Permission to fail - Bish

While reading Bish's blog I came across his honest conclusion of failure. I hate to fail and beat myself up when I do. I want to be right and perfect and get frustrated when I am not. I hate it when people say things about me that are negative, even if they are true. But Im not perfect, I am a sinner and in a way I need to own up to this not just before God but before people and conclude that I am not perfect, I mess up and will do and say things wrong. But there is hope in the Gospel... read what Bish says:

"The gospel takes the pressure off, means I can admit I got things wrong, means I can grow and learn and do things differently. Sins instinct is to hide and be ashamed, the gospel means I can hold my hands up, show weakness and not be destroyed for it. It gives me the freedom to make a call, and then reflect afterwards that it might not have been the right call. It gives me the freedom to be.

The gospel stops me taking myself too seriously - I'm freed to take Jesus seriously and think less often about myself. I'm free to bear with other, to be kind to others. And the gospel helps others to bear with me, to spur me on. To be generous to me beyond reason. To pick me up when I drop the ball - to look me in the face and speak gospel truth to me in the moment of my humiliation. so I can carry on."

Peru through a lens Pt 3

Peru through a lens Pt 2

Peru through a lens

Beautiful Feet

 








How beautiful my feet are
When dancing through life
With each step a new birth
And breath of eternal life.
Etching its way through darkness
To give way to light.
How my feet walk through fire
Carrying the drops of hope
And a message of dripping joy.


Yet at times when they drag
Unexpectantly clinging to earths gold
Overflowing with gripping fear -
It is easy to see the lights grow dim
And the eyes that held hope begin to wither
Into a blaze of uncertainty.
Here my feet stand still, unmoving.
Shivering in self satisfaction.


Then a cry is heard:
Where has the beauty gone?
At what depths has it plundered
For the sake of fleeting pleasure?
O how fear and pride shackle beauty!
Until there is a changing wind
And whispers of forgiveness and blood shed
That sweeps away the crusty leaves
That were buried in this heart,
Letting rays of truth flood in;
Warming the feet until moving
Waking the veins until shouting.
Only to find that soon
The scent of good news
Is being carried again -
By beautiful feet. 


By Catherine Hare

The high price of comfort

What do you say to someone with depression or suffering poverty or just not satisfied in this world? Pray more? Read your bible more? Do more christian activities? Ignore those uncomfortable questions and pretend that everything is ok so that church looks good? Pray that God will restore their personal comforts of christian living? Larry Crabb writing in his book "Inside out" says:

 "This kind of response turns church into a country club offering its benefits to those who are fortunate enough and well mannered enough to qualify for membership. We sit Sunday after Sunday enjoying fellowship of others who are comfortable and committed while the broken hearted and poor press their noses against the window, looking in at us with resentment, envy and despair...."

What did Jesus promise when He said that we are to come to him all who thirsty? And I think all of us are thirsty. But what did Jesus promise to give us when we come to Him? Crabb continues with questions:

"Did He promise to bring us comfort through enjoyable relationships, rewarding careers and pleasurable activities - providing of course that we honor some level of commitment to Him? Or is the abundant life of bubbling springs a very different matter? Is it possible to have absolutely no rich communication with your husband, yet still taste those cool waters? Can a parent whose young adult son is far from the Lord know something real about peace and rest?"

I think perhaps the point is what are we satisfied in? Is our christian life about obtaining a comfortable christian life where there is no sadness, no trials, no suffering, no yearning, no groaning pains for this world. But instead a static existance of pleasure overflowing with more striving for pleasure. Perhaps there is a high price that you have to pay, so that in the place of a rich relationship with God, we instead have a rich relationship with the next best thing, the next best job - the striving to be better. This will leave us empty and hollow.

Perhaps its better to be poor in material things and going through the hard trials of suffering allowing you to cling to Jesus and therefore have a rich, satsifying relationship with Him. Where everyday is about Him and everyday you walk with Him without the worry that modern life throws at you. I am not secure in my job or my mortgage...but in Jesus. I am satisfied in Him. He is my bubbling spring. Church is therefore about the broken and being honest about it. Its about uniting in Christ and thirsting for Him.

