Sandy Land

"Don't build your house on the sandy land,
Don't build it too near the shore..
Well it might look kind of nice but you'll have to build it twice,
Oh you'll have to build your house once more!

You've got to build your house upon the rock,
Make a good foundation on a solid spot..
Oh the storms may come and go,
But the peace of God you will know!"

Anyone else remember this song as a young(er) child??
It's great! It had randomly come into my head a few days ago after reading the parable of the two builders and its been there since. I've known this story from primary school assemblies, RE lessons and from church but I've never properly sat down and thought about it until recently and now I've analysed every word of it!

It blows my mind to think that we are the body of God - individually useless but when combined we can do amazing things through Christ who strengthens us. God dwells us - therefore, (when thinking of this song) I think of us being a house which means we are told to not build ourselves on sandy land..

The next question.. What is sandy land?
Nightclubs? Drink? Drugs? Sex? Lust? Sin of any form I guess is the proper answer.. Anything that doesn't help build our relationship with God.. Anything that is a distraction away from Him... If you stand in sand you can easily sink. Build a sandcastle and with a weak volume effort its destroyed.. Apply this to our lives. I'm not saying every single person sturggles or has a problem with nightclubs, drink, drugs, sex and/or lust, I'm simply trying to list a few of the wide range of possibilities.. What I am saying though is that if we build ourselves on these things while following God it's going to be a sandy place.. No matter how hard we try to stand we will fall to some degree. We're putting ourselves on the fire line for the devil to attack us. We're leaving ourselves open and naive to attack and that, just like the weak volume of effort destroying the sandcastle, will knock us down and push us further from God.

The song continues... "You have to build yourself upon a rock"
Next question? What is a rock? Who is THE rock?
Psalm 18v2 - "The Lord is my rock, my protection, my Savior. My God is my rock. I can run to him for safety."
2 Samuel 22v3 - "My God is my rock. I can run to him for safety. He is my shield and my saving strength, my defender and my place of safety. The Lord saves me from those who want to harm me."

Okay so we have to build ourselves in God... How?
Bible study? Prayer? Journal? Attend church? Daily devotions? Lifestyle?
Hmm the last one certainly sounds challenging... Can we build ourselves in God through our lifestyle? Not necessarily saying we're Christians but having people identify that there is something different about us... Not necessarily standing on street corners handing out flyers to all non-Christians but standing beside our friends and family members who don't know God and showing them God? God tells us that He will fill us, He will be with us and He is in us. If we have God with us, do we need to be afraid? Do we have any reason to feel incapable? We need to just grow in God but we can only grow once we fully let Him in on all parts of our lives - not just the parts we feel He should be in on but all parts - good and bad, dark and light, tough and easy. ALL parts.

No where in the Bible are we told that once we start following Christ all our problems fall away or cease to exist.. Infact, we're told the opposite!
John 16v33 - "I told you these things so that you can have peace in me. In this world you will have trouble, but be brave! I have defeated the world."
We're told we will have troubles... 'The storms may come and go' but if we cling to God He will certainly cling to us! His peace we will know! His love we will experience and His arms will always be around us, caring for us, protecting us and looking out for us through all situations.. How can we not give Him our all?!

Why bother complicating things?

I'm coming like a child, gently into Your presence,
I'm coming like a child, to lay it all before You now.

I'm coming like a child, to bring You praise and glory,
I'm coming like a child, to fall safely in to Your arms.

I'm coming like a child, forgetting all my worries,
I'm coming like a child, forgetting all my fears.

I'm coming like a child, to try and bring You glory,
For I know I'm so unworthy, yet You sent Your Son for me.

Basics...

Ive recently been realising just how real a battle there is in this world. God fights continually for our attention.. We fight continually for the attention of our friends and peers. Our parents so often fight for our respect. We fight and fight, so much so that we often miss opportunities. We fight against our friends and those we're closest to a lot. The devil fights against us a lot too. The armour of God is important. You're probably thinking, "That's just stating the obvious Jayne." Well yes it is the obvious and its the basics of Christianity that are important.. It's the basics that we build our relationship with God upon. If we don't have the basics as our foundation then what are we building ourselves on? If we don't have the promises of God in our head as the foundation then what use are they? We have the quotations in our head to use, to help us in times of trouble and to help us think clearly. Are we actually using these? Or do we actually have enough of them in our head to quote? If we don't have our strong foundation built solidly in God, when we come "under attack" what do we actually have to protect us? What can we fall back on? Where will we fall to??

