Isn't God good?

Sometimes life hurts.

I lived for a wee while abroad and where I was there they would always be using the phase,' God is good all the time and all the time God is good, for that is His nature.'  This is one of those truths to establish in your heart in times of blessing so it can sustain you when the blessings are harder to see.

But is it true? Is God always good? The bible says He is. The bible says that even the most difficult things we go through are for our good if we love the Lord.  A friend of mine gave her life to God after a lifetime of resisting.  She has seen the dark side of life, disability, death of young members of her family, her husband is very ill and now she has a form of leukemia and there she was yesterday, thanking God for all His goodness.

I think sometimes the goodness of God can only be understood fully by those who have accepted His love.  We know that He doesn't owe us anything.  All things belong to Him, He gives and He takes away. His plan is deeper and wider than ours, His love for us is deeper and wider than ours for Him, His way is the good way.

 The pain is real, the hurt is real, the confusion is real, the anger, at time, is real.  But in spite of all this head spinning emotion we can say with confidence, even though we don't see the big picture or will ever understand God's way in some things:

God is good all the time and all the time God is good, for that is His nature.  Praise the Lord.


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Casting Crowns: Praise You in This Storm.

Lose weight: fast

40 days and 40 nights is a long time.

Today is shrove Tuesday, we are on the verge of lent.  As we remember Jesus spending well over a month in the desert without food many of us will give something up as well but before we do we are all going to pig out one last time on what we traditionally refer too as pancake day.

The list of stuff that people 'give up' for lent is a long one.  Chocolate, cigarettes, KFC, Facebook, gambling, donuts, clothes shopping... I could go on, but if all we do for lent is give up stuff that is bad for us then we have missed the point entirely.  Lent is much more than a detox program or a weight-loss experiment.  When we put-off the old thing, the bad thing, the thing we feel we need, we are to replace if with a new thing, a holy thing, the thing we know we need.

Some of us had a go recently at reading the bible 90 days.  It was a good exercise, I think, although it was a hard slog at times and a little overwhelming.  The thing is though that simply reading the bible on it's own does not grow us closer to God, we need a relationship with Him to, we need to talk with Him. Lent is an opportunity to develop our relationship with God and put him to the forefront of our lives.

Use lent properly.  When you crave the thing you are fasting from use that as a reminder that God is more necessary to you than what you crave.  When you miss food or cigarettes or whatever, pray.  With God's help when this period of lent has passed maybe we will crave God the way we crave take-aways and that's something we'll never have to give up.

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

Matthew 4:2-4

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That Friday feeling

God said 'Yes'!

People pray a lot. They pray about all kinds of things. Some people pray and they don't really believe that it will work but they just want to feel like they are doing something. Others pray believing in the all-consuming power of God.

God always answers prayers, always.  Some times He says no, other times he says wait, these times are a blessing from God. When His will is done all is right with the world - even when it doesn't feel like it. Then there are those other times when God says 'Yes' and your whole world changes as a result.  It's like the 'man from del monte' moment but infinitely better.

No matter what it is, big or small. And no matter how long you have prayed for it, whether it was months or years or if it was was an emergency prayer in the midst of a crisis; when God says 'yes' there is such relief and joy that we can do nothing else than praise the God who can change things.

So what is it you have to praise God for today?  A new job, release from illness, a pay rise, your wife, family unity, new life, the salvation of your soul, the bright new day, a phone call from a long-lost brother, justice, a bill paid, safe return of a parent, food...  The list is literally endless.  When God says 'yes' it's time to celebrate. Let's not forget to be thankful, to give the glory to God and to praise Him with all we've got.

What has God said yes to in your life lately?

And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Exodus 33:19

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AGM

Last night was our church's Annual General Meeting.

I fear that maybe a lot of people have their own personal AGM, that is their Annual God Moment.  Once a year they remember that they should really tip their hat towards 'the big man upstairs'.  Usually this happens at Christmas or maybe Easter.

When things get really bad, at some time of unplanned crisis (is a crisis ever planned?) an EGM will be called.  A time of emergency knee-dropping to deal with the unexpected danger or hardship.

This is not good enough.

God is well capable of responding to any emergent situation and He knows all about you without you filling Him in; but what God desires from you is a relationship, actual regular quality time not some series of short reports once a year.

Make your relationship with God more than a fleeting visit once a year or whenever. Converse with him daily, hourly even, spend time alone with Him and experience the pure joy of life. Do it today, tomorrow and every day.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, 

who daily bears our burdens.
Psalm 68:19

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The King is alive!

Elvis lives on.

The magnificent city of Budapest is to honour Elvis Presley by making him an honourary citizen.  This is because of his support for the people after the relovution in 1956 (read more here).

While this is a nice thing for Budapest to do for Elvis it isn't much good to him because he is dead (no actually, he is).  There are only two places to be citizen of when we leave this life - Heaven or Hell.

Heaven is by far the better of these two places but they are both very real.  The citizenship of Heaven is kind of an honourary award too.  What I mean is that it cannot be earned and it is not given because of our parents standing.  It is not have geographical or historical conditions placed on it. Citizens of Heaven are given that special status if they love the King of that city, if they honour God and follow Jesus Christ. It's as simple as that.

People love to flatter other people with praise and honours but they will mean nothing after death.  Honour the King now and you will be given citizenship of heaven and eternal joy will be yours.

Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

  Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalm 100:3-4

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Size isn't everything

Now it is possible to see the invisible. Sort of.

Boffins at the University of Manchester have developed a microscope which can see objects as small as 50 billionths of a metre. Things so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye.  They reckon this microscope will be able to look directly at viruses and the like without having to use slow and expensive imaging techniques. (Read about it for yourself here.)

Now I know that me explaining this to you is like Jennifer Aniston explaining the science of shampoo (although I'm guessing that'd be more fun) but you've got to admit that it's pretty clever stuff.

I wonder if, when we can see the intricate design in things so very small, will more people come to realise that this big universe with it's itty-bitty constituent parts could not be brought about by any other means than by the hand of an awesome God.

Science is not the enemy of God, it is the study of what he has made.  Let's hope that those who practice science don't miss the point and inflate their own ego's rather than seeing the wonder of creation and praising the Lord.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them. 

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

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I accidentally posted some mid-week music yesterday thinking it was Wednesday (oops!).  I'm obviously working too hard.

To boldly go

Last night I met a Spaceman.

Granted, this guy never actually made it to space, that was never his intention, but he did work for NASA on the Mars Rover, and he has the photo's to prove it.  The thing is though that that was probably not the most exciting or interesting thing this guy has done.

He has live in LA and Hong Kong.  He has developed labs in hospitals, designed computers for BAA, taught kindergarten kids to speak English, sired three children and watched God work in the most unpredictable of ways.  The Spaceman and his wife have done a lot.

The thing that struck me though was not the almost unbelievable adventure, not even the photo's of far flung places but the attitude in the heart.

When the prompting comes to do something radical the Spaceman says, 'Just do it'.  That is the attitude God likes.  It is not reckless abandon, it is not pig-headedness or mindless rebellion; when it's God's instruction it is right and proper that we do not dillydally on the way.

I'm not sure I've got that attitude yet but I'm determined to work on it.  It may not take me to the far-flung corners of the world but it may mean more conversations about Christ, more good deeds, more radical God-centred thinking, more change in my life and in the things I do.

Life is short on this earth, we have but a moment to do the things God has laid out for us; lets beat around the bush no-longer.  If God days to do something - just do it.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

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Matt Redman - You Never Let Go.