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  • Mark 4:19 pm on January 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    A Declaration for the People of God 

    Over the last week our faith community chose to work on an exercise together.  We’ve been learning how to declare what we believe – to confess and proclaim it with our lives and our words.

    As a part of this, we all committed to a common exercise; here it is:

    Spend the week choosing an area of your life where you desire to be stronger or more fruitful.  Then, do a Bible search to find out what the Word of God says about that area.  You can use online resources, Concordances, or cross-references found in your study bible.

    After you choose the verses that are most significant to you, you can simple declare what they say, or you can write it into a confession.

    (This exercise was designed by Dick and Theyna Rolph)

    So, here is my declaration: (see if you can discover which verses I read!)

    A Declaration for the People of God

    We declare today that this life is not meant to be lived alone.  When I strive in isolation, I am amputated from the body of which you are the head.  When we are together we are part of the fullness of him who fills everything in everyway.

    Lord, Leader, Forerunner, Captain.  You call us out and give us a new name.  You bind us as a new family.  You send us out as lambs among wolves.  Wise as serpents, innocent as doves.  We are becoming one, just as you are one with Yourself.

    We are the firstborn, the city of the living God, flock of God, fold of Christ, his Bride, his Body.  We are a holy temple, a harvest field, and an assembly of heavenly citizens.  We are a precious oil, poured on the head and spilling down, a light bursting from darkness, a sweet aroma, and taste like fresh wine in new wineskins.

    It is our joy to share what we have.  To do more together with less.  We are of one heart and mind.  And we do this out of shared joy and love.  A love that we can see, taste, and experience.  This is how we know what love is – we see it in Christ’s laying down his life, and we repeat it in the rhythm of laying down our lives for others.  We proclaim that this is the way to life.  This is the truth of the human experience.  This is the completion of human striving.  This is how the world will know us.

    There are other sheep not in this sheep pen.  They too will listen to your voice, and there will be one flock, and one shepherd.  Your harvest workers are not in the barns.  We are with you in the fields.  We are following you outside the city gates – outside of protection and comfort.  We are your called out ecclesia.  Leaving Mount Zion for the wilderness – because that is where your lost sheep are.

    We anticipate the day coming, when we will be citizens in that great city, where you are bringing order and light to everything there.  We choose to believe that you are preparing a holy people from every tongue, tribe, and nation that will be family together – redeemed by your adoption as refugees from Sin.  We call out with all we are that you are establishing a KINGDOM that is related by blood.  You are our Father, we are your family.

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  • Mark 12:56 pm on January 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: henry alford, hymns   

    Come, Ye Thankful People, Come 

    1. Come, ye thankful people, come,
    raise the song of harvest home;
    all is safely gathered in,
    ere the winter storms begin.
    God our Maker doth provide
    for our wants to be supplied;
    come to God’s own temple, come,
    raise the song of harvest home.

    2. All the world is God’s own field,
    fruit as praise to God we yield;
    wheat and tares together sown
    are to joy or sorrow grown;
    first the blade and then the ear,
    then the full corn shall appear;
    Lord of harvest, grant that we
    wholesome grain and pure may be.

    3. For the Lord our God shall come,
    and shall take the harvest home;
    from the field shall in that day
    all offenses purge away,
    giving angels charge at last
    in the fire the tares to cast;
    but the fruitful ears to store
    in the garner evermore.

    4. Even so, Lord, quickly come,
    bring thy final harvest home;
    gather thou thy people in,
    free from sorrow, free from sin,
    there, forever purified,
    in thy presence to abide;
    come, with all thine angels, come,
    raise the glorious harvest home.

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  • Mark 10:10 pm on January 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , goal, ,   

    Tribal Leaders 

    Just finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin.  A great book on new leadership within the new social world.  He had a lot to say about religion and faith in his book (it is not a relgious book).  One of my favorite quotes was,

    “Leaders create a culture around a goal and involve others in that culture.”

    It isn’t so much that leaders are expected to do all the leading anymore.  In fact, those that push out so far ahead of their tribe are usually not too far down the road before they look back and realize no one is following them.   No, the leaders of today’s tribes are spending more of their energy cultivating a healthy culture around their goal – be it selling more widgets or making disciples.

    Just as important as creating that culture is inviting other people to join that culture.  Leadership is partly about making your peculiar culture you’ve developed look good enough to eat.  You are looking for other wackos ready to live like you live.  How can you involve others in your cultural development?  The more you can integrate others into the process, the better your tribe will be.

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