Inhumanity

Posted on January 30, 2008
Filed Under current affairs | 8 Comments

I’ve had this post on my mind for a few days. Social justice is something very close to my heart. This is a difficult post to write, as I’m not sure how to articulate what I am feeling inside. I look at world affairs these days and see such division, such differences between east and west, vast differences in quality of life. One side living in luxury, whilst the other side lives in despair.

Inhumane things are happening in the world. This week alone I have been distressed reading about the growing situation in Kenya, which Cindy, Sonja and Bill have blogged about, amongst others. Guys, we are witnessing another country “ethnically cleansing”. If let to get out of control the effects will be devastating. I was pleased to see that Kofi Annan has got involved and I really, really pray for progress there and an end to violence. Yet I fear that Kenya may become another Rwanda, another Sierra Leone.

Another ongoing situation is Palestine. Apologies if I offend anyone, but I think it is appalling that Israel can get away with closing all borders with Gaza, knowing that the Palestinian people will have no access to food, drink and other basic living needs. Now Egypt has seen the Palestinians break through and cross their border with Gaza, so that they can stock up on urgently needed supplies. Graciously Egypt has allowed this to continue, but now they are trying to close the border up again, as so may people were coming through etc. The Palestinian people have been oppressed by the Israeli’s for a long time now. I know some of it is a two way thing, in terms of attacks etc, but why should everyone pay because of extremists? We have friends who work with Palestinians and every time Palestinians manage to get a farm up and running, grow their own veg etc, the Israeli’s come by and set fire to it. I don’t care what religion people are from, no body deserves this. God told us to love our neighbour.

I really worry about what judgement God will give us in the west for allowing this type of thing to go on in the world. It seems to me that people are more interested in finding out whether a particular celebrity attending a child custody hearing, or what she was up to the night before, than they are about what is happening in places like Darfur, Zimbabwe, Burma - and all of the other forgotten places in the world.

In the west animals are treated better than human beings are in other parts of the world.

I’m ranting, I’m sorry. I’m so frustrated because, as I have written before, I simply don’t know what to do about these situations. I feel so helpless. I’m praying for a breakthrough. I’m praying that God will restore peace and bring justice. I guess we can all lobby our MP’s, Congressmen etc, continue to support aid agencies. Any other thoughts?

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It’s That Monday Feeling!

Posted on January 28, 2008
Filed Under thoughts, blog | 7 Comments

It’s that Monday feeling!  That is what my husband and I used to often say to each other on Monday’s!  Tired from the busyness at church the day before etc!  These days we usually say to each other on a Saturday evening “It’s that Sunday feeling!” Knowing that the busyness of Sunday is about to follow, along with the struggles we have with it.

I feel completely exhausted today! We had a manic week last week, followed by a just as busy weekend.  My body is groaning at the thought of beginning the week again!

I have a post flying around in my mind, but the inability to write it today, so I’ll save it for tomorrow!  In the mean time, Jeff is a new blogger, and is on a similar journey to many of us.  Please have a peek at his blog.

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Pioneering Spirit

Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under Christianity | 9 Comments

Here’s a post which I have written for another blog today.  I wanted to get responses from my readers here too.

My husband and I often find ourselves trying to figure why it is that we think so differently from everyone else around us. We feel that we are not really like most Christians whom we mix with, at our current church or in other churches we have been a part of. As we speak passionately to people about our desires and thoughts, we can see their eyes glazing over. Our thoughts are often not the same as other peoples. We have a deep conviction that things are simply not as they were intended to be, and a longing to see the church become all that it can be. When I write about church here I am referring to Christian community, not just a building or even any one congregation. We long for people to see Christians living a wonderful, beautiful life that gives hope and is full of meaning. We long for this to be our own experience of our walk with Christ, and we have set out on a journey to discover this life and to share this life with others. Yet, when we speak of these things, although people don’t verbalize it, it is easy to tell that they are thinking “but church is fine how it is.” Sound familiar?

One element of our journey is that we home educate our children. This probably isn’t too different for those of you who live in North America; however, in the UK there are over 12 million children, yet only 13,000 home educating families. The numbers are on the increase, but most still think you are “weird” if you home educate. We don’t actually do this for religious reasons, like some. We basically saw a wonderful life experience we could have with our children, learning and growing together. We also realised that if discipling our children was an important part of our Christian walk, then we wanted to integrate this into our whole family life. Likewise, they get to witness and experience our God journey in a way which maybe they would not have done otherwise.

