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.

Mission's Week

2007-02-27T12:07:00.000Z

This week sees the CU kicking into action with Mission's week. The week is filled with lots of events, talks 3 days of the week, some fun stuff in the evening including me escaping from a straight jacket, a gig and a meal out to take your friends too, then a talk off the back of it, plus early morning prayer at 8am which when you go to bed at 2 or 3 regularly, can really make you feel sleepy!
It's all very exciting stuff, yet I've found I struggled to get excited about it, and for that i feel almost guilty. I started to analyse what it might be that was stopping me getting excited and I realised, it was simple. This isn't my idea of mission.

Now before I really upset some people, don't get me wrong, I honestly believe that this week is worth while and God will do amazing things, even if its just bringing awareness of the CU. I also believed we will see people saved, and that it will be a fantastically fun week.

However, where I struggle is, surely mission should be everyday? Now, yes, its good to have a week focused on it, however I have to ask if someone came up to you in the street, would you respond to having a leaflet put under your nose inviting you to a talk about God where you got to ask questions? The likelihood is unless you knew someone who was going, even if you wanted to ask the questions, you wouldn't go.

People do not come to faith from having leaflets and tracks put before them. People come to Christ out of relationship.

Now I'm sure there are still probably people who think I'm being controversial, but hear me out. As I have already said, I believe in what we are doing, and that it is right, I'm just not excited.

And this is why:

To me, to do a "Missions' week" needs to be focused around social action. E.g. Washing peoples' cars for free, cleaning up graffiti, cleaning toilets, volunteering around the campus and showing the life of Christ. Then when people ask why, we can throw in the gospel, because we're truly living it in that moment.

Now a lot of people have ranted about social action before, but here is why:

It works.

Plain and simple. There is no argument on this, and there is always fruit. Now maybe this is something we should look at doing next year. Will see. However, even then, I struggle with the idea of calling it missions' week. Now you may think I am arguing about mere-semantics, but here's why:

When we get an idea in our head, we can lose our focus at other points. Because we are so caught up in trying to wait for "mission's week" we can let slip other opportunities, because we're holding out for the big revelation.

It's like when I hear some preachers say "you can't always be in that amazing place with God everyday" I think, why say that? Yes it can be a struggle, but you can always seek to be in that place, and if your seeking, that will be an amazing place to be, but people just don't bother and again wait for the events, but that's for another time entirely.

Are lives are mission, sent out by God, so each and every action should speak of that. My own personal aim is to be in a place where I am drawing so close to God and his spirit is giving me such boldness, that I can openly offer prayer to my friends there and then. That I can hear a prophecy from God and tell someone in the street it. That in the small every day thing, I can be a true missionary, not just when I'm wearing a cheesy christian t-shirt for a week.

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Above is the grand commission. It is our daily call that God calls us too. It is our mission.
What will be good about this week will be people seeing Christians living and being aware they are there. It will plant seeds, and we will see growth out of that, even if it is just our own personal growth and learning, and I look forward to reaping the seeds planted, however, maybe in a very different vein to previous years.

Blessings,

Rich

2006 Review

2007-01-10T12:35:00.000Z

"Another year over, a new one just begun” or so says one of the many songs of Christmas. 2006 was an interesting year for me, and some life changing things happened for me.

The first half of 2006 was very much the same as the last half of 2005, travelling to Uni everyday from home, working in the breakfast club in the morning and the “Refresh” coffee shop in the afternoon, attending cell group on a Monday, helping at the youth group Slam on a Thursday, the children’s group Tag on a Wednesday, and attending Arun Community Church on a Sunday morning. I loved doing these groups and being apart of what was going on, and I give thanks to God and to the people who gave me the opportunity to do these things.
This all changed when I made one crucial decision, and that decision was simple:
It was time to move.

The Move:

I had been praying about whether it was right to move for a while, however I found more and more my heart wanted to be with the people I was spending my time with, and that was found in Uni. I got the opportunity to move in with 2 Christian guys, and 2 non-Christians who I knew from my course, and took them up on it. My biggest concern with moving was to do with the Ulcerative Colitis that I suffer from, because this affects a big area of my life, and I didn’t want to be a burden on those around me. Also, being a typical man, I didn’t want people to see me at my weakest, however I’ve learnt much on this subject since this time, and God has blessed me by promising my healing, and I truly believe that with all my heart, soul and mind.
So on July 1st, we moved in. The house wasn’t amazing, but it was fine for what we wanted at the time, and I haven’t looked back since.
I have found particularly with the two Christians I live with, Ali and Matt, that I have found new friendship and family, and rejoice in God bringing us into a house together. The house as a whole, has had people coming and going throughout the educational year so far, and what we really wanted was policy of walk in and be welcomed.

Church:

Obviously with moving, I had to reconsider where I was going to be attending church. My original idea was clear: travel back to Arun every week. However, this was not a practical suggestion, and I soon learnt God wanted me somewhere else. Through about 6 different signs, which I won’t go into specific, I felt God pointing me to a new frontiers church called “Grace Church”. I started visiting on and off before I moved, and from the first time I entered, I felt truly welcome and that this, at least for the foreseeable future, was home. It was a struggle visiting at first, because I was so busy doing things in Arun, that I found I was involved 4 out of 6 weeks in a row, so trying to visit Grace Church could be a struggle. However, as I gradually broke away from Arun, which was and is still absolutely fantastic, and I do miss sometimes, I found I was able to get more and more involved in Grace Church, and as of the date of moving, was able to attend every week and attempt to get to the midweek meetings as well. I got involved in the running the youth group on a Sunday and attended a membership course, allowing me to become a member the next week, and be able to be a leader and take along the young people to Newday, which was a fantastic experience and God obviously wanted me at, as this is where he confirmed my healing, (if you want more details of this, e-mail me) and was an eye opening experience to many things! I am also involved in the student work now at Grace Church, and have led worship there and am also getting involved with worship on a Sunday morning where possible and generally chucking myself in full heartedly, and loving it!

CU:

As of the beginning of September, I became the worship Secretary of the Christian Union. Along with 7 others, we became the new leadership of CU. We thought 7 leaders may be a bit too much, however, God has shown we needed each and every person, as we seem to be having numbers of up to 50, which, considering last year was a maximum on 20, is superb. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not about the numbers. 3 Christians of clean heart meeting together and praying all night and fasting is just as important as a big group worshiping together. What is exciting though is the sense that God is pushing us, and we are all excited about the new year and where God is taking us.

Job:

Obviously with moving I was not able to hold up my jobs back home anymore. This and the fact that the Breakfast Club had officially closed was another reason why I couldn’t. So instead I started looking here, and it took a while, and in the end I landed a job working in an Esso Garage in Tangmere. It’s not the most glamourous of jobs, and there are times where I despise it, however there are also times where I remember how this fits in well with all I’m doing, and is a testament of God’s goodness as I am able to move shifts around easily enough that when something comes up I can rearrange things. The only real struggle I had when I first joined was I ended up working Thursdays from 2pm till 10pm, meaning I would miss the evening meeting. So I have been praying to get out of this. I’d already asked for shift changes and had changed my timetable a lot, so didn’t want to do anymore unless I really had to, so was asking for an opportunity. That opportunity came in the way of Uni Lectures ironically, as we were told that one of our lectures was going to be moved to a Thursday afternoon, which meant I could not work on this date anymore. I immediately told work, and it now looks like I will be working Saturday 10 till 6pm which is a far nicer shift to work. God is good! I am thankful for his goodness in this situation!

Texas:

In 2006 I got the chance to go out to Texas for 2 weeks. I had a fantastic time out there, and God really opened my eyes to several gifts I had and made me aware of my own abilities, and that in God there are no limitations. I have now been asked back for 2 months this year, and am praying into this, and how it would work, however I have been blessed with 2 offers for cheap tickets, which is a bonus! And am hopefully going to be doing a teaching scheme this year which the money will give me enough for Texas and some other essentials, so praise God!

The Sad news:

There was sadness in 2006 as well, as my Grandad, John Wright, past away. He had been a comical figure in my life, a man who sometimes would drive me crazy with his stories, and other times I'd find myself listening intently. He wasn't a Christian that we know of, but we believe he is with the Father now, and he shall be missed.
There was also a man called James Holden, who many will know as the lead singer of Sallyforth, who, at the age of 18, was killed tragically in a car crash. This has shaken up many of my friends, and I was left asking the question afterwards "its so unfair, why?".
I will never understand all that happens, but I know God is in it. Rest in peace, both of you.

