I am now, officially a leader at church. It was announced on Sunday and there was a good deal of trepidation. It had sort of got out and some people were not happy. I don't know why. I guess that I would say i wasn't ready for leadership but it would seem that the pastor and God think I am. The team actually consists of 3 married couples and I think this is a remarkably good idea. Everyone has someone there who knows them totally; their strengths and their limitations. This means that we are all honest with each other and we can have no secrets from at least one member of the team.

We also all bring different things to the table. Each of us is trained to a different level, with different life experiences and different spiritual journeys to call upon. I am looking forward to seeing where God is going with this leadership team.

Already new things are afoot with the church. We are definitely growing. Church is full every Sunday and we need somewhere bigger. This weekend coming up we are moving into the local library for a service, just to see how it works. I hope it works well but a library will always be a strange place for me to be loud in I guess.

I was preaching yesterday and that, in itself, was something unusual. I was down to preach last week but after writing a sermon (something that was very tough this time) I got to church and someone else had turned up to speak. So I was shunted to this Sunday just gone and it was a good experience. God told me to cross out quite a bit and I was pleased to do so.

The main thrust of the talk was that no matter what the world or the church says you are, of course, fit to be a disciple of Christ. Moreover, he has a specific job for you and there is training available. Put simply I looked at the way he taught us to pray and the way he taught us to love one another.

As always with my sermons, it is the ending that caused me the most difficulty. I never know when to shut up! This time, however, I feel the spirit led me to a perfect ending. You see, no matter how bad your day, how dirty and muddy you are. No matter what covers you, Jesus will still get up from his seat, strip down to the waist and stoop down to wash you clean again.

What a good lord we serve!

Credit @risenapparel

A photo posted by Bible Lock Screens™ App🔹 (@biblelockscreens) on May 11, 2016 at 10:49am PDT

Spring Harvest is over. What a few days. Intense and so affirming. So much great stuff. A couple of talks were so incredible. Rob Parsons and Miriam Swaffham were just fantastic.

Rob Parsons spoke on how Jesus would have sat next to everyone no matter who they were. Put on your armour, not Saul's.

Miriam Swaffham spoke about Luke 10. We are a sent people. God has more confidence in our ability than we do! We are sent before him.

Didn't get to a lot of talks but by and large what I heard was spot on.

Got here. God really blessed the journey. Kids were great. Wife was amazing.

Didn't do anything really on the first night but still listened to Malcolm Duncan on the TV. His talk was about God's encounter with Moses (or is it the other way round?). Powerful and raw from him. If we were converted we have had an encounter with God. I shall spend some time today thinking about mine

Less than a week till we go. I am so looking forward to it. A real chance to unwind and re-engage with God. I am also hoping that our eldest enjoys it too. I didn't have a Christian upbringing and I want that for her. I hope to do some blogging for the week while I am there but can't guarantee it.

