Vision and purpose

University gives us with options. There is nowhere this is more obvious than during fresher’s week. As many of you will know, or will soon find out, UEA has fairs where all its societies and sports clubs recruit members. In my first week I walked round these overwhelmed; so much stuff to do… what even is korfball?! Of course, you can do very little of anything, a common approach to university life. Whilst I always defend students when people suggest we are lazy, the stereotype has to have come from somewhere!

I’m assured by those older and wiser than myself that striking a balance between busyness and rest is a life-long challenge. For many, coming to university is their first real taste of this challenge. It was for me at least. So how do we overcome it?

Naturally, I have always been inclined to be busy. Sometimes I am so busy that I lose track of why I am even doing things. This purposelessness is terrible; it makes everything seem worthless. The Bible has a lot to say about our purpose. Micah 6: 8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good… what does the Lord require of you? 
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

This is it, the purpose to life. Jesus reasserts the message in Matthew’s Gospel (22: 37). He is asked what the greatest commandment is, what humankind should be doing. He replies; “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Is this a purpose that guides your actions? Is it the vision that informs your resting and your working? It is not easy to maintain this vision but God is generous in revealing it; we just need to keep looking. When we have a vision of Jesus, when we turn to Him, we are transformed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3: 18). What an amazing thing.

I hope that as the new term starts we will all make time to search for God’s vision for us. Toby, an elder at the church, gave a great preach a couple of weeks ago about vision and direction. I can think of no better time to listen to it than at the start of the new university term. Find it here:

http://www.kings-norwich.com/?content=Teaching (Toby Skipper, A change of gear)

All the best,

Dan

P.S. Free bus from campus to church starts 2^nd of October leaving at 9.30am. Lunches at church also start on the 2^nd and run for three weeks.

Newday

I hope everyone is having a great summer, and enjoying the break from all the work!

I was recently at Newday at the Norfolk showground. If you don’t know what Newday is, it is a huge event run by Newfrontiers. Seven thousand young people come together for 6 days, do activities, hear talks and serve the communities of Norwich. Ultimately, the aim is to strengthen their relationship with God and witness for him – This is the website - http://www.newdaygeneration.org)

There was a lot of great teaching and some amazing experiences over the course of the week. One thing stood out in particular…

One of the speakers used a great analogy, fitting for the holidays – when we go away and we pack up our cars with luggage we tend to put all of the heavy bulky things in first and smaller things like sleeping bags are crammed into the available space. The speaker suggested the bulky things represent the cares of life and the sleeping bag Jesus. Jesus is often crammed into space that has really already been filled.

However, we can make Jesus the biggest thing and put him first. Everything can then go around Him. Over my summer one of my “big boxes” was finding a job. Looking to Jesus first gave me an amazing sense of freedom from the anxiety of finding a Job. Is God getting pushed to the edges of your summer?

Tim

Summer break…

As I write this the rain is pouring down on Norwich. I hope wherever you are as you read this the weather is much better!

It’s one of the weirdest things about undergraduate life for most students, this annual 3-4 month (sorry medics) break from life at university. It presents great opportunities to work, to travel and to see old friends. And of course to have a holiday!

But there can be, or at least I found, a sense of aimlessness to the summer break. You might have been building real momentum in witnessing to a friend or in serving in church or even in just living life away from home. The suddenly; bam! It is back home or away somewhere else.

Jesus had a big break in his life, check out Matthew chapter 4. Bear with me! I know going home to live with your parents isn’t quite going into the desert with the devil but I believe that we should approach our summer breaks in a similar way. We might face old temptations or new challenges but if we hold on “Worship…God, and serve him only” (verse 10) He will grow us in character so that we can move into the plans he has for us.

Lets rest over the summer but also be looking to grow so we can be more effective in our witness come September.

All the best,

Dan

The reason for the season

I often wonder what I would be like if I were not a Christian. As the common testimonial line goes, I’ve “been bought up in a Christian family…” and I sometimes feel that I’ve missed out in not knowing life without God. I’ve got nothing to compare faith to!

Would I be as I am now? Would I swear more? Would I lie more? Who knows. In reality, I get a taste of my sinful nature everyday. I swear and I lie anyway. I’ve been reading the Old Testament recently and it is filled with examples of the people of God turning away from Him in selfishness (Try Judges; Gideon and Sampson are in there…). It is grim reading; a promise breaking people repeatedly suffering because of their rebelliousness, God, angry and pained, reaching out only to be neglected each time.

Today, we celebrate the amazing fact that God did not give up, He “so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life…” (John 3:16) The Old Testement cycle was broken! Jesus took upon himself the wrath of God for all sin. I see the Old Testament pattern in my own life, but there is a crucial difference; the pattern plays out in a state of total forgiveness, of grace. Sin is defeated! Suffering will end! What hope. I long for greater revelation of it by the Spirit, that it would impact my life here and now (Galatians 5:13-22).