New Year:

So now we are ini 2007, and I look and wonder what is in store for me. I believe more then ever, that this will be the Year I am healed, and I believe that will be supernaturally. I also look forward to attending evening meetings in Grace Church, and getting to know a broader horizon of people beyond the students and youth.
I have also realised more and more, that I am increasingly passionate about youth and childrens work. I find myself watching fictional programs on Tv, and where ever a child is involved, whether beaten or abused, or being forced to do something, or just living in poor conditions, more and more, my heart feels broken for them, and I find anger rising, even though it is only fictional.
Many of you will know I spent a year working as a youth worker, and now, more then ever, I’m starting to realise how important that year was in shaping me, and I can see how God has used that year, and I have many ideas that I gained from that, that I intend to put into practise in some way, and at some point will talk to the church leadership about all my crazy ideas.
I also feel my creative/dramatic side desiring more, and am hopefully going to be involved in some of the creative things we put on at Grace Church.
Am I maybe putting too much in to my life? Maybe? Is it worth it? Definitely. Anyone who knows me, knows that serving the Church has always been more important to me then my own studies. Yes, I will work at Uni, and I will work hard where need be, but that is not why I am in Chichester. God called me to the Uni and specifically to the CU to “Break and shake”, and that is exactly what I intend to do.

Happy New year, and Be Blessed.

Rich

The Update you've all been waiting for!

2006-10-24T12:11:00.000Z

Ok so it's been a while and I'm sorry about the wait! Just we're stillllllllll trying to sort internet out in our house, so the only access I get is at the Uni. Hopefully by the end of the week this should be sorted out, and I will be able to get more regular blogs and e-mails to all of you! Hopefully...

Well, the World of Richieboy is as exciting as ever at the mo! Currently I'm working at an Esso Petrol Garage, which I recently found out that in an effical study, Esso managed to score the worst score possible with 5 out of 100. Well done there. The job is ok though, and I look like a typical petrol station slacker behind the till, so its all good fun. Have had some interesting conversations about God there. There is a real sense of depression upon the place, and its interesting talking to people and hearing there views on it. There is a real desperation for a God or anything, but there just all looking in the wrong place. I guess this is the story of the world though.

On a different and more positive note, the CU at the moment is going amazingly. We cannot believe how much God has blessed us, both interms of favour with individauls in the Uni and interms of numbers. Last year we averaged between 12 to 15, even though there were 30 on the books. This year, we're averaging between 40 and 50, which is incredible, and the first few meetings we've had have all been holy spirit filled, and God's presence just incredibly tangible. I ask that you would keep us in your prayers, as we feel this is very much the beginning of something. The most amazing thing is those who have been coming haven't all been Christians. Some have been non-christians drawn in simply by curiosity. One person commented

"It's nice to see people who aren't confused for once"

They've come back as well, so we must be doing something right. We cannot believe as a team though how amazing this all is. We know it is God, and not us, because we're nothing special, but to see the Lord work and have an effect is astounding.

As for church life, that is also going well! The church is averaging around 130 most weeks, and growing in membership, we've seen an increase in the youth by a few and we had our very frist student meeting on Sunday night, which again, God just showed up in. We had the chance to pray for each other in small groups, and for me this was particularly incredible, as one individaul prayed a word for me that Joe Gisbey had one prayed over me as well about how an arrow is made, and how it has to be perfect before it is shot, and that I was that arrow.

Exciting stuff!

The area we live in is also incredibly exciting, as it is filled with students, which is awesome! The best part as well though is that there is a group of Christians in the area, and its been awesome just hanging out till 3am , and suddenly deciding that a time of prayer is needed. God is truely blessings us, and we're just waiting on him, seeking his kingdom. That is our aim, as the bible says in Matthew 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

We long to see that. And that is a lesson I've been learning more and more in everything I do. Whether it's Uni work, relationships, friendships, even things such as going out with mates, or dating, if we seek first God's kingdom, then all other things will come into being that are in his will.

That's about the update done. Uni itself goes ok, but I need to become more focused. It's hard when there is so much exciting stuff going on to really engage in the course, when all I want to do is engage in everything else, but I do, but I ask that you would pray that I would become more focused in my work, because I want every area of my life to be worship to God including my work and this means doing it to the best of my abilities, not leaving it till 3:30 in the morning, then finishing it in the lecture just before deadline. Not that I've ever done that this term ;)

Until next time, much love and be blessed,

Rich x

Building a Fort!

2006-09-09T22:23:00.000Z

Building a Fort As a University Student, you would think I use my time wisely, recognising that when I have an appointment at 8:30 in the morning, going to bed at 3am isn’t the brightest plan. Well, being a University Student, I successfully managed to stay up till 3 doing nothing. At about 1am, I knew I should go to bed, so I was about too, then me, and the Matt’s got talking, already not a great sign. We started making suggestions of crazy things we could do in the moment, then it came, I suggested we made a fort! Now, if this had just been me and Matt Crosse, it would have been different. The likelihood being we would have laughed at the suggestion, then gone to bed. However, this was me, Matt Crosse and Matt Hazzard. Now Hazzard likes to carry through with stupid suggestions.

So sure enough, after many smiles and giggles, we grabbed our duvets, random wooden objects, such as sticks, planks of wood, the odd chair, and rampaged to the living room. We moved sofas, used ironing boards in ways never thought possible, discovered new uses for our English course books, and then it was complete!

The fort stood a grand total of about 3 ft off the ground, complete with three “apparent” entrances, one of which doubled as a gun turret. Yes, this was the epitome of stupid. Yes it was totally pointless. And Yes, it was a lot of fun! We attempted to play the Gamecube within the fought, however discovered that not everyone could see the screen to have a proper view of the chaos that was now ensuing on screen. After a few minutes of admiring our handy work, we decided the idea of sleeping in the fought wasn’t such a good idea. It was cramp, impossible to stick legs out, and just wasn’t a great idea.

It also was more of a Tent in its design, and bits were starting to collapse. Has Crossey pushed his way out of the tent and I attempted to exit via the Turret, it all started to full apart, and come crashing up. The dream was over. And we laughed. There is something incredibly fun about just forgetting who you are for a moment and becoming a boy again. (me in my fort above!) Something built deep into the heart of man, that boyhood instinct. For a moment, nothing else in the world matter apart from building the fought. There was no real purpose to it, no excuse needed, just built simply for fun. Sometimes, a man needs to escape his world. Often many things of the world, from alcohol to sex, to parties, indulge this. We want to forget, to forget the world we live in for a moment, and just be. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every man should build a fort, however it is incredibly fun to return to your childhood when everything suddenly becomes so simple, and looking through the eyes of a child the world seems incredibly small and special. Even decisions become simpler, and everything is simpler. Sometimes we over complicate things, yet Jesus says "become like a Child", because a Child just believes and follows. Simple as that.

The Matt's!

Why do we wait?

2006-08-28T13:18:00.000Z

The other day, I was waiting to fill my car with gas at Sainsbury's. There was a huge line,
and it felt like it was going to take forever. However then I noticed there was an empty pump, and no one was using it. I waited and I waited, and then I felt a whisper "why are you waiting, I've provided!" So I drove to it, there were no people banging there horns at me as a result, and the pumps worked fine.

Now this may sound like a random story, however there is a point. Sometimes, in life, God provides a doorway, an opportunity, a chance to do something, yet we still sit waiting for something to happen. We miss the whole fact that he has already opened the door, its like we're waiting for him to push us through it!

Look at your life right now, is there a door that is open to you, but you've been scared to go through it? Have you missed an opportunity, because it seemed to good to be true, why had no one else taken it?

God opens doors for us, but he doesn't kick us through them, we have to make that step.
Take a leap, whether it be a new job, a relationship your scared about getting into, or that travel opportunity that you thought, how can that be for me?

Blessings,

Rich

Update, and other stories

2006-08-15T12:41:00.000Z

So, it's been a while and I'm very sorry! I've been meaning to update this for a while, but it's been a very busy time, (well, kind of!) and we don't have internet in our house yet!
So here are the updates:

1) I've moved. I am now living in Chichester, in a place between the hospital and Sainsburys! If you want the exact address, ask me for it!

2) I am now a member of Grace Church in Chichester and am one of the leaders of the youth group: xtreme, for age 11-15.

3) I recently went to Newday, which is a soul survivor type thing, and all the youth group got baptised in the Spirit and were touched. Score!

4) I have just got a job at an esso Garage working Thursday and Saturday.

I think that about sums up basic news? On to more exciting things then!

Right, well at Newday, in one of the meetings, I had the need to go to the toilet. Now for anyone who knows me, you know that I suffer from Collitis, which affects the bowel, and is just not very nice. It's lifelong, and can, in extreme cases, cause Cancer. It's not curiable, only treatable, and put plainly, the treatment hasn't worked on me.
Now before you all start thinking I'm totally healed, I'm not, but believe me when I am I intend to have an insanely huge party in celebration, and some serious praise and thank you time to God! So yeah, be ready for that party!
But anyway, back to the story.

So I've gone to the loo, and I specifically hear God's voice in my head saying "Richard, get back in the meeting now", now I hate being called Richard, its just not who I am! Rich is who I am, Richard is what I get called when someones annoyed with me. lol.
So I head back into the meeting...and the guy on stage is saying words of knowledge. He is saying a person name, then saying something about them, for example:

"James, God knows what is going on in your family, and his hand is upon it, trust him"

It was pretty exciting, but I didn't think anything more about it as I stood in Worship. Then, he said this:

"Richard, You will be healed, and God is going to use it to confirm the wonders he is going to do in your life"

I fell to the floor and burst into tears. God had confirmed something I had been waiting for confirmation for.

