Awakening

I am awakened to the Fathers Love. My heart is whole, lacking nothing.
I am His son, called into an 'Agape' Love (the highest and purest form of love, one that surpasses all other types of affection).

God sent Jesus for more than just 'fire insurance' (saving us from hell), it was to reveal His heart towards us. John 17:23 '...and have loved them even as you have loved me.' The Father loves me as much as He loves Jesus?!! Are you serious?!! I struggled with this for 2 days, until finally giving it to God.

I accepted my place as a child of God. The world needs to know... 1 John 3:1 'How great is the Love the Father has lavished on us, that we shall be called children of God! And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.' The void can be filled! The brokenness replaced! The addiction broken! The wounds healed! No more searching! Here is the answer...JESUS. Lets live it out, and let the world know.

Ben Nicholson
Child of God

The joys and frustrations of Witnessing:
‘Square pegs can’t fit in round holes’

by Tom Muller

Witnessing to those who we know in our lives about the good news of Jesus Christ, brings them a message of hope, light and salvation. It is an integral part of living a missional life for and with Jesus, as we heed His call to enter into culture, preach the gospel and make disciples. The joy of knowing God, and living by his gift of imputed righteousness transcends anything else and it is this joy that encourages us to share to those around us the gospel, the power of God for salvation.  But "witnessing" can sometimes feel like an ambiguous task. What exactly is it and what is the best way? Well unfortunately for all of us there are no secret formulas or special techniques, no matter what you may have lately researched on youtube. But perhaps this is where the beauty lies. Each individual deserves the opportunity to have the gospel effectively presented to them in a way that is relevant and appropriate for their current context and life situation. Now this does not mean that the gospel is compromised or changed in a way to meet the felt needs of those around us in a last ditch effort to entice their conversion, a prevailing problem in contemporary consumer driven religion. It just means that those we are witnessing to deserve the dignity of having us make the effort to not only understand their own world-view and where they are at in life but to effectively convey the message of Jesus in a way that they will understand. This involves time, lots and lots of time. In my experience preaching the gospel in a  'shoot from the hip' type of fashion has rarely seen many results. Time is needed to build relationships of trust and love, which in and of themselves express the Trinitarian nature of God and the purpose of the gospel, to be reconciled to a relationship with the Father. It is through such relationships that the gospel can be effectively appropriated and spelled out gradually both in dialogue and through our lives as believers. Time is needed to understand the intricacies of alternative belief systems in order to have these effective dialogues. For example, I regularly spend time with philosophical atheists (meaning they reject the possibility of God on philosophical grounds). I have many interesting conversations with them about my faith in Christ. Yet in doing so I must be aware that attempting to validate the gospel by appealing to the penal substitutionary atonement of our sins by the Son of God for our salvation is ineffective. Why? Because my atheist friends hold vastly different presuppositions than the presuppositions needed to find a statement like that compelling. Firstly, they do not believe in a God who is existent, who determines what is right and wrong and then who is compelled to hold us accountable for our rights and wrongs. Therefore secondly they do not believe in sin as something needing to be cosmically vindicated for. Hence thirdly the statement “God died for our sins” is in complete disagreement with the first two propositions and therefore is irrelevant in relation to the framework of their world-view. For someone to hip shoot a statement to them such as "Jesus died for your sins" is like fitting a square peg into a round hole, it just isn't compatible to their world-view, it means nothing to them. Expounding on this analogy, time is needed for both parties to understand what makes the round hole round, and how that differs from what makes the square peg square. Once this is achieved it is possible to journey together in understanding why each world-view is contrastingly different allowing those who are hearing the gospel the adventure of coming to understand its truth by allowing the opportunity for their round hole to become a square one, instead of tossing it into the wind. For me this would mean spending time in explaining not only that Jesus has died for our sins but why I believe God to be true, sin to be real, the historicity of Jesus credible and the effect of the gospel on my life as more than a mere illusion. Spending time and effort towards understanding the positions of doubting unbelievers who may very well want to accept Christ but can’t, due to numerous intellectual/cultural/experiential reasons, in the attempt to aid in the working out of these issues may be the most loving way in which to lead someone to Christ. Because it is not easy, it is not quick and it usually challenges our own faith to the core. And unfortunately the Church has for too long winced unlovingly away from the rationally doubtful, fearful of the probing objections that pierce the pseudo-protective sheath of dogma.

YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE.  Words I heard God speak into my heart about a decision I made a few weeks ago in Portland, Oregon.  The worst part of hearing those words from God is when you happen to be a pastor who has committed his life to loving and serving the people God created.  

It was Saturday and my wife, daughter and I were having lunch.  I had prepared a message and was pushing the clock a little and needed to get back to the church for our 5:00 service, so that I could tell people about God’s love.    
After lunch, my wife wanted to quickly go into a nearby mall, and even though I was worried a bit about the time, I figured we could make it.   
As I walked into this mall, I walked past a young, apparently homeless teenage girl (We have one of the highest populations of teen homelessness in the United States).   I can still remember to this day what she looked like.   I can also remember the question she asked me and the words I said back to her.

