tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20797818909249251132024-02-20T19:39:47.870+00:00Treasuring Christ'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.' (Luke 12:34)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.comBlogger192125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-66613102629006669142015-06-19T15:59:00.000+01:002015-06-19T16:01:19.876+01:00A lifetime of service'I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.' 1 Tim 1:12
I've been challenged over the last week or so listening to Revive our Hearts' series on 'Serving like the Saviour'. Nancy Leigh deMoss made this striking comment: 'We’re never more like Satan than when we’re serving out of a desire to be recognized, and we’re Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-58400927772780267732015-06-09T08:49:00.000+01:002015-06-09T08:50:06.073+01:00TestimonyIt's testimony Tuesday in my church's mission week and we've all been challenged to share something of our stories with our friends, family and anyone who knows us. So here goes!
I grew up going to church and God was always very real to me. I made my own decision to be a Christian; it wasn't something my parents could do for me. I knew I wanted to give my life to God and live for Him.
If I was Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-47021045176223611622015-05-17T09:00:00.000+01:002015-05-17T09:00:11.315+01:00Jesus: tempted and triumphantIn His first 30 years on the planet, Jesus would have known the same sufferings as you or I: physical weakness and emotional sadness and grief. For example, there is good reason to believe that Joseph died at some point as he is not present during Christ's ministry and Jesus deliberately passes the care of His mother to John at the cross. Throughout all this time, He never once sinned. He lived Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-65638157589922123792015-05-16T20:04:00.000+01:002015-05-16T20:10:59.307+01:00Words, words, words- what is slander?Just been thinking more about how I use my words- do I build others up, or do I tear them down? Scripture says a lot about how we speak, and I was looking on Reviveourhearts.com where there are some very challenging tests you can use to weigh up how you are using your words.
First, some definitions:
Slander is open, intentional sharing of damaging information where the person concerned is absentAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-5161280111186946192015-04-15T21:00:00.000+01:002015-04-15T21:00:12.825+01:00Peace in a perfect time to panic
In the first Toy Story film, Woody and Buzz find themselves far from their owner Andy's house. Stuck in a petrol station, Woody begins to despair that they will never make it back before Andy and his family move in two days' time. Buzz looks at Woody with a cool, calm gaze and says "This is no time to panic." Woody throws up his hands in the air and explodes, "This is the perfect time to panic!"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-16408223521486534672015-04-13T21:10:00.000+01:002015-04-13T21:10:51.641+01:00Book Review: Confessions of a Boy-Crazy Girl by Paula HendricksI came across this book through Revive our Hearts, as Paula writes for the 'Lies Young Women Believe' blog. It's quite American, and it's aimed at teen girls (so I don't really fit this target audience!), but I did really enjoy reading it, and it definitely challenged me on whether I was really aware of all the idols in my life.
Through honest, personal writing, Paula goes through her Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-38152886258047597852015-03-21T20:39:00.000+00:002015-03-21T20:39:05.254+00:00Jesus: man of sorrowsAs I've looked at grief and suffering in the Scriptures, these verses have really struck my heart:
'He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.'Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-29329143817930481882015-03-19T19:00:00.000+00:002015-03-19T19:00:03.751+00:00Suffering in Ministry: Following Paul's exampleThe apostle Paul gives us an amazing example of someone who followed Christ faithfully in a ministry that was full of suffering. Although he had the joy of planting churches and pioneering gospel work in places where Christ was not known, he also had the hardship of opposition constantly throughout his ministry. Using the book of Acts and Paul's letters in the New Testament, we can build a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-50450178275835720652015-03-18T19:00:00.000+00:002015-03-18T19:00:03.920+00:00Suffering in Ministry: Following Christ's exampleWe know that suffering is an inevitable part of life this side of heaven; we live in a world of death, grief, illness, relational difficulties and all kinds of struggles. But I thought it would be interesting to look at what the New Testament teaches on suffering specifically in Christian ministry. It's no newsflash to know that Christians suffer, but in an era of tele-evangelists asking for cashAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-81375913561171633622015-03-17T21:36:00.001+00:002015-03-17T21:38:44.573+00:00Ecclesiastes: making sense of sufferingWhen I think about the pain of grief and suffering, I come to this conclusion: anything which wakes me up out of my apathy and loosens my grip on this world, and increases my longing for the next, is an act of God's mercy and grace in my life. I may not like it and it may not be comfortable, but, like a fire drill, it is essential to prepare me for my heavenly home.
I think this is the main Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-66622186222766160442015-03-14T08:30:00.000+00:002015-03-14T08:30:00.634+00:005 Scriptures for SufferingJust want to let the Word do the talking here! Here's 5 passages I have found so so helpful in times of suffering:
Psalm 90
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousandAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-4976123890778180862015-03-13T09:00:00.000+00:002015-03-13T09:00:01.376+00:00Job: God's responseThe key to God's response to Job's questioning about his suffering is in the first sentence (notably, a question, of a series of questions): 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?' (38.2)
The friends have accused Job of speaking without knowledge repeatedly (though they are guilty of the same offence), and Job's assertion of his blamelessness is based on his knowledge of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-85863299810062850472015-03-12T21:08:00.000+00:002015-03-12T21:08:00.561+00:00Job: Elihu's roleAs I was working through the book of Job, I was grappling with what the role of Elihu was meant to be (see chapters 32-37). Commentators seem reluctant to applaud his words to Job, as the book itself doesn't give much comment on whether they are right (though God's vindication of Job suggests Elihu is not 100% on the mark). However, he does bring a new dimension into the discussion, which so far Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-39047308049917544332015-03-11T20:43:00.000+00:002015-03-11T20:43:46.469+00:00Job: seeing Christ as the answerUltimately, Job's suffering is only given an answer with the meaningful suffering of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.
