Love when it hurts

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:43-35

Doesn't that sound all lovely and warm and fuzzy? Jesus tells us to love each other, as a way of showing the rest of the world that we follow Him.

And yet, look at where those verses come in John 13. Jesus has just predicted that Judas will betray him and sends Judas on his way to do it. Jesus then reveals that Peter, one of his closest friends will deny ever knowing him.

Jesus isn't saying to love people when it's convenient, he doesn't say to love them when things are going your way. Jesus says to love people as He loved them.

To love people when they turn against you, when they betray you and do things to hurt you. To love the girl who spreads rumors behind your back, to love your friend when they say hurtful things and ignore you, to love your schoolmates who laugh at you for your faith. This is the kind of love that the world can not understand. This is the kind of love that will make people do a double take and hopefully realise who it is you are serving.

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(photo courtesy of tvdberg at stock.xchng.com)

Looking onwards

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Rather than copy and paste, I'll just say go read my post about about how each season in our life should be focused on God and where He wants us to be.

What will 2008 be a season of for me?

A season of uprooting?

A season of healing?

A season of Dancing?

A season of crying?

Am I willing to take the bad if it is to be used to build up qualities in me that God wants? Will I only praise Him for the good, or will I 'Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for [me] in Christ Jesus.'(1 Thes 5:16-18) ?

May it be so.

Who's watching you?

You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6

Working with young children you quickly become aware of how much they watch you and copy. Pick something quickly off your plate to taste with your fingers? - they'll take that as permission to forgo cutlery all together. If I don't like a behaviour I see I'll often sit down with the child and say "Oh Dear, that makes me very sad." only to have my exact words echoed around the playground.

It is a great reminder to keep my words loving, and my actions kind, not matter what I may be feeling (smile).

But it's not just children who are watching and copying, younger Christians around you (both spiritually and in age) tend to watch Christians they admire and imitate their behaviour. You have probably done it in the past (I know I have).

If we want others to imitate Christ, it's just another reason that we should be modeling Him to them. So look hard at your behaviour. Does it match the words you profess? Would you be happy for others to imitate you?

Give God your best

"You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.
Malachi 1:7-8

How true it is that we sometimes give God less than our best because we think he won't mind that much. We plan to make it up later. We say 'God will understand'.

When I read this verse I am challenged especially about how much time I give to things. If I have an essay due and am also teaching Sunday School I will give much more time to my essay and hardly do any preparation on my lesson. I am concerned about the immediate response that my essay will get, and feel that the response to my lesson is so far away. My perspective is so limited, instead of being eternal.

I forget that if others will not be pleased with what I have done/not done, then how can I expect that God will think differently? God deserves the best of me, not my left overs.

As for me and my house . . .

I have often heard that verse from Joshua 24 quoted, or seen it in samplers hanging in peoples homes. But until yesterday I don't remember reading it in context.

Here, Joshua is speaking to the Isarelites, re-inforcing the law of Moses now that they were in the promised land and making the Isralites choose who they would worship.

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua doesn't just tell the Isralites what they should do, he leads by example. He encourages them to do what is right, but his decision will not rely on them agreeing with him and his decision.

In all that we do, may we make an unwavering stand, may both our actions and words always delare "As for me and my family, we will serve The LORD"

The things we say in private

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:6

In the quiet we can tell God anything - even the things we can't tell ourselves.

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(photo courtesy of criswatk at stock.xchng)

Women of the Bible - Rahab: Prostitute used by God

This is the second in my Women of the Bible series.

Rahab, one of the more infamous women of the Old Testament.

I never quite knew how to approach her, she was a sex worker that hid the Israelite spies, lived among the Israelites, is eventually one of the Great-great-great-something Grandmothers of Jesus and is mentioned as one of the people of Faith in Hebrews. (incidentally the only woman of faith mentioned by name in this passage)

Briefly this is her story;

(I've just included the basics, please follow the links to read the whole chapters)

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies . . . they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there . . . But the woman [Rahab] had taken the two men and hidden them. [To the palace guards who wanted to know where the spies were] She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

Joshua 2: 1-6

[When the Israelites were attacking Jericho] Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her." So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel
. . . Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Joshua 6: 22-25

[The genealogy of Jesus] Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, Matthew 1 : 5

One thing that has always bothered me about Rahab's story was that she deliberately lied to the guards about where the spies were. Would things turned out differently if she had told the guards where the spies were or refused to talk to them? Obviously God had Rahab in his plan to save the world through Jesus, so I'm sure he would have still kept her safe even if she had told the truth. That's just an aside, something that I always think about. I'm no Biblical scholar so I have no answers.

