My Blogging Anniversary!
For some reason I thought that I first started blogging last February, but a closer examination has revealed that it was in fact last January. And so January 11th 2006 was the one year anniversary of my blogging life. I’ve had a couple of blogging breaks between then and now and also moved “house” a few times too. But Voxtropolis is definitely starting to feel like home.
It is only really since September that I have been blogging seriously and it has been a great five months since then of meeting new people, making new friends, and growing in a whole myriad of new ways. Thanks to all of you for making my life richer! I’m even happier now that Rachel has entered the world of blogging too. And it is great that we’re going to be able to meet many of you face to face in May when we all converge in LA. We can’t wait!
Anyway, that will do for now, but before I finish I did think that I would include my first ever post from January 11th 2005. It was entitled, “Life Before Death”:
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I think its fair to say that I used to think that the most important thing for me as a Christians was a) to make it to heaven, and b) to take as many people with me as possible. Is this really what the Gospel is about though? Is that the message Jesus left us with and commanded us to share with all the world? I don’t think it is. Many Christians seem only really concerned with helping people find life after death whilst Jesus seemed equally interested to helping people find life before death. Jesus never taught us to go and get as many converts as possible; He taught us to disciple as many people as possible. The difference is huge.
Like it or not, Jesus was committed to making a difference for good in countless peoples lives even though many of them never went onto follow Him. I grew up with the impression that things like healing the sick, feeding the poor, meeting physical needs et cetera were not really important - the important thing was that people got “the Gospel� i.e. were preached at about Jesus saving from sins and saving us from hell. Now this clearly is important but Jesus didn’t have this distinction in His ministry. He recognised the holistic nature of man; that spirit, soul and body are all intertwined. For Jesus, it seemed that healing was as much about “the Gospel� as when He spoke to the people and taught them. The Gospel - as I see it at least - is not just a message that we speak or proclaim. It is that, but when I look at the Gospels I see that Jesus’ approach to sharing the Good News was through proclamation, demonstration, and incarnation. Or, to say it in less wordy terms; say it, show it, live it.
I guess I’m just trying to say that we need to get back to a holistic approach to taking the Gospel to the world. A Gospel that is for spirit, soul, and body. A Gospel that is not limited to “spiritual things� but is truly holistic in its approach. That, I believe, is what the world is looking for, and that it what the world needs. Jesus didn’t teach us to go into the world and “save souls�; He taught us to love our neighbours. We need to learn to love our neighbour (colleagues, friends, course mates etc) holistically that gives them no sense that we’re only interested in them to “get them saved�.
January 19th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Happy Anniversary, That’s a great post Sam, i’m totally with you on that… and i too have been moving homes quite a while..but hope to staying put with voxtropoils…
January 19th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Thanks for stopping by, Lon. Hope you’re settling into your new Vox home ok?
January 19th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Sam,
Great thoughts. That was always a frustration of mine too. I have no problem sharing life with someone, helping them, being helped, and sharing who Jesus is to me and the true life I have in Him. But flat out proclamation to get them to join the club was not my gig.
What do you think about chaning the word order of your list to live it, show it, proclaim it? Especially in this day and time.
January 19th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Thanks for visiting. I think you’re right…live it, show it, say it, is a better order.
January 19th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Sam,
It’s been great getting to know you through blogging. I agree that when our wives blog too it really makes the community we all experience richer. I will be at Origins and hopefully my whole family will. We’ll look forward to meeting you in person.
I started on Roman 8:1-17. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Jesus Christ the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
That’s all so far… are you memorizing????
allen
January 19th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Hey Sam, I’ve never managed to be a really frequent poster, but I plan to be… it’s just good to get things down and out of my jumbled head.
January 19th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Looking forward to meeting you at Origins too!
Thanks for the reminder about memorising…I’ve been slacking a bit/busy (ok, more of the slacking than the busy!). I’ll give it a proper start again tomorrow. How are you getting along with it so far?
January 20th, 2006 at 3:13 am
Happy…..Birthday?
January 20th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Thanks, Lori!
January 20th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
guess who!!
supprise!! Happy anniversary/birthday - whichever one you prefer. looking forward to many more.
xx
January 20th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Hey Chantelle…good to see you’ve moved into the City of Voices!
January 20th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Hurray! You are growing up so fast Sam! You share the same date as Vox’s launch date and Dean’s birthday… January 11 is pretty special!
Thanks for your comment. I can’t wait to meet you and Rachel in May!
January 20th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Looking forward to meeting you too!
January 23rd, 2006 at 4:35 pm
i appreciated reading your thoughts on a holistic approach to the gospel/reaching the world. i think you’ve made some great points…
January 23rd, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Thanks Kris.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Happy anniversary Sam!
I don’t know that we’ve ever chatted but I’ve certainly “seen” you around the mystic over the past year.
I celebrated one year of blogging this past November… I measured in months so not really to the day… but it so happened I was in LA for the first time in my life in November so it was most excellent to celebrate by hooking up with Alex & Niza and their kids and Octavio & Lilia and Nic Nelson and a number of others that I had only ever known online previously. In fact I ended up meeting a total of 12 bloggers in one day that I knew or knew of in “the mystic”.
But I digress… this is your blog not mine…. I’ll shut up now.
Greg from Winnipeg
January 24th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Thanks Greg. Really good to hear from you. Likewise, I’ve seen you around quite a lot, but good to meet you directly. Hopefully chat to you more soon. You going to be in LA in May by the way?
January 24th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
That would be a miracle… but I’d certainly be there if I could!