Song of the week- Learning to breathe

Switchfoot- Learning to Breathe

Don't worry

Normally I would tend not to agree with The Age newspaper's columnist Catherine Deveny but today she said something i thought was great and very relevant in these uncertain financial times.

When will we stop worrying about money? The moment before we die? Just as we are about to take our last breath, will we be overtaken by a sudden wave of relief that we had enough? Enough money for what? And we're all worried about money. No matter how rich or poor we are........

Learn what's important. Sounds trite I know, but during this rough stuff we can't just think, "I'll wait until everything's happy and then I'll have fun and live in the moment". You might not be able to afford a holiday, but you can afford a picnic. Times may be tough, but we're still alive.

That's the really tricky bit. To move our focus away from the big scary things that probably won't happen and enjoy what we have — our friends, our families and ourselves. Because these troubled times will pass. But our loved ones may not be there tomorrow.
(Full article here )

Wise words indeed. While we need to plan financially, worrying is not going to make the stock market or interest rate go up or down one tiny bit. So don't worry. Turn off the TV news channel, don't buy the newspaper today if it will help. No crash of the stock market can ever take what really matters. Spend some time being thankful for these things.

Song of the week- Desert song

Hillsong- Desert Song
Written by Brooke Fraser

And these are a few of my favorite things....#2

Free rice
freerice.com is a great site because you get to help the poor and learn stuff at the same time. How it works is you are quized on the meaning of a word and for every answer you get right some rice is donated by the sites sponsers to charities helping feed the hungry. In a nerdy kind of way it is adictive watching the tally of rice you've donated go up as you get more answers right.

Berni Dymet's podcasts
Lately i've been listening to the podcasts from Australian preacher Berni Dymet quite a bit. He does 2 really good bible study podcasts. His half hour long one called Christianity Works is released once a week. His ten minute long podcast called A Different perspective is released 5 times a week. A Different perspective is of a good length and content to use as a daily devotional. I used it as my daily devotional when i was travelling and couldn't take books with me.

Crazy Christian Clips
Ok, one of the reasons it is one of  my favorites is because i made it!  I've been posting lots of videos over at Crazy Christian Clips of all sorts of funny stuff from the Christian subculture.

And some more Noise Trade
I mentioned noisetrade.com in my last Favorites post but since then I've found another artist on the site I really like called Richelle Boer.

And just for some fun
I am not an Obama supporter but i found this pretty funny. yeswecarve.com features many pumkins with Obama's face carved in. Aparerntly carving the faces of political figures into pumpkins is something some people enjoy!

Run to win

A few weeks ago i competed in a 5.5km race at a marathon. About now those of you who know me offline are probably laughing and with good reason. I'm not usually the runner type and it showed. I got beaten by at least 3200 people and was in serious pain for several days afterward! It was for the most part a fun experience and not one I'm likely to forget in a while!

The experience threw some light on what the bible is talking about when it compares a life of faith to being in a running race.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
(1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV)

While we were in the same races, there was a big difference between serious professional runners and the rest of us and it showed in the race results. Many of the serious runners had been training for months and eating right. Come the day of the race running fast wasn't a problem because every day they'd focused their efforts on running in a way that would win them the prize. For me on the other hand, having let the training slip by the wayside and having eaten too much campus food in the previous weeks (aka junk), moving fast was a definite problem. I made it to the finish line, but many did not. The same kind of situation exists when it comes to living a life of faith. Your ability to keep going and keep growing stronger in your faith even when it is hard depends on what you are doing everyday. Like an athlete training for the race we need to train ourselves spiritually, through prayer, bible study, holy living and other spiritual disciplines. Doing these things will help you run to win in the race of faith. Just like a runner staying in bed on a rainy day it is easy to become lazy and complacent. Keep this up and at best you might manage to stick it out for the duration but not run the race of faith very well. At worst you won't make it, too many Christians simply don't have the strength to keep going through the tough bits of the race and give up their faith.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)

Some runners would try and run with bags or carrying stuff that they didn't need. It wasn't necessarily bad stuff to have but it slowed them down or made the race uncomfortable. I only had a very small bag and it was still annoying at times. In life we can carry stuff with us we don't need too. Obviously we need to get rid of sin, that's a no brainer! When this is talked about in Hebrews it talks about stuff that hinders as well. Things that are hindrances to living a life of faith often aren't sins themselves but can still stop us from reaching our potential. It could be a relationship, a habit, an activity or a way of thinking that isn't helping. Sometimes it can be hard to see when something in our lives really isn't helpful anymore because we get so used to how we've always done some things or maybe whatever is a problem now was once actually helpful. Just like before they run runners make sure that nothing they are wearing or carrying will get in the way of them doing their best, sometimes in life we need to stop to evaluate if anything is holding us back and deal with it.

