PASSION

Okay so I had a day off yesterday and then was the perfect time to write this post because I have felt really lead to speak about passion with you all, but you know what its like, you have a day off from work, and you make plans but then you just end up doing nothing all day… Thats what happened to me! Haha. So anyway, i wanted to speak about PASSION. So we all have a PASSION for something whether its for a sport we play, or our job that we work in, or just hanging out with friends, we can have a PASSION for lots of things.But as a Christian, who believes that Jesus died for me and the whole world to take away our sins, and that if we believe in Him we can have everlasting life in Heaven.
I have a PASSION, my PASSION is to see people get saved, brought out from the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of Light, nothing makes me happier when I see that someone has made that choice (Yes its a choice) , also when someone finds out what their calling is, what God has called them to do in their life, when you find that out you cant be more thrilled with it. To know the plan that God has for your life is amazing. And even if we dont know yet, if we have faith, we can believe and trust that He will show us and tell us at the right time, the right time is of course in His time. His timing and plan for our lives is Perfect … Jeremiah 29:11-13

So if your a Christian, take a step back and just look at yourselves for a couple of minutes, do you have that PASSION? Do you have the PASSION to see people saved? Do you want to have that PASSION for God? Do you want to do His will? Do you want to do what pleases Him?

Because I know that I’m beginning to feel that passion, i know that i want to do what pleases Him and i want to do His will.

God knows your heart, and as ive said before, He knows us better than we know ourselves, he knows how many hairs we have on our head! Our God is an INCREDIBLE God.

So… Do you have the PASSION for God?

 

 

…Cerian Gough – Victory Intern.

Over recent months I have been totally transformed in my thinking in regards to the church and the Kingdom of God. After researching the life and ministry of Christ I was astounded how little he taught about the church. It maybe argued that the reason behind this is that the church was not birthed or formed until after His ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Read More www.equip121.com

As the church continues to grow with more turning to Christ we are having another baptismal service on Sunday the 23rd October, as part of this weekend Bill Wilson from Metro Ministries will be with us on the Monday night of that weekend.

We recently received this quote from a Pastor in Africa,

Dear  Minister,
Christian greetings. I am pastor  Peter based in Western Kenya. I am
blessed by what God is doing in your ministry through your web page. God
bless you for obeying His voice and by ministering this kind of healing to
the Body of Christ. I am praying that one day God will bring you in kenya
Africa so that you can bless the Body of Christ.

God`s blessings upon you.
Yours in Him,
pastor Peter mwombe and Rose

Well where should I start? The beginning seems as good a place as any. To put me into context for the now and future blog I had better tell you a little about who I am.
I was born in 1977 into a family of no discernable faith. I grew up with only a limited relationship with religion, ie the kind of stuff you come across in RE classes at school. As I moved into my teenage years I considered my self a rough and tumble, rugby playing, beer swilling, scientist, who was more than happy to believe that there was no God because science had disproved things such ad the creation theory, through the work of Darwin etc.
This opinion didn’t change as I moved into my twenties and university called. 3 years later and a science degree in my pocket I was ready to go and find work. After several jobs in factories and ended up working in an office (and 11 years later I am still there).
In 2001 I got married. We married in a church because my wife believed in Jesus, I wanted to get married in a church because it is what people did. In 2005 we were blessed with our first son and in 2007 by our second.

Up until now my attitude towards religion had totally stifled my wife’s beliefs (something I am now profoundly sorry about).

I just realised I have not mentioned my best friend, someone who had played a major part in my life from about 14. He was originally from Belgian called Stella Artois.

My blood was full of alcohol most of the time and my heart was full of anger and hate. There was a deep seated blackness in my heart that impacted upon all our lives. If I was not working I would have normally been drinking or arguing with my wife. I know now that it was only through His grace in her that she stayed with me.

