My Word

Well the year has hardly started and God has been doing some wonderful things in the midst of the cessioncommunity! We're still in vacation mode but we have had great attendances for this time of year. Last night, we had a breakthrough with one woman who has been coming for around 7 weeks now. She connected with us through the cafe outreach we ran back in November and has been coming ever since. But, she has been counting the cost of following Jesus - she has been hurt by the church in the distant past and has some friendships she fears will be compromised. But nor has she wanted to make a half hearted decision - so this week she decided! Almost as if she were afraid she would change her mind she joined a small group - whichever one was meeting this week! Another woman who's husband I have been connecting with for some months over the possible dedication of their son arrived with son and a friend in tow. They haven't been in church for the best part of 5 years and this is a major opportunity for them to reconnect their family to God. I have a call to return from while I was out at the gym - exciting stuff.

I felt the message went great - I was preaching on the Word - re:wording - I didn't introduce the Word as Jesus until about 2/3 of the message was done - I was trying to identify the Word as the source of the Universe (the Word was God etc through him all things were made) and as the source of all light - truth, grace etc that we receive in this world. Then I introduced him as the Word became flesh - God downloaded into human form - and contrasted God becoming human with the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist takes on this. It went down well - one newer guy had a ton of questions afterwards and this led to a more personal discussion over coffee. He strikes me as someone with huge potential - currently he lays drains...

It seems to me that sometimes the whole message about Jesus gets "lost in translation" - yeah we used some clips from the movie - "more intensity" "you know lat pack?" Was "gentle Jesus meek and mild" all God had to say? Do people get the wrong idea about Jesus because we mistranslate him to the watching world? Does he get lost in translation? Its hard to hold on to this limited view of Jesus when we understand him as the Word who was God, who is light and who became human flesh - a unique claim among world religions. This kind of Jesus demands much, much more from us as people. Not in the sense of the demanding deity that so many seem to define him as, but rather if Jesus is who he seems to be then he is not someone you can be in peaceful coexistence with - someone who you can negotiate with over what is His and what is ours...

Anyways, need to de-sweat - its always a triumph to get to the gym on Monday.

Jonesboy