Serving without Sinking

Have you ever had that moment where you are just really fed up of serving? At first it was a joy but now it’s just boring and repetitive. It feels like you are the only one who is serving while everyone else has gone home. And no one praises you or encourages you. Day in and day out it you slog away and you’re tired. You’re tired of it all.

Does that sound familiar? If it does, can I recommend a book to you? I know, another book to read – but it has been one of the most helpful books I’ve read on serving.

Serving without Sinking – by John Hindley is a book that is Christ focused. In fact you spend over half the book looking at Jesus and how He serves you. This really makes you examine your heart and the motives of your heart towards serving. You could be like the person I described above where you are just fed up of serving and you feel very discouraged and tired of it all. Then this book will remind you how Christ serves you first and how he delights in you. It will melt your heart to see the love that Christ has for you. With this in mind it changes the way you think about serving from a “I should do” or a “I have to” turned to a “I want to” and “I delight to” Why? because every bit of service – making tea, printing music, washing tables, welcome team is all serving Jesus and we can do that because he first and foremost serves us.

Or perhaps you are someone who isn’t like the person above – maybe you only serve to get recognition or you just can’t be bothered to serve others. John Hindley reminds us what kind of master we have – He is good and kind and he calls us to serve him. Again he calls us to this only after he has first served us. He is a serving master who loves his servants, servants who are sons and daughters of his Father. He calls us to serve with a glad heart – looking to Christ and not for recognition from others. We can do this because we have the Lord who knows us and a Father who sees what we do in secret.

I found this book to be good news for my heart. It’s a short book but with a deep focus on Jesus. I feel like it is something we all need at the moment.

You can get the book at the Good Book Company.

Ali Bolton has read and reviewed the book here.

Collection of Webs: March

Here is a monthly collection of webs where I share with you what I have been reading on blogs, articles, books and what I have been watching or listening to.

Blogs Posts from friends:

My friend Ali has started blogging again over at Redeeming Clouds. It’s a great read and worth having in your bookmarks.

My friend Emily has been writing a series about how she isn’t a morning person. A really good little series to read.

Tanya writes a cracking post on penguins and parenting. It’s heart-wrenching and you may cry at the end!!

Blog Posts Out There:

Creative People Say No: Saying “no” has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know.

10 Time management Rules you are breaking: A helpful list of being more productive.

God will find you in your dark place: When you’re in a dark place, God crawls into the darkness with you, tells you He’s with you, and then he holds you till hope begins stirring in your soul.

Books:

Finished Miranda: Is it just me? Which was delightful, funny and full of good little stories. Certainly a feel good book.

I finished Reading Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp – one of the best books on pastoral ministry that I have read so far. Challenging, insightful and helpful!

Also finished reading Real Marriage: by the Driscolls which was an interesting and also helpful read in places.

Now I am reading Life of Pi, which is a fantastic read so far.

I am also on Good Reads if you want to find out more about what I am reading or what I am going to read etc.

Posts on my blog:

Do Check out my Black Mirror Series that I wrote last month.

6 Questions for Christian Leaders

Jesus or Cheesus?

Collection of Webs: January

So I saw this idea of doing a blog round-up through Tanya and I thought it was such a fun way of doing Collection of Webs. But this time it will be monthly and include lots of other little things like books being read and films watched etc. Hopefully this will be a bit of fun.

Blogs Posts from friends:

Bryony chats about the Gospel in the Job center – some great reading here: “I have really noticed that the job centre communicate a clear ‘gospel’ story (or worldview) that is completely in a realm of its own.”

Dan Hames shares a quote on: What to do when you just can’t pray.

Bish shares some reflections on the early Christian Unions: The story is the same today – there’s a legacy to inherit, but the Christian Unions are built on Christian freshers turning up in halls and standing together. We stand on the foundation of home churches and youth work, we stand on the work of God in people.

Ellie shares her thoughts on Purity.

A poem written by my husband about taking communion.

Blog Posts Out There:

An article on how men see women and sports. This was really insightful and interesting: The way we consume iconic national events like the Super Bowl better depicts what we really believe about women than does anything else. For in the invisibility of normality, there we find our idolatry.

Mike Reeves writes about why not having Adam and Eve is actually bad news for the Gospel.

A good post on Luther and his way with colourful words…

Books:

I have set myself a mini project this year which is to read War and Peace. I have just finished book 1 out of 15. Its going well and I hope to finish it before the year is up. But there some people in the world that read War and Peace more than once!

