Quench Your Thirst

The face that Moses had begged to see – was forbidden to see – was slapped bloody (Exodus 33: 19-20). The thorns that God has sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow . .

    “On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the solder’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossains 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on – he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm – the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless – the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display wearing nothing and can scarcely breathe.

    But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odour began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excitement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.

    His Father! He must face his Father like this!

    From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shrivelling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

    “Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped – murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, over-spent, overeaten – fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk – you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock you parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, rapping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp – buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves – relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Cam you not feel my wrath?”

    Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself, The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

    The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

    “Father, Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”

    But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

    The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.

Not so long ago a man did the unthinkable. He lived an incredible life and then died at the end of it for no other reason that for you and me. We always look back and think how amazing it was, but i don't think anyone realizes how much it actually means. So the link below should give you an insight into what happened.

We don't have to go to hell because Jesus died for us. So to give us a better understanding of what he did we must fully understand what hell is like. Something that many of us already understands, right? Take a look at this video and it will maximise the worse possible hell you could think of and this man’s story is minimized. Let's get a real perspective of hell this Easter to get a real perspective of what he actually did for us.

Click here for the video

O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbour wicked thoughts?

                                                                                                                            Jeremiah 4 v 14

God used the word harbour here. Each harbour is different but we can place a few into main groups. I'm going to pick a couple of groups.

Fishing harbour

A typical harbour that a fisherman would use would be small and would probably have places were you could buy fish around it. The town would also be known by the places nearby for its fish. So because there was fish near there they made a harbour to hold fishing boats. And because a lot of fish are caught there they made shops that sell fish and places that get the fish ready for the shops. The fish near the town shaped the town.

Transporting Harbour

This harbour would have been created to bring in and send out goods to the rest of the world. It would also transport people looking to go to a different country. This harbour will be a lot larger than the fishing harbour. The town around it will also be a lot larger than the fishing town. It will have been shaped with motorways so that lorry's can get to the harbours. There will be warehouses to hold goods. There will be lots of buildings for people to shop in and have entertaining places to visit. The town probably had a good lough or river large enough to bring in the boats. The location of this town was probably very good in relation to other transporting harbours. The location has shaped the town.

The point is that each harbour is different to facilitate the desires of the town around it. If our harbour (our mind) is facilitating wicked thoughts then our harbour will be perfected to do so and it will become more natural to harbour wicked thoughts.

If we facilitate Holy thoughts then our harbours will be adapted to hold Holy thoughts and then we will become more Holy and more like God.

So to have a Holy mind we must think Holy thoughts

To think Holy thoughts we must think like God

To think more like God we must know how God would think

And to know how God would think we must spend time with God, reading the Bible

Ultimately our mind is who we are and therefore Holiness is then something that we don't receive but something that we must work towards. Remeber the two things that shaped the town:

1. The things near the town - What is near your heart? Is it God or something else? What takes up most of your time? Facebook, work, church? Remember that Martin Lurther King was busier than you and on his longest work days he spent more time with God. And yes even church can get catch us out. Are we doing so much in church that we miss out in our personal relationship with God?
2. The location - Where are you locating yourself? Are you locating yourself near things of God or not of God? Are you going places that cause you to fall in your faith? Or are you going to places that help you flourish and grow with God?

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.

                                                                                                                                   Haggai 1 v 5

Have you ever went outside to look at the stars? At first you only see some. Then as your eyes adjust you being to see more. Or have you went from a light room to a dark room. At the start you see barely anything but in the end you see more and more as your eyes adjust. It's he same with God. The more we focus on him the more we adjust to see him more. And the more we see the more we long to see. But never forget there is so much more to see. Theres billions of stars out there and we see so little. The main key to seeing more of God is to look for him more.

Seek and you will find. He who seeks finds. (Matthew 7 vs 7-8 )

One of my favourite shows on T.V., or more accurately TV Shack (!), is House M.D. The show stars Hugh Laurie, with a rather good America accent, as a doctor with amazing diagnostic abilities but with many personal problems. I have just finished watching Season 6 of the show and the finale got me thinking....

