Shifting our view on suffering.

God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that He was willing to take it on Himself.

— Timothy Keller (@timkellernyc) February 28, 2016

So true! When we look at the here and now - at the situation in the present - it is so easy to take our eyes off God and to think Him unfair or even cruel for allowing us to suffer or experience the pain we find ourselves in.

At those times though, we need to stop, we need to step back and look at our suffering with an eternal perspective. Because with the view of eternity we see two main things.  We look back and see that God's love for us is unmeasurably, overwhelmingly great.  Because when we look back we see the cost Jesus paid so that we might live - we see what He suffered because he took the punishment for sin upon Himself on the cross.  The second thing we see is the final result for us of Jesus' acts on the cross.  We look forward to peace, we look forward to glory and we see ourselves in the future place, doing what we were created to do... praising God.

With those two things as an eternal backdrop, we can take on a completely different perspective to the misery and suffering we are experiencing in the moment.

In it to End It 2016

 I have been supporting The End It Movement for years now, and it has been amazing to see the work that has been done to end slavery in our generation.

The power of awareness is amazing, because awareness brings advocating, and advocating really does bring change.  This year a bill is being put to the U.S congress to set 11 million dollars towards a global disbandment of human trafficking... and that bill has been created because senators became aware of millions of students advocating the End It Movement's "Shine a Light on Slavery Day".  That's incredible!

This year's Shine a Light On Slavery Day is Feb 25th. So go and check out http://enditmovement.com to see all the latest figures on slavery world-wide, get informed, and then on the 25th draw a red X on your hand. During the day if people ask you about it you can tell them that you are in it to end it when it comes to slavery.

END IT is a Coalition of the leading organizations in the world in the fight for FREEDOM. Each of our amazing Coalition Partners are doing the work, on the ground, everyday, to bring AWARENESS, PREVENTION, RESCUE, and RESTORATION.
[End It Movement Website ]

Resurrection changes everything...

I saw the new movie Risen last night. I highly recommend it as an inquisitive and thought provoking story revolving around the resurrection of Jesus.

Not to ruin the story line, but the movie follows the story of Clavius, the Roman solider second only to Pontious Pilot in Judea in AD33.  Clavius oversees Jesus' crucifixion and when his body goes missing three days later is charged with finding those who stole it, and bringing proof that the tales of a resurrection are false.

I felt the movie gave a very real depiction of the Roman occupation of Judea, a very correct description of crucifixion and treated Scripture with great respect and humility.

However the big thing that came out over and over again for me was the fact that if Jesus did actually rise from the dead that changes everything!!  The claim is huge, but if Jesus really did rise from the dead, then that is revolutionary... no one has ever done that... it means everything He said is true... it means He truly must be the Son of God - God Himself!

Even the non-believing Clavius is forced to wrestle with this... there may be many rumours, but if true that means even his loyalty to Rome has to change, if Jesus is really alive then his whole life must change too.

It left me thinking about how often I wrestle with the completely incredible fact that Jesus did rise from the dead.  No matter what anyone ever says, I know that happened - it is one of the objective truths of the Gospel.  Yet even-so I come to take it for granted. I lose my wonder, I spend more time thinking about my own life, than the fact my life is resurrected like Jesus was.

Risen helped put me in the scenario of a community learning someone has risen from the dead.  The disbelief, the indignation that people were lying, the slightest glimmer of wonder if this had really happened, the contemplation of what it means if this thing that is so unbelievable actually happened.  It has given me a new sense of wonder at my Lord, and what He did.  It moves me way out beyond a human perspective of the world - because a human perspective cannot account for someone who was dead for three days being alive again.

It really does change everything.

Long term efforts... big results

It is inspiring to see the work of Watoto Childcare Ministries. I have been involved and supporting Watoto since 2004, and it is great to see the long term effects this mission group is having on children, and in turn, the nation of Uganda.

This article just highlights how Watoto kids are growing up well, and moving on to work towards bettering their nation.

WATOTO SCHOOLS STARS

Check out the inspiring stories of three students, who have been blessed by God and are now going out to bless their nation.

Updating Me

I've updated my "About Me" page :-)

It's been a few years, and with the recent change of job/ministry I thought it would be a good idea.

If you're new to my blog check out the About Me link and get a little of an idea of the person behind the ramblings you've been reading.

Working on the Mission to see people Worship Jesus

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life entertaining Christians. I want to get the gospel to the unreached!"

— Crazy Love (@crazylove) February 9, 2016

Francis Chan is one of the biggest influences on how I do ministry.  His raw faith and humble outpouring of what God is saying in his heart radically illustrates to me how bland I allow my vision and life to be at times. I find it easy to fall into this default mode of just going with the flow... and within the consumeristic culture we have today the persistence of a desire to be entertained constantly threatens to invade the church.  Being comfortable, being happy and having it easy are excused by 'being joyful', 'praising', and 'offering our best'... but if offering our best means spending millions on buildings and sound equipment that only those in the church will experience then it is an excuse, not a truth.

I need to be constantly reminded that while on earth our objective is mission, because there are people out there who don't worship Jesus - and we were all created to worship Jesus! If there are people not doing that, then the greatest form of our worship is to go and show others what they have been created to do.