Mission update #1

Well..
This is the first of many MANY posts that are my mission updates.

At the moment I'm in my very early stages of preparation..

My current preoccupations:
- Needing to find a full-time Job so that I can save for the trip (My current guess-timations are sitting at $10k).
- Working with Tim on where I will be going and what I may be doing.
- Trying to understand the complicatedness that is going overseas.
- Reading reading reading and learning about Cambodia.
- Setting dates to aim for.

If you feel like praying for me, these are the things I need prayer for at the moment (plus some other things I guess!)

Quick to listen..

A conversation I had today:

"I don't think he would listen, 'cause I'm new [to church]."
"It's the new people we want to bring in.. so it's the new people's opinions that matter most!"

How often do we listen to the voice of the new-comer or the visitor?

Bother..

And here I was thinking I was being original..
other people have been Imagining* about the 'Hymn of the Atheist' too.. check it out:

http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2008/09/imagine-no-sill.html

*pun wholeheartedly intended

Losing freedom..

"Christianity's claim to being the truth takes away my freedom.. all truth is relative"

"Post-modernism's claim to relativism takes away my freedom.. to believe the Gospel"

Listening and Blogging.. Mutually Exclusive?

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.."

I think James wrote this knowing that some time in the future there would be people blogging on the internet.

Imagine..?

"Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today"

This is the reality of so many people, living life for a 'heaven' in which Jesus doesn't exist.
Where Christ's atoning death counts for nothing as we live our daily lives pretending the biggest moment in recorded history was simply an unfortunate event for a man and his family.
Lennon describes the Atheist's heaven, which becomes the ultimate Hell. Separation from God.

I don't need to imagine John, I can see the people living for today all around me.. and it makes me sad.

Lennon's song was supposed to be one of hope.
The reality is probably better reflected in the cover by A Perfect Circle.

Spurgeon Quotes #1

This is a bit of a funny one..

"Well," says one, "I like to be my own master." Yes, and that involves two things - first, you have a very bad master; and, next, your master has a fool for his servant! But he who takes the Lord Jesus Christ as his Master will be rightly and wisely guided - and hence arises the comfort of such a relationship. - A King Sent in Love (2760)