I'm really looking forward to seeing you all this weekend. Have felt challenged to do more writing and reflecting in general and I guess this blog site is as good a place as any to write on and you can all ignore it or comment if you like.
The importance of writing, speaking, reflecting etc. has come as I read Brian McLaren's book 'Everything Must Change'. He talks about how we need a whole new framing story- I guess that is like a world view, because we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and so we should no longer view things in the same way, with the same values and assumptions. As Christian it's easy to insert believing in Jesus and accepting personal salvation into our western, consumerist, busy lifestyle and our individualistic mindset. But McLaren argues that we need a whole new way of seeing and new habits of thinking along with transformed ways of living. But we need courage to believe against and beyond the dominant system of our day. A system that is animated by greed, power, self interest, fear, domination and violence. To oppose this system we need to undermine its power by refusing to believe in its assumptions and live out a new framing story a new way of seeing, believing and living that is empowered by love, reconciliation, liberation, hope and faith. So the battle begins in our minds and hearts. We need to tell different stories and play different songs. We move to the beat of different drum. So the work of the Kingdom begins with imagining a new future and helping each other see God the Father and his Kingdom the way Jesus teaches us to see. We need to 'be transformed by the renewal of our minds'. Therefore, writing, and speaking and story telling and sharing are not just words but good deeds. Rom 8:6 'The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace'. May our words and our fellowship be controlled by the Sprit of Christ so that we spread life and peace around.
Rachael
2 comments:
Hi Rachael , Katrina here
I find it a real challenge to do that when my cultural perspective is so strongly linked to my surroundings, it makes my instincts most often not the way Jesus would react.
Its really hard ongoing work to pull myself up so often and choose not only to act a different way but challenge the way i think.
So how do you find it?
thanks for posting
Blessings Katrina
I agree Rach, and thats why we need to gather, to encourage and exhort one another, its when we're alone that we lose our perspective, lose our vision of the Kingdom. Your thoughts sit well with the book I'm reading at the mo' ReJesus the new book by Hirsch and Frost which is exploring, at least in the early chapters, Jesus and his mission and how that has been subverted by the church.
Cheer,
Nigel
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