In Comparison

I've been thinking about comparison recently,  so, for example at FNACC (Kids church that I lead), because of my age, I'm' massive', and have developed 'muscles' that, in comparison to them, make me really good at sport. But then, I get to my biblestudy group, and suddenly, I'm clearly the worst player. Like, seriously I'm so unco-ordinated. They're all agile, quick and the like. And then there's me. Ridiculously unco.

A lot of people do this with how 'good' they are. We compare ourselves to each other, (and I'm one of the worst offenders.) I'm always like, 'oh, but its ok, I am way better then that Steve kid. God's clearly gonna accept me because I'm better then him. But then again, Poppy's pretty great, I'll never be as good as her, oh man, I give up.'

As though I could get before the throne of God, and go 'Oh, do you remember that one time I did the dishes without even being asked, and Steve just sat there, see look, I'm WAY better then Steve. Let me into heaven.' a) that is so lame. b) How's that going to work? God doesn't compare us to each other. He compares us to perfection. His son, who never screwed up. How am I going to live up? But thats the great thing about the gospel, God takes the flawed, the weak, the screw-ups and saves them. He doesn't pick and choose the best.

Comparing will get me nowhere.

P.S. Apologies ^^ was written way past my bedtime while my head was seething with thoughts, so when I read over it in the morning, I'll probably realize its like thought vomit. Just saying.

Prove it

Its been a week since Jesus died. Your friends are telling you, nono, he's not dead, we promise. 

'He's alive, we saw him.' You kind of give them an awkward smile, and nod, while inwardly rolling your eyes. Pretending to believe them, you just put up with their story. Finally, when they refuse to stop, probably because they can sense your resentment, you give up. You ask for proof.  Finally ... there is silence.

For those of you who don't know the story of Thomas 'The Doubter,' thats pretty much how it goes. It's been a week since Jesus died, and the disciples have seen him, but Thomas misses out, and when he returns the disciples are all like: '"We have seen the Lord!” But he [Thomas] said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."' (John 20:25)

He wants proof, and in so many ways, I believe the world today is full of mini-Thomas's. They just need proof, then they'll believe. And the same happens to Thomas as happens to many people today; Jesus provides that proof.

Once Jesus appears again, he says 'to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”' (John 20:27) As if thats not enough proof for him.

Jesus does exactly the same to some of the biggest doubters today. Take Lee Strobel - he was an atheist who claimed for  to be 'too smart' for God. But then when he looked deeper into it, the facts astonished him. All of history lined up with Jesus. In his own words he said: 
'I just realized that in light of this torrent of evidence that points so powerfully towards Christianity, it would have required more faith to retain my atheism than to become a Christian. Because to maintain my atheism I would have had to defy the evidence.' 


Now on the other side of thing, Benjamin Franklin said: "To see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." But, when we look at the incredible amount of evidence for Jesus (Lee Strobel's managed to fill a number of books with it, well worth a read), we begin to see how wrong Benjamin Franklin really is.

Ask any reliable, unbiased historian, and I am completely confident that they can tell you Jesus Christ existed, that he taught radical teachings, and it was said he performed miraculous feats. Look up Lee Strobel's story. 

Prove it, you say. It is done. Discover for yourself, the evidence is startling.

To Do List: Learn Contentment

This seems like an overwhelming task, try to learn contentment. The world screams at me that a little is never enough. That bigger is better. And I feel like I'm stuck gasping, breathless, wanting more.

I'm surrounded by hilarious people. And I'm funny. Surrounded by geniuses. And I'm average. Surrounded by musically talented people. And I'm just regaining my voice, too impatient to sit down and learn an instrument. Surrounded by the adventurous, and I'm willing to tentatively step just outside my comfort zone and then excitedly jump back in. I'm surrounded by the humble, and I am so very proud.

It seems like an impossible task, when surrounded by extraordinary people, to be content with just being ordinary.

But I've found something more precious then talent, greater then wisdom, more beautiful then music. I've got God. The guy that created the entire universe, sent his son to live a flawless life and then loved me so much he would watch as nails were hammered through his hands for me. Yea, for me.

You see, the people around me are extraordinary, but my faith is completely extraordinary, extraordinary for a sinner to be completely washed, to be completely loved by the creator of the universe. How crazy is that?? Isn't that something to be content with?

But, how can I learn without being taught, so if you're a Christian, pray that God would teach me to be content with what I've got. Which is massive, bit often feels so little.

I want to be taught to be content with what I've got, even when the world screams to me the opposite.

I want to be content with the creator of the universe willingly going to his death as an act of love for me. That single act of love should make me content, and couple that with the rest of God's love splattered across the pages of the bible, and across the world.

Lasting

Everything in this world is fleeting. Nothing is expected to last. Not jobs, not marriage, not nothing. Should people be changing their weddings to exclude 'til death do we part, to include; 'til you start getting on my nerves, or we have a fight, or I just get a little bored of you?  Things are getting more and more fleeting, and similarly to chaos enhancing my view of the serenity of a tranquil lake. So too fleetingness enhances my view of a stable God. God doesn't change. EVERYTHING in this world comes, and then it goes. Humans, we come for 80 years or so, and then we're gone like a morning mist. Man-made structures, where are they going to be in 10000 years time? Even things in nature, they decompose or, they change. Everything either comes and goes, or stays and changes.

Nothing remains constant but God.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. The day we celebrate the cruel, violent torture and subsequent death of the man Christians praise as our life-giver. What's up with that?

