Edition 32, December 2011 Connecting Christadelphian Young People

faith

hope

love

The Vine is published quarterly by the Sydney Christadelphian Young People (SCYP)

COORDINATOR Tim Mogg

EDITORIAL TEAM Tim Mogg, Chrissy Mogg, Samee Lapham, Georgia Muir, Joel Hillman, Dan Blackwood and Suz O'Toole

LAYOUT/DESIGNSamee Lapham

MASTHEAD DESIGNAlisa Thompson

CONTRIBUTORS

WRITERS (in order of appearance): Ross Levick, Katie Thurlby, Becky Galbraith (VIC), Sam Collins, Ben Topham (QLD), Debbie Devis, Will Patino, Renee Patino, Jess Ginn, Jon Fry (VIC), Lara Morgan, Sally Thompson, Abi Catchlove (SA), Mic Hindmarsh, Jenny Pogson, Ben Joseph, Aja Goddard, Glen Verdich, Belinda Burns, Alannah O'Toole, Luke Shields.

THANKS ALSO TO: Pat Thatcher, Adam Wiltshire, Gab Eggington, Leah Hillhouse (VIC), Craig Blewitt (Africa), Isabel Melles (VIC), Steph King (SA), Jacinta Pogson, Natasha Tutticci (QLD)

PHOTOGRAPHY: Katie Thurlby (p6-8), Simon Peel (UK, p3, 16, 19-22, 28, 31). All other imagery sourced from stock sites.

ILLUSTRATION: Rosie Johansen (QLD, p29)

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Katie and Luke Thurlby

The Vine is published to the Glory of our Heavenly Father, through whom all things are made possible.Opinions expressed in The Vine are the authors’ and are not neccessarily held by the Editorial Team or the SCYP.

All Bible quotations are from the New International Version (1978) unless otherwise stated.

e: thevine@scyp.net

To view past editions online visit: scyp.net/thevine/issues & issuu.com/scyp

Welcome to the final edition of The Vine for 2011. This edition was inspired by 1 Corinthians 13 where we learn that 'For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'

Firstly, many thanks go out to the all the different people who have contributed their time and effort into making this edition what it is.

‘And what is this edition?’, I hear you ask; this edition is fantastic! It focuses on ‘Faith, Hope and Love’. Thoughts, inspiration and motivation has been coming from all over. These thoughts include; the importance of a balanced perspective, finding Love in another person, sharing your Faith, Hope as the cure, What makes Love real and much more.

This edition has taught me that Faith, Hope and Love are inseparable ideas. It is amazing that despite the breadth of people contributing and their different subject matter they have all been looking at the same things, just from different perspectives. 1 Corinthians 13 states that even if a man has Faith that can move mountains but he does not have Love then he is worthless. We cannot pick just one thing to be good at. We are called to be perfect.

At the moment we each have different amounts of Faith, Hope and Love. We are very blessed to have the measures that we have been given, but at the moment we are incomplete. The most brilliant part is that incompleteness is not forever, ‘...but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.’

This edition has also got me thinking about how exciting it will be when we no longer have need for faith or hope*. At present there are so many things we worry about, so many things we do not know. At the moment we are looking into a mirror dimly, but we have been promised a time when we shall know fully. When Jesus returns Faith will turn to sight and Hope will be completed; only Love will remain.

Yours faithfully, in anticipation of that time,Love,

Tim

4 But the greatest of these is...

6 Soul Mates

9 Simple Faith

10 Sharing your Faith

12 Hope is a Cure

13 A Passionate Life

14 Choosing to Love

18 Growing your Faith

19 Personal Testimonies

24 Food, Fitness and Faith

26 Music Review

27 Book Review

28 We Ask You...

29 Personal Profiles

31 Grapevine

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BY ROSS LEVICK

ut the greatest of these is... Love. This appears to be an extremely decisive statement but how does it balance with equally emphatic statements about faith and hope?

'..Without faith it is impossible to please God…’ (Heb 11:6), ‘For in this hope we are saved…’ (Rom 8:24), ‘..The faith and love that spring from hope…’ (Col 1:5). Check with a concordance and note the frequency with which faith and hope are mentioned. This is a clear indicator of their essential place in the life of a true disciple. Remembering that ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ (Rom 1:17) and that our faith is futile without the hope of resurrection in Christ (1 Cor 15:17-19), there being only one faith and one hope (Eph 4:4-6), the claim that love is greater needs some examination.

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There are two reasons why Paul would have made this declaration.

Firstly, with the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth with all the promises fulfilled, faith and hope will become reality. They will have reached their conclusion. Look again at Hebrews 11 and see how faith, the total commitment to believing everything about God combined with the absolute dedication to seeking Him, made the faithful sure of their hope, certain of what they longed for but could not see. But when God dwells among His people faith and hope will be completed. But love must endure forever. The first and greatest commandment states clearly ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Matt 22:37). ‘Love never fails' (1 Cor 13:8).

The second reason revolves around the issues in the Corinthian ecclesia so we need to briefly examine the situation. Historians will tell us that Corinthian society was very similar to our own. It was a cosmopolitan city and a major centre of trade. It was multicultural in nature with a great emphasis on personal pleasure and fulfillment. There were numerous temples dedicated to idols that provided entertainment and opportunities for an individual to satisfy their desires. Pride and self promotion were the social norms.

Sadly this mindset was still impacting on the brethren. There were divisions in the ecclesia with some boasting about men, bickering over who was the most important

leader to be aligned to: Peter, Paul, Apollos. Their was gross immorality in the ecclesia with some even boasting about it, no doubt taking pride in their tolerance and refusal to ‘judge’ another brother. Some were seeking judgments against their brethren from the civil court, unwilling to judge amongst themselves. There were others who, being ‘puffed up’ by their ‘knowledge’ that idols are nothing, were freely joining in with the festivities at the local temple, oblivious of the detrimental impact it was having on others nor of the impact it was having on their relationship with the true God. Sisters were refusing to accept the divinely ordained hierarchy of this present life, failing to cover their heads in worship and claiming the right to lead and teach in the ecclesia. Some were arguing about what was the best Spirit gift and who had the most. Others were openly preaching error in claiming there in fact is no resurrection. In all these issues, self had the preeminence. The catch cry of the ecclesia appears to have been ‘Everything is permissible for me’ (1 Cor 6:12, 10:23) but Paul had to show them that not everything is beneficial or constructive.

Real love is not about self, it is about displaying the character of God for the benefit of others. Faith and hope are personal concepts. My faith cannot save you nor can your faith save me. But the way I LIVE my faith can either help or hinder your walk. That’s where a more perfect understanding of love comes into it.

The second commandment is like the first, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself ’. John

tells us that it is impossible to claim the first but not keep the second (1 John 4:20-21). This is because the love of God is bound up in a desire to keep His commandments, ‘This is love for God: to obey His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome’ (1 John 5:3), and He has commanded us through His Son to ‘love each other’ (John 15:17). It is however possible to think we are keeping the second without keeping the first, ‘If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?’ (Matt 5:46-47). Brother Islip Collyer has an excellent discussion on this point in his book Conviction and Conduct in the chapter entitled ‘The Power of Belief ’. This is a genuine ‘must read’ book!

If we genuinely love our neighbour we will want them to find and stay on that narrow path to the Kingdom. We will display our love for God by humble obedience and keeping His ways as our priority. We will

be patient and kind, not letting self interest control our actions. We will not be easily angered but be anxious to forgive. We will rejoice greatly in truth and as a consequence take a stand against evil in all its forms, even when this means telling our neighbour (brother or friend) of their error (‘Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh’ Jude 22-23).

