tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85291459947143527732024-03-13T03:30:53.912-07:00Crossing PointCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-31290285533755667612012-11-28T02:36:00.000-08:002012-11-28T02:36:34.482-08:00Being Missional From the Margin<br />
As a follow on from my last article “Making Disciples in the First World”, I thought to script some thoughts on being missional from the margins.<br />
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In the First World context we are finding that Christianity is being pushed more and more to the margins of society. Studies and surveys have found that majority of people in the West have no intention of ever attending church. Now we don’t ever get over concerned with statistics, but they are worth looking at. Besides, we need to reach people in these groups that are being surveyed, and it helps to listen to what they have to say. We never water down the gospel to reach them nor make the gospel subject to the culture, but we do need to find ways to get the gospel to them.<br />
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In a society where Christendom is coming to an end, many approaches to evangelism are still coming from a Christendom mentality and style. In the past people would “come” to church when the bells were rung. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best. All business, shops and restaurants were closed on a Sunday morning when I was growing up in South Africa. Everyone was at the church service so there was no need to have anything open. Sunday is now one of the major trading days for any shop or restaurant (even in South Africa). We can no longer expect people to come to our Sunday services in the droves (unless or until a great awakening occurs in our nations). But for now, most of the people in our nations are disconnected from “the church”. Many will try to change what we do in our Sunday meetings to try reach these people. Changing the music genre, add some lighting, meet in coffee shops, restaurant type settings, up the kids programs, use more multimedia. All these things are helpful in and of themselves, and there is nothing wrong with any of this; but is this reaching the unsaved people out there. We may reach unchurched or de-churched Christians (and this is a legitimate field as we need to see these brothers and sisters find a community, get connected in, find their destiny and gifting, solidify their relationship with God, and serve Him and one another in the context of a local community), but we don’t reach many truly unsaved people. Even those who “give their lives” on a Sunday once they hear the gospel preached, when we talk to them we find that they had once made a “commitment” to Jesus and attended church a long time ago. Its great that they have come back into the church family and want to make a commitment to walk with Jesus, but they are still those who have had a “Christian” background. We need to start reaching the unreached in our nations, those who have not heard the gospel preached, nor seen it in action. (This may be different in the middle eastern context. I know that when we were there we saw many truly unsaved give their lives to Jesus).<br />
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We need to shift our focus from attractive events that try to lure unsaved people in, and become attractional communities of devoted disciples that live out among society in such a way that it draws people closer to “taste and see that the Lord is good”. We are losing the ability to reach people with church activities. The church has moved from the centre of society to the margins of it. And we now need to learn how to be effective from this place. We should not be worried that all is failing. The Kingdom is forcefully advancing. God is always doing a new things, whether we are comfortable with it or not. We just need to learn how to move with what the Spirit is doing. The church will always hold the answer for the world’s problems. Getting the answer to them is the skill we need to explore. Remember, they not coming to us, so we need to go to them. And the soapbox, handing out tracks method is not working anymore either.<br />
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What is in fact happening through the fall of Christendom is that the institutional church is in fact being marginalised. Unfortunately in the eyes of society all of the church is placed under the same umbrella. Because of this people who are now having difficulties in life or facing crisis, or even some who are looking for God, no longer come wondering into “the church”. Having our Sunday services is no longer sufficient for reaching society.<br />
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In a Barna Group survey in the UK and Australia, they found that 70% of those involved in the survey said they had no intention of ever attending church in their lifetime. This means that new styles, forms, programs etc. will not reach them. They are not attracted to these things. We might be able to give away prizes at Christmas and Easter services to get people in, but it does not mean that we will reach those people on a deep intimate level with the gospel so that they will make a decision for Christ.<br />
Tim Chester says: ‘It’s not a question of “improving our product” of church meetings and evangelistic events. It means reaching people apart from meetings and events”<br />
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Many churches are growing through transfer growth, which is not a legitimate way to grow as they are simply drawing people out of other churches, often by trying to offer a better “product”. Others are growing through reaching the unchurched/de-churched Christian, which is a legitimate way; but we still need to reach the unsaved.<br />
Our nations, that were predominantly “Christian” in the past, are finding themselves to no longer be so.<br />
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As alarming as all this looks there are many signs of life in the West. Churches are being planted, there are many healthy churches, and there is a re-imagining taking place. Many are moving from traditional Christianity to Kingdom focused Christianity. They are desiring the greater things that God has promised. The gospel is becoming the centre of the talk again as people move from preaching their church traditions, models, denominations, and are starting to preach Jesus (sounds strange, but many were not preaching Jesus for a long time). The Gospel is still powerful and the Kingdom is still advancing. The Holy Spirit is having more prominence in the church and through the church. <br />
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Steve Timmis says: ‘we cannot claim to be faithfully proclaiming the gospel to the lost through our Sunday preaching when most of the lost do not attend church. We need to do mission outside the church and church events.’<br />
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It was reading this that got me thinking, and the reason for writing this article. We have been trying to reach people through the preaching of the gospel on Sundays to a group of people that already know the gospel (as mentioned earlier, this many not apply to some contexts such as the Mid-East, or maybe it does now. But it does apply here in Australia, and it will in western Europe, the USA, and quite possibly more in South Africa nowadays). I have looked at this and seen that if we have born again believers in the church we lead then our Sundays should become more of an “equipping with Kingdom life” time rather than a gospel preaching time. If we can equip the believers in our church to become radical disciples, then they can reach the people in their spheres with the gospel. I know we will all say “we know this and are doing it”. If you are then that’s great, but how well are you doing it. How well are we doing it. Only the fruit will tell, and this will be seen in time. We need to reach people where they are. And they are not in the church anymore. We need to do church and mission in the context of “doing life together”.<br />
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Many leaders focus on the Sunday meetings because this is what we have always known. This service becomes the main event. Our view of church needs to change because it will impact how we plant. If we focus more around the Sunday meeting then we will place all our effort in that two hour event. many church staff spend their whole week focused around this event on Sunday, they really have no time to do anything else.<br />
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George Hunsberger says: 'Churches are called to be bodies of people sent on a mission rather than storefronts for vendors of religious services and goods. We must surrender the self-conception of the church as a voluntary association of individuals and live by the recognition that we are a communal body of Christ followers, mutually committed and responsible to one another and to the mission Jesus set us upon at his resurrection.'<br />
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Sharing life together as believers and drawing unsaved people into that life is going to become the most effective way of reaching the unsaved in society. In this context of life they will hear the gospel in our everyday language. They will see kingdom in how we love each other and lead our families. They will get the opportunity to see us pray for each other, hear testimonies of healings and life transformations; and possibly even ask for prayer themselves. Disciples do this. They do life together. They breath the kingdom message. And those around them get a firsthand taste of it. Being on the margin of society will require a very different mindset on how to reach people with the Kingdom message. Jesus modeled this well. He was a friend of sinners, he ate with them as well as his disciples. He drew both sides together; the saved with the unsaved. And both enjoyed being around him. The religious got angry and frustrated with him. But the unbelievers were amazed. Surely we can learn from this. <br />
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We cannot become anti-culture. We cannot stand in discussed at it, judging it. They know no better. We certainly don’t accept nor bow down to the culture. We don’t dumb down the gospel to fit with culture. The gospel is radically confronting to culture. But we must seek the peace of the city we live in. Jer 29:7 says “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” We need to seek the peace. We need to bring the peace. Jesus said that we must let our peace remain. If it returns we are to move on. But we need to first let it go out from us. In order for this to happen we need to firstly not be judgemental; and secondly, we need to engage our culture by being among people. Many “staffed” leaders often don’t get around unbelievers. They spend most of the time with believers. Then, we have endless courses, programs, lectures, meetings, events, leaders meetings etc. that we require the rest of the church to attend. This then pull them out of society so they have less time to reach them. For example: A young man seems to be reaching unsaved friends. He is a likeable guy. He also relates well with others in the church. He does a great job discipling some unsaved friends from his soccer team and others in the church. So we invite him onto the deacon team. But because he is on the deacon team we require him to now be at more of our stuff. In order to do that he has to give up soccer. But its for the “better” good of the kingdom, we tell him. All of a sudden he doesn’t seem to be doing what he was at first when we were looking at him for the deacon team. How can he? We have just removed him from the field he was working effectively. This is a simple, yet very real, example. We must be aware that we don’t make it all about our stuff. To make disciples and reach the community might be done best apart from our stuff. Its hard to receive this kind of thing. But lets think about it. Are we more consumed with our “stuff” as being the success of the church? It’s a good question that we might have to answer for ourselves.<br />
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If we begin to raise radical disciples, even though we live on the margin of society, we can still point to Gods coming Kingdom. Kingdom community is a demonstration of the gospel.<br />
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Communities are no longer defined by where we live. They are defined by common interests ie: surfing, golf, soccer, rugby, moms groups, walking clubs etc. We now need to look at reaching people in these new communities. So, as leaders, we need to be equipping believers to go into those communities and reach people there. They need to be “like Jesus” in that community. We cannot pull them out of there to attend our stuff. Which means that in order for us to effectively disciple them we can no longer rely on our Sunday sermons. We will have to do life together with people. This also means that we can only effectively disciple a smaller group of people. Therefore, we need more hands on deck. This is a challenge. We need to be less “tight fisted” with releasing people. Obviously we need to make sure their lives are not in a tragic state. But we need to release people more.<br />
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Insecurity can cause leaders to hold on to too much in the church. We just cannot have our fingers in all the pies. We want to have leadership in every ministry in the church. We immediately correct every error for fear people might go astray, and we end up talking at them, become overbearing in solving their problems for them. Or we shut ministries down because we don’t have revelation of that particular thing or we won’t be able to adequately lead it, and we want leadership of it. In doing this we don’t give people time to grow. And we need people to grow so they can reach the community. <br />
We might also become averse to risk, rather playing it safe. Safe always seems better. But Jesus wasn’t playing it safe when he chose the 12, nor was he playing it safe when he left them to continue the ministry he began. We need to take risks with people. Not “safe risks” with safe people. But real risks with some risky people (again, not lunatics who’s life is off the chart), people who push the boundaries a little, who don't accept the status-quo, people who might not agree with everything we say, they won’t be “yes men”. They might challenge us! Good, maybe we need challenging to bring us out of our one-sided ministry fit. Maybe our church needs to have someone completely different to us to add a different flavour. Obviously there needs to be honour. They honour who God has made us, they honour the fact that we have been given a role to lead in this time. They honour our gift and calls. But this doesn’t mean they sit quietly and nod at everything we say. They must not be robots who are there to serve our vision only. We must also honour them. A culture of honour will be key in this.<br />
We want to raise people who might not be “up front”, “pulpit preachers”, or “meeting leaders”. We want to raise people who can effectively reach society with the gospel and release the kingdom because they walk in a revelation and relationship with God that just oozes from them, regardless of where they are.<br />
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The church is called to display the goodness of God. It is a community made up of diverse people who have come together to form a family, with a purpose. This is a very unique thing in this day and age. We are the carriers of the Holy Spirit, in Whom is the Kingdom. And we need our society to encounter this Kingdom and be changed by it.<br />
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Our status at the margin of society requires us to think differently about how we reach our cities. May we find how to do this with the greatest effect, so that we can see a true transformation of our societies as they come to a knowledge of our great God and receive the life found in Jesus.<br />
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Let’s do it. In every shape or form; buts lets do it!<br />
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<br />Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-31584811630629824042012-11-19T20:06:00.002-08:002012-11-19T20:06:25.943-08:00Making Disciples in the First World
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Go and make disciples of all nations…, teaching them to
obey everything I have commanded you”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This well-known command is one that we all hail with the
greatest enthusiasm. We teach it to leaders, we preach it from conference
platforms, and we lay on our beds at night and quote it to ourselves to remind
us of why we do this insane task of planting and/or leading churches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But, the question is: How do we do this in a “First World
Post Christendom Era?” How do we make disciples in a society where people actually
don’t want to know Jesus, and many despise His name, the church, and all that
He stands for. How do we reach a society that demands that we change our ways
to become more “culturally relevant?” Even what I have written below is not sufficient.
We will have to journey this road and find our way as The Holy Spirit leads.
There is no “silver bullet”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Society has become very effective in making disciples for
itself. These disciples strongly oppose Jesus and His Kingdom ways. Sadly, many
church leaders have agreed to shift their Kingdom stance in a desperate attempt
to keep people in attendance. The moment you compromise on one truth, you
compromise on others as well; maybe not today, but you soon will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So we face this challenge in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century, of
planting churches into a first world context with the echoes from the Christendom
of the 80’s and 90’s sounding “success = numbers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe that everything healthy will grow. How fast? Well
we don’t know. Tomato plants grow very quickly. Oak trees grow very slowly.
Bamboo takes four years to grow the root only, then suddenly shoots up out the
ground and within a year it has grown more than two meters. So we really don’t know
how fast something will grow; we just know that if its healthy it will grow.
