Jumat, 19 Juni 2009

THE QUESTION that CHANGED MY LIFE


THE QUESTION that CHANGED MY LIFE
-by David Ryser.

A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school
of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly
searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with
Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across
a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short
version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:

Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece
and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution;
it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and
became an enterprise. Some of the students were only 18 or 19
years old--barely out of diapers--and I wanted them to understand
and appreciate the import of the last line, so I clarified it by adding,
"An enterprise. That's a business." After a few moments Martha,
the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not
imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was
self-explanatory, and that I had performed it brilliantly. Nevertheless,
I acknowledged Martha's raised hand, "Yes, Martha." She asked
such a simple question, "A business? But isn't it supposed to be
a body?" I could not envision where this line of questioning was going,
and the only response I could think of was, "Yes." She continued,
"But when a body becomes a business, isn't that a prostitute?"

The room went dead silent. For several seconds no one moved or
spoke. We were stunned, afraid to make a sound because the
presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were
on holy ground. All I could think in those sacred moments was,
"Wow, I wish I'd thought of that." I didn't dare express that thought
aloud. God had taken over the class.

Martha's question changed my life. For six months, I thought about
her question at least once every day. "When a body becomes a
business, isn't that a prostitute?" There is only one answer to her
question. The answer is "Yes." The American Church, tragically,
is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we
love Him? We don't even know Him; and I mean really know Him.

... I stand by my statement that most American Christians do not
know God--much less love Him. The root of this condition originates
in how we came to God. Most of us came to Him because of what
we were told He would do for us. We were promised that He would
bless us in life and take us to heaven after death. We married Him
for His money, and we don't care if He lives or dies as long as we
can get His stuff. We have made the Kingdom of God into a business,
merchandising His anointing. This should not be. We are commanded
to love God, and are called to be the Bride of Christ--that's pretty
intimate stuff. We are supposed to be His lovers. How can we love
someone we don't even know? And even if we do know someone,
is that a guarantee that we truly love them? Are we lovers or
prostitutes?

I was pondering Martha's question again one day, and considered
the question, "What's the difference between a lover and a prostitute?" 
I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does
what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but
only as long as you pay. Then I asked the question, "What would
happen if God stopped paying me?"

For the next several months, I allowed God to search me to uncover
my motives for loving and serving Him. Was I really a true lover of
God? What would happen if He stopped blessing me? What if He
never did another thing for me? Would I still love Him? Please
understand, I believe in the promises and blessings of God. The
issue here is not whether God blesses His children; the issue is
the condition of my heart. Why do I serve Him? Are His blessings
in my life the gifts of a loving Father, or are they a wage that I have
earned or a bribe/payment to love Him? Do I love God without any
conditions? It took several months to work through these questions.
Even now I wonder if my desire to love God is always matched by
my attitude and behavior. I still catch myself being disappointed
with God and angry that He has not met some perceived need in
my life. I suspect this is something which is never fully resolved,
but I want more than anything else to be a true lover of God.

So what is it going to be? Which are we, lover or prostitute?
There are no prostitutes in heaven, or in the Kingdom of God for
that matter, but there are plenty of former prostitutes in both
places. Take it from a recovering prostitute when I say there is no
substitute or unconditional, intimate relationship with God. And I
mean there is no palatable substitute available to us (take another
look at Matthew 7:21-23 sometime). We must choose.

-Dr. David Ryser.

Sabtu, 06 Juni 2009

Taking Responsbility

Hi all,
This is a bit early and I'll not be sending an email next week due to ministry travels, back 6/20.

Over the course of 4 days I received emails from several ministries, some saying God is judging America, others saying God is not judging America, he is judging the church.

Frankly I think Presidents and Congressional leaders going years back from both parties are to blame, but my point today is that no matter what comes our way, as disciples of Jesus, we are to use everything to grow in the Lord and trust Him through it all.

The blame game
While the devil can certainly be a harassment and add insult to injury, most every situation I've seen is very easily explained by someone's actions, Congress or otherwise, not the devil. When people are under an authority structure; national, state, local, work, military, church, family- decisions good and bad made by those in authority affect those under that authority. That's just life.

When God is working on us to trust him through changes, human nature is to dig in the heels and gripe, or blame others. No matter, we still have to make the decision to trust Him.

Some don't seriously ask the Lord how they should be looking at their situation and what he wants them to learn, oh they may lightly ask, but they won't linger to hear the answer because it's a hard lesson. It's more comfortable and safer not to change, because growing is launching into unknown waters and therefore a scary, humbling and very new experience.

One of the dangers of the victim culture in this country is that no one wants to take responsibility for their actions; it's either the devil did it, or the spouse, or the bank, or the boss, or the government...or, or...

Most everyone reading this has been flipped off at some point in their driving experience by somebody who broke half a dozen laws before they cut in front of you, but they flip you off for inconveniencing them!

A Bible student blamed first the devil and then the bank when they received over $100 in bounced check charges after trying unsuccessfully to 'float' some checks until payday.

I heard on the news today that a lady in a drive through lane was told that they were out of the diet cola she wanted, so she threw her french fries at the attendant, and then sprayed his face with pepper spray!

Now, if I was a recent certificate carrying graduate of the 'Learn how the devil is the source of all your problems' conference, would that have been a spirit named 'McFry' that caused her to act like that, or a 'Diet spirit'?

Maybe, just maybe, if she was a believer, the Lord might have wanted to use that lack of diet cola in her life as a growth tool for patience instead of blaming the guy at the window - ya think?!

I rebuke you...is that you Lord?
A lady came to me one day after church, convinced a 'spirit of condemnation' was telling her to apologize to another lady in the church. Her exact question was: Will the devil direct you to do something that seems scriptural even though you don't want to do it?

