The Prodigal Son

I was really excited to read yesterday that my football team Cardiff City had signed Aaron Ramsey for one month from Arsenal. Ramsey is only 20 years old and started his career at Cardiff before signing for Arsenal for £5million in 2008. His career was progressing wonderfully, and he looked like becoming one of the top world players, before being dealt a severe blow last February sustaining a horrific broken leg.

He has had a long roads to recovery and has already had a loan spell at another club. However, Arsenal feel he needs more match experience before he can play for them again so have sent him to Cardiff, who happily receive one of their most talented youngsters ever.

When transfers like this happen with players going to their old club the English Press often call refer to the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The Lost Son is one of my favourite passages in the Bible and Jesus told it in Luke 15.

Basically a son decides that he is fed up of waiting for his father to die, asks for his inheritance (a HUGE insult even now let alone back then) and wastes it on 'living life to the full'. When his money runs out and his 'friends' desert him he is feeding pigs and wishing he had what the pigs had for food. He then realises that his fathers servants have better than this and decides to go and ask if he could come back as a servant.

His father sees him far off and runs (an undignified thing to do in Jewish culture) to greet him and hug him and forgives him and throws a big party for him, restoring him to his old position.

The word parable sounds like the word parallel and just like parallel mean a double lines, a parable means a story with a double meaning. The first meaning is above, a nice story about the forgiveness of a father to his wayward son.

The second meaning is this. We are like the son. God is the Father. God has given us our lives and we have thrown His gift back into His face by our sin. Going our way, we can never be truly happy and always wish we could have what other people have. But when we return to God and ask for forgiveness, He embraces us! He runs to us and restores back to perfection before Him and we will have one big celebration in Heaven.

Please message me if you want to know more about this or have any questions about God.

Testimony

This is from a facebook group where I advertised for testimonies, short but very sweet and full of truth :)

Shield Farrah Jansen

Hi friends Shield here. A few days ago I was really going through a rough patch. I was very suicidal because felt like my only way out, then ill have peace. Death seemed better than life.but all that changed miraculously when all of a sudden I met this wonderful person out of nowhere whom I bonded almost immediately, who made me feel like living again and taking life's challenges on. Than I realised it was God who has answered my prayers. Prayers I have been praying for so long. God I wonderful he is great I SURRENDER ALL!!!!! Thank you Jesus.

Pray

Had never heard of this song before today but it certainly means I see Justin Bieber in a new light and it raises an important point. If we want to see change in our world and our lives we need to realise that if we don't ask we don't get!

The Parable of the Persistent Widow - Luke 18:1-8

 ¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
   ⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
 ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Dark times

Yesterday I received some tragic news. I didn't really know the family that well, but the nature of the news was the most shocking part. A local family had been involved in a car crash and the husband, son and son's fiancee all had died. The mother and the son's baby survived.

The son was two years younger than me, he was in my brothers year at school.

Events like this always lead me to remember how short life can be and how we can never know what will happen tomorrow.

That's why it is so important to have a sure hope for the future. This is the verse that has really helped me as I have dwelt on this.

John 11:25-26 - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Because I believe in Jesus I know that even if I die tomorrow, I will live forever in Eternity (this knowledge is emphasised through the title of the blog). Jesus said I will never die. He isn't wrong, my body will pass away but my soul that occupies my body will indeed never die.

Do you have this comfort? Please talk to me if you don't and you want to know more/have any questions.

Living out great stories...

I have absolutely loved the advert that Sky are showing for their new channel at the moment. The advert is Dustin Hoffman talking about great stories and although I really love the backing track I have also been thinking about the idea of great stories.

I had a late Christmas present about two weeks ago from a very dear and much missed friend and part of it was a book by a Christian author Donald Miller called 'A Millions Miles In A Thousand Years'. In brief Miller speaks about how he realised he was living a boring life and was only writing stories and not living them. The book (haven't finished it yet so can only go so far!) then goes into some of his efforts to live 'great stories'. I think this is a challenge for all of us because God put us all on this earth to achieve something. He put us here to tell the story of a beautiful relationship with Him, with us realising our sin and humbling ourselves before Him and God being faithful through it all and forgiving us, ultimately seeing us rejoice with Him. God also has wonderful plans for us in our relationships, our career and in our dreams. He isn't a party pooper, He wants us to live out the great story He has written for us. What great stories do you think you are waiting to write?

^{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.

A bit of a laugh

January is apparently the most depressing month of the year so I thought I'd give you all a good laugh tonight. I actually cried from laughter reading some of these!

FUNNY CHURCH BULLETIN ERRORS

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.


Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.


Thursday at 5:00 pm there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All ladies wishing to be "Little Mothers" will meet with the Pastor in his study.

This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.


The service will close with "Little Drops of Water." One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. Please use the back door.

The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."


Weight Watchers will meet at 7 pm at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.


Mrs. Johnson will be entering the hospital this week for testes.



The Lutheran Men's group will meet at 6 PM. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.

 The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."



The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.


The audience is asked to remain seated until the end of the recession.


The third verse of Blessed Assurance will be sung without musical accomplishment.


The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.


During the absence of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.



Next Sunday Mrs. Vinson will be soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on "It's a Terrible Experience."


The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.

 22 members were present at the church meeting held at the home of Mrs. Marsha Crutchfield last evening. Mrs. Crutchfield and Mrs. Rankin sang a duet, The Lord Knows Why.



Hymn 43: "Great God, what do I see here?"
Preacher: The Rev. Horace Blodgett
Hymn 47: "Hark! an awful voice is sounding"


The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.


Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.


Miss Charlene Mason sang "I Will Not Pass This Way Again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.


The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water."
The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."


Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.



The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.


This evening at 7 pm there will be a hymn sing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.



The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir

Picture of the Day

This week there has been some exciting talk of a trip for the guys in PCYA to go to Uganda. I would only want to go back if it involved helping the people rather than visiting stuff and this time I have heard it will be for evangelism and painting a hospital. So I have posted one of the most memorable pics from last time. This man is looking for food on a big pile of rubbish. An example of some of the misery some have to endure in this world. This misery is a result of the Fall, when sin came into the world and the subsequent sinful actions of selfish human beings in power in parts of Africa and all over the world.

We must pray that all are provided for, give them their daily bread Lord.