another brief intro

I'm Nathan Bowler, a student who discovered SI through a couple of friends. My 2 Churches are Knutsford Methodist Church (home) and Cambridge Presbyterian Church (at university).I must agree with everyone that this site is fantastic. I'm still coming to terms with the sheer volume of great stuff available here.sfwc

Welcome Nathan,I'm still coming to terms with the sheer volume of great stuff available here.Yes. God has truly blessed! Looking forward to hearing more from you.God Bless,-Robert

Hi NathanI was born and bred just down the road from you in Burslem! I left the Potteries almost 40 years ago and now live in Reading, Berkshire. Welcome to the family.

If you are looking for good audio sermons to start with there is a good various listing in the middle of the front page of this site.Thanks for the tip, but I've already drained that one dry (yes, I've been sneaking around the place without getting an account for a week or so). Now I'm facing a dilemna... This site is going to be obsolescent in about 10 years and I don't think I'll have listened to all the sermons on here by then. So the problem is, which to choose? Looking forward to hearing more from you.I shall (rightly or wrongly) take that as a hint. Here's a little more background about me, for those who can be bothered to trawl through it;I know first hand that God can save anybody. After all, he got me. I am (or was until a short time ago) a borderline psycho. But God has turned my heart and soul around.I had a whole lot of trouble with God. I grew up (as so many) in a Christian household. I went through many fake stages before I was saved, so I have been blessed with knowledge by experience that none of them are the real thing. Here's a summary:1. As a kid, I knew a lot of stuff about God. Top of the Sunday school class. But I didn't care. After all, there's so much other interesting stuff out there.2. A little later, at various charismatic events, I was swept away by the atmosphere. I mean, you could really feel the presence of God. Or something powerful in the drumbeat anyhow. Carried away by the atmosphere I went out to the front again and again and said the words of various prayers, too carried away to realise I didn't mean any of it. To fit in, I said some fantastic prayers made up on the spur of the moment. I even sank to the low of praying in tongues, falsely. I still suffer for this. It took me a long, long time to get over the cynicism this gave me when I heard the real thing. I still can't pray publicly, because by reflex I 'pray to the gallery'. Please pray that God would take this burden off me. Understand that in normal life, though I claimed to be a Christian and kept to some self imposed standard of righteousness, I still didn't care.3. I got a good scare at this point, when God started to show me the power of His Holy Spirit. A lot of freaky stuff happened both inside and outside my head, and for a short time I was given an understanding of the insignificance of the creation in comparison to the Creator. It was a shock to the system to see things happening around me that were hard to explain from within my rationalist bubble.4. It was the shock of this, I guess, which made me realise that I was not a Christian at all. In fact, I had several very rational objections to Christianity that I had been doing my best to hide from myself. I therefore decided to sort it all out. I read the scriptures intently, and listened to opinions from on all sides. Finally, after much thought, I resolved all my objections, and concluded that scripture presents the only Truth, full and unadulterated. I understood something of who God is and of how and why He saves. I had it all worked out, and saw the effect it should have on my life. But of course, I had missed the point. To understand the rational truths of Christianity is not to be a Christian. And, you guessed it, I still had a whole lot of pride.Eventually, God broke me and I just had to cry out to Him to let Him do it all for me. And He did. I can see how the sanctifying work of His Spirit has changed me and I just want to get more and more, to give more and more glory to Him.Of course, I am a rather new Christian at present. I am so humbled by what I see here that I almost feel unworthy to make a post, even one that shows up my weakness as much as this. I have had times when the fire burned so hot that *pauses for a minute to think of a suitable description, then gives up* but my natural state is one of drought. I am full of thirst and want to run after God. You guys should feel free to rebuke me all you want because I need to get where God wants me to be.Enough about me. I guess you also want to know about my Churches. First, KMC. This is a lively methodist church with a wealthy, lukewarm congregation and a minister who is desperately seeking revival. I think it's coming. The Spirit has given us a taste of what He can do, and it blew us away. So much that, though we are assured that that is nothing to what He can do, we have stopped in our tracks, and even backed off a couple of paces. But I believe God has great things in store for KMC.. watch this space.Second, CPC. A great church. A touch of frost, but with challenging, no-holds-barred biblical preaching, holy worship and astonishing fellowship. It is wonderful to have found such a great church near Uni.To conclude, if you have any suggestions for sermons to listen to, I'd be very grateful. And if you have any questions, I'd be a little less grateful but I'd still do my best to answer them.sfwc

Hi Nathan!Welcome brother, what a great testimony here!This site is going to be obsolescent in about 10 years and I don't think I'll have listened to all the sermons on here by then. So the problem is, which to choose? Curious why you might think so on that first part.Funny that most of the sermons here were likely thought to be the same now some 30 to 40 years ago. Doubt that is what you meant but if the Lord wills and tarries still, will do all that is in me to keep this going...in fact, ten years from now this may well be the only place there is any truth left... Yeah, I am just a little biased :-D On the latter point, just get a bigger hard drive!Of course, I am a rather new Christian at present. I am so humbled by what I see here that I almost feel unworthy to make a post, even one that shows up my weakness as much as this.The more unworthy the better, hope to get up to your level some day...Think we are much more fond of the weak 'round here, in that Pauline sense, that paradoxical way. You are right at home brother.but my natural state is one of drought....yeah, many of us are the same, always blessedly thirsty. So glad to have you brother, looking forward to hearing even more. If you troll through some of my bumblings you should feel perfectly fine and comfortable around here, have fried enough brain cells to be qualified as 'unstable'...Reminds me of a bit I just read from Oswald Chambers...another thread coming.Anyway, welcome friend. Thanks for sharing your heart with us.

Funny that most of the sermons here were likely thought to be the same now some 30 to 40 years ago.This is a point easily forgotten in our new found sermon affluence, but many of these older sermons were 'lost' for 2 generations! Praise God for these 'men who cast their bread upoon the waters' and had no idea that when they gave their best to, sometimes, tiny groups of people the day would come when the world would hear.

Curious why you might think so on that first part.Funny that most of the sermons here were likely thought to be the same now some 30 to 40 years ago. Doubt that is what you meant but if the Lord wills and tarries still, will do all that is in me to keep this going...in fact, ten years from now this may well be the only place there is any truth left... Hey, I never said the sermons would be obsolescent, I was talking about the technology. My guess is that in 10 years I'll have stopped visiting here because there'll be something better around. I'm not excluding the possibility that it may be you guys that God uses to do that. As for your site being the only place there is going to be truth, I'm not convinced. The Bible is everywhere, if people would only read it, for example. But I can't deny that there are a lot of lies out there too. The net has been cast into a swamp.sfwc