I (don't) Promise.

I have learnt from experience that I can not keep promises.

Firstly, it is not fair for me to promise you anything. And if I do, please do not hold me fully to my word. For I am human, and with me, nothing is certain. I make mistakes. I fail. I forget.

I am not saying I won't try to keep it, if I happen to promise you something, and it will never be my intention to purposefully break a promise I have made in the past.

Even now I can not promise that I will no longer promise anything!

Secondly, it is not fair for me to promise me anything. Words are binding and controlling, and sometimes I say things I don't mean, in order to make the people I love, happy.

This is no way to be.

I don't want to be held captive today, by promises I made time ago, even though at the time I truly meant them... For I am changing. I am restless. I am not sure of what I want. I am growing and learning, and I realise now that I can not always hold true to promises I make.

And I am sorry.

But my God, He is steadfast and unchanging. The same today, as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. He makes promises that He keeps. He is faithful and true. He can be fully trusted! It is fair that He makes promises, for He knows that He can not and will not break them. He will not let us down. He is good.

Deuteronomy 7:9

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God. He is a faithful God, who keeps his promise and is merciful to thousands of generations of those who love him and obey his commands..."

(GWT)

There are, however, two promises I will try my hardest to keep;

The first - To love my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength.

The second, I have not made yet but if the day comes when I may say 'I do', I will do all in my power to hold fast to that promise.

Thanks for the constructive criticism!

It's about 10pm.

I'm sitting at my desk, staring at my laptop.

A blank word doc is open, I'm completely stumped as to what to do next, and the guy downstairs who has his bass line turned up full is not helping my creative juices flow.

(why not blog about it?)

I have no idea how to make a bibliography, or how to correctly reference texts I've referred to.

I don't know what stance to take in my essay, or even how to start writing about The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

"...There's a bit to do to make the most of your ideas, but this is quite promising work."

:) Well I'm glad it's quite promising. Thanks.

Unfortunately, however, your feedback has no practical advice, and merely just states the obvious so is therefore quite unhelpful.

It is taking the majority of my self-control right now, to not start typing www.faceboo....... in to the address bar.

Here's to life as a student.

(And yet I shall praise my LORD that Heaven is my home and this is just a place I'm passing through until Christ returns!! Philippians 3:20. There's always reason to hope!)

Good News!

I feel like I've been such a big moaner lately, and I've been having a complete downer on Christians too. I'm really sorry about that.

This is my formal apology, and I'd like to tell you about my morning in hope it counteracts my recent negativity...

After time in the Word with God this morning I went for a shower, only to find that we had no hot water... after phoning to inform someone of this, I proceeded to boil the kettle, add it to cold water in the sink and wash my hair that way.. I then got a text from my friend that she'd overslept and might not be able to make it to church today...

It seemed like it was going to be one of those days.

Even so, I took joy and peace in knowing that I am blessed to own a Bible, God's living word, and be able to read it. I am one of a privileged minority, to have access to clean water, be it hot or cold. And I also have the freedom to actually go to a church and worship without fear of persecution.

This reflects my every day.

Lord help me to be thankful and grateful for all that I have, give me the strength to let go and not hold on to worthless things, and help me to give more generously where there is need, and to those who don't have.

So Tamsin made it on time for the pick up this morning, despite sleeping through her alarm, hurray! (Tamsin is a new and rather awesome friend of mine from the CU at Keele!)

And waiting in the SU Carpark for us was a lovely gentleman called Stuart, who had driven twenty minutes out of his way this morning, to take us to church. We got tea and toast when we arrived, and were given a tour of the building by a nice girl, Lauren.

We made our way outside, to the Town Square, for the Remembrance Service. We sang and prayed and read scripture, we stood in silence for 2 minutes, and reflected as the wreaths were laid and salutes were given, in honour of all those who died that we might live.

I sat next to a beautiful older couple, when we returned indoors for the rest of the service; Marjory and Peter, who's granddaughter is named Jemma and is in her 2nd year at Keele.

I stood side by side with Tamsin, young and passionate, on my right, and Marjory, experienced and full of wisdom, on my left. And we worshipped our God together.

This morning, people went over and above to make sure Tamsin and I got to and from church and felt comfortable and welcomed whilst we were there. They loved us the way Jesus loves them, in small and simple ways, but still..

We remembered those who fought and died in Wars long since past, the heroes of our country, the ones who secured the freedom of our nation. We remembered those who are still fighting, serving our brothers and sisters in other countries, sacrificing comfort and time with family, to try and secure the freedom of other nations.

People, old and young, believers and non-believers remembered today.

Remembered the sacrifice of a few, to save many.

People, old and young, believers and non-believers heard today.

They heard of the sacrifice of One, to save many.

The Good News was preached today. All around the world.

And some people will not only have heard, but will have responded.

Those in war-torn countries and in countries at peace, those with and without access to clean water, those facing persecution because of their faith, those worshipping in the open, those who can read, those who can't, the old, the young, men, women, children...

The Good News is for everyone.

May it never cease to be preached.

Amen.

1 Corinthians 2:2

"For I decide that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified."

Just a little ditty I wrote for you to enjoy, on this not-so-pleasant November evening...

I called it the Happy Song.

It's not so happy, but I wanted it to be. So that's the point.

Enjoy.

With LOVE, in Him x

OOooh I'm just looking back through to some folders of stuff I wrote during the year and there is some GOOD STUFF in there...

Yes it's 1.30am and I should be in bed fast asleep right now. But when it's ridiculous O'clock I just want to write!!!
Anyway, so I'm blogging this as an official reminder that in the New Year, I want to post some of (not all of!) my old pre-blog writings. Coz some are quite funny, and creative! Others are quite raw and deep.

But all of them are a testimony of how far I've come, how good my God is and how much He has done in me over the past 12 months.

So this is how I'm gonna do it.

E.g. Something I wrote on January 9th 2010, I shall post on January 9th 2011... exactly 365 days after writing.

:) and now, goodnight!!

christian.

I've been thinking lately of how much I don't like this word.
Well I have no problem with the word itself I suppose. The noun form is fine, too.

But the adjective I have a problem with.

Nowadays this word has so many uses.

It conjures up so many images, and memories and historical references.

So many negative connotations. So many rules, and judgements and fears...

Rob Bell talks about the use of this word as an adjective, a describing word. Sometimes it works, but at other times it's dangerous.

It puts pressure on us.

It reminds of all the rules and laws, the things we should avoid or stop doing or give up.

Today the word 'Christian' seems scary and is avoided at all costs (unless used as the focal point in most stand up comedy routines).

To talk about 'Christian' things seems foolish, to be a Christian is even worse.

Because it's no longer just a title, it's the description of a lifestyle - one associated with self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

And therefore those who are Christian, are embarrassed*, those who aren't are glad.

(*I know that's not strictly true.. I am proud to call myself a Christian, and there are many others who are too, in the true sense of the world..)

It shouldn't be like this.

Most of all, the word 'Christian' seems all too far removed from the concept of grace.

And that's not right.

We need grace.

Desperately.

Without grace, there is no meaning to the cross. Without grace Jesus was just a crazy guy who died a sinner's death for treason and blasphemy, and nothing more.

Without grace there wouldn't have even been a guy called Jesus. The Messiah. The One who Saves.

There would be no Christ. No one would be saved.

No Christ to save = No saved, to be called Christians.

No, we need grace you see.

Because we're dirty, and sinful and wretched. And we need to be saved. Remember? Like filthy, old rags before a pure and perfect God? Without grace we stay that way.

Without grace, we work for our salvation. We try at least.

And through this we have created a monster of a religion, full of rules, regulations, denominations and discrimination. A religion that focuses on works, on standards, on ability to not slip up or fall to the dark side or get things wrong.

Oh, how far we have fallen from our first love!

I don't know how it got like this. We've forgotten the fundamentals of our faith. We have forgotten what the Word tells us:

For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)

He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness (1 Peter 2:24)

Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:4)

For it is by grace that we are saved, through faith (Ephesians 2:8)

Praise God!

Our actual religion is centred on the cross, which is God's way of displaying grace to us, the least deserving.

The World needs to hear about the love, grace and forgiveness that is offered to us by God, through Christ's sacrifice.

That's the only way they're saved. He's the only one that matters.

Instead of our lives preaching do's and don't's, our lives should reflect the fullness of Christ. We should be displaying love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We are Christians because we are follower's of Christ, the One who saved us. And we are being made more like Him each day.

