Praying in true repentance

Lately I've noticed that I rarely recognise and truly repent of my sins. If I am to be truly honest, I have a pretty poor perception of how sinful I really am. Often my sins are not overtly noticeable to others - I sneakily make sure that my actions seem pure on the outside - so it's easier to get away with it. Often I can't even see them in myself! But at the heart level, my motives can be so repulsive to God. And to be honest, I rarely acknowledge this.

We are so frequently told that Jesus died once for all of our sins - which is true - but I think this allows me to settle into a level of complacency that is unhelpful, if not destructive. When was the last time you actively sat down and listed your sins to God? Sins of omission, or commission, of actions, of thoughts, and of motives? While Jesus has died and risen in our place, paying the penalty we should have paid for our sinfulness, we still need to be repenting daily in order to grow in righteousness and to develop a deeper and richer relationship with the Lord.

So even though it's not as attractive as praying in thanks, praise, and petition, we should not neglect the important step of confession as we fall at our Heavenly Father's feet. Perhaps the best place to start is by asking the Spirit to reveal the repulsive things in us that we can't necessarily see.

Jai, 8 weeks old

So I thought yesterday's post was a dose of cuteness, 

but then my brother sent through these photos of our nephew and I. just. melted... 

This is cute!

Num! Num! Num!

 This is 'Stompy' the dinosaur (the one on the left!). We gave him to Jai when he was born. 

Wish they lived closer...

A little dose of cute-ness

Hooray for a new look for the blog! In keeping with the cute-ness of this new design, I thought I'd share a bit of what I've been doing to give my little sewing machine a bit of a work out - I made these and many others to sell at a church car boot sale recently...

 

It feels good to be making use of the great collection of fabric I've been building up for so many years. 

Happy Thursday!

Then we shall see in full

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

Night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

No sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, 

Their words to the ends of the world."

[Psalm 19:1-4]

I love how God reveals himself to us through his wonderful creation. It's easy to see on beautiful days like today was (in Sydney, at least) that the heavens certainly do declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of his hands! God is gracious and merciful to those of us who might doubt his existence or majesty by creating such a beautiful world in which he makes his glory known.

I went on a bike ride through the national park with my Dad on Wednesday and while it was exhausting, I'm glad we did it. At one point, we were riding for quite a while up one of the hills, and as we reached the top to stop for a drink we noticed a beautiful view over the valley through the trees. So I took the opportunity to take a few photos and take it in as we took a little breather. The view made the climb to the top of that hill worthwhile.

But then we hopped on our bikes again only to find that 50 metres further up the road was an even more spectacular view - not through a tiny peephole created by the surrounding trees, but an almost 180 degree view over the valley. And it was gorgeous. (The photo from my phone doesn't do it justice!) The warm sun flooded the folds in the earth, giving life to the foliage as it smiled back up towards it.

As we rode on, this got me wondering what it'll be like once we finally leave this broken, bruised earth, and get to meet Jesus face to face in Heaven. Don't you think we'll be thinking, "What the heck were we so excited about earth for?! This is incredible!"? At the moment all we see is a small display of God's power through his creation, yet it is fallen, and we are sinful. But when we reach heaven, we will see Jesus in his full splendour, through pure, sinless eyes. I look forward to that day, and I'm amazed to wonder - if this is the limit of our imagination; if this is all we know of how beautiful creation can be, then how indescribably spectacular must Heaven be?

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. 

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

[1 Corinthians 13:12]

Love a bargain.

Yesterday I stumbled upon what I think is my best bargain yet - this dress was on the clearance rack in Myer, and has apparently been there for a while because it had a small tear in the lace. After finding out the price was marked down from $165 to $25, I couldn't help giving the repair job a shot...

It worked! A little bit of hand stitching, and now I have a new dress to wear to one or two of the many weddings we have coming up this year :)

Very pleased that Mum taught me to sew. And gave me an appreciation for a good ol' fashioned bargain. Thanks, Mum!

Who do you say that I am?

Sometimes as Christians, Jesus can become so familiar to us that we can no longer see him for who he really is. I've been reading Mark Driscoll's 'Vintage Jesus', in order to look at him with fresh eyes and hopefully to improve my ability to convey his uniqueness and his majesty to those who don't yet know him. My quiet time today involved looking up claims that Jesus made about himself, drawn from chapter 1, 'Is Jesus the Only God'. They got me excited, so I thought I'd share them.

Jesus claims:
...he came down from heaven. No other religious figure has claimed to come from heaven, only to have visited temporarily.
(see John 6:38)

...he isn't just a 'good teacher'.
(see Mark 10:17-18)

...he is the Son of Man; the fulfilment of prophecy.
(see Matthew 5:17)

...he performed miracles. Opponents of Jesus outside Scripture even testify to his miracles.
(see John 10:36b-39)

...he is God.
(see Matthew 26:63-65)

...he was sinless.
(see John 8:46, 1 Peter 3:18)

...he can forgive sin. All sin is against God, and only he has the right to forgive it.
(see Luke 5:20-21)

...he is the only way to Heaven and eternal life.
(see John 14:6)

In response to Jesus' claims about himself, a response is essential. Jesus was either a 
liar, manipulating vulnerable people by claiming to be able to forgive their sins;
lunatic, claiming to be God even to the point of crucifixion; or 
Lord, deserving our repentance and acceptance as saviour and redeemer.

Hope this is encouraging!

The unwasted life

"The unwasted life is the life that puts 

the infinite value of Jesus on display 

in everything you do." 

John Piper

Yesterday afternoon, as I ploughed through a mountain of ironing, I started watching John Piper's sermon from the 'One' conference held in Sydney in August last year. I haven't had a chance to finish it yet, so I've still got more of it to look forward to. He starts by flipping our question of "why does God allow suffering?" on its head by pointing out that it is only by God's infinite sustaining grace that we will even get to take our next breath! We don't deserve life, and to presume that we are entitled to be spared from the death and suffering that we rightly deserve is folly. 

Piper then goes on to discuss what an unwasted life looks like. It involves magnifying the Lord - like with a telescope to show how 'big' he is. It is our life's purpose to point to Him and demonstrate through our words, our actions, our thoughts, our decisions, how awesome He is and how much we need Him. I think to be honest, the vast majority of us forget this. We don't fear God, as we are commanded in Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Instead we slot God into a 'comfortable' compartment of our lives, only talking to others about him in a manner and at a time that suits us. What if, for example, I were open to hear the Holy Spirit's prompting as I spoke to my non-christian friends? Would the conversation look any different to what it does presently? Would I be more bold about telling the truth of the gospel in its entirety, rather than emphasising all of the 'God loves you' parts over the bits about God's wrath and condemnation? Would I be more urgent in expressing that we only have two paths to choose from, and only one of them leads to life? 

I'm not advocating that we necessarily start using a 'turn or burn' methodology, but just wondering if there are enough Christians out there presenting the gospel in its entirety, expressing the full extent of its powerful message, not just relying on 'evangelism-by-living-by-example'? I guess the perfect model of this would be Jesus - tough but tender. He knows exactly how to use tough words to produce soft hearts, and love is in everything he says and does even when it may seem harsh. 

I pray that God gives us the wisdom to discern how to do this, and the faith to trust that by his Spirit he will give us the words we need when we need them.