Chapter by chapter

There are two prominent people in the New Testament outside of Jesus - Peter and Paul. Peter was a disciple of Jesus from the beginning, Paul received a revelation of Jesus after Jesus’ death. Both were Jews. Both wrote parts of the New Testament. Both were in charge of churches. Peter was a fisherman, and hence had an extremely small amount of education. Paul was a High Official, very educated, respected and zealous. Paul had everything that a Jew could possibly ask for in terms of status (Phil 2), whereas Peter was lacking in status amongst a Jewish crowd. 

But both had very different callings.

One was called to Jews. The other to gentiles (non-Jews).

Who would you pick? What makes the most sense? 

Well, I’m not gonna spell it out - but God had totally different plans. 

God chose Peter to go the Jews, and Paul to go to the Gentiles, and in so doing gave a practical example of baptism into new life.

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Paul’s standing in the Jewish council only had meaning according to the Jewish people, their customs, their laws. Outside of this - all of his status, his heritage, his work - meant nothing. In order to carry out the calling that God had for Paul, he had to give up his life. It’s like, a PhD professor going into a remote park of the Amazon forest to a tribe. In university he’s respected, clever, sought after - in the jungle he’s just another mouth to feed. He’s lost his respect, his status and his lifetime achievement is counted as nothing.

God effectively said ‘Everything you’ve worked for, everything you were, everything you thought you were - is nothing. We’re starting again. A clean slate. And we’ll build you up from there’. 

This is what happens when we God enters our lives. We start again. Our past is taken away, our names that we attach to ourselves are gone - and we’re left with one title - Child of God. 

Whether the past was perceived as great, good, horrendous, a mess or mediochre - the same happens to everyone - we are a new creation in Jesus Christ.

The old has gone, the new has come.

Only for the King

Jx

Get a sofa. Get a lamp (one of those old ones with the frilly lamp-shade). Get a coffee table. Get a few magazines/newspapers. Get a small generator. Get a coffee maker. 

Set all up in the middle of town. 

Invite people to sit with you and talk to them.

Tell them about Jesus in a natural way - because you love them, and Jesus is ace.

Get their number or contact details if the opportunity arises.

Smile.

Pray.

Love.

———————————-

Pega uma sofa. Pega uma lampada (com uma pantalha - o tipo com as coisas de babadas). Pega uma mesinha. Pega as revistas/jornais. Pega um gerador. Pega uma maquina de cafe.

Arruma tudo isso no centro da cidade.

Convite pessoas la sentir contigo.

Diga elas sobre Jesus - porque vc ama elas e Jesus é massa.

Pega o numero delas ou detalhes - se a oportunidade vem.

Dá um sorriso.

Ora.

Ama.

Only for the King/Só pra o Rei

Jx

Scabs are ugly. They’re like, sometimes green, red, sometimes brown, sometimes a deep purple, sometimes yellowy, dry, flaky, aren’t nice to look at. In short - scabs aren’t a great look to aim for. 

But scabs are also amazingly complex (please take a look at the wikipedia page - loot at all the long words!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_healing#Proliferative_phase )

When you cut yourself the protection from your skin is gone. I don’t know a huge amount about the scabbing process - but wikipedia used way to many big words I couldn’t understand - so if I’m wrong forgive me. Within seconds the body is sending other chemicals, substances and fluids to the scene of the cut to stop this from happening. The platelets that are already in your blood start collecting together and start to form a new layer which will aid the creation of new skin - these are yellowy in colour, which is why scabs appear yellow when they dry. 

So this dry layer now on your skin - the scab - is there to stop infection from bacteria so your body can heal itself. 

In short - scabs show that a body is healthy.

And then I got thinking - are there things in the church that are like this? Or things in the walk to a greater relationship with God, that although ugly, show a healthy body?

I couldn’t really think of any in any eloquence right now - it was just an ‘open’ thought - which isn’t finished yet. 

I think maybe in the coming days I’ll ask God to open this up to me - show me ways in which there might be ugly things in our lives which actually show a healthy relationship, or a healthy church, or healthy belief. 

Feel free to post your own thoughts.

Only for the King

Jx

We (in the church) make SUCH a big deal about being ‘Anti-Religion’. We often say things like:

I’m not religious, I have a living faith with Jesus Christ.

