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"

Taking Chances

Cribbage, and life...

In Cribbage  you choose the cards that will first of all give you the most points. If you have a choice between cards, you choose the one's that can  be enhanced, or failing that, the one's which would  yield the greatest points if the right up turned card shows up.

. . . but if you choose the cards that would give you a hi-score IF the right upturned card shows up . . . you've got (52 - 12 = 40) a 1 in 40 chance that the card you want will show up.

I wonder how many of us play life by the odds rather than by what's actually there? We go beyond "If only..." and move right past it to... "when this happens, then I'll do this this and this..." and we forget all about the fact that we've just built all our hopes on an "if" a mere chance in who knows how many possibilities.

Picture Jesus

 The picture I'd love to have is one of Jesus going about his father's business. I'd see his humility, the love in his eyes, the strength in his arms, and gentleness in his touch, and maybe a glimpse of his listening heart, both to those around him, and his "Father which art in heaven" ... or what about the one after the business had been done? That'd be a tough one to see.

In support of Faith

The solution to both lives depicted in the paragraphs to follow is to read, listen, and hear the Word of God and obey it.

• ^{Luke 11:28} But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

There is a fellow I know who struggles with sin in his life. He struggles with the constant temptation to step over the edge and into sin. He avoids certain situations so that he will not fall into sin. His particular fear is that he'll commit adultery. He wondered out loud to me one day, as he stared at a young lady we saw as we drove down the road, "why do I still find my mind going to where it shouldn't... I shouldn't have these thoughts about her..." On the outside of it his desire seems good. But to me its merely distracted from the true trouble. Of course he's right. Unrighteous thoughts toward a passer by isn't a good thing. But should we be living our lives by such emotion? "I shouldn't" ?

Now, contrast this with the person who smugly believes and states that they are a Christian. They do not engage in regular fellowship with other believers, they don't read their bible, nor do they even know what the Bible says. They don't pray anymore than to cry out to God in each crisis. They celebrate his birth, by giving each other presents at Christmas time, they celebrate his death and resurrection by hiding chocolate eggs for their children to find, they celebrate Thanks Giving by stuffing themselves with Turkey and/or Ham and potatoes.

Fragile Tools, Disloyal Dogs and less than perfect pots

Today I lent my Swiss army Victorinox knife to a passenger so that he could use the flat head screw driver accessory to tighten his water bottle harness to his bike, for fear it might otherwise fall off whilst his bike sits on my bus bike rack. As he worked, he mumbled something about hoping he didn't break my tool, and I immediately replied, "any tool that breaks while yer using it is like a dog that runs away from you all the time!”Keep running" I'd say, "no dog worth having that wants to run away” How does God deal with us when we break under pressure, or run hiding from a task?

• Proverbs 17:3 the crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

Because we have our own, God given, free will, we have a part in who we are, and who we have become. A person submitted to God, puts their lives in his hands. Just how that happens is what living the Christian life is all about! But lets take a look at the image here in my mind.

• A potter will make a pot on the spinning wheel, and finish it with glaze and a trip to a furnace so hot that its called a "Kiln" is it to judge the pot, prove the pot or to complete the pot?

• In the case of a human potter it’s a case of completing the pot, and proving it

• If the pot is only dried, and not fired, it can be reclaimed! I remember doing this in high school with all of my goof ups! If the pot didn’t turn out the way I wanted it, or I made a big mistake, I tossed it into this water tight trash can filled with water and other goof ups. It dissolves, and settles to the bottom. The water is then drained off, and excess water is expelled, pressed, etc and eventually you have a new lump of clay, and a re-newed opportunity to make your pottery

In pottery the process of casting it on that spinning wheel begins long before it starts spinning. The clay must be found, originally, and the right clay has to be found. The potter would know the before and after colour from past experience, some dry and after being fired turn different colours. The clay also has to be kneaded by pressing and folding and turning it so as to get all the air bubbles out of it. Air bubbles in the walls of the pot will cause it to explode in the extreme heat of the Kiln"

Even after all that, he must pitch it into the middle of the wheel and carefully centre it, and begin to work; the walls must be just the right thickness, the height to wall thickness ratio has to be just right, the final steps are drying, trimming and glazing. This is the part I usually goofed up! The glazes do not look anything like they do BEFORE firing as after. After all is done, the pot is ready for the kiln. In the very end it’s been made exactly for the right purpose! A bowl, a vase, water jar, and the artisan is seen and praised! The created work receives no glory for being so beautiful, or useful!

The same process is true for a well made tool, and believe it or not a well bred and raised, and trained dog!

In our own hands we cannot succeed, in the master's hands HE succeeds in the purposes he has grabbed a hold of us to perform! And every task HE brings us to we need not fear cuz it’s what he made us for!

Now to move out of the imagery, we are not an inanimate tool or pot, with no will of our own. We were made higher than a mere animal, however wonderful a dog may be, it isn’t anything like a son or daughter! When we are in Christ, we are children of God.

We are his workmanship!

• Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

• 2 Timothy 3: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

• Hebrews 12:4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed

Galatians 6:1-5

Galatians 6

•  ¹BRETHREN, IF any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also.
•     ²Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].
•     ³For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.
•     ⁴But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.
•     ⁵For every person will have to bear (be equal to understanding and calmly receive) his own [little] load [of oppressive faults].

Its been in pursuit of better health that I have seen one good development in myself, and its there in verse 4. I allowed myself to get fat and out of shape, because of comparing myself to others. In comparing myself to others I got discouraged because of those I felt were in better shape, or more talented than me, and I encouraged myself by comparing myself to those that were in worse shape than me, and didn't have the same talents as me.

At this point I have to think of my own personal best, and work toward improving that. I use "norms" to understand where I'm at. This is in the area of my health. But what is the "norm" in spiritual health?

In Ephesians we see that we are to be imitators of God, and that Christ Jesus himself is the one who came and lived a life that demonstrates this! Christ is whom we compare ourselves to, and whom we aspire to become like.

What's more encouraging is that we have the Holy Spirit as our coach to guide us in this process of becoming like him.

amen...

Paper Airplanes

• 1 Corinthians 2:¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 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.

For Christmas my daughter and her husband gave my son a special present. One that he goes to every morning since they gave it to him. Its 365 miniature paper airplanes, one for each day of the year!

Sufficiently inspired I decided that I could make some special planes of my own, and set to make some! Now, of course, since I know next to little or nothing about the aerodynamics of flight my planes looked just  great, but flew no place! They left my launching fingers and promptly plopped onto the ground!

That's what made me think of these verses in 1 Corinthians. There's the natural realm, it would seem, and no spiritual realm. To my five senses the world is only as they sense it. What I can touch, taste, hear, see, and smell is the natural world around me. The laws of physics, and all scientific knowledge is a discover of that world, and God truly ordained the study of Science, not to exclude God, but to Glorify God, and to acknowledge all the wonders of his creation. Science can be traced back to the early days recorded in the first few chapters of Genesis when God gave man the task of naming all the animals. He brought each living thing to Adam to see what he would name them. Wonderful thing is we have scientist still who find new species of life!

But there is a spiritual realm! And that realm is not other than the natural one, it is the realm that all other realms are contained. The bible describes it as the Kingdom of God. The bible defines that world, and the only way to comprehend it, to understand it is by way of the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God indwelling in each of us who have come to believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord!

Romans 1:21... describes the opposite of that effect,

• ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This is a description of when mankind abandons the worship of God through Science, to making the natural world around them their God.

When things don't go the way we expect, its time to admit that there's something we don't know, and in this case its someone we don't know. And knowledge begins with, acknowledging him, and crying out to him to save us.