Energy

We've recently got an energy use monitor from the Government, which tells us how much energy we're using. It's so interesting I find myself looking at it probably 50 times a day.

Just looked up at it before and it said we were using energy at the rate of 1.2 cents an hour. Awesome! That's the lowest I've ever seen it (except for the one in the picture - how did they do that?).

But then I boiled the kettle for a cuppa and it jumped up to 63.5 cents an hour. Whoa.

Moral of the story? If you frequently get distracted by things when you're meant to be working, don't get an energy monitor.

Wordle

Here's a word cloud of everything on this blog! The most-used words are the biggest.

Lily's World

Me: Lily, who's your favourite in our family - Daddy, Mummy or Isla?

Lily: Umm.. Mummy and Isla.

Serves me right I guess.

I'm Not the Prodigal Son

Luke 15.

Most often, when I've read this story, I've seen myself in the position of the prodigal son. The younger one. The one running home, the one receiving the Father's amazing love and grace. It's a very uplifting story if you're the younger son.

And at times I have to say I definitely am this one - running back to God for his forgiveness again.

But in the actual context, Jesus is telling this story to illustrate God's love and acceptance for people who haven't grown up in the church. People who don't know all the right answers, who aren't comfortable in religious settings, who'd stand out like a sore thumb if they came to church. Unlike me. I've been in the church all my life - it's my home environment. I'm actually employed to do church work.

In this context, I'm the older brother, who's been at home working hard - but struggles to love and accept the "sinners" - drug dealers, prostitutes, pick pockets, criminals, drunks, cheaters... prodigals.

It's a bit more confronting from that angle. It turns out I'm the nasty one in the story. And it brings up some hard questions I need to ask of myself....

I serve God every week, a lot. But do I really care - like God does - for these "sinners"?

In the story, it was the younger son who got the happy ending. What will it be for me?

The older brother worked hard for "God" all his life, but ended up with no love and grace - somehow he missed the point along the way. Am I missing it too?

Maybe my life spent in church has made me more like a Pharisee than I'd ever realised. I talk about how important it is to show love and grace, but is it just talk? Jesus tells this story to criticize people just like me.

How many times have I heard this story? and yet have I been blind to the real point all this time? Too caught up in religion and church work?

He was talking to me.

God, help me hear it now.

Wednesday

 

Jesus is anointed with perfume. Ross Parsons talking about love and forgiveness in the Easter week.

I Live Here Too

Numbers 35:34.

"You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people of Israel."

An important reminder to care for our environment, because it's God's home too. I can't think why, but I've never really thought of it like that before. I guess God does live here, with us. So that would make it his home.

And going by this passage, it's not just about reducing our carbon footprint, or planting trees, etc. In this passage, God says that "murder pollutes the land" (v33).

What we do and how we live is polluting the land. It's no wonder our natural world has issues. We can't just reform our exploitation of natural resources (although we do need to do that), or just reform our spirituality (although we do need to do that). We must also reform the way we live - our relationships with others - because somehow this is affecting the environment. I can't explain how it affects the land, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's true, because our natural world is getting worse.

And there's no point saying, "I've never murdered anyone - I'm all good," because Jesus pointed out that hate towards a person is as bad as murder.

Our broken relationships are polluting our land.

We've got to start living better, with all our connections right.

With the environment,

With God,

and with the other people in our world - our friends, family, workmates, as well as all the people we don't know, but who our decisions still affect: like the poor cocoa farmer in Ghana, and the sweating factory worker in India.

God lives here too.

Ben Needs...

Thanks to Geoff for passing on this fun little game.

Type "Ben needs" (or your name) in Google and list the first 10 decent responses....

1. Ben needs money for art supplies.
2. What Ben needs right now more than anything is for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series (I've "invested" a lot of money on that).
3. Ben needs a crutch (hurt my leg trying to steal art supplies at the baseball).
4. Ben needs body of steel (then I'd have no trouble pilfering stuff).
5. Ben needs our support now (for my sore leg, and I really need to quit stealing because it's bad for me).
6. Ben needs the beard back (kind of need to change my identity - no reason).
7. Ben needs 14 stitches to close cut on forearm (there's got to be an easier way to get art supplies).
8. Ben needs your vote to win composer of the year prize.
9. Ben needs a bigger helmet (being an artist, composer, baseball fan and unsuccessful thief is perilous).
10. Ben needs more orange and less finance (I've finally decided to just paint with fruit...).

Earthquakes

Numbers 16 | Mark 15

The contrast in these two passages is amazing. Numbers 16 tells the story of when God incinerated 250 men for sinning against Him, and made the ground open up to swallow their families and homes whole.... A powerful, unweilding, uncompromising God.

And then in Mark 15, this same God is about to be crucified, and he's allowing people to falsely accuse him, whip him, embarrass and mock him, beat him up, and finally nail him to a cross to die a horrible death.

What amazing humility and restraint Jesus showed. He doesn't call up an earthquake, or fire to incinerate these sinners, although they deserved it. He just accepts the beating, takes their sins on his own shoulders, and gives up his life for them. No more need for earthquakes, if only we trust him.

I struggle to comprehend this God.

A Bit Drastic

Numbers 15:32-36

A man is found gathering wood on the Sabbath day (when you're not allowed to work). The people didn't know what to do with him, so they brought him to Moses, Aaron and the rest of the community.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp." And so they did.

This shocked me a little. Sounds pretty drastic. But I guess it showed the community that you can't mess with God. He has to be taken seriously.

I'm pretty glad we're under a more gracious arrangement now....

The last few months has been pretty busy for me, and there haven't been many rest days in there at all. Still, if there was the threat of stoning, I'd probably be a bit more intentional about it, and I'd probably have a healthier life....

Bible in a Year

I just bought myself a One Year Bible, so I can read the whole thing over the next year. I've been wanting to try and do this for ages. We'll see how we go. It says you only need to read about 15min a day. Sounds not too bad.

I'll post some things every now and then about what I'm reading.

Tick for Day 1.