THOUGHTS

“You Won…”

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We recently directed some guests of ours from overseas to Kings Cross station London as they wanted to see platform 9 ¾, I wondered what they wanted, 9 ¾ never heard of such a platform, cannot be really?  I had no idea what they were talking about, never heard of it, thought they are not from UK.    However I found out that they knew better than me, the platform was made famous through Harry Potter’s book, you go to the platform quite simply to get your photo opportunity… just in case you wish to see it take the Underground to Kings Cross / St. Pancras, (two main line stations that share the same Underground Station).        Follow the signs into Kings Cross Station when you get to the surface walk along Platform 8 (it’s totally free access).     When you see a sign directing you left to Platforms 9 to 11 keep going on along Platform 8 and the Platform 9 3/4 photo opportunity is a few yards further along on your left. There is normally a conspicuous sign on the platform pointing to the small alcove and out of the wall projects half a baggage trolley.   You have arrived at your destination.

I had no idea of how to get there or how to help others arrive there then the thought came to me, it is a real challenge for us all to answer the question   “where are we going and how can we help each other get there?”.    It is a timely question in the hour we live, with so many changes in society, politics and the economic world , in the business world and in the world of faith, the church change is coming at us as a fast speeding train, whether we want it or not.    Where is it taking us and how can we help each other get  there?

It  is a day for the prophetic people of God to come to the out from under the covers, a day in the midst of much noise and debate, to take hold of the word of God.     Gods’ words when uttered in the past created, they also sustained people who took them up.    These spoken words gave direction and knowledge to those who listen and heard them, those who listened  did not find themselves with out understanding.

Clearly we are in a day of discovering a deeper trust of the Father a new listening and obedience that will lead us into freedom and to the land of promise.    We have to grasp the idea that we are on journey,  that in itself  will empower, challenge and  mature all who embark.

Today as people of God in the west, we find ourselves so much part of societies thinking at large, that it has invaded the church and they way we think, becoming consumers in every way.   Seeking ever-increasing experiences for our emotions, listening to the word of God to consume that which we believe that will give us a quick advance, an edge on life or even fix?    Making decisions on that which we can get hold of immediately, the NOW rules us.    Yet the Journey men and women of old, the pictures of lives of people between the covers of the scriptures walked a journey, not a quick dash with immediate consumer gratification.    Consider the lesson of one of these journey men, Abraham, here is a man who had promise upon promise spoken to him, of peoples, fathering, sons, nation and land, God promises to bless all nations through Abraham, yet Abraham received none of these in his day, but  even 1000’s of years on the promises are still coming to pass.

Even more than that Abraham had a 644 Kilometer journey, once he was willing to entertain the promise.   A 644 Kilometer journey and a 4000+ year, time frame, to get the promises.   Now that is a challenge once he become obedient to the promise words of God it was a long haul walk and a massive time frame to content with.    Now don’t get me wrong on the journey there where evidences, victories of the promise but its fullness took walking on investing time, he become wealthy in his day, he had influence and did finally get a true son of promise, but certainly one son does not constitute a nation!   Once Abraham believed and entered the journey it was counted as righteousness to him, that is keeping in right line with the journey, and keeping it foundational to life’s actions and decisions.   The words of God are living, but how living are they ?  They require movement, obedience, a change of vicinity, a change of surroundings, a departure and a step in front of you.    Actually the words of promise to us all are to bring about sons of God who are led by the Spirit, to bring maturity in light of eternal promise.

I think its time to discover not only the joy of the immediate but the eternal will of the Father, knowing that we have been called to an eternal purpose, to depart from the tent of  the immediate and become the tent of meeting for our life and then our world around us.     We are, the people of God, the ecclesia, the church are to be the place where people will meet the love of God along with a people who are a prophetic journeying people.

Let me encourage you to find others people who will also ask the question, where is all this taking us?  where are we going and how can I help you get there rather than making sure I can get there.

Traveling in a plane has its challenges, but no more for me than the initial film or safety demonstration, we are all shown, there is one difficult line there to listen  to, it goes something like this …make sure your mask when it drops from the roof goes on you first before you see to children or others… that is so against the journey of prophetic people,  firstly seeing to ourselves before others, so that we can all arrive together.    Many years ago  we were taught to play croquet by a great Godly man called Arthur Wallis some 15 or so of us, in a retreat centre in Sheffield.   As we came to the end of our game and our instruction Arthur being the master crossed the line, won the game and a shout of “…you have won Arthur…” went up from all,  with this he turned and said “…no I only cross the line when all my brothers cross…” and with that he fell with his head at the foot of an old wooden cross in the gardens becoming one of the host of witnesses who now continues to cheer on this seen world to ultimate intention of the Father.   What a line to enter eternity with, to depart this expression of life with, what a way to live, asking more how can I help you get to the destination of the will of God rather than consuming, to get there myself.

