Be-ness

God created us to be human beings not human doings.  There’s nothing wrong with doing things to for God but I truly believe God wants us to just be and rest in our be-ness* and to know that we are loved beyond measure and nothing can remove us from his love.  

 As it has been said, there are no servants in God’s family...only sons and daughters.  

What does that mean? 

I think it means we need to...

be thankful

be positive

be determined

be strong

be the church

be all you can be

but most of all, be His!

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:8

You can't give up hope because things look hopeless.

Matthew Mitcham, Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold and silver medallist, has this quote on his Facebook page “You can't give up hope because it's hopeless .You have to hope even more, and block your ears and go "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah..." ”

To be honest, I think most of us like to throw ourselves a pity party once in a while.  However, if we wallow in self pity for too long, like sticky mud, hopelessness it will attach itself to us, seep into our very pores and can be really difficult to remove.   

It’s easy to give up when things look grim, but God wants us to trust him and in turn, when we trust him we find safety and rest.

And you shall be secure and feel confident because there is hope; yes, you shall search about you, and you shall take your rest in safety.  Job 11:18

Only Believe

Smith Wigglesworth (British evangelist) once said “God wants us so badly that He has made the condition as simple as He possibly could: ‘Only believe.’” 

We have in our heads there are lots of obstacles between us and God.  We think our behaviour keeps us away from God, but in truth, He isn’t watching for us from a distance and waiting for us to slip up. And at the same time, he isn’t waiting for us to go to church on Sunday or for you to pray a ‘proper prayer’.   

God is as close as your next thought because his biggest desire is to spend time with you.   You just need to believe he wants to be part of your life and he will be there. 

When Jesus heard this, he replied, “Do not fear. Only believe”  Luke 8:50

Jesus Tweets

Have you ever thought about how you describe Jesus? 

I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to use many words and sometimes the message gets lost. 

My Wednesday home group was in the midst of a study on Jesus when we came across an exercise to see if we could compose a tweet describing Jesus.  It wasn't easy but the group put their collective heads together to compose a 140 character twitter post describing Jesus and this is what they came up with:

“Jesus reconciles us with God. Shows us what God's like. God living as one of us. Loves us. Died, rose again, is coming back. Teaches truth.”

I think it’s pretty cool. What do you think?

How to walk in victory

‘But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’. 1 Corinthians 15:57

More than anything else in life, a Christian needs to walk in victory.  But sometimes victory seems to akin to a mirage in the desert, especially when you are going through tough times.  However, God is not asking you to create your own victory nor struggle alone in the wilderness. 

I reckon God is asking us to stay close to him. He wants to pour words of love into each of our hearts and sing songs of love over each of our lives.  

But how do we do we hear him when everything else in the world screams for our attention? 

I believe we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear his voice and eyes to see his presence in our lives.  We also need to be intentional about worshiping Jesus and spending time with him in prayer.  And it’s about recognising that we need Jesus to stand up for us when we can’t stand up for ourselves. 

When we walk with Jesus in our everyday lives, then we walk in victory everyday.

God's Masterpiece

 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10

I’m not an artist but I really admire works of art and the creativity behind them. 

When you think about it, a painting doesn’t have to actually do anything to earn the love of the artist. The artist doesn’t love it because it receives a special award or earns him money in an auction. No, the artist loves the painting because he created it with his own hands exactly the way he wanted it.

You are God’s greatest masterpiece and you are loved with a passion. All you need to do is remember how loved you are and how free you are to walk in that love.

Christian Disciplines and Why you don't have to do any of them.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” Colossians 2:6

Have you ever heard the term ‘Christian Disciplines’?  Christian disciplines usually refer to a list of things you have to do to maintain your Christian walk and to me it all sounds pretty boring. 

In my opinion, the Christian life should be anything but boring.  At the risk of being controversial, I will say that that a Christian doesn’t have to do a single thing in their walk with God.

We don’t have to read the Bible but we get to read words which are both God inspired and breathed.

We don’t have to go to church but we get to gather with other believers and celebrate Jesus together.

We don’t have to pray but we get to talk to our Daddy God and hear his voice.

We don’t have to worship Jesus but we get to lift his name on high.

We don’t have to do anything but we get to do everything.  And I reckon it makes our Daddy God’s heart sing when we come to him by choice and not because we feel we have to do it.