Things so far...

It's been a tough week to say the least. I have experienced the best and the worst of humanity in this time. I have learnt that news agents are liars, people get a kick out of other's suffering; while others quietly serve and selflessly deny their own lives to make ours more bare-able.

It's interesting. In both my own father's death and my father in-law's, there have been certain people who seemed to have a religious agenda and regardless of the people involved, wanted to express their religious standing; while most seem to understand that Jesus was all about people. He stood in the face of religious people and defended prostitutes and tax collectors.

It's this love, only this love that lets people see Jesus. A hands on, knuckling down, selfless love that puts the self-righteous and self-involved to shame.

Thank you to everyone so far who have displayed this love to us. Via SMS, telephone, a meal, or cleaning our home. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Murder Valley. What a lovely suburb...

You'll see I posted a photo this morning of some graffiti on the roof of a school where I went to sing.
It's just teenagers being dorks, but at the end of the day they wrote it, and it had to come from somewhere. I mean, it's something they think about... that there's murder in their suburb. Some suburbs are called Pleasantville, or Mountain View Estate, or Lakeside, due to their beauty or proximity to beauty. But this place was dubbed "Place of Murder" by a melancholy teenager.

I think I'll rename my suburb "Place of annoyingly yappy ankle biting dogs", but that's a story for another day.

It was a shock to see this caption proudly emblazoned on school property. It was a further shock to hear that 23 churches are affiliated with the school. 23... Fat load of good that's doing them in Murder Valley. I quickly ask myself, what are those churches doing exactly, but just as quick as I asked myself that, another question exploded into my mind: "What are we doing?"

Well for starters, we aren't going to get the 70 responses for salvation out of the 150 kids we saw and leave them high and dry. A plan of action needs to be rolled out - church, homecells, discipleship. Get them connected with people who can guide them and teach them.
And then, make sure that the stuff they are hearing leads them to the person of Jesus Christ, not some rules based, insipid excuse of an expression of who God really is.

Murder Valley indeed. My goal, is to murder religion...

GOD is hope

I haven't sat down and written a blog in a while and any subscribers are proabably getting annoyed with pictures that interest me, but not necessarily anyone else!

I have to write an article on wholeness in relationships for our church magazine, but I am wondering how one tackles a subject like this. I mean, is there ever true wholeness in a situation? Isn't everything we do ultimately redeemed by Jesus dying on a cross? Effectively, our weak attempts at relationships generally result in some sort of conflict. It's bleek, I know.

While we are on earth, our only hope for better relationships, and ultimately better lives is the redeeming power of a living God. There's a scripture that says, "He makes all things beautiful in His time." Let the timing of God be yours. Let your rest in His perfect ability to bring good out of any situation guide you.

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo