Okay, here's another picture for you, in words. I can't remember how exactly this came to be, but it just sorta turned up.
Anyway, there's a huge mountain, and you've gotta climb up it. So you set off and then you notice there's a massive obstacle in the way. You know you're supposed to go up on this path, and not stray off to either side, but it doesn't look like you'll be able to get through. The climb is getting pretty tough too, and it feels like you can't go much further--you're running out of puff. However, you keep going, and as you get closer to the obstacle, you realise that there's actually a path through it, like a little doorway. You have a way through to the other side.
And remember, God made you special and he loves you very much.
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Paths
Lukas spoke about this at church the other week. I'm behind, I know, but at least I am putting it up eventually.
The gist of it was: it doesn't matter what paths you've taken up to now. You may feel you've strayed off the correct path, that may very well be true. But God doesn't just work with perfection. He acknowledges that we aren't perfect, that we do make mistakes. God uses these mistakes to build from, to work with. It doesn't matter what paths you've been on up till now. God still wants to work with you, to lead you
along the path he chose for you before the world began.
Remember: God made you special and he loves you very much.
The gist of it was: it doesn't matter what paths you've taken up to now. You may feel you've strayed off the correct path, that may very well be true. But God doesn't just work with perfection. He acknowledges that we aren't perfect, that we do make mistakes. God uses these mistakes to build from, to work with. It doesn't matter what paths you've been on up till now. God still wants to work with you, to lead you
along the path he chose for you before the world began.
Remember: God made you special and he loves you very much.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
A Guide
This is another thing they were talking about at Quiver.
If you ever decide to walk across Morecambe Bay, you can't just set off on your own. There's a heck of a lot of quicksand out there, and you've no way of knowing where it is. You might remember the story of the Chinese cockle pickers who were out and drowned when the tide came back in. You see, the trouble is not only the quicksand, but also the fact that the tide round there comes in very fast. I watched it once, because they have a thing that goes off about half an hour before it comes in (don't quote me on that, might be ten minutes, it was a while ago). It was incredible. One minute, there was nothing, no ocean, nice flat sand. Next minute whoosh and there was water everywhere. If you find yourself doing ok, out in the middle of the bay, prodding at the sand as you go, pretty confident, and then you discover the tide coming in and you start running, well, you're not going to be checking so careful and you're liable to stumble into a patch of quick sand. That's why there's a guide.
Life is a bit like Morecambe Bay. There's a lot of quicksand out there, a lot of danger, and when you start getting a bit flustered and stressed, you're more likely to fall into it, and then whoosh, in comes the tide or down you sink and you're gone. If you set off out there alone, there's nobody watching your back when things get rough, when the tide looks like it's gonna come in at any minute and suck you up, you're liable to get stuck in the quicksand. If you go with a guide though, well, that's a different matter. You can avoid the quicksand because you've somoene there to say 'step where I step, do what I do'. Jesus is the guide. I was saying this to one of my friends at school and she was like 'yeh, but what if you're the first person to do something'. How different was being the first person to fly to being the first person in space, feeling wise? How different is being the first person to do something ot being the first person to do just about anything else? And bear in mind that Jesus went through stuff similar to what we're going through. Maybe not identical. But being mocked stirs up pretty much the same feelings no matter how it's done. Unlike the Morecambe Bay thing though, God is there. You're just not choosing to follow him. But if you find yourself stuck in quicksand, no reason you can't turn round and say 'help!' and God'll come and fish you out. Maybe it won't feel like it at first, it might take time and work to get all the gloop off've you, but it's a start, isn't it?
Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much.
If you ever decide to walk across Morecambe Bay, you can't just set off on your own. There's a heck of a lot of quicksand out there, and you've no way of knowing where it is. You might remember the story of the Chinese cockle pickers who were out and drowned when the tide came back in. You see, the trouble is not only the quicksand, but also the fact that the tide round there comes in very fast. I watched it once, because they have a thing that goes off about half an hour before it comes in (don't quote me on that, might be ten minutes, it was a while ago). It was incredible. One minute, there was nothing, no ocean, nice flat sand. Next minute whoosh and there was water everywhere. If you find yourself doing ok, out in the middle of the bay, prodding at the sand as you go, pretty confident, and then you discover the tide coming in and you start running, well, you're not going to be checking so careful and you're liable to stumble into a patch of quick sand. That's why there's a guide.