Beware the thief

Our hearts are somewhat easily taken in by what people say and their attitudes. When you are with someone that continues to complain or find the negative side of everything, then in time a part of you starts to wither. Our hearts are sponges that absorb this atmosphere and these attitudes. I have noticed this from christians and in my own heart.
We need to be careful. We need to guard our hearts from this. But its hard when its a fellow brother or sister in Christ,  because we get sucked into their feelings and attitudes. However we need to take care that our joy is not stolen from us or that we so easily allow our job to be taken. We need to come back to Christ and pour our heart out, be washed inside out and be rooted into the love of Christ, soaking our hearts and minds in His word and being reminded of His beauty and of His Grace. 

Focus on Jesus and capture back that child like faith, the one that is totally in awe of the works of God, being able to encourage good. Having a love that is deep and sacrificing, and a boldness that will share Jesus with everyone because you are sharing the one thing that is most precious to you, thats the treasure of your heart. 

Dont let the thief steal your joy. 

Dont fall into the mindset that its ok to gossip or try to justify that you can pick holes in every event or situation or person. 

Dont let the thief steal your joy. 

Instead see other christians as God sees them - covered by the blood of the lamb, forgiven by the grace of God, loved through Christ. 

Beware the thief and the heart that is ready to give away its joy in order to please others.

Student Work in Peru

As I was sitting on the 8 hour bus to Huaraz, my destination was to be a beautiful mountain valley that I would be spending 4 months in. I had several thoughts - firstly the task ahead of me, which was to set up a Christian Union Group in the University in Huaraz, was like a shadow weighing upon me and I wondered how I was possibly going to do this with hardly any Spanish and shyness that creeped over me and covered me like a bubble. My second thought was simply... this is not going to work and no one else thinks this will happen.

How wrong was I?

Firstly my problem was that I was trusting in myself instead of God. The second was that I was finding my identity in my Spanish and my ability to do things...when it should of been in Jesus.

Student work is different here, there is a different framework however the same Gospel. The same God. All you need is some passionate students that have captured the vision, that love Jesus and want to share Him and you need prayer and a trust in Jesus. We need to be on our knees, lifting up this to Jesus and being thankful for the blessings an situations that come our way. Student work is different in Peru - but its the same Gospel.

So what do we have?

We now have a Christian Union in Huaraz - so far we have had 11 students and we now have a committee. Here it is, missionary work in action - Jesus does it, he opens hearts, provides ways of meeting people and uses us as we are weak and reminds us how we need to trust in Him and allow Him to use us in our weakness and humility. Its always about Him. This is the beauty of it - we are never here to present ourselves or our abilities, but we are here to present Christ, always. 

So, there is now a CU group in Huaraz, Peru. Gracias a Dios :)

Basil not the Brush

Basil the Great said:

'The bread which you keep, belongs to the hungry; the coat which you perserve in your wardrobe, to the shoeless; the gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy. Wherefore, as often as you were able to help others, and refused, so often did you do them wrong.'

Fascinate people to the Gospel

There is something about Christians that should be different. We should stand out. 

Shine. 

Go against the crowed. 

We have a message of hope, we carry an eternal promise of truth. We have Jesus. 

Our lifestyles should reflect this truth. We should be courageous in Love, reaching to the dirty, the outcasts, the low in society, the unclean, the hopeless. 

We shouldnt be concerned with social status or jobs, because we wear a different dress code. Our actions and words should scream a different story thats so radical from society:

that promotes Jesus over man, 

that shares the good news, 

that performs acts of extreme love and Joy and hope and not be tainted with worries of success and career and what people think. 

We should fascinate the people to the Gospel, showing them Jesus, showing them how beautiful He is, showing the cross and carrying our cross. 

We should fascinate the world by not being concerned of self image, or trying to buy the latest gadgets, or trying to be popular.

We should fascinate the world by forgiving when it hurts so much, to love when all there can be is loss, to give everything of our things, possesions and ourselves when the world is trying to claim the 'mine' label. Lets not hold on or strive for things of this world.

Lets fascinate the world to the Gospel, not to ourselves, but to Jesus. 

May the world find itself in a moment of fascination over how we live our lives because we are not living for ourselves but for Jesus, because we would rather be amoung the lowly, the poor, the meek, the hurting, the lost then to be with the rich, powerful, proud. We would rather be without and full of Joy in Christ then have everything and still be unsatisfied.

Lets fascinate the world with Jesus.