Its your turn . . . .

The waiting is nearly over.  It is time.  It is time to do our bit.  It is time for us to step out of our comfort zones and do something, say something that we have never done before.  RISE starts soon and we need everyone to do something different.  It is your turn  . . . . 

Have a look at the little video as well - use it to stimulate your thoughts of faith and action as we move towards Easter  . . . 

Look at the study here . . . . . .  

More than meets the eye . . .

I have to admit that this study IS named after the Transformers.  I am a bit too old for the transformer toys when they came out the first time round - but my wee brother did have a few of these toys and I always remember one toy that was a train, a plane and a transformer robot.  there definitely was more than meets the eye . . . . . 

Icebergs are like that too.  There is a lot more to them than what we see on the surface.  I suppose the big issue for us  - are we the same?  Do we hide a lot of ourself away?  Do we and can we change ourselves to fit into any situation.  When Jesus lived on the earth he actually was in the business of transforming people and situations.  The compassion that He had for people made him them step out of their comfort zone.  Are you ready to do the same? Are you ready to be the miracle that other people need in their life?  Do you need a compassion bypass?  

Thats what we are thinking about this week!  

What's your story?

If you are reading this you are alive.  Weird that.  But how did you get here?  How would you describe the journey that you have been on through your life?  Have you had many ups and downs?  How did you cope with them?  What has inspired you?  Who has had a big impact on you and on your life?   

Big questions.  The stuff of life. What's your story?  This week in the network small groups you will get the chance to tell your story.  How does God break into your story?  What did he do for you?  How has His influence changed you.  

Big questions.  Be ready to share.  Be ready to listen.  Be ready to celebrate the awesome glory of how God reveals Himself in a different way to everyone in a way that meets the needs of that person.  

What's your story?   Take a look at the study guide here and dont forget to check out my site for the final installment in the prayer course.  

And  . . . . RISE is coming  . . . find out more at church on Sunday!  

Tim 

Talking about a revolution!

Talk is cheap . . .  

How do the people that we meet know what we believe?  How do they know what we think about the big questions in life?  

In this week's study for network you will be looking at 3 aspects of talking - first you will be looking at prayer (and talking to God), then we take a look at the way that the apostle Paul talked and shared his testimony story with Agrippa in Acts 26 and finally you will get the opportunity to start to think about how you talk and tell your story to other people, so that they know the difference that a life with Jesus can actually have! 

Talk is not cheap . . . it is essential to building up life changing friendships - I guess we should look at that too - get the study guide here  or visit here to look up the prayer information. 

Enjoy 

Tim 

A Call to Action!

When I was 18, I remember having a peculiar fascination with the old Van Morrison and Cliff Richard song 'When the love of God, shines his light on me . . .' Now, I was NO Cliff fan - though all the pretentious teenagers at that time were big fans of Van the Man. It was a great song, but now that I look back - why do we need to sit and wait for God to shine his light on us . . . if we are believers, the light is already within us and it is our job to start to share our light with everyone else . . . . .

On Sunday, Peter challenged us about how we testify about Jesus. How do we share the light with others? Are we up for the job? Do we even think that this is up to us? These are big questions. The next network bible study takes a look at this. If we are the witnesses for Christ - how are we spreading the word? Are we doing a very good job of it? It is hard to look at ourselves in this way but we need to get ourselves ready to LIVE the Christian faith.

RISE is a series of mission events that we are planning for early April 2009 and we hope that as many people involved in the church will get involved. The plans are still being drawn up at present but you can take a look at our progress to date on the RISE site at http://risempc.blogspot.com . If you want to get involved - send me a message.

Its time for action!

Happy new year and all that . . . .

Welcome to 2009!

What will it bring? I clearly remember the start of the millennium and this decade - it seems like only the other day . . . what have you achieved in the last 8 years? Have things worked out? Are you where you expected to be? Are you doing what you thought you would be doing? Traditionally, the new year has been a time to reflect on what you have been doing up to this point. This year, really make your self-reflection count. What do you want to achieve this year?

Maybe this is the year where you take those risks that you always knew in the back of your mind that you need to take. Maybe this is the time where you speak up and tell people the message that they need to hear. Maybe this is the year that you explain why you follow Jesus. Maybe this is the time you show people what the difference of a life with God actually makes.

Make 2009 the year that you grab every opportunity with both hands. Spread the word, gossip the gospel, model God's love in every way possible

Look at the new Year bible study here . . . . . . .

