Monday, 21 November 2011
Sunday, 24 July 2011
The future past
Inspired from the events this weekend
It was a past future but 2000 years ago when a king hung on a tree. He hung there for me; against all odds, against his mothers plea. Because when he saw the future he saw me. A fight that was not his, a problem not small. Yet a heart so big took it all on and for me he lived just to pass on that tree. Not nail not wood not thorns or whips not pain not hurt not blood not bruise not slander not hate not abuse not the chance of escape not for gain not for punishment he hung there for me for love for you for our sin for our world for our brokenness for our fears for our lust for our pride for our slander for our hate for our abuse for our gain for our punishment the king of all crucified for the least for all a scandalous tale. In a day that once was a future and once was a present but now is a past that king changed the course of this world.
Now we live in a future to the past and a present so free. So think of your life and every good thing and remember it is a gift from this king, the one we hated the one we despised, yet like only the best love stories he pursued us till we found him and clothed us with his glories. His love a miracle like water and oil mixing as one. It blows my mind to think of that place back in time that my king decided to die for humanity to set us free. It humbles the heart to think of such grace to be given free no purchase. I wish he didn't have to die for me I wish my sin wasn't the cause of death to the king. But thank God yes thank God that history is written and now because of that day which once was the future, present and now is the past I can write this with a confidence that my king had risen my king had won. Now an honor bestowed upon me to serve this king makes me drop to my knees and sing. I cant understand this love for me I cant repay the debt he freely gave me. I cant live up to his standards and so often I still run from this king. I hate this but history is history and the future will come and go but his love for us will never grown old. Its the constant in the equation of life. So let love fill my heart Lord humble me low and not for show all this that I might grow. May his love rest on you, may his love drive you and shine through you. LET LOVE REIGN
xC
It was a past future but 2000 years ago when a king hung on a tree. He hung there for me; against all odds, against his mothers plea. Because when he saw the future he saw me. A fight that was not his, a problem not small. Yet a heart so big took it all on and for me he lived just to pass on that tree. Not nail not wood not thorns or whips not pain not hurt not blood not bruise not slander not hate not abuse not the chance of escape not for gain not for punishment he hung there for me for love for you for our sin for our world for our brokenness for our fears for our lust for our pride for our slander for our hate for our abuse for our gain for our punishment the king of all crucified for the least for all a scandalous tale. In a day that once was a future and once was a present but now is a past that king changed the course of this world.
Now we live in a future to the past and a present so free. So think of your life and every good thing and remember it is a gift from this king, the one we hated the one we despised, yet like only the best love stories he pursued us till we found him and clothed us with his glories. His love a miracle like water and oil mixing as one. It blows my mind to think of that place back in time that my king decided to die for humanity to set us free. It humbles the heart to think of such grace to be given free no purchase. I wish he didn't have to die for me I wish my sin wasn't the cause of death to the king. But thank God yes thank God that history is written and now because of that day which once was the future, present and now is the past I can write this with a confidence that my king had risen my king had won. Now an honor bestowed upon me to serve this king makes me drop to my knees and sing. I cant understand this love for me I cant repay the debt he freely gave me. I cant live up to his standards and so often I still run from this king. I hate this but history is history and the future will come and go but his love for us will never grown old. Its the constant in the equation of life. So let love fill my heart Lord humble me low and not for show all this that I might grow. May his love rest on you, may his love drive you and shine through you. LET LOVE REIGN
xC
Sunday, 15 May 2011
A cry
Inspired from psalm 27
Promise for my future
I'm lost Lord. I can't hear your words. I cant see your way. I walk like a blind man and live like a dumb one.all i do is bring shame to your holy name. God help me yes please help me. Take the lead you and your kingdom first me and my dirt second. A holy exchange where by I reckon my sin and shame for your freedom and love. God send help from above, I'm dieing here I can't breathe, I'm suffocating in my own life. I walk a road and I feel alone but to the truth I cling, I know your there. lord hear me, lord answer me in my desperation. A cry for help a plea for a destination. Be my safe place, my salvation. Yes my salvation Lord. I can't see, I can't hear but let not fear defeat me.
