Randomness on being Church

Some thoughts of mine from June 08 jotted down whiles restling with "what is this thing we do called church" and why I'd come to be so disillusioned with it and what I was coming to realize about what really matters.

The only relavent Truth is Truth lived out -Wayne Jacobsen

Love God, love people
Encounter God in one another
BE not DO
Learn of him.
Live in him.
Have an encounter in him.
Live in encounter with him.
Be his encounter to those around you.

Jesus is not an example/model to follow, He is a life to be lived through us.

On being intentional:
Intentionally Be Who I am. Intentional Tension

Disciple...
Problem with terms, definitions
Jesus didn’t ask them to reproduce a model, but to teach and make lovers of himself
Not a hierarchy
We all need each other wherever we’re at
“levels” and “subgroups” should not be divided
New can learn from old, old can learn from new
Revelation downloaded in all

When does it end? When do we graduate to being a discipler or disciplee? We all are both. Teaching each other to be who we are.

Love God Love people…. simply

Everyone who knows Jesus IS part of the Body…. They don’t need to work toward that, just to realize it

We don’t know what it means to be the Body. We’ve been super brain washed by American how-to-do-church. We don’t even know what it looks like to function as the Body. We waste so much time with systems and formulas, it leaves little space for real Body Life. We don’t trust the Holy Spirit to really lead. We have misconceptions about leadership and discipleship. We’re too focused on results and goals, that simply loving on Jesus and waiting on him without a quantifiable result seems like we’ve failed somehow.

Poop on religion

Not about changing the “agenda”,… its about throwing the agenda OUT. ugh…. How do you change a mindset? It has to be a revelation from the Lord.

When asked if I didn't want to continue with the Bible Study... It's not a matter of wanting to continue or not… how can we stop being the Body? It’s a matter of realizing who we are

No levels
No scales
We just are
I want to know it like I know how to breathe

I’m nobody and I’m everybody. We are One Body!

Most cleverest incites taken from Wayne Jacobsen www.thegodjourney.com

Not Scared

Where are the people that accused me?

The ones who beat me down and bruised me

They hide just out of sight

Can't face me in the light

They'll return but I'll be stronger

God, I want to dream again

Take me where I've never been

I want to go there

This time I'm not scared

Now I am unbreakable,

it's unmistakable

No one can touch me

Nothing can stop me

Sometimes it's hard to just keep going

But faith is moving without knowing

Can I trust what I can't see

To reach my destiny

I want to take control but I know better

Forget the fear

it's just a crutch

That tries to hold you back

And turn your dreams to dust

All you need to do is just trust

"Unbreakable" by Fireflight


http://www.fireflightrock.com/ (click on 'play music' in upper right hand corner)








for so long i've been scared. of what?


losing control? being vulnerable?


If i could only grasp the perfectness of His LOVE...


...then maybe i could trust him to take me where I really want to go


there's no limit to what i can do in Him


there's no limit to where i can go in Him


no boxes, no chains, no stopping

there is no fear in love

but perfect love drives out fear,

because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love

-1 john 4:18

bungee jumping was such a powerful experience for me because its an illustration of what i want in my spirit..... to let go and put my trust in something that i can't understand. it's not a perfect illustration, of course, but the exhilerating feeling of allowing yourself to overcome the fear of falling to your death because your trust is in something you can't hang on to, but you know is holding on to you.

i want to let go of these irrational fears. I KNOW that God loves me. I KNOW that I can trust Him. He's got me.

HE LOVES ME!

Tea

The past couple of months I've had the pleasure of drinking tea with people from three very different cultures.



#1 Ethiopia.

Actually it was coffee... I forgot that little detail. And let me tell you, I don't normally like coffee. But this stuff was amazing. Probably because it had more sugar than coffee. The speical Oromia coffee beans were roasted before my eyes in a small aluminum pan over Roman's electric stove in her subsidized apartment. Refugees have a creative way of using our modern technology that we'd never think of. The roasted beans filled the air with the most amazing smell. (Foldgers, eat your heart out). The beans were ground. Hot water, sugar, and milk added. We drank from very small cups, like a childrens tea set.



#2 Kenya

It reminded me of Chai at first, but it was way better. Stella buys her tea leaves from a special store. The water is boiled with lots and LOTS of ginger first. Then the tea is added, and milk and sugar. It's not as sweet, but definitely got a great ginger kick. I think this was my favorite tea. Her style of hospitality was more westernized, but stellar none the less. Stellar Stella.



#4 Bhutan

Just today I went to Durga's place. I wasn't expecting anything, but you could see the family scurry around as soon as I entered the door in order to supply me with tea. The bhutanese tea is also very delicious, and so so sweet. I think one more cup and I would have my sugar intake for the month. Like the others, milk and sugar are added.



I love to ask them about their hospitality customs. Each time is so very similar. The hospitality of other cultures transcends about 98% of all Americans (I can't say all, because I know some pretty darn hospitable people in this country). But seriously, they put the rest of us to shame. And the thing that gets me the most, is that they are giving their best when they have so little. Everything they have they struggle for. It's very hard to live the refugee life. It's humbling and stressful. But they take such good care of guests. I have been to many other people's homes, and if it wasn't tea, it was soda, or ambasha, or cookies, or bread, or a banana. Their generocity and sincere hospitality is such an honorable and beautiful thing. And I can learn a lot from them.



I wonder if any of them will ever be invited for tea or any stretch of hospitality from their American neighbors.