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Roast Crunch

October 1, 2008

ROAST CRUNCH

“Price of Sunday lunch soars 25% - Families are shunning their meat and veg as costs hit an all time high” - The Sun

“Three couples save £30,000 with a crunch-busting triple wedding.” Three couples spend £20,000 on big joint wedding to, er, save money” – Daily Mirror

“Boaters shun the rat race - Hard-pressed Britons are taking to the canal to beat the credit crunch… There are now more then 31,500 licensed boats, more than at the height of the Industrial Revolution” – Daily Express

What will be the  real  fallout from the housing, mortgage  and credit meltdown of 2007/2008.The crunch probably is not at an end nor has the fallout fully settlted.

A couple of years ago in our area we had a bad summer’s day where there had been a lot of rain and it was quite dark by nine in the evening.Around that time there was a power cut that affected every home and each street light in the area in which we lived .

The combined effevct of the power cut and the rain created quite an eerie and unsettling atmosphere and groups of local residents gathered in the street outside .Huddling together in nervous and sometime angry groups.

I was reminded of the occasion as the ongoing stories of credit crunch and instability in the financial markets raises the spectre of unemployment, foreclosures loss of savings and investments and many other fearful scenarios.

I have in recent times been reminded of the passage in Exodus 10:23 when a different kind of darkness covered the land of Egypt, no one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.

Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.To what extent through God’s alternative economic system has he given us the opportunity in these days to demonstrate that whilst there is lots of economic  darkeness around there can still be light in the lives and homes of believers.

How can we be light to those around us in a dark economic climate?

William Prentice - Pastor.

Written by william · Filed Under Pastors Blog | Leave a Comment 

Commit

March 28, 2008

A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone and asked, “Have you found a good road to where you are?

If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.” Livingstone wrote back, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

Life can present us with the opportunities to commit to a particular enterprise or activity without necessarily having the route fully worked out we only have the destination in mind. The reality is that we will never reach that destination without commitment.

Our life’s vision will never be fulfilled without commitment. Yet in today’s world commitment seems to be constantly under challenge .Commitment to life, commitment to relationships and to ongoing dreams and vision. Without it progress is very limited.

Commitment has life changing power. Frederic F. Flach writes: ‘Most people can look back and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when because of a readiness within us and a collaboration of events around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under which we live, and to make choices that will affect the rest of our lives’ I remember when I met and married my wife it was not only the external event of meeting her but also internal changes that were taking place in me that enabled a personal commitment to be made

Personal commitment to a relationship, a career, a church, a ministry, a vision, will be tested - daily. Too many of us see commitment as an event, like saying, ‘I do’ in a wedding ceremony or shaking hands to close a business deal. Yet what helps to make a marriage successful is not necessarily wealth or even health but rather commitment. In January we buy a treadmill to get in shape, by February we quit because it calls for too much discipline. Any time you make a commitment to something, you will be tested - daily

Commitment helps you overcome life’s obstacles. Maltbie Babcock said, ‘One of the most common mistakes and one of the costliest, is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic something or other which we do not possess. No, success is generally due to holding on, and unwillingness to let go. You ‘decide’ to obtain a qualification, learn a language,begin a business enterprise etc. Will it be a success or failure? That depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word ‘decide’ contains. It is the decision that nothing will overrule and the grip that nothing can break, that brings success.’

“Will you please tell me in a word,” said a Christian woman to a minister, “what your idea of consecration is?”Holding out a blank sheet of paper the pastor replied, “It is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in as He will.” It takes commitment to see this kind of consecration through.

Why do people find it so hard to make commitments?

Written by andy · Filed Under Pastors Blog | Leave a Comment