It’s been a while. But someone asked me about the blog a few days ago and I hadn’t really given it much thought for a while. I guess I’m not a big blogger. But you can consider this a second crack at it, mainly because I do want to share the love that God has been impacting me and the people around me. There have been numerous things that have happened over the past year or so, but I’ll just start from now. Otherwise I’ll be here forever.
Many times in my day I’ll have thoughts come upon me that I question whether they are my own or God speaking to me. To some that might sound a little looney, to other completely normal. I find myself in this situation, pondering whether to act on these thoughts, questions or ideas that pop into my head, or to just ignore it. I’ve decided that if I’m going to work out how to discern what is God and what is me, then I’ll have to start acting upon all of them and seeing which ones God works through. This blog is sharing a God moment that’s undeniable.
On my way to West Beach for a skate the other day I had a thought pop into my head… I was going to be meeting a mate at the skate park, and the though was to give my mate a $50 note. Randomly. No reason! Just cause!! I started to consider whether this was God or my own thoughts. While skating with my mate, the thought continued to pop into my head. It was as clear as day… “Give him a $50 note”. I had no excuses, because I knew that I had a 50 in my wallet. The skating continued, and eventually came to an end. I said see ya to my mate and took off to my car. We had parked in opposite car parks. By this stage I had decided that this must be God telling me to give him $50, and I needed to get to my car quickly to grab the $50 for my mate. So I quickly drive my car to the other car park to catch my mate before he leaves. What happens next is undeniably God at work and throwing His abundant and amazing love around…
I get out of my car and hand the $50 to my mate and tell him that God kept telling me to give this to him… and then at that moment God prompts me to tell him to take his wife out to dinner with the $50…. my mate is stoked and is grinning from ear to ear. Totally stoked!!…… but it doesn’t stop there…
My mate goes on to tell me that the night before his wife had wanted to buy a voucher online to go out to dinner together. He had said to his wife that they couldn’t really afford it, but that they really did need a night out together without the kids………. THIS IS THE GOOD BIT……… ARE YOU READING CAREFULLY….. He tells his wife to buy the voucher anyway, and that God will come up with the money somehow. So his wife bought the voucher……. it was $49!!!!
I don’t care who you are, but if you know me at all you’ll know that this is truth and undeniably God at work.
Yet another example of God sharing His love around.
The other night I was hanging out at a mates place, it was starting to get a bit late, but we were feeling pretty alive and stoked on God and decided to drop off some floorboards at an investment property he owns not too far away. By the time we loaded the boards and headed off it was around 11pm. The property my mate has built on is next door to an older couple of which the husband hasn’t been real pleasant about some of the building etc. A bit grumpy you might say. Anyway we’re dropping off these floorboards minding our own business when all of a sudden the neighbour shines a torch in my face asking “who are you and what do ya think you’re doing?”. Now we were being really quiet because it was getting pretty late, around midnight by this stage, and this guy has come out looking to have a go at us. He knew who we were because he’d just rang my mates wife. So I tell him what’s happening and that the owner (my mate) is in the house. He replies by saying that I’d better get him outside or he’ll call the cops. Not exactly a nice loving neighbourly way to start off. Anyhow, my mate comes out and he was pretty annoyed at the old guy because of previous encounters, and could easily gone out all guns blazing and had a showdown of words with the bloke….. But he didn’t…. Even though he wanted to. The old bloke had a go at him saying that doing this at this hour of the night wasn’t a very good neighbourly think to do, even though we’d made no noise at all. So instead of retaliating… my mate thanked the old guy………….. he was completely taken back by it. He was expecting a showdown, but instead he got a thankyou. He got some love! My mate thanked him for being such a good neighbour and looking out for his property, and that he’d do the same in return. The old guy was almost speechless. They talked a bit more and then he said good night and went inside. Amazing! God’s love which lives and flows through my mate completely changed the outcome of that situation. He really painted a picture of ‘love thy neighbour’ for me. We were pretty stoked about it.
Peace
It’s been a while since the last posting. This is just a quick one to get back into the swing of things.
