Pressure works in two directions. It can press in from something outside of us, or it can build up and push out from within like a balloon about to burst. Many families today are like balloons right on the edge of bursting. There are just so many things that families have allowed to fill their lives. Things like music lessons, sport, academic tutoring, or second language classes have family members out every night of the week. Then there are the technology pressures, online gaming, personal electronic devices and entertainment streaming services that isolate people from each other even on those rare occasions when they might all be at home together. The outside world has more pathways into family life than ever before and many families just don't know what to do with the pressure it exerts. Today, God encourages us to fill our family life not with activities, although these can be great; not with devices and entertainment, although there is also a time and place for this; but to fill our family first with the Word of God - a word which teaches, admonishes, corrects, guides and shapes us into the likeness of Christ and enables us to live abundantly and obediently in the midst of every external and internal pressure point a family can face.
#2 in series Pressure Points
There’s a lot of fighting about money’, ‘we have no time with our children’, ‘it’s diminished my pleasure in living’, ‘it’s impossible to enjoy family life’, and ‘it’s nearly torn my husband and I apart’. These comments in a recent NSW survey convey just some of the anguish and distress that is being felt by sky-high inflation, surging rental prices, and exorbitant energy costs. More and more are reverting to last resort measures to cover costs - skipping meals, going without prescribed medications and health care and relying on Buy Now Pay later to cover the essentials. Then there is the shame that people have felt at not being able to afford a haircut or decent clothes, having to borrow money from family or lining up at food pantries for the first time - and it's not just low-income families. The cost of living pressure point is real and many are cracking under the strain. God knows the pressure you are under…and today he speaks a word of hope and promise that enables us to live with faith and trust when the cost of living pressure point is breaking us.
#1 in series: Pressure Points
"This is not what I signed up for!" Ever spoken those words? Launched yourself into a new position a new role, a new project with great expectations, high hopes and even (secretly) visions of grandeur ? What did you do when you discovered a reality that was quite the opposite? The dream was shattered with disappointment, the anticipation replaced with anxiety and things go from bad to worse...the longed-for success becomes a matter of survival. Meet Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe who desired to be the hero of the people but was hated by the people, who anticipated triumph but experienced trauma, who longed for recognition but was subject to ridicule. who desired exaltation but was driven to exhaustion! If that is your story too, and you are ready to disengage, God has a word that will enable you to persevere and fully engage in daily faithfulness, even when the task seems thankless. We'll explore that today.
#11 and final in series: "Fully Engaged"
Nomophobia. Many of us have experienced it. Those who suffer from it are left directionless, flustered and lost. It can cause isolation, disconnection, and anxiety. Nomophobia…the fear of losing your phone! The phone has become so essential for our lives that we are constantly asking 'where is our phone' or others remind us, 'Have you got your phone?' Our phones gives guidance, direction and keep us connected in life. Our phones give us entry to places, give us access to information, pay our way and help us navigate through lots of life's circumstances. But as many of us have experienced….the battery can run out when we most need it, disconnect us from others without warning or take us to destinations that we haven't desired to go.
God has a way of keeping us connected to him and his promises. It's called prayer and today we will look at how that helps us to remain fully engaged with his promise.
#10 in series: "Fully Engaged"
The Fool. In Shakespearean drama, the character of ‘the fool’ comes in many guises, but whatever form they take, whether common peasant or court jester, ‘the fool’ is often the only one in the play who accurately reads the situation and provides sound wisdom and understanding.
Just as the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight (1Cor 3:19) sometimes the wisdom of God can seem like foolishness to us. In today's reading, God asked Jeremiah to do something that is absolutely crazy and foolish from a worldly perspective. But that is exactly the kind of obedience that God asks of Jeremiah, that’s the type of faith that he desires of his people, that’s a hope that trusts more in the wisdom of God than in the opinion of the popular culture. And that’s what it means to be fully engaged in God’s legacy even when it appears absurd and foolish...That's what we’ll explore today
#9 in series: "Fully Engaged"
Secret sound, it’s that game that almost every radio station has played at one point or another. Play a short clip of an everyday sound, something that people hear all the time but probably never notice or actually listen to and see who can guess what it is.
Sometimes God’s heart is like a secret sound, it’s something he has demonstrated and shows to us on a daily basis and yet for many of us it is often something we fail to recognise. But the beat of God’s heart is no secret, God’s heart beats for his people, for their restoration to a loving and right relationship with himself and with each other. That’s what we’ll rediscover as we explore being fully engaged with God’s heart.
#8 in series: Fully Engaged
Social media gives the ability to curate our own life and our own online communities. We can choose our friends and what we allow them to see. We can choose how deeply we engage or connect with those we follow or who 'follow' us. But that doesn’t often lead to deep and authentic community or connection. We seem more at ease these days holding each other at a distance rather that getting to involved with one anothers business.
Sometimes God puts us in places we don’t want to be among people we’d rather not share life with. But where we are may be exactly where God needs us to be, for not only do we learn to trust him and the future he has promised us, but we might be a part of his plan to bring connection and hope to the cities and places where he has called and placed us. Today, we’ll explore what it means to be fully engaged in community life, with God, right where he has placed us.
#7 in series: Fully Engaged
*** The first couple of minutes of the video are not recorded as the internet went down and we had to restore from another connection. Our apologies.
Between a rock & a hard place…A Catch-22 situation. It's used to describe those times when you have to choose between two equally undesirable outcomes. You sense there’s no-win whichever way you go; and as much as the inspirational calendars want you to believe...making something ‘beautiful’ happen is not always possible.
In those circumstances, discouragement is the rule not the exception. That’s where we find Jeremiah…struggling between discouragement and frustration…fear & disappointment.
Even when we are battling things on all fronts, feel ready to give up, see no good decision, there is One who is with us, whose grace & faithfulness enable us to move into our day obedient to him…as hard, frustrating, or discouraging as it seems. Jeremiah and each of us receive exactly what we need to stay fully engaged…even in the struggle.
#6 in series: Fully Engaged
It's a truth that all teacher's know. Visual aids are critical in the learning process. Complex ideas can often be conveyed easily and effectively with a single image. While the human ear processes up to10,000 bits per second (bps) at maximum bandwidth, the human eye can process up to 7 billion bps. So neurologically speaking, a picture is not just worth a thousand words, but 700,000 words! A visual cue speaks more than we can ever know. That's why God takes Jeremiah on a field trip and uses a visual aid to communicate a truth that needs to be seen to be understood. He wants Jeremiah and us to know that he has the absolute right to shape, form and fashion us into what he desires for his purposes. Whether his people yield to his touch or resist his touch, God remains fully invested, engaged and intentional toward us, and his plans for the world will not be thwarted. Today he invites us to be fully engaged in his sovereignty and says, "it's your move!"
#5 in series: Fully Engaged