Also reading:

Game of Thrones book 3 and

Where is God when it hurts by Philip Yancy.

Music:

Currently enjoying some songs by Bethel and Boy and His kite.

As well as Rend Collective Experiment

Watching:

Extremely loud and incredibly close

Also loving Miranda, Call the Midwife and Ripper Street.

What are you enjoying at the moment?

Favourite Posts on my Blog:

1.Can we know God?

2.The Heat of Love

3.No Airbrush Please

4.The biggest problem in Church

JPOD Staff Worker Version 2.5

Not long ago I read JPOD by Dougles Coupland, which I really enjoyed probably because I spent a year in IT support at University and can relate to the randomness of this book and at heart I am a geek! During the book there are pages full of random quotes and sentences that just add to the surreal life of Ethan and his JPOD companions. How far from reality is JPOD? Probably not that far off, although no one seems to sleep and they go on random trips to China (which hasn’t happened to me yet). But perhaps in the fiction there is a base of reality that highlights the mundane and splashes it across absurdity. So it occurred to me that for fun I could write my own page of JPOD but relating to being a UCCF Staff Worker. And of course it is meant to be weird and not taken seriously.

STAFF WORKER version 2.5

Year 3 upgrade

Please press any key to continue..

FILTER COFFEE GOSPEL and a muffin.

“Come and have Breakfast”

Fish and Chips after death.

Freedom. Gospel. Grace. Love.

Are you a miserable Christian?

I Blog. I Think. I Drink...

Mac books are in Heaven?

I wear Fat Face. I am not Face Face. Face Fat. Book

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Create. I Dream. I Believe.

That is a good question…………………………………………………………..?

We have ink on our faces.

TRINITY. LOVE THE CHURCH.

It is good to be a Christian. 

JOY. PRAYER. LOVE

South West Team. Soup.Fellowship

Welcome to Exeter. Plymouth. Falmouth. Bristol. Bath

3:16.8:1.2:20.5:1. Genesis. ADAM. CHRIST. APPLE. CROSS. FREE

Snapshot of Cross Culture.

My morning drink is Exodus with a sprinkle of Romans.()()(()()()()()()()()()()

Living for Jesus. Speaking for Jesus.

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Houseparty. 3 Block. Seminar. Ear Plugs.

Diving into the Gospel. Team Days. CAKE!

Forum. Tents…with a splash of sunshine please?

Reforming the heart. EDWARDS. OWEN.

Jesus is beautiful.

 

Lets have beautiful feet. 

            Feet need to walk and share good news. 

                    Good news needs to be in our hearts. 

                              Our hearts need to know Christ. 

                                                       CHRIST IS ALL.

 /////////////????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????/////////////

####RELAY. Run the Race. Drink the coffee. Open the bible.#####

 

iblog, iread, idream, iknownothing.

• Relationships. Tears. Goodbyes. New pages. Chapters unfold.
• Be creative.
• Don’t wear socks and sandals.
• Do Enjoy.

 //////////////////////////////////////////////////++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ALT, CTRL, DEL. 

ESC.

STANDBY until HE Returns.

+++++OUT OF CHEESE ERROR+++++

If God, Then What?

I recently read this book by Andrew Wilson – “If God, Then What?” which is an apologetic book but with a twist – it isn’t a typical apologetic book with a question and then a chapter on how to answer that question. In fact some of the chapter titles are quite quirky – “Galactic Roulette”, “White rain” etc. Wilson writes in such a way that you feel like you are going on a journey with him, following his train of thought and arguments. He never assumes that you believe in God, he doesn’t use Christian jargon and he doesn’t jump straight to the typical christian answers to things. Actually what he writes is quite compelling, personal and logical – he doesn’t try to win an argument or trash what people believe. This is a book I would feel very comfortable in giving to my non christian friends. In fact as I was reading reviews of this on amazon I came across a really great review from a guy called Geoff who isn’t a Christian, he found the book “disappointingly good”! he says:

“I think this is a book a parent could give to a teenager and entertain reasonable hopes of them reading it through, with a better than average chance of having a decent discussion as a result. He’s done well to keep the book to an appropriate length for such situations. He hasn’t sought to bring entirely new arguments forward, rather he’s collected several and presented them in an accessible, readable and engaging fashion. Most books in this genre seem to try to win conversations or close them down. Wilson seems to be trying to open them up…

If you’re a Christian and you’d like to share your faith with others, buy this book. It’s the best I’ve read in the genre and extends a hand of friendship rather than a wagging finger of disapproval. It didn’t convert me, but did leave me wanting to join the author for a coffee and a long chat.”

