You are my Desire

If your reading this, then I have successfully posted this blog and you should probably do a victory dance of your room. You have 10 seconds. 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Back? Good. Now that you're tired, you should refresh yourself by opening Facebook and liking the page that I am going to post a link for HERE, and also here and here. There, you have 3 links to choose from choose wisely... they all do the same thing. Now that all that administrative stuff is over, let's get into the spicy salami. Or blog, whatever. Basically, keep reading. God Bless!


Proverbs 20:11
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. 


Let's not pretend we don't know what God's talking about here. God makes it pretty clear. We know when we're doing right from wrong! The problem we face, is sometimes we spend so much time in the wrong, ignoring God's voice and doing things out of our own "strength and knowledge" that we miss God's power and wisdom. It's not a blurred line. There are 10 commandments, when realistically, God could have simply put down the first two and expected the same results. If we really love God, we're not going to be wanting to sin, right? God has extended way beyond what he could simply demand of us. I mean, look, he wrote a whole bible to teach us right from wrong, and still has grace that covers us when we mess up! What I've been thinking this week, is I think, the most important thing to God, is our heart. You could go out and evangelize and serve God every day, but if deep down you had no desire to, like you really loathed serving God, he doesn't want your offerings. Proverbs 23:26- My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways. God's desire is that your heart would match up with his. If you were locked in a room for the rest of your life, you could still enter heaven with a heart that hungers and thirsts for God's. But a cold heart gets turned away.

Luke 6:44- A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. What kind of fruit are you producing in your life? Or better yet, where is your heart at? I challenge you. This week, every time you feel tempted to say the wrong thing or act the wrong way, stop. Literally just stop everything your doing. Focus on God, even for just a moment, and pray two things. One, that he would harden your heart towards sin, and two, that he would increase your desire, your hunger, to know him and walk in his ways. I promise you, if you do this with a sincere heart, you will see a radical transformation in the way you act over even just the course of a week. That's my challenge for you. Do you want to be identified for your good fruit, as a child who knew right from wrong and chose to walk the straight and narrow, or a fool, who saw the narrow path and chose to enter the wide gate. Pray for a desire to see God. To know God! There is no greater prayer you could ever pray for anyone than to see their own heart long for God's. Be Blessed.

Lord I Give you my Heart- Anthony Evans

Psalm 119:97-104

Sorrow vs. Salvation

Back once again this week, massive thank you to Jono for covering for me last week! As you may have seen in the last post, he has started his own blog, so you may want to go check it out! I'd love it if you spared a moment to check out and "like" my Facebook page, which you can find a link for here! I had the idea for this blog earlier this week, I was thinking about how God calls us to take up our cross and follow him, and I thought about what the cross means to me. When Jesus physically bore the cross, he bore the sin of the world on his shoulders and died on it at the end of the day. Surely this isn't what God calls us to do, carry the sin of the world on out shoulders until it overcomes us and kills us? Remember, this is only my opinion on it. Interested? Well, read on and find out!

Matthew 11:30- For my yoke is easy and my burden is light

This idea ties in well with a blog I have posted previously, where a lot of the time god's logic seems to be the opposite of what we think. How can a burden be light? Our English dictionary defines a burden as "a load, something worrisome that is difficult to bear, Responsibility, to weigh down and oppress." and associates it with words like Encumber, Grieve, Overload, Affliction and Sorrow. I don't care how light this burden is, this doesn't sounds like something God wants us to carry! Now, the cross, is a perfect symbol for a burden. The Cross burdened Christ as he made his way to his place of crucifixion. In Roman times the cross was the symbol you carried to your grave- It was literally a death sentence. I thought about this for a while, and then it began to sit uneasy with me. Luke 9:23 says- Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must first deny himself, take up their cross daily and follow me". Why would Christ call us to carry a symbol of death, afflictions and sorrow with us daily? Considering this, I began to wonder, what does the cross really symbolize? I mean, I had thought it was anguish, sorrow and death, but did Jesus' crucifixion change this? Jesus is known for drawing water from rocks, turning water into wine and bringing the dead back to life, surely he can change a cross, a mourned symbol of death, into a joyous sign of salvation? 

