Sunday: October 20th, 2008

Here’s the audio from Sunday’s Discussion.  Hope this helps everyone keep up with where we are.

Andy

Sunday 10-20-2008

Consequences & Discipline

This past weekend was a great discussion for most of us at NETChurch.  We’ve been looking at a restructuring of sorts lately.  Not necessarily a structuring of the heirarchy of the church, but a re-imaging of what we are designed to be.  Now, if you are on the outside looking at this process it looks very strange, un-churchlike, and if you are engrained within the traditional thinking process of churches then it would seem to you that we are going off the deep end and away from God.  This could be further from the truth, though.  You see, we have been taking steps to get closer to God, to find His true purpose and reason for us as a spiritual community to exist.  Our group is launching (not just thinking, but really jumping) outside of the “box” and taking a new step in church life.  We are casting aside the ideas of “church” as we see it today, deconstructing our ideas, and purposely looking at Christ as Rabbi so that we can learn the lifestyle that He originally wanted us to pursue.  We are walking through these discussions right now and they are quite enlightening, almost invigorating in the way that they affect your everyday thinking.  That’s what I see as the most important thing.  I want to see what we do on Sunday’s truly become a catalyst for change the rest of our lives.

When you are in the middle of these discussion you never know what will happen or even what will be said.  NETChurch has resolved itself to the idea that God will work through those who speak once we get out of the way and let Him.  That seems to happen and I believe it to be true.  We were having a discussion this past week about Love and Discipline within the church.  Can the two coexist?  How far should a group go with discipline?  How much is our decision and how much is God’s?  On top of that, how do we know that we are doing the right thing?

As the conversation went on we were confronted with a series of statements made by one of our own, Brian Hampton, who had been thinking and struggling throughout the discussion.  I want you to hear the beauty in the words that he shared with us as he discovered some true insight into the scriptures in front of us.

Consequences  Click link or mouse over to listen

After listening to this I was really hit with the realities in front of us.  The idea that God has showed us all of this mercy/grace and that we are then called to share the same with those around us was one thing.  The idea that what I cultivate in my life is a direct correlation to how God responds or relates to us is another.  It takes things to a whole other level if you allow it to.

Here’s why:

Most of the time we think or have thought that God has done things simply because “God is God” and knows more or better than we do.  We’ve shunned the idea that how we act influences that relationship.  It’s always been that God loves us and will always do the best for us even if we are idiots, essentially seperating ourselves from any responsibility in the relationship.  If we do things good then God is proud.  If we don’t then He is hurt, but he still loves us so no prob.  With that thought we have found alot of different arguments come up from “once saved always saved” to “why should I worry about anything.  If God loves me that’s all that matters”.  Alot of us have then carried on our lives without thought to consequence simply because we knew that God loved us.  Done deal.  Don’t worry about it.

Then we start reading scripture in a new light and realize that the way we treat each other shows a direct relation to how we feel and respond to what God has done for us.  He has offered us such a tremendous outpouring of mercy, but then we ignore THAT gift and trash those around us because of our own need for power and security.  How then should God respond to us?  Am I saying that God will trash us if we trash each other?  No.  I’m not, but I’m not going completely the other way either.  I’m saying that we have a little more influence on what happens in our life than we give credit for.  God has given us this wonderful free will.  He’s allowed us to make choices.  What choices, then, affect our lives?

He has asked us to spread a message for Him.  A message of love.  But spreading it doesn’t actually happen in our words and sermons.  Those are cheap.  Anyone can buy them and throw them out.  Our actions, on the other hand, have weight.  They have strength.  They are tangible.  How do I know that?  If I speak loving but stab you in the back then my words mean nothing.  They meant nothing to me and they sure mean nothing to you.  What I do speaks volumes and I think we’ve lost that.  We talk more than we act.  Christ acted.  He loved.  He loved everyone.   Why is He worth following?  Because I don’t believe that you will ever find a more true and loving example of someone who actually DID what He was called to do.  He showed us, as we like to say, “The Way”.  Was he necessarily showing us how to get to a future place called Heaven or was he wanting us to start it here?  I’m thinking the latter was actually the most important to him.  Bringing a new heaven to earth begins with changing the way we live our lives WITH EACH OTHER.

Christianity is not a solo experiment.  It is only seen in it’s entirety when we interact with each other.  How we do that reflects completely on our relationship with God. 

As Ol’ Bill (and the Beatles) said in the comments on my last post “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make. (or give)”.  Truer words have never been spoken.

May the mercy and grace you have recieved become evident immediately through your love for each other.  May that love come back to you a thousand times over that you may know the mercy and grace you live under.