On Squirrels and such like

Mark Driscoll writes in his 'On the Old Testament' :

"The opening line of the scriptures introduces us to its hero. Through the pages of this scripture God is revealed. In the closing line of the New Testament scriptures we are reminded that the God who is the hero of the scriptures is Jesus Christ" (p34)

Yet, for all the screaming obviousness that the Bible is about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) somehow we miss it.

In the New Testament Jesus makes some very bold claims about the Old Testament.

1. The books of Moses are about Jesus (John 5v46) and the way to respond is to believe.

2. All the promises are fulfilled in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1v20) - however unreliable people are God's promises are firm.

3. The books of Moses and the prophets are about Jesus (Luke 24v27) and if we're reading it right our hearts will be burning within us.

Moreover - the apostles in Acts seem to focus their activity on proving that Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament scriptures. It's nice in theory, the question is how.

For more on this see: BeginningWithMoses.org and Thoughts on some of the "Five Festal Garments" at TheBlueFish.org

Breaking out beyond expectations.

"It's a schemer who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best-I took your plan and turned it on itself. Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple bullets. Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It's fair" The Joker, sourced from IMDB

Two ways to have influence. One - have a plan. Two - introduce a little chaos. And with that Marcus decided to let me have the keys to his blog for a week.

In one of his recent posts Marcus considered the DNA of churches. What is it that runs through the veins of our churches? What's in our blood?

On Jesus' principle of fruit trees we should be able to discern by looking at our churches what their DNA is. Their behaviour is based on their beliefs. One of the highlights of my yearwas joining a new church, because we moved house, and finding that session 1 of the church's foundations course is on grace. That's the underlying driving principle of the church in everything. On paper. What was more joyful was that this was already evident in the previous two months of being a part of the church - from the preaching to the singing to the friendships we were developing.

The Rebulution believes change is possible. By default we presume that tomorrow will be like today. It's the scientific assumption about reality, and repetition is hardwired into the way God made the world (Ecclesiastes 1). But what if tomorrow was different. What if our lives could be a little Biblically-saturated, Spirit-empowered, Grace-motivated genetic engineering to the life of those around us, to our churches. A little intentionality. A little faith.

My instinct is that in most churches things are sort of ok. It's just that the Bible goes for a bit more than ok. The church is the glorious bride of Christ, blood-bought and being made blameless. Supernaturally made and being extended to every people group in the world with unstoppable force.

What if things didn't go according to plan, but instead the smallest seed grew big...

Posted by Dave Bish of The Blue Fish Project. Recently posted there: "I wish I was a Universalist".

A Different DNA

“we want every member of our church to have a fundamentally different DNA. We want our core values to be that we are here on this planet, and that our church is founded by Christ, in order to impact the world with the gospel of grace.” Do you see the difference that makes? The first person says “I will see if I have any time left for gospel impact after I have done everything else.” They prioritise the other things in life and wait until those are done to see if they are able to participate in the mission of the church. The second person says “Impacting the world with the gospel is the very reason for my life.” They prioritise that and arrange all their other commitments around it. Radical, Dangerous People That second person is the radical, dangerous, person. Nothing is going to stop them. They are going to change the world and let nothing hinder the gospel. They are going to put up with hardship and scorn and embarrassment for telling people the good news. They are going to utilise all their resources for this, rather than just seeing what is left after they have done everything else they want to do.
Read more

3 Ways to Cripple the Body of Christ

We can sum up these 3 ways to cripple the body of Christ: * I won’t participate * I refuse to let someone else participate * I belittle the contribution of others All of those are abominable because they are destroying the work of God, disparaging the diversity that he has put here for his glory and our good, and refusing to accept those whose gifts I dislike have a contribution to make.
Read more