Choices

Ready…Steady…Go

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"Sacked"

All tied up

Get Ready, Steady, Go recall the childhood sports day when we lined up with excitement and anticipation of the greatest event ever.     Olympics 2012 eat your heart out, these where the races that mattered.    I am sure  some you stood ready in the ‘egg & spoon race’, looking down on the egg in a spoon and concentrating to keep it there, set in the curve of the spoon.   For others it might have been the ‘sack race’, standing in a bag, a coarse sacking bag at that, not only that but with shorts on, it was like standing in a bag made of sand paper ready to jump to victory.    For a few it might have been the great British race that made so many world champions, the ‘three legged race’, two legs tied as one, it did not matter the different shape and stature of each child, just tie them together at the knee and ankle, the tall, the small, the large, the short, mixed shape teams, that’s the spirit of competing, being there.     I am not sure if it was fun or just physical abuse sending children out to be competitive with all the hindrances of a sack or a rope and an egg.    It was fun though!     We stood in a row glaring, sizing up the opponents and then hearing the words “Ready…Steady…Go” and off we went.    There where some congenital races as well on the school sports field!

Keep it on the spoon

In the opening words of Psalm 108 (Message) we are greeted with a Ready, it’s a declaration not form an official or  third-party but form an individual declaring their stat of life, it’s a very different “…ready…” to the picture of childhood experience painted previously.   This “…ready…” positions us in life it has a full life impact; it creates a buzz throughout the body, mind and soul.   The Psalmist makes his intent known, lifts himself to an “I’m ready” it delivers an awakening declaration, wake up sleepy-head environment, no more lethargy but a let me at life in its fullness.

Feel the “I’m ready” its pulsating, its let me at it, what ever has gone on or not gone on there is a conclusion to that season and what ever situation he finds himself handling.    Now its Ok world, Ok situation, Ok events, Ok inner person “I’m Ready”.   The writer goes on to sum it up with the notion I’m awake and it wakes all around so “Wake” to all that is within my influence and beyond, this readiness brings an awaken-ness, it has an implication of I am fully in the open, out in the midday sun and ready for action.    “I’m ready” in this Psalm transforms the  environment, as he calls on the sun, the sleepy-head sun to adjust, it is full and effective to all that hear.

My readiness awakes, brings alive and transforms my inner and outer being, it extends to affect the song of my life, that inner tune or rhythm we each carry.  It awakes the tune that life is dances to,  and to my environment it is transformational and brings joy.

I’m ready to be TRANSFORMATIONAL.

I’m ready to be IMPACTIVE.

I’m ready is FUNDAMENTAL to life for each and every one of us.

In the New American Translation it’s worded not as ”I’m ready” but as “..fix your heart…”, it takes the person on a transforming course, what ever you fix your mind and heart upon will have an effect on you.   So come to a fixation as it is –

TRANSFORMATIONAL,

IMPACTIVE,

FUNDAMENTAL,

The issue really is, on what do you fix your heart, eyes and mind upon?   in Colossians we are told to “…fix your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” a good fixation.    The decision of what to fill your eye with, your mind’s eye is so foundational to life,  Jesus, is foundational to us all therefore is so radical to each life.    Here is a thought, we must fix our heart on foundations elements rather than any thing superficial,  as all superficial things will  pass and will not have a lasting and trust worthy effect.     It’s necessary to have this fixation on the Christ of God, it’s a must.

So where ever you are in life, fix on the foundational things, otherwise any other fixation will just become an obsession to you in life, this practice that is meant to be empowering and transforming just comes to be an obsession.    Fixation that becomes transformational or  an obsession is our considered article?     One and only one fixation is healthy to life, to fix our selves on the author of life and life more abundantly.

