where are the facts?

Where are the clear guides to believing in God? The unemotional no-faith-required checklists?

I am a geek. I love facts!!

But Jesus wants faith. And true love. Not devoted droids.

Dang it...I guess Jesus has out thought me again!

slow dance

Have you ever listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

Do you run through each day on the fly?

When you ask how are you? Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told a child, we'll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die cause you never had time to call and say,"Hi"

Life is not a race. Do take it slower.

i'm so stupid...

the biggest side effect of my being preggy is my dizziness....not the fainting kind but the 'i'm so stupid I can't even open a can without spilling everything everywhere' dizziness. Now I am someone who can organise and multi-task, have loads of common-sense and things come naturally to me. But now...

I'm so stupid...

• I booked my mum's airfare online with Air New Zealand which I do regularly. Only to turn up at the airport and find I had booked her on another airline, Qantas. Luckily both flights were around the same time to wellington, nz. But I booked her as 'MR' and not 'MRS'. Thankfully they still let her on.
• I went to my ultrasound appointment and forgot my medicare card so my man had to go back home, which is 30mins from hospital...if that wasn't stupid enough there's more. The receptionist asked me where I was born, I told her New Zealand. It took me a couple of minutes to remember I was actually born in Samoa. I overheard the receptionist talking on the phone to my antenatal clinic, 'oh, she said she was born in New Zealand'. I quickly ran over and told her I forgot i was born in Samoa, because I've lived most of my life in NZ. How can you forget where you were born??? I have never done that before. I love the fact I was born in Samoa, being an island girl is so much a part of my identity that it's just bizarre I forgot.
• I've gone out for the day and left the heater on yet I distinctly remember turning it off. My brother came home and found it.
• On a different day, I've gone out and left the front door open. Luckily my cousins popped around and discovered it.

There are two more, but they are waaaaay too shameful to share - 'too much information' for anyone to enjoy. Truly unfunky!

Dizzy things I do daily...spill whatever drink is in my hand, drop food, miss my mouth when i'm eating, open packets of anything and have them fly everywhere.

These things are not normal for me. I am usually very coordinated...I can kick a ball accurately, play volleyball and table tennis well with my right and left hand, juggle with my left hand. But now I can't even carry a glass of water in my right hand (yes, i'm right-handed).

Pregnancy has turned my hormones upside down. It was funny after the first couple of times............

faith

I seem to be discussing with different people different issues of faith.

There will always be differences but what makes us believe what we do? I have a view of the world which is ever changing but there are things that remain the same:

• I have a personal relationship with the LORD which to me means his holy spirit lives in me and guides me in my every day life.
• This personal relationship is built on revelation (through the LORD's spirit), through prayer, through the bible and the resources which he has given to me.
• I believe in the trinity - God, my Creator and Father (heavenly), Jesus my Saviour and Lord, and the Holy Spirit who is God's Spirit living in me.
• I believe in God's master plan to save his children and return to us the gift of eternal life which Satan stole from humanity with our help. Jesus died and took my punishment for my sins and through his resurrection fulfilled the LORD's master plan. But the final chapter has yet to be played out - when he returns and destroys Satan and all the evil he represents once and for all.
• No one knows when Jesus will return though a few signs are named in the bible, but basically he will return like a thief in the night and our job is to be ready at anytime and all times.

Non-christians will read that and think what a load of crap :-)

Yet 11 jewish men and many 1st century christians sacrificed their lives in a little middle eastern country so that 20 centuries later I would hear the truth on a tiny Pacific Island and believe. World views have come and gone. Empires have tried to destroy christians yet we still exist today and millions still believe.

It took one man's life, and 11 believers to realise that their jewish faith had been fulfilled in their lifetime. Their Saviour had come and they were willing to abandon their world view to believe that he was the son of God.

Today I believe the same. I hope whatever the differences between denominations that each of us who believe know the truth like those 11 disciples, like Paul. Even if we differ in practice and teaching but this remains the same for all of us. Jesus is LORD, son of God, the Christ risen, our Saviour.

It's our belief in who Jesus is that unites us.

body parts

even amongst christians there are a lot of faith questions that we disagree on...different denominations that emphasise different parts of the bible, different teachings and even have their own guides which are not biblical. How can this be God's plan for his church????

I am a simple christian woman...even that statement implies different things to different people. The word 'christian' means different things depending on which christian you are talking to. Why???

My only answer is this - because the LORD made each of us unique. Then he modelled his master plan of the church on the human body. The human body made up of many different parts playing many different roles united as one. A complex ever changing entity.

(I don't know why he didn't model us on something simple where everyone is the same. But if i remember to ask him when I see him then i will.)

Each of us has a place in that body...but we spend a lifetime trying to figure out what and where our place is. If enough of us get-together and form a hand or a finger...we look around at anyone else who is different and judge collectively that 'one of these things don't belong together' (or however that sesame street jingle went....)

So if you are part of a foot, say a toe and you are surrounded by people who are fingers which form a hand...you think you might fit in but something is still not quite right...you don't look like them exactly but you have a nail, you bend....but still you don't fit in...so you feel like a reject. Everyone that makes up the fingers know you are a reject. If they are nice they try to make you fit in...if not they treat you like an outcast.

Why don't we Christians understand the LORD's 'body' model?? Why do we try to get everyone to be the same? That's not of the LORD that's of this world. The LORD expects us to be unique, different to some and similar to others. But as one whole body we function best UNITED as one, every part playing its individual role to bring harmony to the whole.

The LORD created each of us for a purpose. He knows what and where our place is.

So if you're a toe stuck amongst fingers - get out! Talk to your creator and find the quickest road down to the other end of the body so the church can move forward!!!