Fuel » God

God’s presence

mhjones — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:32:40 +0000

This semester at Tabor College I’m taking a preaching and public speaking class. And guess what!? We have to preach!

Preaching to your classmates (ie. “preaching to the converted”.. heh..) is at once nerve-wracking, and also a great joy.

Here’s how it works: Everyone in class listens to your 10 minute mini-message and writes a few things they liked plus a few areas you could improve. I suspect most pastors out there rarely get that level of detailed feedback from so many people all at once. And thankfully everyone has been encouraging and constructive.

This is my second message prepared for this class, simply titled “God’s presence.” We spend so much time thinking about what we need to do in order to reach out to God. The incredible thing to consider is that God Himself is actually reaching out to us. It’s such an awesome thing to realise.

A few notes on the audio – you’ll hear the whirring of the fans in the background, and that little buzz you hear a couple of times is a little handheld gadget that buzzes to let you know you’re nearly out of time! Yes, I’m a bit geeky…

Click here to listen: Mark Jones – Gods presence

Between the trees

mhjones — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:15:47 +0000

Last night we watched a DVD by Rob Bell, from nooma.com. It’s part of a series of videos that creatively discuss tough questions about the Christian life. One of the ideas tackled in this video called “trees” is that God wants Christians to be involved in activities like social action and the environment. We live in a time “between the trees” – that is, between the tree in the Garden of Eden, and the tree of life that the book of Revelation (ch 22) says will be in Heaven to produce fruit and leaves that will “heal the nations.”

“We live between the trees, in a world drenched in God. And some people seriously ask, you know, ‘Where is God?’ Maybe a better question would be, ’Where isn’t God?” I mean, his fingerprints are all over our world. Or maybe it’s his world and they’re our fingerprints.” Rob Bell

What does your God look like?

mhjones — Sun, 06 May 2007 12:34:38 +0000

A friend and I were talking over lunch about our different faith backgrounds – I come from the protestant evangelical tradition and she’s Catholic. Naturally enough the subject turned to our perspectives on God.

For many people, their idea of God is based on the cliche God of the Old Testament. Fire and brimstone, and plenty of smiting for those who don’t behave. The angry, unhappy God.

My friend contended that she preferred the God of the New Testament, the loving, merciful, gracious God who forgives. She argued that they must be two different Gods because of the stark contrast. We differ on that point – I believe there has only ever been and will ever be the one true God who created everything.

And so that got me thinking about my God. My God is the God of both Testaments, the loving God and the jealous God (jealous in the “I love my wife, back off man” kind of way).

The conversation reminded me of a Bible verse that God brought to the attention of my wife and I back in January – it’s a promise that we are believing every day this year.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope,” Jeremiah 29:11.

The lesson for me was that the God of the ages isn’t out to smite me. It’s taken a long time to learn that one, and to believe that He’s creating a great future. So I’m really excited about the future – that’s why I’ve started this blog. For me it’s something of a public diary, and I hope you also find it encouraging. Welcome.