The Fruit Of The Spirit Is.....

Galatians 5:22,23

Prodigal: An Animation

The Prodigal Daughter

Stay in His presence!

God’s preeminent calling on our lives has to do with our relationship with Him, not our service for Him. From Genesis to Revelation we find that God’s relentless pursuit of man has far more to do with taking hold of his heart than enlisting his hand. What delights Him far more than a morally upright life or one spent in service to others is a life caught up in passionate pursuit of knowing Him and enjoying Him”

By Dwight Edwards

Seeking the Spirit's help as we study his words

The opening paragraphs of Dale Ralph Davis' The Word Became Fresh: How to preach from Old Testament narrative texts are enough to stop every preacher dead in his tracks.

Ralph Davis mentions that as he was reading Richard Pratt's He Gave Us Stories, Pratt cited these words from John Owen:

For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability.
And if that were not enough to send you to your work with your complacency shaken, Ralph Davis adds:

We are guilty of arrogance, not merely neglect, when we fail to beg for the Spirit's help in the study of Scripture. We may even have such arrogance even when we seem to be seeking the Spirit's aid--I think of those times when in a light-headed tokenism we utter our slap-happy prayer that the Lord would 'guide and direct us as we study this passage.'

One shudders to think how flippant we are. But how many more times we neglect any overt seeking of the Spirit's help! The pressure is on. The passage must be studied for the sermon or lesson. We pull out our exegetical notes; we grab several of the better commentaries off the shelf; make sure that one Bible dictionary of choice is close at hand.

Deep into our study time the thought occurs to us that we have not looked--nor did we think of looking--to the God who breathed out this Scripture to give us an understanding of the Scripture.

He will likely give that understanding through the tools we use, but when we use tools while neglecting him the tools have become idols.

We may have a high view of the Bible; we may be distraught because large sectors of the church seem to ignore its authority. Yet in our own Scripture work we easily ignore its chief Interpreter.

Professionalism rather than piety drives us. We needn't be surprised at our sterility and poverty if we refuse to be beggars for the Spirit's help.
These words are well worth reading again, and reflecting upon at length, and acting on daily. Who knows, this may be the most important thing that you read today.

Article by Against Heresies

The Dancer

The Dancer

Contortion

The Performance Treadmill

I came across this article and it is good to know that someone also feel like I do..

by Jeff McQuilkin

I think the thing I miss the least about church-as-usual–especially as a staff member–is the pressure to perform, especially during service times. I learned–and I taught–that when it was time for our gathering, all our problems were tabled, all our personal issues were put to the side for the purpose of focusing on God. If we were having a hard time, or a bad day, all that had to go away for however long we were in the service. It was a sincere effort, really, not an attempt to be heartless. I really believed that it honored God to serve Him and the people no matter how I felt at the moment. And there is truth to that, I think, because whenever we can get our minds off ourselves to help others, it’s a healthy thing.

What hurt about it was not the willful turning of my attention to God, nor did I believe He didn’t care about my problems. What hurt was that because I always seemed to be playing a pivotal, seemingly irreplaceable role in the service, when I was in crisis, the leaders seemed to care more about whether I could “pull off” my role in the service than how I was doing personally.

Nobody would have admitted it, no one would have wanted to put it this way. But the attitude was, The Show Must Go On.

As believers, it is definitely important that we gather together, although I really have a broader understanding of what that can look like. But when the church service is the centerpiece of church, the meeting itself becomes more important than the people who are gathering at the meeting. And that, I think, is where setting our issues aside becomes unhealthy. We really weren’t doing it for God. We were doing it for appearances. The Show Must Go On.

I can still see this on the faces of pastors, people I know and care about, people whom I know to be genuinely sincere. They don’t even realize when they are doing it, but there is a fear on Sunday mornings of anything that could disrupt the order of service. Everything must go off without a hitch, everything must be run smoothly. No matter how many times it is protested that church is not a show…it is still run like one. And It Must Go On. No Matter What. It is one of the major reasons why people simply cannot see the Church as people anymore. Church is a building, a program, a gathering.

A show.

The think I like best about not doing that anymore is that I no longer feel enslaved by a mandate to make the Show Go On every week. Toward the end of our 10-year stint leading a house church, I think we finally started to get this. It stopped mattering so much what we did when we gathered; it became more about who we were with, and what we shared together. It wasn’t a community coming together each week to do their duty. It was just a community. And because of that, the things we did and said and talked about–the worshiping together, the focusing on Jesus–became that much more meaningful.

As so many of us look for and discover new ways to be the church, I think part of that process really needs to be putting the gathering of believers into a healthier perspective. It seems to me that in finding a better way, a major priority we as believers should have should be to make our gatherings about God and each other, not about…um…the gathering. Just saying.

Thank you, Jeff.