(Warning: Spoiler alert!)

Before we get to the season finale a little context might help. So as i said earlier House is a diagnostic genius (his character was based on Sherlock Holmes and his love of puzzles) who values rationality above all else and uses this throughout the length of each episode solves the riddle of each patients illness no matter how obscure. He i assisted in his quest by a number of colleagues, some of whom have been fired, rehired or hand picked over the seasons. It is the people in his life which pose the biggest puzzles and problem for House as he seeks to rationalise everything in his life, this has led him to push away those close to him and those who seek to get close to him. House's personal life is a mess and he has sought solace in the belief he is better off alone and when that pain is too much in his vicodin habit.

Many episodes i have watched with great frustration as House has come so close to kicking his habits of drugs or enforced solitude only to see him resort to type- the writers are very good at building this hope up only to dash it and have the viewer longing for the next episode in anticipation.

However, at the end of Season 5 we see House finally reach rock bottom, admit defeat and check himself into a psychiatric facility where he seeks to kick his addiction and sort himself out. Season 6 then shows us how he tries to sort himself out with the help of those around him. Wilson, his only true friend, takes him in and helps him through his issues, keeping him off the drugs and on the road to recovery. For the first time in the shows history we the viewers trully believe House is changing, we begin to see him as a person and we empathise with him on a new level.

Then it looks as if i was all a con as in the final episodes he begins to slip and doubt himself and all the good work he has been doing. Part of this is that although he has brought happiness to many through his new self and acts of kindness he is still miserable. At the core of this misery is the fact that he still feels alone and now the one woman (Cuddy) who has always been in his life and he has always loved is getting married.

In the season finale we see the news of this engagement broken to House and this seems to provoke a downward slide, catalysed by the death of a patient. The final few moments through him rip the mirror in his appartment off the wall to reveal his last stash of drugs. Will he take them? It looks likely, why shouldnt he after the day hes had? He has nothing to live for anymore, he has tried to change, tried to be better, and none of it has worked, hes still miserable...

Then...

Salvation!!! Cuddy stands at the doorway and informs House that she has broken off the engagement because she loves House. They kiss. And we wait to see how this story unfolds.

Now why did i spend so long setting the scene and telling this story? Well firstly i love the show and think everyone should watch it! But more importantly it got me thinking about our capacity to change and our motivation for change.

Anyone who has watched the show the whole way through would be quite surprised by the changes we have seen in House and how we now have a situation where he is commencing a relationship with the woman he continually berated throughout the seasons.

The Bible tells us that in Christ we are new creations. But how does that look in real life? If our lives where put on show for a worldwide audience could people see the point where we chose Christ (where we reached rock bottom, admitted defeat, and sought help)? Would people be able to see the journey we have taken and the things we have learned along the way?

Maybe they would, maybe they would not. Sometimes the changes that are needed in our lives are minor adjustments which only a few notice, or in other cases a complete overhaul which is there for all to see. Whether changes are minor or major, however, we must not do them on our own or we will end up like House sitting just moments away from returning to the old self and the miseries of that old self without Hollywood script writers to save our day.

Our change must start with God as he authors and perfects our faith, our changes and our life story. Our changes start with Him and proceed with Him and they will also involve the help that comes with community as we carry each others burdens and help each other.

This life is too hard to go on your own, the Christian life is even harder though it has many more benfits too. Only the trully foolish would choose to bear this burden alone. So if we want to change our lives we must give up the biggest obstacle, our pride, and journey together with God and the people He brings into our lives to help us in the journey. House learned that no matter what skills we possess they are never enough to do life alone, let is learn from him and pursue life in community with God and each other.

God Bless,

Chris.

I'm sure we've all seen the oust adverts were they spray an air freshener and the apples fall down. They say that other air fresheners cover up the smell but oust eliminates it. Well what about our faith? We all have things in our life that drag us down. We need to be 100% going all out for God or it's really not worth it. I'm going to try and rip apart your Christian faith. Tear it into a thousand pieces and see what we come up with. Not so long ago God ripped me up a bit. I was reading Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and I came across a verse within it.

