Anxieties, Hurts, and Disappointments

Along with anxieties and hurts, we also bring our disappointments to God. If anxieties focus on what 'might happen', and hurts focus on what 'has happened', disappointments focus on what 'has not happened'.. acknowledging or naming our disappointment to God is an important move...because, many of us, if we don't bring our disappointment 'to' God, we will blame our disappointment 'on' God, alienating ourselves from our best hope of comfort and strength... (p119-120/Naked Spirituality/Brian McLaren)

Religion is black and white

Religion makes it all black-and-white. I, however, would much prefer life in colour, thanks.

Resurrection?

What kind of life do we need to live that is worth coming back to?
What kind of world do we need to leave that is worth coming back to? #resurrection

God and Costco

People call me "The Costco Queen", a title I was bestowed, for frequent enthusiastic expounding of the wonders of Costco. I love it, and never hesitate talking about what an amazing place it is to anyone and everyone ("You can buy cheese, milk AND a garden shed, all under one roof!"). I am happy to invite people to come along anytime for a visit (as you need a membership or be a member's guest to visit).
When it comes to God the Creator though, I uhmm, ahh and hesitate before I choose to speak.

For years I had struggled with my lack of ability to "evangelise" - I always thought I was somewhat afraid of what people may think, or just wasn't "gifted" in that way.

Maybe it's still the above, but I think I've identified my main problem:

Costco (along with the other things I get excited about, such as Apple gadgets and Food) are easy to talk about and easy to encourage others to jump on the bandwagon because they are all GOODS and/or SERVICES. Goods and services which give immediate, instant, tangible gratification. The "benefit" or "Pros" of a particular product or service is addressed and experienced immediately.

Food immediately TASTES good; Apple gadgets look and feel technologically sexy; and Costco - you can buy 1.5 dozen of free-range eggs AND 1kg of whole-egg mayonnaise for less than $10.00 (after you buy your washing machine and get your hearing checked, all under one roof!)

But God isn't an instant bandaid who fixes all your problems or Santa Claus who gives you all you want or Mr Costco who will sell it to you at a heavily discounted price, and you'd receive instant gratification.

He's Someone I have a relationship with. He is Someone I am learning to have a conversation with, and journey with daily.

It's like you meet someone who eventually becomes your husband/wife. You get to know them little-by-little; you date; and eventually discover that he is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Now imagine if it was your Mum who first introduced this same man to you, and immediately pounds it into you that "You are to be wed to this man!". No wonder speed-dating or shotgun weddings with God tend not to work. They may, don't get me wrong - I am a testimony of that. But there are certainly problems that are likely to arise.

So - don't worry about what your mum/auntie/cousin/neighbour says- Start dating!

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance" [2 Thessalonians 3:5]

Photo albums, scrapbooks, yearbooks

To me, the Bible is kinda like someone's photo album, scrapbook, and yearbook.

You can browse through the Obama's baby photo album with interest. You might say, "oh, what a cute little bubby boy was he!" but not like it would be of any personal relevance to you.

But it's entirely different when the photo album, scrapbook or yearbook holds the stories of someone you love and actually have a relationship with.

You then no longer just browse with lukewarm interest, but instead peruse it carefully, as the stories would help you know and understand the one you love just that bit more.

You could still have a relationship with the one you love, even without looking into the photo album.

But curiousity piques- the more you get to know the one you love in the present, the more you desire to know about his stories.

welcoming 2012

It's so much easier to blog about food, than it is about life. Food is physical, tangible and easily involves the 5 external senses; life is so much more abstract. Or rather perception about life is more abstract, to be more exact.

On New Year's Day, I was asked to share what I was thankful or grateful for for the year 2011. When you're asked such a question, there really isn't much choice but to reflect on the year.

I am thankful for an unremarkable year.

Nothing our society deems as a great success or accomplishment happened to us this year. We didn't strike the lottery, we didn't have a baby, we didn't get married. Neither did a great tragedy befell us - all have been healthy, and well.

