In Christianity spiritual growth is not meant to be a solo endeavour – though there have definitely been times I wish it was because people are hard to love and I can be heard to live with!
One woman slept nightly with her pet python sprawled across her body. Eventually, the snake stopped eating so she was worried about it. A vet discovered the snake was curling itself around her to size her up, and starving itself as preparation to devour her!
The poor, the lost, the hurting, and the broken are not problems to be solved or burdens to be borne; they are gifts to us, because they help us experience God’s grace afresh as we meet Jesus in their faces
Church is not a place you go; it’s a people you belong to and a mission you live out.
If we love in the truth,
And are faithful to one another in the truth
And walk together in the truth
We will work together for the truth.
What we measure determines what we think success is.
Most churches still tend to measure by the ABCs:
ATTENDANCE, BUILDINGS and CASH (Offerings)
These are useful, but not optimal – or even biblical!
Being BIG, WEALTHY and INFLUENTIAL does not necessarily mean a church is healthy (as we have seen so graphically and too in recent years).
HOW Does God measure success?
We find ourselves in times of great turmoil and unrest.How should we respond to such challenges? What can and should the church do?
It’s not just about me dying and going to heaven. The gospel is God is showing up here and now in broken places, in hard times in lives, in sickness… this is what the kingdom looks like. For everyday people in all sorts of ways!
Don’t limit yourself by your personality.
Be and believe He’s right in what he says about you! Either he’s right or you are.
There are no limitations when we agree with who He says we are!
Discover who you are in Christ – and act like it.
‘What God gives you is his gift to you, what you do with your gifts is your gift back to him.’ Dave Holden