Friend vs Servant...

I've been thinking about how we regard this thing we call a "Relationship" with God

I was reading in Velvet Elvis about how the bible never says anything about a relationship with God and that it is something that has been brought in to try and express something that is unexpressable.

I wonder if a different way to express this could be to go back to the picture of a servant.

When I think of a servant I think of a person who willingly serves their master- this is different to a slave who has no choice, a slave is purchased and is property, yet a servant is willing, a servant acts for the masters good and seeks to please his/her master.

A trustworthy servant is given freedom and independance to make decisions on behalf of the master to benefit the masters cause

I seem to remember a parable that talks about how different servants were given differing responsibility based on their ability and trustworthyness. A trustworthy servant is given freedom and independance to make decisions on behalf of the master to benefit the masters cause. I wonder if this is what God seeks for us, he is happy for us to make decisions while in his service that will further his cause.

This is a different view to the "relationship" with Jesus way of viewing things, I know of soo many people (including myself) who are looking for a mystical magical relationship with Jesus, there is almost a expectation that you will always 'feel' in Gods presence and that it will be super. The difference when you start viewing things through the eyes of a servant is that there will be times when you spend time with the master (e.g. times of prayer, worship, bible reading) but there will also be times when you are not in the masters presence (i.e. when you are not spending time activly talking/listening to God) but you are still working to further his cause. I wonder if we get caught up on the being with the master and when we are not "with him" we feel like we are a bad servant.

What do you think? Am I off track?

No mates...no thanks UPDATE

Its been an interesting few weeks since I posted 'No mates... No thanks'. I have tried to get out more rather than stay at home and feel sorry for myself. I have been going to the New Life Young Adults group that I talked about and I am enjoying it. It is not easy at times meeting new people but I am positive about it.
I have been going to different Church services aswell, I was at the local Elim on saturday night and I really enjoyed the worship, there was a real sense of energy and life in the church that inspired me. I found the speaker was challenging aswell but he did try to hype up the crowd a bit :(
On the sunday I went to the New Life evening service where a friend was worship leading for the first time. She did well. This was different but I enjoyed it.
I have also been getting into my music again, turning up Planetshakers or United Live and spending time just focusing on God and celebrating him.

Brad if you read this I appreciate your comments and trying to catch up with me, I am sorry that it hasnt happened yet, I just have been crazy with life :) but I do appreciate the comments you have placed and that you care for me.

I also should acknowledge that I steal a lot of images for this blog from DeviantArt.com, I find this site to be an amazing repository of art of all different styles. I recommend that you have a look for yourself. Generally with the images I use if you click them and look at their name in the address bar you will see the name of the piece of art and who the artist is. You can search for this on DeviantArt.com.

I went to a service today...

I went to a service today...

There was a couple of hymns...

The bible reading was from Ecclesiastes...

A person got up and spoke...

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and then the casket was taken out of the room by the pall-bearers...

The service I went to was for the friends Gran that I reference in my previous post, the scary thing about this is that this sounds very similar to a lot of church services that are held every Sunday.

I wonder if for average Joe New Zealander the only experience they have of Hymns, Bible readings and Speakers is at funerals. I don't know about you but my experience is that a funeral is a sad occasion that I try to avoid and I never look forward to.

Is that the image that people have of Church? We invite people to church and we do the same things that are done at a funeral?

Funny ay?

I acknowledge that part of what Jesus went through was death, but there was also a weird thing that happened after three days... Something about him raising from the dead and him hanging out with his followers (called apostles) when they were having a meal, for the apsotles it must have changed from a funeral to a party!

Just gets ya thinking about how we 'do' church...

Death

Death - its one of those things that we know will visit everyone we know eventually (including ourselves) but we ignore that it can happen untill one day BANG! you get a phone call, a text, or read in the obituaries in the paper that someome you know has been visited by death. One of my friends Gran passed away a couple of days ago and the thing that is confusing is how do you let the grieving people know you care and are there to support them?

I mean what do you say? I find saying that I would pray for them seems so hollow yet I know that as a person who claims to follow this "essence", this "force" that we call God prayer would seem to be pretty important.

Have you ever wondered how you handle people who have lost someone?

What do you say?

What is appropiate to say/do?

When is it appropiate to go to the funeral?

When do we prioritise work over the funeral?

I have felt particually guilty regarding this last question, this same friend had her father pass away about a month ago and I didn't goto the funeral, I chose a training day at work over it. I know now that this was a bad decision and it showed no respect for her or her family. This afternoon I am planning to goto the Grans funeral, but I am feeling nervious about how appropiate it is. Do I go? I would love to just have someone tell me yes I should go, or no I shouldn't.

Well I have decided that I will go regardless of how appropiate it may or may not be, but I still feel uneasy about it.

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