Sermon: Know Christ

Know Christ

Billy Graham tells of a time, during the early years of his preaching ministry, when he was due to lead a Crusade meeting in a town in South Carolina and he needed to mail a letter. He asked a little boy in the main street how he could get to the post office. After the boy had given him directions, Billy Graham said “If you come to the Baptist Church tonight, I’ll tell you how to get to Heaven.” The boy replied, “No thanks, you don’t even know how to get to the post office.”

Life seems to be all about what or who you know. We are so often judged, and I’m sure we ourselves do this too, on whether we know the right kind of people or whether we know the right information, have studied at the right schools, worked with the right companies. There are countless websites and book devoted to teaching people how to expand their networks and meet the right people to ensure they get ahead in life. And not to be outdone, the Bible itself gives us its own tips and suggestions on how to meet the right people – although it goes as far as to say that there is only one person you need to know. Jesus. That’s what I want to look at today: the centrality of Jesus and knowing Him to our Christian walk. I want us to think about why it’s so important and then to think about how we go about it in our daily lives. Paul, in the passage we read from Philippians, says that he considers “everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” That provides us with a huge challenge as we ourselves need to question if we could confidently stand with Paul in claiming that we too consider everything loss compared to knowing Jesus.

When we look at the context of this section of the letter, and the letter as a whole, it helps us to more clearly see the enormity of what Paul is claiming here. Paul, at the start of chapter 3, has been warning the Philippian Church against those who would try to convince them that they need the Jewish act of circumcision to be truly saved, and he uses some pretty colourful language to describe these people. First he calls them dogs, then mutilators of the flesh, after which he contrasts them with those who follow Christ, saying that they are the true circumcision, as they do not put confidence in the flesh. In other words, they don’t trust in things they can do, outward signs, but rather, what Christ has done. But then Paul second guesses what some might say. “What about me,” some might ask. “I’m doing pretty well for myself, I’ve led a pretty good life.” Well, Paul then proceeds to give us his life story in a nutshell, with a particular focus on his reason for putting confidence in the flesh.

Paul claims that he has more reason for trusting in what he has done, than anyone else. “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more” Paul says in verse 4. And here’s why: circumcised on the eighth day. This was according to the strict Jewish law that stated all males had to be circumcised on the eighth day. Paul’s life was characterised from the very beginning as a follower of the law, even before he could choose to do so himself. Next: of the people of Israel. He was one of God’s chosen people, descended from the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is especially significant, because he was writing to a group of people living in Philippi, a city in northern Greece that was originally populated by Italian settlers, and was actually a colony of Rome. So for Paul to point out his Israelite heritage was to show that he was one-better than his readers. Paul then goes on to be a little more specific about his heritage: of the tribe of Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin was one of only two tribes that were loyal to the house of David, when Israel and Judah split into two separate countries. On top of that, the holy city, Jerusalem, lay on the border of the tribal territories of Benjamin and Judah. So to claim his Benjaminite heritage was to align himself with the ancient spiritual capital of the Jewish religion. Next is Hebrew of Hebrews, just to cement the picture of Paul being a model Jewish man, as Hebrew as they come. But not just any Hebrew - when it came to the law, a Pharisee. Now, we often view Pharisees negatively because of their portrayal in the Gospels, but if anyone in that period of time knew the law, it was the Pharisees. From a very young age they spent copious amounts of time studying and memorising the law, and were by far the experts in that area. It was definitely a claim that only served to further his point that he had a very high standing in his reasons for confidence in his past. Then he goes on to talk about his zeal – it was such that he persecuted the Church. He was so passionate about the law, so convinced of its necessity that he went after anyone who he saw as being disobedient or supporting something contrary to the law. The law was at the centre of Paul’s being and his life revolved around its defence. Paul then wraps up his list by stating that he is faultless in regard to legalistic righteousness. He has done it all, lived completely by the book.

He well and truly has every reason and more to put his confidence in the flesh. And after that little list of reasons, I think you’d be hard pressed to find many, if any, who had more reason than Paul to trust in themselves. But I think we can get into the same mentality sometimes, of putting confidence in the flesh, in what we can do. Our list might not be quite the same as Paul’s – I certainly can’t claim to be an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin – but I can definitely think of a few things that if I’m honest I would put on a list of things I put my confidence in.

I have a pretty good knowledge of the Bible and have done quite a bit of study on it over the years, including some subjects at Uni.

I’ve lead Bible Studies and been president of Student Life, the Christian group I was involved with at Uni.

I’ve been to Japan and worked as a missionary over there and now continue to work for Student Life.

These things earn me favour with God, right? They make me that bit better than some other people. I’ve got some reasons to boast.

Think about what things you put your confidence in, things you’ve done.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with these things in and of themselves. The problem arises when we trust these things above Jesus, when they become our reasons for confidence. Paul goes on to say that whatever was to his profit, he now considered loss for the sake of Christ. We’re not talking about a better alternative. These things are now a loss, they are detrimental, negative, unhelpful. The old way wasn’t something to build Paul’s new life on, but rather something to get rid of, something to throw away. That’s what we do with rubbish – we get rid of it. Paul goes one step further and says that not only are these things that he used to put confidence in a loss in his eyes, but everything else is a loss as well. And compared to what? To the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.

That’s ultimately what life comes back to: knowing Christ. Everything else, as Paul says, pales into insignificance, its nothing. And Paul isn’t talking about knowing things about Christ, knowing facts – no, he’s talking about knowing Christ personally. Being a Christian isn’t just about knowing facts, its not about believing a set of creeds. No, James writes in his letter “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” Simply believing a theological fact isn’t enough, Satan himself knows and believes all those things. No, the key is knowing Christ personally. Jesus Himself agrees with this and even goes as far as to say that not only is life all about that, but eternal life is defined by it. In John 17:3 Jesus says “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

From the very beginning of the Bible, knowing God and having a relationship with Him was at the centre of the story. In the first few chapters of the Bible, in Genesis, we get one of the most beautiful pictures: God walking in the Garden of Eden. God made man and woman and placed them in Eden and they had perfect relationship with Him, so much so that God would be physically present with them in the garden. And after Adam and Eve ate from the tree that God had forbidden them to eat from, it was this relationship with God that was the first thing to suffer. Instead of welcoming the joy of walking with God in the garden, in Genesis 3:8 we read that “they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” The relationship with God had been broken.

