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Perhaps one of the hardest areas to clarify is the place of personal ambition – is it right to have ambition or not? We have our culture that tells us we need to do something great with our life – and the great western dream is that ordinary people can do something extraordinary with their lives –“rags to riches”; “the ordinary hero”, “anyone can do something great if they just believe”, “girls can do anything” “do something with your life,” etc. Whether you are aware of it or not, this drive to do something incredible for God is pervasive. This feeling will drive you – but it will drive you places you don’t want to go. People get bored with the ordinary life – it’s just not enough. So we attempt something “important” for God. Ordinary doesn’t feel like it is enough – so people do things like change church, change job, change city, change country, change spouse, etc

So we live in this culture that expects everyone to do something spectacular with their lives if they will just believe – and then we are confronted with scriptures like “Make it your ambition to live a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you… 1 Thess 4.11

So should we be ambitious or passive? Well, as so often is the case, the truth is held in tension. We are all very ordinary people, living ordinary lives, doing ordinary things that human beings do. And being ordinary is actually very good!

If we will live the ordinary life (loving & enjoying our spouse, family and friends, working diligently at our work, watching for and taking opportunities to love and bless people, growing in our relationship with God, eating good food, and having fun along the way, loving and serving God with our whole heart, watching for and acting on the invitations/nudges from God to do or speak for Him into a person’s life, etc, etc), God can use it to reach into the extraordinary, or invite us to do something extra-ordinary. If we will do the possible, He will do the impossible.

So often we want to reverse the relationship. For example as a church leader we may think “If You will love the people Jesus, I’ll focus on building the church.” But the Bible tells us we need to love people, and He will build His Church.

I want to invite you to step back from well-meaning personal ambition & simply do the possible and live the ordinary life to its fullness, and see what God will turn the possible and ordinary into.

So many Christians wear themselves out striving to do something significant. They are so caught up with wanting to do something great FOR God that they often end up doing nothing and missing out on the wonderful ordinariness of their lives.

I so appreciated hearing John Wimber  say “I am tired of hearing about  all the great men of God – I want to hear about the great God of men!”

Let’s give ourselves to fully living an ordinary life and see what the other member of our partnership, Jesus, will do with it! Let’s re-claim the ordinary!

If you would like to hear more check this link Download An ordinary life with an extra-ordinary God 4 July 2010

One significant area is how we tend to mix our western mindset with how we view the nature of our relationship with God. How many times have we heard (and heard ourselves say) genuine heartfelt expressions like “I want to live FOR God.” “I want to do something great FOR God” etc. It’s scary what power there is in a small word – a preposition. It makes a profound difference to how we experience life and relationship with God. But the right preposition to use is always “WITH” not ”FOR.”

The nature of our relationship with God is that of a true loving partnership. It is a tricky partnership to work out – how much is God responsible for and how much are we; how much does He do and how much do we do? We are invited to do life WITH God, do something great WITH God, etc. His revealed name is “Immanuel” meaning “God with us.” Mk 3.14 tells us Jesus chose the 12 ”that they might be WITH him and that He might send them out to preach.”

Our relationship with God is about doing life WITH Him not FOR Him. Otherwise it is a very easy step to find ourselves getting worn out (and ultimately bitter and burned out) trying to do all sorts of things for God, give up things for God, to sacrifice for God, and so on – when all the time He wants us to experience life with Him.

Col 1.27 tells us the mystery of all time is that Christ is in us! That is what generations looked forward to. That’s the reality we live our lives from. We are not to spend our lives trying to impress Him with what we will do, or do without, for Him.

The Kingdom of God is always an invitation to live an integrated life. We live with the temptation to create false divides in life. For example, sacred and secular, spiritual and unspiritual. So for example we can be led to think that when we are in church that we are doing something sacred and spiritual, and when we go to the movies or go to work we are doing something secular and unspiritual. But Jesus will have no such divide. When we are in partnership with Him, He makes everything sacred and everything is spiritual.

To enter in to the Kingdom of God is to abandon a fragmented life. Jesus loves our whole life – not just when we are worshipping, or witnessing or praying for the sick – He does love that for sure. But He equally loves it when we are hanging out with friends, working our job, watching TV, loving our family. He loves it all, and sees no divide. If we live fragmented lives and have a secret area that God is not involved in or welcomed in, we set ourselves up for a fall. I have come to  believe that having a secret area where God is not welcome is the reason Christians seem to suddenly fall into some area of sin. Safety & health are in having God welcome in every single part of our life. Christ is in us – and He loves that relationship.

The Kingdom of God is an invitation to a fully integrated life. We’ll take a look at a few key areas next week

Click here to view: July ezine

session 6 Bruce Patrick Evangelism Alpha

As I was speaking I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to me about the reality that everyone has something to bring to serve God and His purposes. Our most accessible resources are time, money & energy. Often we find ourselves resource rich in one area and resource poor in another.

For example – when I was a university student I was poor in the money resource area, but rich in both the time and energy resource areas. Then, like so many of us, as we transition into work, career, marriage and parenthood, the balance changes profoundly. Before children come along we are often strong in the money resource area, but time-poor as we work hard to establish ourselves in our work areas.

Then children and mortgage and single incomes change the balance again and we become stretched in the money-resource area, and even a little stretched in the time and energy resources as well.

You will probably never find yourself resource rich in all 3 areas at the same time. But similarly you are unlikely to find yourself in the situation where you have no resources in all 3 areas. There should never be a time when you have nothing to give. Remember we are stewards of God’s resources and we need to ask Him for more – not to spend on ourselves but rather, to pass on to others in His Name.

Sometimes it may feel like you have no resources available to spend on Kingdom purposes – but often at those times we actually need to enrich a resource area so we can make a contribution still.

For example, right now I am fairly lean in both the time and energy resources – so I am needing to enrich both those resource areas. I have found that what I have learnt and am learning makes both those areas more effective. For example I am able to put teaching together in a shorter time than when I started; I am able to reach into a richer toolbox of life lessons and life resources when talking with people. This blog was written on a short plane trip when I could have been just day dreaming. I find I am able to “cut to the chase” more quickly now when I am with people, and give them what I sense God wants them to receive. So while my time and energy resources are diminished the quality can outgrow the quantity to still make a difference.

If you have been affected by the economic downturn and find yourself low in the money resources, chances are you are now richer in the time resource.

So I encourage you use what you are rich in to serve God and serve the people He is inviting you to bless. Enjoy the freedom and adventure of serving God in your generation.

Engaging Culture [PDF]