise almost the same thing, do good, and get a good "afterlife" , based on a set of morals set by some god. they all seem like they could be possible ways to attain salvation of sort....

You can run through the lists, Buddhism, you got this karma concept where you do good so you have good things happen to you, you die, you reincarnate, you continue doing good until you attain this so-called nirvana state

Islam, work out your salvation through your works etc... want an instant passport to heaven? go and be a martyr, or suicide bomber... jihad... and, they also have this single all powerful God, the same God of Abraham , as the Jews and Christians have

What therefore sets us apart as Christians?
The answer?

The Resurrection of Jesus. No other religion ever had its religious founder die and rise again, all of them died eventually...
if the resurrection was a lie, we Christians would be the most pathetic people of the lot...

The resurrection showed that God had truly come down in the form of Man to die for us

We unlike other religions, have our salvation paid for , we are saved by Grace alone

and we cannot earn our salvation, the bible tells us that our good deeds etc, are deemed filthy rags in front of God, because He is holy , we are sinful...

we as such can have a living relationship with God, because Jesus has paid the price, our sins are washed as white as snow, because of what He has done on the cross

We have a God who is both just , and loving and merciful.

The resurrection of Jesus, that God came down in the flesh and died on a cross , laid in the tomb for 3 days before rising again , is what sets Christianity apart...”

That’s from the site. This is what I’d add. The biggest key to this are the doctrines of salvation, justification, sanctification and regeneration. Big words, but will explain! Salvation is the simplest, God died for your sins, he sent his son on the Cross to take away your sin so that you don’t have to perform sacrifices, of which there were different types depending on what you were atoning for, fun! Most of all he saved you from hell, from an eternity of damnation because as human beings we cannot reach God’s standard. This is the standard laid down in the law, found in the book of Exodus/Numbers/Leviticus/Deuteronomy because in Genesis when we sinned our relationship with God was ruined, and there was a gap, and until Jesus came and made a away (John 14:6 “Jesus answered: I am the way , the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” and John 3:16 “That 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.”) This is also grace, because by Jesus dying it means when you or me makes a mistake, or when we’re unable to lead a holy lifestyle, God still loves us, and our belief in Christ and trust in him enables us to still be in his family. So we can say that Salvation is the undeserving gift of God to his children of deliverance from hell and is granted to those who believe and repent of their sins, placing there trust and faith in Jesus. This leads into Justification, and the verse below:

‘…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13

Justification is simple, but amazing! Basically it’s that when we are saved, God doesn’t just simply wipe the slate clean, and chooses to forget our mistakes and past, no it’s far more! Although this is part of what happens, he also justifies us! This raises us up, we are held up as holy and righteous in the site of the Father, higher then the angels! He doesn’t sit with a list checking how we’re doing, he makes us holy, and lets us have access to all the gifts and glory he has for us, he has good for us! It’s like this, if you were meant to run a race, but failed to make it for injury, Jesus doesn’t just provide a second chance to run it, he puts you in the race, but before you even start, he declares you the winner! Physically you might be completely unfit and there is no way you should win, but Jesus lets you already be the winner!! It’s also connected to Jesus “adopting us” into his family and letting us be joint heirs with those who have gone before, he promises us soo much! This leads beautifully into Regeneration and Sanctification.

“Regeneration” is another term for “Rebirth” which is where we get the phrase “Born again” Christian. The new birth is a spiritual birth, Epheians 2:! Tells us we were “dead in trespasses and sins” but then Jesus by his death and resurrection has “made alive” us. The heart is regenerated when we give ourselves to Christ and are made alive in him. It makes us aware of the spiritual and causes our behaviour to change, to want to seek to do things the way Christ does. Galatians 2:20 explains best “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

And finally Sanctification, this is the constant work inside of us to do what is right and continue to be attempt to be holy. As we have already seen, in many ways we don’t need to do this, because we are already justified, but when our hearts are regenerated we can’t help but want to do the good things, we still make mistakes, and often in our attempt to do good we make mistakes, but this doesn’t separate us from God, it’s an active choice from us because we love God, and want to do good things for the one we love. Just as you would for a parent, or other loved one. We don’t follow the word because we’re scared or because we’re trying, but because it’s a natural reaction to following Jesus.

So in conclusion, how does this link into the question, what defines Christianity? We are saved by Grace through salvation, Jesus’s death and resurrection, so there has to be a choice by the person to follow, and a clear choice of repentance, which in Bible times meant “To change one’s mind that results in a change of action” . Acts 2.38 say “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”. As a result of the vocal acknowledgement and faith placed in Christ, our hearts are “regenerated” (see Galatians 2.20 above) and we seek to do the will of God. God adopts us into his family and justifies us, raising us higher then our own moral and human standard would ever let us be. Then through the process of sanctification (which is from the same root word as “Holy” which literally means separated, or set apart) we on earth seek to follow, learn, and act as Christ has taught us, not to earn his love, but because we want to do what is right by him, and not by anyone else. People will think we’re foolish, but that’s part of the fun!