2009. My wife was waiting in our doctors’ surgery for one of our many appointments when she started to speak to another Mum who was waiting with her son. I can now see that this was not an accidental meeting but one that formed part of His plan.
Following on from this meeting B (my wife) and A’s relationship very quickly developed into a friendship you would have thought was forged in pre-school, not in a matter of weeks.
As it turned out A was a Christian and invited us to her local church for the dedication of her children. I went along for the ride as I thought there was a chance of a drink after it.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought although there was no drink!
At the request of my wife we started attending this church. My thoughts on the matter of religion did not change although we attended for about 18 months.
Outside of the church my wife’s friendship with A and mine with D (A’s husband) went from strength to strength and they became two of the most important people in our lives – not blood relatives but more than that.
Now let me fast forward to my 34th birthday. My opinion regarding religion hadn’t changed and I was probably drinking more as my work life was becoming increasing stressful. A&D had been attending this new church called Victory Church and we had been invited to a baptismal service on Sunday the 20th February (now a very important date in my life’s history).
My birthday consisted of a meal and me getting plastered and a takeaway and me getting plastered – you get the picture.
On Saturday 19th I was out for dinner with some family members and we were talking about where we were going in the morning and I was saying how much I didn’t want to go – getting up with a hangover gets harder as you get older. As the night wore on my feelings about not going grew until I said that my wife should go on her own.
The next morning I awoke with a slight hangover and by the time we had got the kids ready I had given in to the nagging and agreed to go – we were going out for lunch with A&D after it so I would get a chance for ‘hair of the dog’.

We arrived at the church and the only way I can describe it was a warehouse – because this is what it was and had been converted.
We walked in and A&D took us to some seats that had been reserved for us and we sat down. The Pastor took the stage and the band started to play.

The music was playing and the Pastor stood there in shorts and a t-shirt (please remember it was a baptism service, he is normally very smartly dressed). Within about a minute it felt like my ‘Adam’s apple’ was the size of a real apple. I was having to really focus and chew back the tears. My emotions were all over the place and I did not know where to look or what to do – this is not how I acted in public! But this time I wasn’t given a choice. I tried to block the thoughts I was getting out of my mind and shake myself back to ‘reality’ – at least what I considered to be reality back then. “Come on son get a grip of yourself, what are you doing?” No answers came to these questions and the emotions continued to grow inside me. I tried focusing on work, trying to block out the testimonials of those being baptised. Anything to stop the words being spoken from fuelling this immense feeling of indescribable emotion building within me. By the time we got to the end of the baptisms my jaw was aching and my heart was beating out of my chest. I thought to myself that at least it was over and I could now sort myself out and go for lunch and have a pint or 5.
When the Pastor walked back out on stage dressed in a suit and started preaching I had to look down at my watch, it had felt as though I had been there for hours. No such thing, we were only half way through. How on earth was I going to hold it together for another three quarters of an hour???????
Although there is a lot about the day I can clearly remember, the Word spoken that morning is not one of them. I remember the Pastor speaking, but my mind was not hearing his words, but questions and statements- What do you want? What are you doing? What is stopping you? You know what you need to do!
You do know that don’t you? (I now know this last one did come from the Pastor).
By the time we got towards the end of the service I was a mess and I genuinely do not know how I stopped myself from breaking down and crying. The voices had stopped, but inside my heart it felt like a war was raging. I am not adept enough to describe the feelings in any other way. However, I do know I felt scared and safe all at once, free and captive, happy and sad, angry and at peace.
(While trying to put the emotions at this time into words, I have read it back several times trying to put something down that makes sense but the above was the best I could do – bit nuts but hopefully you get it.)
Then the Pastor asked everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes and I thought ‘Yes made it through. Just one more prayer thing and we are out of here’.
It was not quite that simple, the purpose of the prayer is for those who were yet to be Saved by Jesus, for those that did not know Him but wanted to. The Pastor said ‘if you want to know Jesus and have him in your life raise your hand so that we can pray with you’ (not the precise words but you get my drift).
Up until now I did not think things could get any worse (I would say better now but not back then). My arm wanted to rise, the weirdest feeling I have ever had, my mind was saying NO and I was battling with fear and pride, what was I doing? It did not matter how much I told my arm NO it was clear I had no control over it and up it shot.
I heard the words ‘thank you you can put it down’ and I just stood next to my wife with tears streaming down my cheeks.