When you suffer with something like Collitis, because it isn't life threatening, there is a part of you that thinks, maybe, its not meant to be healed? Maybe, because I can cope, its alright?

But you know what? It is God's plan. Matthew 10:1,8 says this:

"He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness... Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give"

This same authority belongs to us. It is God given, we cannot do it in our own strength.
The Collitis will never go if I keep trying to struggle and get rid of it by my own strength, only God can heal it, only he can take true control, but the authority he gives me, allows me to do things through him.

I popped up to soul survivor the other day, and David Carr was preaching. This guy, is like being in the presence Peter or Paul of the Bible. He has that kind of authority and power about him, and we saw many healed that night he preached, and he has many incredible stories. He couldn't read or write until he was 18. His seen people healed of Aids, his seen people have cancers removed, and it is all varified by doctors.

But his main point? He is just a man, but he knows the authority of Christ in his life, and all of us have the ability to see the same things happen, if we just have love, compassion and faith.

I know I will be healed. I also know, that I will see many other healed through me, beacuse I believe in the authority of Christ, and that through him, all things are truely possible.

Blessings,

Rich

The worst URL's!

2006-07-16T20:52:00.000Z

Some of these are very funny, check out

http://independentsources.com/2006/07/12/worst-company-urls/

to see them.

PS. I will be updating this soon with more useful information. Honest.

Final Texas Entry

2006-06-11T00:18:00.000Z

And so it is. My trip has come to an end, as I now sit on the play, returning home. Obviously I am not able to post this until I return home, however, thought writing it on the plane seemed the prefect moment.

The last day and a half were relaxed, chilled and fun. I got to spend time with the pastor’s son, Jo, a good friend, we went to the movies, chatted and chilled. I also visited a house that uses 1 5th of the energy of a normal house. It has carpets which feel like normal carpets, yet are actually made from recycled plastic. It was a marvel of modern day architecture.

It was lovely sitting at dinner with my adopted family on both the Thursday night, and lunch today, people who feel like they are my family just as much as my family back home, and it is strange to be leaving them. God opened my eyes to so many things these last two weeks. I know more of my own destiny in Christ. I understand more of how God’s will works, even in the context of healing, particularly when connected with my own healing, which will manifest itself one day soon.

I feel the call of preacher and teacher on my life, and it has been amazing to say the least, to be able to be a part of what God is doing in the small Texan town of Azle. Perrianne and I both got extremely excited talking about where the future of these friendships may go, as I feel so at home there, and so released. We got talking about alsorts of crazy ideas, talking about conferences and challenging humanistic thought, looking at Christianity through post modern ideas.

I feel God has truly given me an experience that has affected my life and love deeply, and recognise the significance of this trip, as I move to Chichester, as part of a new church, part of a community that I have already been involved in. Just to add the challenges, I have just watched the film “Luther” on my laptop. It is all about Martin Luther, not Jr, who was the famous American, but the German, who gave birth the Lutheran Church. It was an incredible tale of one man, willing to change the ways of what he had been taught, recognising that there was more to the gospel then what had been taught by the Catholic Church. He was a history maker, who shook the world, and brought something new.

Myself, I am looking to shake up legalistic ideas, and know this is part of my call, but more on that another time, for it is 5:30 in the morning, and in two hours we will be landing, and I need some rest. God bless you all, Rich

PS> The pictures are my adopted Texas family, parents, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Wednesday in Texas

2006-06-08T14:55:00.000Z

Well, Wednesday was a real mix of a day! Spent the afternoon serving around the Church building, sweeping rocks out of car park, re-fitting carpet, sorting out tables, and just being helpful where I can. Now you may think, where's the joy in this? Well the Bible says this in John 13

14  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also
should wash one another's feet.

15  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

This on its own gives me joy to know that I'm serving. Even if it's not the greatest jobs in the world. In the Evening, I had the chance to preach to the youth group. I spoke on the topic of choices. You see recently, God gave me a revelation of two very different lives I could have in him. One was a life where I went to Church on a Sunday morning, enjoyed the service, maybe prayed a little, then came home and got on with my everyday life. Within this life, I might have seen the odd miracle, but I would just plod along, go to the odd party, drink to much occasionally, and just lead a normal life, bringing money in, having a family and that would be it. Now don't get me wrong, there are good things in that lifestyle, and things like a family, I can't wait to have, but I know that my life isn't just that. You see God proceeded to paint a picture of the other choice. This was a life living on the edge, serving God in the mundane and the exciting. It was a life when miracles weren't an odd occurrence, but a life where they were an everyday thing. Where God reigned, and where people would know and feel the love of Christ poured out from myself. I presented these two lives to the young people, and talked about how God has a destiny, a plan and a purpose, beyond Sunday Church. That they could be in the world but not of it. I continued to speak, throwing scripture in here and there, (which is always good to have the backing of scripture!) and experiencing God using me and his glory shining out of me. At the end I did an altar call, and again, just like with kid's church, God used me to speak out prophetic words all over, and this excited me, knowing that God was using me in such a way, and confirmed to me again, that I don't choose the normal life, I choose the God life.

3 days in one!

2006-06-07T15:31:00.000Z

Well as you can see, I haven't written about Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, so here's a run down on my days so far:

Sunday: Sunday was Church! I had been asked to do the Kid's church preach (kind of like Sunday school, but without the stigma!) and felt to do it on the Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. I wasn't sure, so ask that God would confirm this. It wasn't until I arrived, and Pastor Paul introduced the Sunday, that I realised it was Pentecost Sunday, making the topic even more right! The service before leaving for the Kid's church part was fun, I ended up playing drums for two songs as there resident drummer happened to be at home recovering from illness that week. Now for anyone who knows my drumming skills, they are terrible! But it turned out alright! Also played acoustic for two songs, which went down really well.

So then it was kid's church, and I preached to these kids and talked about England! Got to also pray for each one of them, and God really exercised my own personal gift of the prophetic, as I started praying for these kids, one fell over in the spirit, another cried, and one I felt God saying had healing hands. This was particularly exciting for me, as I haven't had a chance to fully exercise this gift for a while, and it was fantastic to be able to be active in it. Apparently, this was the first time anyone can remember Kid's Church going on longer then the main meeting, as I was still praying for kids at 12:50 whilst the adults were having teas and coffees! It was a marvelous time.

In the Eve, we went to this event called a Kitzayara, which I'm sure I've spelt wrong. It's a Spanish coming of age ceremony, the age being 15, which seemed a bit odd to me, but hey. It was interesting, though also a bit long and monotonous. Two of the youth out here had to wear tuxedo's for the event, and they were burning up, with one of them sending a text message reading: "Jesus wasn't this hot when he went to hell and took the key to death!" This was a particular highlight of mine! It was an interesting event, although very alien to me, particularly as I didn't know the individuals involved, but they all looked like they enjoyed it to a point. This brings me to Monday.

Monday

Well, Monday, I had lunch with Pastor Paul and his wife, Perrianne, and the youth pastors Rae and Naomi Bannon, oh and P and P's son, Noel, whose 8, was there! We had a nice lunch, they talked a lot about youth, and where they saw it going, and it was interesting to be a part of those discussions.

The afternoon I served by helping Paul with the accounts in the office, and was blessed to find the Church had raised some money for me as a thank you gift. This was a huge blessing, and will pay for at least half of my fair over here.

The evening, Pastor Paul cooked us steaks, that were absolutely gorgeous! If your even in Texas, find him, and ask for them! They were awesome.

The late evening, I got to spend some time with the Children's Pastor, Jerry, who produces an all night radio show. I sat with him for the whole night, doing the behind the scenes, but also hearing him talk to people in need on the phone, and saw that he was truly a blessing for these people. Our conversations went from intense to comedy, and each one was a blessing, however the next day I felt not having any sleep and had a quick nap!

Tuesday:

This was my recovery day, although first I attended a meeting between Perrianne and the other Children's pastor, Rose, Jerry's wife. It was a good time of talking and sharing ideas, inputting into their ideas things that work in English culture, and also taking from American Culture things that work in children's work, and would be good to bring back to the UK.

The afternoon was sleep time, followed by a trip to Walmart to do some shopping, since I hadn't had the chance yet! The evening was a time of relaxing, eating fried Cat fish, that had been caught by Rae and Naomi last year, and spending time with people who I would consider extended family. It was a joyous time, and lovely to be together. Well, that sums up the last 3 days!

God truly has blessed this trip, revealing things to me everyday, and showing me His grace, His love, just Him, is all that I need in this world.

Blessings, Rich

Texas Day 3 - 8 part 2

2006-06-05T02:30:00.000Z

So here's part two briefly:
Comedy! I love America, like, it's fantastic, however, sometimes, I wonder if a few of them maybe leave a bit too sheltered lives? For example, I had one person say when playing guitar :
"ooh you guys play the same chords as us!"
Anothere comment was from one girl asking if we rapped in England, and I said yeah, there were some kewl black guys who did it at soul survivor (big Christian Youth event) and she asked
"You have black people in England?"
A young lad asked me first:
"Do you have sandwiches in England"
then asked me
"Do you all play soccer in England"
I refused to answer, and told him to go ask someone else as I was deeply hurt! hehe.

