My Power is made Perfect in Weakness

Ever had the feeling of inadequacy? Ever felt that you just weren't good enough. I sure have. I would ask myself "What If I can't do what is expected of me?". Every now and again, a challenge comes around which you feel so completely powerless, so overcome, there is just no way out.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. - 2 Corr 12:9

The Case for Christ

Lee Strobel, an ex-atheist, tells his story about how his investigation of the evidence led him to become a Christian.

I read the book and this video is a very good summary especially for people who can't be bothered reading.

Recommended for Christians and non-Christians seeking an answer to the question: Is the Bible historically accurate? and was Jesus really the Son of God, or just a good and wise teacher?

Why did God give us the Law?

No, God did not give us the law to restrict us, and to keep us from doing bad things.

Most people would have heard or read the Ten Commandments, and know at least a little of what the Law is. Most religions try to preach that we keep this moral Law, and we can get to Heaven. But the Bible tells us no one can keep it, and every mouth will be silenced.

Romans 3:19-28

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

The Bible says that God gave the Law in order to show the whole world, that they have sinned and their actions are held accountable to God. God knew that no one would be able to keep the Law, and so He did not give the Law so that we might keep it, but rather so we will know what sin is.

We enter judgement not because of the Law, but because of who God is. He is a perfect and righteous God who cannot live with Sin, its just physically and logically impossible.

So let us focus not on keeping the Law, but on justification by faith through Jesus alone.

Separating the Sheep from the Goats: Matthew 25:31-46

Recently, I got together with my friends from Jesus for the Homeless, and we discussed our goals and vision for the group, as well as a strategy going forward.

We drew on the passage from Matt 25:31-46.

For those interested, here is a transcript of our study:

Separating the Sheep from the Goats: Matthew 25:31-46

Our group is called Jesus for the Homeless.  What I like about this name is that it has Jesus in it.  You see, the whole reason this group got together was because of Jesus.  A bunch of guys were reading the bible one day, and saw how Jesus loved the poor and the downtrodden, the widows and the fatherless.  They realized they could not claim to love and follow Jesus without helping the poor.

Our Homeless nights have been running for some 6 months now, and I feel it is important to come back to scripture and think about our goals and vision for the group.  Why are we doing this? and what is the goal we are trying to reach?

I would like to open to a verse in Matthew, which I hope to be our group's defining passage.

Matt 25:40 - "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.'"

This verse comes from a segment in the book of Matthew, where Jesus is speaking of the Judgement.  The separating of the sheep from the goats.  

Let us firstly read the entire passage.  [Reading of Mathew 25:31-46]

Firstly, who is the Judge?  The King, the son of man, Jesus Christ himself.

Next, who will be judged?  The passage says Jesus, will gather all the nations.  Everyone, Christians, non-Christians alike will be gathered together and judged.  And He is going to separate them like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. 

So who gets to inherit the kingdom?  The sheep.

And why do the sheep inherit the kingdom?  Lets read v 35 to 40 again.

Mat 25:35  For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thristy and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in;

Mat 25:36  Naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.

Mat 25:37  Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you? or thirsty, and give you something to drink?

Mat 25:38  And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in? or naked, and clothed you?

Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me'.

Who are these brothers Jesus talks about?  There are scholars who says Jesus is refering to the Jews, or to fellow Christians.  But this question is similar to "who is my neighbour" which a lawyer asked Him in Luke 10:29.  The point is not who you should help, but how.  Serving others without expecting a reward.  These acts of compasion are not things we need gifts or skills in order to perform.  They are simple acts of kindness which anyone can do.

Sheep and Goat look similar and often grazed together.  Jesus is using this picture of sheep and goats to describe His people among the rest of the people; unbelievers and pretenders.

Jesus says the sheep who inherit the kingdom will be those who show compassion to the needy.  

