DISCIPLE COLLEGE - 21ST SEPTEMBER 2008

Discipleship College continued the theme of "The Parable of the Good Samaritan". The road to Jericho is like our lives and Jesus is our Samaritan.

We started the evening by reading Psalm 146 - Praise the Lord.. He reigns forever! We then split into 5 groups and each group rewrote 2 verses, in order to update but not change the meaning.

Worship songs used this evening were: To be in your presence; Thank you for saving me and Lord you have my heart.

We listened to some classical music and reflected on some questions that Emma gave us:

How much individual time have I spent with God this past week?

How much time have I spent talking to God and how much time have I spent listening?

Who have I seen/heard in pain this week?

What global situations have touched my heart this week?

What did I do next, once I'd seen them?

Have I spoken to anyone about what I've seen/heard?

Have I sacrificed anything in order to give something to someone/thing else?

Who/what have I thought badly this week?

Would I take pity and do something for them/it?

The yoke God has given us is light. He encourages and does not judge.

It is hard for us to love ourselves sometimes, we know our true selves and so does God and He still loves us!

During the evening Nathan Hayward drew what he felt God was telling him. His picture was a jumble of feelings; Hope, anger, love, crying and reaching out. But Jesus is at the centre.

HARVEST CELEBRATION

Join us on Sunday, 5th October for THE EVENT - our first Sunday special time for people of all ages. Refreshments will be served from 10.15am, and we start about 10.30am for our Harvest Event, which will be followed by our Harvest Feast (Harvest Meal) for all the family. Please do come along and share THE EVENT with us.

HARVEST PARTY 2008

THE HARVEST OF THE SEA FAMILY PARTY

is being held Saturday, 4th October at 4.30pm at the East Stour School.

We would love to see everyone sharing with us. Please don't forget to bring something for the buffet table.

There will be lots of fun and is ideal for people of all ages. We really hope you will be able to share it with us.

ANNIE

This week marked the first anniversary of the promotion to glory of Annie Wheeler, a soldier of Jesus Christ in The Salvation Army in Ashford. On Wednesday, 17th September (1st anniversary of Annie's death) Home and Family Ministries remembered Annie and her daughter Margaret was able ot be there too.
Today, Carl Whitewood led us in a time of remembrance and shared his memories of Annie. Shw had had a hard life and a particularly difficult marriage. She had to work very hard to make ends meet and lost her son Stuart at a young age, separation in her family and her health especially the loss of her leg. History made her the way she was. Annie knew the danger of pride and was always honest if she got it wrong. Annie knew the Lord most of her life and in her seventies she became closer to God and He continued work in her life.
Eddie Maddison spoke of the love and joy she brought ot his life.
Valerie Carter shared how Annie cheered her up and told her not to worry about her disability.
Viv Sanderson was Annie closest friend, Annie came into her life at the same time that Viv lost her big sister. Annie invited Viv to drop by her house anytime she was lonely. Annie also invited Viv to the Salvation Army, where Viv came to faith and thanks to Annie, Viv continues to worship with us.
We prayed in thanks for Annie and her friendship with Viv.

SUNDAY, 21ST SEPTEMBER 2008

We began this mornings service with Pam and Sally's All Age Presentation,they reminded us that with Jesus we have a second chance and he can help children to be good.

During this week many good things have happened to some of our members; Caroline Marshall (our Toddler Ministries Officer) got a new job, working for the Salvation Army at our Divisional Headquarters. Alex Smith and Eddie Maddison spent Friday collecting at the Ashford Post Office, something neither of them would normally feel able to do. Alex felt uplifted as people put their pennies in, one lady even took a photo of both of them, What will she do with it?

During This Time Tomorrow Tracey James shared how at 11am tomorrow she would be at her desk at Ashford Borough Council's benefits office.

We read the bible passage for today Luke 10:25-37, with actions. Emma led the sermon on "The Parable of the Good Samaritan".

A very well known story, but we tend to focus on the end with the Good Samaritan, we miss the the start, the original question. The man asking the question is well educated and has studied the scripture & the laws and listened to his leaders. In verses 26 & 27 when asked the question the expert in the law quoted the law in his reply (Deut 6:9 and Lev 9:18). In verse 29, Jesus wanted to show him that these words are to be acted on and not just quoted. Previously in chapter 9, Jesus explained the law and when we come to him, we become a new creation; the law takes on a whole new meaning. The Book of Wisdom says that a neighbour is a fellow Jew, not a sinner. The priest and the levite may have not wanted to become unclean on their way to worship. The book of wisdom also says if family is not nearby they can tend to the sick. So we cannot question why neither stopped.

The Samaritan did not just take pity but attended to his wounds and paid for him to be looked after. This Samaritan gave Holistic medicine, not just the physical but the spiritual.

Who is the Good Neighbour? In this situation it was the man who stopped to help!

Who is our neighbour? Anyone around us, forgetting our prejudices and helping all.

The priest and levite chose to do nothing, the Samaritan chose to help.

We are the neighbour, we cannot help everyone but we can help some. No task is too big with God's help. But we can help our next door neighbour or befriend the Big Issue guy! Something small is better than nothing. Instead of focusing on being able to nothing for everyone, look at doing something for someone.

Following the sermon we listened to a piece of music and thought about how we can help 'our neighbour' and if we needed it, the prayer team were on hand to pray with anyone.

