Yet another Fresh Start…

For the past two years I’ve ended the year and started the new year on beach mission, finishing and beginning with actively proclaiming the word. Mission is a great opportunity that I would encourage you to embrace. This year it really reminded me of the urgency with which I should be telling others what I live for and the hope it offers them too, particularly those close to me.

Living for 2 weeks amongst an amazingly encouraging group of people, determined to serve and build each other up was a truly a taste of heaven. We spent solid time in the Bible and in prayer, learning and growing together.

As we built relationships with the community in the van park, I was really struck by how little they knew about what Christ did for them! Having grown up in a Christian family, I think I grew accustomed to some dangerous assumptions. To me it is by Christ that “all things were created…..and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17. It just struck me that this is so foundational to reality that everyone should know it too! It is Christ who made peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:20). Not only is Christ creator and sustainer but also Saviour.

A few people that I got to know over mission had lost faith because of suffering that they couldn’t make sense of, which is something that I haven’t really yet faced. It reminded me of the brokenness of the world now and the perfection of the life to come, promised only in Christ. Giving up on Jesus in times of suffering is not the right response, because it is in him that we have hope for a time when it will no longer be there. Suffering is a reminder that the world isn’t right, but as a believer I “rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-8. So I’ll keep those people in my prayers, that as they come across these struggles that they’ll come to find satisfaction in Christ.

Another thing I was challenged by on mission was the idea of glory now or glory later. That in “whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord.” Colossians 3:23-24. I’m so conscious of other people and what they think of me, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of a selfish attitude of self glorification. Over mission I was struck by how our team worked so hard to serve each other, not for their own glory, but purely out of love and a desire to serve God.

So there’s my super quick ramblings on what I learnt over mission. As much as people think they can just make “a fresh start” at the beginning of every year, the only true fresh start comes when you give up your old self and take on a new identity in Christ (Colossians 2). I hope and pray that my year will be one of transformation as Christ continues to teach me his ways and I continue to entrust myself to him.

Life, Death and Everything in Between so far…

I’ve just come back from serving a church alongside a group of students from uni. During those few days, a number of us shared how they came to know Christ and how God has been working in their lives. It made me realise the value of testimonies to reveal the power of God in your life. I’ve never really thought about my testimony, and when one of the team members asked me about it I decided it would be valuable if I had a go at it. Most people when presenting their testimony centre it around a certain period in their life but I’m just going to give it a go.

To begin with I think I’ve always been a Christian, I grew up in a Christian family and many of my extended family are also believers. There has not been a moment when I would deny having faith. I asked my Mum this morning if she remembers if there was a time in my childhood when I came to trust Jesus. She said that as early as three years old I told her I was friends with Jesus. So my story is one of periods of growth rather than massive leaps in understanding.

Through my early days Jesus Christ was my friend, I learnt about him and I prayed to him. I understood him as my protector and someone who loved me. My father had a significant role in the youth group programs at our church so I tagged along and hung out with the big kids, some of which I’ve run into in recent years. We moved when I was about 5 so I could start at a Christian school. At this stage I ignorantly assumed that everyone knew Jesus and I distinctly remember being confused that one of my friends in my class didn’t believe in God.

Moving into high school I was confident in my faith. I changed into the public system and confronted many things I hadn’t really been aware of before. Most of my friends had broken families, some had alcoholic parents. God really used me in these early days, I started high school without any friends and as I made them I brought them along to youth. I have to admit I invited them partly because there were few people in my age group but now I can see the transformations God has made in these people. I became so confident in my faith that I started inviting people to church that I would normally never speak to. In Christian Education classes I had noticed some of the ‘popular’ girls were asking hugely profound questions so I gave them John Dickson books and invited them to youth, although none of them came I prayed that they’d read the books.

As I reached mid high school, I was on fire for God. I revelled in his word and often shared it with others. I read it with people at school in recess times and prayed with people when they struggled. When my friends, even non-Christians, faced issues such as abortion and family struggles they’d come to me and ask me what my God said about it. I prayed for them.

