Far too busy?

Recently I’ve been challenged to reflect on whether I fit my life around God or God around my life. It’s been a busy few weeks so I havn’t had a chance to make a really well thought out post in a long while and this week at church the message really struck me.

James spoke on Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). James suggested that the core of discipleship, following Jesus, is to sit and listen to him in obedience. Sometimes, we can busy ourselves doing things that we think are what God wants us to do, but really aren’t.
Mary honestly thought she was doing the right thing, by being hospitable, but the passage says she was too hospitable. Martha did the right thing by stopping and sitting and listening in obedience. As we sung our final song, I felt like I could sing the lyrics from my heart and thought I’d share them with you:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never-ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood. 

 O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Tonight, I have been faced with the need to just stop the business of life and sit in peace with God, and meditate on his word.

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Reflections on Uni

Uni work has really been catching up on me lately so I havn’t had much time to really work on a good post so I thought that I’d just reflect on my Uni experience.

Before I started Uni  I had a few comments from family and friends that “There’s not room for God in Uni, particularly the Sciencey courses I was taking. But to be honest, I’ve found my experience to be the opposite. The more I learn the more I can see the truth of the Bible in real life.

Particularly in Human Biology, I’ve had no previous Bio experience but I have just been blown away by the complexity of us. How intricate and unique humans are. All the safety mechanisms in us and all the tiny little details that make us tick. So I can’t see how it could be possible that we were made by some freak accident, there has to be some intelligent design behind us.

Another thing I came across in Biology that was unbelievably explicitly supportive of my beliefs is how sex should work. Our lecturer was telling us all about STD’s and whatever else results from sleeping around and he said (and I quote)
“If everyone in one generation only slept with one person for their whole lives, there would be no sexually transmitted diseases.”
How can you read that and say that sex is not better Gods way. It shows that things only go wrong if you don’t listen to the way he made life to work. But not only did our lecturer dismiss the idea that any generation would ever volunteer themselves for that but he also outlined how relationships best work (resting on biological proof blah blah blah).

He said. Sex functions as a means to strengthen relationship, even hold it together. Women want faithful partners and men want faithful partners. But since everyone’s goal in life is to pass on their genes the best way to work relationships it to tell your partner you’re only sleeping with them but then to sleep around with lots of people without telling them.

So moving on…another thing I found was in Psychology. We were learning about mental disorders, as you do, and I just became so intrigued by multiple personality disorder. Just to fill you in, it usually develops in children under the age of 7 or 8 to deal with something hugely traumatic in their lives. And they grow up with it.

It’s like having a separate person in you to deal with everything that you just can’t handle because it’s simply too traumatic. Often personalities know each other or sometimes they don’t. They can have relationships, but can be comepletely different, and if you have more than one then they all have a different function. One might be the one that comes out when you need to run away from something.

Anyway, I was talking to one of my friends Mums and she had a friend who had personality disorder, like real bad. Not just a few personalities but like 100 and something.
She was sharing with me how her friend in her childhood was being used by her family in Satanic rituals, which is just awful. Since then she has found Christ but my friends Mum was saying she thinks that the multiple personalities was a gift to her friend.

A special gift that God gave her to deal with things that shouldn’t have been inflicted on her. And for that reason, only certain personalities could remember the awful things that had been done to her and for the most part of her life, she could live in peace.

Facebook: A Christian Perspective

Fakebook?

Tonight at church Mike preached on Facebook, it was a really challenging talk because I’m a frequent facebook user, and I’m sure many of you are too. And not only that but it seems applicable to any sort of social networking, blogging included.

 

I’m just going to give a summary of what I found challenging but the whole sermon will most likely be available here very soon.

 

For starters Mike addressed the dangers of facebook. One that particularly challenged me is the danger of falling into narcissism – of using facebook to promote yourself and to expect that everyone is interested in you. Essentially assuming you are the centre of the world.
I think its something many people do. Facebook has become a place where we can remake our identity, make people think things about ourselves or make us think things about others that just aren’t true. So I was challenged as to whether what I do on facebook is really just about making myself look good.

A good challenge is to talk about others and encourage others instead of talking about yourself.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your interests but to the interests of others.”  

Philippians 2:3-4

So Big Challenge #1

Be authentic about myself on facebook and use it to promote others and not myself.

 

Time Wasting was the next danger Mike addressed. Our society has this dying need to always be contactable, the thought of being disconnected is so strange. Not having phone reception can become catastrophic. The number of times I have checked facebook in the morning before reading my Bible is actually ridiculous.

 

Big Challenge #2

No facebook until I’ve read my Bible.

 

Facebook also poses limitations on relationships. Written words can lack the meanings we mean, we can use it as an online space where we sort out our problems or where we can quickly share our opinions and gossip.
http://www.arewefriends.org/ Check this out. This guy really challenged how facebook has come to redefine what it means to  be friends with someone. Now we distinguish between ‘friends’ and ‘facebook friends’.
It’s important to remember how much more sufficient real face to face physical friendships are, and they should have priority.

 

However, facebook is also a great gift, if used properly. If you use it to relate to people and share with them rather than to just report to ‘your audience’ things about yourself.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men…”

Matthew 5:13-16

Facebook can be used as a unique opportunity to live louder for God.

So often the letters in the NT begin with verses such as these:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.”

Philippians 1:3-4

Facebook could be a useful prayer tool, a means to see what people need praying for. But not only praying for them but letting them know that you are. Mike challenged us to either gradually go through our list of facebook friends and to pray for each of them or maybe to pray for people as their posts come up on your newsfeed.

 

Big Challenge #3

Use Facebook as a prayer tool.