Joomla! site syndication http://godsgap.net 2010-03-13T19:52:17+01:00 http://godsgap.net http://godsgap.net/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2005-12-26T18:36:06+01:00 http://godsgap.net http://godsgap.net/content/view/1/ We are a Church Community made up of a collection of families; dads, mums, youth and kids with a sprinkle of granddads and grandmas. We desire not just to live life but to love life. We are very genuine in our love for Jesus Christ, for each other and for our community in the Gap. Our desire is to evidence the love of Christ both in our lives and through our lives. As a Church we do this by caring for people; we worship together every Sunday, we have life groups, life pods, youth socials, we mentor children at Hilder Road Primary School and help out with chaplaincy. Check out What's on? for more info about how we are caring for people. To find us click on Find Us. Each Sunday Message is videod so that you can listen or watch it online. There is a panel with the title Watch or Listen here , click on either MP3 Audio , Fast Broadband Video or Slow Broadbane Video to access the messages. text/html 2010-03-11T17:15:30+01:00 http://godsgap.net http://godsgap.net/content/view/507/28/ Being a father of four kids I’ve learnt to work and study with all manner of household noise. But I do have my limits, particularly when the kids have gone mad with silliness and I’m on the phone. That’s when I politely tell the person to hang on and then ROAR for QUIET!!!!.How many voices yell for your attention throughout the day? I’m talking about the voices of your desires. Things like wishing you could get married, wishing you weren’t married, wishing your kids would turn out right, wishing you had just a bit more money, wishing you could have a restful holiday, wishing work or school wasn’t so hard.We live in a noisy world because our hearts are noisy. The Bible calls this noise and these wishes “the lust of the flesh.” A lust is a normal desire gone mad. For example you may want your kids to grow up right to be good persons. That is a normal desire given by God. However it can easily go mad and be transformed into a lust - something that you must have, something that you can’t do without.When your child is naughty do you go way over the top? Are you like a KGB agent always on their case, exposing their every flaw, correcting their every wrong? Do you yell and rage at your child because they continue to disobey you? That is not God given; it is Lust - an out-of control desire for perfect kids who bring us praise.Lust is deceptively common and we often expect God to fulfill it for us. We want health, a good job, to be popular, to be happy and not sad, to be able to retire, to have good friends. But all of these are voices which can yell at you for attention, that pour anxiety into your life, that fill your heart and mind with noise.If your life is filled with noise then I hope you will find my message “Peace, Be Still” practical and helpful. May you learn to both calm and quiet your heart so that you can experience real peace within the chaos that each day brings. the Rev text/html 2010-03-07T00:00:00+01:00 http://godsgap.net http://godsgap.net/content/view/505/32/ Real Help Why doesn’t God help me the way I want? Work is hard, chores are boring, family is painful, future is scary and life is tiring. God is all powerful so why does the lawn still need to be mowed, why are there things to be fixed at home, why do the kids keep fighting and why do the bills out number my income?Can’t God help? Or won’t God help? If a person has been diagnosed with cancer how will it help them if we raised money so that we could give them a care, send their kids off to rehabilitation so that they came back civilised, a new car, an easier and higher paying job. None of this would make sense since they have cancer, they are going to die. Wouldn’t be better if we could do something about their cancer so that they could live. Wouldn’t they be happy to return to their small imperfect home with fighting kids and a boring job?So it is with God. We want what does not matter while ignoring our greatest need. We rush headlong through our lives missing and ignoring our need for God himself. We substitute him for that which in comparison is worthless. We are like sheep who have gone astray. We are lost in the wilderness and the howling of the wolfs has frozen our blood.We need a shepherd who is going to care for, not just in terms of food and shelter. We need his care to heal our broken hearts, to heal the wounds that so scar us. We need him to refresh us and restore our very souls. Not with plasma TV’s but with a real experience of our Shepherds care within our daily lives, within the wreckage of our family, work and churchWhen we are sounded by the wolfs we want the Rod and Staff not only to protect us but to guide us into safety. We need the Shepherds comfort in the dark times of our lives. So often we stumble and fall. These are times when we doubt our salvation or our faith as being genuine. And yet our shepherd assures us that we will never be lost from him, that we will one day dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Why? Because he is going to make sure that we make it because he will care for us, he will comfort us and he will protect us, never to forsake us.God doesn’t help me the way I want because he is concerned about giving me real help. the Rev