Not, as I think was intended by this video, ‘HOW SMALL ARE YOU?!!” Rather ‘HOW BIG IS GOD?!!”
Archive for June, 2009
Famine
2009
06.19
06.19
famine?
Back in January we started a sermon series based on the story of Joseph.
This week, as we near the end of the series, we turn to the famine. Joseph was to provide salvation from the effects of this catastrophe. God had long been preparing Joseph for the moment he would be thrust from the prison into the palace. He goes from prisoner to prime minister in the most dramatic rags to riches story in history.
Joseph, of course, has no idea this is about to happen. As far as he knows there could be many more years of obscurity ahead.
His decision to be faithful in the privacy of his prison cell saved many thousands of lives. He also provided food for his own family and kept God’s people and the promise of a messiah alive.
Decisions made in private can have global effects!!
We have the privilege of having our lives woven into God’s plan to rescue mankind from an eternity without Him. We can feel, like Joseph must have felt at times, abandoned by God and rejected by men. The danger when we feel like that is we can abandon our walk with God and sin, making poor decisions based on bad motivations.
Our government is in the midst of the worst crisis in generations the cause has been bad moral choices made in private. For generations the families of these disgraced MPs will suffer the consequences.
The famine we face is not a lack of food but rather a famine of truth, righteousness and love. God continues to prepare his people to participate in His great rescue mission. Our private decisions continue to have global consequences.
how do we measure success?
2009
06.10
06.10
Jenson Button wins in Monaco 2009
This week I had the privilege of addressing our town council. My slot came directly after a presentation to a number of high school students who were being awarded for a variety of achievements.
Having planned to speak on the title of this post I quickly adjusted my introduction.
I recently watched Jenson Button running through the streets of Monaco, celebrating another GP victory. I also witnessed the historic French Open win for Roger Federer. As we get older success becomes harder to measure, I have noticed that people stopped giving me certificates some years ago.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Corinthians 9 v 24-25
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus also had a measure of success which lead him all the way to the cross.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12 v 2
So what is this that Paul is encouraging us to strain for and that motivated Jesus?
It is the joy of doing God’s will. This demonstrated most completely by Jesus in the sacrificial service of others.
This then is success.
When motivated by these things I am freed; from the need to please others, from the tyranny of the urgent, from a worldly desire to be noticed or to dominate my peers.