Sad post

Yesterday I read a sad news report about one of the South Korean hostages in Afghanistan being killed. Its sad when evil men do evil things and it appears they get away with it. If you did not know there are 23 people being held hostage by the Taliban and I read that the pastor of the group was murdered on his birthday.

(Photo: Yonhap / Sammul Church) In this photo released from Sammul Church, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu poses for a memorial photo before leaving for Afghanistan Friday, July 13, 2007 at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of Seoul, South Korea. (transcribed from The Christian Post - see link)
Please pray for the release of the hostages and the family of Bae.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070725/28603_Body_of_S._Korean_Youth_Pastor_Found.htm

To Bee or not to be

Sometimes we call people busy bees. Buzzing around doing what we are programmed to do. Find the flowers, get the nectar, back to the hive & feed the queen. Find the flowers, get the nectar, back to the hive …. In the busyness, the nectar getting, the flying, the getting to the hive, we actually miss what we are doing. Together we are building a hive, a place of safety so that we can perpetuate our bee tribe – so that tomorrows bees will be able to live and swarm and get busy.

But hey we are not bees. No, we don’t have hives. But we do have busyness. Whatever it may be that takes our time, our focus, our energy, our resources and our attention – that can be our hive mentality. While we fly here and there, we look for the nectar of life on flowers – but we miss the beauty of what we are landing on – a flower. I walked past someone today and said, “How are you ?” and didn’t wait for the answer – in my busyness I had flown off – job done, I had been courteous. But I did not wait to hear the answer from the person I spoke to. I missed the point.
The task will be there tomorrow – the person may not be.

So I have to be more human, don’t buzz around and miss the person. I need to be a human “being” not a human “doing”.

Heal the land

I heard this scripture on the radio this evening while driving home :

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

And I started thinking about what does "Heal their land." mean ? I understand that we humble ourselves and repent and God forgives our sin but how does God heal our land and what is "Our land" ? Here are my musings - feel free to comment ....

• Land is where we get our food from - if the land is sick - we get sick - what are we feeding ourselves on ? ( John 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.)


• Land is where we are standing, where we stand needs our repentance and, where we are needs healing. (Ezekiel 22:30"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.")


• Many times the worst enemies that we have and have made are those on our land - closest to us. Family and friends and colleagues. A nation at war with itself is its worst enemy. The enemy seeks to divide and conquer... (Mark 3:25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.)


• The land is where we lay our foundations - unstable soil - unstable foundations. (Luke 6:48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.)
  

Where is your land - what is it God would heal if you turn and humble yourself and pray ?

Coelacanth - why is an old fish that important ?

I just read about a coelacanth fish being found off Zanzibar. I don't get it - why is an old fish so important ?

Well maybe there is hope for us after all. If old fish can make it through global warming who knows what else we will come across - it is global warming thats messing everything up - is'nt it ?

I don't get it - its also "National ice cream day." in the US. Whats with that ? Is this also part of the global warming conspiracy or is this the counter action to cool us down ?

The one thing I'd like to taste would be chilli flavoured vanilla - a bit of a shock to those mouth buds ..!!

An Intelligent Design ?

Over time I have been involved with designing many different computer systems and software modules. On one of those occasions I helped design a 'church' organisations database. It took a few weeks to come up with a suitable design but one key things played a cruicial part and was very enlightening - relationships.

You see when I started out I started to design the database as a 'hierarchical' structure - you see this is how the leadership viewed the organisation. So I put the senior pastor at the top of the pyramid and the supporting management team below him and then added the supporting operational managers below them in their respective teams and so and so on. But this was not working as the model was not a true representation of how the 'church' was structured. The reality was that there where many people who did not fit the model - they either worked in multiple teams or where not 'connected' structurally in a recognised grouping like a cell group or a serving team or a leadership team.

The reality that hit me was - the organisation was best defined RELATIONALLY.

Each person or group existed as separate parts of the organisation but the relationships between the parts was a crucial part of the whole thing. An example was myself. I was a small group leader with people in my small group. I was also a member of the 'pastoral' team with a leader in that group. I also ran a team in the main organisation that taught and looked after 'new christians'. But I was also a part of the IT group that helped look after the software used in the church. In all of these roles I had many different roles and relationships to many different people.

The relationships defined my connections - they where as much a part of me as me being a team lead, or a team member.

I saw that nurturing the relationships was as important, if not more important, than the role I played or the title I had. If we are to be church and not just go to church - we need to nurture and be intentional about nurturing our relationships with others.

I think its a good idea to write down a list of who and what we are connected to and then write a list of our relationships next to each person or thing. Then write out how we will intentionally nurture those connections. Then do it !

