Jesus In Disguise

So, I have been reading this book called ‘The Irresistible Revolution’ by Shane Claiborne and it is great. So great that I thought it be good to share some of what he has written about. The first chapter has a section titled ‘Jesus in Disguise’ and when I read it, it really struck me that everyday we really do meet Jesus in different people and situations. Usually these situations are ones that we least expect or when we do come across them we decide not to act.

Jesus said ‘Whatever you did for the least of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me’. (Matt. 25:40). We also read in the bible that God says to take good care of strangers, for we could be entertaining angels without knowing it (Heb. 13:2). Mother Teresa also famously said ‘ In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises’.

So, next time you meet or know of a person in need whether it be a homeless person who could probably do with a meal or a lonely older person who would appreciate a visit, how will you act? Jesus lived his life loving and serving the poor, as Christians we are follows of Christ, so maybe we should all be questioning ourselves each day to see whether we are living a life like Jesus did.

Sarah (with a little help from Shane).

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Psalm 139

 O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.    ² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.

    ³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.

    ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.

    ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.

    ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.

    ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

    ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, ^[a] you are there.

    ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

    ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.

    ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,”

    ¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

    ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

    ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

    ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

    ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

    ¹⁷ How precious to ^[b] me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!

    ¹⁸ Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand.
       When I awake,
       I am still with you.

    ¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
       Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

    ²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
       your adversaries misuse your name.

    ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
       and abhor those who rise up against you?

    ²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
       I count them my enemies.

    ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
       test me and know my anxious thoughts.

    ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
       and lead me in the way everlasting.

Hi Guys,

Ever since i started reading the bible , I have always like psalms but one psalm that always sticks in my mind and i always have words or phrases in my mind is psalm 139. I think this psalm is simple but has alot of meaning if you think hard about it.

Yesterday at explore lewis said about spritual gifts and how do you know when it is from god.I was thinking about this in school today and then on of my mates asked me why i was a christian and i thought i knew what to say but when someone puts you on the spot like that about its hard believe me! (Lewis always tells stories to help us remember so i told you mine )Has Any Of Your Mates Asked You That?

Back to psalm 139:  I think each word in this psalm is amazing and who it is about-GOD is AMAZING!   This psalm is relates to me because when i read it i think of me and my relationship with god. Is There A Passage That Relates To You?

Tuesday Nights As You may know i go girls brigade and we are doing badge work and we studied communication and as you know i talk ALOT and if their was a exam on talking i think i would pass easy but i didnt realise how hard this would be! Hope You Comment Me And Support Me Because Im Struggling what to Write.

I Dont Know What Else To write But while i was writing this ,the phrase 13 For you created my inmost being; You knit me in my mothers womb came across my mind and reminded me of my mum and as you know my mum is in her last week of hospital and is finding it hard still. All i can do is pray and i hope you will to.

Stacey

What do expect?

Passage Ezra 8:21-23:
²¹ And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. ²² For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” ²³ So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.

What do you expect to happen when you pray? No really think about that questions, What do expect to happen when you pray?

Nothing, sometimes something, do you expect God to answer? Why, why not?

I was really challenged by a guy speaking at a meeting of Pastors that i was at this morning. He was challenging those of us who work for churches, christian charities etc about PRAYER. He was pretty hard with us and told us that for many of us prayer can just be words, prayer becomes a bit of our job. He said we know how to pray nice prayers, but he said how many of you believe that God will answer? He said how passionate are your prayers, do you really want God to answer?

I want to be a person who sees God answering prayers in amazing ways, I don’t just want to tell stories about the stuff I’ve heard God has done but I want to be able to say look at the stuff God is doing, not to show off but because I believe God wants to do some exciting, crazy, scary, fantastic stuff with and through us.

The passage from Ezra is about a group of people returning to their land after they had been exiled (kind of held hostage) in another country. Re-read verse 23, what do you notice? For me it reminds me that God answers the prayers of people who really want something. To be earnest in prayer means continually asking, being honest, being open with God, really showing God how much you want this thing. Real prayer involves action on our part, often not just a one off thought but coming back to God and saying again and again this is what we want you to do, the people here even give up food to show God how serious they are.

And you know what God answers there prayer and God will answer yours to. Sometimes it will be very obvious, sometimes we may not understand how he has answered and sometimes we may not see the answer for a while but he will answer.

What is your prayer today? What is it that you need God to specifically do for you, your family, your friend. Tell him and expect an answer.

Lewis

Awesome God

Psalm 148 (The Message)
 1-5 Hallelujah! Praise God from heaven,
      praise him from the mountaintops;
   Praise him, all you his angels,
      praise him, all you his warriors,
   Praise him, sun and moon,
      praise him, you morning stars;
   Praise him, high heaven,
      praise him, heavenly rain clouds;
   Praise, oh let them praise the name of God-
      he spoke the word, and there they were!

