As our physical life so often parallels our faith journey; the past couple of weeks I had been feeling rather sluggish. You know those times when you wake up feeling more tired then when you went to bed. God bless that magic tonic called coffee!

Anyway yesterday I decided to drink more water. My usual aversion to the conscious intake of pure water is the amount of time spent in the toilet as a result (a place I’d rather spend as little time as possible!). So while I like the idea I can do without the consequences.

So I woke up this morning feeling filled with the appropriate amount of ‘beans’ (lets not over state the case of a Monday morning!) and went for a run after walking the kids to school. To my surprise I ran longer and faster than I have for a while, feeling the drive and energy to enjoy it rather than endure it.

The scientific conclusion I came to, as I ran along the waterfront of Te Atatu, was of course the inclusion of water in my diet the day before had made the difference in how I felt today. And with most things I think about on my run time, my scientific discovery turned into a ‘Selah’ moment……my God is a spring of living water.

Western life style admirably equips us with all we need to do life well. Access to education, resources, money (whether you actually have it or not), endless options for relaxation and enjoyment and an endless variety of food to ensure meal times are never stale. With this as our pedestal, it is easy to think that we can do life well on our own. However as Barney Coombs spoke last night about curses it was evident again to me of our need for God in our lives.

Jeremiah the Prophet named God ‘The Spring of Living Water’ in Jer 17:13 and it was great to see so many drink of that water last night and find aspects of their life restored, freedom found and encouragement in a moment on their journey.

Its been 2 weeks since our ‘Signs of Life’ festival. All the effort and work that many put in to make the event a success was greatly appreciated.

The ongoing challenge for us as a church is to be constantly reminded of our call to champion worship and the prophetic as primary passions.

This idea that our whole life matters to God and that we are called to shape the cultural landscape around us. Creative imagineers who conjure up and propose alternative futures.

Eugenes Pettersons version of Romans 12:1-2 says it so well

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

There are a number of messages on our website that you can listen to if you want to keep the conversation going…

http://www.edgekingsland.co.nz/blog/messages/

Enjoy
Greg

If I mention the 10 commandments, what is the first thing that comes to mind? What rises within you? Thanks to my Sunday school instruction and I wonder perhaps due to the English transition of the biblical text itself, I tend to think of a list of golden rules by which to live, a yard stick by which to measure my standing, very clinical and precise; obey the rule or break the rule with appropriate consequences to match.

Well during the marriage course on Wednesday night Alan Meyer expressed the view that rather than a list of rules given down by an authoritarian parent, the 10 commandments can be viewed as boundaries within which a healthy and fulfilling relationship can be enjoyed. The groom (God) says to the bride (Israel) ‘come and enter a relationship with me’ but on the condition that these 10 things are adhered to. From this perspective these commandments take on a deeper, more relational tone:
1) You shall have no other gods but me   |  make me your first love
2) You shall not make for yourself an idol  |   be faithful to me
3) You shall not misuse the name of the Lord you God  |  talk nicely to me and about me
4) Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy  |   spend quality time with me
5) Honor your father and your mother | allow me to teach you
6) You shall not murder   |   carry peace in your heart
7) Do not commit adultery  |  share your desires and passions with me
8)  Do not steal  |  I love a generous person
9) Do not give false testimony against your neighbour  |  I love an honest person
10) You shall not covet   |  be content and thankful for what I have given you

From this interpretation my response is of course I can be that person rather than I must be that person. I’d rather hear ‘of course’ from my wife or friend rather than an ‘I must’. I’m sure God feels the same.

Thanks Alan for the insight. Golden.

SOL – Friday, Cindy Ruakere

SOL – Friday, Greg Burson & Cindy Ruakere

SOL – Friday, Jeff Crabtree

I spent a bit of time yesterday sitting on my deck in the sun (yes I had sun in my world yesterday!) mulling over the parable of the Sower. Whenever I read this parable or heard it preached I always felt an element of guilt about having a hard heart or wrong motives, not giving God enough of a priority or significance in my life, that I was wasting the gift of faith given to me.

