We had a great church service last night. It's the holiday period which basically means that half of Torquay have moved out to ensure that there is enough room for all the tourists to come in! haha! I think it bothers you more if you own a car, but as I don't, it doesn't bother me - bring on the tourists I say! But essentially it also meant that a lot of people were away from church (three of our families are in Queensland - at the same time!!) So, rather than have "normal" church (whatever that means, as we always try to shake things up a bit and have church look different every week), we've gone to a "Live, Unplugged" version...sitting around tables, and chatting over a NOOMA Dvd.
Last night, we just happened to put on one of my favourite NOOMA's - 09. BullHorn. For those of you who don't know, NOOMA is put together by Rob Bell, author of "Velvet Elvis" & "Sex.God". He's a modern day theologin, emerging church leader and all-round legendary guy if you ask me. His NOOMA dvd's are between 15-25minutes long, and tackle big biblical and Christian issues in a modern and down-to-earth, in-your-face kinda way.
The reason I love BullHorn so much, is that it tackles the issue of Evangelism. Now let me say at the outset, Evangelism is NOT my spiritual gift, so you need to understand my viewpoint is not that of an evangelist, but more as a disciple and friend of people. But to be honest, I struggle with modern-day evangelism which sees us trying to "save" all our "friends" and put another notch in our spiritual belt. You know the sort "Well I've saved 20 people from the fires of hell and damnation, how bout you?"... it grates on my nerves more than anything else, I can't tell you! BullHorn is aimed at that guy - you know the one - who stands there with a megaphone yelling at people on the street corners that they are going to hell if they don't follow Jesus - it's all damnation and fire and brimstone, and in my personal opinion - moves people a step further from God not towards Him.
About a year ago, I was sitting with a young girl in the city, she was 16, and had been on the streets for the past year or two on and off (when the Department didn't have her placed in a foster home which she would leave after a day or two), and had been abused - both physically and sexually for many years. She was a heroin user - more to numb the pain than anything else I suppose. We were having one of those really deep and wonderful conversations, where we were sharing with each other our hopes and dreams for the future - as unprofessional as that may seem to the "professional social workers" out there - I was really connecting with her as a friend, and over the previous months had really started to love spending our time together and sharing with her. On this particular day, one of those Bullhorn guys - with the megaphone and the hell and damnation - was screaming down his megaphone that fornicators and drug addicts were going to hell unless they gave their lives to Jesus right there and then. I could tell my friend was getting really uncomfortable, really angry - and I knew once she was angry our great conversation would end. And suddenly she turned to me and said "You know what Sarah, what he doesn't understand is that I am in hell".... and with that she grabbed her cigarettes and coffee, told me she'd see me next week and started walking. My heart sank, because I knew she was right. She was in hell. Her whole life was hell. She didn't need to hear she was a sinner and that God was judging her, she needed to hear that her Creator loved her, and longed to be in relationship with her. That Jesus heart broke for the way she'd been treated and that He longed to love her, to hold her in His arms, and to bring healing and restoration to her life.
But beyond being for that guy - the message was for those Christians who see that saving a person is more important than anything else. The person who goes out there and deliberately makes friends with Non-Christians, for the sole purpose of saving their soul, and putting yet another notch in that belt of theirs.
The greatest line in the DVD (I think) is when Rob Bell tackles this by challenging those of us who go out to "love" our non-christian friends, in order to save them and says:
"Because loving people with an agenda isn't really loving them is it?"
Bingo! You can't genuinely love people when you have an agenda. You either love them or you don't. There is no agenda's in love. It should be unconditional. I'm not going to go out there and deliberately make friends with people who don't know Jesus and who I probably wouldn't be friends with if I didn't force myself to love them because I'm scared they're going to hell. Because that's not true friendship. I would say at least half - if not more - of my friends do not know Jesus yet. In fact, the only Jesus they know is the Jesus they see in me. But I'm not loving them because I'm wanting to see them saved...I love them because they enrich my life, because they are unique and brilliant and precious. I think sometimes we get it the wrong way round - we love people to get them to know Jesus, instead of wanting them to know Jesus because we love them!
