Pop Idol?

When I think about 'idols' I tend to go immediately for the obvious - money, possessions, fame and the like, but God has been challenging me very hard recently about what my Isaiah 44 idols really are..... If we are prepared to wrestle honestly with this, it asks big questions of us:

What do we spend precious time investing in?
What do we spend the most money on ?
What can we always fit in even when we're tired, broke or busy?
What are we really living this unique life for - and why?

What would it mean to live a life totally invested in God - making him our 'all in all' - and seeking to see others do that too? Would it bring joy, excitement and fulfilment?

The answer is of course 'yes' - but conflict, pain and struggle may come along for the ride too.........

So maybe the most important question is not 'where are the idols?' - but am I prepared to trade them for a different kind of life - whatever the 'cost'?

Nearer..................

"Jesus came near and started walking along beside them."
Luke 24:15

Christ the stranger, who walked alongside friends in their sorrow and shared their bread, give us grace to walk with others on their journeys and so become true companions.

Reblogged from here

Wii Church?

As one who is about to enter the world of Wii I couldn't help but giggle at this.........

Loved......................

I heard this story a couple of weeks ago written for children by Max Lucardo which touched my soul........

There were once wooden people called Wemmicks. Each had been carved by Eli, a woodworker. "Every Wemmick was different. Some had big noses, others had large eyes. Some were tall and others were short. Some wore hats, others wore coats. But all were made by the same carver and all lived in the village. And all day, every day, the Wemmicks did the same thing: They gave each other stickers. Each Wemmick had a box of golden star stickers and a box of gray dot stickers. Up and down the streets all over the city, people could be seen sticking stars or dots on one another".

Stars were for things that Wemmicks thought were good - like being beautiful, clever and getting things right, "Some Wemmicks had stars all over them! Every time they got a star it made them feel so good that they did something else and got another star. Others, though, could do little. They got dots". Dots were for those who didn't fit in, who didn't look right.......................

"Punchinello got dots. Everything he tried to do seemed to go wrong, and when it did the others would gather around and give him dots. "He deserves lots of dots," the wooden people would agree with one another. "He's not a good wooden person." After a while Punchinello believed them...........

To cut a long story short, one day he meets Lucia - who doesn't care about stickers - infact nothing sticks to her, which makes Punchinello curious so he asks her why. "It's easy," Lucia replied. "Every day I go see Eli."

After agonising for ages because he was convinced someone as amazing as Eli would never want to see him, Punchinello plucks up the courage to go and see Eli. When he gets there Eli knows his name! He knows everything about him! Eli explains that dots and stars don't matter to him. Punchinello is special because Eli made him.......

However badly we feel about ourselves today - we can hang on to the fact that we are special because our 'Eli' - God the creator of the universe, made us, loves us and like Punchinello's Eli 'doesn't make mistakes'.

But there's more............ When Punchinello asks Eli how to make the dots not stick, Eli replies "simply come and see me every day, and let me remind you how much I love you again".

How often does the time we spend with God become about study, preparation, routine, or duty? How different would our lives be if we could simply come to God each day and let Him remind us how much he loves us again?

"May all your dots fall silently to the ground, for if given by man, they matter only to other men" Max Lucado

Life in all its to-do-lists?

I wonder whether one of the foundational beliefs that many of us carry in our lives is that God somehow wants us so that he can simply put us to work & give us a long 'to do' list'?

That lingering belief that God loves me "but he's most interested in how I'm doing with my job-list of "do's and don'ts" now that he has me....." One of the major "do's" being how well we're doing at sharing him with others........

The problem is, that if our day to day experience of God is just a dry list of jobs - then that is what we'll share with others - perpetuating the myth that a life with God is little more than a divine to-do list..........
Is it any wonder then that so many people find their faith is nothing more than a dry, unexciting, task orientated half-life rather than the amazing richness of the life promised here?

Of course God has, and indeed is, the purpose for life and he has amazing things for all of us to do - but just as importantly, God wants ME and YOU. He delights in us, he wants us whole, he wants us to spend time with him exploring who we are, and what this thing called 'life in all it's fullness' is really all about.

He has made a life for each of us to explore - full of pleasure and delight, richness and reality, relationships and growth, challenge and struggle. That is the life that he wants us to experience and live to the full - that is the life he wants us to share with others, sharing from our desire that they find this rich kind of life too not simply inherit a list of rules.

How often we get so stuck in a list of jobs, restrictions and rules that we forget the fact that real life is about 'God and me' and 'God and you'?

When did we lose sight of the fact that real life - life in all its fullness indeed- is the love story between God and us?

Ordinary People..................

