Mar. 31, 2007 Josh 12:7-15:12; Luke 6:1-26

April

Apr. 1, 2007 Josh 15:13-17:6; Luke 6:27-38
Apr. 2, 2007 Josh 17:7-19:23; Luke 6:39-7:10
Apr. 3, 2007 Josh 19:24-21:33; Luke 7:11-35
Apr. 4, 2007 Josh 21:34-24:13; Luke 7:36-8:15
Apr. 5, 2007 Josh 24:14-33; Judg 1:1-2:10; Luke 8:16-25
Apr. 6, 2007 Judg 2:11-4:24; Luke 8:26-56

Mar. 24, 2007 Deu 29-30; Luke 2:1-20
Mar. 25, 2007 Deu 31-32; Luke 2:21-52
Mar. 26, 2007 Deu 33-34; Josh 1; Luke 3:1-22
Mar. 27, 2007 Josh 2-4; Luke 3:23-38
Mar. 28, 2007 Josh 5-7; Luke 4:1-30
Mar. 29, 2007 Josh 8:1-10:11; Luke 4:31-5:11
Mar. 30, 2007 Josh 10:12-12:6; Luke 5:12-39

Mar. 17, 2007 Deu 11:13-13:18; Mark 14:66-72
Mar. 18, 2007 Deu 14:1-16:8; Mark 15:1-32
Mar. 19, 2007 Deu 16:9-19:10; Mark 15:33-16:8
Mar. 20, 2007 Deu 19:11-22:11; Mark 16:9-20; Luke 1:1-17
Mar. 21, 2007 Deu 22:12-24:22; Luke 1:18-38
Mar. 22, 2007 Deu 25-27; Luke 1:39-55
Mar. 23, 2007 Deu 28; Luke 1:56-80

And God was displeased with this reliance on human resources and he smote Israel. 1Chronicles 21:7

God knocked their heads together and gave them beating because they relyed on their own strength. I know you are a fantastic person, that God made you in his image and that you are full of incredible potential, but you can not make it alone. Oh yes you can muddle through, but if you want the best for your life you have to lean on God and not on yourself.
Solomon had gained it all because he loved God and his people. His was wise, good looking, rich, had loads of babes, and had the favour of God. What went wrong? Well he was so rich and famous he started to think that it was he that was the special one. He started to put himself first and even built a huge monument to himself. He took his eyes off God in his success and put it on himself. What a tragedy!

If you are successful - great, fantastic. Don’t think it was all you and what you did. Keep leaning on God and relying on him.

‘Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself’

Rita Mae Brown

You will have to get past some of the old fashioned language - but you just must read this… 

‘I was called at 10 o’clock one night to pray for a young person given up by the doctor who was dying of consumption (TB). As I looked, I saw that unless God undertook it was impossible for her to live. I turned to the mother and said, “Well, Mother, you will have to go to bed.” She said, “Oh, I have not had my clothes off for three weeks.” I said to the daughters, “You will have to go to bed,” but they did not want to to go. It was the same with the son. I put on my overcoat and said, “I can do nothing here.” They said, “Oh, if you stop here we will all go to bed.” I knew that God would move nothing in an atmosphere of mere natural sympathy and unbelief.

They all went to bed and I stayed, and that was surely a time as I knelt by that bed face to face with death and with the devil. But God can change the hardest situation and make you know that He is almighty.

(more…)

I have been reading a book called ‘On Prayer, Power and Miracles’. It a compilation of sermons and writings by Smith Wigglesworth.

For those who have never heard of the rather amusing name I will tell you that he was an amazing man. He moved around England doing miracles, preaching the gospel and seeing many saved. He moved powerfully in dimensions of the Holy Spirit you and I dream of.

In the book the chapters are only short. He talks about the power of the Spirit and experiences he has had of people being healed and then says at the end and God is going to show himself tonight - and you so want to stay around to see what he does but the chapters then finish. How fantastic it must have been to be there after Smith finished talking and got onto the doing!!

He not only saw healings of the blind and deaf, but of paralysed people and dead people raised up again. I will give you a taster of more tommorrow

We have just had a fantastic weekend with Arne Skargen - an evangelist from Norway. He has been equiping the church and the youth to reach out and bring the harvest in.  He taught us how to wait for specific words from God. How to ask God to give us wisdom to find ways to help people and get alongside our friends in order to deepen relationships. He also showed us how to bring them to know Jesus.

I am so challenged again to stay everyday open to the Holy Spirit without my feelings of fear, inadequacy or embarrassment getting in the way of God’s glory. Arne encouraged us not to stop short of bringing our friends into full salavation. He has so many great examples of when God has given him guidance to start a conversations with people he has met and  lead that person to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I am hungry to see it happen more and more.