Job is brought to the point where he realises the 'otherness' of God. He understands something of the divine mystery, and he feels keenly the gap between him and his Creator.
'For He is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him, that we should come to trial together. There Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-42773429946493454232015-03-09T19:25:00.000+00:002015-03-09T19:25:00.108+00:00Job: finding the end of yourselfGod seems to use suffering in our lives to make us see the limits of our own strength. Look at Job: he was a righteous and wealthy man. But the danger of this is that you can too easily trust in your own resources and character as a protection from trouble. Job discovered his righteousness did not bring him immunity from suffering, and this is the big theological problem of the book: Job's Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-7666342683929474922015-03-08T19:05:00.001+00:002015-03-08T19:05:30.429+00:00Job: the voice of griefThis year one of my resolutions was to work through the topic of grief and how to deal with it from a biblical perspective. It's been a journey! And I started with Job because it's a pretty good place to start when thinking about the Old Testament stories of grief. He loses almost everything he has, from his children to his possessions to his health (see Job 1-2). But he finds his way to the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-4369895224293179262015-03-03T17:13:00.000+00:002015-03-03T17:13:03.172+00:00Feeling guilty? At Faithfit today we were talking about our goals for health and fitness, and we talked about our varying struggles with guilt when we fail to meet those goals. At the prayer meeting on Sunday night, we were talking about the need generally for more conviction of sin in order to see more fruitfulness in the church. As I've been thinking about it, it seems to me that there's a lot of guilt around,Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-74633819776753266872015-01-09T15:04:00.000+00:002015-01-09T15:04:23.649+00:00Ezra & Nehemiah: A need for fastingIt's hard to imagine what life was like for the people of Israel after they went into exile. Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians with great violence and brutality, as recorded by Jeremiah in Lamentations. But empires come and empires go, and in 539 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians and absorbed the lands of Israel and Judah into their territory. The next year, Cyrus allowed the peopleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-38097996757570041072014-12-06T21:03:00.001+00:002014-12-06T21:03:52.249+00:00The necessity of forgiveness #2: ditching the superiority complexGod has used a recent situation where someone I know and love very much wronged me to show me how much of a superiority complex I have. Let me explain.
When someone hurts or wrongs you, and you're the 'victim', the innocent party, it's easy to slip in to a proud, Pharisaical mindset. You know you have to forgive them, and you do so out of a condescending 'I would never have done that' spirit.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-31007780727899035232014-12-06T20:46:00.001+00:002014-12-06T20:46:40.934+00:00The necessity of forgiveness # 1: 1 Corinthians loveI've met a lot of people with estrangements in their family, a relative they haven't spoken to for years. Some almost seem proud of it. And I'm no stranger to having that kind of situation. My parents divorced when I was a toddler and since he remarried, I've hardly seen my Dad despite him living a short drive away. It's a situation with a lot of hurt. But time and again, when I've been tempted Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-33907308289091031842014-12-01T10:22:00.002+00:002014-12-01T10:25:07.014+00:00Colossians: journey through joyPaul's letter to the Colossians has to be one of my favourite books of the Bible. I remember being at New Word Alive in 2006, hearing a series of talks by different speakers through this short letter, and it really impacted my life about the centrality of the gospel in the Christian life. My church, Hill City, also went through the book last year with dynamic, practical teaching that resonated 'Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-9378027160972527182014-11-30T15:00:00.000+00:002014-11-30T16:04:51.751+00:001 & 2 Timothy- Hold on to the truthI love coming back to these pastoral epistles of Paul because they sound a klaxon call to me of what is really important in the Christian life. And with so many voices in the media, some even claiming to be genuine believers, giving so many opinions which seem to contradict the Word of God, these two letters give a timely reminder to us today to hold on to the truth. In both letters, Paul keeps Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-12334416918398452922014-11-19T20:37:00.000+00:002014-11-19T20:37:02.712+00:00An analogy... old covenant vs new covenant, law vs graceThinking here about the old covenant and the new covenant.
We give kids toy cars to play with. They can look pretty realistic -obviously smaller than the real thing. Ultimately, toy cars are hollow; they have no engine. The best you're going to get is a battery remote control one.
The law of the old covenant is like a toy car. It represents the life God wants His people to live but in miniatureAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-83363265273459822352014-11-19T20:16:00.000+00:002014-11-19T20:16:22.709+00:00Ezekiel: God of covenant and regenerationWith all the messages of judgement in Ezekiel, it could be easy to forget the beginning of the story - God's love story with Israel. The allegory told so grippingly in chapter 16 vividly depicts the very essence of the Old Testament: it is a story of covenant of God with a nation (Abraham's descendants). God's sovereign choice and grace in choosing Israel is highlighted as the abandoned child Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2079781890924925113.post-81575620972992565912014-11-10T13:33:00.000+00:002014-11-10T13:33:07.914+00:00Ezekiel: An intolerant GodEzekiel speaks prophetically of God's approaching judgement upon His people, at a time where they were dangerously unconcerned about their own spiritual state and the state of their nation (and there seem to have been plenty of false prophets to give them fake reassurance). The repeated phrase 'then they will know that I am the LORD' shows that God's character, in particular His righteousness, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029640604427546291noreply@blogger.com0