mrsviolet's Revelife

Luke 8 ReJesus Yourself!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:41:34 GMT

There was a deeper reason why I asked the question of Luke 8 in my recent blog.

I asked who you identified most with in the passage.

LUKE 8

Thank you to the brave/interested ones who answered.

I have recently been challenged about how I identify with this passage as well.

I have often identified with those that have been healed by Jesus- because on many levels on various occasions I have too been healed.

I am being invigorated to identify myself with how Jesus must have felt in this passage and others in the New Testament.

To to ReJesus myself as two Hirsch and Frost might say.

".. M.Scott Peck in Further Along the Road Less Traveled recounted the episode when Baptist theologian Harvey Cox was addressing a convention of Christian healers- pastors, therapists, nurses, doctors- that Peck was attending. During his presentation, Cox retold the story of Luke 8 of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead...

...Cox asked his audience of six hundred Christian healers and therapists to indicate which of the characters in the story they most strongly identified with.

The bleeding woman?

The anxious father?

The curious crowd?

Or Jesus?

What Cox found that around a hundred could relate to the desperate woman;

several hundred identified with Jairus, whose daughter was dying;

the majority identified with the perplexed group standing by.

And six- yes, six- people felt they could identify with Jesus.

Peck's point in recounting this story experience was to point out that there is something seriously wrong with Christianity when only one in every hundred Christians can identify with Jesus. Here was a story about Jesus the healer, told to healers, but none of them identified with Jesus. Have we made him so divine, so otherworldly that we cannot connect with him anymore? Peck suggests that this leads to the excuse that we can't really be expected to follow Jesus because we perceive ourselves way down here and Jesus way up there, beyond identification. Say's Peck,

"That is exactly what we're supposed to do! We're supposed to identify with Jesus, act like Jesus, be like Jesus. That is what Christianity is supposed to be about: the imitation of Christ.""

(Excerpt taken from ReJesus- A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church
by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch pg 18)

What is the Church?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:16:41 GMT

What is the Church?

Original Word: eÍkklhsiða

a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly

an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating

the assembly of the Israelites

any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously

in a Christian sense

an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake
those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

In Ancient Greece the more common use of the world Ekklesia, was for an assembly of people.

In the book Pagan Christianity? the authors say this of the word:

"Strikingly, nowhere in the New Testament do we find the terms church (ekklesia) used to refer to as a building."

To the ears of a first-century Christian, calling an ekklesia (church) a building would have been like calling your wife a condominium or your mother a skyscraper!"

The first recorded use of the word ekklesia, refers to a Christian meeting place was penned around AD 190 by Cement Alexandria (150-215). Clement was also the first person to use the phrase "go to church"-which would have been a foreign thought to the first century believers. (You can not go to something you are!)
(page 11 & 12)

The authors goes on to tell us that in all of the 114 places the word Ekklesia is used in the New Testament that it always points to an assembly and that the word church was originally derived from the word kuriakon which has the meaning of, "belonging to the Lord."

In their book ReJesus Hirsch and Frost say this about the term Ekklesia.

"Most dictionaries will tell you that ecclesia literally means 'the gathering of the called-out ones'. It comes from two words, ek meaning 'out' and kaleo, meaning 'to call'. But in it's original usage an ecclesia was not just an assembly or a gathering, as many suppose. If that's all Paul wanted to convey, he could have used agora and panegyris as well as heorte, koinon, thiasos, synagoge and synago, all of which refer to an assembly.

The word ecclesia had a political aspect to it. In fact, it wasn't a religious term, and neither was its use limited to a religious gathering. In Paul's time, an ecclesia was a gathering of the elders of a community. In smaller villages and towns across Judea, local elders would gather regularly to discuss and deliberate over a variety of social and political dilemma's facing the community....

....It brought wisdom to the village. It helped the village be a better village.

