Jesus saves individuals and connects them to community…

“Jesus saves individuals and connects them to community to be the people of God, not the individuals of God” @pastormark

 

This was a tweet by Mark O’Driscoll two weeks ago which spurred me on to write this post about self needs as christians and how much unity is there withing our fellowships and communities.

 

Fellowships and communities are within themselves an interacting group of  people, refers to a group that shares some common values. Though many christian fellowships/communites share the latter, it seems to me in some cases the interacting group of people can fail due to the need of selfish gain within fellowships.

 

For a group of people to act as a community in a christian church is being interested in daily lives of those people, having a relationship with those people outside of “church” activities and sacraficing yourself to others in helping and doing what needs to be done by serving. Church from the greek never appears in the New Testement but rather Ecclesia, which is better translated to being assembly or gathering. Further to this, the root word of Ecclesia is “call out” but seems modern church is doing the opposite and seems to be looking inward by assembling in big buildings with many christians gaining as much from it rather than giving away or looking outward.

 

Fellowshiping is great on the day that your service is held and other meetings during the week but if you think that worshiping for the half hour or so, taking in the sermons and giving your offerings makes you a good christian by getting in all that you can, you are mistaken. We as christians need to be in unity with each other and not become selfish individuals but give up yourself to serve and be united so that we can become people of God.

 

It seems to me that christians are liking the word of fellowshipping rather than acting as a community. Many churches act as fellowships where it is a sign of friendliness rather than being a community. Simple church has been brining this notion of Christ-centered community established primarily on relationship both to God and to the other members of the group. In doing so it discards many aspects of conventional expressions of church, which is considered beneficial by some, and problematic by others. This gives those in the movement the opportunity to focus on what it considers to be the core practices of Christian spirituality.

 

Though many don’t agree with simple church with critics worry that the simple church movement could encourage people to leave more traditional forms of church, which could lead to further collapse or decline of Christendom. However, with many churches having small groups, cell groups or net groups that meet weekly outside of the traditional “Sunday service”, each of these are simple church as these groups build their relationships more than those individuals that meet on a Sunday.

 

Though this highlights being in unity with each other and pushing for a strong sense of community, it does not mean for unity between churches/fellowships. Many will push the fact that if these simple churches are for unity, it does not push for wider fellowship unity but that the person saved it connected to a community of believers.

 

Where do you think God is?

“Okay, first of all, you do not need the law, or a priest, or your mother to make your wedding real (or any type of relationship) . And the church can be anywhere you want it to be: in a field, on a fountain, right here in this room, anywhere. Because where do you think God is? C’mon now! He’s in you, he’s in me, he’s right here between us. Now your (catholic) church hasn’t caught up to God yet. Your mother (People) hasn’t caught up to God yet. And, by the way, they may not ever catch up.”

I heard this from Grey’ Anatomy White Wedding episode and changed a few words (in brackets) around to make it like what I was thinking after I head it. That it isn’t that God hasn’t caught up with what people are doing and living, it is that people haven’t caught up with God.

I also like that God is in the relationship between each other where ever you are and not in a certain building.

Come for a walk

I see him there, walking ahead. Strolling down the road lined with trees. Dead brown leaves on the ground, being trampled on the ground. Fresh leaves, strong, dark green growing on the trees as he walks by them. The bright sun on the horizon provinding the source of life to these leaves. He walks with purpose, determination.

Behind him I see a young boy running toward him, catching up with the man. The boy reaches the man and takes hold of the man’s hand. The man does not look down at the boy but takes a strong grasp of the boy’s hand and walks with him. The old leaves begin to be swept away and the leaves on the tree begin to grow larger with the trees beginning to bear fruit.

Life is but a breath

Life can be snuffed out by taking ones breath away but life is a lot deeper than that. Life should not be summed up as a breath of two oxygen molecules that are bonded together that float in a see of Nitrogen and other gaseous molecules but should be of what you as a person compose it to be of.

 

We all accumulate material goods but we also accumulate parts of a jig-saw which join together to make a picture of life. In some cases, we pick up some parts and try to force them into place in the jig-saw which sticks out like a sore thumb only to not only you but to others also. It is when we leave that jig-saw piece in place that it begins to hurt an this piece knocks off others.

 

Some people however notice that the piece does not fit in correctly and remove to find the correct piece that suits in the picture of life. What can be further destructive in life is that as you complete your jig-saw of life, you can begin to complete two parts of the jig-saw before compiling the both together which can result in two focuses of life building one quicker than the other, in the hope of achieving one life that will succeed quicker then pulling the two together and keeping your life the way it was in the bigger jig-saw part created.