So yeah, they brought a smile to my face! Hope they bring the same to you!

On a different note, we got to have some great fun at camp, including rope swing! Some pictures below:

It was great fun! That's me straight above!

So yeah, over all, the kids camp was awesome, and well worth it! God really showed me eyes to my destiny, and talked to me a lot about many different things.

One of these things would be choices. Every day we make choices about how we live our lives. These choices, include the choice to worship God in all things, or to become worked up and stressed, or to do work, or not do work.

I know in my own life I have made some bad choices, however, I also know I have made some good ones. And I intend to make sure every decision I make, is of God, and will be him leading me.

God bless all,

Richieboy x

Texas Day 3 - 8 part 1

2006-06-03T02:55:00.000Z

Well I have just returned from "Kid's Camp" and I was utterly blown away. Isn't it funny how God can take something that you really didn't have any expectations for and suddenly you find God is laying out things in your heart in and your spirit that you hadn't even realised.

See the basic thing of the camp was not to approach the kids in a patronising way, but engage them in full on worship. Each night we would have a service, that would last around 3 hours! The kids would love it! And it wasn't that there were loads of comedy scetches involved. It wasn't because of loads of songs featuring actions. This was pure worship and teaching, something I admit I never thought would work with such a diverse age group, the youngest generally being 7 (with the odd exception, there was one 4 year old!!!) and the oldest punter being 14, though I know that many of the leaders learnt something, including myself, but I will explain that more in a minute.

From the first night, we had kids praising God, jumping around, hands in the air, bowing down, crying, being touched in the spirit, and God just doing awesome things. We saw people being broken of depression, young kids lives being touched, and changed, darkness lifting from faces!

It was an amazing time. Pastor Jo, would preach for 40 minutes at these kids, and they would just listen, silently, with no problems! How mad is that, that these kids would just listen, willingly, wanting to know the gospel truth.

I was in awe of this. I realised, that in my heart I had been longing for this for chidren. I know when I was a kid, I never enjoyed actions, I remember being told off for not doing them to a song, but here, they weren't having to do patronising songs, they were the songs that we would sing in every day Church and worship, from How great is our God to Blessed be to the entire Hillsong United collection. The kids engaged in this, and it was awesome to see, it broke my heart in fact. I was blown away by all that God was doing. I realised I had hidden much of my passion for childrens work away, trying to gear myself towards adult ministry, believing that kids couldn't engage like a teenager or adult, because that was the mentality I had been following. I was soo wrong! I found myself relearning things I'd forgotten, and realised some of the calling God has on my life. I have a call for children and youth work/pastoring, in the celcular and the church. I believe that I am destined for this, and that God is shaping me for this task.

Jeremiah 1: 9 says: "Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

I have been appointed to destroy and tear down strong holds in the lives of children and young people that the devil has tried to take and steel from their true potential.

This is just one of the many things I have learnt in myself this week.

Another thing I realised, is that I often long for healing, believing that if God would reveal the healing in my life, that would be an amazing testiment to people around me, and it would be. However, I realised, that the true testiment, is worshipping God, even in the hard times, when my bowel syndrome is at its most extreme, and I truely suffer, to still worship and praise God, who is blessed in all sitautions, who is truely great in all worlds.

That is true testiment, and if I am never healed, even though I believe God has promised it on my life, then at least people would see the joy of my Father upon me, even in my suffering.

There are other things I have to say, funny stories, fun things, but I will post those in the next few days, as I reflect.

This Sunday, I am preaching at the kid's church for the Church I am out here with (Family Christian Centre), and on Wednesday, I am preaching to their youth Group. These are both God appointments. Please pray that I would speak only the word of God, and none of my own ideas.

In Christ,

Rich x
Servant in the Making.

Texas Day 2

2006-05-29T04:30:00.000Z

Well it's the end of Day 2 in Texas!
Today has been a day of relaxing and chilling, Church this morning was great, with prayers time being spent particularly around the subject of healing. Perrianne, co-pastor of the Church out here particularly felt to highlight a piece of scripture where the Lord says "the days of your life are numbered." She was keen to point out that one Hebrew scholar translated the text for the word day as "members" meaning your body parts are written, they are designed, and he has them all ready for transplant where needed, and has the perfect design for them.

I went up for it, and got some prayer. I felt God moving, and ended up falling to the ground. At this point though, I'd like to say I still haven't been healed, but I know there is God bigger then the illness, bigger then the pain it can cause.

One key thing that Pastor Paul said, is that it is not always that are faith isn't big enough, but that are doubt is bigger then are faith, and that is what we need to lose! This really struck me, and is something I'm praying into.

On a different note, today has been relaxing, I went out for lunch, chilled this afternoon, watched a random film this evening, but the highlight? That would be watching Paul and Perrianne's son, Sam, trying to operate a Kettle! To him it seemed sooo alien, he couldn't figure it out! Bless him!!!

Well tomorrow I go to Kids camp, I doubt I'll be able to write till Friday, as I'm not taking my laptop with me, prayers would be appreciated, I want to be operating at 110% for these kids, and don't want to be hindered by illness, tiredness, or any other thing, so pray for wholeness for me, for faith, and for no more doubt!

God bless Y'all!

Rich

Texas Day 1

2006-05-28T03:32:00.000Z

Day 1 of my trip to Texas! And I'm shattered! I actually have no idea how long I've been up, but I went to bed at 2 UK time, woke up at 6....its now 1040pm Texas time, which makes it about 4:40am back in the UK! So yeah, pretty good reason to be tired! Upon arriving, I discovered, that it is incredibly hot! Around 33 degrees....soo yeah, interesting temperature! So today has been about getting my head together, attempting to recover. The flight was fine by the way, apart from the Stewardess trying to set me up with a girl sitting a row down from me!

Anyway, today was a party for Jo and Matt (two guys I know from texas already), who graduated yesterday. There were several slide shows shown, but the what stuck in my mind was the journey these young men had taken from birth. Many people shared stories, and each one of these, was special, and reflected how the smallest action can have an affect.

On a different note, found out today the Chidren's camp thats "just up the road" is about 4 and a half hours, so would appreciaete prayer that my bowel would be calm and behave, in fact just pray God's healing nad his week.

RIght, I would write more, but I'm falling a sleep at the keyboard, so its not good!

God bless,

Rich

Death in the Family

2006-05-16T23:29:00.000Z

It saddens me to write today that my Mum's Dad, my Granddad, passed away today. His health had been up and down for a while, and he was in a home, but had looked up of late. Today at Lunch, he was in the bar, enjoying a glass of whiskey. Then next, this afternoon he had apparently collapsed, and passsed away.

It's extremely sad, and obviously very emotional. My Mum has been away, and so was told over the phone, and should be flying back in the next day. My family have all been very shaken. It's been a strange time.

I guess for me, I felt the emotion, and tried cover it up, not show it. That's a typical me thing to do. Then I wanted to know what I could do, I felt helpless... so I found stuff to do, I phoned people, I did the rounds.

So yeah.

John Wright - My Granddad.
He was a man who use to tell me, "get your hair cut" who use to have this deep laugh, that roared from inside, and when I was a little kid, use to put his foot on my stomach, and shake it as a form of tickling me.

I always remember him actually taking me to get my hair cut once, and I will always remember the cartoon on the wall, which was a barber asking if the person in the chair wanted a cup O' tea. The next picture showed hair cut into a cup o' tea, and the man storming out. It made me laugh.

SO yeah, those are some strong memories.

He was a special man, who got ill in his last few years. I'll miss him, but I'll be alright. He is in my prayers.
I don't know where he is now, I'd like to think Heaven, that he accepted God as his saviour, that he was fogiven, and that is what I pray for, God's mercy, and Grace.

Blessings,

Rich

It's all for nothing

2006-05-02T00:06:00.001Z

Today was a Monday. Tomorrow will be a Tuesday. The day after that, a Wednesday, and so on and so on. The point? There is none, without God.

Ecclesiastes 12:08
"All is meaningless," says the Teacher, "utterly meaningless."

God brings about the meaning of life. There is no point without him. Sometimes we can become so caught up in the complexities of life, getting lost in our finances, in our successes and failures, in our love life, but the reality, none of it matters without God. He is the centre. He is the soul. He is the provider. He is the lover. He is our King. He is protector, crusader, the one who holds us close, the one who sees us through the storm, I could go on and on and on, but if you want to know more of who he is, there is a whole Book on it, the Bible!

I'm on a bit of a hype tonight, I admit it. I've just been thinking about my passions, and about what God is doing inside of me. It is so easy to get caught up in everything that goes on around us, to become like society, just as Solomon did. He went around trying to experience everything the world had to offer, yet he still came to the conclusion that none of it matters without God.

Sometimes as Christians, we can begin to think that everyone else is living the better life, they seem to have more fun, there getting drunk, having sex, mucking around, yet there is no greater joy then doing anything for our King! Have we forgotten that God is the joy provider? The world is full of emptiness. Everyday, more and more people hate themselves, get lost in society, become screwed over. Only God fills the void, nothing else has that power.

Lets get back to the first love, lets get back to what God wants.

