I was watching my nearly two year old grand daughter Caitlin exploring something she hadn't seen before. She was wide eyed with amazement and the joy, just looking at something new. Her wonder was an eye opener to me. I started to think, we are so busy running from place to place doing the next thing on the list that we miss living sometimes. There is an awesomeness about God's creation. It is stunning when you take the time to look carefully at all the natural world's majesty and splendour.
God has called us to be childlike in the way we respond to him, I wonder if this was what he has in mind. Looking with new eyes like my two year old granddaughter. The only time I really come close to this is when I take a camera out to shoot some photos. Then I starting looking with a different eye. Maybe I need to add to the different eye, a different heart as well........................ a young heart.
That may just give me an insight into the spiritual world's majesty and splendour as well. Enjoy sharing all of God's world with him.
Wednesday, 1 April 2015
Friday, 27 March 2015
Journey toward God
I think it is awesome that like most other things in life God gives you the time to get to know him. He doesn't expect you to get to know him all at once. Like any other relationship it takes time to even get some understanding of who God is?
In Matthew 8 and Mark 4 the two chapters finish with Jesus calming the sea while the disciples are in the boat. The disciples are amazed that he can do as they have asked of him. Then they ask this simple question who is this man, who can calm the sea?
I believe that this allows us to simple freedoms:
1. To make requests of our God
2. But more importantly to be able to take the time to get to know him and experience him. When these two incidents occurred the disciples had already experienced some teaching and miracles by walking with him for a period of time. Thus allowing us to walk with God, to experience our God. To not always get right and even to get it wrong and still be in relationship with him.
Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom to learn? Something I have been thinking about for a while. learning to know what you know in "your knower" and getting it wrong on the way. Before you get it right. Enjoy!!
I love that God gives us these freedoms and that he makes sure that he shows us so explicitly in his word. Use your freedoms well!!
In Matthew 8 and Mark 4 the two chapters finish with Jesus calming the sea while the disciples are in the boat. The disciples are amazed that he can do as they have asked of him. Then they ask this simple question who is this man, who can calm the sea?
I believe that this allows us to simple freedoms:
1. To make requests of our God
2. But more importantly to be able to take the time to get to know him and experience him. When these two incidents occurred the disciples had already experienced some teaching and miracles by walking with him for a period of time. Thus allowing us to walk with God, to experience our God. To not always get right and even to get it wrong and still be in relationship with him.
Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom to learn? Something I have been thinking about for a while. learning to know what you know in "your knower" and getting it wrong on the way. Before you get it right. Enjoy!!
I love that God gives us these freedoms and that he makes sure that he shows us so explicitly in his word. Use your freedoms well!!
Friday, 13 March 2015
What do you know?
I find it interesting how reading something trigger a train of thought that stays with you for a while. Then the thought is added to and reinforced from a variety of places.
I was reading Mathew 16 in the bible and this passage attracted my attention.
Verses15-17
15:But what about you? Who do you say I am?
16: Simon Peter answered " You are the Christ, the son of the living God"
17 Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven".
My wife and I have recently been away on holiday and I like to read historical novels so I was reading a murder mystery book about Tudor England in the time of Henry the Eighth. a time that was dominated by divided spiritual and religious viewpoints. I began thinking that this is not so different from today. Or even as the above verses begin to reveal, the spiritual turmoil the arrival of Jesus brought to his time. And I began to think how to do we navigate our way through the plethora of voices, ideas, books and other things that bombard our spiritual understanding. The spiritual world we live in has a large number contradictory voices all speaking at once, some poles apart others just subtly different.
I came back to the passage above "for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven". I came back to the concept of revelation from God. This for me comes back to what do I know? I was reminded of a quote from a lecturer I had at bible college 20 years ago who simply said "You have to know what you know in your knower". I guess this for me is revelation of God deep in my spirit, what do I know in my Knower. Therefore it does not come down to so much what I am taught, what I am reading and what is the latest craze around, but how does the Holy Spirit within me respond to these things. Allowing the Holy spirit to respond takes both commitment and time but I am just beginning to grasp how worthwhile this can be. I am beginning to know more.
