A friend of mine was telling me about the chapter in the book, Jesus Has Left The Building, about how the author looked up his income at www.globalrichlist.com and found that he was in the top 6% of the richest people in the world. I was amazed at his testimony and how the Lord had convicted him through scripture that the rich are to be giving to the poor. I think I fall into the same category as most Americans, we don't drive Hummers and have million dollar homes and yet compared to the ENTIRE world population we are VERY VERY rich! I encourage you to checkout where YOU fall into the world's richest people. I think you will be amazed and (a bit ashamed). According to our (humble) income we are even richer than the author of this book and rank in the top .98% of the richest people on earth! We are the 59,029,289 richest people on earth!
I went immediately to WorldVision and sponsored a family for just $40 a month. Yep, that's all it takes to sponsor an entire family!!!
God has already been speaking to me about ways to cut back on expenses and knowing that I am supporting a family for such a small amount of money it just blows me away! (And we think we struggle to meet bills-yikes! We are so blessed we don't even know it!) I encourage you to read Jesus Has Left The Building and let Paul Vieira's words draw you into what God is doing in the world, particularly with the western church. Open your heart to treasure what God treasures and not what the western world treasures! God likes to shake things up, He has in the past, as the author explains the story behind the ark of the covenant and the ways God worked once and changed. He's moving in new ways today! God wants to get out of your "box" and into your life! Paul Vieira writes, in chapter six, that God wants to set up a tent in your back yard! (He makes house calls too!)
I've been having a particularly hard week with one of my kids, guess who?
I was reading another homeschooling mom's blog and just prayed the prayer that she suggests, I just started to cry when I prayed it. She suggests that you ask the Lord to let you see these treasures through His eyes, for His purpose. She suggests it will help you calm down as well as see your purpose and value to the KING OF KINGS!
All my children are such blessings. I wonder sometimes why God chose me to be the mother to these kids, and why He thinks I am worthy. Only He knows I guess, but what wonderful gifts I have been given!
Here is my blessing number 2 proudly sporting his new cover from his Uncle Bret!
Frank Viola contrasts the institutional paradigm verses the Biblical Paradigm in his book,
Rethinking the Wineskin:
The Practice of the New Testament Church
by Frank Viola
Most American Christians have learned to read their NTs through the modern lens of 20th-century institutionalism. Hence, there is an urgent need for us to rethink our entire concept of church and learn to see it afresh through the lens of the NT authors.
Because of common misteaching, we have many deeply buried assumptions that are in need of excavation and examination. We have been mistaught that "church" means a building, a denomination, or an organizational structure. And that a "minister" is a special class of Christian.
Since our contemporary notion of the church has been so entrenched in man's thinking, it requires a conscious effort to view it in the way that all first-century Christians did. It demands that we rigorously plough through the thick and tangled weeds of human tradition until we unearth the virgin soil of spiritual reality.
Only the necessary task of rethinking the church in its Scriptural context will enable us to distinguish between the Biblical notion of church and those institutions that pose as churches. Let us briefly isolate some of those differences:
renders the bulk of its congregants passive-in-their-pews
associates church with a building or a denomination that one "joins"
is rooted in unifying those who share a special set of customs or doctrines
thrusts "ordinary" Christians out of the holy of holies and chains them to a pew
places its priority on religious programs and keeps its congregants at arms-length, insulating them from one another
spends most of its resources on building expenditures and pastor-staff salaries
operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the functional head (while Christ is the nominal head)
enshrines and protects the clergy-dominated, program-centered system that serves as the driving machine of the organized church
builds programs to fuel the church; views people as cogs in the machine
encourages believers to participate institutionally and hierarchically
separates church(ecclesiology) from personal salvation (soteriology); views the former as a mere appendage to the latter
The Biblical Paradigm
knows nothing of a clergy system
doesn't recognize a separate class called laity
makes all members functioning priests
affirms that people do not go to church nor join the church . . . affirms that they are the church
is rooted in unreserved fellowship with all Christians based on Christ alone
liberates all believers to serve as ministers in the context of a non-clerical, decentralized form of church leadership
places its priority on face-to-face, shared-life relationships, mutual submission, openness, freedom, mutual service, and spiritual reality-the very elements that were built into the fabric of the NT church
spends most of its resources on "the poor among you" and apostolic workers
operates on the basis that Christ is the functional Head through the invisible guidance of the Holy Spirit through the believing community
shows a revulsion for the clergy system because it quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit (yet lovingly embraces every Christian within that system)
builds people together with Christ to provide the momentum for the church
invites believers to participate relationally and spiritually
forges no link between personal salvation and the church; sees the two as inextricably intertwined. (Scripture has it that when people were saved, they simultaneously became part of the church and immediately met together.)
