- Nov 9, 2006
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Today while surfing the net I found this statement actually made by a sister church of mine, however it sums up how I feel and how I want to live... To me, anything short of this will not work...
(As a note, I dont debate)
These decisions are not destinations – they are journeys, journeys along an ancient path. We have not found some new way – We have discovered the path as old as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The same path Moses, Joshua, Caleb and David followed. The path followed by the first century church – Peter, John, Paul and others less known. Theirs was a church that revolutionized the culture of their day, and beyond.
This path will impact our world. It is a path of bold faith – believing what God says is really true, and acting on it. It is a path of outrageous generosity with our time, talents and finances – giving our life away in order to demonstrate His Kingdom. It is a path of radical love – loving God with everything in us and our neighbor as ourselves. This is a path of liberty, responsibility, accountability, and wholeness. On this path we find significance, purpose, and destiny.
(As a note, I dont debate)
WE HAVE DECIDED THAT ....
- Teaching the Gospel without demonstrating it is not an option. Good preaching, good doctrine, and being good Christians is not good enough.
- Having a good church, or good fellowship is not good enough. And just being a good member of Christ’s Body is not good enough.
- Having good Bible studies is good, but not good enough.
- Just making it to heaven is not our goal. Just knowing about God without truly experiencing Him regularly is meaningless.
- Having good programs is not enough.
- Change without transformation is intolerable. Staying the same is not an option.
- Gifting without character is futile.
- Singing songs without worshiping is hollow, and having meetings without God showing up is pointless.
- Having faith without works is useless, and having works without love is not acceptable.
- Reading about the Book of Acts without living the Book of Acts is unthinkable.
- Confident faith is good. BOLD faith is better.
- Hearing about the Holy Spirit without experiencing Him is wrong. Believing in His presence without seeing Him manifest is hypocrisy.
- Believing in healing and deliverance without going for it is absurd.
- Living saved, but not supernaturally is living below our privilege and short of what Christ died for.
- We are a battleship and / or a cargo ship, not a cruise ship. We are an army, not an audience. We are special forces, not spectators. We are missionaries, not club members.
- We will not be satisfied until our world cries out – “Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
- Nothing short of His kingdom come, His will be done in our world, as it IS in heaven will satisfy.
- Value both pioneers and settlers. Pioneers who expand our territory and settlers who build on those territories. We are not squatters – people who take up space on what others fought to obtain without improving it.
- Be infectious instead of innocuous, contagious instead of quarantined, and deadly instead of benign.
- Be radical lovers of God and people, and outrageous givers to God and His purposes.
- Be Holy Spirit filled, Holy Spirit led, and Holy Spirit empowered – anything less doesn’t work for us.
- Be the ones telling the stories of God’s power – not just listening to them.
- Be the ones writing the stories of God’s power by our actions – not just telling them, or listening to them.
- Fail reaching for the impossible instead of succeeding at settling for less.
- See our past and present [both successes and failures] as stepping-stones, not tombstones.
- Pursue learning in order to be transformed, not to be more intellectual.
- Be people of engagement, not observation.
- Focus on what should be, not on what is or has been.
- Not be limited to the four walls of our buildings [houses]. Our influence is not restricted by location. Not even the nations are out of our reach.
- Be more concerned about how many we send out into the world than how many we convince to come into and stay in our buildings.
- Raise up world changers and history makers – not tour guides.
- Train commandos – not committees.
- We will live for a generation we may never see.
- Honor the past, live in the present, and look with joyful expectation to the future [WE DO WIN].
- Hand future generations a move of God that is thriving, not dying.
- Not sacrifice our core values at the altar of expediency, or to please those that refuse to live the true Christian life of purity and power.
- Be God-pleasers and people servers, not people pleasers and God-servers.
- Be obedient to God and sacrifice, not sacrifice without obeying God.
- We will not give God anything that does not cost us something.
- Be reformers and revolutionaries.
- Refuse the que sera, sera [whatever will be, will be] Christian life.
- We will redefine what a “normal” Christian is – one that does the works of Jesus as a normal part of their life.
These decisions are not destinations – they are journeys, journeys along an ancient path. We have not found some new way – We have discovered the path as old as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The same path Moses, Joshua, Caleb and David followed. The path followed by the first century church – Peter, John, Paul and others less known. Theirs was a church that revolutionized the culture of their day, and beyond.
This path will impact our world. It is a path of bold faith – believing what God says is really true, and acting on it. It is a path of outrageous generosity with our time, talents and finances – giving our life away in order to demonstrate His Kingdom. It is a path of radical love – loving God with everything in us and our neighbor as ourselves. This is a path of liberty, responsibility, accountability, and wholeness. On this path we find significance, purpose, and destiny.