Another thing; they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab What were two Israelite spies doing going into a prostitutes house?!! Did they know of her already? Was there knowledge of a woman in Jericho who had sympathies to the God of the Israelites? Did God lead them?

We aren't told these details so I guess they mustn't be that important, but I still can't help wondering (sheepish grin).

Okay, back on topic. What does the story of Rahab show us?

Rahab was, as you could, say 'ripe for the picking'. She knew a lot about God, in verses 8-11 of Joshua 2 she lists some of the miraculous things that God had done for the Israelites that she had heard of. (Perhaps her 'profession' meant she was in contact with many different men who told her these stories?) She feared God and wanted to become part of his people, eventually she lived as one of the Israelites.

We need to remember that God calls all people, we shouldn't be selective about who we share the gospel with because we think 'they wouldn't be interested'. You never know who God is planting seeds in right now.

Also when a person comes to be part of Gods family, who are we to discriminate? We should be all inclusive, becasue God is.

Rahab was available to God. She could have gotten herself into alot of trouble by taking in the spies. She opened her house to the spies and hid them.

Are we available to God? Are we ready to do what he is asking even if it's hard or scary?

Rahab had a past, but God gave her a future.

No matter what you have done, what sin you have in your past, remember that God has forgiven you. We are all sinners in Gods eyes and through Jesus we can all be pure before God. Some times Christians can be judgemental about different sins, but God never is. God took a Gentile prostitute and made her a Woman of Faith.

Praise Be to God.

(Photo courtesy of vivre at stock.xchng)

Amazing things

Joshua told the people "Concencrate yourselves, for tomorrow The Lord will do amazing things among you."

Joshua 3:5

Do we expect God to do amazing things among us? Or do we settle for less than He offers us?

As for man, his days are like grass,

he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD's love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children's children-

with those who keep his covenant and

remember to obey his precepts.

Psalm 103; 15-18

Women of the Bible - Anna; A patient prayer

After our women's lunch I was inspired to learn more about the women of the Bible and also share it with you.

Anna's story is told to us in 3 short verses in Luke.
(Context: Joseph and Mary are presenting baby Jesus at the temple.)

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke 2:36-38

What can we learn from Anna?

It could have been easy for her to sink into despair when her husband died after only 7 months of marriage. Instead she devoted her life to God, worshiping in the temple for many, many years. When we face a difficult situation do we sit and yell at God, or do we praise him in all things?

Anna waited on God's timing. She had been praying and waiting for the Messiah for ages! It would be so easy to give up after a year or two. But Anna waited and continued to pray - and God rewarded her by allowing her to see the Messiah she was waiting for.

Prayer is such a powerful thing. It is so 'easy' to do that we sometimes forget it's significance. When we feel there is nothing we can do about a situation - pray about it. When we have so much to do - pray first.

The prayer of a righteous man (or woman) is powerful and effective. James 5:16

And finally, Anna told everyone around her about the Good news.

The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

James 5:16 (the message)

Lord, help me to grow more each day in living right with you.

Everything we need

Our church is small, and unfortunately is getting smaller as a few people leave. They are moving from the area or 'moving on with their life'. We do have a committed group of key people but the things they are able to do is getting less as they get older, not physically able to do as much as they use too, or they have having families and understandably their children are taking up a lot of their time.

At the same time as this is happening we have decided to reach out more purposefully to the people in our community. Many of us feel that we just don't have the resources to keep doing all that we are doing and then do more.

I was reading Luke 9:1-9 ; in verse 3 Jesus sends out his disciples out with deliberately restricted resources. This restriction makes them focus on God instead of their own strengths and trust Him for everything.

Even though we are a small church, if we are doing God's work then he will provide everything we need; be it people, time, money, knowledge, resources. We need to just trust him and not worry about things from a earthly perspective.


His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Psalm 19:1

Mobile Bible

Dear Sister

I admit I quite like my mobile phone. I'm not glued to it like many people I know, but it's cute and white and I have a pic of frangipani's as the background/wallpaper. Seeing as how I'm not a real social butterfly I don't even use it that much. It's my alarm clock, I talk to Mum most nights (yay, free minutes!) and i text a few friends. But that's about it.