Transfer growth is not the best measure, nor is it a true reflection of the
leaders capacity. In today’s society people shift around from church to church
like they would from coffee shop to coffee shop. If they flooded in because you
were the next new thing they will soon flood out when the another new thing
comes along. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We do need to realize that God is patient. I believe that in
the early years of a church plant God hand picks individuals who will become
part of the core of the church, using their gifts to build and serve the local
community. I have certainly been blessed to have such people that God has sent
us. These folk are ripe for making disciples of. They don’t come packaged, but
they do come hungry and teachable. Its these people that we need to pour time
into. Too often leaders or church planters will pour endless amounts of time
into a Sunday service and the 30min sermon they will present to a crowd (I do
believe that we need to prepare well for every message we share. But I also believe
that if something is a revelation to us, it will be part of us, and we will be
able to share it in any context with great anointing and fruitful outcome). In
spending excessive amounts of time preparing for a two our service on a Sunday
we leave very little time for “connecting within life” with these prospect
disciples that God has trusted us with, and who will become the core of the
community into the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The days of “build it and they will come” have ended. Let’s
face fact here: in the Western World the unsaved people don’t want to come to
your service. They don’t see the point. In some contexts, such as Australia, many
Christians don’t want to come to your stuff. They have other things that
capture their affection. Until a person is a devoted disciple you can expect
nothing more. They will come to what they want to come to and when they want to
come to it. There is nothing you can do about it, so we need to stop crying and
wanting to quit on Monday. We have been placed into a society that is opposed to
the gospel; this is why we here. And we have to do something about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the words of Bill Johnson: “A transformed people will
transform a city.” Great word Bill. Now as leaders and church planters we need
to ask ourselves this serious question: Where are these transformed people who
are going to transform cities? The simple answer is: we have to raise them up.
We might have one or two, or we might have 12 within our congregation. But
however many there are we need to get to the “disciple making” process as
quickly as possible. It took Jesus three years to raise up twelve. Do we think
we can raise up 60 to 100 in year. Our Sunday attendance might be 60 to 100 in
a year, and we could stand back and be pleased with our success, but I can
honestly tell you, those are not disciples. There are potential disciples in
that crowd, but it’s up to us to develop them alongside Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Disciples are not made by processing them through a series
of church courses or programmes. They are not created through Sunday services.
In order to make disciples we need to be “doing life together.” Disciples are
not disciples of us nor our churches; They are disciples of Jesus. I don’t want
those I am trusted to disciple to wear chino pants with an untucked button up
shirt, smart casual shoes, and carry a shoulder bag, with some highlights in
their hair. They must not look aesthetically like us. They must look like
Jesus. I know we know this stuff, and we will all say we are setting out to
make them reflect Jesus; but look in the rows of chairs in your church, listen
to the way people talk, and you will be surprised how many are “Sr Leader
Disciples.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is true that people will model off us. But I want them to
model off Jesus in me rather than me, my style and my quirks. If they model off
Jesus in me they will retain their own style, gift, charisma, yet they will
begin to shine life and light from within them that radiates what we see in the
scriptures of who Jesus is. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is now these disciples who will transform cities. They
will go into the spheres of life they are placed in and they will reflect
Christ. They will release Kingdom and they will shift atmospheres. Then the
amazing will happen: They will draw people to Jesus and begin to make disciples
of them. Some will draw many, others will draw one or two. It doesn’t matter
how many each can draw in their capacity, as long as they are drawing them to
Jesus and making them disciples of Jesus. Each devoted disciple will be one who
releases heavens reality into his or her spheres of influence. This is how the
church grows, both in number and in influence. This is what I believe Jesus
meant when He said “I will build my church.” This model is unstoppable. It does
not depend on where you meet, how you meet, when you meet, what your budget is,
what your facilities are like, how fancy your pulpit looks, what courses or
programmes you run. It is real! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">People in the West are looking for something real. Reality
TV has the highest ratings. Why? Because people are tired of scripted shows,
they are boring and predictable once you reach season two. But reality is
exciting, its diverse and its captivating. We, the church, Christians, we have
the greatest reality of all. It’s time to show the world what this superior
reality is all about. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Blessings<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-60048047658462641572012-10-16T21:05:00.002-07:002012-10-16T21:05:53.379-07:00Prophets<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophets have always been perceived as those who are in the know. In OT times, where the roots of any biblical understanding of prophetic ministry lie, they are seen to be the God-intoxicating, biblical existential, calling all to live faithfully in covenant relationship with God and consistent with His kingdom and rule in the world. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Although prophets have a futuristic orientation, their real focus is a call to live in the existential here-and-now of faithfulness and obedience.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The prophets essential task as declaring the word of God to the here and now; disclosing the future in order to illuminate what is involved in the present.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophetic ministry can be said to revolve around two questions:</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Who is God (what is His nature)</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">What does God require of us in this particular place and time (How shall we live)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophets tend to be passionate and spiritual people. They feel strongly and deeply. This is given them from God. And because of the primary concern for God, His values, and His vision for the world, they seem to be able to sense situations where those values are not reflected. They notice what goes unnoticed: injustice, unfaithfulness, indifference toward God, and cruelty etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This experience of encountering two contradicting realities causes the prophet to passionately call into question the existing order of things. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The prophets eye is directed to the contemporary scene; the society and its conduct are the main theme of his speeches. Yet his ear is inclined to God. He is a person struck by the glory and presence of God, overpowered by the hand of God. Yet his true greatness is the ability to hold God and man in a single thought. Holding these two realities together creates tension within the prophet. The prophet identifies the gaps between Gods reality and our own. By forcing us to face up to these gaps in our faithfulness, the prophet creates a context that allows us to perceive the truth of our situation. It is in this space that prophetic intelligence (or sensibility) plays its most critical role.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The prophets recognition of this gap often requires a confrontation with personal and collective idolatry, especially in contexts where the institution has legitimized its particular worldview that makes some ideas possible and others unthinkable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In such situations we need prophetic imagination to deconstruct and dismantle these systems of justification that so often conceal our fears and selfishness. Recognizing the prophets distinct, focused role to awaken our imaginations partly explains why the prophetic person can often have an aversion, even distain, for strategy and structured planning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a result of all the work of bridging God and humanity, prophets generally are not content with the status quo. They tend to be always calling Gods people to greater degrees of faithfulness. They question everything that does not seem to be God honouring and force us to face up to the distance between us and God. They stir the pot, rock the boat, move our cheese, harp, nag and agitate us until we pay attention to the areas or our individual and communal lives that do not reflect the values of the gospel and Gods kingdom. As such they often evoke the darker, more self-protective human responses. No wonder they tend t be killed, exiled, or simply marginalized. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophets generally draw attention to the gap by calling into question the current social, political, or theological arrangements. As the quintessential questioners, prophets play a critical role in developing a community’s capacity to adapt to its environment. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The failure to ask questions allows us to operate with a distorted sense of reality. Organizations that are unable to question their prevailing view of reality are like walking corpses, they just might not know it yet, because it has created an insulated culture that systematically excludes any information that could contradict its reigning picture of reality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophets initiate the process of critical feedback that is necessary for organizational learning. We need to give permission to prophets and their dissenting voices. “Turn off your radar and your will eventually hit the side of a mountain.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The prophetic function is more that purely a critical one; it can also play an animating, profoundly revitalizing role. In fact, in calling us to repent and change, the prophet opens us up to the ever-renewing encounter with God. Walter Brueggemann therefore rightly characterizes the role of the prophet as one who both criticizes and energizes. These two categories suggest a continuum between criticizing and energizing on which prophetic ministry can be located, which points us to an important distinction: Criticizing and energizing are not always given equal attention. Genuine prophetic ministry will always include both, but with different degrees of emphasis. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">First the role of the prophet is to call people back to God. Prophets is the new covenant not only call us back to God; they also call us forward to Gods preferred future for the world-one defined by the ministry work of Jesus the Messiah. In other words, it is messianic<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as well as missional in nature.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Second, criticism is not a licence for cynicism. Cynicism denies the possibility of future transformation and keeps prophets from engaging their context. All faithful prophetic ministry should both criticize and energize, even if one of those functions receives more emphasis than the other. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The third important qualifier for prophetic ministry is love. Because prophets are the guardians of the covenant, they must maintain a deep-seated, covenantal love for God people no matter where and in what state they are in. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fourth, critical distance should not translate into permanent distance. The prophetic vocation sometimes has to learn how to be the loyal opposition of remaining connected to the system while consistently challenging and prodding the system toward greater faithfulness. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fifth, prophets are not infallible, and we are encouraged to test the prophets message to see if it is from God. As highly intuitive types, prophets have an uncanny knack for seeing things others cannot, but intuition can be right or wrong. Collective discernment by the community needs to be applied to the prophetic insight. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finally, prophets need to be aware of their humanity and the possible ways that they might actually be contributing to the crisis they so passionately address. Spending time away from the community and inhabiting Gods reality through prayer and meditation and identification with those on the margins can blind<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>prophets to ways in which their own lives and choices may be perpetuating problems within their own context. The mystics were susceptible to an other-wordly ethic that detacvhed them from the life of everyday. Mediating revelation does not absolve participation in todays reality. Prophetic ministry stands in the gap for sure, but it does so with one foot in Gods reality and one foot firmly anchored in the existing reality.</span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reasons why it is so important to allow the prophets to speak:</span></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without the prophetic voice, we become overly pragmatic and mechanistic in our orientation towards effectiveness and success as a church. From the prophetic perspective, the goals are wrong, and therefore the methods and metrics are too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic witness, most western Christians don’t expect God to speak to us. His voice remains stuck on the pages of a book that only a professional can access and then spoon feed to us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic imagination to show us the possibilities, we don’t expect God to perform miracles in our midst and in our present era. There is a concomitant loss of the sense of the God who is Lord of, and who intervenes in history.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic urgency, we don’t question status quo and are afraid to disturb social and traditional equilibrium – something that the prophetic consistently did to a stagnating people of God in the Old Testament. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic perspective, eschatological living (where past, present and future are held together) has also been lost. Eschatological living is the kind that asks “what kind of people should we then be?” The future, as a meaningful concept and motivation, is relegated to a distant reality, not a present one. And thus we function primarily from the past rather than the future in how we live out the present – which slows the pace and flattens the peaks of what can really happen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic modelling, we lose our transformational and radical edge: prophets always model an alternative reality. They call us to live differently, to choose God’s ways over the ways of the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without prophetic spirituality, our spirituality becomes intellectual, predictable and segmented. We don’t embrace mystery and the mysterious aspects of spirituality and of communal life. Faith takes on less and less risk and more and more intellectual assent in pursuit of “certainty”and orthodoxy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">And without prophetic longing, we are content with God being a distant Savior and creator but lose the sense of Him as Lover, Friend, Judge, Comforter etc. Spirituality becomes about right belief or even right practice – not right relationship.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">(from “Permanent Revolution” – Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim)</span></span></div>
Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-80459630009933152802012-10-16T21:04:00.003-07:002012-10-16T21:04:44.640-07:00Did Jesus Really Teach The Law On Steroids<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have noticed a concerning factor! Many people in the grace renewal are excluding much of Christs’ teachings. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a misconception that has arisen in this renewal of the gospel of grace over the past 6 years that is causing many in the church to not embrace some wonderful teachings of Jesus. This misconception is that“Jesus preached the law on steroids” or that “Jesus preached the law to the fullest extreme.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is important that we clear this up, and are able to see that Jesus in fact did not preach the law on steroids but preached the Kingdom. We only have to do a brief study in order to see this and clear up a lot of these issues. Without any long intro I would like to dive straight in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To build this case we will need to look briefly into the Rabbinical order of the Hebraic culture, both the ancient and the one in which Jesus ministered. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rabbis taught from the Torah and from the Prophets. This is known as the Tenakah (The scriptures)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A Rabbi had a body of teaching that would be called a‘Yolk.’ This ‘Yolk’ was not just a teaching but also a way of life that embodied that teaching in a practical outworking. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were two types of Rabbis: 1) A general Rabbi; or 2) one that had ‘Shmekah.’ ‘Shmekah’ means ‘authority.’ A Rabbi with authority was allowed to have his own ‘yolk.’ If you did not have ‘Shmekah’ you would have to teach the yolk of your Rabbi who had ‘Shmekah.’ Only every 3 to 4 generations would there be a Rabbi with ‘Shmekah.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In order to gain ‘Shmekah’ you needed two witnesses to publically confirm you. Jesus had these two witnesses at his baptism. One was John the baptizer who was a Prophet and the other was his Father who’s voice spoke from heaven at the same event.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To have ‘Shmekah’ would allow you to interpret the Torah in order to bring forward the very purpose the Torah was set in place to do. The Torah was set in place by God as part of the covenant He made with Israel and was primarily to establish the best ways for them to live in love towards Him and each other. It was very much also a social standard. After being slaves for over 400 years they needed to understand how to conduct themselves in a social, loving, honouring and respectful way towards each other. Things such as not killing someone because you covet his belongings was one such standard. Another was not to have relations with another man’s wife, and etc. This was effectively the heart behind the Torah (the Spirit of the Torah or as we know it the Law of the Spirit) After being slaves and having a slave mentality imbedded into their lives for generations these were pretty good standards to put in place in order for them to live in community as a nation who would reflect the glory of God. Over time Israel created human traditions and their Rabbis began to produce their own ‘yolks’ that began to bind and loose the nation. Binding and loosing had nothing to do with the demonic; it in fact has to do with what is allowed and what is not allowed. Most pastors/elders in a church are binding and losing all the time. For example: If I say to my congregation that there is not to be a drop of alcohol consumed by anyone at any time, then I have just bound the people to not drink. Anyone that even one drink will begin to feel guilty and even condemned. There should be a bit of clarity starting to come through now? The problem now came in that Israel began to believe that they could gain a right standing with God and justification through obedience to rules and regulations. Even the sacrifices were just a constant reminder of the saving blood on the door posts at the Passover. Yom Kippur was a yearly reminder of the covenant cut with Abraham, which Israel believed was their reason for being righteous, because they were Abrahams seed. The issue was not the law but sin and what it did in “taking its opportunity afford by the law…, therefore bringing condemnation.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So the Rabbis began to bind and loose the people through their ‘yolk.’ The unfortunate thing is that in their human error, greed and pride they began to produce ‘yolks’ that were very restrictive and began to bind people up so tightly that eventually they lost most of the ‘Spirit of the law (Spirit of the Torah).’ By the time Jesus comes on the scene there is so much confusion, guilt, condemnation and religious traditions that people are living distant from God, except for following His festivals and sacrifices.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jesus is baptized, is witnessed to have ‘Shmekah’ and begins his ministry. Now Jesus himself says “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it.” What does this mean? Well a Rabbi would choose for himself some disciples. These first born males were the best of the best in society. These students (disciples) would sit under the teaching of the Rabbi and follow him around, living immersed in his life in order to learn from him, not only what he taught but also how he lived it out (his yolk). Their desire was to be just like him. Now, what he would do is ask questions based on the Torah and they would have to give an interpretation and an application to what he was asking. This application would have to be able to bring life to the hearers. If the disciple got the interpretation and application wrong, then the Rabbi would say“you have abolished the Torah (law)”; but if they got it correct then he would say “you have fulfilled the Torah (law).” However, this interpretation and application was in accordance with the ‘yolk’ of that Rabbi. So, when Jesus says that “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it,” what he was in fact saying was “I have come to show you how to interpret and apply the Torah so that it will bring life to you.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Later on we see that Paul writes in Ephesians 2: 14-16 “ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinance, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing their hostility.” (ESV)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But if we look at these verses in the Amplified bible we see something interesting that explains it more clearly: “For he is (himself) our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both (Jew and Gentile) one (body), and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, by abolishing in his (own crucified) flesh the enmity (caused by) the law with its decrees and ordinances (which he annulled); that he might create in himself one new man (one new quality of humanity out of the two), so making peace. And (he designed) to reconcile to God both (Jew and Gentile, united) in a single body by means of his cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now, have a look at how the message put its: “The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes</b> that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of hostility.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">In this above text it is related to the fact that the law was a divide between Jews and Gentiles. It is clearly shown that this <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">divide was abolished. </b>To the Jews the Gentiles were classed as unclean “dogs.” There was a great divide between them. A nation such as Israel who were chosen to be a nation of priests were living an elitist life, scorning others. It was clearly not a life of love. This also became the standard for how they treated their own people who were sick, born with disabilities, had issues of blood, leprous, demon possessed etc, They classed these people as unclean sinners who were being judged by God and they warned people to stay clear of these people. Clearly their traditions had warped the heart of the Torah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what part of the Torah was fulfilled? It was the law unto righteousness that was fulfilled in Christ. This means that we do not need to follow the external rituals of the law in order to gain righteousness. The Torah (law) has now been written on our hearts enabling us to live it out as we walk by the Spirit. (This is another discussion)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We know that the law is fulfilled unto righteousness and that this is a free gift from God through Christ and not by our own efforts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">But, back to the discussion about Jesus not teaching the law on steroids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus would have used the only scriptures available in order to teach; this was the Talmud. He would have taught from the law and the prophets, which we see him quoting all the time. There was no new testament writings at this time. Having ‘Shmekah’ he would have been able to bring about his ‘yolk’ which was ‘easy.’ This means that it was not heavy or hard to live according to because it was based on loving God and loving each other. It had nothing to do with elevating man and placing barriers between man and God that were impossible to cross. His ‘yolk’ also took guilt and condemnation away, therefore bringing freedom to those who heard it. He was also bringing love and dignity back into the community, where-as the‘yolk’ of the Pharisees brought guilt on people and was causing people to ostracise each other, pointing out peoples faults all the time and therefore claiming many as unclean. This also gave the Pharisees a high position among the community as they appeared to be holy and without blemish. The more the peoples external errors were pointed out the better it made the Pharisees look, since they had great external appearances. Jesus calls them “white washed tombs” because anyone who came into contact with a dead body was made unclean, so in calling them this was saying that “you are louring people into your teaching because you look good on the outside, but when they embrace your yolk they are made unclean by trying to apply it since it is not bringing them any life.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, as Jesus comes in and brings his yolk the people are amazed and say “we have never heard such teaching, and with authority“Shmekah””. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I want to point out that never does it say that anyone felt condemned by Jesus’ teaching; not even the Pharisees. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were angered by him, but it does not mention condemnation. The law as it was being taught was bringing condemnation at the time, so if Jesus was to have taken it to the fullest extreme then it would have made people feel even more condemned than hearing a Pharisee teach it. We also need to understand that Jesus was addressing the Jewish people and the Pharisees at the same time; some were amazed and others angered, but non condemned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pharisees would approach Jesus while he was teaching people to question him on his ‘yolk’, something they would have done with each other all the time, since it was customary for Rabbis to sit with their disciples and debate other Rabbis on their ‘yolk’, and this was done publically. The thing is this, Jesus was undoing a lot of bad<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>teaching done by the Pharisees, which was slanted to elevate themselves, therefore bringing an equality between all before God, which would have been embarrassing for them. Their main issue with Jesus however, was not that He was bringing condemnation to them, but rather that he was claiming to be the Son of God. Their second main issue was that through his teaching he was disabling their positions of power held over the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The teaching of Jesus was bringing the law of the Spirit which brings life, and not the law of sin which brought death. A classic example of this was the woman caught in adultery. They catch this woman in the act. They bring only her to Jesus. The reason they brought her to Jesus was because He was a Rabbi with ‘Shmekah’ and so he was allowed to pass judgement. They cast her at his feet and expect him to give the order to stone her. Now according to their law she did in fact need to be stoned, and Jesus knows this to be true. But, being a Rabbi with ‘Shmekah’ he is able to interpret and bring the application of how that ‘mitzvot (command)’ is followed out. He responds by saying “you who is without sin cast the first stone.” What is he saying here? Well, he is not saying they can’t stone her; but that those who are themselves righteous before God can carry out the judgement. They all leave because they know the truth. But note that it does not mention they leave condemned. He then asks her “where are your accusers?” to which she notices they are all gone. He then says to her “neither do I condemn you.” Jesus by rights could have condemned her and stoned her because he was the only righteous one there, now left alone with her. But the Torah states that you can’t bring a case against someone and have them judged to death unless you have two or more witnesses to accuse. Jesus being the only one left then applies that commandment, and in a sense says “well no one else is here to accuse you except me, and we need more than one, so you go free.” He then loosens her by saying “go sin no more.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">What about the time Jesus says to the people “It is written that you shall not murder, but I say (my yolk is. My interpretation and application is) that if you hate your brother in your heart you have committed murder.” Obviously to hate someone is not actually murdering them, so what was Jesus trying to say here? Well the Spirit of the Torah was life, and to hate your brother in your heart was to not show love toward him, therefore not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bring forward life. It was one thing to not murder (do any physical harm) but what was the point if you still harboured hatred towards him. The whole of the Torah is summed up in this “to love the Lord your God (Yahweh) and to love each other.” It was about living in the light and bringing forth life and love. Apply this principal to everything you do; does it bring love and life or does it bring darkness? “We were once darkness but now we are light.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some of the scriptures quoted by Jesus seem to be harsh and contradictory to the new covenant life that was being brought forward. What we need to understand is that everything in the new covenant has a foundation found in the old covenant; and that no scripture contradicts itself. One style of teaching which was called ‘Remez”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was when a Rabbi would quote a text or verse but his point was found in the surrounding text, usually the verses before or after, so it is good to go to that text and read the context around it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jesus also used idioms in teaching. One example is when he speaks about plucking out you eye or cutting of your hand or feet. It will help to understand what these things represent. The hand represents your own works. The foot represents your own path. And the eye represents your soul (mind will and emotions). Sin is unbelief. To pluck something out or cut something off is to say “allow it to be put to death.” So what Jesus is saying is this: ‘If your mind, will and emotions, your own works or your own path is going to cause you to live in unbelief, the allow them to be put to death in order to enter into the kingdom (eternal life).’ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is important for us to start to read the scriptures with a Hebrew mentality and not try approach them intellectually. The scriptures are not a textbook, but a narrative about the person and nature of God. Everything centres around Jesus the Saviour, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and how man can live in relationship with Him, living in the light. If we look at it like this we will find in every teaching from any particular book of the bible, the application to live in that light. We always remember that it is through Christ alone that we are able to come into this life and it is not by any means of our own</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We also need to realize that Jesus is our Rabbi, and therefore we are not allowed to teach any other ‘yolk’ except the one of our Rabbi. So if Jesus preached a mixture then so must we, and if Jesus preached the law on steroids then so must we. Obviously we know that this is not the case because Jesus himself said “that the law and prophets were until John, but since that time the KINGDOM of heaven has been proclaimed. This tells us that everything that Jesus taught was in fact kingdom, hence it brought life to his hearers and it was followed by power. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what we need to do, instead of putting aside the teachings of Jesus because we can’t fit them into our personal interpretation of grace, is rather ask the Spirit to help us study and interpret the teaching, to understand the idioms, euphemisms and teaching style of the Rabbis (in particular the style Jesus himself use) in order for us to teach what he taught with the same attitude that he taught, in order for us to be able to bring life through that word to our hearers, the same as it did for those who heard Jesus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paul did not teach opposing messages to what Jesus taught. When Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatians that “all who rely on observing the law are under a curse”, he is speaking about those who rely on observing the law in order to be justified. It is by faith that we are justified. You can see him address this issue with Peter when he came to Antioch. The issue with Jewish believers was they were trying to get Gentile believers to also adopt Jewish customs as part of their justification. Paul was not having this. If even the Jews did not have to do it, and they were given the Torah, then how could they expect the Gentiles to try fulfil it, who had no understanding of the Torah. The Spirit of the law, however, was for everyone. The Torah is now written on our hearts, and is internally fulfilled as we walk by the Spirit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have people who now hate the law, when it is perfect and it was given by God (Paul mentions this). Yet these folk do not hate sin. We hate something that God gave, but are neither here nor there on something the devil brought in. God hates sin, and it was sin that separated us from God, it was sin that brought destruction to the planet. We have been set free from sin. We have died to the law so that sin can no longer seize its opportunity through the law. We are no longer administrated by the law but by the Spirit, and He fulfils in us the Torah so that we live within the blessings that are afforded by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We cannot exclude the teachings of Jesus from our pulpits, but rather teach them in the same attitude that He did and watch the power of the truth transform people’s lives.</span></span></div>
