Posted by Rob Borley | Posted on 04-01-2006
Category : Society
Christmas is over and another New Year is here. The overindulgence of the festive season leads many of us to undertake that most painful of tradition. The New Years Resolution.
From the secular; eat less, exercise more. To the super spiritual; spend more time with God, read my Bible every day, have an hour of prayer every morning. The desire has it’s roots in the same place. We want to improve ourselves, and a New Year seems like a really good time to try.
Personally I stopped making them a few years ago. Mainly because I got sick of failing them, not because I have anything against them in principle.
As a Christian a new year is a good time to asses what we are about and what we stand for. What does God want from us this year and into the future?
I believe a question God is asking the Church and all Christians is where has your integrity gone? Why do you say one thing and do another? Or even worse, just say that anything goes?
This year we need to start sticking to our principles instead of just blending in with the flow of society. And if we do not know what those principles are then we need to find out.
- Working as though for the Lord in whatever we do.
- Not over indulging in food or wine or any other lusts of the flesh.
- Staying with our husbands and wives; first and foremost because we said we would a number of years ago in front of our friends and family.
- The list could go on
Integrity is a lost art in this world of “Me, Me, Me”. Let us, this year, decide that we are going to be people of integrity.
Posted by Rob Borley | Posted on 19-12-2005
Category : Information
Unfortunately due to the craziness that is the end of term I have been a bit slack on posting of late. And I think it’s safe to say that this will be my last post of 2005
Never fear though. 2006 will see a return to a regular service and the start of our regular weekly Bible Study. So watch out for that one.
Having returned from a fantastic candle lit carol service tonight and enjoyed the fun of the Nativity service this morning, both at St Simon’s I am well and truly in the holiday mood.
So from me I’d like to wish you a fantastic Christmas and a blessed New Year.
And, if you can forgive me the cheese, remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.
*smile*
Posted by Rob Borley | Posted on 05-12-2005
Category : Cell / Sermon notes
Last night I was at an event in Portsmouth organised by the churches in the city as a joint evangelism venture. It was called Christmas unwrapped and the well known evangelist J John was the guest speaker.
The evening seem to go well and a number of people gave their lives to Jesus. All broadcast to 97% of the globe (if you believe the spin) courtesy of God TV. Now, it�s not the event itself that I want to talk about, although that may be a subject for future posts, but instead something which J John said to us in the leaders meeting before hand.
He was talking about how everyone should be involved in evangelism but how we are not all evangelists. I have herd this before of course but it has never really made a great deal of sense to me. I have always understood that we are not all evangelists but how do the two go together.
The analogy he used has certainly made things clearer to me so I thought I would share it here.
He likened your average Jo Christian to a witness in a legal case. It is our job to provide evidence of Christ to people around us through what we say and how we live our lives. It is the evangelist�s job to be a lawyer; to bring all the evidence together and to sum up the case.
I really liked this description and am going to explore a little further what affect that might have on me and on the people around me.