Reading a mission newsletter I was struck by a small article. (I don't have it in front of me so I'll have to just write from memory)


"Imagine if we treated our Bibles like our mobile phones. What if we turned back after locking the front door when we realised we left it inside? What if we turned to it the second something goes wrong? What if we got upset if we dropped it? What if we pulled it out and just flicked through it when we have a few minutes to spare? What if we checked it a few times a day just to see if we got any new messages? What if it was the first thing we popped in our bag?"

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Let the Little Children Come

Dear Sister

I have been so busy doing prac for uni. Working all day is definatly one of the most exhursting but most rewarding things you can do.
So often people don't think much of the many, many childcare workers we have in Australia. But they work long hours, without much reward, day after day, looking after other peoples kids.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14) and "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me" (Mark 9:37)

I love that I worship the God who loves children.

Stuff

Dear Sister

I am a mix of contradictions. I'm a hoarder but I hate having stuff around. I like collecting things, but I also feel a great sense of achievement when I throw out/give away a whole lot of junk that I don't need.
A while ago a friend of mine wrote about simplifying her family's unit. Paul reminds us "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1 Timothy 6:6-9)

In our western culture it's so easy to get caught up in needing stuff. Life is about relationships, not accumulating things. The amount of time I have spent using my stuff when I could have been building godly relationships with people makes me cringe. How I long to have 'food and clothing' and be content. Of course having possessions in itself isn't wrong, it's the importance we put on it. Today I spent a few hours getting rid of things I don't need, I still have a awful amount of things in my room but it felt good anyway.

I'll keep working on it, and hopefully be more cautious when I'm about to bring my stuff into my room, deciding if I'd be better off without it.

It's all about Perspective

Dear Sister

My bed room is on the second floor, and because one of my windows face west I get full on sun into my room in the afternoon. To stop this I pull my blind down, just leaving a gap that's big enough to let a little light in but not blind me.
If I'm outside and look up to my window I can see a small sliver of my room. A few centimeters of the back of my computer, a few candles, but not much more. But when I go to the door of my room I can see everything. I see my bed, desk, book, computer, wardrobe, craft stuff and more books.
I guess it's kind of like how much we can see of our life. We only see the small amount that is visible at the time, just like when I'm outside and looking into my room. Not all the bits join together to make sense. But God is in the room. He can see everything - and he knows what it's all about.

We'd do so much better to just relax and trust God has everything in our life worked out and it will all make sense, one day. He's got the big picture, we don't. Might as well accept that and go on living with what he's shown us so far. for He said "I know the plans I have for, plans to proper you and not to harm you" (Jeremiah 29:11)

When doubts creep in

Dear Sister

Today, in my devotional time I was reading Luke 7:18-35. John sent messengers to Jesus to check if Jesus was the Messiah (v 19-20). And I'm thinking 'Um, John aren't you the prophert sent to prepare people for Jesus? Didn't you just baptise Jesus? (Luke 3:21-25) Shouldn't you know who Jesus is?'
I guess it shows that everyone has doubts at times. It's not the doubts that are the problem, it's what we do with them. John took his doubts to Jesus. Jesus reminded him of who HE was.

When we have doubts (and I mean when, not if) we need to go to Jesus. We need to be remined of who He is. Read the Bible, remember times he has been faithful in your life, listen to others tell of when he was faithful to them. Then cling to the truth of who Jesus is.

God Answers

Dear Sister

Something that has been bothering me for a while is a simple phrase, that I'm sure many people don't even think about when they say it.
You've probably heard it before 'I'm so thankful to God for answering my prayers' or someone may ask 'Has God answered any of your prayers lately?' The reason this bothers me is it makes us think that God only 'answers' our prayers when he gives us what we want.
The truth is, God always answers our prayers. But it might not be the answer we wanted or were expecting.

In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed about what he knew was about to happen. He asked not to die. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:34). But we all know that wasn't in Gods plan. Does that mean God didn't hear Jesus' prayer? No. Does it mean that He didn't answer Jesus' prayer? No. God gave his answer according to his will. He said 'no' to Jesus' request because Jesus needed to die to take the punishment for our sins.

A more important question to ask is if our prayers are in accordance with God will. Ask God for what is on your heart, but also add 'May your will be done'

Introductions

Dear Sister

How lovely it is to take time out of my day to write to you! There are times when we all get weary in this life, times when we need encouragement, which I hope this will be. I hope that through these letters "we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24) I've been through life and while I don't clain to have all the answers (far from it!!!) I do hope to share with you things I have found helpful and encouraging.
Besides that I hope we can share some fun things as well.