Last night at ECU, Stu Alred from New Frontiers Exeter came to speak on Hebrews 1. I think Stu has such a gift in preaching and I could listen to him for hours. He has such a passion for the Word of God and always has a focus on Jesus while his nose is in the text. ECU are privileged to have such support and feeding from great teachers from the church and Staff Workers. Yet even with great teaching, great events there is a danger for every Christian. Stu hit this nail on its head by drawing our attention to 2v1 -
"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."
Are YOU paying attention?!?!
What I have noticed is how I passively breath in the Gospel and not pay attention to its heart pounding relevance. Right now I am not prone to run from Jesus, that is the last thing I want to do. People would notice if I sprinted away from the Gospel. But drifting is easy, its silent and slow. Like wood on the sea that slowly drifts away from the safety of land. It just starts with one thing, like spending less time in the morning praying or reading your bible, skipping church to have more sleep time, focusing more time on your degree, work, ambitions and then suddenly you look around and you are so far from Jesus and you have no clue how you got there. It would be like waking up from a drunken haze to find yourself in the gutter.
So Stu challenged us with a question - "What are we placing higher then Jesus?" Is it religious experience? Angels? Friends? Career? Popularity? We all have something we place higher then Jesus because our focus is so easily distracted, but what is making us drift from Jesus? Drifting is Dangerous.
So lets get our eyes back on Him. Lets rub our noses in the ink of the bible and let that ink smudge on our faces. Lets have our hearts beat with eager excitement of the great treasure that is Christ. Lets not drift, but lets cling to the Cross. Let us flee from temptation into the Loving arms of the Father, Gazing on His Glory.
Free Week was amazing. Apologies for not finishing off blogging on what happened, lots of stuff happened and if you are on my prayer letter list then you would of got more regular updates!! So I thought I would do a review of the week:
Seven Reason Why Free Week was Amazing....
1) The Gospel is True and we got to share it to over a 100 people in each event...
2) Two students became Christians last week...this is awesome.
3) Bostons Tea Party was a great success and the atmosphere was amazing...
4) The day started with a long walk and then prayer. Praying with students and seeing God answer them was amazing.
5) Eating in halls was fantastic and some good conversations were had.
6) Spending time with CUGS was brilliant - encouraging and really fun!
7) Jesus is amazing. The whole week made me praise Jesus more. Love it!
Thank you for all your prayers.
Day 2
God is amazing. His word is amazing. Jesus is Amazing and I can't stop smiling. God is moving in Exeter and doing fantastic things. It makes me realise that actually none of this is about me, but it is about Jesus. I am just a Jar of Clay.
Today was exciting because a 1st year at Exeter became a Christian! She is our new sister in Christ!!! Praise God for His word and softening hearts. Please pray for her, please pray that she will see more of Jesus and just love Him with all her heart!
The events have been having a fantastic turn out and there have been some really encouraging conversations and prayers answered. The evening events have been drawing in over 100 people each night and John has been faithfully explaining the Gospel so well. It is really exciting to see God doing amazing things!!
Please continue to pray. Prayer works! :O)!
Thank you
Cat xxx
Day 1...
As my alarm sounded off its beeps which awoke me from a nice slumber and then the radio blasted out the gentle tones of radio 4 talking, I realised that it was 6:45am and my 5th mission week had begun. Once dressed and semi awake, I flicked to Psalm 111 and was reminded that the name of the Lord was Holy and awesome... that was a nice start. I then stepped outside and the heavens had opened - rain was falling hard and strong. A part of me wondered why would it have to rain this week when we had snow all last week... but God is good and He knows what He is doing!!
Prayer with the Hallgroup was encouraging. It was good to lift up everything this week to God, knowing that it is for His Glory and not for us...
Which leads me on to what happened wonderfully at the lunch bar... As everyone was tucking into their food and finding a seat, John started talking. He was grappling with the idea of "Why am I Here?"... Then suddenly a sound blasted from the room. Yes it was that sound that pierces your ears and can wake you up from a coma... the Fire Alarm went off. So we all went outside in the rain, umbrellas and hoods up, shivering and yet the crowd still remained. So what could we do at this point?... Well - have the talk outside! So under a small covering we crowded round the speaker as he told us about Jesus. I felt like I was in Acts, re-living one of Peters or Pauls sermons as the crowds gathered to hear the Good News. Questions were asked, people discussed...God was moving among them.
What is also exciting was that at BTP (Bostons Tea Party) where the evening events were held, God drew in a crowed of about 150ish people. It was amazing, people were standing and crouched just to hear the Good News!! What an encouraging day to start with...
Please do pray on a personal level, that I would have oppertunities to talk to people about Jesus - with boldness, courage and love. I find starting conversations hard, so need to rely on God!
Also..pray for energy, not just for me, but for students and for the other CU guests helping this week.
Thank you so much for all your support!!
Next week is Exeter Christian Unions Events week. They are putting on a week of events that include lunch time talks, evening talks, prayer breakfasts and fliering. This is my 5th mission since becoming a Christian and it is still as exciting. You would think I would be use to it all by now, but I still get nervous and scared about meeting new people and about telling them about Jesus. I shouldn't because the Gospel is true and I want people to be changed from next week - not because the events will be great, but because Jesus is better. Jesus is better then they have ever imagined and I want them to see Him, fall in love with Him and follow Him.
Pray for hearts to be opened, soft and eager to hear the Word of God.
Pray for boldness to speak truth, to proclaim the Gospel and to Love.
I will try to blog as much as possible next week about what is going on. Please keep praying!
Thank you :O)
