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We’re always trying to make life just a little easier for ourselves, aren’t we? Well, mostly anyway! And, as we age and mature (again, mostly) we discover things that don’t work, and things that work better.

But how are you with change? 

Personally I enjoy needing to change things – it stops things getting boring. It means I have to rethink things I thought I knew, or was certain of. It also helps me remain flexible.

As a family we’ve learned how make videos of the material that we have been inspired to create! We didn’t learn it from a book, or at a college. We simply did it, assessed it, adapted it and rinsed and repeated that. At this stage we’re mostly happy with the quality of what we’re now producing. But we never stop planning, or looking over the work we make, and looking where we can improve what we’re producing.

If we’d stuck to the first attempt, we’d still be using a webcam and it’s microphone…that was a good beginning; the best we could come up with. But we’ve evolved what we do to using a studio green screen, two sets of studio lights, a very upgraded computer, studio quality video camera and video editing software that is outstanding.

The evolution of what we do has meant changing and adapting what we do. And in our spiritual journeys we should always be flexible enough to learn from others; we need to be humble enough to know that we don’t have all the answers and that life is a journey – we don’t arrive until we die, but what an arrival heaven will be!

Until that point, stay flexible, and don’t get too stuck in doing things one particular way. If we learn nothing else from the life of Jesus it is the fact that He was always flexible, because He always made time for things that mattered – other people!

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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Titles can help us in many ways because they can instantly help us understand the function of the person we are talking to, or interacting with. And titles in churches are just as important.

If I’m honest I think the title ‘pastor’ has been thrown around far too liberally because if I’m talking to a pastor I want to know they’ve been chosen to lead the church, and have preferably been to theological college. Sometimes it almost feels as though we’ve taken that position of leadership, and made it into some form of participation award.

God judges those of us who teach, preach and lead churches far more harshly – the standard to which we must hold ourselves is much higher - so we need to ensure that we don’t water down the standards God has already set.

I remember one wise minister had a simple phrase – “Keep the main thing the main thing”. For him it was all about fulfilling a function, and that is a superb way of thinking about it. He didn’t care, for example, about which company the church used to ensure their fire extinguishers up to date. He didn’t mow the grass either. It wasn’t that he saw those as beneath him – far from it! But he did understand the importance of the different people of the church body fulfilling the various functions as God has equipped and called them.

We can assign all sorts of titles to make people feel good, or even to make them feel less good about themselves. But, ultimately, function matters far more than titles and God is seeking people who have a heart to serve Him.

Let’s use titles wisely, and righteously – they really do matter, and they can sow despair and confusion, or peace and clarity. Ambiguity is not something that we should entertain as members of the bride of Christ, of whom Jesus is the head.

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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“Everything new must be better”. This must be the mantra on anybody involved in selling anything – that the new thing is better than the old because it is newer. But as we’ve seen with new and old version of the same cars this isn’t true.

Also, just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Marmite Easter eggs? No thanks! 

When we think about styles of worship in churches, it’s easy to relegate robes and spoken prayers as so old fashioned and, therefore, no longer relevant. And yet robes worn by a minister can be tremendously helpful during a funeral – it helps the minister deal with the grief of a family; dog collars are a great way of assisting your local vicar visit you in hospital. It’s just a helpful bit of uniform! And it keeps you warm in a colder or draughty church: just sayin…

Written out prayers are not pointless either – if anybody tells you that, just point them to the most commonly known prayer in the world in the words that Jesus taught us a template, that we commonly refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. There are many people I’ve met over the years who would be much happier writing their prayers out, and crafting them, prior to reading them in a church context.

I’ve visited and worshipped many churches over the years and there is only one constant - there are many people who love Jesus in all sorts of settings – whether that’s a church using the Book of Common Prayer and strictly hymns, or a stage lit Pentecostal church with smoke machines and sound systems that render congregational singing redundant.

I’ve met Christians who remain in their Catholic church, their Jewish synagogue – because that is where they feel God is asking them to be, in order to win their friends to Christ.