Sometimes we will need to sacrifice our pleasure to present a supportive and consistent message to others. Paul was prepared to stop eating meat if it was going to be a cause for his brother to fall (1 Cor 9:13)!

Love can be tough at times. The closer we draw to God and get know Him and His ways, the easier it will become to live true love.

These words are still the basis of our responsibility before God: ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)

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If you’re a realist or a skeptic you probably stopped reading at the title. On the off chance you decided to give this one a go, read on - you might be surprised! For the romantics out there, I probably had you hooked at the title, read on – you might find you know less than you think!

An easy google search containing the words: soul mate & bible, will result in a few different yet relatively standard notions of the term ‘soul mate’. Mark 10:6-9 ‘At the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female' for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife; and the two will become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one.’ This is the standard algebraic notion: when you get married you become soul mates. Marriage, being the joining of two souls, results in the equation soul+soul=mate. This very is true. However, much like most mathematics, amazingly boring.

BY KATIE THURLBY

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I’m one of them. The bible doesn’t say in so many words that God has designed one person for each of us. For many of us it just feels like that’s what God would do or has done but we don’t have any rational basis for it. I feel as though my husband was made for me because we fit and work so well together – like two puzzle pieces. But when I take off my rose coloured romance glasses I realise that a lot of the time we don’t fit well or work well together either! So maybe all the happenstances we encountered along the road to our relationship were just what I wanted to see? Or at the most were God trying to show us that we would or could be a good match?

What about the gift idea? Matthew 21:22 ‘If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.’ It’s a good one. But the problem with relying on it is that we often fail to realise that God is only going to give us what is good for us when it is good for us. Being too impatient while waiting for God’s timing or misreading our own selfish desires as God’s true blessings can mean we fall into the trap of kidding ourselves into unprofitable relationships.

Lastly, the ‘God has a plan’ idea. Awesome too – because he sure does. Our lives are definitely well spent if they are spent following the way of Jesus and doing the will of God. Hebrews 13:21 ‘He will equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.’ That’s great if the good thing you need to be equipped with to effectively do his will is a romantic partner. But what if it isn’t?

Psalm 37:4 says, ‘Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ This, I think is the crux of the matter. Say what? It’s that simple! Delight in the Lord? It’s not that simple. How can we truly take meaningful delight in something or someone we haven’t seen or don’t really understand? You may say sure I know God, I understand him and rattle off a list of attributes but do you really understand the relationship between men and women, why he made us the way he did and how this relates to his personality? Because I believe this is an essential connection to make before you can truly find your soul mate. Jeremiah 24:7 ‘I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their

God, for they will return to me with all their heart.’Most of what I have to say from here on out

are not my own ideas but borrowed from the brilliant minds and hearts of husband and wife team John and Stasi Eldredge in their books ‘Wild at Heart’ and ‘Captivating’. These books are must reads for everyone. Whether you are single, coupled, married, separated or divorced these books will be life, and dare I say soul, changing. Many of us, actually pretty much all of us, try to, or wish to, fill holes in our souls with romantic partners. It is the biggest trap for young people. I say it’s the biggest because it doesn’t only affect people with addictive personalities. Not only can misunderstanding our soul lead us to some serious heartache right now but getting this wrong can mean never truly understanding your relationship with God or your current/potential partner.

God is a complex being. So much so that he divided his core in two when he created man and woman. He created us with different cores, as two different kinds of souls. The ‘essence’ of a man is strength. At their core men are meant to be an incarnation of the warrior in God. Now when I say that I don’t mean big muscles and hairy chests (although that is appealing too), I mean that their role is to provide physical, mental, emotional and spiritual protection – to rescue the captive princess. It’s a soulish kind of strength. It may seem super archaic and cliché but we all know it’s true and there’s a reason we all love a good fairytale. Adam was made first, the image of God; strong, intelligent, powerful. Genesis 2:7 ‘Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being’ Wow. If that isn’t a powerful masculine image I don’t know what is!

Man is given dominion, he is full of glory, he walks with God. But something is missing.

So what about Adam and Eve? Genesis 2:21-25 ‘So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”’ Literally one flesh. Kind of gross, kind of cool, but most importantly not actually going to happen to us.

Then there’s the design idea. Many people believe that there’s someone out there that God designed specifically for them as a mate to their soul – I’ll admit

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something is not good. Genesis 2:18 (alter) ‘The LORD God said, “It is not good for a human to be alone”’ Only the strong, masculine, side of God has been created. So God begins on his pièce de résistance, his ‘crown of creation’. God’s crowning glory is woman, the beauty of his feminine side. The ‘essence’ of a woman is beauty. Not just a physical beauty but a soulish beauty deep within. At her core she is meant to be an incarnation of the captivating in God. Isaiah 55:1-2 ‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.’ Now creation is complete. The masculine strength and the feminine beauty. The coming together of these two essences is the perfect soul mate because it is all of God – creation complete.

That seems simple. It’s just the equation theory right? Guy + girl = soul mate. Throw in some compatibility (design?), a prayer and a blessing (gift?) and listen to your heart (his plan?) for good measure. We can do, wait for and get all that and it still doesn’t turn out quite right. People stay lonely, drift apart or get divorced. So what goes wrong? The difficulty lies in where we go to sustain our core.

If guys go to girls to find the desirable answer to their question, ‘am I strong enough?’ it won’t be long until the yes turns to no. If girls go to guys to answer their question, ‘am I beautiful enough?’ the same will happen. I fell into this trap as an adolescent. I was known and ridiculed for my seemingly endless line of boyfriends or even ‘friends with benefits’. I was openly generous with my emotions and to an extent, my body, hoping to receive love in the form of a deep resounding and constant, ‘YES, you are beautiful’. I was not the person everyone thought I was; I was hurting. Because eventually every relationship ended with me in a big black hole named Feeling Ugly. If for no other reason, this is the reason we should guard our hearts, minds and bodies from intimate relationships. Because until there comes a time that you don’t have a gaping hole in your heart that you feel the need to fill with another person, or until you find the constant answer ‘YES!’ to your question, you shouldn’t be intimately giving yourself to anyone and giving really is the key.

The perfect soul mate relationship is that of giving, bringing something to the relationship not hoping to recieve. A truly beautiful woman captivates a man, rousing him to show her his strength and likewaise a truly strong man shows a woman protection, allowing her to open herself up to vulnerability and reveal her deep inner beauty. But how to we bring such strength and beauty to the relationship? How do we connect on such a level with another human being? How do we find our soul mate?

We need to have our question answered by the one who made us! We need to follow the lead of Jesus, let him take us to God so we can ask him and truly find our answer. Women need to ask God: can you see me? Do I captivate you? Am I enough? Am I truly beautiful? 1 John 5:14 ‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that is we ask anything according to his will, he hears us’. Men need to ask: Am I a warrior? What is my name? Am I ready for battle? Am I strong? Psalm 34:4 ‘I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears’ No matter what has happened along the way and what blessings we have received, only after we have received and truly believe the answer from our Father, our life and soul giver, can we ever have hope of truly finding our soul mate.

Concepts paraphrased from John & Stasi Eldredge ‘Wild at Heart’ (2001) and ‘Captivating’ (2005), Thomas Nelson, Tennessee.

