Sunny Sunday

well apart from my still lost voice i think this previous Sunday was a great Sunday for me.
started my day with a decent sleep in and then left for the train into town at around 2, walked around for a bit then found my way into my mates subway (he owns 2/3 of the store) stayed there for a while and had a feed.
just after 4 i headed towards the duxton at a very relaxed pace.
the sun was out, the grass was green, the air was crisp (tehehe) and i had my camera!
church that night was particularly good, there was a certain vibe in the duxton ballroom that night, and i could feel the holy spirit all around me.
john preached that night about victories in life and about one small but significant contradiction in the bible that doesn't make much sense without plenty of study.
the most vivid quote from him that stuck in my head was.
"the greatest victories are not the victories ahead of us but the victories behind us"
(i think the use of the word victory may be a bit inaccurate for the context but the general idea is still well portrayed)
one part of his talk that also stuck with me was when he started talking about when the bible says (must go get my bible from the house to quote this but it's something along the lines of)
"for man cannot live righteously until the accuser is cast down from heaven"
john raised an interesting point that the bible pretty accurately Say's that the light in heaven is so great that a darkness (the accuser) such as Satan would never be able to access it.
he then pointed out that it is not Satan who has access to heaven but it is all of us, when we pray we almost leave this world. we put our hearts out to him and thus a part of us has access to his kingdom.
as Christians the commitment we make to God (regardless of the degree of our faith) is a commitment that allows us access to the lord and therefore a certain, yet limited, access to heaven therefore whenever we sin we are not only hindering our relationship with the lord but in a sense the devil is working tempting us and shares that access with us.
it was a daunting though for the rest of the night to think that any time i mat have thought lustful thoughts,cursed against others,been judgemental,stolen,been unforgiving,taken the lords name in vain and so on so forth.
that in doing so i was restricting the power and authority that god has over my life.
it all connects together after a while that whatever "evil" acts you commit can directly hinder and suppress god's light within you, i kept thinking to myself "so every time i sin I'm literally hurting god?"
but after a while (quite a long while this was) i realised that once again it goes a whole lot deeper than that, effectively yes i am suppressing god in every sin that i commit.
but more literally the thing to remember is that every man has that chance of redemption (a chance that endless amounts of temptations from Satan cannot provide) in a sense god is just like us (all though being perfect) he still is loving,caring,forgiving and righteous. in my analogy i think of him as a human but without the mind (the mind being the tempting side of the conscience)
the famous song that sing
"what if god was one of us?" (great song may i add)
suggests just that, it reminds to be cautious of the things i do and say for the stranger that you mock, could that be god?
that person that you shoot down behind their back, could that be god?
the innocent man getting robbed or abused and you choose to turn the other cheek, could that be god?
this whole topic could go a whole lot deeper and believe me i would like to but i don't think i have gone that far into as of yet (maybe later!)[
i suppose the thing that i am trying to say and i suppose that pastor john was trying to reach to us was that we are made in god's image and in psalms 139 it says
"for you are fearfully and wonderfully made"
god has crafted and moulded us from before the day we were even conceived, he knows of the great things he has planned for us but ultimately it comes down to us.
there is a certain repsonsiblity that adults carry, which in a sense is the equivalent to the responsiblity that we as christians hold.
we resemble (or so we should) the good in our world, we should resemble hope,love,salvation,righteousness and holyness.
with that responsiblity we must remember that everything we do has consequences (whether good or bad) and that we must put thought and consideration into everything we say,everything we do but most importnatly everything we think. for it also says in the bible that we should not let anything that is unwholesome escape our mouth's but only the thing's that are used to build up one another and build up a new generation for god.