What follows are summaries of recent journal entries of mine:
6/30/12
Jimmy Needham has a song "Clear the Stage" in the album "Clear the Stage". It speaks of whole devotion to God, searching our hearts for idols, sitting still and listening to God, and submitting our plans to God. It's excellent. You can find it on grooveshark.com
Spiritual warfare against idols:
Simply thinking and wishing often takes a long time to destroy idols in our hearts, and we need to be AGGRESSIVE against them. Try this: write the names of your idols on some material and then destroy it. Your idol is whatever you need to no longer think about so much, or has been taking too much priority, be it power seeking, popularity, recognition, accomplishment, fear, pain, sex, fame for your kids, your spouse, etc. The material depends on what you can find. Personally I would love to get a cement block and a sledgehammer, but that might not be practical. Use paper, clay, fruit and a baseball bat, anything. Then just beat it up.
Demonstrate to yourself that you HATE this idol, that it is a lie and a work of the devil, and you want God to be first. Men of God, we can't run around these days killing dragons, but we can kill idols and lies, for ourselves and be vigilant to help others, this is our true battle.
6/28/12
Current statistic: there is only about 1 missionary sent per 40 to 70 churches in America. Think about that.
This is extremely sad, and a little annoying. Even small churches ought to be able to send 1 or 2 missionaries alone. If we can do this, we can increase the number of missionaries 50 to 100 fold. Wouldn't that change the world?
So DO it. If your church does not have a missionary, talk to the pastors, to friends, etc and make it happen. BE that missionary. Find supporters.
6/28/12
In thinking about what your life should go towards, find an area where these four intersect: things your enjoy, things you're good at, things the world needs (or you think it needs), things God has put in your life or been calling your specifically to (although that should get first priority, I guess).
Remember, you can and should do ministry RIGHT NOW, wherever you are and however equipped you are. Don't think your work will come later. Remember also, keep your future open and listen to God, needing only the next step lighted for you (and maybe not even that). Read Numbers 9:15-23. My bible commentary says this is one of the few things the Israelites did right.
6/26/12
Some major pillars for kingdom living strategy:
1 Devotion to God - includes digging into God's word, personal idol smashing, and worship/ prayer
2 Revival seeking - confession and realness as a community, intercessory and radical prayer for miracles and movements among people. Earnestly seeking him. Listening to Gods voice and tugs of the holy spirit.
3 Communism - early acts strategies of having everything in common, all bound together by love and a trust that God will provide, breaking bread together every day, living in community. For me, I see multiple families living under one roof, cutting a lot of costs and gaining much through say...babysitting, cleaning, community discipleship and accountability, etc. Families could also take in college students, orphans (mass adoption), etc. Practice hospitality.
4 Men and women - personal identity and God calling roles. The roles of men and women as truth fighters and beauty givers, sons and daughters of god, heirs of the kingdom, wholly loved by God, bride of Christ. Inspiration. Sanctification. Discipleship, Paul and Timothy chains, 2 Tim 2:2 chains, raising up leaders to replace you, etc. Read books (esp. book #1) like your life depends on it if you don't have wiser people around to teach you.
5 Missional life - having a mindset so trained that it is subconcious, living to pour out energy and love towards others, expressing through actions, attention, and words that you love them, because you are safe, protected, provided for by God, therefore you are able to love them without fear of losing something yourself. Devote a good chunk of your time to actual evangelism type stuff. Working in humanitarian organizations, going out into bars and the dark places to simply meet people who often don't meet Christians or get love from anyone. Follow up with these people and do relational evangelism.
6/23/12
People laugh (esp. kids) not necessarily because something is funny, slapstick, or makes them feel good about themselves, but because they are loved and so have joy, love giving them the freedom to be playful.
6/23/12
Community (christian or non) can be channeled into community service, kingdom service, bible study and whatnot. This may be a useful sort of relational evangelism. Building a community with a lot of non believers and then channeling towards activities that spark conversations about more meaningful things.
6/19/12
It is not necessarily the environment or the current situation of the world we are trying to restore for the kingdom, it is mostly just the people. People control everything and are the most valuable. And people have their choices given by free will which you cannot change and should not force. Therefore, it is only (or primarily) how YOU act that you can change, and simply by this beacon, and how you give love to others, allowing the holy spirit to do the rest, that you can change the world. Honorably proclaim gods truth.
6/14/12 (this concept is much older)
We have no right, and should not interefere, with anyone who is acting immorally but does not believe he/she is doing wrong. We can only call out fellow Christians. Not-yet-Christians should first WANT to follow the truth, THEN we can call out behaviors. Before that point, answer moral questions honestly but perhaps a little guardedly and steering towards love. For whom did Jesus condemn but the pharisees, not the sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes who hung out with him so often.
Well, I could go back farther than this but I need to get back to work.
God bless you all.
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