 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'   Matthew 7vs21-23

This hit me so hard. I thought that people with the gifts of healing and the people in church that drive out these demons would be sure that they were Christians. And the people that prayed and things happen must have been Christians. But no, not all of them. They can do all this and pray and things happen and still not be a Christian. So how could I be so sure of my own faith. Like I pray and most of the times nothing happens. So I have a weak faith and there are people that have such a faith that can heal people and aren't Christians. It's been something I have to put out there and say I've struggle with. Even the fact that God continues to forgive me and I know that he's cast my sins as far as the east is from the west but yet I continue to sin. The point isn't that our sins are forgiven but that we stop going against God. God will still forgive you but are you not damaging the relationship? The all important relationship that means more than being sinless in the eyes of God. How do we know then if we are a Christian? Surely this must make you think a little. I was so sure about my faith and yet Jesus tells us that we can't be so certain. You may be reading this with the thought, Lord I pray of anyone like this.... But are you really a Christian? It says that there is no fear in prefect love, which God is. So why do we fear so much? It also talks about the fact that we shouldn't worry but instead for us to seek God's face first. So if we are seeking his kingdom first in everything that we do why then do we still worry. Of course we will still fall and fail. But surely we shouldn't be doing it as much as we are. I could stand in front of a church and ask who loves God? Pretty much everyone would put they're hands up. But are you actually loving him with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. How many of you can honestly say that right now? That you love him like that. Jesus didn't say that we should love God. He said the first commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Not to partly love him. And when were in church sometimes how come we complain when the sermons to long or when it doesn't really have an overpowering effect on us. And we complain when a song is too long. And one that we've all probably done is complaining that the songs were really old ones or that they were too new and young. If we were truly with him we would enjoy all types of worship.

The Bible always talks about these wine skins.

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.   Mark 2v22

What are these wine skins?? They did confuse me and it was something I never really understood. But now I do. See the wine skins are like our hearts and our minds. As people we have certain hearts and minds. As we turn to God we start to change and get a new way of thinking. But often we don't get a complete new head and heart. We try and put this new way into the old way and what we come out with isn't good. Yes, we can still go through certain Christian things and God can pick us up and help us as we go about ways in the church. Often we don't have these new wine skins. We need to be praying for a new mind and a new heart. We need to be really praying about this. You will see a complete change when you start to have the change over. This may not happen like a click that we often thing God will come like. Remember the storm came the earthquake and other things came and God was in none of them. Then God came in the silence. Sometimes God comes in without us knowing because were running about in life way to fast. This change will be a very slow one. This change will rip everything in your life. But with this a complete humble heart will come and then the change can happen. Just as muscle rips and then it heals and gets stronger every time you go to the gym. And the bones will slightly crack into little pieces when a karate person breaks wood with they're hand. Then it heals bad stronger. So to you must be hurt to realise something's so that you can fix it.

Therefore the showers have been withheld,

       and no spring rains have fallen.

       Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute;

       you refuse to blush with shame.

Jeremiah 3v3

Focus on the last part of this for a minute. We have the look of a prostitute yet we don't blush with shame. God uses the word prostitute many times at the start of Jeremiah to explain that his people are going away from him. In this case they don't even see that they are. And later on in Jeremiah so many times they refuse what God is saying because they don't want to hear. When they found out that they no longer had they're eyes on him it must have been painful. But when they did blush with that shame they could finally over come the problem. How can you over come a failing when you don't even know you have failed? It's impossible. So my pray for all of you is that if you don't have it right with God that he shows you how to. That if your Christian faith is covering up the dirt and evil in your life that you get some oust and get it completely wiped away. That you would receive a new heart and a new mind to change this. That you would become the people of God that seek his face more than his hand. That you would love him completely with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. I pray that you would become someone all out for Jesus. You're either all in or all out. God said its better that you be cold than lukewarm. He prefers that you'd be all in the world rather than half in the world and half in him. It's all or nothing. What one are you going for?