Now, don't get me wrong here, it is not by our actions and goodness that gets us to heaven, these actions are just the fruit of following Jesus.    If we love and follow Jesus, we will feed the hungry and visit the sick.  What separates us from unbelievers and pretenders, is not just our actions, but our intentions and our reasons.  And when we show kindness and compassion to our brothers, without thinking of the reward, even to the least of them, we do it to the Lord himself.

So back to our group; Jesus for the Homeless. 

Why do we do it?  Because we love and follow Jesus. 

How should we do it?  We treat everyone with love and respect as if they were the Lord Himself.

What do we need? Anyone who is interested in helping the poor.  There are lots of ways you can help, but whats important is that desire to help.

The Sabbath: A shadow of Christ

I would like to share of a recent study I did of the sabbath and how it gave me a completely new perspective on rest, and ultimately how it pointed toward Jesus.

What is the Sabbath?  Christians often think of it as the day of rest, in particularly abstain from work usually done on Sunday.  The Jewish Sabbath was on the seventh day - Saturday, and in fact the 4th commandment from God given by Moses was to remember the Sabbath and to keep it Holy.  There are some people such as the Seventh Day Adventists who claim that we are not really Christians unless we also observe the Sabbath on the Saturday, reasoning that the Pope or Constantine shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and as such we worship false gods or idols.

So to understand the origin of the Sabbath, we must look at its first occurance in the Bible - Genesis 2:1-3.  This was the seventh day of creation, God had finished the work He had done in creation and He rested.  So the main thing we can learn about the Sabbath was that it is about rest.  The word rest occurs twice here, and the hebrew word is שׁבת (shâbath).  What does rest mean?  Clearly in this context, rest is not the kind of thing you do when you are tired, God does not get tired.  Rather the word means to "desist from exertion" or "cease from effort".  God rested because He finished a particular effort, his work in creation.

The next thing we notice is that the seventh day is different to all the other days.  In each of the other six days, the day ended with "there was evening and there was morning...".  I believe this eludes to the idea that the Sabbath is not tied to a particular day.  We are never told that God ever stopped resting from His creation work.  His last and final work in creation was creating Man, and He is still to this day, resting, from His "creation" work.  But God is active and working today.  In John 5:17, Jesus' answer to the Pharisees charge of working on the Sabbath, was that He was doing the will of the Father, and that God never ceases from the work of mercy and compassion.  This Sabbath which God has entered, is still continuing today, and is not limited to any particular day, but is concerned with rest from effort.

Now we compare this true Sabbath, this rest, to the Jewish Sabbath which was given to the people of Israel by Moses.  I would like to quickly make a point here that my view is that the entire old testament, is filled with Shadows or Types or Symbols which pointed towards Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb, burnt offerings, the Tabernacle, the High Priest, the Ark, all of these look forward to the one who would fulfill these.  Let us turn to Colossians 2:16-17.

Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath.

Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.  

Paul is telling us here that many of the Jewish laws, traditions, ceremonies were a shadow of things to come, pointing towards Jesus who ultimately fulfilled all these things.  We no longer need sacrifice animals because Jesus offered Himself as the passover lamb to God once and for all.  We are also told that Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath, and so claims that we are not Christians unless we observe the Sabbath on Saturday are as absurd as needing to sacrifice animals at the alter.  The Jewish weekly Sabbath occurred on Saturday.  We go to Church on Sunday because that is the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection.  This day has nothing to do with the Jewish Sabbath, its not a day of rest, its not the Sabbath.

When Jesus died and rose again, Christians stopped observing the Sabbath on Saturday, and began observing the Lord's day on Sunday.  So the weekly Sabbath was fulfilled when Jesus died and rose again.  We no longer need to observe such a day as a day of rest.  We can now experience the true Sabbath through Jesus.  Turn to Hebrews 4:8-10.

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

The book of Hebrews is all about how the old testament prophesies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and I think this passage is telling us how to experience that true Sabbath, the rest for the people of God.  We can enter God's rest by ceasing from our works as God also ceased from His.

Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

 ²⁹"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 ³⁰"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

A yoke would have been something Jesus built as a carpenter.  A yoke is a piece of wood which was put onto oxen in order to pull a load.  But a yoke would almost always fit two oxen, as the two would work together.  When Jesus refers to putting on His yoke, He is saying He will work with us, by His strength.  Not by our efforts but His.  We are to rest from our work, doing things our own way, and do things under His strength.  That is what Paul meant when He said "It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me".  The oxen under yoke is no longer able to do his own will, but only the will of his master.  The same is true when we put on Jesus' yoke, we are no longer able to do own thing, but only the will of the Lord.

Jesus said "Come to me, and I will give you rest".  So many of us Christians or not alike are unsatisfied with life.  We don't find happiness in our relationships, our jobs, our material wealth.  We don't have peace in our souls.  The true Sabbath is to rest from our own efforts, and allow God to work in us.  We are to put on Jesus' yoke and He will give us rest.


Further Reading:
In Hebrews 4, it mentions the Israelites led by Moses, and how they were not able to enter the Promised Land.  It was ultimately Joshua who brought them in.  Read the book of Joshua and notice where it says the Israelites will find rest in the land.  The book of Joshua is about conquering the land of Cannan, crossing the Jordan.  How does this parallel with the book of Ephesians, a book about life after becoming a Christian?

What does God think about a Christian Stock Investor?

To the question of whether a Christian can invest in the stock market, my quick answer would be yes.  Read on for the difference between saving and hoarding.

This is the first article in the series to investigate what I believe God thinks about certain professions.  Firstly, what might be challenging about investing in the stock market?  What is the difference between gambling in the casino, and speculating in the stock market?  Nothing.  But what is the difference between speculating and investing?  There is a huge difference.  Companies need capital operate and listing on the stock market is one way to raise funds.  We won't go into the Christian businessman in this article, and we won't go into gambling either.  But investing in stocks is a way to invest in a company and its operations.  To decide whether a company is worth investing in must be decided upon on a case by case basis.  Some people will not invest in casinos, weapons manufacturers, non-fair trade, multinationals which hire child laborers, alcohol manufacturers.  I also think many of those are bad, but its sometimes hard to draw the line, what about companies which support, supply or trade with those businesses?  What about businesses which are supported by those businesses?

What then is the difference between hoarding money and saving?  The bible warns against the hoarding of money, since money is a material wealth, which we cannot take with us when we die.  We are to save money and be good stewards of money.  When we save money, it must be for some purpose; saving for our retirement, to give to the Church, to give to overseas aid, to give to the poor, to save for our children's education.  All these things are good things to do, encouraged by the bible.  The hoarding of money, is when we accumulate wealth for the sake of it.  We keep it because we love looking at our bank balance getting bigger.  Remember money is not evil, it is the love of money which is evil.

Are there any examples of investors in the bible?  Since the stock exchange did not exist in biblical times, it is quite difficult to find an equivalent.  But the bible does have a lot to say about money.  We should be good stewards of our money, meaning we must look after every cent, and not let any of it go to waste.  All our money comes from God, in fact all money and wealth belongs to God, and is given to us for safekeeping.  We are to look after the Lord's wealth.  Part of this means being generous and giving to the poor.

Matt 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 

Jesus told the rich young man to sell all that he had and give to the poor.  The wealth that we are given is not ours in the first place, we are to let Jesus dictate what we are to do with it, most of the time that involves helping others less fortunate than us.  Proverbs 3:9-10 tells us we are to honor God with our wealth.

Prov 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 

Prov 3:10  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 

Proverbs 28 tells us not to try and "get rich quick".

Prov 28:20  A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. 

And much of the bible warns against putting our trust in worldly possessions such as money.

