May your truth of resurection

Yesterday at the end of my set devotions there was a short prayer too use. The words at the end of this prayer struck a chord with me and set me thinking about them all day. The words were;

May the truth of your resurrection fill and thrill my soul every moment of the day.


Now like every Christian out there I know the story of Jesus, of His miraculous birth through his ministry and on to His great sacrifice. I also know that 3 days after His sacrifice on the cross He rose from the dead, He was resurrected. But most of the time I don't think about that, I think about how my life is, am I doing what Jesus wants me to do, am I being a good Christian. I pray, I read the Bible and I attend Church I try to live a life that is as free from sin as I can. And though I know I fail I know that He forgives me and I can pick myself up and try again.

But How often does the resurrection figure? I know for me that except at Easter I am probably guilty of not paying that much attention to the resurrection at all. But the truth is that without it all we have is a story about a good man who had a few good ideas about how to live together. With out the resurrection we just have a collection of teachings from just another first century Rabbi. But the truth is that He is a risen Saviour who conquered death. And not only conquered death for Himself but for everyone of us too.

The thing is that none of the Bible makes any true sense unless you have the key to unlocking the secrets. Until you realise who the main character of the Bible is and see Him in all of it then you have missed the point. Jesus is as much in the Old Testament as He is in the New, it foreshadows His appearance and tells us what to expect from Him in the New Testament and beyond. Jesus is the hub and centre of the Bible and like the resurrection, without Jesus the Old Testament is just the history of the Jews and Israel.

So if the Bible is nothing without Jesus, and Jesus is nothing without the resurrection then surely it deserves much more attention. I think we often "ignore" the resurrection because it is so alien to us, because it is so strange and unnatural to us. But think about it, death, the one thing we all will face, the end to our lives on Earth, the only thing you can guarantee for everyone was defeated by Jesus. Think about it, really think about it, He died, He was dead for three days, and then He rose from the grave. This isn't a sci-fi zombie movie, it is not some fancy special effects for the big screen, but it is absolutely mind blowing.

May the truth of your resurrection fill and thrill my soul every moment of the day. In Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen.

Good morning 2011

Well, its a new year. I have to say that last year could have gone a little better and I am hoping for a much better one this year. Looking out over a fresh new year I have to say that this year does have the potential to be one of the best in my life. It is going to be very busy and it is going to be a lot of hard work but I am confident that the benefits will be huge.

So what does 2011 have in store for me? Well for one thing I plan to continue this blog and have some interesting plans for things to do, watch this space for what I hope to be some very interesting posts this year. I am also planning to start studying towards my first theological qualification this year and am hoping to be accepted on to a training scheme in Canada in September, again keep a look out and I will post updates. There is a new Bible study class in my Church I will be helping to run and the quest for a new job to start in March too. So far a busy year planned and hopefully it will be a lot of fun and a very exciting journey.

In addition to this I have my ongoing Soldier's Challenge, an upcoming Lent fast and likely a few more ideas like that to boot. I will also be embarking on my first structured personal Bible study and will likely be using thoughts and ideas from that on here from time to time. There are some ideas I left hanging last year that will be picked up and some interesting thoughts that I will be following too. There is all this and much more planned too.

So that leaves me with one final thing to talk about in this post, New Years Resolutions. I wonder how many people make these and actually stick to them for the whole year. Well last night, actually just a little before mid night I was reading a blog written by a blogger called Suz at Saved to Serve. It is worth checking this blog out, it is one of the many great blogs out there that I follow. In this post however she is challenging herself to stick to these resolutions of William Booth's this year instead of making up her own. I have been inspired by this post to forget my ideas for New Years resolutions and also attempt to stick to these 6 resolutions for an entire year;

I do promise - my God helping -

1. That I will rise every morning sufficiently early to wash, dress, and have a few minutes, not less than 5, in private prayer.

2. That I will, as much as possible, avoid all that babbling and idle talk in which I have lately so sinfully indulged.

3. That I will endeavor in my conduct and deportment before the world and my fellow servants especially to conduct myself as a humble, meek and zealous follower of Christ, and by serious conversation and warning endeavor to lead them to think of their immortal souls.

4. That I will read no less than four chapters in God’s Word every day.

5. That I will strive to live closer to God, and to seek after holiness of heart and leave providential events with God.

6. That I will read over this every day or at least twice a week.

“God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self-denial and to yield myself a prisoner of love to the redeemer of the world.”
“I feel my own weakness, and without God’s help I shall not keep these resolutions. The Lord have mercy upon my guilty soul.”
                                        (William Booth at age 20)

These are 6 powerful and difficult resolutions to stick too and I will surely need Gods help to achieve them. But in attempting them, even if I fail, there is sure to be much progress made and a huge amount of benefit to be made from doing it. So I will try to keep you all up to date with my progress in this new challenge for this New Year.

So Happy New Year to all of my readers, I hope that you all had a great time last night whatever you chose to do, but most of all I wish you a God filled and God blessed New Year, may all His plans prosper in you this year.

Jesus

First snow of the year

I love winter. I really really love winter. The dark nights, the cold weather, Christmas and the snow. As you might have guessed by the title of the post we have had the first snow of the winter here today. And although I love the snow there are a few problems that come with it. The biggest one is that everyone seems to panic and start to drive like complete idiots. This made my journey home from work three times longer than it normally is. This would normally make me feel quite frustrated and lead to me becoming quite angry and possibly losing my temper with my fellow road users.

However despite the negative issues that come with winter and the weather that it brings as I said earlier I love winter. The reason for this is that during the winter there is so much goes on and I have so much to do that I love doing it has become the season I link with happiness. I spend a huge amount of time during December carol playing which I enjoy. This is also the time of year that I get to spend the most time with my family and see my extended family too.

So although tonight was a bad time for my commute home it has heralded the beginning of my favourite season of the year. And I have not forgotten the importance of this time of year either. I know that the birth of our Lord and Saviour is a fantastic time and we really should remember, celebrate and enjoy this time.

Christmas is a great gift to every single Christian. But it is not the most important one and there is a greater gift we should always bear in mind even during this time of fun and frivolity. We should always remember the gift of the cross, the gift of eternal life Jesus gave us when He died for us and all our sins. Yes winter time and Christmas should be a time of celebration and we should rejoice in the birth of Jesus, however take some time out in this busy season to remember what it all about remember that that little baby so innocent and pure ended up on a cross that was so rough and cruel. Christmas is only important because of Easter.