Full Time work...

Its been a while since i last wrote here. things have changed. a lot

i'm now no longer a student, i'm now a full time auditor with Ernst and Young, whilst studying part time. for the past 2 weeks i've been living in a hotel, getting 'trained' to do my job. In the entire 2 weeks I spent 25 euro, getting a cheap Valencia shirt, and some of that awesome dublin cadbury's chocolate. Everything else was paid for by the company. I've another week of training/bonding this week, then i start the proper work on the 1st October. Fun times ahead!

Another point of interest...i'm more than likely moving into Belfast.

Work expects us to be in for 8.30 am, and that means a stupid train at a stupid time of 7.25 am to be in Belfast for that time. it kinda makes sense to move out means i can sleep a bit longer, and avoid Translink. (isn't carrickfergus station beautiful...well at 7.25am i'm sure it wouldn't be!)

so what does full time work mean to me? i wish i knew. right now, it seems like i'm being treated pretty well by a company that wants me to develop my potential, pay me a good salary and to enjoy it all in the process. so far, i've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the rest of the new starts, made some friends and its been pretty nice staying in a brand new hotel with all expenses paid. but...for anyone who knows me, they'll know i'm not all that excited by the prospect of full time work. the main question is whether God has placed me there. or whether my call is somewhere else.

God is faithful in giving us confirmations that we are doing what we intended us to do. for me, for a long time in my faith i needed to have utmost certainty that what i was doing, is what God wanted for me. then this summer happened. there's so much i could talk about, but since working one thing has hit me. i don't need to get a 100% confirmation to do something. thats where faith comes in, in part. "would you believe me, if i said, that we don't need to wait for the answers before we step out in faith" is a line from a Hillsongs song. so, during the summer, i realised this. i tried to plan so much, in my teams we tried to plan things, but then God just comes in and 'messes things up'. its an awesome feeling to let go off our plans, and let God take over. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom" thats been my experience. when i think i'm being wise, whether it be planning for my future, or planning stuff for my teams, whatever i think is smart, or wise, or makes sense to me...is just foolish in God's eyes. it doesn't mean that God doesn't want us to make plans...or that He doesn't care...but He wants us to consult Him and listen....listen for His guidance.

I guess what I've found out is that God will open a door and we need to have the faith to walk into it. doors shut for me, and a door opened with a job offer. so i walked in that door, to E&Y, and i'm pretty glad i did. so far i've found 2 christians guys, which is a massive answer to prayer! another point is that people are perfectly happy with my views on Alcohol etc. so i feel really relaxed there already, which is excellent...and that relaxed feeling, along with a slight understanding of what i'll be doing for the next 40 years and a clear opportunity to 'be Jesus' to a lot of people...is making it clear that this job is where God wants me. like my friend Alastair told me...we're not here to sell but to bless. revolutionary words...christians need to stop trying to selling the Gospel, but to bless people.

i've been reading 2 books recently...Blue like Jazz and Irresistable Revolution. fantastic books! so simple to read but so hard to apply, they're not the kinda books to read and say "that was nice"...but they demand a response. i'm only starting to work on how i'll respond.

i hope i'll remember to write more to this blog...i don't think many people read this at all, but its good to share my thoughts.

so whats the craic now...well 2 of my uni mates are now moving to work in dublin, which will be different as i'm used to be seeing them a few times a week. but E&Y seem to like to send us down to Dublin a lot, so that'll be cool to be able to catch up with them. Work will be a much different experience to Uni. no days off, no lie-in's, no 1 hour days. but i'm truely excited(and this may make me sound like a loser)...by the prospect of work. i've seen God doing some unreal things over the past summer...and i'm expectant, and in prayer, that He'll do more awesome things in a 'normal job'. bring it on!

Evangelism...

well its my first post....! Welcome!

for the past few weeks, I've been 'pondering' what evangelism is and what this term means for christians today. I'm not sure where this post will go....but any feedback is welcome!

i guess evangelism, in its most basic form, is a christian telling people about God. its a direct command from Jesus, in :

Matthew 28 vs 19-20...

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a]

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So its not a choice, its not meant to be a gift given by God for other people to do, or something we can do once or twice and think thats your evangelism box ticked for this year. If we truely love God, we should therefore have a burning desire to see others saved for Him. Such a desire can't be turned on or off....it should burn within the heart of every christian. We should be praying as much as possible for opportunities to talk about God!

I've noticed there are a few 'excuses' people give for not engaging in evangelism. These are given below, along with my views:

1) I'm not confident enough to talk about God.

Well....lets look to the bible...Moses didn't want to speak to Pharoah, and God replied:

Exodus 4:11-12

The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

Then Moses still refused to go, and we see in verse 14 that the Lord's anger burned against Moses. I doubt many of us would be comfortable with God's anger burning against us.

2) I don't need to actively engage in Evangelism, the way I live is my witness

Firstly, I have no doubt living a 'good' life is an excellent witness, however, we run the risk of when we make a mistake, we are more quickly judged by non-christians. Also, as Jesus said, no-one is good but the Father(Mark 10:18). Also, I have found that non-christians can live lives a lot of christians would strive to live, based on a 'good upbringing', or similar ideas. In my opinion, such a statement has problems, as it is no longer obvious just by observing how a person lives to determine the christians.

3) I am afraid people will mock me, laugh at me, ignore me etc.

Luke 10:3

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves

Luke 10:19

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Luke 10 is an excellent passage regarding evangelism, check it out! but from verse 3, we see we are like lambs among wolves when we evangelism, but, God has given us the power to overcome all the power of the devil....such a promise!

4) Everyone I know is a christian

Such a statement, I find it hard to comprehend. Looking at my own life, i have over 80 in my class, maybe 200 work colleagues on a busy day, 100 on the train. Say I know 5% of these personally, thats 20 people I can evangelise to each week!

If you truely know no non-christians, make a bold decision to talk to a random person about God each day...trust me...it is easier to talk to a stranger about God....and if they reject you, well you may never see them again...but a seed is planted.

As in Isaiah 55:11

"so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

In conclusion, evangelising is not an option, its not something we can do once a week and say 'that'll do me this week', nor is it something that we can ever do too much of! There are constantly new people in your life, and our primary aim in life is to Glorify God, and to seek others for His Kingdom. It should occur without you deciding to, eg before you think 'oh i should tell this person about God!', it should already be happening.

The verses below kinda sum up what I'm feeling....

Luke 4:18-19

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

N.B. I am not perfect at this...I struggle a lot with this...I'm not constantly evangelising as I'm recommending. I feel its important to be honest, however I just have been so full of thoughts over this, that I thought it might be useful to do up a blog about it and pray it makes sense and is useful!