Opposites Attract

Last night I was at Glasgow Elim church listening to Heidi Baker talk about her life and how God is using her to reach people in Mozambique. Those people who are starving, lonely, homeless, hurting and struggling to survive. What she said was a real inspiration and challenge.

Today I was working at my summer job, McDonalds, watching people buy food and then throw it away. People who are privileged to afford food and living a fairly comfortable life. What I saw made me sad that food is wasted and that those customers don't realise how lucky they are.

One extreme to the other.

I'm not perfect in any respect and I hope God can keep transforming me and teaching me. I want to be able to show his love by being with the poor and the hurting instead of just listening to talks. I hope that the western world will realise how privileged we are to be able to easily obtain food and have shelter to stay in.

Why do we deserve this?

However is our comfort a blessing or are we too comfortable to realise how much we need God. Heidi spoke about how real God is too those African people and about the miracles that have occurred. Is our comfort and lack of faith blinding us from the work of God.

Jesus.

Made the blind see.

May we not be to proud and see how the Lord is moving amongst the people in Mozambique. May we in the West think about our everyday desisions and ask if this is showing God's love.

God's Radical Love.

Hope in the 21st Century

The news is full of bleak stories, the credit crunch and the earthquake in Italy to name a couple. Innocent lives are being taken in unjust wars, jobs are being lost in the recession, families being torn apart with the stress of it all. How can the death of a 1st century Jew provide any hope for us in the 21st century?

The unbelievable happened.

This first century Jew rose from the dead and defeated death. Wow, people don't rise from the dead, but when they are the son of God they do.

Empty tomb.

There was no objection to the empty tomb, just excuses made why the body wasn't there. It's so hard to believe at times and I can be full of doubt at times but it all makes sense in the end. The hope of Jesus is that we will have life after death but also that we have life before death. I'm not saying your worries will disappear just that a different worldview will become possible, a world view where the rich and powerful, the unjust rulers and the evil in the world do not have the last laugh.

Hope.

I will finish with the words of Tom Wright in his book 'Surprised by Hope'.
"And this is the point where believing in the resurrection of Jesus suddenly ceases to be a matter of enquiring about an odd event in the first century and becomes a matter of rediscovering hope in the twenty-first century."

Happy Easter all!

The Nazarene

So today being Good Friday I can't help but mention the crucifiction of Jesus Christ. He suffered so much for us, it was innocent blood that was spilled so that we may be free. He suffered the pain silently and hung on that tree, so that we may be free and our sins forgiven.

Freedom.

Awesome.

I pray that everyone on this planet will see the truth and realise the who Jesus is and what he did for us. I worry that so many people that are celebrating Easter don't know and understand what it is about.

The Nazarene who courageously died for us so that we may have freedom. Who was resurrected so that we may have eternal life.

Not long until Sunday.