“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:18, 19 ESV)

How much of this is the mission statement of the church today?
How much of this is the mission statement of my life?

Surely the first step in determining whether or not I am a true follower of my rabbi is by being obedient to HIS mission and not my own.

I suspect that much of my mission is inspired by personal motives and determined by human opinion…

Have I been a true follower of Jesus today?

“To say: “No! Lord” is a contradiction in terms. Yet many within the Christian church want the comfortable compromise of conditional discipleship… But the truth is uncomfortably clear: if Christ is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.”
- David Watson (Discipleship, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1981 p. 24)

I have a strong suspicion that much of the theology that gets debated one way or the other, much of the theology that I even hold dear might really just be a mechanism that mankind has devised in our ever active and often subconscious rebellion against God.

God’s Word is not hard to understand, there are a few difficult passages here and there but the overall message and teaching is simple, after all Jesus did not come to the learned and the religious leaders but to the poor, the sinners and the outcasts.

The challenge is to stop making excuses for our wicked self serving hearts and just get on with the business of obedience to our Rabbi. Preach the kingdom, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead and help the needy in any way we can. Live a simple life, live an obedient life.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. (James 1:23, 24 ESV)

I am preaching to myself more than any one else!

Recently, Roxy and I have been reading through his book, Following Jesus (published as Follow in the US). And we have been struck by the beauty and simplicity of Floyd’s message. In this section he speaks about the influence that one of his college professors had on his life.

One day, at the end of one of our classes, he did his usual routine of standing and pleading with us to be men and women of faith who would change the world. On that day he spoke about the difference between rules/religion and God’s love. He told us the difference between doing things because we wanted people to think we were good, and living our lives genuinely from the heart. I saw in that moment,that up to that point I had lived all my life performing in order to please people; but that was not what God wanted from me, nor did it somehow persuade God to love me. My professor beseeched us to be free from religion and alive with the grace and love of God. It was as if a light went on in my heart. In my inner person, I agreed, and in that agreement, a transaction took place. I walked out of the class a free man. I realized that I had been taught most of my life that devotion was duty to God, not delight in God. I quietly decided to live for delight, not duty.

As a result of the inner transaction that took place that day, the weight of religion/rules rolled off me like a heavy backpack falling to the ground. Religion had been a weight on my shoulders pushing me down — and it was gone. Who took it and how it was lifted off I wasn’t sure, but it was gone. I felt free. I knew from that moment on that I didn’t need to do anything, indeed could not do anything, to make God love me. I found a new freedom to love God simply because He loved me first.

I realized that I didn’t have to do things to earn God’s love. I felt light, free and full of hope. Since that day, I have lived in the freedom of a man unshackled from prison chains. I live like an orphan who has been adopted into a loving family. I feel like I have won the lottery. I feel fully human, alive and set free to enjoy God’s beauty. I don’t feel that I have to do things to gain the approval of people or of God. I now wake up every day with a deep sense of God’s love and acceptance. I don’t feel alone. I know I belong to God. Being loved by God is incredible. Accepting His love and forgiveness is my response to that incredible love. Loving God begins with that special discovery that He created us for intimacy and friendship with Him. It is accompanied with a longing to live life to the fullest; to see and taste and hear all life has for us. God has adventure waiting for us, beauty to share with us, dreams, and purpose, and security, and significance to give to us.

Do yourself a favour and buy the book.

You can also follow Floyd and Sally on their blog.

Scary image for effect

And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Rev 13:16-17

I have never been one to get overly excited about end-times prophecies, I tend to be of the opinion that as we see things unfold we will recognize them in scripture. But lately I have been giving this mark of the beast  thing some thought…

I love technology, if I had the money, I would probably own every kind of gadget that exists! And I find developments in technology very interesting. Recently I read an article on TechCrunch about the death of telephone numbers in which the experts predict that soon telephone numbers will be obsolete because people will contact each other directly via their Social Profile on Facebook or elsewhere. Added to that is the news/rumour from Silicon Valley that Facebook is developing their own Handset, so that they have better control over they way people use their service. All of this sounds really interesting, for one you won’t have the problem of people phoning you to market something because you won’t have a listed number, they would first have to be approved as your “Friend” before they could contact you. But humour me for a moment as I indulge my imagination…

Facebook

Already the internet is the vechiel through which we do most of our business: We do our banking online, we shop online, we submit our income tax returns online, we build our business network online (with sites like Linkedin). Now imagine if all of these services and more where linked directly to your online social profile. You would not need to login at various sites as you transition from one area of business to another, but everything would seamlessly integrate through your online profile which you directly access through your cellphone. It doesn’t take much imagination, I think we are only a few years away from seeing this become our reality.