So put plainly, if someone says there a Christian, but doesn’t desire to do God’s will, then I would say there probably not a Christian. They may believe in God, and in Jesus, but then the Jews, Muslims and even atheists believe in both or at least Jesus. A Christian has to say “Lord, be lord of my life” not “Lord, I want to be lord of my own life.” This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but it’s a desire of the heart to want to do good. Sometimes we might still end up getting drunk, or smoking, and it takes a friendly reminder to say these arent’ right . sometimes we are just still only working out our salvation. There are people in youth who would probably say they are a Christian, but who still are holding onto things and wanting to do it there way, there on a journey, but it’s not complete.

I hope this is helpful.

Blessings.

Rich

Where Am I?

2009-01-24T17:16:00.003Z

Even though I'm not sure if I actually have any readers left due to lack of writing, I would like to inform people I am still alive, but that things are a foot and hopefully I will reveal more soon! I would put up a better design, but my Mac seems to have finally past away, meaning I am without design tools at this minute. All will be revealed soon, promise, until then!

What's happened to Jon Jolly?

2008-07-16T09:46:00.002Z

Reports are unclear but it would seem since his wife getting pregger's Jon has dissapeared from the online world. His blog remains silent, his facebook inactive apart from a status update about nothing....has the Jolly finally run out of words? Possibly.

Did I not really have anything to blog about....possibly....
Am I blogging when I should be working....likely....

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Mr Jolly then please inform the police...they'll probably think your making the name up...and laugh.

More soon...

PS. A redesign is in the pipeline...this design is temp.

Update and an Apology

2008-07-04T13:00:00.002Z

Well it's been a little while since writing, so this post I'm afraid differs from the aim of the blog, so I apologise for both it being different to norm, and for the lateness of it!

For anyone who doesn't know, I've now finished uni, averaged a 2.2, which isn't the best, isn't the worst, and is probably typical of my attitude towards the whole thing.

Since then I've been working and Furious Records doing Data entry, although the last few days I've been ill so unable to work. I've also now moved to Selsey to live with a family who have offered me free Board and rent, which is amazing in it self, plus I get my clothes ironed!

In August we're taking the youth away to "Newday", a Soul Survivor style camp for the youth in the New Frontiers network, and we're really excited about that as we currently have around 30 kids booked in, although we're believing for more.
After that I go on holiday for a couple of weeks, then in September I come back and start working for the Church in Chichester (Grace Church) doing a gap year called "Impact" which I'm really excited about!

Speaking of Youth, we've had some really exciting events, we did a 24 hour "around the table" table tennis tournament, nicknamed Donkeyathon, although technically it wasn't donkey that we were playing, but shhh. Through doing that we raised 1500 pound to buy provisions for the youth for newday, including a new marquee!

On top of that on Sunday mornings we've invited the spirit into the youth session (when the adult's talk is happening) and seen it manifest with different young people being touched in different ways, although never at the sacrifice of Bible teaching. Such comments have appeared since that as "Wow, I'll never be the same" as the young people have been totally blown away by it. We had 5 people become Christians the the other week, and on a social recently, where we turned the Church building into a massive youth hall, with 3 games consoles set up, including duel dance mats and a wii, table football and table tennis and smoothies, we hit 47 young people, beating are average of 25.

Tonight we're going to the beech and have 48 booked in, extremely exciting stuff, and as a result some are starting to gradually filter in on a Sunday morning as well.

It's all incredibly exciting and I ask your prayers for this time for both my future, but particularly the youths!

Blessings,

Rich

I'm not ashamed of the gospel...apart from in church

2008-05-02T10:40:00.002Z

In youth group the other day we had a boys night which we do once a month. At the same time the girls do a girls night. Both groups watched different dvd's with the purpose of creating discussion, to which both did. The girls watched "Heart of Soul Surfer" the story of a Christian female surfer called Bethany Hamilton who was attacked by a shark resulting in her losing an arm. From what I hear the Dvd was a fantastic discussion starter, although perhaps boys would have been a bit distracted by girls constantly walking around in bikinis. For the guys, we watched a documentary on Hillsong United and how they started, found in the "united we stand" cd+dvd combo from a few years back.

The guys found this particularly inspirational as they realised that this amazing ministry they were witnessing started with only a few, was not always the "cool, hip, trendy" thing perhaps we are use to seeing today, and for many of them it was a realisation that the event was not the only place they could engage with God, but also within youth, and within church.

This led to some fantastic discussions about going deeper with God in both youth and church, but what was interesting was that for many of them, it was church that was the problem in terms of engaging with God. Many felt embarrassed knowing their parents were there, or that people might comment, or even in some cases embarrassed to worship.

One commented that what happens if another family comes in, and their son isn't truly Christian, what would they think, and if they were part of the school, would they reveal something to everyone at school.

This seemed to be a real fear. Obviously, as Christians school is a challenge in it self, but surely church should be a safe haven for these individauls?

