Grace and the New Leaders' Training
It’s All About Grace
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So, I’m back from Ledbury – what an amazing weekend. I could talk for hours about all that I learnt there. I did wear my rugby shirt (and spilt tea on it…) and we weren’t allowed to tell anyone the result of the match as we recorded it and watched it after 11 last night. It was so annoying to keep receiving messages and not looking at them! I don’t think we played that well but really there is no shame in loosing to an undefeated side by such a close margin – and in such a rough game!
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There were four main talks and they were given by the UCCF relay co-ordinator who turns out to be from the proper Bangor (that being, Co Down Northern Ireland!). And we found out our almost one degree of separation by the end of the weekend (Paul- it was you! Or Roz really).
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The talks were about grace – how God is glorified because of His grace to us, how it is all we can boast in, that is makes us all equal because we have all fallen so short, how no one is beyond God’s grace, how no one doesn’t need God’s grace, what our attitudes should be to others and how nothing we could ever do for God could compare in any way to His amazing and glorious grace. The passages covered were Hosea 11, Romans 3 v 21-29, the Lost Son in Luke 15 and Philippians 3.
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The more I learn about grace and God, the more I read my bible, the more I want to pray and realise how important prayer is. I went to a seminar type thing on the power and practice of prayer. We looked at Hebrews 4 v 12 – 16 and how we can boldly approach the throne of God. Compare that to Esther who was so fearful of approaching King Xerxes’ throne – unless he extended his sceptre to her she would have died. Through Jesus we can approach God and receive all the grace and mercy we could ever need. And we shouldn’t let guilt or shame about something stop us from approaching God because He knows everything we’ve done wrong already.
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Between the practice of prayer part of that seminar and the “Job Slot” for prayer secs I was really encouraged and challenged about the prayer life of the CU. I’m really excited about this year and kind of daunted! To say prayer is important is such a huge understatement…! My hope and prayer is that God will use me in this next year for His glory and that I would remember it’s by His grace and for His glory that I am in this role – nothing about my own strength at all or about what I can do as prayer sec. It’s all about Him.
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It was also good to spend time together as a committee and get to know each other more (although a committee member finding out about my phobia may not turn out so positively!). And on the way home in Sarah’s car it was fun to talk about some very interesting things!
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An amazing weekend – a weekend with great teaching, great craic, meeting new people, learning new ideas, coming back and hearing about the Gospel again (something we should always be doing because it means we remember who God is and leads us to pray more and love Him more), being in the countryside and surrounded by green.
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But more than that – it was challenging, uncomfortable and made me cry at places but that made it all the better. We need to be broken for our friends and family who are not saved. We need to know that it’s not about us. We need to remember it’s all about God.
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As good as it was, we can’t stay on that mountaintop. It’s back to real life and with a real hope and prayer that none of us forget what we heard this last weekend, that we all remember and share what we learnt, that we remain passionate about the Gospel.
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I returned from the weekend with seven new books… argh! Why do I do this? To be fair, I’ve been eyeing up three of the books (three were sold in a pack of three) since CU houseparty (Too Busy Not to Pray, Cross-Examined, Out of the Saltshaker), two of them were given as a gift to everyone on the weekend (Living the Cross Centred Life, How Good is Good Enough?) and the other two… well, one is Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ by John Piper and the other seems like a good one for me to read as it’s The Message of Prayer by Tim Chester. Keep in mind I already have over eighteen books in my room here that either haven’t been started or haven’t been finished! I need to read more!
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To end, here’s a great advert:
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“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3 v 20-21
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Let’s believe in that power!
posted by Rach @ 10:45 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Amen.
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