The question I repeatedly ask myself is how, with my God given freedom, do I simply live the simple life?
How do I live in the freedom, faith and simplicity that Jesus and the Apostle Paul emphasized so radically in the New Testament?
Followers of Christ must not and cannot ignore these passages for the sake of comfort, wealth and the easy chair!
My desire to eat yummy food, live well, buy new technological appliances and comfortably exist continously gets in the way of the ideal: to be a cheerful generous giver living with essentials. To live by and in faith. Like Paul in the book of Romans I constantly do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I should do! God knows my struggles and my heart.
It is a battle.
The lilies of the field and the birds of the air have all their needs met by their Creator. I must continually consider them, and in considering them, live by faith, because my Creator will meet all my needs! Faith, faith, faith in the God who WILL supply all my needs.
So, yet, in knowing this, I still struggle to trust in the eternal promise of the Omnipotent Provident One.
When Jesus lived, He coupled simple living with freedom, in other words, He did not couple simple living with legalism. That is seen in His response to the woman who poured on Him a bottle of very expensive perfume. As the disciples rebuked this woman for wasting money, Jesus made it very clear that she had done right in the eyes of God!
Legalism (or moralism) is never the way of Jesus. We should never create a law for ourselves that can never be broken. Yet freedom becomes the more difficult choice, as life consists of a million judgement-calls. But, that is the way of Jesus and the Apostle Paul (especially 1 Corinthians 8 - 10).
Freedom, faith and simple living essentially reside together. They must co-exist, without the other 2, the single will struggle to live by it's lonesome!
In sum, this world is so full of non-essentials, which only serves to occupy and take us away from what our focal concerns should be. The raging battle is to live in a way and manner that would glorify the Lord Of Hosts.
Another way of saying it might be: eliminating some of the non-essentials and time wasters, turning others into essentials and focusing my attention on the focal concerns. This is possible only if we live as Jesus told us; to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
not my will, but YOURS be done.
Kierkegaard emphasized that as Christians we love to live a sagacious lifestyle, carefully living safely with complete levelheadedness, thus, denying the need to live in and by faith. We, as human beings, want to secure our own future, again denying us the necessity of faith. Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees lived this way! The question should not be one of personal significance and / or comfort, but the essential desire to DO the will of the Father. When we care more about our own needs, wants and desires than that of loving God and neighbour, we are, in fact, ignoring the essential message that Jesus lived and proclaimed.
Teletubbies, Sickness and a Sagacious Lifestyle
I wrote this back in 2006 - when I started this blog! I found it interesting and decided to post it as it was saved as a draft!
My backdrop is teletubbies very happily proclaiming their happiness and desire for big hugs. My exhausted son lays absorbed by these 4 creatures, drained from several days of moderate to high fevers.
A few Church people have questioned (more literally, judged) the rationale of why we would live in a community in the inner city of Chicago, especially when the young ones get sick. The fact is sickness does come and go with our oldest boy, but I would hereby question whether his colds and fevers come through a genetic predisposition or through the climate and communal living. I would definitely put more emphasis on genetics than the other, due to the fact that relatives also struggle with similiar symptoms and they do not live in the inner city of Chicago!
We often wonder how (the negative) church folk would respond if we were working amongst the poverty stricken millions in Calcutta, I suppose they would proudly proclaim our missionary endeavours to everyone around, and thus, never question the dangers of sickness. But working, as a missionary, amongst the poor in Chicago does not register high on their sainthood totem pole. The matters of missionary work proves to be a very subjective matter.
God has called us to Chicago!
Kierkegaard emphasized that as Christians we love to live a sagacious lifestyle, carefully living safely with complete levelheadedness, thus, denying the need to live in and by faith. We, as human beings, want to secure our own future, again denying us the necessity of faith. Scribes, pharisees and Saduccees lived this way! The question should not be one of personal significance and / or comfort, but the essential desire to DO the will of the Father. When we care more about our own needs, wants and desires than that of loving God and neighbour, we are, in fact, ignoring the essential message that Jesus lived and proclaimed.
My backdrop is teletubbies very happily proclaiming their happiness and desire for big hugs. My exhausted son lays absorbed by these 4 creatures, drained from several days of moderate to high fevers.
A few Church people have questioned (more literally, judged) the rationale of why we would live in a community in the inner city of Chicago, especially when the young ones get sick. The fact is sickness does come and go with our oldest boy, but I would hereby question whether his colds and fevers come through a genetic predisposition or through the climate and communal living. I would definitely put more emphasis on genetics than the other, due to the fact that relatives also struggle with similiar symptoms and they do not live in the inner city of Chicago!
We often wonder how (the negative) church folk would respond if we were working amongst the poverty stricken millions in Calcutta, I suppose they would proudly proclaim our missionary endeavours to everyone around, and thus, never question the dangers of sickness. But working, as a missionary, amongst the poor in Chicago does not register high on their sainthood totem pole. The matters of missionary work proves to be a very subjective matter.
God has called us to Chicago!
Kierkegaard emphasized that as Christians we love to live a sagacious lifestyle, carefully living safely with complete levelheadedness, thus, denying the need to live in and by faith. We, as human beings, want to secure our own future, again denying us the necessity of faith. Scribes, pharisees and Saduccees lived this way! The question should not be one of personal significance and / or comfort, but the essential desire to DO the will of the Father. When we care more about our own needs, wants and desires than that of loving God and neighbour, we are, in fact, ignoring the essential message that Jesus lived and proclaimed.
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