Organised religion is totally man-made and gets in the way of true faith.

I hate religion as much as you.

etc

How biblical is this? In the majority part - it’s great. Jesus shuns the pharisees and Sadducees for their short-sightedness in matters of the extra rules that man has imposed upon man in the name of a divine power. 

In the book of James (who was Jesus’ half-brother) he actually tells us that there’s a type of religion that is pure and undefiled. Yeah read it again:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 

James 1:27

The way we use the word ‘religion’ often coincides with the verse from Colossians

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

Colossians 2:23

The difference is that it demarcates between just ‘religion’ and self-made religion. 

This actually shows an awful lot. It shows that not ALL religion is bad. That is, not ALL rules and regulations are bad - which then must mean that the reason for the religion must be important to God - this reason is those without a whole family, and keeping ourselves pure. 

Family. Purity. THESE are the things that we should be religious about -to fight for - because these are things that even if our heart isn’t in the right place at the beginning, by the end of the process we would have matured and understood more of why they’re important.

For example: who hasn’t got annoyed at having to go to a family meal, and in the end really enjoyed it because of deepening relational and family ties with those that are remarkably similar to you? And who know someone that’s never been drunk, and not deep-down been impressed that they’ve done it - and wished that maybe we’d done the same?

There are 3 times in the New Testament where we’re told to imitate what someone further down the line is doing. We aren’t told to develop a heart attitude first and then be holy. 

Some things can only come with experience. 

Only for the King

Jx

When I was younger - about 16, just before I went to college - I received a comment from a friend that at the time I valued highly. The comment was more or less this -

Jason, you’re always the same, nothing seems to bother you, you just carry on regardless - you’re constant. 

I remember where it was, who I was with, and what we were doing. It was a very strong word that stuck with me, and to some degree formed some of my own opinion about myself - up until today. 

Today I realised that growing up has changed me. It’s changed me in a number of ways, but one of them has had a more profound effect on my life. And I think it’s the ability to feel passionate with conviction. 

This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because when you’re passionate you find extra energy that you wouldn’t have had otherwise to complete a task or do something you wouldn’t have done before. When you’re passionate you have a greater vision and higher expectation.

On the other side of the coin when you’re passionate for something it means emotions are involved. It means things become very personal because you give more of yourself for something you are passionate about - you have more ownership of what you do because it has vision and wider-ranging implications. So when something bad happens which is contrary to the vision - it hurts more. I feel more when things don’t quite go to plan in the way I had expected.

Since I’ve grown up I’ve managed to find passion for certain things, which has helped to focus my energy into certain things, and helped me put my focus on a future in God’s hands. But at the same time it means that when things happen that hinder that focus, or what I thought was part of the vision (because I’m human my vision of the future isn’t always what God has in mind) I get disheartened very quickly, and very easily. 

I get hurt.

The next part of this journey is learning how to not just have a Godly vision for where I’m going to go - but a greater understanding of how God works situations through for the best possible outcome for me. 

I wrote a post a few weeks ago (http://jasonmarrett.tumblr.com/post/14496441926/fighting-whom) that helps to demonstrate this clearer. I’m in a boxing match with God - only, it’s a training exercise and I’m never going to come against more than God knows I can withstand. 

Living with this in peace and joy and righteousness is a tough call. But by God’s grace I will learn and come out the other side fighting fit. 

Only for the King

Jx

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

John 5:5-7

This question that Jesus asks to the man is a closed question, which means it’s a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. The question is about being healed - having his problems removed, being renewed, having vitality. These things are all things that we want in our lives - not just ‘good’ people, but everyone. The whole world wants these things - a better life, a sense of ‘newness’ and good health. 

But what’s interesting is this - the man doesn’t answer the question. It might just be me, but nowhere does the man say if he does or does not want to be healed.

He missed the point.

Instead what the man did was give an answer to the question which he thought he heard, which seems much more like ‘Have you managed to get into the pool?’. The man focused on a method rather than the problem. He was more focused on how he thought he could get healed, which was getting into the pool, rather than opening up his eyes to other possible methods and inevitably the solution.