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I used to think of Faith in a very simplistic form – yes of course I believe in God! But Faith isn’t just belief is it? If we look at any verse in scripture on the topic we see clearly that there is more.

Our expression of Faith has to come with an action!As with all Scriptural principles we learn from God’s character

first – God is faithful. We see this in the way he interacted with Adam and Eve, Joshua, Hannah, David, the nation of Israel and ultimately in the way that he kept his promise and gave his only son to save a sinful world. God is faithful.

Deuteronomy 7:9 'Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.'

If we were to consider the word faithfulness in our cultural context it is a word that is always linked with relationships – we talk about being faithful to a spouse or a girl or boyfriend. We all know what that entails; it means exclusivity, time spent together, communication, trust.

We need to see ourselves in exactly the same way with God, He is always longing for a close relationship with us and he is the perfect partner. He is always there for us, he will never leave us. (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Hebrews 13:5)

So how do we show our faithfulness to God? Lets look at God’s friend Abraham;

James 2:21-23 'Was not our father Abraham considered

righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.'

So we see here again that our faith is expressed as an action. Abraham followed God’s command because he believed and he trusted God and therefore he did what God had asked him to do. What does God ask us to do?

Now this is the challenge; if we really believed, if we really truly had faith that Jesus is returning then wouldn’t we act differently to all the other people around us who don’t know this?…and wouldn’t we actually want to tell them?

If we know that Jesus is our King and the world is about to change then wouldn’t we do something? Wouldn’t we love the people around us in a very real way?

I always think that if we had the cure to cancer then we’d be nuts and pretty selfish if we didn’t share it, we’d be telling the world wouldn’t we?

Well we’ve got something bigger than a cure for cancer – it’s a cure for sin and all that comes with it – sadness, pain and death.

So when we say we believe in God let's be confident about it! Let's be faithful to a God who is ever faithful to us and do his will in love. John 15:12 'My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.'

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I remember back when I was around 11 years old, I had a t-shirt on with the letters ‘BBFG’, which stood for ‘Be Bold For God’. One day when I was wearing it out, an old lady asked me what those lovely colourful letters stood for. I can remember worrying

about what she might think if I told her what they really meant, so I quickly came up with some alternative words which would fit into this acronym. “Ahhh…. they stand for ‘Big Big Friendly Giant’” (I think I may have just finished reading Rahl Dahl's book, Big Friendly Giant). Yes, at the age of 11, I denied my faith. I was well aware of what these letters meant, as BBFG was the theme of the conference where I got the shirt. Why did I care about what this old lady would think? Odds are, she would have patted me on the back and encouraged me to keep going to church and Sunday school as I grew up, but I chose to hide it. Fast forward another 11 years, and unfortunately I still have this problem. I have been baptized for nearly 3 years, and sharing my faith hasn’t really gotten any easier. It’s so frustrating for me – Why am I afraid of sharing the most amazing thing I have in my life with others? Why should I care what other people think? This may not be the case for everyone, but I think it's something we all struggle with at times. I’d like to share a few simple and easy ways of how we can share our faith better.

I think that one of the most important things about being a Christian is sharing your faith. As Christians it’s what we have all been called to do. In fact, before ascending into heaven, Jesus' final instruction was to go and make more disciples in the world, go out and preach to the nations. In other words… share our faith (Matthew 28). Sometimes preaching can be made out to be a much bigger and harder thing then what it actually is. Preaching isn’t just about giving talks, or going overseas. Sometimes it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference in other peoples lives.

BY SAM COLLINS

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If we share what we believe from the very beginning, it makes things so much easier. Nearly all the way through high school, I tried to keep it a secret that I went to church and youth group. I still believed in God and everything, but, like the BBFG shirt scenario, I was worried that others may put me in a category and judge me as a ‘churchie’. I figured it would be easier to just do my thing and keep quiet… What could be wrong with that? Well, a lot, actually. By about year 11, I started to get more serious about giving my life to God, and realized that by hiding that I went to church for all these years, I had actually been blocking God and the opportunity to get to know Him from my friends. It was then that I started to let them know what I did on the weekends, and where I was every Sunday. At first, they gave me a fair bit for it, as most school age kids probably would. I stuck with it though, and after a while they learnt to accept it and also respect it. I quickly learnt that it would have been so much easier to share my faith with them from the start, and since leaving school I have tried to be as open about my spiritual life as I can.

I have learnt that if I am open about going to church when I first meet people, they accept it from the beginning and understand straight away why I may not want to go to certain places or do certain things. Being up front from the beginning makes it so much easier later on.

Following on from my last point… When you first tell people you go to church, or whenever it comes up in conversation, how much more likely are they to show interest if you are excited about it and show enthusiasm. I have tried this out before, and believe me when I say it can make a huge impact on how people accept it. I find that if you are excited about it, they will be

excited for you, and will respect it more. I gave this a real shot earlier this year when I did a 5 week safari through Africa with a group of about 15 people. I was upfront and excited about what I believed from the very beginning, and boy did it make a difference! I had some amazing chats with the people on that tour, some of which I’ll remember forever, and I’m sure they will too. By being bold and upfront from the start, we really can contribute to making a difference in peoples’ lives.

If you pray, God will hear, and God will deliver. Pray for opportunities to share your faith, pray for open eyes to see the moments to share, and pray for strength to say what you have to say. I find that when I pray about it more, I seem to have more open eyes to see the opportunities, and I feel stronger when they come.

Sharing our faith with others not only benefits them, but it benefits us and God as well. It helps us because if we share our faith with one person, we are more likely to share it with the next, and so on. Word spreads of your faith and that will become what you are known for. Jesus instructed us all throughout his life on earth to share our faith.

Matthew 5:14-16 'You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.'

What is the point of igniting a light and putting it under a bowl? Let your light shine and share your faith with others. Let it out from the start, say it with excitement, and pray for strength and opportunities.

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Life is good. God gives it. Remember that.Heavy breathing – hurried panting – viscid

bleeding and one last enormous gasp for air. What has happened? How can this be? Is this how life ends?

On a warm afternoon on Saturday 5th May 1995, my best friend’s life was taken from him in an instant. I was 18. We were shopping together in the morning and we were both in hospital together that night. One trying to survive, the other slowing losing grip on all that he thought he knew.

Hang on – tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Another friend had just lost his mother to cancer and three young beautiful sisters, who we were close to, had lost their parents and siblings the year earlier in an unbelievable accident. Mother’s Day is meant to be a time we celebrate our Mothers. This Mother’s Day will be remembered as the day this Mum lost her son. What is going on?

This incident changed me for the better… in the long term. I was almost baptised at 17. I was baptised at 25 years of age following this event. Lessons were learnt during these years in my life,

BY BEN TOPHAM

although at the time I did not realise it. When you are engrossed in something it is difficult to know what you are in. Having matured (only a little) one becomes more self-aware of our position. I was looking for hope.

Hope is not a commodity we necessarily need in our modern and affluent society, yet it is a reservoir we need to tap that harnesses unlimited power. Hope is something we need when facing death, that is, something we cannot conquer. We do not experience death often due to modern medicine and our safe society. What would you trust in when faced with death? Your university degree, your job, your boyfriend or your iPhone?

The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, recently passed away from cancer. He spoke of death as the major life motivator. A key message was if you woke every morning and asked yourself ‘would I do this if this was my last day to live’ and you answered ‘no’ on too many consecutive occasions – then it was time to change. The message was based upon making something of your life, that there was hope of something better. This is innate in mankind.

