The Exciting New Year of 2010.

My room is filled with words. I mean, there are words on my door, words on the walls, words in diaries and journals, words all over papers scattered on my desk. Words in the books on my bookshelf, words in my open Bible. Scanning swiftly around me, this is what I read:

"In your heart you plan your course but the Lord determines your steps. Proverbs 16:9"

"Perseverance in scripture
Finish well
It's about the last day"

"For all things are possible with God. Luke 1:37"

"I'm falling for you... please don't mess it up."

"Expected fruit - humility
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3,4"

"You shall not go out with haste... for the Lord will go before you and the Lord God of Israel will be your rear guard.
~Is. 52:12~"

"Break"

All these messages are around me in this January of 2010. The course I have planned for this year includes the following; reading the Bible in a year; climbing Arthur's Seat 52 times in 2010; read a book a month - that's 12 books (in their entirety!) this year.
Events that are looking to adorn this year include seeing Stomp, the Index Weekend Away, visiting Tim in Newcastle to see Owl City, turning 25, going to see The Temper Trap and going on a missions trip to Romania.

Things that I would like to get better at include photography and being tidy. I want my attitude to be pleasing to God, I want to do good, not to earn salvation or even God's favour - by faith, i already have these things. I want to do good because you reap what you sow. (Gal 6:9 and Rom 12:10). I want this year to be a year marked by prayer. I want to grow in holiness and in wisdom. I want my relationships to be marked by grace. I want to develop a quiet and gentle spirit. I want to be disciplined and diligent. My desire is to not waste my life. My desire is to live for the glory of God - to make his name big, famous, loved, glorious.

Christine's Cottage Cheese Cottage

Half Term!

Half term started this morning, and for the first time in months (literally), I got to wake up past 8am. And so I did. I woke up at 8:49 and felt like I should open an advent calendar. I guess that means it was cold. But a nice cold. A cold that only touched my face since the rest of me was snuggled and curled up in lovely soft warm bed covers. I love that feeling.
And the sun was streaming through my window. A beautiful day to begin half term. Sounds lovely.

By 9am I was diving right in to my first half-term activity, a cake. Well I say that. I wasn't IN the cake, but I did have a few ingredients on me.





















Oh and things have disappeared from the kitchen too (I'm hoping one of my flatmates, who are both away for the weekend, will know where these things have got to), so this cake I made, I made without scales or whisk. So we'll try it out on a bunch of unsuspecting students tonight, and see whether 'old school baking' is something I am skilled in. :)

The Fringe 2009

Sin

Jesus has cast our sin as far as the east is from the west. He has forgiven it all, paid the penalty for it all. But we still need to deal with it day to day. How do we do this? From God's point of view, we are no longer sinners, but saints. From our point of view though, we still sin. So what do we do with that? We come to God in prayer daily and confess. By confess, I mean agree with God that you have sinned, thank God that He has already forgiven you and ask and trust God to change your wrong attitude and actions.

"Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' -- and You forgave the guilt of my sin" (Psalm 32:5)

"....as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12)

Is this all we need to understand and apply? Or is anything that is beyond this trying to do it ourselves and seeking to earn our salvation? Of course we must strive to do the will of God and live by His law, but ultimately when (not if) we fail, He is faithful to forgive and has paid for us. No need for sacrifice or offering! And by His grace and work, bit by bit, as we grow in fellowship with Him, we will grow in holiness and depart more and more from our sinful ways.

Eagerly Awaiting For Him

Eagerly awaiting the street artist's finale...

This summer, Index organised a weekly Bible study for the students and young folk who have stayed around in Edinburgh. Turns out,t here were quite a few of us. Turns out too that it was possibly the best thing we have ever done. Turns out this was God-inspired idea. Turns out, God was going to use this.

Why did we (or why did I at least) not expect it to be as amazing as it has been? It's quality time set aside each week to dig deep into God's word and wait for Him to speak to us, to teach us and to give us His wisdom. It was time for Proverbs 2 to take place. (My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.)

This past week, we finished up Chapter 9. The last words of the chapter are "eagerly waiting for Him." One thing I have found is that through the weeks, the points of application have become scarcer. But these four words were the application this week. This is our life, what we are to do with it. Eagerly await Him. Waiting for God. Christine pointed this out, and the turn of phrase she used reminded me of the play Waiting for Godot. Our lives are to be spent and in fact are spent waiting for God. Everyone, whether they know it or not, are waiting for God. We are waiting for Christ's return. Because life (ours or someone else's) will continue until then. But here the difference between that existentialist play and how we are to live our lives is in the word 'eager'. Eager means "marked by enthusiastic or impatient desire or interest". And here's the challenge. Do we really live our lives awaiting Christ's return eagerly? And if this eagerness is going on in our minds, and if we are praying for Christ's return with eager anticipation, are we living it? I know I go through so many days and forget this eagerness I have. I do not act as though I am eagerly waiting on Him. But I want to!!






