Fill your brain

Just a few thoughts.

I was at Church a couple of weeks ago when the guy who was talking gave what i guess you could call a modern day parable. He began talking about land which in countries such as Kenya if left unoccupied will inevitably soon be home to squatters. If you don’t want your land to occupied by squatters then don’t leave it unoccupied. He then compared this to us. If we don’t fill ourselves with God and leave it unoccupied then inevitably the devil will occupy that space. It sounds very simple and obvious but i think in reality we often do this. Sin is when we allow ourselves to think or do things which are not of God. 

Philippians 4:8 (The Message)

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Conformers Not Conformed

Us being pro.

Hello. 

I think this post applies to both our Kenya blog and this one so i posted it on both. I hope that's alright. 

This week we’ve been conferencing. Pro’s. We’re at a conference called ‘Building Just Communities’, which is all about how justice can be brought to urban slum areas in Nairobi such as Kibera. Its been good, mainly! 

Yesterday a Bishop of somewhere spoke about how the church is influenced by the world rather than the world being influenced by the church. This is something i’ve been thinking about for a little while so i found it quite interesting. 

He gave a number of examples such as abortion and homosexuality. However, there are many, many more than this. I think that we are so influenced by the media in the west in a way that Kenya isn’t, although Kenya’s are influenced by other things in different ways. We accept the things we are told without even questioning them. We accept them because we doubt God’s power. 

I’m not deliberately trying to write something really controversial but i just think we ignore and accept these things so often. One of the issues the bishop talked about was homosexuality. The media, the law, our human rights all teach us that homosexuality is okay and simply an unchangeable way for people are. Many Christians accept this or simply never think to question it. The Bible says something very different from our society and i believe that as the bishop was saying - the church has been influenced by the world rather than the world being influenced by the church.

We hear about gay rights groups taking people to court in the news constantly. This in itself is not wrong, all people should be treated equally. However, i think that many of us have been influenced by our societies message that homosexuality for example is okay. This is not a biblical perspective. If you look in the Old Testament you find Leviticus 18:22 which says ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.’ This verse is the first verse we often think of in relation to this issue. However, it only tells half of the story. There is one verse in 1 Corinthians which i think is so so vital concerning this issue.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11...

‘Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’

As in all areas of our lives Jesus makes the difference. We can be renewed. Change is possible. Homosexuality is an easy example to give but this teaching can be applied to so many other areas.

Finally, Romans 12:2 is hugly important and relevant to changing from the church being influnced by the world to the Church influencing the world. 

‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.’

To not hope for change in areas where we are influenced by the world is to doubt and degrade God’s limitless power.

Back to Basics.

This poem was written in a 24-7 prayer room and tries to explain why Jesus died and what His death means. 

BACK TO BASICS.

In the beginning all was perfect. God’s creation in harmony. His children created. 

Free. Free to worship. Free to be.

Free to sin.

God’s children, His creation leave.

Tempted.

Evil enters. Suffering begins

Billions upon billions run. Looking, searching. Nothing fits, nothing works, nothing satisfies.

God is a just God. He’s angry. His own creation, lost. We were too weak for that freedom.

God doesn’t give up.

He loves far too much for that . He’s got a plan.

The cross. Jesus His only son. He can pay the price.

Burdened with our sin, our crap, our mess amongst His perfection. 

He takes it.

Pays the price we should pay. God’s justice. Unlike any justice I’ve ever seen. Beautiful.

What’s it mean? It means I’m free once more. No longer can sin hold me down. He took that.

Relationship restored.

My salvation secure.

My hope in Him.

God’s anger – satisfied.

My response is what I was created for – the only rational thing – worship.

My salvation isn’t easy. I’m saved by grace through faith. My God’s a brilliantly gentle God. I can leave. At any moment I can deny that sacrifice, deny that hope, deny the very thing I was made for. 

I’m free

He’s got a plan. A good plan for me. I’m free to follow that, I’m free to leave.