If we fast forward into the history of the nation of Israel we see time and time again that relationship with God was the ideal. There’s no doubting that the law was quite central to the Israelite faith, but when we look at the different leaders God picked for His people, it wasn’t always based on their legalistic obedience. Moses was a known murderer, having killed the Egyptian guard in Exodus chapter 2, but yet he was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And in Exodus 33 we get an amazingly beautiful picture of Moses’ relationship with God. Verse 11 tells us that “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”

So too, David, King of Israel and writer of many of the Psalms is described in 1 Samuel 13 and Acts 13 as being a man after God’s own heart. All throughout the Old Testament, the kings of Judah are compared to David. They either did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as their father David did; or they walked in all the sinful ways of the kings of Israel, unlike their father David. David is held up as the ideal King, yet we know from reading the books of Samuel that David was far from a pillar of legal obedience. David had an affair with another woman, and then had her husband killed so he could take her as his wife. Yet despite these obvious failures, David is still one of the most revered characters of Israel’s history – because he knew God, he had a deep relationship with Him, which shows through in many of the Psalms he wrote too.

Just like Moses and David, however, we too have made mistakes, we’ve sinned, messed up many times throughout our lives. We deserve to be separated from God. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, the result of disobedience is a ruined relationship with God. Which brings us back to Jesus. It’s only through Jesus that we can have that relationship restored.
It’s a bit like this picture:

we can’t reach God, no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do. So rather than waiting for us to get to Him, God took the first step and did something to get to us – He sent Jesus, who lived among us, as one of us, but he lived the perfect life. Then he went to the cross, and was crucified, despite his innocence, to bridge that gap that existed between us and God.
Then he rose from the dead proving that Jesus could do what he promised: restore that relationship with God.

But as we saw earlier simply knowing these things doesn’t count for much – it all comes back to actually knowing Christ personally, not just facts about him. We all need to respond to Christ and his offer of a relationship with Him. And how do we respond? We give Jesus everything, we allow Him to take control, to be the person who runs our lives, not ourselves. That’s exactly what Paul is saying in Philippians. Everything is loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord – those two little words sum it up. Christ Jesus is Paul’s Lord. He is Paul’s everything. Paul says that it’s for Christ’s sake that he has lost all things, and he considers them rubbish that he might gain Christ.

We see this Christ-first attitude in our other reading tonight, from John’s Gospel. Those of you who heard Bob preach 2 weeks ago will notice that he referenced this story in his sermon. Fortunately we’re looking at something a little different to what he preached on, but I’d just like to point out that it was set out as the lectionary reading for tonight, so I’m not just stealing his material. Jesus has come to visit the home of Mary and Martha, sisters to Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. While they were all eating Mary did something incredibly outrageous. She took a pint of very expensive perfume, worth about a year’s wages, and poured it on Jesus feet and then wiped his feet with her hair. This perfume was probably one of Mary’s most treasured possessions, given its great monetary value, yet in her eyes, Jesus was more important than any possession she had. This is contrasted sharply with Judas just a couple of verses later, as Judas responds to what he has seen Mary just do. Judas objected to this extravagant show of affection from Mary, claiming the money could have been given to the poor. Now, John tells us that Judas didn’t actually care about the poor, but as the treasurer for the group, he used to help himself to what was in the common kitty. Mary deemed Jesus more important than anything, whereas Judas was just interested in using Jesus to further himself, to make a profit.

So, tonight, I want us to think about this: do we truly know Christ, and then where does Christ fit in our value scheme? Are you just someone who know things about Christ, but has never taken that step of starting a relationship with him? Are you someone who has a relationship with Christ, but you feel like it’s caught up in facts and figures? Has Christ become less important to you than some of the other things in your life? Well don’t wait to do something about it, talk to Him tonight – be honest with where you’re at. God knows your heart and wants you to know Him too. How can we know God you might say? Well, how do you get to know a friend? You spend time with them, you talk to them, you listen to them. It’s the same with God. If you want to cultivate a relationship with Him, spend time with him. Talk to him, in prayer. And don’t just speak, wait and listen. Hear from Him by reading His word. And then take on board what He says and apply it. Don’t go through this life without knowing the one person worth knowing.

A New Year

Well, 2009 has finished and 2010 is here. I celebrated the new year by playing in the snow - a very strange thing for an Australian like me haha. This has been a big year for me, obviously. I moved to Japan and have changed and grown so much in that time here. God has taught me so much about myself and my relationship with Him. This year has had lots of challenges, but it's all been worth it.

This year has also been filled with joy. My brother got married in February and my best mate, Luke, got married in September.

But there has also been moment's of sadness. A friend of mine died earlier this year which was a pretty big shock. It really reminded me of how short life can be and that I need to make the most of every opportunity God gives me each day.

I've had a lot of interesting experiences this year too. I experienced my first earthquake. I experienced my first typhoon. I experienced my first snow fall.

And now 2010 starts, and a whole new adventure waits. I don't know what it will hold, but God does and that's ultimately what matters.

"Follow Me" / 「私に従って来なさい」

I was reading the end of John this morning and was stuck by the mercy of Jesus. In John 21, Jesus appears to his disciples again, but this time is especially for Simon Peter's benefit. Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him and three times Peter tells him that he definitely loves him. Jesus did this as a way to show Peter that he was forgiven for denying him three times before Jesus' death. But what Jesus says after that was something I'd never noticed before. Verse 19 says this: "And after saying this he said to him "Follow me." Peter had made many mistakes throughout the course of the Gospels, culminating in his denial of Christ. Yet Jesus reminded him that the original call Peter had received from Jesus way back at the beginning of his ministry had not changed, despite Peter's failings. Peter was called to follow Jesus at the start, and Peter was called to continue to do that, despite what he had done. Following Jesus does not depend on our ability to do it 100% and as such the call does not change no matter how much we fail. You were called to follow Him and today He again calls you to follow Him.

