Met people meeting people

One of the amazing things about 'light' is that it doesn't have to try to be anything!  The first thing God said was 'Let there be light' and the substance of light simply ... became.  Since then light has never been caught looking in the mirror, checking out the latest fashions, or looking for the right way to impress itself upon this world.  It simply ... IS.

Light reminds me of family.  In the Old Testament, God said his people will dwell in the land and be light.  The plan was that they become a light to the nations and in seeing their prosperity and blessing, they would turn to God.  Of course, it didn't go exactly to plan and we are told to take the journey of his people as a warning.  In The New Testament, we are united to our Father in heaven through Jesus finished work at Calvary and in doing so we are brothers and sisters!  This truth is amazing yet do we often miss the simplicity of this blessing and its implications?

As stated, we don't have to try to be family, we just are! We don't have to spend time working out how to be a brother or a sister, we ...just are!  Like light, it is a matter of fact that we exist together in Christ and attempts to make it work could amount to a load of striving.  In 1998 I was touring the east Coast of Australia doing a talk called " Are you a Human Being, or a Human Doing?"  It was an appeal for us to examine how we as Christians can try to whip up what we think should be part of the experience, while all the time we have so much in the simplicity of 'being' a Christian.  It was a risky message because it was opposite to the western addiction to doing things in order to accomplish.  

I don't want to miss the blessing of simply being together in Christ.  What has God given us just by his finished work?  Before we embark on mission or interest groups, what have we already just by being in Christ?  The people of God simply 'dwelt' in the Promised Land and God said that made them light, if they obeyed God. I wonder if, searching together for the simplicity of 'family' would meet us as the Body of Christ and then when we went out into our lives, we would be met people meeting people?  Just a thought?

Tarantino would be proud!

Ever seen those movies where there's blood and guts (tomato sauce?) flying everywhere as the shotgun fires into the room while people are mown down in some revenge attack? Some people love these movies because its all blood and guts but the bible has a story that's similar if we know the facts.

Jesus dies by execution. At the time when he lived the Romans has invaded the country and they had rules everyone had to live by. If people did as the Romans said they could live a good life under the rule of the invaders. If, however, someone broke the law or rebelled, they could be tried at court and be crucified. Jesus was tried under these conditions and it unfolded that he was to be crucified.

The bible tells us that Jesus knew what was to happen to him, that he was to stand in our place for the judgement we deserve for sin. It turned out that he was to take our punishment by the most brutal form of torture. First, the criminal was to be nailed to a beam of wood. The nails were hammered into the hands causing severed nerves to send electric shock pain throughout the limbs. As the feet are also nailed to the cross, incredible agony would shoot through the entire length of the upper and lower body. The criminal would begin to lose blood. the structure would be raised into the air and the weight of the body would hang onto the nails hammered into the wood. This was a public event and the idea was to show the public that if the disobeyed the Roman way, the Romans would nail you!

After some time of hanging in searing pain, weakness would sweep over the body as blood is lost. The body would slump forward and the chest would push out as the criminal is unable to hold upright anymore. In turn, the windpipe where you breath in your chest would close. Desperately trying to breath, the criminal would try to pull himself up on the nails in the hands and push up on the nails in the feet to open the restricted windpipe. Imagine trying to put pressure on the open wounds!

After some time of doing this the oxygen levels the body requires gets less and less and cramps shoot like lightning through every muscle in the body. This torture goes on for hours and hours with no food or water. All sorts of issues occur as the internal organs cease to operate without oxygen and under incredible stress. Poisons from the liver, failure of the kidneys and eventually the heart stops beating. The criminal has suffered appalling and gruesome torture.

With Jesus, he was not guilty of his crime yet went through these things for you. God saw this as Jesus taking our punishment for sin and dying in our place. Before Jesus went to the cross the Romans and Jews made sure he was beaten and abused. They lashed his back until bone could be seen and put a crown of sharp thorns on his head. He also had to carry his own cross.

Most movies tell us flash cars, guns and money make you a hero but God shows us that a smashed, bloody corpse rescues us all for real! Jesus wasn't a criminal! He never did anything wrong and came alive three days later! How? God did it and I know why! It is so we can see that nothing that happens to us, even death, can separate us from God if we choose to follow him.

Quentin Tarantino, Director of twisted gore movies would be proud, but when it comes to reality - God did this for you! Ask staff for more information on this!

"I'd be a rubbish Christian, I cant do anything!"

