God is everywhere . . . even Rock Bottom!

Hey guys!

This week I've been really concerntrating on being church-ste even at work.

"Why live two lives?"

Anyhoo, I shared this on sunday morning (so sorry if you've already heard this!), but I was thinking in the week about how cool it would be to work within a christian based job. How much easier it would be to just be who I am (with no come backs).
As I work in a 'secular' job, I sometimes feel a bit alone (cuz of my faith), but after reading my bible I realized how stupid I must sound!

God goes everywhere with me.

So how can my job be secular if God is in it? . . . It can't!

love you x

Ugh!

I feel crappy!

I got some kind of stomache bug/infection thing.

It sux!

I aint blogged for a bit (not my fault!) the computers been all outta whack!

I'm lookin at samuel at the moment in my bible study.

The main aspect of christian life I need to work on is listening to God.

I have no trouble in talking to God, but patiently waiting for and recognizing when He answers is my stumbling block.

How do I know when it's God talking and not just my over-exaggerated imagination?

I think I need to spend some more time in silence with God and give Him the opportunity to speak.

Love you x

Distractions

How come you always start the day with good intentions and then it all goes very very wrong.

Things happen throughout the day and for some reason or another I let God (and/or myself) down.

Even whilst I'm typing this I'm . . .

Thinking about what to have for my tea, wondering if the Pats are gonna beat the Broncos, watching the tv AND talking to Emily on msn!

I'm gonna try and be more focused.

Its like Rob (in tha pod) said the other week, "its time to get serious with God"

love you x

God Glasses

Jonah 4:10-11

In the last post we looked at the importance of staying humble and remembering that we are not gods.

It's ok that we don't always understand why things happen.

It's ok that things don't always look clear to us.

It's ok that we are sometimes unsure of ourselves (and others)

Through Jonah's eyes all that could be seen were the hideous war crimes being commited by those pagan warriors (the Ninevites), but God saw 120, 000 weak human beings in need of help.

From Gods perfect vantage point, things look very different.

Thats it! The end of Jonah.

We don't find out if he finally humbles himself to God.

I hope its helped you half as much as its helped me.

Pete has given us a book on interpreting the bible, so there maybe more studies in the future.

Feel free to let me know what you thought of this whole blog/bible study thing.

Love you X

Leave being God to God

Jonah 4:9

We need to remember our place in the grand scheme of things.

God is God.

God is our Father, not our mate and deffinately not our servant.

God does what God does.

Let Him (He's good at it!)

God confronts Jonah with the question . . . .

"Do you have a right to be angry about the plant?"

God quizzes him with a type of question that all of us could do with hearing from time to time.

"What right do we have to suggest how God works?"

"Who do you think you are?"

When we have question for God, He may be gracious enough to answer - but when we hear no reply, we should still honour God in the same way as if we had heard the answer we were hoping for.

We laid down our rights at the cross.

Don't pick them up again.

Love you X

That's grace for you!

Jonah 4:5-8

Picture the scene;

Sunday morning, 9:45, church.

You sit in a low blue chair with arms, in walks auntie May "thats MY chair, shift!"

You move.

An old brown leather chair at the back of the church, in walks Trevor "You're in MY seat!"

If you did this enough you'd come across some very unhappy people.

In the last post we saw that anger can sometimes be reasonable. But sometimes we get moved or made to feel uncomfortable and this triggers unreasonable rage.

We are all selfish.

It's in human nature (sin)

At first glance it may seem that God is "messing" with Jonah. He gives him the lovely shade of the plant only to take it away again in the form of a worm.

Jonahs joy disappears with the plant.

God's not "messing" with Jonah, He's teaching him a valuable lesson.

There is adouble meaning within this text;

Shade:- relieves Jonahs 'trouble' - which is the same as He did for the city of Nineveh.

However, while Jonah was delighted that his God would do that for him, he was furious that something similar should happen for others, especialy these pagans!

We would all like God to be the instant judge of everyone elses sins but to be gracious and patient with us.

Maybe scorching wind and blazing sun is a reminder to Jonah.

Perhaps this was a taste of the nastiness he had in mind for the Ninevites.

This was so horrific that he (once again) wished for death.

Next time we speak of judgement, lets remember that none of us got what we deserved - that's grace for you!

Love you X