Zechariah was an ordinary priest who was faithful to God, living a fairly ordinary life. (find him here ). He was on the ‘priests rota’, so when he was on duty he would go off to the church and do whatever jobs he had been given – decided by ‘lot’ so it could be anything and everything. Until one day when it all changed.

Zechariah was in the inner sanctuary doing his thing, when an angel appeared and told him that he would have a son who would be ‘a great man in God’s sight’.

As he was very old, Zechariah was quite surprised by this (both the angel and the news, one would assume) - “are you sure?” he replies “We’re both past it”.

Then - just to be sure – he asks the angel for a sign. The angel strikes him mute – which probably left Zechariah wishing he had been a little more specific in the sign he asked for.........

“God regularly works through ordinary people, doing what they normally do, with a mixture of half-faith and devotion, holding themselves ready for whatever God has in mind” Tom Wright

Zechariah would have known the stories of others like Abraham & Sarah, and Rachel & Jacob who had been in the position of being too old to conceive children, and yet being given sons by God - but he doesn't seem to be able to believe it could happen to him.

How many times do we think we are too ordinary? That the riches of God are for the more gifted, more talented, more obvious people..........

But throughout the bible, God lavishes his love on, and uses ordinary people for amazing things – so why on earth not?

Been away...............

Took a break from this blog for lots of reasons - but haven't been completely idle! Catch me here and I'll be back on this blog soon!

Shaken and Stirred......

Too often the people who we expect to be inspired and challenged by are the 'obvious' - the great speakers, amazing worship leaders, and 'celebrity Christians' - but there is so much to learn from those who are alongside us, but don't fit the 'Christian' mould. Those who experience the hardest of circumstances and toughest of lives - those who struggle to hold on to their faith in the most challenging situations - for whom to simply says 'yes' to Jesus is a huge deal.......

When Jesus choose his disciples he didn't go after the most obvious choices - the rising stars of the area or the 'brightest & best'. He chose the ordinary, the outcast and the sinners - the strugglers and those who most people passed by without a second glance.......

May God shake us out of our stereotypes, and stir us into seeing with his eyes...........


"I'll tell you who'll laugh last: the people who don't think too much of themselves; who know their spirituality scores are poor - their ticket to heaven is already in the post (special delivery). " Matthew 5:1 from 'The Liberator' by Rob Lacey

Food for thought................

I read this today........

"How do we welcome home our lost brothers and sisters? By running out to them, embracing them, and kissing them. By clothing them with the best clothes we have and making them our honored guests. By offering them the best food and inviting friends and family for a party. And, most important of all, by not asking for excuses or explanations, only showing our immense joy that they are with us again. (See Luke 15:20-24).

That is being perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. It is forgiving from the heart without a trace of self-righteousness, recrimination, or even curiosity. The past is wiped out. What counts is the here and now, where all that fills our hearts is gratitude for the homecoming of our brothers and sisters."

Made me think............

All for Jesus......

Jesus - all for Jesus. All I am, and have, and ever hope to be.
Jesus - all for Jesus. All I am, and have, and ever hope to be.

All of my ambitions, hopes and plans - I surrender these into your hands.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans - I surrender these into your hands.

For it's only in your will that I am free.
For it's only in your will that I am free.

Jesus - all for Jesus.
All I am, and have, and ever hope to be.

One of the many fundamental questions that we must ask ourselves if we claim to follow Jesus is 'do I really trust Jesus or not?' We say we trust Jesus for our salvation and all that brings - but do we really trust him with our life right here, right now - or do we think we know better?

Do I take the risk of trusting him totally - being prepared to abandon my 'ambitions, hopes and plans'? Will I seek his voice, his lead, his his way - even if it doesn't fit my wants, my desires, my 'rights'?

The irony is that when I think I know what is best for me - when I seek to create my life in my way but then creep to him and ask for a blessing on what I have created - it doesn't bring peace at all - quite the opposite........

The beauty is that when I am brave enough to surrender all into his hands, however reluctantly, painfully or costly - then I get a taste of the 'peace beyond all understanding' which I crave..............

" ......in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 4 (New International Version)

Every year at YFC we pray this prayer -
maybe once a year isn't enough though -
maybe it's an every day thing..................

I am no longer my own - but yours.
Put me to what you will - rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing - put me to suffering,
Let me be employed for you - or laid aside for you.
Exalted to you - or laid low for you.
Let me be full - let me be empty
Let me have all things - let me have nothing
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal
And now - glorious and blessed God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit
You are mine, and I am yours,
So be it.
And the covenant made here on earth,
may it be ratified in heaven
Amen