Click this link to read the unedited interview:
http://frankviola.org/2012/01/23/ntwright/
Abiding
“Abiding in Him is not a work that we do…but a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and through us.”
~ Andrew Murray
If what Murray said is true then all the work is the Lord’s. All is done by the might of the Spirit (and we get to be vessels for Him and His power). Even remaining in Christ, remaining in Love. I hope to return to this quote tomorrow to meditate on it, as well as what John talks about in his gospel, the 15th chapter, verse 1-17 (ESV):
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants,t for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
Blessings in Christ from a sleepy brother. Good night!
Flowered Almond, photo by Francesc Toldrà http://www.hidb.es
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Sharing Some Quotes – Part 2
Wanted to share some quotes again that I have stumbled upon recently.
Hope you will enjoy them!
Frank Viola, from his book “From Eternity to Here”:
“The burning intent of your God is that all of His living stones be built together with other living stones to form His house. Not for themselves, but for their Lord. To be the house of God, by God and for God.”
“Christians are so fascinated with Christ’s second coming when they haven’t even fully comprehended His first coming!”
“If you don’t INTERPRET scripture through the LENS OF JESUS, you’re going to be very CONFUSED about who God is. You’ll read many stories that may seem to CONTRADICT Jesus’ life and teachings. Why? Because all of the characters in the Bible didn’t FULLY understand God. But when Jesus came on the scene He said, “Let me show you what God is REALLY like.” Why? Because He was God in the FLESH.”
James 1:19-20, ESV:
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
T. Austin-Sparks from The On-High Calling Volume 1 – chapter 9:
“Looking to Jesus… (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)
There is a real touch of Paul in this Letter to the Hebrews – “Looking off unto Jesus.” Whoever actually wrote this Letter, the shadow of Paul is over it. His influence is everywhere. And certainly he was called upon to look off unto Jesus. Now that is a very vital lesson for us to learn. We have to do that again and again in our Christian life. If we get our eyes upon anything but the Lord Jesus we just go to pieces. Have all respect for God’s saints. I am not saying that you have to eye every servant of God with suspicion and be saying all the time: “Well, of course, he is not perfect, you know.” Give honor to whom honor is due, but never build your faith upon any man, however good he may be.
And as for ourselves – well, I think perhaps we are more tempted to look at ourselves than anything else! This is one of our real Christian exercises. We have continually to remove our eyes from ourselves and everything to do with ourselves. There is nothing more discouraging than this self of ours, and nothing more misleading. Our own judgments are all wrong, and so are our thoughts and ideas. They are not God’s thoughts. We must take our eyes off ourselves, but not look out into space and be vacant. “Look off unto Jesus,” and you know how that sentence is finished – “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Did you start this thing? Are you a Christian because you decided to be a Christian? Well, the Lord help you if that is so! No, He started this thing. Are you not glad that you can say: “It was the Lord who found me. It was the Lord who put His hand on me.” What He said is very true: “Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). He was the author of our faith, and it says that He is the finisher – He will finish it.”
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Sharing Some Quotes – Part 1
This post was originally posted in Swedish now translated to English and slightly modified:
I found some golden quotes that I’d like to share like this, just passing by.
The first one is from our brother who is no longer with us, Theodore Austin-Sparks:
“‘The time is coming, yes, and has already come, when true worshippers will worship in spirit and in reality. Indeed, the Father looks for men who will worship Him like that.’ (John 4:23, Phillips)
Jesus said to the woman, “the hour cometh, and now is.” Then He dismissed the whole system that had existed up to that time. It was the whole system of Judaism according to the Old Testament. In one sentence, He dismissed the whole dispensation. And He introduced an altogether new order of things.
What did He mean? Because when He said the hour cometh, and now is, He did not mean literally just an hour and so many minutes. He meant that it was the first hour of the new day. With this hour an altogether new day has come. What is the new day? If you would have asked Jesus to put it into a short sentence, He would have said, “Well, I am here.” The hour is not just a matter of time but a matter of PERSON. The new dispensation is the dispensation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the new dispensation. “I am here,” He said. You go through that Gospel of John. He is centering everything in Himself. “I am the Way; I am the Truth; I am the Life; I am the Shepherd; I am the Vine; I am the Resurrection.” It is a Person. It is that which lies behind everything. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. That is where it all begins and it never departs from HIM. The development of the Christian life is only the development of Jesus Christ in the life.”
~ Theodore Austin-Sparks ~
“That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One” – Meeting 7
The second quote is about the popular subject of “discipleship” and how we as the church are a tool in together conforming to Christ’s image. Brother Milt Rodriguez puts it this way:
“True discipleship…[is] not a matter of being placed into a program of individual training of bible study, individual prayer, individual evangelism, and individual character development. Rather, it is the life transformation process of being practically conformed into His image. This is the out flowing of His community life. It is the fleshing out of the fellowship of the Godhead.”
