our blog
Jun
Community Promotes Formation
Everyone is terrified to be known! With that first tentative step into community, you risk being known. That includes the good, the bad and the ugly. Putting yourself out there is scary, but what if you ignore God’s commission and live in isolation? What is at stake when we fail to live life as God defined it? It is not our acceptance by God. Your salvation was eternally secure from the very moment you entrusted yourself to Jesus. However, your unbelief and mistrust of God will short-circuit the life God desires to give you.
It is easy to play mind games with yourself and think if you disregard what God is saying to you in one area, that your unbelief won’t adversely affect other areas of your spiritual life. The truth is, as many of us have learned the hard way, disregarding God in any way will eventually corrupt every aspect of our relationship with God.
Hebrews 3:12-13
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Sin is seductive, enticing, deceitful and, eventually, hardening. It cannot deliver what it promises. Sin promises pleasure, but that is fleeting, which only fuels the fire of addiction. “Hardness” in Hebrews 3:13 is translated from the Greek word for callus. Calluses form on the palms of your hands from constant hard use. Calluses, like a hardened heart, do not form overnight.
We are so depraved that, left alone, we will fall into unbelief and will deceive ourselves the entire time we are spiraling more and more out of control. This is why we need the protection of honest involvement with others who are trying to listen to God’s voice.
COMMUNITY PROMOTES FORMATION. In community, we can not only grow in our faith by reading and studying God’s Word, but by sharing our struggles, confessing when we have gotten off-track before it goes on too long, and challenging each other. The encouragement we receive from members of our community prevents us from falling away and becoming hardened.
Jun
Hide & Seek
As odd as it might sound, when I am walking outside sometimes I am looking for places that would make good spots to hide. I blame it on the numerous summer days spent playing Hide and Seek with my friends. All the kids would fan out through the neighborhood searching for a place to disappear hoping that the person who was “It” would never locate them. Climbing up trees, ducking between bushes, hiding underneath a set of stairs – anywhere where they were out of sight would do. Yet, being the last one found was a badge of honor on our block.
It was a sense of accomplishment to hear someone scream out “Olly Oxen Free!” This expression is familiar to anyone who has spent anytime on a playground. It is used in children’s games to signal that the game is over or that the main player has given up hope of winning.
Now as a father of two young girls, I watch them play hide and seek and it is charming. However, during my time walking alongside people as a pastor, I’ve come to realize watching grown men and woman still playing this game is nothing but depressing. The sad truth is that there are some who are still hidden behind that bush waiting for someone, anyone, to make that call: Olly, Olly, Oxen Free!
The game is the same, we’ve just come up with different hiding places and the players have perfected the craft of disappearing. True community will never take place if we remain hidden behind our jobs, fake appearances, social status, or pat Christian answers. The game of hide and seek will continue on from sun up to sun down.
Somebody has to have the courage to make the call: Olly, Olly, Oxen Free! It only takes one person who is willing to lay down their agenda for others to realize they can come out hiding without the risk of being caught. There is no fear of being caught—only found. There is no longer the pressure to hide.
Community is essential in our transformation process. Without being known others, the likelihood of true inner change occurring is very slim. Every one of us needs a few people to tell us the truth about our heart, point out our weaknesses, and also celebrate our successes. It is imperative that we all have someone who will ask those difficult questions.
- Read Proverbs 27:17, Hebrews 10:23-25 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Why is being known inside of community critical to our individual growth?
- Think of the area where you are most vulnerable to stumbling as it relates to your One Word. What are you risking by keeping your struggles to yourself? What benefit is there to becoming transparent before God and inside community?
Are you looking for a way to keep your word in front of you all year long? Register for a My One Word account! One of the key features of a MOW account is an online Word Journal that allows you to capture your thoughts to reflective questions like you see above. You can go back at any time to read your completed journals to see how God has been moving in your life through your word in 2011. If you already have an account, the questions from this blog have been posted to your Word Journal –log in to your account to start your Word Journal today!