Humbleness and Christlike: will the Real Jesus Stand up

So we are going to Prince George and help out a new congregation.
Mmmmm Hilary thinks brownie points!

We have been talking about Humblesness and Humility and will the Real Jesus Stand up.
Turn to Philipians 2 and read how Crist became humble.

True humility, as exemplified in Jesus’ life, is strong, courageous, fearless. It takes strength of character to be really humble, a willingness to give up one’s rights for the good of others and for the good of the whole. It’s not about building a name for oneself, but serving others.

Man must separate himself from the herd in order to live, but the inevitable result of this act is that he will be despised, feared, and envied by those still within the herd.


Humbleness appears again and again in Jesus’ message.

Matthew 18: 1-5. We see Jesus applauding the heart and spirit of a small child. The crowning characteristic of a child is a teachable spirit, willing to learn.

Matthew 20: 25-28. The disciples were ambitious, wanting to attain high positions within the Kingdom. Two of them came to Jesus desiring key positions in heaven. When the other 10 overheard their request, they were indignant. So Jesus called them together to share a key thought about serving others, saying, “those who serve will be first in God’s Kingdom.”

John 13: 1-17. The Upper Room on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. As Jesus got up from the table, he poured water into a basin, wrapped a towel around his waist and began washing their feet.

Real humility is willingly laying aside one’s dignity to perform the lowly duties of a slave in demonstrating God’s love to others.
Jesus was like this all His life; how can we imitate Him when in Prince George?

The Mosaic Law was the foundation of the morality of the society Jesus moved in, and therefore by rejecting it He was rejecting the morality of his society.
How can we reject the morality of our society?

The Kingdom of God cannot be reached through reason, intelligence, or wisdom.
As humble people, how can we reach the Kingdom of God?

Entering the Kingdom of God is not a gradual process, but a leap; which cannot be rationally understood and clearly represents a step beyond what we are capable of imagining today.
What would your leap be like?

So, you wanna be a prophet?

Isaiah 61: 1-3, Micah 2: 1-3, Book of Mark

Isaiah 61: 1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise, instead of a spirit of despair.

Micah 2:1-3 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore, the LORD says: "I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.


Prophet requirements include a firm commitment to God; a willingness to wrestle; a sensitivity to evil; a sense to feel the thud of injustice; a propensity to identify with human suffering; ability to rock the boat; not anxious of conflict; be able to survive without living as a hypocrite; having society describe you crazy, dangerous, subversive; being able to criticize societal values: wealth, power, and prestige; you even have to comfort those who suffer.

And it’s risky. Poverty, Embarrassment, Ridicule, Persecution, Assassination, even Execution; prophets are not fortunetellers, but people called to bear out a duty. Responsible for proclaiming God with determination, power and passion, your even positioned as Christ’s representation for an entire community.

Conversation Creators

1) When the true spirit of justice is lost, how can we challenge society’s practice of justice?
2) How do we ‘rock the boat’ when we see evil, hypocrisy, suffering?
3) ‘Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the Children of God': it is pretty hard to be a peace maker when you are stirring up trouble
4) In our modern society, where it seems that purely materialistic philosophy of life and the universe prevails, it can be difficult to get people to listen: So, why bother being a prophet?
5) Isn’t it much more comfortable staying at home in peace or living a ‘good life’?
6) Could you be a prophet if God called you resolutely to speak for Him?

When God Is Silent The Living Church Foundation

Isaiah 59:1-4 Psalm 13; Heb:5:6-12; Mark 10:46-52


Isaiah gives voice to a wayward nation, describing its miserable condition and the Psalm is a plea from the victims of an oppressive enemy who beg God for deliverance.

Hebrews calls to Christian believers who are moving away from God. Their condition of backsliding is bluntly described — those who should have been teachers are in fact no better than children in the ways of God. They are admonished and encouraged to show earnestness in the way forward. It is noteworthy that, in spite of their disappointing sluggishness in Christ, they are nonetheless addressed as “beloved.”



In the case of those in the Old Testament, God is silent because the people have abandoned God for a sinful life, but in the epistle, the faithful are far from God, not because of deliberate sin but because they have avoided maturity in Christ.

