We walked past a house that had trees and vines that had overgrown the yard. There was foliage everywhere. God said that people's lives can get like that. With the busyness of life and the accumulation of things, people can become slaves to their possessions and lose sight of what's important. God didn't intend for us to be slaves but to have freedom. Pruning takes hard work, but we must cut the things that aren't beneficial to us. Only through routine pruning can God bring health and growth to our lives. Greg had a similar thought from God. It was a Mulberry tree. They are those knotty, large trunked trees you see in people's yards. They prune them every year because they've been taught that that is what you do to Mulberry trees. However, what people don't know is that if you let a Mulberry tree grow, it will actually slow down after several years and it really doesn't need pruning each year. He said that's how the people on the West Side are. They get going, things are starting to look up, then something happens to take them down again. Over and over they start to grow and then they're stopped, cut down. When a Mulberry tree is pruned it's root system becomes invasive. It become a detriment to the yard.
Nuggets #3 from Erwin McManus' An Unstoppable Force
Continuing in Chapter None:
"We've been taught that we are the center of the universe, and we evaluate everything on its abililty to meet our needs. Some of the best communicators of the Scriptures who I know have had people leave their churches for the express reason that they're not being fed. I know that we are the sheep of God, and sheep require the Shepherd to feed them, but there must come a time when we become the shepherds who feed others."
"Is it really all about us being fed? I think it might be important to remember that over 60 percent of Americans are overweight or even obese. Is it possible that this is also true in the arena of personal spirituality? Are we too much about us getting fed and too little about us exercising our faith?"
"Too many of our statements about the crisis in the American church center on the superficial arena of style and neglect to go to the core issue of self. At the core of so much of the resistance the church is experiencing is the preservation of selfishness and self-centeredness. It is one thing to have a preference; it is another to demand that one's preferences be honored above the needs of those without Christ."
Safe Theology:
You've heard it said that the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I amsure this promis was well intended, but it is neither true nor innocuous. When we believe that God's purpose, intention, or promise is that we will be safe from harm, we are utterly disconnected from the movement and power of God."
Thoughts?
1 comment:
Sandy, these nuggets sound sort of like a restatement of the “church as a field” versus “church as a force” dilemma described in LA&F. Yes, I think the main focus of the church should not be to feed a bunch of sheep, though for sure we are sheep who need food and R&R on a regular basis. I think the main challenge of the church is or can be to equip a bunch of shepherds to go out and spread the love of the Good Shepherd to lost and hurting sheep, however each one is called to do that. And finding how one IS called to do that is also part of the process.
This reminds me also of something I often come back to in my mind, the description of Aslan in one of the Chronicles of Narnia (not sure which one). They describe him as being a good Lion, but not a safe Lion, or something like that.
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