Why can't we all just be friends?

As I write this article, which is the first for some time - apologies reader -  I am preparing to speak at a school in the morning, then to visit a grieving family to arrange their mothers funeral, before speaking at two church over the weekend. At the same time I have just completed writing a devotional magazine, called the voice, that our church takes each month and have had several conversations and meetings through the week.

This is not a blog designed to tell you that I am super busy, but rather that one thought has been mind throughout all of these activities. The conversations and meetings that I have been involved in seem to all be centered around groups of people disagreeing with each other. My study and writing has been focused on people with different mind sets and their attitudes to each other as well. And all through this week I cannot shake off the story of the Good Samaritan, which keeps on popping into my mind.

Here is a link to a modern version of the story that I have put on our church website, taken from the Junior section of our Voice magazine.

www.selstonchurchofchrist.org.uk/voice.htm#Junior%20Voice


Whilst its not the most amazing piece of writing ever, I think it gets the point across fairly well.

There is an regularly used piece of advice, when wondering how to act in certain circumstances, which suggests we ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" When doing this I am often reminded that when Jesus was on this earth in human form, he spent his time with all sorts of people - regularly being told he shouldn't waste his time with that kind of people. And the most amazing thing to note is that he didn't ask people to change first, he accepted them just as they were.

So let's come back to the question posed in the title of this blog; why can't we call just be friends? I suppose the answer in all honesty if we think about every country, people group, race and religion, I guess there is very little chance that we are all simply going to shakehands and become friends.


But that doesn't take away from the fact that we and our world desperately need us to try. And with God's help, I believe, that when we start to accept each other as Jesus does, we can begin to move closer to becoming friends after all.

Importance of refreshment

I was driving into Mansfield Woodhouse last week, and had to stop at some traffic lights just before going under a railway bridge. The bridge in question is fairly high but not wide enough for two vehicles at once. It is an old bridge which must have been in use for many years. But what struck me was the number of scrape marks and scratches were vehicles had scored their way through the bridge.

Clearly over the years lots of people had decided to try and, unsuccessfully, drive their vans and lorries through this bridge, thinking that they could fit. There is, I believe, a natural human instinct to try and fit too much into life!

Whether it is the amount of jobs in a day, the amount of purchases on your budget or the number of tasks done at the same time, we often try to fit in too much. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being busy and at times we can all benefit from a little pressure. Many people thrive on the feeling of having a few balls in the air at the same time; the pressure of a looming dead-line is what makes many of us tick.

But none of that takes away from the fact that, at times we all naturally need to take a break and be refreshed. We all need down-time, all need holidays and times to switch off from the nine-to-five lifestyle.

We have a God who is interested in providing refreshment for our spirits and souls - He wants to bring you refreshment if you will only give him the opportunity.

Take a moment this week to get alone, away from the pressures of daily life, for a few minutes, and ask God to bring you his unique refreshment.

Have a great day.

God bless.

Chris

God doesn't have a 'naughty step'

I was sat in church reading earlier this week whilst the 'mums and toddlers' group where using our back room. As I read the volume of a child crying grew louder and louder, until the door opened and one mother brought here child for a 'time out'. She explained to her daughter that "enough was enough" and it was time to calm down or they would go straight home. After a minute or so the child in question calmed down and they went back to enjoy playing with the other children.

My wife is a nursery nurse and because of this I have watched, in my opinion, too many programs like 'super nanny'; teaching parents how to control their children. I believe that the general rule of thumb is to have your child sit on the 'naughty step' or take a 'time out' for a duration of one minute equal to their age. So a two year old should have a 'time out' for two minutes where as a ten year old should be sent to the 'naughty step' for ten minutes.

Whilst this post is not related to parenting tips, this encounter did start me thinking about my relationship with my Heavenly father, God. I wouldn't have to think for more than a few minutes, before I could build quite a list of things over which God could have rightly sent me to the 'naughty step' for a rather long time.

But here's some great and amazing news - God doesn't have a naughty step! God gives us a beautiful promise that if we turn to him truly and honestly sorry; he will always forgive us and will never bring punishment; no 'time outs' and no 'naughty steps'!

That thought has been on my mind and stayed with me all week and I hope it continues to, and that it may bless you as well.

Have a great day

God bless

Chris

What is Heaven like?

In the last couple of months, I have been asked or told what Heaven is like, more than ever before. I have had conversations with several people who have just finished reading books written by people who have supposedly visited Heaven in dreams or due to near death experiences. And almost everyone else I have had any kind of philosophical conversation with (which happens more often than you may think) wants to know how I think it will look or have a strong opinion themselves.

More often than not, people have a preconception of what Heaven would look like; whether the Bible description is literal or symbolic. And often people wonder how time would be spent in Heaven; maybe sitting on a cloud playing a harp, or asking God a list of questions.

I have no definite picture in my mind apart from a confident belief that I stick to at all times and always share with anyone who will listen. Heaven will be perfect! And I also think that everyone's experience of Heaven may be slightly different and unique.

In one of Adrian Plass' books he expresses the prayer that when he gets to Heaven, he would like there to be a good library and coffee shop within walking distance of Lords Cricket Ground. And I like that idea. At a funeral recently I shared this theory and that for the deceased, their version of Heaven may have included an excellent bowling green, as this was their love.

God is interested in providing us perfection and that will surely include all the activities that we love, including crown green bowling, if that's what you enjoy.

The more important aspect of this conversation, than trying to work out the exact details of what Heaven will or will not look like, is making sure you are going to find out.

