I love you, O Lord, my strength.
What does my lifestyle proclaim about what I love? Speaking about love for anything is easy, but the depth of it is apparent from a quick glance at my life. That place where my mind automatically returns to dwell. The pursuit that demands most of my time. The things that I am willing to pour my resources into. It all points towards what I love. All too often, it's pointing to me.
The temptation is to love myself.
My reputation.
My success.
My popularity.
My knowledge.
My comfort.
My happiness.
My fulfillment.
But- I love YOU, O Lord. I don't think that this is the kind of love that can be divided between numerous things. All or nothing. If there is any other love that even comes close to this in our lives, we probably need to do some re-evaluating of what it is we really love and value.
Where is my love? What is my strength?
Friday, 15 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
He is your life.
So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
Colossians 3:1-5
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
Colossians 3:1-5
Friday, 1 May 2009
Love Running
Just in case this reaches someone who I haven't already contacted via Facebook or email:
http://www.justgiving.com/kandacetiala
On May 10th I am joining 300 others from my church and community in Bristol to run the Bristol 10K. The idea is that it is a great way to 'do' community, get to know people, and round off 'The Noise' (the week of focus on social action in Bristol). And of course raise some money! Which is where you come in, no surprise.
First, where will your money be going? To three charities:
1. St Peter's Hospice in Bristol, caring for people with terminal ilnesses.
2. World Vision, Zimbabwe Partnership, the largest humanitarian organization currently working there.
3. One25 in Bristol, helping women involved in street-based sex work.
Everyone keeps saying how now is not a good time to be asking people for money, etc. But seriously, the work that this money is going to support is amazing and the people who will benefit need it a lot more than most of us do. No pressure, of course!
Thanks guys.
http://www.justgiving.com/kandacetiala
On May 10th I am joining 300 others from my church and community in Bristol to run the Bristol 10K. The idea is that it is a great way to 'do' community, get to know people, and round off 'The Noise' (the week of focus on social action in Bristol). And of course raise some money! Which is where you come in, no surprise.
First, where will your money be going? To three charities:
1. St Peter's Hospice in Bristol, caring for people with terminal ilnesses.
2. World Vision, Zimbabwe Partnership, the largest humanitarian organization currently working there.
3. One25 in Bristol, helping women involved in street-based sex work.
Everyone keeps saying how now is not a good time to be asking people for money, etc. But seriously, the work that this money is going to support is amazing and the people who will benefit need it a lot more than most of us do. No pressure, of course!
Thanks guys.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Selfish Song - Paul Colman Trio
I don't need reminding to look after myself
So maybe when you wave goodbye
You could think of something else
I don't need reminding who is number one
On my list of priorities when all is said and done
I've never grown from the terrible two's
I've just learned to hide from all of you
Who is gonna sing my selfish song
Well the answer is me so don't sing along
Who is gonna change this heart of stone
Oh my God my life is a selfish song
Every revolution leads the people on
With promises and changes egalitarian
Hitler Mussolini Stalin Bonaparte
Well they proved a revolution
Doesn't really change your heart
I've never grown from the terrible two's
Don't you know nothing changes after a coup
They build a wall from the east to the west
Saying maybe Jesus was a communist
'Cause he spoke of love and equality
Then tell me why did they nail Him upon a tree?
'Cause he said, everyone is singing such a selfish song
And we don't want help not from anyone
I can make a change in your heart of stone
Hey don't you know that you can't
Do it on your own
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Cannons-Phil Whikham
It's falling from the clouds
A strange and lovely sound
I hear it in the thunder and rain
It's ringing in the skies
Like cannons in the night
The music of the universe plays
You are holy great and mighty
The moon and the stars declare who You are
I'm so unworthy, but still You love me
Forever my heart will sing of how great You are
Beautiful and free
Song of Galaxies
It's reaching far beyond the milky way
Lets join in with the sound
C'mon let's sing it loud
As the music of the universe plays
All glory, honor, power is Yours amen
All glory, honor, power is Yours amen
All glory, honor, power is Yours forever amen
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Bees
'There is one thing I don't get,' I said.
'What's that?'
'How come if your favourite colour is blue, you painted your house so pink?'
She laughed. 'That was May's doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the colour. I had a nice tan colour in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, "Well, this is the tackiest colour I've ever seen, and we'll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May's heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it." '
'All this time I figured you just liked pink,' I said.
She laughed again. 'You know, some things don't matter that much Lily. Like the colour of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart- now, that matters. The whole problem with people is-'
'They don't know what matters and what doesn't,' I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.
'I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.'
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
'What's that?'
'How come if your favourite colour is blue, you painted your house so pink?'
She laughed. 'That was May's doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the colour. I had a nice tan colour in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, "Well, this is the tackiest colour I've ever seen, and we'll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May's heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it." '
'All this time I figured you just liked pink,' I said.
She laughed again. 'You know, some things don't matter that much Lily. Like the colour of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart- now, that matters. The whole problem with people is-'
'They don't know what matters and what doesn't,' I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.
'I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.'
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Ffald-y-Brenin (The Grace Outpouring)
A new resolve had entered my life. Instead of talking about him and preaching about him and evangelising about him and being a pastor for him, I wanted to know God. And now that's my heart: to know him and to know him more. Not to know more about him, but to know him more. Everything else follows as an overflow of that relationship. When the major passion of my heart changed from mission to simply knowing him, the mission activity then began to flow out of the knowing.
To live a life for God involves loving Jesus and desiring his presence above all things, and then pouring out love to the least and last, the lost and lonely, speaking for the voiceless, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, declaring good news and being good news to the world around- all from the overflow of time in his presence.
A number of years ago I felt a cry rising up in my inmost being- there has to be more than this. As I remembered my dreams of what living like a child of God would be like, there was that cry again. There has to be more than this. I was stirred by memories of great days in the past when God had seemed so close, but that's where they were- in the past. O God, there must be more than this.
Looking at church initiated the same cry. There is so much good, so many signs of blessing in many local churches and fellowships, but looking more broadly at the national scene raised the question 'Is this really all the Father has in mind for the bride of his Son?'
These cries reflect the searching of the early desert fathers. And I sensed that this was more than merely the cry of my own heart. I could hear echoes of it in the conversations I had with others as they reflected on their own lives and the reality of church life. I believe that God himself has put that cry in people's hearts because he's stirring them up.
www.ffald-y-brenin.org
To live a life for God involves loving Jesus and desiring his presence above all things, and then pouring out love to the least and last, the lost and lonely, speaking for the voiceless, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, declaring good news and being good news to the world around- all from the overflow of time in his presence.
A number of years ago I felt a cry rising up in my inmost being- there has to be more than this. As I remembered my dreams of what living like a child of God would be like, there was that cry again. There has to be more than this. I was stirred by memories of great days in the past when God had seemed so close, but that's where they were- in the past. O God, there must be more than this.
Looking at church initiated the same cry. There is so much good, so many signs of blessing in many local churches and fellowships, but looking more broadly at the national scene raised the question 'Is this really all the Father has in mind for the bride of his Son?'
These cries reflect the searching of the early desert fathers. And I sensed that this was more than merely the cry of my own heart. I could hear echoes of it in the conversations I had with others as they reflected on their own lives and the reality of church life. I believe that God himself has put that cry in people's hearts because he's stirring them up.
www.ffald-y-brenin.org
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