I only woke up twice last night

I remember feeling hot and I think I went back to sleep straight away..
The 2nd time it was 530am and the guy across the road was moving the fours cars from his path (his daughters all park cloer to the road up the driveway than he does, so every day he goes to work at 530 am he puts all their cars out onto the road and then drives away). Park the other way round! they are all behind locked gates anyway!!!! Still he's a nice guy.

Cell group was ok, although a few were missing due to family and sports commitments and those that were there seemed tired. Some are in the middle of exams and tough times at home. We looked at the life of Abraham as an example of God counting someone righteous because he believed what God sai to him. Not because he was a jew (he wasn't, actually, and he wasn't circumcised til after God counted him righteous) or because he was a great guy (after all, he was always passing his wife of as his sister cos she was pretty so he could get favours, lying, twofaced little.. ;-) )
Anyway, the point was we are like Abraham - we are not perfect (far from it), we don't keep all the commands and in fact we are mostly pretty lousy especially at loving God. The law, 10 commandments, etc are like a mirror or a scale which shows us how far short of Gods perfection we come. And its a LONG way, I don't care how good you are. If you have ever thought a superior thought about yourself, judged anyone in your heart, told a lie, wished someone dead/harm, failed to do a good thing when you knew it needed doing, not kept your word or were ungratfeul then you fall short. Thats without murdering anyone, stealing etc... In fact none of us truly love God with ALL our heart and even if we were perfect in every other way that would be enough to miss the mark.
But just like Abraham, God takes our small attempts to believe what he says, our faith and credits our account with righteousness. All because Jesus cancels out our sin. If we trust him with our life then our account shows a + sign. That simple. Yes it is.

Anyway this wasn't meant to be a sermon, but sometimes it helps to clarify my thoughts by writing them down.

Best get down and do some work. I have a journal paper to write and some tests to plan. I have a visitor coming tomorrow and I am going to be in meetings with him most of the afternoon (wed) and probably Thursday morning too. Thursday is my birthday, I have to remember to bring cake. I will be 28. When I was 14 I didn't think I would even live to be 16 - that seemed so old, now I am going to be twice that age in 2 days.