Events in 2011, for us personally, hadn't been particularly significant. But not needing to be overly preoccupied with our situation allowed us to focus on working out our faith, trying to understand how God is working in this chaotic world, and trying to understand the roles we play in global issues, or even just the roles we play to have a positive impact in our community's lives. 

 

An unremarkable year isn't normally something people are thankful for. But this reminds be of Proverbs 30:

^7-9 And then he prayed, "God, I'm asking for two things before I die; don't refuse me— Banish lies from my lips and liars from my presence.Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. If I'm too full, I might get independent, saying, 'God? Who needs him?' If I'm poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God."

I haven't been able to put much of our reflections, conversations,thoughts into text this year. Hopefully I would be able to pen down my thoughts more this year, to help gain more clarity. 

I am certain 2012 will be a new adventure.

Cookies supplied by the talent at The Buttercup Bakeshoppe

Happy New Year!

The purpose of life is a life of purpose - Robert Byrne

Hope equals tension

There’s so much tension between living life and living life*(living love-inspired, hope-filled, faith-empowered). To live a life unperturbed by the current forces of society, the yoyo-ing of the financial markets, the fragility of our health.

So much tension to live in freedom.

I suppose that’s why we call it hope.

Hope can only exist when something is yet to be realised.

I’m certainly not there yet, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in it.
I do. But sometimes the tension tires. Like trying to climb out of a deep pit.
The Creator through His stories has shown that there is an alternative to being stuck in a deep dark pit. There is the surface, where there is sunlight and fields as far as the eye can see.

But I’ve got to do the climbing.

And continue climbing. The constant tension.



By the grace of God, the hope of living in freedom will one day be realised.

Second Chances

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0105/Ted-Williams-A-homeless-man-with-a-golden-voice-gets-a-new-chance

What does it mean to be saved?

What Does It Mean to Be Saved?
by Dr Rikki Watts

I’ve always struggled with what it means to be a Christian. And it’s not because I didn’t think God was real. I was brought up in the Pentecostal church. I knew God was real, but there was some sense of dislocation between my Christian experience and relating that life to the world around me. I realise now that many Christians do not know why they are here.

What does it mean to be saved? I remember when I was working at IBM this was often satirised. A poster in a friend’s cubicle said ‘Jesus saves - at First National’. I remember at first being offended by this, but in time I began to wonder if we haven’t half deserved it. I began to realise how odd the language must sound to a 21st century person.

It began to dawn on me that we were using a word that really doesn’t mean what it meant in Roman times. ‘Saviour’ was a well-known political term. There’s a famous inscription which speaks of Caesar Augustus - ‘it seemed good to the Greeks of Asia and in the opinion of the High Priest to say the following - Since Providence which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit mankind - sending him a saviour, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things.’

Pay attention to the language here. No one is talking about going to heaven, about sins forgiven. The term ‘saviour’ here has to do with concrete changes in the lives and the world in which people of the first century lived,worked, and sought to bring up their families. This was real life stuff.

There’s nothing here about somewhere beyond the blue. Being saved by a saviour had a well-known economic and political meaning. It was a word from everyday life. Augustus was considered the people’s Saviour because he’d restored peace to the empire. He was their benefactor.

It seems to me we’ve dropped the classical clanger - we’ve made the kind of mistake that no decent missiologist would make today. We’ve hung on to the word and lost the meaning. So what does it mean to be savedLet’s track the imagery that Genesis gives us in order to understand salvation. You can’t really talk about salvation until you talk about creation. There’s a reason for beginning in Genesis.

Setting the Scene

One of the striking things about the Hebrew bible’s concept of creation is its use of the following kind of language - ‘the foundations of the earth… the pillars of the heaven - the beams of God’s upper chambers… stretching out the heavens like a canopy … the windows of the heavens… storehouses…’ This is architectural language. The conception in the Hebrew bible is of creation as some kind of architectural construction. Now what kind of building is this?

Given that nowadays we really do take culture seriously we should pay attention to the way language was used in the surrounding cultures. In the ancient near-eastern traditions the act of creation was seen as the gods building their palaces.The word for palace in Hebrew is the same word that is used for temple.

