There's a famous statement that Mohammed wouldn't come to the mountain so the mountain came to Mohammed. I've found this to be reflected in my life this week.
I've been really busy over the last week with everything that a lecturer needs to do in the last week of the term - marking essays and portfolios, writing reports, setting and marking exams, helping my students to plan and give presentations, lots (and lots!) of staff meetings... I'm sure you get the picture! I knew that I would barely have enough time to do all this and was fully aware that I would have to severely cut down on the number of Christian meetings I attended this week. No more Monday staff Bible study, Tuesday Communion, Wednesday student Bible study or Friday postgraduate Bible study. In short, pretty much no Christian meetings at all. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised that God seemed to think and prepare other alternative venues for me to fellowship with Christians and to contemplate more of His calling.
I found myself talking about God a few times to various friends and students who questioned me about my beliefs. Conversations seemed to spring up from nowhere, completely unplanned, yet which I felt very comfortable with. I think a different group of people asked me everyday to explain my beliefs and quizzed me about some aspect of Christianity that I hadn't thought about for a while, and they also seemed to gain a lot from our conversations. In addition, I felt led on two occasions to take my work out of the office and after wandering around for a bit, trying to find somewhere relatively quiet and relaxed that I could continue my work, stumbled upon two Christian meetings in progress, in a manner that allowed me to listen and seek God whilst simultaneously being able to continue my work.
It seems that we don't always have to seek God; that sometimes, He comes out looking for us.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
John 3:16 outlived
A little introduction for my international readers...
John 3:16 states that God loved the whole world (and everyone in it) so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this planet to live and die to bring all humans closer to God, and to save everyone, regardless of their faith, ethnicity or background.
There is a series which is very popular in the UK amongst young and old alike which is called 'The Secret Millionaire'. Each week, a very wealthy person (typically a millionaire, though this is not always the case), goes under cover, dresses up as a normal person, moves to a particularly poor part of the UK for a week. During this time, they live on a very limited budget and help out with various schemes which help the destitute, elderly or socially less acceptable group such as unmarried teenage mothers. Usually, the millionaire is someone who's started from scratch themselves when they were much younger and have built up their own fortunes, so can understand the destitute people who they work with over this week, though this is not always so either.
At the end of the week, the wealthy person gives between £15,000 and £100,000 to help the people they've been working and living with. They will usually allocate amounts of money to more than one group or individual, depending on what the wealthy person considers is the greatest need. On most of these shows, the wealthy person has given a small amount to a family who has a pressing need. One week, a lady paid a Polish family's annual housing rent. They will also give other amounts to individuals, groups or organisations that work with the destitute and needy. Another week, a lady paid for a recording studio for a blind trust based in London so that they could produce a talking newspaper and download it onto a USB stick for each of the households that had a blind occupier in the local area.
I like to watch this show whenever I have the opportunity, and enjoy seeing people who are less fortunate get given a financial boost to help realise their dreams as well as seeing wealthy people changed as they realise that not everyone is as well off as themselves.
Back onto the main text...
Recently, I was watching 'The Secret Millionaire' and noticed how many Christians there were on the show. One show in particular featured a variety of groups. There was a group of people who cooked, ran weekly day trips and provided practical help whenever needed for elderly people. These organisers knew each other through the local church. Another group hosted a project for unmarried, teenage mothers to meet together and study whilst they cared for their children and participated in joint bonding exercises. This was run by a Christian family. There was a guy who hosted a project for young recovering drug addicts and drop-outs where they would be challenged to help and serve the elderly in the area, and could relax and spend some innoculous time together at a youth cafe. This guy was a Christian. Finally, there were two people who were working pro-bono to provide and deliver food to everyone living well below the poverty line in Dundee, and would go out of their way to find the truly destitute so that they could give them food. These two worked about 60 hours a week on this project and then scraped enough time in the rest of the week to earn barely enough to live on themselves.
I was amazed that the vast majority of benefit groups were run by Christians. I could understand why people of faith would run the organisations, but the fact that they were all run by Christians, who themselves were just barely on the poverty line astounded me. I guess for these people God loved everyone and gave Himself freely to everyone so they would follow suit and serve God by serving their fellow men, regardless of the creed, colour or background of those they served. Whereas, groups of other faiths which have been heralded on this programme have provided aid to people of their same faith background.
John 3:16 states that God loved the whole world (and everyone in it) so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this planet to live and die to bring all humans closer to God, and to save everyone, regardless of their faith, ethnicity or background.
There is a series which is very popular in the UK amongst young and old alike which is called 'The Secret Millionaire'. Each week, a very wealthy person (typically a millionaire, though this is not always the case), goes under cover, dresses up as a normal person, moves to a particularly poor part of the UK for a week. During this time, they live on a very limited budget and help out with various schemes which help the destitute, elderly or socially less acceptable group such as unmarried teenage mothers. Usually, the millionaire is someone who's started from scratch themselves when they were much younger and have built up their own fortunes, so can understand the destitute people who they work with over this week, though this is not always so either.
At the end of the week, the wealthy person gives between £15,000 and £100,000 to help the people they've been working and living with. They will usually allocate amounts of money to more than one group or individual, depending on what the wealthy person considers is the greatest need. On most of these shows, the wealthy person has given a small amount to a family who has a pressing need. One week, a lady paid a Polish family's annual housing rent. They will also give other amounts to individuals, groups or organisations that work with the destitute and needy. Another week, a lady paid for a recording studio for a blind trust based in London so that they could produce a talking newspaper and download it onto a USB stick for each of the households that had a blind occupier in the local area.
I like to watch this show whenever I have the opportunity, and enjoy seeing people who are less fortunate get given a financial boost to help realise their dreams as well as seeing wealthy people changed as they realise that not everyone is as well off as themselves.
Back onto the main text...
Recently, I was watching 'The Secret Millionaire' and noticed how many Christians there were on the show. One show in particular featured a variety of groups. There was a group of people who cooked, ran weekly day trips and provided practical help whenever needed for elderly people. These organisers knew each other through the local church. Another group hosted a project for unmarried, teenage mothers to meet together and study whilst they cared for their children and participated in joint bonding exercises. This was run by a Christian family. There was a guy who hosted a project for young recovering drug addicts and drop-outs where they would be challenged to help and serve the elderly in the area, and could relax and spend some innoculous time together at a youth cafe. This guy was a Christian. Finally, there were two people who were working pro-bono to provide and deliver food to everyone living well below the poverty line in Dundee, and would go out of their way to find the truly destitute so that they could give them food. These two worked about 60 hours a week on this project and then scraped enough time in the rest of the week to earn barely enough to live on themselves.
I was amazed that the vast majority of benefit groups were run by Christians. I could understand why people of faith would run the organisations, but the fact that they were all run by Christians, who themselves were just barely on the poverty line astounded me. I guess for these people God loved everyone and gave Himself freely to everyone so they would follow suit and serve God by serving their fellow men, regardless of the creed, colour or background of those they served. Whereas, groups of other faiths which have been heralded on this programme have provided aid to people of their same faith background.
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