This week featured another great question from a teen. Keep 'em coming. I truly believe that the Bible can face any challenge, and that it won't crumble under anything that can be thrown at it. Does that mean I know it all. Of course not! That's why wikipedia exists, right? :-)!!



To watch a humorous (and mostly accurate) account of the David v Goliath stand off, click here for part 1 and here for part 2!

"I will tell about your justice, and all day long proclaim your salvation, though I cannot fathom its full extent" (Psalm 71:15 NET)

What an amazing verse! We can praise God ALL day long, telling about who He is, while never quite getting all that He is. We can worship Him for ALL he is, whilst never truly understanding all He is. That means we can dig and keep on digging deeper and deeper into Him, constantly going "Wow! So THAT'S who you are!!". Then tomorrow we dive deeper and go "So THAT'S who you are!" as we discover something new about Him. And this carries on. Forever.

God is an ocean of mystery.
God is a mountain of beauty.
God is a sandpit of never-ending treasure

Let's dive, and keep on diving.
Let's climb, and keep on climbing.
Let's dig, and keep on digging.

First check out this FUNNY VIDEO on Youtube

This is a pretty amusing video! I love the idea: "Tweets" take too long, so instead let's "flap". As Zak Ryman (so-called CEO of Flutter says): "I think a lot of people don't have time to Twitter. It just takes too long to compose a message with 140 characters". It's funny because it's so sad, and it's so sad because it's so true. This may be a spoof video today, but who knows when it will become real.

God is inviting us (you and me) to a lifelong relationship of walking with Him everyday, spending time in His presence, hanging out with him every minute of every day. After all, He's got all the time in the world, right? And He wants to spend it with us.

We read in Genesis, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9)

God has the time, and He wants to spend it with you!

Jesus even invites us to sit down to a meal with Him:
Jesus: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20)

He's saying this to you. He's saying this to me. He wants to spend time with us. But it's as if we're running round, from thing to thing, firing off tweets to God:

"Gotta run. We'll talk l8r". Or "C U Sunday".

We have an instant message relationship with Him, firing off spiritual MSNs to Him.

"I need U rite now" or "Pls help me"

without taking time to listen to His response, and then we get angry / disappointed / frustrated because He didn't answer our prayer RIGHT AWAY in the way we wanted.

I just want to encourage you to start slowing down; start spending time with God. Read your Bible on the bus, read your Bible in your lunch hour - find a quiet space and just BE with God.

There's this video on youtube. It's called "A Message" by Coldplay. You may have heard it. The link to the video is here. It's pretty powerful. Check it out. Part of the lyrics are as follows:

A Message
My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes on
You don't have to be alone

Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you, clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
Can I get that message home?

My song is love
My song is love unknown,
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own.

It makes me smile, because today I'm not feeling too close to the Lord. Today, I'm more aware of my humanness and sin than God's holy Presence living inside of me. Today, I'm asking the question: "Why even bother with me, Lord?"

It makes me smile, because even though this song may be, on the surface about human relationships, it's actually a hymn of worship! Don't believe me? Then check out these lyrics to a hymn, written by Samuel Crossman, in 1664:

My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

You can read the full lyrics here.

Hmmm...interesting similarity, eh? Coldplay...inspired by a hymn? Why not!
In fact, Chris Martin, in an interview with Rolling Stone talks about this song. He said:
"A Message" and "Til Kingdom Come" both come from having quite a religious upbringing. "A Message" is taken from a hymn we used to sing called "My Song Is Love Unknown," and we'd say "kingdom come" every week in the Lord's Prayer. One of the great things about being forced to go to church services is that we'd sing all these big songs. That's partly why I'm obsessed with getting everyone to sing along at our shows. It makes me feel like I'm a part of something.

To read the full interview, click here.


I just need to hear that right now - Christ's love was (and is) shown to the loveless (me). So that I might become lovely. He took my robe of sin so I might wear his robe of cleanness, wholeness, holiness. Why did Christ die for me? I don't know. Except to say it was for love. This is the greatest love song ever - Jesus' life, death and resurrection. This song I can keep repeating over and over in my head, and it NEVER grows old. And the chorus to this song?

Even while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me (Romans 5:8)

That can be your life chorus too.

God: "My song is love unknown.
Love to the loveless shown.
And it goes on: You don't have to be alone"

God: "You're the target that I'm aiming at..."

God: "Can I get that message home? But I'm on fire for you, clearly..."

Me: I'm beginning to get it again. Thank you, Lord.

"Come, follow me". Three simple words. There's not much to them. They were said to two guys, Peter and Andrew, two brothers, ages and ages ago. Just three words. "Come follow me".

You see, three simple words are transformed into a daily invitation of adventure, power, meaning and transformation when we find out who says them. Let's read the passage:

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20)

• Jesus gives them this invitation when they were in the middle of their humdrum, day to day life. Jesus invites us to follow him when we're serving up fries at McDonalds, or working on the farm, or going to a friends party, or swimming in the pool. In the middle of our day to day life - Jesus is constantly whispering to us "Come, follow me"
• Jesus invites them while they were doing what was needed for them to survive. If they didn't fish, they wouldn't eat. If the catch wasn't big enough, they wouldn't eat. If they didn't put in the hours on the boat (at the office, in school etc) they wouldn't move on in life. In the middle of living in survival mode, Christ gives us a different option: "Come follow me".
  
• Jesus invites to leave what they find comfortable. Fishing made sense to them. They'd done it all their lives. They understood the ins and outs of handling a boat, mending a net, what fish to keep and which to throw away, how to gut a fish, how to preserve, what was a good price for the fish. This life made sense. But Jesus invited them out of what made sense, he invited them to leave their comfort zone...to do what? Follow him.
• Jesus is sometimes vague about the details. He didn't give them a 3 year plan, or tell them to get a degree first in healing or preaching or demon casting out. They passed or failed on one thing - would they follow him? To where? They didn't know. For how long? They didn't know. What would the accommodation be like? They had no idea. Did they know at this point that they would be laughed at, persecuted, tired, hungry, angry, hard done by? No. Did they know that they would be responsible for building the church, spreading the gospel, seeing thousands of people come to know Christ through them? No. All they knew what that Jesus said "Come follow me". And they did.

Sometimes we need to know all the details, sometimes we want God's plan to fit into our plan, sometimes we want to have it all figured out, make sure our health insurance is up to date, ensure we have a contingency plan..a plan B. We want God to give us a HUGE sign before we'll even take one tiny step. Have we packed our bug spray, our sun screen, our travel sickness pills?

Sometimes we think "I don't know enough...I'm not good enough...I'm not smart / funny / witty / good-looking / together enough". Still Jesus looks you in the eye and says "Come follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men". He will make you into the person He wants you to be. He knows you better than you know yourself. And He wants to use you. Right here. Right now.

Jesus always takes the first step in inviting us.
We just have to respond by taking one step, and then another, and then another. You see, when you put together a lifetime of taking one step at a time with Jesus - you have an entire lifetime of following Jesus. But all he's asking you for, right now, is the next step. Will you take it? Will you come and follow Him?

Remember the kids song:

"I will make you fishers of men if you follow me"

Perhaps there's more truth to this than we think...