... How interesting that Paul takes this term and Christianizes it for his fledgling communities. Of course, he adds to it the idea of ecclesia being a body, striving for unity and diversity."

I love this quote from the above authors, because it takes us back to the purpose of the New Testament church, to see the spread of the gospel and to radically impact their local communities for the glory of God.

How then do we so easily interchange the word to day between a body of people and a bricks and mortar place of worship?

How did the translation get lost along the way?

Was it due to the fact that when the bible was translated and printed that 'church' as the building was already firmly established 'culturally'?

Who do you relate to?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:18:55 GMT

When you read this account in Luke 8 who do you find yourself relating too?

There is a purpose to this exercise.....

His Touch

^40-42On his return, Jesus was welcomed by a crowd. They were all there expecting him. A man came up, Jairus by name. He was president of the meeting place. He fell at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.

^43-45In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus' robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, "Who touched me?"

When no one stepped forward, Peter said, "But Master, we've got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you."

⁴⁶Jesus insisted, "Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me."

⁴⁷When the woman realized that she couldn't remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.

⁴⁸Jesus said, "Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!"

⁴⁹While he was still talking, someone from the leader's house came up and told him, "Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher."

^50-51Jesus overheard and said, "Don't be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right." Going into the house, he wouldn't let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child's parents.

^52-53Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, "Don't cry. She didn't die; she's sleeping." They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.

^54-56Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, "My dear child, get up." She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were ecstatic, but Jesus warned them to keep quiet. "Don't tell a soul what happened in this room."

Be sure to let me know as there is a purpose to the question!

Being in the right place......

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:16:49 GMT

Last week I took a 22 hour flight from Sydney Australia via Abu Dabi to arrive in Manchester about 7 am.

As I stood haggard with 3 of my children at the baggage claim I was people watching. I spied one woman who had taken extreme care in how she dressed that morning unlike myself who was feeling every second of the trip.

The lady had some how managed to do her make up and hair, and was looking gorgeous even after a long haul flight. However by her body language I could tell so much more about her than I could her clothes. She was becoming increasingly impatient, worried, frustrated at her lack of luggage.

As I walked further down to collect my stroller, I heard someone approach from behind me. Her high bling laden heels tap tap tapped on the floor as she approached the man in charge of stroller collection.

As she opened her mouth to ask him about her luggage I was knocked over by what came out of her mouth. She let 'rip' as us Aussies say, with a whole host of language that would make an outback shearer blush.

I was gobsmacked.

As I watched the scene further unfold I saw her go to ask somebody else about her luggage.

It turned out she was standing on the wrong conveyor belt and her luggage was coming out on the opposite side of the room.

This morning as I regain some of my senses and jet lag lifts I wonder if sometimes as a Christian I am like this.

We can dress ourselves up in all kinds of attire as Christians. Our ministries, our worship, our churches, can become the external 'blings' of Christendom for everyone to see.

We may be presented in our Sunday best physically and symbolically, yet our body language and our speech maybe saying more about what is happening on the inside of us than we would often care to admit.

And then, having all of that together and looking fine, we find ourselves becoming increasingly frustrated and irritated at God not showing up where we are...... but rather is at the opposite end of the building with those other people. We too may just be in the wrong spot.

Where are we standing today? In a place where appearance matters or where our words actions and behavior reflect Jesus? Are we impatient when God does not show up? Or are we ever seeking where we should be standing?

10 tips for setting healthy boundaries

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:14:53 GMT

It has come to my attention over the past couple of years that I have not been very good at setting boundaries, both for myself and for others in my life.

Some of it this has been shown to me as a result of behaviors I have seen within myself- not a pretty thing to see at all and one that we are forced to make choices about- deal with it, or die a slow painful emotional death to our own tragic need to control.

Some of it has been shown to me as a result of behaviors I have seen in others and their need to control- a hard thing to see because it requires some kind of action on our part. Action that we can not control the responses of and that have a wider implication than just ourselves.

