Worship is the engine

Last night in church we had a very helpful message from Mr Peter Campbell from 1 Peter 2: 4-10. Pete focused on verses 4 and 5 and the phrase "Coming to Him....you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

Pete was saying that Worship is the engine of the Christian life. Worship is how you grow as a Christian because "as you come to him....you are being built up". It was helpful to be reminded that it is in coming to the Lord that we grow. Pete spent a lot of time explaining what worship is and what it isn't. A lot of people say "Worship is my whole life" and by saying that they mean that we don't have to do anything to worship and therefore really these people aren't worshipping at all. We do need to "Come to Him", there is something we need to do.

So, if we're not worshipping God (i.e. coming to Him) then we are not growing. It sounds very simple written down here I guess but it was a very helpful and inspiring message. You should be able to download it from the Townhill website before the end of this week.

My summer

It has been quite some time since I last posted. So here is a summary of things from my summer.

Firstly, I became a house owner on 4th August 2006. I am very excited about this. There is a lot more work to be done than I realised at first. Much work needs doing in the bathroom (mainly sorting out the electrics). There is painting needed throughout, new skirting needed downstairs, new carpets for all the bedrooms, landing and stairs, and new flooring in the kitchen and bathroom. There is probably more than that. I am becoming better and better at filling; it's all I seem to be doing every day!

Secondly, camp was excellent. I went on EMW Camp 6 at Quinta. I had never been to Quinta before, it's a lovely place. Ian Parry was the chaplain and his talks all week focused on the end times. Some of his themes were: Where is Jesus now?, Jesus' second coming, Heaven and Hell, Judgement, Jesus' compassion. I found the talks really helpful and moving. It was wonderful to be able to have such confidence in Christ as able to save any of the campers who would come to Him. Also it was amazing to consider the glory of the Lord from Revelation 1: 12-18. The epilogues were also great. I was asked to share my testimony on the Monday night, which was a great privilege. On the Tuesday night Katie Hadley gave her testimony and it was wonderful. I was so moved by the fact that Jesus changes lives so dramatically for the better. It was also great to meet some kids who were obviously really spoken to through the messages. It was very helpful and encouraging to see God at work!

Thirdly, I went to Aberystwyth conference. To be honest, I often find the conference discouraging and depressing on the whole and, while there were a few odd high points, it was the same this year unfortunately. I found it very disappointing that such a large number of people seemed to enjoy the lectures given by one of the speakers. It seems to me that the church of God in Wales is happy with and in fact expects a lecture on a particular aspect of doctrine rather than being exhorted to love, honour, worship and obey God more and more. It was great to hear Gwynn Williams preaching on James 1: 22-25. He was challening us to be doers rather than just hearers of the word. Other highlights for me included the missionary exhibition (as always!), Joel Beeke in Extratime - it was great to hear him being interviewed on a number of occasions, Pete Campbell and Allan Rees in Extratime, Martin Downes's seminar on Heroes and Heretics was very interesting and helpful. I also enjoyed Geoff Thomas's preaching on the Friday evening. He preached on 1 Peter 1: 8-9 and was very warm in reminding us what we have in Christ.

So now I have a week left until school starts again. A week of doing all the work I have left until now and of working on my new house!