1Tim 6:17  Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy

And finally, the parable of the talents.  Matt 25:14-30, Jesus tells us that we should invest our money in a way that reaps the greatest return, to the best of our abilities.  This means putting effort into learning about interest rates and term deposits.  We must learn about the stock market, and foreign exchange for the best place to invest our money.  Perhaps even looking at property investment and real estate.  If God has given you an intelligent mind, which by the time you read this, you likely have, I think its not good enough to settle with storing your money in the bank and being a 'good saver' simply by not spending.  We must looking into options with greater return.  We are looking after the LORD's wealth, he has given us Talents, and we are show Him what we have done given the mind and skills He has given us.

Jesus for the Homeless - website

I finally finished setting up the website (blog) at http://jesusfth.blogspot.com

Jesus for the Homeless

A few friends I know have started up some Christian work, giving out food and drink to the homeless in the city.  They meet up every Thursday night 8-30 onwards, and walk around meeting homeless people and building relationships with them.  I went out with them tonight (just got home) and unfortunately I was unable to talk to anyone but am definitely committing myself to this line of work.  Its very similar to the Salvation Army thing I did last night, but not on the same night and not conflicting.  More info on this coming soon.

Why Christians go to Church: My thoughts on Baptism and Church Membership

Do only Christians attend church? No.  Many people attend church who don't believe in God, many people who think they are Christians attend church, yet they are not Christians, for it is not Church attendance that makes one a christian.  And there are many Christians who don't attend church, for they chose not to, although it is arguable whether such christians are christians at all!

So how do you become a Christian?  It is to be "born again", to believe that Jesus died for your sins, to repent and be baptised.  Its not whether you say you are, its whether you truely believe, and only God knows.  Its interesting that in the bible, we see every believer is baptized, in almost every instance, its "repent and be baptised".  There was no delay or wait, no infant baptisms, no "baptism classes".  And straight after that, they were part of the church.  Repentance and accepting Jesus and baptism were often spoken of as one thing.  So baptism was a way of visibly identifying that you were joining into the church or the "body of christ", hence the term Church Member as in members of the body (like hands and feet).

And then theres the distinction between your local church, the one that meets every sunday in that church building, to that of the universal church, the one encompasing all believers.  Why are there so many different churches, denominations?  Do they believe in different things? do you need to find the one that matches your own beliefs?  Some churches have people jumping around and waving their arms, some have lots of old people that stand stiff and still... is there a proper way to attend church and worship God?

I believe there are absolutely no requirements to Church membership, there shouldn't be.  Church leadership and eldership is another matter however.  But you cannot have exams, and degree requirements for Church membership, because one ought to become a member as soon as they are baptized, which is as soon as they repent and believe and recieve Jesus.  They become part of the universal church which encompases all Christians, and they ought to be member of their local church.  Come as you are, but don't stay as you are.  Its up to the other Church members, and the Holy Spirit, to model and change that young baby Christian to be more like Jesus, the perfect man.  And in time, supernaturaly, we may come close to believing all the right things about God.  All our human divisions are created out of sin and intollerance, we must learn to agree to disagree.  We cannot kick people out because we don't agree with them (this is usually us thinking we are right) and we ought not to leave and start our own group.  We trust that in the end, God knows our hearts, and our deeds, and most importantly the strength of our relationship with Him.  And His Love, Justice, and Mercy will be revealed to all; within the church and outside.

Jesus, Basketball and Me

A few weeks ago I made a presentation to my home group with the above title. I asked the question what does Jesus haveto do with basketball?

To cut it short, I suggested that Jesus is Lord over all areas of our lives; including our jobs, hobbies and interests. What that means is, God created all good things, He created them for His glory, and we are to enjoy them best when we "experience" them the right way.

I believe God ultimately created basketball, and that it was created to showcase our God given talents and skills. Its both a skill game and a tactics game. So a Christian basketball player is not an oxymoron in the same way a Christian prostitute, or Christian theif would be.

Another question I proposed was; what kind of player would Jesus be like if He played basketball? Aside from being able to shoot miracle shots, what I really mean is what kind of attitude and personality would he bring onto the court.

One person who really personifies the Christian Sportsman is David Robinson:



"I can run. I can jump. I can block shots. I can dunk. But I can't take pride in that. I'm successful because God gave me the ability."