So find journey men and women, young people, children sojourners who are pursuing the will of the Father in eternal promise and plan and seek to help each other fulfill the prophetic purpose of God.

O really the devils is in the Detail

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“The Devils in the detail” ever heard that quoted to you?   I am not sure why the statement is such perhaps this is where we miss out, or is it that where we get caught out in the work necessary involved in detail?     By what I can tell, it actually means that small things in plans and schemes are often overlooked and they are the things that can cause serious problems later?  Like many proverbs which involve the devil, it is meant to sound a note of caution. It may also be used to excuse or explain the obfuscation of an otherwise very simple project or task, now that’s a new word to look up!.

In one sense, one might say “the devil’s in the details” to refer to small but ultimately important components of a larger task.  For example, performing a scientific experiment in a laboratory is a hugely involved task which can sometimes be highly dangerous. A small error at the beginning can translate into a useless experiment at the end, so experimenters are reminded that the devil’s in the details. This reminder is intended to encourage the scientists to check their work, and to be thorough and careful in the lab.

But really I would suggest to you that this is far from the truth and it’s not the devil there, but “God is in the detail”, that all life is detailed through a wonderful and marvelous Father and not some other.     It is rather a miss statement that is a distraction,  it is actually quoted incorrectly, there is a great in the detail of your life, from time to time we have to be reminded of this fact that so easily gets away from us.

The Psalmist reminds us of the very fact that  GOD IS IN THE DETAIL and none other, some times we just end up not seeing God but I can assure you God is.   It is a wonderful truth  that we need  to be reminded of, especially in our society today.     We are reminded loudly and clearly that our Father, God is in the detail.    It is so simple yet we forget, if we could grasp it and live by this simple truth,  it would be transformational.

God is there, God made us wonderfully and we cannot ignore him,  this is the Psalmist in Psalm 139:13-18 he wants everyone to know that God is in your intimate moments, in your beginning, in every detail and continues throughout your life. To be able to see and realise that God is in every detail brings great security and challenges us to step out into great adventures.

This is one of the greatest passages of literature about the miracle of human conception and birth, Eugene Peterson once said “in the presence of birth we don’t calculate – we marvel.”     This small thought is here to trigger you to discover God in the detail of your life.  There is no devil there but there is a God who is intimately interested in every bone formed, every bend of every artery intrinsically weaving, embroidering each one of us and each one of our lives. What a tragedy to miss this truth that God is there, embroidering the pathways of our life before we even walk, God is in the detail!

He planned and determined our days (V16)  which includes the length of our lives (Job 14:5)  and the tasks that God wants us to perform (Eph 2:20; Phil 2:12-13).    These plans coming from a loving God with a loving heart planning all the very best for us (Rom 12:2).   Let us fix in mind and settle on the security of this confession of God is in the detail!

This simple confession, God is in the detail, displays that the Psalmist has the most mature individual faith in the Old Testament, it also indicates that the writer has the clearest anticipation of the life to come. God is in the detail means unbroken companionship, intimacy, detailed knowledge and understanding, we can’t go anywhere to hide from God.

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

The security of “…you know…” is wonderful and life without it would be all to pot I think.    The knowledge of you knowing is a gift to you and me, a gift of God that he knows, that there is intimacy in his knowledge that there is detail, there is minute inspection in Fathers knowledge.   This is too wonderful for me the Psalmist says and it how great that a great mighty God can have such detail intimate working in you.

You know me inside and out

You know every bone in my body

You know exactly how I was made

You know me – every – exactly  its marvelous, what and who you are with this insight, more than that onward interest.   Great God I want to shout, wonderful  Father, I want to cry  help me as i throw my self back on you  every moment of every day.

God saw every detail.    God pre-recorded all the days of the psalmist before he was even born. This statement may mean that God determined how long he would live, but in view of verses 1-4, it more likely refers to everyday details. God marvelously planned out his life.

Okay where do we go to from here, daily confession that God is in the detail. As we awake, as we journey to work, as we start every day, as we deal with the detail of life we discover God is in the detail and it will change the way we look, change the way we work, change the way we treat life, in the small  things, realise God is there, God is working, and this is his way of displaying his intimacy.

