I Am Amazing

I Am Amazing.

Truely and undeniably amazing.

Not because I am talented, good looking, skilled, rich or powerful.

I am beyond worth.

There is no value high enough that you could name, or write a cheque for, that could match my worth.

The exciting thing is that.....so are you!

You see, I, and you, are created by God. Not as clones but unique individuals and we are soo loved.

When we freeze water, we make icecubes. When God freezes water he makes snowflakes.

Do you know Him in your life?

The Lady at the Lights

The light was red, but her name was not Roxanne.
(At least I don't think so.)

Picture a grey, cool autumn morning; the morning rush hour; nameless faces taking the same routes; not sad, not happy; just routine.

Two friends, who travel the same route each day find themselves waiting at a crossing. And then the tears come...

Didn't see it coming? Me either.

One friend holds the other as the cold day is checked by the warm tears.

I have no idea what was going on, no idea why, but there, at 8:43, was a clear picture of what Jesus taught us to do.

Talk about pouring out compassion when it was needed, wherever it was needed AND at a time when it could so easily have been missed.

Worship vs. Serving

I think I have finally got to grips with my objection to the teaching 'Worship is a lifestyle'.

As I have been trying to work out here, here and here, I know it misses something.

Steve Chalk reminded me that Jesus never asked us to Worship Him.

Why not? and why do we try to then?

Well, Jesus never asked us to worship Him because He came to serve and sent us to serve after him. He served because He was God and knew that to be equal to God, to have the Father's power, was not something to be misused (grasped) so to best reflect the Father, Jesus emptied Himself to become human.

(Why then do we not associate God the Father with serving???)

I have been listening to some teaching from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church recently and yesterday I had a 'penny drop' moment. Here goes:


Worship is not a life style, or at least a valid one, because it is not how Jesus lived. Jesus loved, served, led, taught, befriended, mourned, prayed, laughed (I hope!) wept (we know) and so much more. Maybe Worshipping is just more comfortable than serving and that's why we chose to spend more time talking about it and build/focus so much theology around it.

Worship is a gift to God. A chance to give back to God the thanks and praise he deserves. The use of song and other creative arts is therefore quite an obvious response. There is also no need to restrict this to a Sunday morning service.

Romans 12:1 is often quoted when people talk about Worship. It talks of giving our bodies as living sacrifices. This really means serving, giving up our plans and ambitions and following His. The bible calls this our 'spiritual act of Worship'. You can see where the line starts to get a bit blurry, but only if you place too high an emphasis on that one verse and ignore or bypass the rest of Jesus' teachings. After all, when Jesus was asked to boil down all of God's commandments, what did he say? Worship God? or Love God and other?

SO, service is a life style. It is the lifestyle, because it was His lifestyle.

(and why do we serve? because that's what Love does.)

Absurd Jesus

Do you ever read what Jesus said and sort of nod-along going "yep, I get it, I get it, I get it.....lost me/not a clue!"

I was reading Mark 2:18~22 and the absurdity of what Jesus says struck me. So, Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples (who obviously didn't get what John had been on about, otherwise they'd be Jesus' disciples!) why His disciples aren't fasting. He says that it's a time of celebration right now so they shouldn't be fasting, which is about loss and associated to mourning. He then says that a time of mourning is coming and that they can fast then.

That seems to answer the question. Yet Jesus takes the opportunity to stretch the understanding of the people who asked Him a question. Hmmm.

I really like that idea, but how absurd to talk to them about wine skins when He's already answered the question?

You see, the Pharisees (et al) were trying to squeeze Jesus into their understanding, but Jesus knew that if they were to stand a chance of seeing Him for who He was, He'd have change how they thought. So, he started to point to the idea of old and new and that the old could not contain the new; they we incompatible.

Oh, if we could learn that in churches today. Not that you can discount something just because it's been there for a while. The question is: Is it compatible with Jesus' teaching? rather than a legalistic attempt to be god.

Father, I pray you'll continue to change the way I think,until I think like You.

Awesome God.