Another point that came out from the dvd was the realisation that the youth could be the missionaries into school. So often we can spend all our time as youth workers attempting to get into schools to do assemblies, run groups, etc, which is all fantastic, but the reality is the best evangelist are the youth themselves.

A friend of mine once said that people to not come to Christ through being yelled at, but rather through love and friendship, and I hold that value true.

The questions then are these:
How do we best equip are youth?
How do we get them unashamed in church?

Blessings,

Rich

The aim!

2008-04-23T14:01:00.004Z

A few months ago I mentioned I was looking to focus my blog more. My aim now is to avoid articles on my own self motivation, and instead discuss my youth worker experiences, and hopefully share my knowledge within the online community, a trade if you will, since I'm aware that there is much I need to learn.

In this vein, you will see over the coming weeks highlights of youth ministry, interesting experiences that have happened, and also bringing to the table difficult questions that are raised. I will also outline how our church runs the youth, and the overall aim.

For now I will leave you with this:

Recently I ran a feedback session for the youth at the end of term. The aim was simple, I would ask questions, they would answer, and someone would write down. One of the question was on the worship of the church and how they felt about it, and what they thought would engage them more. Many of them gave responses, often quite negative.
Blessings,

Rich

Breaking the Event mentality

2008-04-13T16:13:00.000Z

I write this post in two minds. I have just returned from helping at the 11-14’s venue of Spring Harvest, aka, Distinctive. It was a fantastic time, watching 450 young people worshipping God passionately declaring their love for him through song and prayer. It brought me on more then one occasion to a place of tears. It was awe inspiring, yet something was wrong with this picture.

The thing that was wrong was simple: for many of these young people, this was their spiritual top up for the year. It was a one-time thing. For some of them they’ll go home, be on a high for a week, then have a set back, and suddenly they’ve forgotten that high. They’ve forgotten that moment of excitement. That moment where they looked to the Father, lost in His glory, His wonder, His awesome nature. Where they stand united as one, denomination not mattering, just acknowledging the presence of a King.

For us as youth workers, the question is this: How do we keep our young people away from an event mentality to a realisation of God in everyday living.

Much of this, I believe, comes down to how we run our youth ministries. To finding the balance between having a laugh and being crazy to drawing into a place of intimacy with God. Phil Dooley of Hillsong United (The Hillsong joint aged youth group) say in the early days the mission was simple, Youth had to be fun! On the other end of the scale though, they still had regular talks every week, and gave the youth guys a chance to play one or two worship songs to lead the response. And they grew, and praise became a major focus of their youth.

What we need to be careful of in this is that we don’t go overboard with the fun and dumb down God for the youth. They need to be routed in solid Bible teaching, to know what they believe, where they stand on issues, and in this they need to be given the chance to come to their own conclusion on things, and not just be told “this is what we believe” but to accept that truth for themselves.

Young people also need to experience God outside of the event. Many of them struggle with worshipping in front of their parents, or even their peers in church, feeling that they are the odd one out. We need to encourage this uniqueness and willingness when it surfaces. Church for some of these young people is boring, so again, we need as youth workers to engage them on the Sunday morning.

When I was in Texas a few years ago, I helped out at a Kids/youth camp. We had meetings every night lasting often up to 4 hours. These weren’t filled with games, and fun activities as such, it was just praise and worship, followed by a 45 minute talk, and the young people listened. They engaged, they responded, they wanted more! I saw 7 year olds, worshipping God, hands in the air loving their God.

There are churches in Columbia, where kids are the ones leading it. We need to make sure we’re not dumbing it down and realise there is something deeper for them, even those on the fringes.

Much of this is making sure ourselves and our youth teams are in a place of worship as well, yet being able to engage the young people during the worship times, encourage them to reach for the blessings of God, and understand that he is as much there as in Spring Harvest/Soul Survivor/Newday etc.

At the same time, as a youth team we need to exit this mentality of the Event. Ourselves, we need to be in a place where everyday is walking with Jesus. Where we can be hanging with a group of friends, and go from having fun together, to praying for healing, to prophesying for each other, to taking a bigger step into his kingdom.

This has to be the first place we start, ourselves. What our are expectations of events, are we waiting for them to change and challenge our young people? Or are we believe God to do that in them whatever? Even on our residentials with just our own youth, we can all come back thinking “that was great, when’s the next one”, and maybe even with events the same can happen. What we need is a mentality of God is with us everyday.

I liked Dinosaurs, he liked spaceships

2008-02-10T17:02:00.000Z

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, thought like a child and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things"
1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was young I was obsessed with Dinosaurs. I remember Jurassic Park coming out and being in awe of it as I finally got to see my fantasies in real life (Obviously I'm talking about seeing the dinosaurs come to life, and not so much the lawyer being eaten on the toilet)
My brother also liked dinosaurs, but no where near as much. Whilst I had book after book looking at the subject, and videos and activity dig sets which were all incredible, he was only mildly interested.

