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THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR A LOCAL NEWSPAPER AND PUBLISHED ON SAT 27TH FEBRUARY 2010

One night last week I managed to keep sleep at bay and stayed awake long enough to watch Amy Wlliams win a gold medal for Britain in the Skeleton competition at the Winter Olympics. In my view anyone who hurtles down a convoluted ice track on nothing more than a tray at speeds close to 90 mph deserves a medal. Her triumph deserved all the praise, pomp and press that followed. Of course, earlier that week the same mountain witnessed not triumph but tragedy as a Luge rider tragically lost his life.

Just like that mountain, our lives have their own share of triumph, tragedy, success and failure; they are all part of the rich breadth of life.

I have found that people who are able to bring their whole life, triumph and tragedy, into a simple relationship with God find themselves more resilient to life’s twists and turns and far more secure and hopeful in their future. To discover why you are so special to God even if you have no medals to speak of, visit a church tomorrow.

God bless.

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