In The Journey With Jesus
"I shall not find Christ at the end of the journey unless he accompanies me along the way." - Esther De Waal
We spent some time tonight in our house church talking about how we discern God's will. Ephesians 5:17 says that we are to "know what the will of the Lord is." This implies that we can actually know God's will for our lives. We discussed, however, that the journey of seeking God's will may be as important as the discovery.
The quote above is from Esther De Waal in her book "The Celtic Way of Prayer". (I haven't read it but found this quote in another book I am reading called "The Way of Jesus".)
Wheatland Mission at Worship
We had a great worship time last week. Keep posted to this blog for our gathering time in November. By the way, thanks for posing worship people.
Missional, Missional, Missional...
This is not the prettiest word. It gets caught in the back of your throat, especially if you say it three times fast. However, this is a word we are going to live with for a long time, perhaps for all of our time. It speaks to our awareness that we belong to an enterprise that is much larger than ourselves and that we have chosen, consciously chosen, to be a part of God's solution for this world rather than a part of the problem.
Our mission comes from the creation mandate, "Subdue the earth, be fruiful and multiply...". God has made us to have dominion and to create, nurture, and expand. He has also called us, along with Abraham, to bless. "...all the nations on the earth will be blessed because of you." In line with the purpose and goal of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament we exist for the sake of the world, to bless and not curse, and to display the beautiful reality of God's Kingdom which has come to its fullest expression in the person, life and work, of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, staying close to Jesus and his mission, we seek to be catalysts for the Kingdom of God. Corporately we live as God's chosen people, his royal priesthood BUT...this chosenness, this royalty, is not ours to simply keep and consume. Nor is it ours to protect. These are part and parcel of our calling as people called to bless, called to be fruitful, called to accompany Christ in his mission to the world. The world that Christ says he, "came not condemn but to save".
Finally, we are not directed by one simple mission statement. Rather we are missional to our core. The church is not on a mission, nor do we have a mission, but rather the Church IS mission. A Missional, missional, missional....church.