今朝、ヨハネの福音書の終わりを読んで、イエス様のあわれみにストの影響をこうむりました。ヨハネ２１書にイエス様はもう一度、弟子たちに、今回は特にシモン・ペテロのために、姿を現して。３回にイエス様はペテロに「わたしを愛しますか？」と聞いて、ペテロは絶対に愛すると答えました。３度イエス様を知らないと言ったのにイエス様はペテロが赦されたことを見せるためにそうしました。でも、その後のイエス様が言われたことをまだ気がつきませんでした。「こうお話しになってから、ペテロにいわれた。「わたしに従いなさい。」」が１９節には書かれました。ペテロは福音書の中にいろいろな失敗して、一番悪いのはイエス様を知らないと言ったことですけど、ペテロの失敗にもかかわらず、最初のイエス様から受けれた呼びかけは変えらなかった。最初にペテロはイエス様に従うことに呼びかけられて、したことにもかかわらずに、ペテロは続けて従うことに呼びかけられました。イエス様に従うことは私たちの能力によるとわけではないので、よく失敗しても、私たちの呼びかけは変えません。最初にイエス様に従うことに呼びかけられて、今日もイエス様に従うことに呼びかけられます。

Love / 愛

I want to share a story from las week with you. Last Tuesday, after he had finished his work on campus, Kaji bumped into Ryota and they caught the train together. God really lead their conversation and Kaji was able to share that even if he doesn't have the coolest clothes or lots of money, God still loves him. This really impacted Ryota. Then on Friday, at Friday Live, Ryota shared about this conversation with me, Kaji and some other non-Christians. He said that the thought of a God who loved him made him cry when he got back to his apartment. Please pray for Ryota. He is close to accepting Christ and finished CE yesterday.

先週の話しを分かち合いたいと思います。先週の火曜日に、外大でのアルバイトの後にかじくんが偶然にりょうたくんに会って、いっしょに電車で帰ってきました。神様が彼らの会話を本当に導いて、かじくんが「かっこいい服がなくても、お金が少なくても、神様はそれでもりょうたくんを愛している」のことを分かち合えました。そのことはりょうたくんに大きい影響を与えました。
その後、金曜日にフライデイ・ライブでりょうたくんは僕とかじくんと他のノンクリスチンにその会話について分かち合いました。彼は帰ってから、自分を愛している神様のことを考えて、涙を流したと言いました。りょうたのために祈ってください。もうすぐイエス様を受けそうです。昨日、最後のCEをしました。

Typhoon / 台風

At the start of this month we had a typhoon in Nagoya. I actually slept through it, but I'm told it was quite big, with strong winds. The week after the typhoon, however, had amazingly beautiful weather. The sky was so blue and the air was so clean, it was hard to imagine that we'd had a typhoon just days before. But apparently this is normal: after a typhoon, the weather becomes really nice. The typhoon 'cleans' out all the dirt and dust from the air. It can be the same with our relationship with God. We can be going through a stage of life that seems like we're in the middle of a typhoon, but God can use that to clean us out and purify us. Jesus talks about this in John 15, which I was reading recently. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." - John 15:1-2. Pruning involves cutting things off, its not a fun process and it will hurt. But the result is worth it: "so that it will be even more fruitful"

今月の初めに名古屋に台風が来ました。実は、僕が寝たけど本当に大きくて、風が強い台風だと聞きました。しかし、次の週にすごくきれいな天気でした。空はとても青くて、空気はすごくきれいでした。何日間前に台風があったことはあまり信じられないでした。これはふつうと聞きました。台風の後、天気はきれいになって、空気から黄塵などが捨てさせた。神さまとの関係は同じようなものだと思います。時々、私たちの人生は台風と似ているでしょう。でも、神さまはその場合を使うによって、私たちの心を清めます。最近読んだヨハネ１５書の中に、イエス様はそのことについて話します。「わたしはまことのぶどうの木であり、わたしの父は農夫です。わたしの枝で実を結ばないものはみな、父がそれを取り除き、実を結ぶものはみな、もっと多く実を結ぶために、刈り込みをなさいます。」－ヨハネ15:1-2. 刈り込みはものを切ることです。あまり楽しい方法ではなくて、痛いでしょう。しかし、結果はいいですね！「もっと多く実を結ぶために」

Sin / 罪

On Saturday I had McDonalds for lunch. It seemed like a good idea at the time. On Saturday night I felt very sick and regretted having McDonalds. But despite this, I will most probably get McDonalds again next week if I'm feeling hungry and wanting a quick meal, even though I know I'll feel sick because of it. I think sin is the same kind of thing. In my experience, sin seems like a good idea at the time and you don't really think about how it hurts God or the consequences of our actions, but later on it comes back to hurt you and you feel guilty and terrible because of it.

土曜日に昼ごはんにマクドナルドを食べました。あの時にいいアイディアだと思いました。土曜日の夜に病気に感じていました。マクドナルドを食べたことを悔いました。しかし、病気になるかもしれないのに来週お腹がすいていて、早く食べたなければ、多分またマクドナルドを食べます。

罪はこのようなものだとおもいます。僕の人生の中に、やっている時にいいアイディアだそうです。どうゆうふうに神様の機嫌を損ねることや僕らの行動の事業自得をあまり考えません。でも、後で気がとがめます。

Grace / 恵み

We had our first Immanuel Meeting for the semester last night which was exciting. Immanuel Meeting is our weekly student meeting for the Nagoya ministry - the one regular opportunity the students get to gather with people from different campuses, share fellowship and live out what it means to be a Christ-centred community. The talk was about the theme of the coming semester: 'Pass The Baton', based on 2 Timothy 2:2 which says "And the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witness, entrust to reliable men who in turn will be able to teach others." Masayoshi, the staff who was doing the talk, started talking about grace and he showed us the Chinese character/kanji for 'grace': 恵. He said that it has 2 parts to it: 'cross' (十) and 'to think' (思) and that it gives a good picture of how to understand grace. To understand grace we have to think of the cross. To receive grace we have to think of the cross. To live out grace we have to think of the cross. When someone hurts me, I have to think of the cross and what Jesus did, and if I fully comprehend the enormity of what Christ did, then I can't possibly continue to hold a grudge against that person - I treat them with grace!

