A Call to Greatness

 A CALL TO GREATNESS

Let's face it - we all want to be great!  We all like to be the best. Who remembers sports day at school. You always wanted to be in the team that won didn't you. I recall being in the Blue team but for some reason Reds seem to win every year which, as you can imagine, I wasn't too happy about. The Blue's didn't like to think all the children in the Red team were better!  Did you ever win the individual race you were picked to run?  I did all sorts of races; egg and spoon, bean bag on the head, 3-legged race to name a few, but I don't recall winning many of them, there was always someone on my heels better than I was. At school, I do recall winning a Netball Tournament, I played Centre which was the position where you did the most running (typical!), we were ecstatic that we had won all the other schools in the area!  It was exhilarating to be the best! 

We all want to be the best, we all want to be celebrated, we want to be centre of attention, we want to have high position and high power. However, it says in the bible something quite profound, Matt 20, 26-28 - If anyone who wants to be great among you, you must first become a servant. Just as the Son of Man didn't come into the world to be served but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many.  Wow, that's a powerful statement isn't it in today's world, that is always talking about finding our own power.

God says the only way to be great is to first help others.  We are great by the way we treat others and make others feel when they greet us. We are great when we love our neighbours and friends as ourselves, we are great when we go out of our way for someone rather than serving ourselves. We are great when we give generously to those in need, we are great when we help the lonely, we are great when we seek peace and not hostility toward our fellow man. We are great when we help others reach their goals and not just our own. 

Greatness flows from our hearts and it means sometimes stepping aside allowing others to be first whilst we take second place. God may ask us to do this along our life's journey, would we be willing? Rom 12, 9, "Good friends who love deeply, practice taking second fiddle". It means we will honour those people around us and sometimes, if required take a lowly position. The person we are helping may be very different to us - should that stop us?  Just like Jesus who came from the spender of Heaven as the King of Kings, to take a lowly position as a man here on earth, to lead the way in love and compassion, then so must we. 

We have all watched the scene in athletics, where whilst running a race someone has fallen over and their chances of now winning have been completely destroyed.  To our amazement, from no-where, a rival runner picks the person up and staggers with them, giving up their chances of finishing in a better position!  What a thing to do, to help another person finish, and finish well. US runner Abbey D'Agostino encouraged New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin, in the Rio Olympics - 2016, as she lay dazed on the track after the two entangled and fell. "Get up," she told her. "We have to finish this. "Then Hamblin herself hung back to encourage the American.  D'Agostino eventually hobbled over the line in last place. The two women embraced before D'Agostino left in a wheelchair with a hurt ankle.

There's nothing wrong in being successful, there's nothing wrong in having our own goals and ambitions, absolutely it's healthy for us. But among our own ambitions and goals, who is going to help our fellow man when they are flagging, when they're about to give up?  It's not always easy for us, but only through humility and love can we really acquire greatness. I will leave you to ponder on this wonderful verse from Philippians.  

Phil 2, 3-8

Do nothing from selfish ambition, or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you, not just look to his own interests but also to the interests of others. 

James 4, 10

Humble yourself in the Lord's presence and he will give you a high position. 

Lv Caroline x

Never be Thirsty Again

Life of Overflow

There is nothing better on a hot day than having a large drink of water!  Some of you, if you're anything like me, may enjoy a few too many cups of morning coffee.  For me, however a few hours afterwards, I will start longing for a glass of water. I'm feeling thirsty and I don't really want another hot drink, I want to feel refreshed. I don't want to become dehydrated so I carry water everywhere I go; to work, to the shops, on a walk (if a long walk), to church, as I never know when I might need a drink.  The benefits of drinking water span from; healthier skin, weight loss, a healthy heart, energy boost, less joint pain and aids digestion. The whole body is made up of roughly 60% water, so we know how vital it is for life.  We know that without it, life as we know would not exist. One glass of water usually quenches the thirst, but what would you do if others around you were thirsty too - would you be willing to share your vital water with others? 

But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give will become in that person a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.”. (taken from John 4, 14)

The kind of water God gives us causes us to be healthy spiritually. God can fill us with the fruits of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control and patience.  When our lives feel barren and dry, God can refresh us again, he can give us new energy and heal our hearts.  Living for God is like living next to a waterfall, the earth around the areas near the water continually receive nutrients and makes the vegetation grow well. When we walk with God, we are growing in our faith and receiving many blessings from the inside out rather than the outside in. The bible says, with God we can even have more than enough to share.  Are we going to be willing to share this overflow with others? We know in the bible that Jesus tells a Samaritan women at a well, John, 4 10-26, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water".  So, we know God gives us living water for our souls, to refresh us, to heal us, to help us, we also know that our souls will never be thirsty again...wow!  All we need to do is ask Jesus for this living water that gains us eternal life.  Are you willing to receive it?

Whatever we have, God wants us to share it with the people around us.  What has God blessed you with, not in material things, but things of ourselves, like our love, our time, our encouragement, our gifts, our advice?  When we are willing to give a small part of what we have to others, God says he will start filling us to overflowing, he will multiply what we give of ourselves!  Overflowing means to be blessed; to have so many good things in our lives that it will overflow in every aspect of our life.  It also says in Prov 11, 25, Those who refresh others, will also be refreshed'. 

Your life will be so blessed, that you won't be worried about having to share your glass of water, you will have more than enough for yourself and for others around you - it will be an overflow of all that God has given you and you will fully comprehend what is meant to 'never be thirsty again'. 

Lv Caroline x

To infinity and beyond.....thinking BIG

Ever tried to think about something beyond our human understanding? Could you try and think of something that has always been there, it's infinite? There is no beginning or no end, wow this is quite mind boggling and is difficult to get our heads around. As humans we only know things to have a beginning and an end; to think in terms of infinity starts to scare us somewhat!

Infinite, what is the definition?........Limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate, boundless, unlimited, without end, 

cosmic, measureless, immeasurable, fathomless, bottomless, extensive, vast, countless, inestimable, indeterminable, innumerable, numberless, enormous, immense and very rare!

It's interesting to note that cosmologists have suggested that parts of space, certainly within black holes, may warp time, causing time not to exist or exist in completely different ways. Therefore you may see time as one whole part rather than as we know it - past, present and future. Wow, can you image that - no time at all and being able to see everything from beginning to end all at the same time. So what may pass as 50 years on earth may only amount to 5 minutes else where in the universe; such a place would have a very small aging process (take me there please)!

This reminds me of what the bible says about God; that He is infinite and that He is timeless. Rev 1 v 8 - I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord God. “I am the God who is, and who was, and who will come". I can't help but notice that God puts the description in a way we can understand. I am the one who is - present / I am the one who was - the past / I am the one who will come - the future. He exits within all time frames, all at the same time and He is the beginning and end.  If God is infinite and timeless, then it makes sense that His home, heaven, would also be infinite and timeless, so now we can start to get an understanding of what God is saying when He talks about a life everlasting.  It also excites me to know from the bible that heaven is described as a place, where there will be no death and no more sickness, a place I believe where time or age are not important; a place of infinite time. From what we know already about space and time from cosmologists and what the bible describes as the third heaven, this heavenly place may well be somewhere else in the cosmos, in a different dimension and where time is non-existent; where earthly rules do not apply - something to ponder on don't you think?  I suddenly feel very small indeed against infinity and beyond! 

xxx