It was great to see people from Youth participating in the Red Shield Doorknock this weekend. It was also encouraging to see all the people who donated to the Salvation Army, in an effort to help Australians in need by providing food, shelters and beds.
When the next doorknock comes around, why not sign up for it with a friend? Have a bit of fun, get a bit of exercise and support the cause :)
We don't hear the word 'sacrifice' very often in our daily lives... here are what I think are some of the more common occurences:
Soldiers sacrificing their lives for their country
Salary sacrificing...
Creed - My Sacrifice
Firemen/policemen sacrificing their lives for their duties
As you can probably tell, I struggled to come up with much there, maybe you can think of other common circumstances when it's used. Aside from 2 & 3, the other two are pretty serious - the devotion of life to what could be considered the 'greater good'.
But what does the word mean to a Christian? We know that Jesus set us the ultimate example to follow being Christians and all, but is he any different from the above people?
The answer of course is - yes! Jesus died for the greatest good - for all of us, everywhere, forever. It could be easy for us to play down his sacrifice, were it not for the many things he said, such as his words from Matthew 26:53 upon being arrested - "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". Despite all the things he could do, he knew his purpose and intended to carry it out, even if his purpose was to die with the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders. Both Son of God and Man, he humbled himself to a lowly death on a cross.
Yet, though we feel sacrifice is a sad and unfortunate thing, it is through Jesus' sacrifice that we have been redeemed and freed from our sins! There was no angel, no army, no court and no government who prevented him from carrying out his sacrifice for us. And no terminator either...
Just a final bit of awareness generation for environmental concern, I've asked Ness to upload the '50 Ways to be environmentally friendly' that was made to generate environmental awareness in 2008. Since it was a really well made production, I've been recommended to reuse the footage for the same cause.
God gave his one and only Son for us; that’s 1 out of 1, 100%. In our daily lives how much of ourselves do we give back to him? This question should also remind us of the selfless alternative… how much of ourselves should we actually keep?
If you haven’t been setting aside a portion of your time for our Christ daily, then I encourage you to subscribe to Our Daily Bread, an online devotional at http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml.
For increasing environmental awareness, I showed a presentation about Clean Up Australia Day a few weeks back. I promised to post the links that were included on this site straight afterwards. Obviously, I was late in doing this, but finally here they are.
I am planning to organise to clean up mobile phones for EMP youth as a whole, so keep an eye out for news of that soon.
Out of interest, anyone who did pick up their piece of rubbish can post a comment with the details of where and whether they got any strange reactions (if applicable).
Quick fixes. Who doesn’t love them? A clever year 7 student wouldn’t deny that when things get tough on a Pokemon game, the first port of call is usually an online walkthrough tutorial to finally fill that missing spot in the Pokedex. They also wouldn’t deny the fact that the chance of them doing their homework drastically reduces as soon as they find out that someone else has already completed the very same task.
Just in case the point isn’t quite clear yet, step away from the computer screen and take a look inside your wardrobe/cabinet. If there are more clothes on the floor than there are hanging up or neatly folded, you’ve most probably been exercising the “Quick Fix” technique. If you are one of those people that keep their wardrobes or cabinets squeakily tidy, then you are in the 5% of people who do not exercise the “Quick Fix” technique. However, you are probably not in the 0.01% of people who keep it that way.
Wherever we turn, we are faced with multiple problems to address and at the very same time, multiple solutions to every problem. Generally, each group of solutions available to a problem will boil down to fit into one of two categories. 1) the easy way; 2) the hard way.
Easy way solutions usually involve a pearl drink (just joking). The fact of the matter is that easy way solutions almost always compromise the quality of our efforts while hard way solutions can often lead to a more sustainable outcome. Although many of us are well aware of the pitfalls that surround taking the “easy way out”, in the chaos of our everyday lives, we are almost guaranteed to follow the path of least resistance.
As Christians who profess our loyalty to God, our daily walk must not reflect the approaches we would take to catching a Pokemon, doing our homework or cleaning our wardrobe. We are not called to take the easy way out nor are we instructed to live our lives in a manner most pleasing to ourselves. If we call ourselves Christians, we must also acknowledge that the only suitable reason for doing anything is in service to God.
A common belief is that only certain things can be done in service to God. How can washing the dishes or taking out the rubbish be done in service to God? Perhaps the most efficient way for me to explain my viewpoint on this is to make the distinction between action and motive. When even the simplest things are done with a heart of thankfulness and gratefulness, I would say that constitutes service to God. When through the daily grind, we realise how much God has done for us and how undeserving we are of His love, I’d say we’re in the right mindset.
We aren’t required just to set ourselves to autopilot and cruise through the not-so-pleasant parts of life. We’re called to live in servitude to an Almighty God; a calling that is by no means easy. There certainly isn’t a “Quick Fix” when it comes to walking the Christian walk. However, when we live our lives acknowledging our unworthiness and thanking God for His mercy on us, it will soon become clear that our complaints about the Pokemon not appearing, our homework being too difficult and our wardrobe being too hard to clean are really actually insignificant.
That’s really all I have to say on this topic, but thanks for reading! Hope you all stay tuned for the next youth update. Now, I’m off to fold all my clothes.
On a side note, even though there isn’t a quick fix for the hard bits of life we face, when it comes to cleaning the hard bits on your toilet, sink or shower, BAM really does work.