When I was in year 10, I was at a stage where I felt most stable and established in life. I was getting amazing marks, I had a great group of friends, I had just been elected into the prefect team for the following year. Life was going amazingly. I was counting down the days to my 16th, when reality reared its ugly head.

I remember distinctly sitting in a meeting about our prefect induction, I was totally pumped about my birthday that weekend when my friend turns to me and tells me the news. All morning people had been talking about a car accident a few suburbs over, but she told me that it was one of my friends from primary school that had died in it. At 15, I had confronted death before, but only that of my grandparents which in a sense is more natural. It was one of those surreal moments when the news became a reality. So often i would let these tragedies just roll
over me but now when i hear them. i think of the effect this had on her family and friends and I pray for those affected.
This was someone who was the same age as me, who I knew, who I had grown up with and was just like me, I had learnt to ski with her and holidayed with her. She was someone who trusted Jesus just like I did.

I spent the rest of the week struggling with the injustice and the fragility of life. I was confronted with the concept that all the plans I had for my life could be thwarted just as easily. Her family all followed Christ, she had followed Christ, so why did she die? I didn’t go to school but instead I searched through my Bible and read every passage on death and eternal life. And one that stayed with me and I meditated on for hours was Job 1:21:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

may the name of the Lord be praised.”

I came not just to know but to deeply understand what was valuable in life. The life I had built up around me and the achievements I placed value in meant nothing in comparison to the eternal value of salvation in Christ. The death of my friend brought to light all the things I took for granted and the fragility of life on earth but also it revealed what is important in life. Every year on the day that she died, my best friend and I pray together and thank God for her and what He has taught us and we praise Him for what he has blessed us with. It’s a constant reminder that I’m not in control of my life but He is. That by his grace I am alive in this world and I should use that life to glorify Him instead of building up my own empire.

As I entered my senior years I was well aware of my desires to do really well and set a goal to keep going to youth, Bible Study and church regardless of how stressed I felt. The HSC year was one of the hardest for me. I’m one of those people that places pressure on themselves to get high grades, so when teachers started using their scare tactics it lead to a number of emotional breakdowns. During that year, my relationship with God fell into a routine that fit in between my study, instead of being the centre of my life, it became the peripheral that calmed my breakdowns.

When I reached the end of the HSC I realised how I had compartmentalised God. He was still a part of my life but I didn’t entirely trust him with everything, and I had been seeking approval and respect from my peers through my grades. I started to struggle with bouts of guilt which plagued me throughout my first year of uni as well. During this time I was really challenged by Pauls attitude in Philippians:

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Philippians 3:7-9

I noticed how my Bible readings had become shallow and so I started this blog, where I planned to post things that forced me to reflect on the word of God. The funny thing is, I started this blog with selfish intentions – to enrich my personal relationship with God, to feel that fire I had in my early years of high school. It was about satisfying myself. But then, a friend of mine started asking me questions about my beliefs, I began the “Itching Questions” tab for him. And as he questioned me, I had to do research of my own and I came to learn and understand that my purpose in life was not to merely satisfy myself, but to find that satisfaction by seeking to glorify Jesus Christ and through that I would find fulfillment and all that I needed.

Late last year, my Nonna grew very ill. She had a heart attack and miraculously survived but still with great suffering. She was a faithful follower of Jesus but a hater of the medical industry. She refused to get help so as a family we took turns looking after her. During that time, I prayed really hard and often for her. She was someone I really loved and respected, she had always seemed strong and invincible to the extent that her heart attack at 92 came as a surprise.

For months, all my aunties and uncles took turns babysitting her. She often had difficulty sleeping and would often wake up crying out to God to stop her suffering. It was a great time of tension and conflict with many family disagreements and regrets. Just when she was looking better she had her second heart attack early this year. I spent many hours by her hospital bed. I read her Psalms and sometimes we’d sing her hymns. She moved in and out of consciousness. Even through these times she cared more for her kids and grandchildren than herself. She would asked me if I was hungry or wanted something to drink even if the breathes it took to say the words caused her pain and energy. In her struggles I was shown a woman who through her own suffering, continued to be self-sacrificial, placing the well-being of others before her own even on her death bed.