Have you wrestled with questions such as why my soul is so down or why I feel like a roaring ocean inside? David experienced the same in Psalm 42:5. His response '…put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God'.

This hope in God focuses not on man but on what God can deliver. Difficult when feeling like the world is caving in. The 'full assurance of hope' is when we have been convinced (faith) of the saving grace of God and then now 'boast in the hope of the Glory of God'. Extraordinary. (Heb 6:11 KJV, Rom 5:2 NIV)

May I leave you with Paul’s closing remarks in his famous speech that was written for the church in Rome (Rom 15:13). 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'.

Life is good. God takes away. Remember that.

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We have all had times where we felt our life was tedious. The

same dreadful monotony, the same grinding tasks that you slowly repeat with tired eyes, over and over, and without even realising it you get so fed up and just want to scream. Finally you are resigned to thinking “Why am I even doing this?”

I am lucky enough to be doing something I love, but coupled with science comes maths. I hate maths. I hate it so much that I completely forget about how much I like 9am Physics lessons, and how excited I am at learning new things about organic Chemistry. I slowly pull myself through equation after equation, secretly go on facebook and complain about the whole affair. I just fell into a cycle of not really waking up, and crawling through the day like a zombie, even though I am doing exactly what I love.

But why? Where did all that passion go? It all gets lost in the detail. Humans are notorious for forgetting the good and

noticing the bad. We have all done it. But to save ourselves from ripping our hair out, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. People are passionate about different things, and we need to figure out what we are passionate about and how we can achieve that.

I love science because it’s like looking at this brilliant picture God has painted; so despite all that dreaded maths, that is what gets me through the day. Some people love writing, or reading, or surfing, or something else that makes them love life and love God, and we need to find what this is and embrace it. David was such a passionate fighter and musician, and he did these things for God, which made him such a great guy. Sure, our lives may not have been as “exciting” as his, but he would have had days where he felt the tedium too. I am sure after months of looking after sheep he would have wanted to scream as well. Ecclesiastes is all about the meaninglessness and

tedium of life. It is so beautifully depressing that people skip it over, but maybe that is because it hits too close to home. Everything we do or buy is meaningless. So why bother?

The answer: Because of God. He is our meaning. We need to look towards him as our passion, even though it can be so hard to do. Solomon was a powerful king, and even he sometimes felt passionless. We need to turn around, look life square in the eye and just tell it to stop and smell the roses. God has given us so much more than a continuous cycle of events. Find what makes you incredibly happy and helps you connect with God, and implement it into your life. Take time out from studying and read a psalm, if you love to read. Listen to a song that really makes you happy you know God during your lunch break if you love music. Get up a little early and go for a bike ride where you can just have a chat with your creator. Sometimes when I feel the tedium is getting to

me, I just walk around Coles. It clears my mind and helps me completely separate from the ill feelings and I usually come home feeling pretty good about my life. Talk to him about what you are doing, even the boring bits, and try to figure out why they are there, what the point is in the bigger picture, then you can do what you love and share it with God. Soon you will be happy you are stuck in the same glorious monotony, the same inspiring tasks that you slowly repeat with elated eyes, over and over, and without even realising it you will get so connected to God up and just want to scream. Finally you will be resigned to thinking “I know exactly why I am doing this”.

Eccl. 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot.

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oogle ‘love’ and you get a whopping 7,120,000,000 results. Turn on the radio and you will

almost certainly hear a song about the ups and downs of love. Have a conversation with someone about some of their passions and interests and you will no doubt hear how they ‘love’ a certain football team, restaurant, movie etc. But what is love? And how does it apply to us as followers of Jesus?

The word love appears over 500 times in the Bible. We read in 1 John 4:8 that 'God is love'. Jesus himself said that the greatest commandment is to 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind,' (Matt 22:37). The second greatest is to 'Love your neighbour as yourself ' (Matt 22:39). These verses alone show that love is obviously a matter of vital importance and should be of the highest priority for every follower of Christ.

In today’s world the true meaning of love has been severely corrupted and it is no surprise that in this digital age, people are being mislead and sold short on the true meaning of love.

A YouTube search will happily let Beyonce, Maroon 5 and the Black Eyed Peas tell us about love. Google will provide plenty of links to romantic

quotation websites, a love calculator which determines one’s ‘love’ compatibility with another and we even have a link to buy sheepskin boots which you will ‘love’. An online dictionary (dictionary.com) defines love as:

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person

2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend

3. sexual passion or desire

So where do we turn for truth about love and how it should be applied in our lives? You guessed it. The Bible. In the Bible there are three ‘types’ of love. The Greek words for love translated in the Bible are phileo (friendship), agape (unconditional love), and storge (affection). The most commonly used being Phileo and Agape.

Phileo refers to the type of love that is shared between good friends. It could be described as a brotherly love. This type of love is somewhat conditional and dependent on how other people behave toward us. Phileo is often ruled by emotions. 1 Samuel 18:1-4 is a good example of Phileo love shown between Jonathan and Samuel.

Agape on the other hand is not an

BY WILL PATINO

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impulse triggered by feelings. Rather, agape love is an exercise of will, a deliberate choice. John 3:16 says 'God so loved (agape) the world that he gave his one and only son...' God did not allow this because it produced a feeling of satisfaction but because of his selfless care toward mankind. We are commanded by Jesus to show this love toward our enemies (Matt 5:44). This does not mean we have to have a satisfaction or a ‘good feeling’ toward our enemies but to treat them with care and respect and seek their long term well being even if the feeling is not reciprocated.

Agape love is described in 1 Corinthians 13 as being patient, kind, truthful, unselfish, trusting, believing, hopeful and enduring. It is not jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, selfish or angry. True love (agape) never fails.

This description perfectly fit’s Gods love toward us and should be the way we try to love God and each other as we are instructed by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39.

So now having a better understanding of love and how it applies to us, we need to put it in to action. This, as we all know, is sometimes easier said than done. Everybody is going to have different ways of expressing love and at one time or another, find it hard to do so.

This is where we need to examine ourselves, find out what makes us ‘tick’ and find ways of avoiding it.

When are we finding it hard to show love? Maybe it is in particular environments or being around certain people, for example, in a certain class at school or in your workplace. Somebody might be picking on you or paying you out because of your hair or clothes. Maybe they mock the lifestyle you lead. Maybe it is just something about them you don’t like. Whatever it is, they put you in a foul mood, and once you are in it, everyone around you better look out.

Perhaps you can bottle it all up at work but it is when you get home that you decide to unleash; being unloving towards your mum, dad, brother, wife or housemate

even if they have done nothing wrong.We all can relate to this. And most of us

will admit that we would like to change or at least manage this unloving characteristic so that we may, as we are commanded, love one another as Christ loves us (John 13:34). So how can we try and do so?

We are all going to have different ways of controlling our anger so that we may express our love, and what may work for one person may not for another. Your agape tank is running a little low? Before lashing out, take every thought captive to make it obey Christ (2 Cor 10:5) and then decide what course of action to take. Here are some techniques I find useful:

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking “duh, if I don’t, I’ll die”. True. But what I mean is controlled breathing. Deep, slow breathing. ‘Johnny’ is paying you out again in class because of the old shoes you have to wear, you feel your heart rate rise and that stirring feeling inside of you. Don’t retaliate. Just relax. Slowly take a deep breath in your nose, hold it for a second or two, now exhale. Do this several times over. Concentrate on nothing but your breathing. Slow your heart rate and feel those unwanted feelings leave you.

