I will show you my faith by my works - James 2:18

As Christians we bear the name of Christ. In bearing his name we have the responsibility to reflect christ in everything that we do. In what we are doing we are giving others an impression of who Christ is and how he has impacted our lives.

We can very well say that we believe that Christ has saved us and that it is such a wonderful gift that we have received,  but then if we don't live a life filled with the passion of thanking Christ for the wonderful gift he has given us what is that saying to others about the gift of salvation. Our workmates, uni buddies, tafe friends, neighbours all know that we are Christian. What we do and how we do if gives them an impression of us as a Christian, Christianity as a whole, and ultimately, Christ.

As James writes in his letter, "I will show you my faith by my works" (2:18). As the saying goes: Actions speak louder than words. We are called to be a shining light in this world so that 'by our works we may win others for Christ.' It isn't by our words that we shine out into the world. It is by our actions. Our actions are what show others that Christ is in us. They show others that he has changed our lives, that we have been converted. By our actions we show to others how Christ's love has impacted our lives in the joy and love that we show to others.

In reflecting Christ in our actions it is not just WHAT we do but also HOW we do it. Our actions should be done out of joy and thankfulness because of the love of Christ.

How are you showing to those around you that you are a Christian? What do your actions say about Christ?

Procrastination

At the moment I am trying to convince myself that I have work to do and that I should really get my assignment finished and out of the way so that I can do a lot of other, more productive things. But the thing is it is not due for another 3 weeks and I have the next 2 weeks off prac so that gives me LOTs of time to write it. To make matters worse it is a real pain of an assignment. Seriously, I have to go through each of the 'competencies' I am assessed on at my placements and write how I have demonstrated competency in each of these competencies for the areas of: Language, Speech, Swallowing, Voice and Fluency for both Adults and Children. Believe me when I say that it is horrible assignment.

For that reason I spend lots of time doing all sorts of other things. Some of that I can think of are:

• Watch all sorts of unnecessary videos on youtube, and then look at the related videos and watch some more.
• Making myself cups of tea, and drinking it too (of course)
• Spend time on Facebook looking at photos and talking to others.
• Looking at links people post (or like) on Facebook and then looking at other links
• Finalising a photo book as a present for a friend
• Making more tea
• Reading other peoples extremely waffly blog posts about car problems 
• Listening to music
• Sleeping in
• Fiddling around with what ever
• Eating food
• Making tea
• forgetting that I was making tea and then going back to making it again.
• Writing emails
• Drinking tea
• Talking. I do a lot of that actually, just talking. About anything that I can think of. We almost anything. And then when I start talking I don't normally stop in a hurry.
• Looking at SLR cameras online
• Buying more music and listening to it
• Many more things that I can't think of right now 
• And (as you can probably see) writing my own blog post.

Really, if you think about it I would probably be the queen of procrastination, or maybe at least one of the princesses. The problem is I know that I can do so many more exciting and wonderful things such as painting, drawing (although I left my sketch pad at work), playing my guitar, filling out my application for volunteering next year, planning my trip after volunteering next year, soaking up some of God's wonderful creation by going for a bush walk and lots of other things. I plan to do all of these after finishing my assignment. Only I have to stop procrastinating first.

We are called to live a life of glory and honour to God. "Whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God." (I Cor 10:31). If I spend time procrastinating and avoiding my assignment I am guilty of not honouring God in what I'm doing. There are some days packed full of lots of different things, days where I am busy doing all different things, all things that have a purpose and in that purpose I am glorifying God. 

Now to get back to that assignment...... ... 

The Crayon Box That Talked

I came across this poem in some of the church papers I was reading today. I though it was a beautiful description of the command that we have to love one another.

The Crayon Box That Talked


While walking into a toy store the day before today


I overheard a crayon box with many things to say



"I don't like Red!" said Yellow and Green said "Nor do I"


"And no one here likes Orange but no one knows just why"



"We are a box of crayons that doesn't get along


Said Blue to all the others "Something here is wrong"



Well, I bought that box of crayons and took it home with me


And laid out all the colors so the crayons all could see



They watched me as I colored with Red and Blue and Green


And Black and White and Orange and every color in between



They watched as Green became the grass and Blue became the sky


The Yellow sun was shining bright on White clouds drifting by


Colors changing as they touched becoming something new


They watched me as I colored - they watched me till I was through



And when I finally finished I began to walk away


And as I did the crayon box had something more to say



"I do like Red!" said Yellow and Green said, "so do I"


And Blue you were terrific! So high up in the sky



"We are a box of crayons each one of us unique


But when we get together the picture is more complete"


By Shane deRolf 

All the crayons play a part in creating the picture, and in the same way, all of God's children play a part in his congregation. Everyone has a role to play and a gift to share. So next time you don't appreciate someone or don't like them, think again, they have an important role to play too.
















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?"