So “fix your heart” be “I’m ready” this is a practice, a breakthrough that is necessary in life, make it an every morning event, and every evening event, a way of constant rhythm in your daily routine, get to the place of transforming the environment you walk into due to your fixation.   In other words my fixing of heart, the ‘I’m ready’ becomes the ingredient that is necessary for us all and as you can bring your fixation on the Christ t to effect on others rather than your obsessions it become the catalyst of lives.    What is it for us an obsession or foundational it’s very important as the “I’m ready” gives you an influence and a your reasons for action.    at your worst account an obsessions will rule and make you act for its sake where as the fixation on Jesus is foundational to life and empowering to life in all its glory, drawn towards the fixation, it become s a leading drawing beacon rather than a destructive obsession.     Fix on music; celebrity, money, etc., all these superficial things will ultimately destroy you as obsession takes over your thought, spending, words, and actions.    Non of us wish to live an obsessive life rather make a choice to get ready and fix on a life-giving focus.      Where as to fix on an established foundation, builds until ultimately you will become part of the same stuff as the foundation you have fixed on that becomes your source.

So chose your “fixation”, your ‘I’m ready’, be transformational, awake the sunshine over someone, over the circumstances of their life.   The impact of the readiness is  outlined further in the Psalm:

THOUGHTS ON PSALM 108:1

We praise God with a fixedness of heart. Our heart must be employed in the full thought of O God! my heart is fixed, and then I will sing and give praise. Wandering straggling thoughts must be gathered in.

The opening verse is prepared in the ‘Message’ with so ready there are 5 readies repeated “I’m ready, God, so ready, ready from head to toe. Ready to sing, ready to raise a God-song”.   Is he ready or is he ready!

“…My Tipping Point…”

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Watch Ahead

As we take stock of life and take a look towards the future and being wise looking back over the events of days gone, for this is true wisdom when we can draw from our past and now to mold the future.  As we do this I am sure we all have different thoughts of what the future holds.  Even as we consider the past we would have different thoughts about what got us to this point.

We all get asked in the light of world events what does this mean?   I have to say some times I don’t know helps us Lord in the changes that are rushing towards us all.   Several years ago I picked up a book called “The Tipping Point”, I am told it has become rather a buzz statement for many, with many taking it up to sum up their feelings of now.    The notion is that everything comes to a point of balance, one that is ready to tip and throw its weight towards a certain direction.   Many things can tip the balance, it could be  a reasoned thought, an emotional response, or a circumstance that tips the balance and takes you over an edge.    In other words the statement we often used to hear of  “its got to break” has now moved into a roller coaster a movement, beginning a direction that seemingly has its own momentum.    So many people I talk to feel as if they are either on the approach to or at the point of just starting over, on the edge of their own “tipping point.

Whatever way we consider, the past, the present and the future I have come to one conclusion, that echoes out loudest over all my thoughts, and I have shared this in several settings over the last 3 years.  It was so loud in my thinking that it drowned out every other thought in my mind; it is “what got me here will not get me there”.   An understanding formed in me, that what ever brought me to know what I now knew, whatever had positively assisted, empowered and served me/us, was not sufficient to carry me/us into tomorrow.  A now, new moment had arrived, in every new moment there is a new encounter, which is necessary to envision and equip the day.   Moses saw God in the burning bush, Abraham met God for his journey and new pilgrim life style, even Jesus encountered the Father in the Garden to face he cross, earlier he encountered the Father at his baptism in preparation for the wilderness and the 3 ½ years of function.

Wherever you are, I think the tipping point is becoming a life-style, not just a moment but also a way of life that we are always negotiating.  There is in fact a cost to be considered in every tipping point, be it into an event, a way of life, or a life choice, that will not even allow us to return to where it all began.

A place of no return so to speak, a rub-icon crossed?, this all sounds high and mighty, but we make these kinds of decisions daily.    Decisions effecting people and relationships, how we use our money, our job/vocational choices, we even see it in the small events of life as they may be.    Please realize that most lives are a sequence of small events and we cross rub-icons daily that have no pain attached but certainly are transformational in terms of our friendships and families – people, what we do – time, and the final resource in our lives, money and how we dispose of and work our money – finance.

