This is perhaps too long, but I've just been given a platform to vent out years and years worth of frustrations and I'm jumping in head first. But before I begin, let me say that I have way too many white friends to think that white people as a whole are racist, and I don't know if all of what I'm about to say applies to my friends cos I think (or hope) my friends [...]
DAY 35 John 11.35 is often quoted as the shortest verse in the Bible - 'Jesus wept' - but in actual fact that honour should really go to Job 3.2 which simply states, 'He said' [less strokes on a keyboard!] However, 'He said' is a lot less interesting. Task: Take some time to consider this story where Jesus is moved to tears. Take some time today to express some grief for something. It might be [...]
DAY 32 The Bible mentions seven things that Jesus says while hanging on the cross. I found this online site that looks at each statement [calling each one a 'word'] and thought it would be a great resource for us as we head towards Easter. Task: Meditate and reflect on ‘The fifth word of Jesus.’ The fifth word is based on Jesus’ words in John 19. 28-29 "I am thirsty." Spend some time of reflection on [...]
Words have power! If you don't think that's true, try being hit in the face by a thesaurus. In the previous post in this series on different aspects of character, i took a look at the power and importance of living out your words. If there is no action, the words tend towards meaningless and ineffectual. i spoke about the phrase: "What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying." In terms [...]
DAY 33 Easter is arriving at a pace of knots and so really be mindful in the next ten days or more to create spaces to slow down, to meditate, to just be, to look back and remember, to ingest some scripture, to speak some prayers, to love on those around you... slow it down... Task: In the next 24 hours, buy or make someone a gift, just because. Maybe there is someone in your life [...]
For some of you this will be a "best, most moving story I ever read, must forward to 100 friends" whereas for others, halfway through the first line will have you rolling your eyes and going, "Oh, one of those" if you are the former, enjoy the story, it's an inspiring story... if you are the latter, jump down to the bottom and see the point i am trying to make about it, it's a [...]
DAY 28 So great to see my good mate Bruce Collins blog-posting again [so great i couldn't help but dive in and steal what he wrote] and so i hope you enjoy this prayer to meditate on from his Thanksgiving Series post 1 and i really hope you will head across to his page and subscribe so you can follow the rest of them. Task: Read and reflect on this prayer which is definitely so relevant [...]
DAY 27 The Bible mentions seven things that Jesus says while hanging on the cross. I found this online site that looks at each statement [calling each one a 'word'] and thought it would be a great resource for us as we head towards Easter. Task: Meditate and reflect on ‘The second word of Jesus.’ The second word is based on Jesus' words in Luke 23:39-43: 'Truly, I tell you, today you will be with Me [...]
DAY 26 Today has been a really hard day for me for two reasons. One has been physical and one has been mental/emotional/spiritual. Physically i have had a huge splitting headache for most of the day and that is not normal for me, nor has it been fun. Mentally/emotionally/spiritually today was probably my worst day on Facebook [and maybe being in pain already didn't help] as i got into an exchange with two people professing [...]
i was sitting innocently in our church, Re:Generation, evening service last nite, when suddenly a shot rang out... it wasn't fired from a gun. but it still felt like it hit me between the eyes. and there was nothing i could do about it. a woman called Andrea, from an organisation called 'Disarm the Dark' was invited to share a little about the work she is doing in anti-trafficking. one line she said really just [...]