His big thing was space. And again, I liked space, I thought it was pretty cool. It goes on forever and is vast beyond imagination, what's not to like about it?
But he really liked it, even to the point of having his own spaceman costume, helmet included. He had books, he had pictures, anything to do with space and getting there, including many models of airplanes, he loved the idea of travelling into the sky and beyond to space.

We had very different mindsets. I loved the past, I loved investigating these creatures that had never been see, whilst he gaze to the future. The greatest part was though that we were able to cross over in our interests.

***

In some people's eyes, they look at me and still see a little boy. In fact I look at me and still see a little me. I remember reaching 16 and thinking "When I'm 18, I'll be sorted, life will be great, I'll know where I'm going, I'll know what I'm doing, it will be fantastic." Needless to say I'm now 23 and still no knowing where I'm going in many ways. The difference is now that I am comfortable with that because God's got it in hand. I was comfortable with it once before, until I reached 14/15 and I was told I needed a plan, I needed some direction.

I love how in the scriptures it talks about coming back to that child like innocence. It's like God looks at all are worries, all are concerns and says "why worry? Be a child again, enjoy being with me." And what I love is that God shaped us from day one.
He made us unique, individual, even twins are different!

My brother and I, we often got compared, and sometimes I didn't like it. We look similar in many ways, we have similar voices, we talk with similar mannerisms and have similar interests. The difference is now, I know we are called to different things, and that we each have our own part to play. Even as a child we were completely different for all our similarities. I liked dinosaurs, he liked spacemen.

***

These days my brother is into sound. He works as a sound engineer in the north of England (we're still praying into that one) and is heavily involved with the set up teams and the running of the tech-department. It's been an honour over the years to have the chance to be invited up to his church and run the visual side of things for gigs they've put on. It's been a fantastic time. Now my main focus though is youth ministry, it's an incredibly important part of my life and I would never want to give it up unless God called me to. I still am involved in some tech stuff. He is still involved in youth stuff. We're both unique, God called individauls to our own ministries. What excites me is knowing they cross over. I liked dinosaurs, he liked spacemen.

Death of the Joker

2008-01-23T08:53:00.000Z

By now most people would have heard that Heath Ledger, star of A Knight's Tale and about to be the Joker in the highly anticipated movie "The Dark Knight", passed away yesterday. Evidence suggest it may have been a drug overdose due to the discovery of pills next to his body.

I was sad to hear of this. It's awful when anyone dies, but when a star dies so young of what appears to be an overdose you have to ask why? Now I hope it wasn't an overdose and the pills were just coincidence. This is because although still horrific I can then make sense of it. Otherwise he is just one of a long list of stars who took their life early. So many people want to experience fame, to enter that world, yet so many seem to be wanting to exit it. I'm thankful there is more to life then that. I just wish they knew that.

So here's to Heath, and hopefully his final film, the dark knight, will show his finest moment in front of the camera, and is what he can be remembered for, rather then a probable suicide.

Blessings,

Rich

The Future of this blog

2007-12-19T17:57:00.000Z

I've been thinking about the purpose of blogging, and noting that Dan, (http://blog.danlush.com) and Jon (http://www.jonjolly.com) have made a point of giving their blogs more purpose. As a result I will be addressing why I blog and the point of it in the next few posts with a view to release a new version of my blog in the early new year.

On a different note, I was inspired to hear of the Asbo Jesus website from Jon's last post. (Http://asbojesus.wordpress.com) The site is cartoons that present points on the Christian world. Some I agree wholeheartedly with, others not so much. One that particularly struck a chord is this one.

It got me thinking about how so often we thinking we're thinking out of the box, but actually we are simply joining a different process of thinking. This doesn't always mean its a thing, but the reality is to truly think out the box we need to be able to look at all the different viewpoints, analyse them, explore them and come to our own conclusions, not those of that our imposed upon us.

hating the Jelllyfish man

2007-12-18T23:45:00.000Z

This weekend Grace Church Chichester had the pleasure of hosting an evening with Ian McCormack, nicked named the Jellyfish man due to being stung 5 times by Box jellyfish, apparently dying, encountering God and returning to life. For the full story see the link, it's a fascinating tale whether you believe it or not.

By some miracle, a friend of ours attended who is not a Christian, and was brought up in the Bible belt of the states, and has a passionate hatred, or has had. Ironically though the only people he has really hung out with this past semester have been Christians. At the end I actually chose not to speak to him about it, as I was aware many of my friends may ask him and didn't want to pressure.

One of my housemates did chat with him though. Apparently, he hated it. He found it extremely manipulative. However, what we found interesting is that the main bit he did not like was the description of hell. If he had thought the story was complete rubbish, the likelihood is this wouldn't have bothered him, so it would seem this had an impact.

This got me thinking how sometimes, things can appear to harden, people we know can seem to become angry at our faith, but often this reaction is based on a fear and a thought that maybe there is something more, and in which case, that means they have to change.

The simplest illustration is this:

If you keep heating clay, it will harden, but eventually, it will crack.

Should we as Christian's be more offended?