Read the rest of the review here.

This is certainly a book, as Geoff says, that Christians should read! It’s an easy read and actually I couldn’t put it down! It is certainly one of the best apologetic books I have read.

If you want to listen to the podcast of Geoff and Andrew having a chat about the book on Justin Brierley’s radio show Unbelievable.

The Hunger Games, Identity and Saviour

I haven’t long finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy, which some people have loved and some people have not enjoyed at all. I rather liked it though, it has a gripping story and some great characters that you connect with.

The themes of the story are quite typical ones of power, hope, love and sacrifice. But the setting is rather gruesome with children having to fight to the death in an arena for the pleasure of the rich and wealthy.

There are also so many resemblances between the capital and the west and between the districts and the third world countries. There are questions about identity and what makes us who we are.

My friend wrote a brilliant post on the Hunger Games which was a response to a chap at the Gospel Colition website. 

Emily writes:

“I think she [Collins] accurately captures the uncertainty and lack of conviction that people really have  (particularly in our teens!) and takes the reader on a journey with Katniss as she struggles to reconcile the warring convictions she has- giving all she has to look after her little sister, the desire to live, her inclination to both trust and doubt others around her, choosing to let someone live or to let them die…”

Emily is right, with Katniss we are taken on a journey as she tries to figure out who she is, where her identity lies and how she is going to survive. Where as Peeta knows who he is and knows that he doesn’t want the capitol to change him. I think Peeta is the true hero of this story, he is the rock – sturdy for Katniss and never forgetting who he is even when the Capitol distorts his memories he still fights to cling to his identity.

You might think at first the saviour of this story is Katniss as she sacrifices herself for her sister, yet as she goes into the arena she quickly reverts to saving herself and loses herself in the trauma of the events. But Peeta is the one that remains pure, he never kills intentionally in the first book and his objective is to save Katniss, he never forgets his identity. In the second book you realise that everyone else in the area thinks the same thing as they acknowledge that Peeta isn’t one of them and that really he shouldn’t even be there. He seems an unlikely saviour figure, but as I mentioned above he is the rock for Katniss that keeps her going until the end. Its his deep love for her that enables him to forget himself and save her on multiple occasions.

Like most human saviours he makes mistakes, he gets distorted and doesn’t live up to the saviour title all the time. But as my friend Emily ends her blog post she reminds us that there is a better saviour:

“there’s only one person who ever lived who can give us a true definition of a self-sacrificing hero; one who sees the world as it truly is and offers answers to the questions that we barely even manage to ask… A hero who is like a devoted friend who lays down his life for others, or a good shepherd who lays down his life for sheep who are oblivious to their peril. Many of us never recognise him for who he is.  If you’re curious, why not find out more about him here.”

Books in 2011

In 2011 I read 25 books. A mix of Christian and Fiction.  Which looking at the list doesn’t seem much at all… Well I am hoping to improve that this year and read some more books. But first let me tell you my top 5 books (in no particular order) that I read in 2011:

 

1. The girl with the dragon tattoo – This book is so well written and gripping that I couldn’t put it down. It’s also very gruesome and hard to take at some points. But the story is terrific, with the protagonist being mysterious, disturbing and yet likeable. This is worth a read unless you are very faint hearted.

 

 

 

2. Long way east of Eden – I finally got round to reading this after its been on my shelf for ages! This is one of my favourite Christian books so far because it actually engages with culture and it engages really well with culture that I would happily give this book to a non-Christian friend. I love how Pete Lowman uses so many sources and quotes and string them all together to paint a picture of a society without God and that picture is increasingly becoming our reflection.

 

 

3. The Tipping Point – This is a great book about how society has trends and what causes them. It’s about how to make small things catch on and become big. It’s an interesting insight into how society works.

 

 

 

4. The time travellers wife – This is such a wonderful book and so clever! I just love how all the pieces fit together and following the lives of these two people. It is also heart breaking.

 

 

 

5. One Day – I really enjoyed this book with its funny conversations and the lives of two young people falling in love. Yet it is a tragic comedy and you can’t help but laugh and cry.