And you know what - I may not be an evangelist, but you'd be surprised how many of your friends who don't yet know Jesus will ask you spiritual questions if you love them without an agenda. Some of my gay friends have asked why I hang out with them even though I'm a Christian, and I'm able to say to them it's because I love them, and they are important to me. When they ask what my church would think about it I'm able to say that even if my church had a problem with it (which it doesn't), I wouldn't care, because if Jesus came back, he'd be hanging out with us, not sitting in church somewhere.
And other friends of mine, who have had bad experiences with church will meet my friends and comment on how non-churchy we are, that we are normal just like them. And I'm able to tell them - the churchy type of people annoy me too! I want to be with people who's faith is real, who have real issues, and real problems, and for whom Jesus is a part of their every day life! And it's surprising how much that actually reaches people.
So BullHorn guy - or evangelist expert - or Christian who's looking to get more notches on their belt - cut it out. Just love people for who they are. Don't see them as Christ-followers or non-Christ followers... see them as friends, who you love, regardless of whether they make a life-long decision to follow Jesus. Because they don't need YOU to save them, they've already got a Saviour, and He did a pretty good job - they need YOU to LOVE them. Jesus will do the rest!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
CHRISTmas
I have to say I love Christmas - I love the lights, the trees, the gift giving, the cards, the songs, the way everyone is nice to each other and most of all I love the Christmas story.
This year I got some great gifts - Two pairs of Havaiana's (one with bling - thanks Phill & K), Greys Anatomy & Entourage DVD's, jewellry, make up, manicure stuff, awesome bowls for my kitchen, the works. But my two favourite gifts came from friends who chose to make someone elses life better on my behalf. The kids from LiveWires (and my good friend Ann) the kids drop in centre I worked at last year and for the first six months of this year, educated a child for me through TEAR, and my friend from church Wato bought me a chicken through JustSalvos. We have so much "Stuff" in our lives, don't we? This year, I know that two of my friends have ensured that my gift has changed the lives of children and villages.
Isn't that what the Christmas story is about? That God, who created us, loved us so much that He sent His Son to the world to bring love and peace and goodwill. But somewhere along the lines, we've missed the point. We've made Christmas about us, about what we can get and what gifts we can give. And there is nothing wrong with giving gifts - in fact, coming a close second to Physical Touch, Gifts are my love language. I love to give my friends presents, even more than getting gifts. In fact, I loved that at my parents church (South Barwon Salvos) there was so much love among the church family as they gave each other gifts and shared the spirit of Christmas... And because I love gifts, I began to wonder, what gift could I give Jesus - I mean it was His birthday after all.
One of my favourite Christmas Carols (aside from Oh Holy Night, which will make me cry every time), is "In the Bleak Midwinter", in particular the verse:
What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him —
Give my heart.
So this year, I want to give Christ the gift of all of me - not just at work, not just in my prayer time, but all year round... My whole heart, not just the lonely parts, the lot.
What can you give Him?
This year I got some great gifts - Two pairs of Havaiana's (one with bling - thanks Phill & K), Greys Anatomy & Entourage DVD's, jewellry, make up, manicure stuff, awesome bowls for my kitchen, the works. But my two favourite gifts came from friends who chose to make someone elses life better on my behalf. The kids from LiveWires (and my good friend Ann) the kids drop in centre I worked at last year and for the first six months of this year, educated a child for me through TEAR, and my friend from church Wato bought me a chicken through JustSalvos. We have so much "Stuff" in our lives, don't we? This year, I know that two of my friends have ensured that my gift has changed the lives of children and villages.
Isn't that what the Christmas story is about? That God, who created us, loved us so much that He sent His Son to the world to bring love and peace and goodwill. But somewhere along the lines, we've missed the point. We've made Christmas about us, about what we can get and what gifts we can give. And there is nothing wrong with giving gifts - in fact, coming a close second to Physical Touch, Gifts are my love language. I love to give my friends presents, even more than getting gifts. In fact, I loved that at my parents church (South Barwon Salvos) there was so much love among the church family as they gave each other gifts and shared the spirit of Christmas... And because I love gifts, I began to wonder, what gift could I give Jesus - I mean it was His birthday after all.