God Bless all you's guys, Clifford

Before you brush this past thinking it's something for non-Christian's, I'd like to tell u that it isn't. I would also recommend reading Chris' post below which is in black before this one as I do referrer to it a few times within this.

I would also recommend that you pray for an opened mind over to God's word and his truth alone as you read over this So let's get started...

Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.

                                                                                                                           Jeremiah 26v3

First of all this is what the Lord say to Jeremiah so this is the Lord speaking. I want to begin by looking at the first sentence of this verse. When I read it there's one word that sticks out to me. It's the word perhaps. Why is God saying perhaps? Like, is God not the almighty powerful God that knows what's going to happen next? Is he not a meant to be outside of the restrains of time and not subject to it? The Bible even tells us that he knows what we're going to say even before we speak it. So why is God saying, 'perhaps it will happen?'

Here's what Wiktionary described it as - Modifies a verb, indicating a lack of certainty

So why would God be indicating a lack of certainty? This is something that is hard to understand and I know that when I first heard it I thought that it meant that God is not as good as I thought he was. But then some understanding came and he showed me that it actually meant he was great than I had viewed him before. Trying to explain this maybe be a little harder for me to write in words. So, here goes nothing...

See it backs up what Chris what talking about when he was writing yesterday. God loved us so much that he gave us a choice. He didn't make us like robots so we would love him. He took the risk of us rejecting him because he loved us enough to let us have our own choice. Does this not show you how more awesome his love is? It's brought more understanding to me on how much bigger his love is. For instance, say you had someone in your life that meant the world to you and you loved them so much. Then one day some mad scientist comes along and offers you a deal. He can make this person love you back in such a way that they would want to be with you so much. That they would never do anything to hurt you and they would always do what you wanted them to do. Or you could leave them the way they are and let them choose if they love you or not. What would you choose? Can you imagine the pain of them not loving you back? I'm sure you know that pain when you like someone and they don't feel the same way about you. But if they meant everything to you it would hurt you so much more. I can't really imagine that pain.

So backing up Chris' point of God is so strong that he can deal with the pain of us going against him. And it's not just one person hurting him, but the pain of billion and billion of people hurting him. And he has had since Adam and Eve way over 2000 years ago to change his mind. He could have said I'm feed up of them not loving me. I'm going to make them love me now. But no, he didn't do that. Not even when we were nailing him to a cross. Love also often dies down after the years. He had from Adam and Eve to 0 BC for his love to die. The thought that his love didn't die down and that he himself even came down to give us eternal life is an unreal thought. And still after another 2000 years he's loving us the same way he always has. Like come on guys. Do we actually know how great and big his love is for us?

Now for the tricky bit. Yes God is outside of time. He isn't subject to time and yes, he knows what's going to happen. So what's the point then? If it's going to happen it will happen. Well if you're thinking like that I'm going to try and take that out of your head. There is a point. We are subject to time. We make choices right now that will affect us in our future. Some will bring good to us and some will bring evil. God hasn't planned the evil things for us. See we have already made our choice for what is going to happen in our life. We can walk about and have the attitude of, 'what's the point, if it's going to happen it'll happen.' Or we can give everything we have to live for him today. We can have the positive look ahead to our life. God knew that you would be reading this right now. The fact is that he is giving you your own choice to decide. He didn't say you would be reading this and then you would pick this answer and then your life would end up like this. He said to us, you choose.

The second sentence brings us a little further and deeper into the topic. It adds a twist to things. He says he will relent, if they turn from they're evil ways, and then he will NOT bring the disaster he was PLANNING. See God had a plan. If they kept on doing evil then he would have brought this disaster on them. But if they changed there minds and followed him then he wouldn't do what he was planning. So God's plan would have changed. It's almost like he's giving them two ways to go. And he's doing the same for us right now. He's giving us options but he's giving us the choice of what one we pick. And then a new plan will come into action and we'll live that one until we do something else that affects it.

