Next Steps - Oct 25

"Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man." -- Genesis 2:18-22

The story of God's creation of man and woman has always fascinated me. God created the heavens and the earth. God created all of the animals and the birds and fish and then he made man. Everything up until the point of man being in the garden with the animals with all of creation was deemed by God to be good. Yet God declared that Man being alone -- even in a perfect world and in perfect community with Go -- to not be good: "It is not good that the man should be alone."

Jesus said that all of the laws of God are summed up in the duel command to love God and love your neighbor. We sometimes think it is hard to love God, but that is because so many things block our ability to really see him. If we truly see God we cannot but love him. Really the first part of the equation is the easy part. It's the love your neighbor that's really hard. If we see each other as we really are, we can be hard to love. But, that is God's plan. It is His design. It is his likeness. If we love one another, Jesus says, people will know that we are Christians.

We live in a society and a time in history that values autonomy, rugged individualism and lone rangers. Yet God seems to values community, togetherness, and connectedness.

• How does this challenge you?
• Why do you think God wants us to be in community?
• What are the dangers of individualism?
• What does it look like to live the "inward journey" in community?
• What does it look like to live the "outward journey" in community?
• What is one thing you could do today to move into "more" community?
• What is one thing that we as a church can do to move into "more" community?
  

Make sure you share your learning and practice stories with others.

Peace, Hope and Love
Doug

Next Steps - Oct 18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. -- John 1:1-5; 14

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. -- John 20:21

In the Old Testament, God called Abram to go, to move away from all that he knew. And he went. In so doing, he accepted God's call to him and his promise to be a people of God, a called out and sent people, sent for the sake of others. The story of the Old Testament, among other things, is the story of a people who forgot that they were a sent people and instead drew walls around them and held tightly to their identity as a chosen people. Thousands of years later, God sent Jesus out from the perfect unity of the Trinity, to go to a people, the descendants of Abram (since renamed Abraham) and then to all of humanity, to invite them back into their identity as a people of God, sent for the sake of others.

God is a sending God, and we are a sent people.

• Is being a sent person a new concept to you?
• What are some of the ways that God might be sending you?
• If you think of our Sunday Creekside gatherings as being the gathering of a sent people (as opposed to a gathered people who are then sent) how does that change the way you view what we do on Sundays? How does it change the way you think about what we do on Monday through Saturday?

As a sent people, as a people of God, we are a people of story. And, we will always have stories to tell. Jesus says that even giving somebody a glass of cold water on a hot day is incarnational.

• What is the equivalent in your life, school, family, work, of giving someone a cold glass of water?
• What could you do this week so that you have a story to tell someone else?

God calls -- invites -- you to go, in ways fitting to you.

• What is your "go" story?
• What will your "go" story be tomorrow?
• Who will you share your "go" story with this week?

Peace, Hope and Love
Doug

Next Steps - Oct 11

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." -- Matthew 5:13-16

Jesus uses words like salt and light to describe us as his followers together and in the larger community of those who do not follow him. Salt, making bland things more flavorful; salt, preserving things so that they do not spoil. Light, bringing visibility to dark places, visibility to invisibility. The psalmist says, "even the darkness is as light to God." As we think about the inward journey, we draw close to the One for whom even darkness is light; in the outward journey, we take the light with which we have been filled and carry it ourselves into the places that are dark.

Mike McAllister's shared about how answering God's call to be a parent to children who have no parents has shined a light onto the importance of his role as a parent back home. That's how it works, when we begin to be light in the dark places of the world, when we listen and respond to God's call to go, we always will find that God speaks light into all areas of our life. Often we hear from the people who hear God's call and travel overseas, but God calls all of us, he invites all of us, "go." Some of you are parents, some are not. Some are married, some are single, some in school, some working, some retired. God enters into the great diversity of our lives and invites us to go in ways specific to us.

Light and salt, grey and color -- poetic language. But it is more than mere poetic language, it is a command and an invitation from God. It is the way that God designed his followers to live. The apostle Paul instructed us to be in the world (to be fully present in the places we live and go to school and work, to be salt and light in these places) but not of the world (not allowing the darkness and the blandness of the world to overtake us). What does it mean for you to be salt and light? What does it mean to be in the world yet not of the world? What are the dark places in your neighborhood, school, work, etc. What would it look like -- what practical thing could you do -- to bring the salt and light to the places you are in each day?

