That's me...

I am so at peace... and yet in the quiet time of inactivity... I tend to get uptight... thinking that there is something I should yet be doing...

My life gets more and more ridiculous as this latest series takes shape, and draws to its peak.

I ultimately feel that all the grip I ever had on the things that most also aspire to, what all of us tend to strive for, alludes me.

Once upon a time I made mention in a journal that God is my only obstacle. Frustrated so by my own efforts to become me, I was on the verge of ever trying to make it happen. So shaped and formed by the Hollywood image of what a hero is... what being significant means...

Yet a few conversations of late have made me feel that feeling of the Holy Spirit flowing through me, taking me from one scripture to the other to the other . . . leading myself, and whomever he's brought my way through a journey of knowledge and encouragement, and knowing our creator.

I'm here, Lord, and you are there. . . none of this means anything to me . . . but all that you have given me to look after... Cheryl, Ashton... Jamie, Sarah, Nicholas, Cherish . . . Timothy . . . I ask that you release me, that you continue to work within me, and within my life to set me free, empower me to do your will, and walk in the steps and path you have laid before me.

Amen

Examining a Vision Statement

The Vision:

To be a vibrant family of Spirit filled believers making an impact on our world with Christ’s message of hope.


The Plan:

1. Equipping people in spiritual formation to live like Jesus
1. John 15:¹² "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. 
2. Encouraging people to develop authentic & accountable relationships
1. I keep thinking of this book I've just started reading, "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore" on page 39
• John:  Accountability is not for those who struggle, Jake, it’s for those who succeed.
• Jake:   But aren’t we accountable to each other?
• John:  Where did you get that idea?
• Jake:   It’s in the Bible, isn’t it?
• John:  Can you show me where?
• John reached down and pulled a Bible off the booth seat next to him and tossed it on the table.
2. And then I think of verses like,
1. 1 Corinthians 2:¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ¹⁶ "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
• Paul makes this point a little clearer in chapter 4:³ . . . I do not even judge myself. ⁴ For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
2. Romans 14:⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
1. passing judgement then is in reference to condemning and final judgment
2. John 12:47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
3. James 5:¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working... ¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
3. Engaging people to the missional activity of furthering God’s kingdom.
1. John 15:¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These these things I command you, so that you will love one another.

So the term, "to live like Jesus" is vague, and/or brief. Is it as simple as what Jesus commands his disciples to do in John 15? Or is it a complicated set of criteria, where we examine each other externally to see if we are living up to that standard? Where we look for where our brother or sister in Christ is messing up and we exhort and/or confront them about it.

Or are we to do as James saying in chapter 5 there. We confess OUR sins to one another. 


But then there's the part in 5:19 "... but if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back"


There's a difference between the brother whom we encounter who is making a full confession of Christ, and of following Christ, and the brother who wanders away into error taken captive by some temptation.

I'll leave off for today with another quote from, "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore" on page 44

• John: “Because real body life isn’t built on accountability. It’s built on love. We’re to encourage each other in the journey without conforming people to the standard we think they need.” 
• Jake:  “That sounds like relativism, John!”
• John: “It’s not, it simply respects the process God uses to bring people into truth. I’m not talking about different things being true, for different people but about people discovering that truth in different time frames. If we hold people accountable, they will never learn to live in love. We’ll reward those who are better at putting on a front and miss those who are in the real struggle of learning to live in Jesus.”
• Jake: “I can’t even imagine sharing that kind of journey with others.” 
• John: “It’s the best, Jake! It opens the door for people to be authentic and known exactly for who they are. It encourages them with drawing near to Jesus, not trying to fix everybody with our answers for the universe.”

I also have rattling around in my brain the AA thing, "Attraction not promotion"