Lent 2012

This year over lent I'm following the BRF devotional lent book once more and this year it has been written by Andrew Watson and follows the Israelites journey through the wilderness.  There are many wonderful insights in it and I would like to share one from todays reading which has been thinking about the name of God...I AM WHO I AM...something which I find particularly powerful.

That story of Yahweh's faithfulness and Israel's failings is our story, too, as we humbly take our place in God's great history of salvation.  Many further chapters of that history have been lived and published:  the stories of Joshua and Samuel, of David and the Prophets, of Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, of the Spirit who prompts us to cry out 'Abba, Father', and of the Church that bears his name, each chapter better fleshing out the person of the great I AM in the face of human courage or human fallibility.  Yet there is always more to come...
(pg69, Andrew Watson)

What is there still to come in each of our stories...that's the exciting bit, we don't know, but we can be sure that God does and will always remain faithful, guiding us, leading us along our journey.  No doubt there will be surprises along the way andthe destination may not be what we expected but it'll be a fun, interesting and exciting journey none the less.

What prompts us to serve??

I have been using Oswald Chambers 'My Utmost for His Highest' during my devotion time recently and each day there has been a phrase or a thought or something that has really got me thinking and today was no different. But I thought I would share the particular thought that got me thinking today!!

"It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide."

My thinking around this is not very clear at the moment, so in a sense I am thinking out loud. Where I'm kind of headed with it is a sense of hiding from God in our service to Him...denying our true calling or even blocking it out and instead deciding ourselves where or what we should do to serve - therefore is that for our own ends and not for God's glory. Yet will He use it to make something good come from it - yes?...because He can.

But then on the flipside my mind goes to why would you bother serving if it wasn't ultimately for God's glory - is that where the 'christian emotion' comes in? Knowing the theories, the words to say, what is expected of a christian...and then doing it!!

Here I want to call in a term used by one of my favourite authors - Terry Pratchett in his discworld series. He writes about a group of witches (its purely for escapism and he is very very funny!!) and Granny Weatherwaxes form of magic is 'headology'...not hocus pocus but instead making someone believe something.

Is it a 'headology theology' of service...our head tells us and convinces us this is what we must do so we do it. Instead of a sacrifice that comes from a sense of compassion for others and wanting to share the gospel message...from the heart.

So is it easier to say that what we are doing is for God than actually listening for the small still voice of God to guide us to the task that he wants us to do. Are we looking for the recognition and taking the glory for ourself instead of directing it towards the One whose name in which we work and who deserves the glory? Are we scared to listen because the job we are asked to do will be too difficult...or even...too menial without any recognition?

I'm not sure if any of this makes any sense...I'm not even sure it makes any sense to me...so I'm just throwing it out there!!!


(Just to note, Oswald Chambers is not suggesting that we serve without a sense of call...it was his leading in to a thought on why we serve...to read a version of the full devotion check it out here)

What would you attempt if you knew you wouldn't fail??

I'm not quite sure what we were talking about or how this came up at SAP this week but someone mentioned that little phrase..."what would you attempt if you knew you wouldn't fail?"..It's so true that often we don't step out or attempt to do something because we are scared of our own failure.

There was one thing that came to my mind...which I am not going to reveal!!...and it's something that i've often thought, yeh i'd like to give it a go. So why haven't I? Am I scared what others will think, am i scared of rejection, scared i'll not be good enough, ultimately scared of failure?!!! Or maybe it's not something God has in my future, I guess it's something that needs a little more thought and prayer, all prompted by that little phrase.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13