Church is not an event. It’s a Community.
Mission is not an event. It’s a Lifestyle.
We are called to live ordinary life with Gospel Intentionality.
(Tim Chester)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Passion and Discipline
Recently I've been thinking about the relationship between passion and discipline:
Think of an old, skilled pianist playing in concert and the wonderful sounds that are made.
Or a married couple who once forgot their love for each other but now have a healthy and loving marriage.
Or a young Christian who still goes through many struggles but over years has gone from finding the bible boring to now dwelling richly in it each day.
What about our passion (or enjoyment) and discipline in following Christ? What about those days when we feel up for giving Christ our everything, and then those days when we just plain don't?
I guess at different times in our lives there will be a crazy amount of interplay between passion/enjoyment and discipline, and being realistic there's no way we will constantly feel passionate about following Christ and also have the discipline to get on with it. With this in mind I was thinking about the dangers of relying on either discipline or passion.
1. Relying on discipline
When there's that thing we seriously don't want to do (but need to do), going through the discipline of getting on with it can often turn out for the best as you get stuff done. However if we focus too much on our discipline a danger is that we might encourage a 'you need to work harder' mentality which could sideline grace and rest, where if something goes wrong we get down and if something goes well we get proud.
2. Relying on passion
A genuine passion for something can provide a great drive, which can then lead to great results. However a problem here is that when there is no passion you will never put in the time or effort. You can become fickle and constantly change your plans depending on your emotions, which can lead to a 'I will only do what I feel like doing' mentality.
So what's the alternative?
Rely on Christ.
To throw ourselves upon He who gave Himself for us and admit that we will not always feel fired up for Him, and we will not always have the discipline to be obedient to Him, but in all things we will choose to rely on Christ and his love for us.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us"
Romans 8:35-37.
Think of an old, skilled pianist playing in concert and the wonderful sounds that are made.
Or a married couple who once forgot their love for each other but now have a healthy and loving marriage.
Or a young Christian who still goes through many struggles but over years has gone from finding the bible boring to now dwelling richly in it each day.
What about our passion (or enjoyment) and discipline in following Christ? What about those days when we feel up for giving Christ our everything, and then those days when we just plain don't?
I guess at different times in our lives there will be a crazy amount of interplay between passion/enjoyment and discipline, and being realistic there's no way we will constantly feel passionate about following Christ and also have the discipline to get on with it. With this in mind I was thinking about the dangers of relying on either discipline or passion.
1. Relying on discipline
When there's that thing we seriously don't want to do (but need to do), going through the discipline of getting on with it can often turn out for the best as you get stuff done. However if we focus too much on our discipline a danger is that we might encourage a 'you need to work harder' mentality which could sideline grace and rest, where if something goes wrong we get down and if something goes well we get proud.
2. Relying on passion
A genuine passion for something can provide a great drive, which can then lead to great results. However a problem here is that when there is no passion you will never put in the time or effort. You can become fickle and constantly change your plans depending on your emotions, which can lead to a 'I will only do what I feel like doing' mentality.
So what's the alternative?
Rely on Christ.
To throw ourselves upon He who gave Himself for us and admit that we will not always feel fired up for Him, and we will not always have the discipline to be obedient to Him, but in all things we will choose to rely on Christ and his love for us.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us"
Romans 8:35-37.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Know it. Apply it. Speak it.
I was just reading some stuff by Jeff Vanderstelt, a leader of Soma Communites (http://www.somacommunities.org/some-of-our-team/).
He regularly speaks of 'gospel fluency' and he suggests three ways in going about this.
Firstly he says we need to know the Gospel: not just the gospels but the good news of Jesus Christ as a whole, which saturates all of scripture.
Secondly he says that we need to apply the gospel: that just knowing the gospel isn't enough because for true transformation to take place it needs to be applied to our lives and those around us.
Thirdly he says we need to speak the gospel into each others lives regularly and naturally in a whole manner of different situations.
Here's what he says on a recent blog post...
"Shaping a Gospel Fluent Culture starts with you being regularly shaped by the truth of the Gospel. This means you have to KNOW it and APPLY it to everyday stuff, while asking others to SPEAK it into your life"
(http://soma-missionalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/03/training-on-gospel-fluency.html)
Let's put this into practice!
He regularly speaks of 'gospel fluency' and he suggests three ways in going about this.
Firstly he says we need to know the Gospel: not just the gospels but the good news of Jesus Christ as a whole, which saturates all of scripture.
Secondly he says that we need to apply the gospel: that just knowing the gospel isn't enough because for true transformation to take place it needs to be applied to our lives and those around us.
Thirdly he says we need to speak the gospel into each others lives regularly and naturally in a whole manner of different situations.
Here's what he says on a recent blog post...