Have a great day

God bless

Chris

Time

I once new a very successful business man who was incredibly busy, worked far too many hours and was always rushing around but who always managed to fit everything into his day. He had a sign in his office that read something along these lines:

"We all have the same number of hours in a day, what matters is how we use them"

As I sit here in front of my computer, where I have sat pretty much the whole day, most of the week in fact, I wonder where the time goes. In a couple of weeks Debbie and I will mark two years since the church appointed me their associate minister. Thos two years have absolutely flown by, the first month of the year has disappeared and the sun is starting to set on today. I am increasing of the opinion that time is passing by far too quickly.

I had this brought home to me a few weeks ago, when I received a call from my bank. Before beginning the conversation they had to identify me so asked a few questions, such as my post code, first line of address and age at my next birthday. I answered that I would be 31 and continued with the call. At the end of the conversation the lady on the telephone said very politely "I am sorry to tell you, that on your next birthday you will actually be 32!" - See time is moving so fast that I have lost track of even how old I am!

The reason that I am maybe so conscious of time right now is that I am re-assessing how much time I do or do not spend with the important people around me and more so the time I spend focused on God.

The successful and very busy business man that I mentioned died last year. He had a lot of time to make money, enjoy fantastic holidays, raise a beautiful loving family, but had no time for God at all. To my knowledge he died without ever having time to get to know God and to guarantee his salvation.

Please don't make the same mistake - think about how you spend your time, I'm going to be thinking about how I spend mine. One of the greatest gifts God gives us is that he is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Why not have a chat with him right now, he’s always waiting.

Have a great day.

God bless

Chris

Thank you Sunday

This Sunday at church we are holing our first, hopefully annual, 'thank you Sunday'. It will be an opportunity to thank people who have helped make church possible over the last twelve months. 2011 was a busy year in the life of the church at Selston, with lots of exciting times and events. And this Sunday we will recognise that those events could not have happened without a lot of people doing a lot of hard work. It is also a great excuse to have lunch together, which is always a good thing.

In preparation for this Sunday I was thinking earlier about the importance of saying thank you; two words which are not used often enough in our modern lives. The definition of the phrase 'thank you' is a statement of appreciation - but I would suggest that it is actually so much more. When we say thank you to someone we do much more than express only our appreciation; we also show someone that they are valued, loved, cared about, important and worthy as well as appreciated.

When thinking about this topic I always think about the ten lepers whose meeting with Jesus we can read about in Luke 17. In this passage we read that Jesus healed ten lepers, but that only one came back to say thank you to Jesus. When the one leper returned Jesus commended his faith and explained that this faith had made him well. But Jesus is also quoted as asking the question"where are the other nine"?

As we go through our day, there must be dozens if not hundreds of people who help us every week; providing a service, cooking a meal, offering advice or conversation, or simply saying hello or holding open a door.

Maybe the most important one to thank is Jesus himself for giving us life and all his glorious gifts.

This week please don't forget to pass on your 'thank yous', make them genuine and ensure that

people around you know that they are appreciated. And in thanking Jesus make sure that we are not counted as one of the other nine.

Have a great day

God bless

Chris

A day without tech!

In the search for a slightly lighter topic today, let me share with you a little of what happened yesterday.

I woke up a bit late so only had about fifteen minutes to spare before I had to go out to meet someone for breakfast. Naturally, once I had completed my morning ablutions, I went to check my emails as I do every morning. My computer was already switched on so I opened up Outlook ready to receive the daily stream of 20 or so emails (probably 18 of which will be deleted without being read).

Here was where I found my first problem - no email! Instead of beginning to receive mail Outlook advised me that I had an error. A quick bit of investigation found that I also had no Internet, phone or TV - apparently the rain overnight had broken my connection to the outside world.

I had no choice at that point but to go to my breakfast meeting, logging a quick call to my Internet provider, who advised that service would be restored asap. Through the day I accessed the Internet on my phone at a restaurant using their wifi connection and made use of both my parents and sister's computers and Internet connections.

My services where restored by mid afternoon and I was once again connected to the world of technology and received my daily emails, visited my regular websites and could again make phone calls from home. That was all fine and apart from a little inconvenience my day was not affected too much, but it got me thinking "how did we ever cope without all this tech"? Even though having no Internet at home didn't stop me driving my car, talking to my family and doing my job, I felt a bit lost, like I was out of touch or was  somehow missing out.

I rely 100% for a large part of my livelihood, communication and lifestyle on computers and mobile phones and their connectivity to the Internet. Many of us feel lost without a stable broadband connection, disconnected without email and alone without access to Facebook or Twitter.


Computers and technology in general annoy and irritate most of us at least once every day but how would we ever cope and hope to live our lives without them? We communicate with our friends via email and Social media, gain information through the net, play games, listen to the radio and buy goods through these plastic boxes of technology.

We don't gossip - we tweet, we don't laugh - we LOL, we don't talk - we email or chat, instead of openning a book - we open Google. There is no doubt or way of living in denial, we rely on all this tech and cannot really function without it.

I have no clever points or moral guidance to share today - I could have said that we need to be as connected to God and learn to rely on Him as closely as we do our laptops. I could say that we can call on God 24/7 as easily as we use Facebook or that many of us have become disconnected from God and we need to log a call to His tech support and get our lives re-connected. But I'm not going to, you can make those links for yourself.

Right now I'm going to catch up on my emails and see what I've missed on Twitter yesterday.

Have a great day

God bless

Chris