And that’s exactly how Israel sees creation. Isaiah 66:1 – ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool ..’ Where do you find a throne and a footstool? In a palace. What do you call the palace not of the king but of a god? You call it a temple.

We are quite happy to see heaven as God’s temple - but Isaiah’s point is that the earth is his footstool, the earth is right there in the throne-room as well. He goes on to say ‘what is this house that you build for me,?’ And in language reminiscent of Genesis 2:2-3 ‘where is the place that I can take my rest?’ Exactly the language that’s echoed on the seventh day where Yahweh rests - in his temple palace, in his cosmic pavilion.

This is the first century Jewish perspective as well. Josephus talks about the temple in cosmic terms. And Philo goes on to say ‘the whole universe must be regarded as the holy temple of God’. How do you think about creation? What do you know about a temple? It’s a holy place? When you think of creation do you think of it as a sacred and holy place? Tragically when we say things like this there’s a kneejerk reaction - ‘this is New Age’. Well, whether it is or not, it’s biblical.

This is a tremendous affirmation of the created world. It seems to me that for too long we’ve been living in the Platonic tradition that has denigrated the goodness of the physical world. For example, God gets excited about timber. It’s miraculous. There are some very odd things that happen at the subatomic level. Things are in two places at the same time. They behave in very odd ways. The God of all creation loves this stuff. ‘It was good’ In my tradition we believed the only reason God made this world was to burn it up, and the sooner we were out of here the better. The rapture was the great hope. Bit of a shock to realise later on that while I’m going up I’m passing Jesus on the way down!

Seven times in Genesis 1, God says ‘This is good’ - finally ‘very good’. So John 3:16 – ‘For God so loved...’, not our souls, not even human beings, but the cosmos. Do you love the cosmos? No wonder I was having trouble being a Christian, because I really didn’t understand the way God thought about his world. What about Adam and Eve in all of this?

An Image of the Temple

What’s the last thing you put inside a temple? The image. The image of the deity. What’s the last thing God creates in Genesis 1? His image - ‘let us make humanity - male and female - in our image’. Creation moves towards the formation of the image-bearer and their placement in the Garden of Eden. Several features emerge from this image language.

One is, you can’t get away from physicality. Whatever else image means it involves our physicality. We must understand that images in the ancient world were never intended to depict the deity’s appearance. When Israel makes the golden calf, if that is meant to be the image of Yahweh, it’s not suggesting that Yahweh trots around on all fours lowing in the heavens.The images portray the function and attributes of the deity. They’re pictograms rather than portraits. The reason you choose the young bull is because of the power and virility it symbolises.

Somehow our physicality is essential. It’s saying something about what it means to be the image of God in the temple he has created for us. One of these features is that we have completely opposable thumbs. It is this kind of dexterity that enables us to imitate Yahweh in this small realm of the cosmos he’s given us to carry out his creational work. Imitating him. Far from being inanimate objects, we were indwelt by the very life of the deity and became the very focus of his presence upon the earth. That’s what it means to be human.

Human Beings - God’s VIPs

We are living pictographs of Yahweh the creator - enlivened by his breath, and ultimately his indwelling spirit. Our part is to imitate him - and that’s what Adam and Eve do. They do the work of the garden.They protect it.They guard the sanctuary. Imitating God in their creational activities they were, so to speak, little gods enthroned between the knees of Yahweh the great God.

We do not build temples for Yahweh - he made one for us! It’s called creation. We do not form Yahweh in our image. He makes us in his. We do not open his eyes and ears. He gives us sight and hearing, and ultimately fills us with his breath. Neither do we provide for him - he provides lavishly for us in a garden called Eden - which means ‘delight’.

Abundant joy characterises the Christian life. People made for Eden and a God full of delights.The first thing that Jesus does in John’s gospel is to turn water into wine - 120 gallons of it. Oh that Nietsche had understood that. We might not have had the terrible disasters of our age if the Lutheran church of his day had actually understood creation as Eden and the point of John’s gospel and the opening mighty deed. God is not ‘anti-body’.

He gives us good gifts. No wonder the Psalmist can say,‘Who are we, that you should be so mindful of us, crowning us with glory and honour?’ ‘To be human’ said C.S. Lewis ‘is an extraordinary gift.’

