Discovering the Roots of Christian Mission

Through the month of January we had journeyed in the Book of Acts, the diary of the first Christian community, where the DNA of faith was fresh, original, directly from Jesus. As we reviewed the first 4 chapters it is evident that there were four typical activities practiced by Christians regularly, as highlighted in Acts 2:42.

(1) continued steadfastly devoted to teachings of the apostles

(2) fellowship of generosity,

(3) breaking of bread, and eating from house to house

(4) corporate prayers together.

Simple four practices, nothing extraordinary. Yet how rarely are these practiced nowadays. How frequently do you attend teaching sessions, seminars, workshops at the church offered by the pastor and visiting ministers? How generous are you in helping needs of brothers and sisters in the church family? When have you last invited a family from the church for lunch? How often do you come to the dedicated mid-week prayer meetings? I am not even stressing the “daily” element of Acts 2!

The chance we have for a revival is to live and believe as the first Christians did – wholeheartedly. The four “genes” listed above were possible because of the “homothumadon” dynamics in the church – they were in “one accord,” best translated – they were all moved by same desire for Jesus, had same passions, their hearts connected, were in sync, they were tuned to one another.

Search your heart – who are you connecting with? Who are the people your heart is most comfortable around? Someone said: show me your friends and I will know who you are. This ancient truism is valid always – we gravitate to people with like passions, with like desires and direction in life. Who do you “resonate” from? Who “turns your clock”?

As we take a break to resume the Book of Acts journey in March & April – revive your “Christian genes:” attend the Prayer meeting, invite someone home, go visit others, bless generously someone in need, and.....please attend pastor’s teachings on Mission!!!

Do you know your Value?

Last Sabbath Jack Polihronov presented a wonderful seminar on the “Value of Human Life” leading all to recognize that one cannot compare value of one human life over another. The value of each person comes from its owner, maker, designer and keeper – God!

One cannot compare a value of a newborn with a value of a ninety-year old – both are God’s children, the life of both belongs to God. I invite you to think about it: your value is not derived from your work, office, bank account, from your age, from the dress you put on, from decorations that may be applied, nor from the staff you have. Your value comes from the point of your origin – hands of Life Giver God.

Recently I had read an interesting book by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola “Jesus Manifesto.” There is a chapter entitled “If God wrote your biography.” I was overwhelmed with this simple reminder that we live, move and have our being in Christ! Instead of inviting God into our story, we should accept God’s invitation to enter His Story written for us in His Son Jesus.

Last Sabbath I touched briefly in my sermon on this - our real birth for eternal life is when we are born anew and become partakers of Christ’s nature. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And just as our physical birth gives us senses so is spiritual birth gives us new spiritual sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell. Theologians call it “justification” – being set right with God!

We grow and develop into maturity in Christ. To mature is not just to age but to learn Christ (Ephesians 4:15,20). We are to mature so we may have the mind of Christ (2^nd Corinthians 2:16). As we journey here we are to be crucified and die to our desires with Christ (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6; Colossians 2:20) When we voluntarily lose, lay down our desires and deeds of our flesh on a daily basis they we are truly participating in Christ. (Philippians 3:10) the history of Jesus is to be our experience. Every time we allow the indwelling presence of Christ to triumph over forces of sin and death we are living out the dying and rising of Jesus in our mortal bodies. This is what some call “Sanctification,” being transformed by renewing our mind. It takes a Church to raise a Christian. It takes the Body of Christ to make one a part.

Our destiny is also in Christ. The “glorification” is about permitting the Image of God to bloom in us. We are already invited to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)!

Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our biography (Hebrews 12:2). We truly live only by faith. Our true biography is our Faith journey. The value of human life is in faith, in Christ, in God filling us with his fullness! Everything else is postscript.

Our Mission: to Be a Blessing!

Last Sabbath evening I started Mission 316 class. One thing we learned looking through ages of History is that God’s Mission is for us to be a Blessing. The Kingdom of God made first directional steps when God called on Abraham and promised to bless him so that he would be a Blessing to all people. (Genesis 12:2) This Mission grew since then. God’s people have been a blessing to the World, ever expanding, in every generation.

The Mission “reset” button was pushed by Jesus of Nazareth when he sent his followers on a Mission – to take the Good News of Saving Grace, forgiveness and belonging into all the world. Since then we use the Greek word “evangelize!” Geographically the whole world has been evangelized. There is no geographic location that did not hear about the Blessing of Jesus. Yet, in every geographic location there are groups of people who have not known Jesus. The evangelization of people groups is today’s mission.

This past Monday I shared with the Church Board that our Mission is Evangelization, which means to be a Blessing.

Everything we do has to have one purpose – to bless people we are doing it for. Ask yourself: “is my life a blessing for someone today?” As you greet each other think: “How can I bless you?”

Some maybe in a gloomy mood and their answers can be: “Leave me alone!” or “Get away from me!” or even “Get out of here.” Such attitudes are more appropriate toward a curse. For a blessing it is not an option: to be a blessing you must remain and bless.

Gord Rayner blessed the Board with a devotional “silver box with a bow on top” – wishing to all that our words to each other would be a gift, a Blessing to those they are spoken to. I believe it was Holy Spirit guided and orchestrated, as the Blessing begins with good words. Words are powerful to shape the future. When words of goodness are spoken to a person it becomes a Blessing.

God has blessed us to be a Blessing. Jesus sent us on the Great Commission to be a Blessing.

Imagine our church being known in the Community as “the Blessing!” (add your nouns: place, fellowship, people).

Go live so! Whom have you blessed today? Start with people next to you, then find time to go out and be a blessing.

The Blessing has to permeate everything we do! When Christ is fully reproduced in his followers, when the church grows into full stature of the perfect man Jesus, when the Image of God blooms in his faithful, when we become the Blessing we are meant to be – then the Kingdom of God will come. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Alignment needed

Few events this week converged to move me writing this blog. First I was looking at the document prepared by the office of Assessment and Program Effectiveness at the NAD (North American Division Regional office of our church) entitled “From Strategy to Results: Collaborating for Excellence.” Then elder Mike Keim sent me a timely article on how to move forward and not get distracted. Then a pastor prayed at our city ministerial mid-week prayer meeting about being intentional, about aligning our plans and directions with that of God.

I looked in the Bible (search option on my iPhone) to see if any translations uses this word. It is a new word, used only within last couple of centuries with development of mechanics, where a movement expects an alignment of few parts together. Most of you know what “alignment” means. Whenever your car pulls to the side instead of going straight, or when the front wheels shake at certain speed, or your tires get worn uneven, you know you need an alignment and balance. I found it interesting that the new paraphrases use this word for passages where Jesus talks about coming to Him, believing Him. The original words in Greek does suggest this meaning of coming alongside, going in the same direction, being together, parallel. (BTW, the Holy Spirit as Comforter (Greek Parakletos) means “the one coming alongside”)

Petersons “Message” paraphrases John 6:35 & 40: Jesus said “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me....this is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life.”

Our corporate planning meetings make it obvious that different individuals have different directions in mind. What would it take to align ourselves with the clear Vision? To get moving together? First, each must see the direction of the common Vision.

Then , each must chose to change, personally, to come along with the Common Vision. We are praying for Revival for Mission. As each awakes and starts moving, watch the direction, be intentional about aligning yourself. First alignment with Jesus Christ. When he becomes your occupation, your alignment with His Church would be natural, and perfect.