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."

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 ).

Fix your eyes on Jesus

I slept in this morning. As in, I slept through my alarm and woke up an hour later when I was supposed to be leaving the house. 25 minutes later when I was actually on the road it was extremely tempting to speed all the way to uni so that I might just get to class on time. But, instead, in a weird attempt to wake up, I sat back, cranked to music and sang along. To tell the truth, I am a bit of a hoon. It is an extremely difficult task for me to keep the speed limit and for some reason, I regularly find myself going 90 to 100 in a 70 zone (kilometers that is). Yep, that's right. I am a hoon. But I have recently invested in a great way to keep the laws of this country and keep the speed limit. I listen to music. By listening I mean really concentrating on the music and taking it all in. Instead of my car trips being a means to get from A to B, they are now a wonderful opportunity for me to listen to and soak up the music. Now instead of speeding all the time, I am so absorbed in what I am listening to (and sometimes even go under the speed limit).

Many people see Christianity as a list of dos and don'ts. Even as Christians we can focus on what we can do and what we cant do in our life of service to God rather than dedicating our whole life to the service of God. We do what we have been taught is right but often it is like we go through the motions. Sometimes it could almost be like the people Malachi is talking to in Malachi 1, the people who are still bring their offerings to the temple of the Lord but the offerings are defiled, and their heart is not in it. When we are focusing on what we can and cannot do it is very easy to leave our heart out of it. no one wants a list of dos and don'ts. But, if we fix our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), the focus shifts and our thankfulness to God for what he has done overflows. Then, we will think more about doing everything to the honour and glory of God, rather than what we can and cannot do. If we develop a hunger and thirst to know more about God and what he has done for us, if we fill our hearts and minds with Christ and his saving work, then the things which we do will be because they bring us closer to God. In our desire to learn more about God we will be doing our personal Bible study, we will go to Church each Sunday, we will attend weekly Bible Study sessions. We will be doing things which bring us closer to God and teach us more about him.

Keep cranking that music in your car. Instead of thinking about what you can and cannot do in your service to God, focus on Christ and in your desire to learn more about him and in doing so the way we live our life will not be seen as a burden, dictating what we can an cannot do, but rather we will be a joy because we want to do everything to the honour and glory of God.

I am thankful for...

We have been blessed with so much. So many riches come to us each and every day yet how often do we sit down and think about what we have. How often do we sit down and think about what God has given us and how privileged we are.

I am thankful for:

• The faith which God has given me. This is probably the biggest blessing anyone would ever want to receive.
• My amazing family, who are currently not home and I really miss them but I am really, really thankful for who they are and the craziness which fills our house. I love you all xxx
• To add onto that: God fearing parents who have brought me up in a godly manner and provided a wonderful example of how to live in such a way that you do all to the glory and honor of God. (and God fearing grandparents...)
• My fantabulous friends. I love you guys too. We have so much fun together and the best part is that we don't have to see each other all the time to be able to pick up from last time and have loads of fun together.
• Also for the strong faith which my friends share and the conversations which we have regarding this faith and what we believe.
• My Job, and the people I care for. They are all so loving and full of life... even though I'm studying to become a professional, I love my job so much I wouldn't actually mind dropping out to work full time...
• The church we go to:
• The supportive church family and the communion of saints
• the strong youth connections so that there isn't temptation to find fun which is not to the honor and glory of God
• The confessions we have to ensure that the preaching and teaching has a scriptural basis.
• and the connections it has with the school I went to and the school my siblings still attend.
• The numerous financial and material blessings we have:
• Money to support myself
• A car which works and being able to buy fuel to make sure it continues to work
• a house over my head each night. Wait to add onto that... a big house with plenty of room, situated on land so that we can have horses and ride motorbikes (and everything we have on the land)
• Clothing and footwear in abundance.
• Food and drink with plenty to spare.
• 3 meals/day with plenty of food to eat in between
• clean, hygienic drinking water.
• abundant sources of food (the local IGA, Coles, Fresh Fruit and Vegie place, the farmer we get our meat from...)
• A computer with internet access so that I can write all my assignments and when inspired write blog posts.
• The rain we have received so far this winter. We have truly been blessed with so much rain, especially in comparison to what has fallen in previous years.
• the possibility to study and get a degree.
• opportunity to immerse myself in the creative mediums of music and art.
• opportunities for holidays. Although I am really hanging out for one of these, I am actually kinda planning a small escape in the near future. Some people do not have this opportunity at all so it is something that we can be thankful for.
• the political stability of Australia.
• the Freedom of religion in Australia - the opportunity to serve God without fear.
• sunny skies (even if it's raining the sun still manages to peek through)
• a sense of humor
• the ability to speak my mind without worrying about what others think
• the advances in technology so that so many things are possible without too much effort (how else could I talk to Mum this morning even thought she is 1300km away)
• electricity
• phones
• computers
•  Ipods (and music)
• internet
• and the list goes on... only I should get back to work. Which reminds me:
• Time. God has given us time to do things. We should even be thankful for that.

So what does your list look like?

Bubbles

I love bubbles. Soap bubbles that is. Weird as it may be, I could watch them all day. They are so fascinating. The perfect spherical shape; the way light is reflected off the surface; the colours of the rainbow which you can see; the way they float around; and even the way they pop. Before you doubt my sanity, as could be the case with such a fascination with these objects, think back to your younger days when playing with bubbles was so much fun. Think about how much you enjoyed the beauty of these objects as you tried to catch them in your mouth. I'm not that insane after all now am I. As simple as they are they are beautiful. And, wikipedia tells me that they have been around before 4 centuries (a 17th century painting shows children playing with bubbles apparently).

Bubbles are not the only beautiful thing that some of us may have forgotten about. How often do we stop in our busy lives to appreciate the beauty around us. It is there. God has revealed himself to us by his creation and we can see it in everything around us. But how often do we stop to appreciate this beauty. How often do we stop to take in the breath taking awesomeness of the sunset, or the power of the waves, or even the beauty in the the wild flowers along the roadside. We can see the power and awesomeness of God everywhere, we just have to remember to look.

On a little side note, have a look at this website: 1000awesomethings.com. It's really cool :D