January 2009

Editorial...

We have to sing like Bob!

Jesus once said 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. The thing is I don't think he was talking about my neighbours. Jesus never had to try and sleep through the world's most bizarre - and loudest - party like I did the other weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of music, I just like to hear it on my terms, not at riducously high volumes, with full vocal accompaniment at 3:00am in the morning. I'm pretty sure Bob Marley would have though twice about writing 'I Shot The Sheriff' and 'No Woman No Cry' if he could have heard the alcohol fuelled renditions of his songs coming from the flat below mine in the early hours.

The thing is whereas Bob might have shuddered at the thought of his music being represented in such a poor light, the situation did get me thinking about how we show Jesus to our mates and the world we're a part of. I'm pretty sure God gets sad and frustrated with how I (and the Church as a whole) end up acting on his behalf.

But that isn't it... or the point of the editorial. The fact is God wants us to represent him. He loves it when we show him off to our mates, when we invite him and his grace into the very basic stuff of our eveyday lives and when we step out and respond to his lead by offering to pray for someone. We're an amazingly important part of his plan to bring light, life and freedom to the world that he loves... like the Marks and Spencers slogan: 'There's no plan B'... we're it.

That means we need to try. But, to be honest, most of my attempts at showing Jesus to the world probably end up being a little off kilter (a bit like my neighbour singing Bob Marley tunes). But that doesn't mean I give up... or that God ignores what I'm up to. He loves that we try, and sure, he's gracious when we're totally off track on what he intends. The key is to practice, think, learn and keep at it. You know, every now and then we might just hit the right note, remember the words and even bring some glory to the God we love.

That's enough sleep deprived thoughts for now. You may have noticed that the mag has had a bit of a rebirth this month. Don't worry, nothing is wrong with your computer, we just thought it'd be nice to lavish the site with a bit of love and attention as we've pretty much had the same look for the magazine since 1807 (when the internet was invented). Everything should be here as before, except the text is a bit bigger (which makes things easier to read) and we've added a new 'Momentum' section that will feature articles for those of you who are students or in your twenties!

Keep your eyes peeled too for the brand new 'Props of the month' that will feature as a regular part of Vox pops from this day forward!

We hope you like the new look of things, do email us to let us know what you reckon!

See you soon

Dan
editor@soulsurvivor.com

ps... The Archive will be down for a little bit while we work out how to put the hundreds of old articles we have onto our new system!