CHONGLAND

Today has been an interesting day, with a couple of quirks and decisions that turned out for the better…

Over lunch we had our City Bible Study at Australia Square. In attendance this week we almost had a full complement with Sam, Josh, Gordon and myself. We went to get some food and I opted for a sandwich, I was keen for my usual; a number 5 on white with fillings of chicken, tomato, avocado and tasty cheese. As I approached the counter and blurted out my order, somehow the number 8 slipped out…. I ended up with pesto, salami, roasted veggies, rocket and feta on white….. It turned out to be a very tasty slip of the tongue….

I had the pleasure of leading our group through Psalm 4 which says:

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
¹ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
² O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
³ But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
⁴ Be angry, and do not sin;
l ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
⁵ Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
⁶ There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
⁷ You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

The quirky thing that happened today involved a personal joke that was a little offensive in the office…. Our temp Megan is finishing up due to our restructure and holidays finishing up…. There’s been some hard times having her here and some fun times. Someone complained about my message on her going away card being offensive, but it was a personal joke… The head of our department pulled me aside and asked if I was being offensive or if it was a joke, and I explained it, but boy was it a bit awkward….
It reminded me how we do need to be above reproach as Christians as Paul says in Colossians:

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Over the last two weeks at bible study we’ve been looking at the book of Haggai as part of our minor prophet guest leadership series, these studies being written by Manny and Ally.

The book is only 2 chapters and speaks of the remnant of Israel; Judah, after their exile in Babylon, and their rebuilding of the temple. It’s a little unusual how it fits into the bible, I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it’s like putting a magnifying glass or a microscope over Ezra chapters 3 to 6.

The remnant of Israel had followed the decree of the Persian King Cyrus to rebuild the temple of the Lord. They tended to themselves first, looking after their own houses and needs, but the Lord spoke through Haggai telling them to work on his house the temple. They responded by building the temple, but amongst them were some who had seen the former temple built during the prosperous time of King Solomon who encased the temple with layers upon layers of gold, as we read in 1 Kings 6, and they were discouraged that this new temple did not match the glory of the former one. God reassures them that this temple will be more glorious than the first and that He will fill it with His precious gold and silver which he will take from amongst the nations.
Again God speaks to the people and asks them about clean and defiled things. He tells them that they are defiled, all the works of their hands were defiled, and not only that, since they’d started building the temple, God had been halving their produce and productiveness and still they did not turn to Him. He told them to think hard about these things, effectively telling them to come to God and do the things that He had asked of them. To signify this change God would stop cursing them and instead would bless them, and in the future He would overthrow Israel’s enemies.

Whilst studying the book it felt a little unusual, parts kind of stuck out, but didn’t seem to gel well together… After I stepped back and looked at the book as a whole, what God was doing and how the people were to respond and how they actually responded I could see some parallels between what happened in Haggai and how people come to be a Christian….
As a non Christian, most people tend to focus on themselves and getting ahead in life, they don’t look to God and what he wants for their life, so they tend not to prosper in things eternal. God reveals himself to them and they start looking into Him, but they are still defiled, as are their works. When they call for repentance and put their trust in God , he cleans them and blesses them, and will soon conquer their enemies at the end of days.

It was a good book to study, definitely made me consider my ways before the Lord.

Attraction is both a wonderful and yet unusual phenomenon. I’ve often based my attraction on the physical, following the general flow of the world that we live in, rather than looking beyond that to the characteristics and personality of a person.

Recently I feel that this has been slowly changing, by the grace of God. I’ve made the effort to communicate and get to know people, mostly by way of facebook chat, but also by means of face to face conversations on a number of occasions as well. For me one of the most helpful things in these conversations is prayer; I continually ask people what I can be praying for them. Peoples responses are usually open and honest, and it is a joy and a privilege to be praying for these brothers and sisters in Christ, and I feel ashamed that I don’t do it as often as I should.

I find that there is the ever-present danger of my mind, especially as a guy, convincing me that because a sister is paying attention to me and interacting with me that she is “in love” with me and vice versa.

I’m interested to hear how it goes for you. If you’re married, how do you maintain relationships with the opposite sex? If you’re female, do you have the same or a similar danger?