昨日の夜に後期の最初のインマヌエルミーティングを行いました。インマヌエルミーティングは毎週、名古屋のミ二ストリーの学生を集めるミーティングです。このミーティングは学生が違う大学からの友達に会ったり、交わりをしたり、クリスチャンコミュニティーに生きたりする機会が一つだけです。メッセージは「バトンを渡す」という後期のテーマに関する。そういうテーマは第2テモテ2：2に基づく:「多くの証人の前で、私から聞いたことを、他の人にも教える力のある忠実な人たちにゆだねなさい。」
説教したまさよしというスタッフは恵みについて話し始めて、恵みの漢字を見せた。「恵」は二つの部分があると言った: 「十」（十字架）プラス　「思」（思う）。この考え方はどうか恵みをわかるようなイメージだと思います。恵みを分かるために十字架を思うべきです。恵みを受けるために十字架をおもうべきです。恵みを上げるために十字架を思うべきです。誰か、私を傷付けたら、十字架とかイエス様の行いを思うべきで、キリストの深い愛をはっきり分ければ、その人を許すでしょう。恵みを上げる。

Japanese / 日本語

So, a couple of friends of mine have been writing their blogs/journals in Japanese for practice, so I thought it might good for me to try doing the same. Don't worry, I'll write it all in English as well so that you can understand it. I haven't had to write much in Japanese lately, I mostly just use it in conversation, so this could be a good challenge for me.

So next weekend I'm climbing a mountain with some friends from Church. This Mountain (Mt Ontake) is 3067m (10062ft) high, making it the 11th highest mountain in Japan. Now, Australia's highest mountain is just 2228m (7310ft) high, so this could be quite an experience. On top of that, Mt Ontake is actually a volcano. We have to get up at 5am to drive to Gifu-ken for the climb, so I have a feeling I'll be a little sleepy.

僕の友達の二人は最近、練習のために日本語で日記を書き始めました。ぼくはいいアイディアだと思うので、ぼくもそうとしに見たいとおもいます。心配しないで、分かるように、英語でも書きます。日本に来る後で、あまり日本語で書く機会がありません。たいてい会話的な日本語を使います。だから、これはいいチャレンジだと思います。

じゃ、来週末に教会の友達といっしょに山を登るつもりです。御岳山という山は３０６７メートル（１００６２フィート）し、日本の中に１１番高い山です。実は、オーストラリアの一番高い山は２２２８メートル（７３１０フィート）だけですから、御岳山を登ることはいい経験かもしれません。その上に、御岳山は火山です！岐阜県に運転するために５時におきるはずだからちょっとねむいだと思います。

If any of my Japanese friends want to correct my Japanese, that would be helpful!

もし、日本人友達の誰かが僕の日本語の間違いを正せば、役に立ちます！

The Bride

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I made a trip back to Sydney at the end of August to be best man in my best mate's wedding. I love weddings, I think they're amazing times of celebration and joy, and I've been privileged enough to be involved in the bridal party of the last 2 I've been to which adds an extra dimension to the fun of them.
This past wedding was a fantastic reminder of the amazing relationship I have with Jesus though, as all good Christian relationships should. The sermon at this wedding was about how a wedding and a Christian relationship are just symbols of something more: symbols of the relationship between Jesus and His people. So, just as the vows are given by a bride and a groom on their wedding day, so too Jesus promises to love and cherish His people. And we have to respond, we have to choose as well to love and obey Him, just as the bride does to her husband on wedding day. If we don't respond, the promises of Jesus are just as meaningless as if the groom made his vows, but the bride did not - they would not be married.

These vows, when lived out in a marriage, are also a reflection of the way Jesus lived us His love for us in such a self-sacrificial way, going all the way to the cross for His people, His bride. If we can see a loving, Christian marriage being played out in front of us, it should be a reflection of what it means to be loved unconditionally by Jesus, no matter who we are or what we've done.

Sermon: God Can Use You

Its been a while between posts, I've been busy, sorry. Been jetting off around the world, doing camps, and lots of other things. I've got some stuff I want to write about soon, but I'll get to that in another post. I want to share with you what I preached in my home Church a couple of weeks ago while I was in Sydney (more on that trip in another blog too). Its called God Can Use You. Enjoy!

A man was walking along a beach one morning and noticed that the sand was littered with thousands and thousands of starfish that had been washed up on shore. He knew that they would die if the morning sun shone on them for too long, so he proceeded to pick one up and flung it back into the sea. A lady noticed and asked the man what he was doing. “The beach goes on for miles,” she said. “How can you possibly make a difference?”
The man pointed to the sea and answered “I made a difference for that one.”

It’s a nice little story, and its point is something I want us to explore in greater depth today as we look at Scripture: that God can in fact use us and we can make a difference, no matter who we are. I often thought that I wasn’t going to be very useful by God, and while I may not have planted a Church or lead hundreds to Christ I can safely say that God has used me. There are so many ways God can use us and He actually wants to use us – its just a matter of whether you’re open to being used by Him or not. I want to look at someone in the Bible who God used in amazing ways, but sometimes his contribution to the unfolding of God’s will goes undetected. I want to look at Barnabas. I think it’s safe to say that the course of history was changed because of his influence on the early Church, even if he isn’t the most famous character in the New Testament.

We’re going to be looking at the Book of Acts, and for those who may not be familiar with it, this is a book written by a guy named Luke. Luke wrote a book detailing the life of Jesus, and this Book of Acts is the follow up to that book, describing the life of the Christian Church following Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it’s in this account of history that we get Barnabas making his contribution to the story.

