Become. Week 1 Canterbury Vineyard 2nd September Introduction Baptisms next Sunday!! The One Vision how is it going?

? We have a doubt in our soul that He actually changes a life Were not sure if the prescription will do the trick. Because we are NOT experiencing the beauty, the richness of the Kingdom Life You have come out of the K of darkness and are now in the K of Life (Best city, nation to live in, quality of life index we live in K of God)
So when we talk about THE KINGDOM we talk about duty and information for the file drawer of our mind, performance of ritual, brownie points in our heavenly ledger

We are not talking about beauty and passion and vibrancy!! But this is just what Jesus was talking about!

Until we start to reach into this and have the K of God dripping off our chins and marking us we will be poor, poor witnesses. You shall be my witnesses. What have you witnessed in your life?
o Remember. Celebrate. Memorialise.

You are meant to witness to the richness of the Kingdom in. your. life.

And so we come with these meagre ideas, these lame and bored expressions on our face. Knowing more? Doing more? More courses? Intro series: This is the target. Of BECOMING. I want to go to a little phrase Jesus said that captures HIS idea of discipleship in its most succinct and profound.

Matthew 22:36-40
36

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? 37 Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Deut 6:5) 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.(Lev. 19:18) 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

The Great Commandment! Some of you are saying, Jim you had me! I was interested! Vibrancy! Passion! But this? Oh boy. Here we go. Ive heard 1001 talks about this. It is so twee. Ugh. The gig is boring after all. Just being repackaged. People say what does Xty have to do with my life? And the absurd thing is that there are probably no more profound prescriptions in the history of teaching than Jesus prescriptions here. It is the epitome of human flourishing.
o Yet we blow it off because weve dumbed it down into some religious abstraction rather than looking deeply into it and seeing that in this vision is humanity at its absolute pinnacle.

Actually there has never been a more profound statement about human flourishing uttered by a human teacher anywhere. Jesus was the wisest person ever to walk the earth and this is Him at His most money. o Life not making sense? My guess is, the answer to WHY is found somewhere in here.
His words have such insight that we are too thick to even begin to understand.

Background
Jesus was asked this as a political/theological debate.

He uses it to give His take on the most important thing in life. The goal of human development.
"The scribes declared that there were 248 affirmative precepts, as many as the members of the human body; and 365 negative precepts, as many as the days in the year, the total being 613, the number of letters in the Decalogue" (Vincent). But Jesus cuts through such hair-splitting to the heart of the problem.

The core of it is in Deut 6 the shema and yet Jesus reaches over into Leviticus to pull in what He knows is the natural outworking of it.

Commandment? = guidance

Love.

1. Free to Love? Or bound? This is the profundity of Jesus words. Humanity reaches its pinnacle in Love. Self giving. We marvel when we see it! But we are not free enough to do it most of the time. Which is why we are so astounded when we see it.
o The human species is utterly NOT FREE to Love. Oh we love them but not the one in front of us. This planet is ugly. It is numero uno all the time.

This is why Jesus idea of the END of discipleship, the goal, is becoming a person defined by LOVE in these three most critical places. Christlikeness etc all the words we use come down to one fundamental thing Love. IT is about becoming free enough to be able to BECOME human. Free enough to love. Free to love. Only then will you be alive and flying.

Love God Luke 14:26 -- 26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sistersyes, even their own lifesuch a person cannot be my disciple.

Our relationship with God was meant to be a fire! It was meant to be a whirlwind defined by passion and fluttering hearts and shaking knees and gripped hearts!
For girls we didnt like that way we said they had a great personalllity. Some of you think God has a great personality!

Obedience? Surrender? Not meant to be teeth gritting. Is that how it worked when you found something you could do for your Beloved? BUT what does it mean to LOVE GOD? Sing songs? Pure action? He is looking for a mixture of a heart captured and a life surrendered. He is looking for more than just the letter. He wants our depths.

Tim Hughes, Passion for your Name. I always wondered what this meant.

Instead we find it looks more like middle class niceness and politeness. Paul & 2 Cor 11:23-27 and his resume.

23

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 1 Tim. 1:12-13

Motivation? A sermon? Nope. One Holy Passion. Fasting reveals our level of hunger.

Love Yourself

(this is where I break into Christina Aguilera!!

Your love of yourself is the LIMITING FACTOR of your love of others.

This is the place where Free to Love kicks in!

