The Vision and The VowRe-Discovering Life and Grace

UCO discussion 1 of 5

September 12, 2007

Author: Pete Greig

Who is he?

Five Sections

Revelation-“The Dream of God”

Grace-“Summon the Losers”

Discipleship-“The Army is Discipl(in)ed”

Covenant-“Sacrifice Fuels the Fire”

Genesis-“Conspiracy is Breathing Once Again”

Chapter None - 'Tis But a Vision

What's the Vision?

Let's read it...

Revelation-“The Dream of God”

Chapter 1 – Living With Vision (in a cynical age)

Chapter 2 – The Vision Is JesusChapter 3 – I Am The Vision

Chapter 1 – Living With Vision (in a cynical age)

Vision?

We often live without vision…

“I meet so many people who have never stopped to ask the most basic questions about the direction of their lives or the purpose for which they have been placed on earth.” (pg 5 pp2)

St. Augustine (pg7)

“People travel to wonder,at the height of the mountains,at the huge waves of the seas,at the long courses of the rivers,at the vast compass of the ocean,at the circular motion of the starts,and they pass themselves by without

wondering.” – St. Augustine (pg7)

Sound Familiar?

“But the eyes of the Lord are still searching out those willing to live their lives above the gunnels of mediocrity and beyond the realms of inevitability. In our cynical age, God is looking for those naïve enough to believe that the world can still be changed, those simple fools whose vision is to live and die for Christ alone.” (pg9 pp6)

Dare to live with vision:

1940: Winston Churchill, victory over darkness in WWII

1950: Bill Haley and the Comets, rock cultural revolution

1960: MLK, Jr., Civil Rights1970: Nelson Mandela, South African

democracy1980: Tim Berners-Lee, the web1990: Anne Pettifour, Jubilee debt-relief

campaign

Dare to live with vision:

What would we be noted for?

Have you been anywhere close to anything like the people listed above?

Revelation-“The Dream of God”

Chapter 1 – Living With Vision (in a cynical age)

Chapter 2 – The Vision Is JesusChapter 3 – I Am The Vision

Chapter 2 –The Vision is Jesus

Great aspirations... but…

“When a vision is born in the pride of a prayer-less imagination, it is nothing more than a projection of the self.” (pg19 pp2)

Matthew 7:22-23 (the Message – E. Peterson)

“I can see it now,” said Jesus, “at the Final Judgement thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.”

The Encounter – pg 19

The Encounter

Do I really hunger for Jesus Christ?

The Encounter

What made you happy this week?

“Do you love me?”

The Encounter

“And on that day you will follow. Not for the first time.” (pg24 pp6)

Revelation-“The Dream of God”

Chapter 1 – Living With Vision (in a cynical age)

Chapter 2 – The Vision Is JesusChapter 3 – I Am The Vision

Chapter 3 – I Am The Vision

True Adventure

“According to Jesus, those born of the Holy Spirit will be spontaneous, unpredictable, and wild like the wind. … In the light of such biblical depictions of the Spirit-filled life, it’s disappointing – to say the least – that so many of the churches and individuals currently defining themselves as Charismatic or Pentecostal are so mind-numbingly predictable and unimaginative.

Where are those in our day born of the Spirit who will blow wherever He pleases and go whenever he moves?” (pg28 pp2)

Brennan Manning, author in his 70s

“The defining moments of my life have not been my sins or my successes. They’ve been a depressingly small number of decisions that involved real risk.” (pg29 pp3)

St. Irenaeus of Lyons

“The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God.” (pg30 pp3)

Jesus, John 10:10

“That they may have life, and have it to the full”

Chapter 3 – I Am The Vision

“That they may have life, and have it to the full”

A full life is secureA full life is celebratoryA full life is sacrificial

A full life is secure

“We are sons and daughters first and soldiers second.” (pg33 pp4)

“You can hassle me continually with your prayers, clamoring for attention night and day, and I will always be there for you because I love you. You can scream in my face in fear and frustration and I will rock you in my arms until you rest. You may even soil me with the filth of your sin and I will still cherish you, I will still see your perfection and declare relentlessly to the angels around that you, my child, are mine. I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving-kindness… I will take great delight in you, I will quiet you with my love, I will rejoice over you with singing… You are mine. - Jeremiah 31:3 Zephaniah 3:17 Isaiah 43:1 (pg35 pp3)

Cantalamessa - preacher to the papal household

“If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and become one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea, would cry out: ‘The Father loves you!’” (pg36 pp2)

John 16:27 “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father.”

Chapter 3 – I Am The Vision

“That they may have life, and have it to the full”

A full life is secureA full life is celebratoryA full life is sacrificial

A full life is celebratory

Do you know anyone who is fully alive?

Describe them…

A full life is celebratory

I knew a guy who thought he was fully alive...

He thought that you should just have fun because nothing mattered...

He wrote this...

Carbon Fiber Ion Esco

Life is absurd.Absurdity is life.

An exchange of merriment, grief, and strife.

Live as it comes.It comes with living.

So laugh while you can and maybe go swimming.

Say "google doodle hoo."Exclaim "oodle doodle hey."

This makes no sense, but who cares anyway?

Carbon Fiber Ion Esco

We just keep on going.Going on keepin' it real.

Across vibrating fields of fish eating tasty meals.

So next time you're upset.Upset about life.

Remember the absurd and laugh at the strife.

Carbon Fiber Ion EscoLife is absurd.

Absurdity is life.An exchange of merriment, grief, and strife.

Live as it comes.It comes with living.

So laugh while you can and maybe go swimming.

Say "google doodle hoo."Exclaim "oodle doodle hey."

This makes no sense, but who cares anyway?

We just keep on going.Going on keepin' it real.

Across vibrating fields of fish eating tasty meals.

So next time you're upset.Upset about life.

Remember the absurd and laugh at the strife.

A full life is celebratory

“Fullness of life has little to do with pampering the flesh and stimulating the senses, and everything to do with the forgiveness of sins and the loving purposes of the Father.” (pg38 pp2)

A full life is celebratory

What do we celebrate?

Chapter 3 – I Am The Vision

“That they may have life, and have it to the full”

A full life is secureA full life is celebratoryA full life is sacrificial

A full life is sacrificial

“As I have watched [my wife] trying to trust God in spite of unspeakable fear, hoping and holding on through so much discouragement and physical pain, I have come to the conclusion that God is glorified in suffering, too – that a life can be fully lived, to the glory of God, through pain as well as pleasure, and in fact, that such worship is the sweetest sound of all in the ears of the Lord.” (pg41 pp1)

St. Columbanus the Celtic

“It is the end of the road that travelers look for and desire, and because we are travelers and pilgrims through this world, it is the road’s end that we should always be thinking about.”

“Don’t let us love the road rather than the land to which it leads, lest we lose our homeland altogether.” (pg41 pp3)

The Vision and The VowRe-Discovering Life and Grace

Next time (Wed, Sept 26): Grace-“Summon the Losers”