Turns out she had said something to hurt the other lady's feelings and knew she did wrong, but was convinced because 'there is therefore now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Rom 8:1) it was the devil giving her those feelings of 'condemnation' and urging her to make it right with the lady.

She had been rebuking that 'spirit of condemnation' all through church. When I told her she had been rebuking the Spirit of God who was convicting her of doing wrong, she wasn't too excited because she didn't want to do the hard thing and apologize (but she did).

What amazed me is that she manipulated scripture because she couldn't imagine God asking her to humble herself and do a difficult thing. Her theology was that God was her servant ever present to make her more comfortable in this life!

To her, growing more Christ-like each day meant more joy, more peace, more goose bumps found on the cutting edge - she wanted to know the power of his resurrection but not the fellowship of his sufferings. (Philippians 3:10)

I wonder how many Christians rebuke the Lord in a store when He urges them NOT to put things on their Visa and stick to a budget, after all, God wants you to always have abundant life, so God wouldn't be telling me not to charge it! Worse yet, are some blaming the devil for the card payments, like the devil was the one that had to have those shoes or weed eater or new 42" plasma TV?

Back to center
The Lord will always ask us to turn the finger we have pointing at others back around towards us. What is OUR part of the equation? He will always ask us to stop the blame game and look at our own heart.

Have you ever wanted to tell that person driving aggressively and flipping off drivers to relax? What if they took responsibility for their actions and stopped being a danger to themselves and others?

I got the Bible school student with the bounced check situation to acknowledge their wrong doing, and they received mercy at the bank.

And the lady in the drive through? Well, that was a McFry spirit I'm sure.

But the reality is that our first responsibility is to ask the Father what if anything we did wrong, how did we open the door, and to know ourselves well enough to know why we did what we did, and then repent if needed and learn of it. If things are happening beyond our control, then we have to ask what we can do to make the impact less, and how we can grow and trust the Lord through the changes.

Because the Lord builds us from the inside out away from the gaze of others, it affords the opportunity to be honest just between him and us, in very private moments of admission. Those private moments between us are when a person's life turns around. That's the point the momentum changes - when we take responsibility for our actions and determine to use whatever confronts us to grow more Christ-like.

On one level, I really don't care if God is judging America or the body of Christ. I watch with interest, don't get me wrong. But I know that He and I are at peace, walking closer than ever, and in my spirit I have peace.

You see, God is judging me every day; every time I say something in a wrong attitude or tone to my wife, I get convicted, which is judged, and I repent. Every time my mind wanders to things I shouldn't be thinking on, I get convicted which is judged, and he brings me back to center. Every time we weigh to do right or wrong, and choose right, we have judged ourselves.

Every time we are convicted of doing wrong and we confess our sin as I John 1:9 says, we are responding to judgement by judging ourselves and receiving the benefits of a humble heart.

So I'm not afraid for the future, because I know the Father and I are at peace, in fellowship, and he will always lead me through the valley to the other side.

If we do these things, we won't try to blame someone else for what is happening to us, or blame a McFry spirit as the source of our problems, we'll walk in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

Some thoughts this day,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org

LK10 Update: THE ALBUQUERQUE PROJECT Saturday, 6 June, 2009 5:50 AM

LK10 Friends,

It was one of those mornings when it seemed like the Lord was speaking from the moment I awoke. "Invite them into an experiment".

It was the last day of a simple church conference I was leading in Albuquerque, NM just a week ago. The audience had been very responsive as we explored the idea of church as family. We had talked about and practiced SASHET (a way of listening to our own heart and the hearts of others in your church) and VIRKLER (a way of hearing God's heart). We had seen that the LK 10:2b PRAYER was central to reaching a city or region. And, now, it seemed that the Lord wanted to take all of this from theory to practice.

When we met together later that morning, I laid out for them what I thought the Lord was inviting them to as a three month experiment (June 1 to September 1). In essence, there were three simple practices which formed a sort of Kingdom "virus". The hypothesis was that these practices were a pathway to two objectives:

1. deep Kingdom transformation of individuals, marriages and families.
2. rapid viral Kingdom multiplication

Here are the three practices...

1. Daily. As close to daily as possible, connect with your prayer partner in person or by phone. Check in with each other using SASHET, share what God is saying to you that day (VIRKLER) and pray with each other. We call this "pair power" and we understand that this is the first and most foundational expression of church. We might call these pairs "embryonic churches" or "churches of two" (CO2).

2. Weekly. At least once each week, share a meal with those in your simple church. Check in with each other using SASHET. Do VIRKER together. Let "church and mission" emerge out of listening.

3. Monthly. At least once a month, meet with others in the ALBUQUERQUE PROJECT to share what you are learning. And, tell others as the Lord leads you to.

The people at the Conference responded with great enthusiasm to this invitation and we commissioned nine embryonic churches over the next couple of hours. We also agreed that we would report on this experiment in the Discussion Forum in LK10. So, if you are interested in learning more about the ALBUQUERQUE PROJECT and in following our progress over the summer, go to the link below. If you post a word of encouragement or comment in this thread, all subsequent posts will show up in your email box.

Link to THE ALBUQUERQUE PROJECT Conversation: http://lk10.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,31/func,view/catid,26&id=/id,2333/catid,26/

If the Lord tells you to start a similar experiment in your city or region, let me know.

*Forgot your User Name or Password for LK10? Just hit "Reply", tell me your name and I'll send you that information.


Your brother,

John

John White
Simple Church Coach
LK10: A Community of Practice for Church Planters
http://lk10.com

Senin, 01 Juni 2009