Light of the world

Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

What does it mean when we say that Jesus is the "Light of the world"? . I know that technically speaking, the sun is the light of the world, but I am talking about a different Son.

Firstly it isn't something that I made up or even someone made up cos it sounds cool. Jesus Himself said it …. John 8:12 "Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Good news ain't it?

Let's face it, the world is a pretty dark place spiritually, these days . When it comes to the one true God anyway, because there are also all of these supposedly "enlightened", "new age" or whatever else people around these days.

Even though the world is such a dark place lately there is good news … Jesus is a powerfully bright light that can shine throughout the world if we'll only let Him. John 1:4 "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." This means that the darkness of evil has never and can never ever extinguish God's light. When we follow Jesus, the true light, we can avoid stumbling around in the darkness of sin. He lights our way for us, so we can see the way and follow it. You know the song… Your Word is lamp to my feet and a light unto my path…

Now previously I said "Jesus is a powerfully bright light that can shine throughout the world if we'll only let Him." What I meant by this is that we have the light of Jesus inside of us and we need to show it to the world. John 1:8 "There came a man who was sent from God, his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he only came as a witness, to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world"…

Now you might say WHOA!? What now? He just said that we have the light of Jesus in us, but now he says we aren't the light. Yes that is right. We aren't the light, but we have it in us if we have Jesus in our hearts, makes sense doesn't it? If you have a glass bowl and put a torch in it, the glass bowl is not the torch, but the torch's light shines out of the bowl. Just as the bowl is not the source of the light, we are not the source of God's light, we merely reflect and direct it.

Now since God's light shines through us, we need to be directing and taking it to where it needs to be. Sometimes that is a really dark place or it may be to a place where only a little more light is needed to see the way clearly… There are a couple of things that we do, knowingly or unknowingly, that dim God's light inside of us:

• Being quiet when we should be speaking
• Going along with the crowd
• Denying the light
• Letting sin dim our light
• Not telling others about the light
• Ignoring the needs of others

How many of you have ever played a tv game or a playstation game or a computer game? The game usually has some sort of point/goal/destination to reach, doesn't? Whether it is getting all the cards out in solitaire, or reaching the final boss. Now think about life for a moment…it has many goals/destinations that we should be striving for. Spend a minute and think of a couple. One of my main goals in life is to do the whole "living for Jesus" thing – you know trying to serve Him, getting to know Him more and learning to love Him more. I hope that it is one of the main goals in your lives too.

But back to the game idea of a second ago… Have you ever noticed that, even in the games it gets harder and harder to complete the tasks as you get closer to the goal/destination or end of the game. Look at even a simple game like solitaire, the more cards you get packed out, the more cards you need to shift around to get a bottom one out…The bosses in other games get harder and harder as you get closer to the final boss/rescuing the maiden etc.

Now while I have been trying to do what I call "the Christian thing" I have noticed that the more of my life I devote to God, the harder it gets to stay devoted. Sounds pretty wacked doesn't it. Now after much battling and discussion with other Christians, some more and some less spiritually mature than me; I think I have found the answer, or at least a good version of it.

I reckon it goes a little like this, for me personally anyway…While I was kind of lukewarm and kinda just going with the flow. I was just a regular guy, I wasn't really that bad a person, I even knew a little about God. I figured since I read my Bible now and then and didn't rape/murder/steal etc that I would be going to heaven one day.

Well now I know that knowing about God inside you head doesn't mean that you are going to heaven…It might be hard to hear that, but while you can still hear that, you still have a chance to change it.

So here comes the rest of my theory… I figure that as long as you are not FULLY on God's team, i.e. you are lukewarm and don't really pose any sort of threat to satan. I mean there isn't much chance of you witnessing/being God's light to anyone and causing them to decide to accept Jesus as their saviour. So satan doesn't really have to fight for your soul, cos you almost belong to him anyway.

But…On the other hand as you get more involved at your church, doing stuff like outreach, or any other ministry, you start to worry satan. You know why? Because when you are sold out for God, satan can't buy a piece of you, and satan always wants to get a piece of whatever God has, I mean that's why he ended up in hell anyway. So the more you live for God, the more you upset satan, and the harder he tries to take you away from God…So like the song says, "blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name on this road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, Blessed be Your name." So you should actually even continue to praise God when you go through times in this world that is such a wilderness…(looks like you were right friend) Now I am not saying you should worry yourself to death if things are going well, that same song also says "Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful, where streams of abundance flow…Blessed be Your name."

Choose to be a light...Shine bright.

--footnote--

Wow...I actually wrote this at the beginning of this year for a talk at a camp...Now...fortunately/unfortunately I have the opportunity to live it out.

--footnote--

The Matrix is real...

Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy

No...I am not crazy...well actually I am..a little. But thus far I have managed to evade the men in white coats.

But back to the issue at hand...The Matrix is real, yes real and we are living in it everyday.

According to the plot of the movie "The Matrix", we are all mindless drones, being fed false ideas and images that lull us into a false sense of security. Look around you, what do you see? I see the world...The Matrix.

That's right, our world is full of false ideas and false images and false people. We are bombarded daily by the media,
"Conform, conform, conform...
you must be so skinny, if you raise your arms you fall through your own backside...
you must wear this...
you must smoke this...
you must drink this...
you must speak like this...
you must sleep around...
you must do everything that makes you feel good, no matter the consequences...
you must take God out of the schools...
beat your wife, it makes you a strong man...
beat your kids, they deserve it...
beat anyone, they are idiots anyway...
ANARCHY YEAH!!!"

I say no!!!

Why conform to the norm...

Why be just like the rest of the world? We can be different...

We can stand out...

