life-thought-s

[life-thought-s]

@shareagift @lonelyplanetcommunity 

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[life-thought-s]

@shareagift @lonelyplanetcommunity 

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[life-thought-s]

Saved.

Tomorrow marks 500 years of the reformation and I've been thinking about God's forgiveness and the idea that as long as we accept Christ as our lord and saviour we are forgiven.

I still remember the day when the I finally understood that no matter how many times I go to church, no matter how many people I convert to Christianity, no matter how good I try to be, nothing will change the fact that I'm saved. I can't earn my way into heaven. Jesus died so that I could be saved and as a result has secured a place there for me.

This idea is incredible and often when I'm feeling down or far away from God, contemplating and meditating on it helps me realise just how good God is and how grateful I am to him.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

[life-thought-s]

Podcast Reccomendation.

Time is a bully - Steve Wiens

https://castbox.fm/vb/54286623

This podcasts looks at how we conceive the concept of time, it looks back over the ages, at how there are two different types of time; Chronos time Kairos time. It also looks forward to how we can use these concepts of time to change our views and benefit our lives going forward. I found this podcast extremely insightful and it left me with a lot to think about. Would highly reccomend, especially if you feel stuck in a rut or are trying to look to what's next for you in life.

[life-thought-s]

Living.

I’ve been thinking this week about what it means to live as a Christian today. It’s an extremely difficult question and one that a lot of people seem to have different answers for. Having been brought up as a Christian and making my own choice to follow God at a young age I’ve been through a lot of periods in my life when I’ve felt both very close to God and extremely far away.

The great thing about Christianity is God’s forgiveness. Knowing that I can at this very moment in time confess my sins, be forgiven and start again is mind blowing and so difficult to understand. In the past I felt like I wasn’t being forgiven by God because I felt things still hung over me but over the years I’ve come to realise that it’s been me not forgiving myself that’s not let me get over things rather than not receiving God’s forgiveness.  

So what does this have to do with living as a Christian? Nobody can live the perfect Christian life because we are all broken and we live in a broken world. This means that at some point we will mess up and there will be days where we do drift away from God, there might even be periods in our lives when we abandon God all together but you need to remember one thing. No matter how many times you turn away, or how many times you mess up, you can start again and God will be there ready to pick you up, dust you off and help you get back on your Christian journey.

I recently read a blog which compared physical life with spiritual life which I found really helpful. They said that there are three things in your physical life that you need to keep your body fit. You have to eat, sleep and exercise. In your spiritual life there are also three main things which will help you to live a spirit filled life with God, these are engaging with the Bible (Jeremiah 15:16), spending time in prayer, and engaging in Christian work.

When I was doing a bit of online research around this topic I came across this story which I love, and for me perfectly sums up how we should be living as Christians in our societies.

‘A missionary in China was telling of Jesus for the first time to a group of people in an inland town. When he had finished, someone spoke up and said: “Oh, yes, we knew Him. He used to live here. Surprised, the missionary said: “No, He didn’t live here. He lived centuries ago in another land.” The man still insisted that he had seen Jesus, saying: “Not so, He lived in this village. We knew Him.” Then the simple country folk took the missionary out to the village cemetery and showed him the grave of a medical missionary who had lived, healed, served, and died in their community. Ah, yes, they had seen Jesus in this man! And they thought he was Jesus.’ (Story from http://bit.ly/2yag3o6)

Some other resources I find really helpful are the Bible App where you can read daily bible verses and commit to engaging with the Bible on a daily basis through their reading plans, Castbox which is a great podcast app and has some really good Christian material that you can subscribe to, some of my favourites being Hillsong, Audacious, and GodPod. Echo is also a favourite, which is a really good prayer reminder app.

[life-thought-s]

Possessions.

Do we get caught up with the possessions we own? Do we get too tied to objects that we think bring us happiness? I’ve been struggling recently with what takes up my spare time. A lot of the things that I do in my spare time, of which a large chunk is gaming and watching TV, do not seem do benefit me intellectually or spiritually.

This led onto me asking the question do I truly enjoy what I’m doing or am I doing it simply because it’s at my disposal and it’s easy to do. For me there’s nothing easier than getting in from work and collapsing on the sofa in front of the TV and not getting up until I’m ready to go to sleep.

If I took these things out of my life would I truly miss them? If I got rid of all the things that I don’t think benefit my life would I get bored or would it encourage me to replace them with more meaningful things like spending more time with God?

I was reading Acts and I came across a passage that really resonated with how I’ve been feeling lately. It speaks about a group of believers who share their possessions, by not owning anything they can fully focus on worshipping God.

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerful at work in them all that there was no needy person among them.” (Acts 4:32-34)

[life-thought-s]

Focus.

I recently finished a great book entitled ‘Minimalism: Live A Meaningful Life’ by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus. They look at how caught up people get with the busyness of life and they explore the concept of minimalism which is a way of living that helps you to cut out the things that are weighing you down in life, allowing you to concentrate on the meaningful parts.

Like anything it must be taken with a pinch of salt but some of the practices that I have put in place after reading it have really allowed me to shift my focus to aspects of my life that I want to focus on. It has really helped me to free up and devote more time to God and his plans for my life.

Head to their blog to find out more: The Minimalists

[life-thought-s]

Healing.

My mum had an amazing answer to prayer recently after visiting the doctors with an ongoing issue she had, only to find that it had completely disappeared. The doctors were shocked and asked if she knew how it it had happened. All she had to say to them was that she’d asked people at her church to pray for her.

The doctor, who was a muslim, asked her what church she went to as he said he’d never seen anything like it and wanted to find out more. - Another great miracle from God and an amazing answer to prayer!

