{"id":1830,"date":"2011-10-12T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2015-02-16T11:13:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T11:13:14","slug":"not-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/not-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Dean Gray: CVM MD)<\/p>\n<p>The problem I have when I get closer to God and venture out to do that great commission; is the target on my back gets bigger. (And what selling point is that to my mates?) Recently I\u2019ve been wondering what actual benefits are we to gain in this life by accepting that a) Jesus died for us, and b) God loves us and has a better plan for us?<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019m being honest, I want it to be easy to follow God and to focus on Him alone. But it\u2019s not easy. When I am following Him, puny distractions always seem to come my way. And when I look back on these distractions, I see that they are like chaff, here today and gone tomorrow. The problem is that these distractions often prevent me from doing what I believe is right.<\/p>\n<p>What I am learning more and more is that following Jesus will always mean enduring hardship. Though it seems topsy turvy to think like this, I cannot deny what I see in Scripture. And yes I\u2019d like to see the hidden benefits within the great commission, but the verse just seems to be pretty straightforward. Matthew 28:19 Jesus said: \u201cTherefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So where does that leave us? My boiler still breaks down and affects my family, my washing machine packs up at the same time and I\u2019m no longer thinking about the Great Commission, but I\u2019m left wondering \u2018why God?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There are so many teachings on what it means to follow Jesus in the modern world leaving us with no choice but to revisit the original source more than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Reading it aloud I can\u2019t help but think that maybe the great commission is as selfless as it sounds. Maybe the whole thing is not about me at all, but about him. And even as I ponder this I recall how God provided me with a deposit for a house when I needed it, and how God provided me with a job when I needed it and how God provided a way to pay off all my debts when my business failed\u2026when I needed it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s funny how God doesn\u2019t forget me in this adventure, which is quite simply all about him.<\/p>\n<p>Deano.<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/not-me\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Dean Gray: CVM MD) The problem I have when I get closer to God and venture out to do that great commission; is the target on my back gets bigger. (And what selling point is that to my mates?) Recently I\u2019ve been wondering what actual benefits are we to gain in this life by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20,23,74,79,87,90,101,110,192,287],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/team-CVM-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-tw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9799,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/distractions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":0},"title":"Distractions","date":"22 March 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We seem to live in a world where everyone is distracted in some way shape or form. How many of us have laughed at seeing a person walk into something whilst absorbed by their phone screen \u2013 the irony being that we have more than likely viewed it on our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/distractionBLOG.jpg?fit=610%2C291&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9752,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/sport-principle-33-define-the-competitive-space-and-defend-it-at-all-costs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":1},"title":"Sport Principle 33: Define the competitive space and defend it &#8211; at all costs","date":"8 February 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"About the Sport Principle The mat area, the pitch, the court, it needs to be owned. The top-level sports player will take time to familiarise themselves with the playing surface before the fixture. TV cameras often show players taking a stroll on the Wembley pitch on the morning of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/prayerBLOG.jpg?fit=610%2C291&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4607,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/it-is-not-all-about-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":2},"title":"It is not all about Jesus","date":"27 November 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It struck me the other day that we sing an awful lot about Jesus being everything, that it\u2019s all about Jesus. And let\u2019s face it they are both excellent sentiments but do they tell the whole story? I mean I know we should give our entire heart to Jesus and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9153,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/happy-christmas-from-cvm\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":3},"title":"Christmas 2020","date":"23 December 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Christmas from CVM. 2020 has almost officially ended and it has been a journey for sure. Perhaps you are looking forward to eating your Christmas dinner whilst in a zoom meeting with family somewhere, or maybe not. It has certainly been a very strange year.\u00a0 I started to think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/zui-hoang-QaLbGWoGvuI-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1967,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/carls-thoughts\/god-with-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":4},"title":"God With You","date":"2 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As you may know, I have two daughters Emily and Annie. When Karen was pregnant we spent months thinking about what we would call them - obviously there were a few names we had to avoid with Beech as a surname! (Please don't email in with suggestions such as \"Sandy\"!)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Carl Beech&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8084,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/master-of-the-universe-part-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":5},"title":"Master of the Universe: Part 4","date":"24 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"FOUR: Master of the spiritual universe OK, so I said last week that I wanted to separate the supernatural universe from the spiritual one, and this is why. Jesus deals with something called sin, and this is so important that it needed a blog on its own. In this series\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/master-of-universe-4.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5910,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/5910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}