Soon, for reasons of security or ease of use your profile info could be implanted into your hand as a tiny chip. That way when you walk into a shop you don’t need any identification or cash. You never need to carry your ID or drivers licence with you. You never need to fill out another form, your info is simply scanned from your profile chip.

Technology already exists that would enable a tiny implant in  your head to serve as a microphone (its used to help people who stutter) and that along with voice recognition software will enable you to make phone calls by simply say the person’s name and you will be instantly linked to them via their online social profile.

Let’s face-it, excuse the pun, this is where our world is heading. Information is the currency of our age and there is a great deal of money to be made by anyone who enables information to move faster and more seamlessly giving people more time to engage in their desires activities – Utopia!

So what does all of this have to do with the mark of the beast? Well possibly nothing. I might just have a fanciful idea in my head as a result of eating too much sugar or something. However, the scary thing is that none of this technology if far off, its simply a matter of integration and application. This could be a reality in just a few years from now.

Your comments please!

with the church becoming increasingly interested in knowing what it takes to be effective at reaching people within their culture, shaping culture and yet not being sucked into the pitfalls of that culture, my simple mind wants to know what is the one thing that is going to make the difference more than anything else? What is the X-Factor? I can’t keep up with every emerging blogger who each has 10 great ideas of how to do this right. As much as i try to learn from what others are doing, their successes and failures, what i really need is some clear, simple, biblical directives. I need to know what is the one thing that Jesus wants to see in the church, after all it is His.

Simon Cowell being himself

We have become obsessed with style, vibe, music, social action, etc.

We throw around big words like missional and attractional

Maybe we over complicate things, maybe we overemphasize things that are really not such a big deal. We get side tracked with the latest ideas to come from the brightest minds of our time. All of the those things are good and important, but not the most important.

If Jesus had to launch “Church Idols” (which would be the worst possible name for a number of reasons) what would be the X-Factor he would be looking out for? What would be the one thing more than anything else that would make him jump up and say; “that’s it! you’ve got it!”

…

John 13:35  “By THIS all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Simple: Love! Not easy, but very simple!

If we have LOVE, even if our music sucks and our teaching isn’t vibey and punchy, at least we know we have a foundation to build upon.

But if we don’t have LOVE, then everything else we do, even our impressive social action and our missional lifestyle is like a loud gong in God’s ears – very annoying!

It’s been quite a while since my last blog, that was largely due to the hectic time at the end of last year as we prepared to get married! So as I write this I do so as a married man! YEAH!!!!

I figured the very best way to get back into the swing of things is not to write a blog about some theological stuff but rather just post a whole bunch of pics from our wedding for your enjoyment. One thing I have realized, chicks digg looking at wedding pics, so this one is for the ladies! Enjoy!

Check it out: Bible WebApp

Thanks to John Dyer!

Rise Africa Rise Blog

I think God is just waiting till enough people have given up hope for Africa so that HE can show the world what HE can do when all hope seems lost!

“It’s not about what you know, its about who you know”

If we assume that we are living at the same time within two realities (A Physical world and a Spiritual World) then we are constantly challenged to maintain the tension between being spiritually minded yet at the same time of earthly good!

So let me ask you a few questions?

• Does Jesus Chair the UN?
• Does Jesus own the biggest global corporations?
• Is Jesus the president of the USA?
• Does Jesus run this world – in a physical sense?

The answer is NO,

man runs the physical world as we please and under the spiritual authority which each of us chooses – and no wonder it is in the state that it is!

So Jesus is not ruling this world in a Physical sense, yet!

This simple fact, makes it very hard for us to truly embrace the Spiritual reality that Jesus is in fact ruling in the Spiritual realm!

We say we believe that fact, but when it comes to the practice of our faith, we trip over the earthly obstacles set in place by the human* rulers of this world.

*Who are most likely given to the control of some spiritual force, albeit through sin or wilful submission to idols.

What does it mean for me and you, that Jesus is in fact raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of God the Father and ruling over every authority, power, dominion and name?

It means that there is no boundary and no obstacle that can hinder us in the task of building His kingdom. Because its not about what you know, but about who you know!

If we can truly grasp the magnitude of Christ’s ruler-ship in the heavenly realms it will fundamentally change everything we do becuase nothing is impossible for God and nothing is impossible for those who have faith in God’s power! (Luke 1v37 and Mat 17v20)

Practical application: Start taking authority, in the name of Jesus, over the areas in which you have influence and don’t stand back or give in to Satan’s scheme; STAND FIRM! (Eph 6v12)