Can I encourage you to think out of the box before you negotiate the “tipping point” and set your roller-coaster along life’s chosen pathway. Clear the house, your life first with start by determining I QUIT!   This I Quit will help the process of going over the edge taking that step forward I will give you just 4 “I Quit”

Quit making excuses

Quit complaining

Quit living in fear

Quit complaining 

Having chosen to negotiate my “tipping points”, having then welcomed them these “tipping points”, they have in turn set up various directions of life for me over the last 8 years.   It has caused much re-evaluation of resources, hearts, and direction as events and situations continue to present themselves.   I have had to remodel my view of life and more than that, remodel my view of God himself.    Which of course allows the remodeling of how we function.  Knowing this discovering View of God that will determine how well we all live.

Following all that I am excited over the phase we have now began to live though, a phase that clearly brings multiplication in a new way into my thinking.   Seeing Apostolic networks possibly becoming Apostolic families, heavily relational rather than organizational, realizing that we should not replace the single grace that so empowered many and much in last 30 years + with another grace, endorsing a Papal system again, but seeing the release of multiplication of apostolic graces across the countries and world in this phase.    Many networks or movements are giving way to family expressions with a relationship life flowing across them and through them, which is releasing the possibilities of continual multiplication.    It must then continue to fill the world we live in with organic family expression of Christ.

It’s a time not to be nostalgic in any way but to seize the new phase and take hold of the circumstances that now face each of us.

Mission – Missional – Missionary

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Face our Mission

Mission? What’s it got to do with me?

How, and where do you start when you are asked to write something on mission,  my thoughts go to the challenges of a coming Kingdom and the changing of the  world around us, causing me to conclude  that mission has to have a focus towards  the Ultimate Goal of God,  i.e. “all things summed up in Christ”, “Christ filling all things”.

I was once asked by a well know teacher  “are you doing anything today that will continue when time is finished and Jesus returns?”,  “yes” I replied, he continued with a further question, “are you doing anything that you will not be doing after his return?”  My answer was “yes” his reply  “why?”   In others words keep your eye on the ultimate, in all you put our hand to.

I cannot read any scripture without realising that the Father and the  Holy Spirit have a preoccupation with the Christ.    Our work and involvement must therefore, have this same preoccupation, we must be fully occupied with Christ, other wise the task ahead will overwhelm us and we will lose our way.   As a matter of fact the entire occupation of the heavens is Christ.    It is so easy for us to focus and emphasise one particular spiritual truth, value, virtue, gift, or good work and yet miss Christ, Christ who is the embodiment and incarnation of all these things.

All mission and commission looses its way and purpose without holding on to the ultimate of goal of God.

I was recently provoked by the following question “why was I born in the West, with all  the privileges of the culture  I find myself in?”   As I pondered on this question my first thoughts were ones of a great gratitude for all I have been given and entrusted with.  Then, I compared my lot with the 2/3rd of the world around me and began to ask why, why God was I born here?   As I considered the privileges we are surrounded by I was amazed at what God has made available to us.  The privilege of freedom, the privilege of finance, even in a world that is in the middle of recession we have so much compared to those that live on less than a $1 a day.

I cannot depart far from the scripture story that started with the debate for position amongst the young men and women that followed the Christ,  debating who would get the best seat in the house.     While this debate went on Jesus told them of a landowner who distributed money to each of his servants, for them  to invest /steward the entrustment in-order that on his return a profit would be seen.   This profit in turn would open up  further entrustment opportunities, not of finance but of city rulership – those who are faithful with little becoming  rulers of much.

This narrative deals with a number of thought patterns, for example the disciples idea of Kingdom coming NOW.  The immediate and sudden NOW, putting Jesus on the throne NOW.  The story is however a story of PROCESS, this being working with and stewarding our entrustment to bring about Gods’ full intent.   We are living in days when regardless how much or how little we have been given, we have to see this PROCESS OF STEWARDSHIP.  We must deal correctly with what we have been given in order to see the influence of God, and Christ filling all in all taking place, as we do, so we will be entrusted further.

