My Story

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

What Simple Church Looks Like

Acts 2:42 - 47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.


This passage provides us with a great overview of what the early church looked like. It provides for us the original model for the community of believers.

Four Devotions
They devoted themselves to these things on a daily basis.
Apostles Doctrine (teaching).

fellowship

Breaking of bread and
prayers

Effect on the World
Awe and wonders

Day to Day life
Together with all things common
Daily public gatherings and breaking bread in homes.
The Lord added daily.

True to God, Yourself and Others

Being genuine before God.
We must be honest before God. Honest about words, our thoughts and our actions. The redemption we have through Christ allows us to enter this place of honesty with God. If God has forgiven us, then there is no reason to be false with Him. We live in the knowledge that He loves us where we are. There is truly nothing to hide because his Love has been given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Being genuine with yourself.
The one person we lie to the most is ourselves. We think one thing and do another. This disparity between thought and action robs peace from our hearts. It is hard to be truly bold before God, if we are accusing ourselves inwardly. First we must be honest with God about ourselves. This will bring us to honesty with ourselves. When we accept Gods assessment we can begin to find peace.

Being genuine with others.
We put up false fronts before others because we care what they think about us. To some degree this is healthy and normal. After all we don't want to bring offense without cause. On the other hand if we find that we are putting up a persona to others that dose not reflect our true selves then we will find ourselves in a great difficulty. The difficulty is this; are we putting up a false persona or is the false persona a real one? To put it another way, if we have been faking it, then what does that say about our real self? The way out begins with finding our selves in God.

Accepting God's assessment.
We must accept the person God has made us and realize there is a person He is making us into. If we think we are shy, it may be to show the meekness of God. If bold, His fierceness. However He has made us, let us accept His assessment and live genuinely before Him. This genuineness with God naturally leads to honesty with ourselves and others. Be who you are before God inwardly and you will be who you are before others.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Advice for Wannabee Missionaries.

Here are some very good points regarding missions. I found this while surfing. Check out the link to see a full series of articles based on each point.

1. Skip Bible school; instead learn how to plant churches in real-life.
2. Engage with the culture, but dare to be authentically foreign; don't imitate the locals.
3. Count the cost and learn the language.
4. Get a job that helps you meet lots of people, and join a club.
5. Forget about targets and 5-year plans; get a (family) life.
6. Resist the temptation of forming a holy bubble with other missionaries.
7. Beware of support with strings attached; stay financially free to be able to move with God.
8. When you plant a church, don't stay on as a pastor; your best gift to the church is to move on.

http://www.simplice.net/en/artigo.php?cat=&id=595