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Inner beauty vs Outer beauty. Is it one or the other?

2012-03-02T10:19:00.001+10:30

I like clothes. I like make up. I like doing my nails. In doing this experiment of Project 3:11, this shopping fast, this is one aspect I keep thinking about. I like all that stuff - is that wrong? Consider 1 Peter 3 - 'Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.' I think a lot of people look at

The difference

2012-03-01T06:30:00.000+10:30

I missed my devotions the other morning. I had started doing them every morning - just a short one, 10 minutes sometimes. But I was starting every day with one. And then one morning people were in our house, I slept in too late and so I went into the day without doing it. What difference would 10 minutes make? But it did. The day went differently. I didn't realise it until the day was almost

Whatever you have, give it!

2012-02-29T14:10:00.000+10:30

Lent is about giving - giving things up, giving of ourselves. Giving out of what God has given us. But giving of yourself won't look the same as the person beside you. Money is the first thing to mind when we think of giving. And in the western world, even when we feel like every bill has come at once, most of us are still, comparatively and figuratively, rolling in it. So give money, by

'Finding yourself'

2012-02-28T09:27:00.003+10:30

Where am I? Who am I? What is my purpose? Whether we label it or not, most young people at some stage go through some period of wondering who they are and where they are going. And a good number of not-so-young people too. Finding yourself. We want to discover who we really are, and so we pursue experiences and a life that is meant to help us define ourselves, help us discover what makes us,

Hey, God, are you forgetting something?

2012-02-27T08:48:00.009+10:30

Genesis 40 tells us how Joseph, unfairly languishing in a dungeon, finally gets his big break. Two men who are close to Pharaoh are in prison too and Joseph, with the blessing of the Man upstairs, interprets their dreams for them. One of them is executed, but that's neither here nor there. Point is, he interpreted right. And the other one, the cup bearer, gets out of jail and goes back to work

If You Missed It...

2012-02-25T19:00:00.014+10:30

If you like being weeks or months (or maybe even years) behind the rest of the digital world like I am, then this summary of things I've come across recently is perfect for you. This week in the blogging world: (meaning I saw it this week, not that it necessarily appeared this week...) - Video from White Dove Ministries - Josh Lindsey - The Very Worst Missionary - The Tourist Gospel "But

The biggest defences around our biggest insecurities

2012-02-24T10:11:00.000+10:30

It's funny how often the things we feel like we least have to worry about, turn out to be the things that trip us up. Did I say funny? I meant ironic and annoying. It could be the old 'pride before a fall' - we stop paying attention because we think it's all ok, and it gets away from us. But sometimes it's because we are fooling ourselves. Have you ever heard someone boasting about their

Don't Be a Potplant

2012-02-23T11:05:00.013+10:30

We used to have two pot plants at our front door. I say used to because they aren't there any more. This was back before we had moved in to our house, and it was newly built welcoming us only on weekends. We picked out some nice green plants in dark grey pots and set them either side of the door. We also had a door mat there, but because we live on hill near the sea, it gets windy and the

What are we fasting for?

2012-02-22T18:07:00.003+10:30

For anyone observing Lent in any way, chances are you have given up something for this 40 days. One of the most common ones I hear is chocolate. "I'm giving up chocolate for Lent".Growing up I either I've forgotten, I was oblivious at the time, or the churches I went to didn't observe or promote Lent. Whatever the reason, it was only last year that I actually talked to people who were giving

Reformed Clay

2012-02-21T10:44:00.001+10:30

"So I went down to the potter's house and saw him working at the potter's wheel. He was using his hands to make a pot from clay, but something went wrong with it...." (Jeremiah 18:3-4a) Something went wrong. How many of us can look back on our lives, on the way things have turned out, on the way we have turned out, and think - something went wrong. We feel marred, like a deformed clay pot

Blogging through...Sharpening the Cutting Edge #3

2012-02-20T11:00:00.001+10:30

After the bulldozer incident (Blogging through #2), John was taken to prison, under a serious threat of execution. One thing to take from that is the inspiration, of being willing to risk imprisonment and execution for our faith, for the good of others. But it was Glena's response (John's wife) that really struck a note with me. When she was told by a reporter that her husband was in prison and

Something More?

2012-02-17T10:08:00.000+10:30

Maybe, just maybe, satisfaction and fulfilment in life is far less to do with your physical circumstances than with your spiritual state... If we were created by God and for God, then how will anything but knowing God satisfy that fundamental need?

Seek and you will find - but what are you looking for?

