Words during Worship: Morning Service

We sang the worship song 'Your Grace is Enough' and Amanda B prayed thanks to God that His grace IS enough, that she might keep her eyes fixed on Him so that she doesn't go back to the filthy place she came from.

Katja: As we sang the words 'solid ground', I had a strange word for someone: 'Spiritual vertigo' - vertigo is that feeling of the world spinning around you, a feeling of being at sea, almost - you are on the solid rock of Christ, yet you feel like your world is spinning round, is in chaos, and you are unsupported. If you have set your heart on Christ, He wants to bring healing to whatever is causing that sense of spiritual vertigo. We stand on the rock of Christ.

Stuart W: Meditate on the challenge God is bringing to your life:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-12) Stuart went on to say that the Lord delights in you, and has cast your sins into the depths of the deepest ocean (which is about 36,000 feet deep) and remembers them no more. Stuart used to enjoy buttered toast at the ABC Cafe where the butter was lavishly spread and used this as an image to depict the generosity with which God lavishes on us the 'riches of God's grace .... with all wisdom and understanding'.

Paul M: "A couple of weeks ago I woke in the middle of the night thinking about Jesus feeding the 5,000. It seemed a strange thing to be thinking about in the middle of the night. I looked up a couple of versions and realised there are three key stages:
1) time of refreshment.
Recently God pulled us together and poured out His Holy Spirit releasing spiritual healing.
2) huge crowds came.
The crowds came because Jesus was healing the sick. I believe the next phase we'll experience is signs, wonders and miracles. There is too much pain and suffering in the church body - I feel God wants to bring physical healing.
3) Small boy brings fish and bread.
God takes what the small boy brings and breaks it - there is miraculous multiplication. I feel we can be like the small boy bringing what we have, and God will work his miracle of multiplication.

Paula M_: After reminding us of Moses' last words to the people of Israel, Paula said, "I feel God wants us to be a people to rise to the challenge, to know who you are in Him".

Amanda B_: Our enemies are fear, poverty, sickness, disobedience, rebellion - take the sword of the Spirit and cut them down!

Mark Landreth-Smith spoke on the closing passage of Colossians and quoted from Leonard Ravenhill: "No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of praver. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere."