Your Personal Story Matters

As believers we all have a story to tell of the amazing circumstances, God-incidences and even miracles of how we got to where we are.

Mixture, Tares and Goats

The ‘Mixed Multitude’ who travelled with Israel mentioned in Exodus 12:38 and Numbers 11:4 are not well defined in scripture but if Christian experience is considered we do understand the impact of this company of people. They have never left us.

Living the Dream or Dreaming to Live

When my wife and I were on a trip to Wellington in our old camper bus we stopped for a break in a small mid-north Island town. A man about 40ish’ remarked in passing “living the dream eh?” as he saw us leaving the camper. We all laughed but for different reasons.

Will the True Rebel Please Stand?

Often we are aware of a large number of motorcyclists rumbling through our town.  They seem to largely prefer Harley Davidson’s and black leathers with Nazi-style black helmets. If you see them up close they are really into brands beyond their motorcycles: They have Harley jackets, T-shirts’, gloves, dark glasses, boots and saddlebags. Lacking the money to buy such paraphernalia they will at the very least have some kind of ‘patch’ or whatever to denote their affiliation.

If you talk to them, you will find that they live in the fantasy that they are the true ‘rebels’, or independent thinkers who live ‘outside the box’. They become very animated about their ‘freedom’ while sitting astride their overpowered noise-makers. Their worship music sounds like “potato, potato” and they are worshipping at the altar of Harley Davidson or some such brand. They are conformed to the idol of an illusion of power. They may be compensating for a sense of lack of personal power in the circumstances of their lives.

All humans seek identity and definition. Sadly many believe that they can achieve this by conforming to the models and brands offered by this world. When we buy into a ‘look’ we simply transfer our membership from one herd or flock to another.

Alice Cooper the Heavy Metal Rocker who sometimes draped himself with snakes said: “Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy; but being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion!”

Everything Jesus did and said reversed the stereotypes of human fashion. “Love your enemies”, “turn the other cheek”, “don’t worry about your clothes”. (Matthew 5&6.)