2012-02-16T10:11:00.000+10:30

Have you ever sought hard, earnestly, til you hurt...and then nothing happened. It makes you wonder, where exactly is God? What about all that 'seek and you will find' business, huh?God does say that we when seek after him, he will be found. So what's going on?And at times like that, when we feel let down, we know that God says he'll never leave us or forsake us, but it can be hard to really

Being a Woman & Video Response

2012-02-15T13:30:00.002+10:30

It's been a while since I've posted any videos. I took an extended hiatus while I mulled things over privately. I tend to do that - percolate something until I'm ready to express it again. That process of percolation can take a few days to a few years, so my blogging and vlogging tends to be erratic as a result! But just recently a man posted a video response to one of my Being a Woman videos

Feeling the love...

2012-02-14T21:00:00.002+10:30

Valentine's Day came and went with hardly a glance for me... Because I'm married and my husband loves me every day, because I don't want chocolate anyway, because of my No Shopping Project so I have hardly been in the shops lately, because I can fast forward TV ads on my DVR - whatever it was, Valentines Day has not been a confronting issue. It barely even registered. But I remember a time

"Macho Men", Women & War

2012-02-13T09:09:00.000+10:30

There's been a lot about gender in the church around lately - it seems to come up somewhere on every blog I read. And people like Mark Driscoll are at the heart of it, usually copping the flak. I've tried to reserve judgement. I don't personally know the man, and I don't want to get caught up in vitriol. But some things I have heard - right from the man's mouth on videos or in his own blog posts

More than a Humanitarian

2012-02-08T12:56:00.002+10:30

Jesus was moved with compassion for people, and then he did something about it. That is an admirable thing to emulate, to be moved with compassion, to care deeply about the suffering of others and do what is in our power to alleviate it. What was within Jesus' power was quite significant; it was more than natural power, it was more than running a food drive and handing out blankets; it was

Speaking their language

2012-02-01T14:55:00.005+10:30

You don't have to be qualified to speak the good news. At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and filled those gathered in the room, and the crowds heard them, they were amazed because they were hearing their own languages. These were people from all over, and the Galileans were speaking their languages. This was not just unusual, like "Hey, I didn't know you spoke Cappadocian!"They were '

Transformation

2012-01-25T13:57:00.000+10:30

I think we'd agree that the stories told to us in the gospels about what Jesus did for us are kinda important. But it's in Acts when things really get interesting for the followers of Jesus. This is where we see the effects of what Jesus did in action. This is where we see transformation. They went from arguments 'among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest' (Luke 9:46) to

Project 3:11 - Month One

2012-01-09T14:58:00.001+10:30

It's like an addiction. The belief that we - that I - need to shop to live. It sounds ridiculous when you put it that way - buying clothes is not a physical necessity like drinking water or breathing. But if we truly don't believe that we need to buy things to get through, then why would it be a big deal to ask most people to stop? In

2012 Goals

2012-01-04T14:31:00.001+10:30

TwentyTwelve

2012-01-03T17:58:00.000+10:30

Absenteeism from a blog over the 'silly season' is not unusual, I suspect. My end/beginning over the last couple of months has involved a considerable amount of upheaval, and sitting down to write has seemed an insurmountable task. But even when I don't write, my mind is always on the blog - everything I see, I tend to write blog posts in my head, many of which never get put down on 'paper'.

Project 3:11 - No shirt, no shoes...no one cares.

2011-11-21T16:49:00.002+10:30

No shirt, no shoes....no-one cares. As long as I've got some. Well, I know that's not entirely true. Plenty of people care. And plenty more people probably would when confronted with it. But do we care enough to do something? Do we care enough to change the way we live our lives - even if it's is contrary to the way our society functions? "If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you

God OFTEN gives us more than we can handle

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000+10:30

One of the misquotations of the Bible that frustrates me most is when people say "God doesn't give us more than we can handle". It's meant to be a comfort, to tell us that things will never get so bad we can't handle it. And, oh, I know it's meant to comfort us that God is looking out for us. But it is an ill conceived and misleading comfort. Firstly, nowhere in the Bible does God promise life

Nothing is wasted

2011-11-09T16:36:00.000+10:30

Sometimes what we are doing seems small. We feel small. We work hard and get weary, and sometimes it's hard to see what we are even achieving. Sowing into people's lives, into relationships, into faith and into a walk with God - it's not results based. There's no quantifiable measurement or report card or award to tell you your progress. The seeds you sow today may not sprout or be