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!"

Our challenge

In 1 Kings 13 there's this mental story about a man of God (moG) who prophecies about an altar in Bethel (King Jeroboam has been offering sacrifices to other gods). Jeroboam orders the man to be arrested but his hand shrivels up. He is then healed by the moG so he realizes that the moG is onto something powerful and invites him to dinner.

However the moG declines saying that God told him not to eat or drink anything in Bethel. Then another old prophet from Bethel follows him and tells him "an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: 'bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' (but he was lying to him)". So the moG returns to eat and drink with the old prophet.

At this point, I thought it was pretty clear that the moG had been tricked and up until that moment, he had displayed a relatively righteous, Godly life so he wouldn't get hit too harshly by the consequencces, at least compared to the other two. However, the story ends up with our moG being killed by a lion while Jeroboam (the idolator) and the other prophet (the liar who makes God seem inconsistent) remain unharmed and unpunished for their seemingly worse sins.

I thought this was pretty unjust. However, David Guzik puts it like this:

"This is an example of an important principle of the way God works. We think that strict judgment should begin among the most ungodly, but often God begins strict judgment among His own people. Usually this is because God knows that the world will not be reached when His people are compromising and disobedient."

1 Peter 4v17 says this: 17 For it is time for judgement to begin with the family of God: and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

David Guzik continues by commenting that Jeroboam, though unpunished, ends up missing out on the blessing that it could be to live to God's full potential for him as king.

The same principle works in servants of God today. We are not called because of obedience, or used out of merit; but our disobedience hinders our potential for full use. Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy 2:21: Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter [works of dishonor], he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. God uses vessels of honor, separation, usefulness, and preparation to their fullest potential.

Interesting no? I was really challenged by this to push myself to live in God's righteousness and his potential for me, even if I may feel like he's giving me harsher discipline sometimes, it makes a lot of sense seeing as we are his body and our sin is like an illness that can seriously harm that body.

So go, live to your full potential! Put God at the centre of every decision and watch your life take off!

God already knows

I've always been a bit confused as to why we pray, especially for other people who are in need, because surely God doesn't need reminding to show them love etc. He knows their situation, so why should we petition him to help as if it's something he would do reluctantly. Anyway, I read this today:

"Crudely put, I once envisioned intercession as bringing requests to God that God may not have thought of, then talking God into granting them. Now I see intercession as an increase in my awareness. When I pray for another person, I am praying for God to open my eyes so that I can see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person." - Philip Yancey, Prayer

Good way of putting it.

Psalm 57

This verse seems to have been resonating within me for a while now (Probably thanks to Mumford & Sons). My first 2 months or so here I was constantly happy and alive and passionate to be here and serve. However once this initial honeymoon period was over, I would cry out to God to "Awake my soul", to remind me of that first love we shared and bring me back to life.

⁷ My heart, O God, is steadfast,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
⁸ Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.