It was over and people started getting up and moving around, I was still in a daze but as I started to come around my senses started to kick in. I said to myself ‘man up son, the boys will be back from children’s church soon’. I managed to sort myself out just before the boys turned up.
As we left the church one of the pastors gave me a book called ‘next steps’ (I think this was the title but not sure. It basically explains in a good level of detail what I had done that morning)
At this point I had no idea what changes I was going to go through.
As we walked back to the cars and made arrangements about lunch with A&D, doubts started creeping into my mind.
I was scared and needed to be able find an anchor in my old life to hang the reasons for what had just happened off.
My family were sat in the car as we drove to the pub – my wife happy with what she had seen, the boys oblivious to what was going on and me with an edition of Question Time going on in my head.
My emotions covered the entire spectrum from fear to joy and back again with everything in-between.
I had a million questions but I somehow knew in my heart that I would find the answers, but not by talking to a person, they would come from within (then weirdest feeling ever, now the most comforting).
Once we got into the pub and I was standing at the bar, the change really hit me. I looked across the pumps at all the lagers and bitters to see which one I fancied – then it hit me like a breeze block in the back of my head – I didn’t fancy any of them…….. Not because the didn’t have something I liked (was never that fussy as long as the alcohol content was over 4.5%). This had not happened to me for 20 years or so and it was really freaky. I stood there and ordered diet cokes – me ordering a diet coke!!! Madness and yet I still had this glowing feeling inside. You know the one where you go to say something but can’t and you just smile and exhale.
We moved through into a small room just off the bar, it was only really big enough to house about 3 tables. An elderly couple sat in the one, but you will never guess who was sat at the other large table in the room? It was the pastor(s) from the church and their partners. I know you are thinking, how many more signs does a person need? You have to give me a break I was only born a couple of hours prior to this.
The meal and company was great and every one was really happy. I still had my questions but happy is not a strong enough descriptor for my feelings. We left the pub (with me sober) and headed for home.
Once home I did not have chance to stop and think about what had happened earlier that day as we had to get the kids sorted for school and put them to bed etc. My internal glow started to dim and doubts really started to kick in – I thought at the time I could have done with another blast of church but this next battle was an internal one and I had been given the power to make my own choice. I thought a lot that night…..

I woke up on that Monday morning with the same feeling you got on Christmas day when you were a kid. I felt like a different person in the same body. The blackness in my heart had gone, in it’s place light and hope. I no longer felt constantly angry about what my boys had to go through. There was a feeling of calm and acceptance in my heart, the way you felt as a child when you had done something wrong and your Dad told you not to worry it would be okay.
I found myself smiling all of the time, I could be driving to work and give out a chuckle and beam a full smile for no reason other than what Jesus had done for me – shone a light into the darkness in my heart and I knew it would never be extinguished. The one recurring bad feeling I continued to have over the coming weeks was jealousy.
I found I was jealous of my wife, A&D and all the other people who had Jesus in their lives. It is amazing to have Jesus in your heart and why was it I had to wait so long to find it. As my relationship with Him grew these feelings subsided and disappeared. Although my marriage to alcohol was now well and truly sitting in the divorce courts there were three occasions between February and the end of April where I had a drink. It was as though I wanted to test my self, almost waiting for me to fail, waiting for the old person to come back.
Each of the times I drank I did not get the same feelings I used to, it just didn’t feel right any more!
I found myself driving home after a long stressful day, not thinking about a cold 4 pack of Stella but going home to my family and reading the bible. I was freaking myself out but loving it, and the glow in my heart was getting stronger.
My last drink was on the 30th April 2011 and at the time I did not know this would be my last.
The next time I had an opportunity for a drink there was a different voice inside me, not one saying ‘go on get smashed’ but one saying ‘why do you want a drink?’ Previously I was always able to come up with a reason to drink but this time I did not have the answer so I did not have a drink. Please note; over 2 months later and I have still not gone back to it – really hard at times but it is not my strength that is keeping me going!
Over the weeks and months since being saved I have changed so much as a person. I deal with people and situations so differently and I find myself thinking about what Jesus would want me to do before I act.
My life is now full of light and hope. I am not saying it is easy, nor that there is no pain or anguish in my life. What I am saying is that there is a fire inside me that has been ignited by the love of Jesus and this is now my guiding light in my life.
For anyone one that is reading this and does not know Jesus, all I can say is please do not let your pride and fear be barriers to His love. It is too easy to hide behind the thoughts and beliefs of today’s society. It is not easy to go against the status quo but it is certainly worth it.
Well that brings me up to date. Jesus has transformed my life, I can not thank Him enough for showing me His grace and setting me free. Lord I love you beyond words and to have you in the centre of my life is the most incredible thing. I hope and pray my testimony will reach others who were like me and show them the light too!