~ Milt Rodriguez ~
Jon Zens has also made a statement about “discipleship” that goes like this:
“Our life is not about “making disciples,” “multiplying churches,” or “completing the Great Commission in our generation. Our life is Christ. Of course, Paul traveled around and endured many hardships for the Gospel’s sake. But his passion in life was not to be a “soul-winner,” to see a church planted in every city, or to envision millions of house churches covering the earth. He summed up his life’s passion with clarity: “for me to live is Christ . . . the love of Christ compels me . . . that I might know him and the fellowship of his sufferings.”
~ Jon Zens
Because the last two quotes were about discipleship I came to think about a few blog posts by Frank Viola that I also would like to quote.
The first one is called “Discipleship, Mission, and Church: A Plea to Learn Our History” and brings to attention different viewpoints on missions and discipleship that exist today. Here is an excerpt from the blog post:
“The other camp rightly understands that you cannot separate disciple-making from the ekklesia. You cannot separate the forming of people into full-pledged followers of Jesus and a living, breathing, vibrant community that gathers under His headship.
To put it another way, you can’t separate discipleship from the ekklesia anymore than you can separate child-rearing from the family. And you can’t separate the ekklesia from Jesus Himself, for it’s His very body.
I want you to imagine a saltwater fish. The fish can only survive in his natural habitat, which is the ocean. Why? Because the ocean surrounds the fish with everything it needs to live, breathe, and have its being.
The fish is also a dependent creature. Fish swim in schools.
Now consider a different image. Imagine that this fish is removed from the ocean and from its school and is thrown in someone’s backyard. People take turns spraying the fish with a water hose every 15 minutes. They also sprinkle salt on its body.
That’s an apt picture of modern discipleship.
Discipleship has been separated from the Christian’s native habitat (ekklesia) and it’s become a highly individualistic event. An individual discipler “disciples” an individual disciplee to become a better individual disciple.”
To end with something different than a quote I simply want to share a link to the other blog post, so here it is: “Reframing Discipleship”
Not so much my own words in this post, but hopefully, you who read this will be blessed in some way anyway.
Have you read any quotes that you want to share? Maybe thoughts to share as well? Or something else you want to say? Feel free to leave a comment. It is deeply appreciated.
Love in Christ,
// Daniel
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To Breathe and to See
Photo by Vinicio Capossela | http://www.sxc.hu/photo/976656
Open…
Breathe…Open…
Breathe…Open…
Breathe…
Those were the words I had heard months ago. And when I let my lips softly form them I felt waves of a tingling presence in my body. I have been reminded of those words several times since then. I still don’t know what to make out of them or even if they are from God. If He does want to say something to me through them. Yes, I choose to believe that. And if it isn’t so He most certainly can turn that slip, that false conviction to achieve what He intended.
I believe that. Yes, I believe that it means that I have shut in so much inside of me. Things from my childhood that have left smelly piles of debris on my inside that have created unhealthy patterns and skewed views. A view of myself and others that is not the Truth. Yeah, who knows what truth really is? Does not everyone view things from a subjective perspective and refer to what we experience to be “truth”, our experience of reality?
But I know. I know in a way that cannot be described with words. Words do not seem to give justice to the reality that I am so fully convinced of having seen.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
(1 Cor. 13:12, ESV)
But there are so many veils that attempt to cover up the breath-taking and extremly beautiful vision of Him – the King, servant of all. What a paradox of greatness in simple shoes.
Veiled eyes. Dim light. Blurry contours. Broken whole. To see reality through smudged glasses with skewed, distored lenses makes me not to see at all. But maybe you can see me more with your eyes closed…?
“Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.”
(Proverbs 21:4, ESV)
So, if we are proud at heart our light is sin? Since sin means separation from “the Light of the world” it must implicate that when I see through proud eyes at myself, at others and at the reality (visible and invisible) it is not Truth I see. What I see is only what is illuminated by the lantern of sin and does not in a long-shot give justice to reality itself – Jesus Christ.
Editing this in at a later time:
Earlier tonight when I was talking to my wife, I got a picture of how we humans, in our sin (which in essence is separation from God) create our own box, a confined world, where we are king and ruler. Where everything is basically exist to satisfy our goals and objectives. We want to build our own kingdom. Our own Tower of Babel. Whether it is by worldly or religious accomplishments.
I am slowly beginning to see. Truth flowers are budding in my heart’s soil. The vermin is on the brink of extinction and the weeds are uprooted one by one. He tends to me so gently. Each shovelful and every gentle breath in me gives life not of this world.
I see Him. At least to some extent. The light seeps into darkened corners and He opens up, I let Him open. I open up to Him.
He breathes life into me. He is the Life in me. In us. We are one.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
(2 Cor. 3:18, ESV)
There is only one way to wake up and see reality itself. The way is open to anyone who wants to humble himself, put off his ruling crown and receive Him as King.
“But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.”
(Daniel 5:20, ESV)“Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.”
