The PASSION Blog

About 20 odd years ago I started doing weights. Like most teenagers I started because I wanted big rock hard muscles to show off. This is a very different reason to why I do them now in my early 40s I must say!

When I started I would do them every day religiously. I would try to increase the weights so I would get stronger and bigger. Every week I would weigh myself and measure my muscles proudly in front of the mirror. After about six months I was a lot more toned, but had no more weight and muscle size.

I continued on this way for about two years with out much results. I remember sitting down and counting my workouts for one year. In one year I did over 350 workouts, that was nearly everyday. I was wiry and toned but not big. Hmmm something was wrong I reasoned and I trained harder.

Then one day I read a book by a guy who said that your muscles grow when you rest and recover from the weight sessions. He suggested that I only do weights 2 or 3 times per week and get plenty of rest in between. Reluctantly I tried his suggestion. Guess what, hey presto, bigger muscles started to appear out of nowhere. It is funny that I had to learn to do less and rest more to grow and move forward. Rest in between helped me to be more effective in my weight training.

It is funny how over the years I have forgotten this lesson and how it applies to many of the things we are involved in. I have found that in church and ministry sometimes less is more too. If I am out doing church things everyday. I get tired, burnt out and I enjoy it less. I also become less effective in the ministry tasks I perform. I find if I do too much I feel jaded very easily. However, if I take on less and do only the things I feel strongly about doing and called to do, I am much more energised and I am much more effective.

How about you? Are you someone who paces yourself or are you someone who is busy doing lots of things? Are you energised by your involvements or are you tired and drained most of the time? Can you keep up all of your involvements or have you got some things you could cut back on?

Sometimes less is more in weights, in life and in ministry.

One of the things I have found over the years is that I don’t always have a peace with what is happening in church. By this I mean if the church I am attending is going to do something or be involved in an area where I don’t think we should be involved or maybe not at this time.

It is often hard when you feel this way. At times it seems as if you are the only one who feels this way and maybe you just don’t get it. You are often torn between speaking up and keeping silent. I have learned to sometimes let this pass and to see how things pan out over time. I also try talk to people to understand the situation better and then pray about it. Generally things then settle down and you get a peace about things.

There are other times though where things don’t settle down inside you and you don’t have a peace. When trying to understand the situation doesn’t help and you still have a check in your spirit. There is just a gut instinct that something is just not right. I have found that if this persists for a period of time and I have really prayed through it, then I need to speak up and have my say.

In saying this though, I believe there are right and wrong ways to speak up. Going around and talking to everyone in the church is the wrong way. In a sense that is undermining the situation, the church and its leadership. This might cause division.

I believe the correct way to speak up is to talk to the leadership of the church or at least put your case forward to them. I believe this is the right way because the leadership of the church are the ones chosen by God and the local people to lead the church. They are the ones who are responsible to God to care for and shepherd the flock.

Putting your case forward to the leadership allows them to prayerfully filter your concerns or warnings in some cases. It allows them to hopefully openly discuss it amongst themselves and make a decision to hold back or move forward. As I have said, it is their place to lead and care for the flock and they are responsible to God. Ultimately the direction of the church is the call of the leadership.

Regardless of what the leadership decide, if you have had your say and raised your concerns, you have played your part. The key is to have your say in the right way and accept the leaderships decision and move forward together. The last thing you should do is cause division in God’s church or leave the church as a result. People need to speak up and have their say and then leave it to God and His appointed leaders to make the final call.

It is interesting that when we look at Jesus’ ministry we see that He didn’t just stay at the Temple all the time. He would travel around and visit with people in different places. Jesus often went to meet people where they were at spiritually and geographically.

Here are a few examples of the places He met people.

• At the seashore (Mark 4:1)
• At the well (John 4:6)
• On the highway (Mark 10:46)
• At the Marketplace (Matthew 20:3)
• On the mountain (Matthew 5:1)

As with my previous post about Jesus this week, we see that each time Jesus met with people, He met their deepest needs. He gave them what they needed and He did it where they were at, not just at the Temple.

One of the things I love about Jesus is that He is a Saviour for all people. In the Bible we see that He spent time with and reached out to people of all backgrounds and nationalities.

This is especially interesting because at the time Jesus walked the earth, many people only spent time with people from their own people group. They did not mix with others because in many cases they thought they were unclean.

Here are a few examples of the different groups of people Jesus spent time with.

• The Sadducees (Matthew 22:23)
• The Pharisees (Matthew 12:2-6)
• The Herodinas (Matthew 22:15-22)
• The Romans (Luke 7:2)
• The Zealots (Luke 6:15)
• The Samaritans (John 4:39-42)

Combine this with Jesus spending time with other social outcasts of the day like tax collectors, prostitutes and lepers shows that Jesus was a Savior for all people. He didn’t discriminate. He just genuinely loved and cared for people, no matter who they were or what they had done.

If you don’t know Jesus personally I would encourage you to visit my “Peace with God” page right now. Jesus loves and accepts you no matter what background or nationality you are. He wants to be your Saviour today.