Well, I don't know about you, but I sure think he did. When God calls us to take up our cross, he doesn't call us to burden ourselves with sorrow, anguish and pain, but rather take up our salvation daily and follow him! Every day is a new day to spend in his presence. Every day people look at us outwardly and see us bearing a cross, little do they know is its not a burden, its our salvation lifting us up! Its like a magnet. We carry it daily, but it never ways us down. It is always pulled heavenward, so it is always easier to walk when we carry it. Have a look around your life. Do any of the things in your life match the description of a burden? If so, I challenge you to cast your anxiety on God, and take up your cross of Salvation. You thought you were flying now? Wait until that burden gets lifted. Be Blessed! 

Salvation is Here- Hillsong

Romans 8:38-39

Blocking Salvation

Howdy All!

This is usually the part where Josh tells you about something he has encountered this week. That's right - TWIST! I'm not Josh! This week the fine young man that usually chats to you is away on a camp! But as many of you know, he doesn't believe in "cooling off" for a week when it comes to God so he's asked me to take his place in conversing with you!
I'm Jono, born and raised in a christian family in the the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. I love my sport, mucking around with mates and drumming! But believe it or not I'm reasonably educated to! I know right? Oxymoronic personality if I've ever heard one! I took a leaf out of Josh's book a week and a bit ago so if you wanna read anymore of my thoughts and encounters in my Christian walk feel free to visit my blog at http://resurrectingalpha.blogspot.com/. But as I'm a guest here and you're looking for some wise words, I'll take us into the meaty stuff!

Luke 19:1-10 - Zaccheus the Tax Collector (NIV)
¹Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ²A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
⁵When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
⁷All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
⁹Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

I had no idea what to talk about when Josh first asked me to take his place this week, but I saw this bible story as relevant as any as I am a guest as much as anyone tonight, just as Jesus was to Zacchaeus. It's a passage in stark contrast to what Josh shared last week about knowing your limits in the world we live in. We definitely need to know our limitations in order to be of use for God. But in this story Jesus goes out of his way to really sit down and reach out to a tax collector and really connect with this man who is clearly heading down the wrong path.

Firstly we need to grasp why this is such a big deal. What we must understand is that Zacchaeus is just about one of the most hated and despised people in Jericho. He was the leading man in an area of work that already received money from the people, but then he went on to take more than what he should. He cheated and stole from people! And if you've ever been overcharged or taxed for something, you'll know how angry that makes a person! The people of Jericho that had listened to Jesus talk about them as sinners and had further interacted with Jesus also instructed him that he should not go to the guest of such a sinner as Zacchaeus. This shows an incredible feeling of superiority that the people of Jericho feel toward Zacchaeus, "we're sinners, but HIM - he's worse!"

These are the same people that go on and crowd around Jesus showing little concern for Zacchaeus and his shorter height as he is forced to climb a tree in order to see Jesus past the hundreds of people! I think this often reflects the attitude of Christians today. We keep Jesus to ourselves as if we're "better sinners". We often prove a road block for those who need a helping hand forward. What if there wasn't a tree there for Zacchaeus? He would never have been noticed, and might never have been guided to salvation.

Another view to be put under the microscope is within the phrase; "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner." We already looked at the arrogant attitude the people portrayed when referring to him as "a sinner". But when you look at this arrogance, clearly they do not entertain those they believe to be of lesser quality. So when Jesus becomes the guest to Zacchaeus - bringing himself down to that level - they are simply shocked!

Every man and woman deserves a chance at knowing our God and sharing in his salvation. Why should we stand in the way of them repenting and finding refuge in our Savior just as we have?

The thing that disheartens me most is when I see somebody that is obviously struggling for reason, they are lost for purpose or they are hurting and need assistance that could be as simple as helping them to the front of a crowd - and Christians just pass them by. I know I've done it. We just think our times of greater value to us than to them when really, this time we don't share is often used on things that aren't actually going to further the greater picture, God's Kingdom. We need to be guests to people like this. Put aside any feelings of superiority or arrogance we have and do just as Jesus did - reach out to them in a personal manner. If we don't we are just blocking others from reaching the amazing salvation of God.

My questions that I'll leave with you are:

• When have you been the road block in somebodies interaction with God? Why?
• Is there anybody in this state of mind you know, that you haven't reached out to?
• Have you ever acted in an arrogant way towards a "sinner"?
• Who's house can you introduce God's salvation to? WILL YOU?

Thanks guys, it's been fun - I've tried to keep it basic yet constructive. Keep reading and Josh will be back next week! God Bless!
Jono



"He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."

- Mark 16:15 (NIV)