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Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-77410473923372735462012-10-16T21:02:00.003-07:002012-10-16T21:02:37.466-07:00The Foundation of Apostles and Prophets<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have just been meditating on this scripture and something dawned on me that I guess we have somehow known in the back of our minds, but a deeper layer has been revealed. Moving forward into what God is calling us to do apostolically in reaching our cities, countries and nations I believe it is imperative that we understand what this following scripture means:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eph 2: 19 – 20 <em>“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">foundation of the apostles and prophets</b>, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over the past 20 years, and in our “heavy” Ecclesiology, have place the main emphasis on the “apostles and prophets?’ Rather, I believe that the emphasis should be on the ‘Foundation’ and the ‘Cornerstone,’ as well as being‘fellow citizens.’ The foundation is the gospel, the revelation of the Messiah coming, his death and most importantly his resurrection. The revealing of the kingdom through Christ and the bringing of all people groups (ethnos) into that kingdom, therefore making them fellow citizens and partakers in the promises. How that kingdom was outworked and revealed through the church, by the Holy Spirit. The foundation was never “wineskin” as we have known it, since most of our understanding of wineskin is actually structure/model. Was this what Jesus even meant when he used the word wineskin? Was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he not talking about covenants?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe that because we have focused more around structure we have focused the attention of apostles and prophets towards “helping”churches see the correct “apostolic, prophetic” model (whatever that is) and how this is the important partnership towards getting your church “running well.”Has the focus shifted from the gospel? Is Jesus a name used in a sermon to give it credibility? or has he actually been the key focus? Has his life been something that we are helping people to model? Has the reality of seeing his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven been something we have encouraged people to believe for, and even more so, to release? I think if we look back over the past few years, we might finds ourselves a little shocked. I heard Chris Wienand once say “if you asked me to write a book on Ecclesiology I would write 7 volumes; But of you asked me to write one on the gospel I would only be able to fill half a page.” I was as shocked to hear him say it as he was to realize it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need to demystify apostles and prophets, apo teams and team leaders, without devaluing their important role in the church, (a role that is no more important than the other gifts but clearly has a certain and important function) and replace it with what they actually release, which is revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom. We need to take the focus off an external “team” and place it on the local church. When we do this we see the value the ascension gifts have in building the local rather than trying to get the local to serve an external “team”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know that apostle is referred to more than any other gift; but I believe it is because of the revelation of the gospel and the kingdom they carry, and their ability to release that revelation into a congregation in order to establish that local church in kingdom reality, therefore enabling and empowering them to bring real transformation to their cities, towns, villages or neighbourhoods. This again reinforces my case. It is the gospel foundation, and the revelation of the mysteries that are revealed within it that is the important message they carry. Their message is not about structure, although they can advise and assist on that. It is not on model, although they naturally walk it out. But their message is to make plain the truths of this mystery. Paul does say he is a master builder, but a builder of what? Of the church? Jesus said he will build his church! We are to build up people, alongside Jesus, so that they reach full maturity in Christ and come to the full stature of Christ. It is the gospel that transforms. It is the revealed truths of the mysteries of the kingdom that matures believers to grasp hold of the life of Jesus and walk as he did, by the Spirit in us. It is fathers that raise sons to be stable and steadfast in their beliefs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">If an apostle or prophet is not coming into the church to lay in this gospel or releasing the revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom, then are they building the church to maturity? Are they raising believers to the full stature of Christ? They might be helping with our administration and how we have our church meetings, looking at our structure and programs, but this is more of a consultant role rather than a revelatory role. We need apostles and prophets to reveal revelation of the kingdom, not consult us on how our lighting should be, whether people should go to the toilet or not during a preach, a deacon we should bring on, how long our worship should go on for etc. It sounds even foolish to mention these things, but I have seen this done first hand. I know Paul addresses some administrative issues in some of the churches, but these were churches that he had planted and fathered, and it was these issues that were showing lack of revelation of the gospel and the kingdom. In such letters he mainly addresses who they are (identity), what Christ has done (the gospel), their kingdom position, the task at hand (all these things would help the people see beyond their fleshly desires and draw them into the new nature they should be living in), besides, these day to day, family, marriage, social, cultural, parenting, moral etc. issues in the local church should be the role of elders/shepherds to deal with and not so much the apostles and prophets (although we can draw on them for advice). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is humorous to know some of the stuff that “so called” apostles and prophets are doing, but the health and maturity of churches are at stake if the genuine gifts don’t function as Christ intended them to. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I know that the first reaction of some will be to disagree. I am happy for that to happen and for all of us to discuss (if you so wish), but let’s ask ourselves why we disagree; is it because this is the way we have always done it in our model? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;">Also just let me clarify what I am <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not</b> saying: I am not saying that we don’t need apostles and prophets (or any of the ascension gifts), I am a firm believer that we do need them and that they are imperative for the building up of the church. I am not saying that they can’t assist with some of the local church structure or administration (but this is not the primary revelation of what they bring). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why do we question these things? Questioning is one of the best ways to learn, it’s a great way to assess ourselves. The Jewish rabbis taught by asking questions, Jesus taught by asking questions. If we don’t like people asking questions then maybe we have become possessive over our “thing”.And most importantly we question in order to learn and to go beyond where we currently are. We don’t disregard the past but rather build on it, leaving behind the old scaffolding that is no longer needed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need the gospel to take the stage again, we need Jesus to be at the centre, we need the mysteries of the kingdom to be revealed and made plain so that the church can once again rise up in power and boldness and truly fulfil the commission given to her.</span></span></div>
Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-80830424776200981532012-10-16T20:56:00.000-07:002012-10-16T20:56:10.443-07:00Re-imagine<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">In Western society today (Namely Western Europe, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and even South Africa more-so in the last 5 years) there has been a major shift in Christianity. Christendom as we have known it no longer exists. We are living in a Post Christendom era. Congregations in the West are in the decline. In the USA there are around 1500 Pastors that lose their jobs each month and around 5000 churches that close their door every year. A survey done in Australia showed that 70% of Australians despise hearing celebrities talk about their faith publically and 80% of Australians dislike hearing Christians tell testimony about healing. Around 80% of people said they want nothing to do with religion but are interested in some form of spirituality. It is very unpopular to be a Christian, and mentioning that you are one can stop a conversation quite quickly. In Western Europe (especially in countries like Germany and France) they are practically atheistic. The average size congregation in France and Germany is around 15 people, in USA and Australia its around 50 people. These statistics are alarming. The question we need to ask ourselves is: ‘Have we been trained to reach a generation that no longer exists?’ In many cases, to enable the church to survive pastors have had to resort to satisfying the consumerist society that we now find ourselves living in. People get bored with a phone within 6 month and there is always a newer, better one that comes out each month. The same with cars, toys, games, TV’s, computers, ipad’s etc. So many churches have resorted to entertainment programmes to keep “bums in seats”and money flowing in. They have had to resort to this in order to keep the system running. The bigger the system is the harder we try to keep it running. Eventually we become a slave to the system that we created. We can’t stop it because what if the church down the road upgrades their programme, music equipment, lights, building, kids programme, and then advertises it (which is seen a lot here in Australia and in the USA), then we end up losing people to the church down the road. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">In the past 25 years we have used the Sunday service and homegroup/cell group model. This model seeks to get people to come to these weekly “events” as well as invite people we know to come along to them as well. I believe that this is still incredibly valuable, and corporate gatherings like this play an important role in church life. For the more “integrated/mature member” the weekly prayer meeting will be another one of those “events” that they add to the week. Social times have been bi-yearly events set up by a deacon in the church in order to show that we are a “relational” church that values “friendship before function.” While this is a great sentiment, I am not sure that we actually lived out relational/family to the degree that we see in scripture; particularly in Acts 2:42 -46 </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">Reaching our communities was reduced to handing out tracks, hosting a yearly event (normally around Easter or Christmas), and for the adventurous, a trip abroad to a leadership conference or to a Third World Country to support a Pastor in his ministry. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">Now, there is nothing wrong with these things in and of themselves, and they are important, but only within the context of the bigger picture; which is to make disciples of people, for Jesus. The attractional way (meaning: getting people to meetings) causes us to judge the success of the church through how well a Sunday service goes; did we have lots of people today? How was the atmospherics in the meeting? Did all the equipment function well? Was the message not too long and not too short? Was the offering collected a reflection of how many were in attendance? Was the music played well. I understand that a well-run Sunday service can show a level of excellence that reflects kingdom, but I do think that in our western nations these things have become the focal point of our church life. In fact I think we may have become a little over obsessed with this once a week meeting, which only reflects less than 2% of our times spent together. We also end up needing to bring on staff (normally a deacon) who will work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (and 3 hours on Sunday) to ensure that this 2 hour meeting is well run. The larger the church grows the more of these staffed deacons we need to make the meeting run well. We are generally not happy when everything doesn’t “work”according to plan and then need to have a meeting about it during the week because we don’t want the folk in the church to become upset or distracted by the minor mistakes that we make. (I know that many may not agree with what I have just said and I know that I am pressing some buttons on the way we have been and are “doing” church. My intention is not to break down these things but rather to get us to ask ourselves some honest questions as to where we placing most of our value and therefore where we focus most of our efforts. This is also by no means a call to end these types of meetings, as we here at Crossing Point will continue to meet in such ways. We can also all meet differently and have different settings in which we meet and how those meetings look. This should reflect the environment that we are in as well as our own personal styles as this reflects the diversity and creativity of God. What I am saying is do we place more emphasis on these meetings than on “Doing life together”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">I also believe that we may have placed an over-emphasis on leadership that scripture itself does not do. We have had leadership training times/conferences, leaders meetings, leaders courses etc. Now, again, these things are not the issue, but don’t you think we might be undervaluing the priesthood of all believers. And while I know that this has been a value that we say we have, I think we may not be modelling it out. What if someone is not called to be a homegroup leader, a deacon or an elder? Do we sometimes through over-emphasis on leadership make those who are not called feel unimportant and inadequate in the community and kingdom. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">When I look at the Jerusalem church in their early days, they had around 15000 to 20000 people. This was led by 12 men, who were the apostles that walked with Jesus. There was no lead apostle, nor lead elder/lead pastor. Some may say that Peter was, then James, but there is no way of knowing for sure (this can be a later discussion on the dynamic of how these guys worked). However, even with this large group of people they only chose 7 men to assist in the social wellbeing and administration of the church. This must surely raise some questions? Why only 7? How can 12 apostles and 7 others look after the leadership of so many? For me the key is found in Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 2:32-36, this community of people were so involved in each other’s lives that they took care of each other. The point is: family was being formed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">The above points out where we, in the Western church, might have drifted to. Now it’s easy to point out the error, flaws and misdirection’s that we might be living in; but we need practical solutions. The problem with the “consumerist-satisfying” method, is that we aren’t really concerned about where the people are at; as long as they come to our “stuff” we are happy, because momentum in our services is created when people are there (this could be a false momentum, because we don’t actually know if people are connecting with God or each other. They could just be attending). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">For me the practical solution is always found in discipleship; the model we see Jesus use. He wasn’t after numbers (although he did value and speak to the crowd, and we need to make room for the crowd. But at one point we see him challenge the crowd and 3000 leave, which shows that his main concern was not for fans but for followers.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">He was after making disciples, He was after creating family. Family do life together. They live in each other’s space. They challenge each other. Many say that the optimum church size is 150 people, because you can still retain a family, relational feel and people can comfortably be disciple and not fall through the cracks. Obviously as growth occurs we need to allow that community to grow to whatever size it can be. I think this means that we need to possibly rethink the way we administrate this. We need to ask ourselves the questions about the role of elders and deacons in the local church and how and who are appointed, as well as the role of ascension gifted men based in the local congregation. We might also need to rethink, biblically, who sets direction, makes decisions on vision etc. (Just some questions we need to ask of ourselves and open the scriptures around this.) The reality is, that although we might be able to lead a group of 300 people, we could probably only disciple a group no larger than 20 to 50 people (depending on our personal capacity.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">In a church of say 500 people with 4 elders, the reality is that not everyone in the church is going to be discipled by every one of those elders. The truth is that one of these elders will have, let’s say 30 people that see him as a ‘father figure’/leader. They are going to connect with him, ask for advice on matters of life, play golf, have meals etc. Let’s says that each of the 4 has a capacity for 50 people with the help of 2 deacons as part of that group, each of them being able to effectively handle 16 people each. This means that 4 elders can handle 200 people, with the help of 8 deacons (the deacons themselves being discipled by elders.) As you can see there are now 300 people that become fringe and are not sufficiently taken care of. Now some might say “that’s why we have more deacons!” Granted, but who disciples those deacons? Is a monthly deacons meeting sufficient to disciple those deacons if we established that “doing life together” is the best method of discipleship? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">The method used by Jesus was this: To invite people into his life, and then challenge them to live kingdom. This method cannot be used through simply having home groups once a week, a Sunday meeting for 2 hours, a prayer meeting once a week and a deacons meeting once a month. People will have to actually live life together as a community within a community in order for true effective discipleship to occur. Remember that our goal is to get people to be like Jesus in the world (1 John 4:17) in every sphere of influence they have. Remember what I wrote at the beginning, that we need to effectively reach a post-Christendom society. The way Jesus did it was to embed himself in community and teach his followers to do the same. The most effective way to disciple is through immersion (being totally imbedded into a culture). It was intended that we would integrate into society yet stand out from it (a skill we will need to learn.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">He said things like “when you go into a town find the man of peace and stay there.” The man of peace was a person that we will come into contact with that will be open to receive the message that we carry. This person will also be the door into others’ lives. This process could be slow, but it is an effective way of building. Paul followed this same pattern. