Joy and pain seem unlikely bed-fellows.  They just don’t fit together.  Imagine building a house, you’d make it out of bricks.  Without fire, a brick is just a block of mud, which will wash away given time. It must be fired.

Pain can fire joy into something that you can build with.

In this podcast which began with episode 1 about what joy means and why bother searching for it, I reveal just how I turned a corner when I was most down through fire working on the joy that was within me.

Here’s the TLDR version.

This whole podcast builds off of the bible.  No apologies there.  The bible has a great deal to offer. Psalms

This is why joy is so much deeper than just being happy.  It’s so much deeper that it’s hard to describe.  It gives internal peace.  It’s about external peace living with others.  It’s about peace with God.

One thing I talk about openly is that sometimes people don’t

I talk about the troubles people face and struggle with.  Jesus doesn’t promise us an easy ride but does promise his peace.

Here are some details from the folks who put together ‘talking Jesus’   at https://talkingjesus.org/

Most people know, trust and like Christians.  That’s MOST PEOPLE!!!!

1 in 5 people (who later DID NOT BECOME A CHRISTIAN) wanted

So can you see that whilst it is true that sometimes you get

And just to top that off (though at some point I will make a podcast on this), the right way of sharing your faith is to live a distinctive life of loving and serving, and not even pushing people. Just pray that someone will ask you what you are doing.  See what God wants and do it.  Then when they ask you why have a reason for your faith.  Ask them if they want to know more.  And that’s about it.

This is my very favourite bit of the three podcasts and its

Check out the podcast for more details

Listen here or on your preferred service by searching for ‘onegraydot‘

This page contains links to affiliate items on amazon.  They charge you no more, but if you go on to buy from amazon then I get a little kickback.  Find out more on the privacy policy.

The apostles persecuted

1 Peter 4.13 : suffering with Christ

Jesus says the world won’t be exactly favourable…

The firey furnace story

Jesus leaves his peace

Colossians 3 aiming to live in peace

Blessed are the peacemakers

We are Jesus’ Brothers and sisters

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Joy is the simplest form of gratitude is a common sense for

Following on from last week’s post and podcast on what joy means and why bother searching for it, here’s how to discover the foundation of a joyful life

Can you have more joy?

No. You either have it or you don’t. It’s like love…or faith. The disciples asked Jesus for more faith.  And he (perhaps) laughed and was a little sarcastic concerning mountains and mustard seeds.  AKA the concept of ‘more faith’ is silly. Just as ‘more joy’ is silly.  Once you have joy inside then all there is is to be open to it.

As someone with high functioning autism (Aspergers), I had to answer a question someone asked me: what makes you happy.

That’s hard to say since happiness is an emotion.  And although I experience emotions, I couldn’t clearly tell you the difference between them!

Instead, I applied a little business knowledge called the 5 ‘why’s’  to work out what for me happiness looked like.

That gave me some sense of what might help me to experience

You could also use the concept of having a life full of gratitude

Check out the podcast for more details

Listen here or on your preferred service by searching for ‘onegraydot‘

It was ‘Demolition man’ with Sylvester Stalone!

You can follow the Joy over Stress youversion bible plan with Neal Samudre.

Find out more at https://nealsamudre.com/overstress/

This page contains links to affiliate items on amazon.  They charge you no more, but if you go on to buy from amazon then I get a little kickback.  Find out more on the privacy policy.

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Boris Johnson prime minister 2019 | podcast S1E7.5 theological response

This podcast is just a one off, so falls between 7 and 8. 
It’s a political response to Boris Johnson being elected to being prime minister.  It’s not me saying that it is a good or a bad thing, but a way of looking at the situation… in terms of Blackadder, Schrodinger’s cat, and the Bible.

Oh, and a Roman emperor.

If you are reading this on the kidzministry.org website, then you can get the podcast by searching for Onegraydot (note the spelling) or clicking here

Boris is pm

People upset similarly to Brexit

Main complaint from people is that the new PM is: outspoken, possibly racist, self-centred. Personally no comment

Political meme cartoon suggested by a friend of mine stirred up quite a conversation (see the featured image on this page_

Christians: how can God so this? Boris doesn’t like God surely?

Firstly…. it’s a bit Schrodinger’s cat. 

You don’t know the result till you

Brexit, the box is yet to be opened

Boris…. who knows how this will

Theology we could see in this

free will

1. Command to pray for leaders
2. God loves him whatever; we are no better than him. Judge Boris, you’re

Moses vs pharaoh

God hardened his heart: God made

The inclination of our own hearts. 

When God covers us, hearts are

Stone prevented from rolling down

Judas not made to sin against Jesus,

There was a Roman called

But…. also ‘control the religion

• Pray Gods will
• Pray B sees it when God puts things in front of him
• People around him to say the right things at the right moment
• That with Gods hand on him softening his heart he will make right choices 

Below is the inclination of our hearts passage, in old king James language

Psalm 141

1. LORD, I call upon thee, haste thee unto me: and consider my voice when I cry unto thee.
2. Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense: and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
3. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and keep the door of my lips.
4. O let not mine heart be inclined to any evil thing: let me not be occupied in ungodly works with the men that work wickedness, lest I eat of such things as please them.
5. Let the righteous rather smite me friendly: and reprove me.
6. But let not their precious balms break my head: yea, I will pray yet against their wickedness.
7. Let their judges be overthrown in stony places: that they may hear my words, for they are sweet.
8. Our bones lie scattered before the pit: like as when one breaketh and heweth wood upon the earth.
9. But mine eyes look unto thee, O Lord God: in thee is my trust , O cast not out my soul.
10. Keep me from the snare that they have laid for me: and from the traps of the wicked doers.
11. Let the ungodly fall into their own nets together: and let me ever escape them.

