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

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.

There are central teachings that Jesus gave His followers that move us towards this goal of having Christ fully formed in us and within those teachings, tools that are central to helping that formation. 2 key discipling verses in the New Testament were both a result of Jesus reinterpreting OT passages.

Every Jew from their earliest age would have learnt and recited the “shema.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (TNIV) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Jesus reminded the expert in the law who asked Him what was the most important command first of this OT command, and then added Lev 19:18 “Love your neighbour as yourself.” And then He goes on and further refines it in John when He says “John 13:34-35 (TNIV)“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus was saying if you do these two things – love God and love others (and of course you must love yourself if you are to love others properly) – then you will look and act and be like children of God and Christ will be fully formed in you.

And Jesus also took a common prayer the Jews prayed – the kaddish (”Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world He created according to His will. May He establish His Kingdom during your life and during your days, and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily and in the near future. And say amen. “) and developed it into what we now call the Lords prayer.

Both of these are profound discipling statements and tools. The goal of following Jesus is that Christ is formed in us – in other words we act like Jesus would if he were in our skin. A Kingdom disciple can be described as a person who loves God, loves him/herself and loves others. And they regularly pray a prayer centred around these priorities.

A couple of weeks ago we brought together 120 of our key leaders from around NZ. They, along with others, are spending this year participating in a year long learning experience called GROW2010. We had such an effective two days together focussed on reaching people who don’t know Jesus & helping them become devoted followers of Jesus

We focussed on the key tasks for churches and leaders – “Being disciples and Making disciples.” It is incredible how hard we must work to keep these 2 activities at the top of both our personal agendas and at the top of our church’s agenda. All the other things that are important to us, like being worshippers of God, lovers of people, etc., flow from being a disciple and making disciples. However, the focus of our lives is to become devoted followers of Jesus (disciples) ourselves, and spend our time money and energy on helping others become the same.

It is helpful to think about what a fully devoted follower of Jesus would look like. What would they value? What would they be passionate about? What would they routinely practise?

So let’s look at a few important marks of a Kingdom disciple.

1. They have as their ultimate desire to become people who are like Jesus and are determined to fulfill that desire. Paul had this as his life purpose for people.
Gal. 4:19 “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (TNIV)
Isn’ t it amazing that we have the incredible privilege/miracle of having Christ formed in us!

2. A disciple has the fruit of the Holy Spirit becoming more and more evident. Gal 5.22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Think how fruit is produced – a healthy plant with roots into fertile soil, moisture and free from pests and disease will inevitably produce fruit. You don’t see apple trees struggling and fighting to produce apples – they produce apples because they are living apple trees! In the same way as you stay “rooted and grounded” in Christ you simply WILL produce fruit. You are born of the Spirit and so will product the fruit of the Spirit.

3. A Kingdom disciple arranges their lives around the priorities and practices of the Kingdom of God. They seek to routinely do Kingdom activity – loving people so much that they ask why; listening to God when we are with people to see if God has something for us to give to that person, say to that person, or do for that person. Routinely looking for what God is doing, and then joining Him in His mission through the use of Spiritual gifts.

Let’s think more about this next week – and maybe you have some suggestions of key characteristics of a Kingdom disciple.

I was there for the 2 yearly meeting of Vineyard National Directors, who are some of my favourite people in the world! One of the highlights of our time together was meeting the Central and South American Vineyard leaders for the first time. What an amazing of group of leaders – love them all.

Well it got me to thinking what an incredible family we are part of as followers of Jesus. We haven’t met the vast majority of the family, and we wont meet them in our lifetime. But as one who travels a bit with my job, I just want to say what an incredible experience it is to have this blood connection that is real and tangible wherever you happen to turn up  in the world. I have loved the Christians and the church in every country I have had the privilege to be in. It is never perfect –  but just awesome! There is an immediate connection because of our commitment to Jesus that makes us one.

It is the easiest thing to criticise Christians, the Church and to point out its faults – but I agree with Bill Hybels that “the local church is the hope of the world!” Obviously it is imperfect because it consists of imperfect people like you and I – but it is full of imperfect people who want to follow Jesus with all their hearts and to love like He loves. It is inevitable that you will be offended and maybe even deeply hurt at times in your life by members of the church – but I love Proverbs 27.6 “The wounds of a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” And don’t forget that “Perfect love covers a multitude of sins.” Remember that “hurt people hurt people” and that we all have the potential to hurt – but I have never met anyone who deliberately wants to hurt people. It usually happens accidentally because the person is in pain themselves.

John Wimber put it beautifully like this “Your brother is never your enemy, even when he is acting like it!”

John the apostle, who was known as the “apostle of love” spent a lot of his writing on this thing of love, especially in 1 John. 1 John 4.20 “If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars!” There is a story of John as a frail old man being carried through the church for the last time before his death – and his final words to the church were “little children, love one another!”