We can often do the same. For example, Jesus could be asking ‘do you want to see more of me?’ - and we can respond with ‘But I can’t read my Bible like I want to’, or ‘I don’t enjoy the worship’ or even still ‘God I want a new job/new house/girlfriend/to win the lottery’.

Sometimes we focus on what we think will get the outcome we want - we focus on the method - and miss other opportunities or ways to get the outcome that God desires for us. We worry about Bible reading plans, evangelism programmes, life problems whilst forgetting that we should be having a conversational relationship with Jesus.

We just need to answer the question. Jesus will do the rest.

Only for the King

Jx

I’ve now been in Brazil for a little over 4 months, and the time out here has been interesting to say the least! It’s been interesting for numerous reasons, but the main one is that I simply could never have imagined what this time would have been like before I arrived. I mean - I had expectations, I’d heard stories, I had contacts and a ‘pinpoint’ sized idea of what I was going to be doing – but even this wasn’t preparation enough for what God had in store.

If you’re expecting stories of supernatural miracles, or some extremely deep ‘change my life in one line’ quote, I’ve got neither. What I feel I’ve been gaining since I’ve been here is experience, relationship and understanding. My eyes have been opened not just in a worldly way, but a personal, private and indescribable way – so I won’t try to describe what’s changed. What I have noticed though is how much I viewed the world through culture. Seriously, if you think you’re view of the world is ‘without blemish’ without experiencing another culture in-depth – get out. Culture is like this – a pair of glasses with lenses inches thick that we don’t realise we’re wearing. My time here has been filing down my English lenses, adding some Brazilian, and at the same time making it clearer what things are cultural, and what things aren’t. Again, I can’t really explain it, it just ‘is’.

My story since I’ve been here has been more a case of ‘self-discovery’ (sounds awfully ‘rah’ and ‘gap-year spiritual journey’, but it’s true), understanding more about myself and how I really think. In all honesty it’s been quite scary, but thankfully God is gracious and showing me areas of my life that without the experiences I’m having here probably would have gone unnoticed and unchanged. I’ve not done an awful lot, or at least it doesn’t feel like I have. I mean, I’ve been involved regularly in the worship at the Manifesto church which has been immense, I’ve been helping out in the Tribal Generation office with translating their website into English, went on trips to Peru and another city in Brazil called Aracaju, spent a week in Goiania with another Sal da Terra church, and have spent the last few weeks in the house of Alan & Enilce (who were the original family from Brazil to come to Hereford for two years in 1996).

Spending my first Christmas and New Year’s away from home was a different experience – A Christmas with sun instead of snow, with friends instead of immediate family, Brazil instead of the Barrels, and late evening instead of early morning. For the first time I started to feel a tad homesick, but don’t worry too much – I quickly got over it! ;-) But seriously now, it seems I’m at a point where I’m missing my England friends more and at the same time I’m gaining deeper friendships here – like a friendship crossover type thing.

News for the future is looking very promising. Speaking to Alexandre (one of the Pastors of the Centroeste congregation, one of Sal da Terra’s main churches), my time in the new year is going to be very busy not just with the School of Church Planting course, but also with some of the other stuff that they have planned for me. At the moment there are thoughts about being involved in their Evangelism Committee (a group of people that organise how the church is going to do their Evangelism – the more structured events), being more involved in the organisation of the Global Tribal Generation Gathering in June 2012, and have already started being involved in the worship in the Centroeste congregation. As part of this I feel it is right that I move to the Centroeste congregation as my main church, but will still aim to keep in close contact with Manifesto. The pastors of Manifesto are heavily involved in the School of Church Planting, they have their more ‘extreme’ services on Saturday nights instead of Sunday, and most of my friends are from that Church.

I can’t think of much else to write other than this. Of course, if you’re interested more in what I’m up to – feel free to write a message on Facebook, ask my parents (if you’re in Hereford, although, they’re often really bad at telling stories) or write a letter, or even ring me ( 005534 9253 2633 – it’s not that expensive!)

Prayer list, if you’re into that kinda thing – which is a really cool thing to be in to – would be Focus, Faith, Language, Friendships and Integrity. They’re all vague words, but have widespread applications in my situations at the moment. If anyone has any prophetic words or images for me, please feel free to send them my way – would be hugely appreciated!