Back into it

Man - it's been 3 years since my last post. How's that for consistency! Anyway, I feel the urge... back into it.

Hunger

I hunger for REAL godly relationships - people that genuinely are in your life and genuinely care. Godly people that are committed to praying, encouraging and being there for each other in God. I'm hungering for Christ's community. REAL community. Is it a pipe dream? No way! I lived it for a year. I know it is more than possible, I believe it was God's intention. How it is done in an urban setting is the challenge.

I'm sick of the fake! Sick of pseudo 'community'! Sick of the word without the reality. Sick of the smiles, the insincere 'how are you's? The gathering of a people that seem more concerned about who's wearing what, who's going out with whom, who's hot and who's not. Sick of the theories, the watering down, the latest thing, the latest freakin' book! Sick of insincerity - within me first and foremost!

Noah Genocide

It is hard to understand why God would wipe out the human race bar one family, if it’s not understood within the context of what was actually going on. Out of context - it looks as though God got really miffed one day with the human race and decided to push the big re-set button on us all – out of context it looks cold, brutal, an act of anger and hatred…

BUT in context – the fact is biblically God is patient, long suffering beyond comprehension. Time and time again as you know God warns the people sending Prophets that more often than not are killed – I’m talking years, sometimes hundred’s of years of warning - "if you don’t stop this madness then I will put a stop to it’. from what historians understand, the people in the time of Noah (which can be studied biblically and extra-biblically) were out of control (child sacrifice, incest was common practise, lawlessness etc) it would seem if they were not stopped, i.e. if God had not stopped them, it would have been the end of the human race – God had to step in and rescue the human race.

So within context, the flood was a rescue mission for the human race – we know how loving God is in our own lives bro, for God to move so severely it had to be at the point of no return. He has never done so again, the only other time it will in a sense happen again will be judgement day, and again… God has been warning of that one for 2 thousand years! In context – God loves us, he’s our Father and just like a father, he will act out of love and do whatever he knows is necessary to protect that child, whether the child understands the situation or not.

Freedom? Part 2

There has to be some middle ground here. Yes Christianity is about the whole of life, based in day to day realtionships, yes we have to resist living all of our Christianity simply through organized programs, to re-engage again into the true relationships of life, BUT what I must also just as vehemently resist, is the embrace of the grey - individualism etc, or lose the big picture of the Kingdom of God and our individual/corporate call within that to build it, and to understand I/we will be held accountable for what I/we do with that.

So maybe the question or answer needs to be re-framed - it's maybe not "I don't want this organized package of Christian life - therefore I reject it", maybe it's "I embrace and understand the individual/corporate call to, in hand with God, build His kingdom, but do so 'intentionally' (more so) within the realtionships of life."

Therefore 'the call' and the understanding of it does not change - it's still the #1 goal 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..." Therefore the #1 goal still firmly in sight, the issues of greyness and compromise are put to bed , and the understanding that "His Righteousness" still stands. Our expression of Christ may be less formalized but purity, righteousness, holiness are still indicators of the dividing line.

And we must accept and embrace that there is and must be a dividing line. We are 'the called out one's', the 'ecclesia'. When the move from the organized corporate structure occurs, we can begin to believe that the dividing line is a hindrance to expressing Christ through relationship, we might begin to swallow the lie, the divide is in fact 'arrogance and exclusivism' - but it's not - it is biblical! We are 'called out' NOT better than anyone else, we are all sinners, saved by grace as Paul states, but we are saved by God and his grace and called out to be seperate from the world, not to be superior, but to define that there is a difference.

And how is that difference to be primarily expressed? In the attendance of church programs and meetings? No! In the daily living out of our lives in the pursuit of God and His love, purity, righteousness, holiness, goodness...

The expression changes, the ultimate goals do not.

Freedom?

What's happening today? The message is - Christianity is about the 'whole of life' - it's about living life in its fullness, not about some Church program or ministry per se. Which i believe is true at a high level. The outcome of that thinking from my point of view has meant something of an exodus from the church program, official ministries and church attendance itself, in the pursuit of Christianity in 'real life'.

The pursuit is valid, but what i think seems to happen is 'real life' can begin to mean 'normal life' as in 'same as everyone else'. That believers would meet non-believers in the 'real life' interactions, not by some organized program. True again. But what also seems to be happening with the retreat away from the orthodox structure to 'real life' is maybe the loss of a sense of call individually and particularly corporately to take part in the corporate mission to the lost, to serve, to build the Kingdom and possibly an understanding of our individual and corporate accountability before God. 'Saved not for ourselves'.

The retreat to 'normal life' cn end up meaning 'becoming like everyone else'. their values, perspectives, priorities. Christianity can become about becoming a better person. Holiness becomes 'do your best, accept the rest'.

"Her priests do violence to my law and profane my Holy things; they do not distinguish between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them." (Ezek 22:26,27)

To be continued...

New Role Coming Available - President of the Free World!

Good hourly rate, free room and board, meals provided, overseas travel included, company plane and of course new additional perk to the role - recently commenced bike riding lessons…
Yep based on the paper today re the current state of Iraq, I think that job will be coming free pretty shortly.

Forward not Back

Been thinking, it's easy to look at church for what it isn't but what about what Jesus actually intended it to be? What was his intention? What did he have in mind when he spoke of it? Why did he initiate the formation of the 12 Disciples/Apostles as the framework? What was his intention for leadership within the Church? What would these people look like? How would they relate to the world around them? What was to be their consuming passion? Did the early Church embody his vision? Hmmmm??