And here he is!!

This Lion... Aslan.

'Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how many skins have I got to take off?... So I scratched away for the third time and got off the third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
'Then the Lion said, You will have to let me undress you...
'The very first tear he made was so deep I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I had ever felt...And there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been...
'After a bit the Lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes--the same I've got on now as a matter of fact.'


C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader' (chapter 27)

Summer Holidays...

I finished up work for 6 week today. So I have more or less 24 hours a day for 6 weeks to decide what I want to do, with very few constraints.

So I am in the process of making a list of all the things I want to do this summer, and I will then try to book some of them into my diary, and have a list of "other" things to do ready to use when I have nothing to do and start to get bored.

- Go to Burgundy (18th to 31st July... this is set in stone!)
- Move house.
- Unpack and decorate new bedroom.
- Work on making a lovely living area to have people over in (as well as my bedroom)
- Read (I have a lovely wee list of books that are o my shelf that I haven't got round to reading yet)
- Try some good food magazine recipes.
- Climb Arthur's Seat.
- Visit Cramond.
- See what street is at the other end of the wee path on Grange Road.
- Fill my prayer journal (it currently only has 4 pages full, and this basically means "Pray lots")
- Do an Inductive Bible Study of 1 & 2 Timothy.
- Go to see Ice Age 3, Harry Potter and other good films as they come out.
- Go to some festival shows. Particularly Sweeney Todd and Antigone.
- Hang out with Tim who is visiting Edinburgh for the summer.
- Go to the Pizza Express in Stockbridge with view over the Water of Leith.

The Gospel

The Gospel is (or at least should be) central to everything we say and do. This past year I read a book called Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick with the girls on the core team for Index. If nothing else, this book reiterated to me my failure to realise the amazingness of the gospel. I mean... what a message! What a hope! What forgiveness! What love! What truth... if it really is what it is, which it is, it should affect my everything. One of the men who preaches at Carrubbers often says "We were rebel sinners, but we were wonderfully saved!" Some of my friends and I often repeat this to one another very regularly because it is a soundbite that captures Eric Scott so well. But the truth in that statement is phenomenal. Even more phenomenal than Irn-Bru, and that is phenomenal.

Sinners. Doomed. Going to hell. Lost. Without hope. No purpose.

But saved. No reason for this other that God, the creator of the universe having such compassion on lost souls.

What grace. What love. What hope.

And he didn't just click His fingers to make it happen. He could have. He is God after all. But He chose to show his love for us in a way that cost Him. He gave His one and only Son. He sent the one He was in closest relationship with to the Earth, this horrid place amongst sinners, and gave Him a life full of humiliation, rejection and hurt to give us life. And Jesus did it, willingly, joyfully, obediently. He died the most dishonorable death, that of a slave or tractor. It was slow, excruciating and public. He wanted out, and was honest with His Father about this. Yet in this desire, He held fast to God knowing His will was best, and said "Not my will but yours." Jesus died this death, and was buried. But, behold, He rose again. Death could not conquer. This sinless sacrifice that paid the price of our sin defeated death, and in so doing gave us life also.

Do we live each day believing this? I know I often just get on with life. I believe it, but don't let it affect every detail of my life, all my choices. I forget. I do not tell myself the Gospel daily. I should. The book I mentioned earlier challenged me to. I am trying. (Titus 2:11-14)

Such a truth and a hope cannot go untold. Why then do we sit through so many sermons, even sometimes whole services without this Gospel being told? Every sermon should contain this message, regardless of the topic. If the Gospel cannot be fitted in to the talk, may I suggest that the topic is off-topic?

Romans 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

So good.

My God is so good. There is nothing else that I am more certain of. My God is good. Our God is good. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, rich in love. Abounding in Love. The reason I say this, is because I am a sinner. I have hurt Him more than I have been hurt, ever. I have rejected Him over and over. I run back to Him for an instant, and then, yet again I turn my back on Him, and act as though I hate Him.

God allows in His wisdom that which He could easily prevent by His power.

And so, I am here to serve with joy.