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Do you have value and behaviour alignment?

If you were asked to write down your values now, what would you list? Maybe you should do it? What do you stand for? What do you want others to know you for?

Would things like honesty, passion, humility, loyalty, trustworthiness, integrity, wisdom, generosity, compassion, justice, assertiveness, commitment make it to your list?

Now a value, is only a value if you can see it consistently in your life! This thought occurred to me and then struck fear into me when I was given the task of identifying my values. 

If I claimed to be generous that meant I needed to be generous with everything I had.

If I claimed loyalty to be a value, was I loyal to my friends all the time or did I pick and choose?

If I wanted to put honesty on the list, was I always honest with everyone all of the time?

If I wrote down justice, was I always a campaigner for this and therefore lived a just life, or was it more for certain causes that suited me or drove me nuts at the time?

What I realised is that it is so easy to brag about what values I think I have, whilst simultaneously contradicting everything I stand for, or I think I stand for just with the way I live my life. If I am like this, if you are like this then we are destined for relational disaster. First of all you loose yourself, because you do not know who you actually are. Secondly you loose intimacy in close relationships because your close friends see you are living a lie and stop trusting you. And thirdly you deny Christ. Because if Christ is the truth then you are not aligning yourself with Him.

So maybe a value check is in order for us all, if we are adamant about truly following Jesus!

Naivety Scene 3: What is God calling you to? (incl. interview with Tarme & Ian Johnson)

Instead of looking at the Nativity Scene as we approach Christmas Day we thought it would be more of a challenge to examine the Naivety Scene. What things are we naive to?

Naivety is the lacking of wisdom, knowledge and experience. And this week, the third in the series, we looked at how we are naive to the things God calls us to. It is so easy for the calling we seek from God to be more self glorifying than God glorifying. We need to ensure that as we follow God's leading, we remaing obedient to what the prophet Micah tells us to do, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

We were also really excited to interview Tarme and Ian Johnson on their expereicen, past and future, on teh Mercy Ship. Have a listen in for an amazing testimony.

You can listen to the third and final message in the series here.

Naivety Scene 2: Are we holy or compromised?

Instead of looking at the Nativity Scene as we approach Christmas Day we thought it would be more of a challenge to examine the Naivety Scene. What things are we naive to?

Naivety is the lacking of wisdom, knowledge and experience. And this week, the second in the series we looked at how we are naive to the things God expects of us. It is so easy for our personal holiness to compromise the glory of God as expressed in our lives, unless we make a concious descision to do something about it.

You can listen to the second message of the series here.

Naivety Scene 1: Are we grateful for or entitled to?

Instead of looking at the Nativity Scene as we approach Christmas Day we thought it would be more of a challenge to examine the Naivety Scene. What things are we naive to?

Naivety is the lacking of wisdom, knowledge and experience. And this week, the first in the series we looked at how we are naive to the things God gives us. It is so easy to live with a spirit of entitlement instead of a spirit of grattitude.

You can listen to the first message of the series here.