29

In New Zealand 29 miners were killed in an explosion today.


Its so simple to just ride them off as a bunch off numbers, this society does that way too much, but there are 29 smiles, 29 laughs, 29 faces that will remain emblazoned in the minds of 29 mourning families, 29 grieving circles of friends.


I don't want to belittle the trouble of the families of friends but incredible tragedies like this remind me of my mortality on this earth. One day I will die. Its a simple fact.


But, unlike these miners, my death will not be a tragedy. It will be a celebration. For I have hope of life everlasting, Heaven awaits me:



‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Easy

Life is not easy. I live on the North Shore, Sydney. My life is pretty easy. However, even in my perfect little bubble, peoples lives are deteriorating around me. People are getting abused at home. People are getting into substance abuse. People are suicidal. People are dealing with the suicidal. Life is not easy.

I walk into my room every night with my mobile phone. As I turn it on, the tiny amount of light fills the room. The light is minuscule, yet it lights up my whole room.

There's so much darkness in this world. My hope is the light. It sure does light up my whole world.

'Remember my Name'

We want the world to remember our name. We want to go down in history, to see our name 'in flashing lights.' There's no way we will be remembered by our own merit, sure we might be remember for 10, 20, 30 years, but after that? I doubt it. A thousand years into the future I doubt they'll be saying; oh yea that Luke guy, he was pretty great. I even doubt they'll be saying; Rihanna was a massive pop star.There are approximately 9 billion people in the world. Almost all of them want to be remembered. Its not gonna happen. There will be so many names and faces just wiped from memory.

There has been 1 man who is remember by most of the world. He lived 2000 years ago. I think that is so insane. Jesus is still remembered in a world where names are left behind. Jesus is remembered He is still one of the most talked about subjects in the world. He must have done something pretty incredible to still be remembered by almost all of the world. 2 of the largest celebrations are in honour of him. 2000 years on. Still.

Better

I heard someone pray a prayer the other day; 'Dear Lord, Please help me to become a better Christian.'

There is no such thing as a better Christian, you're either saved or you're not. There's no mid point. There's no way you can be 'more saved' then someone else. You're either saved or you're not.

It's hard to put this into words, so lets use this analogy:

If you're falling off a cliff, the outcome of that is that you get dead or someone saves you. You cannot be more saved then someone else. There's no; 'but I got saved better.' And you don't really add to the salvation you just got, do you? Someone else saved you. Same with Jesus, if we continue in our sinful ways. 

This view almost makes me think my friend thinks they can gain salvation. If they just try hard enough they can be deserving of the grace poured out upon them. There is no way. Otherwise it wouldn't be grace, 'an undeserved gift' would it? We would deserve it. But we don't.

Moral Justification

I believe so many people have a thing I call moral justification. Moral justification is like this; justifying sins  for a specific reason. e.g. I can have sex before marriage because God loves me no matter I do right? I can get drunk on weekends because my life really sucks and I need to drown my troubles.  I can lie because if I don't, I'll hurt their feelings.

This is stupid.

This shows that we do not understand the grace given to us. Especially 'God loves me no matter what I do,' which is all too common in the world. This is double wrong and arrogant. Its wrong because, God has incredible love for us, but also incredible right anger against us. Its arrogant because it has an assumption that God is lower then us, and loves us because he has to. He loves us as a servant loves his master. We need to be reminded that we are the servants. God is the master.

All of the views show we don't understand that God has loved us so much that he sent his one and only son to save us, when we understand that, we begin to live for Jesus. We realise he's given incredible sacrifices, we can sacrifice a bit more.


The question begins to arise; am I living for Jesus, every second? Do I understand the grace given to me?

Jesus: The Contradictory Son

Jesus is contradictory to this world's expectations. He doesn't do things by our book or exactly how we would expect.

Jesus, my King, came into this world as a baby. He could have come down with chariots of gold. But he came into this world in a kind of gross way. If you've ever watched the birth videos in science, or in real life, or experienced it you will know that births are not exactly pretty. But Jesus still came into the world like that, not even into a luxurious hospital (or that time's equivalent) but into the place that stinks of animal droppings, that is filled with disgusting, dirty animals. Trust me, it did not look like the nativity scenes depict it; with adorable and perfectly fluffy lambs watching as the shining Jesus is wrapped in pristine white cloths by 'Mother Mary.' It would have been pretty disgusting.

Then Jesus, my King, is mocked constantly. The religious leaders being the ones who, should have bowed down, after waiting for his arrival ALL their lives; they plot his death. They mock him. They try to their very hardest to stump him.

Then Jesus, my King, is put to death, not even by some royal execution, but the lowliest way to die. The criminals death. And he does this for sinners, not even people who will accept it. But people who, no matter how hard they try will always turn their face away. Pretend that they are king. Not very good subjects are we?

And lastly, Jesus, my King, came to serve.  Pretty weird that Jesus, my king, came to serve. He teaches me that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

Jesus should be first, but he puts himself last. We should be last, but Jesus puts us first. This is called servant leadership.

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Jesus was the first to prove this, I want to continue to live this out. Put myself last, and everyone else above me.

The Basics

As a Christian, I tend to simply ignore the basics. And I know a lot of other Christians do the same. But every single word in the bible comes from the same mouth that spoke this world into existence.


These 'basics' that I've heard a thousand times should constantly delight and shake me.


