why stay here until we die?

I was looking at some of the twitter feeds I get each day and one stood out.
I thought it was cool and retweeted it to the people who follow my twitters.
Note : Some of you now think I am on drugs and are wondering what I am talking about? Don’t panic. Just using a social networking app called twitter...on the web.

The problem was what they were quoting was right and cool and encouraging...but the Bible reference was wrong.
That forced me to check it out for myself.
Good thing too, as it made me think about it a little more.

Here is what I am referring to….

2 Kings 7:3
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? "

The basic story behind this is that a bunch of guys who were outcastes from society realized one day that sitting around waiting to die wasn’t cool.
In fact it seemed kind of pointless to them.
They decided that ‘living’ for a few moments was better the ‘dying’ over a lifetime.

The city they were from had been under siege for so long by a powerful enemy. They decided to go look at what was happening, fall on the enemies mercy, because that seemed better than doing nothing.
They enter their camp to find the enemy has gone.
They find gold, silver, clothes...all left behind for them to discover and enjoy.

The point I think for us looking at this story today is this…
God doesn’t see our circumstances like we do.
What we see as bad or not cool, isn’t there to restrict us.
What actually restricts us more is our attitude towards life.
Being inflexible.
Being conservative.
Being safe…ultimately can rob of us of what might exist around the corner if we just took a chance. Where we show we have faith in God and not just talk about it.

So what are you waiting for?
Get up and go find what God has for you!

Something to think about…

Just this morning some amazing pictures have come through from Germany of a disaster that has befallen a family there…

Overnight a boulder came down a hill and landed on top of their house as they reportedly watched TV.
According to msn.com the father and daughter were killed, while the mother and son are recovering in hospital.

You look around their house and see a similar styled home next to it completely untouched.
You wonder why that particular house?
What lead up to this disaster?
Even how random that you can be watching TV one minute, and then dead the next?

‘Life’ is such an amazing thing really.
One day (of which none of us can remember) you come into the world as a baby. Screaming and covered in goop.
Then on a day that not many can predict, you life stops as we know it on this little planet.

In the Bible, Peter says we are “heirs of this gracious gift of life”

James 4:14 says…
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

This week, let us not look at our lives as something we can take for granted.
Life truly is a gift!
The moments we get with it are finite in this world.
The people we get to have contact with are the same.
We are here only for a little while really.

Maybe this week you can look at life a little differently?

Something to think about…

I would probably be one of the first to say I struggle sometimes with the facts and figures parts of the Bible.
You know those long stories of who gave birth to who.
How many people were in each family.
In fact most of the book of Numbers…

But I have been surprised again by what you can learn from all the ‘detail’ found in the Bible.
Isn’t that what it is supposed to do anyway?
Be this sharp sword thing...that is living...and is more than just words on many pages?

I was checking out that cool story recently where Jesus turns water in wine.
But have you actually checked out how much wine?
And does it really matter?

When I was reading it, it mentions how big the jars were that the servants filled. Not only did they put some water in them, they filled them to the top...there was no more room.
That was potentially over 600 litres of water turned into wine!
And that is a lot of wine.
In fact in today’s terms that is 800 bottles of the stuff.
We aren’t talking cheap wine on special from PaknSave. We are talking about the ‘good stuff’.
Depending on your definition of ‘good stuff’ that means, God gave them a minimum of $24,000 worth of wine!
And if that wine was my favourite called the Larose, it would have been $160,000 worth of wine.
Not bad for a wedding gift from God!

The one thing I get loud and clear from this story is this... God is very, very, very, generous!
And judging by Jesus attitude towards it all, it didn’t seem that hard for him to do it either…

So maybe this week this story can encourage you, remind you and help you see?
To see that God is huge and providing generously for us is not hard for him.
Check him out...and see what he might do?

Something to think about…cheers!

who was it?

I want to know…
I am curious to find out…
I mean, who was the guy who shot that policeman in Papatoetoe, Auckland recently?
Who is that guy who is supposedly a comedian and ex Member of Parliament? (probably a joke there as well?)
Who is that entertainer who did some lewd act to a poor girl in a back alley?

We want to know don’t we?

Millions upon millions of dollars are earned by publishing companies every year telling us the latest story of some celebrity.
People want to know who Kate Hudson is with now.
People want to know what Angelina looks like today, and how many more kids she can adopt.

We have this build in ‘morbid’ curiosity to know everything we can about everyone else. In fact, the ‘juicier’ the details, the more curious we become.

Is that right?
Or are there some bigger issues going on here?

This is not some new phenomenon specific to this generation.
It was even around during Jesus time here on earth.

One time some people where about to stone a lady because she hadn’t been faithful to her husband.
I am sure that not all the crowd were personally involved, but yet they were still keen to throw a rock at her.
Jesus shakes the whole scene up by saying...“he who has not sinned can cast the first stone.”
To which no one does…because they know they have shortcomings in their own lives to.

Another time Jesus asked the people listening to him to not worry as much about the spec in their neighbours eye, but to deal with the plank in their own eye.

Maybe the point is that we don’t really need to know about all those people with ‘name suppression’?
What good will it do to know anyway apart from entertain us or some sick level?

Let’s focus on us and the world around us.
Let’s be the salt and light once again and focus on what really matters.

Something to think about…

amen

It seems that every few weeks I come up with a word that we use...and realize that I don’t fully know why we use it.

There is a word used by religious people.
By people who say they know God.
It is used be a few religions actually.
It is generally always used after everything else has been said.
Sometimes it is in songs. Most of the time it is in prayers.

And that word is…AMEN.

Do you know what it means?
Do you know why we say it so much?
Even each Sunday we seem to encourage our churches to say it with us as leaders.

Here is what I found out…
The common english translations of the word amen include: truly, so say we all, so be it, and let it be.*
It can also be used to express strong agreement in what has already been said.
Some say that from its Hebrew origins, it actually is an acronym. Something to remind us of a larger meaning.
In this case the Hebrew people believed that it was an acronym for God, trustworthy King.*

Paul wrote these words…
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:20

And that is totally the point!
Amen is like us saying Yes to God.
We are acknowledging again that what God has promised, we are totally buying into.
We are saying we agree.
We are saying to God that we mean what we have just said, or we totally agree with what someone else said.

So as you say it sometime this week…
Maybe many times this week…
You maybe now have a better idea of what you are saying and how cool it is say it!

Something to think about…

Amen.

* source acknowledgement : www.en.wikipedia.org