 

 

 

 

So what shall I read in 2012? Any suggestions?

Currently Reading: A meal with Jesus

This is what I am reading at the moment.

Its brilliant. Here are some quotes:

 

Simon’s attitude to this woman exposes his heart.  It’s always like that.  ’Difficult’ people have a habit of exposing our hearts… Whenever we look down on someone for being smelly or disorganised or lazy or emotional or promiscuous or socially inept or bitter, then we’re like graceless Simon.  And if we look down on people for not understanding grace, then we are like graceless Simon.  If you’re thinking about how this applies to someone else, then you’re like Simon.  Jesus says to us, ‘If you look down on others, you love little, because you understand so little of your sin and my grace.’

Tim Chester, on Luke 7 (from ‘A Meal With Jesus’)

Church leaders are family leaders and must prove their ability to manage their own households before they can manage the household of God.  One of the requirements for elders is that they must be ‘hospitable’ (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:8, see Romans 16:23).  Consider that many requirements churches typically lay down for leaders (like a theology degree) are not required by Paul in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.  But what Paul does require is that they be hospitable.  Perhaps this was because church meetings were family meals.  How could you lead a meal-meeting if you weren’t hospitable?  How could you extend the generous welcome of the gospel if you didn’t welcome people into your home?

- Tim Chester, ‘A Meal With Jesus’

The written word

I recently watched a wonderful programme on Fry’s Planet Word “Spreading the Word” which Stephan Fry explores how the written word started and developed and changed the world. This programme looks also at the oldest record of the bible that we have, which is the dead sea scrolls (2000 years old) and they show a piece from the psalms and then the 10 commandments – it was really amazing to see! Fry talks about how the written word changed religion and enhanced it as well has persevering cultures.This includes Islam as well and the words in the Qur’an that has led to millions of people being influenced by Islam.

We were looking at the “Word of God” at our team days last week and how that isn’t just restricted to the written word but indeed Jesus being the Word. But it has made me think how perhaps Christianity would be rather different if things were not written down. God told Moses to write everything down and Luke writes things down to record what Jesus did. But you have to be able to read to be able to understand. Imagine a culture that doesn’t have the written word? Imagine what our culture would be like? Printed on the pages are laws, stories and a glimpse of who our God is.

But not just for Religion. The written word is fantastic. Fry mentions how he felt when his written word was in front of him in printed form as a book. He felt amazed by it! It is amazing that what we say can be written and then published and then read by millions of people. This includes blogs and twitter too. Digital words are as important and provides more access for people to read what we are saying. It changes the way we share stories. But will there be a death of books? I doubt it, there is something about a book that is more wonderful than a computer screen.

John Milton says:

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

The beauty of reading

This is a repost from my old blog. Thought I would share it again just as I begin to look for a new book to read:

Choosing a new book to read can be complex. The choice is endless as the stacks of written words are displayed before you, screaming at you, beckoning you to open their delightful pages and smell the aroma of the narrative. As you scan your eyes across titles and colours and images that capture your imagination, you are soon caught by a book. Why you choose it, you may never know. But how you begin to read it, is important.

As you open the front cover and allow the spine to make little crackles, you press your nose against the pages and breathe deeply in. You are perhaps in-hailing a master piece. You feel the pages beneath your fingertips and notice the rough indents. You turn to the first page with its beaming Chapter One while the carefully chosen words dance in front of you. Your mind begins to unravel a charming story that is aided by words that unfold characters and natures and worlds that you never knew before. Suddenly a whole new existence is created and you feel very much a part of it.

A book should never be unaccompanied. Its traveling friend is always a cup of coffee. So that just as you smell the fresh pages of a new book, you can almost imagine its like opening a bag of fresh filter coffee and having the luxury of absorbing the rich smell of coffee beans and allowing this aroma to dance and skip with your senses.

Soon you are in the middle of the book and the characters are no longer shadows. Your coffee is traveling beside you and you enjoy the rustic rich flavour. You find yourself talking and engaging with world views and apologetics. Your imagination is fueled by artistic sentences and sketches of the real world and there is no flashing lights or glaring screens, no loud music or noiseless chatter.

Its just you curled up with pages of imagination that tinkle and trickle into joyful worlds of art, literature and timeless history. And it can always be picked up again no sooner then when you have finished and placed it upon the table next to the empty cup of coffee.

You cant get any of this from facebook or blogs or TV. Its just not the same.