Labeling

Labeling is a funny thing, esp as we use it more and more to identify people these days. Box people some would say. But we seem to have a concept on what labeling is, whether it is good labeling or bad labeling. If I say I'm prophetic that is seen as good labeling, if I say I'm greedy that can be either depending on what I say I'm greedy for. Why is it ok to be greedy for God and yet wrong to be greedy for power?
Just recently we have been looking into Asperger's Syndrome because my lovely husband displays an awful lot of the characteristics of this way of looking at life. It is totally amazing the traits in it, all very frustrating for those of us who don't see the world that way and who have to work around this lovely person but very much without these people we could all still be stilling about drinking tea in caves and talking about what needed doing.
But it has been interesting how why Ian has tried to explore this with people, esp Christians, he has been told not to take on board that label. It is seen as a bad label, hence then finding it hard to work out how we live as a Christian couple with seeing the world so differently. I do wonder if he said that he was an evangelist, that would be a good label, and if we were struggling as a couple to deal with his way of looking at life of wanting to evangelise everyone he saw then we would get loads of help.
It seems to me that good labels get help but "bad labels" people struggle to accept and to deal with, esp in Christian circles.
I wonder what other differing labels like that come to mind?

Humility

I've been having an interesting chew over on this one after recently my other half has been told he's humble on 2 different occasions. Now I am not saying he isn't but I did realise that the suggestion of him being humble is that he is quiet, thinks a lot before he speaks and is quite wise, on the whole, when he does speak. Very cool but is this really what humble is? Are those of us who seem to speak quickly not humble? Very much we are often not seen as humble by others.

I was looking up what humble meant in a recent Bible study I was doing about Jesus who was the most humblest person ever but He was quick to speak, often put people in their place, though I know too that what He said was the right thing to say too.

So after much prayer, thought, chewing over whilst doing other things, the conclusion I have come to is that being humble means being totally reliant on God, knowing that with God we can do all things but without Him we are nothing. Its not about being quiet and not doing things, of sitting meekly in the corner, it is about being bold enough to step out there and be and do knowing how great our God is and how much He wants to do with us.

Wonder if I'm right? But I know I'm going to keep on working on learning to rely on Him.

Torn Ligaments

I was with a neighbour the other day talking about another neighbour who'd had a car accident. Her and her daughter had similar injuries but her daughter had broken her foot, the mother had torn ligaments. What my neighbour said fascinated me. She said that the torn ligaments were not so noticeable to begin with and would take longer to heal.

In Ephesians 4:16 it says "from whom the whole body, joined and knit together tightly by ligaments, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love"

As I keep being burdened by a need to pray for unity in The Church this really has struck me. I wonder how many of the divisions in the Body of Christ weren't noticed at first, were just a bit painful, but then as time went on one knew something was wrong but wasn't sure what. But then when the problem is discovered it will take a long time to heal. This is, I think, why its a burden few want to carry. If I'd have known that it was so hard maybe I wouldn't have taken it on either :)

But anyway this is a long drawn out process. In fact once a ligament is torn then it often never heals the same. Also it is not uncommon for people with torn ligaments to get depressed. I wonder sometimes if that goes on in our congregations as a collective, not as individuals, but as a corporate body. There is a malady, a feeling of not wanting things to change, of needing to potter on in the same old same old just because to do anything else takes too much.

What we must realise too, which is encouraging, is that even when a ligament is severely torn and the person may never walk again the body is still intaked, just not able to function and be as effective as it should be. Perhaps too this is why we often wonder why The Church seems so ineffective in some areas, but that could just be because it is a useless ligament that we need to wait for it to heal.

Father God we need You to do a might miracle and heal these torn ligaments, to help us see the tearing and to try to use these joints when things are still torn.

Sun Waking up?

I thought I'd just post this from SpaceWeather.com. I posted a while back that they were predicting that the sun was waking up and I was wondering what prophetic significance it had - accentuated after watching the movie 2012!!! But very much they were saying on SpaceWeather.com that what happens with the sun will dramatically effect here on earth.
Maybe this is why we are feeling restless. Jesus does say when He comes back we will all see. So?
Anyway read on and see what you think - (Probably to get the links to work you'll need to go to the webpage on SpaceWeather.com as I'm not sure how I get them up here and working!!)


COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:


Click to launch a movie (EUV 304 Å)

The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 Å), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.

In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.

more images: from Francois Rouviere of Mougins, France; from Rogerio Marcon of Campinas SP Brasil; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Wouter Verhesen of Sittard, The Netherlands; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California

Dilemmas

Dilemmas are interesting things to have to deal with. I have just come back from only the one day at New Wine, a huge Anglican based week long conference, based in a field near where we live. Its interesting that we have never been there before, even though it happens every year and is only 40 mins drive from our house. Probably the reason. Have you noticed how we also like to do mission in places that are not on our doorstep too?

I have been a bit challenged by God on a few personal things recently and realise that the congregation I went to last Sunday does speak a lot about getting oneself right with God and going from there, which is a great place to start, but the talks we heard yesterday, on the whole, were much more about doing, getting out there, justice.

I love the 24-7 ethos that speaks of prayer, mission and justice though am still trying to work out how that works in the world that I live in. It would be great to have some like minded people on board but as yet God has not revealed them.
So my dilemma at the moment is to try to work out what it is God wants, not just for me but for us all. Not the whole world but us as a family which with Ben and Tabi growing up looks very different every day almost.

I would love to buy a big house and fill it full of children in some deprived part of the country. I would love to start a Simple organic church here in my home and release people into who God has called them to me not to just fit the mold. I would love to go abroad on an internship but the ones I like seem to want graduates. I am about to embark on a course that will open doors to go into university.

Sometimes you see and hear people who's lives are just so sorted and it seems all so straight forward. I wonder if that is true?

So as I wrestle with my dilemma I may not blog so much, but then I may use this as a space to voice what I feel and then see what feedback I get.

God really does want us to be involved with Him in justice and setting people free. In fact He says so very clearly in Isaiah 58 and 61 amongst other places. Someone said recently that there are more mentions of justice issues in the Bible than being born again and yet so many congregations labour more on making sure everyone is born again than walking justly.

How do we do this in the places God has placed us? in the families He has given us to protect and release? the partners He has given us to love and cherish? the neighbourhoods where we are now?

Heroes or Anit heroes?

We were listening to the news on the radio today about this Facebook page paying tribute to Raoul Moat and how badly the social services and police had let him down. Here is man who has murdered one person who's only crime was to go out with Raoul's ex-girlfriend, and attempt to murder his ex-girlfriend who he claims to love and a policeman who was doing this job. What makes this man a hero?

We live in strange times when someone like this can be help up as a kind of hero and those who are doing their jobs, like the police, as criminals because this man committed suicide. What are we teaching people? Is this going to encourage people to want to join the police force, want to fight for justice, to join in with the social services teams to help people out. I am tired of it all.

But then as I looked more and prayed into it, it feels to me as part of a scheme to stop people trusting in authority, to stop them trusting in the very people that have been put into our society to protect us. There is so much in the news at the moment, from the Baby P horror where it was again the social services who were seen as the bad guys not the people who had tortured the poor baby, and then the incident with the Brazilian boy who ran when the Police shouted "Stop" and they killed him. Why did the boy run anyway when he was from a country where Police carry guns and do shoot people? In fact in Brazil they shoot street children just to get rid of them, and that is the Police there who do that.

We may not have a perfect police force or social services but it would be great if we didn't keep running them down, but saw that people make choices and some of that involves them deciding to commit suicide after murdering one person and shooting 2 others. Surely this person cannot be a hero? or even an anti-hero? Dear Jesus please help us get things back in perspective.

From the Graduation speach in the Movie Eclipse

Will write more on what I think of the 3rd Twilight Movie, Eclipse, in some other blog but for now just feel this speech by Jessica at their graduation is what every young person needs to hear, and also every parent.

“When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our things were answers like astronaut, president, or in my case, princess… When we were ten, they asked us again. We answered - rock star, cowboy, or in my case, gold medalist… But now that we’ve grown up, they want a more serious answer. Well, how about this… Who the hell knows? This isn’t a time to make hard and fast decisions. This is the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere chill. Fall in love - a lot. Major in philosophy because there’s no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind. Then change it again because nothing is permanent. So make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask again what we want to be… We won’t have to guess. We’ll know.”