Cross and throne

A.W Tozer once wrote this...

"In every Christian's heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne untill he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne"

Get off the throne!

I'm a bit silly/God is rich in mercy.

I'm a bit silly you see. In my wallet I have a small business card with a few words on it. It's been in there for years, and to be honest i can't even remember where I got it from. For Christmas one of my sisters got me an excellent 'flying Scotsman' leather wallet (it's a beauty!) and as I transferred all the contents of my old wallet to it I realised that I had no clue what was written on this card. Which was:

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you or laid aside for you;
let me be full, let me be empty.
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your
pleasure and disposal

I couldn't believe it. I had opened up my wallet and seen its worn corners regularly but never got around to actually reading it. Literally years it had been there. Known about but un-read. Silly Billy! ;-)

Maybe our faith can sometimes be like the card in my wallet which I knew was there but never explored it further.

Have a look at Ephesian 2: 4-5...

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved"

Amazing!!!

Instead of living as Spiritual orphans (who claim to live in God's household and supposedly know Him as Father but actually live homeless on the street), we can now enter His house and be welcomed in the fullness of His grace through Christ :-)

Mindblowing.

Work the land

"He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement"
Proverbs 12:11

In this proverb there are two men.

One man who acknowledges what is in front of him, and works away at it.
One man who doesn't know what is in front of him, and chases fantasies.

We are told that the first man has abundant food. And that the second man lacks judgement.

This is a very simple proverb but I think it has a lot to it.

Here are some thoughts...

1. Stop seeking others 'fields' and comparing yours to theirs.
2. But be diligent and work with what God has placed in front of you right now.
3. You probably won't be in this place forever so work with it for God's Glory while you can.
4. Trust that God is Good and Gracious and that there will be abundant 'food'.

As Christians we are working together as a community for God's Glory, and God calls us all differently but by no means is this an individual tihng. It's all for the same purpose right?

"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."
1 Peter 4:11

Discipleship

"Since our Master Himself found it essential to rise early in the morning to pray, and jealously to guard time for quiet meditation, we may safely say that it is impossible for His followers to manage the difficult business of living without taking time, jealously guarded, to look up into the face of God, to offer our lives afresh to Him, to seek guidance for the day before us, to listen to His voice and to lift up our hearts in petition and intercession"

Quoted from the book 'Discipleship' by Leslie D. Weatherhead

Church. Mission. Gospel Intentionality.

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)

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.

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!