Other elements of our journey will have included a family advent devotion, a serious attempt at de-commercialising our Christmas, and even composting our waste as a means of taking steps towards being responsible for our environment. I am not trying to hold us up as some great example; we’re just trying to feel our way forward. You might ask what any of this has to do with church; a good question. All we know is that as we have been trying to seek God for what it means to follow him, these are some of the things we’ve felt ‘led’ into.

In gifting tests, my husband always comes out top with Apostolic. He is a visionary, and sometimes he runs too far ahead of me once convinced of something. I am the one who pulls him back, and says “hang on, let’s hear more from God about this.” I always come out high with the prophetic gifting. We strongly believe, and have had it prophesised over us many times, that God has given us a pioneering spirit. More than anything in life we want God to guide us, we want to be in and to follow his will.

As I look at Christians as a group of people today, I see that there is a group being raised up by God. Some of this group of people fit under the umbrella label of the emerging church (without entering into debates about definitions, inclusions and exclusion which are best left for elsewhere!). We are really interested to see what God raises up through this group, and have valued the different relationships we have made with lots of different kinds of people. The thing we often find in common is a pioneering spirit.

A pioneering spirit often means that you don’t know what you are going to before you get there.  You are dependent on God to trust and see what he is doing. You are often entrepreneurial and have a strong sense of journey in your theology. Often people with a pioneering spirit have a strong sense of investing the people in a community. Relationships are important, allowing people to experience and share real life together. It is an adventurous, exciting, yet scary and lonesome journey. Therefore, I think, a pioneering spirit also has moments of complete doubt in themselves. They question what they are doing.  Are they insane? Have they really heard from God? Why doesn’t anyone seem to “get it”? The journey can be incredibly painful at times, and you just want to bang your head against a brick wall and give up.  At other times something so incredibly rewarding comes along that you realize it was all worth it.

Do you think the emerging church is full of pioneer spirits? I do.  The pioneers of the American west were brave men and women who went out to discover new frontiers.  They left behind what they knew and travelled into unknown territory, on what was often a dangerous journey. Once at their destination though, the pioneers became settlers and enjoyed comfortable life. We have a story about the pioneers at home.  On the back the description states that the American pioneers helped to tame the American West.

As pioneering spirits we know we will, and have experienced a dangerous journey at times. Making mistakes. Shedding tears. Moving the church forward is an unknown territory.  Some people may not make the journey; others may become settled along the way. One thing we should make sure we do not do is put Jesus into a box. Jesus is not, and should not be tamed. He pushes us on; He pushes the boundaries.  We should always focus on moving ahead, moving in God’s will, not becoming settled and comfortable with where we are.

What would you say are the characteristics of the pioneering spirit? In what ways has the pioneering spirit worked itself out in your life? Has this expressed itself in ways beyond different styles of church gathering?  What is the ‘wild west’ that we are trying to tame?

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Blogroll

Posted on January 24, 2008
Filed Under blog | Leave a Comment

I have just noticed how terribly out of date my blogroll is.  There are many of you whose blogs I read that do not feature on it, and likewise there are blogs on it that I no longer read!  I will endeavor to update it over the next week or two.

Presidential Nominee Race

Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under current affairs | 6 Comments

Man, this presidential nominee race is becoming nasty. I’m starting to wonder whether the Democrats want to get back into office. One thing is for sure, whoever wins the nomination out of Clinton and Obama, they won’t be having the other one as a running mate! They better be careful or they might give the Repubican nominee a free reign. I really hope that isn’t Romney, there is something about him I don’t like, and it’s nothing to do with him being a mormon. I guess the only thing I have heard come out of his mouth are insults about the other candidates. Anyway, if I were American, I’d be voting Democrat! Bring back Al Gore!    ;-)     ;-)

Seriously, though, what have you made of the candidates? A lot of the candidates on both sides are talking about change. Do you think they will bring that change, or is it hot air to get into office? For my US readers, what change do you think is need in the States?

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