The Comfort Zone...

Today has been a day.

Since the departure of Kristian from the Elim worship team (he's now married and living far far away), the team has been challenged to raise up leaders from within, and today was my morning.

To say I was bricking it would be putting it mildly, my nerves were all over the place I'd been sick the night before - being the guy at the front just isn't me. However, I took the challenge, got there having prayed loads, and I put my trust in God to do something good.

We got through practise after several technical hurdles, we'd had a great prayer time, and approaching the start of the meeting, I'm feeling charged up!

First song; How great thou art. Good song! Get to just near the end and guess what! STRING BREAKS! I could not believe it! Never happened to me before and there we are, first morning of me leading and I now have a useless guitar. However I felt God say 'relax' - I just had to go with it.

So, calmly I put the guitar down, and I worshipped. Fortunately I had a great team around me; Dan on Drums, Adam on Acoustic Guitar, Baby David on Bass, Jane on Piano / pads and Jules on Percussion, and on backing vocals Hanna, Claire and Jane. I was playing my trusty telecaster to lead from.

I have to say though, I really did worship, I was so free. Even without an instrument I was able to lead the band, we went up and down in dynamic and I really felt God move.

Managed to get a string on before the second set, which also went well; and no other breakages!

Afterwards, I was blessed with so many lovely comments. At lunch, I felt drunk, the spirit really rested on me. Awesome.

So here's my encouragement to you...step out of your zone. If you know me well enough, you'll know that I'd never do this off my own back. And yet, God blessed me for stepping out.

We should all step out of our comfort zone from time to time. JUST DO IT.

Valentines Day...

Friends, it's once again been a while since my last post. I've been very busy! I'll update soon. However, I got an email today, and for the first time, i have found the value in Valentines day...i thought it was a clinton cards festival, but read on...

Valentine, the priest who Valentine’s Day is named after, was martyred for the godly institution of marriage.

The emperor of Rome , Claudius, passed a law banning marriages. His reason was simple: men would not volunteer to join his Roman army with wives and fiancées to leave behind. Valentine knew that God instituted the family and His will included marriages. So, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies - but in secret. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.

One night, he did hear footsteps. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown into prison and sentenced to death.

Valentine remained cheerful while he was in prison and many people came to the prison to visit him. He even continued to perform marriage ceremonies while he was in prison! The jailer’s daughter would often visit Valentine in his cell and they sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.

On the day Valentine was to die he left this girl a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine”. That note, written on the day Valentine died – February 14th, 269 AD – started the custom of exchanging love notes on St Valentine’s Day.