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">When I have spoken to people in this country many of them have said that they are over church. Many have said that they used to go to church but all they saw was a lot of talking about stuff but never any action to the teaching. They never had any practical application that they could put to what they heard. Many have said that they didn’t care about the fancy building, music, lights, videos, and programmes. All of them desired two major things: 1) To encounter God and be able to practically take Him into their spheres of influence. 2) They longed for real authentic community relationships. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">These two things are what we see Jesus living out with his disciples. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">I believe that these two basic things is what a Kingdom community does. All of our life’s lessons can be learnt through effective kingdom community. Young men can learn to become solid men through rubbing shoulders with older, wiser, more godly men. The same goes for young girls with older ladies. We can learn about finances from those in the communities that are dealing well with their finances, sexuality and so on. In the past we have mainly sought to get this type of teaching through on a Sunday from the pulpit, but I’m not so sure that this is the most effective way anymore. The Sunday preaching achieves many things, but discipleship at the level that is required to make Jesus followers, I’m not sure it does. There is a lot we can learn from the Hebrew rabbinical way of teaching and living (although we do not become Jewish rabbis, but we can learn from their style, which is in fact the style Jesus used. We can adapt it to suit our current culture.) </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">This type of reimaging of the way we are doing church can cause us to become a powerful missional community that reaches people on a level that we haven’t seen since the early church. After planting this church into this environment and after following the journey of many other who are in a similar culture (some planting, some replanting, and others having led churches for many years) it has caused me to re-look at how we do things. For those who have been going for a while or those who have taken over churches that were planted by others you might be noticing the shift within your current community, however this might be a bit slower because there is already an existing group of people that have been in the church for a while. But looking at the trend in the USA and around Australia, many leaders are voicing their concern that people are leaving their church at an incredible rate. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">I would like to close by saying that this kind of conversation is far greater than can be penned down in an email or blog. I would also like to point out that I am not advocating the removal of Sunday meetings, prayer meetings, home groups, buildings, courses or conferences, eldership, deacons or leaders. What I am doing is asking questions of myself and others in order for us to explore beyond what we have known for 25 years, tried and tested as it may be, because we need to reach a different world to the one that was being reached back then (it’s easy to say we have done it this way for a long time and it worked. Well it’s not working anymore and we need to explore, through scripture, the way Jesus wants us to build NOW in this era. People who aren’t changing are closing the doors to their churches, as seen earlier the statistics are frightening.) We don’t want to conform to the worlds way of doing things to reach them. We don’t want to water down the gospel in order to make it more palatable. We want to hold these truths and effectively reach our communities. </span></span></div>
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Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-60323598968745491062012-10-16T20:52:00.003-07:002012-10-16T20:52:40.698-07:00The "Who" of Planting<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Church planting has been the “talk of the town” for the last 20 years now. It has become a romantic possibility for anyone who has a desire to see the kingdom advance. Movements, models and churches have shot people out at a rate of knots to plant churches. Many have succeeded, and many have failed. In both the successful plants and failed plants people have been burnt. Most of the burnt people are those who have gone out to do the planting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There can be no more fundamental step in the process of watching a church become healthy than finding the right spirit filled and God-gifted leader. Those called of God, prepared for ministry, and wired to plant new life-giving churches. Who leads the church plant is one of the most important issues to be determined. Too often the wrong people are placed in the wrong circumstance, with the wrong expectations and a new church becomes at best anaemic or at worst, dead.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">When will we learn that a personal proclamation or desire to plant a church shouldn’t be the qualifying factor for sending someone out on the field? Just because I say I am a brain surgeon, doesn’t make me one! Likewise just because I say I want to plant a church, doesn’t make me a church planter. Yet too often well-meaning leaders are moved by an individual’s “call to plant” and send these self-proclaimed leaders out into field. Paul says <em>“do not be hasty about the laying on of hands”? (1 Tim 5:22).</em> We must not become so anxious to start a movement or make a name for ourselves as “movement leaders” that we hastily overlook a very fundamental issue? On other occasions where good leaders recognize that a person who wants to plant is not a church planter by calling, and explain this to the person, the person runs out anyway in this romantic relationship with planting a church, excessive expectations, and they end up hitting the wall of reality. It helps to listen to the advice given by others. For those wanting to plant, ask your leaders, and especially your spiritual fathers, if they see you as a planter. Even after two and a half years of leading our current church plant I still ask my spiritual father if he believes that we were called to do this task, or did we make a mistake in eagerness to fulfil the great commission. I once heard a man say to another: “loose the romance of church planting because it’s not what you think.” He was right! I didn’t understand at the time, but I sure do now. We must never loose our romance with Jesus, but church planting is far from romantic. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It has become increasingly important to help an individual discover God’s “shape” for their ministry in order to ensure the long-range survival of a new church. The task of planting is far more complex than a simple ‘yes go for it’. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Over the last decade the war has raged on in the church-planting world over models and methodology. We have clamoured for the latest and greatest way to plant a church. An array of solutions have been offered in an attempt to suggest “the right way”. Whenever a God-ordained, God-gifted leader starts a new church with great success, everyone jumps on the “new” wagon and proclaims a “new way” of doing church.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One man plants an organic church that explodes across a city, multiplying many times over and the pendulum swings. Across the state a person leads church as a bi-vocational pastor and experiences great success: The pendulum swings. And so on it goes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My point is this; We watch an exceptionally gifted leader start and grow (not always numerically) a ministry and we automatically proclaim that this leader must have discovered the new “way”. Worse yet, if the leader grows a church in an unconventional way or something that goes against the norm of the established methodology, then we proclaim that a “new era has arisen”. We mark the birth of this new movement as proof that our culture has changed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So, the solution is reduced to a thought processes, which might sound something like this: Frank planted a church as a bi-vocational leader. He was given no resourcing and needed no salary to begin with. So, since he was successful like this, things in our culture have changed. We now need to teach pastors to become bi-vocational, then we would experience greater efficacy. Right? What they fail to take into account is the simple fact that if bi-vocational ministry was the issue, then we should already be winning the war. The greater percentages of pastors today are bi-vocational .</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Maybe we should stop throwing so much money at a church plant and do it on a shoe-string, then we would have greater success. John Smith did this and had great success. Yet, if that was the solution, the Church around the globe should be knocking it out of the park. The average church works with small sums of money from which to do ministry.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Use any other argument you want. You cannot properly draw a universal positive from one instance of success.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whole denominations change strategies every time a “new way” was discovered.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">While all of these issues are worthy of a discussion, are they the primary, foundational issue? The problems are many and far more complex than reducing it to a model or methodology. In fact, there is a whole diversity of issues we could bring to the table. But, models and methods on “how we do church” has been elevated above everything else, and this needs to change. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We have possibly focused for too long on the wrong issues. I would dare say that 98% of the speeches you have heard about “doing” church–planting, centres around “how”rather than “why” of the call to plant. It ceases to amaze me that through all the smoke and mirrors, we have failed to stop and look at one primary issue: The "who"! </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A person “called” and “wired” to plant will be able to raise disciples in the current society that they find themselves planted in. It is these disciples that can change the spheres of influence that they are in. It is through this that the success of a church plant can be seen. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So it might be time to put down the church planting books, and pick up our Bibles and look at the method Jesus used and the way in which the early church reached the then known world with such great success. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Don’t get me wrong. I love reading the amazing resources available to planters today. But church planting is first and foremost about knowing and following Jesus deeply, intimately and authentically. And through that, knowing who he has made you to be, and being comfortable in walking in that calling, be it to be a church planter or not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing this and following him is about 90% of it. Knowing the latest greatest "how-to’s" about planting the next amazing church plant is only about 10%.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In fact, reading the thrilling stories of church planters can be a bit intoxicating. You imagine that what happened to the church planter in the book will happen to you. But in the end it turns out to be an elaborate tale of make believe, a shot of excitement that makes you feel good until reality hits. Read enough books and you will actually feel like you’ve planted a church. You fancy yourself to be an expert on the subject when you actually just know a bunch of good planting ideas that worked well for someone else.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Yes, I know, reading church planting books and learning from effective church planters can be helpful. But starting a new community is not a paint-by-numbers game. It is the frontline of spiritual warfare. When motivated by a Kingdom calling, planting a new church is a direct attack on hell. And when all hell breaks loose, knowing the formula isn’t going to help you much. Knowing Jesus and knowing your calling is going to be what keeps you steadfast. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So read the books, go to the conferences and learn from other planters. Then spend enough time with Jesus to know what he wants YOU to do. And then do it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><br />Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-28019203212862246172012-10-16T20:49:00.004-07:002012-10-16T20:49:55.610-07:00To Experience or Not To ExperienceThat is the question.<br /><br />My wife wrote a wonderful document. In fact it is a book. In this book she describes the many different relationships she has had in her life, with friends, parents, teachers, work colleagues, partners. <br />She also explains what she enjoys and doesn't enjoy, such as foods, drinks, holidays. She also explains what kind of relationship she desires, what attitudes she enjoys and doesn't enjoy. She tells of the places she would like to visit. She also tells of the places she has already visited and how she felt when she went there. <br /><br />I enjoy reading this book. It helps me to know her better. I also get to see her from time to time, we talk and laugh, have the occasional meal together. Sometimes I sing to her, which she enjoys. Every so often we are intimate with each other. These are very meaningful times because I actually get to tangibly touch her and experience the exhilaration of this intimacy and face to face communion with her. Every time is different and I can't control how it goes. What happens happens. But every time we connect like this it is amazing.<br /><br />I try to keep these times to a minimal as I don't want to have excessive experience with her because I am concerned that I might head into error. I know others who have ended up becoming so obsessed with physical contact that they have ended up in adulterous relationships with multiple women, including prostitutes. So I exercise wisdom in how I meet with my wife, what those times are like, and how often we should meet. Sometimes we will be talking and then it starts to get romantic. This often makes me nervous, again due to the many errors others have found themselves wondering into. So generally when I feel the romance kicking in, I prefer to end it there and leave. <br />For now it's good enough that I have her book to keep our relationship going. I love reading about what an amazing person she is. Maybe if there wasn't so much error in the world I would be able to spend more quality time experiencing and encountering my wife; exploring her in ways I haven't done before. <br /><br />Oh, how I wish the world had not messed this up for me. I love her so much. But my fear of the mistakes of others is keeping me from really getting to know her on a deep level. But, again, as long as I have that book, I can have a relationship with her that is satisfactory. <br /><br />Obviously by now you know that I'm not speaking about my wife. But as ridiculous as this would sound with regards to our relationship with our wife, we tend to deal with our relationship with God in this way. <br /><br />Because of the errors made by others we have settled rather for not having experiences/encounter with God, especially if it doesn't fit into our interpretation of scripture. As Bill Johnson says: <em>"The Holy Spirit will never violate the Word, but He has no problem violating our interpretation of it."</em><br />A few years ago while I was still in Dubai and we were, as a church, experiencing a renewal with regards to signs, wonders, and miracles, I began to search scripture to confirm and back up what we were experiencing. I found that the entire bible was filled the testimonies of men and women who had encountered God in one way or the other. Some of those encounters were<em> "mild"</em> (they would be accepted in todays standards) and others were quite<strong> "radicle"</strong> (most of them would not be accepted today). One thing is for sure they were incredibly diverse in nature. Moses experienced God first through a bush that was on fire and that spoke to him.Then after that in some pretty extreme ways. Jacob encountered God is a way that left him with a physical limp. King Saul, on one occasion, had the Spirit come upon him so that he ended up stripping down and fell to the floor prophesying. David had a similar experience of taking off some of his cloths during a time of praise while bringing the Ark back to the city. Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish. John on the island of Patmos had a pretty radical encounter in seeing the glorified Lord. Cornelius had a vision of an angle. Peter was lead from prison by an angle. Paul had some serious third heaven encounters.Elijah and Elisha both struck the river with their cloak and it parted. Elijah called fire from heaven. Not to mention Daniel, Gideon, Abraham etc.<br /><br />It's illegitimate to allow fear to keep us from pursuing a deeper encounter/experience with God. To embrace this fear will cause a failure to the other extreme, which is more culturally acceptable, therefore we tend not to have an issue with it. <br /><br />A lack of encounters can lead to a misunderstanding of Gods word, and a lack of Gods word can lead to a misunderstanding of encounters.<br />I do note however, that some people have been caught up in sensations. It's all about what they "feel". Many have no grounding or understanding of the scriptures nor do they have revelation of the word; it's all about how they "feel" right now. I know that most of us have engaged with people like this, and so we might tend to pull right back, change our language, and stick to what we know is safe. But this might not be best option. We have always heard that the right response to abuse is not non-use, but correct use. <br /><br />I put it this way: since there is so much abuse in bad eating habits, and people are becoming obese, the only corrective is to no longer eat any food at all. Now this will cause us over a period of time to die. The obvious response to bad eating habits is to eat good healthy food. However, when it comes to the things of the Spirit, the supernatural, and God encounters/experience, we tend to be comfortable with non-use. But as with the example earlier of the relationship between man and wife, the relationship would not be healthy at all, and will eventually die.