As I walked by her, she simply asked me the same question she was asking all who were passing by “excuse me, do you have any extra money for bus fare?”
I never even thought about it, just simply responded with “no.”   As I look back on those few seconds, her question was met with an answer that was almost arrogant and even rude. I continued to walk toward the glass entry doors, but did not get 3 steps into the mall when I heard in my heart those words that were piercingly convicting….YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE.  

Check out the definition:  
Hyp-o-crite “A person who pretends to be what he or she is not; or one who pretends to be better than he or she really is”
Who would ever hope to be called a hypocrite?   We get our English word hypocrite from a Greek word Hupokrites that means “actor, stage player, pretender, or one that wears a mask.”    

Dallas Willard in his writings “The Divine Conspiracy” had this to say about the term hypocrite….
“Hypocrite is a term used by Jesus alone in the New Testament, and he uses it seventeen times.
The term hypocrite in classical Greek primarily refers to an actor, such as one sees on the stage, but it came to refer also to anyone who practices deceit. It is clear from the literary records that it was Jesus alone who brought this term and the corresponding character into the moral vocabulary of the western world.
When Jesus spoke of “the hypocrites,” he was utilizing a very vivid image that effectively seized the minds of his hearers because of their familiarity with stage characters. They were thus able to see much of the most obvious religious behavior of their day as the sham it in fact was.”

No one ever wants to be a pretender, but I think because we get so busy we can become what we would never want to be.  
Activity can often times be mistaken for ministry.    We can look busy and not see what matters.  And, I think we can say something, but really it is in our actions that our heart is authentically displayed for the world to see.  That was totally my story that Saturday in Portland.
The old adage is so true.  People do not care what you know until they know that you care.
The Bible says that GOD IS LOVE, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8   
But what is love?

The Bible says “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18
Talk about convicting words.  Think about this.  I cannot prove you love God, or stated differently you cannot prove you love God.   But how you love people absolutely proves the reality of whether or not God’s love is in your life.
In other words, it’s not what I say that is love, but rather what I do about what I say that is love.    
God doesn’t just say He loves us, but his love resulted in doing what was best for us.  LOVE IS COSTLY.  To not love simply costs you more, because you will miss a blessing from God. 

I think the truth is most of us are just too busy and can’t see what matters.  To be interrupted and be available isn’t in the “schedule.”  I can be so busy trying to get somewhere, or get my agenda done that I miss where I am at right now.  I miss the opportunity in front of me.  As a student, I miss the person who just needs to know they matter.  I can plan so much that I have a tendency to plan God right out of my life.  For me I see so much and yet sometimes fail to see anything.

And, the irony is we never try to think this way, it is just the result of thinking the wrong way.    
If you like to take notes, write this down.  CLARITY ALWAYS PRODUCES URGENCY.    Also, when clarity is diminished, so is urgency.  Why we don’t act is so often because we talk ourselves out of being kind.  We in essence begin to judge and think we are better.
When will we truly get over ourselves?   When will we authentically stop the madness and slow down enough to SEE people and to serve people. 

My family and I love Australia and love Australians.  We think Aussies get this far better than Americans (don’t tell them I said that).   
At the same time I think we all need to be reminded to slow down and see.   When we lose urgency for what matters, we become less action orientated and more apathy orientated.

All of us have a little bit of “acting” in us, but my prayer for Australia is that acting turns to action.  I dare you to love your city, to serve your families and to simply see today what maybe you have bee missing.    
You can’t change the past.   I couldn’t take the words back that I so flippantly said to that girl.  But what we can do and what I did do, was change.

As I heard those words, I simply backed up, went and found this young girl, who parenthetically is younger than my daughter, looked into her eyes and simply said, “Here is $5.00, and I am sorry that I lied to you.”
She said “thanks” and I am so glad I listened to her words this time.
I love that God is all about the second chance.  He wants to use you to do something.   
It seems like these days God is showing that my mission is right in front of me.  It’s that one moment I have to slow down, to really see and then respond to the divine thing God is doing now.

LOVE IS ALL ABOUT ACTION AND NOT ABOUT ACTING.  

If we aren’t loving in action, I would say we aren’t loving at all.

Be the unlikely hero.  Do the one thing that is right today.  Don’t worry about who gets the credit.  
For me, as a Christ Follower, the reality is if I carry His name I better imitate His character.
Jesus clearly said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” Mark 10:45
At times I get blown away at what happens at our church.  Occasionally we will get a call from someone to tell us that someone needs help.  Sometimes the first someone knows the second someone.  They call our church, almost as if there is a “someone” room, where people are just sitting and waiting to jump up and run out to serve.  I get frustrated because we just don’t get it.   
FRIENDS.  YOU ARE THE SOMEONE that God wants to use to change someone in your world.   
Be that someone today!   As you slow down, you will begin to see what matters. In other words you will have clarity.  As clarity increases, so will urgency.  It is just the way it works.

Instead of being a hypocrite, let’s be a hero in the life of someone today.

Ball is in your court.

John Bishop
Guest speaker at AWAKENING 2010 Big Top, Luna Park 5th-6th Feb.
www.johnbishop.tv