Archives For August 2009

Dot to Dot

Michelle George —  August 31, 2009 — Leave a comment

In years gone by the forefathers of our faith..the spiritual giants that we look up to…have referred to the three lights used to guide us when we are looking for guidance about what God is wanting us to do. They were referring to an ancient Italian harbour that was difficult to navigate and used a series of three lights that had to be lined up in order to navigate the treacherous waters.

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The three lights for us to line up are:

  1. the Holy Spirit (the things God places in our hearts);
  2. the Word of God (THE objective standard); and
  3. circumstances (external confirmation).

Some people may say that these are a subjective way to approach knowing what God wants, and that whatever we look for, we will find…but the more I have been aware of this principle in my spiritual life, the easier I am able to see it at play in my life. When it happens and I am intentional enough to bother to connect the three dots…I see the little arrows that guide me…and it makes me smile. I feel assured that I am exactly where I need to be. It brings discernable peace.

I have learned not to launch off into anything new without that trio of dots to give me the assurance that I am, indeed, on the right path.

The most recent occurrence of this spiritual phenomenon happened this past weekend, and it has been such an encouragement to me.

Over the course of my adventure God has been shaking up my spiritual life and moving me out of a religious approach to life and into a life of faith. I wrote about it last Friday.  (light# 1)

On Saturday I was listening to the book of James  on my iPod while I waited for an appointment. Chapter one talks about the type of religion that God finds acceptable…it wasn’t what I had going on in my life! (light #2)

Sunday morning I attended LifeChurch.tv and heard Christine Caine speak. Her sermon topic was “Stop acting like a Christian and BE ONE”  (light #3)

It was like she and I shared a brain…and the more I thought about it I decided that it wasn’t a brain that we shared…it was the heart of God that we shared!

Christine finished out her sermon with a discussion about the story in the gospels where Jesus says…”follow me and I will make you fishers of men” ..she urged us to look at our lives and ask the question…”if you are a Christian and you aren’t a fisher of men…you possibly aren’t following Jesus…who are you following?”

Jesus said…if you follow me I WILL make you a fisher of men.

There’s no wiggle room in that statement.

That was my third light. Not only was God confirming the stuff that he had been laying on my heart, he was giving me a kick in the pants and telling me to get off my butt and get moving.

GONE FISHIN’

Where are you?

In God stuff
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Religious Rehab

Michelle George —  August 28, 2009 — 2 Comments
This entry is part of a series, my spiritual adventure»

I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to turn my back on religion.

 

 

*gasp*

*crickets*

religious rehab

Have I shocked you? Good! Because I want to tell you about why I’ve made this decision.

In a broad sense, over the past several hundred years, horrendous attoricites have been committed in the name of religion. On a more personal level, being a religious person has proven to be a severe hinderance in my ability to have a relationship with God. I was so caught up in maintaining what had become mindless religious traditions, that I got way off track. I was on autopilot. My spiritual life was stale and lifeless, but for all intents and purposes I looked like I had it all together.

So about 10 weeks ago I checked myself into religious rehab . I am ditching religion and focussing on developing a healthy biblical relationship with God.

Over the past couple of months I’ve learned to recognise the halmarks of religion in my life.

Religion is all about:

  • rules
  • compliance
  •  judgement
  • comparing and measuring
  • our effort
  • worrying about how others see me
  • being busy with church stuff for the sake of looking busy, and not reaching the people around me for God
  • getting my self worth from doing stuff and being busy
  • all talk
  • control.

Religion for me became unbalanced, toxic and limiting.

Here’s what I am learning about living a life of faith that is based on a vital relationship with Christ.

This life is all about:

  • growth
  • energy
  • grace
  • peace
  • contentment
  • being concerned about what God wants me to do
  • being ready and willing to do what God wants me to do
  • sharing life with others
  • healthy relationships
  • worshipping every moment
  • action speaking louder than words
  • measuring myself against God’s standards, not yours.

This life of faith is a holistic approach that permeates all areas of my life. It is a life that is healthy and productive and fulfilling in so many ways.

It’s a way of life that allows me to deal with life’s challenges in a way that prevents freaking out, and facilitates a Godly witness.

This life is challenging and exciting! This life is infectious!

Do yourself a favour and check into religious rehab and watch your world change for the better!

In God stuff
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Can you separate community and mission?

Michelle George —  August 24, 2009 — 2 Comments

In my last post I shared Craig Groeschel’s three-point definition of the Church and why it exists. A number of the comments left in response to the post indicated to me that there is perhaps a disconnect between what we think the Church is there for, what we feel our Sunday morning gatherings are for and how we are to fulfil our God-given purpose to change the world. It made me ask myself…can you separate community and mission?

The short answer is…no.

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In a healthy church neither of these things are optional extras, they must both exist in concert with one another. You shouldn’t be able to separate them in the life of an individual follower of Jesus either. The community of believers and the Church’s ultimate purpose to share God’s good news with the world are inextricably linked, both on the corporate level and on the individual level.

They are synergistic and symbiotic.

They need each other and they leverage off each other to produce so much more together than if they existed on their own.

You cannot be a healthy high-functioning believer without being a part the community of believers nor can you be a healthy believer without fulfilling the purpose you were designed for. The same can be said for the Church as a whole. There must be healthy community and intentional focus on purpose in order to be productive.

