Our faith should not harness us
it should release us.
If you are not doing things for the kingdom because you are overtly concerned with whether its the 'right thing' or that its 'being done right' then I might suggest your faith is weak and not accomplishing its work in your life.
**** DON'T READ ANY MORE ****You could stop right here and respond....
Has your faith or mission brought you to places of doubt and confusion?
True Mission and faith will always lead us to places of question and even confusion about what we really believe about life and Godliness.
How has your faith pushed you to think about expressing things differently? Living life a little on the edge of that line... And in some cases over the line?
Has your faith caused you to ask yourself... There must be more to this?
**** IF YOU HAVE READ TO HERE **** Maybe you want to stop and respond now
Has your mission caused you to go to places that some (or even yourself) would say its not a good place to be but yet your relentless desire live a missional life draws you in like magnet to steel.
Are there moments where your mind (and sometimes a few self-righteous people) suggests I should not be here but your spirit says boldly 'I was made for this'
Have you discovered that there is more life in the world that you thought was dead?
Or are you comfortable with your paint and canvas and really only painting what you imagine the world to be like. Almost blindly stroking the canvas of your world with your black and white and grey but the color and experience that you long for (That will make your painting a real masterpeice) is where you are not supposed to go?
I have come to a place in my life that I want color ... Color is life and I will walk any path, embrace any confusion, and question any question in order to find that perfect tone or hue of the real Jesus at work in the world around me.
Am I opposed to black and white and grey... No! But I want more. There has to be more and I refuse to live in a grayscale world.
Where are you? RESPONSE?
34 comments:
but what happens when your heart breaks for those "few self-righteous" people who seem to need a part of Jesus even more than most? if they already have salvation is that enough? that's a truly odd mission field. inside your own church...
I think part one hits the nail on the head. Is there any right way of doing things? I think questions like What is the right path for my life? stem from a lack of fatih (or self confidence?).
Part two hit me on the head. Good reminder that doubt and confusion are markers showing us that we're not blindly stroking.
Don't we grow up painting what we imagine the world to be like? The world should add color to our lives, but we should be taking color out of the world and leaving our stroke behind.
Delbert
Does a doctor come to help the sick or the healthy? What was the purpose of Jesus?
I know in my life right now, the doubts, the fears, the reality of it all is so complex that I am feeling like I"m in the middle of an ocean with a raft. Occasionally, I'll hit a wave that will pull me in the direction to which I desire to move, however there are so many big waves, pounding, crashing, and caving in around and on me, making me loose focus, loose direction. But occasionally I'll get a glimpse of that mountian int he direction I wish to go, and so, I'll seek it again, with refreshed passion and desire.
I'm not healthy, and I'm not sick. I just am me. I really do feel blind because I feel as if I'm in the middle of hte ocean and it's a dark, cloudy night. So I have no starts to guide, but I'll get up ontop of a wave, going as hard as I can with my broken oar, and see a fire on the shore.
I know that I have many long days and years before I hit that shore and am able to scale the mountain and look down on the sea which caused me many troubles, pains, tears, and laughs, but I have God to thank for leaving what seems solely like a pilot light, but if I follow that light I see it's a fire that keeps warm, and is the one that guides me home.
This may seem like the rantings of a dreamer, but I feel called to dream, I am called to dream. And I desire to scale that mountain that has been there for so long.
mark -
i guess that depends on if Jesus came to bring life, or salvation. were the "sick" the people who needed salvation? or the people who needed life? because i feel like so many people i know who have salvation still need to find real life.
"Living life a little on the edge of that line... And in some cases over the line"
who drew this line.
Delbert
Might want to check Matthew 9:10-13 to see what Jesus meant. IMHO...Salvation = life.... thats why in many cases we need to work out our salvation... we have the fire insurance but not the full package...if you know what I mean.
Jesus did not tolerate self righteous ignorance.
****
The line .... Drawn by those 'few self righteous people' or people that just don't get it.
Yes.
Yes!
Yes!!
Great post.
The greys and blacks and white matter and can even, given the right artist, be a amazing. Ansle Adams for example. But color...yes. Color. It captures your eye, directs your attention, it adds.
****************
Could I suggest a line? The line you comfortably live by. The line is not drawn by anyone but yourself and represents your own limits of and moral law of what it means to live incarnationally. Of course, there is 'the line' as layed down in Scripture that we are taught not to cross...
E.D
Your defining the line... Well Put and Brilliant!!!... I think thats the best way to put it as many times we define the line that we think it should be by our own misinterpretation of life and godliness. I Think the key is to understand that the Scripture is quite clear but we tend to blur our own interpretation of what that line is.
VERY WELL PUT!!!
mark. this hit somethings deep in me that i am crawling in the blacks and whites to try to find a lightswitch:
"There must be more than this..."
"Have you discovered that there is more life in the world that you thought was dead?"
