Doing what comes naturally

How well do you respond in a crisis? What would you do if you were flying an Airbus full of passengers over a populated city when you lost both your engines?



Most of us would simply panic - resulting in disaster. But that is because we have no training and no experience. When an experienced pilot gets into difficulty often their training kicks in and they simply do what comes naturally.

The best sports people in the world often respond instinctively and effortlessly to situations, making brilliant catches, scoring goals or runs, or kicking conversions. But the reality is that thousands of hours of practise lies behind the instinct and intuition. In the heat of the moment they do what comes naturally - but they have worked for years to ensure that what comes naturally is the very thing that will bring success.

Last Sunday, at church, we were thinking about how the Bible plays an important role in forming our Christian character, so that in the heat of the moment, we instinctively know what to do - we naturally do the thing that will bring glory to God. And what goes on in our minds is so important. Our thinking affects our behaving.

Therefore it is essential that we spend time reading and reflecting on God's word - but also get into the habit and discipline of memorising Bible verses - something that has gone out of fashion in recent years.

If you want somewhere to start, Psalm 119:11 says 'I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you'. Write it down - on a small card that will fit in your pocket, and on a post-it note stuck to your fridge, mirror, computer screen...Repeat it often - including the reference. Think about it. Ask the 'so what?' question.

When we get God's word into our minds and hearts, when it affects us, when we allow it to change us, we will find that what comes naturally is pleasing to God.

A Summer of Sport

If you enjoy watching sport on TV then the last few weeks have been great. The football World Cup still has a few days left to go, we've had two weeks of Wimbledon, there has been the cricket between England and Australia. Just a few days ago the Tour de France started. And next year is the London Olympics.

Of course there are those who hate having their regular TV schedules messed around with in order to accommodate '22 grown men kicking a bag of air around!' Maybe you're one of those people. (There are other channels).

If you'd lived in the first century in the world influenced by the Roman or Greek Empires then sport of a different nature would have been a big part of city life. Chariot racing, the Gladiators, the Olympics...all played a big role in life.

And last Sunday we looked at a few verses in the New Testament where the writers pulled out some of the similarities between what is required to be successful in sport and what is required to live the Christian life.

One example is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. Just as the top athlete goes into strict training - watching what they eat, making sure they get enough sleep, following a carefully worked out training schedule etc - as a Christian I need to realise that growth and maturity will not just happen. There need to be disciplines (such as Bible reading, prayer, coming to church, learning Bible verses) that I need to be developing. This will not come naturally, it will require sacrifice and will at times seem like hard work.

An athlete makes these sacrifices for the hope of an Olympic gold medal. But for the Christian there is a much greater prize.

An Apple a Day...

At the moment it seems as if I'm getting an email from Apple pretty much every day with news of the new iPad or iPhone4...so far I have resisted clicking on the 'Buy Now' button! But some of you no doubt use an iPhone or iPod Touch or maybe even an iPad - or maybe something similar made by someone else.

We are nearly halfway through the year (this is week 23 - we reach the halfway point at the end of the month), and for those of you who have been memorising the weekly Bible verses printed on our church notice sheet, that means you should now have 23 verses memorised.

But memorising Bible verses takes effort. Those of you who are going through exams at the moment will know that it is possible to memorise something for tomorrow's exam, but you will have forgotten it all in two days time! To memorise Bible verses and keep them memorised is a discipline that requires going over verses again and again and again, and then reviewing the older verses regularly so that they remain accessible and at your finger tips.

In the past, in the days when I used a PDA, (before reverting back to pen and paper - neither of which need a battery or are likely to crash) I had a great program produced by Laridian that helped with memorising Bible verses. Once the verses were entered you could check you knew them by typing the first letter of each word. And if you got totally stuck there was a 'hint' button. Now I simply use little cards with the verses written on them!

But for those of you who sleep with your iPad under your pillow, or who don't go out without your iPhone why not look up an app that will help you memorise the Bible? Do a search on 'Bible Memory Verses' in the apps store. I haven't tried any of these out so can't make a personal recommendation but there are a number to choose from. Some of these apps are free, but you might have to pay a bit for some of the better ones, or to have one that includes a modern translation such as the NIV.

An apple a day might not keep the doctor away, and neither will memorising a verse of the Bible a week - but over the years, it will be time and effort that you will not regret.