As her hours grew short, we were given a private room. Most of the extended family were there – and there’s a lot of us – a classic Italian family. Each of us were permitted to speak our last words to her alone. It is one of the most vivid memories of my life, trying to form the words to say what she meant to me. Instead, I held her hand and watched her short breathes, praising God for blessing this world with such an amazing woman and prayed that I could learn her self-sacrificial ways. Her death came as a comfort for me, because she loved Christ and her life was given to serve him. It is amazing the comfort in death Christians can have even to the extent that Paul struggled to choose between which was better, life or death:

“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
Philippians 1:21-24

Heading to University was the next stage and joining the Christian group there has lead me to realise that I had placed God in a grid and as I read his word I squished, twisted and folded it to fit what I wanted it to say. This year as I reflect on what I’ve learnt, I realise that the people I have met have challenged me to read God’s word for what it has to say, not what I want it to say.

After the conference I attended just a few days ago, Rory Shiner forced me to come head to head with my bouts of guilt. I had been struggling with the idea that I continually fail and don’t deserve God’s grace. I had fallen into the trap of trying to deal with these things thinking that it would make Christ accept me.

Rory preached from Romans 6:15-23. I realised that in Christ I am no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness. I had been freed from sin, but I had become the slave that still responds to her old master even though sin no longer owns me. Christ bought me at a price and freed me from sin so I no longer have to respond to it. Such a burden off my shoulders! So there’s a brief rendition of my testimony, I hope you are encouraged by the way God has worked in my life and I encourage you to think about your own testimony too.

Grace

I’ve just started getting into Judges in the old testament and I’ve just been struck by how endless Gods forgiveness is.

Here’s the background story: God created the world for us to live in, giving us minimal requirements and we screwed up. Instead of just leaving us there, in our own mess, he decided to intervene and clean it up. Even from here it is clear that grace is not reserved for good people; it instead underscores the goodness of God.
So God makes contact, with Israel, one thing I’ve really noted here is that God didn’t give them a list of rules and say, if you sign here, here and here, I’ll help you out. He made contact, made a relationship before he told them what the rules were. They are there to confirm an existing relationship. Essentially, the law is there to show our sin.

So here we are, God with a nation that he’s initiated a relationship with and shown them the sin manifest in them. In Judges 1, The Israelites are finally seeing Gods promise of conquering and then owning the “Promised Land”. Now the conditions here were along the lines of, God will help them, if they keep submitting to him.

Sadly, the nature of humans kicks in and once they got their hands on the prize they began to indulge in whatever they wanted. They forget God and revel in their surroundings. So God no longer ‘protected them’. What’s happened is that now that they’ve got their side of the deal, they don’t think they need it anymore. They start worshipping other gods. You might think that’s ok, but just look up the methods used to worship Baal and Asherahs – I’m pretty sure they involve orgies and copulation with animals and possibly also child sacrifice. So not only are they rejecting the one and only God who saved them out of his kindness and blessed them, but they’re doing all these detestable things along the way.

As God lets their enemies overwhelm them “they cried out to the Lord, [and] he raised up a deliverer” (Judges 3:9)…”For the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them” (Judges 2:18). “But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than their fathers….they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways” (Judges 2:19).

Just flicking through Judges, God sent over 10 judges to save Israel and as each one died they “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” and he gave them what they wanted, the experience of doing life yourself. They then would cry out to him and he’d give them another judge to get them out of their mess. Then the judge died, and the cycle continued.

That bottomless grace is just phenomenal, completely undeserved forgiveness and compassion. And it’s the same grace that God holds out to us in Jesus, you’re welcome to have it whenever you like, it’s always available, always free. Always undeserved.