Life is a bit like Morecambe Bay. There's a lot of quicksand out there, a lot of danger, and when you start getting a bit flustered and stressed, you're more likely to fall into it, and then whoosh, in comes the tide or down you sink and you're gone. If you set off out there alone, there's nobody watching your back when things get rough, when the tide looks like it's gonna come in at any minute and suck you up, you're liable to get stuck in the quicksand. If you go with a guide though, well, that's a different matter. You can avoid the quicksand because you've somoene there to say 'step where I step, do what I do'. Jesus is the guide. I was saying this to one of my friends at school and she was like 'yeh, but what if you're the first person to do something'. How different was being the first person to fly to being the first person in space, feeling wise? How different is being the first person to do something ot being the first person to do just about anything else? And bear in mind that Jesus went through stuff similar to what we're going through. Maybe not identical. But being mocked stirs up pretty much the same feelings no matter how it's done. Unlike the Morecambe Bay thing though, God is there. You're just not choosing to follow him. But if you find yourself stuck in quicksand, no reason you can't turn round and say 'help!' and God'll come and fish you out. Maybe it won't feel like it at first, it might take time and work to get all the gloop off've you, but it's a start, isn't it?
Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Where you going?
While we were at Quiver, one of the speakers was talking about where we're going. She used this example:
We're at a bus station. There are only two buses that ever go from this station. One of these buses looks quite exciting, fun maybe, from the outside. Lots of partying going on in there. The other one looks quieter, not so exciting. Most people are on the exciting bus, you can see them, looks like they're having a great time, laughing, dancing, drinking. You get on that bus, join in. But there's something missing. You realise that there's a lot of arguing, a lot of fighting, people drunk and falling over, being sick, the bad stuff, the consequences, that you can't see on the outside. There's oppression, there's fear. But you're enjoying yourself, mostly. You stay on. Then you look at the driver's face. You realise it's the devil.
The other bus, the quieter bus, is calm, peaceful inside. You leave the first bus, get on this one. You feel complete, whole, calm. As you get on, you look at the driver. The driver of this bus is Jesus. He smiles at you. And the best thing about this bus, is that once you're on, no matter what you do, you won't get kicked off. You're on the bus to heaven.
This kind of links to a dream I had, a while ago. It inspired the first novel I ever finished (which is going to be published soon :D), but it fits well.
In this dream, I was an angel, and I was at a theme park. I was stood next to a slide, and nearby was the devil, also stood at a slide. He was encouraging people to go down his slide, trying to get them to go his way. I was desperately trying to stop them, because I knew if they went down there they'd end up in hell. A friend of mine came up, I said 'come down my side'. She wanted to go down the other, I told her she'd end up in hell, she said she didn't care. So I desperately tried to get her to go down mine first. I knew that if she went down mine first, at least she'd be saved, she'd be fine, no matter what the world threw at her.
You might be wondering what the heck that has to do with anything. Hope you're not, because I thought they were quite good illustrations, but anyway, here's a bit more of an explanation.
In life, you have two options. That's the nature of free will. You get a choice. Each day, each decision, you can decide to go God's way, or you can opt for your own way. You can choose which bus you get on, which slide you go down. I'm not saying that if you get on Jesus' bus/slide it's going to be easy. I can testify that it isn't easy, so can other Christians I know. God never promises it'll be easy. Jesus says that you'll have to leave things behind, that it won't be easy. But all the way through, if you're on the God bus, you've got someone to back you up ,you've got someone stood behind you, there for you, ready to give you the support and encouragement you need exactly when you need it most.
We're at a bus station. There are only two buses that ever go from this station. One of these buses looks quite exciting, fun maybe, from the outside. Lots of partying going on in there. The other one looks quieter, not so exciting. Most people are on the exciting bus, you can see them, looks like they're having a great time, laughing, dancing, drinking. You get on that bus, join in. But there's something missing. You realise that there's a lot of arguing, a lot of fighting, people drunk and falling over, being sick, the bad stuff, the consequences, that you can't see on the outside. There's oppression, there's fear. But you're enjoying yourself, mostly. You stay on. Then you look at the driver's face. You realise it's the devil.
The other bus, the quieter bus, is calm, peaceful inside. You leave the first bus, get on this one. You feel complete, whole, calm. As you get on, you look at the driver. The driver of this bus is Jesus. He smiles at you. And the best thing about this bus, is that once you're on, no matter what you do, you won't get kicked off. You're on the bus to heaven.
This kind of links to a dream I had, a while ago. It inspired the first novel I ever finished (which is going to be published soon :D), but it fits well.
In this dream, I was an angel, and I was at a theme park. I was stood next to a slide, and nearby was the devil, also stood at a slide. He was encouraging people to go down his slide, trying to get them to go his way. I was desperately trying to stop them, because I knew if they went down there they'd end up in hell. A friend of mine came up, I said 'come down my side'. She wanted to go down the other, I told her she'd end up in hell, she said she didn't care. So I desperately tried to get her to go down mine first. I knew that if she went down mine first, at least she'd be saved, she'd be fine, no matter what the world threw at her.
You might be wondering what the heck that has to do with anything. Hope you're not, because I thought they were quite good illustrations, but anyway, here's a bit more of an explanation.
In life, you have two options. That's the nature of free will. You get a choice. Each day, each decision, you can decide to go God's way, or you can opt for your own way. You can choose which bus you get on, which slide you go down. I'm not saying that if you get on Jesus' bus/slide it's going to be easy. I can testify that it isn't easy, so can other Christians I know. God never promises it'll be easy. Jesus says that you'll have to leave things behind, that it won't be easy. But all the way through, if you're on the God bus, you've got someone to back you up ,you've got someone stood behind you, there for you, ready to give you the support and encouragement you need exactly when you need it most.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Four Things
We watched this video (well, DVD) when our group went out this morning. Apparently Dianne's recorder just randomly recorded a chunk of the God channel and in the middle was this hour long bit by J. John (think that was his name...). Anyway, the gist of it was that there're four things with being a Christian.
1. Admit. When he said it, I thought 'oh no, here we go, sin and how terrible we all are'. Now, don't get me wrong, that is true. Until you become a Christian, at which point all of your sin--past, present and future--is wiped out and nullified in the eyes of God, cos when he looks at you you see Jesus. But he started out by saying one of the things you gotta admit is that God is God and that he's in control. Then he moved on to saying how we'd sinned and stuff and that had to be admitted to, but the first thing he came with was how it's so hard to admit that God is in control, that there is a God, and that it's his job, not ours, to control the world an all of that.
2. Commit. Now, it's all well and good to admit there's a god and to admit that Jesus is his son, but you have to commit. You have to do something with that knowledge. You have to make a decision to commit your life to Jesus, to following him. That's what committing is all about. It's about saying 'yes, this is what I want to do, this is what I want for my life'. It's about making a decision based on your admission that God exists and that you can't do without him.
3. Submit. The speaker used this to illustrate. If you ever go into a throne room, there's only one throne, not a bench for a couple of kings to sit on, one throne. You bow down to that one throne. Basically, it's like Jesus says. You can't serve two masters. You serve the world or you serve God. You have to choose to follow God, you have to choose which way you want to go, what you want to follow, where you're going to put your time, effort and money.
4. Transmit. This is about telling other people, about making it clear to the world that you've done the other three, about spreading the good news. This is about not keeping your faith inside, about not being afraid to stand up and share about what you believe.
Everyone's at a different point in this walk with God. We were talking about it at the end, how you can be transmitting but not doing any of the others, about how some people pretend to be Christians. Now, to be quite frank, I don't see the point of pretending. Why pretend when you can be? And if you don't want to be, then why pretend that's what you are? Anyway, that's what we were talking about this morning.
1. Admit. When he said it, I thought 'oh no, here we go, sin and how terrible we all are'. Now, don't get me wrong, that is true. Until you become a Christian, at which point all of your sin--past, present and future--is wiped out and nullified in the eyes of God, cos when he looks at you you see Jesus. But he started out by saying one of the things you gotta admit is that God is God and that he's in control. Then he moved on to saying how we'd sinned and stuff and that had to be admitted to, but the first thing he came with was how it's so hard to admit that God is in control, that there is a God, and that it's his job, not ours, to control the world an all of that.
2. Commit. Now, it's all well and good to admit there's a god and to admit that Jesus is his son, but you have to commit. You have to do something with that knowledge. You have to make a decision to commit your life to Jesus, to following him. That's what committing is all about. It's about saying 'yes, this is what I want to do, this is what I want for my life'. It's about making a decision based on your admission that God exists and that you can't do without him.
3. Submit. The speaker used this to illustrate. If you ever go into a throne room, there's only one throne, not a bench for a couple of kings to sit on, one throne. You bow down to that one throne. Basically, it's like Jesus says. You can't serve two masters. You serve the world or you serve God. You have to choose to follow God, you have to choose which way you want to go, what you want to follow, where you're going to put your time, effort and money.
4. Transmit. This is about telling other people, about making it clear to the world that you've done the other three, about spreading the good news. This is about not keeping your faith inside, about not being afraid to stand up and share about what you believe.
Everyone's at a different point in this walk with God. We were talking about it at the end, how you can be transmitting but not doing any of the others, about how some people pretend to be Christians. Now, to be quite frank, I don't see the point of pretending. Why pretend when you can be? And if you don't want to be, then why pretend that's what you are? Anyway, that's what we were talking about this morning.
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