Although I'm not sure about this as I am not God. I understand what I'm writing about but this is probably just like God's love. One second I think it's the biggest thing and its never ending and then he shows me more and it becomes bigger than never ending love. The knowledge I have shared today is only a little of this topic and you will have to have a chat with God to understand it more.

It clearly shows in this verse that God does chance his plan. The question is, 'What is God saying to you today?' Maybe you're doing something against him and he has something planned to take you away from that and although it may hurt you, it will help you and make you more holy. God may say to you today, 'Perhaps if you stop doing that then I'll change what I have planned for you and it won't  hurt as much.'  Or, 'Perhaps if you stop thinking what's the point, and you get up and live today for my kingdom and glory the best you can, then you future plan will become a plan filled with Fruit and my glory.'

                                                                    It' your choice!

                                                  What are you doing to do about it?

And also remember, God's will for you is the best. He's got a great plan for you. Plan's to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29v11

The best choice you can make is the choice God would recommend for you. Picking his will in everything you do and every time will give you these plans it talks about in Jeremiah 29v11. Then and only then will you life your life to the full.  God bless,

                                                               Clifford

John 3:16. Lets face it all of us know John 3:16. Whether it be on the side of a Gospel Hall or from an American sporting event or, in the case of most of us, having to recite it at Sunday School. But for any of you who may not know it it goes something like this:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

or in The Message:

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

The fact is that nearly every translation of the Bible sticks to the same basic formula of God loving the world and sending His son to save the world, or at least those who believe in Him.

Now i am not going to bore you with original translations or interesting twists about the passage etc- ill leave that to others better qualified. I am, however, going to leave you with two quick thoughts to provoke thought and discussion.

Firstly, i have yet to come across a translation or version of this verse which focusses on the individual. In otherwords the verse says 'For God so loved THE WORLD..' yet we so often ask people to substitute THE WORLD for ME and in so doing, i believe, do a disservice to the Cross and what it was meant to achieve. Nowhere in Scripture are we taught that the Cross was a 'ticket to heaven'. We are taught about the Cross as salvation and redemption and that this redemption is for the whole earth, the whole of creation. When we are told that God so loved the world that He sent His Son we are being reminded of the grand narrative of the Bible-that God wants to have a relationship with His people as a community as well as the intimate relationship that lovers share. This means that when we accept Christ and what He has done for us we aree beginning a journey of sharing God's redemptive plan for the THE WORLD and not just ME. Practically this means that we seek out where we can be a redemtive force in the world through reflecting Christ, where we shine our light and and add flavour to our world. And we do all this in community with God, with Brothers and Sisters in Christ and with the communities we seek to reach and redeem for and throught Christ. My salvation is not mine at all but a gift i am to share with THE WORLD.

This leads me on to my second thought about God and His use of relationships. The story of the Bible is one of God in relationship with His people and how He used relationships to make a difference. But it was also this desire for lovers and friends rather than robots that led to the Cross. The case made by theologians of God's sovereignty has too often left us with a 'Cosmic Chess Player' rather than a relational God. God took immense risks when He gave us free will as this gave us the opportunity to reject Him and continually reject Him if we so chose.

Now this does not mean that God is weak or irresponsible for He did not walk away from the mess we have made but He lives in a dynamic relationship with us. He is not a weak God either because it is only the truly strong who make themselves vulnerable, who put themselves out there, risking rejection, risking that moment when they are told: 'no, you are not what i am looking for'. It is only the strong and courageous who can turn this moment of dispair into an opportunity  and God can use the times we reject Him and His ways as a tool for us to learn and to grow and see things more clearly. God uses relationships and calls us to do the same. To use our relationship with Him, bought at such a cost, to know Him and His ways and to grow with Him and in Him, to rest in His prescence and abide in Him so that through this relationship we can build other relationships that lead others to Him so that no one need be destroyed;  but through relationship with Him all can have a whole and lasting life in community with Him and each other.

