Monday, 28 January 2008

• A few lessons I learnt this Sunday

  "God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”
  - Jacques Deval

  Love is pretty funny. We are called to love yet "how" we love is often not love at all.

  I must confess on most Christians behalf that we've done a horrible job of this in a church setting at times. Alot of the time we're often quick to judgment and barely take the time to try and understand your situation...your experiences...and just basically...you.

  Alot of us unonciously decide on what we "can" love...and what we "can't" show love to...

  I personally fall on this badly.

  I unintentionally "try" to change others around me alot much of the time so that I can more easily extend love them...when I'm in no position to try at all...change is done by God. All I'm called to is love.

  The society I've grown up in cries out for "conformity" when God cries out for "diversity". People look down at people different from themselves, people who are dirtier than themselves, people who are less "educated" then ourselves...this sense of pride is killing us.

  We are all created and called to be unique so it's pretty silly to expect people to be the same. My father and mother is different from your father and mother....my friends are different from yours....my struggles are different from yours....my gifts are different from yours.

  It's time to stop caging other people in our lives....it's time to stop caging God.

  "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
  - Luke 10:27

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  "A year of the Lord's favour"...."A year of a New Start"....

  2008 has gotten leaders across the world excited and I'm honestly thrilled to see confirmations time and time again.

  If you're still thinking "God is going to do something in 2008" .....then open your eyes.....God IS already doing something. 2008 has hit us for 28 days already!

  2008 is a Year of Change....and change only comes from Him.

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  I came out of a church on Sunday morning and as I walked down the MTR I thought "....wow....I didn't know a single person's name...not even the pastor's"

  When they asked who was new to stand up I got greeted by many people but besides that moment no one else bothered to come chat with me. People said "hi" but no one followed that "hi" with a "my name is...."

  To make someone feel welcome is not just to extend a "hi"...it's to follow up with that "hi"

  As I talked to someone on their hospitality team after I suddenly felt really "unwelcomed" as I had come from another church to just "visit" rather than join their church. Then I was thinking....the church can open their arms and welcome pastors from foreign countries but they cannot welcome a curious Christian?

   

  I have barely started to explain why I decided to visit "alone" that I was met with harsh judgmental words of "You can ONLY be at one church! You must be able to serve so you must only stay with one church!"....

   

  Why do people often try to cage God into four walls? I'm starting to like the idea of sending people off on mission trips more and more now...it really teaches people to see how God is working beyond their own church influence.

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  I can honestly say I just love most of the people I've met at The Vine Christian Fellowship....even though I wish I could use "all"..."most" is not bad already :)

  God has decided to put people into my life to just bless, teach and encourage me constantly and I'm just in awe of all the things he has done.

  I need to show my thanks to everyone more consistently, haha.

  ---

  Tonight's sermon was on "What's in a name?" and the implications our names have on our lives. Got me thinking...

  My name Bosco was given to me by my parents in hopes they can honor a great recent day Saint who had founded my dad's school.

  My name reminds me of how my parents came to know Jesus, it reminds me how they had met in church, and how God has kept the family together despite all the crazy circumstances.

  It reminds me of the great man of God who often stepped out in faith and despite what the church "told" him to do he always followed what "God" told him to do.

  St John Don Bosco received incredible prophesy in his dreams...I'm starting to learn how crazy my own dreams are.

   

  Bosco means forest in Italian. I suddenly decided to look up the dictionary.com definition of "tree" and found a shocking definition:

  "11. the cross on which Christ was crucified."

  When I read that my heart just...SANK. I suddenly felt at that same moment God showing me the picture that these "trees" are those that follow Him to the cross and he wants to unite them all together as close as the trees are in a forest.

  I could barely help myself from laughing as I just learned more and more about this image as it got prayed over.

   

  God is hilarious.

   

  He really is.

   

   

  I can't believe it's not even February yet and so much has happened already! So much I want to write here daily but I have to actually stop myself from writing it, haha.

   

  What a year it's already been.

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