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Families "survical unit" opsoek na verhoudings

“When a couple has an argument nowadays, they may think it’s about money or power or sex or how to raise the kids or whatever. What they’re really saying to each other, though without realizing it, is this: “You are not enough people!” A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family. It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” A man without a country, p.48 Kurt Vonnegut

Hy gaan verder en sê dat ons vandag ons uitgebreide families verloor, ons ouers en groot ouers in versorgins oorde plaas. Die res van ons families so min sien dat ons mekaar nie regtig meer ken nie. In hierdie konteks sê hy het ons arm geword. Bietje verder maak hy die volgende stelling: “It used to be that when a man and a woman got married, the bride got a lot more people to talk about everything. The groom got a lot more pals to tell dumb jokes to.”

Daar is 'n groeiende behoefte na verhoudings. Egte verhoudings waar ek veilig is en waar ek kan asemhaal. Maar ons is so besig dat ons nie tyd het vir dit waarna ons soek nie. Om Gelowige te wees vandag is die NOODSAAKLIK dat ons tyd maak om te kuier by ons groter familie (ook ons kerkfamilie) sodat ons, ons "sanity" kan behou. As jy enkelouer is, is dit nog soveel meer belangrik!

Ons is arm aan verhoudings, regte mens verhoudings. As ons in die kerk ernstig is oor evangelisasie sal ons moet besef dat ons preke, dade van barmhartigheid en uitreik bevesit of vernietig word deur ons sigbare verhoudings. Johannes 13:34-35

³⁴Ek gee julle ’n nuwe gebod: julle moet mekaar liefhê. Soos Ek julle liefhet, moet julle mekaar ook liefhê. ³⁵As julle mekaar liefhet, sal almal weet dat julle dissipels van My is.”

God se geduld

Hoekom is dit dat mense wat 'n nuwe "commitment" maak teenoor God, so dikwels baie ongeduldig is met mense wat, volgens hulle, vasgeval is in die ou paaie? Jy het besef op watter dwaalspoor jy was, en nou is jy so opgewonde oor die nuwe lewende verhouding met God. Dit is baie goed, maar nou raak jy openlik krities en ongeduldig met ander wat (nog) nie die ontdekking gemaak het nie. Was God nie juis met jou geduldig oor jare tot op die punt wat die lig vir jou opgegaan het nie?
Ek dink Lukas 13:1-9 sien hierdie inherente spanning goed raak. Aan die een kant die dringende oproep tot bekering, aan die ander kant die wonderlike geduld van God. Die vyeboom wat nie vrug dra nie, word nie uitgekap nie, maar kry nog 'n kans om met goeie kompos en behandeling vrug te dra. Kompos of mis ontbind eers en dan kan dit iets beteken vir die boom. Dalk moet ek in my ongeduld ook eers afgebreek word om iets te kan beteken vir die boom wat nie vrug dra nie?

Amazing gebed van Brian McLaren

A prayer ...

I've been especially focusing my thoughts on the beatitudes in recent days. After the jump is a prayer that they inspired.

God, our Creator, thank you for the gift of Jesus. He walked among us embodying your creative and life-giving Word in his body, his life, his words, his deeds, his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection. When we see him loving the outcast, forgiving the sinner, confronting the hypocrite, and teaching the crowds a new way of life, we see your heart, your compassion, your mercy, your character. To know Jesus is to love him, and to love him is to know him, and to know and love him is to know and love you.

So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught.

Help me, Lord, to be among the poor in spirit, to see and know that your kingdom is my homeland even now ...

Help me, Lord, to be among those who mourn, to join you in your sadness for all that's wrong and broken in this world, and in joining you, to find true comfort.

Help me, Lord, to be among the meek, those who find strength in weakness and power in vulnerability, to never fear lack or want, because when I have your love, I have all the world.

Help me, Lord, to desire justice, rightness, goodness, fairness, cleanness, clearness, and integrity more than I hunger for food or thirst for water ... and so let me find the truest fulfillment and satisfaction.

Help me, Lord, to be among the merciful. Help me to be a true friend to those who are hated, misunderstood, rejected, excluded, disregarded ... just as you, God of Mercy, are. When others fail - when they fail me - help me show the same mercy you show to those who fail you ... including me.

Help me, Lord, to be among the pure in heart. May your pure light shine in my heart and dispel every shadow, every layer and fold that conceals or pretends. Since it is only the heart that sees you, remove from my heart everything that keeps me from seeing you.

Help me, Lord, to be among the makers of peace. Many build walls. Many sow fear and distrust. Many spread rumors. Many inflame conflict and profit from it. Help me to be even among them an agent and messenger of your peace and reconciliation, and so bear your family likeness, God of peace.