The race is on. How are you running?

Song of the week- Maybe I won't look back

I've been occasionally posting songs and thought it would be good to make it more regular. I plan to every week post an inspiring or thought provoking song. Here's the first installment.

Stacie Orrico- Maybe I won't look back

I want to tell a better story

I think this song is amazing. It is by an artist called Sara Groves and it is called Add to the beauty

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

(full lyrics here)

Overcome

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21 (NIV)

Us Christians are normally pretty good at being able to point out and complain about evils in the world. Sometimes maybe a bit too good at it. It seems every time i pick up a newspaper these days there is a Christian talking about some sin or another. Don't misunderstand me, we do need to speak truth clearly at the appropriate times. I do think there should be more to our response to sin and evil that that though. I wonder what would happen if we took what Paul said seriously in Romans 12:21 seriously and committed ourselves to not just ranting about it but doing something about the evil that catches our attention. I wonder what it would look like?
I wonder what it would look like to overcome poverty with good?
I wonder what it would look like to overcome abuse and bullying with good?
I wonder what it would look like to overcome corruption and dishonesty with good?
I wonder what it would look like to overcome evil with good?

I wonder if it could change the world? I think it might.

The Hosea Project + new video blog

I've been listening to an amazing album called The Hosea project by an artist called Samuel Gatlyn. The album tells the story of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer as found in the biblical book of Hosea told with music and drama. The music is simply beautiful. More than that, it so powerfully brings home the message of Gods faithfulness to his people. You can download it for FREE untill the end of this month here. I really recommend you download it. It is most powerful when you listen to it from the start to the finish rather than just skipping through the tracks randomly. Enjoy!





In other totally unrelated news, i've set up a second blog called Crazy Christian Clips to show videos of the amazing and the amazingly insane aspects of christian culture that are very funny but don't really fit here

The disease of self

I first posted this on myspace about a year ago. I decided to bring it back because not everyone that reads this blog will have seen my last one, it fits with the "This Is Your Life" post I made a few weeks ago and to be honest it is an issue i still grapple with.

Earlier this week i sat down to read a recent edition of a popular Christian magazine. Normally I would pay very little attention to the advertisements. One caught my eye. It was a full page colorful add featuring the latest and greatest in digital pianos. I'm sure it's a great piano. What caught me was the text. Under the heading "Abolish idle worship" the article continued with "Inspire your congregation with a (piano name).... and all together banish complacency.....can add excitement to your worship services.."

At first i was a bit indignant. After all, how can a piano cause real worship? Surely we aren't that petty that the quality of the piano tones makes a difference to whether we really worship. I was going to come here and give a long-winded rant about it.

And then it hit me. I am everything i was going to rant about. Oh i can't say piano tones and effects have ever been my obsession but i can be just as petty and worse. I have a bad habit of making it all about me, myself and I. My comfort, my happiness, my desires. God's glory has a habit of getting sidelined. I don't think I'm the only one ether.

As I'm writing this, I've been listening to DC talk. I thought these lyrics from In The Light were just so spot on.
The disease of self runs through my blood
It's a cancer fatal to my soul
Every attempt on my behalf has failed
To bring this sickness under control

The disease is running rampant through our society, through our churches, though myself. You could say that it is embedded in our fallen nature. As a Christian i know my life is not about me and that God is absolutely deserving of my all.
And yet.....
How many times have i lost focused on God during worship time at Church over thoughts of something unrelated or a totally trivial distraction around me?
How many times has my bank statements showed too much spending on self and not enough flowing towards things that will help each others?
How many times has my bible stayed in my bag in favor of something on TV?
How many times have I not helped someone because I couldn't be bothered?
How many times have I insisted on my own way over trivial things?
How many times have I been grumpy and ranted when things did not go my way?

It's way too many to count, i think the answer would scare me. I have the disease. I could blame the marketers, blame the distractions but deep down I know God is not impressed by my excuses and that no amount of excuses will help.

We chase our own fulfillment but if fulfilling self was the answer Hollywood would be the happiest place on earth with all its rich, popular and beautiful people and yet it is filled with broken relationships and broken lives. Our consumerism is consuming our souls. Trying to patch up the problem with good intentions and good deeds can only go so far. I don't need to change my life, i need to daily lay it down. I need to have my spirit renewed not my flesh fed. I need to give God his rightful place not just when it's convenient. Maybe as i stop running after what i thought I wanted I will find what I really need.



Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)