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The curse of the restrictive but
On the 31st October 1517 a young revolutionary climbed up the steep steps of a church in the small German town of Wittenberg. The busy square full of locals going about their daily business unaware of the history about to be made. With each step the young Martins breathing became heavier, a combination of adrenaline and nerves as he drew closer to his goal. As he reaches the half way point it begins to rain heavily. The square empties, the clouds thicken, wind bellows, lightning fills the sky, the heavens make themselves known. With his sodden clothes clinging to him and water dripping from his bearded face he reaches the door. Lifting a hammer and a piece of paper out of his pocket he holds them aloft, lightening fills the sky and in unison with the crack of thunder the bang of hammer on nail send an echo of protest through the corridors of history....................Well thats the way most history books with a protestant bias like to put it.
Tags: Christianity, Faith
Life in authority
A couple of weeks ago, Gillian & I spoke together in Citygroup about Living in the fullness of Christ’s authority. These are a few of the thoughts that I shared that morning. I don’t know that I have any great insights, but hopefully something here might be useful to you, and might spark some discussion. There are two key things that I was considering: 1. What happens to us when we submit to God’s authority? 2. What happens around us when we step into the authority that we have through Christ?
Tags: Community, Faith, Leadership
What love
Every now and again I have words in my head that buzz around and prevent me from doing whatever I'm meant to be doing. Lately it's been at a late (or early - depending upon how you look at it!) hour of the morning. I thought I'd share one of these set of words with you.
Sometimes in journeys
So why did you move here? Is a common question people ask us. Referring to my husband’s post 7 weeks that changed my life...that was our quick call and move to Belfast. Before we came we spoke to friends and church leaders who prayed for us and gave us some good advice. One person particularly said, “sometimes in journeys and doing God’s will it can be a smooth transition, but more often than not their are trials, a wall is placed up in front of you. You need to be sure that you have God’s calling to go otherwise when difficult situation arise you will find it even more difficult to get through them and give up. “
Impossible is nothing
Most of us are all familiar with Murphy’s Law – it says, “If anything can go wrong, it will”. If you wash your car on a Saturday morning its most likely to rain that evening. If you go to bed then it’s surely going to happen - the phone will ring and you will have to get out of bed. If you get the engineer out to your troubled washing machine, as sure as anything it will begin to run perfectly as soon as he arrives. When things are going well, something will always go wrong – just wait and see it will happen. When things can’t get any worse, they surely will. Anytime things seem to be going better, it’s just because you have overlooked something. The very fact that things are going well manages to even convince you that something is wrong. Do you ever feel like that?
A road worth travelling
The first autobiographical book I ever read was Corrie Ten Boom’s ‘The Hiding Place’. I was about 15, and I got a lot more than I had bargained for. Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Jews living in Holland during the Second World War. They spent several years living in a cramped hideout in their home, helping many other Jews to hide and escape. Eventually, in 1944, they were discovered, and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, where both Corrie’s father and her sister Betsie died. Corrie’s faith in God remained strong; when she was eventually released, she became an evangelist, and travelled extensively, talking about God’s love and his forgiveness. Probably the most well known part of Corrie’s story is one of forgiveness on an almost unimaginable level, when Corrie came face to face with a former concentration camp guard; one who had not only witnessed, but been part of, the pain and humiliation she and her sister had suffered. I’ll let Corrie tell the story.
Tags: Faith, Life, Made me think, Pain, Suffering
my life is a constant transition…..
my life is in constant transition and i've been told that it will never stop. every once in awhile you feel like you've 'arrived'. but you haven't. don't be fooled. you're just on to the next thing. i've been back in Belfast for about a month now. i had the best time being home in Canada, which i find shocking because i honestly didn't expect it to be. but it was awesome, so awesome that i almost didn't come back, but a lack of purpose and God's direction brought me back, oh and all you lovely people! (i really wish everyone i loved would be in one place, or that flights would be cheaper so i could go home more often) the first few days back were great, except that a few key people in my Belfast life were in Spain, or Africa or just away, so i was a bit lonely for a while there. thankfully some people that i am still getting to know really came through and it made transitioning back easier. i naively didn't think that i would have to transition back to life here, but everything and nothing changed while i as gone. now that i've accepted all this transitioning and have a support system of people when i need it i'm 'on to the next thing'. ........
Tags: Christianity, Faith, Finances, Life
The Doctrine of Chubbhander
It feels like something is happening within Christianity right now. A groundswell of the dissatisfied within the Church is rising during our generation, a gathering of Christians eager to question and stretch our faith in order to save it and breathe life back into it. (Phyllis Tickle and others have labelled this “The Great Emergence” - It’s too early to tell if this name will catch on but, if it does, you heard it here first!) The most refreshing thing about this movement is that it feels ok to voice concerns about some aspects of Christianity which have been handed down to us but which don’t feel in sync with Jesus, who He was and what His priorities were. Where in previous generations questioners or doubters may have been labelled troublemakers or heretics, now there is room in many churches for people to be able to say,”I have problems with this. I don’t understand where this has come from. Does anyone else have problems with this? Let’s talk it through.”
Tags: Christianity, Faith, Life, Made me think
The times, they are a-changin’
I like Friday afternoons in work. My colleagues are a little more disciplined than I am through the week, and come in early every day, building up enough hours to let them take a half day on Friday. I am not so good at doing that, so inevitably I end up spending Friday afternoon in the office by myself, putting in the time. We have been listening to Cool FM (local radio station and thorn in my flesh) all week, and my head is mashed with the sounds of Basshunter, Cheryl Cole, and other such non-musical geniuses. But my colleagues have just left, I made coffee, switched off the radio, and pressed play on the CD player. I am now listening to the graceful, never-gets-old sound of the master himself, Bob Dylan. The first track on my disc is ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’; there is something about his voice, the questioning of the lyrics, the quiet rhythm of the guitar, that just instantly makes me feel calm, relaxed, happy. Bob Dylan makes me smile.
Tags: Church, Faith, Music, Relationship
We are nothing unless We are everything
It's the way it all goes down in Luke part 2. The acts the Apostles do see a dynamic community established. The new followers first response is to be an everything people. Everything for everyone, in no small amount. You need it and I’ve got it? Then you can have it. You are poor and I am less poor? Then I will choose to become poorer so you can become richer. My home is your home, your home is my home, lets share a meal of bread and wine.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Church planting, Community, Faith
To infinity and beyond
I was loosing some hours on youtube.com last night when I came across a series of video's from Louie Giglio - his name rang a bell. I remember a few people mentioning his name but couldn't remember why so thought I'd sceptically start watching 'Indescribeable'. For the past few weeks I've found it hard to concentrate on things but I couldn't stop watching this - it caught the whole of my attention.
Tags: Faith, Glory, Made me think
The everything
Why do we have such hang-ups about talking money? One thing is certain – Jesus didn’t! Jesus talks about money more times than anything else – except the Kingdom of God. There are more references to money in Jesus’ teaching than there is to Heaven and hell combined. Over half the parables Jesus tells are actually about money and stewardship. There are 2350 verses on money in the Scriptures: 1 in every 6 verses in the Gospels has to do with stewardship.