The first mention we get of Barnabas is in Acts 4:36-37. The writer has just described what the community of Christians in the weeks after Jesus’ Resurrection was like, saying that they were “one in heart and mind” and that they shared everything they had, selling their possessions to care for the poor among them. Then he finishes off that section with this: “Joseph, a Levite fromCyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the Apostles’ feet.” This amazing generosity is contrasted with the next chapter of Acts in which Ananias and Sapphira also bring some money to lay at the Apostles’ feet, but they lie and tell them it is all the money they got for the sale, when in reality they kept some for themselves, and they suffer the consequences for their sin. Barnabas however has no deceit in him, but desires to be a servant in action by putting others needs before his own. This brief mention is definitely a sign of things to come though, which may well be why he gets singled out in this section.

The story continues to unfold in the following chapters, most notable with on of the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, Stephen, being captured by the Jewish leaders and stoned to death, and from this Luke tells us in Acts 8:1 “On that day a great persecution broke out against the Church at Jerusalem, and all except the Apostles were scatted throughout Judea and Samaria.” It’s at this point that we’re introduced to a man that would play a crucial role in the development of the rest of the book of Acts: a Jewish religious fanatic named Saul, who Luke tells us, “began to destroy the Church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” It seems he was heading up this new effort of persecution and in the next chapter, Luke tells us that Saul got permission from the Jewish leaders to go to another city, Damascus, to continue his persecution of the Christians there. Something unexpected happened though – while Saul was on the road to Damascus he saw Jesus Himself appear to him and he is converted. The Christian-killer becomes a Christian himself – you couldn’t write a better script if you tried. Saul then starts preaching in the Jewish synagogues that Jesus is the Christ, no doubt confusing everyone who heard him preaching as he’d become quite well known among the Jewish community for his exploits.

However, when Saul tried to return to Jerusalem and join the community of Christians there, he faced a problem: the leaders of the Church didn’t believe that he had truly become a Christian. They doubted. They may well have suspected that he was using this as a ploy to persecute them too. There was one, however, among the leaders who trusted Saul - Barnabas. Barnabas stepped in and vouched for Saul – he put his own reputation and standing on the line for what he knew was right, despite not being a witness to the things Saul spoke of. The change in Saul’s status was amazing, as we see in chapter 9 verse 28, just two verses after the leaders of the Church were so fearful of him: “So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.” He went from outright rejection to being given a free pass to minister as he saw fit – and all because of the step of faith Barnabas took.

We skip ahead 2 chapters and we see Barnabas at the centre of the action again. Luke tells us that some Christians took the message of Jesus to the Greeks in Antioch – the first time the message had really been preached to non-Jews – and a Church was formed there, probably with a mix of Jews and non-Jews in the congregation. The leaders in Jerusalem decided they needed to send a representative to this new fledgling Church. We don’t know why they wanted to do that, whether it was to encourage and build them up, or to check out their legitimacy, but we do know they picked Barnabas for the job. When Barnabas arrived, Luke tells us, he “saw the evidence of the grace of God” and “he was glad”. Now, to understand the significance of this you have to understand the thought of the Jewish people of the day. The Jews were God’s chosen people, as revealed in their Scriptures – the Old Testament – and so this position made them special, better than non-Jews. And this train of thought stayed with some of the new Christians, all of whom were Jews. Just prior to this section, Peter has a vision from God where God has to convince him that the non-Jews deserve the Gospel as well – so we can see that it was an issue that faced the early Church. And yet, here we have Barnabas, who was glad at seeing a congregation with a mix of Jews and non-Jews, worshipping together.

Barnabas didn’t view his job as being over then though, but saw a few opportunities here. He leftAntioch and went to Cyprus to find Saul and brought him back to Antioch and together they stayed there over a year encouraging and teaching the Church. Crucial to this is that they didn’t just encourage them with words and leave. They encouraged with words, yes, but they coupled that with standing by them and working with them – it was with action. James expresses this concept in chapter 2 verses 15 and 16: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” Barnabas and Saul applied this principal well, standing with the Antioch Church, not just encouraging from a distance.

The impact of Barnabas ministry is one that isn’t as obvious compared to Saul. Saul went on to be called Paul and wrote the vast majority of the New Testament, as well as planting countless Churches. The book of Acts, from chapter 12 onwards basically tells Paul’s story. Paul is the hero of the New Testament. But we can’t forget how God used Barnabas, because without him things would have looked very different. Paul would not have become the amazing man who spread the good news of Jesus all through Asia Minor and Europe without Barnabas. If Barnabas had not vouched for Paul in Jerusalem, Paul would not have developed the same reputation among the Jews and would not have received their blessing for all of his missionary journeys, nor would they have condoned his being appointed a leader in the Antioch church, which was no doubt a significant time of growth for Paul in his ministry skills and propelled him into his missionary journeys.

The Church at Antioch became very significant too, with it serving as the home base so to speak for Barnabas’ and Paul’s missionary journeys, as well as providing lots of financial support to the struggling Jerusalem Church during a particular tough time of famine in the region.

The story of Barnabas doesn’t end there however - he has one last significant mention that I want to look at today, and it’s found at the end chapter 15 of Acts. This is from verse 36:

“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”

Once again we see Barnabas standing up for someone in the face of opposition, despite their chequered past, much like he did with Paul – but unlike with Paul, it doesn’t seem to end positively. Barnabas goes on with Mark, and Paul goes on his own way with Silas, but it is Paul who gets the blessing of the Church in Jerusalem. So it seems that after all these positive things we see of Barnabas previously, his story actually ends on a sad note. However, while Acts doesn’t tell us anymore about Barnabas and there is nothing in any other part of the Bible that tells us explicitly that Paul and Barnabas made up after their disagreement, there is reason to believe things ended well. We move on to Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Scholars regard this letter as the final letter of Paul’s, and so I think its fair to say what it has to say can be dated after this story of Paul and Barnabas’ disagreement. In chapter 4 verse 11, Paul is in the middle of giving some personal remarks to Timothy and he says this: “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” Just read that again: “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” What a turn around: from Paul saying that he would not take Mark with him, no matter what, to the point that he split from his close friend and ministry partner of many years, Barnabas – to saying that he and Mark are not only reconciled, but that Mark is actually “helpful” to his ministry. What amazing discernment Barnabas must have had to see this potential in Mark and then the strength of character to stand by him, despite no-one else wanting to trust him. This Mark is also said to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, so we see yet another significant impact Barnabas had through his influence on someone else.