People say, for example,‘I bend the truth, cheat, gossip, etc, - because I’m only human’. A thousand times no! We do these things not because we are human but because we are not human enough. Being human is about being made in the image of God. To be a human being is a glorious and wonderful thing. May God grant us eyes to see this.

Genesis 1 is not about how long God took to do anything. The primary point is that this is his palace-temple built for human beings. The problem is what happens in the garden. Adam and Eve taking of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is basically an assertion of autonomy - a refusal to trust - a desire to take control. And that’s what destroys our marriages and our societies. Autonomous living where the issue is control and we will not trust. We refuse to be vulnerable. But the God we worship is first and foremost a community of persons. He is relational. But you can’t have relationship without vulnerability, trust, and the willingness to give over control.

I think that’s the garden story. And what happens? The moment we deny we’re made in God’s image and we will determine what it means to be human we deny the very thing that we are. If an image-bearer denies the one whose image it bears, what is it? It’s annihilation - ‘in the day that you do this you will surely die.’ And that’s what happens. Creation is bound up in all of this, and it too stumbles into decay. Why? Because the image -bearer is no longer carrying out his job of guarding it and doing his work, because he has no idea who he is. Human beings are designed to know who they are by looking into other people’s faces. And only by looking into the face of God do we know what it is to be human.

Scholars and pastors, that’s our ministry! It’s about helping your congregations and students see the face of God. That’s what will transform them. So Adam and Eve depart the garden. And notice this, they’re clothed as they go out. Adam and Eve go out and what does Yahweh do? Great act of mercy and grace - he clothes them. The Arcadian word for ‘clothe’ means to accede to the throne. As the rebels go out of the garden Yahweh clothes them as a way of affirming,‘I made this place for you - and by hook or by cross I will get you back here. This is where you belong’.

One of the implications of being made in God’s image is that every act of abuse against the image of a king is an act of high treason. Every act of abuse against another human being is an act of high treason against God. Doesn’t matter how often I go to church, how well I recite the catechism or whether I speak in tongues more than you all. The big issue is,‘how do I treat people?’ What are the commandments? The only two that matter are ‘love God’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.That is the reason for which we have been saved.

In Isaiah’s time Israel forgot this.. Why? Because they started to love God’s blessing more than people. Israel had a magnificent worship building, no expense spared and a brilliant worship team. They had conferences on prayer and they even fasted. When was the last time you or I did that? They had got it all together, surely, and what did God say? ‘Who invited you into my house to make this racket? I am sick to death of your solemn worship assemblies. I am tired of your conferences.’ Why? Because the building is not made in God’s image. Neither is the worship service. Neither is the prayer meeting, or even fasting.

One thing only is made in God’s image. We want to worship God? Then we clothe, feed, house, take care of his image. That’s what it means to be saved as James says,‘Don’t prattle on about having faith. Let me see it by what do you do.’ No surprise then that Carrol and Schiflett in their book on ‘Christianity on Trial’ mention that one of the key factors in the conversion of the Roman Empire was the Christians’ extraordinary generosity.

Western Idolatry: Some of you are saving up sheckles for the wrong thing. You can’t take it with you. Why don’t you invest it in something that will change people’s lives? That new car you were planning to get - do you really need it? Is it more important to you than equipping young people for the work of the kingdom? In Australia, just like in North America, the one great sin we don’t talk about is our greed. And that’s the same as idolatry - because we put stuff ahead of people. Nothing wrong with a nice car - but where’s our heart in terms of the kingdom?

In the fourth century the church in Rome would regularly call for fasts in order that they might feed the hungry, providing one million rations a year. The monastery at Cluny fed 17,000 people a year.This is what salvation is about - because physicality matters. The body matters. It’s part of the bearing of God’s image. The idea that all that needs to be saved is our souls is more Platonic than biblical. It’s amazing how rare the language ‘saving souls’ is. God made embodied beings, he’s going to give us back our bodies, he thinks they’re a great idea. When we’re resurrected they’re going to be pretty special even able to walk through walls and eat at the same time!