So why were you and I born in the nation you were?  which ever nation that may be ,  we must  steward correctly that with which we have been entrusted, so that we might bring an end to poverty,  never mind how tight things are in the midst of recession, we still have a charge to steward the little and the much.

We have been positioned and entrusted with ability to

1          Redistribute – wealth, justice, liberty

2          To bring Christ into every sphere of life and society

3          To break poverty – and dependence for all

Poverty is not fundamentally the  lack of money, but it is the imprisonment into a dependence on others for liberty, finance and personal freedom.   I would like to eradicate ‘dead aid’, where money has simple been poured in time and time again with no sense of building creating only  future dependence.   I would like to  invest in people, and take away the cause of  dependency on some one else for resources. Through our kindness and giving of money  in some cases, often unknowingly, we have added to the poverty mindset and sustained  imprisonment.    We have given much, equipment, tractors, seeds, houses, computers, etc., when our hearts and emotions moved us.  What we failed to realise was that  when what ever we gave  broke down, needed  new tyres, parts or repairs the people once again became dependant on  another hand out – lets break poverty and take away dependency.   It is  not about ceasing giving, far from it, but it is about wisely entrusting to men and women, training in self sustainability and providing them with the mind-set of continuing long after the initial help.  This is long-term empowerment, this is our mission.   Giving people the ability to advance handing them the stewardship of their own advancement.

 After all the advancement of each person in a way that is Kingdom of God thinking will bring about heavens occupation “Christ filling all in all”

Why…

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Why...Why...Why

We all have many friends in our lives, some pass through for a season others stay around for longer.   I begin this blog, not with friendship in mind directly but more to ask, out of all those friends or acquaintances how many have helped us on our journey though life?   Who has impacted me and to what extent?    It always amazes me that we have friends that don’t help as well as those who do.     Who has walked through my life and is still doing so? Bringing the imprint of wisdom through their words and actions.   Who has become the finger of God working in my life?  is this not “every joint supplying”.   I opened up a meeting on Sunday with this thought “…to join my self to any one, even to be joined to a people group, a church, cannot simply mean just  attending…” Unfortunately for far to many this is so, the Christ like life degenerates to attending rather than becoming a relational joining, a felt joining, even our language can be ever so relational but do we truly feel one another?    “You are not joined with me until I feel you, we have not joined until we feel one another”.

I would suggest that Jesus showed this in his own life, constantly painting pictures of this, glimpses of joining and being felt so many times.   One story comes to mind of the woman who had bled for 12 years, she came not just to be in the crowd, but to join herself to him.   When she did so Jesus felt it, it was not just a healing we are told Jesus felt something leave him.   She was joined he felt it and I am sure she did, a story of order and government (number 12 is always seen as government, 12 tribes, 12 apostles of the lamb, 12 disciples etc.) her life came back into order after 12 years of disorder.    This was a relational touch in story form “she touched him”, actually her healing came not as she just brushed passed his prayer blanket, in her action she joined her self to him and Jesus announced “…who touched me…” I felt it flow from me.   Is this not “every joint supplying”?

Back to where I began some people touch our lives and help us to put lenses on that enable us to see a bigger picture, enabling us to get a balance back in life, others help us to see the detail of all around, others put give us lenses that assist us to appreciate people and circumstances, and there are those that even help us to see with future lenses, making sense of the past and future along with present.   Few come along and probe strategic questions on how we see, so that we can priorities and respond correctly.  Questions that may even shake us but ones that will ultimately secure our journey and the way we live that journey.

Here is my point, reading today the Psalmist viewpoint on life lived around him, through the Message translation, I read a simple yet  a powerful word,  its consequence, if dealt with incorrectly could shipwreck a life, but if dealt with correctly will enhanced and make authentic our faith journey and intimate relationship with the Christ of God.