There are people who love Jesus everywhere, and that is a good thing!

So, please don’t ever discredit people who worship differently from you. And don’t forget that God is looking at your heart so, if you’re prone to looking down your nose at ‘that church down the road’, remember that you’ll have to answer to God for that unpleasant perspective, just as much as you would for murder or gossip or theft. You’re saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on a cross, just like everyone else.

As a naïve teenager I refused to say the part in the Book of Common prayer about being part of one catholic church. Little did I know that the lack of a capital letter was rather crucial here because there truly is one church, and the word catholic merely means that we’re part of a broad church!

And WHAT a beautifully diverse church it is!

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is the theme for this week’s episode of Endurance.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper

In GoDeeper this week, Steven starts off by attempting to educate us on the history of the expression: “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” After which he explains that although running strengthens bones, it can be associated with some serious injuries. Steven gives an example of one such injury, relating it to how we can learn from suffering.

Steven also explains 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 as best as he can. He points out the writer of this passage, Paul, likens Christians to fragile clay jars with treasure inside. That treasure is the gospel. Despite all of the suffering that Paul endured, he was not totally destroyed because God was at work in his life.

#GoDo

For the final segment, Nathan and Steven discuss some interesting points:

1. I suppose there are certain hardships that do not benefit us. How do we deal with those?
2. We know that “all things work together for the good of those who love God…” And, of course, God is our Redeemer. This is helpful for us when hardships cause us damage.

Check out this episode to hear what conclusions they reached.

Steven and Nathan

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What's coming up in our next Endurance Podcast?

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is the theme for this week’s episode of Endurance.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

Join us for Endurance: Sundays from 2pm!

Steven and Nathan

Keep in Touch with the BerryBunch
www.berrybunch.org

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Catch us on Konnect Radio for our weekly show - Family Focus: Sundays, 3 til 6pm

60 Seconds is all it takes to make sure you've not missed out on any of our posts, videos and resources - or exciting events we've got coming up.

In Case You Missed It

 Family Focus on Konnect Radio – Board Games!

Jo and Andy B looked at Board Games on Family Focus on Konnect Radio – Sundays 3-6 pm. You can listen to this show (Sunday 20th November) on Catch up if you go to the Konnect Radio website. The BerryBunch shared the fun and the not so fun side of playing board games!

Andy B on the Big Fat Quiz

You will also find Andy B on the Big Fat Quiz every Friday from 8am – 9am on Konnect Radio and on Facebook live. Andy is not the highest scoring contestant, but he does his best and is affectionately named as ‘normal’ by listeners. Join Andy B and the team for fun and laughs. A great way to start your Friday!

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So, to make sure you never miss out on our latest posts, videos and BerryBunch News, just sign up to BerryBytes – our Weekly Newsletter and you’ll be up to date everything we produce: For Free, For All!

The BerryBunch

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I wonder if you’re anything like me and feel like you spend so long praying for God to bless you with something, that you miss the moment when God actually blesses you with the very thing you were praying for.

I think part of this is that we are not expectant enough of what God wants to do in our lives. Perhaps we have experienced false teaching about how blessings are always financial (they’re not) and shy away from expecting good things. Expecting God to be some sort of unlimited American Express Card is very wrong. But thinking God of miserly is equally so.

God really does want to bless us with good things! We just need to understand that what God sees as a blessing often takes us a while to accept as such. We allow our feelings to get in the way of good biblical understanding.

It’s worth noting here that having money is fine: Jesus trained as a carpenter, and that wouldn’t’ have been for free! He also went around with a money pot, which Judas looked after. Paul worked his way frequently.

Making money is right and proper. But we also need to understand that we don’t need a single penny in our bank accounts in order to accomplish what God is asking of us.

Jesus truly is all we need. It took me over a year to accept that the business we knew God was calling us to set up didn’t need a single penny to happen. As soon as I finally accepted that we immediately sold our house and got on with what God had been asking us to do, after we had prayed for Him to teach us faith.