Finally, in Mark the theme is completed in the person of Bartimaeus, who is blind and begging by the roadside. He is as blind as those the psalmist talks about, as sidelined among the people of God as those addressed in Hebrews, but he shows how to respond. Bartimaeus perseveres in his cry through the crowd’s opposition, and comes to Jesus quickly when he is called. He must acknowledge publicly and before Jesus what is his heart’s desire. He knows that his sight, once restored, will change his life forever. No longer will he be able to beg; no longer will his place be by the roadside. 
Similarly, when the people described in Isaiah turn from their wickedness, they will live; and those addressed in Hebrews are enjoined to “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.”



Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Go your way.” According to the last line of the gospel, what did Bartimaeus identify as his “way”?

If God is silent in whole or in part of your life, are there any “iniquities” that might be causing that silence?

As there was people who tried to stop Bartimaeus from calling to Jesus, do we let others and stuff to get in our way of God?

Lets talk about some of these words/phrases: courage, strong faith, resilience, no social boundaries in Jesus, powerful appropriation.

What do you think of this: I want to be following Jesus rather than I want to be like Jesus - which is more correct?

Christian Ministry in a Pagan Environment

I found a great site on the net, Please have a go at the writing...it is refreshing

Thirteen Paradigm Shifts we encountered doing Christian ministry in a pagan environment...

1. Other People Exist: Simply coming to the understanding that the world does not revolve around “me” but that everybody is having an experience, created by God, loved by God, and that we needed to repent of showing partiality...

2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them: We began to understand that people, subconsciously, merit a religious or philosophical idea not on logical conclusions, but on whether or not the idea creates a “good person”...the definition of a good person being whether or not a person is kind to them, tolerant and understanding, able to listen without arguing and so on.

3. Nobody will listen to God unless they know God loves them: We came to believe there was usually a hidden pain behind hostility, that many people have been hurt by the church, or people or perspectives they believed to represent God. Many
times its as simple as an interview they saw on CNN, but an apology and kindness went a long way in helping people understand God was loving.

4. Other people have morality and values: We came to understand that Christians do not own morality, that everybody lives by a moral code, not always informed by an ancient text, and yet it is there. Calling people or even thinking of them as
immoral was, then, inappropriate. In fact, we often found that people who did not know Christ lived a morality close to his heart in many areas we had ignored, ie; community, tolerance, social justice, fairness and equality, freedom, beauty and
so on and so on.

5. Find common ground: Often the morality of others overlapped Christian morality, and we came to understand that in these cases, we would focus on the overlapping issues. We came to see this as kindness, just as though we were on a date or
making friends, we did not focus on what we didn’t have in common, but rather on mutual feelings about life. We would not say or do anything to combat people unless they knew we loved them, and this takes a great deal of time.

6. Define terms in their language: We were careful about Christian sayings and phrases that might be offensive: Crusade, sin, immorality....we came to understand that concepts were more sacred than terms...

7. Telling somebody about the gospel is about them, not us: We were careful not to try to “build our organization” and respected peoples freedom and space. Sharing the gospel became an exercise in friendship, rather than an attempt to grow a
machine. Often, people feel used if they feel they are being recruited. The gospel, we learned, is really about them, their feelings about God and truth, about sin, about life 8. Don’t let spreading the gospel feel any different than telling somebody about a love in your life, about your children or a great memory: We realized that in telling somebody about Jesus, we were telling them about somebody we have come to love and need, and about something that had happened to us, an encounter. This keeps us from sounding preachy, and allows us to share part of ourselves in a friendship.

9. Include lost People in Your Community: Our organization was not exclusive. We invited non-believers into the community if they wanted to be invited. We were careful not to not be ourselves with them, but they were certainly invited and enjoyed being a part of the group. We explained terms that we used, what we believed, but other than that, continued as normal.

10. Apologize for what you represent: We discovered that many people have been offended or hurt by what they perceive Christianity to be. We allowed ourselves to stand in the place of “Christianity” and apologize whenever necessary.

11. Be authentic: We discovered the need to be as honest about our lives as possible. We did not feel the need to sale Jesus, as much as share what He has done in our broken lives. We had no problem sharing our doubts and fears about faith, along with our commitment and appreciation for what God had done.

12. Pray for the Salvation of others: We discovered the need to pray for others. This would insure God was working in peoples lives, as we asked Him to. We discovered the work of evangelism is something God lets us watch, but very little of it is what we manipulate. We repented of not believing evangelism was a spiritual exchange between a lost person and God, rather than believing it was a series of ideas we were supposed to convince others of.

13. Ask people if they would like to know Christ: We decided to initiate, whenever the relationship called for it. We were not afraid to ask people if they would like to know God.