While I was in Costa Rica, I heard a recent well documented story of a Chilean pastor (now known in the hospital as “Lazarus”) who had died of a massive heart attack in the presence of his son. He was worked on in the ambulance and Emergency room but declared dead. 50 minutes later while being wheeled on a gurney to the hospital morgue, he came back to life and grabbed the arm of the orderly pushing him (which nearly cost another life!!). His story was that he remembered taking his last breath, and then he was with Jesus. Jesus told him he was sending him back with a message. And the message was this “Tell them to love each other!!”

How important is it to Jesus that we truly love each other? It gives Him great pleasure when we are for each other and get in to each others grandstands and cheer!!

The Kingdom is a little like this – you very rarely get to have a season of joy and victory, and then you leave that and enter a season of sorrow and defeat! Instead we tend to have both joy and sadness simultaneously; we experience victory in one area and defeat in another.

I have found one of the most helpful metaphors for understanding this tension in life are parallel train tracks. Your life runs along these 2 tracks constantly – at any moment you are full of joy and contentment – and simultaneously you can equally feel pain and disappointment. We even experience this in God’s nature – He is at the same time a God of love AND a God who judges. He is full of mercy, yet jealous for purity.

In our understanding of the Kingdom we call this experience eschatological tension. The Kingdom is here – but it is yet to come! It is now – but not yet! We struggle to live with this tension and the temptation is to break the tension and to hold only 1 truth, especially when we are considering why some are healed and some aren’t, why sometimes good things happen to “bad” people and bad things happen to “good” people, and so on. The agony and ecstasy of life. So we are tempted to break the tension and believe only 1 of the truths- either the Kingdom is here right now and everyone should be healed and happy and prosperous. Or – the Kingdom is yet to come so right now no-one will get healed and suffering is all we should expect. But both of these truths become errors without the tension of holding them both to be true at the same time.

So may God meet you between the tracks, and may you know His Presence in you and around as you move forward in life, at one moment in joy and in other in sadness. He is there in the midst of you!

Picture a person standing upright – when they are in a balanced position they are in fact going nowhere – they are stationary. But to make progress – to walk – you must actually throw yourself off balance. So you push a leg forward – and then when you are off balance you need to bring your other leg forward or you will fall over!! (watching a baby take its first steps is a wonderful example of lack of balance leading to growth and progress). But the wonderful result of being off balance is that you are making progress – you are going somewhere! And when you stop – you are balanced!

So what is happening to you that feels like it is pushing you off balance? Maybe you need to take a step in that direction and then see where the next step will take you. Don’t strive for balance – go for growth.

Growth doesn’t happen in our lives simply by being alive. It seems to me Jesus was very deliberate about calling his disciples forward into growth. He exposed them to truth or demonstrations of Kingdom activity and then called them forward into that area of experience – demonstration and proclamation.

How does God expose us to new things that require us to grow? I would suggest there are 4 main ways He invites us to grow.

1. Through exposure to truth in the Bible – given for transformation not information! As you read the Bible,  ask yourself – is there something here for me to believe? to practice?; to turn from?

2. Through power encounters and Kingdom clashes – notice what you notice as you go through your day. Our days are full of “God moments” – but we can often miss them if we are rushing

3. Through the Holy Spirit speaking to us

4. Through other people discipling us – we need people who will call us forward in our following of Jesus; and we need to be deliberately calling other people forward – one hand forward and one hand back!

We need to invite pressure in our lives to push us into growing – stagnation and boredom are the only other alternatives!

More next week!

My intention is to post a new musing each week – but don’t give up if I miss a week here or there. I want to share what I am seeing, thinking or learning that may be of help to you as you follow Jesus, and try to stay on the advancing edge of the Kingdom.

We are about to enter the season of Lent in church life – 40 days (excluding the 6 sundays) of preparing ourselves for Easter and the celebration of Jesus’ utter and complete victory on the Cross. I have not always found it personally helpful to follow the traditional ecclesiastical calendar – but increasingly churches like ours and increasing numbers of younger Christians are finding the connection to the ancient Church a great encouragement in faith. The Ancient-Future dynamic is very enriching.

Lent is used as a time for reflecting on what it means to follow Christ & reconnecting to what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the world. Often people choose something to fast to help focus. Last year I stopped drinking coffee during Lent – if you know me you know how much I love my espresso – so I was very focussed every day!

But this year instead of denying myself something, I am adding a spiritual practice to help me focus on Jesus and His mission in our world. I am adding deliberate focussed prayer 3 times a day. I am not doing it to try to “twist God’s arm” – this is a voluntary humbling of oneself to gaining more clarity. A legalistic approach will never achieve good in your life – we grow through grace as He prompts us.

So may you be led by God into what He wants you to do to grow more and more like Him.

Lloyd