One of my favourite Christmas Carols (aside from Oh Holy Night, which will make me cry every time), is "In the Bleak Midwinter", in particular the verse:
What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him —
Give my heart.
So this year, I want to give Christ the gift of all of me - not just at work, not just in my prayer time, but all year round... My whole heart, not just the lonely parts, the lot.
What can you give Him?
Thursday, December 13, 2007
A life less ordinary, or is ordinary enough?!
Last night we completed our five weeks of the Journey's course. Journey's is a kind of "Introduction to Christianity" type course - encouraging people to ask the question "Is there a spiritual side to me?" and "What would that look like if there was?".
Our entire small group are Christians - many of them have been for quite some time in fact. Our small group leader (also our Corps Officer!) decided that it would be good for some of us who (like me) have never done it before, as we use it quite a lot with people who want to know more about God and Jesus - and in many cases, it has lead to these people making a decision not only to follow God, but to become members of our church.
But I digress. As I mentioned, we are already Christians in our small group, so as we completed our course last night, and the final question on the DVD is "Are you willing to giv this Christianity thing a try?!" - well we've already done that, so the question for our group inevitably moved to our own conversions. One of my friends from church and I are both Pastors Kids (well I'm an Officers Kid). We don't really remember our conversion being that big of a deal - except of course for our parents - but more just a natural progression in our journey. We both talked about how growing up we heard these amazing conversion stories, of people who were prostitutes and had a blinding light experience where they became Christians and their lives instantly changed. I mentioned when I heard those stories growing up, I was always jealous that for me, I didn't have a special story - I just was asked in Sunbeams one night if I'd ever asked Jesus into my heart, and I said not out loud, so I did. But there was no dramatic change, because for me - Jesus had always been a very important part of my life.
That was when Liz posed the question - "Do you think we need to hear more ordinary stories?". What an a-ha moment for me! Yes we do need to hear more ordinary stories! You see for kids like Liz and I - we were never able to connect with those dramatic conversions - we were in awe of them - but they didn't speak to us. And if there are a large chunk of kids out there who are the same - who's lives aren't bad, who's lives aren't full of neglect and abuse and pain - then where are the stories that resound with them - the stories of "ordinary" people leading "normal" lives who recognized that there was a spiritual side to them that could only be filled by Jesus.
And why are we, who had "ordinary" lives and conversions, not as willing to jump up and shout and tell that story to people? We have been fed the lie that our conversion, that our spirituality, that our story - is not as valid because it wasn't as miraculous - but the thing is - it is valid and it is miraculous!
If you make a decision at 8 years old to follow Jesus, and you're still following Jesus at 9 years old - that's a miracle. If you make that decision at 8 years old and you're still following at 28 years old - that's a miracle! If you made that decision at 8 years old and you are still a Christian at 58 years old, that's a miracle! You are a living saint. Because you still have a choice. Every single day, you have a choice. You can choose to allow Jesus to be part of your life, or you can choose to go through life on your own. Your life is not ordinary. My life is not ordinary!
And you know the first people that would celebrate that fact with you - those with miraculous conversions! I've known many addicts and prostitutes and abused people who have come to know Jesus - and they realized how much of a difference He has made in their lives. And many of them - if not all of them - would say they wish they'd met Jesus at 8 years old and walked their whole life with Him!
So you living saints out there - celebrate your ordinary conversion! Tell people about it! Celebrate your ordinary lives - because in God's eyes - your life is so much more than ordinary!!!!
Our entire small group are Christians - many of them have been for quite some time in fact. Our small group leader (also our Corps Officer!) decided that it would be good for some of us who (like me) have never done it before, as we use it quite a lot with people who want to know more about God and Jesus - and in many cases, it has lead to these people making a decision not only to follow God, but to become members of our church.
But I digress. As I mentioned, we are already Christians in our small group, so as we completed our course last night, and the final question on the DVD is "Are you willing to giv this Christianity thing a try?!" - well we've already done that, so the question for our group inevitably moved to our own conversions. One of my friends from church and I are both Pastors Kids (well I'm an Officers Kid). We don't really remember our conversion being that big of a deal - except of course for our parents - but more just a natural progression in our journey. We both talked about how growing up we heard these amazing conversion stories, of people who were prostitutes and had a blinding light experience where they became Christians and their lives instantly changed. I mentioned when I heard those stories growing up, I was always jealous that for me, I didn't have a special story - I just was asked in Sunbeams one night if I'd ever asked Jesus into my heart, and I said not out loud, so I did. But there was no dramatic change, because for me - Jesus had always been a very important part of my life.