DonaldMillerWords.com

Fleeing Exile

Life just ain’t simple. We live in world rich in symbolism; deeds hard to articulate; words and stories that grind resonance into abstract thought; art subverted into created worlds we do not wish on our children. And until we lift our eyes from our culture and examine the landscape, we will never take the first step on our journey: we remain in exile.

Jesus, to those that know him: the name above all names; more popular than the Beatles; 3 Billion people declare his name each day! To another world: a sage, a teacher of wisdom, a cynic wordsmith, a prophet, a blazon of the lingering awaited Kingdom?

Our task is to rehearse the equivalent of the Kingdom within our culture. Forward into God’s sorted world, forward with symbols, the humble praxis of the gospel, our task as Christians is to be in the front row of the world. However, what is missing from the equation is, of course, love; and this solicitude is our vocation: to tell the story, to live by the symbols, to act out the praxis, and to flee from exile.

Like Jonah fleeing God for Tarsus we can flee from exile. However, our flight is not like Jonah’s. Enslavement to sin, a life of servitude, languishing in prison, means at some point we will hope to escape. And Jesus rightly argues forgiveness. He says it is time to go home...find you way on the crooked path and should you stumble, he is there, yolked, easing the burdens.

Gabriel visited Daniel, Ezekiel saw the earth shake and a people materialize from dry bones, Jeremiah shouting from mountains into the inmost parts of the earth, John shouting out loud, “ behold the lamb who takes away the sin of the world.” They all share the same: forgiveness.

So Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom and his offerings of forgiveness is how God returns to Zion. His forcefulness in the temple, a new covenant in the upper room, riding on a donkey, silent lips when accused, forgiveness on the cross all show how God works. Not in one fell swoop of Roman invasion, but with humility and passion.

Forgiveness, of course, is not easy to master. It is a journey, and it starts when we risk pain, disappointment, let go of defensiveness; it means being able to accept our human situation by refusing evil to continue, refusing to participate in injustice, and to reveal sin our lives.

Self-Denial of Jesus

John 4:1 - 30 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

Tired as he was, Jesus was fully human, and it is easy to forget that he was completely man, needing food, sleep, refreshment and all of the other things that are distinctly part of our daily lives. Our bodies constantly cry out with needs: sleep, food, water, diversion, and fun.

Jesus was a model of self-denial; he spent his days ministering to the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of the people around him. I am certain we all know how draining it can be to minister to people. As you read on in this account you see Jesus initiating and meeting the needs of the Samaritan woman, overcoming her attempts to brush him off.

In Jesus' day people were not plagued with materialism that today's church has. Wealth was not abundant and the problem of spending and possession was not like our reality. Most people stayed in their class for the remainder of their lives and what is significant, is there was no priority placed on worldly goods, economic systems and social transformation.

That self-denial of Jesus convicts hearts about how easily we choose to meet needs over choosing what is best.


Are you driven by meeting your needs or by what is best?

How well do you discern between your needs and your wants?

Meditate on self-denial in Jesus life and your own.

Is Self Denial a characteristic of the Christian Life?

The Death of Lazarus

This Thursday, Oct 5, we meet at Hilary place 13527 124a Ave basement at 7:30.



Death is so common to our generation.
Desensitizing death is a media strength: a couple Chainsaw massacres, 13 renditions of Freddy, CSI, The Six o'clock News. But what about death and death so real, so final, you wail and life sucks for the rest of your life.

Jesus dealt with death: we find Jesus is not apathetic; He is sympathetic. He shares our pain. And as Jesus weeps we might discover GodÂ’s love brings us back to the promise of resurrection and hope, a hope woven into the fabric of creation.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
John 11: 1-44

The Death of Lazarus
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." 4When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." 5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. 7Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." 8"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" 9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." 11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." 12His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.14So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Bethany was less than two miles[a] from Jerusalem, 19and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." 28And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. 32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34"Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. 35Jesus wept. 36Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said.  "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.  Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Conversation Creators
If your best friend did not come when you needed them, how would you feel?
Why do you think Jesus deliberately delays for two days before setting out to see Lazarus?
Jesus did not cry when He got word of Lazarus death, but he did cry when we went with Mary to the tomb. Why?
Have you been to a funeral where there was no sense of eternal life?
How did you go away from that experience?
What difference does hope make for you?
What death of a relationship, emotional scars, or other practical concerns and past hurts now block your faith in Jesus?