It’s in this love of Mark, that we see Barnabas living out the Gospel he preached. He was putting his faith into action, just as he did in the Church at Antioch. Barnabas looked beyond the mistakes Mark had made, and saw him as God sees him: forgiven. That’s the good news of the message of Jesus – the message that Barnabas preached and lived out. It’s a message that permeates throughout the Bible: one of a loving God reconciling His people to Himself, so that they can know Him personally. There’s a short little presentation that I’ve used in ministry both in Australia and Japan that condenses this message of the Bible to four basic points and I want to share that with you now. For those already know Christ, be encouraged as you are reminded of the amazing grace that God has shown you. For those who don’t yet know Christ, please, take this on board, not because I’m asking you to, but because God is asking you to.

So, the first point is that

1. God loves you and created you to have a personal relationship with him.

God isn’t a distant God, separate from our lives here, uncaring or uninterested in our lives. He created each one of you personally, knows everything about you, the deepest desires of your heart and loves you, despite your failings. The point of life is to know God, because that’s why he created us.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” – John 17:3

But this isn’t what we see in reality – God seems far from us, we don’t know Him. What keeps us from knowing God?

Well that’s the second point:

2. All of us are sinful and guilty before God, and this sin has separated us from God.

This sin has broken the relationship God created us for, and therefore we can’t know God personally, as He intended us to. The Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3:23) We are basically in rebellion against God, whether actively or passively, and this rebellion stands between us and God. We have put ourselves above God, at the centre of our lives. No matter what we may try to do to rectify this, we can’t – our efforts fall short. It doesn’t matter how much you try, how good you think you can be, you can’t measure up.
It would be like me asking each of you to line up on the beach in Sydney with a small rock and see who can throw that rock to Japan. One might throw it a few metres out, another might throw it over the breakers. You could all line up and have a try, but ultimately none of you will get close to throwing your rock to Japan though. So likewise, our best efforts to please God will fall embarrassingly short.

So what’s the solution? How do we bridge the gap?

3. Jesus Christ is God’s own solution.

It’s through him that we can know God personally; it’s through him that we can have our relationship restored. Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher or a model to follow to live a good life – He was so much more. Jesus died a horrible death on a cross, a torturous Roman method of execution, but this death was significant because it was in our place. Rather than allow us to suffer the consequences of our rebellion against God, Jesus suffered them for us – he stood in our place.

"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God" – 1 Peter 3:18

But Jesus didn’t stay dead – God raised him from the dead, guaranteeing that we too can have eternal life and that Jesus is who he says he was and more than capable to forgive us.

Christ bridges the gap between us and God and He is the only way, as He Himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – (John 14:3)

But simply knowing these things isn’t enough – the Devil himself knows these things about God. And that’s where the 4^th point comes in:

4. We must each respond

We all need to personally respond to Jesus and what he has done. How would you respond?

There's two circles below. The first represents a life that is run by you, the S stands for Self and you are on the throne, making the decisions, running your life. The cross represents Jesus, and He’s not in the circle, not in your life at all.

Then there’s the second circle, where Jesus is on the throne, directing your life and you are not.

Which one is you now? Which one do you think you should be in? If you’re thinking to yourself that you’re in the first, but need to be in the second then you can respond to Jesus by placing your trust in Him as Saviour and Lord.

There’s two aspects to this:

Firstly: agreeing with God that we have sinned and rebelled against Him and then turning away from that rebellion
This is called repentance.

Secondly: trusting Jesus Christ to forgive us completely because He died for our sins

This is called faith.

You can express this by praying to God, basically just talking to him. You don’t need fancy words, the words themselves are not magical, it just needs to reflect your heart. You could pray something like this:

“Lord Jesus, I realise that I have been running my own life and have sinned against you. Thank you for dying for my sins. I want to be the kind of person you want me to be. I receive you as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for giving me this personal relationship with you.

If you can pray that, and mean it, then you can enter into a relationship with Jesus – all by His grace, the free gift of God. If you’ve already made that step, then be reminded of this amazing free gift of God.

We’ve seen, today, how this amazing grace affected Barnabas and made him into a man God was willing to use. Accepting Jesus isn’t just a one off event that ends the day you do it, but it’s a journey that continues on for the rest of your life, and so you too can be continually affected by the grace of God each and every day.

Now, what was it that made Barnabas so special that God was able to use him in such an amazing way, despite falling into the background of the story a little? It’s all well and good to look at what God did through him, but unless we can take something from this and apply it to our lives, it’s just a nice story. What’s the key to God using Barnabas that we can strive towards? It lies back in chapter 11, verse 24: “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.” It wasn’t that he’d been to Bible College and studied theology for many years. It wasn’t that he had experience in Church leadership. It wasn’t that he had been trained in evangelism. It was the simple fact that he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had faith in God, and we see this come through in everything he does. He trusted that God was working genuinely in the life of Paul and he wouldn’t back down on that. He trusted that God was working genuinely in the life of the Church at Antioch and did everything he could to encourage them. He trusted that God was working in the life of Mark. And then he trusted God that he would use him when God sent him out on mission trips throughout Europe.
How can we, like Barnabas, be used by God in our lives? We don’t have to be like Paul, planting Churches and converting hundreds of people wherever we go. We don’t have to move overseas to be a missionary. We don’t have to become a pastor of a Church. These are all good things, and I would encourage anyone considering those to pursue it, but they are not the only ways God can use us. We, like Barnabas, can quietly get alongside someone and encourage them in their lives, where they’re at, walking with them each step of the way. You may never know the impact it might have on their life and what God might then in turn use them to accomplish down the track. Without Barnabas’ influence on a few select people, we may not have the Gospel of Mark, or the letters of Paul. The Gospel may never have spread to large parts of Europe in quite the same way as it did. Barnabas is by no means the centre of the story, he never wrote anything that was included in the Bible – but God was using him in the little things. And God can use you too in those little things, to make a great impact for His Kingdom.

