They are over!!!

At last all my exams are done, all this years work is completely behind me, nothing left but 3 months stretched out in front of me.. I have no idea what I am going to do yet, no plans, I don't know if that scares me or not, it seams like a huge streach of time that will just be meandered away. I guess I have a sense of completion of one thing, but just no purpose for my summer...

I have been thinking about friendship a lot over the last few days, and just having a few hickups with some friends...

So have I learnt anything! LOL Well you know I think that any friendship worth keeping needs some work from time to time, I don't mean that in a bad way at all.. Just that things in any friendship will come up from time to time and will need to be talked through.

I just think that if you value the friendship and it is worth keeping, it will allays be worth fighting for it! I think that when it comes to friends you sometimes just have to stick with them and love no matter what. I loved that story in the bible about Jonathan and his armor bearer, when Jonathan wanted to go up and fight Philistine.

1Samual 14v 6&7 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few." "Do all that you have in mind," his armor-bearer said. "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul."

I think that in friendship we sometimes need that an attitude like his where we just stick with our friends no matter what... Lord help me to be that sort of friend!

EXAMS ARE HALF DONE AS OF LAST NIGHT!!!

Last night was the turning point half of the exams are now done and they will all be over in one weeks time!! So it would be party time if I did not have an exam tomorrow... :(

Honoring our elders

I was just thinking about why we live such lukewarm lives and why for the most part we seam to be frustrated with that. We don't like living at 10% for Jesus. We are all painfully aware of how much more there is to this life, and how much more of Jesus we can have in our lives. But somehow we just don't ever use that frustration to press in and get to know Jesus better. There is such power in the gospel, that saves us, heals us (emotionally and physical), power to go out and spread the good news.

I am not sure fully why and I guess that it is a big question with a complicated answer, with everyone having there own contributing factors...

The one factor that I have seen in our church's and country over the last while especially among our young people, is a lack of honor being given to those who went before us. I am talking about the old people, the over 50's.

I have been thinking about how much easier it is to walk in the footsteps of the people who went before you. I have been reading though 1Kings this last while and when is goes through all the kings after David it keeps referring to;

15v26 He was openly evil before GOD-he followed in the footsteps of his father who both sinned and made Israel sin.

15v34He was openly evil before GOD, walking in the footsteps of Jeroboam, who both sinned and made Israel sin.

16v2"I took you from nothing--a complete nobody--and set you up as the leader of my people Israel, but you plodded along in the rut of Jeroboam, making my people Israel sin and making me seethe over their sin."

These are just three examples it keeps referring to how they were like Jeroboam, how they lived in the legacy that he had made, or walked in his footsteps. Also there are the positive things as well, like King David killed a giant, we all know the story, but what we often forget is that there were 3 more giants killed all by King Davids men!! ie. Hang around a giant killer, become a giant killer...

Even for an example closer to home, both of my great Grandparents on one side were in the Massons, but my Grandfather refused to join the massions when he was young. My father got to walk in his footsteps and did not join, that made it so much easier for him not to join, and for me it was not even an issue! We get to walk in the inheritance that is left for us.

When we do not give honor to those elders around us, we louse so much, we louse that inheritance that they have for us, we louse their wisdom, we louse those testimonies of how Jesus came through for them! Whatever we like to say testimonies build faith!! In the kingdom we see, when we believe and testimonies make it so much easier to believe...

"what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger"...It should be, "what doesn't kill you just makes you wish you were dead"

Funny with exams starting Monday, this is my overwhelming feeling!! DOOM I am sure they will be ok in the end just at the moment I am a little, ok a lot worried about them!! It is one of the few things that I really don't like, is the feeling that your future hangs on a 3 hour exam...

This weeks thoughts I was told that I needed to blog about this, so here is goes! I was chatting to one of the guys from church, and we were discussing structures and "laws/ rules" in church. I then quoted Bill Johnstown when he said that "Law is the lowest form of discipleship" you know it is totally true, rules are really the least effective way of us doing anything. If you tell a child not to do something that is never as effective as when they don’t want to do something. Like with kids (well most sane kids) you don’t need to make a rule saying you can’t eat vegetables, they just wont eat them because they don’t want them!

Passion is always better than law, like our giving, I think we should give to the church because we want to give to God not because we have to. When our passion for giving runs dry then we turn to the law and give our 10%, but we don’t start there we only use law to patch up where our passion fails us. We need the law (referring to the guidelines that are set out in the bible!) to help us when our passion fades as it always will from time to time. We all face that from time to time, just all the passion for life fades and we don’t really want/feel like doing the right thing, then we need to think about what is right and do it whether we feel like it or not.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." Jeremiah 31:33-34 (New International Version) I have been reading this and thinking what dose it mean to have the law written on our hearts? The only thing that I have sort of rested my thoughts on is that the Holy Spirit will give us a passion to carry out the "law". That God will give us a passion to do what he wants us to do, all I can say to that is amen!! Jesus will you give me the passion to do what you want me to do, will you put on my heart your law and the plans and desired that you have for me. Thanks!