The 'Christian' Me

Just been reading the post by Cheryl on Martin's blog. Worth a read. It asks the question, 'When you say that you're a Christian, how do I know it's true?'
Provides food for thought. Do I want to be called a Christian these days with all its connotations? What defines me as a Christian? Can't be my church attendence; can't be my long prayer times; can't be my extensive bible study.
I would like it to be the extra mile, the little random acts of kindness, a smile instead of a frown. Not a label or a definition. Just a heretic on a journey of discovery.
To fellow heretics,
Morag

A Story Ending ....

For those who have had connections with Frank and Shay Houghton and the Village of Hope, I thought you might like to see this. Debs who I travelled to Morocco with, and who some of you will have met, has posted this article on her blog.

www.laughingstreamphotography.co.uk/2011/01/a-story-ending/

Andrea

Gather by the River

At the Saturday morning happening, we were talking about gathering together. The old hymn Gather By the River came to my mind and I said that I saw the river as the river of God, the river of the Holy Spirit and we were gathered by it.
I looked up the hymn on the internet and found the following.

One af­ter­noon in Ju­ly, 1864, when I was pas­tor at Han­son Place Bap­tist Church, Brook­lyn, the wea­ther was op­press­ive­ly hot, and I was ly­ing on a lounge in a state of phys­ic­al ex­haust­ion…My imag­in­a­tion be­gan to take it­self wings. Vi­sions of the fu­ture passed be­fore me with start­ling vi­vid­ness. The im­ag­ery of the apoc­a­lypse took the form of a ta­bleau. Bright­est of all were the throne, the heav­en­ly ri­ver, and the ga­ther­ing of the saints…I be­gan to won­der why the hymn writ­ers had said so much about the “riv­er of death” and so lit­tle about the “pure wa­ter of life, clear as crys­tal, pro­ceed­ing out of the throne of God and the Lamb.” As I mused, the words be­gan to con­struct them­selves. They came first as a quest­ion of Christ­ian in­quiry, “Shall we ga­ther?” Then they broke in chor­us, “Yes, we’ll ga­ther.” On this quest­ion and an­swer the hymn de­vel­oped it­self. The mu­sic came with the hymn.

Pretty good place to gather, by the pure water of life, for thirsty travellers.

Hope this makes some sort of sense.Morag

Hello all,
Wayne Jacobson`s website is certainly worth a look,
www.lifestreamministries.org
More of the good stuff,
Feilicious salutations, Keith