One day there was a man who was walking beside a river whose current was flowing rapidly along, and as the man looked across the river he saw a scorpion helplessly being carried away down the river on a leaf. So, the man reached out his hand to rescue the helpless scorpion, but when he grabbed the leaf the scorpion sunk his stinger into the man's hand. After a few seconds of writhing in pain the man again reached out his hand to rescue the helpless scorpion. As the man reached the leaf, the scorpion again venomously stung the man. In the distance the man heard the voice of another man saying, "you dumb man why do you continue to reach out to the scorpion when he is only going to sting you." With this the man whose eyes filled with compassion turned and said to the other man, "just because it is the scorpion's nature to sting does not change the fact that it is my nature to save." (taken from Brennan Manning's book, The Signature of Jesus).
In conversations today many well-meaning Christians (myself included) will say to someone. I will give you one more chance, but if you hurt me this time, then you are on your own. I refuse to help you until you help yourself. However, this seems to be contrary to God's working throughout history. Yes, it is our nature to hurt, to run, to abuse, to doubt, to fear, to stress, to scream, to cry, etc. However, just because it is our nature to do those things does not change the fact that it is God's nature to save!
May God give us His nature to save.
Fuel 4
As I prepare to go meet with our small group at Resonance, the Lord has been impressing upon my heart a lesson that He would like to teach me through the music that we will be worshipping the Lord with tonight.
Songs:
You Are So Good to Me (Waterdeep)
Surrender (Marc James-Vineyard)
Unashamed Love (Ten Shekel Shirt)
First of all, I must recognize that regardless of the circumstances that the Lord is good and His love endures forever, so I will give thanks to Him (Psalm 106:1)
Secondly, God is calling me, like He has all of His disciples, to completely surrender everything I have and everything I desire to Him. I must be willing to crucify my pride, my identity, my goals. I must be willing to deny everything that I hold dear for His sake, and follow Him. He is the leader. I am the follower. He is the pilot. I am the passenger. He is the shepherd. I am the sheep. Therefore, I must deny myself and give Him control (Psalm 23 and Luke 9:23)
Finally, I must be willing to come to my Lord, my Father like a little child, trusting in His provision and His protection. This means that I must be willing to humble myself and give Him top priority. He is the one who is to be made famous. His name is to be made known! (Matt. 18:2-4)
May God make it so!
I've just recently been reading a book by Michael Slaughter that is entitled, Unlearning Church. This book essentially discusses what the emerging church leaders must unlearn in order to be relevant to this generation of post-Christians. As I have been reading it, I have been pondering what it is that I must be willing to unlearn. What is it that I have embraced over the years about church that must change if I am going to be who God has called me to be in this generation?
I guess what I need to unlearn is that church is a place. My wife and I were discussing where God has placed us (as part of a planting team at Resonance Church) and how people respond to us when we tell them about us being part of the planting team. Their first response often has to do with the church building itself...like where is it located and what kind of church it is. It is so interesting to me how church has solely become a place that people go. I wonder if that has to do with the dualistic life that many Christians live today. At work they can operate under a different set of values because it is not church. At home they can operate under a different set of values because it is not church. Etc.
If we are going to live in such a way as to be relevant to the emerging generation, then we must be willing to unlearn that church is a place. We must learn that WE are the church. God's people are His church. He has just given many of us buildings to gather in, and we must be faithful to that public gathering. But, In this generation we must also be willing to be God's church in whatever setting He has placed us.
We live in such an impatient, give it to me yesterday society. We don’t have time to finish our “to do” list. We are in too much of a hurry to eat healthy meals. It takes too long to actually cook a meal that we will microwave it. Our hurried lifestyles manifest themselves in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We want the Lord to answer our prayers now, or He doesn’t exist. We don’t have time to study God’s word, care for God’s people, or do God’s will. However, what seems to have suffered the most in our hurried lifestyle is our need for contemplative prayer. It is as if when we approach God, we have a “to do” list to pray to Him. Once we are finished, we say, “in Jesus’ name, Amen,” and we are off to our next task.
As I was reading Brennan Manning’s book, The Signature of Jesus, I began to realize that this is exactly what I do. I do not give God time to speak. I want Him to hear my voice, meet my demands, and move on. However, right now, I think God wants more silence from me. He wants me to sit with Him, dwell on His presence through His word.
I am reminded of Psalm 46. In this chapter, the world is in an uproar, Israel is at battle or preparing to go to battle like they often were, yet in their desire to go to war, team up with other nations, so that they can be victorious, God tells them in verse 10, “Be still and know that I am God.” In other words, stop trying to fight this battle and win this battle under your own strength, in your own time, with you resources. God is saying, STOP…be still before Me!
“On the journey from belief to experience, it takes more effort to be still than to run. Most of us live such a frenetic lifestyle that we are afraid of stillness, silence, and solitude.” (Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus)
God wants us to be still in His presence, so that we may experience Him. It is in this experience with Him that we get to taste of His heart. It is in this stillness that we recognize that He is the Judge; He is in control; the world is His and everything in it; He is the one to be exalted! It is only in this stillness that we can set aside ourselves and truly experience Him.
Well, this is my first attempt at blogging, and I can honestly say that I am a bit excited and nervous...kind of like my first date. Hopefully the results will be better here than on my first date. I can remember it like it was yesterday. We left her house and were driving to a local movie theater for a nice movie and some interesting conversation. Everything was going well until IT happened. I was driving on a highway and a truck was turning left. I looked at the truck and said to myself, "Man, it sure looks like they're about to hit me." Then, it happened. WHAM!!! right into the side of my parents car (who were out of town at the time). So, we pulled over, my date still screaming, and both exited the passenger side door, since the driver's side was completely hammered. So, after we had gotten everything taken care of with the police and the driver of the truck. I looked into my date's eyes and asked, "so, do you still want to go see the movie?" She responded, "no, I want to go home!" So, needless to say, I took her home, and that was the last time we ever spoke.
Hopefully blogging will be much more successful!