No Cafeteria Meal

Our church is a family meal, not a cafeteria. In the cafeteria you can go through the food on offer and be picky. In fact you can just eat cereal for weeks on end if nothing else appeals to you. But just try that at home when mom has cooked good food! Nope--you gotta eat at least three bites of the food Mom made.

We know that not everyone likes camping, praying, service projects, discipleship groups, etc. in the same way or in the same degree. But part of what makes us a family is that we participate together. There is no sense here at SGF that people are picky about what they'll put on their plate ("Eww--praying? I don't like praying!") . . . we as a fellowship are committed to participating with each other, and we come to the table ready to eat.

The Chafing Yoke

Yokes tend to chafe if the one yoked (me) is trying to go sideways, too slow . . . or too fast.

Jesus was yoked to the Father, right?  Watch him do nothing without seeing first what the Father was doing.  How do we apply that to our lives, our yokes?  If we move too fast, the very activities and duties that we're doing in Christ's name . . . they chafe us, don't they?

The key to a light (chafeless) yoke is NOT about pulling as hard as I can to "please" the team-driver, but about going the right pace.  I have a growing suspicion that this right pace is quite a lot slower than most people suspect, and that it includes a lot more rest than most people take.

May your yoke rest easy, church!

Thanks to Mat Hudson for the Sermon Kernel!

Surfer Guy and Christianspeak

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be in a room with a whole bunch of Christians and one friend who doesn't already know the Lord.  My how we lingo!

The experience that the Christians were relating was very real and legitimate, but the expressions they were using were almost unintelligible to an outsider.  They were talking about the Holy Spirit invading their life and getting "whacked" with the power.  And the blood and the power of their testimony in spirit realms.  And so on.

Reminded me of this interview with a surfer guy.  I'm not in his community, and though I can see he's plainly excited about something going on, it's not communicating to me.



For a bonus, go see his interview remixed. It's fun! <grin>  (thanks Kira for the blog idea)