The Amazing Mobius Strip

Could this be an example of the body of Christ?

A strip of paper that is only one sided, and if you try to cut it in half, you don’t get 2 of them, you get a longer one sided paper with a little more twist…

And if you try again to get two of them, and cut ir in half again, something amazing, you get two one sided papers, but they are linked together, so they are still joined…

We are all one body, one community and we can not be like minded, but we still are connected as the body of Christ…

BBC – h2g2 – The Amazing Mobius Strip.

Nice…

What does it mean to be nice?

We were taught as children, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Is this really the way we are suppose to be a Christians though?

Nice is a word that we have come to understand means to be kind, polite, non confrontational. However is this really what nice means? When I look up nice at Merriam Webster’s online resource the first definition is obsolete – wanton, dissolute, coy, reticent.  Not kind or polite, which are definition number 7 on Merriam Webster.  The word nice actually comes from the Latin word nescience which means lack of knowledge or awareness – ignorance.  To be nice is to over look what someone is doing to you that is wrong.  It is as if someone is hitting you and you tell them thank you for being such a wonderful caring person.  You completely over look what they are doing in order to be polite and kind.

This is not what we as Christians are called to do or to be.  Jesus never told us to overlook what is happening around us.  He never told us to include everyone because it is the nice thing to do.  Jesus cleared the temple of the money changers to give the Gentiles a place to worship!  He told people they needed to go and sin no more.  He gave us in Matthew 18:15-20 a way to handle conflict because he knew that the church would not always agree.  But he knew we need to be held together in unity.  He also told us in Matthew 18:8-9 that it is better to cut part of the body out/off to cure the body.  Sometimes we have to say the hard thing and go to our brothers and sisters and tell them they are sinning against us and are not part of the community, for the restoration of the community.  If they do not respond, then we have to treat them as one we pray for and hope for.  But anyone that is causing conflict in a community mus be handled in a manner worthy of the Gospel.  Jesus said to go and tell them what they have done, if they don’t listen, go back with 1 or 2 more, and then take them before the church, and then remove them.  Being a Christian does not mean we are nice. It means we love people for who they are and where they are, but do not let them tear apart the body…

Here is a wonderful article by William Easum entitled On Not Being Nice, “For The Sake of The Gospel”  

May we all know His love, and stop being nice, and live like Christ.

August 2011 Front Page

“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-Life together

How many of us listen to each other?  Really listen.  We might hear what someone else is saying to us, but do we hear them, or do we think we know what they said?

Most of us will hear 3 – 4 words of someone speaking to us and then start formulating what we are going to say.  We will hear where a sentence starts and then begin working on our come back, what we will respond with. In doing this, you are no longer listening, but are paying attention to yourself.  This is one of the first things I work on with couples that I am working through premarital counseling with.  Communication is the basis for every relationship, and if you are not communicating there is no basis for a relationship. This is why we pray, to communicate with God.  Part of this should be silence to listen for what God has to say to us.  We need to listen not only to get to know the other person, but we need to listen, because that is what we have to do in order to communicate.  In order to know what to really say we have to listen, and hear what is said to us. Then and only then can we respond with a response that is one that will build the relationship. It may not always be what the other person wants to hear, but it will build the relationship if it is spoken in love after listening and hearing what was said. If we listen and hear, then we will get to know more about the person and grow deeper in relation to them.

That is what Bonhoeffer tells us in the quote above.  We owe it to others to listen to them. We need to hear them and to love them by being quiet and not formulating a response while they are talking.  To hear them as we hear His word.

So the next time you are listening, listen and hear. Grow in relation to others.

Jesus Bring the Rain – Mercy Me

Bring The Rain lyrics

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I’ve gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It’s never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what’s a little rain
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty

Listen!

“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-Life together

How many of us listen to each other? Really listen. We might hear what someone else is saying to us, but do we hear them, or do we think we know what they said?

Most of us will hear 3 – 4 words of someone speaking to us and then start formulating what we are going to say. We will hear where a sentence starts and then begin working on our come back, what we will respond with. In doing this, you are no longer listening, but are paying attention to yourself. This is one of the first things I work on with couples that I am working through premarital counseling with. Communication is the basis for every relationship, and if you are not communicating there is no basis for a relationship. This is why we pray, to communicate with God. Part of this should be silence to listen for what God has to say to us. We need to listen not only to get to know the other person, but we need to listen, because that is what we have to do in order to communicate. In order to know what to really say we have to listen, and hear what is said to us. Then and only then can we respond with a response that is one that will build the relationship. It may not always be what the other person wants to hear, but it will build the relationship if it is spoken in love after listening and hearing what was said. If we listen and hear, then we will get to know more about the person and grow deeper in relation to them.

That is what Bonhoeffer tells us in the quote above. We owe it to others to listen to them. We need to hear them and to love them by being quiet and not formulating a response while they are talking. To hear them as we hear His word.

So the next time you are listening, listen and hear. Grow in relation to others.

What is Worship?

What is worship?  I have been pondering this question for a while…  The reason I think about this now is I just preached a sermon 2 days ago on the mark of discipleship of weekly worship.  Notice that is weekly not weakly worship.  I have read a lot about worship and leadership of worship, but I always wonder what others think worship is…

Is worship the one hour (as long as your pastor is not long winded!) you get recharged for the 167 other hours in the week?  Is worship something you do only in the walls of the church, or with other members of your congregation in a gathering on Sunday morning? or if you are part of a radical church maybe you gather on Saturday night or some other night or time to worship…

Is worship something we do only as a gathered body, or is it something we do on our own?

I wonder about this, because I also have an interesting interpretation on what the church is.  We tell our children on Sunday morning that we are getting ready and going to worship, and we can not go to church.  Why is it we can not go to church? Because we are the church.

There is a song by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh that goes: “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the Church together. The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.”  We can not go to church because where ever we are, we are the church!  So we go to worship.  But can we go to worship?

Yes worship is the gathering we do as a community to give praise and thanks to God, and it is the service we do as the people (Liturgy – literally means the work of the people).  We in service praise God together and commune with each other and God. But is this really what worship is? Just one hour out or the week…

I believe worship is a lifestyle, and a way of life.  We were not created to worship God, as if God needs someone to worship him to make him complete!  Never.  We were not created for worship to God, because this again points us to God not being fully complete in and of himself and needs his creation to somehow complete him by worshiping him.  This does not mean that God does not desire us to worship, he does not need us to worship him and there is a big difference between desire and need!  I believe, as is pointed out in Mark Driscoll’s blog post (found here), and is said by Harold Best in his book Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts, we were created worshipping and are continually worshipping every hour of every day.  Our lives our pouring out to something all the time.  We are giving something worship – we are giving something worth and value and placing it as the most important thing in our lives at that point in time.  So we are constantly worshipping.

No matter who we are, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Athiest we are all constantly worshipping.  We are giving something value, which is the meaning of the word worship, Worth and state of being…

So what do you think? Is worship like pray a consistant daily thing?