Jesus calls us to be different. He calls us to respect authority, to love our neighbours as we love ourselves... Read your Bible, you'll find it in there...don't know where? Message me.

I AM TIRED

Tired of the world going down the drain...
Tired of all the people giving up their lives just for a quick bit of "fun".
Tired of people who just lie down and take it.
Tired of people who don't do anything about it.

Wake up. Look around
Stand your ground
Choose to be all you can be
stand up for what
you believe in!

The choice is yours

Take the blue pill and continue to be brainwashed and guided by the media and the rest of the world.

OR

Take the red pill and learn the truth. The truth is Jesus..The truth is living the life He wants you to.

To find the truth read Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. That's the Bible kids.

Running into walls

Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Ever noticed in life, sometimes it's like you have one foot nailed to the floor and it feels like you are going round in circles. Sometimes it is as if you were merrily walking along, and all of a sunnden there was a huge wall in the way, and smack you walked right into...*ow* my nose hurts...

This is not something I made up, I heard it somewhere. This is good and bad.
Good->because if you think it is stupid, you can't really blame me.
Bad->because if you think it is cool I can't take credit.

Now one day a man was walking along and he came to a wall that was blocking his path. He stopped dead in his tracks, the wall was so high he couldn't climb it, so wide he couldn't walk round it. This thing was like the great wall of China. So he stood there for a minute, pondering his next move. He could go back the way he came and try find another way around, or he could try something else.

So he stood there and looked up to heaven, like they do in the movies, and said "what now, God?".
Then, just like in the movies, a loud booming voice comes from the heavens...
"Push the wall over, my son"
The man looked up into the sky and said "but God, look how wide and tall and thick the wall is".
God says to the man again "Push the wall over".
The man goes "But God...I can't".
God says "How will you know, if you never try...Remember I am with you".

So the man walks up to the wall and puts his hands against it...And pretends to push...
God says "do it like you mean it."
So the man does.


He pushes


And pushes


And pushes

And guess what!

No...the wall doesn't miraculously fall over.

But after a really long time of pushing against the wall, God once again comes to the man.
God says "ok, you can stop pushing the wall now".
The man steps back, defeated, and says "Sorry Lord, but I have failed You".
God says "Look at your arms, back and legs. See how strong you have become".
And just then with a mighty bang the wall falls over.

Many times in life we end up walking smack into a wall. We have no idea of how to get around/past that wall, only we know we need to be on the other side. That wall could be anything from learning a new theory in calculus to learning to play an instrument to trying to get a buff body. You gotta just push that wall, and eventually something will happen...
You will get the calculus theory.
You will be able to ripp it up on the guitar.
You will look like arnold.

They say, "Hardship builds character". This is true is most cases, but in other cases the hardship just creates more resentment. You will often need the strength you gained struggling with some or other "WALL" to help someone else out, or yourself...

But...You can't do it alone, it is impossible, just ask me, I know.

That darn hard choice

Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

No I am not talking about choosing between a large milkshake or a regular size...

I am talking to the way we react to life. I have basically noticed there are pretty much 2 camps when it comes to reacting to what happens in life. There are the people who just explode, and there are other people that kind of seem like they have been smoking weed. I reckon that you should try avoid belonging exclusively to either of these camps. If you are one of the angry people, you will upset the people around you by flying off the handle for the smallest of things. If you are the laid back person, you will get used, often...

Someone once said "Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans". So true. The choice you make on how to react to what happens determines what type of person you are (duh). Another real challenge is to stop being a human being and start being a human doing...Don't just be a lame duck floating downstream, going with the crowd...Do something with your life, swim upstream.

Me, I try to do just that...Sometimes it gets tiring though. Especially when I have had a long day at work and my little sister is pestering me...I just wanna snap and give her a smack. Then I think of something, though a little corny, that helps me not to do that... WWJD, yes we all know what it means, "WHY WAIT, JUST DO" it.... no, kidding, means "what would Jesus do?". Well He had patience...

He still has patience...

He will always have patience...

Forever...

Try it out, you owe it to yourself and
those you love

Who am I?

Current mood: disappointed
Category: Life

The eternal question rings in my mind once again:

WHO AM I

Sometimes I sit and wonder, what I am? Then I look around at all the people around me and see something interesting...They are also sitting around going "who am I?"

I can hear you screaming it now: "I know who I am", "I am a big strong bloke" or "I am a sexy vixen" or .....

But do all these people actually know who they are...Yes and no.

What??!?
Sure they know other people think they are "I am a big strong bloke" or "I am a sexy vixen" or .....
But who are they really? How do they define themselves?

People post pictures of their butts, their boobs, their sixpacks, their biceps...Whatever, and they define themselves by this...It's sad, because who the person actually is, is not what they look like. I know too many pretty girls/good looking guys that are so shallow, and they suck as people, then I know other people who are good looking or not who are awesome people. People these days define themselves by what other people think of them, what the media says they should look like (frigging stick insects!)...

That big strong bloke could get in a car accident and end up being a weeny after being in hospital, the sexy chick will get older...Then who are they?

Think about this
The more you worry about what others think of you, the less you know who you are...

SO stop worrying about who others think you are, and trying to be that person....Don't be a copy, be somebody!

BE WHO YOU ARE...EVEN IF IT IS A LITTLE CRAZY...IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, FIND OUT BY NOT CONFORMING TO THE FRIGGING MEDIA...IT SAYS WE SHOULD ALL CARRY LITTLE DOGGIES IN HANDBAGS AND WEAR TIGHT LITTLE T's...

DEEP WITHIN YOU MUST LOOK, THE PERSON WHO YOU ARE, TO FIND