Faith

Faith By Leonid Afremov

 

Faith is living and unshakeable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand death’s for it’s sake. This kind of confidence in God’s grace, this sort of knowledge of it, makes us joyful, high spirited, and eager in our relations with God and with all humanity. This is what the Holy Spirit effects through faith. Hence a man of faith, without being driven, willingly and gladly seeks to do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of hardships, for the sake of the love and glory of God who has shown his grace.

Martin Luther.

Just Because You Can’t See It, Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t There.

I was listening to this sermon this morning and I had one of those moments when you realise how big something really is. It’s like looking at a picture of the Earth in comparison to the biggest celestial object and thinking, there’s nothing I can do to control what happens to the earth. If we were to be swallowed by a black hole, I’d be helpless to stop it.

It’s almost like the approach we have to death. We pretend that we have some sort of control over it, that we have plans for when it comes and when it doesn’t. But the reality of it is. We don’t. It’s not just heaven or nothing on the line here. Hell is not just a tap on the hand and a shake of the head. It’s an eternal physical, mental, spiritual torment. Eternal. Hell is everything God is not. Think of everything good in the world and now imagine it gone. Someone once described it to me like being in a pitch black room. You know that tension you get of not knowing where things are, what’s going on. It’s eternal darkness, plus pain.

The only reason any of us is here, is because of God’s sovereign mercy. The thing is, we don’t deserve it. We live in his world, indulging in ourselves, ignoring him, destroying his creation, seeking after meaningless and fleeting things when really he deserves our attention. We have no right to think that when we get to the end, we can just smile at Him sweetly and say please, and lay out all that we’ve collected and expect Him to be impressed.

If we don’t acknowledge or show interest in the mediator, Jesus, God has no obligation to let us in. Doesn’t that frighten you. Maybe not, think about it this way.

We don’t deserve heaven. We are already under the sentence of eternal death. Damnation doesn’t sleep, it’s real and waiting. Corruption is at the heart of man. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean we should feel far from it. Just because we think we can get ourselves out of it when the time comes doesn’t mean we preserve ourselves, even for a moment. All your efforts to escape it are useless. God has no obligation to do anything about it. Any chance that you are given is out of God’s mere pleasure.

In the end, your ‘safety’ measures amount to nothing. When you stand in front of the creator, when your life has ended, it doesn’t matter if you donated to charity. It doesn’t matter if you provided for your family. Were faithful to your spouse. Always apologised. Were successful in your field. Were generous, and loving, or attending church regularly. If you always prayed before eating. If you don’t acknowledge Jesus, God’s merciful and completely undeserved offer of forgiveness, God will let go of that sovereign thread and without mercy let you fall into the depths of eternal suffering.

Think about it. Seriously.

What struck me about this was: if this is such a massive deal, I need to live like it is. I can’t keep living like this eternal judgement is non-existent just because I can’t see it. I need to use my youth to the best of my ability, to live out the implications that come from such a situation.

Resurrecting Church

If you ask someone what a Christian believes, almost anyone could answer you.

But ask the same people what a Christian life looks like and almost none could answer.

Jesus life on Earth was revolutionary, magnetic and controversial. He spent time with a huge diversity of people and lived a life in direct opposition to the current culture.

As followers of Jesus, our lives should come across as just as revolutionary. Our churches should be a magnetic community of hospitality, generosity, support, discipleship, peace and joy. We need to let God transform us and not be afraid to walk against the flow of culture and start seeing and living the world through God’s perspective.

Remembrance

Spurgeon: the Remembrance of Christ.

Forgetting Christ: a fault in us all – we forget him because we are still sinful and because the things of the world are so near and heaven is so far.

Remember his person: we may not have had the experience of knowing Christ in person but we know him in spirit. Just as the apostles did, we should remember the life he suffered for us.

Benefits of remembering: Remembering Christ gives you hope in struggles with sin or when being persecuted for Him. In the face of death and judgement remembering Christ turns despair into joy – you are going to meet your God.

Aids to memory: The Lords supper should be a time of remembering what Christ has done for you. The Holy Spirit and God’s word, the Bible, are also aids for remembering Christ.

