Since we arrived home from Europe I haven’t done much with the blog, but the first part of this week (6/30-7/6), I went on a three day personal retreat and did some reflecting about what I have learned in the first half of my sabbatical. I plan to continue to post on the blog, but no more beautiful pictures of Europe. I will be sharing what God is showing me through my prayers and reading and through the experiences of visiting different churches and from the pastor and wife retreat in Wisconsin that Jeannie and I will be attending July 13-18.
Here – in random reflections – are some of the things that God has been teaching me during the first part of the sabbatical:
· Being “in the Father” – intimacy with God is both subjective and objective. I experience it but it is also known to others by the fruit of the Spirit in my life.
· I should trust completely that God has placed me where He wants to use me and not compare my situation with others. I am convinced that my role in the big picture of First Baptist is to lead the church through transitions. The first was the transition of building and location. The next, and more difficult, is the transition to doing ministry intentional rather than just repeating activities year after year. Ultimately my role is to lead us to God’s agenda.
· I need to learn to manage my time better, especially focusing more on relationships. I want to be more like Jesus in the sense of being with people more.
· Fear is not God’s desire for me, nor is pretending to be courageous, but instead the genuine courage that comes from integrity of thought and action.
· To understand the ways of God and to saturate my life with Scripture, I need to memorize Scripture in a systematic way.
· I am inadequate in my own strength and nothing that I try to do in my own strength can change that. Rather, that awareness should drive me deeper into God.
· Worship is a dynamic – giving honor, praise, and glory to God but also being confronted by God and choosing to respond in obedience. I cannot honestly come before a holy God and remain unchanged.
· I tend to operate from an attitude of expecting to fail instead of expecting to succeed. This “spirit of fear” comes into my life whenever there is a lack of integrity. The area of fear and the area of the lack of integrity may not necessarily be related. It’s just that any lack of integrity in my life opens the door to fear – and it invades with a vengeance.
· I think way too much about myself and my needs, fears, worries, etc. and not near enough about others. Likewise, I can barely understand myself – motives, feelings – what makes me think I can understand others or judge them?
· I have not always allowed the hurts and disappointments in my life to become opportunities to bless those who have hurt me – which is little better than seeking revenge.
· We all have a tendency to identify our cultural form of Christianity as the “true” or “pure” form and yet every expression of the Christian faith is tied to culture and contains flaws and prejudices.
· I want to learn to be like Moses in that my first response to any problem is to fall on my face before God.
That’s just part of what I wrote down from my journal. I will share some more in the next posting.
Here – in random reflections – are some of the things that God has been teaching me during the first part of the sabbatical:
· Being “in the Father” – intimacy with God is both subjective and objective. I experience it but it is also known to others by the fruit of the Spirit in my life.
· I should trust completely that God has placed me where He wants to use me and not compare my situation with others. I am convinced that my role in the big picture of First Baptist is to lead the church through transitions. The first was the transition of building and location. The next, and more difficult, is the transition to doing ministry intentional rather than just repeating activities year after year. Ultimately my role is to lead us to God’s agenda.
· I need to learn to manage my time better, especially focusing more on relationships. I want to be more like Jesus in the sense of being with people more.
· Fear is not God’s desire for me, nor is pretending to be courageous, but instead the genuine courage that comes from integrity of thought and action.
· To understand the ways of God and to saturate my life with Scripture, I need to memorize Scripture in a systematic way.
· I am inadequate in my own strength and nothing that I try to do in my own strength can change that. Rather, that awareness should drive me deeper into God.
· Worship is a dynamic – giving honor, praise, and glory to God but also being confronted by God and choosing to respond in obedience. I cannot honestly come before a holy God and remain unchanged.
· I tend to operate from an attitude of expecting to fail instead of expecting to succeed. This “spirit of fear” comes into my life whenever there is a lack of integrity. The area of fear and the area of the lack of integrity may not necessarily be related. It’s just that any lack of integrity in my life opens the door to fear – and it invades with a vengeance.
· I think way too much about myself and my needs, fears, worries, etc. and not near enough about others. Likewise, I can barely understand myself – motives, feelings – what makes me think I can understand others or judge them?
· I have not always allowed the hurts and disappointments in my life to become opportunities to bless those who have hurt me – which is little better than seeking revenge.
· We all have a tendency to identify our cultural form of Christianity as the “true” or “pure” form and yet every expression of the Christian faith is tied to culture and contains flaws and prejudices.
· I want to learn to be like Moses in that my first response to any problem is to fall on my face before God.
That’s just part of what I wrote down from my journal. I will share some more in the next posting.
1 comment:
Good stuff, we all could stand to be this honest with outselves a little more.
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