"I refuse to live in a grayscale world!"
these are powerful thoughts.
the question you posed is "Where are you?"
currently i feel like i am trying to find colourful paint.
i've recognized my bleakness...
i am longing for colour...
i think i even know where to look...
i think what consumes my mind most is the qustion of what will be painted when i find some colourful paint.
i hope what i paint will have depth, warmth, light, and life.
note:
i think jer tapped on something well in his description of our lines of what we think it means to live incarnationally. I hope as people get into the bible and its mysteries they discover the ridiculous and radical line crosser that JESUS was.
love and peace poms.
Jeffrey.
Mets [jeffro] - I really do believe that incarnational life [mission] will push us to challenge our lines. There are too many stories like this in scriputre... Peter on the rooftop 'go kill and eat.' Paul 'to the unknown God.' David eating the shewbread. I think there is a special place in God's heart for those that color outside the lines.
...and those that color right off the page.
I didn't even recognize the page.
that brings a question to mind....
http://theanswerquestion.blogspot.com/2006/08/q16.html
coloring outside the lines is a sign of pure genuis! or perhaps pure rebellion, or even better yet someone who see's a picture beyond what the artist orginally intended.
greyscale is not the color of christianity, it is the place that those sit who are in a comfortable life. they tithe or give, they live wholesome lifestyles, but do not wish to be known as someone who is one of them there jesus freaks!
i am intrigued by the thought of color, not because i do not see flashes of color in the lives around me, it is just that true color is rare.
mark,
your first section stated what seems to be a simple fact, and from that fact you draw the conclusion that our faith must be weak if we are not doing "things" for the kingdom!
what things? is prayer one of those things, is reading the word one of those things, or is it more the physical actions for the world to see taht you are asking/stating ?
When looking at the story of the cripple in Mark 2...
"Jesus saw their faith."
reread it again... I am not writing in reagards to the action or non action, prayer or not prayer etc. My post is more about 'the why?' Why do we do the things we do or not do the things we need to do. The hidden perspectives that determine our life course.
The things you mentioned are elementary elements of the kingdom...but it is much more than that. You can pray, read your Bible, and do good things but still miss your kingdom purpose.
Anom said "but do not wish to be known as someone who is one of them there jesus freaks"
I don't want to be known as that. I don't think that being over-eager, over-spiritual, and in your face will make a difference. With the tolerance of people these days, I think that the "freaks" will turn more away then truely intrigue them to find out more.
Maybe thats just my scar to deal with, but I think people are looking for other people just like them to open up to and relate to. Should we be more like the world and less like the church? Maybe.
V is for Zee
Jesus Freaks - Not a term that is really truly reflectant of Jesus at all... Jesus was/ is a complelling and intriguing person who never pushed himself on anyone. He Created space for conversation and allowed people to be drawn in. [Unless you are talking about the religous freaks like the pharisees and saducees...he had no tolerance for their lifeless religon.]
mark-that is the point........it is not that the life of a follower of christ is strange, it is the life of the overly religious.
pray, read your Bible, and still miss the/your kingdom purpose?
i see many whose purpose is just that, prayer, reading, absorbing God, we need those people. the purpose they have is to strengthen the body.
kingdom purposes: feed the poor, widows, aliens, reach the unreached in a fashion that allows for relationships, mentor others, be mentored, touch lives without breaking boundaries.........
i do not see life as clearly as you perhaps....
you use the phrase"draw them in" draw them into what?
I am not suggesting that we ever not pray, read the bible etc. Those are valuable things but they are the basics of learning the kingdom not an end in themselves [many people have made these as ends].
They are only a means to something greater a greater awareness of the Kingdom and what that means.
The Poor the widow and the orphan, touching lives ... and maybe breaking boundaries... These again are actions but are not the only kingdom purposes. The kingdom is probably a little bigger than those as well.
you do not see life as clearly??? Explain.
****
Draw them in?
Draw them into a journey of discovery of who Christ is... and life.
V /ZEE
I think I should state that I am in agreeance with your statements ... [Jesus Freaks etc] They are well put and I certainly concur?
I think we are on the same page
*****
mark- draw them into a life/journey of who Christ is/was.....
great idea, actually a brilliant idea, yet i so do not think that is in the four walls we call "church"........i used to believe it was, but church is a very depressing place, filled with everything we should not be, and yes i know that the church is filled with sinners, so it is only logical that all the things out there come in here, but it is more than that. maybe/perhaps i am too idealistic, perhaps , i am unsure at this moment
i love the stories of what a shepard is/was in the ANE. i think it is even more incredible that the shepards spent so much time with the sheep they began to smell like the flock, not only the sound of a sheprds voice, but his odour made him distinctive........
we have hired guns in churches now, cowboys, or sherriffs, whatever we choose to call them, they come in, do the sunday rituals, but they do not stink like the flock, they smell more like a zestfull morning (hope that makes sense)
things of the kingdom, bi-vocational pastors whom work out there and minister in coffee bars or homes, or basements, perhaps that is the answer, but those are more elders than pastors, i wonder if we even need church?