Happy new year and all that . . . . .


Tim

Get your Christmas Presence here!

Woolworths is closing. I cant quite believe it. The home of my favourite pic'n'mix is to disappear from the high street. Market analysts reckon that this wont be the last big shop to go under in the recession. I was talking to an electrician the other day who was telling me that he fully expected to lose his job the week before Christmas as the firm had no more orders on the books in the new year. Things like this always make us think about money. We think about how we should restrict our spending this Christmas . . . just in case. The credit is well and truly crunched.

Why have we developed such a fixation and stress inducing drive on making sure that we buy the right presents? We run around for weeks looking for perfection. Instead, we burn ourselves out so that for the few days we are off work to celebrate the birth of Jesus we are so tired and exhausted that we sleep, sleep, sleep.

Perhaps, as the financial markets are resetting themselves, people will reset their priorities and what is important to them. Perhaps people will stop concentrating on trading presents but will again focus on the presence that God revealed over 2,000 years ago when he sent his son down into the earth. God opened a channel for communication. It was a personal message to humankind - you are so important to me that the best I can do is to send my son to deliver the message and be sacrificed in the process. That is the cost of God's presence with us.

The study this week takes a look at some of the main characters in the Christmas story and gets you to consider some hard questions about where your heart lies this Christmas time.

Read the study here and then have a go at this little computer game!

Happy Christmas!

Tim

I still haven't found what I'm looking for!

How much confidence do you have? Where did you get it from?

The recent credit crunch is a good example of what happens when people loose confidence in property, banks and even goods and services. The markets plummet and they loose value. Sometimes our faith, our confidence in what we believe and what we live for can take a knock to and we need to be able to know what to do when we are taking those knocks. Where can we get our confidence back? How can we press on and make sure that we are living our lives in the way that God intended? These are some of the things that we will be looking at in what will be the last of our bible studies into 'Living in the real World.'

Hopefully, through this series you have started to think about your life as a believer and follower of Christ. Hopefully you have started to ask questions and find answers that will make your witness and the way that you live out your faith better. Bono from U2 sang that 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for' and neither have we. We live in a dark world and we try to bring Christ to this world to make it better - we try to bring the kingdom of God to this world but ultimatley we know that we are not going to get perfection here. What I am looking for - is waiting for me when I die and go to be with Jesus in heaven.

But in the meantime, lets press on . . . keep going and do our best in the hope that many other will also be saved.

The study for this week can be found here

Getting ready for Christmas . . .

A few weeks ago I was reading a book by Rick McKinley called 'This Beautiful Mess'. Rick is Pastor at the Imago Dei Community in Portland, USA. I took look at the church web site and stumbled across one of their initiatives called The Advent Conspiracy.

The idea is that we give less to people who dont really need it so that we give more to people who do. I know that in this time of credit crunch, there is a temptation to do this for selfish reasons - to reduce our outgoings and NOT to pass money on to those who need it. Maybe it can be as simple as spending more time with people or making our presents more personal because we have spent time and effort making them.

Certainly this is something for you to think about as we approach Christmas.

There is a video on youtube you can have a look at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU . I also hope to have a copy available on the small group web site in the near future for you to use to inspire others to do the same!

Happy Christmas!

Living life in the real world . . . . .

On Sunday 23rd November the evening service at Muckamore Presbyterian takes a more relaxed format again as we look at some of the issues facing the Christian in the world today. Please come and join us for 7pm!

Shine like stars!

I have to admit that this is one of those verses in the bible that really inspires me. I love the picture that Paul paints in these verses about how we should be responding to God’s Grace. Because God has saved us, regardless of how good or bad we have been, our response should be to live different lives. Lives that act as beacons to others. Lives that shine out amongst the darkness of the rest of the sky.

Get the study here

This week in you network bible study we will be looking at how we should be acting as a witness for others. You might also want to look up a great song on this by Matt Redman called Shine. It is on his most recent album ‘Beautiful News’.

Al Gordon is the co-leader of Worship Central, which is part of the Alpha organisation. In the Worship Central blog for Sept he wrote a bit about this . . . .

