Jesus came with Grace & truth; so must we

It's Thursday, and I'm in my flat on my own, so I thought it would be a good chance to blog without interruption! I'm currently listening to the new Soul Survivor album, which is incredible! I've had it since it came into the offices at church, so a little while longer than you. :P I've just completed a HUGE pile of washing up, hung up my wet clothes and tidied around bit. We seem to not find time to do this too much, we're all pretty busy! The dishes get done at most, every other day. Disgusting but cannot be helped.

The title of all my posts I'm going to make a quote or lesson I've learnt recently, and I'll explain it at the bottom, so if you want to read it or not, that's your choice. :)

Today we had our second day of teaching with Andy this week, our first being on Tuesdays. I tell you honestly, my mind is frazzled. Heavy stuff! But so inspiring and encouraging. I've never been academic, and as we all know, unmotivated to do any work at school... but teaching here is so different! I want to be here first things first, secondly I'm eager to learn more about the bible and Christianity. I suppose those two are quite imposing factors.
We've currently doing Apologetics and the themes throughout the Bible. I prefer Apologetics, it's all about the 'big' questions a lot of Christians find difficult to answer; "If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why is there suffering?", "How can you know the truth, when you haven't tried other alternatives? there can't be just one true religion", "Are all other religions completely wrong?" and "What about people who never hear of Jesus?". Tough stuff.
I love Apologetics because it's so relevant, I've been asked many times about suffering and how I know it's real and the likes, but answering is something on another level. Growing up in a Christian school, is much more difficult than it sounds; as a generalisation, a lot of people have already made their mind up about God, their views, gone through suffering and blamed God and asked why. Christians were a minority in a Christian school, so it's very difficult for people to understand why we believe what we believe, if we've experienced similar things. The difference is truth. So having teaching on this stuff, gives me a better answer, if not, a good lot of food for thought.
The themes in the bible are about the different threads running through the whole 66 books; the Covenant thread, Jesus in the Old Testament, the Kingdom thread and the Worship thread. Obviously, it's all important stuff, but it's so much heavier, I'd have to look over my notes two or three times to really get it.


Finally we've been placed in our Cell groups, which was exciting, because for me, I've never been part of one at LVC, so getting a chance to know people in the church is really exciting. I've been put in Andy and Beth Croft's cell, which is even more exciting! Cells are on a Wednesday night at their house, for Soul Survivor, but tonight I have lifegroup at Dave and Janey's for Explore church. So I'm part of two cells!! Getting stuck in.

In lighter news, we got locked out of our flat last night! WOO for Ben ford and Flat 4. Ben is a second year who cycled from church to Gordon to let us back in (it's a good 20 minute cycle) and Flat 4 let us (as usual) chill at there's until we could get in. What lovely boys. :)

Rachael is coming to stay at the weekend, which I'm super excited for! I miss her lots, so it'll be lovely to see her and mum for a bit. I'll be taking her around Watford probably and the 7pm service on Sunday. Then saying farewell again until Christmas. :(

Leah
XXX

PS. They're currently experimenting with swapping warehouses/venues for the 5pm and 7pm on Sundays, so it's a bit cramped but more intimate at the 7pm and the 5pm has much more space! :)

'Jesus came with Grace & truth; so must we'
In John's gospel it's says Jesus came to earth in Grace AND Truth. For us to be like Christ, we have to as well.
Imagine you're in a pub with a non-Christian friend, and he tells you he thinks Christianity is exclusive. You have two extremes of answering; "No it's not, we believe what we believe because it's right, the bible says it's right and Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and not believing in Him will get you into hell." or "You're right mate, it is, everyone will end up in heaven anyway!". Both answers aren't said in Grace and Truth.
The first, is only truth, which, if said like that will anger people and push them further away. The second is only grace, and completely untrue, they won't be angry but they'll believe the wrong thing.
To come with Grace and Truth, you get the right answer and hopefully the right response. To have Grace, you must listen well, ask questions and be gentle.