So let us see John 3:16 not as a slogan to beat others over the head with but as a call to deeper relationships and more Christ-like community with each other and with God at the centre where he deserves.

God Bless,

Chris.

I was invited along to my mates house one night to watch 24 the film. In te film there is a scene where guys come to a football pitch to take children away to train them to kill. The kids are trapped and one of them is so scared of whats going on that he wets himself. So the next day i was washing the dishes and thinking about God and for some reason this image from the film of the kid who had wet himself pops into my head. Right away God showed me of why it happens to people and a link to our faith. We learn as a young child to keep our urine in until it pretty much becomes like nature to us. So why then has this child wet himself. Has he just simply forgot how to or is there a reason behind it. Is he possiblely foused on something so much that hes forgot how to function properly? That something that is nature to this child becomes unnatural? Yes he is. These guys have just came in and told them that they're going to be taken away and become soldiers. I'm guessing that the child is so scared and so focused on whats going on. Suddenly at this moment the whole world seems to stop. I'm pretty sure the kid isn't thinking of what its going to be like. Hes completely focused on this guy infront of him.

Could we not be this way with God? Could we not be so focused on him that nothing else matters. That we forget how to function properly and were so focused on him that even our very nature becomes unnatural to us. That our nature of sin is a stranger to us. That the more our focus was on God the more sin would become unnatural and the more living like Jesus would become nature in our life. Sure, it wouldn't be perfected in our lifetime here on earth and would only be perfected in heaven. But lets be serious about this and try and get as close to Jesus' lifestyle as possible. And let God be are motivation behind it.

So may we all be like the kid who wet himself when he was scared.

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Mark 10:15

It sounds a little bit weird. If we don’t receive the kingdom of God like a little child?

Well, as you know, if you give a child something really valuable, that has been past down the family for years, such as a family jewel, they take really good care of it. They will always know where it is and will keep it nice and sparkly. They will treasure it until the time comes to pass it on down the family.

The kingdom of God is a very valuable gift, but if we do not receive it as the little child we will never get it. We should receive it as the child would receive the valuable gift. So what does that mean?

  1. We should receive it thinking WOW!! Why would this person give me such a valuable thing?

  2. We must protect it, not by hiding it away but protecting it by God’s love, word and Spirit. We must continually pray everyday for God to look after us and lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us from evil. That God will take us away from them situations were Satan tries to steal this precious gift away from us, just because he doesn’t have it.

  3. We must keep it clean and sparkly. How? We must communicate with God everyday. It’s a relationship with God that gets us into heaven so we must make it a healthy relationship. I’m sure you’ve heard many people use the illustration of, ‘if I never talked to my wife/husband we wouldn’t have a very good relationship.’ So we must talk to him everyday by praying,but also listen by reading what he has to say to us in the Bible.

If we don’t take good care of this awesome gift as the child would then we shall lose it, and gain eternal death. Which one do you want?

2009 has been anything but an easy year. From the absolute lows to completely crazy highs. From not even being able to worship to the art of worship. From the times of feeling so alone and wondering why I couldn't hear the voice of God through the terrifying storm, to being completely filled with the Spirit.

From the start of being told I would most likely be in a wheelchair when I was older to being healed from it. From going through many struggles with my chest to having prayer rescue me every time. The struggles of burn out and not being able to cope, yet through it all being promised it’ll be ok.

All I can say it it’s probably been one of the hardest years for me but through it all God has been there. He has always been by my side. When I was crying of sadness and happiness, he was there. He will forever be with me.Where I walk he will be by my side. He goes through the bad and the good with me as if it were happening to him. He’s all I could ask for. He is God.