Yep get outta there. As we read in Genesis 39, when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he didn’t stick around and try to resist, he headed straight for the door! Sometimes we may need to do the same. Simply removing ourselves from undesirable situations can be the best answer and help us avoid doing something we may regret.

Problem: Have you ever been trying to study at home while your younger siblings run around, loudly playing? Its distracting, you begin to feel angry and fed up. Even though you have asked them twice now to keep it down, they just won’t listen. Maybe if you throw a book at them it will teach them a lesson. Wrong. It will only make things worse and you know it.

Solution: Pack up your stuff and get out of there. Go find somewhere else to study. Maybe even go for a ten minute walk to clear your head. You will come back refreshed and probably find the house is back to normal and quiet again once you return.

Sounds boring I know. And yeah it can be. But it can do wonders for you. You have come home from a big, stressful day at work, you’re wound up and all it’s going to take is one tiny little thing to go wrong before you snap. Don’t wait for that to happen. Head to the gym. Take it out on some dumbbells, or slip on your Nikes and hit the running track. Research shows that physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and depression. As well as reducing risk to major diseases such as stroke, diabetes and heart disease. If exercise were a pill, it would be the most taken.

Nothing can bring us better peace then spending time with our Creator. Getting to understand Him better and developing your relationship with Him and His Son creates a deep sense of security and calm inside of us. Talk to God, pour your heart out to Him and let Him know how you feel. 'Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon Him: for He cares for you' (1 Peter 5:6-7 KJV).

With so many distractions around us today and an increasing amount of responsibility being placed upon all our shoulders it is easy for us to get consumed in our own lives and feelings. Showing our love toward God and to our neighbours can at times be difficult. Give some of these techniques a try. They all work for me.

'No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us' (1 John 5:12)

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Romans 10:17 (KJV) tells us: 'So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.' To have a strong faith we need to base it on firm Biblical truths. We need to be continually reading, asking questions, gleaning answers and growing in our understanding of the Bible so that we cement our faith in scripture and can to share it with others. From Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders, we also find that hearing and learning are not enough. The value is in the application.

Often God puts people into our lives to help grow our faith. Think – Ruth and Naomi or Paul and Barnnabas. What relationships are in your life that God could be using to encourage you to grow in your faith? Maybe this is through a friend at school or a colleague at work who challenges you about your beliefs, so that you have to study the Bible more. Or maybe it’s someone who encourages you to go along to a morning class when you’d rather stay in bed.

These are things are we do in private that bring us closer to God, such as praying, giving, meditating, reading, memorizing verses etc. Jesus calls "private

BY RENEE PATINO

oah built the ark while he ignored the insults slung at him from his community. Abraham raised his arm, knife in hand, to sacrifice Isaac. Rahab hid the spies. Peter climbed out of the boat to walk towards Jesus on the

water. What about you? Have you done something extraordinary through your faith in God? Would you have enough faith if God asked you to perform these tasks?

There are countless stories throughout the Bible of people showing great amounts of faith. In many cases we see God using ordinary men and women to do extraordinary things. But what is faith and how can you grow yours so that you too can move mountains like Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 and be a shining light to the dark world around us.

We learn from the Bible that 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen' (Hebrews 11:1). Wikipedia explains that faith is trust, hope and belief in the goodness, trustworthiness or reliability of a person, concept or entity.

The Bible also tells us that 'without faith it is impossible to please the Lord' (Hebrews 11:39, KJV). So if we want to follow Christ’s example and live our lives for the glory of our heavenly Father, we must be continually growing our faith.

How big is your faith? What can you do to grow your faith? I heard a talk recently that suggested there are five common catalysts that work together to cause someone’s faith to grow. These catalysts are as follows:

disciplines" ‘acts of righteousness’ (Matthew 6). Setting time aside each day to spend with God is a key driver in growing our faith. Even Jesus took the time to go off on his own to pray to our Heavenly Father. Some people keep a prayer journal, others get up 15 minutes earlier to spend the time praying to God, others go for a walk or read a minute meditation. Find what works for you and make regular time to connect with God. Being connected to God will grow your faith.

Life is full of surprises - some good, some not so good. But each unexpected event that comes our way can actually be a divine opportunity. Trials grow our faith. Think about Jonah and the whale. Whether our trials ‘make or break’ us can also largely depend on the people we have around us. You need to walk through life with people walking in the same direction. What trials have you experienced that have helped to shape your faith?

If you have ever volunteered to do something for which you felt totally unqualified, then you already know what an experience like that can do for your faith. One of the primary ways God grows our faith is through personal ministry. Helping

the less fortunate, teaching Sunday School, serving in the community, are all ways we can undertake personal ministry. When your faith is stretched it gets bigger. In your inadequacy you experience the adequacy of our Heavenly Father. Get outside the bubble you live in and let God do something through you to help others. Your faith will get bigger.

These are just some

examples of things you can do to grow your faith. Find what works for you and stick with it. More importantly, let’s make sure we are making an effort to help each other to grow in faith.

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I ’m no expert on trial, but the last couple of years have taught me some real life lessons and I’m grateful and joyful what God has taught me.

I used to read James 1:2 'count it all Joy when you fall into temptation’s; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience' and not understand the true meaning behind it. I’m not sure about you but when I heard about serious life trials and hardships, I did not think of being joyful. To me joy was a happy emotion brought on when life was at its best.

When my life was turned upside down a few years ago it was hard to see Gods joy during the midst of my trial. Anger, hurt, frustration, bitterness, loneliness, fear, and rejection became paramount. God became distant as I turned to other things to distract me from what was going on – often movies, TV shows, uni work, music, magazines, and books. I pushed God away; I didn’t want to accept what was happening to me and why I needed to be molded.

Even though I ignored God for a period I see that God never left me. I see him in the kind words of a concerned friend, the conversations with others going through a similar trial, the gifts and flowers sent to brighten my day, the text messages of encouragement when I felt so alone, an inspiring talk, the embrace of a family member, the distraction of a nursing degree, teaching me through my work about mortality, and how short life really is.

God also taught me about the power of true forgiveness, the blessing of an ecclesial family, the reality of sin, and the realization that Gods grace was sufficient to get me through even the hardest trial.

Looking back, the true Joy of my trial was realizing that trials are not punishment, that trials bring benefits (endurance, empathy, and patience), and that trials allow you to experience a deeper faith as you depend and trust on God to bring you through. My trials have given me a fresh and new longing for the kingdom; I pray it will be soon.

Even so come Lord Jesus. – Jess Ginn (NSW)

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I was at a party about 6 years ago and someone I had never met before handed me a blank bit of

paper. He leaned across and drew two lines on it with a pen, making a large right angle. He went on to explain that it was a graph and that I was going to complete it. The horizontal line, the x-axis, measured the time since I was born to the present day. The vertical line, the y-axis measured my faith, my trust in God. It was to be a graph of spiritual growth, my own journey of faith. And so the pen was placed in my hand…

There was an uncomfortable minute. Particularly as the person said they were going to come back in a while and discuss the graph with me. I lay aside my apprehension and put pen to paper. Unsure exactly how to start, I figured that my faith had grown as I learned about God as a kid, so the line steadily grew. At around the age of 16 it rose real sharp. It was the moment I’d decided I wanted to be a part of God’s plan. Baptism. Jesus. The Kingdom. They all made sense.