Goodbyes

So I've been in Japan nearly 5 months and am still not really half way yet, but tomorrow I have to say goodbye to some people I've grown to love a lot in the last few months. Two of them I may never see again, and one I might see a couple of times when he comes back to Nagoya from Tokyo on the occasional public holiday, yet these guys have been some of the people I look forward to seeing each week at Church. I don't know if I'm prepared for more goodbyes, I wasn't expecting them again until the end of my term here, but I guess thats a false expectation. The life of a missionary is one of transciency - we are constantly leaving, constantly seeing people come and go. Things are rarely the same. I know in my 5 years in Student Life at Sydney University the missionary team was never the same from one year to the next.
So, Evan, Inori and Ryota - I'm gonna miss you guys and hopefully I'll see you again sometime.

In other news, I didn't get to see Manon on Saturday after all. He wasn't as well as he had been, his white blood cell count was a bit low, so we decided to hold off until I get back from Sydney. So not a lot else to update on sadly, but if I find out anything else, I'll let you know.

Manon Update

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and prayers for Manon since my last post. It's been amazing to see the response of God's people all over the world (thank God for the internet hey haha). Manon started chemotherapy this week and so far it seems to have gone well. I'm looking to go and see him this coming weekend, so hopefully I'll have a bit of a better idea of whats going on then. Although, my knowledge of Japanese medical terminology is quite limited haha so we'll see how we go.

In other news, we had a 6.4 earthquake the other day! It was about 5am and it woke me up, my whole room was shaking and some of my books fell off their shelf I discovered later that day. I'd never felt an earthquake before (at least not that I could remember - there was one in Newcastle in 1989 but I was too young to remember) so it was quite an experience. My poor housemate, George, much to his disappointment, slept through the whole thing though.

And to all those contemplating ever coming to Japan, or Nagoya more specifically, during the month of August, I have this to say to you: DON'T DO IT! The weather here is pretty crazy. Its hot (over 30C everyday easily), but thats not the worst part. Its the humidity the kicks you in the guts and make you sweat before you've even gotten out of bed in the morning. Most days the lowest the humidity gets is about 65%, but more often than not its in the 70-80s mark and then jumps into the 90's over night which makes sleeping that bit harder. So, in summary, if you want to visit Japan, do it in a month that is not August haha.

Kick in the guts

It is with sadness, shock and a deep sense of injustice that I write this. This past week, Manon Moriyama, the 5 year old son of Takeshi, one of the Crusade staff here in Nagoya, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia.
Manon was taken in for a routine vaccination when the doctor thought the colour in his face wasn't right and he noticed some bruises on his legs. Tests were done and the doctor had them go to the bigger hospital for more tests. They went to Red Cross Hospital where it was confirmed that Manon has leukemia.
What makes this even harder is that our Nagoya team leader, Seiji, had his son pass away from leukemia 5 years ago in the same hospital. So this is a huge challenge for him too, with lots of those emotions coming back to him during this time.
So I'm asking you to pray - we need a miracle from God. Pray for Takeshi and his family as they go through such a tough battle. Pray for Seiji as he leads the team through this tough time. Pray for the rest of the staff team as they come to terms with the battle we're all facing as a result. And please pray for healing for Manon, that he would be completely healed of this disease.

Lessons Learned

Apologies for the delay in writing on here, its been a hectic few weeks and I'm only just finding time to rest and get my thoughts together. The semester is now over and this past week has been day after day of evaluation and reflection on the year so far. I've learnt a lot about myself, how I process things, my character, faults and failures, which has obviously got me thinking about how I fit in the ministry here and where my future lies. I won't go into details on my thought processes so far, because they're not completely solidified, but I would definitely appreciate prayer as this is a big time of thinking. Its very hard to think logically and clearly when you're in the middle of a rush-rush-rush semester of activity, so this will be a key time in figuring out what my future holds.

I was listening to a sermon the other day from a talk series at the annual student conference for Student Life in Australia - it was from 2006, the year I missed due to my big deam American holiday, so I hadn't heard these talks before. They were focused on Romans 1:16 and the verses around it, and one why Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel. One of the talks really hit home for me. John (the speaker) was talking about how we are so well trained in how to reap the harvest (ie. share the Gospel and bring them to Christ), but we are so incredibly lacking in knowing how to sow (plant seeds of the Gospel that will eventually come to fruition in someone accepting Christ). He then went on to explain that, as Christians, we need to develop a ministry-mindset to life. Basically, what that means is that we recognise that God is in control of the circumstances of our lives, and so we need to look at every circumstance and ask ourselves how God can use it to glorify Himself and bring others closer to Him. I kind of knew that this is how I should approach life, but had never had it so clearly explained before. It challenged my thinking no end! A verse that came to mind was Colossians 3:17: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." EVERYTHING I do should be done in the name of Jesus, and for His glory. EVERYTHING! That is challenging stuff!

The Empire Strikes Back

Just got a mail from another staff saying that he heard Gaidai was closed tomorrow due to some sort of flu infection, but not swine flu - some new kind of flu apparently. There goes another day of ministry - this is getting a little annoying!

In other news, we're having a spiritual birthday party tomorrow night to celebrate those who've come to know Christ this semester. It should be a really good night of fellowship and celebration. Be praying for all of us involved in making it happen, that everything would go smoothly.

'The Vine' and more

Yesterday was a great day! It started with a great service at Church, which included a particularly challenging sermon. We were looking at the first half of Romans 6, where Paul talks about the fact that our sin nature has died and in Christ we have a new nature that can say no to sin. Matt, the preacher, used a particularly good illustration to explain why this doesn't always seem to ring true in our lives. He compared the sin nature to a vine (not to be confused with the vine of John 15) that he had growing on his Church building back in the US. One of the jobs of keeping the yard clean was to rip down these vines that grew up the side of the building. They were quite strong though and it was hard to rip them off the wall, so what you had to do was cut it off at the roots and leave it for a while to die and then after waiting many weeks, the vine would be weak enough to rip off.
Likewise, our sin can be like that. We have died to sin, the old body was crucified with Christ - it has been cut off at the root. But its still there, but slowly losing its grip on our life. We need to continue to trust in the power of Christ, that is given us when we choose to follow Him, rather than our own strength, to rip that vine off the wall. And one day, the vine will drop off altogether, when we meet Christ face to face.

