And with that he (Jesus) breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” -John 20:22

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” -Jesus (Acts 1:8)

May you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life this Christmas Time and may Christ be born in you today.

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#RECEIVE

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“In God’s kingdom, humans get to reflect God at last into the world, in the way they were meant to. They become more fully what humans were meant to be. That is how God becomes king.”
― N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#REFLECT

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Prayer is talking with God about what we’re thinking and doing together; it is co-laboring with God to accomplish the good purposes of his kingdom. Prayer almost always involves other disciplines and spiritual activities (e.g., study, meditation, worship, solitude, or fasting).

Don’t seek to develop a prayer life — seek a praying life. A “prayer life” is a segmented time for prayer. You’ll end feeling guilty that you don’t spend more time in prayer. Eventually you’ll probably feel defeated and give up. A “praying life” is a life that is saturated with prayerfulness — you seek to do all that you do with the Lord.

-Dallas WiIlard

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#PRAY

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Joy is essential to spiritual life. Whatever we may think or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away. –Henri Nouwen

May you experience, joy, peace and love this Christmas

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#EXPERIENCE

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“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” -John 1:14

‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” -John the Baptist, John 1:29

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#LOOK

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“O little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#HOPE

“…Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. -Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

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‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way’ –
‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.”

-Mark 1:2-3

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#PREPARE

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Everyone is invited!

We are invited to live life as Jesus would live it if he were one of us. We are invited to live life in the Kingdom of God. This January, as a church we are inviting Coventry to Alpha. Alpha is a great way to find out what those of us who follow Jesus believe. Alpha is also an opportunity to ask absolutely any questions about life, faith and meaning.

Who will you invite? Our Alpha Launch Party is on 7 January 2016. See here for details.

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#INVITE

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“To pray is to listen to that voice of love. That is what obedience is all about. The word ‘obedience’ comes from the latin “ob-audire”, which means to listen with great attentiveness. Without listening, we become ‘deaf’ to the voice of love. The latin word for deaf is “surdus”. To be completely deaf is to be “absurdus”, yes, absurd. When we no longer pray, no longer listen to the voice of love that speaks to us in the moment, our lives become absurd lives in which we are thrown back and forth between the past and the future.” – Henri Nouwen (Here and Now)

Today how will you turn down the noise of life in order to listen to the voice of love?

‪Reflect and pray over the word ‪#LISTEN

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