At the last first Thursday prayer meeting, we rang the bell for Jessica, who gave her life to Jesus back in June. She now gets baptized this Sunday safe in the knowledge that Jesus died for her and that she has a living relationship with the creator.
The next time we gather for a First Thursday prayer meeting we will again be ringing the bell. This time for Phil. When he arrived at Alpha a few weeks ago, he was a self-confessed atheist. Someone who thought being a Christian meant you had to conform to a set of rigid 1950's rules that held you back in life. Someone who saw the teachings of Christianity to be something that was unreasonable against the back drop of "do what you like as long as it doesn't affect me", British Culture.
Over the course of the evenings that we gathered his opinion gradually changed as he heard what following Jesus actually means. Although there are things that we do and don't do, it's as a response to grace not legality and it's based on love not judgement. This Sunday just gone, he made the public confession that he is now a follower of Jesus and that he wants to live a life that reflects the love and grace and mercy of the Jesus who came and paid the price on our behalf because of love.
Phil is a great guy who has a heart of compassion. I look forward to seeing him grow in his relationship with the living God and also to seeing more come to know Jesus as a result. (He's already got a couple of people potentially coming on the next Alpha course - what about you?)
The next time we gather for a First Thursday prayer meeting we will again be ringing the bell. This time for Phil. When he arrived at Alpha a few weeks ago, he was a self-confessed atheist. Someone who thought being a Christian meant you had to conform to a set of rigid 1950's rules that held you back in life. Someone who saw the teachings of Christianity to be something that was unreasonable against the back drop of "do what you like as long as it doesn't affect me", British Culture.
Over the course of the evenings that we gathered his opinion gradually changed as he heard what following Jesus actually means. Although there are things that we do and don't do, it's as a response to grace not legality and it's based on love not judgement. This Sunday just gone, he made the public confession that he is now a follower of Jesus and that he wants to live a life that reflects the love and grace and mercy of the Jesus who came and paid the price on our behalf because of love.
Phil is a great guy who has a heart of compassion. I look forward to seeing him grow in his relationship with the living God and also to seeing more come to know Jesus as a result. (He's already got a couple of people potentially coming on the next Alpha course - what about you?)
1 comment:
Very good! Thank you for sharing this! And do continue as it is very encouraging!
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