The Missionary's Goal

He.... said to them, "Behold we are going up to Jerusalem......" (Luke 18:31)

The goal of the missionary is not to be useful or to win the lost. His goal is to do the will of the Lord. In our Lords life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Fathers will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him.

(Oswald Chambers)

Being Christian without being Christlike.

People have found ways of being Christian without being Christlike.

This is a sentence which recently caught my attention while reading Dallas Willards 'Renovation of the Heart'. In the lead up to this, Willard is referring to the church and how people are always teaching by example that it is more important to be right than it is to be Christlike. He writes, how there are so many different Denominations around the world and they are all 'Right'!! People in the church who are in positions of leadership particularly and who may be wrong in relation to something, need to be told what is right. They deserve to be dealt with severely. People who are going to be in heaven must be right on what is basic. This is of course true, however it can turn out that to be right in 'what is basic' is to be right in terms of that particular church tradition and not in terms of Christlikeness.

The problem is that for a lot of churches the 'basic goal' seems to be getting as many people ready to die and to go to heaven. The focus and aim should be on getting heaven into people. Very often we hear elderly people close to death say they have lived a full life and they're ready to die. However, how many people can say that they are ready to live??

Trying to always adopt this way of being right by the church, may not always be helpful in relationships within the church. In our attempts to do what we believe is right by God, in dealing with church problems, may be just building a wall between members of the body. We need to be a spirit filled people and people need to be able to see clearly that Christ is living within us. There needs to be evidence of a real transformation within the lives of the people of God.

Lifes struggles

I have been going through quite a difficult period recently. I have felt quite a lot of pressure, and found that my every day life was becoming increasingly stressful, and without going into too much personal stuff, I was feeling pretty miserable! It seemed like everything was going against me. I often thought how is it I can feel so down in the dumps and yet lead a congregation in Worship? This also added to my pressure as I felt very guilty about this. Thankfully God uses us, even in our weaknesses. In fact he can use us more powerfully in our weaknesses, as its only when we recognise how useless we truly are on our own strength and allow him to take over, that exciting things happen and God moves. 

I was encouraged to read this evening Isaiah 40, where it says that strength will rise as we wait on the Lord. In this time of feeling battered, bruised and weak, I need to learn to wait on the Lord and draw my strength from Him.

Last Sunday we sang the words taken from Colossians 1v27,  ....."Christ in me the hope of Glory" These words are wonderfully profound. On my own abilities I will always fall short of Gods Glory, but my hope is not in myself, but in Christ who lives in me. My only response, should be one of Worship and Thankfulness to Him for is presence and his Spirit. He is my strength.