Ask yourself today, not what you can get from God, but what can you do for him?

What is his will for you? I can guarantee its better then what you want.

Are you pining after a relationship? Forget it, God will provide, if its meant to be.

Maybe your looking for a quick buck? There aren't any easy answers, work hard, get a job, get on with it, stop wining, and do it for God's glory.

Maybe you think your life is boring? Maybe it is, but then you can't be living your life to the potential God's got for you, because when your serving God, and his spirit is upon you, nothing is boring.

Don't run in your own steam, his your fuel. Let him fan your flame, and run for the king.

God bless,

Rich

The spirit

2006-04-09T16:46:00.000Z

Acts 1:8
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

To often, those of us that have received the gift of the Holy Spirit forget how precious that gift is. Last night, as I sat in bed at about 12:30, a text came through. At first I was annoyed, thinking "I want to sleep, whose texting me at this hour, it better be important!"
It was a friend, texting me the simple message "I've just been filled with the holy spirit for the first time!" How awesome is that? And I use the word awesome, because that truely is a fantastic moment, a precious moment, that can be lost so easily.

This got me thinking about the importance of the Holy Spirit. Too often it is not considered as important, or doesn't seem to be, as the rest of the trinity, the Father and the Son. Yet, this is the special helper that God sends now! The reason he sends the Holy Spirit, is because it can be everywhere at once, it can touch an entire nation in one moment. Jesus was in human form, he couldn't be everywhere at once, it wasn't possible in that form. The holy spirit continues his work though, and allows us as simple humans to go out and serve!

In fact, the scriptures tell us to head out the ends of the earth! Now for some of that, that may simply be the end of our street, and you might be thinking "How can I do that?"
The answer is simple, you can't! God can!

The scriptures also tell us that we must decrease so that he can increase, if you want to fill the Holy Spirit for the first time today, then give up yourself, and let him take you on!

Now this might seem like a rant, and the truth is, it is! Because we are nothing without God, we are nothing without his spirit within us. You will NOT see your friends find God in your own strength, only when you let the spirit take the lead!

If you have already received the Spirit, then rejoice, but don't just wait to for another top up, a glass is only so big! It needs to be emptied once in a while!
Go be emptied, then come to the fountain, and be renewed!

Have you been filled with the spirit? Are you living an active life? Where is your ends of the earth today?

Run with the vision people. Follow the Word of God, because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!

Blessings,

Rich xXx

Heart of Worship

2006-03-25T17:37:00.000Z

In the last few weeks I was chosen to take on the task of Worship Secretary for Chichester Christian Union. This was an incredible blessing, and I feel deeply touched to be given this honour. This got me thinking about what worship is though, as so often, we make it about the music, when it is so much more!

You see, I can play guitar ok, I can sing a bit (though many would say "Yeah right!) and can pull a band together reasonably well, but that's not what this role is about. I want to explore the heart of worship, as Matt Redman says in the song, I want to come back to the heart of Worship.

One dictionary defines the verb to worship as: "to love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess"

That is what I want my own worship life to be like. To have that devotion to My Father in Heaven. You see, Worship is a lifestyle.

When you are in a relationship, particularly the early days, you are captivated by the presence of your other half. You want to be with them, you want to lavish them with gifts, even though you can't afford them, you want them to be happy, to know and feel they are loved! The reality is, you worship them!

Yet our relationship with Christ and our worship to him can be simply reduced to singing a few songs, which we haven't even thought about the words too, on a Sunday morning. To be honest, the more and more I think about it, the more I know, that is not acceptable! If we are a people who are truly in love with the Father, then our love should come out in worship!

The Bible says we are "the Bride of Christ. "

If this is true, should we not dote upon him? Should we not long to spend our every second in his presence? Ask yourself, how much do you really love Christ? Maybe you know him, and you have good knowledge, but do you love him? Do you know his love for you? You see I come to more and more of a realization, Worship of God is the expression of Love that we have for our Father. If we our not leading lives of Worship to him, then it is a reflection on our relationship with him. Every moment of our lives, from singing a song in church, to how we approach that essay, that young person, that friend, that work colleague that we can't stand, every part should reflect our love for Christ, and our desire to please him.

A few things to think about:
1) Next time your in Church, and your singing, ask yourself why do you sing?
2) In all situations, ask whether your current attitude is pleasing to God? If not, change it!
3) Worship is a lifestyle, what other ways can you declare your love to God through your life?

I know for me, my heart has been stirred by this topic immensely. Have a think.

Blessings, Rich

Late night study and God's promises

2006-03-09T23:50:00.000Z

So you think after doing it for around 7 years, I'd learn late night study really shouldn't be done! But no, yet again here I am, late at night, doing an assignment. At least this time I know what I'm writing about though, which is always handy! Trouble is, I get easily distracted, anyone else know that feeling?

Does being distracted by God count do you reckon? Just a thought. I get very caught up in my guitar, or in reading something that is always garunteed to be far more interesting then my assignment.

I'd also like to stick a prayer request in. I don't like to bring it up much, but as many of you know I suffer from an inflamatory bowel disease known as Ulcerative Collitis. Now as you can imagine, it's not very nice, in fact, there are moments I have where I would just like to break down and cry, because of the problems it causes me, but those are rarely seen by others. Now I believe, and I've had it said over me as well, that God will heal me, and the time frame was a year from last year around soul survivor time. Now that might seem some way off, but still, I believe in God's promises of healing, and around me at the moment I am seeing God fulfilling promises in others lives, and I feel the reafirming of His promises over me.

So what I'm asking is simple, could you devote 30 seconds of your prayers at some point, to just asking God for his healing touch upon me. It's not much to ask I don't think. I have to go for another check up in April, and I've been told if there's no sign of improvement, they may have to do something more drastic, but haven't said what. Now funnily enough, i don't want that, and I believe God has promised a miracle over me, that it may be my testiment that God, in His awesome nature, has turned the tide.

So, simple really, 30 seconds. In return, I will continue to pray for you! How's that for a bonus ;)

Also, if your struggerling with the promises over your life, don't. God is a living and active God, I'd love to throw scripture at you now, but chances are you've had that, yet your still doubting. DON'T. "Aslan is on the move" as the novels say. God will do it, it's just his timing is alien to us, but it will be perfect!

God bless

Rich Lush

3 things God has put on my heart part 3

2006-03-08T17:57:00.000Z

So the final part is here:

Teaching.

Recently I have found myself incredibly hungry for teaching. Worship at my home church is absolutely fantastic, and I have an incredible heart for it, but reaching, I've just wanted the word, the knowledge, the understanding. This all came out of a meeting I had with the Project Manager of the Wire. Me and a friend spent the day with him going through scripture, advice, and observations, and skills useful for working with young people.

Within that day, he pointed me towards some scriptures and made some eye opening comments that taught me many things.

Psalm 37:4 says
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The reason I highlight this scripture, is because one of the things that I learnt was that it doesn't say "good desires" just "desires".

I learnt that day that God will often let us do things that although are bad for us, need to be exposed as desires, so that we can move on past those desires and thoughts.

This was just one example of some of things that made me hungry for the word. Suddenly I wanted to learn as much about the scriptures as possible. I've found I've wanted to know about the original hebrew and original greek, to understand what the translations mean, and so this is why I've been so hungry for teaching.

There isn't much more I'd like to say on the subject, except this. The Bible says

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

This is why learning the word, studying, having the teaching is so important. If we are fully taught in the scriptures, then we can handle the amazing weapon of the Bible.

God bless,

Rich

An interlude from 3 things!

2006-03-06T23:34:00.000Z

Hi All,
Just to say apologies first, I will finish my 3 part study on what has been on my heart, but right now I feel I need to tell you all the rest of my news at the moment! Last Tuesday, we had a fantastic CU meeting in which God turned up, and just started working in individauls. The spirit was incredibly strong, and it was a fantastic evening of being with God. We shared many things as a group, and it all linked into promises, and how important it is to stay true to those promises, and keep believing, no matter the cost! But it doesn't stop there!

The day after, we got a house! God provided a house, to which I'm signing the contract tomorrow! So July 1st, I will be moving to Chichester, leaving my homeland and moving on! A strange feeling, I'm a bit nervous, but I know God is in it.

But there is more! I attended parts of our Churches youth weekend these last few days, and took a young lad along who had been struggerling in the faith! He wanted a God experience, and he got it, a vision of a fight for his life between heaven and hell. Powerful stuff! It got better still, as the next day, within "The Event" which is the big youth event our church holds, God just showed an incredible spirit, I got to pray and see God move, which is always exciting, and he really used my gift of the prophetic, something I feel his been telling me to be more active in, so I went for it, and apparently I was spot on, well God was in using me anyway! I danced like a maniac last night, and absolutely loved it.

So, what am I saying? I'm saying God is good, I love him, for him, not for any other reason, and his promises are true. Sometimes we can doubt them, I know there are promises on my life, I still struggle with, but God is in them, and as it says in Romans, If God is for us, who can be against us??

God bless,

Rich

3 things God has put on my heart part 2!