 

 

The Furious Love of Jesus

John 11:32-44

Christ has found his friend Lazarus dead and whose sisters, Mary and Martha say to him the same thing: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” v21 and 32. But what this sermon focussed on was the contrast between Jesus’ response to them despite their same questions. And this demonstrates that he is both man and God.

To Martha, he gives confident answers because he knows there is a solution and hope, because he is God. To Mary, he enters into her tears and weeps, because he is a man.

Tim Keller Pointed out that this passage also demonstrates a conservative and liberal approach to life. Conservatives loving answers but not tears, they’re fixers. Liberals loving tears but not confronting people with truth. But neither of these are Jesus, he is both.

He also pointed out that in v33 and 38, the greek for deeply moved refers to a more ‘snorting and bellowing in rage’ and reflects that of a champion approaching his enemy (as Jesus approaches the tomb). He doesn’t just weep for Lazarus, but he weeps for all mankind that have to experience death and stand at coffins.

So not only does it demonstrate how we are to approach life, not just with answers or with emotions but with both, but it also shows what Jesus came to do. He came to defeat our enemy for us because we were helpless to do it on our own.

 

 

 

The Heart of the Problem

So I’ve started the 60in60 challenge, yeah it’s late I know, but I thought I’d just do a quick post every now and then on what I get out of the sermons. All sermons, for each day are available for download here.

Day 1 – The Heart: Mark Driscoll

Why do we sin?

• Because our heart is riddled with sin. Religious people tend to think that they are pure and the world is evil. But Christians think differently, are hearts are evil and so too, then, is the world.

What can we do about it?

• Behaviour Modification: you can change how you act but it doesn’t really fix the root of the problem.
• Regeneration: Other religions are all about behaviour modification, but Christians are all on about getting a new heart.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees.” Ezekial 36:26-27

Christianity isn’t about dealing with issues by changing how you behave and fulfilling certain laws. It’s about getting a replacement heart, so you can start afresh and find joy and desire in living life the way it’s meant to be lived.

One Life. Don’t Waste It.

Last night I was at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney with 10, 000 other people getting my world turned upside down by God’s word. Before I reflect, I recommend that if you missed out and have $4 to spare that you go here and buy the mp3 of the talks so your perception of life and purpose can be radically challenged too. Otherwise, continue reading.

Piper began his talk with Luke 13:1-5…

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Saloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish.”

Now in the place of those tragedies, place a more recent tragedy, say a tsunami or 9/11. These people are asking Jesus, why do these people suffer or die in these unjust ways? What did they do to deserve this? It’s the classic cry out to God when there’s pain. If there was a God, and he cared, why is there this suffering?

Then Piper turned it around, why don’t we thank God for everything good? Why do we only seem to recognise his presence when stuff goes wrong. Now look at Jesus’ answer to their cry: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Think of it this way, we’ve rejected the divine creator, and since our God is just, that means we deserve no less than hell.  So really, God can do us no wrong. We shouldn’t assume a suffering free life, but rather the opposite. Every moment, every breathe is a blessing, a blessing we don’t deserve. So if you flip it, be grateful it wasn’t you in that tragedy, it could’ve been, but you’ve been given more time. If you can’t even assume your next breathe, how do you make the most of the time you have?

“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  James 4:14

You get one chance, one life and then judgement. It’s that final. You need to feel and consider the weight of the choice. Jesus has said “Unless you repent, you too will perish”. The unwasted life is the repented life. It’s the life that sees that God has made a way out through Jesus and so puts Jesus on display in everything that you do.

When you look around, the general understanding of the unwasted life seems to be: the accumulation of stuff. But will that stuff comfort you on your deathbed? Or would you feel more confident in death if you knew that the suffering of this world was gone and you have done what you can to make your life contribute to the glory of the new life you are entering into.

