Thursday 30 January 2014

Sock Monster (Truth vs Rumours)

John 9

I'm sure 99% of the people that will read this blog will have heard of the little sock monsters that live inside peoples washing machines. They come out only when they feel completely safe, usually when everyone in the home is asleep or away from the house. And once they are out they steal every left sock they can find (only the left ones for some reason). They have never been seen by human eyes, never been captured on camera, the only evidence that they exist is the disappearance of socks each and every morning.

Some say that these monsters steal socks to feed their children, and give them the balanced diet they need to grow. Others say that they are hatching an evil scheme, believing that once they collect enough socks they will be have enough power to rule the world. All that we know for sure is that we lose socks every night when we go to sleep.

Stories are pretty incredible things, I love them so much. The problem comes when people try to use these stories without looking at why or how the story as created in the first place. A very good example is the one found in the whole of John chapter 9                                                      

In John 9 there is a person who has been blind from birth, nobody knows why he was born blind but when Jesus saw him he healed the person right there and then, Later on when he tells the Pharisees they ask him over and over again questions about how he was healed and why he was healed, they were trying to find some evidence or make some story so they could accuse Jesus Christ. But love how this man answers them “Whether he be a sinner or no I know not: one thing I know is that, weras I was blind now I see” He doesn't listen to the Pharisees he just bases he judgement of the man named Jesus on what he has seen that man do himself.



Thursday 23 January 2014

The Road to Greatness (Learn from example)

Epistles of paul, your best friend, or your neighbour's dog 
(to list a few)

Interesting "scripture" I gave you this time but I will get around to the "why" behind it soon enough, First things first I want you to take a good look at the cake on the right.

Now I will be honest when I first saw this picture (and every time since to be honest) I have been drooling. This looks like it would taste so good, how do chef manage to make things like this? for that matter how does anyone become good at anything?

Thinking about it probably the first thing than any aspiring chef (or anyone who just loves cooking) would do would be to buy a cookbook, just somthing to start with, then he would work from there. He would read about cooking, watch tv shows about cooking, ask people he knows about cooking, and in his spare time do some cooking himself. Anything and everything could and will be an inspiration to him. 

If someone loves something then they will do everything they can to learn more about it, and they will learn from everything possible. A simple sandwich could be the start of some great delicacy for this young chef.

So now the difficult questions, Do we love our saviour that much? And are we learning about him from everything around us?
When Christ was on the earth he often taught through everyday things, farmers sowing seeds and searching for there sheep. There are so many things to be learned just fro watching the thing around us. The scriptures and the epistles of Paul are a great starting point but the kindness of a friend and the love from a dog can and will teach us so much about our saviour as well.



Thursday 16 January 2014

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are 3 separate feelings (1 thing at a time)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

6 Hats
6 Colours
6 Different meanings

These hats are something "Edward de Bono" first came up with in 1985. The idea behind everything to is to split your thinking process into different categories and focus on one thing at a time.

Breaking the what and the why apart



This is the reason I chose this scripture for today

These 8 scriptures by the Ecclesiastes mean a lot to me, They have taught me some very powerful things "God does not teach everything at once"
We are not expected to always be healthy, there is a time for that.
We are not expected to always be busy, there is a time for that.
We are not even expected to always be happy, there is a time for that as well.
But every time we do feel something we can know that God has given it too us for a reason



God has given us this time on earth to prepare ourselves. This whole world and every thing in it is a learning experience. Sometimes its worth just sitting down and realising where we are and what we feel; good, bad, happy or sad. Because God has given us this experience for our benefit and learning. It's far too easy to miss the lessons God intends for us to learn if we are too eager to move on to the next thing.

"A full person does not understand the needs of the hungry" old Irish saying


I know I need to spend more time in my life to just to slow down and just think, realise what God has given me and work out why. 

Thursday 9 January 2014

Missionary life in a nut shell


Today I thought I would do something a little different than normal. Today I thought I would give you a little more information about this giant that lives behind a keyboard, making blog post's each week. :)

 I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
( a missionary is a full time volunteer for the church which usually lasts about 18 months to 2 years ) As a missionary my main role is to teach what we believe as a church and then to invite them to find out for themselves if what we teach is true. 

Our typical day starts at 6:30am where we prepare for the day; breakfast shower and general preparations. Then come 8am we spend 1 hour personally studying our scriptures (both the Bible and the book of mormon)... For those who think this is a long time I will agree with you but I honestly wish we had more time. there are so many questions we get asked and so many things to learn that I always get to the end thinking that it flew by.

After which we spend an hour working with a companion we have been assigned to work with, either studying the scriptures or checking our plans for the day; enough to make sure that we are ready to
 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15

The rest of the day (10am-9pm) is taken up by as much teaching as possible, we will teach people in our chapels, their homes, on the streets as they walk their dog if we need to. We try to get this message out as far and wide as possible because of the strength of the believe that we have in what we teach I have my personal story about why I believe so strongly (click Here to find out more)

As a special privilege myself and a few others also have the chance to teach people who go to Mormon.org and click on the "chat with missionaries" button. we teach them online through the chat and eventually by email or facebook as well. When they feel they are ready, then we invite them to meet with local missionaries and we will teach alongside them. It really is incredibelt to be able to see the changes that happen in peoples live all over the world.

Thursday 2 January 2014

a Wicked decision (Motives)

Matthew 15:7-8

Every day is made of decisions. From the moment you wake up each morning to the time finally fall asleep at night there nothing but choices flung into our path for us to think about solve and direct us through the day.
How do we decide what to do?
How do we decide what is right and wrong?
And turning this whole idea on its flip-side
How do we know if another persons decision is right or wrong? 



There is a line in the musical Wicked which I love so much, the main character is looking back on her life and all the bad things that have happened because of her actions and has to asks' herself
 "Was I really seeking good? Or just seeking attention?"
She knows that whatever has happened in the past can't be changed, but the motive behind all these actions makes all the difference to her and how she feels about herself. This one thing can make all the difference to whether what she has done (the decisions she has made) are right.


Motives behind decisions can make all the difference. Christ himself talks about this in the scripture above were its talking about having your words in one place and you heart in another. What about the decisions we have made today? Where they made for the right reasons? Did you think it would be the right thing to do? And when you look back in a hard time, Will you honestly be able to say
"I was really seeking good. Not just seeking attention"