<br /><br />We were created to experience God. What that looks like is the question. But I would suggest that we need to allow God to be God, and to embrace us however He feels He wants to. The scripture says "that those of the Spirit are like the wind, you don't know where it has come from" (paraphrased). <br /><br />I believe that God will give us the answers to ground us in the encounters we have with Him because He would want us to be able to teach others and bring others into similar encounters with Him. When those answers come is another thing. We need to be comfortable with not having all the answers first, before we will "allow" God to move. We need to learn to let God move in, on and with us and the church, then diligently, from a place of hunger, search out the word to ground us in what has happened. <br /><br />I am amazed at the scripture the Holy Spirit brought to Peters attention on the day of Pentecost. It hardly seems sufficient to explain what was happening. In todays standards we would not accept such a scripture, and many would think it was a scripture used out of context, by Peter. <br />This group of people who were making a huge noise, behaving as if drunk on wine, and talking in languages that were foreign to them (although they were declaring the wonders of God. But only to those who could understand their own language. The rest were talking nonsense to them). It seems like it was a joyous and festive occasion. Peter stands up and uses the text from Joel about this being the outpouring of the Spirit that was promised. <br /><br />For us reading this 2000 years later, this makes sense. We have the opportunity of knowing what Jesus told them before ascending. We know what happened in the upper room prior to the outburst into the streets. But to the hearer of Peter, this would be a bit strange. Drunk, joyful men who are speaking strange languages? That text just does not seem like the best one to use in order to give adequate backing for this behavior. Yet because it was the Spirit, these people were cut to the heart. <br /><br />Similarly we have had, or watched others have, an encounter/experience with God, use a text and to us it seems out of context. Yet we have had no opportunity to see the prelude. What happened in their "upper room" experience. Why did God give them that text to confirm their encounter. We are all too quick to write it off as fringe fanatical, unbiblical, extreme, and ungodly. <br /><br />The question we need to ask ourselves is: have we become comfortable and reliant on our intellectual understanding of the sacred texts, to the point that we are satisfied with our relationship with God, based on how much of His autobiography we know cerebrally. <br />Or are we willing to put aside fear of the fruitcake's surfacing, and abandon ourselves to a God who wants to experience us, and who wants us to experience the vastness of who He is, and His kingdom. <br /><br />I know this is a subject of much conflict and many a discussion and argument. But we really need to allow ourselves to embrace the more dimensions of God, no matter how unreasonable they may seem to our 3 dimensional minds, and no matter how wild they may be, and at times how offensive they may be to our intellect. <br /><br />Fear of error can lead us into error. In fact to have fear is error. We are to be people of faith. <br /><br />I'm keen to explore God in the safety of His Word and Spirit, and in the safety of relationships with sound men and women.Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-28171961099627161292010-07-12T00:33:00.000-07:002010-07-12T00:44:56.783-07:00Wake up from your stupor1 Cor 15: 33 - 34<div><br /></div><div>" Do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame"</div><div><br /></div><div>I have seen this scripture used out of context so many times. I believe when we look at this scripture in the context of what is actually being said it will enlighten our hearts to Gods grace.</div><div><br /></div><div>What is the drunken stupor that he is talking about? What sinning are we to stop?</div><div>Take a look at the context of what Paul is busy addressing to the people. He is talking about believing in the raising of the dead, particularly about the raising of Jesus. There were people who were saying that there is no raising of the dead, thus challenging the very core foundation of our belief as Christians. He mentions that if Christ was not raised then we are still in our sin (condition of sin). </div><div><br /></div><div>It is clear here that the drunken stupor and sinning that they are involved in is 'unbelief'. The very sin that caused man to stumble in the garden. Man did not believe. </div><div><br /></div><div>He does not just throw in a verse commanding moral living to deal with behavioral patterns. The whole issue he is addressing with regards is that the are being stupid in not believing in justification through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>Quite simple really.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blessings.</div>Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-5539149182883901822010-02-23T21:02:00.000-08:002010-02-23T21:51:39.582-08:00Loosing Focus on the supremacy of JesusThere are a lot of Christians who are loosing focus on the supremacy of Christ. Other things, even things of the kingdom, are taking over the centrality of Jesus. People pursue many other things except intimacy with the Father, which we gain through Christ. <div><br /></div><div><b>Hebrews 1</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29949" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>1</i></sup><i>In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,</i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29950" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>2</i></sup><i>but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29951" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>3</i></sup><i>The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29952" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>4</i></sup><i>So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; ">Christ.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><i> </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29953" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>5</i></sup><i>For to which of the angels did God ever say, </i></span></span></i><p><i> "You are my Son;<br /> today I have become your Father"? Or again,<br /> "I will be his Father,<br /> and he will be my Son"? </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29954" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>6</i></sup><i>And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,<br /> "Let all God's angels worship him." </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29955" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>7</i></sup><i>In speaking of the angels he says,<br /> "He makes his angels winds,<br /> his servants flames of fire." </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29956" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>8</i></sup><i>But about the Son he says,<br /> "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,<br /> and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.<br /> </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29957" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>9</i></sup><i>You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;<br /> therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions<br /> by anointing you with the oil of joy." </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29958" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>10</i></sup><i>He also says,<br /> "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,<br /> and the heavens are the work of your hands.<br /> </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29959" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>11</i></sup><i>They will perish, but you remain;<br /> they will all wear out like a garment.<br /> </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29960" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>12</i></sup><i>You will roll them up like a robe;<br /> like a garment they will be changed.<br /> But you remain the same,<br /> and your years will never end." </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29961" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>13</i></sup><i>To which of the angels did God ever say,<br /> "Sit at my right hand<br /> until I make your enemies<br /> a footstool for your feet"? </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29962" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>14</i></sup><i>Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?</i></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">Here the writer of the letter is pointing out that it is not even messages from angels that are important anymore, since God has now spoken to us through His Son, Jesus. The Hebrews were very accustomed to receiving messages from angels, this was normal to them. The writer is trying to point to he fact that they need to be listening to Jesus. Granted, angels do come an assist us in ministering as seen in verse 14, but we hear God primarily by the Holy Spirit Whom He has given us. The Holy Spirit is the One Who takes from what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">We must be aware that we don't find ourselves be more captivated by the helpers, that we do by the One Who sent them. We are all able to hear God's inward audible voice for ourselves. Angels come, but I believe they always point us to Jesus. God, I believe, would rather us hear the voice of His Spirit rather that Him have to get our attention through the voice of angels. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">In our ministry we have seen had angles minister along side us, they have been in our meetings. One thing I have found that attracts them is when we worship the Lord and when we are preaching Jesus. Another thing I have found that they do, is point us to Jesus and then move out of the way. They will also spend more time telling of what they have seen, rather than preach the gospel or the kingdom. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b>Colossians 2: 18 - 19</b></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; "><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29497" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>18</i></sup><i>Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29498" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>19</i></sup><i>He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.</i></span></b></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">We also need to know that the devil will come as an angel of light. He also knows the scriptures very well and can quote them, but he does not like us to have a clear view of Jesus or hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. I always take note when I hear someone always saying that angels have told them things, but never hear them speak of the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is not often heard of in their message. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">As we become more intimate with Jesus and with the Father, we will hear more clearly the voice of the Holy Spirit. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">A sure sign that someone is loosing focus of the centrality of Jesus and slipping out of His rest is the following: Frustration, lack of grace for others, anger, strife, striving for things, fear, fear of control, fear of law, selfish living, argumentative, chasing every wind of teaching. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">As Paul said:" I claim to know nothing while with you except Christ and Him crucified"</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">He also says: " If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, The task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace"</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">We need to keep the focus of Jesus, on His gospel. In Him is the power, in the gospel is the power. If we make every effort to enter His rest, then we will begin to see the supernatural as an automatic consequence of our rest in Him.</span></p><p><i><br /></i></p></span></div>Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-85991264375521810492010-02-14T18:29:00.000-08:002010-02-14T18:42:24.216-08:00The gospel announced to Abraham - nations will be blessed through you!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Galatians 3:8</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> (New International Version)<br />The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">"All nations will be blessed through you."</span></b></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">What a strange scripture to pick up on. I have read over this many times before, but never saw it the way i did the other day.</span></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Have a look at what it is saying. The gospel was announced in advance to Abraham, rigtht?<br />What does it say next? "All nations will be blessed through you" WOW.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Is it saying that a part of the gospel, the good news, is that nations will be blessed through us? It most certainly is.<br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The bible says: "So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."<br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I would like to proclaim to you today, that a part of the gospel, is that we will be a blessing to all nations. We become the blessing. This is because of the Holy Spirit living in us. The main purpose here is not to draw towards ourselves or take anything for ourselves, but so that we can reflect Jesus, to honor God in all we do. We are a blessing to all nations by showing them who Jesus is and showing off His glory. Not so that people will be impressed with us in any way, but that they will be impressed by our Lord and saviour. We must always be pointing to Jesus.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">How do we become a blessing? By not being a curse!<br />We counter the ways of this world, we counter the system of the ruler of this world. Where people fight against each other, we bring peace. Where people turn away from each other, we turn towards. Where people run, we stand. Where destruction comes, we bring restoration. Where sickness come, we heal. Where demons oppress, we set free. Where people steel, we give. Where there is poverty, we bring abundance. Where there is hate, we bring love.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We opperate under a different, oppossing kingdom to the one of this world. And the more aware of the kingdom we are acctually living in, the more we radiate that kingdom, and that power begins to bring the change.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Too many christians live no different from this world, we do the very things they do. This is because we do not have revelation of the gospel. When we grasp this revelation of the gospel and the power we have, then we begin to steward that correctly, and naturally bring change.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#2B0C03;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; font-size:11px;"><div class="postbody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; clear: left; font-size: 1.2em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Let us mature in the gospel of grace, let uis mature into the full stature of Christ and we will see the world naturally change just through us being who we really are.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></div></span></span></span></div>Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-51464099795117449022010-02-10T16:55:00.000-08:002010-02-10T17:43:04.715-08:00Legalistic about the signs will lead to forfeiting the presence<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h2 id="passage_heading" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; ">1 Corinthians 1:21-23 (New International Version)</h2><div class="result-text-style-normal" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><p><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-28369" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; ">2<i>1</i></sup><i>For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-28370" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>22</i></sup><i>Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-28371" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>23</i></sup><i>but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,</i></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">There has been something that I have noticed as I have spoken to people and seen on my travels around the world. It is something that is of concern to me. This scripture above has helped me to understand what it is.</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many believers now who are becoming 'sign junkies'. They live to see the signs of God manifesting. Desiring to see signs is not the problem because signs will follow or accompany the preaching of the Gospel. The early church saw signs, and I myself have seen it many times while ministering. But desiring this signs at the expense of intimacy with Jesus and with the Father, this is a problem.</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like a drug addict these believes hang for a visual sign that pleases them, if no sign is seen the way they expect it to be seen, they leave disappointed. They run around from conference to conference, from speaker to speaker, as a drug addict would run from club to club or from dealer to dealer, looking for the next fix, that will satisfy until the craving starts again. They miss the one who can completely satisfy, Jesus.</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to the scripture above, the Jews ( religious, legalistic people ) where looking for a sign. Jesus wasn't enough for them. They were not satisfied with Him. They needed, in their religious minds, a sign to satisfy. They missed the very one, the giver of the signs. This is happening today, christians all over the world are forfeiting intimacy for a quick fix, pick me up. I have seen God move in a meeting, I have felt the weight of His glory, I have seen people change in the presence, yet many of these brothers leave unsatisfied as they did not get to see what they felt they should have seen. They missed the living God, by His Spirit, walking among us.