New Years Resolutions 2008

As usual I do a "New Years Resolutions Post" where I kind of comment on what I want to do with myself in the coming year, how I want to be a better person - in a holistic manner. So where do I feel I need work in my life.

- I want to restate that my life is all about Jesus - Jesus saved me, he has rescued me from sin and is journeying with me through my life. I want to follow Jesus, worshipping him with my whole life - with the way I speak, with my actions, with my heart desires.

This means that I follow his two major commands - I am to love and worship God with all my heart mind and soul, and I am to love and serve people. The second flows from the second. I have to admit that I struggle with both. My fallen nature means that I struggle and fall. But I know that God is there picking me up and making me a better person.

I do not want to be a hypocrite, even worse I don't want to be a judgemental hypocrite. I want to be real, honest and open about who I am, my struggles, and the fact I rely on God for salvation.

I want to be more of a leader.

I want to become a better Friend to those around me, I want to listen deeper, I want to spend more time with those who need a Friend, I want to incarnate naturally into the environment of those who are hurting, those who are in pain. I want to show them the God of the bible, Jesus, showing how he heals our brokenness, and restores us.

I want to learn how to drive. I need to do this now, and I state this as something which would be cool to get under my belt.

I want to start doing photography intentionally, learning how to use my camera more effectively, I believe that I can use this as for creative expression.

I want to learn more about other religions - I have been convicted over this as I have been reading Dan Kimball's "They Like Jesus but do not like the Church", if I am to be a humble missionary into the culture around me, I have to know what people are conversing about, why they find meaning in worshipping a particular god or idol or object. I have to be able to posture I a way similar to what Paul did at Mars Hill. He saw that people were religious- that they found meaning in worshipping gods. He did not flog them with a bible and hit them hard, he acknowledged their search for God, and told them that they needed to search further and look into who Jesus is and the beliefs of Christians.