Help me, Lord, not to fear being among the persecuted, but rather, to rejoice in having the honor of standing for your restorative justice and rightness, so I will see that your kingdom is my homeland, even now.

Help me, Lord, to be among those who suffer wrong well and with grace. Help me not to resent it, not to fear it, not to seek to escape it. Instead, help me to find joy in it ... when others insult me, make my life more difficult, or falsely malign me because of you. Help me to see through the momentary, light trouble to the lasting and weighty reward, even now, for your kingdom comes by suffering rather than by making others suffer.

So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught. I am a limping, broken sinner and beginner, far from these realities, but this is where I want to go. In your mercy, lead me in this path. Amen.
(a meditation on Matthew 5:1-12)

My Perspektief oor God wat ons TOETS - Paul Barnard

Ek wonder baie keer wat bedoel God as daar in die Bybel staan dat Hy ons toets. Ek is besig om 'n studie te maak van die verskillende Dissipels en dit wat ons van hulle kan leer in die Bybel. Ek is hierdie week by Fillipus en daar is dit toe weer! Die bietjie wat ons van Fillipus weet lyk dit of hy die logiese ou was - die detail persoon wat in elke situasie gekyk het wat gedoen moet word en hoe dit gedoen moet word. Daardie onmisbare persoon in elke span.

In Johannes 6 gebeur dit dat daar 'n massa mense vir Jesus volg. Dan staan daar: ⁵Toe Jesus rondkyk en sien dat ’n groot klomp mense na Hom toe aankom, sê Hy vir Filippus: “Waar kan ons brood gaan koop sodat die mense kan eet?”

⁶Dit het Hy net gesê om hom op die proef te stel, want Hy het self goed geweet wat Hy gaan doen.

⁷Filippus antwoord Hom toe: “Twee honderd mense se dagloon is nie eers genoeg om elkeen van hulle ’n stukkie brood te laat kry nie.”

In hierdie gedeelte lees ons Jesus stel hoem op die proef WANT HY HET SELF GOED GEWEET WAT HY GAAN DOEN. Wat is die nut om iemand op die proef te stel as jy weet wat gaan hy doen. Ek dink Jesus het geglimlag in sy hart toe Hy Fillipus op die proef gestel het. Hy het gesien hoe hierdie dissipel besorg oor die mense is en dat hy reeds bekommerd is oor almal wat moet eet. Daarom is Fillipus ook reeds reg met 'n antwoord. Hy het reeds uitgewerk hoeveel hy sou nodig het en dat dit onmoontlik is.

Wat is dus volgens my die doel van die proef/toets?

Jesus het hom op die proef gestel, nie omdat Jesus nodig gehad het om uit te vind wat in sy binneste aangaan nie. Hy het hom op die proef gestel(getoets) sodat Fillipus sou uitvind wat in sy eie binneste aangaan.

God stel ons nie op die proef om te kyk of ons slaag of misluk nie, maar om ons bewus te maak van ons eie onsekerheid, ongeloof, twyfel en leemtes.

DAN WAT.

Dan gee hy in elke geval die uitkoms! Dan omvou hy ons met liefde. Dit is nie 'n evaluerings proses nie, dit is God wat in Sy liefde ons help om onsself te leer ken en as ons sien wie ons is, kan ons in Sy arms in hardloop. Hy hardloop reeds na ons toe.

Ek hou egter nie altyd daarvan as God my op die proef stel nie want die ou wat ek vind stel my baie teleur, net om te besef dat God my liefhet.

Mat 5:3 ³“Geseënd is dié wat weet hoe afhanklik hulle van God is,

want aan hulle behoort

die koninkryk van die hemel.

Die Bybelse weg

“For the biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us ‘Live up to this;’ Nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, ‘Think like this and you will live well.’ The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us in, ‘Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human; this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings.’ We do violence to the biblical text when we ‘use’ it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives. That results in a kind of ‘boutique spirituality’ – God as decoration, God as enhancement… In the reading, we submit our lives to what we read, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but to see our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves”

-Eugene Peterson (Introduction to I Samuel in the Message)

Het ek vandag God gesien

Alan Hirsch asked three simple, but fantastic guiding questions for those striving to possess a seven-day-a-week missional mindset. What if we asked these three questions every day?

Where did I see God at work in the world today?
How did I join with God today?
How did I resist God today?
Imagine if we reflected on these questions every day? Or just once a week?
Spiritual formation, the process of growth to become more Jesus-ish, happens when we resist God less and join God more.

This daily discipline of self-reflection have a potent capability of cultivating a spirit of anticipation, where we expect God to show up and join with him in advancing his kingdom - his rule and reign - by practicing his ways in our everyday lives.