</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lets use the Israelites as an example. They saw the plagues come upon the Egyptians, they saw the red sea open, they saw the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they saw manna from heaven and ate of it, they drank water from a rock ( water from a rock, what and amazing thing ), yet they still did not believe in the goodness of God. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many will say, ' signs show that we have God's favor and that we are believers, they are proof of us being christians.' I would like to point out that no where in the bible does it say that this will be the distinction between non-believers and believers. In fact Jesus says in John 13: 33 - 36</span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="result-text-style-normal" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><p><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-26654" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>34</i></sup><i>"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. </i><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-26655" style="font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top; "><i>35</i></sup><i>By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." </i></p><p>We see here that it is through our love for one another, our brotherly love, that the world will recognize that we are the disciples of Jesus.</p><p>In fact, God said to Moses that He would send an angel with the Israelites. How many believers today would be over excited about that. Think about it, we would have an angel with us, manifested for us and others to see. I would want that, and many times we have had angels appear in our meetings, one in our living room while we were in Dubai. We want more of that for sure. But that is not the issue. The issue is taking that instead of something far greater. Moses responded in an amazing way. He said (and I am paraphrasing ) Unless Your presence goes with us, we will not go. WOW. Now lets remember that no one was able to look at God or they would die. So Gods presence going with them meant that no one would actually see Him. They would feel Him, and know that He was there, but they would not see Him. They could have had the angel, and spoken about it and seen it and it would have told them what God wanted them to do, but, they wanted God's presence instead.</p><p>We can learn from this. You see it is not those things that we should be captivated with. The bible says that there will be false signs and wonders, so who knows. We want the real. We are to be captivated by Jesus, lost in His presence. When this happens I believe we will become mature, stewards of the glory, and we will see healing, deliverances, signs and wonders. This will be a natural overflow, not a strive, not an imbalanced lifestyle. And the fruit of the Spirit will be evidenced in our lives.</p><p>It saddens me at times, to see people in worship of the Father and of Jesus, and the presence and glory of God is in the room, and then I look around and see people looking at their hands for specks of gold or oil. They would leave a place of worship to look for something. Who cares if we are covered in gold, oil running from our hands, feathers falling all over, gems on the floor, if we are in a place of absolute worship of the lover of our soul, the ancient of days, the great I am, why does anything else matter. All else is just a by-product.</p><p>Please note, i am all for these amazing signs. I have seen them both through others ministering and through myself ministering, so how can I deny. I also desire to see an increase of these things. But we need to be seekers of the one who gives these things. We can't be junkies for them, conference junkies, looking for a fix. We see the sign and it should point us to the one who gives them. don't be satisfied with the signs, be satisfied with the presence.</p><p> </p><div><br /></div><p></p></div></span><p></p></div></span>Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-88644054357458498482010-02-01T14:39:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:40:37.379-08:00Ministry of Reconciliation2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (New International Version)<br /><br />17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.<br /><br />This is an amazing scripture. Not only did God reconcile us to himself but He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Take a look at verse 19: ' And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.' It is us who point people to Jesus who has reconciled man to God. This is why it is imperative that we are preaching the correct message, we need to be preaching the gospel. It is only by people seeing the grace (favour) of God found in Jesus that people will understand and see the truth that they have been reconciled to God and that access to Him has been opened.When law is brought upon people they are unable to see the door clearly, this does not make clear the reconciliation that has been achieved. This happens because when law is preached, the focus is taken off Jesus and placed on man, man can but only try to perform when faced with the law. The law will activate us into self-effort mode, placing man into a 'works' frenzy, which has no end except failure. But we have been given the amazing task of ministering reconciliation to man. We have the most amazing message, which is the truth, and which places peoples vision on Christ and thus opens the door to new life, a life lived with God and God in us.<br /><br />Since we have such a great privilege, let us preach the truth and see people reconciled to God.Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-59778432831534207922010-02-01T14:38:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:39:21.675-08:00David's Tent and Beyond our wallsHi All<br /><br />Go check out my video blog on the link below. You can comment on this page or on the ustream page.<br /><br />http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crossing-pointCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-2163704016282662592010-02-01T14:36:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:38:00.918-08:00What can build us up!Acts 20: 32 “ Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you and inheritance among all those who are being sanctified” (NIV)<br /><br />It is the word of grace that is able to build us up and it also gives us an inheritance among the ‘set apart ones.’ If we want to see believers strengthened and built up into mature believers who walk by the Spirit, then it can only be by the message of Gods unlimited and unmerited favour ( grace ) that this can be achieved.<br />I have heard it said that “we need to get believers to stop living in sin and be more holy ,and so we need to give them some teaching that will stop them from doing this. They must walk by the Spirit and stop gratifying the sinful nature”.While this is true, the way to get to this victory is not by telling people to stop sinning, for this is impossible, but by giving them revelation of who they are, and getting them to live by the Spirit.<br /><br />Look what Galatians 5:16 says: “ Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (NIV)Note that it does not say “ live by the Spirit and you Must not gratify the sinful nature”, contrary to much teaching today. The Latter way is impossible and brings condemnation and guilt, the former way places the ability on the only one who can liberate and strengthen us, The Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Christ. Who else can help us to attain Christ-likeness but the Spirit of Christ Himself.<br /><br />You see living by the Spirit is living in faith, it is yielding to Him and and giving up on human effort. It is allowing Him to manifest Jesus in us and through us. Hence Paul is committing the people to the word of Gods grace and to God Himself, who for us here on earth is the Holy Spirit.Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-4629159725197711372010-02-01T14:31:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:36:22.807-08:00False Teachers2 Peter 2<br /><br />False Teachers and Their Destruction<br /><br />1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.<br /><br />Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.<br /><br />13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.<br /><br />17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered Him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."<br /><br />This passage of scripture has always been one that has been used by leaders and preachers, including myself years ago, to bring down the hammer on those people who are not walking in ‘ absolute holiness ‘. As I have read over this passage time and time again, it has become more and more clear that he is not addressing people that are struggling with sin, but he is addressing the people and warning them about false teachers. We need to see what makes these men false teachers.<br /><br />In the days in which this letter was written the biggest problem in the church was religious men forcing people to conform to the traditions of men and laws, rules and regulations.<br /><br />In verse 1 it says “..., just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them...” We need to note one word here that will help us to understand that these men were not, as some suppose, outright telling people not to believe in Jesus and go out and sin. The word is ‘secretly’! They will secretly introduce destructive heresies. We know that if they had outright denied Jesus as Lord that would not be very secretive.How will they denying Jesus? They will as Paul says, time and time again, cause you to fall from the freedom you have by placing on you a mixture of law, causing you to try and add to what Christ has done on the cross, trying to earn or retain your righteousness by human effort.<br />“Many will follow their ways and bring the way of truth into disrepute” ( Disrepute- To bring into low esteem in the eyes of others ) The way of truth will be marred. We all know what the truth is, Christ has done it all and we can’t add a thing to it or retain it by our efforts, it is a gift.<br /><br />“ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell...” He clearly says that this that these false teachers are doing is ‘sin’. How did the angels sin? They followed satan in his pride, they thought they could be like God, they entered into unbelief. Do you know what happens when we try and add to what Jesus has done? We say that we need to ‘complete’ what He started, it is pride and unbelief. This is sin!<br /><br />Look later on in verse 5 “ ... But protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness...” God rescued Noah. Noah was not just a righteous man but he was a preacher of righteousness. Like Abraham, Noah believed Gods promises and so he was righteous.<br /><br />Verse 10 “ This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority...” Sinful nature is unbelief. The sin of unbelief manifests in many different ways- sexual immorality, drunkenness, anger and fits of rage etc. What causes this? 1 Corr 15: 56- “ ... And the power of sin is the law.” Rom 7 in verse 8 “ ... For apart from law sin is dead” Rom 4:15- “ And where there is no law there is no transgression” Rom 6: 14- “For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under grace”.<br />The cause of sin is the preaching the law!! Although the law does not allow sin, but it is holy and perfect, something we cannot attain to.<br /><br />These false teachers who will lead people astray by their heresies are those who secretly slip bits of law into the church and bring people into a state of unbelief and so they end up living in sin and the sin manifests itself in many different ways.<br /><br />Peter Goes on to call these men ‘brute beasts’, ‘ Experts in greed’, ‘an accursed brood’, ‘ They have left the straight way’, ‘springs without water’, ‘dogs who return to their vomit’, ‘pigs that go back to the mud’.<br /><br />Look what he says in verse 19 “ they promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.” ( The word for ‘depravity’ in Christian theology in the dictionary is: the innate corruptness of human nature due to the original sin. What was the original sin? The sin of unbelief. God said do not eat, satan said ‘ did God really say’ Eve and Adam ate because they doubted God which is unbelief) Peter says in this verse that ‘a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him’, if the law has mastered him then he will be a slave to the manifestations of sin under the law. But we are slaves to righteousness.<br /><br />Verse 21 is the hard one to interpret “ It would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness, than to have know it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” Note that it does not say that they ‘followed’ the way of righteousness. But it says that they have ‘known it’ yet turned their backs on it. They know of righteousness by faith but choose not to believe and turn their backs and try obtain it through the law, their own human efforts. They have rejected the sacred command that was passed on to them. The word for ‘sacred’ in the Greek means: acceptable and pleasing to God. What is acceptable and pleasing to God? FAITH.<br /><br />The acceptable and pleasing command of God that was given to them is “ Believe in the one I will send, the Christ, Messiah. Believe in Jesus”<br /><br />Quite simple really - Don’t let false teachers, teachers of the law slip in destructive heresies but keep preaching righteousness through Jesus and people will not fall into sin and manifest the fruit if sin, but people will be liberated and walk by the Spirit and thus the life and love of Jesus will be manifest in them and through them and the kingdom of Heaven will be ushered in through the church into this world.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-16373766239527776292010-02-01T14:29:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:31:25.966-08:00Doctrine of demons1 Timothy 4:<br /><br />"1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."<br /><br />As I saw this yesterday it suddenly came to me what doctrine of demons is. Doctrine of demons is any teaching that takes the focus off the completed work of Jesus and places focus on anything else, including us. If we are taught to add anything to what Christ has done, by own own human effort, or to even retain what has been given us as a gift, i.e righteousness and justification, by our own ability, good behavior, fasting, prayer, reading of the bible- as good as these this are for us to do- then it takes the focus off Christ's' completed performance.<br /><br />The ploy of the devil is to sow doubt and unbelief. One of the major ways that he does this is by getting us doubt the fact that there is nothing we need to do to gain or retain our right standing with God, to walk in supernatural power of the anointing in order to minister to people, heal the sick etc. We are made to believe that we need to earn the presence of the Holy Spirit. All these things take the focus off the factual truth that Jesus Christ has performed and completed the task on our behalf. If the focus is taken off Jesus through these teachings then it is not the gospel that is being preached, but may I be bold as to say, that it is lies, it is doctrines of demons.<br /><br />Of course we need to read the bible, we would be stupid not to, same with fasting, spending time in prayer and meditation of God, but these are desires that come from a place of knowing and being and not out of a place of "earning". If we are taught to earn anything or perform in order to obtain anything, it is human effort, it belittles the work of the cross by making it seem uncompleted, not enough, it is doctrines of demons put in place to take the focus off the King and place it on to anything else, mostly ourselves.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-26681171948468283272010-02-01T14:27:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:29:53.050-08:00Beyond our WallsAs I have gained revelation of the amazing grace of our God I have been challenged with the words “ beyond your walls”. As I have understood grace I have realised that apart from freeing us it does two other things:It compels<br /> It empowers<br /><br />The freeing grace of God compels us to tell others about Him and empowers us to live a life that reflects and demonstrates His glory. How can we hold such a message and be filled with God the Spirit and not be moved to get out into the streets and nations? This message and the power of the kingdom inside of us by the Holy Spirit cannot be held within our walls, it is not for local consumption. If I am so freed by revelation of my position in Christ, surly others need to hear this message as well. We cannot sit around in our churches if we have gained this revealed truth, if we have understood the mystery of the gospel, Christ in us.<br /><br />I would like to just clear that motivation comes from “the place of already being” and not from a place of “trying to get to”. If there are believers that are motivated by the desire to earn anything from God, be it His love, His pleasure, His blessings, His anointing, His Spirit etc. by going out, then they need to be stopped and taught about the grace of God first so that they do it out of a place of knowing their position and not out of works.<br /><br />Some may say “Paul never taught that people need to go out preach and demonstrate the kingdom”. To that statement I would like to answer with these two statements: 1. Paul preached grace but he did model going. How would he be able to preach grace and demonstrate with “extra-ordinary miracles” across the then known world if he had not gone beyond the walls. 2. We are disciples of Jesus and Jesus gave us instructions to “GO”. He said in Matt 10: 7-9 “ As you go, preach this message: the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons”. Matt 28: 18-19 “... All authority has been given to Me. Therefore go...” Mark 16: 15 “ He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news... Verse 17 ... In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues,... They will place their hands on sick people and they will get well”. Acts 1: 8 “ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses...”Those are just a few scriptures that show that it is on Gods heart that we are a people that go beyond the walls.