When you see people in church on TV, or sometimes when you have to go to church, it often seems as if everyone is either good at music, a great singer or amazing at getting on with people. The truth is that Christianity is nothing to do with what you can or cant do. So God hasn't picked a load of talented people to be Christians like someone picking the best football players for the team!

One day the parents of their 14 year old were frustrated at her progress on piano. They got her a piano 4 years ago and wanted her to become a great musician. Years of nightly practice and all she could play was chopsticks! Time went on and eventually they paid for lessons. The tutor came to the house twice a week and after a year the tutor asked the parents to come and hear the progress after their investment. Sitting on the sofa they waited as the nervous teenager paused and recited perfectly the dulcet tones of.... chopsticks! On the brink of anger the father rushed the tutor out of the door paying the final installment and sat head in hands on the chair next to his daughter. Not wanting to crush her he whispered, " Ill take you to the grand-master."

The following week the family parked outside the stately home of the grand piano player. Just some advice, a little coaching or just encouragement may be the key to unlocking his daughters talents. One knock and the butler opened up the door to a central staircase flowing graciously up to several doorways. The mother gasped as she saw the grandeur of the hallway! Suddenly the daughter ran at full speed towards a corner of the room. "No!" the father shouted as she sat on the biggest grand piano you have ever seen. Exited she lifted the lid and the keys mirrored the smile on the daughters face. Immediately the daughter began her floundering rendition of chopsticks! utterly defeated the mother and father walked towards the piano. "Stop!" the whispered, and "Shhhhh...." At that moment the grand master pianist entered the room. The parents were now waving their hands at the girl to stop, their embarrassment reaching its peak. The grand master walked, unfazed towards the girl and sat beside her. Suddenly he began playing chopsticks, improvising on the girls simple version. The father began to apologise but the grand master shook his head towards him and with a smile continued to weave the intricate patterns around what was now a masterpiece.

The point of the story? The girl was not really very good on the piano but with the help of the Master, together they made it all work! Its not about what I can or cant do, it's about what God can accomplish with the simplicity of our lives!

The Big Bang Thang....

Some schools teach that the universe began with a huge explosion. This is known as the 'Big Bang Theory' and it is important you learn about it even if you don't agree it is the truth. It is one of many ways people try to explain why we are here on this planet in a perfect orbit around the Sun.

A few years ago I was walking through the wreckage of a computer factory in America. the enormous warehouse had lines of people who would put parts of the computer together in long benches so that at the end they would have a working computer with the thousands of parts all fitted together. One night the parts were sat on the benches ready for the workers to arrive for another day of assembling computers. A huge explosion took place and the entire factory exploded in a freak accident. The roof was blow 200 feet into the air and the wreckage was thrown for miles. On top of the twisted mess lay one perfectly assembled computer! The only explanation was that in the explosion the thousand different parts came together exactly to produce the computer!

What? Impossible? You don't believe this story? It is obviously a ridiculous possibility, yet many are willing to believe that this world with trillions of intricacies came together by a huge explosion! When we look around us we see precision and amazing design! Think about the human eye, the wonders of nature and the balance of the seasons! can this be a result of an explosion that causes chaos or an intelligent creator who made order, beauty and design?

Welcome to the TLG GodBlog!

Welcome to the TLG online resource for Christians and those asking questions about God. I'm hoping you read as much as you can on this web site and hopefully find out more about God and what it is to be a Christian.

Ever heard of a computer virus? Its something that messes up the computer system and can lead to it being destroyed! God says everyone has a kind of virus that can destroy us if we don't deal with it. When Jesus died on the cross, he offered to take our virus away and make us able to live like a clean computer, able to do what were supposed to do and communicate with the master computer. When we decide we want our virus dealing with and we want to communicate again we must ask God to take it away and become friends with him.

Enough about computers, its just an illustration to show that Christians are people who believe God sent Jesus to do this and want to remain friends with God. If you want to be friends with God and become a christian ask TLG staff when the best time is to chat these things through. In the meantime here's three things that will help you find out more about God:

1) Pray: chat to God about anything, don't forget he knows everything about you!

2) Thank God for all the good things in life, like being able to talk to God!

3) Read about who God is and what he does. Just like a spaceman with a space suit, God came to earth in a 'mansuit' called Jesus! click this link to read about his life

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=50&chapter=1&version=31

Feel free to have a look around this GodBlog ....thats all for now!

Gary