Naturally, I am not a very good boundary setter. I have in the past been too easy to manipulate as I am a typical people pleaser who wants others to think kindly of her.

So often I would abandon what I felt to be a boundary just so that I could have the approval of another.

Then I would find myself feeling resentful, because it had felt like something had been stolen from me. And in essence it had. Somebody was manipulating/controlling me, in order to get something for themselves. Sometimes this behavior was subtle and sometimes it was incredibly obvious.

But either way I would give in to it- so that I could be liked, or so I would not rock the boat.

It also allowed me to feel like a victim and a martyr. A position that I got used to for many years, but one that now makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

So here are 10 tips I have learned in the last little while about setting Boundaries.

Oh and when I say learned- they are things I am actually now internalizing!

1.

Saying no does not make you a bad person or a rotten Christian. But how you say it can make a big difference.

2.

Be kind to yourself and know what you can and can't handle- realistically.

3.

Realize that some journeys are for other people to walk alone and nothing you can do can actually make that any easier for them.

4.

Listen to your body, your mind and your Spirit and set boundaries according to your health in all of these areas. Some days you maybe stronger and more able than others.

5.

There is a difference between supporting someone on their journey and being 'forced' to walk that path for them.

6.

Healthy friendships do not require manipulation in order to gain something from you. They do however require authentic and real conversations that reflect what you can and can't give someone.

7.

Do be careful to do things with right motives. Be truthful for your reasons about the boundaries you are setting. Do not become selfish in your boundary setting or use this as way of controlling or manipulating others. Be generous in a healthy manner.

8.

Do not allow others to sway you with manipulative speech and emotional pressure. If you do it wont be long before you feel like you are loosing pieces of your soul.

9.

As one wise friend told me recently there is a difference between causing offense and people taking offense- learn to spot the difference.

10.

Often people can only take from you what you allow them to have. Do not become the victim of your own life.

EDIT-
BONUS ONE- I thought of when in the bath!

Sacrificial love is a very different thing to the issue at hand.
It is done out of the depths of your heart for another, not stolen or taken from you.

Never be afraid to love or serve sacrificially!

What other tips can you share with me about how you set boundaries in your life?

Your Words...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:13:56 GMT

Have the power to
                            bring

                             hope or healing
                                                                                                       delight or destruction

                             encouragement or estrangement

                                               renewal or revolt

                action or apathy

                                          brilliance or boredom

                   fear or favor

                              empowerment or evil

                clarity or cluelessness

        lasciviousness or love

                                     deliverance or dogma

      restraint or recklessness

                              mercy or malevolence

          clemency or condemnation

                                                tenderness or tyranny

blessing or bitterness......

With all that power at the tip of your tongue

                                           do you not think we should be more

                                                                                                           careful with what rolls of it?

I have come to believe about myself and others, that my tongue reveals more about myself and the depth of my being than any other thing I do in life.

It is more revealing than my flesh.

More powerful than my weapons.

It is more soothing than my hands.

It is more hurtful than my actions.

© wherever_we_go 2009

James 3

When You Open Your Mouth

^1-2Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.

^3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

^5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

^7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

^10-12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Live Well, Live Wisely

^13-16Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom—it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.

^17-18Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Jesus in the Marmite?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:12:40 GMT

I was over on my friend Nathan's blog reading about his thoughts on a family who found the face of Jesus in a jar lid.

I won't post a link to Nathan's blog because I am not sure if he would want me too.
But I will say he expressed some interesting thoughts on the subject that certainly got me thinking- some in particular about how such thoughts that God could or would appear in the Marmite cheapens Grace.

Claire Allen, the lady who found the face in the Marmite says this;

People might think I'm nuts, but I like to think it's Jesus looking out for us
We've had a tough couple of months; my mum's been really ill and it's comforting to think that if he is there, he's watching over us.

You can read the full story

HERE

Like it or not, this woman thought Jesus was appearing to her in a jar of Marmite.
Whether it does indeed cheapen the act of the death and resurrection on the cross and make grace cheap is a discussion I will leave to me mate Nathan.