I have a vegetable garden at home, but it doesn’t take up my entire back yard. There is an area for a compost, and lawn for my boys to play soccer on. The only area I really want to grow anything fruitful is the garden patch. That’s the space I put most of my energy and effort to ensure what I plant there thrives. So it occurred to me as Greg was speaking on Sunday that instead of worrying about the seed falling on the hard, rocky and thorn invested areas of my life that I focus instead on the that part of me that is rich and fertile. With 25% of the seed that is sown falling there, surely some thing amazing will grow as a result.
In leadership training I was always encouraged to build on my strengths rather than focusing on my weaknesses. To pray and nurture into the word and truth that has fallen into the fertile place in my soul rather than worrying about the ideas and messages that have fallen elsewhere seems much more positive, and anyway, doesn’t a farmer sow the same seed variety over an entire field?

In addition I read the subsequent parables that followed; the parables of the Growing Seed and of the Mustard Seed, both of which provided some amazing context to the Parable of the Sower.
Ignoring the advancement in scientific understanding for a moment, the life cycle of a plant is an incredible mystery (when was the last time you made a seed out of nothing and got it to grow?)
These parables highlight to me that whether we fret over what God has sown into our lives or just rest in it doesn’t change the fact that whatever is sown, no matter how small a seed, word, idea or future, that maybe if it’s sown in the fertile place within us, it will grow. And it will impact our future and the lives and communities we are connected too. Can anything prophetic be thwarted? Anyway I was quite encouraged.

Based on our conversations, experiences and the workshops we attended, Signs of Life no doubt meant something different for each of us. To assume we all got the same out of it would be ignoring that we are all on our own unique journey and have futures that are not identical.
From my perspective I got to serve with some amazing people over that time who understand worship and the prophetic at it’s most organic. It was a privilege to be a part of this and to hear from the likes of Jeff, Cindy, Greg and many within our Edge family. The variety of conversation definitely added to the flavour I reckon.
I’d like to think that this was not another conference notch on our belt. I rather hope that our imaginations have been awakened to what the expression of worship and the prophetic is and can be for us as a community of faith. I look forward to gazing back in twelve months time to see how God has used this time together to shape our journey and the representation of our faith.

When’s the last time you did something outrageously generous? Something over-the-top, beyond expectations, something that truly cost you but it didn’t matter because you weren’t even keeping score?

I am listening to a pastor recount an old story from the Bible … one I’ve heard before but suddenly find more beautiful than I ever have.

It’s the story of a woman, who comes up to Jesus with a bottle of incredibly expensive perfume (we’re talking Ralph Lauren Notorious here, not ‘Purr’ by Katy Perry), and pours (yes, not sprays, pours) the entire bottle over his head – anointing him with the most precious thing she had.

This was a generous act. An act of such extravagance, that the other people in the room were completely dumbfounded, and a tad disapproving.

‘How could she do this,’ they whispered, ‘Doesn’t she realise that the sale of that perfume could feed the poor for weeks!?’

True. But perhaps they’re missing the point.

I think we’re all conditioned to approach life in a way that leaves us befuddled by something this radically generous.

We try to save money on purchases, save time throughout the week, save up our energy for the weekends … always conserving, cutting corners, squandering resources, with a mind-set that screams poverty and shies at the threat of potential take-over.

Doing something really generous seems almost impossible. We’ve got enough to worry about just taking care of our own needs!

It takes a whole new mind-set to give away. To let go. To spend the time, energy and resources that we have in our possession on other people who might need it more.

But if we do, it leaves a fragrance. And that fragrance is truly beautiful.

Latesha Randall

http://hellofaith.com/reflections/creating-beautiful-fragrant-moments/

Paul tells us in Philippians that if we have accepted the good news of Christ we are now citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20). Citizens of heaven…it sounds cool, but what does it mean?
As well as receiving certain privileges, such as eternal life, citizenship also comes with responsibilities. In talking about the word that is translated as “citizens” in Phil 3:20, one scholar says, “Often [it] was used to designate a colony of foreigners or relocated veterans whose purpose was to secure the conquered country for the conquering country by spreading abroad that country’s way of doing things, its customs, its culture, and its laws.”
The Philippians would have understood that it was their responsibility as Roman citizens to transform the place where they lived so it resembled Rome. As citizens of heaven, they therefore also had a responsibility to transform the place in which they lived so that it—as much as was possible—resembled heaven…and this is now our responsibility too! But how do we go about doing that?
Central to Paul’s understanding of this is what is sometimes called the Christ pattern:
Philippians 2:5–11 (NIV)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Living as a citizen of heaven means learning to live this pattern in all our relationships…a pattern of humility, sacrifice, extravagant love, selflessness, compassion, empathy…

Andy D