Good Relationsl link : http://lifestream.org/index.html

Connection - What do people really want ?

So what do people really want ? Is it what we do or who we are ? When we market ourselves so well that its not too difficult to fall from a height - we are setting ourselves up. We want to be validated, we want to be loved, we want to be appreciated.

I think there is a time for marketing our image but we need to realise that marketing is only a selling pitch, its not who we are. Its just an image of how we want people to think we are. So many churches pitch themselves as 'with it' or 'cool' - we have the best music, the best lights, we have excellence, we are nice. But many times I think they set themselves up for a fall.

What do people really want ? When you help those closest to you to see Jesus and who He is and what He has done for you, they can't resist but want to know Him. Those who are closest to you know who you are, they know when the marketing gloss has been taken out and spread all around.

What do people want - they want you to be real, they want you to be true, they want some honesty, not the glossy you. They want you to care when nobody does, to pick them up when they fall. They need that hand of a friend when they dont have faith, when they dont understand your churchianity. They need a light in their darkness, yes - their darkness needs your light - you can only shine a light where they are at.

What do people want - they want who you are - not who you do ...

A great set ...

A great set of waves just north of us. Taken from the same place as the photo of the lighthouse - at Norah point north of Gosford....(ps taken in summer about a year ago - but its like this every year)

Did you know that Jesus stood on the beach ?


John 21:4 (Amplified Bible)
4Morning was already breaking when Jesus came to the beach and stood there. However, the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.



Have you ever noticed - (ha it would be strange if you missed it) that the waves constantly come to the shore day in and day out ? Did you know that God comes to us day in and day out to talk with us but most times we don't know it is Him ?


If you knock you will find, if you seek you will find - the very act of looking for something starts us on a road to finding. God is closer that you ever could imagine. He constantly hits our 'beach' and stands waiting in our 'area'. He wants to show you something - He wants to spend time with you.





If you seek you will find.....

Where am I surfing at the moment ?

I'm looking up what it means to do Simple Church as I believe we can meet just about anywhere and 'be' the church together.
So I am somewhere in the middle of these links :

House Church Central
House2House
Community of Grace House Church Network
Dawn Ministries

as well as OIKOS in Australia : http://www.oikos.org.au/blog/

Click on the link picture to Youtube on the right near the top of the page to see Newsboys sing a great song !

Grace and the Law

I read an interesting scripture today about King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 30:10-20. It is all about the slaughter of the Passover Lamb by people who where not ceremonally clean. (according to the law)
But Hezekiah knew this and prayed to God "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God...even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary."And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

I think its amazing that God would heal people despite their imperfection according to His law !

This is also amazing because it was at the time of the Passover !
Have you ever prayed for someone to be accepted by God despite their state, despite their ignorance or despite falling short of the Law ? I have prayed many times for myself, asking that God would heal me despite who I am.

James 5:16-18 (NEB) ...A good man's prayer is powerful and effective.

Pray now for someone who falls short of your rules, your law - give some grace that they may be healed ...........

Who follows who in the zoo ?

Do people follow you or do you point them to Jesus ?
John the baptist said "I must diminish so that He may increase".
Its a tough one if you want to be popular, but there is no other way. Its not all about me and my ministry, or you and your ministry - its about pointing people to Jesus, showing them who He is and helping them connect to God and each other, grow and make disciples themselves.

Its the commission, it did'nt sound like "Make ye all a ministry so that others may follow you and establish followers of them..", it was clear and precise....

Matthew 28:19-23
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Whats with all the personal ministries, whats that all about ? Whats with all the adoration that goes on for Holy men and women - they appear holier but appearences can be deceiving ...

Did you know that you are holy - you are called ?

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Make disciples who look to Jesus, who make disciples who look to Jesus, who make disciples.....

A definition to lookup ....

Hey, I just found an excellent defintion of how church should be ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church

I like the section on values of Simple Church :

D - Divine Truth : Truth is the foundation for everything. By Divine Truth, we mean the dynamic and living presence of Christ and His Word. A recent variation refers to the "D" as "Divine Connection" and views the Word of God and prayer as two primary means of maintaining that connection with God. The DNA metaphor is thus extended to include four overarching values instead of only three.
N - Nurturing Relationships : Healthy relationships are what make up a family. Love for one another is to be a constant pursuit of the family of God. This is the most basic of Christ's commands.
A - Apostolic Mission : Apostolic means, simply, “sent.” Just as Jesus was sent on a mission, so we are sent out on a mission for Him. Our mission is to go into the world and disciple the nations for their good and God's glory[15].

This is a great acronym DNA - in case you might not have noticed.
There are some excellent links at the bottom of the page.