The point here is important: you can think you have a good and successful organisation that is functioning well according to the criteria you set down, but that apparent success may be an illusion. You can look at your organisation and say ‘Yes! This is great’, but when God looks at it what does he see? Stephen Judd et al
A mild start to the day, near perfect for riding on Kaputar Road. #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
The crucial point here is that you do not have to intend to be sinful to carry out sin. You just need to lose your sense of truth versus falsehood and allow yourself to become cognitively dislocated and disoriented from the fundamental reality that is God.
Watch right to the end for the punchline!
All over the continent, normally drab looking bushes and trees herald spring by bursting forth bright yellow flowers. There are dozens of species from the tropics to Tasmania that we give the generic name Wattle. They even have their own day, September 1st, Wattle Day. Monty Python honoured them with a poem.
This was one of many wattles on Yarrie Lake Rd this morning.
Have you ever thought about why you do the things you do?
A lot of the things we do every day are habits that have built up over the years. Some habits are good, some not so good.
Psychologists call the unconscious process behind a habit the behaviour chain. The behaviour chain goes like this: A trigger causes a thought, leading to an action that leads to a consequence.
So, for example, as the time approached 10.30 at night, my body tells me to get ready for bed. That is an environmental trigger caused by the time. After that a whole train of actions follow: turn the TV off, fill the dishwasher, go to the toilet, brush my teeth, go to the bedroom, get undressed, pull back the blankets, lie in bed, close my eyes. Finally, the long-awaited consequence is going to sleep.
That’s a great behaviour chain, because I don’t have to remember all the things I need to do to go to bed.
A bad behaviour chain for me involves the arrival of 8.30 pm, when my brain tells me to go to the fridge and get chocolate, regardless of whether I am hungry or not. Then the thought is “Eat chocolate” and the consequence is an ever-expanding waistline.
Remember when you started to drive? You had to be told everything. But after a few months, the complex processes of driving become habits, and you can drive without any conscious thought.
Sometimes people tell me they can’t find time to pray or read the Bible, which are two of the most important daily habits christians need to develop. The way to start this process is to set up a behaviour chain. Program an alarm into your phone to go off at, say breakfast time. The alarm goes off and reminds you to read the Bible at breakfast time. After a while, you don’t need to be reminded that it’s time, because the smell of toast or the boiling of the kettle will be the trigger.
God has given us awesome brains, and we should use things like behaviour chains to replace bad or harmful habits with habits that draw us closer to Him.
If we substitute ourselves for God, then we end up with a false picture of the world. If we cannot see the world clearly, we cannot live and act faithfully within it. We end up living in what Chris Hedges has called an ‘Empire of Illusion.’ Stephen Judd et al
Scripture
“I tell you the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
Observation
Jesus tells a story about a land owner who plants a vineyard, builds a wall and a wine press, and then leases it to share farmers.
When the time comes for harvest, he sends servants to collect his share of the harvest. The share farmers kill them, so the owner of the vineyard sends a bigger group of servants but with the same outcome. Finally he sends his own son. The farmers reason that if they kill the son, they will keep the estate. So they murder the owner’s son.
Jesus asks the Pharisees what happened next. They reply that the owner will kill the farmers and lease the land to some people who will give him his share of the harvest.
Jesus then says that the Kingdom will be taken away from these people and given to a nation that will produce fruit.
The priests and Pharisees then realise that the story was aimed at them.
Application
If we stumble over the stone that the builders rejected and later became the cornerstone, then we will be destroyed by that same stone.
This seems to be a harsh word. Jesus wants us to know that our choice, either for him or against him, carries grave consequences.
Jesus did not only bring salvation into the world, but also judgement for those who reject him (john 3:16-18)
If we are drowning in a river, an approaching rescue boat will bring salvation. We might take offence at the colour of the boat or the person driving it, and choose death rather than life. Them eans of Salvation then becomes the sign of judgement against our own choice.
Our eternal salvation depends on the choice that we make now – to follow Jesus or to follow our own way.
Prayer
Thank you Jesus for saving me even though I did not deserve it. May I produce the fruit worthy of salvation. Amen.
I rode out to Bunnings and around the edge of town before going down to Riverbend this morning. It’s surprising to see hay bales in a paddock in suburbia, but that’s how we roll in the country 😂🚲 #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
New Life Narrabri 