Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Mist


So here we are again.
Nearly at the end of yet another school term.
It seems as a parent your life and the indicator of what stage of the year your life is in...are predicated by the school holidays.
And if that wasn’t enough, some retailers are starting their Christmas Season displays…

Don’t panic!
I am not upset. I am just surprised once again about how fast another year has gone.

When I was a young lad on the farm I remember wishing my days away. I couldn’t wait to be this age or that age. In fact being 15 seemed a big goal.
It would mean I could finally get my drivers license and start being a big person.
My Gran would say that at her age time seemed to go by fast. I just couldn’t understand what she was talking about. For me time seemed so slow!
Now I think I understand a little more…

James 4:14 simply says this about us…
…What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

It is a great question that most of us face.
We need to understand in some way what is our life!
But the writer adds this whole mist vibe into the mix.
Mist being something that is here for a while and then gone.

It is not supposed to be discouraging but the opposite.
The challenge for all of us is to be intentional with the life gifted to us. To not wish it away, even for a moment. Because in a ‘moment’ it can be gone.

For me it encourages me to make the most of today while it is called today. To milk life for all its worth.
I want to live it well and enjoy as much of the journey as I can. That is why I seek God and make plans for it under His guidance.
I want my ‘mist’ to be a blessing...

Something to think about…

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Prawn


The very first time I went to hunt for shawn the prawn at Huka Prawn Park I was pretty disappointed.
No matter what did. No matter how much I copied the others who were being successful around me…
I didn’t catch a thing!

Over a year later I went back again.
This time with a whole bunch of guys from our Church.
I got some nibbles which got me excited.
I thought I was going to get some breakthrough and break my draught.
I could even picture myself telling the story of my fishing exploits even before I had that first nibble.
But all the dreaming achieved nothing.
No prawns!

Roll on to January this year and I went again.
This time with a good friend from out of town.
My confidence my not have been high but I was willing to give it another try. And that try was worth it.
I caught a decent bunch of prawns.
Enough so that they were gratefully consumed, BBQed with lashings of butter and garlic that same day!

My point is this...
If you are going to do something for God, there is no guarantee it will ‘work’ the first time.
If will work when it will work.
God just wants us to try. And by trying we give Him opportunity to work and to glorify Himself.
Not doing something achieves that result...nothing.

When you see Peter not sure what to do with his life, what do you see him doing?
He is fishing.
He does what he can do until Jesus turns up and changes things again. Jesus fills his net. Jesus blesses his labour. Jesus changes his life!

It is not in the sitting around and hoping that things will change that a harvest comes.
It is in the faithful working away, being faithful to the task even when it appears in the natural nothing much has happened.
Because just when you are not expecting it...Jesus seems to do something amazing and change all the
circumstance around.

Don’t give up!
Keep on reaching and sowing and fishing.
Because in doing so we will be ready to reap a harvest when the full harvest time comes.

Something to think about…

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Crowd


I have been thinking in the last few days about things that Jesus did and how people responded.
There is one thing in particular that stands out, especially in light of what we are doing as a Church this weekend.

It seems Jesus didn’t have trouble having a crowd!
It seems that Jesus had more trouble getting away from the crowd than attracting one...more on that another day!

Regularly Jesus would have a meal at someone’s house.
As part of the preparation for this occasion, it wasn’t just food and atmosphere that was worked on or even the most important. In fact you don’t read much about what they ate at all. But what you do see is Jesus having plenty of people around him.

Why?

Real simple…
The people who knew of him or about him, no matter how little or much, were extremely keen to invite as many other people to learn about him.
They were more interested in sharing him with others than keeping him for themselves alone.
They wanted those closest to them to have the same opportunity.
They wanted their friends and neighbours to experience him.
In one account you even see people ripping apart a roof just to give a sick friend this same opportunity.
That is dedication to both Jesus and their friend!

So in your world right now, how does this relate?
Real simple I guess...
It would seem ‘normal’ to me that we do whatever we can to always invite people to find out more about Jesus.
Inviting them to Church is one great way to do this.

How far would you go to get someone else closer to
Jesus?

Something to think about…

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Force


I am the sort of person who gets frustrated with ideas and dreams of things to come.
Not because of the idea or dream directly.
But because many times people talk and talk and talk and then hope and hope and hope...without much do, do, do.

Some years a go I heard lots of teaching at Church about the idea that generations should work together.
After what seemed like an eternity of talking and no one doing...out of frustration, I approached someone from another generation and we made something happen.
It had a huge impact on my life!

More recently I decided I couldn’t handle any more discussion about Churches working on something for the Kingdom of God. Not because it was a bad idea.
It was just that we didn’t seem to have any idea how.
So I grabbed a hold of something called Back To Church Sunday, and now 10 different Churches around Taupo are working together. I think that is awesome!

The Bible says this about God’s Kingdom...
...the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12 nkjv

There is this idea expressed in scripture that while we are humble, loving, compassionate and all those good
attributes...we should also go after God’s Kingdom with some passion and drive.
To make and to see things happen.

I guess this goes with what the Bible also says about being doers of the Word and not just readers.
Be challenged my friend.
Let God stir you into action and let’s change where we are in this world all and only for the glory of God!

Something to think about…