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The New Year is truly underway and already it is making a mark on us. A questions that deserves to by asked by each of us is, “am I making a mark on my year?”.

Most people name their year after it is ended; our Queen famously named 1992 as her “annus horribilis” due to the happenings it thrust upon her. Yet we can name our year before it has begun and, whilst not being able to control many of its events, we can plot its course.

In this new year talk I set out the main priority in 2010 for New Life (Scunthorpe) and encourage people to realise 2010 as the year where they do their best; to name it as “my best year”.

If you want to discover how to cause a significant upturn in your ability to become all that creator God wants you to be, then listen to this podcast and follow along with the powerpoint if you wish.

God bless you and thanks for visiting therevster.com

I find it strange that at a time of year when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, our lives become busier and busier and, dare I say it, a little more stressed.

This message which I shared with the brilliant people of New Life Church on Sunday 13th December will help you find a place of peace no matter the circumstances you find yourself in.

Happy listening and thanks for visiting therevster.com

A couple of years ago I saw a young man walking towards me wearing a t-shirt that said on the front “Done watching”. After he’d passed me I caught sight of the back of his shirt which said “Doing”. I thought this was such a powerful message that I wrote it down in my file for possible useful anecdotes.

When I came to prepare a talk about the importance of Christian believers being practictioners of God’s word rather than just hearers (or even just students) the image of this t-shirt suddenly became relevant.

If you want to know how to have a strong unshakeable faith and emerge out of any storm strong and secure with even greater blessing in store; then you need to hear the principles contained in this short talk.

Join the great family of New Life as we met together at our Sunday celebration at The House in Scunthorpe.

Thanks for listening and visiting therevster.com

Whatever your view of war, defence policy or miltary service; those millions of people who have been killed in wars over the last century are to be commended for lots of things. They are to be commended for their work ethic, discipline, diligence and not least their willingness to lay down their lives for future generations. It is for these kind of reasons that these heroes are to be commended.

In Hebrews 11:2 we read; “This is what the ancients were commended for”. The ancients are mentioned in the rest of the chapter; a list of biblical heroes of the faith . These people exhibited all the same characteristics of the those killed in action and secured for us not just the lineage of Jesus the Christ but also a means for our eternal salvation.

This podcast is a short message given on Remembrance Sunday 2009 at The House in Scunthorpe to the great people of New Life. The powerpoint presentation above was shown during the message.

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Have you ever wondered whether God is even interested in your circumstances let alone involved in the? In this talk I use the story of Jesus observing His disciples less than succesful fishing trip, to show how we can all connect with God through Jesus and perhaps see a miracle occur along the way.

Listen along to this podcast and join the rest of New Life Church at The House in Scunthorpe, UK as they continue to believe in a Big God, build Big People in Big Church.

This morning I delivered the final talk in a series of three on the topic of resilience. Putting it that way doesn’t do justice to the subject matter because “resilience” is much much more than a topic of course; it’s a trait that should be present in every follower of Jesus who wants to life live to the full.

Over the last three weeks newlifers have studied the life of Habakkuk; a prophet of Judah at the time of great oppression. He is an inspirational character because he is so much like us and brings resilience within reaching distance of you and me.>br>

Habakkuk cried out to God about the circumstances he was surrounded by, heard God answer in a way that would have shocked and scared him, and eventually emerged at the end of the book …. get this …. with exactly the same circumstances facing him. The difference; he had changed inwardly, he was bigger on the inside.

To learn the 4 ingredients of a resilient person have a listen to this podcast. I have placed the powerpoint presentation here too in place of the usual mindmap (unfortunately I scribbled too heavily on the mindmap for it to become useless for anyone other than me).

God bless and thanks for visiting therevster.com

A bit of camera trickery. Is this how he really did it?

I was privileged this morning to be able to give the last in a series of six talks to the family at New Life, Scunthorpe. The series “Big on the Inside” was aimed at helping believers committ to the process of becoming the mature and resilient disciples that Jesus desires.

The final talk, based on Ephesians 6:10 was called “Superstrength”. This one verse, which perhaps should have been the real start to the final chapter, encapsulates Paul’s main point to the church in Ephesus and, at this time, to New Life; “Finally, be strong in the Lord”.

To discover why finding our strength in God and not from within is so important, listen to this podcast and join with the newlifers gathered at The House in Scunthorpe.

God bless you and thanks for visiting therevster.com

I have often said that God is the great salvage expert. He often finds Himself having to take the wreckage of our life, ruined by our frequent blunders and gaffs and turn it into something fit for purpose. Hopeless situations are no obstacle to God and it is all too simple for Him to birth something beautiful out of a scene of chaos.

In 1989 the horror of the Hillborough disaster was broadcast on T.V screens around the globe. Scenes full of confusion and chaos. Broadcasters were careful to avoid showing too clearly the human disaster that we all knew what was unfolding. By the end of the day 94 supporters of Liverpool were lost; their life breath squeezed out of them.

Watching T.V that day in Brisbane, Australia was a young man called Dave Gilpin. He was youth pastor at Southside Christian Renewal Centre and that day he was so greatly affected that it was to result in the greatest of moves for he and his wife, Jenny. After placing an advert in the UK Press “Aussie Church Starting” the church now known as Hope City was born in 1991 in Sheffield.

The young man chosen by Dave and Jenny to care for their youth was Glyn Barrett; Manchester born, raised in Australia. He was just as courageous and committed to God as his pastor, though slightly less quirky. I had the privilege of working with Glyn at this time and was impressed by his candour and his character. He was a good man.

A number of years later; years packed with life-forming circumstances; Glyn was the key founder of a youth event called Audacious. Now, filling major auditoriums, it is one of the best places a young person can find themselves each summer.

This week my own Youth Pastor returned from Audacious 2009 with an army of inspired young people. I have no doubt that in years to come they will look back and understand Audacious to be one of the most defining of weeks.

It was my wife, the source of most of my best ideas, who while watching the event on T.V said, “it’s amazing to think this was birthed out of Hillborough”. It is amazing. To be fair, no matter how much man may rightly be able to take the credit for the initiative, entrepeneurship and raw courage needed to make Audacious happen; only God could have taken a scene of horror and atrocity and viewed it as a seed which He would patiently and painstakingly water and nurture until it produced a harvest of churches and Jesus followers.

Just as our wisdom is as foolishness to God; I suspect that when we weigh our most daring of exploits they will seem tame against God’s, who surely makes plans that are truly audacious.