The 'A' word

Last night was bible study and we gave Eph 5 a shot. Paul doesn't give you much room to move in the first 21 verses so there was not too much room to hide.

But we did end with a discussion by way of application with a word or two about accountability. Here are some of our thoughts, we were just flying a kite, but see what you think.

I think that in our Christian circles the word 'accountability' has gone the way of 'rebuke'. It has been overused and abused and no one really knows what it means anymore or even if they like what they think it might mean.

In our inevitable way, we have taken something very relationally driven and jammed it into a structure. In doing so we might have broken it. We realised that it is very hard to manufacture 'accountability' if it doesn't grow naturally out of friendship. You would hope that your group of friends is a soft place to land, and that in that kind of place, people can keep you walking the path with the kind of checks and balances that friends have.

So we decided not to pair up with accountability partners, but instead, work a little harder on the firednships in our Bible study and get them to 'do the work' that we have become so used to farming out to 'proffessional accoutnability friends'.

What sort of characteristics will these friendships have to make this work?

Well, we thought that we need to be gentle, but not soft with each other.
Compassionate, but not careless.

We also thought that rather than being a 'Mr Fix it' for each other, we should be more like guide dogs. Walking the road hand in hand. (Yes, know dog's don't have hands.)

Those are some of our thoughts from last night.

Got any more to add?

Scott

Ninja's

Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying.


I'd cough up and give him points for creativety



Scott

The call

What's the most amazing kind of emergency phone call you could get?

How about:

"Scott, we have a girl done where at the office who has just gone into labour and needs a lift to the hospital!"

Well, this morning, that's what I got when I answered the phone.
I buzzed Hayley to come over with me and we met a girl who lives in the block of flats opposite us who was, sure enough, just going into labour. The father was long gone and she was new in town with next to no friends. So she came to church.

In the end I took Ben, and Hayley took our new friend to the hospital. What struck me was that she was remarkably calm and even withdrawn. Sadly, when Hayley was chatting to her in the car it came out that she may of felt guilty or embarressed. Or maybe but just a very private person. Either way, she didn't even want Hayley to go in with her, not even to carry her bags.

But nevertheless, in a few days time we will pop over to flat 207 and meet the little one. I'll let you know how it goes!

Scott

If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day
John Archibald Wheeler

Precision

Meet Chris and Di. I don't have a picture of them so you'll have to use your imagination.

They work in a fancy building in the city with an uninterrupted view of Table Mt. Di is a power dresser, but Chris is happy to get around in a fairly ordinary suit. They are both very nice and very smart.

Chris and Di are tax consultants. My Dad and I went to see them last week to work out how we could loose the least amount of money between Sydney and Cape Town. It was a productive meeting (for R1250 per hr you would want it to be) and they even threw in a free pot of nicely brewed coffee (free, if you ignore the R1250 per hr)

But what impressed me with Chris and Di was their precision. As soon as we started taking shop, they were in the zone. They took notes, made flow diagrams and quized us on even the little points. They were ultra careful with the words they used, never wasting them, but picking just the right ones from their tax vocab, to ensure they conveyed exactly what they meant.

I liked Chris and Di, and it croswsed my mind that they would make good preachers. Maybe you are not burnt by this, but lately I have heard preachers say stuff like,
" . . . so God's wisdom is Jesus, it's the gospel, it's our salvation!"



Well, which one is it?

A good clear message is like a snipers bullet, not random machine gun fire.

I'm not asking for uptight theological nitpicking, but a clear train of thought where the words are chosen becuase they have a punch, a specific meaning, and not just because they sound Christian.
Putting together a sermon like this is a lot harder, but far more satisfying and effective.
What do you reckon?

Scott

[I write this blog as someone who needs big work on this too. Just so you know]

Men's Day

Last week in South Africa we celebrated Women's Day.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love women. In fact my best friend is a women ;)
Having a day to remember their part of the struggle is great.

But contrary to popular belief, everyday is not men's day. And even if we did have a day for us, most of us are so confused about what this would mean that I don't actually think we would know how to celebrate it anyway.

So, into the void speaks the wisdom of Fight Club.

"I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived --

an entire generation pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves

with white collars. Advertisements have them chasing cars and clothes,

working jobs they hate so they can buy shit they don't need. We are

the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no

great war, or great depression. The great war is a spiritual war. The

great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe

that we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars -- but we won't.

And we're learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed-off."

Scott

I prayed to accept Jesus as Lord

There was a great gospel event a few weeks ago at the revival centre at Linfield. They even pulled Nathan Tasker to sing up a storm.

At the end of the evening, many people responded.

Apparently though, so did I.

Just so you get the flavour of the 'in joke' by my loyal yokefellows back in Aust., this isn't the first time in the last 10 years I have 'prayed the prayer' . . .

The best gag's are the ones that last for decades . . .

I've got Bible Study tonight on Eph Ch 1v15-23
Thought I might try and straighten my thoughts out here . . .

It’s a prayer that is packed full of big ideas.

Essentially, Paul is asking something for his Ephesians buddies. He wants them to ‘know God better’. Not that they might find extra secrets, but rather that they can plumb the depths of what they already have (1:1-14). We might say he wants them to ‘get’ something. Not ‘get’ as in receive, but ‘get’ as in he wants the penny to drop (v17).

(It’s worth keeping in mind that the Christians in Ephesus lived with the statue and temple of Diana towering over their city, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Paul has some serious convincing to do if he is to give them assurance that they haven’t backed the wrong horse! Which is why he repeats in v17 and 18 ‘so that you may know’. He wants them to see that their Christian assurance comes from their knowledge of God. Good lesson for us too!)

He wants them to know with their whole person (the eyes of their heart) their hope (v18) and God’s power (v19) In fact, he spends the rest of the passage fleshing out this idea of what it will mean for them to ‘get’ God’s power.

We know this power of course. We have seen it in action. It was the power that we saw when God raised Jesus from the dead (v20) and the same power that God used to give Jesus all authority to rule over everything for all time (v21).

Now the thing that should bake our noodle is that this power is for us! (v19) Because in v22-23 we read that God gave Jesus this power with a purpose – that he might rule over everything for the church! We probably would have expected to read that this great power was for the glory of Christ, but no! His power is manifest in the church so that it will be a neon sign flashing like crazy, drawing the world to God and his people (Ch 3:10)

I'm pretty excited by all this, but still wanting the pieces to fall into place.

What does it mean to be possessed by the power of God?
Is it meant to elevate our view of church? In what way?
Will it affect the way we do church? How?
How will this ‘knowledge of God’ change the way to think about yourself?

Scott