Availability and Vulnerability: MUST-HAVES for Authentic Community!

Want to figure out community?  Then you're going to have to explore and practice availability and vulnerability.

Below is an excerpt from Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings From the Northumbria Community.  It could be one of the best descriptions of community I've ever read. (I broke it up the paragraph so you could soak up each phrase.)

The Community Rule of Availability and Vulnerability

In the same way as the liturgies emerged from the lives actually lived in community, so has the Community’s Rule.  

It is a response to that insistent question: “How then shall we live?”  

It is a call to risky living; it is not a comfortable or easy solution to life’s problems.  

Whilst we welcome any who wish to walk with us in seeking God, we ask that those who wish to become Companions with us in Community say ‘YES’ to Availability and Vulnerability as their way of living.  

This involves availability to God and to others -- expressed in a commitment to being alone with God in the cell of our own heart and to being available for hospitality, intercession and mission.  

Intentional vulnerability is expressed through being teachable in the discipline of prayer, saturation in the Scriptures and being accountable to one another, often through soul friendships.  

It also means ‘embracing the heretical imperative’ (challenging assumed truth), being receptive to constructive criticism, affirming that relationships matter more than reputation, and living openly among people as ‘church without walls’.  

This is not something to be entered into lightly!

When God Relents, We Revert

Last time I talked about how God was trying to get Moses' and Pharaoh's attention.  He keeps on doing his thing until we respond.  When we respond, He relents.

However, as you read chapters 7-14 (the story of the plagues of Egypt and how God was trying to get Pharaoh's attention) you see another picture of what happens to us when God is trying to get our attention.

When God relents, we revert.

Throughout chapters 7-14 we see God sending plagues to Egypt and Pharaoh.  And we see Pharaoh go back and forth.  One moment responding to God's power and the next moment, once God relented, reverting to his hardened heart.  Which reminds me a lot of us.

God is trying to get our attention.  It could be a burning bush (a miraculous call/sign) or a plague (a trial, an affliction, a sickness, a hurt).  And we respond to it initially because it's either SO cool or SO painful we have to.  It's like we have no choice.  And we pledge ourselves to God.  We respond.

And then the sign or the plague go away (God relents)......and we REVERT.  We go back to the way we used to do life.  We go back to living for ourselves and we forget all about the pledges we made to God.

WHY?

Check out Exodus 9:29, 30 (Moses talking about the 7th plague -- Pharaoh's had enough asks Moses to plead with God to take it away -- And Moses says...)  "I will stretch out my hands to the Lord.  The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD's.  But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God."

The WHY?  

Pharaoh was impressed by what God could do (his power) but not impressed by God himself.  He never feared God himself.  He never respected God himself.

And that's our story.  We jump when God shows his power.  But we never really respected, honored or feared God himself.

God wants us to love and respond to him simply because He is God and not because of what He can do.

Until we do....we'll be stuck in a Pharaoh's pattern -- God shows up, we respond, God relents, we revert.

Praying to God for us today.  That we will stop reverting and hold fast to our responses to Him.

God Relents when We Respond

Exodus 3 (a quick snapshot)
The Israelites are being oppressed. They're suffering
God heard their cries.
God gets Moses' attention with a burning bush that does not burn up.
God asks Moses to go take care of this affliction.
Moses is not sure about this.
God pledges his support.
Pharaoh is going to be a big obstacle in achieving this task.
He's stubborn -- He thinks he is God.
God knows this.
So God is going to get his attention, too.  He's going to put the pressure on.
In the end Israelites will be free.

What does this all mean?
I always tend to focus on Moses here.  God is certainly trying to get his attention.  He wants to give him some marching orders to go do some good.

But Pharaoh is just as important in the story.  God is going to get his attention, too, only for a totally different reason.

Moses is being called.
Pharaoh is being disciplined.

The similarities?  BOTH Moses and Pharaoh are being stubborn.  BOTH of them eventually respond.

Chances are that God will try to get your attention at some point (and at various points) through your life.  Sometimes it's to call you to action.  Sometimes it's because you are moving in ways that are contrary to his.

He'll keep doing his thing -- sending the burning bushes (of all kinds) or sending plagues (of all kinds) until he gets your attention.

AND HE WILL NOT RELENT UNTIL WE RESPOND.

How do you need to respond to God today?

An entry from my Journal: SPECIAL

Scripture:  Exodus 1-3

I wonder if we are all special like Moses.....miraculously saved and used?

I guess the answer is no....but somehow I'm thinking it could be yes.

I wonder if each of us has an opportunity to hear God and follow Him  and live a special kind of life and God keeps saving us simply for that opportunity (or those opportunities...plural)?

What if our story is as special as Moses' story but we have chosen not to recognize how special it is and have not chosen to embrace it and live it?

Special certainly didn't mean easy or comfortable but special certainly meant....SPECIAL.

Here's hoping with all hope that you and I see how God has provided salvation in our lives and has given us the opportunity to live a special story.

Who are you cheering for?

Read a great post from a good man and a good friend the other day who was posing a really big question:  Are you a fan or a follower?  Go read and enjoy and think hard about it.  It's crucial that you know the difference and that you know your answer.

The post made me also think about how we can so easily be led into not only just being a fan of Jesus but moving into becoming a fan of the people of Jesus.

Check this scripture our from Revelation 22:8-9 --

"I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, "You must not do that!  I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.  Worship God."

It's so easy for us to get caught up in the worship of our church, the worship of our pastors, the worship of Christian artists, the worship of mentors, the worship or godly people around us, the worship of books besides the Bible, the worship of the principles of God, the worship of knowledge, the worship of the miraculous, the worship of pretty much anything but God.  It's SO easy.

Two lessons for me from this:
1.  As a spiritual leader, I've got to keep pointing people to God.  If at any point the worship (in any form) is coming toward me or the church or the cool things happening among us, I've got to point us back to God.

2.  As a follower of Jesus, I've got to keep my focus on Him.  I cannot allow myself to be moved to worship anything or anyone else no matter how 'godly' they are.

We're always worshipping something and so we've got to always be asking the question, "what/who are we worshipping?"