Government of God is familial – discuss?

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To agree or disagree with that statement has its implications; FAMILY is at the heart of all the Father is working towards he is a God whose in every way moves, acts, conducts himself in regard to bring a Family about.   The goal of God is the Restoration of all things through his family, through sons of God.

As you read Paul’s interactions with the New Testament church, you have to conclude his language is full of family, he uses mother, brother, father, sister, language constantly, he even called the church his children and as an apostolic father he mothered the church.   Somewhere we seem to have lost the language of the ‘ecclesia’ – church, family language.   The modern world has brought government and hierarchical issues to bear on the ‘ecclesia’, rather than the ‘ecclesia’ holding on to family and Trinitarian patterns.    Positions and titles have taken over rather than familial understanding.

Now hear me loud and clear, this is not a treaty to eradicate apostles, prophets ministers etc., far from it, it is rather to establish and honour correctly, that the ‘ecclesia’ of God might mature and “be” advancing in its servant hood towards God and his creation, being the true representation of the Father in the earth.   I believe that apostle through to evangelise is fully necessary to bring maturity to the body of Christ with one missing mature eludes us, but its not by name but by gifts of christ they must be present

It is a day when 250 million people have found faith and a staggering 125 million new church communities have been established, all in the last 6 years it’s reported.    We live in a day when 112 million people have left the organised church for the sake of their faith in the USA, and are discovering relationship with others in homes around Christ.   My appeal is for a mature relationship model as opposed to the importing of an organisational model from the business world or any other kind of world.  In the business world, titles and positions become ever so important rather than relationships, in this something has been lost from the center.     We have the language of relationships but end up with organisations, we have networks being proliferated but people are lonely and alone in the world of want works matters and leadership.   Leadership gathers talk pragmatic the how but rarely find true friendship – relationship.   Yet Jesus called people to be with him and he moved them from servants to friends did he not?

Paul brought familial language constantly and establishes a relationship pattern, a family pattern in every way

We take passages from 1 Corinthians to assist us in congregational life in bring order to meetings, yet it is now well accepted that these verses had nothing to do with meetings as we know them today.  Chapter 11 outlines the breaking of bread and sets out from then how to conduct yourself in relation to gifts and functions etc., Where does all this take place?    All around the table, in a home not in a meeting as we see today.   There is nothing stopping us taking principles from these verses and applying them to whatever setting we choose, but always seek to remember the context it was written for.

I would suggest to you that Paul’s language of government was familial brother, mother, father, sister, and children and in the midst of this apostles, elders, prophets, pastors, teachers, deacons, and evangelists were found, even gifts of stirring leadership are evident and necessary.    They father and matured children, mother and birthed new babes into the ‘ekklesia’ while the ministers functioned.   They loved as fathers and mothers and certainly never became celebrities.    They were servants of Christ and the ‘ekklesia’ of God, who the people honoured fully, therefore the people received the reward in their receiving the gift and of the Christ through these ministries.

Lets back up just a little no one would differ with the statement that the ‘ecclesia’ is a family, the challenge is our view of ‘success’ and our chase for success, our modern environment influencing us to a perception that is organizationally.   Some times the idea that big is beautiful creeps over the family wall and creates something other than the relational family that we have been born into.    There is nothing incorrect with big so-called as the life of Christ in the ‘ekklesia’ come it will produce life.   The issue is not the concept but how we so quickly allow our practice to create an organisational church rather than a familial ekklesia.    It is necessary for us to rediscover what the Father is after, what is this restorative goal he has, and what is the primary reason of us being on earth ‘bring heaven to earth’.    Making Christ fill all in all, he will remain in heaven until a season of restoration (Acts 3:19-21).   Ask yourself what does that ‘all in all’ look like?

The Father has brought a way for us to gain our sonship back through the Son, the orphan way of life and condition we have been born into is eradicated by sonship.    The reason for our sonship and salvation is “to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12), hear it to every one is given power that is the ability, the notion of privilege or right, the opportunity, to become a son.    Sonship is a process of maturing, as we take up the right and ability.   Each one of us are children of God, born from above now, and we process, mature into sonship, a life knowing the will and mind of God, and move in the inheritance of God laid up for us all.

