September 25, 2009
WHAT IS THE JESUS DIFFERENCE?
Just what is this “difference” that knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of your life, actually makes?
If you live in Sydney, no doubt many of us shared the amazement of waking up just a few days ago to a bright orange glow and an eerie atmosphere that in some peoples’ minds was possibly the herald of an apocalyptic change on the Earth! No…it wasn’t the beginning of the “end” or indeed anything like it. But it was unusual, and so we Sydneysiders can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that our world had changed in some way, or turned upside down…
As I opened the blinds in my room around 6am, I was shocked to see that visibility was around 50 - 100 metres in our valley. I could almost feel that creepy “un-sound” of silence, where none of the usual kookaburras sat on their local tree branch laughing at the morning, and even the sulphur crested cockatoos that usually swarm in our area at dawn were uncomfortably quiet, adding to the atmosphere that told you something had changed! A red dust swirled in the air, changing everything, even your ability to breathe. The dust permeated even that early morning cuppa…taste that “grit”...yuk!
As it turned out, this was a massive dust storm which, accompanied by the winds that so often whip up these things in the Australian outback, was responsible for dumping tonnes and tonnes of red, iron ore laden dust onto our entire city.. No wonder we awoke surprised by this natural but rare phenomenon (well, in the city, that is!) and we are still talking about it! Children were kept home from school, people took a day off work, the economy slowed as over 27,000 people in our city changed their plans for the day from their normal routine.
The topic of conversation at the office water cooler for the last few days involves, no doubt, how to remove the thin red coat of dust from your car without hurting the duco. Neighbours are still discussing the length of time it took them to get homes back to normal, from brushing off the verandah furniture to digging out the red deposits from the back of the kids’ wardrobes…it’s a massive job requiring our attention and “elbow grease” like none other! What a conversation starter…
As we begin our new message series at our services this coming Sunday on “The Jesus Difference”, let’s ponder on just what is required to make us think through CHANGE in our lives. Let’s start to talk about the change that relationship with Jesus Christ can bring. And let’s begin to talk about the change and transformation to a life that IS relationship with Jesus…that’s the “difference” that a relationship with Him can make.
And if we dont understand that change, that relationship or indeed have never experienced a spiritual transformation, such as our city natually experienced this last week to everyone’s shock, then feel free to come, to experience, to chat and to find out about this DIFFERENCE that knowing Jesus Christ fully and in your everyday can make to you.
God bless you, have the best day ever!
Valery and Michael