I don’t need to know what its like not to be a Christian; I need to know more about what it is like to be one!

Happy Easter.

Dan

Gods Word Impacts!

I hope everyone had a great time at the Weekend, it was awesome!! Every time I attend, I always have a great experience with God. In the weeks before the weekend I felt dry and far from God, which can happen to all of us sometimes.

This weekend I was reminded that God never leaves us! In Hebrews 13 vs 5 it says ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’

Soo often, when ever I’m feeling dry I can seem to get on with a regular routine, i.e. get up, breakfast, lectures, lunch, home, dinner and bed (Probably not that vague but similar). I then realise that I haven’t found anytime for God and, at the same time, I find I have little motivation to change this. It can sometimes get to the point where we may not feel good enough to be in his presence and His grace just gets diluted in our minds.

A while ago I had a picture, where there were lots of compartments and the different things of our lives were in them blocking God out of them. Over the weekend I prayed that He would break these barriers down and flood into all aspects of my life and speak to me, so that I wouldn’t just live in a dry routine, but God would be in every second of my day. He did break in!!!

We all go through dark patches, but don’t lose sight of grace, and the FACT that God never leaves us. Consider Him in all aspects of your life, and ask Him to speak to you for his word can break down walls - The first part of Hebrews 4 vs 12 says ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow’

Tim

Intermission

Hi Everyone,

I realise its a while since anything has been posted on here! That is my bad!

I hope you've been doing well.

The reason there has not been much up is because of business... my business, the other guys on the student team's business. Things just creep into life and dominate, like work or a certain relationship. The Pslamist says, "be still and know that I am God" (Pslam 46) and that is exactly what we were able to do last week at intermission.

I value intermission because it is an opportunity not only to catch up with one another and eat a great meal but it is an opportunity to carry on pressing into God from the morning service. What do I mean by "pressing in"? Well I guess it means actively seeking God for his will and presence in our lives...

If we don't deliberately have times where we stop and listen to God and His word we can easily forget Him and His wonderful promises to us. I know God spoke last week; I pray you have been hearing him regularly through your week since and that you are living in the benefit of that loving relationship. I long for more and I hope you do too!

Some of you have already contacted me about things that came up at intermission. Please do get in touch if you want to talk or pray over something.

The next intermission will be on the 3rd of April... its going to be a bit different so not to be missed!

Whats that about?- Eldership

Hi everyone!

If you’ve been at a church for a while, or even if you are very new to church; the idea that we have leaders probably isn’t very strange. Even in secular life, leaders are very important; just look at how many football managers have been sacked recently… leadership clearly matters to people.

Leaders of churches face many of the challenges of leaders in other areas, but they are also ultimately under God, the chief shepherd (rev 7:15-17), the king above all kings (1 Tim 6: 15).

At Kings our leaders are called elders, they are a group of men who God has specifically gifted to lead the church. They’ve grown into eldership and will be the first to admit they are still growing in their role. They encourage one another and complement each others gifts in order that they might serve the church as God would wish.

Women do lead within the church, but just like in childbirth, men and women have been given different roles by God. The birthing process is not an issue of equality, because both sexes are equal, but is an issue of role, as is eldership. We see this written in Genesis 1:27, Titus chapter 1 verse 6 says an elder “must be blameless, the husband of but one wife and … not open to the charge of being wild an disobedient”. Chapter 2 verse 5 goes on to say that women should “love their hubands and children, be self controlled, busy at home, kind and be subject to their husbands…”

Reading this from a culturally western perspective it is easy to wince at the word “subject”. But Godly submission is not the abuse western culture often assumes. The nature of men and womens relationship is mirrored in God himself; Father, Son and Spirit, all different yet all equal. Though equal to the Father, Jesus nonetheless willingly submitted to Him for the furthering of His Kingdom. Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil 2: 6-7) Jesus servant-like submission to the Father saved us!

At Kings we long to see the Kingdom advancing, people coming to know God. As leadership is so important to this, we hold onto what the bible has said about it tightly. When the church is full of men and women living out their God given roles the Kingdom will advance. When elders lead churches with servant hearts, submitting to God’s direction, the Kingdom will advance.

This is the last “what is that about?!” I hope they have been helpful; especially for those of you just getting to know the church. I had struggles with these issues myself when I came to Kings so I hope you’ll talk to your small group leaders or to me if you are having similar difficulties!

Hope first weeks (or second weeks for NUCA guys) have gone well. Look out for more posts and emails over the term.

Dan