Peace, Hope and Love
Doug

Next Steps - Oct 4

The LORD God formed the man out of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. - Genesis 2:7

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. - Matthew 28:18-20

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:29

Jesus modeled for us what it was like to live a rhythm of life where "being" in God precedes, even as it is connected with, "doing" for God. He knew that although he was fully God and fully man he had to get away, to connect to God as the source of his strength if he was to do anything. He then tells his apostles, and by extension us, that he is the holder and source of all authority and that we need to connect with him in order for us to do anything for him. Jesus demonstrated this inward/outward rhythm.

Spiritual disciplines allow us to connect to him as the source. They are, in fact, absolutely necessary for transformation into his likeness and into the people God intended us to be. We practice spiritual disciplines in order to draw closer to God – not to earn his approval or to get something – like a trade -- or to make up for something or anything like that. In that way, they are really a gift to us. There are many disciplines -- the below list is not exhaustive. There are also some good books and other resources on spiritual disciplines. Take a look at the list, order one of the books. Pick some to try. Come to the Creekside Ministry Center anytime this Friday from 7:00 p.m. to Saturday at 7:00 p.m. to experience a time of silence and prayer. Try fasting something this week. Or, try another one that seems attractive to you. Pick two or three and try them out on some regular basis for a month or two. Share with someone what you are trying. Once you have been doing them for a month or two ask yourself, is this life-giving to me? Do they help me connect to Jesus, the source? Share with our community what you discover.

Enjoy the disciplines and meet God.

Blessings, Peace, Hope and Love

Doug

Definitions of some spiritual disciplines are below, which “does not include every practice or situation that could actually serve as a discipline in the process of spiritual formation.” (from The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, ed. by Richard Foster (Harper, 2005).

Celebration: Utter delight and joy in ourselves, our life, and our world as a result of our faith and confidence in God’s greatness, beauty and goodness.

Chastity: Purposefully turning away for a time from dwelling upon or engaging in the sexual dimension of our relationship to others – even our husband or wife – and thus learning how not to be governed by this powerful aspect of our life.

Confession: Sharing our deepest weaknesses and failures with God and trusted others, so that we may enter into God’s grace and mercy and experience his ready forgiveness and healing.

Fasting: The voluntary abstention from an otherwise normal function – most often eating – for the sake of intense spiritual activity.

Fellowship: Engaging with other disciples in the common activities of worship, study, prayer, celebration, and service, which sustain our life together and enlarge our capacity to experience more of God.

Guidance: Experiencing an interactive friendship with God that gives direction and purpose to daily life.

Meditation: Prayerful rumination upon God, his Word, and his world.

Prayer: Interactive conversation with God about what we and God are thinking and doing together.

Sacrifice: Deliberately forsaking the security of satisfying our own needs with our resources in the faith and hope that God will sustain us.

Secrecy: Consciously refraining from having our good deeds and qualities generally known, which, in turn, rightly disciplines our longing for recognition.

Service: Loving, thoughtful, active promotion of the good of others and the causes of God in our world, through which we experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves.

Silence: Closing off our souls from “sounds,” whether noise, music, or words, so that we may better still the inner chatter and clatter of our noisy hearts and be increasingly attentive to God.

Simplicity/Frugality: The inward reality of single-hearted focus upon God and his kingdom, which results in an outward lifestyle of modesty, openness, and unpretentiousness and which disciplines our hunger for status, glamour, and luxury.

Solitude: The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction from other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God.

Study: The intentional process of engaging the mind with the written and spoken Word of God and the world God has created in such a way that the mind takes on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates.

Submission: Subordination to the guidance of God; within the Christian fellowship, a constant mutual subordination out of reverence for Christ, which opens the way for particular subordination to those who are qualified to direct our efforts toward Christlikeness and who then add the weight of their wise authority on the side of our willing spirit to help us do the things we would like to do and refrain from doing the things we don’t want to do.

Worship: Expressing in words, music, rituals, and silent adoration the greatness, beauty, and goodness of God, by means of which we enter the supranatural reality of the shekinah, or glory, of God.

Also, check out:

The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortburg
The Spirit of The Disciplines, Dallas Willard
Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster