Keep on keeping on

 

Faith is a strange journey, there can be blinding moments of certainty and deep, dark moments of doubt.

Questioning your belief is a good thing. Testing what you know to be true is important.

Sometimes our heads play games with us, to say nothing of our hearts. Knowing what the bible says, contextualising it, knowing the history behind it helps.

But if you know what you believe, and you hold on to it with precious certainty... then refine it. Do what you can to strengthen it - and all the time improve it, even if it is with one challenge at a time.

I am honoured to be featured as a guest blogger on a great blog which features 52 challenges related to your relationship with God, to take you throughout the year. Have a look at it. Being challenged is a good thing.

http://god52.wordpress.com/

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Matthew 6:33 Jesus geeks.

image (c) quotesandsayingsblog

Faith Crashing

My old job had a simple 7 mile commute by car. Not a very exciting commute, but a stretch of one road winding through a rural landscape of green fields and rolling hillside. I never moved out of fourth gear, hardly ever had to overtake another vehicle and apart from the day a telegraph pole had landed across the road - never saw anything interesting.

One day however, everyone else got to see something spectacular when that road was closed. By two cars. One of which was mine.

All I saw was:

1) a car on the wrong side of the road, travelling sideways
2) my airbag
3) two ambulances
4) one paramedic vehicle
5) two off duty nurses running towards me
6) three police cars
7) some nice policemen and paramedics
8) a recovery vehicle
9) rubberneckers galore

As two old farmers stood staring at my car while the emergency services did their thing, I walked over and broke into their conversation - they could not believe that I was the driver. They looked at my car, looked at me (bruised, scratched, clothes ripped, massively shocked but still standing) and could not believe what they saw. One even said that "someone up there must be looking after me" or some such comment.

This looks like it will be the kind of blog post that says how amazing God is, as I survived what was a hideous accident. And YES, God is amazing, I could have died. The recovery truck driver regaled me with some gruesome tales, none of which were the most tactful of conversations for someone who has just had a car accident.

But this blog post is about the detail.

What followed was part 2 of the nightmare - finding out to my total shock and dismay, that my car was not registered with all the right paperwork. I had given someone else the responsibility to do it, when it was actually mine.

One day we are all going to die. The buck stops there. With you.

I had milliseconds of knowing I was about to be in that accident before I was in it. I didn't say to myself "oh dear I hope all the paperwork for the car is in order". Thinking about the afterlife options weren't a default setting either. I didn't think about anything really. Just sort of processed disbelief.

You need to get your paperwork in order ahead of  time. Think things through beforehand. There are beliefs, faiths, options. You need to know what they are. Your time will come, just like everyone else.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Jesus geeks should know these verses off by heart but are from John 10:10 & 3:16

image(c)ohmylovequotes

A bit of nard can go a long way

If you took a bottle of perfume, worth in the region of £20,000 that you had been keeping for a very, very, very special occasion... and then just went ahead and smashed it, everyone would wonder why you would do such a random and wasteful thing - and then maybe pass comment that the whole house now reaks of something that was meant to be used gradually, rarely, infrequently.

If you smashed the bottle then poured the contents onto someone’s feet, then dried those feet with your hair – not only would you get the attention of everyone in the room, but they would think you were being crazy.

Someone was so convinced of the authority and destiny of Jesus that she did that very thing.

 

However, never one to add much feelgood factor, Judas Iscariot thought this was a total waste - surely something so valuable should be sold and the money used to help people. It was worth a years wages after all. Weirdly, the bible then says Judas Iscariot didn't do this out of kindness, but because he was a 'keeper of the moneybag'. So Judas 'laugh a minute' Iscariot was probably gritting his teeth and totally disgusted at this outrageous display of adoration and affection.

People might have that attitude if you make a choice that shows a financial or spiritual loyalty to a church. Having a faith, and living it out can cause us to make some dramatic decisions. Ones that invite criticism or frustration.

Jesus gave a direct response to Judas Iscariot. An blunt response and a fair one.

Prioritise.

 

Jesus was born and died. Fact. He told people he was the son of God. Fact. He was treated in a way that made him feel scared and alone. Fact. He was condemned by the authorities to die for what he said and did. Fact. He was beaten, abused and sentenced with a criminal’s execution to die - hanging on a piece of wood and held there with nails. Fact.

The last fact is up to you: do you believe that he was who he said he was? That he died so that we might have eternal life?

If you do - then you need to be ready to smash some bottles and smell out some houses.

Read John 12: 1-11 Jesus geeks.

(c) Arlene Oakley