Pash's Blog

Well a bet you thought this would be one of those blogs where one of those "evangelical" christians trys to hood-wink you and say that they never have doubts or questions everything is black and white?

Ok I admit it, I have doubts about a lot of stuff, why are christians so unlike Jesus a lot of the time? Why is there so much bad stuff happening in the world? Why dosent God answer my prayers the way I want them to be answered?

But,you know what? I think God is big enough for me to ask those questions and many more. In fact I would say he wants me to ask these questions. Anyone who is a seeker after truth should ask questions, however hard they are.

The church should always exhibit three things that Jesus brings:

LOVE

HOPE

EMPOWERMENT

For God so loved the world that he gave...Faith is substance of things hoped for...Go into all the world...

This is an idea expressed by a group of theologians(people who are cleverer than me). That instead of being defined by what we do not believe, we should instead be able to exhibit these principles in all that we do.

As an example, Communion (Mass, the Lord's table, Bread and wine, The Eucarist) expresses God's love, that he sent his son to a hurting world so that we might know his love. It brings hope as we remember that our sin can be forgiven and is forgiven, and that one day he will return. And empowering because we are reminded that we have a fresh start even though we have sinned (missed the mark, messed up, done things our way) he cleans it away and we are free. Therefore we can go and live in freedom. That is empowering.

You can apply the same to preaching, to worship(our response to God), bible study, life.

If Jesus is who he said he is then we should exhibit what he is about. It isn't just a nice idea but revoltionary.

Love, Hope and Empowerment on their own miss the mark. It is only when we realise that he is Love, he is the Hope of the world, that he has chosen to use the weak and the foolish that we can be truly free.

If in my work (when I finally get back to work) I value people more than money, I show his Love. By living as if there is more to life than me, shows there is Hope. By doing a good job being an example and helping other I show that I am living for him this is freeing and life giving Empowering.

I am saying I do not live by a set of rules but for a purpose.

I said I would record and investigate my journey and trust in God's faithfulness.

Well, I have two job interviews in a couple of weeks and  friends have provided a whole bunch of clothes and nursey stuff for our baby; that is due in September.

I have decided to try and think far more creatively and over the past few days I have started to come up with new ideas.

Take this picture of a love heart, it made me think about God sending his son for me, so I can be right with him.

I am trying to do some glass painting with a great quote I heard a few months back. I will upload it when I have sorted it.

Thanks for reading my musings.

It was actually me who was leading the bible study. My answer, for what it's worth, was that God would have forgiven him, and in looking at the rest of the old testament would have relented.

The reason we discussed Grace was that it is down right scandalous. The very worst sinner in the world can be forgiven and made right with God.

What's more scandalous is that we cannot do anything that is good enough, I would far prefer to measure myself against a murderer and say I am better than they are but if I measure myself against Jesus, I realise that I am the worst hypocrite and in need of His grace and mercy.

I had one of those moments yesterday at the communion service at church. The guy leading the service led in such a gentle way and he explained that in the Ash Wednesday service the following prayer is used:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life.
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All Amen.

It reminds us that Jesus both came as a sacrifice (to deal with sin)and an example (holiness lived out). I don't know why it hit me but a felt like weeping.

Then when we met up with some of our cell group, we talked about Daniel 5, I asked the queston:

Would God have acted differently if Belshassar had ackoweldged that God was God, and had turned away from his sin?

We then went into a discussion on GRACE.

This is the band I used to be in and it's me singing badly!

Every creation requires a Genesis moment I think I have had mine.

I have been out of work since April and I feel challenged to write done some of my thoughts and journal entries over the next few months.

My title for this is:

Is God faithful?

Do you remember those science experirments you did during your GCSE's and A Levels? You already knew the answer (apply heat to ice and it will melt) or that you should be able to plot a line of best fit through clusters of results. You could even put in some results which were out of line. I already know the answer to this question, but I do not intend to plot a line of best fit I just expect God to prove Himself faithful once again.

I also want to enter into conversation in doing this, what new ways will God prove Himself? Life is not straight forward, when God passed by Moses, He wasnt in the Wind or the Earthquake. Will we take time to listen to his voice?