I over think a lot. I delve into things and over read, over analyse and over think. There are benefits to being a "thinker" but there's a lot of downsides too. Sometimes I stop myself and just ask, "Are these thoughts actually beneficial?" If I cant see how they will expand my relationship with God or help me grow Ive started to just forget about them. I waste a lot of time thinking about things that that don't have a great purpose. I often end up asking people these questions but the 'best answer' I had to a recent question I pondered was "Is this fact really fundamental to the Christian faith?"

Great answer? I thought so too. It was that persons way of saying they don't know the answer because of its lack of significance and they were trying to subtly discourage me from wasting time pondering over it.. It worked. Although it made me ponder even more over what us fundamental to the Christian faith? A Bible? A journal? A meditation book? Lots of Christian bands CDs? A church membership? Christian friends?

All these things are a great help (at the right time in the right amount) BUT the key is simply a relationship with God. There's no use in us having the image of being holy if we aren't. There's no need for us to act like someone we aren't. God knows our inner heart. Man knows only what we allow him to see. Why not let these both be the same thing? Why not let man see what God sees? Why deny and hide who we really are? Basics are fundamental... Being ourselves allows us to connect with God. If we connect with God then we can connect with ourselves, as God is in us, therefore, by connecting with God we are automatically connecting with ourselves. Connecting with others falls into this too. Connecting with the poor is also connecting with God.

We were talking about this recently in cell but Ive been thinking about it a lot since. These thoughts have been trying to answer questions such as: Who is classified as the poor? Anytime someone has spoken to me about the poor I always think homeless people, Big Issue sellers and so on.. Recently Ive been challenged and had my eyes opened more to the reality. The poor can be defined as anyone who doesn't know God. They may have a big house, several cars, lots of accessories and so on.. But if they don't know God personally, then what do they have thats worthy? They are poor - in a spiritual way. We need to help those who are struggling with life, with God and with different situations a lot.. These people aren't necessarily struggling for physical assets but spiritually they are... But until recently I've never thought of this as being a definition of helping the poor... These people are poor and they need help. We are all called to help people who are poor.. But there's more than one type of poor....

Confusion...

Okay well its 1.40am and Im still up so thought I'd start this blog for real.

Recently Ive been thinking a lot about what it means for us to call ourselves Christians... Whats is all about? How does it affect us and our lives in this world?

This world we're living in is great, but its awful at the same time. Its a mind messer - complicates everything and sets unnecessary standards. Its provides us with a "rule book" to live by, with the author being everyone in the world combined with peer pressure. The world tells us that we have to make educated, sensible, carefully planned and well detailed plans. If we try to do anything radical, unique or out of the ordinary it's thought we're being naive, "stupid" or inexperienced...

This doesn't make sense though. The people in the Bible that God chose to use weren't educated.. The only educated person I can think of is Luke, who was a doctor. (Well done Alex for learning that fact today.) All the other people God used were just ordinary people, just like you and I. They weren't highly qualified people who made clear step by step detailed instructions as to what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. They just did it. They gave Him their all and lived their lives open to listen for God and when He spoke, they responded. Do we truly do this?

I guess what I'm trying to express here is my confusion.. The world contradicts everything God tells us to be and too many people are obeying the world. The world tries to work out detailed answers for everything, allowing nothing to be unknown and calculating everything... God calls us to follow Him using faith - something we build yet can't measure using any form of measurements of the world. We're called to be radical and to take risks, yet the world tells us if we do this we're being naive because we could mess up and fail. The world has told us failure is the worst thing possible. If we fail something we're ruined for life. Nothing can fix it. This world is full of lies. We need to realise God is with us through this.. If the thoughts are there to do something, we need to stop pushing them to the back of our minds - We've been given them for a reason so we need to share them, develop them and just go for it! Be risky, its all for His glory...

First blog....

Okay.. So Ive started blogging now - blame Jones for it, he made me. Ill see how it goes for a while, not promising to have regular blogging intervals but Ill get thoughts up as and when I see them suitable for the world. Enjoy! :)