The Father sent his Son to bring, to redeem the orphans that humanity had become along with its associated life style constantly protecting along with making ways of provision for themselves.   While the Son enabled us to entre into a family who lives by their inheritance living that is trusting on the Father and protected by He who camps around his people there by eradicating protection and provision through sonship.

This journey we now travel as a family is a process, which is captured in the Psalms, the people travelled in families, ascending to Jerusalem, for us today, being born again, the ‘ecclesia’ as the new Jerusalem, the Zion, the Mountain of the Lord we have nothing to ascend as God has come to where we are, but we do mature and become sons of God as we are led by the Spirit (Romans 8)

More to follow!

A Room with a View II

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A couple of blogs ago I hope you recall the first part of this article which outlined the importance of how we see things, our view, our whole being is determined by what view we allow to fill our minds of God.   Our view of God is where our liberty is found, it is where our expression comes from, it is where our life flows.    These simple thoughts are meant to get us considering our view of God.    Your liberty is held here, a revelatory encounter will change you and bring you through in life, making such a difference to us all.   Let us continue in our journey of liberty and freedom.

GLORIOUS

God’s glory is His multifaceted perfection put on display.  It is, among other things, His incomprehensible love, His infinite hatred of evil expressed in His wrath, His tender mercy, His amazing grace, His love of justice, His boundless wisdom, and His iridescent holiness. God glorifies Himself by loving and exercising each of these traits. He created the universe and redeemed us to display His glory. It is His ultimate passion.

Remember, before God created the universe He had existed eternally in a perfect trinity of love. The love of His glory as it appeared in the other members of the Godhead was His consuming occupation. The Father rejoiced in His glory as He saw it in His Son, the “exact representation of his being” (Heb. 1:3). The Son exulted in His glory as it appeared in the Father. This love overflowed in a limitless ocean of eternal, unbroken joy. God in three persons loved His glory as He beheld it in each member of the trinity. Referring to this, Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (Jn. 17:5).

When He created the universe, it was for the display of the glory each member of the trinity had already experienced before creation. That is why the Bible continually tells us that God does everything for His glory, and it never apologizes for these statements.

Now lets go back to John 17 again as outlined Jesus talks about the glory that he was given “…before the world began…” the amazing things is in this account of his word, the words he used just prior to his arrest Jesus included this statement in the middle of the Jesus prayer, his real prayer, his cry for oneness in his body 20-26                                                                                     “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent meand have loved them even as you have loved me.                                                                                                          24 “Father, I want those you have given meto be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.                                                          25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The church has been given Jesus’ glory so we can stop chasing after it,  and just be the gift of glory to our world.

Lets now move on to another scripture that is captured in the account of Moses’s conversation with the Father, its the conversation around the presence of God going with Moses.   It has to be said that there is a fundamental difference for you and I to Moses’ experience, our experience today is that the Fathers presence has come to us as believer in Christ, we, as those who now believe never walk outside or away from his presence, it is the essence of the gift of abundant life “…he will never leave or forsake us…”

Now to Exodus 33:18-19.  Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to passin front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

See it, Moses asked to see his glory, what passed by, what did he see?   The glory was manifested in two things his “goodness” and his “name” and we are now to extend his glory by showing his goodness to all mankind, and to the people of God he has given his name, the church being the glorious body of Christ and the carrier of his glory in lives being fully lived out.

FATHER

As a very young Christian, I stumbled onto a verse in Psalm 27 that piqued my curiosity as much as it unnerved me. It spoke of something I could not then imagine: “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me up” (Ps. 27:10, NASB).

I am my father’s first child—born in 1956 a reason for him to come home from the dark coal pits of South Wales, he would come home from the coal mines,  wash the dirt of the underground away and say I am here, I will always be here for you.    My dad leaving me, forsaking me how could that ever happen to me?

As I moved out into life I slowly realized that every father fails or “forsakes.” He fails as every human fails—and, worst insult of all, he dies.    My Father died over 15 years ago and when my mother passed away a few years ago a strange thing happen I felt like an orphan, until God overwhelmed me, moved on me and showed me I was not an orphan at all but a son of God.   At that point I could have allowed an orphan spirit to take over, or become like Melchizedek with no mother or father,  I choose to be the latter and the orphan spirit left me.    We realize as we journey in life that our fathers cannot fully father us, then we discover what God has been waiting to reveal: He will take us up. It is in those moments when life hands us a tiny shred of “orphan-ness”—of being on our own—that God the Father is especially present, longing for us to take our hands out of any human hands and grasp His.

