Last week, while I was serving at a youth ministry with my church. I was on stage and after giving my testimony I got asked a question that stumped me for a bit.
I was brought up in a Christian home so I've always been a Christian. The question I was asked was:
"When did you have your first experience with God".
If anyone could of looked in my head at that moment you wouldn't of found a lot of action. You could of heard a pin drop.
I thought it was such a good question that it deserved a mention and maybe an explanation.
I've actually had two experiences with God. The first was when I was 16/17 I'd left church due to being beaten up and being put in hospital decided that I wouldn't go to church but I still prayed and read my bible every so often but my faith was pretty much gone. I got asked if I wanted to go to spring harvest from a family from my church in Nottingham and so I decided to go.
I sat near the back and sang the songs but unknown to me god was working in me. For some unknown reason I decided that I needed to buy a new bible, I had no idea why but I knew I needed one. Towards the end of the week I felt something stirring in me from my soul. this feeling was like a pain in my heart but not a heart attack pain, the pain you get when you've lost someone and then found them. I remember flinging my arms in the air and singing the songs out with all my heart. I started to pray during one of the songs for anything and everything, I remember apologising for everything I'd done and for turning my back on god when I should of asked him why things happened.
I'd never had this feeling before and I wanted it to leave me. I felt alive.
However that's not the end of the story. Due to various reasons I didn't go to church after that the cricket season came and so did long lie ins. However when I was 20 I had my next experience with God.
I joined a local church when I came to Preston and as soon as I walked in it felt like god spoke to me. I had found my home but that wasn't the experience this blog is about. I'd never been baptised and so I heard there was a baptism service coming up so I put my name down for it. But before that happened I was in church and the preacher asked if anyway needs help with their faith and wants prayer, that they should come to the front and get prayer. For some unknown reason I went to the front and knelt. I got prayer from a good friend of mine and I felt the holy spirit come in to me, it was a feeling I had from spring harvest and I never wanted it to leave me. For some unknown reasons my emotions started to bolt straight to my eyes. Good news I didn't cry. I felt with this feeling that anything was possible. God started to move more in my life and made my take on challenges that I never thought id do or could do.
The good news is God is still moving in my life and new challenges and opportunities are coming up all the time that I'm loving. Just being able to participate in church as a leader, volunteer or just a member of the church I feel like god has placed my at my home and where I need to be for the next chapter of my life.
Friday 22 March 2013
Saturday 2 March 2013
Life is like a railway.
People describe life as a journey or a road. each has a start and an end but do you really think it describes what lives journey is. Cause I don't.
I see life like a railway. Your the engine and friends, family, work colleagues, students, friends of friends are like the coaches of the railway. Each coach holds people, luggage which all relates to memories. The people who cause you trouble are like the wagons, full of dirty horrible memories that you just don't want to know or hold on to for that long but sometimes they stay for a while.
But to me the life described as a railway helps to create a mental picture of what life really is. The truck is your life and you can in a straight life. Sometimes you derail and its a matter of getting back on track. Other times you choose to came off one track and take another so switching points as they say. Other times there's a barrier in front of you and you have to go round corners to get past it.
In life you also get times when its an uphill struggle or times when you enter an unknown path and you just cant see through it. Kind of like a tunnel and its those times that God helps up. Guiding us through the hard times when we cant see an outcome but we know that our trust in him helps to get us through.
Hills, everyone struggles every now and then it does feel like were on an up hill struggle. Its times like that that we need a support engine or in human terms a friends. it helps to have friends that can help support the heavy load or help to push us through hard times, and once we're over the brow of the hill they run freely with us.
Sometimes people think too much about the past, what their pulling a long with them. Sometimes its better to decouple what your past wagons and then continue your journey. You'll find it much easier. Sometimes people look behind them at what they're pulling sometimes you cant see the end of it. how many wagons do you need to see behind you before you break?
Maybe think about it like this:
Are you the Flying Scotsman? Strong, powerful, forever pulling long trains.
Are you the Mallard? Fast, strong, sometimes rushing around to much that you miss things and sometimes have to go back on yourself.
Are you The Rocket? Different, something new, reliable, still going strong after all these years.
Are you a tank engine? Always staying in contact with people , working hard?
Maybe your like is like a railway, not a road journey.
I see life like a railway. Your the engine and friends, family, work colleagues, students, friends of friends are like the coaches of the railway. Each coach holds people, luggage which all relates to memories. The people who cause you trouble are like the wagons, full of dirty horrible memories that you just don't want to know or hold on to for that long but sometimes they stay for a while.
But to me the life described as a railway helps to create a mental picture of what life really is. The truck is your life and you can in a straight life. Sometimes you derail and its a matter of getting back on track. Other times you choose to came off one track and take another so switching points as they say. Other times there's a barrier in front of you and you have to go round corners to get past it.
In life you also get times when its an uphill struggle or times when you enter an unknown path and you just cant see through it. Kind of like a tunnel and its those times that God helps up. Guiding us through the hard times when we cant see an outcome but we know that our trust in him helps to get us through.
Hills, everyone struggles every now and then it does feel like were on an up hill struggle. Its times like that that we need a support engine or in human terms a friends. it helps to have friends that can help support the heavy load or help to push us through hard times, and once we're over the brow of the hill they run freely with us.
Sometimes people think too much about the past, what their pulling a long with them. Sometimes its better to decouple what your past wagons and then continue your journey. You'll find it much easier. Sometimes people look behind them at what they're pulling sometimes you cant see the end of it. how many wagons do you need to see behind you before you break?
Maybe think about it like this:
Are you the Flying Scotsman? Strong, powerful, forever pulling long trains.
Are you the Mallard? Fast, strong, sometimes rushing around to much that you miss things and sometimes have to go back on yourself.
Are you The Rocket? Different, something new, reliable, still going strong after all these years.
Are you a tank engine? Always staying in contact with people , working hard?
Maybe your like is like a railway, not a road journey.
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