Shine Like Stars 13SEP08
Looking around the church at the moment, I see signs of incredible creativity, explosions of art and wonder, but at the same time we often short-change ourselves. We lose out on the vast inheritance we have as children of the Creator.
If it follows that God is the true source of all creativity, the ultimate dreamer , and that we are not just made in the image of our Creator, but also adopted through Christ into his family, reflecting the nature of our Father, then it follows that we should burn with bright, Spirit-fuelled creativity. We should be exploding with art, bringing beauty and calling order out of chaos.
What’s holding us back? I wonder if, on the one hand, we hide ourselves in mediocrity, afraid to share our ideas for fear people will shoot them down. But the opposite is true:
“Whereas material goods are diminished by sharing, the spiritual treasuries of knowledge and beauty, of poetry, music and the rest, by being shared are not diminished but increased.” [Kathleen Raine, The Land Unknown]
We’re called to create in community: just as God involved Adam in the first creation, we who are in Christ, the second Adam, are called to be involved in the new creation: remaking, rethinking and renewing the world around us. We need to encourage a culture that births creativity and does not settle for the status quo.
The second thing that often holds us back is pride. Ego chokes true, God-anointed creativity and leaves us with a hollow shell of what could have been. I love the famous exhortation to humility that US President Ronald Regan had mounted on his desk in the White House: ‘There’s no limit to what you can achieve as long as you don’t mind who gets the credit’.
Let’s push for a cultural shift in our churches towards a season of dangerous, risky, brave creativity, while striving to be clothed in real humility. Let’s shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life. [Phil 2:15]

From Al Gordon’s blog on Worship Central

Have a good week!

Tim

An Attitude like his . . . .

When I was a lot younger my brother was seriously into the A-Team. He loved that TV programme and had all the toys and action figures. His favourite character was BA Baracus played by Mr T. BA was a hard man and his name said it all - Bad Attitude! BA liked nothing better than tossing some 'crazy fool' over the front of a car or van.

The character, like the actor was a big softie. In fact, Mr T used his high profile to help get an important message across to kids. he was a Christian who told kids to stay away from alcohol and drugs. The scary, mohawk and gold chain wearing giant of a man might have looked like a tank on the outside but on the inside his attitude was one of a gentle giant whose love for Jesus caused him to use his fame for good.

This week in the bible study we will be looking at the attitude that we are meant to be showing as Christians. Are we meant to be proud/ aloof? Are we meant to be people who care for others? Are we people who have concern for the people we come into contact with - our neighbours, our friends, our family, our workmates?

Hopefully, we will be able to develop an attitude like His . . . . .

Click here for the study

Time off for good behaviour?

It is not easy to live as a Christian in the world today. Often the people that surround us and know that we claim to be followers of Christ are waiting for us to mess up. How we live our lives, the things we say, the things that are important to us and the way that we react to issues all show how serious we are about following Jesus. Is it enough just to be 'decent'? Do we need to be the type of people that are open, vibrant, challenging, energetic and people that others gravitate towards rather than be out off by our caustic personality. What things do we do that make people think that being a Christian is boring, full of rules and unfulfilling?

In the current bible study we will be looking at the way that Paul reckons we should be behaving. How do we live as Christians in the world today? This will also lead us into thinking about the attitiudes that the Christian should have in the next study.

When others look at us what do they see?

Have a good week!

New Small Group Bible Study: Priorities

What are the big priorities in your life? Church - family - job - God - the kids - free time - football? What things do you make a priority? Whose interest do they serve? Are your priorities an indication of the way that you live your life and the way that you serve God?

This new study will be used from Sunday 5th October and gets us to look into Phillipians chapter 1 to see the priorities that Paul had in his life and how we should try to be more like him.

You can access the study by clicking here

The cost of forgiveness . . . .

I wonder if you have been watching the news over the last week as the Credit Crunch really starts to bit with the big banking and financial institutions around the world. I have been bemused to see the extreme efforts that governments seem to be taking to steady the sinking ships. It seems that the world will end if banks we have never heard of go belly up. It seems that the people who have been getting paid big money for many years are finally getting a dose of the real world.

George Bush has been trying to get this big mega deal to help the financial system. $700 Billion dollars. The Guardian on Saturday told me that this is equal to the GDP of the world's 12th richest country and that it is equal to the US government paying out $5,530 to every person who lives in the US! Is it just me or is this a little crazy? It seems to me that the Banks are about to be forgiven for their bad debt. In order to survive the government will buy the bad debt from them. Is this not a spectacular form of forgiveness. Companies used to taking risks are being bailed out by the government. At a huge cost. I have been wondering what it might be like if my endowment mortgage fails to reach the figure I need it to get to by 2020. Will the government be there to bail me out - even though I am likely to actually have paid enough into the account . . . .

