Building Life With Jesus

I took these pictures while walking on the beach at Jeffrey’s Bay. Someone has taken a lot of time to build such an impressive feature.

Looking at this feature now makes me think about our lives as Christians.
When we first come to know Jesus as our Saviour we often have so many things that need to be sorted out in life. We bring those things to Jesus in prayer and He sets out to work with us on each of them.

But it doesn't stop their does it?
We think that we've given it all over to Him only to find that theirs another coarse that needs to be placed on top of the other!
And so the journey goes.

However, as the picture shows; with each course that we lay, one on top of the other, the feature gets stronger. Our lives get stronger and stronger as we lay our lives daily before the Lord, one course at a time.

One last thing; notice how the feature tapers off towards the top and points towards the heavens?
All those items in our lives that need to be worked through gradually become less and less as we build with Jesus, as we become more like Him.
Don’t let discouragement over the sheer magnitude of issues in life that need Jesus' touch stop you from building; the end product will be worth all the toil.

"A life of Christ-likeness that glorifies its Creator".

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
(Philippians 1:6, NLT)

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29, NIV)

Final day of Christmas holiday 2008

Louise and I had a lovely day together. We kept it simple, we walked on the beach, had a dippy ice cream (yummy) and just enjoyed each others company. The weather was beautiful which made the beach walk a real delight. We walked some way, then stopped for a while on a sand dune and just watched the sea and took in our surroundings.
Man Jeffrey's Bay is a lovely place.

We finished our day by visiting one of our favorite restaurants in town; The Mexican. We had a lovely meal together, enjoying conversations and generally just kicked back.

We both would have liked to have done more with our holiday time but that wasn't to be. I can say however, that finishing the holiday in such a great way made the time very special for me.

I love you my wife; Happy holiday and a Happy New Year to you!

Quote of the Day

Taken from Google's 'Quote for the Day'.

"You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more."
(Oprah Winfrey)

I'm not a big fan of Oprah, but hey what wise words?

* Respond to God's Spirit and you will blossom into more. *

Frustration or Realisation!

Should a church play to its strengths?

The answer to this question is obviously 'yes'!

I'm part of a church that is mostly made up of believers who are retired. Each and everyone of them are great folk; folk who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. The trouble comes into my picture when I look at how we do church.

When you have a congregation that, may I say, is made up largely of older folk the way church is done is traditionally. I don't have a problem with tradition, I can even say that on some matters of the faith I'm pretty conservative and traditional; my problem comes when I look at the vision for the church and at what I feel God is calling me to do in my own relationship with Him.

As a church we want to reach out to families, we want to be a family church that can minister into the lives of all believers from all generations. With this is a desire to reach those still outside the kingdom, again from all generations.

What a great vision?

In my own life with the Lord, I feel that He wants to use me to reach young families, both those who are already believers and those that aren't.

What a great calling?

Put my churches vision together with what I believe is God's calling for me and we should have a match made in heaven!

But this isn't the case!

My church thinks its providing a place for all generations, that its family friendly - NEWS FLASH - Your not!

We have a great Sunday School ministry (although, most parents drop their children off but don't join the service), we have an evening service that is great for those without children (If you have children you are likely to be putting them to bed while the service is running) and we have a morning service that is great if you are of the older generation!

Last night at a meeting, some congratulated themselves because we are a church that pretty much always sings hymns. Two retired folk joined us last Sunday and said they would only come because we are a hymn singing church. How great it is to be a hymn singing church; we have attracted two more retired believers to our church. But how many from the younger generations have we lost because we are only a hymn singing - traditional church I ask myself?

Should we as a church play to our strengths?

Again the answer is 'yes'!

With this being the case; shouldn't my churches vision be one where they actively reach out to older folk, concentrating all their efforts on doing so?

But where does that leave the younger generations (I'm not just talking about youth, but young families and alike)?

Where does that leave me, and what I feel God is calling me to do with my life?

FRUSTRATED!

New Horizons

Jesus is calling us to join Him and scale the peaks. Its as we do that we get to share his beautiful view of creation.

Lets not just play it safe at the foot of the mountain in the visitors centre, looking at pictures of what could have been.