I choose you not sin.
Now here is where my soul so lost turns to the story of his life where he paid the ultimate cost. An act so great, a defeat so big this rhyme takes on a new rhythm which beats through time. His spirit, his grace, and his love pour on me from the skies above flooding me like a monsoon. Yes It's here I begin to match his tune.
Oh lord hear my cry I pray. A man but yet a boy on both knees with a desperate plea, dad come do life with me. It's in your truth I will wait, yes patiently I will wait for you lord. Whether in the depths of darkness or on a mountain top I pray that I would spend my days in harmony with the king. Not like a cheap scandalous one night fling, no much more like something everlasting. That my feet would fall in your foot prints, that my words would match your harmony and my eyes would see what you see. It's this that makes me pray Lord have your way in me this day.
Promise for my future
I'm lost Lord. I can't hear your words. I cant see your way. I walk like a blind man and live like a dumb one.all i do is bring shame to your holy name. God help me yes please help me. Take the lead you and your kingdom first me and my dirt second. A holy exchange where by I reckon my sin and shame for your freedom and love. God send help from above, I'm dieing here I can't breathe, I'm suffocating in my own life. I walk a road and I feel alone but to the truth I cling, I know your there. lord hear me, lord answer me in my desperation. A cry for help a plea for a destination. Be my safe place, my salvation. Yes my salvation Lord. I can't see, I can't hear but let not fear defeat me.
I choose you not sin.
Now here is where my soul so lost turns to the story of his life where he paid the ultimate cost. An act so great, a defeat so big this rhyme takes on a new rhythm which beats through time. His spirit, his grace, and his love pour on me from the skies above flooding me like a monsoon. Yes It's here I begin to match his tune.
Oh lord hear my cry I pray. A man but yet a boy on both knees with a desperate plea, dad come do life with me. It's in your truth I will wait, yes patiently I will wait for you lord. Whether in the depths of darkness or on a mountain top I pray that I would spend my days in harmony with the king. Not like a cheap scandalous one night fling, no much more like something everlasting. That my feet would fall in your foot prints, that my words would match your harmony and my eyes would see what you see. It's this that makes me pray Lord have your way in me this day.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
A time for Joy
This and the next few entries are inspired by my reading from James.
I have been reading this book in a time in my life where my future is pretty well only a day at a time and not much is in sight. Not that I am by any means doing it tough, no, but a lack of consistent vision and goal has been frustrating me to no end. I'm sure as you have your own problems or worries, trials or tribulations, most probably far more significant than my lack of vision. However we all know the saying, "size doesn't matter"
James 1: 2-4
" 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."
Don't you just love life....when its perfect, job is going great, your getting along with the missus or just loving having single as your facebook relationship status (with a few likes), your tight with God, money isn't a problem, car is running well, your healthy..... Basically your at the top of a mountain or maybe a plateau and everything is just peachy....
Don't you just find life such a drag when only one of those things above is starting to cause you to slip off the mountain. Then all of a sudden it seems that we are falling off that mountain faster than you can like something on facebook and BAM! rock bottom. Then out of no where everything hits us. We are struggling at work, car sucks, money is no where to be seen (expect for our tax shouting the boys on the dole at the pub a few) and you start fighting with your friends. One look and it seems that you left the part about being tight with God on the mountain and forgot to anchor life down to that so that when you fall off that mountain (and we always fall) our ropes are tied tight to the unmoving anchor of God. Just me? or is this the recipe for life that normally cooks to perfection but hardly tastes sweet.
When I was reading this vs about counting the troubles of life and the tests of life as an opportunity for joy I was slightly taken aback. To be falling off the mountain there is only one way to count any of the crap life throws at us with joy, to be anchored in our faith. Like say we are on the mountain of life and fall off it...dragged over by our car insurance and phone bill.... we crash down to the ground and should die but cause its a metaphor we just hit the ground hard and there is not a iota of joy in the experience. But if we tie off first bam that jump turns into a face first adrenaline pumping abseil down the mountain only to hit the ground with confidence and a light step. 2 scenarios that have only one difference, our anchor point in life.
