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Starting at 7.30pm on the evening of Wednesday 15th September at PRAHA and finishing at approximately 9.15pm. The Alpha course is a fantastic way for ordinary people from different walks of life to come together for ten evenings to explore the meaning of life and to feel free to ask in the company of understanding people, whether there is more to life than the weekly routines of work, shopping and family.

All people are welcome, whatever their beliefs, to join us at the Bridge this September to find out more about the meaning of life and the God that Christians throughout history have said loves us more than we can ever imagine.  For more information see our Alpha page on this website (See link below) :

 http://www.thebridgeonline.co.uk/think/alpha

 Alternatively, contact David Fletcher directly at:  david.fletcher@thebridgeonline.co.uk

It is free.

You can view last years videos at The Nines.  Some great stuff from Alan Hirsch and Rick Warren.

The course consists of two sessions:
Thursday, September 30 from 7.15-9.45pm
and
Saturday, October 16, from 9.30am-4pm

A QUIET DAY AND RETREAT

at The Olde Retreat House

Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 1PP

Saturday October 2^nd 2010 10.00am-4.30pm

Led by Heather Vernon

Isaiah 61:3…”to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes…’

As women, our lives are often full of the busy-ness of daily life.  Here is an opportunity to take some time out to be refreshed & renewed by God.  The sessions will include talks, personal reflections, prayer time & worship.
Cost £25 including lunch and all refreshments.  Places limited to 25
Please send bookings to Heather Vernon;
68 John Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 1UY with £5 deposit

Do you dream?
If you do dream do you do it in colour or black and white?
Can you remember your dreams?
Do you wake up in the morning and find it hard sometimes to tell the difference between the dream and reality. Sometimes, especially if you have had a bad dream, it can live with you for the rest of the day.
What are your experiences of dreams?

As time went on, it happened that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt crossed their master, the king of Egypt.  Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the head cupbearer and the head baker, and put them in custody under the captain of the guard; it was the same jail where Joseph was held.  The captain of the guard assigned Joseph to see to their needs.
After they had been in custody for a while, the king’s cupbearer and baker, while being held in the jail, both had a dream on the same night, each dream having its own meaning.  When Joseph arrived in the morning, he noticed that they were feeling low.  So he asked them, the two officials of Pharaoh who had been thrown into jail with him, “What’s wrong?  Why the long faces?”
They said, “We dreamed dreams and there’s no one to interpret them.”  Joseph said, “Don’t interpretations come from God?  Tell me the dreams.”

Genesis 40; 1-8 The Message

Many of us will know that Joseph himself was a dreamer. It was his dreaming that got into so much trouble when he was with his brothers.  But here it is not Joseph who dreams, but rather the Baker and Butler.
Joseph is cast in the role of dream interpreter.
In the time of Joseph dreams were a very important part of the culture.  That was especially true in Egypt - the issue of interpreting those dreams was a crucial one.  The Pharaoh would have had people in his court whose sole responsibility was to interpret dreams, especially those of the Pharaoh himself.

How do we understand dreams today?
For some they might be about helping us to relive and then deal with the past and things that have happened to us.
For some dreams can only be interpreted by those who have special skills.  If you have a dream you have to go to this special appointed person and ask them what the dreams are all about.  It can often involve you parting with some cash.

But what do we see here?  What might help us today from this story of Joseph?

The dreams are not about things that have happened in the past, they are about things that will happen in the future.
Joseph makes it very clear that the interpretation of the dreams is not a special skill he has but is down to God.  It is God who is the interpreter of dreams and not someone with special skills.  It certainly does not involve cash in the transaction.

In days of the Egyptian empire this was profound message.  When the Pharaoh was supposed to have the best dream interpreters in the then known world with all of his power and empire at his finger tips.  Joseph interprets the dreams of his fellow prisoners and does so rightly as you will discover as you read the rest of chapter 40.  This prisoner has a different power given freely to him by God. The Pharaoh may know many things, but here he does not know how God will move and act.  He does not know how to discern the work of God in his own Empire.  Only God knows that, and it is this God who gives the gift to Joseph.

The future is in God’s hands and his alone.  Don’t get me wrong as Walter Brueggmann says “the men in Joseph’s prison are fated , as though all things are settled. Nor are they free, as though they could decide.” What we have is the mystery of God’s way.

My question is;
Is God trying to communicate to you through your dreams?
Are you too busy during the waking day that the only way God can make himself heard is to come to you in your dreams.
Is God trying to communicate because he wants to share with you that things are going to work out differently?
Rice and Webber were wrong you see in the opening words of the song we heard this evening.  Any dream will not do.

There might be times when it seems that it is impossible that things might change, that you might be free from the prison you live in, or that you are on a set of tracks and there is no way off.  It seems that you will hit the buffers, but,….but,….the future is in the hand of God

Go and watch the Honda advert - The Impossible dream

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
To follow that star –
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far.

To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause.

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
when I’m laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
that one man scorned and covered with scars
still strove with his last ounce of courage.
To reach the unreachable star.

(The Impossible Dream by Andy Williams)

To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause,…….that’s dreaming

For a flyer to hand out please go to world-cup-final-2010

Go and have a read.

What do you think?