The Church or the Kingdom ?

"The church gets into trouble whenever it thinks it is in the church business rather than the kingdom business. In the church business people are concerned with church activities, religious behaviour and spiritual things. In the kingdom business, people are concerned with kingdom activities, all human behaviour and everything which God has made, visible and invisible. Church people think how to get people into the church, kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church, kingdom people work to see the church change the world."

(Howard Snyder - Liberating the church)

The main thing we need to learn is that the church is not here for me. It has a greater job - it is here for the release of the kingdom.

Our obsession with whether we like the music, the colour they paint the walls, the preaching style, the type of tea bags we use fade into irrelevance.

The church is not here to serve me.

I am here to serve God.

My Glorious

"God is bigger than the air I breathe,

the world will see

That God will save the day,

and the world will say,

My Glorious,

My Glorious."

I was listening to Delirious this morning while I was getting ready for work. This song came on (a live version) and it totally rocked! I dont know if any of you guys have heard it, but its way cool.

It put me in the right frame of mind for the rest of the day. I think I'm gonna listen to it tomorrow morning too!

In my bible study the last couple of days I have been looking at the relationship between Barnabas and Saul (Paul), well . . . the decline of their relationship. The fall out and eventual split of these two guys was a trival matter of who they should have as an apprentice. Although this turn of events looked to be a bad thing, God (yet again!) had His hand on the situation and their split resulted in double the receivers of the Good News.

So, I guess that the lesson to be learned from this is . . . Just because something seems to be going wrong in our eyes, doesnt necessarily mean that its going wrong in God's plan.

Laters

From Russia with love

Hey guys and dolls,
Things are really starting to fall into place for russia.
Here are a few things I was worried about . . .
* Leaving J behind (it now looks like she will be doing youth work at spring harvest!)
* No passport (I couldnt find my it, but now it is hidden no more!)
* Having the right gear for the gigs (my guitar sounded horrid through the PA, but Ive got new strings and am using the 4x12 cab!)
* Whether we were gonna have enough time to practice (But the firsts practice saw us with a deffinite 3or4 songs)
* Having shane at the practices (But he was alright, it helped us to have someone there to here what it sounded like as a whole)

Anyhoo, I just thought I should share how the Lord has been answering my prayers and worries.

How not to pray

For about a month now I have been reading a book called 'How not to pray' by Jeff Lucas (the guy is FUNNY!)And it has had loads of crazy scenes in it and told me various things about prayer that I would not have considered otherwise. However it has not helped me to pray better, I still forest gump my way through prayer-out-loud. Then this morning I opened one of J's books to a page on prayer and began to read. I couldnt believe it! It answered all my previous questions on prayer. . . .

"How can I pray? My thaughts wander and I have no discipline. How can I get off the ground?. . . .

You're not alone in your desire. 'Teach us to pray', said Christ's diciples. No mature Christian that I have ever met has left the learners' lane when it comes to prayer. But lets not stay defeated on the ground, dolefully signalling for the ambulance. Just begin.

Get into the habbit - as you wake up - of greeting the glorious trinity! Another day of adventure on planet Earth - with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Anyhoo, I gotta go and finish reading this chapter on prayer and then race on need for speed underground 2 !!!

Jealous ?

Today in my bible study I have hit upon the topic of jealousy, in this case its to do with saul (cuz thats who I'm studying at the moment). I like the story of Saul/Paul, a real nasty peice of work that comes good (it would make a good novel or film adaptation). Anyhoo, the story goes . . . after His encounter with the Big guy, Saul goes and works and learns with this guy named Barnabas (no not Barabas!) and goes from country to country evangelising the good news. After a while it becomes apparent that Saul has quite a talent for preaching to the non-Jews. Where once it was . . ."Look, there goes Barnabas and Saul", now it was like . . ."Look, there goes SAUL and barnabas". Any lesser man would have cracked. I mean Barny took this hobo under his wing and looked after him and taght him, when others around were still like..."look thats Saul, the big crazy christian-hater who stoned stephen!" But Barnabas took it in his sride and enjoyed the success that Paul was now having.
Todays Challenge . . . There are loads of other stories of jealousy in the bible, see if you can think of any. (the guys in the pod will have one straight away!)
laters

Christian ROCK !

I dont know if any of you have noticed, but the class of christian music recentley has been very high. When I were a nipper the most alternative you could get was PETRA (if you havent heard them then check them out, if you have then you will know exactly what i mean!). Some of the bands that I am enjoying at the moment are . . . delirious, jars of clay, dc talk, toby mac, the supertones, the insyderz, lifehouse, switchfoot, five iron frenzy and relient k.
I borrowed the relient k album off Rod (of Rod in the Pod, no less!) and its REALLY good. The heavy side of the album has got elements of very good secular bands, like . . . NOFX, the ataris, blink 182, the get up kids and jimmy eat world (check out these bands if you dont know of them already) and the quieter, more chilled side to the album is kinda like keane and ben folds five.
One of the songs has a really cool lyric . . .

" When it all seems too much to bear.

The end will justify the pain it took to get us there."

WHAAT?!!!

Oh no! Today strikes fear into everyones hearts. Today is back to work day. I woke to Janines alarm at 6;30!!! I had forgotten there was two of them in a day! So now Im sat here watching batman (cartoon) on tv and eating toast. I just put the dogs out and its still dark and I can see the moon! (I think someone has played a trick on me and its actually only 2 in the morning!).

Electric Boogaloo

Yesterday I watched the DVD that Matt got me for christmas, ist the sequel to "Breakin" (some would say cult classic, others would say extremley cheesy 80's film about kids that just love to dance!).
I have yet to see the original, however "Breakin 2-electric boogaloo" is fantastic. It not only contains every possible combination of day-glow clothing, it also stars ICE T !!!
Anyone one who hasnt seen it I would urge to steal a copy from HMV (or borrow mine).
Anyhoo, I am currently reading 'How not to pray - Jeff Lucas',
He is a very funny and clever man. The chapter I'm on at the moment is talking about how we always seem to picture God up in heaven (which is a LONG way away from where we are!)...but this idealogy is all wrong. Pushing God into a heaven that is a million light years away from here is kinda taking away from the fact that you can just be sat in your bedroom at home and have the creator of everything right beside you.
I am so glad my God is not Dead or you can only talk to Him in a temple or only facing a certain direction or only one a certain day or only when your shoes are off (you get the idea)