You know why? Because you fear Him. You think Youre His employee, not His Son. Jon Acuff post-it note. When you start to understand His passion for You, that He has loved you absurdly, You will stir to life. Instead you settle for fear and a wage of toleration. He wants love, passion, whimsy! (Parable of the soils.. Rocks Parable of the Talents)

When you are AFRAID you will also not trust. You cant. He is unpredictable. Maybe Hell do something horrible just to build my character! Ever thought that? How I equivocate in my prayers for growth. So we find replacement Gods- idols. Our Gen calls them addictions. o An idol is whatever makes the decisions in your life. o And because it does not follow thru you become an addict. o The cycle of human despair.
Personal needs-->basic assumption--> goal set -->goal centred behaviour ->defeat/frustration --> goal achieved --> unfulfilled expectation. 2x

This is why Perfect love casts out fear. These are your options.
o Stuff from MORE. Adoption
Nun. Molested by her father. I prayed with her for her healing then I asked her if she would find a quiet place every morning for the next thirty days, sit down in a chair, close her eyes, upturn her palms and pray this one phrase over & over, ABBA, I BELONG TO YOU. Thru her tears she agreed. Yes, Brennan, I will. One of the most moving and poetic follow-up letters Ive received came from this sister. In it she described the inner healing of her heart, a complete forgiveness of her father, and an inner peace shed never known in her 78 years. She concluded her letter with these words: A year ago I wouldve signed this letter with my real name in religious life Sister Mary Genevieve But from now on, Im Daddys little girl. Be aware, this is not sloppy sentimentality or indulgent wishful thinking. But rather a woman who dared to pray in the childlike trust that Jesus said would mark a disciple and in so doing discovered the furious love of her Abba.

Jesus of course knew this when He said to Love God first. It is right there in the 10 Commandments. To only fear God & work for Him is to become an addict. To be enslaved by the false Gods of your life.

Christian discipleship must build a lifestyle that helps us counter these issues. Christian discipleship does rarely touches these issues. We are bound by and defined by baggage that has limited us and have just gone on performing religious duties and feigning a smile while inside these chains are telling another story.

Analogy of the iceberg. The you underwater needs to come up and let Gods Love touch it so that you arent living in reaction any longer.

Only to the degree that we are aware of these lies and their roots can we break free from them.
Talk about Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Scazzero and how he saw huge number of Xns performing loads of Christian activities but not becoming any different. There was never an addressing of the deep lies, deep wounds and the reactions we are trapped in so that the Cross could set us free. going back to id family "commandments" so u can enter into your new family, id & Sonship values the ethos of Your new Family.

My journey of understanding the place of accomplishment in defining my significance. (Youre trying to do too much!)
How did it start? Defeat in the social warfare of junior high. The alienation of moving frequently. Buying into the economy of I must attain value so that I will be valued. When I messed up this was fatal. Negated my value. For me too. So no value for people. No love for others because I was trying to attain value and this quixotic pursuit meant I needed people only to help me succeed. BUT when I begin to come free of this I see that I am ok. I am a Son. I have value. Innate value. And I can turn my eyes off of self and look to the world. Where are your reactions? Where are you just trying to be ok?

Love Your Neighbour

Neighbor = Fellow creature. Not Israelites as Jesus refutes in Parable of Good Samaritan.

You are ok. You are now free to enter the world of others. Because you are ok. You can relax.
We are fundamentally changed put in a new plane of existence, one fed by and sustained by a love that is not volatile or earned. And so we can offer it.

So to Love God is to become caught up in the whirlwind of His passion and affection so that it defines us and spills out of us into the world around us. Jesus is not saying, go and be loving. He is saying be a conduit of this love flow.
Your head is extricated from our colon long enough for us to see. Because we are ok we arent in fear of our value or lack thereof anymore.

The ultimate outworking of Jesus way is Matthew 9 compassion. The seeing of people around you. And being affected by it in such a way that you are willing to step up and help in a way that you can and that God is leading.

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Mt. 9

Compassion is the evidence of a healthy Christian Becoming But we are so overwhelmed. This is why Jesus idd that the main problem was not fertile fields, but workers moved by compassion to go into the fields!! Example of how we continue to get feedback about not being spoken to when visiting CV .

So. BECOME. This is the target. Now for the journey.

Britain has dropped to 25th place on a list of the best places in the world to live - behind countries such as the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Uruguay. While France tops the poll for the fifth year running, the UK's climate, crime rate, cost of living, congested roads and overcrowded cities have pushed it even further down from last year's ranking at 20. The Quality of Life Index, published by International Living magazine for the 30th year, says the French live life to the full, while Britons are over-worked. But it is the country's bon vivant lifestyle that sets it apart. While the British are infamous for a love of TV dinners and binge drinking, the French savour the finer things in life. These include two-hour lunch breaks at cheap cordon bleu restaurants, and some of the best wine in the world. Working hours are far shorter than those of their stressed British neighbours, who have less holiday entitlement too. The French take most of August off, view Sunday leisure as sacrosanct, and have more public holidays, as well as a lower crime rate. 'In France, life is savoured,' said Jackie Flynn, publisher of International Living. 'I don't think anyone will argue that France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The French love tidy gardens, pretty sidewalk cafes, and clean streets. Cities are well tended and with little crime.' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240988/France-tops-list-best-places-live-world-fifth-year-row--Britain-languishes-25th.html#ixzz257DxpqQE