The extract I used from Blackadder, copyright BBC, is from the following youtube video. Extract used for educational point of view only

Do visit the Kidzministry.org website and subscribe either via wordpress, or through the subscription button. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel, new show every Tuesday.

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Looking for joy is an adventure and what joy means can only be found with effort.  To go on such an adventure you need some motivation, otherwise, you are just interested, and when it gets tough, you’ll give up.

So let’s look at some of the benefits of discovering Joy.

That doesn’t mean a full and busy life so that you are

Resilience isn’t about being tough, it means being able to bounce back and not give up.  It’s the heart of a growth mindset.  Discovering your full potential.  It includes hop for now and for the future and enables courage to do so.  Useful read is the power of positive thinking (Amazon link) 

Self-image is another side of resilience, but can also save you money! If you feel confident without lots of added extras, then you won’t feel the need to spend on such things.  You won’t panic buy!  But have you thought just how much you are worth already? Especially to a God who loves you?

When you have Joy you have all you need in terms of ‘stuff’

I refer to a book in the podcast by Zig Ziglar which has a section on developing a positive self-image

You grow by giving of yourself to others.  Only a confident person can make themselves truly vulnerable.  When you have joy you have the confidence and not jealousy to see others succeed.

Do you want to find a sense of purpose? Then go on a joy discovery adventure and find what will give you joy.  Joy isn’t just about being happy, it’s about having that peace and the pilot light when things get tough to know with the hope it will turn out fine because God is in charge.  Even death isn’t the final word.  Without that courage, you may struggle to push everything to the limits they need to go to find that purpose.  To take the risks in relationships.  To try new adventures.  But with Joy, you know without greed where to go next. 

The purpose of this podcast about joy is to help you to start exploring.  To motivate you to start the journey.  Jesus is the source of all joy, as you will see…but to experience that joy you also need to start to see how you have been made in terms of nurture and nature will guide you to the opportunities to experience that joy.

Check out the podcast for more details

Listen here or on your preferred service (search for ‘onegraydot’)

Poem by Walter D Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are; 

If

This page contains links to affiliate items on amazon.  They charge you no more, but if you go on to buy from amazon then I get a little kickback.  Find out more on the privacy policy.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

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The Geeks will inherit the earth… ok, maybe not just them. But what is geek culture? Is it bad? And why do they need ministry. PLUS how to overcome fear

All in this little podcast.

Just to say, sound quality wasn’t that brill through the zoom app. Apologies if it makes your head buzz, and i quite understand if you feel the need to turn it off. Though that would be sad as Steve has some really interesting things to say.

You can find out more about Steve from his website: www.gamesforall.net

And on twitter as https://twitter.com/SteTaylorGamer

We refer to a boardgame called patchwork which Steve Reviews here

You can buy Patchwork from Amazon

(the above may contain affiliate links which give me a little kickback from Amazon should you choose to purchase through the links)

Image by Prawny from Pixabay

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Journaling has to have a purpose to it otherwise there is little if no point.

Crucially, it records what you actually do in a process, so that you can have data to reflect later on as to whether or not it worked, what could be done better, how you felt about it. And then to go back and actually do that reflection.

As such, when we talk about creative planning, it is essential that we don’t miss out the journaling and reflective elements.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

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I found it a real surprise the number of people who don’t know about backwards planning. But it is a simple trick to be able to start with the end and just work out what the step before is and so on to the beginning.

Of course there is the tricky bit when there are multiple bits and pieces that all link in together and create a sort of tree diagram/gant chart affair. I will make a note to do a much deeper delve into this stuff in the future. So if you aren’t sure what I am blithering on about, do ask.

Useful for planning your church projects and all that…

Here’s a video anyway of what I explain about half way through the podcast about using one note and excel sheets to manage multiple projects

I also refer to the pomodoro technique… here’s where you can find out more.

pomodoro technique

By now all the feeds should be working in as many podcast apps as possible, so if you can’t find your favourite, just let me know and I will go sort it out.

Leave me a comment if there is a subject you’d be interested in me covering.

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

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You can of course get really boring and just do that whole SWOT analysis and all that kind of thing. But if you really want to reach beyond the things that other people can, you have to get really creative.

Building on my personal experience of working creatively in business and with churches, and understanding incredibly boring things like branding, I’ve developed a way of bringing in my art techniques (professional level) into that creative planning process.

Didn’t think it would take 3 episodes to go through it all…

Anyway, this is the first one. It’s all about creativity but putting limits on that creativity (plus explaining what happens if you don’t!)

You can get this podcasts on the podcast platforms (at this moment in time…just waiting for them to clear…but thats beginning of july 2019. so if you are a week later than that, just search ONEGRAYDOT in your itunes and I should be there…)

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

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I could write forever about the subject of growth mindset to be honest.

I discovered this little FAIL -find and interesting lesson- acronym when my kids were much younger. I liked it. The book on growth mindset was a much more recent discovery.

You could express growth mindset very simply. Instead of being afraid of making mistakes, you are learning what you need to do next to grow that little bit more. Simples.

Only it will often take failure to get there. And so this is why it is so important to find and interesting lesson.

Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay

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This podcast is available most places you get podcasts.

If you can’t find it on your fave podcast type channel, then let me know and I will see what I can do

Ambition is often seen as bad, but actually if it is framed correctly it is a more useful and positive word than strategy. Some hints and tips around the subject.

Instead there is a much more positive way in which to look at ambition, and you can even find it in the bible.

Since the way of being able to move forward requires vision, and part of that is ambition, you can see why I am pretty much in favour of it.

The mindset book I mention is

“Mindset: changing the way you think to fulfil your potential” by Carl Dweck. (links below are affiliate and I get a little kick back if you choose to buy through these links)

https://amzn.to/2XdthbW

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