This whole financial crisis has got me thinking a lot about forgiveness. Do I resent the fact that some people get forgiven debt and others dont. Then I thought - what am I worrying about? The biggest debt in my life is already sorted. God, through Jesus, has already forgiven the fact that I invested my life in selfishness, greed, anger etc and He turned me round. Just like those big banks - I needed someone to bail me out - there was a huge cost - a cost where Jesus had to become one of us, be condemned like one of us and die like one of us - yet, He was not one of us.

My debts are forgiven. I am free. I dont need to worry about the past, the present or the future. How cool is that?
So, how do I then live this great forgiveness and share it with everyone else . . . . I think I need to work harder on my 'forgiving heart'.

New Small Group Study: Building a new community

Church is a community of believers who have a shared identity who are engaged in shared tasks and who have a shared aim. We cannot be in isolation. We are the parts of one body, we are the living stones - 'we are built together into a spiritual house' and we need to be involved in this together.

This is the first in a new series called 'Living in the real world'.

The first study of the year will be called 'Building a new community' and will look specifically at some of the writings of Paul to the church at Philippi (aka Philippians!). You can read through the notes on this study on the following link

It's time to go . . . again!

I would like to say a big hello to all of the new people who are wanting to join network groups this year. We are hoping to be able to have 2 extra new groups this year and aim to have about 65 people meeting together on a regular basis, every 2 weeks for bible study and fellowship.

These are exciting times for us and we want you to make the most of your time in the group. A new small group study guide that contains the questions that leaders will be using can be found on the links in my web space. A permanent link is over on the right of this page where it says timmanson.com or you can just click on this link. When you go to the Small Group page you will be able to see and download, print etc the most up to date study . . . if you microsoft word!

Someone should be in touch this week to let you know further details . . . but if you have not heard anything do please get in touch with me .

A message to our local community!

What a week it has been in our church! Many of us have been really encouraged by the great number of people in the church who have been meeting for prayer both as part of the week of prayer and then as part of the 24/3 prayer thing in the Lawther school. It has been a great to have such a 'family' atmosphere, with people hanging round and chatting away to people that they maybe have not chatted to in a while. There was a great feeling of community and togetherness. Our hope and our prayer is that we can continue to build on this. That God's Holy Spirit will continue to bless us, guide us and challenge us as we try to make a difference to the place where we live.

Can I say a big thank you to everyone who has made a special effort this week - for everyone who made it down to the prayer meetings and the people who helped to fill up the 44 prayer slots, the people who helped with breakfast for the prayer walk, to Peter and Brian for leading the prayer meetings and the praise section on Friday, and to Helen, Mark, Lynsey, Gav, Rosie and Sarah who all helped out with different aspects of the prayer room.

It is always rewarding when you see hard work being rewarded and you see God doing His thing through us!

Finally, can I also please say that we can continue to walk with God on a close basis by joining a network bible study group. These groups meet every 2 weeks and there will be one to suit your needs. Please come and learn more about what God wants us to do with Him in our local area!

Re:Launch of Network

Exciting news.
Later today in church I will be announcing the relaunch of network. We already have 7 groups that meet every 2 weesk but we want more. Network is now open to anyone at all - not just the 20 -40's - so we really want to see how many more groups of people are interested in meeting and having bible study!

Please make sure that you sign up - either download this questionaire and email it to me or give me back one of those yellow ones from church. The choice is yours but do, please, join us! (The questionnaire is on the Small Groups page of my personal web space)

More info after the announcement!

3 days of Prayer

You maybe heard the announcement in church on Sunday. This year as part of the week of prayer we are encouraging people in the church to spend some time in the church praying for the year ahead. The idea is that that the Lawther school will be set up as a prayer room and that we have people 'booked' into the room for 3 days.

This is a great opportunity for individuals, small groups, families, teams of leaders, groups of friends to come down to pray together for the church, friends, family and the local community.

Prayer is the backbone to all of the things we want to do. This is an opportunity for us to reflect on the positive power of prayer and for us to remember how our prayers can change situations and lives.

There are 44 slots available over the weekend and we really encourage you to sign up. We also have a few sessions where you can come down for group prayer and worship times.

Look up the online calendar to see what is available

24/3 Prayer calendar

You can then sign up by emailing me or of course fill in the sign up sheet in the church!

Make a point of joining us!