2007-10-04T14:45:00.000Z

Ok, so I'm aware that my title looks controversial but hear me out. I recently went to the cinema with friends to see a film, like you do. We took advantage of the 241 Orange Wednesday thing, and plus being students, it meant we paid a grand total of £2.50 each so money wise its not really something to loose out on.

The chosen film was "Superbad", here's the trailer for those of you that haven't heard of it:

The film is about three high school students about to go off to college and how two of them who are best friends are secretly hiding their upset of how they can't go to college together like they wanted. It's also about them wanting to get laid before they go to college, particularly the slightly larger one.

I went in knowing all these things about the film, but after watching it couldn't help but feel offended. I found the bits with the character "Mclovin" funny, but these moments were generally more of the slapstick variety and involved the police as well.

The rest of the film and the characters quest for alcohol, although quite common among young people in both the states and the UK felt wrong to me.

And that because it is. The only way to describe the feeling is that my spirit felt offended and this raised the question to me, should we as Christians be offended more often by what is around us? I know many Christians who would think nothing of films like American Pie, Superbad, Girl Next Door, and until recently I would not have registered the difference, yet the more I think about it, the more I realise these films are advertising a culture that as Christian's we should be standing against.

Now I'm not saying we shouldn't watch any media. Unfortunately because of the world we live in, all programs we watch will feature relationships that lead to sex before marriage, because this is apparently common to the world. However if a film is so against the morality of Christian living, I don't think it's healthy for us to be watching it.

I'm interested to see other people's reactions to this. Do people think I'm being to legalistic or do people think I have a point.

And the ultimate question, should Christian's be offended by these things? Let me know.

Blessings.

A rather late follow up

2007-09-30T19:42:00.000Z

Hi all, well as you probably have found out by now its probably been about 4 weeks or so since we've actually returned to England. The last few days of our trip was fantastic. The hotel where the camp was kept was beautiful and we had about 20 kids to work with which was far more fun. We also developed the program fuller with an ice breaker upfront gag each session and good times of worship and fellowship with the kids. Unfortunately our main translator was unable to make it, but one of the western kids' skills were so impressive he was able to translate for us, so we made a point of rewarding him for his skills.

The final evening we were there a talent show was hosted, and we were asked to do a skit. We did this sketch where one of us was a director whilst the other two were actors. The idea was to run a scene over many times and each time we would do it comically. So one time we did it really fast, another we did it really slow, another we did it really sad and another really happy. The funniest part about all of this though was the sketch was me saying "Father, I am sick, so sick!" And Matt playing my Father. We later found out though that the word "sick" in Turkish is slang for a man's private parts! So this was a little bit embarrassing but extremely funny!

So we returned home the next day, and all was well. The flight was delayed but it wasn't a problem. However within two days of getting home, I suddenly came down with a sickness, and have been ill ever since which has not been fun! So I haven't made it back to uni properly yet, have had many struggles with sickness and am waiting for a miraculous healing really! SO that's the update, hope your all well.

Blessings,

Rich

We're getting up at 5:30, argh!!!

2007-08-29T20:44:00.001Z

Yup thats right we're waking up at 5:30 in the morning to get on a bus to the hotel we're going to for the church retreat! It should be loads of fun, and we're praying it will be a great time of worship together! Today and yesterday was interesting doing the kids work as because the beginning of the retreat was in the normal building, the turn out was low and many of the kids stayed at home, so our highest number was 5! The rest of the time was 3, or even 2, so that was an interesting experience!

It was all good though, we led some kids worship with them, did some games, a talk or two, looking at Bible heroes, was all great fun! As a team tonight we spent time feeding each other with prayer, which was great! We've all had bits of revelation and in some cases its had nothing to do with Turkey, but the Father has just shown us things we have had to deal with, whether it be through dreams or our own behaviour and attitude!

Playing electric guitar in the worship has been a great experience too, I've been learning to be sensitive and people have commented positively on my use of the odd little notes here and there and carrying the moment with the drums well, so that has been a lot of encouragement to me!

Anyway, I will leave it there, as I need some sleep, and its 11:50 here! Argh, why can't I ever get an early night, why! Hehehe....oh and Steve if your reading this, finally got round to reading the great divorce By CS Lewis, fantastic book, really loving it, only bout 20 pages left!

Oh and Mum and Dad, me chris and Matt want to say thank you for the dinner your cooking us on Saturday night now! And if anyone reading this wants to invite myself to lunch Sunday, that be nice! Not sure what the others are doing, but I have no food! Anyway, enough of me blagging stuff, blessings,

And see you all very soon! xx

irony!

2007-08-27T18:17:00.000Z

Now Ironically after the madness of the Saturday night prayer and worship meeting, me and Chris, both feeling like we had both played shoddily got invited back the next day to play in the worship band again! And in fact have now been asked to play for the whole week of the camp! Such craziness, but we both know this is really stretching us. I also had the pleasure today of leading "mighty to save" to the church with Bex singing and chris drumming, and also we got to do a kids song to the whole church to which everyone did the actions. This is the first time I've ever lead in a church environment so was a little nervous, and again, we'd spent so much time practicing the other songs this day, that we'd never got to go through our two English songs for the church, but they came out fine and were loved apparently, which is always nice to hear!

