life flows from one to the other

"Then one day it came to me: Our Lord who had far greater responsibilities than any of us, never seemed pressured for time, to speak to the woman at the well . . . " Louise Summerhill

The heart of relationship

Is not to do things for people.

It is not to possess them

Or to use them for our satisfaction, to fill our emptiness. 

It is to reveal to them that they are unique, precious and have beautiful gifts.

It is to live a communion of hearts with them

Where we help each other to grow to greater freedom.

Life flows from one to the other. 

 ~Jean Vanier

In The Story of Birthright, in the section where they were discussing how Jesus took the time to stop at the well and speak to a Samaritan woman, "How did Jesus reach the brokenness of the woman at the well? What did he do? He spoke with her - He built a relationship. Jesus didn't give her things, He didn't lecture her - instead He entered into communion with her.

In the words of Jean Vanier:

The heart of relationship
Is not to do things for people.
It is not to possess them
Or to use them for our satisfaction, to fill our emptiness.

It is to reveal to them that they are unique, precious and have beautiful gifts.

It is to live a communion of hearts with them
Where we help each other to grow to greater freedom.
Life flows from one to the other."

Borrowed from:

The Story of Birthright
By Louise Summerhill

  

study

We finished The Truth Project last Thursday. This entire series was eye opening. The last session was deeply moving. If you haven't gone through this series yet I would highly recommend doing so.

______________________________________________________________________________
Now we need input from everyone as to the direction we should head for our next series of study.

Some suggestions thus far:

• Gideon: Your weakness. God's Strength by Priscilla Shirer

• Stepping UP from Family Life Today

• Navigating Your Finances God's Way

• Assign a leader for the next week and we would discuss the chapter during our session that the leader chose.

*

sanctification

Just heard this on Bott radio's Alistair Begg's Truth For Life program and I wanted to share and see how you felt about this.

Sanctification occurs upon:

Hearing God's word

Understanding God's word

Living God's word

worship prayer

O COME, let us sing unto the LORD; * let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
 
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; * and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
 
For the LORD is a great God; * and a great King above all gods.
 
In his hand are all the corners of the earth; * and the strength of the hills is his also.
 
The sea is his, and he made it; * and his hands prepared the dry land.
 
O come, let us worship and fall down, * and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
 
For he is the Lord our God; * and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
 
O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness; * let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
 
For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth; * and with righteousness to judge the world, and the peoples with his truth.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
 

don't worry?

This article is a must share:

What does God’s Word say?

By Andrée Seu Peterson

My father asked me a question today. He had read an article by a Christian saying that we don’t need to worry if we constantly stumble into sin, because that’s what Jesus died for—to take the punishment for us. My father was confused: “Is there not going to be a Judgment Day then?”
I said, “Well, first of all, I didn’t read the article, so I’m getting this from you second hand.” And then I took out my Bible and read:

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. … And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. … And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. … Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:11–13, ESV).

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My dad asked, “But doesn’t being judged according to your deeds apply to non-Christians only? Aren’t Christians ‘safe’”?
So I read Romans, in which the apostle Paul makes a point that that he is addressing religious people as well as the world at large when he warns about sloppy living:

“[God] will render to each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6, ESV).

Then I read Hebrews, which was pointedly written to people who considered themselves to be insiders to the house of faith. Hebrews is a Paul Revere of a letter, sounding the alarm of impending danger to those who complacently think they are “safe”—safe in the sense of being able to relax our guard against the amount of sin we allow in our lives:

“… let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach [God’s rest]” (Hebrews 4:1, ESV).

The Hebrews author gives examples of the church insiders of olden times who thought they were “safe” and who were surprised to end up rejected by God (3:9–11; 4:2–3).
God is not mocked. How silly is it to think we can sin without consequence because we are “in Christ”? There is no safety in unbelief and disobedience. Whoever concocts a theological notion that in any way relaxes determination to fight the good fight and the clear command to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5, ESV) will have a lot to answer for.
My dad looked relieved. “I believe you are right in this case,” he said. “Why?” I asked. “Because you read it to me from the Bible,” he concluded. 

everyone wants one

Today we discussed the labor sector.

What would the world be like if Christians really worked as Jesus told us to . . . work as if we were working for Him?

Imagine this conversation over a lunch:

One man turns to the other and says, "I just hired a Christian."
The other man turns to him and says, "Where did you find them? They are so hard to come by because everyone wants one."

What would the world be like if we were the most sought after laborers because we worked with joy and with pride in our work and we worked harder than any thought possible - all because we are working for Christ.

The Truth Project is definitely worth watching!