[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][td_text_with_title custom_title=”What\’s inside the October 2015 issue of Direction Magazine…”] [/td_text_with_title][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]
EDITORIAL John Glass considers the pickle jar
I’M A FATHER BY GOD’S GRACE Cancer survivor Dave Bell tells why it’s a miracle that he became a dad
NEWS from Elim and the wider Church
OUT AND ABOUT WITH THE GS John Glass opens his diary
WHY MIRACLES ARE FOR TODAY What’s prominent in the Bible should be evident in our lives, says Andrew Owen
YOU MUST GET ALONE WITH JESUS A moment with Christ is never a waste of time, writes Lynda Heron in Aspire
RESPONDING TO GAY MARRIAGE Jodie Jones, who once led a homosexual life, says the Church must show love
THINGS ARE IN A GOOD PLACE! Jason and Lynda Heron are celebrating a decade as leaders of Northampton Elim
MAN WHO’S CAUSING A STORM James Aladiran speaks to Alistair Cole about leading the Prayer Storm initiative
IT’S ONLY JUST THE BEGINNING Gathering 100 is well underway before the big one takes place this month
WE SHOULD KEEP SUNDAYS SPECIAL We can stand against more shopping deregulation, believes Lyndon Bowring
ALLOW THE SPIRIT TO BREAK OUT We must let the Holy Spirit work if we want to see revival, urges Dave Newton
THE DANGERS OF RADICALISATION Peter Mcilvenna looks at the Church’s response to Muslims being radicalised
‘MY FAITH KEEPS ME GROUNDED’ Rugby star Billy Vunipola’s focus on God
ARE YOU READY TO DIG DEEP? Carl Beech explains how an endurance challenge reminds him of ministry life
MUSIC reviews with Ian Yates
GOSPEL WE PREACH IS A PERSON True preaching must be centred on the Lord Jesus Christ, argues John Henson
MEN BREAKING ICE FOR JESUS Mark Lyndon-Jones and his UK tour
CAMPAIGN SPREADS GOD’S LOVE Paul Hudson looks at Elim Mission’s Be Loved campaign
BOOKCASE with Richard Dodge
ANSWERS with Mark Ryan
AND FINALLY with John Lancaster
I noticed recently on Facebook that there is a video circulating that has in excess of a million views on how to creatively slice a carrot. What is the world coming to?
However, there is another that is well worth watching that centres around a pickle jar. Yes, you read it right first time. I really am suggesting that you Google the pickle jar.
A philosophy professor fills the jar in front of his class with golf balls until he can get no more in and everyone agrees that the jar is full. He then goes on to add gravel and again the class declares the jar is at maximum capacity. The exercise is repeated with sand and then with liquid.
The point that he is making is that if all the other ingredients were added first – and the golf balls last – the golf balls would never have fitted in the jar. It’s a lesson in priorities.
As I watched this incredibly short yet poignant parable, Matthew 6:33 immediately came to mind where Jesus encourages us to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and then all these ‘other things’ will be added unto us.
Most of us – at one time or another – have been guilty of worrying about minutiae, majoring on minor matters while missing the bigger picture.
It is said that Hitler, the person responsible for the death of six million Jews, was once overheard arguing in a restaurant over the most humane way to cook a lobster.
When we, as Christians, become disconnected from God’s reality, he has a way of ‘bringing us up with a start’. It’s that Jonah moment where, in the last chapter of the short book that bears his name, he agonises over the demise of a plant while remaining clearly unconcerned about the impending judgment on an entire city.
How many of us at some point have been put out by a perceived slight only to receive the news of an atrocity perpetrated on the persecuted Church; or complaining about our financial lot when confronted with an item on the news about the victims of a devastating national famine?
I have lost count at the number of times in my life when heaven has visited me with a ‘divine reality check’ that restores a needed perspective or causes me to recalibrate not only my priorities, but perhaps even the trajectory of my life.
This can occur when someone leaves a lucrative career to work for God, in a sphere that attracts far less remuneration, or forsakes the comfort of the familiar to serve God in a more challenging culture many miles from family and friends.
There are many excellent definitions of discipleship, but one might be ‘the ability to align our lives with God’s agenda rather than perpetually petitioning him to align himself with ours’.
Jesus is not suggesting that we should all live on a bed of nails as stoic ascetics. Anyone who reaches that conclusion should read Matthew 19:29. ‘Kingdom first’ is often followed by the ‘other things added’. The pickle jar is simply about keeping the main thing the main thing.
It’s the only context where spiritual order and balance can be realised and contentment attained.
John Glass
General Superintendent
Elim Pentecostal Churches
Direction Magazine
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