Suffering, glory and value

"You don't tend to value things unless you have had to stuggle for them"

^{Romans 8 v 17} Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory"

Decorpulation

I've just finished reading this fantastic book. I would describe it as 'laugh-out-loud theological discussion'. Although I disagree on a number of the points made by the two american writers, I thought it was packed with interesting ideas and a great message to love the bride of Christ, the church, in all it's "organic and organizational mess and beauty".

Some interesting thoughts/overviews:
The bible describes the church not only as the bride of Christ, but as his body of which Christ is the head, and his temple of which Christ is the cornerstone. Kevin Deyoung and Ted Kluck make the point that loving Jesus, but not the church, would be like having a best friend who's wife you hate, making friends with a floating head or moving into the foundations of a house.
Clearly these situations are all crazy. We are called to love the church.

In the same way that "decapitation" from the latin caput talks of removing a head from a body, decorpulation from the word corpus, should then be used to describe the removal of a body from a head. This, the authors argue, is how we should describe the recent trend of church leavers who love Jesus but not his church.

Something I've thought a lot about today as well was their image of the church as a sausage. It is better for you to just eat and enjoy your sausage than to find out all the messy ingredients that have been squished together to make it. The church is made up of humans, of sinners, of people, like you and me, who get it wrong. However, throwing in the towel and leaving the church is not how God intended for us to grow and be challenged in our faith.

Those are just some of the points that really challenged me and got me thinking. I seriously recommend this book. Though, as I say, I don't agree with it all and I can see why they have made lots of people angry, so don't read it if you get angry easily.

:)

Ballet

Watch this, it's insane:

http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

When I watch things like that I'm just so amazed at how strong the dancers are despite the fact that they are in such a vulnerable position. The girl could fall at any moment and break all her bones which would, obviously ruin her career and her life. But in that place of vulnerability, she looks so powerful and has the opportunity to bless so many people with her talent.

2 Corinthians 12:10

¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Mountainview Youth Weekend Away

Hola amigos,

I'm sitting here drinking my chocolate milk (thank you, awesome flatmates who I love dearly) and thinking back over this past weekend which has been super busy, but absolutely amazing. Our youth weekend away was fantastic.

On friday evening a load of us drove up the mountains (and down the other side) to beautiful Rascafría which is in a beautiful sunny valley, surrounded by snowy mountains. It was so awesome to see God working in the lives of the young people we took.

Although the majority of the students are from churched (or even missionary) backgrounds, many of them had never taken that step of commitment for God or they had at a young age but had never experienced first hand the power of the holy spirit in their lives. In the prayer ministry time we could see the holy spirit filling the room and changing the hearts of each and every student and leader there. It was beautiful and powerful and I felt so priveledged to be part of it.

Afterwards we went for a walk through the valley. It was so lovely and hot and sunny, I was still wearing my pyjamas. Hahah. All of us were still buzzing from the morning session and I had so many great conversations. One girl kept telling me "I was crying, but it was AWESOME" hahaa. And another girl was saying that she's been a christian since she was 9 and that she's always believed the holy spirit is in her but now she just really wants to do something about it! How amazing to be part of that. And while this was happening I just kept being reminded that God was blessing us SO much with the amazing location and weather.

1 Corinthians 2:9
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him."

All I have to say is "¡Gracias Señor!"