Salvation is not about the denigration of our human-ness. It is about its restoration. You and I will never be so human as when we’re truly spiritual. We’ll never be so truly spiritual as when we’re truly human. Jesus is the only true image of the Father - the invisible God, the new Adam, our great high priest. God present among us and in us. God in Christ causes the light to shine in the darkness, transforming us from glory to glory, having the same mind as Jesus. We are in Christ, members of one another and his body. We are in fact in-dwelt by God’s spirit - nothing less than the very presence of God upon the earth!

Talk about a high anthropology! This is the glory to which Paul presses. He understands what we’ve been called for. Gal 3.26 ff - probably the most radical verse written in a good 300 years either side of the first century, in a world where men had all power over women, masters held all the power over slaves, and Jews and Greeks traded insults about who was really the better of the two. And what does Paul say? ‘In Christ, no longer male or female. No longer Jew or Gentile. No longer slave nor free.’ It’s hard to imagine a more radical statement - and that’s the Christian vision. That’s what we’re about. In this country, that’s what you’re about. No special deals for the great ones. No unequal tax systems for the poor people.

Spirit-Led People of Hope

Please understand these things matter. But don’t forget the crucial matter in all this is the in-dwelling of the Spirit. And that’s often our tension. We go to one side or the other, with the emphasis on some sort of private spirituality, or some kind of social action. Both are required. And that’s the purpose of the coming of the Spirit. That’s what the gospel, and the new testament is about.We’re Spirit people. Those who walk by the Spirit are the true children of God, bearing his image. And that’s why in Galatians the fruits of the Spirit are nothing other than the character of God expressed in us, and the gifts of the Spirit are that same God at work doing what? Restoring humanity.

Jesus himself did not focus on restoring creation. And that’s not because it doesn’t matter. It’s because Jesus understands that the destiny of creation is its redemption. But the key to that redemption is what? You and me being revealed as the true sons and daughters of God by living in step with the Spirit. (Romans 8) And what does this look like? Look at Jesus the cross-bearer.

That’s what changes the world. And if you study the early Christians that’s exactly what they did - by imitating Jesus. So Revelation 21 has it right - we are not going to heaven. That idea creeps into the church in the second and third century from Platonists who can’t imagine God would ever care about this world. But God says,‘it’s good, very good….’ And he loves it enough to send his son, and come in his son to reconcile this world to himself. According to Revelation 21 - heaven’s coming here. And that’s why it’s the new Jerusalem. But there’s something very odd about this new Jerusalem - there’s no temple. And it’s a cube. What is cube-shaped in the old testament? The Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, in the temple. There’s no temple in the new Jerusalem, but not because it’s become the temple,. No, the city is itself the Holy of Holies. And it’s huge.The whole of creation is going to become the Holy of Holies, God is coming here to live with us to be our God, and we will be his people.

And that’s no surprise if you’ve read Genesis 1. He loves this place, and he loves his image-bearers. To be saved is to live that love out concretely with real people in this life. This is your moment. Seize the day!

Dr Rikki Watts was formerly a faculty member of the Bible College of Victoria, in Melbourne. He is now serving as Associate Professor of New Testament at Regent College,Vancouver, Canada.

From H

The inability to give is a failure to recognise that it has already been given to you, in the first place.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Calling yourself Christian amounts to nothing.

Calling yourself Christian amounts to nothing.

It's merely lip-service; possibly self-serving with a hope of escapism.

It is better to be an atheist, or Buddhist, or Muslim, or 'unlabelled' and believe that we need to be a part of something that will restore humanity; than a 'christian' who thinks the problem will fix itself (so long as it didn't have anything to do with them).

So if you, whether white, yellow, black, short, tall, gay, straight, married, unmarried, poor, rich, atheist, buddhist, muslim, believe that the world is worth restoring, and believe that you can be part of that change, let's join together to be part of something that will restore humanity and all the world.

Labels mean shite, after all.

Day 2: Chicken Tonight

About 14 of us gather almost every Thursday as a house church, and we make it a point to bring a dish - a la pot luck. For some reason almost everyone decided they felt like chicken, and so 4 out of 6 dishes were Chicken - grilled chicken, chicken stew, herbal chicken, chicken nuggets. I'm all chickened out.