Psalm 106:1-3 says “…Hallelujah! Thank God! And why?   Because he’s good, because his love lasts.   But who on earth can do it — declaim God’s mighty acts, broadcast all his praises?   You’re one happy man when you do what’s right, one happy woman when you form the habit of justice.

My simple word is WHY

What a great opening and a wonderful habit to get into asking WHY?   Its not any WHY being asked here, its WHY are you being God focused, WHY are you thankful focused and WHY are you both together thanking God?      Don’t just do it because of the pressure of the crowd or the church you belong to, who expect you to conform in what we call “worship” just do it.   I think God likes this question as it cuts through the dross of performance and brings us to the real essence of you, and his relationship felt with us.

The Psalm commences with Hallelujah where does that go to, what is its meaning here.     Praise starts within the heart and action, but then we read an abrupt stop, WHY?

One sure thing that this WHY exposes is, don’t just give you self to form,  or praise that is simply emotional, soul driven, gaining ego or position, the things of life that change and that are insecure, rather find the unchanging stuff.   Find a WHY that is worthwhile and a WHY that is compelling, a WHY that brings a reason and momentum an advance, that creates a sure foundation.

Praise, thanks, WHY these three may be a good combination for life’s journey a threesome, that brings a way forward.

Praise

Thanks

WHY

Three legs of an expressive disciple, a disciple that turns his /her heart to the Lord becomes one of these who God looks for!

We have a WHY to encourage us to engage further, to become personally authentic, rather than simply being a part of a group, I have to do it.    So I need to understand WHY there is even a way to ask my WHY’s.   How can I ask an empowering WHY, not just a child’s frustrated WHY, or even a rebellious WHY, but a WHY that enables me to know myself and my motivations.

This WHY is to bring an understanding of

Self

My environment

The overcoming power of testimony

An encounter of God

Why I do what I do, that enables the expression to come from an inner well.

That no religion distracts or engrosses

That no unreality destroys authenticity

That we are always aware of the inner man discovering in the wilderness the inner challenges of motive.

WHY ASK WHY?

Should I never ask, is it productive, should it be part of my life’s cycle, am I able to manage asking the question?

WHY are you doing what your doing? find the answer,  the Father will bring it.

WHY is a powerful a belonging word, it really will cause you to feel your relationships, when WHY’s are asked we will feel one another, as we bring form to our WHY’s of life and faith.