Songs used in worship this morning were: Let everything that; Your Love is Amazing; In the secret, In the quiet place; We bow down and Before the Throne.

SUNDAY, 14TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Emma and Mark led this morning's worship on the theme of "The Parable of the Sower".

Four members of Flame led the All Age Presentation, in order for us to get to know them a little better, they interviewed each other and one Kingdom Kid about school and college. The young people shared the courses & A levels they are studying and for the younger ones their favourite subjects.

During This Time Tomorrow (3T's) Elsie Willis (District Pastor, South Ashford and Prayer Officer) shared how at 10.50am tomorrow she would be preparing lunch for GLOW, our Monday pop in.
Mark led the sermon on Mark 8: 1-15 "The Parable of the Sower".

"The Seed is the Word of God"

Discipleship College continued the theme of "The Parable of the Sower"
A time of prayer preceded the service and we were able to pray for members of our church who are unwell and give thanks for those recovering.

Our time of worship started with reading the parable, then we sang 2 songs; I am not a Stranger to Mercy and I Worship you, Almighty God. Following the singing of these songs of worship we listened to a CD and looked at the words. "All that I have Sown" by Bebo Norman; as we listened to this track we had to pick out words that stood out for us. For the majority it was the last line, ...the joy that I have found is living in my family.....it's all I have sown. We see ourselves in our children, good and bad traits, what we teach our children and others will remain after we are gone. We need to sow the good seeds to leave a legacy. 'Children can inherit faithfulness'. God does not let go of his children.

We discussed what we felt were the attributes of Jesus as a sower; He put himself where the people were and spent time with them. He led by example. We need to be the seed.

Fear of what others may think of us and fear of rejection can prevent us from from showing the attribute that Jesus showed, along with impatience (we may need to pray for years for something to happen) and our insecurities.

Jesus gave us kindness, love, humbleness, not judging, HOPE, healing, freedom and peace, The Fruit of the Spirit. Jesus cared for the poor and marginalised, he loved the unloveable.

J John said that we are not all sowers, we may be pruners weeders or reapers. We are like the seasons, we may be sowers and reapers at different times.
In order to be a good sower or reaper we need to be Christ-like in the way we live our lives, we need to be real. We should put ourselves in a position to be a witness and not surround ourselves with just Christians.

As we are not all sowers we need to support those that are either through prayer or practical help.

THE EVENT - 7TH SEPTEMBER 2008

50 Ways to Change your Life!

Carl Whitewood, assistant senior leader led today's service, he recently read a leaflet entitled '50 ways to change your life' although a useless piece of literature, he was able to use some of its suggestions. He started by asking if any of us have a fear of spiders, most of us did. Real fears keep us awake at night, using Psalm 23 Carl showed us that we need not fear, God is with us.

We were asked if we had ever written a list of things to change, we usually do this every new year. Brian Tracey has written a book called "Eat that Frog" it tells its reader to do the hardest thing of your list first so then you can then do anything, nothing is then too hard ! But as Christians it should be prayer to give us the strength to get through the day. http://www.prayoften.com/. Those who find it easy to pray first thing in the morning shared how they do it - routine.

All age presentation was led by Heather and the theme was 'Be a problem solver' George James helped Heather, he was in an imaginary boat. On the shore was Hayden the chicken, Carrie the fox & Poppy a sack of corn. George was asked to take each animal/thing on his boat one at a time without the chicken eating the corn and the fox eating the chicken. Despite only being 5 George took the chicken 1st, then the fox but as he could not leave them together he took the chicken back and then left the chicken while he took the sack and then went back for the chicken. When problems happen, when life is a challenge, we know someone who can solve it.

Another way to change your life (as suggested in the leaflet) was to Learn Mandarin, as a billion people speak it! We had a sheet with mandarin on, did anyone know what it said? The first question was "where is the bathroom?" We had to work out the rest! Funnily enough we couldn't! So as we cannot learn mandarin, we should learn the word of God.

It is sad that most people want 'All things Bright and Beautiful' at their funeral as they sang it a school, but they learnt no more hymns or choruses since. The hymn is a lovely one and there is nothing wrong in liking it but to know no other is a shame.

Re-evaluate your personal brand: we were given a piece of paper with 10 famous faces on, could we name them all? Rhianydd could! Maybe you look at celebrities and think, I am short, overweight, need glasses, deaf, I am not like the celebs! But God created us and we are all beautiful.

Flame youth group repeated their wonderful performance of 'Everything skit'. It reminds us that God loves us and the world will distract us.

Get rid of mobile phone: a crazy suggestion but you can recycle them through Rob for the SA.

Eat breakfast: eat God's word if so don't you will end up as spiritual pygmy, you won't grow!

Get a life coach: Olympians have coaches, businesses do, they will call to encourage you! We have one, what is he saying to you? Someone is there for you! He can change them ask and he will answer.

Just do it: John 5 tells the story of 'The Healing at the Pool'. The lame man wanted to be healed after 38 years but everyone else got to pool first, so Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well then Jesus said "Get up, pick up your mat and walk" (NIV) and he was cured.

If you need your life to change, God's word says Jesus can heal us. If you need prayer support team on call/text our prayer phone 07790733760.

Peoples view of God prevents them from going to church and we restrict ourselves by our views, we sometimes don't think we are good enough, this is illustrated in this song; There's a wideness in God's mercy...But we make His love too narrow by false limits of our own...

We needn't as His love is as wide as the universe.