Anonymous... Might I suggest a good read ... Last weeks article... http://markdehoog.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-is-church-anyways.html#links
We are talking the same language.
mark- each of us must discover what we believe church is, whether that be a sunday gathering, or a group getting together in a basement, studying the word, drinking coffee, and sharing life.......community is the answer, yet my community is going to be much different than yours, and maybe it should be.........
back to grayscale, that particular phrase has been around forver, maybe slightly different words, hot or cold, blah blah blah........in Kings we see a simple phrase-and they said nothing, James nailed the church calling them adulters, maybe the problem then is not where we are, but it is trying to live in the gray area's and hoping someone colors outside the lines and it touches where we are
Here are some words penned and sung by Green Day and awarded with grammies as they speak about the church.
Annon - I wonder if you would interpret these words from your experience:
"I don't care. I don't care if you don't. I don't care if you don't care. Everyone is so full of shit. Born and raised by hypocrites. Hearts recycled but never saved. From the cradle to the grave. We are the kids of war and peace from Anaheim to the Middle East. We are the stories and disciples of the Jesus of Suburbia, land of make believe. And it don't believe in me and I don't care."
I Think in many cases the church is no longer the church... agree? But there may be those that are a part of it that are?
you ask a great question! Where has my desire to serve Christ taken me?
Apart from him, I am nothing...! It is living a Barbarian Life...loving, risking, daring, stepping out of the confines of a building...and really living.
Last year...I left a 8 year gay relationship...Left Vancouver, moved to Winnipeg, to be close to family and support. Hardship...sadness...almost every emotion imaginable...spanned into my being...it was a tough year, but I felt a calling. Prior to the slip, I felt there had to be more to life than...the mundane of everyday.
So this year, I accepted a missionary position to work with those individuals who want to leave the gay community...and to offer Pastoral support and education on how to love homosexuals like Jesus would.
It is testing me...in every area of my life...a colorful life experience. Trusting at new levels for finances...which is hard!!! Any advice on that one, when you know very few people? But mostly stepping out into a ministry that culturally speaking goes against human rights...just focus on what is happening in Alberta.
I want more though. I want communities to rally around those who want to change. I want the churches to change and love others...no questions or strings attached. I really want ministries like the one I work at, to not have to fundraise, because the community of believers support them. So yep...society says..don't be a missionary, don't rely on others...do it yourself...but hey...I'd rather be a Barbarian...risking it here on this planet that I am just visiting on.
Keep up the great writing...!
Kenny
You are preaching to the choir... keep going. Can you give me more info on your ministry. There are so many dynamics that you have to face in your journey.
Does your ministry not stand up for human rights?
Would love to hear your story.
E.D.- This is a tough thing for me to "pen", so to speak, because it goes against everything I wanted to believe the church is/was. Yet, as I sit and watch, sit and listen, I believe that one of the last places an individual will find the true love of Jesus Christ is in a church. I think there are individual pockets within a church that will reachout, yet those pockets are so stretched that they miss so many individuals that walk through the doors of a church. we are so set on buildings, new structures, the facility, that the facility has become the master of the church. I see congregations struggling to keep doors open because of "tradition". I wonder if the churches that meet at gyms, and planitariums etc would be so adment on building if they saw what building does in the long run. Parishners become the owners, they dictate the way it should or should not be......... So- do we become so concerned with buildings that we do not care about individuals? Sadly, I think it happens. Then what? Well the truth becomes that those who were created to worship God (all of us) and are empty and seeking figure taht if the church does not care, maybe they are not worth caring about. Thus, they indulge further into the desires of the flesh rather than the "one thing" that can start to complete who they are. N.A. is a strange place, I do not believe that we are not saved, but I think that the rarity of finding those that really know God is more limited than that in third world countries. (although in the ghetto's, the deep south, man they know Christ-different post though.
So-here is my overall view- we as a church, the body of Christ, at least for the most part (not all) have taken the focus off of relationships and have put them on programs, buildings, and events! We have become isolated in our relationship with Christ and that reflects to those who are seeking our Father. Now just for clarity sake, I do not think all Christians are that way, but (BUT) I believe that if we label the church as a general catagory, it has become a closed off, elitist group, of bigger, better, faster, nicer, ex-yuppies who want to ease thier consious's by building monuments rather than relationships.
Annon -
Apprecaite you honesty. It has sparked some deeper questions that might need to be articualted at some point.
mark- time i have, answers i can not promise.
just for clarity sake i am not some bitter Xian, what I am is realistic, here in North America we have labeled a building the church-it is not; it is a building. the church is where we are, where we gather, where we meet the needs of others
Wow - I have appreciated just reading all of the comments posted here - the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me through the things I am reading here. Thanks for all of your willingness to write your thoughts and sharing your hearts.
Mark,
"...there has to be more and I refuse to live in a grayscale world."
There is so much more - so as you journey towards finding the "more abundant" keep your heart and eyes open to it -- because sometimes it can fly by so quick - that we don't even stop to rest and meditate on the beauty of what it is or was.
For me it has been about being open to the "wow" of life - God is in it all - whether we think it is "stupid" or not. We do need to be thinking with our brain matter about what to do next - or how to do it in a new way - but at the same time - we can not disconnect the heart from this process - I think you are thinking and feeling about what you are writing - and this is good. Keep on the journey - and in community - lets do it together. Thanks again for assisting in my stretching and growth.
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