This is vintage Mark Driscoll....
Do you ever feel like you're a bit neglected at church, like you're not quite at ease, like it's not really connecting with you, like it's not....well....family? Watch this clip and prepare to be challenged about your attitude towards and expectations of church. What will it take for church to be like family.....
http://tiny.cc/icw68
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Large Sails and Little Ballast
Large spiritual passion with small doctrinal understanding is large sails and tall masts on a tiny boat in high winds. It will dart wildly over the surface for a hundred yards. Then one wave, or one crosswind, will bring it all crashing into the unforgiving sea.
Give as much attention to enlarging the depth of your ballast as you do to the height of your sails.
Of course, if you are a sixty-ton flat-surfaced barge, with a broken engine, pray for God to give you sails and wind. (John Piper)
Give as much attention to enlarging the depth of your ballast as you do to the height of your sails.
Of course, if you are a sixty-ton flat-surfaced barge, with a broken engine, pray for God to give you sails and wind. (John Piper)
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
This is Your Moment!
My family went to listen to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night. We'd got the best seats in the house, it was the business! We’d never seen anything like it - truly awesome. But, we soooooooo nearly missed it.....
There I am, it's midday and I’m going through the in-tray trying to figure out what bits of household admin need to be actioned and what can be left for another week. Then I come across these tickets......the tickets I’d bought six months ago for a BSO concert at the Pavilion. Long-story-short, I had to do a bit of a selling job to convince everyone that this would, in fact, be a great thing to do even though one of them had booked to go on a sleep over that night (Louise was disappointed but she’ll get to do it again).
So we get there and the whole thing is astonishing. So much of it was captivating but one thing totally caught my attention; the percussionists (of which there were half a dozen.) I couldn’t help but do something of a time-and-motion study to work out whether all of them were, actually, needed on stage at the same time. I came to realise though that there were certain times when you definitely did need them all, even if it was for but a brief moment.
There was this one guy who had what looked like a child’s rattle with bells on and every now and then he'd pick it up and give it a little shake; if you’d blinked you’d have miss it. That was it, his moment! He might have pinged the triangle as well at one point but this was basically it; the rattle and the triangle.
The interesting thing was that this was why he was on the stage in his tail suit dressed all dressed up to the nines. This was his moment. If he wasn’t aware, if he wasn’t concentrating he’d have missed it. The conductor points at him with his little pointy-stick thing ("baton") to draw him in but he needed to be watching. "This is it buddy, this is your moment, you're on. Do your thing. Here it is!" And he did do his thing. And then it was over.
The Bible says that our one and only life is but a vapour, it’s but a mist (James 4:14) and it also says we’re God's masterpiece, created to do (or to perform) good works (Ephesians 2:10). And so in our one and only life, for which there is no dress rehearsal, it’s our moment, it's our turn. God is pointing to us and He’s calling us to look to Him, to trust Him, to find our satisfaction and joy in him.
The whole of our life is like the percussion player with the little rattle and in the light of eternity it’s even shorter than his momentary interjection. The whole of heaven is on the edge of its seat, leaning forward with bated breath saying "Do your thing, this is it, this is your moment, trust Him, look to Him, seek Him". And every time we do, every time we choose to believe the truth about the Lord Jesus, that He loves us, that He's enough for us, that our joy can found in Him...then this wonderful masterpiece is shown and the composer’s work is shown in all its glory and fullness and all those listening think "Wow, that composer’s amazing!"
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
There I am, it's midday and I’m going through the in-tray trying to figure out what bits of household admin need to be actioned and what can be left for another week. Then I come across these tickets......the tickets I’d bought six months ago for a BSO concert at the Pavilion. Long-story-short, I had to do a bit of a selling job to convince everyone that this would, in fact, be a great thing to do even though one of them had booked to go on a sleep over that night (Louise was disappointed but she’ll get to do it again).
So we get there and the whole thing is astonishing. So much of it was captivating but one thing totally caught my attention; the percussionists (of which there were half a dozen.) I couldn’t help but do something of a time-and-motion study to work out whether all of them were, actually, needed on stage at the same time. I came to realise though that there were certain times when you definitely did need them all, even if it was for but a brief moment.
There was this one guy who had what looked like a child’s rattle with bells on and every now and then he'd pick it up and give it a little shake; if you’d blinked you’d have miss it. That was it, his moment! He might have pinged the triangle as well at one point but this was basically it; the rattle and the triangle.
The interesting thing was that this was why he was on the stage in his tail suit dressed all dressed up to the nines. This was his moment. If he wasn’t aware, if he wasn’t concentrating he’d have missed it. The conductor points at him with his little pointy-stick thing ("baton") to draw him in but he needed to be watching. "This is it buddy, this is your moment, you're on. Do your thing. Here it is!" And he did do his thing. And then it was over.
The Bible says that our one and only life is but a vapour, it’s but a mist (James 4:14) and it also says we’re God's masterpiece, created to do (or to perform) good works (Ephesians 2:10). And so in our one and only life, for which there is no dress rehearsal, it’s our moment, it's our turn. God is pointing to us and He’s calling us to look to Him, to trust Him, to find our satisfaction and joy in him.
The whole of our life is like the percussion player with the little rattle and in the light of eternity it’s even shorter than his momentary interjection. The whole of heaven is on the edge of its seat, leaning forward with bated breath saying "Do your thing, this is it, this is your moment, trust Him, look to Him, seek Him". And every time we do, every time we choose to believe the truth about the Lord Jesus, that He loves us, that He's enough for us, that our joy can found in Him...then this wonderful masterpiece is shown and the composer’s work is shown in all its glory and fullness and all those listening think "Wow, that composer’s amazing!"
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
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