A life of service to God

I haven't done this for a while. Every now and then I think about writing a blog post and start something but then never get around to finishing it and then I loose my inspiration and then I don't feel like writing a post about what I started writing about and then I just kind of leave it alone for a little while longer.

One thing that has been a common theme in all the blog posts that I have been trying to write is the importance of living a life of service to God. By that I mean that our WHOLE life is one focussed on praising and honouring God. We have to have God in the centre of our life all the time; at work, when we relax, when we go out with out friends, in our hobbies, when we are with our family.... . We don't just worship God when we go to Church and our weekly bible study, or when we do our personal Bible study . While that is all an important part of our lives we have to serve him in EVERYTHING that we do.

The crazy ones....

I came across this today:

So to all my crazy, beautiful friends - the world might see us as crazy and they might disagree or argue with us but we are the ones crazy enough to think we can change the world

The foolish farmer...

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon we had a sermon on the role of the Holy Spirit in working faith in our hearts. The sermon began with the example of a foolish farmer who didn't do anything to prepare his fields for the crops. He didn't plough or sow at all, he just left it all as it was. When asked by his friends and neighbours why, he replied that the Lord will provide. When harvest time came, he prayed for a blessing on the harvest . But because he hadn't done anything previously, is fields didn't contain any crops, they were just weeds and grass. The example was concluded with the pastor saying that although God provides the growth and sustenance of the crops, we are required to use the resources He has given us.

The rest of the sermon was about the manner in which the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts. As Reformed people we confess that the reason we have faith is because of God. If it were up to us, we wouldn't be able to do anything meriting salvation - that is the role of the Holy Spirit. Still we also have to use the resources given us. We can't just sit back and expect God to work faith in our hearts that way, we have to actively use the resources God has given us - especially the resource of His word. We should be passionately involved in our Bible study. Whether it be our personal devotions, our Bible reading with our family, in our Bible Study groups or in the Church Services, we have to be engaged in our study of God's word. In our involvement we should also pray that the Holy Spirit will open our hearts and minds so the we continue to learn more about God in our study of the Bible. We can never stop learning or growing.

In all you do, do it to the glory of God!

Throughout the Bible we are commanded to praise God and bring honour and glory to Him in whatever we do:
 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known amount the nations what He has done 1 Chron 16:8,
Sing the praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim amoung the nations what He has done, Ps 9:11,
You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, honour Him! Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel! Ps 22:23,
Whether you eat or drink, do it all to the honour and glory of God" I Cor 10:31,
Whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, Col 3:23,

At times christianity is seen as a set of rules. A set of things that you can and cannot do. For people looking in, people who don't realise the reason behind everything that we do, this can be the case. They may see us as people who live by a very strict set of rules, people who just do as they're told
Sometimes it is easy for us to live this way also. Instead of thinking about how we should glorify God in what we are doing we are thinking about what we can and cannot do. Yes, it is true that we have been given the 10 commandments, guidelines as to how to live a life to the praise and honour of God. But why do we keep the commandments? Why do we work so hard at following them? Not because we feel that we have to keep them to be save BUT because we are so thankful to God for what he has given us in the death of his Son on the cross. We live a life of joy because of the most wonderful gift we have been given, the gift of life.

So the next time you are about to do something, instead of asking yourself or those who are with you "What is wrong with this?" ask: "How will doing this glorify God? How is this bringing honour to the name of God? How am I praising the name go God?"

Living with PURPOSE

Why are we here? What is the reason you, me and everyone else is on this earth?  What is our purpose in life?

For me, I was created to bring honour and glory to the name of God. The reason I am here on this earth is to glorify God in everything that I do. I'm not saying that this is something I do all the time or even that it is easy. BUT it is the reason that I am here and the reason that we all were created for. It is something that we have to work at. We have to work at reflecting the glory of God in everything that we do. EVERYTHING!!!

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the Glory of God!!! 1 Cor 10:31

The Best Prescription

My youngest brother has a devotional book which contains stories about the power of God and His word. Each night someone will read one of these stories with him and then ask some of the questions at the end of the story.

Last night's story was about a lady named Martha. Martha was married to a farmer named Jake and for three years the drought in the country had destroyed all their crops. As a result she was worried about all the bills that they had to pay. She was concerned that they might not be able to get their loan extended for another year, and worried that then they might have to get rid of their farm. On top of all this worry, Martha was also not feeling very healthy. Her heart would flutter at times and her head would always ache. It seemed like the more problems and worries she had, the worse she felt. 

The story tells us of Martha going to visit her doctor because of all these problems. When at the doctors, the doctor asks her if she ever spends time reading the Bible. Surprised, Martha tells him no, she doesn't. The doctor then told her: "My prescription for you is to go home and read your Bible for at least an hour every day, come back and see me in a month." At first Martha is shocked and angry at this prescription, but she realises that she doesn't have the money to spend on other medicines so she follows orders. She searched for her mother's well worn Bible. Each day she got up 1/2 an hour earlier everyday to spend time reading the Bible, she spent some time after lunch reading the Bible and again in the evening after her children had gone to bed. 

After a month Martha went back to see her Doctor. She felt like a different person, surrounded by the care and protection of the Lord. Surprised she asked the doctor how he knew what she needed. The doctor told her that it is what he did every day, the Bible was his deepest source of strength and skill. He depended on the word of God. The story ends by telling us that: The doctor in this story has passed away but his prescription lives on. What a blessing it would be if we, by God's grace, would look to the rich heavenly Physician who knows what we need before we ask.

Maybe we should all spend more time in prayer and Bible reading. I know I should.

Love your neighbour as yourself

This week we had the most amazing camp. Centred around the topic of "love your neighbour as yourself" , we had several speeches and workshops investigating the subject further. There is so much to write about and I have NO idea where to start. (I also have to beat my sister in posting this). The whole experience was enriching both spiritually, emotionally and personally.

With the different speeches covering the topic of love we were able to learn more about the meaning of love and how an why we show love to our neighbour. The workshops covered the topics of: Love is a commitment, Love in action, love is pure, engaging in the community, a workshop targeted specifically at females, and a summary speech which covered WHY we are to love our neighbour. I've learnt so much from all these speeches and would like to share the biggest take home message with you now: Because of the love and compassion which God our Father has given to us, by the saving work of His Son, we should be driven by love and compassion for who ever God causes to cross our path.

Luke 10: 25-37 tells  us the story of the good Samaritan. This parable was used as a reference point and the basis for two of the speeches we had. The Samaritan was moved with compassion for the man whom the thieves had beaten (he did not have any moral obligation to the man as the Priest and Levite did). The man on the side of the road was a man in need and the samaritan was moved with compassion. Jesus also was moved by compassion.

• Matt 14:14 - When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
• Matt 15:32 - Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
• Matt 20:34 - Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
• Mark 6:34 - When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Because of the compassion which has been shown to us, we too should show love and compassion to others. Because of the love of Christ for us and in us we too should be showing love and compassion to our neighbour also.

On top of that the camp was an amazing opportunity to meet new people. There were people from Tasmaina, Queensland and some even from Canada and we were all able to interact and develop new relationships.