The day then continued in its awesome ways, as a group of us went to the beach. It took us an hour to get there (unlike the 5 minutes or so it used to take in Sydney), but it was well worth it. I hadn't seen the ocean since I arrived in Japan, so it was refreshing to swim, to feel the sand between my toes, enjoy the sea breeze. We had a lot of fun just hanging out.
When we left, we went to Nagoya station and got some Cold Stone (or Cold Rock for my Australian readers) and the girls working there sung for us as they made the ice cream. Then we all got a photo with them. They all went out back to get their cameras to get a photo for themselves too haha. All in all a fun day!

And I thought it couldn't get better

After seeing 4 girls come to Christ in a matter of days, I was incredibly excited and amazed at what God was doing. But He wasn't done yet, and frankly, that shouldn't have surprised me. Yesterday we had 2 more girls choose to follow Jesus.
During lunch time Cecilia and Pam met up with a first year girl, Kumiko, who is friends with the Mai who came to Christ earlier in the week, because Kumiko wanted to find out more about Jesus. And she decided during lunch that she wanted to follow Him.
Then last night at our International Night, Cecilia got to share, along with Mika (a student at Nagoya Gakuin University - NGU), with Mika's friend Kyoko after we had heard a message about how Jesus had changed Jody's life. Kyoko invited Jesus into her life too.

Praise God for new members of God's family!

I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God

... over one sinner who repents" - Luke 15:10

Wow, what a week! Talk about God's Spirit moving!
Here's the short version:
since Friday 4 girls at Gaidai have come to know Jesus as their Saviour!

Here's the longer version:
On Friday at lunch, Pam and Kahori (one of the student leaders) were talking to a girl Kahori went to high school with, Miki and during the conversation they were able to share the Gospel with her and she received Christ. Then straight after that, Pam went to do a Christianity Explained course (a short 6 lesson overview of the life of Jesus) with a first year Gaidai girl named Mayuka who we'd met only the week before, when she said she had an interest in the Bible. After doing CE, Mayuka decided she wanted to follow Jesus.
Then on Monday, Cecilia was meeting up with some girls for lunch with Pam and Kahori, and after lunch one of them (Mai) stayed back to hang out and they shared really openly about their struggles, which led to Cecilia being able to share how she came to know Jesus. Mai started to cry as it really impacted her and Cecilia and Pam were able to share with her the joy of knowing Jesus and she decided to become a Christian too.
Then just an hour ago, Kahori and Saki (another Gaidai Christian girl) did CE with a student named Ayaka, and she prayed to receive Christ as well.

God is working and its exciting to be a part of it!

God listens

Wanted to share a brief little story of ministry from this past week:
It was Thursday morning and I met up with Masayoshi, one of the Japanese staff, before we started ministry on Aichi Gakuin University (AGU). We were both a little discouraged by a few things that had happened recently. We'd been searching for a new place for our weekly student meeting on Thursday Nights (Immanuel Meeting) and we had one promising location we'd found, but we got word that morning that they were unable to help us out anymore. And something else Masayoshi and myself had been planning was starting to fall apart (more on that later). On top of that, someone I had become really good friends with over the last few weeks had just flown home to the US that morning. So we had both come to campus feeling a bit down.

We read a bit of the Word, and were encouraged by God's promise in Micah 4:3 - "He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore". Life is tough, its filled with war - whether real war between countries, or spiritual war, or war within ourselves. However, we know that God has promised this will not last forever - there will come a day when there will be no more war. So we prayed that God would continue to encourage us today even if we weren't feeling like doing ministry or anything like that.

So we headed out to meet some students, sat down next to some guys to eat lunch, only for them to get up after a few minutes and leave. Not the most encouraging start. Then two guys sat down next to us and Masayoshi said hello. After a few seconds we came to realise that these guys weren't actually Japanese, but rather Chinese exchange students. When Masayoshi was at Uni he majored in Chinese and Chinese history, so he burst into Chinese chatting to these guys. We found out their major was Global English, so they spoke English reasonably well too. It wasn't a huge thing, they didn't receive Christ or anything like that, but I could see in Masayoshi's eyes that this was encouraging to him. He doesn't get the chance to speak Chinese much and this was just what he needed at that time. God heard and He responded - just as was needed at that moment in time.

Lessons learned

It seems that being here on STINT is one big long lesson, or at least lots of little lessons building on top of each other.
I've learned a lot about myself - what I value, what I prioritise, my weaknesses and failings.
I've learned a lot about others - how their values and priorities differ, their weaknesses and failings.
I've learned a lot about God - His values, His priorities and His complete lack of weaknesses and failings.
I've learned that God is in the business of changing hearts. I've always known that and mentally adhered to it, but over the last 2 months, I've experienced it in amazing ways. God has been molding me to reflect His priorities and values. I've been faced with situations that just a year ago would have caused me to stumble, and God has blessed with the ability to fight through them. I'm nowhere near perfection and would never claim to be, but its been amazing to see and feel the change God has made so far and I can't wait to see what else He will do in the coming months.

I've learned that God is in control. There have been so many Divine appointments so far. God has brought people along at the right times and used it for His Glory. The future isn't always plain to see, but we don't need to know the future to follow faithfully after our Father. As a poster in a Church I visited once said: "I don't know what tomorrow brings, but I do know Who brings tomorrow". I will continue to strive to trust God's plan, no matter how strange or bizarre it may seem or how little sense it may make to me.

I've learned to be open, to be honest. I've learned to confess my sins, admit my failures and be honest about where I've failed. My life as a Christian started with admitting that I had failed, and my life as a Christian should continue with that attitude. I want to be the first to put my hand up and say that I've messed up, not so I can seem more holy or anything like that, but that I wouldn't deny the Holy Spirit one minute to work in my heart.

Most of all, I've learned that I am dearly loved, through nothing I've done or achieved, but solely through what He has done and achieved on my behalf. Saved. Chosen. Sanctified. Blessed.