I’ve had an interesting couple of days.  I’m just back from a planning night and day in Portballintrae with the Year Out guys from church…good craic and we did get some stuff done!  We also played that game last night where you have the name of a famous person stuck to your forehead…the object being that you ask one question each time it’s your turn to try and narrow down who it might be.   Well…we aren’t the quickest at working these things out…and so it was about 2am before we finally got tkinking about bed!!…although I was pretty quick at guessing I was McCauley Culkin…remember the skinny wee kid from Home Alone who I don’t think has acted since…he has had the right idea…make your fortune and retire at age 10…

Anyways…

On Wednesday, thanks to the good work of the Evangelical Alliance, I had the joy of meeting up again with the guys who had been on the church leaders retreat back in Feb…I’d a great wee time with them again.  I came away encouraged and challenged.  We were able to talk together about loads of stuff…personal struggles and victories were shared, stories of churches engaging with local community/culture inspired me, listening to thoughts on ‘calling’ and ministry really made me think freshly again about where God has placed me…I just heard lot’s of exciting stuff spoken from the hearts of people really seeking to out the Kingdom…again, my heart was stirred with a desire to give my life serving Jesus…all about him, all for him…in my heart I really belive God wants to do amazing things through his people who are truly and unashamedly living out Christ in the world around them, empowered by his Spirit.  People who are willing to die to self so that Jesus might be seen and glorified ever more clearly…I want to live like this and be part of something that seeks this…in doing this new ground must be broken and that might be a ‘messier’ road than just sitting tight in church doing the tried and tested…but I believe God doesn’t want us to play safe in any way…

Yeah…so I’ve been challenged…and I’m getting myself ready to be challenged even more.

Just to finish – please take a miute or two to read this – it’s an extract from Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias (2000).  It’s about Emperor Napoleon who apparently was often quoted as not really believing in the existence of Jesus…these are very interesting words that suggest otherwise…

Napoleon expressed the following thoughts while he was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There, the conqueror of civilized Europe had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. He called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, “Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?” The count declined to respond. Napoleon countered:

“Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this is was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man’s creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.”