Two days ago I had just finished cooking some pumpkin soup on the electric stove when Jessi decided to put some of the soup into a container. She spilt a drop on the hot plate, which was still very hot, obviously. Not thinking about it she tries to wipe up the drop of pumpkin soup off of the plate with her finger. Ouch!! Hot Hot Ouchy Burnies!!! She straight away puts her finger under the tap with cold water running on the burn. Now recently I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff about healing prayer, so I go up to Jessi, put my hand on her finger and tell the pain and burn to go in Jesus’ amazing name….. I asked her how it felt… “still hurting” she says, continuing to leave her finger under the water.
I could very easily have just left it there and thought “it’s just a small burn. She’ll be right”, but I didn’t want that. So I thought for a bit…. then asked God what it is that I need to heal my wifes finger. The response was as clear as day. “Love! Simply love. Use the love that I pour out on you, and let it over flow on your wife”. So I did. I gave Jessi a little kiss and left it at that. A few moments later Jessi went to the bathroom to dry her finger with a towel, when I hear her say “it’s gone”. “What?”… “the burn, the pain, my finger feels fine. There is no burn”. Her finger has been fine since. No sign of a burn at all. Praise God!!
Healing is still an area that I’m journeying through, and most definitely don’t have all the answer right now, but in that moment God gave me a simple way to heal, and that was to just love. Amazing!!
Peace Out!!
Post with 2 notes
Having been part of Christian Surfers for a few years now its so great to notice the difference God’s presence in the water can make to your surfing experience. CS’s vision is to “be a Christian presence and witness in the surfing community”, and this blog really shows the fruit of that.
The other day we (myself and 2 mates) went for a surf at a break that is kinda regarded as a bit of a local spot, where local have been known to get a bit annoyed at outsiders. I recall another occasion surfing there when a local was very unhappy with us surfing his break and he paddled off in a huff. So you get the picture. Anyway as I paddled out at the break the other day I decided to make a conscious effort to be God’s love and bring Him into the line up with us. I should be more conscious of this every time I surf, but it doesn’t always happen. There was an older local out, and so I paddled straight out to him and another dude with a massive smile and commented on the awesome weather and waves. Then I continued to just be loving in my approach to the waves and people in the water. I called others into waves that were possible for me to catch, but they were in great positions to get stoked on the wave too, and I would hoot and comment to them on how great a wave they’d caught. The atmosphere in the water was great. The waves weren’t super amazing, but there was a buzz in the water. An excitement. People who didn’t know each other were having conversations and loving life. We truly were bringing God’s presence into the water through our loving of other over our love of the waves.
If we had of paddled out with a focus on catching as many waves as possible, the locals would have been annoyed, the atmosphere would have been unhappy. No joy. And that would have sucked. Our surfing experience would have been no where near as good, because realistically the waves weren’t that amazing. But instead we loved, we brought joy, we brought God, and we had the best surf. We ended up being in the water for 3 hours. Amazing!
Praise God that He can enhance our experiences 10 fold. We just need to allow Him to do His thing through us. To shine His love and glory.
Peace!
A very important element to the love of God is the fact that it’s unconditional. There are no conditions applied. God loves us no matter what, and He does so without the expectation of love in return. He loves those that don’t even love Him. So this is an element of love that I want to put into practice.
I’ve been searching for opportunities to bless others with the gifts God has given me, and with whatever materials He’s blessed me with too. After all it all belongs to Him anyway. Yesterday I was in the local surf shop (a regular accurance) buying some gear. As I chat to the girl behind the counter she explains to me that the front of the shop is being painted this week, and that the owner will be cleaning the front of the shop before it gets painted. This was going to be happening the next morning at 6am (this morning). BANG! God says to me, “you should help them”. Now this is a shop that has blessed me and my friends time and time again, and I felt so strongly about helping them clean it up. I also had a sense that they would need some of my tools.
So this morning I headed down to the shop to help them clean it up. It was great. The owner was stoked, and they did need some of my tools to fix a couple of things up, which I had in my car. It was a great experience, and it was awesome to chat and fellowship with the owner of the shop. I really feel as though it showed him more about what God’s family and community are like.
This kind of love, this unconditional love is what is needed so much more in our communtities. It’s especially common in the surfing industry that people will help someone out (e.g. at a competition) in expectation of recieving something cool in return. I myself am guilty of having this motive to help out sometimes. But I’m starting to realise that if I love with an unconditional love, that the people around me are blessed so much more, and I myself am blessed more as well, because it creates a community of love. This love is no ordinary love though. It’s God’s love, and when God’s love is around, things start happening. Opportunities arise and blessings are poured out all over the place. The key is to love unconditionally.
