Entries from October 2009 ↓

‘Trust God’ Two words. Simple & easy (assuming you are confident in your perception of God – if you’re not then there are a lot more issues!) – For the sake of this blog post let’s assume that God is an all loving, all knowing perfect creator.

Biblically, we are told we should trust God - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. – Prov 3:5-6 (NIV). If you remove the idea of God from it, it also seems to make sense. If you had a friend who could prove to you that he was all knowing, all loving and he would give you money if you trusted him – would you? I would, and the money probably wouldn’t be necessary. The Bible also says And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him – Romans 8:28 (NIV) Smilarly, why would we not trust someone who is working for our good, it seems the logical, deserving and appropriate response.

So, what then are the issues? I think the nature of God can be one hurdle. Even if we follow the premise above, I think there are two issues about the nature of God which can make us wary about trusting Him. (At this point I should note that when I say trust Him or trust God you should read trust Him unconditionally – not just when it suits us!) Firstly, God isn’t tangible – I’m convinced that without a doubt God exists, yet I think its almost part of human nature to inherently distrust something that we can’t touch or feel. I think the second issue only occurs sometimes, but this is the instinct of saying ‘It’s OK for you God, but you don’t know what I’m going through, you don’t understand, how can I trust you in these circumstances’. I find it helpful at these point to remember that Jesus, was a man himself and he does know what we’re going through.

I think there are also two extremes in trusting God. Obviously, there is never trusting God, which I have mostly covered above, this is, in my opinion unbiblical and unhealthy. I also think it is possilbe to use your ‘trust in God’ as an excuse to do almost nothing. You can be completely passive and say I’m trusting God, if He wants me to do something I will, if He wants me to get somewhere I’ll get there if I put in the work or not. An example of this, and something that I have almost fallen into once or twice is I don’t need to study for exams, if God wants me to pass exams then I will, me studying won’t have any impact.

To me, the verse that comes to mind is the verse Jesus quotes to Satan when he is being tempted: Do not test the Lord your God – Deut 6:16 (NIV) This may not be the best verse, but I feel that it applies and it has helped me in the past. I believe that taking the second approach can often being doing exactly what Satan wants, I have no doubt he loves passive Christian who trust God, but never do anything abouth their faith & trust.

Finally, to finish on a positive note, whenver I do trust if God, things always work out. I think, again of Matthew where Peter walks on water to Jesus, the second he doubts, he begins to sink, Jesus response is O you of little faith, why did you doubt? – Matt 14:31 (ESV) If we trust God, he will come through things will work. When we don’t trust him we might fail, but luckily Jesus is there to catch us when we fall, and even though there are countless times when I haven’t trusted, God doesn’t get suspicious of my trust when I repent and return.

I know this is a long post, but I think Mark Schultz’s song When the Mountains Fall has a good chorus to quote in this respect:

When the mountains fall, when the rivers rise,
Securty crumbles before your eyes
The one thing you know: in faith you’ll find
something to stand on or you will be taught to fly

Edit: I almot forgot, a lot of this blog post came out of a discussion I had with a friend of mine, actually, 2 seperate convesation with 2 different friends, so I’m sure some of their thoughts and views are reflected here

Although there obviously isn’t, to me, it just seems to be obligatory to write (or rather type) a bog post while I’m 33, 000 feet in the air. [As a point of interest this is 11km above the ground]

At the moment I’m aboard a Tiger Airways Airbus A320 on my way to Melbourne. I’m only in Melbourne for a couple of hours though, before I jump on another plane, which will take me to the Gold Coast. So what am I doing why am I doing this in Week 12 with exams fast approaching?

Good Question! The Future Problem Solving National Finals are being held at AB Paterson College & Sea World Resort this weekend, and being on the National Committee and an evaluator my presence is useful. It a shame I have a few spare days to visit Brisbane and visit Wet ‘n’ Wild!

Briefly, for those of you who are wondering here is a brief run down of FPS:
The main competition is called Global Issues Problem Solving. In teams of 4, in 2 hours you are given an unseen scenario based on a topic (you know what the topic is) and set in the future. In the 2 hours your team has to find 16 problems in the scenario, 1 underlying problem, 16 solutions to solve that underlying problem. Develop 5 criteria and rank your 8 best solutions and then write up an action plan – it really is awesome fun, trust me! {Note I’m now in Melbourne airport not in the air anymore}

By far the most awesome part about FPS though, was the trip to the USA to compete in the international finals. The trip was awesome in many ways, certainly not the least that it had a massive impact on me becoming a Christian. 🙂

This is a really boring blog post, with no point whatsoever, so I’ll sign off now before you get totally sick of me, but keep an eye on this page, there may be some Brisbane/Gold Coast adventures/photos posted soon.

I was writing a bible study for Law Small Group at uni today, and without thinking I typed one of the questions, asking how the passage we were discussing would affect our worship. As soon as I wrote this I stopped to think – I knew what I meant by worship, but would the group members share my understanding of worship. What is worship? How do you define it?

As I considered this what sprung into memory was a phrase that I’ve mostly memorised, the definition of worship by Louie Gigilio (the founder of Passion Conferences, a preacher I’ve found very insightful and challenging) in his series Worship: That Thing We Do: “Worship is: Our response both personal and corporate to God – for who He is! and for what He has done! expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.”

I think this is both a helpful and accurate definition, but it begs the questions, how well do we worship? Our normal day to day lives are a response to God, they are worship – or they should be. He is God, our Creator, our Heavenly Father, YAHWEH, I AM, the one who was and is and forevermore shall be, a personal, relational and loving God. He has sent his only Son to die for our sin and shame on the cross, in order that we may have eternal life – John 3:16.

What sort of reponse does this deserve? I hope that one day. everything I say and the way I live my life, 24/7 will be an appropriate response. When I think of the things I say without thinking, the slefish desires I fufill, the sins I commit, I’m positive I’m not there yet, but I am working on it. I’m also convinced that worship is more than singing, and it doesn’t only happen on Sunday.