 

Rebuilding City Walls

It has been once again some time since words have appeared on this blog. It is amazing how consuming life can become when you want it to be and let the important things in life come first. I could blog about how you should spend your time on certain aspects of life over non-important items that are only important in short-term rather than long-term commitments which don’t benefit you but more so to others, which shows your willingness to give to others rather than a selfish gain…but I won’t because I feel I have blogged about that one times to many but need to remind myself of it periodically as you can easily slip into a rut.

This blog post takes the shape of correspondence between the Book of Nehemiah Chp. 2  – Chp. 7 and the song “God of this city” More specifically the verse…

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

The reason I was stirred between these two is because of groups coming together to rebuild a city together. To me this represents how the fellowships/churches in each city need to come together to build their parts of the wall but also at the same time and communicate to ensure the wall is of same design and structure to avoid a wall that would fall down. The Father may use fellowships to build parts of walls but the enemy can still enter into the cities if not building it in correct position with others or if not at the correct time.

On Starter’s Orders

We hear the starter’s gun go-off and with it the ringing in our ears as we jump unknowningly into the waters below. Life starts and so does the race, to swim, as fast, as long as possible in the aim to get there first.

We keep our head under the water in effort to get there quicker. At times we struggle to keep the pace and must come up for air and by doing so we fall behind.

We struggle with the waves, the current, the cold and the fear of not getting there. Someone shouts ahead and is not heard, not waited for, feared that they will hold them up in the race.

But where is there? We all set out together but seem to swim in circles not knowing where to go. We look out on the horizon and not a thing is seen. Someone sets the pace for us to keep but do we let one person decide or go into it together.

We need to be united together, aiming for the one thing, help each other along, when one falls back we all wait till they are ready. We all begin to swim in our own directions in life but we need to swim closely together as we all aim to get there.

5 Years On…

Today, 10th of March 2010, is the fifth year anniversary of the bone marrow transplant which I gave to my sister who was diagnosed of Aplastic Anemia in early January 2005 while in America.

During the summer of 2004 my sister went to Greece for two or three months to earn some money but ended up in more debt than to begin with. She returned home and went to America on a scholarship to Washington College in August and while there fell sick and was diagnosed with Hepatitis C or A, and was given medicine and told to rest. In December she returned for Xmas and was not too well going back to America.

2 weeks back and she was in hospital and my parents left the following morning after receiving a phone call saying my sister was in hospital. The diagnosis was not known at this time. While at a meeting in the Day’s house Dan prayed for me and said that God will use me soon to bring new life. Couple of weeks later my sister returned to Ireland and was sent to St James’s Hospital Dublin for treatment of Aplastic Anemia. The treatment was for a bone marrow transplant which meant that my Brother or I would be the donor.

After blood samples given to see who would be the best match, I knew I would be the donor, it was calling inside me. Thats what happened, I was about to “bring new life”. God had and still has a hand on my life and being able to bring a new life to people is a great thing to do.

I wish to thank all those who were praying for my family, my sister and I and all those who were giving me support.

Where do I belong?

All of us know how cold it is outside.

It’s almost unbearable out there.

Especially when we’re there

alone,

isolated,

lonely.

You were never meant to be….

alone

Soul Cravings: Erwin Raphael McManus

This is a fantastic book that deals with stories of people cravings and understanding of Intimacy, Love, Ambition, Destiny, Origin, Meaning, Life and Death.

Deliriously Obsessed

Sometimes You’re further than the moon

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

You burn me deeper than I know

What can I do with my obsession?

Is there madness in my being?

Is it wind that blows the trees?

You come and free me like a bird

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

What can I do with my Obsession?

With the things I cannot see

Sometimes You’re closer than my skin

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

And my heart burns for You

Lyrics: Delirious? Obsession (Odsession Mix)

From Passion to the Pit

This is not a blog post on the band Passion Pit, whom I think are fantastic, especially the tune The Reeling. I heard of the band when I was over in the USA and brings back memories of the summer. Less of that and will move onto the actual post.

From time to time, we can be on the top of the world and be full on passionate for something in our life. Then all of a sudden the rug gets pulled out from under our feet and we go tumbling down into a pit and that passion feels as if it gets extinguished with a feeling of never being relit.

Thinking about this I think we never go tumbling back down but rather we have stayed in the same point to long and things become mundane and nothing new or exciting comes along to fuel the passion. We get so use at where we are and don’t like change so we don’t pursue on further as we have used all our energy to get this far. I believe that we should not stop and get comfortable as we become lazy and tired as our energy is sapped at this lower levels of passion. We need to continue up the levels with some stops but with eyes always on the target and a greater passion than we would ever comprehend.

So whatever is your passion is, get up of your ass and do something that makes that passion real once more in your life.