That was when Liz posed the question - "Do you think we need to hear more ordinary stories?". What an a-ha moment for me! Yes we do need to hear more ordinary stories! You see for kids like Liz and I - we were never able to connect with those dramatic conversions - we were in awe of them - but they didn't speak to us. And if there are a large chunk of kids out there who are the same - who's lives aren't bad, who's lives aren't full of neglect and abuse and pain - then where are the stories that resound with them - the stories of "ordinary" people leading "normal" lives who recognized that there was a spiritual side to them that could only be filled by Jesus.
And why are we, who had "ordinary" lives and conversions, not as willing to jump up and shout and tell that story to people? We have been fed the lie that our conversion, that our spirituality, that our story - is not as valid because it wasn't as miraculous - but the thing is - it is valid and it is miraculous!
If you make a decision at 8 years old to follow Jesus, and you're still following Jesus at 9 years old - that's a miracle. If you make that decision at 8 years old and you're still following at 28 years old - that's a miracle! If you made that decision at 8 years old and you are still a Christian at 58 years old, that's a miracle! You are a living saint. Because you still have a choice. Every single day, you have a choice. You can choose to allow Jesus to be part of your life, or you can choose to go through life on your own. Your life is not ordinary. My life is not ordinary!
And you know the first people that would celebrate that fact with you - those with miraculous conversions! I've known many addicts and prostitutes and abused people who have come to know Jesus - and they realized how much of a difference He has made in their lives. And many of them - if not all of them - would say they wish they'd met Jesus at 8 years old and walked their whole life with Him!
So you living saints out there - celebrate your ordinary conversion! Tell people about it! Celebrate your ordinary lives - because in God's eyes - your life is so much more than ordinary!!!!
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Girls - won't you help us?!
Please excuse me while I rant for one moment.
I want to rant directly at the girls out there, who are not helping us out one bit. The girls who think that if they sexualise themselves and us, they are powerful. Sex might equal power in your eyes, but I'm sorry - it's not lasting. It's just not. And if you want to be taken seriously, for your voice to be heard, for your opinion to be valued - STOP USING YOUR SEXUALITY!
Agh! It honestly makes me sick.
I've been fighting quite a bad cold lately. It's been annoying more than anything, and over the past three nights it has given me incredibly broken sleep - you know the type, awake for half an hour, sleep for an hour, awake again for an hour... so annoying.
So last night, I decided to sleep on the couch, that way when I awoke, I could watch a bit of telly and doze back off. At about midnight, I arose and put the telly on after taking my panadol, and Video Hits was on. It was a special on Guy Sebastian, so I thought "why not" as we all know I'm a bit of a fan of his. It's nice to see a good Christian guy making it in the mainstream. So I settled down with my cup of tea and proceeded to watch this - what would Pink call her - "Stupid girl" Fuzzy flirting up a storm - giggling and throwing herself at Guy. Seriously, she was batting her eye-lashes, throwing her chest in front of him and just generally flirting up a storm - and it made me feel even more ill! I especially "liked" how when Guy was talking about how he wrote "Oh Oh" to talk about the women who use their female mojo (oh oh) to get guys in trouble, and she leans into him and giggles - HONEY HE'S TALKING ABOUT GIRLS LIKE YOU!!!
Over the past few years, I've been able to go around and talk to girls about femaleness and identity - and mostly, we get to talking about sexuality. I (and a few of my peers) have a theory that the 60's and 70's were all about womens lib - equal rights for men AND women - burning of the bra and all that. Women desperate to be acknowledged and VALUED for who they are. The 80's saw women de-sexualise themselves, taking on a more masculine form in the board-room - being a woman was seen as being weak, so we saw a corporate woman rise up and take her place - among the boys. But the late 90's and recently, it's almost as if we've done a complete backflip thanks to the Paris & Nicole's (and Fuzzy's) in the world who have realized that we can "control" men through our sexuality - so it's okay to be a complete ditz because sex is Power.
