What a hiding!

Well if you haven't heard about it already, you must be living out in the sticks. The German soccer squad gave the Brazilian team a thorough hiding with a 7-1 victory. The event broke Facebook and Twitter records on both social media platforms. One post said the Brazilians have Neymar but the German's have a team, this was certainly clear. Never mind that though, Gertrude (you remember our world cup oracle) was pleased that her team were through to the final. Now to see about the Dutch team.

What was abundantly clear to me, however, that it was not the loss of Neymar that cost the Brazilians the match, but rather the loss of their captain. And why was he not playing again????? Ah yes, TWO yellow cards.

Without proper leadership no team can succeed in life no matter what team you are on. That is why God ordained that every possible grouping of people have leadership. The husband to be head of the home, the Pastor to be head of the Church, the Apostle to guide multiple churches and so on.

An issue that goes hand in hand with leadership though is submission. As the body of Christ we must submit to the leadership of Christ and the church (globally) in order for us to fulfill God's desire for us. Leadership is not only there to guide us but to protect us too.

No man is an island and it is important for us to live in submission to Christ and the Church. Do you have a proper spiritual covering? If not, pray about it and ask God to lead you to the right place where you should be submitted and you will soon see God's blessing on your life in that area.

A taste for all things salty

When it happened, I can't quite remember, but I recall a time when we were preparing for a party and my mom was making salad and she had added some olives. I wanted to try one but eeeeiiish, the thing tasted disgusting. I remember that after that I would hold my nose and chew and swallow as fast as I could to get them down. Nowadays though I could polish off a whole packet in one sitting if allowed, especially those yummy calamata's.

Likewise mushrooms were not a favourite growing up but I really enjoy them now. Our taste buds change as we get older and somehow the more saline and salty flavours become enjoyable. As we grow in our relationship with God our spiritual taste buds also change. One scripture verse on its own no longer seems to hold the same weight as reading a full book of the bible or doing a little self study.

So, should you find yourself smacking your lips together, thinking that something is missing in your spiritual life, how about some study time. There are so many wonderful resources available and the Internet is an amazing way to easily browse for the information you are looking for. Just be careful to guard your heart though as not everything that is published is revelation from God. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you so that you can make the most of your study time.

Pin the donkey

I was working with another office problem and I said to my supervisor that it felt as if I was playing a game of pin the donkey. Do you remember that party game? For those of you who didn't play it, let me explain.

A picture of a donkey is placed on a board while the tail is a separate piece with a pin. One of the children is blind folded and they have to try and pin the tail back onto the donkey. Of course when they miss all the children laugh and its all fun.

Do you feel like you have been playing pin the donkey with your faith? Been meaning to get a regular bible reading plan going, but just not getting it done? Been meaning to make church services a regular occurrence but just not getting there? Or maybe even been meaning to phone a friend who's been going through a hard time but just not getting around to it? Maybe your own life has been in so much pain that you can't see through the storm to know that God is there or to even have the strength to reach out and help others.

Don't feel guilty, that's what the devil wants. He wants you to feel bad about not getting round to doing the things that God is telling us to do so that when we do it, its not for the purpose of worshiping God but out of guilt and then there is no pleasure in it at all. With that job done, we just slip into our old habits and the devil has won.

No, rejoice when life throws curve balls at you that make it hard for you to accomplish that which you know is from God, because that is a clear indication that the devil considers you a threat. Stand strong, love God, mourn with all your soul and rejoice through the weeping. God sees our hearts and knows when we are hurting and when we are under stress and he understands.

Winter at the movies

I am enjoying our current sermon series at my church titled winter at the movies. It is a contemporary look at some of the themes we get from the movies we watch and what issues of our faith they might question. Our movie this evening was Avatar, naturally I was curious as to what would come out.

Our pastor had his own ideas, looking at the different world philosophy's and comparing them to our faith and what we can learn. I had my own question though. Was Jesus not perhaps the greatest Avatar driver ever?

Scripture tells us that Jesus, while being God, took on the likeness of man and humbled himself unto death. I can barely imagine what that must have been like and consider this, Jesus could have come back at any time period during our world history, but He chose to come back at a very specific time when death by Crucifixion was common practice. There were no human rights declarations back in those times.

God did not wait for mankind to see heaven, he sent heaven to us in the form of His Son so that we could learn to communicate with Him through our humanity.

A second look

I was looking at an account query with one of my colleagues today and it just seemed to be going pear shaped, so I thought I would see if I could help. She was worried that the problem was her fault but on a second look I managed to trace the error to a missing transaction from another party.

How often don't we do that? We encounter a problem and the devil whispers in our ear that we are too blame and we instantly tear ourselves apart thinking we are horrible. Sadly that is the serpent at his best work. But......that's about all he can do.

You see if we know the word we will remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and we can have the courage to not let our problems get us down, but to remain calm and put things in perspective. Then with a clear head and God's wisdom as our guide we can figure things out.

Don't give up when life throws you a curve ball. Look to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to be with you and I'm sure you will soon find your solution.

Tuck me in

Every evening we have a routine. The kitties go out for their last run around and bathroom break before heading to bed. The other night however, after bringing the kitties in they just would not settle down. So I decided to leave them for a bit and continued with my computer work.

After a while Ginger came to my room and was acting all agitated and even scratched the carpet like he usually does when he wants to go out. As it was late, I rowed at him that he was just not going outside again. To my surprise as I got downstairs he turned straight for their bedroom instead of the front door. I finally figured out that all he wanted was for mommy to tuck him into bed. Boy did I feel guilty, but it all ended up well in the end.

We all need the love and peace that comes from a secure home and the warmth of our bed and yet there are millions of people living in poverty today. My prayer is that one day as mankind we will put our fighting and petty arguments aside and work together to eliminate poverty.

In our relationship with God we need that security as well. That is why fellowship with other Christians is so important. A church where you can feel at home and loved with Christian friends and leaders to love and support you through life's difficult moments is vital.

There must be a winner

In comparison to the group stage matches, the knock out stages can produce some real sizzlers. The reason for this being that there simply has to be a winner, a draw will not do. The stakes are high and the disappointments huge for each of the teams crashing out, but for the winners the stress and excitement grows as they move through to the next round of matches.

In life we face the same challenges. Sometimes in the game of life we can afford to settle for a draw, or a trues. However in other instances the battle has to go all the way to its conclusion, one winner, one looser.

In our spiritual life, I am so glad that we do not need to ever worry about the outcome, well that's at least if you've picked the right team. You see in God's team we will always be victors in Christ. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us and I'm delighted to say it, in this game the outcome has been rigged :-)

Praise be to our God who always leads us into triumph!