This same day we led the kids work for the first time, teaching them the story of Jesus and the storm, doing craft with them, and playing lots and lots of games. The kids seemed to love it and although we had a translation, the majority were English speaking anyway in this environment so it was easy to work with, although we are aware it will probably get harder as the week goes on.

Now with less then a week to go, we're aware that this week is going to go incredibly fast. We're going to be helping with the Church camp this week. In particular with the children's work, and we really want to do them justice. We don't want them to just have a fun time, we want them to meet with the Father. There's around 20 kids, and we're looking to do worship with them, prayer, and spend time seeing God do new things.

We've got loads of exciting topics, looking at heroes of the Bible, and are looking forward to seeing what the Father does.

Please pray that:

Our energy would keep up!
The team would stay close together!
The kids would love it!
The Father would move!

Blessings,

Rich

Worship in the key of Turk

2007-08-25T20:22:00.000Z

Question: what do Paul of the Bible and us six have in common:
Answer: We've both been to Epheseus.

Question: What do we not have in common?
Answer: We didn't cause a riot!

Yup today we visited the ruins of Epheseus and got to see the biblical history of it.
It was a fascinating experience, and linked in with a lecture we had the pleasure of listening to on Tuesday's afternoon on the journey's of Paul.

We got to see the theatres where Paul and others would have likely preached. There were many ruins obviously, and we saw the remains of the Library which had obviously been an impressive site many many centuries ago.

It puts a whole new perspective on the Bible when you actually visit an historic site like this and is a journey I recommend to all Christians. Like the Catacombs in Italy, it helps us look at our true routes and is a fascinating experience.

This evening though, that was an interesting experience. Both me and Chris got asked to play in worship, him on Drums, me on Electric. This would have been fine if :
a) We'd known the songs
b) They'd been in English and
c) They'd had chords sheets and been able to play and we'd been able to practice!

So this really was being thrown in the deep end. And it somehow, seemed to work, even though Chris ended up stopping midsong, I managed to play completely the wrong key, God still moved, and there were some epic moments of God opening up and a sense of the wonder of God appearing in the worship. It was fantastic time yet this has probably been the most challenging thing I've had to do and again reminds me of the importance of practice!

It was an adventure though! Tomorrow we're going to be playin again and as a whole group are going to be leading the kids work, and will be doing this for the Church camp they are running this week. We have less then a week now, so we ask that you continue to pray, particularly that we would continue to have good experiences and continually bond as a team.

I ask particularly about team because its at this stage where we can start to feel tired and so become snappy at each other and irritated and this hasn't happened yet, so we're praying that God would keep us refreshed, excited and honest with each other so it defo doesn't happen!

Speak to you all soon,

Blessings,

Rich

organising warehouses in heat is not a good idea!

2007-08-22T20:31:00.000Z

bonjour my friends! No doubt some of you would have received a strange e-mail by now of our time here, but I'm sure you'll find it comical :)

The last few days have been cultural visits, visiting local families. Monday we went to the Kurdish population of Turkey and walked down the hill through the streets. There was a sense of porverty yet a joy. The kids were jumping all around us and shouting hello, asking for money, it was very entertaining! One man invited us to his home. He was an old man, grey tash and white hair, about 80 apparently, and he had two wives. It was a very interesting experience, particularly as Chris joked with him about selling Joelle and Becky off to his son to marry. It was a fascinating experience of culture, although a very long day all round, and by the end we were shattered!

Tuesday we visited a some Turkish believers, and spent time playing games with the children, having fun and enjoying fellowship. It's fascinating watching the way they interact with us and each other. Even little things like taking shoes off before entering houses, or the kissing of cheeks that goes on between friends, and even holding hands can seem all so foreign to us as westerners!

In the evening we went up a cable car to this amazing place which had an incredibly natural view of the local hills and valleys. We got to bbq our own food there and spent time with some more turkish believers!

However, it did take forever to get home that night, the buses just never seemed to come and I've decided I hate buses more then ever now!!!

Today, the boys (including me before anyone makes a joke!) got sent to a storage house to sort it out. This was possibly one of the most physically tiring things I have had to do for along time, because it was soo hot and humid, that everytime we lifted one box, I wanted to sit down for ten mins! Thankfully there was some rest today, but as you can see its been non stop!

As a team some are finding there heart is developing for the nations, whilst others are feeling the call more at home, which I guess is one of the reasons this is called life change, because it helps you identify yourself, and know where your heart is.

The next few days continue to be hectic, however we are now halfway through our total time away from home (as two days prior were spent in Bedford!) so please pray that the team stays strong, focused, and that where the enemy can easily start to crack in, God would be our cement and polyfiller. Blessings,

Rich Lush

Did you know Turks have two 'I's?

2007-08-19T18:30:00.000Z

So I've now discovered when writing a on a turkish keyboard that they have two I's! This would explain why I kept failing to write my e-mail address in when logging onto things!

