Convincing Convictions

Well recently I’ve been delaying a post quite simply because I have had a lot going on.

Well as per my beautiful alliterate title (not too rare is it?) you will probably figure that God has been convicting me of a few things since I last posted, I think tonight I will cut down the ‘jibber jabber’ and get right to the meat of the issue.

My Study : This so far has been truly great, we have just finished the first segment of discipleship and the most important thing I have learned is that discipleship starts with evangelism, to me this is great. Now I always knew where the bible stood on evangelism but I have never really taken it seriously enough to take into action. This has opened my eyes to the fact of the matter that this is our very obligation and it should be all we live for. Many of us (myself included) think bad things when fronted with that word, we think; Standing on street corners yelling ‘repent repent’ we think of the disgruntled resident who yells ‘stop shoving your religion down my throat’ followed by a nice loud slamming door, we think of the great burden it brings upon us and how sometimes its not worth the struggle. Fact is that most of this is in our head and besides if we are not prepared to suffer for Christ we need to take a serious check on our faith.

World Vision : From previous posts (I think) you will know that I was immensely involved in the 40 hour Famine last year at my school, Well I have just come back from this years Student Leadership Camp (SLC) and have probably taken back more from it than I did last year, the main reason being that last year when I attended as a student rather than a leader I was not expecting at all to be the one organising it last year. So I did not listen as much as should have or could have. For me this has just reminded me once again just how much need there is out there, to hear all the stories, to see all the pictures and to know many more statistics has certified in me that this is one of my callings. I once again feel obliged to do something, not just sponsor a child (as I already am) but to do something big, to travel and work in these countries and to maximise my change in these places of poverty.

Now here stands my two most convincing convictions at the present time.
Firstly I have the choice to further my evangelism and help in saving people to Christ for an eternity. But on the other hand is it right to pursue this and disregard the pure evil that goes on all around the world, with billions of people in poverty, millions with AIDS, millions with no food, shelter, clean water and in some cases no parents. Can I really disregard the fact that 13-15 y/o girls are being enslaved in brothels to make money for some rich business man. Am I really entitled to push aside the fact that every 15 seconds a child, like you and me, will die of starvation or of AIDS or of disease that takes as much as it costs to buy a coffee to help. Can I ignore the strongest feeling of heartbreak I have ever felt when I saw that photo of the child with such a look in her eyes that literally said ‘I have no hope’?

I strongly feel that this will be a massive defining moment in my life as to what I will do for the years to come, I can only pray with confidence and trust that the Lord will guide me along the path he so desires to see me walk. I would just like to emphasise that for me this is BIG, to me this is almost unfair to choose between the two but I know that the Lord provides seasons and times for everything, there will be a time to celebrate, to mourn, to grieve, to evangelise and to spread hope.
But now is the time for prayerful thinking and consideration.

Screaming Silence

It would seem that recently God has indeed been speaking to me about my time management habits and more than that the noise I make in this time. Its seems evident to me that I would rather turn up the music (whether it be Christian artist or not) than lie on my bed in absolute silence and prayer waiting on the whisper of God’s voice. Even as I type now I have the music playing.

So what is it about us that makes us so uneasy when we are silent, we all have had that time with someone where something was said and then it was followed by a long awkward silence but I have to ask, is it awkward because of the silence or silent because of the awkward statement made? It could well be both.

Its very hard to obtain true silence today, try it right now, turn of all music and close all doors, you will hear the buzzing of your computer or the sound of a sander outside, or the sound of cicadas. It seems that as hard as we try it is very hard to obtain true silence in today’s world but my other objection is if we were to obtain it what would we do with it? Would we start talking to fill it? Or start thinking weird thought’s?
Silence truly is a valuable thing and in 1 Kings 19:11ff we read

“The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Here we see that God was not in the things that would make the most sound, but in this instance of Elijahs personal connection with God, God is in the ‘gentle whisper’ I may be taking this out of context and please notify me if you think I am but I belive that this means that for us and our personal times with God we need to learn how to “Be still” and know that he is God. (Psalm 46:10) after a while we begin to notice how everything is so loud but we seem to prefer this noise over the pure silence. I do not think many of us are able to sustain such silence very easily and if we do it would seem that our impatience gets to us before we get to the silence

So often we all get caught up in the rush of life and in the noise of worship and praise and rarely do we make the effort to have quiet times, to simply take a break from life, to separate ourselves from our present sufferings and sins and to clear our head from all devious thoughts. I truly take my head off to those that meditate properly because it is the art of clearing ones head from all thoughts. I challenge you right now to try lean back in your chair and do absolutely nothing for 30 seconds, no movements, no thoughts.

Its hard isn’t it? And that is why I commend those that meditate not because of what it represents but because they are able to obtain a silence that so few of us get to experience, a silence that is soothing to the soul, a silence that in itself seems to speak volumes to us.

May God give you this soothing silence, may you be able to hear his whispering voice in the outrageous noise of everyday and may we all teach our ears to hear the things that truly matter, that is.

God’s voice.