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It’s interesting that the definition of a disciple doesn’t describe someone who just believes in something.

I love what Ron had to say about Peter and critical moments of discipleship. The day Jesus asked His disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” after the crowd left him was a critical time in their lives. Were they going to follow the crowd who gave up on Jesus or were they going to really be disciples of Jesus and follow Him even when they didn’t understand what was going on (its fare to say we would have no idea either)? Its so easy to give up on God when we don’t understand what is going on, but a disciple like Peter will say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What a champion! That was definitely one of his better moments in life.

We can make that same decision every day. The question is what crowd are we going to follow? The ones who limit their life to just believing in Jesus but not following Him because it is too hard to live a life of faith. Or the ones that have their eyes and their hearts fixed on Jesus and will follow Him and do whatever He says.

I love the chorus of our song Hope, “Where ever you are, let me stay, Where every you go, I will follow, I will follow.”

Adrian Thornton

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

In life we are bombarded with conflicting priorities. The house needs to be cleaned, dinner needs to be made, there is an assignment to research and write, an event to be organised, kids needs to be dropped off and picked up, etc. Our faith is no exception, because being a disciple is essentially a matter of priorities.  The fundamental tension is between ourselves and God’s kingdom, our needs and struggles and His will and purpose. Let’s be honest, it’s just so easy to be caught up in the drama of life and pursue our own ends and fail to set our eyes upon anything beyond that.  As I think about this I realise that the greatest challenge I face as a disciple is the temptation to focus on my conflict rather than to seek first His kingdom.

So how do we rise above our circumstances and engage with kingdom purpose?  The solution is in how we deal with conflicting priorities in our everyday life. We resolve which activity is of more importance over the others.  Today someone asked me how can I fast for so long, especially going without coffee and tea.  The answer is found not in my will power but in what I value more.  I give more importance to drawing near to God than I do to drinking caffeine.  This is precisely the Jesus challenge – to deny oneself, take up one’s cross and follow him – to decide for yourself that God’s will and purpose is of greater importance than satisfying your own desires and that is the price you are willing to pay.  In practice it means, that despite my bills being higher this week I continue to bring my tithe and offering and withhold nothing, and; that I get out of bed each day and keep volunteering at the office even though I may feel exhausted (as most mums of five would be), and disappointed that one of my parents has yet to wish me a happy birthday.  My life continually comes into conflict with the Kingdom (as yours probably does too), and its at those critical times it is so important to always remember who it is I have chosen to live for.  When that priority is resolved my choice is clear – Live His Purpose.

Angela Furness

I have been reading in 2 Chronicles about the building and dedication of the Temple built by King Solomon. As the people pray, God fills the temple with his presence. How amazing it must have been to see the beautiful building and especially to experience the presence of God as he manifested himself to his people. The response of the people was to fall down and worship God acknowledging him and his faithfulness. Of course the temple was only an earthly building and could not fully contain all of God in any way. But God chose to make himself known to his people. 2 Chronicles 7:1-3

I wonder if we fully realise what an awesome privilege we have. God has made himself known to us through Jesus and through his word. God has made a way for us to come to him and to experience his presence always. He made a way for people to be able to approach Him without fear or trepidation, but to come freely into his presence by the grace and blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10:19 tells us because of Jesus’ sacrifice we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place, and we can enter right in to the presence of God. Knowing this, we can encourage one another to acts of love and good deeds. Lets encourage one another to really enter into the presence of God, to live his purpose and to reach out to people with love and with hope.

Today we launched the “new” mission statement for Citylife church. Its not really new, of course – we have just re-phrased the things that have always been at the core of what we believe. As a church we have always been committed to Jesus great commandments and commission. More…

A bit criptic but this is my latest contribution to the world of leadership studies. The leadership of Deng Xiaoping in the transformation of China to an Open Economy. I’m sure it would make light bedtime reading.