Closing thoughts for the night:
Based on Genesis 1:1 - The Genesis writer does not use the personal names for God that the Hebrews used (eg. Yahweh, El Shaddai); instead, the writer uses the general word 'Elohim', literally meaning 'The Mighty One', or the 'Ultimate Power'.
What is the difference between saying, "Our God created the Heavens and the Earth' and "The One who created the Heavens and the Earth is our God"?

In God's Name

Early this morning, the Husband took the car as he was going for a day-hike about 3 hours out of Melbourne. Problem was, my house key was in the glove compartment, so I was stuck at home. With nothing much to do, I turned the TV on, which is something I don't do often. Incidentally they were showing the documentary In God's Name, by Jules and Gedeon Naudet.

12 of the world's most influential religious leaders were interviewed and followed around for a day - The Pope, the chief Rabbi of Israel, some Christian leaders (including the head of the Russian Orthodox church), two Muslim leaders, the Dalai Lama, the Sikhs' leader, a Hindu spiritual leader, and the Japanese Shinto High Priest.

I watched in awe, not only of the massive diversity of followers and ways of practice, but even more so the COMMONALITIES of the beliefs and hope that they shared. It is hard to imagine the commonalities between these people from extremely different backgrounds is due to coincidence. It is easy to say the commonalities shared is due to our humanity - which is precisely right. The question is, where would our humanity come from, if these commonalities are not a coincidence?

What's in a name?

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” [Deut 5:11]

For years and years I couldn’t actually bring myself to use the name Jesus.

It could be due to years of being exposed, directly or indirectly, to bible-bashers – generations of people who use the name Jesus to run their own agenda; from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” picket signs.

It has been misused; and now we all feel yuck. We feel yuck to associate ourselves with the “god” that people have been portraying; we feel yuck to associate ourselves with the “jesus” that some ”Christians” have been portraying.

A fellow speechie and I were talking just the other day about sensory issues; how certain experiences in the past will make us aversive to different textures or sensations in the future – like being forced to eat that one green pea on our plate may lead to an aversion to peas for years to come, because of that immediate negative association we’ve made.

Perhaps similarly, we now make an immediate negative association with the name Jesus or Christianity. Even I do that – but really as a product of being exposed and aware of all the crap that has gone on, or is going on.

SPTG talked about the Ten Commandments were given to Moses as rules or guidelines to building a life*-giving community; given to a people who were entrenched in slavery for years, and now suddenly had freedom. He also mentioned how the relevance of this particular commandment is more for the above, than merely using “God’s name in vain”, e.g. merely saying something like “Oh My LOOORD!”

I used to be told off at school to “not use God’s name in vain” whenever I exclaimed “oh my god!” as it was “in the 10 Commandments” (WHICH IRRITATED THE HELL OUT OF ME!).

I wonder which was more destructive to humankind – the Spanish Inquisition, or my exclamation?

My God – let me be careful to not use your name to run my agenda; to leave people with “no choice” since “GOD had a say in it”; to use you. Continue to reveal to me, and others, how indeed beautiful and powerful and pure the name Jesus is – untainted by men; so let it be.

Calibration

O LORD, God-of Heaven, the great and awesome God, loyal to His covenant and faithful to those who love him and obey his commands [from Nehemiah Ch 1]

Nehemiah starts his prayer with a exclamation of how awesome and great God is, and making mention of his loyalty and faithfulness. I suppose for a while there it had seemed to me that Nehemiah was (i) sucking up or shoe-shining to God, before asking for whatever it is he wanted ("Oh Santa, that beard is so soft - what conditioner do you use? Oh, and could I have an iPad pleeeaaase, pretty please with a cherry on top?");

or maybe others have thought Nehemiah was just (ii) telling/informing God how cool and wonderful he is ("Hi God you may-or-may-not be aware that you are great and awesome"). Much like how some folks think that God needs our worship; he needs us to tell him how great He is. Like He is Ultraman with His light beeping indicating low levels of energy and how he needs our worship to recharge his power (perhaps this is too far-fetched an analogy...)

