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Name Change

So it's happening. There was only one comment of feedback (thanks everyone :p) but I've decided to work toward a new name and look. Welcome to Shift >>>

Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act it is a permanent attitude” - Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Most of us keep a list of the wrongs others have done to us. Does that foster or even allow an attitude of forgiveness to develop? The answer is no, because what’s on the list influences everything we do, think and want to become.

 

And if we’re not careful we can end up living off of our friends list too and not God’s script.

 

Ephesians 4:31 - 32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and  compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

There is enormous freedom if you live life with an attitude of forgiveness. But forgiveness is hard because we struggle with those attitudes of: What about my rights; my entitlements; how I’ve been hurt; that they don’t deserve to be forgiven. They don’t deserve to have their wrong crossed off my list, because they hurt me.

 

Forgiveness isn’t a gift you offer to those who have hurt you, forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.

 

To forgive someone is to begin to heal the hurt we never deserved. That’s why forgiveness needs to be more than just an occasional act, forgiveness has to become a permanent attitude. As forgiving leads to living. That’s why God is so hugely into forgiveness.

 

Jesus displayed this attitude of forgiveness because that’s the attitude that God has.

 

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

 

“In him” is talking about Jesus, who is God.

 

“We have Redemption” is the same process as that of redeeming a gift certificate. That when you redeem it with God he’ll give you life and that gift is Jesus. So when we follow Jesus to God we’re given life. We’re given an alternative to living with the list. Jesus is God’s gift, that we can redeem for God’s life in ours.

 

“Through his blood” is a metaphor that explains what Jesus Christ did on the cross. To have blood spilt was a way of saying to have someone die. Whether there was much blood wasn’t really a factor. So “Through his blood” means that when Jesus died he made it possible for God to no longer hold onto the list of wrongs we’ve committed and pain we caused him. Jesus created a way for God to erase all the things that are on our list, of all the wrong we’ve done, ‘sin’, the Bible calls it.

 

In affect God changed his own rules so that now there was an option B. Option A was you are judged by the list: what’s on the list is what you’ve done to hurt and betray God, and that’s what you’ll be judged by. But option B, option B is where God said: “If you like, I’ll erase everything on the list. All the stuff you thought you’d never be able to escape, now in God’s eyes is gone. It will never be held against you. You will never be called to give account for it. You will never have to be in fear that one day God’s wrath will fall upon you,  or banish you to hell, because I want to be in a relationship with you.” Because that’s how God approaches us, with a permanent attitude of forgiveness

 

“The riches of God’s grace” mean that Jesus can do the unthinkable. He can perform the miracle and erase all the things we’ve ever done and he has this deep well of rich grace from which to draw from.

 

“Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it.

Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it.

Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it.

Bitterness sickens life; love heals it.

Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”

-    Harry Emerson Fosdick

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: Forgiveness

Part 7 of The Missing Piece: Salvation

This week marked the final installment of our series The Missing Piece.

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: The Missing Piece Part 7: Salvation

The video shown afterwards can be viewed here also:

 

 

The Next step after listening: Ex 3:1-10

I think God is trying to communicate to us all the time...

Exodus 3:1-3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."

God appears to us through the everyday. 

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, God saw an opportunity to talk to Moses, because Moses was open to it. God needs us to be open to hear what he has to say. "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."  "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

There is a change that has to occur in us, if we want to hear God speak: Respect, submission, trust, vulnerability, fear...

Exodus 3:7-10 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

God always calls us to do something.

We could stop just after we pray, just after we hear God’s voice, just after we take off our sandals. But that’s not the point... The point is that we live in the centre of God’s will and we do that following him.

Name change???

So I'm thinking about changing the name of my blog from "The bean bag" to "shift", What do you think?

Andy Flannagan and Ash Barker at 12two, Newlife

If you didn't make it to 12two last night you missed an amazing night. We were lead into God's presence by Andy and Jen Flannagan as we conversed and dwealt in the Spirit and then we were called from that place to the hurting places of the world through prayer and through Ash's words. Many 12twoers responded to a deeper and more commmitted life of surrender, so to hear part of what happened have a listen...

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: Andy Flannagan (music) and Ash Barker Message

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: Just Ash Barker Message

If you want to hear the full recording of the service, then order a CD from the office. It will be well worth the effort!

Part 6 of The Missing Piece: Righteousness

God created us to live righteously in the Garden in continual abiding relationship with God. Our choices as people meant that this could not be possible, and so God set out on a quest to invite us back to the garden. This quest could be known as righteousness. Check out the 6^th piece of faith!

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: The Missing Piece Part 6: Righteousness

Judging other's happiness

What if we judged people based on how happy they were? We judge people on a lot of things: their behaviour, values, priorities, look, relationships, language, etc. And we often then do something negative with that judgement... we allow that judgement to fracture the image of God in which they were made. But what if we judged only through the lens or question of 'Are they truly happy?' If we did this we would then have one of only a few reactions: They're not happy, I'm glad; they're not happy, I'm sad; they're happy, I'm glad, they're happy I'm sad. Then we could simply see if our attitudes are wrong, and ask God to help us correct them! So then the purpose of my life wouldn't be to make others happy, it would to be part of their happiness. Interesting thought don't you think?

Understanding nasty theological language...

The reason we need to grapple with these terms is so we can understand what it is that we believe, and be equipped to share our passion and understanding of Jesus with those who do not yet know him.

 

Gospel= The equivelant to a Facebook status update that something good is on its way.

 

Saviour = One who has the right to punish but the grace and love not
to.

 

Kingdom = God’s restoration.

 

Justification = God making us holy before a Holy God, so that we can be justified as holy.

 

Messiah = A Jewish man (that every Jew was waiting for and looking for and wanting to be) who was to bring the Israelites out of the oppression they were in.

 

Atonement = The act of God to pay sin’s penalty so that we atoned by God’s act of grace.

 

Sin = Violation of god’s nature.

 

Sanctified = God sets us apart making us holy, which is a process of transformation, forgiveness, freedom and direction.

 

Repentance = To re-align our priorities so that our allegiance is given to Christ.

 

The Gospel Message = That God hasn’t forgotten us, that his plan and desire is to restore all that is broken in this world. And he does that through the life of a man called Jesus.

 

Shalom= a complete wellness and favour of god that rest on someone. It’s a reflection of God’s righteousness.

 

God’s Righteousness = IS God making the stuff that is wrong right, saving those who are destined for a Godless eternity, bringing hope to the hopeless. It’s about restoring everything to the way it should be.

This made me think...

I was watching a Natasha Tsakospeak and then perform in the arena of effectively combining technology and theater. She was brilliant. See: http://www.ted.com/talks/natasha_tsakos_multimedia_theatrical_adventure.html

But she said in the course of her presentation "We are not here to question the possible, we are here to challenge the impossible."

Go on, I dare you!