In my faith I was challenged because I was having a dodgy attitude to my circumstances. It hit me that where I am is just the next step in my faith, in my life. That I should count it a joy to be abseiling off the mountain top of life because it meant I was strapped in safe and sound to God who wasn't going to let me drop and die and was going to lower me down at a rate no faster than I can handle.
Its in the first few steps over the side of the mountain when your abseiling that are the worst. Its the crunch time of will it hold or not. Am I walking to my death willingly? When we got God we can march over that mountain top strapped in and embrace life and what it throws with confidence that our anchor is at the top so when we are finished we can climb straight back up.
Its not to make light of our circumstances or forget about them, but for me this idea of counting trials a joy it means keeping my focus where it counts on God, and working through the uncomfortable times, knowing that its in the fire we are refined.
I wanna finish this line of thought with what is said in vs 12-18,
" 12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
I love that through the trials and as we are going over the mountain top we can know its all worth it. That for everything we endure we become that little bit more refined. That each day that goes by we can count our challenges with Joy because we know our anchor is God. Just as it says in vs 17, God wont change, he wont let go, no matter how long we are off the top he wont move. For me this is the one real constant in my life, God. And at the end of the day when its all said and done we will be made like him in his perfection. Today I am challenged to live a life that counts my trials with joy not because its easy, not because the trials are not real but because I'm anchored to the top of the mountain by God. I pray that wherever you are, in what ever circumstance you would be blessed abundantly and strengthened to keep running the race and replenished to keep enduring your trials but most of all that you would find a joy in your suffering, peace in your circumstances and new life so free in the one who made you.
x C
I have been reading this book in a time in my life where my future is pretty well only a day at a time and not much is in sight. Not that I am by any means doing it tough, no, but a lack of consistent vision and goal has been frustrating me to no end. I'm sure as you have your own problems or worries, trials or tribulations, most probably far more significant than my lack of vision. However we all know the saying, "size doesn't matter"
James 1: 2-4
" 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."
Don't you just love life....when its perfect, job is going great, your getting along with the missus or just loving having single as your facebook relationship status (with a few likes), your tight with God, money isn't a problem, car is running well, your healthy..... Basically your at the top of a mountain or maybe a plateau and everything is just peachy....
Don't you just find life such a drag when only one of those things above is starting to cause you to slip off the mountain. Then all of a sudden it seems that we are falling off that mountain faster than you can like something on facebook and BAM! rock bottom. Then out of no where everything hits us. We are struggling at work, car sucks, money is no where to be seen (expect for our tax shouting the boys on the dole at the pub a few) and you start fighting with your friends. One look and it seems that you left the part about being tight with God on the mountain and forgot to anchor life down to that so that when you fall off that mountain (and we always fall) our ropes are tied tight to the unmoving anchor of God. Just me? or is this the recipe for life that normally cooks to perfection but hardly tastes sweet.
When I was reading this vs about counting the troubles of life and the tests of life as an opportunity for joy I was slightly taken aback. To be falling off the mountain there is only one way to count any of the crap life throws at us with joy, to be anchored in our faith. Like say we are on the mountain of life and fall off it...dragged over by our car insurance and phone bill.... we crash down to the ground and should die but cause its a metaphor we just hit the ground hard and there is not a iota of joy in the experience. But if we tie off first bam that jump turns into a face first adrenaline pumping abseil down the mountain only to hit the ground with confidence and a light step. 2 scenarios that have only one difference, our anchor point in life.
In my faith I was challenged because I was having a dodgy attitude to my circumstances. It hit me that where I am is just the next step in my faith, in my life. That I should count it a joy to be abseiling off the mountain top of life because it meant I was strapped in safe and sound to God who wasn't going to let me drop and die and was going to lower me down at a rate no faster than I can handle.