Well, didn't start out that great as the English won against Wales in the Six Nations so that's annoying. Other than that though it was a really great weekend. Saturday evening saw my wonderful wife head off to church to listen to a guest speaker. He is someone who has been before but we haven't seen him. He has a truly beautiful prophetic ministry and my wife was given a word from God. I will see if I can post the details later. Sunday was also great. Off to church early to sort out a few things. Started off praying again for the leaders that day (worship, talk, leading and children's work) and that was great. Same speaker was there and the church was packed. It is truly magnificent to see a church bursting at the seams. He wasn't giving out prophetic words this time but gave a sermon that was spot on. His main text was 1 Peter 2 - You are a royal priesthood. Now, I have heard this preached on many tiems but yesterday was different. Firstly he considered the Israelites. They were a chosen people, a royal priesthood. However, they lost that in the desert. They didn't trust God and sometimes that is going to happen to others. God puts us in a place and we don't trust him so maybe we will lose our calling! He also spoke about how we have a threefold ministry as members of this priesthood. We are to minister to God through praise, we are to minister to one another and we are to minister to the world. What I found interesting later was the number of times I have heard this preached on in the following way; 'We are all priests, now stand back while I do the priesting'. All too often churches are dominated by one or two ministers and this is wrong. Leaders of the church (and I count myself among them) are to equip others. We are all ministers but some of us have more experience and we should make sure that we equip others. He also was at pains to stress that, despite all being ministers, we have to be led and we need to be right behind out leaders. The pastor and his wife have had a tough time with some members of the congregation and that needs to stop. God has appointed them and we need to follow their lead. I was asked to do the closing prayer and I was gobsmacked to hear what came out of my mouth. Clearly it was God telling me what to say and I was so in awe of him at that time. After church comes the tea and coffee. Always a bonus but there was more today. One of the members of the congregation had a sprained ankle so myself and another leader went to pray for her. However, I was told that the pastor has the gift of healing and so just me and him prayed. As she stood up afterwards, I heard this almighty crack coming from her ankle. I was worried when I should have been praising God. Her ankle was healed! Then it was off south for dinner with some friends. They are a beautiful couple with a wonderful family. We had the pleasure of being asked to pray for them as they are having some tough times and it was a lovely thing to do. The kids had a whale of a time and the fellowship was great. I felt, for the first time, like a grown up Christian and even as a leader. The four of us are on the leadership team at church and it was brilliant to just be together chewing the fat. This was the view that met us when we got there by the way ...

A photo posted by Derrick Roberts (@aberchristian) on Mar 13, 2016 at 10:18am PDT

And so home, the boy has new teeth and the girl was tired. Both went to sleep well and we had a nice relaxing evening. Such a great day. The highlight though? Great sermon, great friendship and fellowship, healing, good food etc, all by the wayside. My sister went to church. My sister. In a church. Thank you God. I have told my wife I am not going to pester her (my sister) but I am so going to keep praying for her and the rest of the family.

I am going to be brutally honest here; I don't know what to make about prophesy. You see, this weekend at church someone is coming who preaches and gives words to the people in the congregation. Those who have seen him before put great store by the words he has given. I am not doubting that he is a good man, nor that he is in contact with God regularly (certainly more regularly than me) but in my experience the words that are given out are vague and could be adapted to fit many different situations. Surely God wants to communicate clearly to his people? Am I alone in thinking this? Perhaps God is trying to teach me something with these thoughts. I know He speaks to people. I have, in the past, been granted some wonderful visions and some words to share with people. I am so grateful when He does it but do we put too much store by vague pronouncements from 'prophets'? I won't be going to the service on Saturday night, that is for my lovely wife as I went to the Open Heaven meeting the other day plus she isn't having a Bible Study tonight as I have to stay late at work. I am sure she will enjoy it and will have lots to tell me. I will, however, get the opportunity to hear him speak at church on Sunday morning (provided the little lad is helpful enough to us and doesn't make me have to take him into a different room to play!) and I guess I am excited a little. The brutal honesty? What if he does speak directly to God. What if God points out my sins! You know those moments, when God actually seems real... I know he is real but sometimes he has a habit of making himself more real just when I least expect it.

This week, I have been re-reading The Longest Week, by Nick Page. It really is an excellent book. What has really stood out for me this week has been the story of Lazarus. Now, I know that technically it wasn't during the last week, but the death (and resurrection) of Lazarus was the straw that broke the camel's back. It is after this that we get to see the council looking for a way to kill Jesus. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, many of the priests were Sadducees and they didn't believe in the resurrection of the body. Here is Jesus, thumbing his nose at them and proving them wrong in the most amazing way. Moreover, this one single act throws a spanner in the works of the world. The ultimate act, the very worst this world can do to us is kill us. It can take our lives, make them miserable and ultimately end them but what does Jesus do? He shows us that there is hope. Death has lost its sting. There is nothing that the world can do to overcome death. Jesus, however, can do everything. He has done everything.