 6 He set them in place
      from all time to eternity;
   He gave his orders,
      and that’s it!

 7-12 Praise God from earth,
      you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean deeps;
   Fire and hail, snow and ice,
      hurricanes obeying his orders;
   Mountains and all hills,
      apple orchards and cedar forests;
   Wild beasts and herds of cattle,
      snakes, and birds in flight;
   Earth’s kings and all races,
      leaders and important people,
   Robust men and women in their prime,
      and yes, graybeards and little children.

 13-14 Let them praise the name of God-
      it’s the only Name worth praising.
   His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
      he’s built a monument-his very own people!   Praise from all who love God!
      Israel’s children, intimate friends of God.
   Hallelujah!

Not being the most intelligent of people, one of the things I like about God (and the Bible) is that He baffles great minds and lesser minds alike. No mere person will ever understand everything about God and in a way, that makes us all the same – people who are striving to understand God – and I don’t have to think that people with great intelligence are better than me! And of course, understanding everything about God isn’t necessary either: what is perhaps most important is that we accept that God is GOD, not a man-made god, that we live like that fact matters (because it does) and that we get to know Him, His love for us and all the things He has done and is doing for us.

For me, one of the other great things about the Bible is that it’s full of great wisdom. Wisdom that most people have completely missed, or ignored. So if you read it, you start to get to know things that most other people don’t. It’s also full of great mysteries.

Some of you may know that I’m trying to read the whole Bible in one year. I’m in Isaiah at present and needing to catch up a few days, but I read the passage above a few weeks ago. The thing that struck me was the bit about hurricanes, in verses 7-12: hurricanes obeying His orders.

I thought about New Orleans and how a hurricane devastated it and how they bring devastation to all the places they roam. Living through something like that must be terrible. And the Bible says that hurricanes obey the orders of GOD!

I often think that our lives are so complicated and full of everything other than God, that the people God inspired to write the Bible probably had a much, much greater understanding of God than me. They probably didn’t know about the science of meteorology and how hurricanes are formed and so on. But if we think we know better nowadays, we still don’t know the exact path of a hurricane until it’s reaped its devastation. And as I thought about it, it came to me that whatever they are, the hurricane moves and behaves in accordance with the laws of nature – the ‘laws’ that GOD laid down when He made the world. And in that sense, if no other, hurricanes do obey the orders of GOD. Terrible and Awesome. We may not know how or why, but they do.

As it says at the end of Ecclesiastes, the last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you.

Awesome God, Holy God, I worship you in wonder. John.

Jesus The Good Shepherd

Passage Matthew 10:32-33:
    ³²“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

 Spend some time thinking about your relationship with God.

What words or phrases would you say describe it at present?

Have you ever been put in a position where your relationship with God was questioned, or you have had to defend your beliefs at school or work?

It’s always harder to share your beliefs in environments outside of church, especially as others may ridicule & mock you, but God wants us to tell of our love for him when called upon to do so,

in this passage i believe God is saying that if we confess that we belong to him rather than deny him in the presence of friends & others, then he will  claim us as his children in heaven.

Comment Me Any Thoughts, Thanks

God Bless!

HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY WHBC YAAAY!

Kirk

What does The Lord require?

Passage Micah 6:8:
⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Spend a moment telling God about how you’re feeling? What words come to mind?

The Old Testament prophet Micah in this passage summarises exactly what God wants us to do with our lives. What is the meaning of life? is one of the questions i get asked most when people hear i am a Christian. I dont have a great answer to that but I tell them for me it is to live a life in the way that God wants me to and to follow what he asks me to do. This passage pretty much sums up what I want to do in life wherever in the world i am, whatever i end up doing,

The Lord wants me to:

be fair in the way i behave to all people

to be compassionate and loving to all who I come across

and to walk with God remembering that HE is boss.

Is this what you want for your life?

Well tell him now!

Lewis

Shhhhhhhhhh

I thought we’d kick off this site again today and for the next couple of weeks by getting some people to share some thoughts about some passages that are particular favourites of people or passages that God has been speaking to them through.

Passage 1 Kings 19:11-13:

   ¹¹ “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

   And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

At what times are you most aware of God?

Elijah hear is waiting for God to turn up, first a hurricane but no God, second an earthquake but no God, then a fire but still no God. God can meet us in anyway he chooses to, but we often have such noisy lives that we can miss the voice of God. As we see here God spoke to Elijah in a whisper. If God spoke to you today could you hear him (by hear I don’t just mean sound, but sensing God, responding in the way you know God would have you do)?

How many different sounds can you hear now. Close your eyes for a minute and see how many you can count.

Spend another minute being still and quiet.

Tell God about the part of your day that you are most thankful for?

Tell God about the part of your day that you are least thankful for?

Who needs your prayers today? Spend some time praying for them and listening to God’s Holy Spirit.

Watch the video ‘Where do you see God?’ that is in the sidebar to the right that some members of the Tues explore group made in the summer.

Lewis