Although I do say it’s be a hard year I can not complain. Through my sufferings I become stronger. Through everything God has his purpose. About two months ago I was cycling down a road when a car pulled out and hit me. I was thrown off my bike in front of on coming car. Yet apart from a few cuts and bruises I was fine. It wasn’t really that big of a deal, even though my family were saying I was so lucky. On the way home I remembered God has a purpose for everything. I couldn’t see the purpose of why this happened. The on coming car was being driven by a friend of the family. If you nearly ran someone your family knew you would probably tell them. But she didn’t. The next day my mum rang to say I was getting on fine but she wasn’t in. Surprisingly she hadn’t told her husband, so my mum started to enlighten him. As I was listening into the conversation I started to see the truth. The truth is I was so unbelievably lucky to come away with as little injuries as I did. And the fact she didn’t run me over because she was only doing 20 mph. If she'd being going at the speed limit, or speeding as many people do on that road, I would have been seriously injured or maybe even killed. How lucky was I?? Well, I wasn’t lucky at all. I was never going to get seriously injured or die. It was just God showing me something. Seems a weird way to show it but it cut me straight to the heart. Sometimes God has to hurt us to help us. I encourage you through this year to go for God no matter what. Even if you’re having a hard time it’s for a purpose, a greater purpose to grow you. I hope this year shall be a blessed one and a truly inspiring one. Live Love

Life is the pursuit of beauty.Often in life we see the beauty of the world. But when the beauty of the world is put up against actual beauty we find that the world’s beauty is nothing. For beauty lies within the depths of God. If we look to Jesus (into the light) the things of the world will go dim, in the light. I’ve realised that the more we stay in the light the more we start losing our way in the world. And the more we understand life. But it is when we are in the dark we lose are way of life. For I have been in the depths of the darkness. For I know what it is to seek the way of money and popularity in the world. But I also know what it is to be in the depths of the light, in the beauty of God. And as I have saw but a shadow of the light, I see now how pointless life is without the beauty of God. How pointless it is in the depths of the world, in the depths of sin.

It's some that we know we should have and we preach and talk about it often but is it actually getting out there?? After Illumenate there and Normans sermon last night, including strong Biblical backing that it is the thing that keeps us together as a church. It's the glue to the body of Christ. But I don't know about you but I'm not really feeling it here in Ballymena or within our own church.

Also about outreach within Ballymena, how do people see us. Over the past two nights i have really agreed with what God has put on Norman and Freddie's hearts. We have to be loving for the people to want to come to us. If you were not a Christian, coming into High Kirk what would you think. Possibly, hey this is a nice place, worships good and good preaching. but what really makes the church. is it not love. it says in 1 John ch4v8+16 that God is love. its something that we strongly need to work in. Why do we think that we can attract people to the church and make them want to come back again without the glue? We have become and are growing more and more like the Pharisees. There's a band called Casting Crowns who wrote a song called Stained Glass Masquerade. here are the lyrics,

Is there anyone that fails

Is there anyone that falls

Am I the only one in church today feelin' so small

Cause when I take a look around

Everybody seems so strong

I know they'll soon discover

That I don't belong

So I tuck it all away,

like everything's okay

If I make them all believe it,

maybe I'll believe it too

So with a painted grin,

I play the part again

So everyone will see me the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people

Under shiny plastic steeples

With walls around our weakness

And smiles to hide our pain

But if the invitation's open

To every heart that has been broken

Maybe then we close the curtain

On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who's been there

Are there any hands to raise

Am I the only one who's traded

In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing

And we know every line by heart

Only when no one is watching

Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free

If I dared to let you see

The truth behind the person

That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open

Or would you walk away

Would the love of Jesus

Be enough to make you stay

A powerful song on how many people within the church feel today. How can we attract the people that don't know God by bring them into church and letting them feel as if they are failures? as if they don't belong with all these so called "Holy" and "perfect" people? This is not how its a meant to be. Jesus didn't hang around with the tax collectors and say how great he was and make them feel as if they were not welcome. No he was down to their level. He didn't say how they needed to change. it was a come as you are because i love you and you are good enough no matter what you do. we need to be more like Jesus, not the Pharisees. We cant expect to attract these people by making them feel as if they don't belong. Is the church not a meant to be that place where everyone comes and everyone belongs?