Peace!
Two days ago I was very keen to go surfing. I was at a Christian Surfers National Conference and I hadn’t surfed yet, and this was two days into the conference. Now to some people this may just sound silly that I was so keen for a surf when I had surfed that week already. It’s kinda like hanging out at a fun park for a couple of days and not going on a ride. By the end of the second day you’re just ichin’ to get on the rides. It’s the same when you’re at a surfing conference.
So off we go for a surf in the arvo. We felt like chargin’ some big waves, so we head to a beach that could deliver the goods. But it wasn’t any good. Then we check another spot, which was good… but was a long walk to get to and I only had an hour left to surf and get back to conference for a music practice. By this stage I’m feeling pretty grumpy. So we head to a spot that’s real close to the conference centre that had some small waves breaking. We hit it without a moments hesitation….. but then we realise that the waves are crap. Barely breaking!!! and really really really frustrating!! I leave the water in a huff before the other boys do and go stand by the car to settle down and stop myself from getting upset over such a small detail of life. A ute pulls up next to me…
Now it’s not often that older people (who are non-surfers) will talk to a surfer at a beach. They’re usually just doing their own thing, like driving, walking, riding, etc. Anyway, this old guy gets out of the ute and has a look in the bin. He’s looking for cans and bottles to recycle. He collects his bottles, chucks them in the back of the ute, and then does something I wasn’t expecting. Now I wasn’t in the mood for starting a conversation with an 86 year old dude, but this old guy asks me how my surf was, how my easter has been, and then goes on to tell me all about what he’s been up to. I eventually start getting into the conversation.
Anyway, he starts telling me about how he can’t seem to sit still and not do some form of work, which is why he goes and collects recycling. Something to do. He shares about how he loves to do things for other old people who can’t do it anymore, like the “silly old bat” who wanted a wood shed built to keep her fire wood dry for winter. So he finishes what he wanted to say, and then drives off.
When he’d left I thought about how awesome it is that this old guy was blessing others who needed help. From the language he was using I assumed that he wasn’t a christian, but without him realising it, he’s actually blessing and loving others in a very God kinda way.
And what did this do?? Well he also had blessed me. He took the time to talk, and he showed me some of that love and blessed me. This changed the atmosphere. It made me feel good. I felt happy. And the only reason this happened is because this old guy took the time to love. I was blessed by unknown.
I also have other stories to share from conference, so I’ll blog some more tomorrow. Bless ya and good night!!
How can we love someone tomorrow? or today? What is a simple thing that we can do in love that’ll change someone’s day… or lives.
Join me in asking God to show you how to love someone (hopefully a stranger) tomorrow… or today. Be on the look out!
There’s no greater act of love than that of Jesus dying on the cross for us, and to try and make any other act of love live up to that is pretty bloody hard. In fact it’s impossible. But it’s still so amazing to experience true acts of love in our day to day lives, whether we’re the loverererer or the recipient of love.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than loving my family through my actions. And the feeling that comes over you when this happens really gives you a true understanding of the spiritual nature of love (all actions are spiritual, but that’s a blog for another day… maybe). It can change your emotions, your day can go from bad to amazing, and more importantly it can change the atmosphere of a home or anywhere that you are. It can impact the people around you who aren’t even directly involved in the loving.
Why does this happen? How can a single act of love be so powerful?
It’s comes back to the fact that God is love. As soon as you throw some love on someone, God is there and every part of Him shows up too. With these acts of love comes God and His immense power, glory and holiness. It’s this that changes the atmosphere around us when we simply love. And there are many other things that can come with that ( e.g. Healing etc), but that’s also for another blog.
So I don’t have any cool or amazing stories to share today, but I would like to encourage everyone to do random acts of love, perhaps in random places, and see how it changes the atmosphere and the people present. See what happens when God shows up.
Peace out!
The comments situaton has been solved thanks to Ben and Dean. Sweeeeet! You can now comment on my blog. Hip Hip Hooray!
Page 1 of 2