For millennia God’s people have been gathering to worship and share and build one another up and to send one another out into ministry.

Gathering together to worship our almighty God is the motivator that gets missions (and ministry) happening and in fact energises it. Ministering to people outside of the community of believers is the natural outflow of a worshipping church. And that’s for everyone, not just those gifted as evangelists. The great commission doesn’t differentiate. It’s a command for all believers. The two go hand in hand. If your church is truly worshipping, there will be the fruit of people around you being changed and brought into the Kingdom.

Meeting together for teaching and encouragement gives us the tools we need to get out there and minister to people. We don’t invest that time into each other just so that we can sit and enjoy the wonderful godly life we’re living. We do it to equip each other for ministry! To send each other out!

Unfortunately in a great many cases the community of believers and the purpose of the church have been separated and quarantined. Community happens in isolation and in cliquey pockets. Ministry outside the community of believers often happens in isolation by one or two passionate “gifted” people who are slogging through it without the support or synergy of the community working together.

Without balance we become inward focused and care more about whether or not the church is doing what we want it to do than whether or not we are doing what God wants us to do. We wound one another and we exclude a raft of others who don’t see things the way we do.

Why does it happen this way? Because it’s easy for us to go with the flow and allow the status quo to churn along. Apathetic and with no real focus on our raison d’etre – our very reason for being as followers of Jesus. And whilst the church as an organisational unit has a part to play in that, ultimately it is us as individuals who let things slide and it’s us who need to get up off of our butts and step up to the plate to ensure the balance in our own life and have that flow through into our life in the community of believers.

If we are to do what God wants us to do, we have to challenge the status quo and start being deliberate in gathering a healthy community of believers around us and in ministering to the people around us who are crying out to hear the good news.

I’m the first one to put my hand up and tell you that I am no expert, but what I can tell you is that I have lived the status quo, and I have been in that hole of apathy for way too long. But I’m digging my way out. I believe God deserves so much more than an hour on Sunday mornings and the odd prayer here and there. I believe I am built for a purpose and so are you.

Over the next couple of months I’m going to explore what it means to be in the community of believers. It’s one of those terms that has been used so much it is almost meaningless. I have no idea what it looks like in practice, so I’m going to explore and experiment until I figure out how God wants us to do this!

Do you want to be all you were created to be? If you do, you’re going to have to rock the boat!

In Uncategorized
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What is the church? It might not be what you think it is…

Michelle George —  August 19, 2009 — 19 Comments
This entry is part of a series, my spiritual adventure»

God has me on quite an adventure at the moment and I’m learning to look at my faith in a whole new way. I’m looking at it with fresh eyes and asking why I believe what I believe and why I do the things I do as a follower of God. One of the questions that I have been asking myself over the past couple of years, and never quite finding an answer that resonated, is this: What is church supposed to be? What’s it for?

838527_praises_3

Listening to Craig Groeschel preach the other weekend at LifeChurch.tv I heard the best explanation of what a church is and what its purpose is. It’s a neat little package that beautifully encapsulates the essence of what is a complex, organic beast.

  1. The Church is a community of believers.
  2. The Church exists for the benefit of those not in the community of believers. Church is not about my needs or wants as a believer. It’s purpose is to meet the needs of those who are not yet a part of the community and to demonstrate God’s grace, acceptance and love to the world.
  3. The Church has a message that never changes, but understands that the method must change if it is going to fulfil its purpose. Craig says: “If we are going to reach people no-one is reaching you have to do something no-one else is doing.”

I don’t know about you, but the realisation that the church is not there to meet my needs was a bit of a sucker punch! It has always been in my head that church is the domain of Christians, where they meet, where they get taught etc. And while that’s true to a degree, because that’s where a very small portion of the community of believers takes place, it’s not the purpose of the church to look after believers! That’s a big shift in thinking, and that, of course, is beginning to change my expectations of how I participate and how the church functions. It also raises a bunch of questions about what the community of believers looks like in practice since that appears to be where believers are to look after each other…but that’s another post. :)

How about you…do you agree with this summary of the Church and it’s purpose?

In God stuff, Worship
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On the back foot

Michelle George —  August 17, 2009 — 2 Comments
This entry is part of a series, shoes»

As much as I love shoes, and they seem to have this secret hold over me, there are still millions of people in the world who do not have ANY shoes, whether it be as a result of natural disaster or extreme poverty. I feel guilty and sick when I look at how many pairs of shoes I have in my cupboard.

330643_grubby_hobbit_feet

A month or so ago I became aware of the Soles4Souls  people via Michael Hyatt’s blog .

Soles4Souls has a simple mission:

To impact as many lives as possible with the gift of shoes.

They facilitate the donation of shoes, which are used to aid hurting people worldwide. Shoe companies, retailers, and individuals can donate footwear (both new and used). Soles4Souls then ship the donated shoes to people around the planet who desperately need footwear.

This is a ministry that was founded by Wayne Elsey in the wake of the 2004 SE Asia tsunami and it has seen rapid growth since then, coordinating in excess of 1 million pairs of shoes for the survivors of the tsunami, and hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as many other needy people around the world.

It has been that simple: Changing the world one pair at a time.

Click on the logo to go and check them out. You can help by donating shoes or by giving a cash donation.

Soles4SoulsPMS-logo

 

What do you do with the shoes you no longer wear?

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In God stuff
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