So lets start living like it.

They were first called 'Christians' at Antioch. (Acts 11:26)

Waking Up

When you're in that semi-conscious state somewhere between being asleep and waking up, and your brain has already started to mull over the things that were concerning you yesterday. Upon finally reaching full consciousness, and without consent, your mind has already begun to worry.

It's not the greatest way to start a day, but how can it be helped? I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this!

I hope that one day I might wake up singing praises, or praying or reciting scripture. Perhaps that seems weird to some people, maybe to those who don't believe the same as me.

But doing any of things would be better, more joyful and more productive than worrying!

Who'd want a broken heart?!

(me, please)

http://chughes.ca/?p=239

Hungry for the Word!

So i'm sitting there, right. And i'm thinking about the LORD (as you do), and about life lessons and sound teaching i've heard from good people.

And then it just sort of dawned on me.

A wise woman once told me that reading your bible, is like eating meals.

"Sometimes," she told me, "you don't even feel hungry, but you eat anyway because you know that you need to eat to stay alive. And sometimes you just eat because you like eating, and it tastes good and you get cravings that you want to fulfil! You don't just need food to stay alive though, it's not all about survival, but growth. Babies need to eat for growth and repair, same with children, and even adults. You (we!) just need food."

And in the same way, we need to read our Bible. Not just to stay alive, but for growth and repair.

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that 'All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training..'

It's never a waste of time. ever.

My favourite part of the conversation with this wise friend of mine went like this though;

Rebecca - "What did you eat for dinner this time last year?"

Me - "Erm... Really? I have no idea."

Rebecca - "Alright, how about last tuesday?"

Me - "....I can't remember."

Rebecca - "OK, well what was the best meal you ever had?"

Me - "Erm.... Oh gosh, well, oh yeah OK, when I was younger my mom used to always make this soup with these tiny little pasta shapes in... ohh no actually, there's this dish at Big Wok called Egg Foo Yung and i've actually never tasted anything like it, or nooo there was that time I went out for my friends birthday and-"

Rebecca - "Now you don't necessarily remember what you ate last year, or even last week, but I guarantee those meals gave you energy to continue through the day, even though you probably didn't think about it. But you do remember the really good meals, the ones that mean the most or taste the best, and you can recall what they were, when you need to."

Again, this is like reading Bible reading.

And this encourages me in a morning, to get up and read His Word, regardless of whether I'm completely shattered and have a 10am lecture to get to.

It's unlikely that I'll remember everything I read or study. But it's never wasted, it gives me energy, it makes me spiritually healthy and it gives me nutrients to store up and draw on when the time is right. And then every so often, I'll have an incredible meal, I'll read something specifically relevant or God will reveal something new and invigorating, and I'll remember it and it will be a defining moment and a meal I'll remember for a long time.

But I need to remember that most times when I read my Bible won't be like that.

But they are just as important.

And so the thing that dawned on me?

(and i'm not sure if it's theologically sound yet, but it's a cool concept with regards to the theme of food and bible reading yay!)

"In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God..." (John 1:1-2)

This word was breathed out and things were formed and other such cool things.

And it goes on to say that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

So this 'Word' (logos) they are referring to is Jesus, yes? He became flesh, and He dwelt among us in around about 2 AD.

And the Bible, is also the word of God (remember that 2 Tim 3:16 verse!) and therefore, Jesus is the Word of God: the Bible... In a sort of weird, supernatural way.

Let's just say Jesus = the Word = the Bible.

Yeah?

OK so another thing about Jesus is that He declared "I am the Bread of Life." (John 6:35)

And so not only is Jesus the WORD (i.e. the Bible) he is also the BREAD of Life.

For the mathematical among us then, Jesus = Word + Bread.

And there you go. That was my revelation moment. That Jesus even told us that he's the bread of life, He's the food we need to survive, and grow, a be repaired and yet we can enjoy it too. And we get this bread through reading His word, feeding on it, chewing it over, savouring every syllable, every word and verse and letting it satisfy that hunger inside.

Man, our God is good. And having just got back in to reading my Bible, I remember now, how good His word tastes.

Mmmm...

Bon Appetite!! (And thanks God, for the good food!!)