"Shaping a Gospel Fluent Culture starts with you being regularly shaped by the truth of the Gospel. This means you have to KNOW it and APPLY it to everyday stuff, while asking others to SPEAK it into your life"
(http://soma-missionalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/03/training-on-gospel-fluency.html)
Let's put this into practice!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Awaken us...
Our culture is just so good at making us asleep to God! Big questions of life are quickly put back to sleep with the response "how can you honestly expect to find an answer to that? Life has no meaning! And even if there was i'd much rather live my own way"
In our hearts and minds that nagging question of "maybe there is more to life than this?" can quickly be silenced and replaced with an iphone or some other material-god which we will so obviously die without (I actually quite like iphones so don't take that too seriously!)
The wonderful thing about life with Jesus as Lord is that our hearts are awakened to new life.
Jesus initially awakens us from death when he saves us, but as Christians we can tend to fall back into a semi-dead mode; we've been saved by what Jesus did on the cross but we're now kind of asleep to what he wants to do in our lvies today.
If you don't yet know Christ you are alive but really you are dead! Jesus wants to awaken you!
If you know Christ yet don't seek after him you are alive but as good as dead! Jesus wants to re-awaken you!
I guess it's a continual thing as well. I find that I need to be re-awakened, re-focussed and reminded each day of God's love, grace and mercy in my life.
Song of Songs 5:2 says that "I slept but my heart was awake". I love this because it tells us that when we're in a relationship with Christ, even when we feel tired, exhausted or struggling, our hearts can still be awake and responsive to what God is doing.
In Ephesians 1:7 we read of God's amazing grace. How awesome is it that God awakens us as a loving Father!
"Like the rising sun that shines
Out from the darkness comes a light
I hear Your voice and this is my
Awakening"
Awaken us Lord!
In our hearts and minds that nagging question of "maybe there is more to life than this?" can quickly be silenced and replaced with an iphone or some other material-god which we will so obviously die without (I actually quite like iphones so don't take that too seriously!)
The wonderful thing about life with Jesus as Lord is that our hearts are awakened to new life.
Jesus initially awakens us from death when he saves us, but as Christians we can tend to fall back into a semi-dead mode; we've been saved by what Jesus did on the cross but we're now kind of asleep to what he wants to do in our lvies today.
If you don't yet know Christ you are alive but really you are dead! Jesus wants to awaken you!
If you know Christ yet don't seek after him you are alive but as good as dead! Jesus wants to re-awaken you!
I guess it's a continual thing as well. I find that I need to be re-awakened, re-focussed and reminded each day of God's love, grace and mercy in my life.
Song of Songs 5:2 says that "I slept but my heart was awake". I love this because it tells us that when we're in a relationship with Christ, even when we feel tired, exhausted or struggling, our hearts can still be awake and responsive to what God is doing.
In Ephesians 1:7 we read of God's amazing grace. How awesome is it that God awakens us as a loving Father!
"Like the rising sun that shines
Out from the darkness comes a light
I hear Your voice and this is my
Awakening"
Awaken us Lord!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Engaging the Silence
This is taken from p.32 of 'God on Mute' by Pete Greig.
Engaging the Silence
first
there is
prayer
and where ther is prayer
there may be
miracles
but where miracles may not be
there are
questions
and where there are questions
there may be
silence
but silence may be
more than
absence
silence may be presence
muted
silence may not be nothing but
something
to explore
defy accuse
engage
and
this is
prayer
and where there is prayer
there may yet be
miracles
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Isaiah 26:8
"Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws we wait for you: your name and renown are the desires of our hearts"
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Everything
I was at my sister's church in Leeds on Sunday (http://www.mosaic-church.org.uk/) which is a fantastic vibrant and growing church. They have what looks like a great conference coming up called 'Everything' and here's a description of it...
'The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it' - Psalm 24:1
"The gist of the conference is that Everything - not just the ‘sacred’ elements of culture, but everything - belongs to God. And as His people, we are called to get involved and have a positive influence on society."
I think that the prayer 'Your Kingdom come, your will be done' demands our whole lives; that we will seek God in all things-our work, our sleep, our play, our social, our pain, our suffering, our joy, essentially just where ever we are, whatever's happening, whatever we're doing.
"Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain"-1 Corinthians 15:58b
'The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it' - Psalm 24:1
"The gist of the conference is that Everything - not just the ‘sacred’ elements of culture, but everything - belongs to God. And as His people, we are called to get involved and have a positive influence on society."
I think that the prayer 'Your Kingdom come, your will be done' demands our whole lives; that we will seek God in all things-our work, our sleep, our play, our social, our pain, our suffering, our joy, essentially just where ever we are, whatever's happening, whatever we're doing.
"Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain"-1 Corinthians 15:58b
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