Many Paths?

…But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life. (Matthew 7:14).

I have long wished that I could say there is more than one way to God.  It would make life so much easier…but then, God never said it would be easy.  In fact He says ‘Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction’(verse 13).   So there are many paths to destruction and only one to life.

The reason I bring this up is because it’s a very negative concept and I was uncomfortable with it for a long time.  I didn’t have an understanding of it that I was satisfied with (not that I expect to understand everything in this lifetime).   After all, God is a loving God, why would He make it so hard?  And then I realised one very simple thing.  He wouldn’t have sacrificed His son if there was another way.  Jesus gave up EVERYTHING because there was no other way.  And He didn’t have to.  In fact as I read about him hanging there on the cross knowing that at any time he could have called down angels (and let me tell you, if it was me up there on the cross I wouldn’t have hesitated – mankind would have been doomed.  To see the look on the faces of all those people standing there trying everything they could to degrade me).  But he didn’t.  And so instead of having no path at all, no gate, no road.  We have a narrow one.  It’s not meant to make it hard for us to get to God, its meant to make it easy.  It’s a gift not a burden.  We don’t have to do anything cause it’s already been done.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 NIV)

What’s next…

I’ve just stuffed myself with chocolate chip cookies, and now I’m sitting in my bedroom listening to the ocean…life is good…but what is next?

After spending almost 2 months travelling home has never smelled so sweet, but both Matt and I believe there is change in the wind.  What that means exactly we aren’t too sure.  We have a bit of direction, but only enough to begin to move forward, not enough to actually change anything, and so we wait. 

When we have more concrete details on what the heck is going on, I’ll probably write about it.  So until then I’ll probably write more God stuff, cause He is who I spend my time thinking about.  I’m reading the book of Acts at the moment and finding it fascinating.  There is so much drama in the early church, and so much excitement.  Christianity is so new, and I wonder if Christians today can get that back.  Where have all the signs and wonders gone?  Anyhow, if anyone has anything interesting to say on Acts please do and I will try to have something interesting to say as well!

Home Sweet Home

I would be disingenuous if I did not say it didn’t feel good to be home.  However, we did have an amazing time full of experiences that I will never have a chance to write down.  Experiences that will shape who we become.  I believe this trip was tailor made by God to move us forward…to move closer to perfect in him (please understand I have no illusion of reaching that perfection in this lifetime, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to become more like Jesus through the incredible experiences that God constructs.) 

I was just reading the book of Acts.  I noticed the apostles rejoiced when they had “… been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41).  Over and over again we read in the bible of a way of thinking that is opposite to the way the world thinks.  No wonder the apostles were not afraid to proclaim the name of Jesus.  Not only had they received boldness from the Holy Spirit (see Acts 4:31) but they looked at the suffering they had to endure as something to celebrate.  Instead of being embarrassed for standing up for Jesus we should be celebrating…now if only I could get my brain to function that way…

Evangelism

I hate the word ‘Evangelism’.  It scares the crap out of me.  So does the word ‘Witness’.  It’s as if somewhere along the line I have gotten it in my head that to evangelize means to go up to a complete stranger and say…

“Did you know Jesus loves you?'”

I thought I was getting a free ‘get out of jail card’ when a few Christians along the way said, “all you need to do is live a good Christian life and people will see that you are different and ask why.”

I thought that was pretty sweet cause then I didn’t have to do anything…problem is, no one has ever asked me why I’m different…or even noticed (shocking).  Eventually I figured out that wasn’t really the way to go, but I still could not get the ‘evangelism’ stigmatism out of my head. 

Then we spent some time with friends just south of Newcastle about a week ago.  Matt had taken Seth for a walk, but suddenly walked in and said to me with a very serious look on his face, “get you shoes on and get in the car”.  At first I panicked cause he didn’t have Seth, but I realised that scenario didn’t make sense so I walked with him to the car and saw Seth strapped in the car so I got in.  As we drove away Matt filled me in.  He had seen a girl (about 18) crying at the park and had walked by her a few times but finally felt compelled to stop and see what was wrong.  She had had a fight with her boyfriend and was pretty upset.  Matt felt he wasn’t really the right person to comfort her, so he said he could get me.  She said it was fine, but he came anyway.  As we were driving I was praying, actually asking God if she could be gone by the time we got there cause I had no idea what to do, but I kind of figured she wouldn’t be… and she wasn’t.  I went and sat down and Matt introduced us.  I found out she had fought with her boyfriend about her eating problem and she was afraid it was over between them. 

I had no idea what to say and I kept asking God.  Finally after a few awkward moments I decided to come clean and to do the only thing I knew how to do in this sort of situation.  I told her I was a Christian and the best thing I knew how to do in this situation was pray, so I asked if I could pray with her.  She said yes, so I prayed…nothing fancy, just what came into my head.  Afterwards I asked her if she had ever been to church or anything, she said she used to be big into church but hadn’t been for a long time.  It just so happened that the friends we were staying with had started up a home fellowship and it was on the next day, so I asked her if she was interested, which she said she was.  So I gave her my number and told her to text hers through to mine and I would call her that night with the address. 

Now this sounds like its coming up to a beautifully wrapped up story where she comes and loves it etc, etc.  But she never sent me through her number, and I can’t say I blame her, cause she didn’t know me at all and this home fellowship could have been a cult for all she knew.  But I still really felt good about what happened and I believe God has used that in her life if for nothing else, than just to let her know He’s thinking of her.  I would have loved for the story to have turned out differently cause it would make me feel good, but the point is more that the experience wasn’t weird because I was just honest.  I didn’t push Jesus on her, it was just that if I was in the same situation I would pray, so that’s the best I could do for her.  It takes a bit of the sting out of ‘evangelism’ for me to know that if you just be yourself and only say what comes naturally and be honest it’s not so bad. 

Horses for Motorbikes

I wanted to share an experience that the pastor (Allan Kelly) at Clermont had about 7 years ago because I think it is a great example of the attitude we need to have as Christians in this world.  We get so caught up in the way things ‘are’ and ‘have been’ that we miss the opportunity to let an eternally creative God work in magnificently innovative ways.

When Ps. Allan first went to Clermont to take over the church there, we came as an experienced motorbiker (is that a even a word?).  He had a fantastic idea to reach the young people in the community by starting a motorbike ministry.  The problem was, after meeting a few people around the place, they didn’t have motorbikes they had horses and Allan didn’t know anything about horses.  So after praying very hard about it he decided he would start a horse ministry and said you God ‘you had better make me good at horses’.  So he took his 9 year old son to pick out some horses.  The horse his son chose was a pretty ugly looking horse to which Allen tried to convince his son that he should choose another, but his son was adamant and  so Allan finally agreed.  They took the horse to a woman to train and it turned out that this horse was so bad the woman said ‘forget about  it, I’ll give you your money back, you have no chance with this horse’.  Allan disagreed and told her it might seem a bit strange but he wanted to pray for the horse.  So he laid hands on the horse, prayed for it and left.  The next day he came back and the woman’s jaw was on the ground.  The horse had become tame.

Over the past 7 years Allan has broken about 60 horses and any one he has trouble with he just prays for.  People who have spent all their lives with horses and spent decades breaking them bring any difficult ones to Allan.  He has brought God into peoples lives by showing them that the God they thought had no relevance in their lives works within their world. 

What a great example of God using our weaknesses to show His strength, and changing peoples lives in a relevant but supernatural way.