Its in the first few steps over the side of the mountain when your abseiling that are the worst. Its the crunch time of will it hold or not. Am I walking to my death willingly? When we got God we can march over that mountain top strapped in and embrace life and what it throws with confidence that our anchor is at the top so when we are finished we can climb straight back up.
Its not to make light of our circumstances or forget about them, but for me this idea of counting trials a joy it means keeping my focus where it counts on God, and working through the uncomfortable times, knowing that its in the fire we are refined.
I wanna finish this line of thought with what is said in vs 12-18,
" 12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
I love that through the trials and as we are going over the mountain top we can know its all worth it. That for everything we endure we become that little bit more refined. That each day that goes by we can count our challenges with Joy because we know our anchor is God. Just as it says in vs 17, God wont change, he wont let go, no matter how long we are off the top he wont move. For me this is the one real constant in my life, God. And at the end of the day when its all said and done we will be made like him in his perfection. Today I am challenged to live a life that counts my trials with joy not because its easy, not because the trials are not real but because I'm anchored to the top of the mountain by God. I pray that wherever you are, in what ever circumstance you would be blessed abundantly and strengthened to keep running the race and replenished to keep enduring your trials but most of all that you would find a joy in your suffering, peace in your circumstances and new life so free in the one who made you.
x C
Friday, 11 March 2011
Coming soon
Thought I would let y'all know that been reading book of James in the word and wow it's been hitting hard gunn a be wriitting up in detail my rev over the next coupla days so stay tuned :) x
Monday, 7 March 2011
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Benediction
A benediction from Jimmy Needham the words are so true I thought I would share:
No one is good not even one
The front pages of papers of children raped by rapist
Iraqi torture chambers and we the blame claim we're blameless
Wrong all
And swelling up inside of us there's this pride in us this arrogance
And our only line of defense is the sense that
Im not as half as bad as this friend of mine so I must be fine
We mean well don't we
Yet I've never seen good intentions set a man free from
Hurt all
This poor unfortunate soul
Filling a single void with toy after toy with girl after boy
How boring this wasn't this meant to be Humanity's life story
Warring with Good saying what have you done for me
Bough all
Hanging out for six hours marred beyond recognition
In complete submission to his father will still
A proclamation was made louder than the loudest temptation
With more beauty than all his creation
More eternal than eternity more angelic than the heavenlies
It Is done for you and bought with blood
Accept
Rejoice
For freedom has come
No one is good not even one
The front pages of papers of children raped by rapist
Iraqi torture chambers and we the blame claim we're blameless
Wrong all
And swelling up inside of us there's this pride in us this arrogance
And our only line of defense is the sense that
Im not as half as bad as this friend of mine so I must be fine
We mean well don't we
Yet I've never seen good intentions set a man free from
Hurt all
This poor unfortunate soul
Filling a single void with toy after toy with girl after boy
How boring this wasn't this meant to be Humanity's life story
Warring with Good saying what have you done for me
Bough all
Hanging out for six hours marred beyond recognition
In complete submission to his father will still
A proclamation was made louder than the loudest temptation
With more beauty than all his creation
More eternal than eternity more angelic than the heavenlies
It Is done for you and bought with blood
Accept
Rejoice
For freedom has come
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Before its too Late
Dont you love life. So random but how easy is it for us not to take life as a gift, each day as a second chance or a new start. Like life is a melody in c then the minor chord is hit and we regret not making a smooth chord transition to it so instead of ruining the song it complimented it. But it always comes randomly and breaks up the perfect melody.
Just the other day I was confronted with the fact my Dad had, had a massive accident and was in hospital. The instant thoughts of how why when whats wrong just explode in a series of rapid painful seconds as the thought of your perfect life song being interrupted with a minor chord of all proportions.
As I thought of the worst I suddenly regretted so many moments in my life I had wasted fighting, disagreeing and being a teenager to my dad. It kinda gave me that off note in my rather small symphony of life and woke me up again that LIFE is a gift and every moment with loved ones is irreplaceable.