No it's not girls. Sex is not power. Sex is a gift. We were created to be sexual yes - it's a gift from God to us - for us to enjoy. But the flip side of that is that it can be used to manipulate and distort our views of why we were created. And don't just think this is a secular thing. I have seen MANY MANY girls in all sorts of different denominations - The Salvation Army included - who are using their sexuality to gain some sort of power over men - AND over other women.
God thinks you are beautiful and created you to be a woman. You don't have to dumb yourself down and sex yourself up in order to be beautiful - you were created that way. And any guy who doesn't see that in you - is not worth his weight in salt! So girls, let's take back our sexuality. Let's use it for good. Let's take the womans heart and soul - the sensitivity God gave us, and use it to change the world - instead of adding to the sexed up emptiness that the world is currently offering!
Girl's - won't you help us?!?!
"You are beautiful with God's Beauty. Beautiful INSIDE and OUT. God be with you!" Luke 1:28 (the message)
I want to rant directly at the girls out there, who are not helping us out one bit. The girls who think that if they sexualise themselves and us, they are powerful. Sex might equal power in your eyes, but I'm sorry - it's not lasting. It's just not. And if you want to be taken seriously, for your voice to be heard, for your opinion to be valued - STOP USING YOUR SEXUALITY!
Agh! It honestly makes me sick.
I've been fighting quite a bad cold lately. It's been annoying more than anything, and over the past three nights it has given me incredibly broken sleep - you know the type, awake for half an hour, sleep for an hour, awake again for an hour... so annoying.
So last night, I decided to sleep on the couch, that way when I awoke, I could watch a bit of telly and doze back off. At about midnight, I arose and put the telly on after taking my panadol, and Video Hits was on. It was a special on Guy Sebastian, so I thought "why not" as we all know I'm a bit of a fan of his. It's nice to see a good Christian guy making it in the mainstream. So I settled down with my cup of tea and proceeded to watch this - what would Pink call her - "Stupid girl" Fuzzy flirting up a storm - giggling and throwing herself at Guy. Seriously, she was batting her eye-lashes, throwing her chest in front of him and just generally flirting up a storm - and it made me feel even more ill! I especially "liked" how when Guy was talking about how he wrote "Oh Oh" to talk about the women who use their female mojo (oh oh) to get guys in trouble, and she leans into him and giggles - HONEY HE'S TALKING ABOUT GIRLS LIKE YOU!!!
Over the past few years, I've been able to go around and talk to girls about femaleness and identity - and mostly, we get to talking about sexuality. I (and a few of my peers) have a theory that the 60's and 70's were all about womens lib - equal rights for men AND women - burning of the bra and all that. Women desperate to be acknowledged and VALUED for who they are. The 80's saw women de-sexualise themselves, taking on a more masculine form in the board-room - being a woman was seen as being weak, so we saw a corporate woman rise up and take her place - among the boys. But the late 90's and recently, it's almost as if we've done a complete backflip thanks to the Paris & Nicole's (and Fuzzy's) in the world who have realized that we can "control" men through our sexuality - so it's okay to be a complete ditz because sex is Power.
No it's not girls. Sex is not power. Sex is a gift. We were created to be sexual yes - it's a gift from God to us - for us to enjoy. But the flip side of that is that it can be used to manipulate and distort our views of why we were created. And don't just think this is a secular thing. I have seen MANY MANY girls in all sorts of different denominations - The Salvation Army included - who are using their sexuality to gain some sort of power over men - AND over other women.
God thinks you are beautiful and created you to be a woman. You don't have to dumb yourself down and sex yourself up in order to be beautiful - you were created that way. And any guy who doesn't see that in you - is not worth his weight in salt! So girls, let's take back our sexuality. Let's use it for good. Let's take the womans heart and soul - the sensitivity God gave us, and use it to change the world - instead of adding to the sexed up emptiness that the world is currently offering!
Girl's - won't you help us?!?!
"You are beautiful with God's Beauty. Beautiful INSIDE and OUT. God be with you!" Luke 1:28 (the message)
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