And as for the second matter of just being yourself and real. I cant agree more! what's the point of living a fake life? why are them people that aren't Christians but are so close to it just stop at the last minute because they think their not good enough. is it us being them 'happy plastic people' pretending everything is great and we are so good? i think so. it is a matter that we have to fix. a matter that we have to pray about. what's the point of being fake? we're not perfect, so why pretend we are? it stupid. and in pretending that we are so good and Holy we prevent others from Christianity as they feel their not good enough.

Also what's the point of holding everything within our heads and just killing ourselves over our problems. we have to be real and open up about our problems as Freddie was saying tonight. we need to help each other. I've often found in my short life so far that someone's weakness is another's strength and vice versa. We have to be in this together and a church. walking the Christian life along is a very dangerous thing. we have to be getting behind each other and just opening up about our problems, are worries and are fears. Most likely there are others going through the same, others that have been through and over come the problems, and others that never had it but can help you.even if everyone in the church was linked up closely in some way then all advice from everyone would get together and help very one. God has given us more than enough to get through a Holy live. but this also includes getting beside each other. are our friends and family not their to help us as well. God has gave us friends for a reason. so we can learn of each other and grow stronger. back in January i had God talk to me. probably one of the scariest times of my live but also the greatest. he told me this. Let us share in our victories and defeats as if we were one. in this way we will grow stronger. I took this as a God, human relationship but it has become clear to me now that its for everyone.

So may we become a church that goes through are victories and our defeats as though we were one. let us get so close together with the love of God. and let us become a strong group of Christians through God

So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour,and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. Exodus 1:11-12.

v11 - This is just the story of the world. Think of the Israelities as the believers. Satan as the Pharaoh and the salve masters as the rest of the world. It say that in the last days God will pour out his Spirit, and were in the last days. So this was like the Israelities becoming greater and larger in number, but as we know Pharaoh saw this and had to stop it. So he did what he could to take everything from them. It also tell us in the Bible that there will be terrible times in the last days. I hope you see that this is along the same lines. God sent his only son, Jesus Christ, for us.That we are now in the last days and we, as Christians, are growing in number. Gods family is growing and the Holy Spirit is being poured upon us, but as all this happens, Satan is looking at us growing. He sees that we are becoming too large in numbers so he uses the world to get at us. He works at us and tries to take everything from us. Our faith, are hope and our love. Yes, we are going to get badly beaten up by Satan here on earth. We'll have our good days and our bad days. It tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Satan will see all we have, and knowing he can't have it, will do everything in his power to take it away from us. God helps us with his love for us. He takes our old hearts and gives us new ones when we become Christians. And he akes our Spirits and changes them. But the mind is left. It says that we will keep our mind in perfect peace, because he trusts in us. We have to ask God to give us more strength, to develop our Spirit for him. To fill our hearts with his love so that we can fight Satan out of our minds. We will not completely get rid of Satan until our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, comes back. But at least we can make a stand for Jesus before that time. We can show him that were serious about our faith and our relationship with him, and that we love him more than anything. That we want to spend the rest of our life's with him and eternity. God was so serious about us that he sent his only son down to earth to be nailed to a cross for doing nothing wrong. He sacrificed his son for our sins so that we could be with him in eternal life. This is how serious he is about you. So lets pay a bit of it back. Even though we can't do anything near what he did for us, we can try to pay some back. Lets make a stand for Christ Jesus!

v12 - The more Pharaoh oppressed them the larger there numbers became. This is the answer for us on were do we go next. So what should we do to Satan when he tries to oppress us? Trying to take the gift of eternal life that God has given to us? We should grow personally in our own faith, hope, knowledge and wisdom, truth and love, and to grow as the family of God, in numbers. One of the best ways to do this is as Jeremy Camp puts it, "Speak Up, Speak Now and Speak Loud." Get out there and live for God. Show God's love, that he has gave you, to the world. Put yourself lower than all others and serve them in love. Take your opportunities to tell them about God, but remember to tell them in a loving way. Also remember that your actions speak louder then your words do. Sometimes speaking up isn't about talking, but speaking up through your actions.