I have always had a fear of getting it wrong or failing. Which I have always found difficult in dealing with this spiritual stuff when the results can be eternal. However God reminded me of the words he said to Gideon in Judges 6. "Go in the strength you have....."To which I have added "go in the revelation you have" as well as strength because Gideon had just had a very personal encounter with his God. It comes back to what do I know.
What do you know? For me that is always going to be the starting point!! How does whatever is being suggested tie in with that basic question.
I was reading Mathew 16 in the bible and this passage attracted my attention.
Verses15-17
15:But what about you? Who do you say I am?
16: Simon Peter answered " You are the Christ, the son of the living God"
17 Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven".
My wife and I have recently been away on holiday and I like to read historical novels so I was reading a murder mystery book about Tudor England in the time of Henry the Eighth. a time that was dominated by divided spiritual and religious viewpoints. I began thinking that this is not so different from today. Or even as the above verses begin to reveal, the spiritual turmoil the arrival of Jesus brought to his time. And I began to think how to do we navigate our way through the plethora of voices, ideas, books and other things that bombard our spiritual understanding. The spiritual world we live in has a large number contradictory voices all speaking at once, some poles apart others just subtly different.
I came back to the passage above "for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven". I came back to the concept of revelation from God. This for me comes back to what do I know? I was reminded of a quote from a lecturer I had at bible college 20 years ago who simply said "You have to know what you know in your knower". I guess this for me is revelation of God deep in my spirit, what do I know in my Knower. Therefore it does not come down to so much what I am taught, what I am reading and what is the latest craze around, but how does the Holy Spirit within me respond to these things. Allowing the Holy spirit to respond takes both commitment and time but I am just beginning to grasp how worthwhile this can be. I am beginning to know more.
I have always had a fear of getting it wrong or failing. Which I have always found difficult in dealing with this spiritual stuff when the results can be eternal. However God reminded me of the words he said to Gideon in Judges 6. "Go in the strength you have....."To which I have added "go in the revelation you have" as well as strength because Gideon had just had a very personal encounter with his God. It comes back to what do I know.
What do you know? For me that is always going to be the starting point!! How does whatever is being suggested tie in with that basic question.
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
TomTom
Last week I went to a part of New Zealand I had never been before with my job. I flew into Nelson and hired a car and because I did not know my way around I had bought a TomTom GPS system from home. When I was going anywhere I fed in the address and it would tell me how to get there . It is a wonderful piece of equipment and allowed me operate well beyond what I could do with my own knowledge. I was so attentive to that machine following its instructions exactly, but if I made a mistake the machine would recalibrate and show me how to fix it and still get where I want to go.....................amazing!
Interestingly I went to the Far North this week around Kerikeri and Kaitaia. This is an area I know and I am quite familiar with. I did take the TomTom with me to help me along, but I didn't use it in the same way. I was not as intense or attentive as I used it. It was just to give me a back up system to my own knowledge little more. If I thought I knew better I would ignore it and go my own way.
I started to think how my relationship with God can be like that. In the beginning when I first became Christian everything was so intense I looked to hear from God to make sure I was going the right way everything seemed unfamiliar, a bit like the Nelson trip. After twenty something years everything seems much more familiar in my Christian walk, I feel more comfortable. Unfortunately there are times when I just use God as a back up system, to what I know, to what I think and just like in the Far North I will override him if I think I know best.
Experience has shown me I don't know best, God does, but that does not stop me thinking I do. It is in fact my sinful nature. So it is time for me and probably you, if you have been a Christian for a while to "return to our first love" as the Bible says. Know that every day no matter how familiar it seems is in fact a new thing you have never quite been there before. We need to be as attentive and intense with God as I was in Nelson with the TomTom when I wasn't sure about where I was and what to do next. Because in the end our destiny and our future depends on it!
I will be away for ten days so I will write when I get back!!
Interestingly I went to the Far North this week around Kerikeri and Kaitaia. This is an area I know and I am quite familiar with. I did take the TomTom with me to help me along, but I didn't use it in the same way. I was not as intense or attentive as I used it. It was just to give me a back up system to my own knowledge little more. If I thought I knew better I would ignore it and go my own way.