“I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” (Psalm 118:21)

[life-thought-s]

Distance.

I spent my lunch break at the lake near our offices today and was watching the seagulls flying back and forth over the water. The birds would fly almost out of sight but then circle back to where they had come from.

As I sat there praying I felt God was saying to me that our relationship with him is a lot like the flight of these seagulls. No matter how far we stray from God we can always return to him and he will welcome us back with open arms. I find this concept extremely difficult to comprehend but at the same time it’s comforting knowing that he has so much love for us that he will always accept us back, even if we feel like we don’t deserve it.

Looking back there have been a number of times in my life where I feel I didn’t have much of a relationship with God, even now there are days that I feel far from him. This has helped to remind me that whatever I am doing and wherever I am in the world God is with me and I can always turn to him.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9)

[life-thought-s]

Prayer.

Yesterday I attended a service on the power of prayer. It has made me realise that I certainly don’t pray enough. I’m lucky enough to work at a job where I can take a full hour lunch break and so I have decided to spend some of that time to sit, talk to God and then listen to him.

One of the things I am guilty of when it comes to prayer is having a one way conversation with God. Last night the speaker compared our relationship with God to the relationship between a husband and wife. If the husband either never speaks to his wife, or only speaks to her and never lets her get a word in the marriage will not last very long. In order to have a relationship with God you need to spend time speaking and listening to him.

I am looking forward to putting time aside each day to spend with God and will post about how I have found this experience in a few weeks time.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)

[life-thought-s]

Exercise.

Looking around at the gym this morning I realised just how many different sorts of people were there, using the gym for different reasons. There were people there trying to lose weight, others to gain muscle, others socialising in groups, instructors teaching, cleaners wiping down the machines and sweeping up, and couples who were exercising together, everybody seemed to be there for a different purpose.

Like the gym, when we go to church we encounter all different sorts of people. Everyone has their own story for how they came to be a Christian, it could be that they’d become a Christian through a friend or family member, perhaps they’d grown up as a Christian from a young age, or maybe God had come to them through a life changing situation or event.

We have all come to Christianity differently however unlike the gym where people are there for different purposes, Christians have a common purpose, to love and worship God. For me this is what makes church and being a Christian so special. Even though we are all completely different, we are brought together through God.

“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)

[life-thought-s]

Miracles.

I was thinking this morning about some of the miracles that God’s performed in my life. I often find that at the time I either dismissed them or didn’t see them as God’s work. Looking back however it is evident that God has performed many miracles in my life which at the time I just took for granted.

One that sprang to mind while I was in bed this morning was the first time that I took my best friend to chruch. He had grown up in a big family as the youngest and as a result always felt like he had something to prove to his older siblings.

When I met him he had calmed down a lot but I knew he had and often still was a bit of a school bully. Not the type that goes around beating people up but he did a lot of name calling and picking on some of the other kids in our year.

One Sunday I was spending the afternoon with a Christian friend and we decided to go to the Sunday evening service at a local church. I had been texting the friend I referred to above all day and he had asked what our plans were for the evening. I told him we were going to church and did he want to come. - this was the first and only time I’d ever asked him as I had previously been worried that he might cause a racket or kick off in the service but for some reason the words just came out.

To my surprise he accepted and I went to pick him up for the service. It turned out that the service was a youth service run by some of the younger congregation and the girl who spoke was from our year at school. She spoke about how God had changed her life and had helped her overcome depression and that she felt that he’d asked her to speak about what she’d been through to help others. It turns out my friend had been the main instigator in bullying her when they were younger. As he sat there I felt an overwhelming power sweep across the room and it felt like she was speaking directly to him about what he’d put her through. Admitting her depression to him was the last step she’d needed to put that part of her life behind her and live fully for God.

This was and is to my recollection the only time he attended church. Although we are no longer in contact I am often reminded of this story and it usually comes into my head when I’m about to move out of my comfort zone. It’s amazing the miracles God will perform if you just take that step out in faith.

[life-thought-s]

Breathing.

Breathing is something you do without thinking. It keeps your body and mind alive and relies on the air in the atmosphere being just right.

I’m not a scientist and I’m not going to pretend I know a lot about how the human body works but it dawned on me today that we all take breathing for granted, but if you really think about it, a lot of things have to be in place for it to work, not just in ourselves but also in our environment.

God is a lot like breathing. A lot of us take him for granted, especially when everything is working and going well for us. However when things go wrong that’s when we start to take notice of God a lot more, whether that’s looking to him for support or in some cases for blame.

This thought came to me today and has helped to remind me that just like breathing God has always been in my life, he was from my first breath and will be in my last. Even though he’s always with me I need to make more of an effort to engage and make time for him.

“All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils” (Job 27:3)

[life-thought-s]

Work.

We had someone leave work today. This made me think about just how much time you end up spending with colleagues. More often than not colleagues aren’t people you would normally chose to spend your time with, yet you end up spending most of your adult life with them. Don’t get me wrong, many of my best friends have been past colleagues, I just find it strange that the majority of the time, you have no control over the people you end up spending most of your days with.

I am currently reading a a book on how Christianity deals with work and how God and the Gospel relate to what we do on a daily basis in our places of work. Applying some of these thoughts to the above has made me rethink how I see my relationships in the workplace. If we look at the above with the mindset that you are in your workplace for a reason and so is everyone else then you come to the realisation that you and everyone around you is supposed to be there.

I love this idea that everyone is at your place of work for a reason, if you accept this idea then the relationships you have with people at work start to become meaningful, the way you interact with colleagues changes, and you start to see them, not as random people you are forced to spend time with, but as your family.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.“ (Mark 12:31)