Continuing the ongoing search for Wisdom. How about these gems?

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations."
Elton Trueblood

"Vision looks upward and becomes faith." Stephen S. Wise

comment and add your own!

As I sit and wait before my first meeting of the date, my mind is thinking of many things. These include was "was my son really 12 yesterday, it only seems 5 minutes since he was born" and then I briefly think that of many of the things that have happened in that time and think there was more than enough to fill 2 or 3 life times.

I am thinking of the nature of grace. After the success of IgniteHope I am considering some of the people who chose not to be involved or really where quite against it. The old man in me wants to either bay for their blood or ignore them. The road of Christ is I think one that challenges me to discover how I reach out to them.

I am a fortunate man, fantastic wife, amazing kids, blessed ministry and a great church.

Yesterday in City Temple Cardiff, John Coles of New Wine spoke on Mark 1: 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" It was a sermon in season. In particular in thinking about what the kingdom of God is now. How our world is in darkness and as Christians it is our place to usher in light. So we cannot expect it to be light unless we do something about it!
So what is my role in all of this?

Have a great week!

May 2nd-May 5th 2008 will be dates that stay in my mind for a very long-time. IgniteHope, which has dominated much of our lives in the last few months, actually happened.

The 1,200 seater marquee was erected the previous week. 29 strong men + me spent nearly 10 hours wrestling with this beast before we got it in the air! The hardest days work I have ever done in my life!

The months of planning all became worth it as 430 young people registered and joined on the journey to make a lasting change in Jesus name to South Wales. In addition we had almost 800 people in the marquee every night to take part in amazing worship, listen to the Gospel being preached and enjoying some great bands

The project was successful in no small part due to the commitment of some great volunteers including John Lewis (pictured here with the local police)
Nathan Davies, Ben Franks, Ruth Samways and Mike Thomas.

Each day the 430 young people left the site in Sophia Gardens and headed out all over South Wales to be good news. Even my kids Ben and Beci took part. Being good news included running community fun days, painting over grafitti, Painting fantastic grafitti
, picking litter, clearing land, doing car washes, gardening, environmental work etc etc. In total over 6,700 hours were delivered.

In addition 100's of people were told about Jesus and many came to faith. This is what it's all about!