I started to think how my relationship with God can be like that. In the beginning when I first became Christian everything was so intense I looked to hear from God to make sure I was going the right way everything seemed unfamiliar, a bit like the Nelson trip. After twenty something years everything seems much more familiar in my Christian walk, I feel more comfortable. Unfortunately there are times when I just use God as a back up system, to what I know, to what I think and just like in the Far North I will override him if I think I know best.
Experience has shown me I don't know best, God does, but that does not stop me thinking I do. It is in fact my sinful nature. So it is time for me and probably you, if you have been a Christian for a while to "return to our first love" as the Bible says. Know that every day no matter how familiar it seems is in fact a new thing you have never quite been there before. We need to be as attentive and intense with God as I was in Nelson with the TomTom when I wasn't sure about where I was and what to do next. Because in the end our destiny and our future depends on it!
I will be away for ten days so I will write when I get back!!
Saturday, 21 February 2015
I really meant to!
As I continue to look at new changes in the way "I do life", some things are becoming a little clearer. After I wrote the last blog a friend of mine face booked me and said it is as much about the decisions we make as the size of our steps. A point I began to ponder, what is it about our decisions that is so significant?
There are lots of times I make decision and nothing seems to happen because I don't follow it through. Or maybe its just that I think because I make the decision it will happen automatically. Unfortunately that is not the case, I need to prioritise that decision and then act upon it. That seems fairly basic however consistency in real life practise is another thing.
So I am intending to prioritise blogging to get better at it. Now there is the decision, I just have to stick to it. Amongst everything I have to do I want to write a least once per week. One of the things I have to get over is that I don't have to write a novel, documentary or a sermon each time. Just a few thoughts or recollections will do to start with.
We will see how it goes!
There are lots of times I make decision and nothing seems to happen because I don't follow it through. Or maybe its just that I think because I make the decision it will happen automatically. Unfortunately that is not the case, I need to prioritise that decision and then act upon it. That seems fairly basic however consistency in real life practise is another thing.
So I am intending to prioritise blogging to get better at it. Now there is the decision, I just have to stick to it. Amongst everything I have to do I want to write a least once per week. One of the things I have to get over is that I don't have to write a novel, documentary or a sermon each time. Just a few thoughts or recollections will do to start with.
We will see how it goes!
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Relevance versus Biblical
I know I don't have a full grasp of this, I am just thinking out feelings and thoughts. There would seem to be a growing gulf between the Christianity that is being presented in our churches and the Christianity that is presented by Jesus and Paul in the Bible.
My first thoughts are around salvation. We seem to be so concerned about relevance to the culture around us that we have lost sight of the power of the gospel to bring about salvation and change. We seem to be focussed on techniques and strategies to the detriment of allowing the Holy Spirit and the gospel to bring the necessary conviction to bring change. The Bible tells me that the gospel is not going to appeal to anybody in the world without the Holy Spirit engaging with them.
Maybe it would be better to encourage the presence of The Holy Spirit rather than being so 'user friendly" in our churches. I know I came to Lord alone in a house with the Jesus Project video ( yes in fact a video ..... that long ago) which is a literally acted out version of the Gospel of Luke. So that left the encounter to me, God and gospel and it seemed to work. I am still walking with God today.
In my experience it works. We should try it more often!!
My first thoughts are around salvation. We seem to be so concerned about relevance to the culture around us that we have lost sight of the power of the gospel to bring about salvation and change. We seem to be focussed on techniques and strategies to the detriment of allowing the Holy Spirit and the gospel to bring the necessary conviction to bring change. The Bible tells me that the gospel is not going to appeal to anybody in the world without the Holy Spirit engaging with them.
Maybe it would be better to encourage the presence of The Holy Spirit rather than being so 'user friendly" in our churches. I know I came to Lord alone in a house with the Jesus Project video ( yes in fact a video ..... that long ago) which is a literally acted out version of the Gospel of Luke. So that left the encounter to me, God and gospel and it seemed to work. I am still walking with God today.
In my experience it works. We should try it more often!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)