Kingdom of Heaven

This week, my pastor challenged us to write our own parable based on Jesus parables of "The Kingdom of Heaven is like..."  which are found in Matthew 13.

This is my parable:

The kingdom of Heaven is like a dry cleaners ticket that has been freely given to you. You neither handed anything in to the dry cleaners nor paid for anything to be cleaned, yet you have the ticket to claim the item at any time.  Whether you take the ticket and claim the item or throw it in the garbage bin is your choice. However, if you do go and claim the item, you will find it is a beautiful coat that is perfectly tailored just for you. You then have a further choice to wear the coat or put it away in the wardrobe to wear on a 'special' occasion because you don't want to get it dirty or damaged.


Only those see the value in the ticket will claim and wear the coat because they understand that the gift wasn't random. They know and believe the ticket giver made the deliberate decision to hand his best coat to someone who couldn't afford one any other way.  And besides that, it was his great joy to have his beautiful coat expertly and precisely tailored to fit each individual person perfectly.

I would love to know what people think of this...

Do It Afraid

‘But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”‘ Matthew 17:7

1n the 80's, DC Talk, a Christian pop group sang “What if I stumble, what if I fall, what if I lose my step and make fools of us all?”  Can you relate to that?  I can.

On many occasions, I have felt so gripped by fear that I can't move.  My instincts tell me that I do nothing; I can’t fail and can’t fall.

However, I have also found there are blessings hidden in every struggle, and triumphs in every fear that is faced, even when the biggest triumph is doing something instead of doing nothing.

Joyce Meyer is quoted as saying “Just because you feel fear, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.  Just do it afraid.”

Sometimes you have to stop worrying about falling, take a deep breath, put your best foot forward and ‘just do it afraid’.

Who knows, maybe the fact you are afraid means something big is going to happen.

It could also be why Jesus said “Fear not!” just before he performed a miracle or taught about the Kingdom of God.

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

The Love of God

I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.  Ephesians 3:18-19

The Apostle Paul prayed for the saints at Ephesus, that they would know the amazing dimensions of Jesus’ love for them.  Why not pray it for yourself?  I fully believe that if you get even a tiny glimpse of the love of his for you, you will be stronger and more powerful than anything that can possibly come against you. 

Good News is the Best News!

Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.  Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.  1 Chronicles 6:23, 24

The word ‘Gospel’ means good news.  But what is that good news?  The good news is that God isn’t mad at you.  He has never been mad at you and he will never be mad at you.   Our God is a loving father who knows about all your missteps past, present and future, but no matter what you do wrong, he will always love you.  

Isn’t that good news?  Actually, I think it’s the best news and we should be so excited about it, that we can’t help but praise God and share his love to all we meet.

After all, the Gospel isn’t about getting you into Heaven when you die. It’s about getting you into relationship with your Heavenly father while you live! 

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?

No Ordinary Sunday

Around the world, next Sunday is just an ordinary Sunday but In the Christian Church calendar, next Sunday is Pentecost. 

Pentecost celebrates the occasion of the Holy Spirit first descending upon Christ’s disciples. It is also the last day of the Easter season—meaning it falls on the fiftieth day after Easter. Pentecost is also proclaimed as the birth of the church. 

I believe church isn’t just the thing we do for an hour and a bit on Sunday but something we are every day of the week. We, the Church, are the bride of Christ and we represent him in our families, our communities and our workplaces.  

I also reckon we need to keep meeting together because that is the time when we hear the word of God explained to us, we get to thank Jesus for being with us in the past week, and we have the opportunity to encourage each other as we walk with Jesus in the coming week.  And when we walk with Jesus, we have his power and wisdom as we take his love to those who are hurting, those who need forgiveness and to those who are without hope.

But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.  Acts 1:8