Anyway, that is one in a host of many things that I've been learning! The language is actually not that hard to read once you learn the basic sounds, my biggest struggle is in worship when the songs are in Turkish, because I have this internal battle.

As worship leaders we constantly talk about the importance of the lyrics in worship, how we use them, why we sing them, so to then be put in a situation where I don't have a clue what I'm singing about has been an interesting struggle and makes me realise the importance of leading worship from the heart more and more! By doing this we can sing the songs naturally on our heart, as Matt Redman says:
"It's the overflow of this forgiven soul, our hearts cannot stay silent"
And as Psalm 96 says,
"Sing to the Lord a new Song"
So I will sing the song of my heart.

Moving past this, Olive Grove was a fantastic experience, that we absolutely loved, and already we all feel challenged and changed, and thats after 4 days. We heard the testimony of a Turk who has met Jesus and the struggle he had (and is still having) as a result against family and community. It was an amazing testimony, and suddenly the apparent "cost" that we have in England didn't seem anything anymore. Also the passion for his people was incredible and rose the question: do we just not care enough in the uk? I'll let you ponder.

The prayer walking as well was incredibly inspiring and already we're planning one for around chi uni, before term starts. We have to work the land to see the harvest.

This place has also given me an even bigger heart for England and my people, particularly the youth. You know here a young person will get off his chair, to offer it to an elderly man. He'll go as far as to stop the bus to do it safely. In England that would be rare. I believe God wants to restore that nobility in our young people.

On a more fun note, Chris has managed to learn the language quite successfully, constantly picking up words writing them down and making a massive effort. Most of the others are doing well too, although myself it seems to go in one ear and straight out the other! I've learnt "Visne" which is a cherry juice drink and is gorgeous but that is about it!!

Everything is going really well, know one seems to have got burnt, surprisingly Matt managed to avoid becoming a lobster on the beech the other day, and Becky got a nice red nose! Catherine has had some random people attempt to speak German to her, and Joelle has been mistaken for a turk occasionally, so all good fun!

Please keep praying that God would bless this town. Tomorrow we go to look at an area that is filled with poverty and ask if God would give us any chance to speak to people. We value all your prayers, and look forward to being back in a few weeks to tell even more stories! Blessings,

Rich Lush

First few days

2007-08-17T10:18:00.000Z

Well Ive managed to get to an ınternet cafe although the keyboard is incredıbly foreign so please forgive any typos!

Well we arrived at 2am at our host homes on Thursday morning only to be thrown into a prayer meeting at 830am. So we hit the ground runnıng! We were then whisked off wıth an Englısh speakıng couple from the church to visit a town we`ve named Olıve Grove.

The purpose of the visit has been to spend tıme wıth thıs couple prayıng and learn the art of prayer walkıng to bless the cıty. I can`t write to many detaıls but needless to say we were up agaın at 730 thıs mornıng to go a walkıng!

As a team we are all gettıng on well, and seem to be naturally gellıng probably due to the fact we had relatıonshıp already.

There have already been some eye openıng things. One example has been watchıng the attitude of the young to the elderly, with one young man giving up hıs seat for an elderly fellow. Another thıng has been watchıng the passıon of one partıcular turkısh belıever who is ıncredibly passionate about hıs people. It inspires me and makes me long to have the same passıon for my own people. We also realısed as a group how shoddy our knowledge of the Bible`s context ın thıs place as we were taken through a quız that really showed our lack of knowledge.

Already we can start to see a change in the way we approach thıngs and that ıs after one day. Imagıne what we wıll be lıke after two weeks. look forward to seeıng you all soon.

Blessıngs.

Rıch

Turkey airport!

2007-08-15T20:06:00.000Z

Well Ladies and gents, we have arrived in Turkey, but are now in Istanbul
waiting for our transfer! The flight was late leaving Stanstead but got here
pretty quick! The time here is currently 11:10, we're all feeling a bit tired
already although everyone is currently playing Rummy and smiling and laughing!

We're all incredibly excited about what is going to be happening, and look forward to updating you more on what is going on, although that probably won't be until Saturday as we are being led on a trip to a town code named "Oval City" to pray into it with a couple from Izmir.

We don't know many other details yet, but hey, it's an adventure, and we will
speak to you soon!

Blessings,

Rich

Turkey!

2007-08-12T16:01:00.000Z

Right ladies and Gents! Well tomorrow I am off on 2 training days, with 5 other students from Grace Church Chichester to train for going to Turkey on Wednesday! Out there we will be spending some time with a local church working with youth and all sorts of different things! As you can tell this is incredibly exciting and I'm going to attempt to blog when I can but no garuntee! I doubt very much I will make it onto facebook so please if your looking for details look here and I'll see what I can post, even if its only once or twice!

Prayer requests for when we're out there:

-Positive Attitude
-Health
-Team Spirit
-That we would be a blessing

There are probably other things, but they are the basics!

Blessings!

