A Day At Newark Everyday Champions Church

The trip to Newark started off at 8 AM. I got picked up from Reachout Community Church by Yuri and his lovely wife. I actually thought I had got the day wrong because they did not arrive till ten minutes after eight. Anyway a quite calculated pray and we were on our way to Newark. I am fairly good at pin pointing [roughly] where towns are generally located in my neck of the woods, however this time I got it totally wrong. I thought we would be going in the direction of Cambridge on the A14. I soon got to learn that Newark was up north on the A1. The trip was uneventful and took up just under one and a half hours to get there. After a nice cup of coffee served from the Coffee shop in the church and some socialising, we were all ready to sit down and listen to the vision for the church and some testimonies.I would just like to make mention of Steve's presentation. He talked about how God speaks to all of us... ALL the time. He illustrated this by telling us that we are all equiped with an inbuilt radio, and that all we need to do is tune this radio from Radio 2 to the Holy Channel. He then went on to give testimonies of word he has had from God and how he has prayed to the people involved in the word he has had. Conclusions? It was a fantastic day out visiting another church, getting together with other members from the Nottingham and Newark church, making friends and sharing.I managed to get some optics. Please do not scrutinise them. I used my Blackberry phone to take the picture.

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Uncertainty - Weathering the Storms with God's Promises

The Oxford Dictionary [online[ defines uncertainty as:

noun (plural uncertainties)[mass noun] the state of being uncertain:times of uncertainty and danger  [count noun] (usually uncertainties) something that is uncertain or that causes one to feel uncertain:financial uncertainties.

Our sermon today at church [Reachout Community Church] was about UNCERTAINTY. Before I go any furthur, I just want to mention that my writing speed is not up to scratch, so I have just managed to jot down as much as I could based on this.

There is undoubtedly so much uncertainty that surrounds all of us. For some people, it is the uncertainty of their jobs, for others it is the uncertainty of even getting a job. There is nothing we scan actually say [of our lives on this earth] that we can certain of. In light of this, Gareth Morgan highlighted the below three points.

• How should we respond in an uncertain world
• How should we deal with uncertainty in our lives.
• When uncertainty gets into you, it starts to shrivel you up from the inside.

The reading was taken from Hebrews Chapter 11 verses 13 to 16:

The Heavenly Hope - 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had the opportunity to return.

16 But now they desire a better, that is, heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Knowing for certain - reminding yourself what you are certain of. Uncertainty - ungrounded you. It stops you from moving on.

There are 4 decisions/choices you need to make to give you the lift. Recognise what faith does. Faith - sustains you. Uncertainty - makes you go all over the place. In relation to the verses quoted above, Gareth related uncertainty to all 4 of these verses, unfortunately I managed to capture three of them.

Verse 14 - We all hit packets of lows, moments of dark days and uncertainty, phases whereby we think that that is the end. We should remind ourselves that this is just a phase and that we are just passing through. We need remind ourselves that this is not it. Verse 15 - You cannot go back. You need to be pushing forward. Say to God that you are not going back but pushing forward. Verse 16 - Make a declaration. Make the choice of arriving at that point/destination.