I recently moved house to a smaller one than what I had. This meant that a gallon would not go into a pint pot. So I had to go through a lot of "stuff" and get rid of it. I sold some but gave most of it away. God told me to get rid of the past to prepare for the future.
One of the reasons for moving was that I had a big house that took a lot of time, money and maintenance which meant that I didn't have time for other things. So instead of chasing "things", I decided to forego the chase and settle for something more modest which would leave me with more time to do those things that matter.
I have been here two months now and am so glad that I have seen the light and ditched consumerism.
Now, as I was sorting out the rubbish from the non-rubbish, I came across an article I had written a few years ago, inspired by a book written by Arthur Wallis, a gentle giant of a Christian in the UK, who I was blessed to know. The book was titled "The Radical Christian." Arthur was a forerunner and leader in the charismatic move of the Spirit in the UK in the 60s having come out of the Brethren when he was baptised in the Spirit. Yes, that is right. A Brethren Elder baptised in the Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Here are my thoughts on being radical.
If we want to change the world and we should, we will only do it God's way. That will challenge us and demand change for the simple reason if what we are doing was achieving that, it would have happened by now.
The fact that it hasn't, means we have to seek God for a new direction, a fresh anointing and sacred cows will need to be slaughtered.
The word that comes to mind for the church that is going to transform is "Radical." It will challenge all our assumptions but we are left with no choice if we don't want to end up as just another church with approximately 80 people (that is the national average) going through the motions each Sunday to give the impression that we have done our bit and God is happy about it all.
Despite the myriad of activity, programmes, conferences, seminars, teaching, sermons, books, tapes, CDs, films and meetings a survey of 50 years of Christianity shows that we have not moved forward and have not moved backwards. We have excelled at maintaining the status quo. A don't rock the boat mentality.
No doubt you have read that only a fool does the same thing every week and expects a different outcome and to illustrate the point, I met with all the local church leaders to challenge them about evangelism working together to reach the people. They, of course, defended themselves by saying that is already happening, so I asked them a question which was "How many people have been saved by your combined ministry in the last 12 months?
The answer was three. Flogging a dead horse much?
I did the same with the ministers in the next town. I presented them with a paper setting out simple ways that they could reach the community. (I might add that I was my churches representative on an evangelism team in another town where every church was involved)
The secretary of the ministers fraternal wrote back and said they could not get involved because they were too busy running their churches.
Unless God builds the house we labour in vain. Based on what I have read, know and have experienced, there is an extraordinary amount of vain labour going on.
One of the reasons for moving was that I had a big house that took a lot of time, money and maintenance which meant that I didn't have time for other things. So instead of chasing "things", I decided to forego the chase and settle for something more modest which would leave me with more time to do those things that matter.
I have been here two months now and am so glad that I have seen the light and ditched consumerism.
Now, as I was sorting out the rubbish from the non-rubbish, I came across an article I had written a few years ago, inspired by a book written by Arthur Wallis, a gentle giant of a Christian in the UK, who I was blessed to know. The book was titled "The Radical Christian." Arthur was a forerunner and leader in the charismatic move of the Spirit in the UK in the 60s having come out of the Brethren when he was baptised in the Spirit. Yes, that is right. A Brethren Elder baptised in the Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Here are my thoughts on being radical.
If we want to change the world and we should, we will only do it God's way. That will challenge us and demand change for the simple reason if what we are doing was achieving that, it would have happened by now.
The fact that it hasn't, means we have to seek God for a new direction, a fresh anointing and sacred cows will need to be slaughtered.
The word that comes to mind for the church that is going to transform is "Radical." It will challenge all our assumptions but we are left with no choice if we don't want to end up as just another church with approximately 80 people (that is the national average) going through the motions each Sunday to give the impression that we have done our bit and God is happy about it all.
Despite the myriad of activity, programmes, conferences, seminars, teaching, sermons, books, tapes, CDs, films and meetings a survey of 50 years of Christianity shows that we have not moved forward and have not moved backwards. We have excelled at maintaining the status quo. A don't rock the boat mentality.
No doubt you have read that only a fool does the same thing every week and expects a different outcome and to illustrate the point, I met with all the local church leaders to challenge them about evangelism working together to reach the people. They, of course, defended themselves by saying that is already happening, so I asked them a question which was "How many people have been saved by your combined ministry in the last 12 months?
The answer was three. Flogging a dead horse much?
I did the same with the ministers in the next town. I presented them with a paper setting out simple ways that they could reach the community. (I might add that I was my churches representative on an evangelism team in another town where every church was involved)
The secretary of the ministers fraternal wrote back and said they could not get involved because they were too busy running their churches.
Unless God builds the house we labour in vain. Based on what I have read, know and have experienced, there is an extraordinary amount of vain labour going on.
