Click on the picture below and maybe think about how you could get involved with a project like this!
Or download a petition by clicking here
Monday, April 23, 2007
Standing Up for the Oppressed
Roots is taking a break this week, but that doesn't mean that More Roots has to!
Click on the picture below and maybe think about how you could get involved with a project like this!
Or download a petition by clicking here
Click on the picture below and maybe think about how you could get involved with a project like this!
Or download a petition by clicking here
God and his symphony
Acts 4:24
Notice how God makes everything. But when we think of what God makes do we ever wonder about why? Or perhaps what does it do?
I think we sometimes seem to think that it's only humans that God is interested in. But what if God was interested in all of creation?
"Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them." (Psalm 69:30)
So what do you think of this:
"Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun's atmosphere.
"Snagging orchestra seats for this solar symphony would be fruitless, however, as the frequency of the sound waves is below the human hearing threshold. While humans can make out sounds between 20 and 20,000 hertz, the solar sound waves are on the order of milli-hertz--a thousandth of a hertz.
"The study, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, reveals that the looping magnetic fields along the Sun's outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to musical instruments such as guitars or pipe organs..."
Read the rest of the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070419/sc_space/sunsatmospheresings
Notice how God makes everything. But when we think of what God makes do we ever wonder about why? Or perhaps what does it do?
I think we sometimes seem to think that it's only humans that God is interested in. But what if God was interested in all of creation?
"Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them." (Psalm 69:30)
So what do you think of this:
"Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun's atmosphere.
"Snagging orchestra seats for this solar symphony would be fruitless, however, as the frequency of the sound waves is below the human hearing threshold. While humans can make out sounds between 20 and 20,000 hertz, the solar sound waves are on the order of milli-hertz--a thousandth of a hertz.
"The study, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, reveals that the looping magnetic fields along the Sun's outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to musical instruments such as guitars or pipe organs..."
Read the rest of the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070419/sc_space/sunsatmospheresings
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Look at us
It's strange that a case of mistaken identity happens at a place called beautiful (Acts 3). Beauty is a strange and misleading thing. We often make assuptions about people based on how they look. Have you ever thought...
He looks like a trustworthy guy...
She looks like a good manager...
He looks like he'd be a great prime minister...
She looks great, I think I'll ask her out?
Do you ever notice that at most weddings the men are wondering how they never realised she was so attractive before?
Peter and John are on they're way to the temple one day when a crippled beggar asks them for money.
Was it because they looked like the kind of people who had money? Was it that they paused at just the right time for him to ask? Maybe he asked everyone.
But he asked them - possibly the only two people he'd seen that day who had less money than him.
However, inadvertedly he asked the right people. For whatever reason he asked them, he chose wisely, whether intellect, intuition or sheer fluke, he asked the only two people who really could help him that day.
Ok, so he didn't get any money out of them, but he did walk home that day.
Which makes me ask about how people see you? As much as we understand that looks are only skin deep, unless you have those glasses that we all wanted when we were young, seeing beyond skin and clothes is the domain of God.
Which then makes me ask, what causes people to ask you for help? Is it because you look like someone who could help, is it because you were there when they needed you, or was it sheer fluke?
For too long people have discovered the walk restoring church and people of god by fluke and nothing more. And if we don't look like we can help, why should anyone ask?
So maybe it's time to look in the mirror (physically and spiritually) and ask whether we carry the right look?
Then go help someone walk again.
He looks like a trustworthy guy...
She looks like a good manager...
He looks like he'd be a great prime minister...
She looks great, I think I'll ask her out?
Do you ever notice that at most weddings the men are wondering how they never realised she was so attractive before?
Peter and John are on they're way to the temple one day when a crippled beggar asks them for money.
Was it because they looked like the kind of people who had money? Was it that they paused at just the right time for him to ask? Maybe he asked everyone.
But he asked them - possibly the only two people he'd seen that day who had less money than him.
However, inadvertedly he asked the right people. For whatever reason he asked them, he chose wisely, whether intellect, intuition or sheer fluke, he asked the only two people who really could help him that day.
Ok, so he didn't get any money out of them, but he did walk home that day.
Which makes me ask about how people see you? As much as we understand that looks are only skin deep, unless you have those glasses that we all wanted when we were young, seeing beyond skin and clothes is the domain of God.
Which then makes me ask, what causes people to ask you for help? Is it because you look like someone who could help, is it because you were there when they needed you, or was it sheer fluke?
For too long people have discovered the walk restoring church and people of god by fluke and nothing more. And if we don't look like we can help, why should anyone ask?
So maybe it's time to look in the mirror (physically and spiritually) and ask whether we carry the right look?
Then go help someone walk again.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
From temple to temple
Your body is a temple!
It sounds like an advert for some high-promise low return beauty product, but actually it's from the Bible, but it's not about beauty...
...because truth is so much deeper than looks!
The Bible is talking about your body being the dwelling place of God. Where did that idea come from?
In Acts chapter 2 we find this group of people - Jesus' disciples - who are about to embark on a lifetime of serving God and making the world a better place to live in. So they're all gathered together in 'one place' (which was a way of talking about the temple) and while there God fills them with his Spirit which helps them to actually make the world a better place.
What's strange about this is that traditionally, God's spirit was supposed to be in the temple - not in a group of people who happen to be in the temple.
Unless God was changing how he did things!
No longer was God going to be confined to a place or a building, but he was going to be intrinsically part of the positive effect on the life of an individual and how they live.
What would that be like?*
So when we're talking about your body being a temple, maybe it's not a question of 'should I or shouldn't I', smoke that, drink that, buy that, take that, borrow that, wear that.
It's a question of - if God's spirit is in me (and not a 'holy' building) what impact should that have on the lives of those around me?
*3000 people changed their lives on the basis of the evidence on day one!
It sounds like an advert for some high-promise low return beauty product, but actually it's from the Bible, but it's not about beauty...
...because truth is so much deeper than looks!
The Bible is talking about your body being the dwelling place of God. Where did that idea come from?
In Acts chapter 2 we find this group of people - Jesus' disciples - who are about to embark on a lifetime of serving God and making the world a better place to live in. So they're all gathered together in 'one place' (which was a way of talking about the temple) and while there God fills them with his Spirit which helps them to actually make the world a better place.
What's strange about this is that traditionally, God's spirit was supposed to be in the temple - not in a group of people who happen to be in the temple.
Unless God was changing how he did things!
No longer was God going to be confined to a place or a building, but he was going to be intrinsically part of the positive effect on the life of an individual and how they live.
What would that be like?*
So when we're talking about your body being a temple, maybe it's not a question of 'should I or shouldn't I', smoke that, drink that, buy that, take that, borrow that, wear that.
It's a question of - if God's spirit is in me (and not a 'holy' building) what impact should that have on the lives of those around me?
*3000 people changed their lives on the basis of the evidence on day one!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
