For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilised world, and the rest of the world, to the educated and the uneducated alike – Paul, Romans 1

Some of the women in our gathering have met up with, and are bringing to Christ, a woman they met on the street. This lady is past middle aged, but has grabbed the Gospel with both hands and is coming to an understanding of faith. They have all started meeting regularly in a Discovery Group, and I suspect, she is likely a person of peace, a hub in a community. It is wonderful to see. Recently she thanked my wife from the bottom of her heart, for taking the time to share with her on the street, for introducing her to a Gospel that is life changing.

There are more stories I could tell as well. This blog was started primarily to encourage a few believers who were either new to the faith, or wanted to make themselves useful for God, or simply wanted to do something different with their lives, other than turn up to church each week and go through the motions. It was also a journal for us, a reminder as to what the Lord was doing in one corner of his world.

The day I think it becomes, “look at us” is the day we stop writing. We never wanted it to be about anyone other than Jesus; we are invited to join him in his work, not the other way around.

We have been trying to do things differently for more or less a decade. Doing things differently principally means, trying to be a Disciple Maker for Christ, drawing those who don’t yet know into a relationship with Christ, and then encouraging and working with them to do the same to those in their ‘oikos’. A new, genuine, church is born.

There was quite a response to the post a few weeks ago, questioning whether we should all be out on the streets or not. Some – well, maybe most, see this as very threatening, sharing the Gospel with complete strangers. Is that what it’s really about? In some senses, yes it is, I believe.

But, there is a single, simple word that seems to describe the great difference between the work of those in the Scriptures, and the lack of work of the vast majority of believers in our churches today. It is the word ‘intentional’. Whether you choose to go out on the streets, into the shopping mall, or just invite people into your home to run a discovery Bible study, there has to be some intent in what we do for God. From Jesus in the Gospels, through to the Apostles, then Paul and on through the ages, He has asked us to be very intentional in the way we live for him.

This means for each of us, that we should live with an attitude similar to Paul’s above, that I have an obligation to live in a way befitting the God that I serve. Further, that like him, I should be on the lookout continually, for opportunities that the Spirit of Christ will present to me on a moment by moment, day by day basis to introduce Jesus into someone’s life. Taking that a step further, I could even be intentional in moving out into my community, praying, prayer walking, knocking on people’s doors, talking to another in a coffee shop – the list is endless. If I was to spend a lifetime doing that, and saw just a single person come to Christ, it would be a life well lived.

This stands in direct contrast to the many, who see their obligation framed in a single sitting. Is it any wonder that the devotion of so many seems so cold, and that the world has such a low opinion.

Imagine just for a moment, that the church as we know it in the West, was completely taken away. Buildings, pastors, Sunday services – all gone. What would you, what would I have left, how would my service to Jesus look like then?

One of the things we are learning, is the vital importance of the community of Christ in and around us. We could have written as easily as much about that. But, it seems that the local community of Christ frequently dies, unless there is some intent to live obediently in this area of disciple making.

The good news is this though. Around the world today, thousands, most likely tens of thousands of ordinary people, are living out their lives intentionally for Christ. They are stepping out, looking for opportunities, quietly sharing their faith and leading others into faith. They will never make the front page of Charisma magazine.

But they should be an encouragement to each of us, that we too can do something simply for Christ. This week and going forward, like Paul, like others, let us live an intentional life for our Lord. Surely he is worth it, surely it is what he asks us to do.

So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us. – 1 John 2: 24-25

We had a death in the family this week. As far as death goes, and I don’t want to be insensitive at a time of grief, it was a pretty good one. Peacefully, the person fell asleep with family beside them, praying. Death is the great separator though isn’t it, for all of us there is a time when we leave our home, those we know and love and we step into the unknown. I used to wonder, and still do at times, whether I will be able to find my way around the streets of heaven, and what the buildings will look like. Funny isn’t it, our imagination.

But death is also the great unmentionable in our society. We speak of ‘passing away’ or ‘moving on’ or if you’re really desperate, ‘being reincarnated.’ Most of us, all of us really hope we will go to a better place. The Bible though, is much less wavering and watery in its summation of death. It says each of us will stand before a Holy God and give an account of our lives, how we have lived and advises us accordingly that we should be thinking about this beforehand. It is more important than life insurance.

Further, it tells us that Jesus, who existed from the very beginning with the Father, was briefly separated from the Father at death. They must have been grief-stricken beyond imagination, yet because of that, we are able to live for eternity. Jesus’ separation, meant our connection in. Whenever I talk to strangers about the Gospel, I always try to bring these facts into the conversation. Death is a reality, will we be separated eternally, or connected in? How we respond is crucial.

But in this passage in John’s letter, he talks of fellowship here, being eternal. It is aimed at believers, but it has implications for an unbelieving world. It’s been two years since we came to Sydney and started a work we believed the Lord called us to. There have been ups and downs, highlights and lowlights. Part of this has been understanding the meaning of the type of fellowship that Jesus wants us to live in with other believers. The fellowship Christ talks of here, is far more than just an event. It is an existence, lived out day to day, week to week in our lives. Eternity, apparently and according to John, starts in this life.

It seems to me that deep down, both the world and the believer wants this above everything. More than anything else, heaven will be defined not as a place, but as a community centred around the Godhead. But Christ wants us to live this out now. Our small gathering here in Sydney is beginning to prayerfully work through this, to understand what it looks like. We are making progress.

At the core of it, is Jesus Christ leading us day to day through his Spirit. It means that we must be prepared to live within each other’s lives, and hold each other accountable as to how we live. A quick scan particularly of this letter of John will show us that is how we are supposed to live. It should be a Holy community, one fit for Christ to be part of. He will not tolerate blatant sin, and so we must be prepared within that community to confess to one another how we live. Scary stuff, but Biblical, as James calls us to ‘confess our sin to one another.’ Confessing my sin to my Christian brother who stands before me is quite different to confessing my sin to a God whom I cannot see. Perhaps though, if I do the former I may be spared the later embarrassment of the latter.

It should be governed by love for each other, where we love each other as family, real genuine family. There would be no need within such a family as we would all share what we have openly, honestly. Further, there would be healing within such a family, because as a family we would come to the one who does heal and ask that he heal our brokenness, whatever that looks like. There would be praise, song, teaching and daily walking together with Christ and each other.

Out of this family, which would be something the world would never see anywhere else, would be a natural tendency to minister into the world. Such a devotion to Christ and each other, would naturally spill over into our neighbours, the streets, the pub, the housing commission block – everywhere God sends us. At the centre of it all would be The Christ, Jesus as head of his ‘church’ breathing life into us, ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

For most of us here, this seems like something we will have to wait for and so in the meantime we continue to bring God into our lives on certain days, at certain times. Our isolationist, independent society here in the West will prohibit such a family as this. Think so?

I don’t share that, in fact I am convinced more than ever that Christ wants this to become a reality in my life, in my small village here on this earth, now. That he wants us to be part of a community that is daily connected to each other and him, and in so doing that our love spills out onto those around us.

That’s what you want really as well, isn’t it? Let us pray fervently that it becomes a reality in each other’s lives. Watch this space for more adventures with Jesus.