Kingdom, its only getting started…

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Changes that have occurred through the decades due to a Kingdom proclamation and Life style
The following statements are in no way conclusive; they are just meant to be short statements of changes I have noted that have been brought about through considering the Kingdom, of God in instruction and practice.   Each statement has a weight of scripture and instruction behind it.   I have not attempted to fill this  out in any way, I simply wanted to make a statement and let it sit there and provoke thought in you.   We could debate for many long nights over them, I also know that as I am a frustrated dyslexic you will need time to pull out and understand what I mean for a number of the statements….. but see how you get on and feed back as we continue to develop a Kingdom understanding
  • Kingdom will place the King at the centre of all.   It establish a Christ-Centred gospel, not a doctrine, not a denomination or stream but in practice a relationship based life working together for this to be seen in revelation, established instruction and practice therefore through a lifestyle
  • We do not plant a church we go and EMBODY the Kingdom
  • We have a head – no other head is required Christ is our head.  There  is   not a hierarchical structure but servant hood to the Christ
  • Ministry and Life are the same,  It’s not about filling a post but about being yourself in the ministry and in the market place of life
  • What the Kingdom looks like in its fullness is still to be answered, it’s certainly not gathering around a church structure
It is a People movement (Eph 4:11) – a people who are Eph 4:11 in character for our world and in our world, being the Apostolic, prophetic people of God in their corporate nature.
The restoration of ministries (Eph 4) is more about the Restoration of Christ to the body and not just a restoration of ministries otherwise we will become hierarchical once again
  • A Corporate ONE people – how to live in diverse harmony!
 What keeps us apart/separated, is there any thing legitimate? – a relationship based on the diversity of Christ in expression, a true Holy Spirit people are a diverse people by nature of what the Holy Spirit is producing and therefore there is a great need of a Holy Spirit lifestyle to be able to live diversely.
  • The question is asked What are we to be to one another?  The implications and practice of this is a due to a Kingdom understanding.
  •  Finance & Kingdom, the Father wants to develop a world financial system not just a tithe, the establishment of a tithing people with a social responsibility/creational responsibility to see the tithe in regard to the Kingdom being larger than church money only, discovering a world economy system to bring justice and a stewardship
  • Property – a fatigue regarding owning church buildings etc has effected many
  • Forgiveness and Servanthood are central  while we work to produce communities that are forgiving and serving to our world
  • The message of the Kingdom is a DECONSTRUCTION message, deconstructing anything that is not Kingdom in function and action
  • Relevant question being asked – how far does Kingdom extend?  –  And to what end?
THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS BECOME OUR REFERENCE POINT 
The church is an emerging church – constantly emerging and changing, being the nature of God  it is still arriving, it represents an age to come not just a history
The Kingdom has brought hope and seeks to realise the promises of God with in communities, as we do this we become a blessing, blessed to bless,  a servant people with signs of the Kingdom following, as we live God’s future NOW!
  • Churches for so long moved in Kingdom teaching, the teaching  was often taken on board as a way to get to where they wanted to be, rather than it becoming a way of life, it’s a challenge when no one wanted to change to be transformers
  • We stopped only reading apostle Paul’s view and refocused on Jesus – the humanity of Jesus and love has become the characteristics of the church – we will get the gospel wrong if we do not refocus on Jesus (writers and commentators such as NT Wright, Jonathan Yoder, David Bosa, Leslie Newbigan influencers)
  • The church is a Sign and a Servant of the coming Kingdom, a servant that points beyond to a reign that will fill all
  • The church is a ‘pilgrim’, on a ‘becoming’ church journey
  • The kingdom gives rise to a community and not vice versa, church is a product of mission before being an agent of mission
  • Family is the correct form of Government it should be seen as the correct practice of church government, then the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, children will then be gifted as elders, apostles etc
  • Kingdom demands an INCLUSIVE PRACTICE V EXCLUSIVE Practice which is displayed in action and attitude
  • We do not chase God out of a place neither do we call spiritual and secular divides into being any longer, but see him, the Christ, in every place.
  • Kingdom is not about gathering, collecting many, but the essence of the Kingdom is seen in generosity – giving away what we have – people, money, time etc., sending and releasing
  • Kingdom is about being a fathering people, an apostolic prophetic people… in our world and not about having a few of these people resident in a local church, it is about bringing the atmosphere of Christ to our society and cosmos.
  • The Gospel of the Kingdom makes possible full participation with God in the redemption of the  world – cosmos