God doesn't need anything. God is not someone we have to manja (sorry, there is just no English word for this) to get things our way.

I think Nehemiah starts his prayer as such, like Jesus starts his prayer in Matthew 6 ("Our Father in heaven" - no, it's not that Jesus needed to remind God his "address"), to recalibrate themselves their perception of God. To realigned themselves to who God is, in order to realign to His purpose. It's to remind us, wee humans, who we're dealing with.

I think worship is similar. We sing songs of God's goodness and hope and promise, not to make God happy because he likes the E major 7 chord. We sing such songs to remind us and to recalibrate ourselves to Him, and that makes Him happy.

Remind me to be recalibrated; remind me to remember who You are. Remind me that I will never stop needing reminders.

Word and Prayer; Map and Compass; Truth and Grace

I'm excited for what this year will bring. I'm excited to see how God moves this year. There is emphasis at Expedition to delve further and focus on the Word and prayer this year, and I'm actually excited, believe it or not.

So much about prayer I do not comprehend; my scope limited to asking for what I want, like a kid asking Santa for a list of things. Not like there's anything wrong about asking; most of the time it's hardly a problem about what we're asking for, but I suppose I have been a bit shallow with the "why we're asking".

A structured tool to help me rookie get started on this involves the acronym p.r.a.y:

1. Praise(Adoration; 'Eucharistia' thanksgiving)/Pour out (Immersion) - "Our Father in heaven"
   Be honest about where you are; what are you thankful for/disappointed at
   
2. Refocus/Reach forward (Adherence)- "Hallowed (kept holy) be Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
   Think about what's ahead ("After all that Jesus has done, I believe that..."). Share your goals and how they align with kingdom purposes. Intercession. What's my hope? What has been promised?
   
3. Ask/Appropriate together/Cooperation/Communion - "Give us today our daily bread; Forgive our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"
   The Spirit is already at work around you - request boldly. What can I pray for? Itemise your obstacles and needs.
   
4. Yearn together/ Yield (Consecration) - "[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever - so let it be]"
   You have been given all you need - now let go. "I dedicate this to You - may...". Hold hope together before God.

This seems to give me more clarity as to what I'm praying, and hoping for. It has helped me refocus a bit more on what goes on in my daily life; what I pray for; or what I hope to pray for.

Admittedly I haven't been a gung-ho prayerful person. I'm often caught up with what I can do, or what I ought to know. But when living life, SPTG likens Word to a map, prayer to a compass.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I give thanks for my life.
For my family - my parents, my sisters, my nephews, my niece; and even the short time I had knowing my brother.
For my friends - my friends in Malaysia; in Melbourne; and beyond.
For my husband. For my marriage. For my family.
For my community.
For being able to catch a glimpse of what God sees in people and this world.
For being able to catch just a sense of it.
For being able to start carrying the passion (in almost every sense of that word) for people and the world.
For having hope.
For having faith.
I give thanks for my life.

Will work just work out?

Why do we work?

Our church is currently ploughing through this at the moment - don't think we have a definitive answer - just lots of ponderings. Adam was mandated to toil the land and take ownership of it literally since the beginning of time. So maybe we were meant to *gulp* work? ("NooooooooooOOooooo........")

The Husband recently found out he's been held back for a promotion yet again, despite good performance reviews and feedback from left, right and center. He says it's not so much about the money, but rather the opportunity to grow and develop (though OF COURSE the money wouldn't be a bad thing, either!). He was feeling really down and underappreciated and stifled at work - and so the wife plagiarizes and emails some encouragement:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

HOWEVER,

Luke 12:22-28 Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.

Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

We are certainly not confined to our jobs, although we are mandated to be best at what we do. So press on to be all you can be, but do not worry or fuss about it.

I suppose it's somewhat a balancing act - if we don't care about our jobs, we end up being total slackers and bludgers; however if we strive in our careers a bit too much, we risk losing out in our other areas of life, since we're not confined to our jobs.

Fuss For What??

Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes, or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There's far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach; more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all?

Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance - but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The 10 best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?