Week 3 (read Mt 5:3, Luke 15, Is. 38:12-14, Rom 7:11,13, 15, 18) Our culture as completely motivated to make life without God work. So its rhythms and priorities and expectations are all built to suit a godless, humanistic understanding of reality. Babylon in Revelation. Yet we learn our rhythms, priorities & expectations from it as well. Last week: new citizenship. (quote from Frank Viola re: two cities) No wonder we are not experiencing the vibrancy, the passion, the freedom of The Kingdom of God! We are not living in it except for 90 minutes a week. E.g. changed behaviour and the ego World route? Kingdom route? Poor in Spirit. THE IMPERIAL EGO. Rom. 7:11,13 self-confident, competent, self-reliant DENIAL. Rohr p. 4 those who maintain control are not people we want to be around. Jordan. Keane.
It is the imperial ego that has to go, and only powerlessness can do the job correctly. Bill W recognized that very early in this 12 Step Program. Otherwise we try to engineer our own transformation by our own rules and by our own power, which is by definition, therefore, not transformation! It seems we can in no way engineer or steer our own conversion. If we try to change our ego with the help of our ego we only have a better disguised ego! As Albert Einstein said, No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused the problem in the first place. P. 4, Rohr We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die. W.H. Auden (apropos of many things..)

The Cosmic Economy of GRACE. (breathing underwater pic from St Albans) o Blessed are the poor in spirit. (got it while praying for people) for theirs is the Kingdom. o To love God begins with our poverty (Tri Robinson & cultivating the soil, turning it) Def. Reduced to begging The Prodigal is us every day. We wake up in the slop everyday & return or stay. The decision is a breathing reality every day.. The epiphany of the pig slop (You ARE a Son who has locked in but this is experiential) o Not Worm Theology! Return to Fathers home. Allow Him to call us Son. Get to a place on a daily basis The JESUS Prayer. The place of encounter To love God begins with my brokenness. There is no peace in sufficiency. You are trying to do too much. Freedom and authenticity in deep moments of discovery of need & brokenness. We dont remain unhealed or turn inward But now are properly positioned to know love naming. And be lifted. If we dont see our brokenness in an abiding way we cannot see our Sonship. Daily. (Olympic athletes daily striving to improve thru seeing faults) o The only person who can have a relationship with God is the poor in Spirit. All approach God as employees. But the poor have no ability to work. And so are forced to cry out have mercy! Brokenness does not give us Sonship but it gets us to Dad. Where, with nothing in our hands (the prodigal did not understand his plight. He was to be stoned culturally. He

thought he could negotiate but his state was far worse. However Dads response was far better!) Brokenness finds Love. Everything else finds employment. ----------------------Youre trying to do to much. The enemy of my soul. My yoke is easy my burden is light. But I am not broken and so I beg off the easy yoke and dont need it. And try to do too much and end up in the spiritually dead cul de sac of doing stuff for God and missing him. You get LOVE and fruitfulness in brokenness. You get the Kingdom. It is the mission of God that is already at work . --------------------Week 3 Entrenched behaviour and self-awareness. Living in reaction. The past? Week 4 Feelings as a mirror of the soul. They ARE you. To deny them is fruitless. Listen. Bring to the cross. Our mining of the cross is pointless if we dont bring our chains again and again. ---------------Three fundamental Gifts in a Jesus perspective: 1. The Gift of Slowing down a. Loyola and better over more recruits. b. Busy churches? Protestant activism Brethren do something! i. Martha missed Jesus while producing. c. The key is to slow down + pay attention to God. d. Pay attention to Limits theyre God given. 2. The Gift of Resting in Love a. Youre trying to do too much. b. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. 3. The Gift of Sight a. How I have been able to see the bondage around me more recently b. Seeing cultural delusion idols and addictions. c. Our culture is pointed at a godless life and so is antagonistic to spiritual living (finding meaning & joy in transient things and so building life to the achievement of those ends). Are u living by its rhythms?!!! -- Babylon/Babel. A lifestyle based upon a narrative about how humans tick and flourish. -- Elements of this new polis rhythms? Sabbath. Empathy. Brokenness. (The Beattitudes are all countering Beast Lies.)
The poor in spirit Those who mourn The meek/gentle Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness


o o o o o o o o o
3Youre 4Youre

The merciful The pure in heart The peacemakers Those who have been persecuted
blessed when youre at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. blessed when you feel youve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to

you. 5Youre blessed when youre content with just who you areno more, no less. Thats the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that cant be bought. 6Youre blessed when youve worked up a good appetite for God. Hes food and drink in the best meal youll ever eat. 7Youre blessed when you care. At the moment of being careful, you find yourselves cared for. 8Youre blessed when you get your inside worldyour mind and heartput right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 9Youre blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. Thats when you discover who you really are, and your place in Gods family. 10Youre blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into Gods kingdom. 11Not only thatcount yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. If we want to LOVE GOD so that we love ourselves and our neighbor well need to eat and drink in very different ways that have got us to this place where find ourselves merely employed by God.