“Only one life, it will soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Christians have this weird way of seeing life and death:

“I eagerly expect and hope that i will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life, or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”

Philippians 1:20-21

The unwasted life (and death) is one that is the telescope for others to see God through. The fact of the matter is, you can’t ignore God and be ok. It’s such a final decision, there’s no fence sitting, it’s an acceptance or a rejection. You don’t want to get to heaven and think “If I knew it was going to be like this, I would’ve invested more.”

If life and death are given to us as a means of displaying the supreme value of Jesus,  Why do Christians still suffer? Why doesn’t God bless them in every way so that everyone can see that being a follower of Christ means a better life? Check this out:

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Our weaknesses as well as our blessings are a means to glorify God. To show contentment in trial, persecution, difficulties because we know that this is only for this short life, is more of a testament of Christ’s power than if our lives were perfection.

I’ll leave it there for now. At the conference they encouraged us to share our resolutions, in light of a message this radical, one needs to reflect on the changes they should make in their lives. To help out here is a website where they can suggest some resolutions or you can add your own and they email you a reminder to see how you’re going.

More.

What do you want more of?

For the past two weeks a number of uni’s, including mine, ran a mission on campus. The theme was more, basically Jesus came and said ” I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). So the focus of the mission was to look at how what we desire and want more of is actually available at it’s best through Christ. I thought I’d give a little summary of the talks that I was able to go to.

 MORE Sex.

Our society has managed to separate God and sex, portraying him as essentially the ‘fun-police’. But when God created man he in fact commanded them to have sex – and to “fill the world”.

Our societies approach to sex is an individualistic one whereas God’s is a relational. Our world sees it as self satisfaction, regardless of the other person. God intends marriage to be a reflection of Christ’s relationship with the church, commitment, service and unconditional love.

MORE Justice.

Our world is messed up. Just take a read of Ecclesiastes to see that the recognition of the broken state of the world is not a new thing. So why doesn’t someone do something? (Essentially, there is only so much we can do)

Why doesn’t God do something? But then the question arrises as to how far you would want God to go if he were to bring justice. What criteria for justice would you have to place down to exclude all the wrong things you’ve done but include everyone else. The reality is, is that no one could stand through judgement.

So as we cry for justice, we should also cry for mercy. And  in this God has heard our cry and provided a way out, despite that we don’t deserve it. Christ underwent our judgement so that we didn’t have to. So why are we still waiting? Well God’s giving us time to come back to him.

MORE Stuff.

People tend to create an image of a God that would feel at home in Soviet Russia, a hater of luxury or wealth, or even all the good things in life.

John 2:1-10. After running out of wine the party starts to fall apart but Jesus revives it by creating 700L of wine. (Which our speaker calculated to be the equivalent of 26, 000 standard drinks). God loves to see us enjoy ourselves.

BUT God does have reservations. HOWEVER, these reservations are the same we generally have. He doesn’t like it when we take the good stuff and use it all selfishly (Amos 5:11-12). God doesn’t like it when we receive these things ungratefully, so taking all the good things but ignoring the giver. Neither does he like us using these things blindly (Amos 9:13-15).

MORE Happiness.

The general trajectory of society is towards to new, towards breaking out of routine and being revived by the new, I guess receiving a sort of ‘happy hit’ to make us really feel alive. I’m sure you know the feeling I’m referring to. But no matter what, that feeling leaves us and we go searching for it again.

But, Jesus is the living one and the life giving one. Humans are born, live and then die. But Christ always was and is. Humans all became but through Christ everything became. Jesus isn’t just a religious guru but he’s the living Son of  God, through which all things were made, he not only offers life, but eternal life. Eternal meaning and happiness and life to the full. (Check out Colossians 1:15-23)

So essentially that thing that’s missing, that you keep trying to replace with “happy hits”. Well that’s where knowing the God who made us is meant to fit.

So I’ve just given a really brief overview of some of the answers to life’s desires that were given. If you find any particularly unanswered or want to know more there is the Itching Questions (and suggestions) tab. Also I’m working on a post called “What would Jesus say in a gay bar on Oxford St?” (and I’m gonna admit stealing the title from a sermon outline), so watch this space.