Monday, March 12, 2007

From Please, God to Please God

There are still a number of phrases incubating in my head from the Zoe Conference. One of these concerns the need to transform my prayers from please, God to please God. With the comma, I am constantly asking for something - please, God, help me with this; please, God, give me that; please, God, please, please, please...Without the comma I am expressing my desire to live according to God's will, not my own. Augustine put it like this - love God, live as you please; meaning that if you truly love God, reflecting that love will be the way you want to live.

Another phrase that resonated with me is that the church is not the dispenser of God. We don't take God out into the world - He is already there. Our job is to go out and join him.

Neither is it our mission to get people to come to church. Our mission is to go and lift up Jesus. "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself."

Every Christian has a ministry to the body and a mission to the world. Baptism is our ordination to ministry and our commission as missionary.

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