Dine løfter er mange din nåde er stor!

Do you recognise the title to this? For anyone who doesn't speak norwegian roughly translated it means "Your have made many promises and your grace is great", it is  the opening line of a song that has been in my head for the last couple of days. God has made so many promises to us his children and he is so gracious towards us. In our evening quiet time we are looking at John's gospel chapterby chapter to see which prommises we can find in it.

This song is not by any means a new and modern one but the words are hugely powerful, there are two lines that have really spoken to me recently "Herre led du meg frem, la meg bli til hjelp for dem som du viser meg trenger en hånd". It roughly translated means" Lord lead me on and let me help those who you show me need a helping hand".  I pray that the Lord will  show me who he wants me to help and at the same time I try not to use any lack of clear divine leading as a reason not to help people who need it.

I am adding to my daily prayer list during lent that God will show me who he has in mind for me to help. This is partly inspired by the course we have done recently in our house church called "The power of a whisper" by Bill Hybles. The course encourages us to hear God whisper to us in our everday lives and then to act on those whispers.

So what has this led to so far... small things, everyday things really but it is interesting that I am seeing everything differently. I am consciously looking for God in everything and I am finding him there too! I challenge you to do the same, look for God and what he wants you to do in all the everyday situations, family, work, hobbies, even a trip shopping can become exciting. It is a bit easier to get out of bed when you can say to yourself "I wonder what plans God has for me today?" 

A walk with a difference

On Tuesday we had our annual celebration in church where we focus on the vokunteers in the congregation who give freely of their time and energy throughout the year. A red carpet was rolled out for people's arrival and everyone was greeted by hand. We had tried to create an atmosphere that was welcoming and smart with linen tablecloths, candlelight, good atmosphere and an interesting program. Two Caleb prizes were handed out. I think the fifty or so people who came had a good evening.

The two course meal of Chinese food followed by ice cream cake seemed to go down very well. There was some Chinese left at the end of the evening and in the light of my trying to focus my life more on Jesus I thought as it is such a very cold night I would take the Chinese food and some coffee out into town and see if there were any homeless people who could use a good meal. I am not sure that Jesus would have given the leftovers to the poor; I suspect he would have invited them in to the party!

As the evening ended and people headed for home I gathered the remains up. A few people noticed and were interested in what I was doing; two of them said immediately that they too would come. At just after 10pm four of us set off on foot to see if we could find anyone who might be glad of a meal and some hot coffee. The evening was very cold and there was an icy wind whipping our hands and faces. We went to all the likely places we could think of and looked for anyone in need.

The reflective vests which church bought in last year with "I have time" written in Norwegian on them were very useful as conversation openers. The vests gave us some form of authority. As we walked along the main street we were cheered by someone! There were a number of people in town, having been out celebrating Valentine’s day and there were several who wanted to talk to us about what we were doing, all thought it was a great and much needed thing to do but none of them were hungry. In fact we didn't find anyone to give a meal to. It was so cold that it wasn't possible to find anyone sleeping rough.

By the time we had been all over town and it was after 11pm we decided to go to the police station and see if they could use the food. It is better than throwing it away we reasoned. They were very pleased with it and said that they would enjoy it very much!

The four of us, one man and three ladies (one of whom is over 70!) felt that it was time well spent and we shall be doing it again next time there is something to give away. We were in fact surprised that nobody had thought of doing it sooner. There were a couple of jokes made that next time they go to a party with Tracy they better bring their snow suits just in case!

What will it take?

How good must my life be and how awful does someone else’s have to be before I am prepared to do something about it? This is a question someone raised at a prayer meeting last week. She and her husband had been asking themselves that question. It has stayed with me as I have gone about my comfortable everyday routine. What will it take to cause me do something?  

I struggle to accept my own apathy and inability to really live like Jesus in every way. The trouble is that I make excuses to myself. I have become quite adept at it too; after all I have had a life-time of practice. It is easy to promise myself I will do something when the children are bigger or when I know what I ought to do or when I have more time or money or energy or… What will it take to make me do something, I call myself a Christian, a disciple of Jesus and yet I do not always live it.

It is easier to compare myself with others around me and to say well, I am better than him or not as good as her. Doing that is fundamentally flawed because I should not be interested in comparing myself with my peers but I should be concerned with comparing myself to Jesus and his call on my life. The idea of waiting, holding back is not one that I find when I read the bible.  I John 2.6 says, ”Whoever says “I abide in him,” ought to walk as he walked.” Jesus did not hold back.  At the service on Sunday night we sang the song Brother, Sister, let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you. This is a powerful song with challenging words and if I mean what I say to God in song then I need to see Jesus in all the people I meet. I need to look at other people no matter who they are and love them like Jesus loves them.

It is easy to love people you like and get along with. It is harder to love the unlovely, the difficult, the weak and the vulnerable. It is difficult  to love those who are different to us but that is what being a disciple of Jesus calls us to do.

I don’t want these words to be empty words thrown thoughtlessly out into cyberspace. I have to start somewhere so I am going to sign up to take part in the Godhets festival this year. I am also going to take a walk around town when the good people of Sandnes are safely in their homes and I am going to attempt to look with Jesus’ eyes.

God is all-knowing

If I stop and think for a moment about the fact that God is all-knowing, it can be both scary and reassuring at the same time. All of us put on some sort of mask sometimes. We do not reveal our true selves to everyone we meet. God is all-knowing and he knows me better than I know myself. Do I find that just a little bit scary? Yes I do. It means that I cannot fool him or hide from him or keep something from him. I can't fake it. There is nothing that I can say or do that is going to be a surprise to him and on top of all that HE STILL LOVES ME!

Hebrews 4.13 "

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. "

I have to ask myself whether I really take what I have just shared with you seriously. Does it permeate the way I think about God? Does it show in the way I talk to him and about him? If not, why not! When I pray I can be totally honest because God knows me so well. As I walk with him I need to learn to trust him more and more because he knows me so well  and loves me so deeply. There is nothing that will happen today that he and I can't tackle together. However, it is aurprisingly easy to forget that and to get caught up in and focussed on all the wrong things.

"Father God, Dad, You know me and you love me as I am. Show me how to get really serious about loving you deeply with every part of my life. Amen.