He summarizes with:
"We live in an hour when the Spirit of God is beckoning His people to embrace His ultimate intention regarding His beloved church. This intention rests upon forming a people who are filled with the new wine of God's Spirit for the single purpose of preparing them to be a glorious Bride for His Son. Within this context, He is summoning His people to re-examine the old wineskin of church practice."
George Moreshead explains,
In these times when doing (even if doing 'for God' and 'for His glory') has so largely eclipsed the Biblical emphasis on, and the priority of, being and becoming, it would seem to be equally necessary and important to have those with the spiritual understanding and discernment to know what the NT 'Israel' ought both to do and not to do! How then can there be anything to rival, as the primary need of the present time, the raising up of those who see from heaven-believers of exceptional spiritual stature and a Spirit-taught understanding of this time, for the building up of the Body of Christ to the measure of Christ's fullness? How else can the 'old men' of the new 'Israel' join in with their younger brethren in the song of victory and the shout of success over God's completed house? ("Understanding the Times," unpublished article-slightly paraphrased)
This has been hard for many of us to learn and un-learn what God's church really is. A pardigm shift though can only be revealed by God to a believer's heart that has been opened to full reliance on God. No agenda's, no programs, only the full assurrance that God alone is building His church, just as He said He would and still is today!
“Every happening ,
great and small
is a parable
whereby God speaks to us,
and the art of life is to get the message.”
~Malcolm Muggeridge
I loved this quote. I really do believe God speaks in parables to us. Every day is a new message from God. Like puzzle pieces that fit together we look back at our lives and realize that God was creating a masterpiece from the very beginning. We need not worry about today, God is working out all the little details in His time!
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 19-25)
We were studying the other night in Bible study about the cross and what it means. Did Christ really HAVE to die for us and our sin? Was the cross really Jesus taking our punishment or was it really the CURE? If we have been cleansed from sin, why is there still sin? We don't have it all figured out (will we really ever?!) but what we did conclude is that there is no shame and guilt anymore. God no longer sees our sin when we come to Christ. Do we then go on sinning? No. I liked the verse from Hebrews above. I felt it was the sum of what we were discussing. Jesus' body his life, death, and resurrection opened the door to God the Father. We no longer need a priest-since we can now enter into God's presence completely and fully because of the life of Christ. There is also no more shame or guilt when we SEEK God. Wayne Jacobsen said that if God is whom you RUN TO when you sin then you understand the cross.
Why do so many Christians then engage in shame-based behaviors? I don't think they fully understand what Jesus did on the cross. I know I didn't, nor do I still understand it fully! We need to no longer rely on what we were taught in our upbringing but read our Bibles for ourselves and see what God has said in HIs Holy Word. It's all there, and quite surprisingly, very different from what we THOUGHT the Bible said about things such as going to church, tithing, meeting together, what it means to live a purposeful life, what do pain and suffering really mean, what does God feel about children, both abortion and PREVENTING children, money, forgiveness?
Take a look at the Duggar family with 16 children. They have a lot of kids and their character reveals that they have really looked at God's word and studied for themselves what it means to live the Christian life. It surprisingly has very little to do with what kind of car you drive or house you live in. It is about relationships, and welcoming children for the blessings that they really are, loving God every day for every little thing He is in and He is there! God is not so Holy that he cannot look at our sin, or that He runs from us because of our sin. God did not turn his back on Adam and Eve when they sinned in the garden, he went looking for them! God is not running away from you and your sin, He is looking for you in the middle of your sin. How can it be? He is God. Sin has been cured with the cross of Christ. I no longer embrace the shame-driven ways of our culture. I am FREE! Now, Lord, help us to continue to live in Your FREEDOM!
I liked this one because my kids could really relate. We don't eat McDonald's anymore, and barely even occassionally (once every six months maybe?). I will go to the grocery store and make the fifteen minute drive home before I stop and order McDonalds. We do eat pizza though but the kids know it is a treat, not an everyday food. "Fun Food!"
Just like our bodies cannot survive on junk food, neither can our spirits survive on junk food. T.V., video games these are all junk food for our spirits. I really never thought of it that way. The kids could really understand this!
"It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." (Luke 4:4).
The kids also liked how the devotion said that there are billionares who would want to be them! Why? Because they have their whole life ahead of them to learn about God. The billionares wasted their life on serving Money and Power.
This is what my husband and I really want to instill in our boys, it's not what they do in life but that they love and serve God.
This blog is about our life and adventures in homeschooling, making our priority to train and educate our children in our home as we seek the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord. Come, Take, and Learn-(right Jack?!)
