Roots of Unbelief 1

It is about unbelief. But I can choose to believe. Choose to believe God is able. But that isn't it surely. Isn't it more about He is able AND He cares enough to be doing the best for me and us right now.

I sit here beside a farmer's field hearing the sheep bleating. Sometimes one, sometimes a whole load at once. But each one has a unique sound. It was quite awesome when they all go for it at the same time, but you can still hear each individual cry. God hears my cry amidst the millions of voices clamouring for His attention. This has to be the first level of belief. He hears me.

My life of anxiety revolves around what I'm doing (or not) and how that is supposedly fouling up God's plans for me. Somehow that my actions override those of the Sovereign One. But if I'm asking for things that He wants, scripture says that He agrees, and that out of His love for me, He will act at exactly the right time. So the second level of belief has to be that God IS acting, but in the way that makes me become more like Him in the process. To Glorify Himself. So my prayer becomes not "why aren't You doing anything?" but "thank you that You are on it. What are you teaching me, and how can I become more like you through this process? I surrender to your plan in this.". The belief then comes that He is acting. The belief comes that His ways are not mine. God is not a mini-Kev but a self-sufficient all powerful sovereign King. His ways will be and are better than mine. So my belief must become surrender.

So I have been engaging in acts of unbelief. I have listened to accusation and words of discouragement. I repent, and ask for the strength to turn my ways around. I surrender my thoughts back and ask for a clean mind, uninstructed by irrational misgivings that pick away at my view of God. Lord, thank you that I have been allowed to come to this point, so that my belief system is rooted in You, not me, not people, not the world. Transcend all of this God and destroy my idols, which have created a void in my soul. I seek You for the sake of knowing almighty God. Nothing else. My life must be pointed in this direction alone, pure simplicity in seeking after God.

Thank you for your grace.
Thank you for your fatherhood.
Thank you for your kindness.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you that you're on it, in it and above it all.

From one of your little bleating sheep.

Unity cloud

A great headline

Saw a church magazine on Sunday with a massive headline:

"Has the church lost a generation?"

Answer: "Yes, unfortunately it took a generation to notice".

And Christmas celebrates the coming of C...!

...Chris Tomlin band...how could I forget?!

Wow...can I put my face in there? Please???? This is unbelieveable!

Further to my last post

...Neil Bennetts at HT Cheltenham posted as below. Resonates completely with where I think God is wanting us to go with our worship, our songs, and our responses.

http://thebabyandthebathwater.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/we-need-to-go-deeper/

Read and respond.

What we really need to remember...

"He" is not us.

He doesn't exist within the famework of our selves. He is His own. A life force, independent and moving of His own accord.

Why do we frame God?

God is other. He is not us. We need sometimes to go to where God is at, rather than continually bringing Him into our own reality. His reality goes so much further.

Souls, lies and videotape

How we live is based on what we believe. This can be based on two alternative perceptions of reality: the one offered to us by our surroundings ie what we see, perceive & learn; or the one which is engaged in a reality we haven't yet seen or perceived.

This is about living beyond potential. Becoming more than the world might let us become. Going beyond the videotape played out by life and into a new reality shaped in the realm that is not seen. One which is mystical and fuelled by life-changing miracles. There is more. But when we look only at what there is, we can't see or believe in 'the more'. More does not signify quantity or material abundance, rather fulfilment and destiny. A belief that there is more beyond life-as-we-know it must shape the life we're in. Otherwise there is no point in believing it at all. It becomes a set of rituals and traditions.

So instead we watch the videotape played out around us. Videotape - old, worn out and obselete. It tells us what should be important, exactly what we can achieve. The problem is that it can't record unrealised imagination, dreams, vision, and meaning. It can only document what already exists. We're rattled into each scene, given a script to play out, and then told that we're done.

What about if we wrote our own scripts. Wrote our own stories, fuelled by a spirit engaged in the pursuit of a truth that lies beyond the reality presented to us. A truth that can only enter our reality when we show the courage to introduce it through our actions, our lives. Or we can continue to play our part in the predictable presentation of life offered to us. This surely kills something in us. Living in the videotape is not truth, it distorts our vision of reality and our view of what is possible.

So dream. Talk to God. Allow dreams to take hold and become a part of reality. God will introduce His dreams to the world through us, if we'll pause the tape and look up for a while.

'When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, "Do you really believe I can do this?" They said "Why yes, Master!" He touches their eyes and said, "Become what you believe." It happened. They saw.' Matt 9 v 27-29