Rich

New Job

2007-05-15T18:22:00.000Z

Some new info for you! I'm leaving the Esso Petrol Garage! Yup I've been offered a job working with furious, this comes after feeling God telling me to lay down my job. I was extremely unsure, as Esso is secure and laid back, however prayed through it with friends and decided to bite the bullet! If I'm wrong I'll soon know.

On a different note, I've just discovered a job advert listed at a job centre that the Sun newspaper found:

I thought it was an interesting article! for more details, click on the title link! I did think about taking the job, but I don't think I'd be able to take it.

Be blessed,

Rich

Best Man

2007-05-14T22:20:00.000Z

That's right, I've been selected to be one of my best friend's at Uni and churches best man!
I was exstatic about this until I found out everything it entailed, suddenly it seems like hard work!!!

In reality though, I am extremely honoured and grateful that I have been chosen, so heres to you Chris Kimbanhi!

Also congratulations to Matt Jolly for finally proposing...now its just Adam, Steve and Owen....place your bets please! ( I don't include myself as I'm slightly younger!)

There will be more updates this week, and I'll explain everything else.
blessings,

Rich

If something tastes Vile, you spit it out

2007-04-09T19:55:00.000Z

I found this an interesting quote. It is taken from the film "Amazing Grace" is a metaphor for William Wilberforce’s feelings on the slave trade, and how he can not get rid of the burden he feels for it.

The film tells the story of his life and battle over the slave trade, it taking him 17 years to pass the bill that would ban the trade through the English parliament. The film is fascinating in his burden over this, and he will never stop fighting. The reason for the name is that the John Newton, who was a close friend of Wilberforce, wrote the song out of his own shame of being a part of the slave trade (click the title link for more info) and had watched Wilberforce grow up.

A few things struck me about this film that I will now share with you.
1) Sometimes God puts on our heart something, and we think it’s going to be easy, however it isn't. It's hard, and it brings us to a point of desperation, and we think we've failed. We don't realise that sometimes it is just a matter of time because we are so caught up in our human concept of how the world spins.

2) Wilberforce suffered from an illness I know only too well, Colitis. For those of you who don't know it is the sister disease of Cohn’s disease and affects your bowel, causing severe cramps, dither, constipation, loss of weight, loss of appetite and extreme tiredness, along with a whole load of other things. Yet, through his suffering, he still greatly achieved and God impacted his life and those around him through his part. My point? Just because a person suffers, or is ill, does not mean they cannot have an impact. Maybe this was a lesson I needed reminding of.

3) "If you taste something vile, you keep spitting and spitting until the taste is left, and you do whatever is needed to get rid of that taste" so says the future Mrs Wilberforce to her future husband when he has given up. What vile taste sits in your mouth? What burden is upon your heart? What are you doing to get rid of that taste? Are you hoping its just going to go away, or are you spitting, are you drinking, are you washing your mouth out? All of this is, in a weird way, a model of holiness. To get rid of the taste, we need to wash our mouths out of the dirt inside. We need to be drinking things that are wholesome, "all who are thirsty come to the fountain" so says the Lord. We need to be living and active and doing something, not just putting up with it.

So that is the three points I like to make. 1) It's not always easy, but God is in it 2) God calls us all to great things and to great impact, no matter what you suffer 3) Get the taste out of your mouth, look at what burdens your heart, and be active in it, no matter how long it takes.

Blessings,

Rich

Why death?

2007-03-21T19:29:00.000Z

This mother’s day a close friend of mine’s mother past away. The friend was my age, and her mum had been ill for a while. The same day, another friend of mine’s Grandad past away. A day before I found out a relative of my sister-in-law has pasted away also. Today I find out about a close friend of mine finding one of her friends has committed suicide in the halls. Another friend of mine brother’s ex-girlfriend died under suspicious circumstances at the weekend. That’s 5 deaths within a week. Within the space of the whole year, I feel like I’ve seen an incredible amount of death near me, and I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why, or how, or when or where.
One death I can deal with, I can except it happens. Two deaths, ok, but there has been so much recently, and I feel in some ways like its swamping me, even though I don’t know half the people who have died, it feels so close as I find myself saying
“God, I understand its all in your plan, but it feels so unfair”
What gives one person’s Mother the right to live and another one the right to die? And why has it affected myself? I found myself weeping for their loss, even though I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact I never weeped over my own grandfather, or the fact it’s a close friend of mine, and I can’t even begin to comprehend that loss. I found myself phoning my own mother up just to tell her I loved her, because I realised I don’t even know the last time I said that to her properly, and wanted to make sure she knew.

And how dare the devil rob someone else of a life, by convincing them of lies of themselves, how dare another life be taken!

I don’t understand why I am seeing so much death around me, nor can I comprehend. I pray with friends and weep, and weep, and weep. All I know, is it reminds me of the urgency of the gospel, of letting people know, I don’t want to see another person die and not know where there going!

As for right now, all I can do is lift up these individuals, that God would hold them high and close, that they would feel his comfort and peace, and him reigning through them.
That’s all.