Basically praising God in the middle of this was so hard. It turned out that Dad was spared so much worse damage and I honestly give all glory to my heavenly Father for that but I got to thinking. Making the most of my time with my heavenly Dad is just as important as my earthly dad. Every day when I go by without even speaking to him or connecting with him is an opportunity wasted. And in the hardest times of life to connect with DAD in heaven and praise him for the minor chord of all minor chords in life is so hard because our perspective is set on the world not on him.
God is the best Dad and when we go by and forget to spend time with him its like we are deliberately giving up the best opportunity of a life time. None of us would say no to a billion dollars for free why do we say no to Dad in heaven who is all that and more who loves you so much. Praising Dad weather life is playing in C or in B#minor becomes so easy when we know who he is and how much he loves us because we naturally will trust him with the big picture and just thank him for that alone.
Today tomorrow and for the rest of your life: live life each day to the fullest, make the most of every opportunity, chill with Dad each day, never stay angry at anyone specially not loved ones, smile and laugh, and PRAISE HIM
x
Just the other day I was confronted with the fact my Dad had, had a massive accident and was in hospital. The instant thoughts of how why when whats wrong just explode in a series of rapid painful seconds as the thought of your perfect life song being interrupted with a minor chord of all proportions.
As I thought of the worst I suddenly regretted so many moments in my life I had wasted fighting, disagreeing and being a teenager to my dad. It kinda gave me that off note in my rather small symphony of life and woke me up again that LIFE is a gift and every moment with loved ones is irreplaceable.
Basically praising God in the middle of this was so hard. It turned out that Dad was spared so much worse damage and I honestly give all glory to my heavenly Father for that but I got to thinking. Making the most of my time with my heavenly Dad is just as important as my earthly dad. Every day when I go by without even speaking to him or connecting with him is an opportunity wasted. And in the hardest times of life to connect with DAD in heaven and praise him for the minor chord of all minor chords in life is so hard because our perspective is set on the world not on him.
God is the best Dad and when we go by and forget to spend time with him its like we are deliberately giving up the best opportunity of a life time. None of us would say no to a billion dollars for free why do we say no to Dad in heaven who is all that and more who loves you so much. Praising Dad weather life is playing in C or in B#minor becomes so easy when we know who he is and how much he loves us because we naturally will trust him with the big picture and just thank him for that alone.
Today tomorrow and for the rest of your life: live life each day to the fullest, make the most of every opportunity, chill with Dad each day, never stay angry at anyone specially not loved ones, smile and laugh, and PRAISE HIM
x
Yet I will praise him
yetiwillpraiseHIM
|Yet I will praise him||Lets break it down ol school -
Yet: Being the start of my life changing phrase
I: well thats me
will: meaning I’m choosing for better or worse that praising God is my first and only response to life.
Praise: Defined as: Especially, the joyful tribute of gratitude or homage rendered to the Divine Being; the act of glorifying or extolling the Creator; worship, particularly worship by song, distinction from prayer and other acts of worship; as, a service of praise. - Basically me thanking God, trusting God and basically joyfully enduring all that comes my way each day.
Him: being God my creator, my saviour, my reason to live, my hope, my dad, my king, my everything, my waking, my sleeping, my daily life, my hurt, my joy, my sorrow, my laughter, my fear, my peace, my failures, my successes. HE IS GOD|
Basically, each day I make a choice that no matter the circumstances or happening of the day good or bad I am going to be thankful to God, trust his plan and laugh a bit :). In the little while I have tried this its amazing how easy it is to do when my day is great and how quickly I have to remind myself again that its not the circumstances of life that need to change my response to God its God and he never changes so neither should I stop being grateful for each day I have.
For me making a deliberate choice to take a positive look on life sets my perspective in the right place and when that is good I find my days are better. Im not perfect and Im not saying this solves lifes issues and its bad to be sad or its wrong to be upset about something but when life gets you down try thanking God and thinking of the stuff you got to be thankful for.
A LIL BIT O PRAISE GOES DOWN A TREAT
“Thought our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” C.S.Lewis
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