So the faith-line was plotted on the graph. It took its journey. I’d like to

say that it soared upwards and off the page. But it didn’t. It went up and down like rolling hills, like a roller coaster. It appeared to be connected to the events in my life. There were a few harsh dips - life’s darker moments. Filling in the graph made me relive some of those tough times. My brother telling the family he was an atheist, my parents separating, a family friend committing suicide and my own struggles with drug addiction had knocked my faith hard. I seemed to be low in faith when I was low in life. Where was my resilience?

You should try plotting your own faith graph. Don’t worry; you don’t need to discuss it with me later. Just think about your own journey. I like to imagine my faith-graph as it goes off into the unknown future. The low spots seem to be fewer and less prominent as time goes by. It’s not that I think my life will be any easier or have fewer troubles. That would be naïve. I’m beginning to realise that God can help me maintain my trust in Him, even in the depths. I’m learning that when the ground disappears beneath my feet He can raise me up with wings like eagles. – Jon Fry (VIC)

But without God it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.' (Hebrews 11:6)

My God is the creator, sustainer, designer and maker of the entire universe. He holds all power, knows everything and cradles the world in His hands.

I love my heavenly father because He formed me and called me to know about Him and the incredible things He has done, is doing, and plans to do in the future.

There are many ways I feel God, see God and learn about God. In particular, the Bible that God put together. I believe the Bible is completely inspired and is sound truth, wisdom and encouragement. God, as my heavenly father, has blessed me over and above in the few years I have lived. He provides me strength each day, directs me in the way and helps me hold onto the hope of eternal life. This spurs me to choose to follow His instructions because I know they are right. By believing that God exists and acknowledging that He is a mighty, limitless being – I openly state that I have FAITH in God. I cannot physically see God but I do see God in what is around me. He directs my steps, hears my prayers, controls the events in the wide world and sustains the brilliant creation which all lead me to exclaim ''God you ARE real! I believe in You!"

God's greatest wish is a worldwide family and definitely wants everyone to come to Him and accept His overflowing love. Having real faith in God makes God so pleased and excited and does give Him glory. I wish to show God that I love Him by listening to what He has told me in the Bible and copying the way Jesus lived his own life. By the things I say and do, I am able to openly show others that my belief in God and FAITH is – alive, active and worth living for. Although it can be difficult following Jesus every day, a positive attitude, diligence and determination help to keep my days in focus and consistently moving forward. God knows all my struggles and Jesus sympathises with my weaknesses. Sometimes I deem myself unworthy but it is a humbling realisation that God DOES love me deeply and is desperate to help me finish life's race. He has planned and prepared the ultimate prize, the amazing kingdom of peace. I hope the kingdom begins tomorrow! Please come now, Lord Jesus. – Lara Morgan (VIC)

C S Lewis said (something like) "faith is the art of holding on to what your reason has once accepted

in spite of your changing moods". Something I've been learning this year is to try and trust in God's plan even when what's happening doesn't make sense at the time. Things change; life gets harder, then easier, then harder again. But God is constant, and his love for us remains the same always.

One of the ways my faith is really strengthened is by looking back at my life and being able to see now how God was shaping situations to help me. Usually I don't see it at the time, particularly if it's difficult to deal with. But the Bible says that 'God works for the GOOD of those who love him' (Romans 8:28) – not necessarily for their short-term comfort, or to give them an easy life. God looks further ahead than that – to our eternity, and always has our big-picture best interests at heart. I guess I'm learning to trust that, and believe everyday that God is shaping events and situations in my life to ultimately bring me closer to him. – Sally Thompson (NSW)

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Am I Doing Faith Right?Although I share my faith with you and with God’s family across the earth and

across time, faith is a deeply personal virtue. It’s personal because it creates my identity, my purpose and my attitude towards life and living. Faith dares to delve even deeper than being certain of the unseen. At its foundation, faith is a conscious and constant commitment to an identity within Christ under God’s care and providence. Through my natural and human tendencies to be distracted easily, lose focus and give way to inconsistent moods, having faith is being reassured and actively accepting God’s extravagant character of grace and peace and turning towards Christ’s spiritual wavelength and wisdom instead of taking the easy option and settling with my limited perspective.

Not only is faith believing in who God and Christ are, but it’s being confident in who they are creating me to be as a following learner. It’s not a selfish thing to have faith and belief in myself, but first I need the inner conviction that God’s spirit is living and moving within me and that God’s power can transform and use me for his pleasure. So faith is not merely believing in God and Christ, but believing and accepting that they want to and can use me for good!

Listening to God, then, is essential for a deep faith and a willing acceptance of his power working in my weakness. Breathing in, resting on, relying on and involving God and Christ in every moment and decision reflects a living faith, an open heart and a peace of mind. Confucius says ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand’. As James teaches us, faith is a verb, it requires action to be genuine and alive, and so it’s only when I allow God to move and use me that I can grasp the beauty, truth, freedom and depth of what faith is from my personal experiences, changes and hindsight wisdom. Faith, therefore, is allowing God to be God.

Having even a little faith is always a big challenge for human thinking. However, ‘only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist...if faith never encounters doubt; if truth never struggles with error; if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power?’ (Lee Strobel). Furthermore, ‘those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself ’ (Madeleine L’Engle).

We do not have to have it all together to have faith; rather, it is when we are weak that we are truly strong because faith is always present in all our being.

Faith is a deeply mysterious thing, and I long for the clarity that will be opened within me in a twinkling of an eye very soon. Thankyou God for who you are, for who Christ is and for who I am becoming in faith. xo

– Abi Catchlove (SA)

F aith PonderingsI am not sure that faith is something that we just one day acquire. In my experience faith is a dynamic force - it wavers

between shaky and solid and everything in between. I am also not sure that it is something that you can have too much of. Jesus said if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains - I have not moved any physical mountains lately - but then again, I don’t think Jesus was speaking literally in this instance. Faith is also so paradoxical in our 21st century lives. We say we have faith yet we take out every insurance imaginable. We say we trust Jesus but we worry about the smallest things. We say we believe that God is in control of our lives but then we try to bring everything within our grasp.

In my life, just when I feel like I am reaching a position of solid faith, I find myself back at the crossroads. I remember at university during my post grad degree in Ancient History, I was studying a subject called, “A Quest for the Historical Jesus.” Being a history degree and not a theological one, the subject required me to consider the Gospels as historical documents. I had to suspend the preconception of inspiration and delve into the Gospels as though for the first time. This challenged my faith deeply for many months. Sometimes I found myself wondering about some of the very fundamentals. Was Jesus the son of God? Is he our saviour? Did he in fact rise from the dead, or is he still buried somewhere beneath modern Jerusalem? Obviously the answers to these questions have profound impacts for then, now and the future.

Christian claims of faith are radical, fanciful, supernatural. An invisible being called God exists? He made us?? He had a son who died and rose from the dead??? We also will be raised???? We will live forever?!?!?!?!?!

No matter how much we delve, how much we reason, how much we analyse, we will never gain empirical evidence that these bold claims are true. It is faith that bridges the gap between doubt and certainty. Faith in the improbable. Faith in things we cannot see. Faith in a promise made many years ago. Faith in a future assured. – Mic Hindmarsh (NSW)

When I flip through the pages of my old diaries, I sometimes marvel at the faith I had 10 years ago. It was simple, almost unwavering. When I think of my spiritual journey in the

years since then I often long for that time when trusting God was second-nature.

