10,000 Reasons

At the leadership course, we were discussing being a worshiper. David was challenging us about spending time worshiping God during the week.  I find it easy to connect with God through a variety of different ways but I'd never been a fan of listening to worship music outside of church.  Matt Redman's 10 000 reasons, has managed to change that for me, with amazing and unforseen consequences. Here is a link to the preview on itunes.

Last Saturday I was giving Ella Rose, my one year old daughter, her lunch and I wanted to put this song on. So i previewed the album on itunes and then downloaded it. Big step for me, buying worship music. God really honoured it. As we sang along together his presence came to rest quite tangibly on both of us. When the Holy Spirit comes on you, various things can happen - you can feel a peace like no other, you might tremble, get hot all over or cry, but this time for both of us it was laughter. The kind of laughter that seems to come from nowhere, but is the most profound and deep laughter you could ever feel. It's way more than a good joke. It's a laughter of freedom. Ella was laughing her head off and i was doubled over and crying with laughter. It was like something had broken in me, it's hard to explain.

As i was doubled over, Ella reached her little hand out to me and put it on my shoulder, as if she was praying for me. She was looking into my eyes and giggling, with a look that somehow said that she completely understood what was going on and that she knew who the Holy Spirit was. It says in Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb." Why would we think that after babies are born they would stop knowing God this intimately? It struck me again that children are born knowing God, and that life can be a process of gradual forgetting and hopefully remembering knowledge of God that we once had all over again. (paraphrase of half remembered C.S. Lewis quote).

I would encourage families to take the time to worship by singing together. It was such a blessing to me to have this experience with God and with my daughter. It reminded me about God's heart for us as a family, how much he loves it when his children worship him, how close He desires to be to us and how involved in every moment of our lives and a hundred (or maybe 10 000?!) other things that it's hard to articulate.

Conor Hull

God's Favour

When we go out to do H.O.T.S. our prayers and our focus are often on the strangers we are going to meet once we’ve unfurled the banner and set out the chairs – and that’s right. But more often than not a few team members get prayer as well. It always gets people’s attention and physically slows people down as they look and try to take in what’s going on in front of them. Anyway here’s a story that reminds us that God’s favour can land on anyone including the very people who are meant to giving healing prayer themselves.

A team member came out on the street for the first time and wanted, (understandably), a practice run in praying for others, but took to the chair for themselves. They said that they had arthritis in their wrist. It was painful and swollen. As the team prayed their little finger started flicking up and down involuntarily. This was followed by their legs beginning to shake, followed by a sense of peace and euphoria. When they got out of the chair their wrist wasn’t sore anymore.

David Hart
Leader

A Visitors Experience

I was a visitor to your Church after 10 years or more of not going to a Church. In that time I have questioned a lot of things about God and my own beliefs.

My friends were both needed for childcare and band duty so I went and sat on my own…for about 10 seconds. Then a lovely lady came and invited me over to the tea room for a cup of tea and a nice chat. When I sat down again in the Church more people came and introduced themselves. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming that I felt really welcomed and pleased to be there.

When the service started I was a little anxious. I do not like singing in public. So I didn’t and nobody reacted to it, which made me feel accepted again.

David gave a talk on prayer. It answered so many long term questions I have and it really felt like David had prepared what he was saying with me in mind as it gave me such great comfort and made me feel a lot more at peace with my own internal debates on things.

By the end of the service I felt really moved, I cannot explain why but it really felt like the beginning of something and something which I intend to explore further.

Thank you all for making me feel so accepted and welcome into your extended family, it was a truly meaningful experience for me.

Ali

Perfect Timing

As we were setting the gear down at the end of a busy morning doing “Healing on the Streets” an older guy came hobbling up to one of the last two chairs still out and plunked himself down. He was out of breath; not because he had been running hard, but because he had injured his ankle at work in the Scrap yard that same morning and had been determined to get our location before we had packed up and gone.

He told us it was his right ankle and that he couldn’t put any weight on it. Two of us prayed, but with no discernible difference after our first 2 attempts to see his ankle healed. We asked him if we could pray one more time and thankfully he said “Yes”. To be honest we didn’t change our prayer that much but in praying the 3rd time he said, “Something’s happened”. We asked him, “What can you do now you couldn’t do before we prayed?” He stood up put his full weight on the ankle and smiled. When we asked him if it was healed he said “Of course it is”. It came with a slightly indignant tone and razor sharp confidence which took me aback because I realised he had expected this outcome more than us. He left knowing the rest of his day remained intact. We left knowing we had learned the value of perseverance and God’s perfect timing.

David Hart
Leader

Pedal and Prayer-Power

Last Saturday a group of us braved the steep downhill slopes of the Glentress Forest Mountain Biking Centre near Peebles, and what fun we had! It was fast, felt a little bit dangerous at times, and totally exhilarating! Once we reached the end of the trail the first thing we wanted to do was have another go!

Of course every time we reached the bottom there was only one way we could have another go, and that involved a bit of hard pedalling (and sometimes pushing) up the hill. But it was always worth it.

It made me think about prayer, and how it can be a bit like that, quite hard sometimes, needing a bit of perseverance, but the only route to experiencing the exhilaration of life in the Spirit. We didn’t always feel like doing that climb again, but there was really no alternative. But you know what really helped? Doing it together! We encouraged and cajoled each other along, enjoyed the view along the way, and that made real connections through sharing the experience. Some lessons for us as we think about prayer? For sure!

John Bathgate

Praise And More Praise

Recently we have been thinking about focusing more on God just for Himself and less on our prayer “shopping list”. A few weeks ago I’d been mulling over how to praise Him without getting stale, and I felt I sometimes got praise and thanks mixed up (as in “I praise You for this lovely day” rather than “I praise your glory”).

An idea popped into my mind straight away: use the verb “to be”, as in “I praise you because you are….” or a word about His character “I praise your…” So I tried this out and again after a few minutes I dried up. Then I got a prompting of the sort that a parent makes to a child – make a game of it (God is such a great parent!) – in this case, praise your way through the alphabet. Well, try it for yourself – it’s great fun and quite challenging, and you get to consider at least 26 amazing things about God. (Such as…) Awesome, Beautiful, Creative, Deep, Eternal, Forgiving… and if you can’t think of one, just pass it over (I did the alphabet in a very strange order this morning!) – for another letter you might get half a dozen (say them all!). Even the first time I did this I felt God’s loving presence really strongly, and after several weeks of making a habit of this, I know I have been hugely blessed. I hope it will help you too!

Janet Noakes

Fun In St Giles' Cathedral

So last weekend I had some fun in St Giles’ Cathedral with my parents who were up visiting me in Edinburgh.  I thought I’d use some of my mum’s pictures to share a little tiny something...

Please click on the link below to view the powerpoint that I have created.
http://www.almondvineyard.co.uk/downloads/HappyEaster.pdf

Helen Cope