What will you swap?

On Sunday, as we continued our series looking at the period of OT history from 930-586BC, we looked at Amos 5. This is one of those chapters in the Bible where it is very hard to miss the obvious message that God is passionate about issues of poverty and justice in this world.

There are over 2000 verses in the Bible where these issues are addressed, and they are all highlighted in the Poverty and Justice Bible. The issue in Amos' day was that the people were religious but they did not care for the poor and the oppressed. In fact they were the ones responsible for many of the injustices these people experienced. They went to 'church' and sung the hymns on one day, and then cheated the poor and bribed their way out of trouble the next. And God's judgement was coming.

How much do we identify with those on the margins? What difference do we make? What difference could we make? Are we a part of the problem, or part of the answer?

Whether it's running, Bible reading or social action it is always better to start small and build up. Why not commit to changing just one item in your weekly shop to a Fair Trade option? In the UK there are now over 3000 products that carry the Fair Trade logo. These include tea, coffee, chocolate, honey, sugar, bananas and beans to mention just a few. What will you swap?

Two days to go

There are still two days to go until we reach the deadline for this year's Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal.

On Monday 96 boxes were collected from the church, so that those at the depot can start processing boxes in order that they be in the hands of children before Christmas. This year boxes collected locally will be making their way to Mozambique. As with many of the countries where shoeboxes end up Mozambique's statistics on things like child mortality, life expectancy, average annual earnings, access to safe drinking water, literacy levels etc speak for themselves.

Today 64 more boxes arrived, with more due in over the next two days. 13 of those boxes came from the children at a local primary school, and these boxes were filled with pens, pencils, rulers, note books, crayons, maths sets...the sorts of things that you would need if you wanted to go to school. In Mozambique children are required to provide their own school materials if they want to attend school, something that many simply cannot afford to do. When these 13 boxes arrive at the depot they will be put to one side, and then whenever a box is checked which does not already contain these essential school items volunteers will add these things from the items provided by these local school children.

We live in a world where there is so much need, and at times it can seem overwhelming. But the truth is that we can each make a difference. And sometimes it is the little things that make a big difference.

Shoeboxes

It's still not too late to get involved with this year's Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal. The deadline for handing in completed boxes is still over a week away - Thursday 18 November.

You can't fool God

Apparently you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And sometimes we need to be reminded that you can't fool God - ever - at all - any of the time. But so often we think we can.

Elisha is the next prophet we looked at in our series 'From Empire to Exile' and in particular, a couple of weeks ago we looked at the story from 2 Kings 6:8-23. The king of Aram (we'll call him Bob) is an enemy of Israel, and is plotting to do harm to the king of Israel - possibly through setting an ambush. But God informs Elisha exactly where Bob and his army are - and so the king of Israel is on his guard. So Bob moves somewhere else - and again the same thing happens. In fact it happens so often that Bob assumes that he has a spy in his camp. But it is revealed that there is no spy - there is just Elisha who tells the king of Israel everything, even the secrets that Bob speaks in his own bedroom.

So Bob comes up with a plan - capture Elisha. I wonder if it ever crossed Bob's mind that Elisha might catch wind of the scheme and avoid capture - apparently not.

But how often do we think that we can 'pull the wool over God's eyes'. That we can do things, think things, watch things etc. and because no one sees, no one knows - but God knows it all and sees it all. Which brings us to two points.

1) We should be careful how we live. If we're serious about living for God then we need to remember that we're never off duty. God will hold us accountable for our actions.

2) God knows it all and sees it all - and yet he still loves us. He is gracious and forgiving. He knows when we mess up but has promised that when we confess our sin he will give us a new start, a fresh beginning.

There is no point trying to fool God - instead we should be open and honest and confess our mistakes and receive God's forgiveness.