  • To let the church exist without the Kingdom is to be without Jesus (NO King/rule) and thus with no proper identity as a people of God
  • Who you are as a people of God is tied into the Kingdom, to bring identity – image and likeness which cannot come outside of the Kingdom otherwise people become a commodity and church will produce  a consuming commodity rather than a Governing Family
  • The Kingdom is about identifying with Jesus, it’s about Jesus not a methodology, it’s about his glory (John 17 church given glory)and his life (not I that live).   Not an event, ritual, creed or religion – A JOURNEY OF TRUST AND ADVENTURE.
  • The GOOD NEWS is not about being saved and seeing sins gone, but about THE KINGDOM COMING
  • We have come to abolish the ‘Secular Space’ it is ‘modernist’ thinking, note the Kingdom is everywhere Kingdom means there is no realm without God, how can then can we create one space, not a dual space (secular – spiritual)?
  • We are a community and because we are a community we are DIVERSE
  • Incarnation means the combination of sacred and secular
  • A people of God who are becoming and have become CONTRIBUTORS
  • The Kingdom brings about a Church that is about being SENT and about being PRIESTS to their space
  • To teach on prayer is to ask for the Kingdom to come!  Your Will be done, not my needs – God supply me; my stuff – this is my identity; and my rights – this is why I was saved  for me? –  the ‘new trinity’ my needs,wants and desires, the Kingdom of God asks for the Father’s will to come and be done
  • A necessary question due to Kingdom ‘if Jesus was here what would he be doing?’
Leadership
  • There is a Leadership move from hierarchical to non-hierarchical   Why – priesthood of all believers and  Servant leadership
  • leadership by Persuasion/appeal rather than control, issues of power are exposed and challenged by the Kingdom of God
  • Servanthood replaces dominion; forgiveness absorbs hostility
  • Leadership to equip for the world, not just equipping a church paradigm
  • Keeping the community in the story – this is Kingdom leadership focused on the Kingdom of God
  • The Kingdom challenges leadership behaviour that is based on power, control, submission and authority – Leadership is to produce a peaceable community, non-hierarchical priesthood of all believers, with a relationship to its head – Christ
  • To move from the Vision of a leader, to a Vision held by ALL, and the will of God
  • To teach on prayer is to ask for the Kingdom to come!  Your Will be done
Culture/World 
  • Engagement not removal – GO not come to us – commission for missional life
  • Responsibility not Judgment (Levitical priesthood V Melchizedek priesthood)
  • Mission – goes into, not drags out of – demands people maturity – consumer mentality with everything performed at the at the front undermines this maturity, as only a few do for all, rather than all do for a world
  • Service not conformity
  • Missional not Missionary
General
  • Character focused – not gift
  • Sanctification – the bride making her self ready
  • Gift is you, be yourself do not perform
  • Waking up to the fact that we have been told we need to die but now waking up to how we need to live (eschatology had an escapism view, creation being burned up view, this is  not any longer the predominant view, it’s now redemptive and restorative) – it’s not just trying to believe in Jesus to get to heaven.   It’s about being increasingly alive to Jesus and God in our world – bringing heaven to earth –  INCARNATION LIFE STYLE AND WALK.
  • God wants US to solve the problem by redeeming acts not us waiting for him do it
Socially 
  • Hands and Feet of Jesus
  • Justice view – partnership, removal of poverty not charity provision
  • A new world system if we are to posses a generation
  • How to be a manifestation of Christ and an explanation of the Father through love and Justice (John 1:18 “explain the Father” NASB)
  • If we are not bringing justice and transformation to the world we should ask, “do we have the right to exist?”
  • Mission defines us more than worship – Putting my whole family into the chaos (Genesis 1, Incarnation etc) in order to see what it means for the Kingdom of God in operation!
Theology
  • It has exposed an eschatology of truth with a responsibility for creation and challenges, changes an escapism view and teaching it is much more about redemption, transformation, restoration of our world
  • Kingdom removes all ideas of escapism and brings transformation forcefully
  • This changes our worship, church structures and societal contact – Works of Service
  • The Earth is the Lords not only the church
  • “God loves” – he sent his Son for the creation “cosmos”
  • The Gospel is PARTICIPATING IN GODS REDEEMING ACTS
  • Kingdom – reign of God is about life in the Garden (Creation, Cosmos)
Our attitudes and lifestyle can be summed up in being:
Authentic, real, relational, organic, simple
To be and maintain a Family
Paradigm culture change in  the way we have been and will educate
Acknowledging we are in a reformation on all these levels
A foundational lesson for us all is that our ‘View of God determines how well you live’  – necessary that our world view is constructed through an ever arriving God.   He is still disclosing himself to us that we might live free and well according to what we see according to the Christ filling all in all this heavenly Father creator God filling our view
Hey I am only getting started