2006-02-22T20:47:00.000Z

Last time I started writing about the 3 things that God has really placed on my heart in the last few weeks. I covered Obedience last time, and this time I shall be looking at
2) Patience

The subject of patience is something that has been on my heart a lot. God tells us repeatedly in the Bible to wait. In Isaiah 40:31 tells us

"They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up on eagles wings, run and not get weary, walk and not faint"

God has a plan for us, and it's important we wait for that. When we run in our own strength, we do not achieve, we collapse. Imagine your in a race, and you've had a personal trainer, whose told you exactly how to run the race to win it. You choose then to ignore that, because you think you can run the first section a lot faster then his said. That rushing ahead can cost us the race.

I've been fascinated also by the song "Yahweh" by U2.
This song is all about what God does, and how he can take something of us, and turn it around.
The main Chorus line says this:
"Yahweh, Yahweh, always pain before a child is born"
When I hear this, it sends a tingle up my spine, because I know that sometimes, in our waiting, it can hurt, but the beauty of what comes out of that, is something far more special, something only of God and his Glory.
There is another line in the song, that talks about taking the city, it says this:

"take this city, a city should be shinging on a hill, take this city, if it be your will"

Sometimes, in our patiences, we need to reflect and realise that it is only by God's will. The reason we wait is because he has it all in hand. In control. It is his will and his will alone that leads us on.

Patiences is something I've been learning a lot in my walk. Sometimes, God can promise us something, like my healing for example, and we can wait, and wait, wait, and it can seem like forever, but God's timing is perfect, and we just have to relie on him, and trust, that his plan, his reason for us having patience, is on purpose.

So, whatever is going on in your life, whatever you feel God saying, remember the importance of patience. Part 3 coming up soon,

God bless.

3 things God has put on my heart

2006-02-19T13:35:00.000Z

You know, everyday, God is living and active, in you, in me, in all of us.
In the last few weeks, God has really placed some stuff on my heart.
These are:

1) Obedience
2) Patience
3) Teaching

Obedience is an extremely important part of being a child, whether that's a spiritual child
or a natural child. When our parents tell us to do something, usually it is for our own good
and our own protection. Things start to go wrong, when we disobey, our relationships crumble and we don't grow in the way we're meant too. Another way of looking at it is that the government puts rules and regulations on the roads. We may all hate these, and often think that the government doesn't know what there talking about, but if we all stuck to the rules then half the accidents on the roads would be cut down.

There are obviously extreme circumstances, but with God, none of these matter.
It says in James 1:25
"But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it."

This means there will be blessing through obedience!
And in 1 John 3:24
"Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. "
When we obey, no matter how extreme the circumstances are, our relationship with God is strengthened, God touches our hearts, and we draw close to him.

Also in 1 John 3:22
"And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him."
When we are obeying our father, God will give us the things we ask. This doesn't mean the latest gadget that we don't need, but it means that he will give us what we really need, what our heart longs for.

I know that there are things God has told me, like tithing, which even though I don't have the greatest financial situation, I need to be obedient in that. I also know, that in a recent circumstance, God told me point blank "wait and be blessed" and I was trying to run things in my own steam in that situation, and actually God is telling me something I need to be obedient too.

I will explain how God has put the other things on my heart later this week, but for now, I'll let you digest what I have just said.

God bless,

Rich

broken phone

2006-02-15T19:52:00.000Z

Well I just thought I'd let you know, that my phone got run over at the weekend!
As you can imagine, this made for an interesting weekend. I only got my sim back today (Wednesday), so if you tried to contact me between Friday night and today, then I'm sorry!
Now I expect many stupid comments, but you know what, I don't care! The strangest thing is I actually needed my phone this weekend, and couldn't use it. As you can imagine, part of me wanted to stress, but actually, I really didn't care. It's just a phone, God has far bigger things for me to think about do, and say, then play with my phone! So yeah, its' a little annoying, but it's not the end of the world.
So, I'm sure I'll have wiser thoughts at some point, but that's it for now.

God bless,

Rich

The "what if" factor

2006-02-07T10:04:00.000Z

Hey all, well I've been thinking recently (always a dangerous past time) a lot about a little something I like to call the ""what if" factor. It's something that I know personally I've struggled with a lot in the past. I'm sure you all probably have some idea what I mean by this phrase, but here is a quick break of the "What if" factor. Basically, it's the constant wondering of the mind, making us wonder what if I had done things differently. It affects us in different ways, sometimes, it's simply the curious nature of humanity, wondering what would have happened if you had chosen the other team in football, or chosen a different gun in a computer games. On occasions it can just be a theological question: "What if I wasn't a Christian?" or "What if my parents had split at an early age?" Other times, it's much more serious, as we start to doubt ourselves, asking questions, "well I've wasted time, I should have been doing this" blah blah. This is the most dangerous thought process that as Christian's we can often have. When we start to think about what we "should have done" and "well what if" it can take us down the road of doubt. I could quote a Yoda line here, but I'm sure you get where I'm coming from. When we doubt, our relationship with God can suffer, we can get caught up in trying to do things to "fix" our apparent problem, and forget that the ultimate solution is God, who as it says in 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."

Sometimes we can get to a point, where we feel we are on the edge, maybe its through money concerns, or maybe health, and as a result we start to feel we should have done something.
I know for me, I have been trapped in these thoughts before. When my health deteriorated with my IBD, I started to wonder if it was punishment for the things that had happened before. I wondered if the mistakes within my relationship with my ex had resulted in God punishing, and started thinking "if I had never done that, if things had been different". I got held in those things, and then realised, that actually, yesterday doesn't matter, its happened, you can't change it, and its best to keep looking forward.

Saying that, the best place to look is the today, as sometimes even when we look forward, we can start to wonder about the what if. Should we be acting in a certain way, should we behave in a certain context, should we make certain decisions, and we can start to panics.
This is why in Matthew 6:34 it says:
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"

Let us keep our minds in the present, we can't change the past, we can't change what we should or shouldn't have done. In the same way, we can't be effective in the future by worrying about those troubles, so let us keep ourselves in Today, trusting in God, in his awesomeness, he will not let us down. Proverbs 3:5-6 says
"Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your path straight"
Give your worries to him. He has your plan worked out, your finances, his hand is upon, your health, his hand is upon, your family, his hand is upon, your life, his hand is upon.

God bless

Chundering and Beer!

2006-01-27T09:16:00.000Z

Believe it or not, these are actaully totally un-related! Serious, I'm not lying!
Unfortunately I've been really ill the last day or so, haven't kept anything down,
only a bit or water, so that's been fun! I won't go into all the details as I'm sure you
don't really want to know! But basically, I was ill, and it sucked. Though on the plus
side, it means I miss my most boring lecture at Uni, since I'm still not well enough
to drive! WOO! lol.

On a different note, whilst browsing the internet in my slightly ill state, I found this:

"What is it?" I hear you ask, since it looks pretty lame, but wait, your going to love it! It is a beer pouring robot! No joke! That's what it does. This is Asahi from Japan. It can hold up to six cans of beer, keeping them nice and cool in its built in fridge! IT also has two mugs, and with a simple push of a button it will pour a beer into the mug with perfect head every time.
WE ALL NEED ONE! Well, that's my declaration. Unfortunately, it's only available in Japan, and can only be won in a competition. DOH! Oh well, hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful, fingers crossed!

Project Frank

2006-01-12T09:36:00.000Z

Project Frank is the creation of a man named Nick, who is trying to make a difference in the life of a lifelong friend, whose house has become a frequently attacked spot, with concrete blocks and bricks thrown through the window. The plan is simple: Nick and a team, including hopefully volunteers for the Wire Project will be doing a "Extreme Makeover:House Edition" on the house. Jon Jolly first flagged this up on his blog, so now I'm doing the same. Details about the project can be found on the link. I'm hoping to be there as long as nothing else comes up, it would be great if others could commit as well.

God bless,

Rich

ebook

2006-01-09T00:32:00.000Z

Yup that's right, not an ibook, but an ebook. This isn't the official name, just one that is circling around, but basically this gadget allows you to read books! Now I know what a lot of you will say, that you can already read on your palm tops and pocket pcs, but what is great about this project is its not backlit, so no flicker! Also, it has a much better battery life, as its soul purpose is for reading. It uses this fascinating technology created by E-Ink called e-paper, which basically means that the print is almost printed text quality. It may not actually sound totally amazing, but I asure you it is. From a student point of view, a device like this would mean rather then lugging around giant text books, I could have them all on my ebook reader, which is a decent enought size (about the size of a small hardback/big softback).
It also supports RSS feed, which means in essence this could become a portable digital newspaper. Pretty cool ey? There are also other many others coming out on the market this year, so I'm just excited about the idea and prospect in the future. Believe it or not, this is actaully something that has come out of star trek and their "PADD". Anyway, that's my geeky moment! Here's to the future!

Sony ebook reader Star Trek "PADD"

My Hits of Yesteryear

2006-01-03T13:04:00.000Z

2005, a year of many good things, great films, great stories, great music! Here are a few of my personal highlights.

