Faith. Unity. Love.

To be blunt the Lord has been slapping me with revelation upon revelation of what he is doing in my life and in the wider community. Today I meditated on this verse:

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." - Psalm 133:1

I spent 4 hours on this verse just asking what it means and what the Lord was trying to say through it. Oh man was I in for a treat. Basically the Lord really loves community, when people are willing to "do life together". Together in unity is a beautiful thing when you figure it out that is. When you do it well with the Lord at the centre it's unstoppable. The next verse in this passage talks about it like precious oil being poured out. When you live together well it is delightful. It's just getting to that stage is the challenge. Meaning when you stick 13 people that never knew each other before, in a house with two bathrooms there is bound to be some controversy. However the lord revealed today that it is Iron sharpening Iron - which causes friction. But just stop and think of what friction is.... It's heat right, so that means it creates a spark that can spread like wildfire. If the spark is pure and brings the lord glory then I would say that wildfire would be unstoppable! - Awesome! 
Which brings me to my next verse:

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." - Romans 12:5

Doing this in love. Living in a community where people go low and think of others better than themselves. Which can be a real hard reality if you come from a 'worldly' background. When you are willing to sacrifice for the benefit of your brother or sister it can be a beautiful thing. It's just having that mindset of serving rather than having the mindset of entitlement or 'rights'. In Christ you have no rights, you have no entitlements. I love the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 4:13 - We have become the scum of the earth meaning that when we are slandered, persecuted, cursed we bless, answer kindly, and endure it. Not saying we are the rubbish of the world but we are to think of everyone higher than ourselves. Who are we to judge one another when we have no rights and are not even entitled to say to our brother or sister 'you are wrong so serve me!' So Loving one another:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:20-21

God loves us so much that he will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. He wants us to live a radical life of loving one another. When we can do that and live in community we can't lose! To him be the glory! He is the one that pours out his love on us so that we can overflow onto others. How exciting!
Through all this we need faith:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."         - Hebrews 11:1

I know we have all heard this verse. My grandmother is a big advocate of this. Which I'm thankful for because from a young age it was ingrained in me. I never fully understood the meaning of it until last week though. When you pray for healing you need to believe in yourself that the person can be healed. If you don't trust in the fact that they can be healed then you shouldn't even pray. But when you go at it with zeal and power in believing that your prayer is in line with what God wants then yes! You have faith! I mean there are a lot of different ways to take this verse but that is my take right now. Because something clicked and it made sense, that I just need to believe that what I'm praying will be!  
Our mandate is:

"To prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ"                     - Ephesians 4:12-13

We are to be an example in love, faith and unity for the people around us. When we do community through loving one another through the hard times we become unified through having faith. Make sense? I know my mind was pretty much blown this morning. So when we suffer well through doing this, we will be blessed. When we endure the hardships that the lord has put before us we can't lose. There is so much to be said on unity in the body through Christ. Oh how I love community and the love that can come out of it! I mean some days you will want to kill everyone but most days you love them. The key is when you are going through those difficult days and the people around you can love you through it. Man that's gold! That means you have achieved unity in community through faith in love. Doing life together is not hard. You can do it anywhere, I mean families do it all the time but when you're blood related it's a bit different because you literally are stuck together. But when you're complete strangers and get along like blood relatives, oh that's the good stuff! 

So to come in for a landing:

Doing life together is a beautiful thing! When you suffer well through it, that's the gold!

Jehovah Sneeky

I just have to say that these past few weeks have been a whirlwind of ridiculousness, fun, radical living, trying, radical loving and ah-mazing. All in two weeks we have learned heaps. I have been flipped upside down in such a good way! The circuit riders were in town, this is their description:  

The Circuit Rider History
In 1703 a hero was born and because of this man the world would never be the same. From the time that John Wesley's heart would be "strangely warmed" to his dying day, he never stopped his tireless work of revival and reformation! Out of his heart was birthed a movement called the Methodist revival, and this move of encountering God, deep devotion through the spiritual disciplines, and great exploits among the poor and the lost would explode across the western world leaving an indelible mark. Wesley himself was said to have traveled on horseback some 250,000 miles in his lifetime and to have delivered over 45,000 messages on the good news of Jesus Christ. Out of his mentorship and commissioning, another young man would be launched to the shores of America to "spread scriptural holiness across the land". This man would be perhaps the only man to outride Wesley himself and is said to have spent more miles on a horse than any man in history. This man was Francis Asbury, and even though Wesley was the father of Methodism and the original circuit rider, Asbury would be credited for recruting and organizing a band of selfless and radical riders who the world was not worthy of that would in fact change America's future forever.
This group of rough yet broken men would travel the frontiers of America for decades, taking the Gospel to the most remote places in America. In a time of American history where it was easier to stay in one place and live in the comfort of the few cities that existed, these men refused comfort and driven by the ancient dream of Eden to see mand and God live in intimate fellowship. They rode on. Ove half of them died before reaching age 33 and their annual pay, if any, was around 50 dollars. They did not do it for the love of money, fame nor an affinity towards human comfort. They were absolutely marked by the same determination as Asbury that every home in America would hear and believe the Gospel. When Asbury arrived in America there were a few hundred Methodist followers and a few dozen preachers, but by the time he died there were over 210,000 followers and over 4,000 preachers. America would never be the same because of these wild-eyed revivalists.

They are radical people, living a radical life for the lord. Two guys came and taught us how to share the simple gospel. Then we hit the streets. 120 people from Tauranga gave their lives to the lord within 2 hours. Oh how the lord works! Oh how the lord works!
What I really took from these two weeks was that if you are showing your love and joy for the lord, others are going to want it too! It's so key to remember that.

So stepping into a new role, new season, new people. Oh how great it's been. With anything we have our struggles, challenges, highs & lows. But at the end of the day when I lay my head on my pillow, I know I'm a champion because I cannot name ten people that did what I did in a day. Seriously, it's been amazing to see everything fall into place in the most odd ways sometimes. But seriously, Jehovah Sneeky sometimes!

Another update coming soon.....

A. New. Season.

"We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Community living can be a beautiful thing if you let it. It can also be the biggest nightmare of your life if you let it. The key is prayer, laying the foundation for all that are going to be doing life together for a period of time. If we set the standard of praying for one another daily, we will have a much smoother ride. I think some people don't really know the reality of community living especially when you've never done it before. Shoving 11 people in a house that barely know each other and expecting them all to get along. Ya, Na. Unless if your foundation for living together is rooted in Christ. We need to look at the person when they really annoy us and just say, where is this coming from, what are we bringing up in each other that needs work and how do I pray for this person. It is the hardest thing when you're in the heat of a conflict and all you really want to do is rip their neck off. But alas take a deep breath and don't let the enemy have his foothold.

This season will be challenging in many different ways I feel. New things the lord wants to show, new adventures, new people. It's just a whole new season. I feel as though the lord is about to flip me upside down and take me to new levels. Ha. Then yesterday happened... The first day of our internship, with most of the interns here we were apart of this thing called Circuit Riders. They are a radical bunch of people that really just don't care for the lord. Anyway, listening to them, sitting in my seat, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, sing, shout. I can honestly say that there was some flippage going on in my heart. I feel these next 2 weeks are just going to mess me up and mess the rest of our interns & staff up! I'm excited for what God is allowing to happen, as well that we are allowing him to move in his mighty way!

This time around staffing, it is a completely different environment compared to what I've been part of in the past. It has it's ups and downs but all in all I can say from the bottom of my heart it is going to be a really good season! The lord has some beautiful things planned and has some new things in store for all of us!