Truth: I am a loved and liked child of God

Over the last month I have felt challenged to embed further into my heart, 

mind and lived out reality the truth that

 "I am a loved and liked child of God."

A friend suggested I set it as a repeating alarm on my phone. 

So every morning 8am my phone says: 

"You are a loved and liked child of God."

The thing I found interesting was on my phone, 

the alert came up and to move on you push OK, 

but on my laptop the alert came up and the button to move on was DISMISS.

So I have a choice, I can choose to accept or DISMISS...

there are only two choices for this life-changing truth.

I choose to believe the truth that

 "I am a loved and liked child of God."

This weekend, take some time to ponder... 

which button are you choosing to push?

Love Amy xox

Further thoughts about voting 2(3)

Continuing our discussion about what our perspective should be on voting in the upcoming election. The question of what should I look for in the person/party I vote for is one that each of us needs to interact with.  In the book of Deuteronomy we find Moses installing the first government – and from this we can draw five principles.* (Landa Cope, The Old Testament Template) Here are the six slides from Sunday for you to think about...

Exploring how would Jesus vote 1(3)

With the General Election in just over two weeks, we are exploring over three Sundays where our responsibilities lie, God or Government? How do we begin to choose – what are we looking for? What is our responsibility as a Christian when it comes to voting?

First of All what does the Bible say?

·      Old Testament: 25% of the book of Deuteronomy is about government

·      Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles all unfold events happening in and to Israel in the political arena.

·      Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Song of Solomon written by Kings who operated in the political arena.

·      Nehemiah, Esther & Daniel all give examples of people who served in the political arena under rulers & regimes that did not know or fear God.

·      Jesus:  Mark 12:13-17

·      Paul:  Romans 13

·      Peter:  1 Peter 2

What did Jesus say?

The question posed by Jewish Leaders to Jesus, regarding whether they should pay taxes to Caesar or not. – GOD or GOVERNMENT?  In a remarkable example of a word of wisdom Jesus declared, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s." Mark 12:13-17. The Jews cast the questions as an “either/or” situation, but Jesus gave a “both-and” response. 

In other words God and Government are not alternatives but complementary.

In Romans 13:1 – 8 we read how God is the ultimate source of all authority and all authority is derived from him (v1,2). God has delegated a measure of authority to human governments (v2) and they are accountable to him. Governments are designated “God’s Servants” 3 times (v4,4,6).  Paul uses the same Greek word for servants that he uses elsewhere for Christian workers. 

      

According to Paul, the purpose of Government is to promote the common good and (v3,4) to restrain evil and punish evil-doers (v3,4). He goes on to talk in Romans 13 about how a Christian’s civic duties include: 

I. submitting to governing authorities (v1)

II. paying taxes (v7)

III. showing respect (v7)

IV. giving honour (v7) and also   V. praying (1Tim 2:1-2)

VI. voting (Rom 13 extrapolation)

VII. for some, serving as a politicians or working in the
         Public Sector, for example Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Erastus,
         (Rom16:24); Manaen (Acts 13:1)

Landa Cope in 'The Old Testament Template' writes, that if you are:  “A lawyer, judge, police officer, civil servant, soldier, elected official or social worker or you serve our nation’s government in any other capacity, you have a high calling from God.  The pillars of God’s kingdom are justice and righteousness.  You are challenged by Scripture to be God’s extension of justice to the people you serve.  It does not matter whether you work in a system that is fair or thoroughly unjust – the call is to give and work for the highest level of justice possible in the system…  First you must be just in your own dealings with people, then you must work to make the institutions, systems and laws just. You are God’s strategy for discipling our nation.” 

An interesting point to notice is that the New Zealand Parliament commences its daily affairs in the House with the following prayer: 

“Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for guidance in all things and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech Thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs of this House, and our country to the glory of Thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen, and the public welfare, peace and tranquility of
New Zealand through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”

So where to from here?

That prayer is pretty amazing, somewhere in our nation’s founding there must have been a core belief that God was interested in politics to have a prayer like that instituted. This is just the start of the discussion. Spend some time this week thinking about what questions/thoughts/actions you have. Maybe talk to your family or those that you live with and discuss the points we have brought up here. More information next week! In the mean time feel free to comment below and add to the discussion.

Resources: 
The Bible
Old testament template
Kingdom Ethics
Rasik Ranchord’s Papers (Spokesperson on Public Issues for NLCI and Convener of Prayer at Parliament)

Are you listening?

 Credit

One of my favourite childhood movies is ‘Muppets From Space’ where Gonzo is desperately trying to make contact with his alien family and in the process of trying to connect his repeated call is “Are you there?”  His family tries all kinds of ways to communicate – from dreams of talking fish, talking sandwiches and words spelt out in his breakfast cereal…they communicate, yet it seems Gonzo just can’t hear them. 

Sometimes it feels like that with God.  In our passage today Jesus’ cry was…‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Luke 8:8) and we were reminded of three of the ways God speaks to us.

1.  In creation God speaks 24/7 of His existence

Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

2.In Jesus we see and know who God is
Hebrews 1:2 “ he has spoken to us by his Son”

3. In the Bible we find words that are transformational and life changing

Luke 8:15 hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop

God is speaking – the question is are we listening?

This is the videoclip from Sunday…

Paul Baloche - The Same Love (Official Music Video) from integritymusic on GodTube.

LINK to the sermon here.

Observing Interactions...

I was in a queue behind an electoral candidate this week – and in observing them in action. It led me to think about how we operate in our workplaces, home and community. I guess because this person’s face was on a large billboard on their car in the car park (and all over town) it probably heightened their awareness that every interaction could mean a vote – and therefore they were immensely polite and friendly to the salesperson… and everyone in the shop.

It left an impression on me, it made me think…this one might be worth voting for – how they behaved spoke volumes – it wasn’t only the words, it was their way of being and interacting with people. Made me think about what we have been exploring in Luke – about how Jesus spoke and modelled the Kingdom of God – and of Jesus’ challenge that “If you are listening”(Luke 6:27) this is what it would look like for you to do the same. Each of us in our interactions with our workmates, neighbours, family and complete strangers are modelling and speaking about the Kingdom… the question is, would our expression cause people to consider having a closer look? Amy

Click here for the link to the sermon on our website