In a follow up to my post that asked for rain for the Central WA Wheatbelt. The average rainfall figures for July is 51mm (1903-2006). Last month we had 73.3mm! That is awesome - praise God.

Many thanks for all those who prayed. It will give the farmers a better start to the season and make a huge difference to the region as a whole.

God Bless,
Dave

It is interesting when you look at the life of Christ just how many times He ministered one-on-one to people. As you can imagine most of His time would have been taking up teaching the disciples and traveling around to preach, teach and heal the multitudes.

However there are a number of occasions recorded in the Gospels that show Jesus taking the time for one person and their needs. Here are just a few…

• Jesus with Nicodemus where Jesus explains the need to be born again (John 3:1-10)
• Jesus with the Samaritan woman by the well where they talk about living water (John 4:41-42)
• Jesus and the rich young ruler who asked about eternal life (Matthew 19:16-22)
• Jesus and the man who was born blind and then was healed by Jesus (John 9:1-12)
• Jesus and the widow whose son had died and Jesus raised to life (Luke 7:11)

Every time Jesus stopped and took the time to be with each of these people (and many more) their lives were impacted and changed dramatically.

I found it interesting that in the midst of His busy mission of “seeking and saving the lost” (Luke 19:10), Jesus always took the time for the one person in need. I think it is a great pattern for us to follow.

I did my first lecture in Pastoral Care the other day. It was an interesting exercise to find a definition that really covered it. Instead of coming up with a succinct statement that encompassed it, the lecturer gave a number of definitions that painted a picture to try and give us an understanding of Pastoral Care is.

In the lecture I also found a couple of interesting things that really jumped out at me.

1. Pastoral Care is the cure and care of souls - I like that as a definition as it touches on helping people get “well” again from the storms and pains of life. It also touches on a maintenance and equipping side that helps people be better prepared for the future and helps them to be all they are in Christ. I think I will keep this definition in mind as I go about the things I do.

2. Pastoral Care changes depending on the context - The care and cure of souls varies depending on the setting. Working with patients in a cancer hospice or as a hospital chaplain is dramatically different to working as a high school chaplain or a Pastor in church. While there are some common things in both places, you would have to adjust the way they are delivered and the depth of care you can give.

It is also interesting to note that in the last week, God has brought three people across my path that have needed Pastoral Care and encouragement. It seems God is building into me with the academic side and the practical side at the same time.

I had an interesting discussion with some friends last night. Part of our discussion touched on how we noticed that often the people of God in the Old Testament followed and served God faithfully for a time. Then after a number of years or generations they had turned completely away from them.

For those who are a bit scholarly this is know as the Deuteromonic Cycle. Or as one of the other guys called it “The Jewish Spiril”. I really liked that one better as it is much easier for me to pronounce!

Anyway, it was interesting that during the discussion a few of the guys really recognised this cycle in their own lives. They shared that at times they wanted to know God and walk closely with Him, but at other times they have just wanted to go their own way.

For me this was a great reflection. Because if we are honest, all of us at times walk closely with God and then there are other times we slip away. The key I think is to recognise the signals and put things in place that will manage the fall or slip away and perhaps prevent it.

Some of the things I have found is that I don’t have the same passion for things and I am not wanting to read my Bible, not wanting to pray with people, not wanting to share my faith with others and thinking my money and talents are my own to use as I please. When I notice any of these things happening little alarm bells ring and I come to God and pray. I also share with someone else how I am feeling and ask them to pray for me too.

I have found that by recognising the signals and having a couple of things in place it can reduce the height of the fall. Sometimes it can nip it in the bud altogether.

How about you? Do you notice any signals when you are starting to pull back from God? What do you have in place to manage the fall?

Revelation 2:1-7 talks about the church at Ephesus and how they are going as a church. There are some positives, some negatives and a challenge.

At the start of the passage in verses 1-3 we see that the Lord commends the church of the good things they are doing. He commends their labour in doing good works, for being patient, for opposing evil and exposing false teachers. All good things that deserve being commended.

Then in verse 4 of the passage changes. He says, “You no longer love me as you first did”. In this simple statement we see that the church at Ephesus had lost its first love for Jesus. They had been doing some great things, things that the church should be doing, but they had forgot the reason why we do church in the first place - Jesus.

In verse 5 Jesus offers them the challenge and the call to repent. He says, “Repent and do the things you did at first”. Jesus is calling them back to re-focus their hearts on Him and their relationship with Him.

I think as Christians we can all learn from this passage. Human nature is that we get all excited at first and then over time our enthusiasm wanes. This happens to many people when they first get married. The love and excitement is overwhelming and then in time it fades and many relationships fall apart. Today as Christians we can start off loving Jesus passionately, but in time we can get caught up in serving Him like the church as Ephesus and we can lose our first love.

How are you going? Is Jesus your first love or have other things got in the way? Is it time to come back and check in with Him today? Is it time to re-focus your love and adoration on Him and then move out into the world from there?

God Bless,

Dave