We should be praying to God, but we should do so expectantly. The bigger caveat here is that we should be praying ‘in His will’ which means praying as Jesus would pray, not as we would say.

It’s worth finishing by pointing out that “there’s nout wrong with a bit o brass”. In other words, having money is neither good nor bad. Money is just money. But, what we do with it does matter, and being free to give to others is an important principle to comprehend.

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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Have you ever received a gift that was begrudgingly given? Perhaps it was merely someone who you beat in a game but their ‘well done’ felt more like a knife in the back, rather than a sincere congratulatory statement. It can, so easily, spoil our elation at winning!

Tithing is something we often think as just an Old Testament thing - tithing is simply an old word for ‘tenth’, and tithing is the principle of giving God the first tenth of your harvest, if you’re a farmer, for example. Many people today seem to think that tithing died with Jesus. But that isn’t just not true!

Tithing is giving to God, albeit a specific amount. However, as we can read in the New Testament, tithing was not deleted as a religious act, but merely fulfilled. Tithing is, actually, a great opportunity for us to test God – the only time God not only allows us to test Him, but actively encourages us to test Him too!

And there is no set amount. You can tithe after tax or before you pay your tax, because there is no right or wrong amount to give to God – but whatever we give needs to be done both freely and willingly.

The world will tell you hold on to what’s yours; to hang on to what you’ve worked hard for. But Jesus has already given us more than we could ever deserve, so giving a small portion of that – with a glad heart – gets much easier when you keep in context the gift of eternal life we all have freely given to us, once we become Christians and seek to live like Jesus did.

Are you giving (tithing) to God at this time?

It doesn’t have to go to your local church either while we’re on this subject. It may be to a local or virtual ministry, your local church, a homeless shelter. It may be your time or your money or anything you have of value.

The principle of giving to God is what’s at stake here. And doing with a joyful heart.

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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When we get involved in a project it’s quite possible for us to get so focused we can miss the most obvious of mistakes. That’s the reason why you’ll find the breakdown truck driver refuse your help when they load your car on to their vehicle – they need to make sure nothing has been left loose! 

It’s the exact same thing with driving a truck – the only person who can ever ensure the load is secure is the driver.

I recently made some business cards for a time when I thought some networking might occur. It’s great to talk to people, but I wanted to give them something so they didn’t have scrabble for a pen and paper, or try and find the right app on their phones.

And the BerryBunch booklet business card was born!

They were hand made, hand designed and hand finished and we love how they turned out.

During the process we went through many versions until we were happy with the wording inside the BerryBunch Business Card Booklet. And, due to how focused I got while enjoying the process of creating them, I only changed the wording of the first business card of each page I printed off.

So I had to bin those and start again!

It’s worth taking a moment to always check our finished work is correct – especially when it involves words!!

And it’s the same with our spiritual walks with God. We can be going along quite happily, but having started down a road that is a dead end – purely because we didn’t check with somebody else what we may have read in the bible, for example. That’s where a good friend comes in – someone who knows the bible too, and knows us, and can help us see the error we may have made.

Just a thought… 

Andy B

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This week Steven and Nathan focus on “giving it your all” in exercise as well as everyday life.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper

For GoDeeper this week, Steven explains the need to give all your all, in exercise, as well as in work, education and the like. He then quotes Matthew 22:37 and encourages us to surrender ourselves wholeheartedly to God.

Steven points out that we can’t run flat out all of the time, and in much the same way, we shouldn’t give all of our money and time away. But we should use it all to God’s glory as it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31.

He also encourages us to say no to things we are unable to do, otherwise we run the risk of becoming busybodies. In addition to this, he touches briefly on avoiding distractions.

#GoDo   

For the final segment, Nathan asks Steven some interesting questions:

1. How do we know how much to give?

2. Could you define the meaning of the word “oomph”?

Watch this new episode to find out how Steven answered these questions.

Steven and Nathan

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Catch us on Konnect Radio for our weekly show - Family Focus: Sundays, 3 til 6pm