Earthly things for Eternal gain

At church the sermon was on how we spend our money.
It was really challenging to me to think 'do I use my money for earthly purposes, or eternal purposes?' I hadn't ever thought that I could use money to help others learn about God, but really it seems silly that I hadn't.
Matt (the preacher) showed that while earthly possessions aren't bad, they have been given to us from God and we should use everything He has given us to further His Kingdom.

It's amazing to think that my little donation to Bible Society or to a missionary can lead to someone hearing the gospel and then we will see each other in heaven!

So this is my challenge to other young, unmarried women, to use this time God has given us (without much financial responsibility) to use what He has given us to further the work of the gospel.

How do you do a quiet time?

This is what I do

Find a quiet place where I won’t be distracted. I start by praying to God. First I tell him everything that is on my mind. Then I ask him to quieten my heart and prepare it to hear what he has to tell me from the reading. I spend a bit of time praising Him for who he is.

I think it is really important to go through books of the Bible systematically. You can do this by picking a book and reading through it, or by working through a devotional guide. I use one at the moment called ‘Closer to God’. It’s by Scripture Union, I have always found their stuff good and has a solid Biblical base.
I look at what the reading is today, but I don’t read any of the notes on it yet.

I read through the passage, going straight through, to get an overview of the passage. If it is one that follows on, I like to read the passage before it to remind myself of the context.
Then I read it again slowly with a note book and pen. I jot down words that I don’t understand, and words/phrases/ideas that are repeated. I write down any verses that I think have a key idea in them.

I look up the words I don’t understand and then I write down the meaning.

I think, how does this passage affect my life? What is it teaching me about my Christian walk? What is it teaching me about God? What stands out? Dose it remind me of anything else I've read in the Bible?

After I have done this I read the notes from the devotional. Sometimes they pick up the same ideas I did, and sometimes they are not. That’s okay because God may want me to take a different meaning away then someone else has found. I like when they give me a bit of historical or cultural context to help understand some things a bit better.

I then talk with God about what He has taught me and ask for his help in the day ahead. I pray a bit for different people (I have a weekly schedule for different people to pray for each day).

So that’s a brief over view of what I do, what about you? Any tips for spending time with God one-on-one?

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(Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/743507)

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"

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?

Traps

There are two types of traps that Christians can fall into;

1. Assimilation

2. Withdrawal


Assimilation is living as if being a Christian makes no difference in our lives. These people follow the world in attitude, dress, behaviour. There is nothing about them to testify that they are living a life that follows Christ.


Withdrawal is living a life that is so separate from the world that you can not make an impact for Christ. These people live in a little Christian bubble - very legalistic, only interacting with other Christians who exactly follow their ideas about how to follow Christ and quick to judge those who do not live the way they do.


Of course these are extreme examples but we can easily have part in each way of living. Both can be a hindrance to sharing Gods love with people.


Do you watch TV shows or movies without thinking about whether it is healthy to let those images into your mind (I don't just mean inappropriate things, but also violence, or attitudes such as materialism, self importance that are glorified by the themes in the movie/show)? Being out of the loop around friends might not be fun, but there are better things for our minds to think about.

Do you worry about having enough money to get a house, have a large savings account, have the latest gadget? In our society materialism creeps in so easily without us knowing.

Do you buy clothes because they are in fashion or they make you look good without considering if they are appropriate, modest, honouring to the Spirit of God that lives in us?

Do you talk about other people behind their back - pretending to be sharing and showing concern but really gossipping?

All these and more are small ways that we can start to assimilate to the fallen world.



Do you spend most of your time with other like minded Christians (Your life consists of only people at church, close Christian friends, go to a christian school/home school) and have nothing to do with non-Christians? Jesus spent so much time with ordinary non-religious people. How are we going to build relationships with people to share with them the gospel if we only interact with Christians?

Do you immediately shout down anyone who says something against Christianity? The Bible says to tell the truth in love, if you don't present the gospel gently are you scaring people away from finding out more about God?

Do you secretly judge Christians who do not live as you do?

Is the way you dress and the way you live out your life so alien to the people around you that people stare and avoid you?


These and more are some ways you can be withdrawing.



(I struggle with things from both assimilating and withdrawing and I don't want people to feel judged in anyway, it's just something to think about.)

(photo courtesy of Ayla87 at stock.xchng)

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.

Lord be my battle shield, sword for the fight

There are two types of Christians. Those that Satan can ignore and those that he has to fight against. (see quote in this post)

These are the people whose every waking moment is used for growing in a relationship with God, who can not keep the gospel to themselves, who strive to be full of the Spirit.

Even if it makes me a target I'd rather have Satan as my enemy than for him to think he can ignore me.

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

Blogging in step with the Spirit

Dear Sister

While going through some older articles on Boundless I came across this one about blogging as a Christian.
It made me pause and think about why I blog, and who I am to be sharing with others. This blog is specifically to share what God is teaching me. I do not want people to feel that I think I am perfect. Far from it. I am reminded day after day what a sinful person I am. I can only trust that as I strive to grow closer to God He is changing me to be more like him.

Blogging is another form of talking and so all the commands God gives us regarding our words should be followed just as closely when writing.
I seek to encourage rather than criticise, and I pray that if I stray from that goal, God will send someone to rebuke me in love.

I also think it is important for me to remember the comments that I leave on other peoples blog. It is so easy to react angrily to something I disagree with, instead I should remember that just because I can comment doesn't mean I should.

One of the downfalls about blogging is that it is written. We can't always see the emotion that a person would be able to communicate in person. It is so easy to read things the wrong way. I need to be clear in what I write, and give people the benefit of the doubt about what they have written.

I'm not going to stop posting, but pray that God will continue to bring out the fruits of the Spirit in all that I do, whether in my daily life or in what I write.

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

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.

Missionary?

Dear Sister

Yesterday at church I heard one of the most thought provoking and challenging/encouraging sermons in a long time.
We don't have a minister at the moment so we have had a few visiting ministers. Today was a guy who's family use to come to our church but they are now church planting in an area of Sydney where there is a large Muslim community. It's so great to hear about all that God is doing through them, but that's a story for another post :).

Anyway he was talking about how the early church had an attitude of mission. Even though they sent out 'missionaries' they were very mission minded in their own churches, communities and homes. It got me thinking. Do I act just as mission minded at home as I do on mission? Short answer; no.
I grew up in a missionary family overseas, I've been on a short term mission and I've helped out with family missions at our church. When on mission I am consciously thinking about how I can lead the conversations toward gospel things, I talk about what God has done into everything I do. I pray constantly about the people I will meet that I can share with them about God. I don't always say as much as I should, but at least I'm trying and praying and I believe God can use even a broken person like me.

But at 'home' I'm not like that. I don't even think about leading conversations I have towards the gospel, even though I pray about my non-christian friends, I don't expect things to happen. It was a huge rebuke to me.

Why don't people become Christians? Because we don't tell them how.