"What I need to do is have a great positive attitude and a great work ethic. Those two things validate me. Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man."

Let me propose this idea. Basketball is best enjoyed when we play it for the glory of God, honouring other players as real human beings, and respecting the game as it is created by God Himself. And let this also apply to everything else we do too.

Update on Recession and Redundancy

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my company making cuts. The entire week after the announcement was made, the entire team's productivity and morale hit rock bottom. The big wednesday (a reference to the recent Lotto Jackpot) was preceded by a Tuesday outing where we all took a half day to do one last big social thing together. We had lunch in New Market at this Spanish (I think) place offering $10 lunch specials which was completely funded by the Snack Box (Cheers Stephen!!). Then we were off to Panmure for some 10 pin bowling. And next we went off to watch a movie: Ice Age 3. And finally to top it all off, drinks at Garrisons. Where all events were paid for by our awesome team leaders Simon and Jacqui!

Anyway. Big Wednesday came and our team of 16 was cut by 5. Including me... sort of. I offered to work part-time including working some extra days for free. Why did I do it? Many reasons, I think Olympic Software is a great place to work with an fantastic team in ASD. The actual work I do is very satisfying (most of the time anyway). The office is just a 10 minute run away, and the hours are very flexible. But ultimately, I want to serve people. In my previous blog entry, I asked what Jesus would do. After some thought, I think he would be serving people wherever he could. He would probably have been struggle financially too, and would need to be giving to others from what he had, not out of his abundance but out of love for fellow man. And thats what I'm striving to follow too.

So with that, my 3 days a week starts today! What will I be doing in my spare time? I was made the unofficial official social coordinator for my team, so I will need to plan events, and ideas to boost morale. Then theres volunteer opportunities available from Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army that I have long been intrigued by. And then theres sharpening my programming skills, maybe learning some SharePoint, or looking through MCPD books, or even FireFox development... Then theres my excersise, my running, my basketball. But Most of All, I want to look at my time off as a kind of Sabbath. In the Bible, God ordered people to rest from work, which is for our own good. What do we do on a Sabbath? Build our relationships! With God, with our family, and with our friends. So if you haven't seen me in a while and want to catch up, I would love to meet up, drop me a line!!

Open Source Home Group

Tonight, Kathy and I attended the Young Professionals homegroup from ACPC (Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church). I call it the Open Source home group or the Mozilla Home group because it is led by Robert O'Callahan at his Mozilla office in New Market (above Lone Star). I guess it was fitting for Mozilla to open up their office for our use.

I enjoyed the evening, which started off with Kathy and myself rushing to get there and stuffing ourselves with something to eat quickly for fear that the evening would end late and we would starve and we were going to be very late. Only to arrive and pizza was provided, also free so very Open Source indeed. (But I must add that Microsoft .Net User groups offer free beer and pizza too).

Although it was not an actual bible study, we studied the work of A.W. Tozer; Knowledge of the Holy, where we discussed the attributes of God. The main thing that stood out for me from Tozer's work, was that because God is infinite, His attributes are also infinite, in number and magnitude. And also God doesn't "have" attributes, He is His attributes. God doesn't have the attribute of Love, Kindness, Patience... He is love, He is Kind, He is Patience.

Of course no biblical discussion would be complete without the sidetracking. Also covered was the never-possible-to-truly-comprehend idea of predestination and free will. Did Judas Iscariot have a choice in betraying Jesus? Someone had to do it if God had prophesied right? If he hadn't done it, Jesus wouldn't be able to fulfill His destiny and save mankind. Why did God create Him for this purpose? How could a loving God create someone knowing they would be destined for Hell? Although the answer is not easy, it starts with realizing that the choice was still Judas' to make. We cannot blame God for Judas' actions any more than we can blame our parents for our actions. Even when our parents know what we are about to do, the responsibility still falls on us.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Shall not take the Lord's name in vain

The 3rd commandment; You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. Most people who interpret this commandment as not swearing and saying "God" in a "bad" way. This would apply to sayings such as "Oh my God" or "Jesus Christ" often said in frustration or swearing. Sometimes the word God is used when taking oaths, for example "I swear to God!". Although I agree that these usages are indeed taking the Lord's name in vain, I do think the commandment calls for much, much more.