Best Cd of 2005:

David Crowder* Band - a Collision (or 3 + 4 = 7)
It may have been a late release, but as a Christian album and an album for the normal everyday market it has an incredible mix, ranging from what some would call the normal Christian songs, (about 3 of them in all!) which are still a fresh look on worship, to something far more epic! Some would even look at this as a concept album, playing with random sounds and even bringing in a bit of bluegrass old style, which some how fits perfectly in the middle of moody, loudness!

Best Movie of 2005:

Batman Begins
Yes, it's a superhero film. Yes it is part of a franchise, but man, it is an incredible film! Far superior to the past films, even that of Tim Burton, which were beautiful masterpieces, it achieves what no superhero film has achieved , it makes us believe that a superhero could actaully happen. No just in terms of it looking real, it enables the viewer to understand how and why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, showing us the journey, and also how supervillains can come into being. It makes sense, it becomes real, and we, as the audience love it! Burton may have created an amazing fantasy Gotham, but here, we have a real Gotham, and its awesome.

Best Scifi/fantasy Series of 2005:

The 4400
If you haven't seen it, give it a look. It's a bizarre but fantastic show. The concept is simple: Throughout the 20th Century, people have been "abducted" and gone missing. Suddenly in 2003, the 4400 appear in a ball of light by a lake in the US. They are taken into qurantine, then released into society, checking in every so often. Turns out though that they've been sent back to earth with powers, with more and more revealing each week. It also turns out that the 4400 weren't taken by aliens, but to the future, by humanity, and now have been sent back to make things right.
The show is an interesting blend of x-men, meet x-files, meet any cop show you've ever seen.
It gets far more interesting then that though, with conspiracies, interagency politics, and domestic disbutes! Check it out if you get the chance, The 4400 features on Sky One, with a new series approaching next year.

Best Cartoon of 2005

Justice League Unlimited
Family Guy

I couldn't pick between these two. There both extremely good, but very different. Family Guy is a
comedy cartoon that takes the Simpsons formula of pushing the boundary of madness and political correctness, and breaks it completely. Willing to go the extra mile, somehow escaping cancellation 3 times in a row, this shows humour is brilliant, and the fact that it will break the political correctness boundary so willingly, makes it even more enjoyable.

Justice League Unlimited basically takes every superheroe possible from the DC comic universe (except sidekicks!) and sticks them together. We get to see Batman, superman, Green lantern, flash and many more, who no one's ever heard of outside of the comics, and watch them fight evil. It might sound simple, but they really have made it complex for a cartoon, and the writing comes from the guys who created the original batman cartoon, which was incredibly dark. Its very clever in how it links together those old cartoons, the superman cartoon, the batman beyond (or batman of the future) and Static Shock, and links them all into one universe, and is a lot better then any other cartoon rubbish being produced, enjoyable by kids and adults.

General thoughts:

As I'm aware this is an incredibly long blog, I'm going to leave my highlights of such things as TV for now, and simply list my own personal acheivements:

Personal Acheivements of 2005:

Got back into Comics! Finally went to Uni! Got an xbox 360 (yes was at the end of the year, but still did it!) The TRANSFORMERS LIVE ACTION FILM GOT THE GO AHEAD! (ok, thats not a personal acheivement, but it made me feel good...hehe) and many other things that I can't be bothered to list right now. I will update at some point, I promise. lol..

God bless all!

Rich

Finally Updated!

2006-01-02T13:24:00.000Z

Yes it's true, I have finally modified my blog, given it a new template, attempted to make it look better!! I am still planning to do many more edits, but at the mo, I like what I've done with the place!

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, it's been a busy time, away from Uni, back home for Christmas, but it's been good! I'd just like to announce publicly though, that I now own a xbox 360, and I am happy to brag about it!
It is awesome, it kicks butt, and I will now be doing even less assignments then I use too! Oh dear.

Lol.

I hope you all had a great Christmas, I find it a strange time, it's great because I get to celebrate Christmas, the birth of my saviour, but technically, Jesus wasn't born till September, so it's kind of a bit odd when you think of that! Oh well! It is great to be together with friends and family, and just enjoy worshipping my king!

Well, I will be updating and writing more, as this isn't finished yet, so God bless you all, and I'll speak to you all soon!

Later days.

Hallo my friends, we meet again!

2005-12-07T22:14:00.000Z

"Hallo my friends we meet again, it's been a while, where should we begin?"

Those are the beginning to the Creed song "My sacrifice"
Feel a bit like that with this Blog. Infact, this blog is reminiscint of my
own relationships with many things, including God. See I get incredibly excited, going for it, when I start something new, then I get distracted. Something happens, new girl appears, something else, etc and I lose track, I forget the promises and commitments I've made to myself and others, and wander off course.

This is precisely what I've done with this blog, and numerous times throughout my life.Wonder if you can apply the same metaphor to your life? Maybe there is something you need to revive?

On an update note, some things for your attention! As of September, God willing I will be living in Chichester. Believe this is of God, and that its the right thing to be doing, so going for it. Moving in with two other Christians and some probably 2 non-Christian mates. Exciting stuff! So please pray for that.

In other news, I am still single, but hey, I'll survive, God's got it all in hand!
Funny how some recent events have caused me to question feelings, and actaully have suddenly recognised baggage that I have been claiming as mine, but should never have been picked up, and that's all relationships connected as well! Infact, believe some of that is connected to my bowel illness, that the baggage has been an handle on my life for the devil, and that intern has allowed me to keep suffering, and whilst suffering, God has revealed and taught me many things, belief and Faith being two of the most important things, and that there is always someone in a worse situation then
your own.
Also, I've experienced within the last day how sometimes God lets us walk something we may not expect to walk, simply so he can reveal something to us at the end. Maybe something we haven't let go of, or a new revelation.

So those are things on my mind at the moment, thanks for reading!

God bless,

Rich

2005-12-02T22:10:00.000Z

Howdy howdy howdy

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD

2005-11-17T10:18:00.000Z

Just thought I'd let you all know that God is awesome!!
See I was hugely in debt to the bank, just under a 1000 and it was gettin me down, but you know what?
Finally my student loan sorted it self out and the amount they have given me is the exact amount that i was in debt!
AMEN!

Finance

2005-11-10T21:59:00.000Z

So, my finances suck. Seriously. I won't bore you with the details, but it got me down a bit earlier today. Just goes to show God's got different ideas to what I was thinking about doing when I got some extra money! lol. I start a second job next week, which will help with revenue, working in the coffee shop at Wickborne. The great thing is hopefully this will be a chance to chat with the kids and young people there as well, and actaully get quite integrated into things. Guess will see though!

So yeah, if you could all pray for my finances, that would be grand! On a different note, I know that God always provides, and I refuse to ever let money run my life.

Anyway, Just thought I'd put that up there as a request!
God bless!

Rich

Been awhile, sorrry!

2005-11-10T00:15:00.000Z

Ok, been a few weeks sinced I've posted on here, got a bit distracted! Well, this will be public knowledge later,
but I'm going to announce it on here, as most of youth won't look anyway!
Tonight is my last youth group, for a while anyway. I've been helping with youth for several years now, basically joining in helping the moment Tim and Amanda came along. It was great, but I never had a break, never had a chance to truly move on. Its been great, however now it feels right that I take a step back, to properly seperate myself (not in terms of friendship, I'm still going to hang out with all the guys) from a member of the youth group, and define my own role.

Mike Carl put it best the other day. When you grow roses, you start by growing them all in one pot, and some of the seeds sprout straight away, shooting straight up. Others take time, and frustrate the garderner, whilst some just keep growing, and eventually outgrow the rest, so the Gardener has to remove them, and repot them.
This is basically what has happened to me.

I may return one day, but by taking time out, I hopefully will lose the never grown up peter pan appeal, and will grow into the fullness of God.

God bless guys,

Rich

Who we are:

2005-10-25T07:15:00.000Z

Greetings fellow bloggers! Well, it's late again as usaul, but you know what? I don't care! It's reading week, cunningly masked as Half term! So I don't have to get up tomorrow morning! Woo! So that's a nice thought.
On a different note, I've been thinking a lot about who we are, and who we appear to be.

It was a quote from Batman Begins that made me think about this particularly. It said this:

"It is not who we are inside, but what we do outwardly that defines us"

I couldn't escape that. It kept haunting me as I was going through my day to day thing. See, inside, we may want to be a certain way, to live in a certain light, to be a certain example, but if our actions say something completely different, than we are not living lives we're meant to be living.

It comes down to this question of identity that I brought up in a previous blog. You see, God has given us an identity, a purpose, a name. We need to make sure that our actions define that, show it, live it. If they don't, than who are we being?

Have a think, in your lifestyle, are your actions truely depicting who you truely are? Or is it a mask, something you hide behind, and actaully completely different.

To quote batman begins again, there is an observation said about batman which is this. Although physically the batman is a mask, spiritaully and emotionally it is bruce Waynes normal life which is his mask, that he keeps up for appearances, but it is not who he truly is.

So, thats the question, who are you?