To begin with: Creation.
God spoke some words and everything, every beautiful and wondrous thing I've seen. Every ugly and unloved thing. Every face I've ever seen. Everything was just breathed into existence. 
Isn't that amazing?
But way too many times, I'm like: Yea, so what? God created the world. Heard this story a thousand times.


Now; Crucifixion.
I often just ride this one off.
It is SO extraordinary. My Saviour, my Lord, my God, my Creator died. He died. Whats up with that? As if that isn't insane. He died one of the most excruciating deaths there is. So painful, but everyone seems to just think he died ... so ... tell me next easter.
Its so incredible though, that he would undergo so much pain, for a little race of rebellious humans. He could have just as easily, much more understandably just turned his back on us and walked away ( I know I definitely would have.) But he chooses to go through one of the worst physical deaths, and the worst spiritual tearing apart.


The ressurection: another thing I definetely just ignore.
Jesus DIDN'T stay dead. What? Can you do that?
Jesus DIDN'T stay dead. He became alive again, after being dead for 3 days. God raised him up from the dead, that is the most incredible thing of all. And that through this action, he wiped my incredibly dirty little heart clean. 


God does some crazy stuff that is beyond my understanding. My understanding is tiny. God understands everything. God has a reason for doing things I wouldn't. Saving people I wouldn't. I probably wouldn't 'die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.' But, Jesus dies for me & you ... sinners. Unworthy subjects of his love.

Modesty vs Insecurity

I feel as though Christians draw a fine line in between modesty and insecurity.

Modesty is NOT putting yourself down. A lot of people tend to think that, or they try to act like that in order to feed their pride, so they feel modest and look modest. I often think that to be modest I have to put myself in comparison with God, but this will just lead to depression as God is so holy and perfect, and I am unrighteous (without God's grace.) Comparing myself to God is not modesty, while I feel as though it needs to be done sometimes, it will only make me depressed.

If I was that kind of modest and I was the best runner in the world, what would be the point in saying; oh no, that was a really bad run, God could have done it better. It would be pointless right, God can do everything better then us?

Modesty IS doing everything to bring glory to God. Realising who we are before God and what he has done. Realising we are sinners before Him, realising its HIM who saves us. Not us. Not ourselves. Thats part of modesty, realising that nothing we can do can save us, and bringing all glory to God.

Modesty IS also about honesty, so in my above example, saying  'I'm not that good at running' would be a lie right? We want to say something more like: 'Praise God for this gift I have.'

My thoughts are still in motion.
Stay tuned.

Motives

I've recently been mulling over my motives. Motives for being kind, being generous, being modest, being wise.

In my own heart, I know I am none of the above things on my own. But I love it when everyone else thinks I am. I love it. For example being kind so that everyone is like; he's such a nice guy. Or being wise, so that everyone looks up to me and thinks, oh he's so smart, and he really understands things. Those motives are all wrong.

While being kind and generous and modest and wise, are not bad things, its more about how & why I do them. If I do them so people look at me, and I redirect them to God, to bring glory to God, then I think thats good. But I don't do it. My life should be about bringing about glory to God, but I'm selfish and I want the glory.

I also recently had to think about why I was a Christian, I was challenged by 1 Peter 3:15 - 'Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have.' What was my answer? To gain this prize, this kingdom that I will receive, I mean who cares about this world, when I get the better one? I often forget that 'the whole duty of man is to serve God' - Ecclesiastes 12:13. Not to greedily await his day. I should await his day, with mounting excitement, not greed.

The WHOLE duty, not just when I'm around Christian friends, or when its easy, or when it makes me look good. It is my WHOLE duty to serve God. In EVERYTHING I do.

Significant

I find my significance and my worth in Christ. I am completely satisfied.

However, from my own experience, this world does not, they find no worth in themselves. They will never be satisfied by anything this world can offer.

I was just watching Glee (don't ask why) and a guy with, in the worlds view, the perfect body. He had muscles everywhere. He had beach blond hair. And yet he walks up to the mirror, looks at his body and grabs the tiniest bit of fat, and is so disappointed. He is unsatisfied with his body, even though it is 'perfect.'

I also feel as though, because of our insecurities; we try to make ourselves appear flawless, so that everyone else thinks we're perfect. So that we feel perfect. We turn our houses into galleries; spotless and beautiful. We try so hard to look perfect. We try so hard not to slip up in anything, and when we do, we explain it away with some silly excuse; 'Oh, sorry guys, I'm really tired today.' We try so hard to look our best, to impress everyone, but as I already said, it feels fruitless, we will never be satisfied with anything of this world. Not even ourselves.

But ...

I believe we were made to be unsatisfied by everything in this world.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis

I was made for Heaven.

Creation

I am constantly reminded that there is no way in which this world could have formed randomly. 

How is it possible for this world, so beautiful and intricate to have formed randomly, just out of the blue? I often wonder at how a birds wings can even flap. How a heart can beat. How the brains ticks. Or how the human body even works so well, it's so wonderful and harmonious; everything works so incredibly well together. The heart and the brain are SO incredible. The heart, this little thing inside my body pumps blood to the rest of my body, and keeps it functioning. Now, the brain, don't even get me started on the brain. The brain sends out all these messages to our bodies that make us do EVERYTHING. It also stores all of our memories and EVERYTHING. So insane.

I don't believe that could have possibly happened by random. I believe that someone created. And that someone was God.