In Exodus 39:30 the priests were given a crown with the inscription "Holy to the Lord". Imagine walking around with the something like that on your forehead all day! You would essentially be claiming to be a servant of God. You would be in a sense "representing God's name". If that's the case, everything you say, everything you do, even everything you think about, you do in God's name.

You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. Do your actions, speech, and thoughts defile God's name?

Recession and Redundancy

When will this recession end? A few months ago, it seemed to have hit the bottom, but now it seems to have stayed there. Sure there have been reports that we were on the rise, with a few reports that house prices and sales were picking up. But I think many of those were red hearings where sellers were finally reluctanly agreeing to a lowered price which met with the increased demand from buyers thinking they would get a bargain.

And several months on from when my company decided to go to a 4 day working week, the boss announced that the company has reached a critical state. He was quoted as saying "The past few months were spent trying to save jobs but now we need to save the company". Basically 15 cuts across the company need to be made and my department had been the most unprofitable. So how can an employee who loves his job help the company? I understand my boss' situation, if we don't make cuts the whole company will go down, and he's been trying his hardest to keep jobs for the past 4 months.

How has your company reacted in these economically troubling times? What ideas have you got for cutting costs and raising revenue?

Another interesting thought crossed my mind... If Jesus was in my situation, what would he do? There is very little written in the Bible of His time spent as a carpenter, but I wonder whether He encountered a recession? Did He need to work longer hours and find creative ways to earn an income? Was He as anxious as us worrying about where His next meal will come from?

Thou Shall Not Steal

Today we (re)visited Eastgate Christian Center for the 9am service. This was to allow us to visit the Ellerslie Car Fair afterwards. The first thing I noticed was two large stone tablets on the stage resembling the tablets that Moses brought down with the 10 commandments. There were only 7 inscribed which indicated they were going through a series on the 10 commandments and were up to the 7th study (from what I gather they skipped the first one, maybe to do it last?) on thou shall not steal. I was pleasantly surprised when Andy got up to speak. Andy is an amazing reflection of God and His work to transform. Visit his blog at Kiwi Chronicles.

The message really pierced my heart, and got me thinking about the many ways we have broken God's laws, and how much we really need Him, His mercy, and His grace.

Stealing is taking anything for yourself that doesn't belong to you. this can include:

• Physically taking goods, services, possessions, money that belong to someone else
• Borrowing things and not returning them
• Stealing from your employer by slacking or surfing facebook, or by taking extra long tea breaks, taking extra stationary, making personal phone calls...
• Downloading or purchasing illegal movies or music
• Charging an unfair price on goods or services you are selling, including falsely advertising something
• Evading your taxes
• Being "ungenerous" with your time and money is stealing from God, as all things are given to you by God to bless you and for you to bless others
• Disobeying your parents is stealing from their joy
• Distrusting or being defensive to your spouse is stealing them of intimacy
• Not respecting others is stealing their respect, because All people are made in the image of God and deserve respect simply for being human. This includes being late, which is stealing other people's time
• Desiring something, coveting something, may be as good as stealing it in your heart

This is a timely message, as I am currently studying Matt 5 in my ACPC home group. Matthew 5 is where Jesus explains the old testament law and reveals its true intent and meaning. He gives 6 examples; anger, lust, divorce, promises, retaliation, and loving your enemy. But really we can extend these examples to ALL the old testament laws and consider their application in today's context, and I guarantee you will be astonished. I have broken all God's laws and I can only stand before God because of what Jesus did on the cross.

PS: Kathy finnaly bought a car! 2004 Nissan March

*EDIT* Kathy returned the Nissan March and got a Toyota Vitz instead