After my brother died, I realised that God was more complicated than I could have ever imagined. At first, I told myself that the accident had nothing to do with God. Things just happen. But this didn’t last long. When the numbness wore off I found myself furious with God. Furious that He had the power to stop it from happening, yet did nothing. So we fought. Then I gave Him the silent treatment. But after awhile it gets hard to ignore someone who has been your best friend your whole life. I missed Him.

So I’m still finding my way after all these years. Faith is definitely a rollercoaster rather than a steady climb. But one thing I’ve learnt is that God can take whatever you throw at Him. He can take your anger, bitterness and disappointment. He would rather you shake your fist at Him and scream than ignore Him completely. Because if you’re screaming at Him, at least He knows you care. Anything is better than silence. – Jenny Pogson (NSW)

Recently Naomi and I returned from a 6 month cycling trip

across southern Europe. We rode from Madrid to Lisbon, then down to Morocco, around the Iberian peninsular, through Southern France, down Italy, Across Greece, hopped over to Turkey and finished in Istanbul. It took us five and a half months and we rode a bit over six thousand, six hundred kilometers.

It’s really interesting watching the different responses people give us when we talk about our achievement. They range from “You didn’t?!”, to “What?...You’re crazy”, to “oh yeah…walk in the park”. But the most common response we hear is “Wow, I could never do something like that”.

Noma and I didn’t set out on this journey to try to prove anything, or in order to ‘find ourselves’, but of course, there’s growth and thoughts and beliefs that stem from a journey like this. In this article, I guess I just want to share some of my internal ramblings about our journey, some of our ponderings while we were peddling, but mostly, I just want to share a message with you that has been pounding in my veins since we finished our trip, and that is: You can do it.

You could ride 60kms. I almost guarantee it. People ask us all the time “So, did

you train really hard before you left” and the answer is – well, no…not really. We did one real practice ride in the Kangaroo Valley – we were exhausted from our week at work, it poured with rain and we ended up walking our bikes half way up the other side. But since then, we’ve become fitter – physically and mentally. We started off just riding 60kms a day. It’s not as hard as you think it is, but by the time we were in France and Italy, we were riding 100kms in a day through terrain like the Kangeroo Valley and then getting up and doing it again the next day. And how? We just did it. If you could ride 60kms, you could ride across Europe.

Noma and I…we just chased a dream. We made a plan and we saw it through. It was a big dream and it seemed a little crazy, but at the same time, it was simple and joyful and free. Now, I know that camping and cycling isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, and there are a lot of people who just wouldn’t even be interested in taking a trip like we did. But this message is for everyone, and I’m talking on a different plane now– it’s not just about bike riding, travelling, buying a house, or advancing your career – of course, we all have goals, we all have hopes, we all have dreams, but what I’m talking about is about you and God and Jesus

and the fate of the world…it’s big and it’s heavy, but at the same time it’s easy and it’s light.

So I want to ask you some heavy questions: What are your spiritual goals? Are you chasing the dream? Are you gonna get there?

Sometimes we struggle to imagine the future. Sometimes having Jesus in our lives seems too difficult. Sometimes these questions feel so heavy on our hearts. But the answer is simple – Yes.

Jesus says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. That’s a strange thing to say isn’t it? It’s confusing. But I think it sums up the human existence perfectly.

Reality is, that most people want to be good people. But most people find it difficult to be good people. It’s part of the human experience to want something that feels hard to reach. And most of the time we fall into the old process of choosing the easy options rather than the one we really want – the higher calling. But that is just one small choice.

God called humans ‘very good’ from the very beginning. He opened his heart to us and he never closed it. There is no confusion about God’s faithfulness. He never stopped loving humans. His hopes and dreams have been the same since day dot and they have been working their way into people’s lives for centuries.

The only difference you can make is a choice.

Perhaps you are standing on the brink of a decision, perhaps you’re wading in indecision and apathy, perhaps you gave up on the dream a while ago. Wherever you are, it’s totally your choice. You know, you don’t have to do anything. The difference between a spiritual life and a not-spiritual life is just a choice. I just want you to know that if you choose God, it might seem difficult, but in God’s strength, you can do it.

You can chase the dream, you can step over the brink, you can choose life.'Do not fear, little flock. It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' – Ben Joseph (NSW)

SOME STATS:

Europe from West to East

Madrid (via Lisbon) to Istanbul

17 countries

4.5 months cycling

1 month travelling without bikes

Over 6600 kilometres

414 hours

Average Speed: 16km/hr

Max Speed: 70km/hr

9 broken spokes

12 flat tires

2 sets of brake pads

2.5 sets of tyres

4 falls

5 travelling companions

Over 2300 photos

2 bicycles

2 friends

Countless memories

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Edition 29, April 2011Connecting Christadelphian Young People

Edition 30, July 2011Connecting Christadelphian Young People

Edition 31, October 2011

Connecting Christadelphian Young People

Edition 31, October 2011 Connecting Christadelphian Young People

faith

hope

love

The issue of physical health and body image can conjure

up negativity especially as the media portrays the 'perfect' image. Many people battle with diets and struggle with motivation to exercise in striving to achieve such 'perfection'. But is it all external and worldly? The Bible contains information about looking after our bodies and that leads me to believe that our physical health can be directly affected by spiritual experiences.

It is important to note 1 Timothy 4:8, 'For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.' I believe the key to finding the balance with looking after our physical health is to view it as part of our spiritual journey.

Romans 12:1 tells us, 'Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.' God wants

BY AJA GODDARD

the living God' (Psa 84:2).God’s response to the Israelites: 'You shall have

no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it' (Psa 81:9-10). And he did fill their mouths …so much that 'they loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them' (Psa 107:17-20).

Jesus understood how the “word” can “heal”. In Matthew 4:1-11 he is tempted and overcomes it with his knowledge and love for God’s word. He quoted scripture including from Deuteronomy 8:3, 'He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.' Is this how we can break the vicious cycle of being consumed by cravings?

In John 4 Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman about how spiritual nourishment is more important than physical nourishment. He says to her: 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life' (John 4:13). Just after this, in John 4:31-35, 'his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work… open your eyes and look at the

our bodies to be something we look after and somewhere He can live: 'Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple' (1 Cor 3:16).

In 1 Corinthians 10:31 we are told, 'So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' Our eating and drinking should therefore be a spiritual experience, as opposed to the people being warned in Philippians 3:18-19 who were consumed by their stomachs: 'For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.'

Rather, for us: 'Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things' (Col 3:2). 'Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things' (Phil 4:8).

We see in Exodus 16 and Psalm 78 how the Israelites yearned for food at the expense of their faith in God to provide. Is it possible we love and rely on food more than we love and rely on God? Do we turn to food for comfort, reward, joy, stress, sadness, happiness? Often it is hard to avoid those edible temptations which we succumb to in times of stress, or to satisfy that desire, or as a reward for achieving goals! Perhaps there is a reason we yearn to fill ourselves. Did God make us capable of craving so we would have an unquenchable desire for Him? 'My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for

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fields! They are ripe for harvest."’ Is Jesus warning here, not to get distracted by physical food because it can not satisfy our deepest desires? Only Jesus can satisfy our deepest desires; we were created to crave him and bring others to him.

In Matthew 19:20-21 the rich young man asks what he needs to do to get eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep certain commandments and the rich young man confirms that he has kept all of them. Jesus then asks him to give up his possessions – to give up what consumes him or what he has an abundance of so that he can 'deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him' (Mark 8:34). For us, this can apply to all our daily choices, including wise choices about food.

