Freedom

Jesus said that he was sent by God to proclaim freedom. So we are called to give a love that liberates. "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" 2 Cor 3: 17. Listen to the MSC training podcasts from last weekend, they are brilliant.

Mandy

Outreach, not indrag!

Elaine and I were praying for all our MSCs this morning and it has left me filled with such hope and excitement about all that is happening here at HT. Our MSC Learning Community this weekend was a time of real breakthrough, strengthening and encouragement, and I remembered a section I read in ‘Breakout’ by Mark Stibbe and Andrew Williams (I really recommend it)…

Lord's Prayer in Arabic from Helen and Mike Parker

I’ve not been doing the Lord’s Prayer part of the Breathe blog every day, but today Mike and Helen Parker posted this truly amazing and inspiring vid of the Lord’s Prayer featuring what looks like about 10 000 Egyptian Christians.

We are all God's Favourite

Thank you Elaine for a brilliant sermon, I was fortunate enough to hear it twice. It brought home to me just how amazing our God is. The compassion & love that he showed Peter, is the same for us, and it's wonderful. I’m grateful to God that I along with everyone else can claim to be his favourite.

Mandy

Collect for Tuesday in Easter Week

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everylasting life:

we humbly beseech you that,

as by your special grace going before us you put into our minds good desires

so by your continued help we may bring them to good effect

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

 

Lord, please put into our minds your good desires today and for the week to come.

And please help us to bring them to good effect.

 

Elizabeth.

The brilliance of Breathe

I really commend this Breathe initiative to all, over the past few weeks I have enjoyed praying early on a Tuesday morning at HT, (really excited that it will continue after the Easter break) the material has been excellent, so thank you to all those who have put such hard work into BREATHE.

Keep flapping!

Have you heard about the butterfly effect?  In Physics, it describes how tiny changes ininitial conditions (such as the flap of a butterfly's wings) can affect weather thousands of miles away.  Imagine, a fragile butterfly can alter weather patterns on another continent.  What can we learn from this?  You may feel insignificant at times...it may seem like you're just flapping your wings when you are standing alone for truth and honesty in the workplace or at home....Your faith, your words, your deeds, your prayers, your example, your kindness and persistence can release the power of God and activate the forces of heaven to go to work in that situation.

Gardens and angels, when the Kingdom Comes

A response this week from prayer, Breathe readings, reflections from the service on  Thursday… and being out.

The spring garden, how wondrous and lovely. All that seemed dead, decayed, hard and cold in the deep winter world now gone. In its place the new; the hidden seed taking root, beginning to sprout.
The expectancy of all that is getting ready to blossom and flourish.
An abundance of buds, nature’s world and word of  hope.

Maundy Thursday Service

What a wonderful service it was.  Many thanks to all who put it together.

May the Lord bless you richly as you continue to serve Him.

 

Tim M

Strength from heaven

I have just read today's reading in Luke 22: 39-43. Jesus is at a real low, to put it mildly.  He is just about to face death; a very humiliating one, and very humiliating awful prolonged questioning and mocking and all the rest of it. Even though it says elsewhere several times that Jesus is choosing this path, in order for the world to be restored, this is the one point where he says "please, Father..... is there any other way..... I don't want to do this, take this huge responsibility off me." He is at breaking point. But then there comes this surrender to the bigger picture:  "yet not my will but yours be done". I think at this point he gives God what little he has, even though he feels weak, overwhelmed and alone.

  

Silence is golden

I recently went to a concert with John and found myself reflecting on how every instrument and voice was harmonising perfectly.  Not a new idea.  Everyone playing their part...the conductor being like God ...
What struck me was that the silences mattered too.  There were times when some people were doing nothing but waiting for their turn and listening to others, yet if they had decided to "play" their part when it suited them, it would have been disastrous musically. Playing your part in the body of Christ is great...but the silences are just as important, the pauses, the rests, the listening....

Kerry

Moving in the right direction

Recently, my parents had an offer on their house and had put an offer on another property, which was substantially bigger than their offer.  Unknown to them at the time, another house arrived on the market, much cheaper...