Where You at?

Below is an email discussion I have been having with some of my team members from my Nairobi, Kenya missions trip on the age-old topic "Community." I know it's super late. As some of you may know already, I don't sleep -_-

I believe that trying to please everyone is foolish. Even god can't do that - lol. Before we even create programs and slap the title "ministry" onto these programs to make them "holy", we gotta ask ourselves why are we doing this program? Furthermore, is God even at work in this program? If He's not even at work in this program, we have created a program separate to where God is at. Emphasis cannot be on what you can do or are doing, but rather on what god is doing and has done. As leaders, we don't create things, we simply join God. Example is Moses. Moses didn't create a freedom program to liberate the Israelites from Egypt. God literally welcomed Moses to join Him in His pursuit after His people. God wanted a relationship with Moses. In developing that relationship, God was able to do awesome things not only in Moses, but through Moses! I think that it is an awesome idea if we created a more intentional community based business/ministry (a Team Member's business proposal). But is that what God is currently at work doing? Maybe... I don't think any of us on the team have the answers to that yet! My fear, however, is that we will be known as a Christian based on our doings as opposed to our relationship with Jesus. From Micah, it says "walk humbly with your god." Literally, this means first recognizing that we are walking with God, not Him with you. In addition, there's two truths from this passage: there is a god, and second, we are not Him - lol!!!

Somehow, our culture has taught us that we do therefore we are. But the gospel says otherwise. The gospel says we are, therefore we do. What are we? We are his sons/daughters saved by His grace. We don't operate for our salvation, we operate from our salvation. The temptation so many of us fall into is the belief that we need to "work" for God. We need to get this out of our heads. God doesn't 'need' us. We need Him. We're just lucky to even partake in whatever He's doing. I understand the frustrations of not seeing things get done the way you want them. The reason why so many Christians make little forward progress in their faith-journey is probably because they haven't yet come to an end of themselves. We need to die to live/gain (Galatians). From one of Pastor Tim's sermons, he said: Our crucified life must occur in order for their to be a transformed life. It is only then that we are able to live an obedient life. Do we honestly think that we could work and hold onto god and feel safe? No... We are safe because he holds onto us and has already completed what needs to be done.

Focusing on "community," let us not focus on one tree, but focus on one forest. We are not isolated as trees, but connected together identified as one forest. Our church has to be visioned above. We need to do what He is doing. It is not about us. When you live a life visioned above, your values change. You place higher value on relationships and character instead of fame, wealth, achievements or fun. You begin to see the bigger picture (i.e. the forest) as opposed to your segregation from it.

Knowledge is sneaky. I speak this as a confession and as a concern. The more of it we get, the easier it becomes to slip into a mode of life that assumes accumulated information equals gospel maturity. It doesn't. So if you're discouraged because you feel like you don't know enough about Christianity, do not fret. It's not about how much you know (do not get me wrong, I believe knowledge is important), it's about your relationship with Jesus. Example, the Pharisees taught on prayer, but the disciples experienced the prayer. Don't focus on the prayer. Focus on god. Get to know God.

I feel like my writing is all over the place right now. Cut me some slack, it's 6:30 AM! This encouragement is from a sermon from pastor John Piper (I think it was him...lol). During the times of discouragement because things aren't happening, excel even more. Just as Paul said to the church in Corinth (I think he also says it to Timothy): "So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church" (1 Corinthians 14:12). "But just as you excel in everything–in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us–see that you also excel in this grace of giving (2 Corinthians 8:7). People want something from you? Cool. Give it to them, but challenge them to be a part of your life. That way, you don't just give and let them live reckless. People hold crap because they don't have anything else they can hold onto. People throw crap at each other because that's all they've been trained to do. We need to show them and let them know they can let go of the crap in their hands. Once they do, they wipe their hands, lets go, and we place on them blessings. If they hold nothing, they'll just continue to resort to that crap. Mission of the church and the mission of god are not in odds against each other. Both have a mission to bring god glory. Where is He? What is He doing? Join Him...