(Isiah 5:15, ESV)Maria sings to God’s glory:
“He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.”
(Luke 1:51-53, ESV)
New Blog Design
For you who have been here before and are wondering what happened to the blog: yes, the blog has gotten itself a new design. Became a bit tired of the old design for the simple reason that you could not have a column to the right or left of the main column. Really liked the colors and typograhy of the old (Chunk was the one I used before), but realized that I could not come to terms with losing columns.
I hope you like it!
Please feel free to tell me what you think?
Words on New Year Resolutions
Photo by Jay Neill | http://www.sxc.hu/photo/196934
A brother in the U.S., Jamal Jivanjee, recently wrote an interesting and striking blog post on how we treat the “Word” today. As I read the scripture referenced I stopped at the words:
“… and the Word was God” (John 1:1)
It finally dawned on me that brothers and sisters around the world might mistakenly misread this and take it literally. I almost started laughing to myself, but at the same time I felt a sort of grief. So many things and “its” try to steal us away from our precious Lord. I believe satan schemes to divert our full attention from Christ, who truly deserves to be our all and to have His place of supremacy. Not that we can accomplish a prioritized list with God as our number one. I believe the only way He can become the all in all is when He can have us for long enough time to fully captivate us. I long and at the same time fear to step into that. Because I know that true fellowship with God comes from spending quality time with Him and also with brothers and sisters in community.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:1-6)
I also want to divert your attention to Jamal’s new year’s resolution post from last year, which also is available to anyone who can read Swedish at the e-zine called “Hans hus av levande stenar” (His House of Living Stones, in English). It talks about how our use of words concerning Church reveals much on how we view her. I hope you can find time to read any of these and that the Lord will use it to open your eyes to more of Him.
May the Lord Jesus Christ, because of His grace, continue to open our eyes and ears to the reality of Him.
Starting over
Photo by Nathan Sudds | http://www.sxc.hu/photo/270663
This blog stopped for various reasons. Mostly because I never really got into the whole blogging thing. Also because real life demanded most of my time (and I made the right priorities). This little post won’t be long and is more of a symbol of a fresh start for me, in terms of blogging.
What I do like to share is a quote I stopped to think a little on today:
“The system of fathers of the world church, the clergy system of the state church, and the pastoral system of the independent churches are all the same in nature. They are all Nicolaitans. In the Bible there are only brothers. There is the gift of a pastor, but no system of pastors. The pastoral system is man’s tradition. If the children of God are not willing to return to the position of that in the beginning, no matter what they do, it will not be right.” – Watchman Nee
This was my comment to it as I posted the quote to my Facebook wall:
“True. Every believer is a member of the body, and is set to function, not just a select few.”
As the title of this blog post states I think we ought to start over at zero, when it comes to what we think we can bring before God and how we view our own strength.
Hopefully this little post marks the beginning of a living blog.
Love in Christ,
Daniel
Life as Branch
Photo by Emil Liljeström | http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1291359
Today I started reading a book called “The Butterfly in You” by Milt Rodriguez. The subtitle ”Discovering Your True Identity in Christ” tells you what it’s about and I’ve enjoyed the introduction and first chapter thus far.
In the first chapter Milt tells the story of a worm called Fred. Fred is unknowingly not really a worm, he’s a caterpillar! His life on the ground is bound for the sky, and he doesn’t know it. Not giving away too much of the story he meets a butterfly who tells him that the “Big Blue Up” is his real home.
But this post was not all meant for that book (I do really recommend it by what I’ve read thus far), but to a little poem inspired by it. I remember my wife Theresa started reading the book a few months back and told me of the story about Fred and it got me thinking about the picture of the vine and the branches. So I started toying with writing in a similar style, through the perspective of a branch that just got grafted into a tree.
I wrote this sort-of-poem back in February and posted it on my Facebook account. Thought I might share it here as well. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Hello everyone.
My name is Branch.
I’m new here.
Came from another tree, you see.
Was grafted in.
And I love it here!
Feels like home already.
So much life!
And love.
So intense, overflowing.
I feel light and free.
Mm, at the same time safe.
Eternal.Oh, tickles when wind rustles my leaves!
The gardener prunes me.
Ooh, I’m growing…
Woo, I get to bear fruit!
Hmm, not sure how it happens.
But I can’t help it, it just does.
And when I try to make it happen,
It doesn’t.
I get so frustrated.
Almost makes me fall off.
But I rest again,
And slowly it grows.
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Christ and His Church are One
The Church is (in) Christ!
It exists in Christ and is part of Christ, just as the body is part of the whole; the person. The body is connected to the head, and the head to the body. They make up the person.
The one needs the other. The Lord Jesus Christ needs His body to express Himself on this earth. He is limited unless we allow ourselves to be built together to form His body.
Let yourself be built together, like living stones built around the cornerstone, to form His spiritual house, so that He may have a home and a body through which He can express Himself!
1 Peter 2:4-9
The Head and the Body are One!