So instead of joining 'those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags' (Prov 23:20-21). God says, 'Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare' (Isa 55:1-2). 'For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things' (Psa 107:9).

So, it seems there are a lot of links between our physical and spiritual elements. God supports healthy lifestyle and to achieve the results He

wants, the next step is exercising discipleship and self-control – just like a winning sporting team, successful business or superb orchestra. 'No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for

those who have been trained by it' (Heb 12:11).

Initially, this might involve setting ourselves boundaries, while we adjust to viewing food and exercise as a pursuit of living a God-honouring life. 'Since we have these promises, dear

friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God' (2 Cor 7:1). 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength.' (Phil 4:13).

Some foods or actions may not be sinful in themselves, but they are inappropriate if they control our lives and lead us away from God. 'Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive' (1 Cor 10:23). 'Therefore,

prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed' (1 Pet 1:13).

Jesus said, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, (not mochaccinos and mud cake!) for they will be filled' (Matt 5:6).

Then, in Revelation 2:7 it says, 'To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life…'

Our journey toward improved health can be, and should be, a journey that we make with God. Getting healthy isn't about losing weight or adjusting our diet. It's about adjusting ourselves so that we want to change –

physically and spiritually.1 Peter 3:3-4, 'Your beauty should not come from

outward adornment…Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.'

References: Food, Fitness and Faith for Women (Freeman-Smith,

LLC, 2010). Made to Crave (Lisa Terkeurst, Zondervan, 2010).

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MUSIC REVIEWS

When Playjerise made the infamous decision to break the band up in the year of 2010 they left a lot

of loyal fans heartbroken, bewildered and wondering what was next. Enter Jake Nauta (nort-a), one half of the Playjerise duo who was willing to pick up the guitar and make a go of his debut solo album.From These Hands was released in October 2011 and has so far received excellent reviews and ratings. And It’s safe to say if you are a fan of Playjerise you will be a big fan Jake.

Now after hearing it for the first time, you may make the mistake of thinking this is just another Playjerise album with a little something missing, and yes, while this album is devoid of the finger picking genius and harmonic brilliance of George, the other half of Playjerise, after a few songs you will soon forget all about him. From

BY GLEN VERDICH

These Hands begins to come into its own and Jake shows us that his talents are more than enough to make up for the missing band member.

And even if you’re into heavy metal, hip hop or punk, this album is still worth a listen. Jake's upbeat acoustic style makes for worry free, easy listening. He effortlessly mixes catchy melodies with sincere and heartfelt lyrics that draw you in straight away. Songs like ‘The Outside’ and ‘Come Back Home’ will keep you coming back for more, as they, like many others, seem to grow every time you hit the repeat button.

After repeated listens you will soon find yourself singing aloud, whether home alone or walking down the street. And when you notice a man has been following you down the street for quite some time giving you a weird look, you just flick to the

next song and all cares, worries and major embarrassment seem to fade away into the distant background.

I rate this album 4 stars, or a slightly biased 5. It goes perfectly with Sunday afternoon BBQ’s out on the deck. Jake must be congratulated on a great first release. And hopefully there will be many more to come.

It is available for purchase on iTunes and at Koorong.

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BOOK REVIEW

I love a good story. A tale of wickedness and wit, of love and adventure, of loss.

Of human spirit. Forbidden desire and selfish thoughts.

Innocent goodness coloured by wicked humour. A passionate endeavour to be heard and to live a full life, despite incredible fear and uncertainty. Seems perfectly delightful doesn't it.

Something about that resonates deeply within me and somehow it speaks to me of God, of his capacity to understand the inner complexities of our human selves.

The Diary of Anne Frank is such a tale. I read it for the first time when I was travelling Europe. A great thing about backpackers, and staying in hostels in the incredible 'book swap' system they have going on... Take a book and leave a book. Fabulous. Anyway, this is how The Diary of Anne Frank fell into my hands. A true story, of a girl who kept a diary while in hiding. She and her family hid in a secret house for over two years in Amsterdam as Nazi Germany sought to rid Europe of every Jew.

" As I've told you many times, I'm split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. By that I mean not finding anything wrong with flirtations, a kiss, an embrace, a saucy joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer. No one knows Anne's better side, and that's why most people can't stand me."

She is a teenager working through her growing mind. She is like every other girl, or boy for that fact. Wanting to live a life that she chooses, wanting to be free from rules and constraints that other people place on her.

What is striking about Anne Frank is the incredible honesty in which she views her life. She doesn't let go of her hopes and although she struggles with her feelings and her identity and what she should and shouldn't be, she retains an authentic desire to live, despite the grim circumstances she and her family are living in.

Of all the books I've read (which is shamefully not that many) this is one of the few that gives a real sense of faith, in hope. Real faith in being honest to yourself. Faith in the authentic desire to relate to those around you, whether you choose them or not.

If you haven't read this book: READ IT! It will warm you. And make you laugh.

BY BELINDA BURNS

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WE ASK YOU...

Pat Thatcher (NSW)Love is really impossible to define because as soon as you try to define it you lose its meaning. Love is changing, never the same. Love is simply love.Adam Wiltshire (NSW)

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me.

Gab Eggington (NSW)Right, how do I define love?Christ dying for the very people who nailed his hands to the cross.Christ storming into the temple so that every person there could see how wrong what they were doing was, and have a chance to change.I see love, not as the art of 'keeping the peace' although that's important in some cases, but as remembering that actually human opinions don't matter – It's about trying to find out what GOD wants, putting others before yourself and helping each other get to the kingdom, no matter the cost.

Leah Hillhouse (VIC)I think love is wanting to be your best for yourself and/or somebody else – in actions, words, and emotions.

Craig Blewitt (Africa)Too easy...Jesus

Ben Joseph (NSW)Love... Often you'll see Love hanging out with God, Grace, Peace, Holiness, Spirituality and Faith (generally on the weekend)... but deep down in Love's heart, who it really likes to hang with and where it likes spending its time, is when it decides to be friends with the needy, the disadvantaged, the neglected, the sick, the hurt, the unloved, the bullied, the depressed, the addicted, the angry, the sad, and of course the strange. I like Love for that.

Isabel Melles (VIC)'Love is knowing almost certainly that your heart is beating exactly the same as the other person.' or that 'Love is the most complete sense of inner peace, of wanting less of the world, and wanting one person more.'

Steph King (SA)Love is being willing to give everything you are to someone and wanting to spend as much time as you can with them.

Jacinta Pogson (NSW)I can't define something I have never experienced. Hahahaha my original answer was actually a lot more depressing than that. Actually that isn't my answer. Actually I don't know. This is hard.

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BIRTHSLila-Rose Faith Morgan (Dan & Bek)

Kaylee Rose Errington (Andy & Beth, QLD)Heidi Clara Gaston (Pete & Julia Gaston)Quahzel Oryen Thomas (Jason & Jessica)

BAPTISMSBrianna Simons (Blackburn, VIC)

ENGAGEMENTS–

WEDDINGS–

SUBMISSIONS SUBMISSIONS SUBMISSIONSWe need you! The first edition for 2012 is themed JOY!If you have any JOYFUL ideas, articles, artwork or poetry, we would love to hear from you!

For more information about subscriptions or submissions contact The Vine Email: thevine@scyp.net Phone: 0423 509 208