<br /><br />My experience as I have understood Gods grace in its freedom is that I have got to know my Father and my Lord Jesus in a more intimate way. I have also become more intimate with the Holy Spirit who is in me. I have had revelation of what a wonderfully loving God we have, yet how Holy and Perfect and Righteous He is. But in this revelation I have experienced such freedom and I have experienced the power of God moving through a human being, an unworthy, dirty Bluff boy, that it has compelled me to take this gospel both in proclamation and demonstration into the community, the city and the nations, to tell others about our wonderful God and to model the life of Jesus being manifested in me by the Holy Spirit- “ How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him”<br /><br />This has been resonating in my spirit. I want to take this amazing message of Gods grace and tell others about Him; and with the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us only because of our standing in Christ, heal those who have been oppressed by the devil.<br /><br />The sign of grace in our lives is that we live free, that we are compelled an empowered by the Holy Spirit to tell others about our God and show others His glory.<br /><br />God Bless,Crossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-39511030920781830272010-02-01T14:24:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:27:16.781-08:00Finished" He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things"<br /><br />This is truly an amazing statement as I look at it over and over again, God did not spare Jesus but cursed Him, His own Son, on the cross for us. Read it again, and again. Because of this He will give us all things. This is not for us to be selfish, its not all about us. Its actually about God. Its never about us but always about His glory, Jesus died for the glory of God, we are saved for the Glory of God, we are made righteous for the glory of God, the Holy Spirit lives in us for the glory of God and we will be glorified for the glory of God.<br /><br />I have been learning more and more and will continue to learn so much more that when we stand before a circumstance that it is not by anything I can do that is going to change that situation, but it is Jesus who has already at the cross made provision for it to change. Let me use and example: A person we know is very ill, they have an illness that is terminal. We can gather people together to pray and to fast, but this will not change the situation. No amount of prayer or fasting is going to change that situation, not from God's side. Prayer and fasting is essential for us as believers, I am not the best prayer but I love to pray and communicate with God, we need to do these things but they are not essential, I believe, for God to activate. What is essential for God to activate is faith, faith in the finished work of the cross. Faith is what attracts the Holy Spirit who comes and transforms the circumstance or situation.<br />Our prayer and fasting is a sign of our faith and our love and commitment to the person who is ill, this also builds our faith. But we can have days of prayer and fasting, and if it is done out of a place of " God you see how much we do, how hard we are working for you to move your hand" then we are not acting in faith. (I am not saying we must not pray and fast, please hear me, I am saying the reason we pray and fast, in this particular instance, is the key, it is not to motivate God by our works, it should be out of faith that we activate God, our prayer and fasting is from faith not from works.)<br /><br />You see God did not spare Jesus, thats the extent of His love. It must have been incredibly difficult for God to place the weight of sin and the curses and punishment of mankind onto His Son. Yet He did it. He is serious about us not trying to do anything in our own strength, because when we do things in our own strength it make light of what happened on the cross, it is a sign of unbelief.<br /><br />We stand before every situation and believe that it has been atoned for at the cross, there is nothing we can add to the work of the cross and we should not try,we should not expect it of others. When people come to me for help, struggling with issues or sin I always take time to explain to them the finished work of the cross, Gods amazing grace. God will not leave us ' high and dry', He left Jesus ' High and bleeding to death' so He would not have to do that to us. This is the amazing gospel of Gods grace. We just have to believe, believe that we cannot do anything to add to the cross, believe that it has been completed, believe that when Jesus said " it is complete" He was not lying but was telling the truth.<br /><br />If we live like this we will see more of the kingdom come and more of Gods glory<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-89261499999753895602010-02-01T14:22:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:24:15.370-08:00What message“ The Law and the Prophets were until John”<br /><br />Why until John? What happened when John came?<br />The message changed from that of following the law in order to attain righteousness. What did John teach? “repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”- Repent!! ( to change the way you think and do things)<br /><br />Once John came he preached the message of “the Kingdom of God is at hand”, Jesus demonstrated that kingdom and then purchased us into that Kingdom. We cannot go digging for water in an old pool in order to quench the thirst of the people and see them change into the image of Jesus, the law and the prophets cannot bring life. We must give them fresh water, the correct message, that of the Kingdom and grace of our God, will activate heaven to break into this realm. “ signs, wonders and miracles will confirm the preaching of the WORD” Jesus is the Word. We must preach Christ in order to activate the Spirit to come and confirm the true message and to bring change and transformation into peoples lives. When the church lives in this place then the kingdom will effortlessly break in through her.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-57832629557602940052010-02-01T14:17:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:22:46.023-08:00Enter His RestHebrews 4<br /><br />Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.[a] 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,"So I declared on oath in my anger,'They shall never enter my rest.' "[b] And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."[c] 5And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:"Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts."[d] 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.<br /><br />I read this scripture as I have many times before but this time something became alive to me. I realised that many believers don’t find rest, they are always trying to do things ‘for God’ and in their trying they are never satisfied and they feel God is never satisfied. With this trail of thought they strive even harder and push those around them harder to ‘please God’, they are looking for rest and satisfaction but never find it.<br />We can be doing so much, seeking out the sick, preaching the gospel, looking for the demon possessed, visiting hospitals every week, feeding the poor etc. These are all good things that I believe we as believers should be doing, but even in doing these things we are not satisfied and we find no rest.<br />The question is: Why do we not find rest?<br /><br />I believe this scripture has a few keys as to why we do not.<br /><br />“because those who heard did not combine it with faith.” ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’, the reason for this is because without faith in the finished, atoning sacrifice of Jesus we will inevitably add in some of our own efforts. If we do not believe that it is finished in Christ then we will always be adding in our bit to ‘help’ Him get the job done. If we live trying to assist God to finish that which has already been completed than we will never be at rest.<br /><br />“...did not go in, because of their disobedience.” The word here for disobedience, in Greek, means unbelief. I think it is because of their disobedience in unbelief that they are not able to enter into the rest that God has for us in Jesus. Let me put it this way: If we do not believe that the work has been completed in Christ, and God has told us not to add any of our flesh ( human effort) to His working, and we do not believe that the work is complete then we will try to add our effort, which is disobedience, since God told us not to. Put another way we could say: That we are disobedient to what God told us, in that it is finished, by adding our efforts, because of our unbelief.<br /><br />“for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” In order to enter Gods rest we need to rest from our own works, it cant be any more clear than that from this verse.<br /><br />We need to make only one effort, the effort to enter into Gods rest. I would like to add that Gods rest is not sitting for the rest of our lives on a sofa. In Gods rest we are seeing the sick healed as we are out there laying hands on them, we see people free from demons, we see people come to Jesus as we preach the Gospel etc. We are however not doing this out of us striving from a place of ‘have to’, but out of a place of ‘we can’.<br />If we are having to force or strongly motivate people to do these things then the chances are they do not understand the incredible grace of God, because in the understanding of Gods grace and our place of rest in Him we are empowered and motivated by the Holy Spirit to function as Jesus did. Jesus said “ as you go, preach the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons”, the emphasis has to be on “as we go”, as we go do what? As we go about our daily lives, to work, to school, to the shops, to the beach, on holiday etc. As we live in Gods rest, as we live by the Spirit, as we yield to the Spirit, He will open our eyes and ears, He will guide us and show us those around us who need that touch from God.We do it from a place of rest and not a place of human effort or self induced striving.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-65232632861285243222010-02-01T14:15:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:17:47.545-08:00Not afraid of lawI have come across two groups of grace believing Christians. The first group are those who are so afraid of law and performance that they constantly walk around aware of everything that might even remotely elude to law or performance. Even encouragement is misunderstood for "telling them to perform". The other group are those who truly understand grace, they live in such revelation of it that there is no way that they are going to go back under law or be placed under performance based living. This is the place in which we need to bring Gods people, that they would "grow in their knowledge of grace" and not live "afraid " of law.<br /><br />What happens is that the word "works" is often misunderstood for "performance to please" or "human effort". "works" is not a swearword if we understand grace. The bible speaks of us doing the "works of Christ" and "the Good works that have been set out in advance for us to do". This is not at all motivation under pressure to perform but it is rather a natural reaction of a life lived in grace and most importantly with The Holy Spirit. He is in us and He is manifesting the life of Jesus through us, hence "the works of Christ". There is a natural activation that takes place when we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we can only surrender to the Holy Spirit when we live in a revelation of grace.<br /><br />Let me just say that there is at times a "sofa-sitting" stage that some believers go through when they first begin to be liberated from performance, human effort and law( not all believers go through this stage but only a small few- that I have seen anyway). This is the stage where they sit around and say "we don't have to do anything because we are under grace", this statement is true because we don't 'have to' do anything, the reality is that they have not yet grown in grace into a place where the 'have to' changes to a 'want to'. The 'want to' stage comes as we mature in grace ( most people I have met, including myself, went straight to this stage). The problem comes when they never get to this stage and they stay critical of everything that is encouragement. Some people even make grace a law and beat each other up with it, you have to always watch what you say around them and as a leader you can never encourage them because you are quickly accused of placing them under law. The only way to get them to mature is to continue to preach true grace to them. I had a guy here under my leadership who was like this, he came out of a very legalistic backround and started to hear us preach on grace and he got set free to some measure ( because he was afraid of law now he wasn't truly free). he would question anything and every encouragement was placing performance on him. I just kept teaching him grace and eventually before long he got it and now he is flying.<br /><br />When we live in maturity of grace we can not go back under law and so we do not live afraid. Even if I visit a church and the preacher starts to preach a strong mixture of law and grace, he starts to place heavy guilt driven motivation to give to the poor ( if you love Jesus you should be giving to the poor etc ) and then he takes up an offering for a poor community somewhere, I will happily give because I will myself be giving under grace and would want to give to the poor because I live in a revelation of Gods love, I don't agree with the way it was done by the preacher but it does not have effect on me,I don't have to give but I want to give, I know who I am and I will give out of that place ( I hope everyone understands what I'm trying to get across, I just used giving to the poor as and example). This goes with every area of our lives, while the ultimate need might be correct, the way in which it is presented is based on human effort and striving to perform and earn, but we will not be brought under that kind of living because we are truly free and no person can take that away. We meet the need (eg: pray for the sick, giving to the poor etc ) out of a place of our revelation of who we are in God and not out of motivation from the preacher. We don't throw our hands in the air and say " no, I'm not giving, this guy is trying to place law on me" thats immature thinking, why should we let ourselves be effected by legalistic people.<br /><br />If people are walking afraid of law then they are not truly understanding their freedom. We need to keep preaching grace to them so that they can come to a mature understanding of it and not live in fear of going back under law or performance and human effort.<br /><br />These are just some of the people I have come across that I thought I would share with you. maybe some others have seen this, maybe I am wrong. I believe it is our role, in partnership with the Spirit, as leaders to bring people through into freedom and maturity so that they can fly with the Spirit.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8529145994714352773.post-42313415544764233742010-02-01T14:12:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:15:38.400-08:00Performance, fear and police masquerading as fathersHow many times have we thought or been taught…if you sin, you’ll incur Gods wrath and anger. God will punish your behaviour…you better fear Him and live holy or you’ll reap the penalty from God! - ( Quote taken from a great article by Wayne Duncan )<br /><br />This statement rings true, but is often brought across even more subtle and creeps into the hearts of the believers and cripples them. I have never heard christians refute the fact that we are saved by grace and not by our own works and that our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Where I have found the biggest problem is once the person is saved, they are made to feel that they need to outwork their salvation in their own effort trying to obey the laws of God, when in fact we are dead to the law. The believers are made to believe that if they want to now approach God they need to make sure they are holy, when they actually are holy since Christ made them holy. The believers are placed under performance indicators by their leaders and are constantly being assessed and corrected when they don’t match up to the standards set by the leaders.<br /><br />Another sad truth is that Christians are made to believe that they can access the anointing through works/ performance. I have heard from a friend that it was preached in his church that if you want to see cancers healed then you need to spend hours in Gods presence, this is a lie, yet this is what gets preached in churches. There is no biblical evidence to back up such a statement and this places the believer under a works based lifestyle ( law ) and makes them feel condemned for not being able live up to such high expectations.<br />Many leaders will say they don’t preach law, and while they might not preach old covenant law outright from the pulpit, by not preaching grace they are keeping their people confused, so they neither preach law nor grace, which is actually a mixture, and this is “no Gospel at all”. I believe that some leaders do this out of lack of revelation or ignorance, yet some do it knowingly, this breads control.<br />They become police instead of fathers. Police are always on the lookout for those who are not obeying the law and very quick to strike them ( often explained by them as holding you accountable, when in fact it is control masking itself as accountability, it is not true accountability ). Fathers allow their children to make mistakes and don’t wait for them to fail, and when mistakes are made they still give them more opportunities. Police who masquerade claiming to be fathers keep the believers in a place of confusion, they don’t preach law outright but they also don’t preach pure grace, thus placing the expectation on their people that they need to live striving to obey the law or else, when in fact they are wanting the people to obey them, to fulfill their vision so that their church is built and they look good.<br />Too many churches are crippled by this and they very rarely experience the freedom of living in the glory of God and partnering with the Holy Spirit, they are introspective egg shell walkers, afraid to move at all for fear of the police. Fathers will discipline their children but they do it graciously, not crushing them, they honour their children and want to bring them through into freedom. A real father doesn’t have to keep telling the people he is a father because he is recognized as one by his actions.<br /><br />Let us bring freedom to Gods people by helping them to lift their eyes to see their position in Christ and thus encourage them to launch into greater things with God.<br /><br />God BlessCrossing Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04274177627616103960noreply@blogger.com0