I’ll struggle. The world’s messy.

But when I see the cross I know I want God’s plan, my new life. Life in the truest meaning.

And one day I’ll stand before Him, my creator. A sinner. A mess. Not nearly half of what I was made to be.

But, I won’t be alone - Jesus stood at my side.

The verdict? Saved.

Vlog Two

Vlog Two - A three course meal consisting of - a cheese based 90's sitcom introduction followed by a short yet satisfying chat about idealistic visions and ended with a large zingy few words about the reality of God. Then just in case you're not ready to pop there's a messy glimpse of some out-takes. Yum yum.


The pictures Susie talks about....

Vlog One

Vlog One - A theologically accurate description of how night time and day time came to be, an introduction to the Gappers and an insight into Stewart's mind.

Faith

Much of the theology I've learnt this year has been a correction of what I assumed or was taught in the past. 

Faith. I used to spend so much time in the desert thats its surprising I haven't adapted into some sort of human cactus by now. Thankfully, the desert is just a christian metaphor for feeling far from or not hearing from God. 

I spent hours trying to have faith. There's a good, loving, powerful God who sent His Son down to earth to save me by grace through faith. All I need is faith. Why couldn't I just believe? I wanted it to be true but that didn't mean it was and it didn't mean I could believe. 

If God gives us faith then I think He missed me out.

But

Through faith we gain faith. That's what I've learnt.

'Throw yourself in at the deep end'. I need to pray, I need to depend on Him, I need to be open to Him, I need to trust Him to see Him. This is because through all of this I will see Him work. 

God gives each of us faith, like God has given us everything we have. We need to take a risk to grow. Jump and hope He'll catch us. We'll be surprised when He does. And our faith will be a little bit stronger.

Desert times can be awesome, and they're not always a bad thing at all. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert being tempted. But, for me I had left and walked into a desert because of my fear of risks and desire for control. But I've learnt a lot.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you 

Matthew 17:20

The moon, seatbelts and Romans 12 - Hannah

I feel that I should start this blog with some sort of well written introduction but I’m no good at that so I’ll get straight into it.
I was recently having a chat with a friend about the different contexts in which we find God revealed. I explained to him that I find God in the moon, how incredible I find it that the same Sun that gives light to the other side of the earth is reflecting off the moon, becoming visible. I find it so awesome that I can sit and stare at it for ages. After explaining this, there was a short pause before he said he had a similar thing with seatbelts. At first I thought he’d missed my point entirely but when he elaborated I realized that each of us just experience God in different ways. God’s awesome and quite funny.

Anyway, on a completely different note, I’ve recently been challenged to read my bible more and within the last few months some great things have come from this. I’ve found that I’ve become far more excited about my faith. One of the chapters which has most inspired me is Romans 12. I’d encourage anyone who reads this post to read the whole chapter but I’ll share my thoughts on verse 1.

Romans 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and spiritual act of worship.

In Greek the word spiritual means rational. Therefore, when Paul talks about ‘spiritual act of worship’ it means our ‘rational act of worship’. This made me think about what our society and culture says about faith and rationality. It makes us believe that to have faith, to pray and to worship is irrational since we are ‘sorted’, we live in society with immediate answers and solutions. There is no God and there is no need for a God. Therefore, the idea that worship is the only truly rational thing to do is so counter cultural. This concept challenged me to think about and reject what my culture says about my religion and faith. To ‘not conform to the pattern of this world’ is to not compartmentalize our lives and to let our faith impact all areas of our life.

A little while ago Mel was teaching us about our generation and postmodernism. This is what made me think about how we compartmentalize and how this leads to a lack of integrity. In my own life I have noticed that I’m a completely different person around different groups of friends and I choose to share my faith with some and not others. I recently met up with some college friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. After a short conversation with them about what each of us was doing I noticed how little they knew about my faith and how important it is to me.

So, that’s one of my aims in life at the moment. Please pray for more integrity for me.