The Cleaner

Mark 1v40- A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

We can often think, we have often been taught, that we need to sort out our lives, get rid of our sin, become whole, before we come to Jesus, before we worship, before we pray, before we come to church. That if we are dirty we are not worthy to get anywhere near our Lord. 

This is all wrong.

We do not get clean to come to Jesus, we come to Jesus to get clean. 

We come sinners we leave Saints. 

We are made into righteous Princes and Princesses.

We are given our inheritance, of a prince, the kingdom, for free. 

We can sit with him, rest with him, praise him.

We can be in a relationship with him.

And what rite do we have? None, except for in him, we are made co-heirs of the kingdom.

(I can't remember where I heard this, think it was maybe Soul Survivor, so big Mike, or could have been Bill Johnson, or could have been Phil Porter, or anyone...! Not sure.

I am robbing it though and passing it off as my own.)

Stories (Cont...)

I wrote about the usefulness of stories as my first blog (see below). I missed some stuff out.

Why isn't Jesus so present in our lives that we have to talk about him? 

If I love a football team I always bring them up, If I love a girl I can't stop thinking and talking about her, if I meet someone new I want to tell people about them, if something unusual or funny happens in my day I want to spread it, if I have a good pizza from the JCR then people know, if I enjoy some new music, if I think something is funny, if I think something is sad, I love to talk about it, to tell people about it. I love to gossip.

Why isn't Jesus as easy as that? Why can't I gossip about him? Why isn't it natural?

I love Jesus. Why isn't he cropping up in my every conversation?!

We need to be gossiping about him, spreading rumours about his work, lighting fires in peoples hearts, planting seeds that the gardener can tend to.

We need to start spreading the gospel...!

Hypocrisy

I've just been to a DICCU CU Central meeting, the preacher, like last week, was preaching on Luke 12, and about how we can be hypocrites as Christians. How we can live a life, pretending.

It is so true (and doesn't the truth set you free?). 

We (when I say we, I probably mean I) can spend a life concentrating on worldly (maybe even positive) things like a degree, a girlfriend, a friendship, popularity, a sport, a fitness, a charity, a 'life', or on a night out, a beer, a flirt, banter, crude/lude/unhelpful jokes. Building up our earthly possessions.

One of the basic messages of the Gospel is about treasures on Earth and treasures in Heaven. Simple. Jesus said (Luke 12 v 34) 'For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.' (Is my heart in the Lord? For his kingdom?)

If I spend my life building up Earthly things, concentrating on here, now and me, then where will I be left in heaven?

I want to live a life where my everything is about and for and including and prompted by and uplifting Jesus. Whether that is through a beer with mates, in a conversation, in my degree, in my sport, it doesn't matter, just in my everything. So much so when a randomer at lunch says they have a cold, I offer to pray, when I speak to a friend about church, I am so in love with Jesus that my excitement for church rubs off on them, that it is the normal for me to be gossiping about Jesus, to have him in everything, so my smile, the way I act, the way I treat everyone is obvious and infectious, so he is my first thought in everything, so that my work, my sport, my words, my hands are for him.

I don't think that is something I can just change, that can be a physical, emotional, mental change. I need to be changed supernaturally, to be so filled by his power that my life is his, to be overflowing with his spirit that I cannot contain it, to not be frightened by opinion, and to let my yes be yes and my no be no, to be plain, to be honest, to avoid hypocrisy.

I've got a bit of Deja-Vu, I've been here before..........

There are loads of Horses in Germany

Loads.

It's nice though.

Grace

I am in the process of trying to get my head around what Grace actually is and what it actually means.

It's massive.

Stories

I went to a seminar at Soul Survivor by a mad guy called Fuzz Kito who talked about how he goes around the world telling stories of hope, starting rumours of God moving and lighting fires.

I love that.

Hopefully my Blogs will be little stories of hope; to think about.

He mentioned how Jesus used stories in his preaching, he didn't tell it straight but used parables and metaphors to explain about his world and his kingdom.

Then it dawned on me that speakers like Mike Pilavachi and J.John spend time preaching and telling stories, it works, and they get across the good news about the kingdom through those stories.

I love that.