The thing that strikes me most about this story and many others like it, is that often people are just waiting to see Jesus/God in their everyday lives.

We are a culture and a people who love signs and symbols.

Not just religious ones either.

We love them about our sports, our friends, our love lives.

This story reminds me of Paul after seeing an altar to an unknown God took it as an opportunity to preach the gospel, the true gospel of grace to the people of Athens.

As cheesy and as kitsch Jesus appearing in Marmite might be to the Christian world at large.

Could it be another opportunity to help point others to an
authentic
experience of Jesus?

Do you believe God could or would enable a picture of Jesus to appear like this?

A man fell in a hole......

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:44:37 GMT

I remember many many sermons my dad used this illustration in a sermon. So it thrilled my heart to see it done in visual form.

I hope you enjoy it.

How large is your heart?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:06:00 GMT

It has come to my attention over the past couple of years that my heart has been very small.

It is not a very pleasant thought really, to think that I am the possessor of a heart not big enough to embrace anyone but me.

It has only needed to be small because until recently all it held was my own thoughts and opinions.

To make matters worse sometimes I would catch myself seeking out other people with small hearts who shared my ideas and opinions.

It made me feel better about my own condition, and if I got really lucky, I would find that some of them had even smaller hearts than mine, and so for a little while I got to feel especially good about myself.

People with small hearts are all to quick to tell you how to think, how to behave, how to act, what to think and what to feel.

The HUGE variety of subject that we dictate on is in direct opposition to the size of our puny hearts.

Small hearted people rarely take chances and they are quite protective of their little hearts.

They are often guided by fear and thus close themselves off to anything strange or different from themselves.

One day I noticed my small heart was making me sick. It was not big enough to pump the life giving love of the Lord around my own body, let alone on to anyone else.

So I started to have a look at this so called 'savior' of mine they call Jesus.

His heart was wide wide open and as big as the noon day sun.

There was nobody who he was afraid of being with, nobody whose opinions where too concrete for him, nobody too dirty for him to associate with and nobody too sinful for him to break bread with.

He was so secure in who he was that it did not matter what anybody else was like he could love them freely without bias.

I started to look at these verses from 1 John 4

¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him^[b] because He first loved us.

And I begun to realize that all of those people I was locking out of my 'small' heart I was locking out because I feared them.

I feared how they may think differently theologically from me.

I feared their sexuality.

I feared their worship styles.

I feared their political persuasions.

I feared their life styles.

I feared their different bible translations.

I feared the churches they attended.

I feared the music they liked.

The clothes they wore.

The piercing they had.

The tattoo's they toted.

My heart was soooooo very full of fear that there was not once inch of room for love!

So I made a resolution to let LOVE cast out FEAR.

Perfect love, the love of Christ.

The love that says, I may not agree with you nor you with me- I love you.
I would not make the same choices as you make- I love you.
I have different interpretations- I love you.

I may stuff up, I may get it wrong, but I will allow my heart to be wide enough to let you in and maybe we will learn more about love together.

I can feel my heart getting wider.

Each day God shows me something else that I fear.
Each day we wrestle about it until I eventually give in. Some days the battles are harder and fiercer than others. Some times my battles last through the nights and into other days as well.

Sometimes I have to go back to the red letters in my bible and look exactly how Jesus loved, because sometimes my human mind has corrupted my thinking, because sometimes love is tough. And Jesus always loved when it was tough.

And he always hated when it was the right thing and time to hate.

He has that right.
He was perfect- perfect love, without fear.

I wanna be like that.

Not perfect.

Just in love.

The Bear, the Lion and the Snake....

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:57:37 GMT

Over the past couple of years I have been on a journey to rid my life of

the

That keeps my 'spiritually', 'emotionally' and 'mentally' stuffed up inside.

I am sure you know the kind of stuff I mean...

More Here...