Happenings 12 July 2020

Do you know that one of the jobs you could choose to aspire to in life is as a hand model? Yes, they do exist! You’ve probably heard of runway models, fashion models and the like. Well, there are also people who never have any part of themselves photographed … except their perfectly toned and manicured hands. You see their hands gracing the covers of jewelry advertisements, wristwatch advertisements, finger-nail advertisements, dishwashing liquid advertisements … anything where a beautiful hand is needed to endorse a product. But you never see the rest of them, and chances are … they probably look very average. But because we only see the small snapshot of perfection, we fill in the gaps, and assume that an even greater physical perfection lies behind all that we see. The standard of beauty that we are taught by culture to aspire to is actually a myth; it is a composite myth made up of discrete snapshots of perfection, and this even before Photoshop touches them! But the lie of advertising causes us to compare ourselves to these impossible standards of beauty, and of course, to then buy the advertised product! Why talk about hand-models? Because even in our service for Jesus, we can fall easily into the sin of comparison. “She is so much more gifted than me!” “I wish I could lead a small group like him.” “If only I could play in the worship team like her.” Yet we forget there are so many areas we each are not gifted in, also. Enter the SHAPE course. Starting on Monday 20 July, the SHAPE course is a six-week series looking at how God has wired you to serve. True freedom and fulfilment comes from serving out of the areas of strength and passion that God has uniquely fashioned you for, and this series is designed to give you permission to delight in the YOU that God has made you to be. Sign up by emailing murray at murray@remuerabaptistchurch.org.nz

In Him,
Murray