Student-ness

I find that sometimes, when i come to study, i'm just not able to get my head down and do it. And it's so frustrating!

I think it might be psychological, that i see a huge task, and i can't see how it's going to get done, so i just get distracted, or end up leafing through books for hours and not getting anywhere!

Today has been more of the latter, i've started the same assignement in 4 different ways!!

I've got just 1,500 words to identify and critically evaluate the management, practice and theology of Urban Devotion - please, someone, how am i supposed to do that?!

Hmmm, well, writing here isn't helping much, so i'll be off!

I love Autumn!

...when it's not freezingly windy and chucking it down with rain!! :)

I live near a little stream which i walk past on my way to work, and around it are all these different types of trees, at different stages of their leaf-shedding, and the colours are absolutely incredible. It is truely beautiful and even breathtaking. I love getting to that part of my walk, the colours are so warm, and yeah, i like it a lot!

Creation alone is proof to me that we have one Awesome God!

The Church, the Kingdom and Revelation of Jesus.

We had a meeting at work today where we were talking about the church, kingdom of God and Jesus, and it was really interesting.

The basic gist of it was that we all too often focus on building the church, when in fact that's God's job (Jesus said that He would build His church, and never told anyone else to do it on his behalf).

However, God has given us the keys to the Kingdom, and it is through the Kingdom being revealed that the Church will come about - because Jesus will work through us.

Before we can go there with the Kingdom, we need to have a real understanding of what it is, and be basded on its values ourselves (or at least trying to be!).

However, before doing that we need to make sure that we have had a true revelation of Jesus in our lives. That we truely know Him, and that our identity is in Him. If we don't have that, then these other things can't be as God truely intended them to be. They will still be there, just in a distorted state.

Someone used the metaphore of a boat, heading for a destination. If it's just 5 degrees off at the start of the journey, by the end of it it will be in a completely different place to its destination. Similarly, if we're not living in Christ completely, then we'll end up in a different place to where he was heading, and i think there are quite a few churches in that position today.

So, everything needs to come out of that security in our identity in Christ, and a true revelation of who Jesus is. Furthermore everything we do needs to be Christ working in us, not us working for Christ. There's a subtle difference, but it's actually pretty huge. If we're not right in that place at the start, then we'll not end up in the ideal place at the end. We'll still be ok, but not fantastic. And it's from that revelation of Christ that we need to always start, that's where our focus needs to be.

I don't think i've fully digested it, but God's been talking to me a lot recently about my identity needing to be in Him, and about my life being focused on Him instead of what's going on around me, and i think that fits in really well with today. So...i guess there's some more changes and developments for me to go through!