He is our Father and longs to have a family; God will bring us to Sonship though his fathering.  We see it even in John 3:16 “For God so loved he gave” his love come forward and manifested in a Son his love gave as it has no boundaries, or control and withholds nothing.    So Jesus is the love of the Father manifested, this love removed the orphan nature of humanity that came through the loss of Adam in the garden, by bring us into Sonship by the love of God giving us the gift of his Son as his love manifested.   We are all given the opportunity to mature in Sonship.

Adam lost his sonship and became an orphan that has affected the whole of creation; Jesus came and died to recover the Fathers ultimate intention.   That God is a Father who longs for a family this is what he had in mind prior to creation.

Movement Dynamics by Tim Keller

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The Global Cities Initiative Conference took place in New York City on September 9 – 11, 2009. Over 80 cities were represented by ministry leaders and church planters. Tim Keller gave three plenary addresses at GCI. Go here for info – “Gospel Renewal” – “City Focus – “Movements & Ecosystems”

His discussion of movement dynamics, with the following characteristics: [summary by Jay Lorenzen: Campus Crusade for Christ]

  1. Unified vision and beliefs,
  2. Cooperation and catholicity of spirit,
  3. Sacrificial commitment,
  4. Spontaneity and creativity.

Below is a summary of his points as Tim compared a movement with an institution. Let me suggest that you discuss these “dynamics” with your missional teams and help move your ministry to a movement and keep it from becoming an institution.

DYNAMIC 1: UNITY (THE FOCUS)

Oneness from common vision and beliefs: A movement is driven by a clear vision for a particular future reality, based on common beliefs.

Marks of a movement

1. Organized around a common vision for the future.

2. All leaders and key players share same goals.

3. Forward movement through arriving at consensus or near consensus on next stage in reaching the vision.

Marks of an institution

1. Organized around by-laws and ground rules.

2. Each leader/department presses for own differing agenda.

3. Forward movement through negotiated compromises to form agreed upon ‘strategy.’

DYNAMIC 2: CATHOLICITY (THE OPENNESS)

Emphasis on cooperation across lines: A movement is peopled by workers who put the vision ahead of other differences and learn from and work with people of other preferences, temperaments, and secondary beliefs.

Marks of a movement

4. Leaders have high tolerance for ambiguity and organizational “messiness”; what matters is the cause and vision. Result: lots of cooperation with those outside your organization who share the primary beliefs and vision.

5. Responsibilities of leaders overlap; everyone ‘owns’ the overall organization’s health; result is much cooperation within. Emphasis on ‘roles’ – who you are in the movement. Structure looks more ‘flat’ and like a network of teams.

Marks of an institution

4. Leaders have high need for clarity and compliance; what matters is proper procedure. Result: little cooperation with those who don’t share secondary and tertiary beliefs.

5.“Silo”and turf consciousness; the result is contentiousness. Emphasis on ‘tasks’-what you do in the organization. Structure is more ‘top-down’ like a pyramid of individuals

DYNAMIC 3: SACRIFICE (THE COMMITMENT)

Devotion to God’s kingdom over self or tribe: A movement is peopled by workers who put the vision ahead of their own interests and needs.

Marks of a movement

6. Great sacrifice is tolerated: low pay, long hours, poor conditions. Leaders need less approval and encouragement; self-starters.

7. High level of trust. Less need for accreditation and close supervision.

Marks of an institution

6. Individual needs more important than progress of the whole. Workers need rewards, much accountability from top.

7. Little trust. Constant meetings. time-consuming reporting, long approval processes.

DYNAMIC 4: SPONTANEITY (THE ORGANIC NATURE)

Spontaneous growth without top-down command: A movement constantly generates new ideas, new leaders, and new initiatives across itself—not solely from the top or from a command center outside of it.

Marks of a movement

8. Movement spreads through recruitment from relationship networks. Organic growth through friends’ enthusiasm and an appeal to sacrificial commitment.

9. New ideas are solicited and incorporated quickly. Lots of openness to creativity; freedom to try and fail. Leaders give workers more support than control.

10. Relationships strong; much “off-line” thinking occurs through friendships. Leaders naturally attract and ‘train’ new leaders through relationships.

Marks of an institution

8. Organization grows through formal processes of communication and “sales” appealing to individuals’ self-interest.

9. Innovation is seen as threatening if not coming from top. Great fear of any failure. Leaders keep tight control, give little support.

10. Few friendships; little happens outside of meetings. New leaders have to be recruited through formal processes.