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.

Are you afraid to use the F word?

Are you looking for the perfect church? Well, I've got news for you. It doesn't exist, at least not this side of heaven. If you think you have found the "perfect" one then perhaps none of us, not even you, better join because it will then cease to be perfect.

The church is the body of Christ here on earth - Yes!
The church is the people of God together worshipping and serving Him - Yes!
The church is full of people trying and sometimes failing to be like Jesus - Yes!

Did you react to the F word? As Christians we don't like to admit that we fail and yet of all the places in this world, the church should be the place where we can fail, learn, move on and try again. The place where we can fall flat on our faces either literally or metaphorically and there will be others there to pick us up, dust us off and help us to get going again.

The church is not the building or what we do when we gather together; the church is the hands, feet, heart and love of Jesus in this world. There is a song that was very popular in one of my previous churches which I think sums up well what I am trying to say:

Brother, sister let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

Yet we do not walk alone. The church, which is made up of those who love Jesus and try to be his disciples, is given the Holy Spirit to amongst other things lead, guide, comfort and strengthen us. Living life as a disciple of Jesus is full of high points and low points but we are never alone. No, we are not perfect and yet we are! Listen to what Paul says to the Church in Corinth "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours" (1Cor 1:2) All who call on the name of Jesus are sanctified (made holy) through Jesus! Let's not forget that but instead give thanks for it!

God called loosers to be his people and through Christ he has made them holy! The F word should not be a "No, no!" in our churches, the F word should be a "love and go!" word because of the one we know.

"We've got to watch the river to check that it doesn't stop"

Do you remember the song from the film "Snow white and the seven dwarfs"? It goes something like this:  We're busy going nowhere, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do...we've got to watch the river, to check that it doesn't stop... and on the song goes. There is something very easy about being busy. If I am busy I do not have to meet myself, look at myself. I don't have to think because I am too busy. Not only am I too busy but I am so very busy going about God's work!

It is important to stop, to make space and find time to be still. In our busy world many people have discoverd the value of being still and being quiet. They have built meditation into their lives as a way of finding the quiet and stillness that every human needs to stay healthy. As people we need to just be quiet, be still. This is not news for Christians, God said thousands of years ago in the psalms "be still and know that I am God" (46.10). In being still Christians do not only meditate on ourselves in an inward looking self-centred way but we can find God there, as He always is, waiting for us to come to him, waiting.

When we take time to be quiet with God it is easier to hear what he is saying to us. We can meditate in silence or we can meditate on a verse or passage from the bible or we can meditate with worship music. Meditation with music is sometimes called soaking which is a great description really, we soak ourselves in the presence and worship of God.

To my mind, meditating in the presence of God, being open to Him and listening, has to be superior to meditating on ourselves or on emptyness. There are so many things that make us busy but are not really important and they crowd out the really important things like time to be still and soak in the presence of God. The bible tells us that when we come to Him we will find refreshment so why is it so difficult to come. There is so much in favour of it but it takes a real act of will to lay aside the things that demand our attention. Sometimes I need help to lay down the immediate in favour of the important and sometimes I just need a good "shove" to get on with it!

Being and doing!

Happy new year!

A friend and church member sent me a message this morning with a link to Rick Warren's pastor blog. Rick raises 10 points that are good for church leaders to remember but I think they are good for all Christians to remember and so here is the link to his site:
http://blog.pastors.com/blogs/pcom/ten-key-points-to-remember-in-2012/

We are running a marathon and not a sprint. At new year we look back at what has been in 2011 as well as looking forward to what is to come in 2012 and beyond. That seems like a long time but by God's timescale it is nothing more than a moment, He has the perspective of eternity! It is easy to look at others and compare ourselves to them even though we are all unike and made for different things.

Have you made a new years resolution? I have and I want to share it with you, not to be pious but because I know I will struggle to make progress in it, I want to aim to be what God has called me to be that way I am sure I will accomplish what God has called me to do.

I wish you a blessed and God-centred new year being and doing for Him!