Living in Perspective

take a minute and try to imagine eternity. Not just a long long long time, not even time at all, but eternity. Forever. Infinite. No end. Ever. Pretty hard to wrap your brain around, yeah?

I was at small group with my family the other night, and one thing that was brought up was the idea of living in perspective – living with eternity in mind. I have to admit I consistently forget that this world is just my temporary home. I forget that my life here on earth is just a tiny, tiny fraction of my life in heaven. I forget the things that truly matter right now, and I spend way too much focussed on the things that don’t. I forget to live in perspective.

Jesus will one day come again, and we don’t know when that time will be – could be a week, could be a year. But when He does return and we come face-to-face, what will He say? I know that I’ve spent a lot of my life straining for things that, ultimately, don’t really matter; yet at the same time, I haven’t spent nearly enough time working for the things that do – serving those in need, reaching out to the hurting, spending time with God, and bringing others to Christ. In the end, when we compare our lives on earth to eternity, the little things seem just that – little.

one person that I think truly succeeded in living life with an eternal perspective is Jim Elliot. You may have heard of him – he’s one of the five missionaries who were killed in the 1950′s while ministering to the Aucas and other tribes in Ecuador. He was an incredible man of the Lord and didn’t take his life for granted, but instead strived to love God and love others in everything he did: “I seek not a long life but a full life, like that of Jesus Christ.” He didn’t even live to see his thirtieth birthday – but what an impact he made for the Kingdom!

What would our lives look like if we, too, lived in perspective? Let’s make the most of every minute and let’s live for what truly counts.

Thanks again for reading…have a great week, everyone
x

Take Heart

“Be Positive!”

It’s a phrase we hear so often, but it holds special meaning for Christians because our positivity is based on something concrete – God’s providence and power. Whatever situation we may be in, we can take comfort in the fact that God is working in and through that situation and that He’ll never, ever leave us. When times get tough, it’s easy to complain, to get angry, to get discouraged – but our circumstances shouldn’t dictate our attitudes, because we have a God who is greater than our circumstances! Instead of worry and despair, God offers us peace – if only we will trust in Him.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Stay positive and take heart…He is bigger than any struggle you will ever face!
x

He Calls Me Friend

greetings, Mezzoers! Glad to bring the blog back out of hibernation, looking forward to reading everyone’s posts again.

Anyways, let’s jump right in…

One of my favourite verses at the moment is found in Exodus 33 (when the Israelites were being led out of exile) and describes Moses’ encounters with God in the Tent of Meeting: “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” (Exodus 33:11)

short and simple, but what a powerful verse! Some of you may have heard that the earth’s population recently hit seven billion – in a world full of such an insane number of people, it’s even more incredible to realise that God knows the name of each and every one of those seven billion people. But God doesn’t just know our names. He knows every single aspect of our lives, every single thought we have, every single thing we feel – and He wants us to know Him, too. We may not be in the exact same situation as Moses, but we can still have an amazing, personal relationship with the very same God; we can trust Him, we can confide in Him, we can speak to Him as we speak to a friend. What an incredible, incredible privilege, one that I know I take for granted way too often! But not only is God our friend, “can we say that we are His friends? Do we listen to Him? Or do we only want Him to listen to us? Do we want to know what’s on His heart? Or do we only want to tell Him what’s on ours? To be a friend of Jesus, we need to listen to what He wants us to know and then use the information to bring others into friendship with Him.”

So today, why don’t we set aside some time to get one-on-one with God – don’t be afraid to let Him know what’s on your mind or just to take some time to rest in His presence – and then listen to what He has to say, too. The best way to get to know someone is to spend time with them – why not take a few minutes today to spend time with God?

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.” (Revelation 3:20)

Thanks for reading, guys; have a fantastic week.

x

We are back!

So…..

after a wee break over the summer. (and beyond!haha!), the Mezzo blog is making a return. Us Mezzo leaders are very excited, and so should you be too. So be on the lookout and spread the word…

Leave you with this very cool video….

 

Beautiful things!

I woke up this morning and felt realy distgusting! You know when you wake up and you just feel realy ugly? Well thats how I felt! So I rolled out of bed and turned my I-pod on and this was the song that came up-  this helped me to remember that god doesn’t care about the same things  that we care about, he doesn’t see us as pretty or ugly faces (now heres the cheesy part!) he cares about who we are as people! And I know that you have probably heard all of this before and it seemes like old news but it really isn’t because when you stop caring what you look like through other peoples eyes and start to care more about what you look like through god’s eyes things tend to become a lot easier!

“For the lord is living among you, he is a mighty saviour, he will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears, he will rejoyce over you with joyfull songs!” Zephania 3;17

So next time you feel ugly or unwanted, remember that god will always love you and will always view you as his gorgeous son/daughter and to be honest, with god, the creator of the universe, of everyone and everything loving you than what else do you really need?? It doesn’t matter what other people view you as because god loves and cherishes you with an overwhelming passion! So you dont need anyone elses approval or criticism on who you are because God knows who you really are and thats all that anyone could ever need!!

taken by suprise

today, whilst reading, i ran my silver crucifix through my fingers. Letting the chain slide over my hand and between my fingers, i let slip. The chain and crucifix fell to the floor…. i sat staring at it, i remembered when i first bought it, what it meant to me to have a lifetime reminder around my neck that jesus had saved me. Then i thought of how many times i had taken Christianity for granted, and turned astray to be like everyone else, but evertime i looked at that tarnished scrap of metal hanging around my neck, thats all it is, a piece of metal.. but in the shape of the cross it would show my guilt and my shame everyday untill i finally, turned back to god for what it would seem as the 1ooth time to start over.. we can get to comfortable and relaxed while on good terms with God, but it only takes on mistake, one sin, to take us back to the bottom. Always be on your guard and rely on God to see you through tough times. Never forget that it is Satans one goal to turn you away from the truth that is God. You cannot let this happen, Jesus never said it would be easy, but with his help, we can make it. So never forget what jesus has done for you, remind yourself everyday that you have been saved. Do not become lax and skip reading your bible or praying because when you feel at your closest to God, you are at most risk of falling into one of satans traps. Be consistant and ask God to renew your strength. Dont forget, and then only remember when you see the cross slipping between your fingers. Put your faith to the test everyday and press into God. Christ didnt die just so that we can have a cool necklace. Remember the cross everyday. The way that jesus never, and will never forget about you.

