Thursday, June 22, 2006

Praising YOU for my CHURCH........And that surprises me because I have 'felt' so much lately that I didn't 'think' was good whenever I thought about IT and yet this morning I am struck with the passion for God that was born in me in all that disappointment.........

They the body of people in my CHURCH seemed as though they were always disappointing me and yet THEY are the ones who pointed me from the very beginning towards God, Jesus, the BIBLE...they never once made me think or wanted me to think it was about Shoal Creek.........and IF I had run from them would I have ended up running from God or just to another body of people who would have disappointed me and ..............

I don't know.... all I do KNOW is that THIS MORNING I am praising You for my church and for YOUR plan for THE church......we are people born of sin yada yada yada what that means is we will screw it up over and over trying to get what WE WANT and yet You never give up....You never stop wanting what YOU WANT FOR THE CHURCH.......It's all we have isn't it? A bunch of humans each of us wanting to HONOR YOU but in that is wanting to do it our way because we don't or can't fully KNOW what you would want....or could we???

Again just this morning praising you for my church....
In Biblegateway .com typed in church:
112 re: NIV
110 re: Msg
111 re: KJ
120 re: NKJ 112 re: NASB

Type into Google search 'what did Jesus say about church?' and you get 19,800,000 hits......so many people trying to definitively say what Jesus said....HUMANS screwing it up....BUT we're all HUMAN so even me saying all this.... I don't know....

I only know that all I have to KNOW God right now outside of my own thoughts, feelings and experiences is the BIBLE...that's it for good or bad outside of that it's all human and I KNOW the bible has been translated by humans but it's all we have...how did I get back to the Bible??

I do PRAISE You for your word.........I praise You that You tried to communicate to a really stubborn people, that YOU try all the time and we mess it up, perhaps I am messing it up here???

The word of God it speaks to me and I believe it speaks to anyone who picks it up with a seeking HEART.

So back to praising you for my church.......Thank You for placing a passion for God in a human person that tries to reach lost people with the gospel of Christ any way it can......using music and drama and the ministry of Small Groups....releasing fallible passionate people to show Christ to others through committing to doing life with them. To constantly laying before us authors and theories and challenging us and disappointing us and yet never leaving the mission statement:


The mission of Shoal Creek Community Church is to turn spiritual seekers into a community of fully devoted followers of Christ. Our meetings, teaching, worship, and outreach are simply components of this over-all objective.
We desire to accomplish this by following the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ found in the Bible. One of the most striking of these is the fact that Christians are called not only to love God, but also to love one another. Being a devoted follower of Jesus also means being devoted to a community of other believers. This is what we want to create and mature.

Jesus humbly pointed to the Father.....
Paul as a human became more and more humble in his ministry and pointed people to Jesus.....
WE as the church must point to Jesus .....to the good news the Gospel of Jesus...to the Bible and there we have to get out of the way and allow God to do what He does best......

and then I remember NOONE could have told me this......people tried but I wouldn't/ couldn't hear.....

THE bible no way could one book ....no way could such an old book.......it's just a book....it's too hard to read......I don't understand how....I don't see why.....

But it does...it did......it was the only thing that held the power to break my heart, to in that brokenness see how much He loved me, loved all of us........So I guess I praise you for my Church which pointed me to the Bible........didn't force me but held it up, pointed to it .......and that's I guess all I am trying to do here......

I can connect anything but I read this quote yesterday .....
"Have you ever seen someone pull a photo out of their wallet and argue about the supremacy of this particular loved one? Of course not. They show you the picture and give you the opportunity to see what they see."
That's what I 'think' I am thinking about the Bible this morning......


6 comments:

Bruce said...

That quote, I read it too but can't remember where.

Thanks for the thoughts on the church. Sometimes we can get a little down on it, eh?

B~

Sarah said...

I think that as christians we are sometimes more hurt by other christians than by non believers because of our own expectations. EVERYONE is a sinner. I lose sight of that sometimes. We are all at different stages of our journey, and God loves us at each step.

Joash Chan said...

It's like you wrote down what I thought and helped me to complete my train of thought.... Haha. Good one.

Danielle said...

"Didn't force me but held it up, pointed to it"

I love this, Becky.

How many of us have been forcefed? Ugh. What a banquet awaited me in scripture. I feast on it!

Darius said...

There's more than one way of viewing Jesus and the Bible. And there are many human beings on earth who are non-Christian who I suspect are doing ok. For example, I doubt Pat Robertson will be ahead of Gandhi at the heavenly gate. If trees are known by their fruit, many who call themselves Christian are headed the wrong way and many non-Christians are close to God.

Asserting that the way of conservative belief is The One True Way is a good ego-boost for conservatives that I don't think is helpful to anyone, especially conservatives.

rebecca said...

WE as the church must point to Jesus .....to the good news the Gospel of Jesus...to the Bible and there we have to get out of the way and allow God to do what He does best......


AMEN!

becky