Crestwood Church Blog

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear”
Matthew 13:16

On Wednesday I had to take my car in for some maintenance, so I decided to walk back along the canal. I have walked this route many times before, at one point as I walked through a copse of trees, I was overwhelmed by the volume of bird song, coming from the hedgerows and trees. So I started to look for the birds that were making a beautiful chorus all around me. I saw literally hundreds of birds in just over 400m of walking. Thrushes, tits, chaffinches and was just amazed that I had never seen or heard this before.
Obviously I was on my own and the children were not making a noise and it was early, but I just wondered as I walked, how much of God do we miss out on, because of our busy and crowded lives.
This verse in Matthew is not really about our physical ears and eyes, but our spiritual ones. Its about hearing the word of God and obeying it. Listening to God and seeing him in the quiet times as well as the mighty thunderstorms. Its having time to listen to him in the first place. How often do we open our ears and listen to the voice of God, how often do open our spiritual eyes and see the great things that God is doing, everyday.
Lamentations reminds us, that,

“...the faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” How often are we aware of the grace and mercy and faithfulness of God?

Its great to listen to nature, but it is not the end of the world if we miss out on hearing it, even though I will make a greater effort to listen out for the birds in the future. But if we keep missing out on what God is saying to us, it is as if we are blind or deaf. If we keep missing out on what God is doing every day, our faith will diminish and our love for him will dwindle and appreciation of him will lessen. Seeing and hearing the birds made me want to Glorify God, how much more would hearing God make me want to praise him.

Andy Hodson

Labels: Ears, Eyes, Open

But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. 2 Tim 3:10

I was with the children in Woolworth's this week and was queuing up waiting to pay for some kiddie magazines they wanted with their pocket money and was saddened by the pointlessness and lack of direction some people have. The two people in front of me both asked for £5 worth of scratch cards to try their luck on winning £50,000 or so. One of the ladies looked aver 80 and I just thought how sad, that someone had lived a long life, and yet still felt completely dissatisfied with it, that she was prepared to throw away £5 on the small chance she might win. The other lady was in her thirties and yet she had already fallen into the trap of depending on luck and chance. For many people in our world there is no purpose for life, there is no big picture, there is no satisfaction.
Paul knew where he was going, what he was doing and why he was doing it. His purpose was obvious and everything he did in life was determined by this purpose.
What is our drive? What is our purpose in this world? Have we got a plan? Or are we just like others buying lottery tickets just in case in the million to one chance we might win. We may not be buying a lottery ticket, but what we do amounts to the same. We drift on aimlessly in life and wait for things to happen.
God wants us to know who we are in Christ, he wants you to know that you are valued and treasured by him and that your life has far more meaning than you can dream up. We need to wake up to the reality that if we are children of God we have been called to a purpose and for a reason.
The purpose is clear, but it is not easy, the purpose will bring direction and adventure, but it might cost us our lottery dream.
The purpose according to Paul is this

“for me to live is Christ”

Philippians 1. Everything I do or say or think is driven by the fact that I am here to serve Christ. Some of us may think what a waste of a life, what a pointless purpose and this is probably how so many of our world think. But we know Christ, we know who he is, we know he is the Almighty God, we know that he has unlimited power which he wants to invest in us if we open up our lives to receive it. Was Paul’s life pointless, certainly not, it changed history, it meant the gospel was open to everyone who would receive it. What about you, what’s your plan?

Labels: Calling, Plan, Purpose

He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Colossians 1:16-16

Have you ever considered what holds you together? The bible says that Christ holds all creation together. We are part of his creation therefore he holds you together.
Scientists have discovered a protein type molecule called Laminin. This is what holds us all together. It literally holds our skin, organs, and everything else in our body in place. It is literally the glue of our body. Without Lamanin we would just collapse and be a blob on the floor. But God holds his creation together, isn’t it fantastic to know that we are in God’s hands and not the hands of another human.
What does laminin look like? This is a scientific diagram of laminin. The shape of a cross.
Isn’t it remarkable that the symbol we hold dear to and one that speaks so clearly of our relationship with God is the cross.


It is the cross of Christ and the sacrifice of his precious blood that holds us to the Father.
Without the cross we are lost and helpless and falling apart. But because of the love of God he has rescued us and brought us near to God.
You are made of millions of tiny crosses, that hold you together, day after day after day. And there is one cross where our price has been paid that will continue for eternity that will never loose its power.
The power of the Cross of Christ is not in the wood, but in the person who died on it, he has conquered death, he has conquered hell and he has beaten the forces that want to tear us away from a holy God. We can never be separated from the love of God, no one can pluck us out of his hands. We are glued to our God for eternity, and neither death nor life nor anything created can separate us from him.
What a blessing to see and hear about God's truly amazing nature and see how he has placed clues everywhere to show us who He really is.

Andy Hodson

Labels: Creation, Cross, Laminin

Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. Proverbs16:3

We live in a world and especially a nation that is craving for success. What do we mean by success? How do we know if we are successful. To some it is education, achieving great results, others it is getting that promotion. These like so many other pursuits are good and worthwhile; but is this what the bible is talking about.
I believe it is. He is a generous God (James 1:5) he wants to help us in all our ways. Socially, at work, in our families and through our church life. He wants you to be a success. But measure success in the same way as God.
The Message Bible paraphrases this verse as “Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place.”
If we are going to put God in charge of what we do, it has to be something that is godly. In other words, if the business deal you are trying to win is by an underhand method, don’t bother bringing it to God. In the short term you may succeed, but in the end, it will turn sour. However if you bring it to God and ask for his wisdom and his understanding, he will give you a just way of bringing the deal to completion or he may ask you to pull out. Either way it will be the right decision, not necessarily the best financially, in the end, as we trust God he will prosper us.
Don’t think that anything is too small for God to be interested in, as we have said so many times, if he knows when a sparrow falls, if he knows the quantity of hairs on your head, how much more will God be interested in you and your plans.
God is the most practical being there is, he wants to be more that just a figure to be adored. He wants to come and live with in our lives and make you tick and function to the best that you can be.
What ever the situation, good or bad hand it over to the Lord and commit it to him. To commit has the thought of handing over someone or something into someone’s care and this is I believe what God wants us to do.

Labels: Bless, Commit, Success