You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Working throught the Camel chapter by Floyd McClung:
One Focus Above All Others
The one theing that transcends all others, the focus we are to have above everything else, is the glory of God.  That's all that matters.

To quote John Piper:  "If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored."

Seeking to know the will of God without a revelation of the glory of God will lead to resisting, reacting against, and negotiating over the will of God.

Big Cars with Very Little Engines
Millions of Christians have given up on conventional church, not becuase the church demands too much from them, but because it demands too little.  The church in the West is stuck in a rut of building-based, Sunday-centric, pastor-oriented Christianity.  If the experience of attendig church on Sunday mornings boils down to sitting next to strangers for one to two hours, listening to another stranger (the pastor) talk for thirty to forty minutes, and then going home, it's no wonder that 80 percent of those who attend church are frustrated.

The church was not placed on this planet to entertain people for one hour a week.

The Need for Apostolic Passion
What is apostolic passion?  I don't know what it means to you, but for me passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for.  In fact, that's the root meaning of the world.  It comes from the Latin Patior and Passus, meaning "to suffer."  It is what you desire so intensely that you will sacrifice anything to have it.  Show me your checkbook and your appointments calendar, and I will tell you what you're passions are.

The word apostle means a sent one, a messenger.  To be apostolic means we are sent on a mission.  The apostolic calling of the followers of Jesus includes forging new ways for how we do church and pioneering new places where we do church.  To be apostolic is to be radical, to be adventurous.

Apostolic passion, therefore, is a deliberate choice to live very intentionally for Jesus among our neighbors and in the nations.  It has to do with being committed, to the point of rejection or death, to spreading the message of his love.  It's the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of making disciples for him.

I've given you just a smidgen of text on the glory of God.  There were several pages on it.  I suggest picking up the book and reading it.  Understanding the glory of God really puts life in proper perspective.  Another good resource for understanding the glory of God is Cat and Dog Theology by Bob Sjogren.

We have 2 small groups (care groups) starting the 9th and 11th.  If you're interested in more info, please email me and I will give you the details.

Have a blessed Sunday and Monday.