The Beatitudes: Matthew 5:3-10 Matthew 5:3 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : Verse 3: are poor in spirit Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : self-confident, competent, self-reliant Matthew 5:4 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : mourn Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : pleasure-seeking, hedonistic, the beautiful people Matthew 5:5 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : are meek Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : proud, powerful, important Matthew 5:6 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : Verse 6: hunger for righteousness Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : satisfied, well adjusted, practical Matthew 5:7 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : are merciful Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : self-righteous, able to take care of themselves Matthew 5:8 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : are pure in heart Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : adult, sophisticated, broad-minded Matthew 5:9 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : are peacemakers Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : competitive, aggressive Matthew 5:10 Jesus ValuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO : are persecuted because of righteousness Counter-valuesBLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE : adaptable, popular, dont rock the boat

Different? = Perspective. Paradigm. Fear driven employment or loving Sonship? o Love Yourself (this is where I break into Christina Aguilera!! Your love of yourself is the LIMITING FACTOR of your love of others. This is the place where Free to Love kicks in!

Babylon + 3 Becoming? Two ditches: It doesnt matter because I am forgiven. But the intent is real. Matt. 7 trees known by what they do. Rocks or sand? Action. We are meant to be Become a person thru whom His love can flow to this world. Love that we could never merely Do. Introspection & self focus. Like waxing our car endlessly. The chief end of change is LOVE. Which is inherently other focused. And love is unavoidably not an abstract idea but an act.

Normandy, D-Day & seeing it thru. Could our Gen do it? --> the unchanged xns. Does xty Really work? Offer it as a Help? Worried. Scazzero..312 --> the beast & Revelation. Loc 414 in Scazzero (this = both Culture & family of origin) --> the foundation of intentionality Is delight & trust. Jesus' way is best? Jesus is real life? Luv God more than.... **it is not about more disciplines, but the context of our understanding, the life out of which they flow. THIS is the copernican revolution of e.h. Spirituality! (and they're not psycho babble. They're biblical id --> this = Jesus as relationship & a revolution NOT a responsibility --Matt 13 1. *rocky soil = fear. E.H. Spirituality 2. *Thorny soil = addictions/idols (disciplines key to bring detachment & god can rush in). Addiction. & 12 Steps. Rohr. I would agree with John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas on this point. That the church is a new polis. It is a political community that embodies a new politic. Jesus is the new emperor. The church, therefore, is a colony from another realm representing the rights of its sovereign Lord. So our politics is embodied in the life that were called to live out together as Gods peopleas the church. That is our politics. In that sense, the church is the new order. We are the beginning of that Gods kingdom that is already happening. We are the new order in the midst of the old. So before the old order is shut down, God already begins to set up in its midst elements of the new order. If the church is operating properly in a locality, the kingdom of God is seen. Justice, peace, love, mutual care, giving, etc. are made visible. Christ is seen on the earth again. What Steve Long and John Milbank call the economy of the gift is in operation. What we have under our present social order is an economy of exchange in which we exchange money for goods or goods for goods. This is rooted in selfish gain. In the economy of the gift, which is the economy that we are introduced to in the life of the Triune God, everything is a matter of sheer gift. We give to each other without any desire to receive back from; we receive back because the other person also gives. As Ive argued in my book Reimagining Church, the church properly conceived and practiced is the earthly echo of the fellowship of the Godhead. Much more can be said, but Ill leave it there. 3.-Our culture is pointed at a godless life and so is antagonistic to spiritual living (finding meaning & joy in transient things and so building life to the achievement of those ends). Are u living by its rhythms?!!! Why? How to break free. -my spirituality drifts towards application in cv not me. So I'm not a viable spiritual being. I'm an institutional enabler w/o a soul. 4.-my hunger for god is short circuited by my imposition & over stating of small clues. I pretend to protect him & my image. we play at this game and never come to desperation. Hunger & thirst for righteousness! 5.-Compost of the crop? Pain. Churchill's wilderness years when he moved from mere pol to statesman. Most fertile of his life. 6.-Feel. They r what u r right now. The window to the next work of god in ur life. Scazzero chapt four. God feels. To blank this is to be subhuman. Ignatius' 2 feelings. 7.-disassociation. Fear of man. The false self. