Day 2: Taking technology for granted

Only day two of this 30 day challenge and I am sitting up late at night trying to meet the deadline. I'm going to blame it on my assignment. 2500 words, 12 journal articles and 2 more days (well technically less because tomorrow is my b'day and Sunday is a day of rest so I don't do any uni work then anyway). As I was pecking at my laptop, flicking through the very large stack of papers I printed off from a data base last week, headphones in my ears, listening to some new music I had just downloaded, it struck me how much we rely on technology. If it weren't for technology I would most definitely not be writing a lit review the way I was doing it today. It would have been much much harder. I would have to go to the library, manually search through different journals, copy/take notes on the articles I need and then hand write the whole 2500 words (believe me, my handwriting is not neat, especially when I'm writing lots or in a hurry).

Technology is all around us. We use it all the time. If it wasn't for technology, I wouldn't be able to be writing this and you wouldn't be able to read it. If it wasn't for technology, I wouldn't have any contact with a number of those friends who I went to school with and am still friends with on Facebook. If it wasn't for technology, I wouldn't be able to let my friend know that I will be late for whatever it is we are doing (although I have given up on that because I am often late). We use technology all the time. Take a look around you. There is probably a lot of technology right before your eyes. Most definitely the computer, your phone, perhaps your iPod, some ear phones, maybe a camera...

Can you imagine life without technology? We rely on it all the time. Yet there was a time when people didn't walk around with mobile phones in their pockets. There was a time when it took a week to send a letter to a friend on the other side of the world. There was a time when everything was written by hand. Technology really is a blessing which we can so easily take for granted because it is all around us.

Day 1: The blessings found in words of encouragement

How often do those around us provide us with encouragement to continue with what we are doing? How often do we receive support from our good friends or family? We probably receive it everyday, be it in a compliment from a friend or colleague about our clothing choice for the day, or a compliment on the effort we put into our work. And then there are the bigger more notable words of encouragement from our close friends and family who say what a good job we are doing and encourage us to continue with it, or who provide the support needed to keep going when we are finding it hard to continue.

How often do we truly thank them for this support? How often do we really appreciate what it is that they are giving us?

I was struck by this yesterday when I read a message received from an old friend that I used to go on the school bus with. I came back from an amazing 3 days away in the beautiful south-west of Australia, and when I logged onto Facebook I was greeted by a wonderfully inspiring message. Once again: thank-you Suzanne.

Throughout this year I have struggled to continue with my studies or to even just keep going with anything of what I was doing. Earlier this year I was sick for an extended period of time and the doctors did not have any idea what was wrong. There was a stage when became so discouraged that I was willing to throw away 2 1/2 years of study and just wanted to curl up in a corner and forget about anything related to my studies and focus on my art and music. But my parents especially were extremely supportive and encouraged me to continue. They helped me to refocus on my studies, made me go to a natropath who was actually able to help me get better, helped me look at everything that was happening in my life and prioritise, and made me realise that throwing away 2 1/2 years of study is not the best option.

At the time I took these words of encouragement for granted. Thinking back, I am really thankful for the support and words of encouragement I received from those around me. And I think I better finish this before I burst into tears and can't concentrate on the lit review I'm supposed to be writing. I never said it at the time but looking back I am extremely thankful for those who supported me then and continue to support me. I would like to thank you, and I thank God for placing you in my life. xxx

"Seeing through" the world around us...

C.S. Lewis once wrote:
"You cant go on "seeing through" things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to "see through" first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent.  But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To "see through" all things is the same as not to see.

While I have not read C.S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity, the author of a book I'm reading has. In reading this book I became aware of the fact that there are so many things around us which we take for granted. So many things which God has blessed us with, yet we are not truly thankful for everything we have.

I hereby declare that for the next 30 days I will be spending a little time thinking about one thing that I easily take for granted and sharing these thoughts here...

The motions...

There are times when we worhship without putting our whole heart in what we are doing. We might go to church, read the bible, pray, and sing the psalms and hymns,  but our minds are elsewhere. Our heart isn't in our worship. There may be times when we really don't want to be going to church early on a Sunday morning but we go just because it's expected of us. And then we doze through the service, not really processing a word of what has been said because Saturday night was kind of late. 


Is that truely worshipping God in the way that he wants us to?


We are commanded to do everything to the honour and glory of God (1 Cor 10::31 - Whatever you do do it all to the glory of God). As John Piper says in his book Don't waste your life:  “God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life” and we have to have this passion throughout our whole life. 


When our late Saturday nights make us doze through the Church on Sunday morning are we living with the passion God has created us for? When we have the Bible open in front of us and are looking at the words but not really processing them or applying them to our lives are we really being transformed by the passion of glorifying God? When the word of the psalms and hymns fall from our lips but we do not really feel the power and meaning of them are we really embracing the zeal we are commanded to show in all aspects of life? When we bow our heads in prayer and our minds start to wander are we consumed by the desire to glorify God in all that we do? When we worship God are we embracing and allowing ourselves to be transformed by the passion that he has created us for?


Think about it.

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance Jesus is mine,
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

We live in a world full of uncertainty. So many people around us live in the certainty of only two things. Death and taxes. They spend a life time giving money to insurance company just in case something happens to their house or their car that they won't be able to afford. However, as Christians, we have certainty. As the song says, we have the assurance that Jesus is with us. We have the certainty of Spirit living in our hearts. We have the certainty of everlasting life. We have the certainty that when we approach him in prayer he will hear us. We have the reassurance that God will hold onto all of his Children. We have the confidence that everything that happens to us has come through the hands of God first. We have to assurance of all the blessings and promises of God and can rest in these certainties.

A believer who places their trust in the Lord can have the certainty that He is with us, He hears our prayers and will continue to be with us. With this in mind we can continue singing the song:

"This is my story, this is my song,

praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long."

Let the rain fall down...

On Sunday the 15th of May, I sent out a call for those living in the Southern part of Western Australia to pray for rain. And those prayers have indeed been answered. Throughout the months of May, June, July and August the rain has continued to fall, nourishing the land. The grass has started to grow, the crops have recieved sustancance, the dams are filling up, inland the wildflowers are beginning to bloom, and to add a personal note our rainwater tank is full! (Now don't ask me how much rain we have had so far this year - I tried to look on www.bom.gov.au but found it EXREEMELY hard to navigate and discover the infomation I was searching for.)

What I'm trying to say is that we have truely been blessed with so much rain this year. For a change everythign is wet. The ground is satisfied (If the fact that everytime it rains a bit more the ground become extremely slushy is any indication).Becuase of this blessing we should turn to God and thank him for so wonderously giving to us.

The songs that I have posted below all have something to do with rain. (Which is why I have posted them). What each song is saying is that rain is more than just water. There is something powerful and magical about it. And sometimes it feels as if I can also feel that magic :)

God is in Control

"God is in control

We believe that his children will not be forsaken

God is in control

We will choose to remember and never be shaken

There is no power above or beside Him, we know

God is in control, oh, God is in control"

How often do we go through life forgetting that God has everything in his hands. How often do we remember that God is moving in our lives, controlling the circumstances around us. God is in control of everything. Everything that happens to us, be it good or bad, comes from the hand of God. God wills it and there is nothing within our power that we can do to change even the slightest little event. As we read in Matt 10:30 the very hairs on our head are numbered (Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Matthew 10:29-30). Every event in our life is controlled by God.

Throughout the Bible God is moving behind the circumstances in order to work out his plan. Think for example of how Saul became king in 1 Sam 9. God used lost donkeys in order to bring Saul to the same town as Samuel so that he could be anointed king. God uses the normal (and sometimes annoying) parts of our life to move us into position for a particular divine appointment. Finding donkeys was probably one of the more mundane parts of Saul's life yet God used these lost donkeys to bring Saul, the first king of Israel, to the throne. Our heavenly Father, the God who made heaven and earth, is controlling the events of our lives. He is moving behind the circumstances and shaping them so that the events of our lives work together for the execution of His eternal plan.

So far this year much has happened. Earthquakes, floods and mudslides, fire, cyclones, tornadoes, and tropical storms, Tsunamis,  civil unrest, and I suppose I would find more if I began searching. And God was in control of all of those events. Although we may not understand it, everything that is happening is a part of a vast eternal plan. With this knowledge we can rest safely in the hands of God, trusting that he is using all these events as a part of his eternal plan. All things come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand (HC, Lord's Day 10 q/a ).