I Don’t Know What The Future Holds…

But I know Who holds the future… Is a song lyric that I love.

It talks about how we can trust God with what’s in store for us, and that is especially important to remember as exams loom for a lot of us.

God says the same to Isaiah,

‘The LORD Almighty has sworn,

“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.”‘

Whatever God’s good plans for you are, they always are good, and he will carry them out. He’ll make sure you get the right results in school, whether that means they’re better or worse than you now expect. And maybe he’ll let you know what he wants you to do, whether thats four years in advance or the evening before you get a phone call asking if you’d like to go to India (which I have heard happens!)

And maybe he won’t let you know, after months and months of asking and listening and waiting. I’ve been there. It’s frustrating. But I know that if God really doesn’t want me to do something, he’ll tell me, or make it impossible. So if we’re not told otherwise, I guess we’re free to choose. I guess God doesn’t always only have one amazing plan for us. Maybe, considering the number of years we have on Earth compared to the eternity we have beyond, our career doesn’t matter too much anyway. It’s the small things like giving generously and loving everyone you meet that are most important.

So let’s trust God with the future, but let’s also pray he’ll fill us and guide us in our everyday lives.

Reflect

Meet Lecrae.

This artist recently tweeted in reply to ‘what’s the hardest part of being a Christian artist?’ He said ‘remembering you’re a reflection not the source of light’.

I think that applies to us too.

When things are going well – we’re getting good grades, being admired by other people, or doing what God would want in a situation – then it’s tempting to think that it’s all down to our own awesomeness. That we switched our goodness, our ‘light’ on extra bright, and God must be impressed at how well we’re doing this. We’re doing so well he doesn’t even need to help us, right?

Wrong.

Because if we think like that, what happens when things go badly? When we mess up, when it doesn’t feel like God is with us, when we disappoint someone? We end up believing that we’ve let down God. That we’ve shattered his expectations as well as our own. That we’ve stopped shining, so we’ll somehow have to pull ourselves together and switch the light back on.

But that’s not how it works.

Isaiah 60.1-2 says

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”

This verse basically means that we should shine because God is over us like the sun – he is what is making us shine. Without him we would be utterly dark, dull. We are called to shine as we are shined on. We don’t need to make light, or strain to switch it on. As reflections, we depend on God for all our brightness.

So I reckon that as long as we’re facing God (by trying to make him centre of our lives, even if we don’t always succeed) then we’re shining, reflecting him. We’re displaying his goodness and his love and his holiness, even when we don’t feel like it. Because it doesn’t depend on our efforts at all, it depends on God.

Easter :D

Finally the easter holdidays have come, we have two weeks off school and it will soon be easter sunday when we can eat all the chocolate eggs we want . but is that what easters really about?

No. Even though society percieves easter as being all about bunnys and eggs and chocolate. Its not and from a christian perspective it is really much much more. It was when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But why?

There was so much sin in the world it was acting as a wall between us and god, stoping us from having a relationship with god. Jesus came and died for our sins so we could have a relationship with god. Be honest who here would give up their lives so thousands of people you dont know can have a relationship with your dad? Im not sure i woul but jesus did It just shows how much he loves us.

So this easter anywhere you may be wether thats Sunny tenerife or not so sunny Aberdeen pray to god and thank him for jesus and thank him for sending his only son so we can have a relationship with him.

Hope you all have a great easter

Mezzoer out

Through thick and thin HE IS THERE :D

Hello

I just want to share a little bit about the hardships i have faced for being who i am and how god really works in tough situations. Most of my life i have been bullied for being bigger and well not as pretty as other girls. I have heard every name under the sun i have been beat up , hurt , had pins on my chair and well emotionally scared from things people have said. It wasnt easy being the only christian in my primary school but through thick and thin i knew god was with me. Everyday i would come into school and someone would cause a scene or slag me off but it never stopped me smiling. I look back at things like that now and i can see how god has worked in my life and really helped me along the way.

For example i remember i had just had the worst week ever and when i went to my old church in the morning I met this women who really showed me the love of god.  We got talking and i was telling her about my week and how it had went and she listened and prayed with me, this was a new experiance for me as i had never been prayed for before. Then church was over and I went home.

The next morning i woke up to find a card posted through my door from this women saying how encouraged she was by ME i was more encouraged by her. She went on to say how amazing I was and how the next time she visted our church we would have another chat. Unfortunatley I then left my old church and i never saw her again. But i remember i used to take out that note whenever i felt down or upset and just read it trying to understand the love god felt for me. I still do. It always makes me smile when i read it and whenver i had the worst of days it reminded me of gods love for me .

God uses little things like letters to build us up and make us smile in the roughest of times.  He never leaves us even when he feels distant. His love endures for ever. he is good and cares about each and everyone of us and if you feel like he wants you to write soemone a letter or send them a text DO IT because that could be the most amazing thing they ever recieve I know mines was

God bless

mezzoer out