The essential question is: Will we be leaders who use others for our purposes or be genuinely concerned for the development of others in seeking to fulfill the mutual call of God? More…

In the gospel of Matthew, we read this story of Jesus starting out his ministry. He’s been going around, teaching, healing, doing all sorts of amazing stuff, and he’s starting to draw a big crowd. Lots of people are drawn to him, wanting to hear what he’s got to say, or see him perform a miracle.So Jesus climbs a hill. He gets away from the crowd a bit, and his disciples, the group of guys who are truly committed to him, follow. Jesus has stuff that he wants to teach them, away from the crowd.

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I often hear people talking about seeing the big picture. To be honest I think this is quite often an excuse for a put-down meaning “You don’t see things the way I do… and you should”

The ultimate big picture story, however comes in 2 King 6. The king of Aram sends his army to surround the city where Elisha the prophet is living. Everyone is terrified of this powerful army and is panicking about what to do. In verse 17 we read that Elisha prays that his servant will see things as they really are. His servant suddenly sees that despite the natural army surrounding the city, there is a whole spiritual army that is even bigger and greater surrounding that!

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God’s way is love. Love for him and love for others. And in 1 john 2, it says “It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others.” (MSG) I hadn’t thought about this heaps from this angle before. If we live in the light, and in love, obviously it’s good for us, our lives and relationships and everything. But what it says in 1 john is that if we don’t do that, we block the light from other people! Crazy thought! If we can’t learn to be people who live in love, and really, genuinely love and care for each other, then we block the light of God from reaching people! This is such a huge thing, and the light of God, people coming to know how much God loves them and his purpose for their life is why we’re on the planet, so if we’re blocking that by not loving, then what are we doing here?

We can get sent a lot of rubbish on the internet but last week a friend sent me this gorgeous clip. Its really an ad for a Telecommunications company but if we can get past that it sends a powerful message about expressing love in ways that the person who is at the receiving end can understand. My Spanish is not great but I’m reliably told that “Te Amo” means “I love you”. You might need your tissues if you are at all soft- hearted… More…

What will you be remembered for?

This is an important question. Most of us want to be remembered for who we are, and the good things we do. But will we? The answer to that lies largely in the choices we make each day and the way we live out those choices. We always have a choice to make  a good decision. Whether we do or not is up to us.

Esther was an amazing young woman during the reign of Xerxes in Persia.  She was picked almost randomly from obscurity by the royal watchers and placed in the King’s harem. Not a great place for a good Jewish girl. Despite her circumstances she was able to rise up, stand up and be counted and was instrumental in saving the Jewish nation in exile. God used her position in the royal court for his purposes and we know her and remember her today as the beautiful girl who saved the Jews.

As I read through Esther though, I notice something really important, that sometimes gets overlooked. Esther was not the instigation for the rescuing of her people. It was actually Mordecai who was the instigator. Mordecai loved God. He was constant and steadfast in his loyalty to God, to the King and to his own people the Jews. When the king was threatened by a plot, Mordecai informed the King. He did not have to, but he chose to do what was right. When his people were threatened, he chose to be pro-active. He did what he could do to get the message to Esther, that she was the only person who had any chance of stopping the plot to kill the Jews. It was Mordecai who realised that Esther had come to her position in the royal house “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) and it was a God given opportunity for her to do something that would change history. She chose to do something even when her life was at risk. She made a difference.

Because Mordecai was faithful and saved the kings life, he was honoured. Because Esther was ready to risk her life, a nation was saved. Eventually Mordecai is raised up and is given a position in government second in rank to the King. He is remembered as a person “held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of others” (Esther 10:3).

Which brings us back to the original question. What will you be remembered for? We too, like Mordecai and Esther, have many opportunities to work for the good of others. This life is not about us, it is about the Kingdom of God. It is about the salvation of people. It is about God’s purpose on this earth, and it is about serving others.  Hopefully as we make Godly choices we will be remembered as people who worked for the good of our people and who spoke up for the welfare of others.

The choice is yours and mine to make each day. What choice will you make?