Think about it,

Till next time,

Rich

Mixed Evening

2005-10-12T06:40:00.000Z

Well, its 20 to twelve, I've just got in from CU. Interesting night, really good speaker talking about how we live as Christians, and how we keep living in that way. I was asked to play guitar tonight, and really struggled to be honest, I found it really challenging and thought I sounded aweful! (no gags please ;) ) It was weird, because on the way to the CU, I got really blessed by the holy spirit, and felt he wanted to use me as a vessel, yet when I got there, I struggled to feel him.

So I thought, hmm, maybe it was wrong me to play. THan i had a friend comment on the fact it was the best worship she'd engaged in for a long time, and someone else said the guitar really helped, and actaully, it seemed God did use me afer all.

Funny though, how you can feel so quiet, yet still be exceptionally loud.

God bless,

Rich

Quick Message

2005-10-05T22:33:00.000Z

Well this is a quick blog, got lots of weird feelings, and am praying over lots of different things,
but someone said this to me about the illness in my stomach.
"It is not YOUR illness
You HAVE NOT excepted it
And YOU WILL NOT declare it over yourself"

Names, identity are one of the most important things to life. It is important to know who we are, what we are,
and what we want. Sometimes we can let our identity, our name, become a curse on us, and it can trap us.
My identity is not my illness, my identity is Rich Lush, Servant, that is what I live, that is who I am.
I am not crippled, damaged, ill, i am healed in faith, that is my truth, I am a man of God, no more, no less.
It is in him, my identity is found, and the evils of this world will have no hold on me.

So, that's my rant. What lies have you let been told about you, that you've than started wearing as a crown?
Think about it. What do you want your identity to be?

Godbless,

Rich

I'll fear no evil

2005-10-05T06:31:00.000Z

Well, I've just got in from Chi CU, and it was a great night, got to worship, pray, chat, laugh, was lovely! Also, went to see Howl's moving castle today, interesting film! But generally just had a good day. So have I learnt anything today? God is in charge! Simple as that. I had a sito today where me old stomach illness decided to be a pain and I just had to totally relie on God, I won't go into the details, but at one point, was really struggerling, and was a bit pissed at God, and he just provided, and all was ok!

It's great that God can do that, that no matter how hard we find our situation, God is in it. He knows the plans he has for us, plans to prosper, not to harm.

The Bible tells us that "even though I walk through the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil". it does not say "though I walk through the shadow of death, I'm covered in cotton wool, have been blindfolded and have headphones in so I have no clue whats going on" .

You see, I may still suffer, but God is going to heal me, his promised, simple as that, but I have to go on this journey, and although it agrivates and can have a very negative impact on me sometimes, other times, i just smile, because God is in charge.

God bless,

Rich

2005-10-01T05:41:00.000Z

A GOOFY MOVIE! What a film....lol.....
Well, I've been watching it with my dad! What a legend! hehe. And I had a realisation, I am Max, son of Goofy! Now I don't mean my Dad is Goofy, though....lol....lets not even explore that. But for anyone who hasn't seen it, A goofy movie is all about Goofy and his son Max. Max is the main protagonist, and he is a troubled young teenager, who is desperate to fit in with his school, and to get the girl of his dreams, Roxanne. (if ya spotting the similarities congratulations, if your still thinking about my Dad being goofy, get past it!) hehe.

Now, in order to fit in he basically takes over a school assembly (pretty nuts!) and does an amazing light and dance show all to impress a girl! WOW! lol.

It works, though he is in big trouble as a result, and his dreams are soon dashed resulting in his dad taking him on a road trip when his meant to be going on a date with Roxanne, resulting in him having to lie to Roxanne to impress her and an incredible journey of madness and insanity as Goofy and son go nuts around the country!

Now, my main parrellel is sometimes i well feel like Max, the kid (or adult now....scary!) who keeps making goof's up, and never quite pulling off things, and defineatly lacking confidence with the girls! But you know, what, whats nice about this movie, is its a feel good and it all works out, so heres hoping God makes sure all of that works out with me too, without the lie or elaborate stunts! hehe.

God bless.

Rich

2005-09-30T06:19:00.000Z

As I sit by the computer, finishing my cup of tea, I find myself in two minds.
One is exstatic, and amazed, at the knowledge that at slam, the church group for year 7 to 9, we had 3 non-church kids become Christians, who only minutes before had been pains in the butts and driving us crazy. The other part, is dismayed, as I look at the news, and see that a girl's body has been found, dismembered and in pieces. She was 15.

What is going on in this world today? Life in one hand is being freely given, and death is freely taking. Is this God sorting the world, or just the evil of man?

All I know is this, I was created for such a time as this.

God bless.

Rich

2005-09-26T06:50:00.000Z

So I'm sitting on my bedroom floor, checking the football (The American kind) and replying to txts, whilst listening to music, and feeling like I can't sleep, which I really should do, since I have breakfast club in the morning, and need to get up in around 6 hours or so. Madness!

I can't help but keep thinking about what God is doing in our world though. It's a strange time, on the one hand, you have nations that were once thought indestructable, suddenly becoming incredibly weak, and fragile, and that just spoke to me. God is beyond humanity, all are nothing to him, and yet everything.

Part 2:

It's now the day after that I'm finishing this, God truely is a gracious and awesome God. As I woke up this morning, I found myself singing the song "now is the time for us to shine" because it is! If I walk with the passion of Christ in my heart, if i move forward with him in my relationship, and keep running for him, than my life will be secure in him! That doesn't mean it will be a breaze, an easy ride, but it does mean that whatever happens, whatever pains and heartaches I enjoy, or whatever Joys I embrace, he will be in them, and he will keep me safe, and one day, I will stand with him in Paradise, and embrace, safe in the Father's arms!

If he is first, all other things will come to place, relationships, work, healing, friends, family, all will bow to the might of the Lord, for he is above every earthly thing, ALLELUILA TO THE LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!

Exciting stuff, Can't wait! Today is my general work day, I do my invoices, sort out any assignments I need to get in, and attempt to keep myself organised! The ibooks actaully really helping, enaberling me to keep my diary, events, e-mail and deadlines all in one place! Looks like I could actaully become organised! OOOH!

Wonder how long that will last! oh well, got to get on, got to plan some stuff, and work to do,

God bless all,

Rich

2005-09-24T06:57:00.000Z

So, week one is over, and how do I feel? Well, I feel excited, ancious, and amazed all in one go. God is an AWESOME GOD!
That is a truth I hold onto everyday. What God is doing within the university is awesome, there is a move of God, and willingness to listen. WHat I have discovered is this, if we are true to God, he will be true to us. People will be drawn to us, because of who we are, just as people were drawn to Christ in the Bible.

The Word "Christian" means to be "Christ-like", for many of the people we meet in everyday situations, we will be the only version of Christ they will ever see. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying, we are the Messiah, but we do represent him, and we are all a part of the body of Christ. Anyway, for these individauls, the actions we take, could actaully result in there life decision to be saved, or life decision to run and hide. Scary thought to think we could have that much influence, but it is that reality, that makes me realise how important it is to run with the vision, be true to God, so that we may be true to those around us.

After all, if we do not glorify God, why bother with anything at all?

2005-09-22T17:30:00.000Z

Sitting in the library at Uni playing on my new ibook connected to the web, thinking about grabbing a cup of tea. Doesn't get better than this! lol. In all seriousness though, I'm really excited about this term, I was just looking on the group home page for chichester's CU, and they seem to have an incredible similar heart, guess will have to wait and see though hey! Haven't found out many other details. On a different note, I'm incredibly excited by what is going on in the world at the moment. Locally, God seems to be stirring, to be waking up, and wanting to move on more and more. Last night at the church youth group, me and Chris lead the worship, and GOd just moved and it was awesome. In the last two days, I have found out two people have become Christians, thats more than some churches see in 6 months!

I just long to serve in this place, to see God come, and see his glory.
I guess the challenge for us all is this, we sings songs and proclaim that "Now is the Time for us to shine" and include such lines like "No Compromise" but have we really engaged in God and what he is telling us to do?

God bless, until next time,

Rich

2005-09-21T17:35:00.000Z

Ok, so this is my first time "blogging" but hey, it looks like fun! And the reality is I've been wanting to express my opinions for ages, though admitteadly that doesn't mean any of you are planning to read this! Doh!

Well, I started University on Monday, and it was such an amazing God day! I felt nervous and scared about the whole day before I got there, because it was such a new experience, but after the first lecture I just got chatting to some individuals. As we spoke, I ended up telling them that I'd been to church at the weekend. One commented "aww kewl, I'm not really into that religious stuff, but its good you are and I have respect for that." I thought that would be the end of the conversation, but later when I was driving with these guys in the car, one looked through my cd wallet and discovered a load of Christian albums.

He asked me about the bands, and than asked when I became a Christian, and we than had this massive chat about why I'm a Christian, how important it is, and it resulted in one of the individauls commenting on how passionate I was and saying how amazing she thought that was. It even got her questioning her own beliefs. It was awesome to be able to witness in this environment, and i felt really challenged. There is more God told me a bit later, saying that I was at the University to break the spirit and attitudes of many young people, and to shake up the Christian side of it. Please pray for me in this, it's exciting, but is going to be a challenge.

God bless,

Richieboy

2005-09-21T09:53:00.000Z

jump!