No more coincidences

 I just wanted to share this.

I was making a card this afternoon and went into the tin that I store some of my supplies in and found a card with a verse on that was handed out during our church's verse for life series. I have no idea how it got in there, it was quite far from where I keep the others.

If you can't see what it says from the photo it's:

Praise be to the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of compassion

and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles,

so that we can comfort those is any trouble

with the comfort we ourselves

receive from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Reading it I was particularly drawn to the 'comforts us in ALL our troubles' that's key and I also got a strong sense that someone may need me this week from the 'so that we can comfort those in ANY trouble'

There comes a point where you hold your hands up and say 'this is no coincidence, God is speaking to me' and I absolutely love those moments, it strengthens my faith & let's me know God loves me.

Esther xx

The power of The Holy Spirit

Mothers will always have a hard time letting their children go out into the world. We know that we must give them independence & the opportunity to experience new things.

I've always struggled & been a nervous wreck when it comes to my children to the point of not being able to sleep sometimes. They're not even teenagers yet so I know I have lot worse to come!

As this has been a big deal to me I've prayed and been prayed for to help ease my mind.

My son went away with school last week and it certainly was an action packed week, including coach travel, water crossing, abseiling, canoeing, quad biking & much more! This would usually have kept me awake for the entire week but this wasn't the case. I missed him very, very much but I felt calm. I felt mainly that The Holy Spirit was with me and with my Son and I can't discribe how amazing it felt.

Esther xx

Baptisms

Yesterday was Baptism day in church. Nothing beats this for making you go through every emotion possible as you witness this amazing event.Having been recently baptised (January 2012) I know that however much emotional pain that person is in whilst giving their testimony that they are moments away from being re-born.

Nothing prepares you for the total elation of having your slate wiped clean, burying your old life and starting a new one. Forgiven.

Yesterday certainly did not disappoint and it was great to see the great big smiles on the faces of my 2 friends that were among the baptisms yesterday. I told them they would feel amazing afterwards but amidst the nerves of the preparation they didn't believe me.

I couldn't help but let a little 'I told you so' slip out of my mouth :)

Esther xx

What defines you?

I was sitting next to a friend at church this morning & we were joined by lady neither of us had met before. My friend asked what the other lady did for a living & then she asked my friend the same question.

This is the thing that touched my heart. The first thing on her list was being a Grandmother to wonderful children, a wife & mother. Dispite there being many other things on the list of things she 'does' being a Grandmother, Mother & Wife were the most important thing, and quite rightly so. I wonder how many high flying business men and women would list being a father or mother as 'what they do' if they were asked.

Being a parent is the most important job in the world & something that links you to another person forever. Even if parents divorce they will still have a bond for life in their children.

The same goes for God. No matter what happens we are still his children for life, it's a bond that cannot be broken.

Esther xx

The Rabbi, The Bishop and Me

I had a very interesting evening yesterday with my first visit to a Synagogue. My Dad invited me along as the Bishop of Reading was going to be preaching there & members of the congregation had been asked to invite Christian friends along.
The Bishop spoke of how so many that would call themselves religious actually live as Atheists Monday to Saturday living out of the church, only stopping to consider their Faith during Church on Sunday.
In his opinion clergy were also finding it hard to find time & that he himself works an 80+ hours week. The sad reality is the church are less able to give time and love.
So he asked 'how do we recover ourselves as people of Faith?' One of his suggestions was that the building we worship in shouldn't become the centre of our Faith and that we should recover a sense of sacred time, taking the time to read & I guess just spend time being with God. He recently met the new Bishop of Winchester (I think) and he had scheduled in one day a week to spend in his study just reading & if he felt like a nap he would nap! Sounds great! Also we must spend time together as a Faith community outside the usual service.  This is something Kerith does extremely well in Life Groups and so many other ways that we can meet in small groups. A Rabbi from reading commented that the word 'Congregation' should be changed to 'community'
The other issues are how do we engage our children with God? The Bishop made an extremely valid point in that many children & teenagers are busy with sporting activities which leaves no time to attend church if the two things clash so he urged that there needed to be more than one meeting. I know I'm being biased but this is another tick in Kerith's favour as there are 3 meetings. Funnily enough I'm normally at the 9am meeting as my children have swimming lessons at 11.30am! Another sad fact is the lack of family time in the form of sharing a meal together. A newly ordained Vicar said he'd gone into a home where there was the most enormous television taking pride of place but absolutely nowhere to sit and eat together. How tragic that we are slaves to the TV.  The Jewish faith probably has these issues less as they share their Shabbat meal on a Friday evening. I'm very blessed because we sit down as a family every evening at the table to eat. I can't say they're always spent in perfect harmony but that's family life! When the floor was opened for questions the general consensus was that children had no idea what the 10 commandments are & that was the way it would stay. I would have to disagree. If I didn't think I could bring my children up to know them I might as well throw the towel in now. Religious or not, they're about living as good human beings.

All in all it was a good evening & great to hear from other Faith groups and to have Christianity respected through out. From what I can gather this is something they do regularly so do come along next time. Oh, and I invited the Bishop to the Kerith and he seemed quite keen!

Disciples never graduate not am I perfect yet but I am still following.


Esther xx

Let it all out.

When traumatic events happen we deal with them in whatever style we use & then get on with life thinking it's done & dusted. Then something will happen & out of the blue there will be tears streaming down your face because it's far from over, it's just buried in that secret place that we store the bad stuff. This has happened to me the last 2 meetings at church when debt has been talked about. You see, amost 8 years ago debt fell on my family in a big way. It was my father & in trying to set up his own company things went very, very badly wrong & we almost lost him. I wont go into the fine details because I don't feel it's appropriate but please don't think for a minute that it's out of shame it's purely because it's not my place. My point is that there is no need to feel shame this only adds to the isolation & going it alone is the worst thing you can do. So I've learnt that we really need to work through things in the first place & not to just put a brave face on things. The one thing that I have now that I didn't have 8 years ago is faith. I'm going to pray into the issues that are locked away & I know I never have to walk this life alone again.

 Esther xx

The right to judge?

Christianity comes with responsibility,  I get that. The responsibility to always think & act in the right way. The simple truth is that we're all human and mess up a lot of the time.
For me it was the actions of others that we are friends with that has been the subject of discussion in the last week. What do we do about friends that are essentially sinners in the way they lead their lives?
I was asked how I can 'claim' to be a Christian without condemning people for their actions. I guess it's a good question but I'm still offended that I'm seen as a person that should go around pointing a finger of disapproval at people.
My role is to love people no matter what their personal circumstances are, I can do that AND be a Christian. God is the judge of people not me and whilst he does not forgive sin he does forgive sinners.

Lets be a people that helps & guides people, that is what Jesus would do.

Esther xx