It's easy to get confused as to why Christians celebrate this day. But this is the day of victory for Christians. As one of the ministers at church said, Jesus says 'It is finished.' This is not a cry of defeat, or a cry of relief; like; FINALLY, it's finished, goodbye for 3 days. Its a cry of victory, the sinless savior has died to free the sinful from the chains of sin.

But, I'm still waiting for the most exciting day in the Easter trilogy; the day Jesus ROSE FROM THE DEAD. This is where the real victory kicks in, Jesus has broken the chains of death now. Oh my goodness that is insane. Jesus doesn't stay dead. After he DIED, people would have seen him wandering the streets. How weird would that have been. But he  conquers. Christians no longer have to die if they completely trust him. How CRAZY is that? We no longer have to die. How can you ignore that?

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. - 1 Corinthians 15:31

Extra thought:

Ponder this if you're a Christian, or even if you're not; Jesus, the one that doesn't deserve punishment at all died a very real death. People often have this weird view that it's symbolic of Jesus taking our death, they never say it out loud, but its there. BUT JESUS REALLY DID DIE ONE OF THE MOST EXCRUCIATING DEATHS ... ever and was tortured with on the most brutal instruments of torture, which is probably too brutal to discuss on a public blog such as this. But thank him that he would do that for totally unworthy sinners such as me.

Let Go

Just sitting on the bus, writing down some terrible, but very personal, and deeply emotional lyrics. Finally I arrive at the train station and sit down on the little chair. My friend sees me writing and immediately knows what I'm doing, of COURSE his immediate reaction is to try and get me to show him. I couldn't show him,  I mean they weren't about me, it wasn't about anyone it just felt like my heart on paper, I couldn't show this to him. But minutes later we were discussing raps he wrote, and, intrigued I wanted to see them. I begged him. But, even though it felt like his heart on paper, he would happily hand them over. 

Only now do I see how this is true of all of life for me. All of my personal things (particularly emotions) are kept personal. They're not for the world to see. They're for me to bottle up. Besides emotions are embarrassing. But, I'm quite happy for people to tell me about their emotions. Whats wrong with that picture?? Firstly, bottling does nothing positive. It just gets to the point constantly where I feel like, with my emotions all bottled up, that if someones shakes up this little bottle I created, or even taps it, I will probably explode. And secondly, these people care about me. Especially my Christian brothers and sisters, they care deeply about me. If they care enough to ask, not just out of politeness, but out of love, shouldn't I respond the same. And thirdly and finally, Jesus says I will take your burden from you. My emotions burden me. One of the ways he'll lift it, aside from prayer, is by my brothers and sisters. Sometimes all I need is an ear, and BAM, the burden's gone.

What am I holding to my chest? What do I need to let go of?

Ranking

I was at a primary school reunion today, admittedly - an awkward start, but after a while conversation really started flowing. Then, when the topic of teenage pregnancy came up, one of my friends came out with this: - 'Getting drunk, thats fine, but getting pregnant, thats a little too far.' I was blown away bu the way he thought this one deed was somehow worse then the other. For I know that God views all sin as the same -he hates it ALL. From a 'little white lie' to the violent massacre of thousands. God hates the 'little white lie' just as much as the horrible, bloody massacre of thousands.*

BUT, back to the point I actually want to talk about - I realised I do this all the time. I'm (subconsciously) like 'look, I don't swear or drink, I just lie. And that makes me better.' The words are different, but the motives, at heart, are the same. Its like, I do this, but I don't do that, so I'm alright. NO.

God hates your sin. Be glad that you can be/are forgiven. Be SO glad.

*This is a truth I've learned surprisingly from reading Hosea, listening to John Piper and Val Chan. So know that I didn't just make it up to make you feel bad. Sorry if it's a little intense.

**This was written at a point reaching midnight. Tiredness = severe & potentially makes for a stupid boy. I don't even know if that last sentence made sense.

The View From Outside

Picture this; you're just walking along after grocery shopping, and there's a barefoot teen ahead of you, he's mumbling to himself; a little bit weird. Then he begins to laugh, and you think he must be deranged or something. Then he just strokes his foot on the ground a few times. What a weird child. Yea, that child was me. Let me explain:

Well, to start off with, lets cover this; I don't particularly like wearing shoes. The other day I was walking along, kind of thinking and praying aloud, I realised there was a guy behind me, and being the irrationally-fearful-watched-too-many-CSI-shows type of guy that I am, my mind immediately jumped to a wild conclusion and I was left thinking 'I want my last words to be about Jesus.' And then I realised what I had just thought and began to laugh at myself. After a while a stone got caught in my foot. Yes, IN my foot. So I just rubbed my foot along the ground a couple of times to get it out.

Now, while that may not have been the most interesting story, it does actually have a point. See, to me, what I was doing seemed perfectly logical to me right?? But to him, it just wouldn't have made any sense. Well, I feel as though Christians often seem like the crazy rambling guy (me) in the story. People look into the church, and they hear confusing words & concepts being chucked around like, predestination (the word for God planning out every second of every day,) a perfect God loving an imperfect people, evangelism (telling people about Jesus) and I'm sure there are heaps of others. And the outcome is generally either confusion, or a feeling of exclusion.

Now, people who don't know Jesus, don't be turned off Christianity by Christians.

And Christians; EMPATHISE. Think about how you would be feeling after hearing these words for the first time. And then act on your empathy.

GAH, I really don't feel like I've got my point across very well. But I hope you understand.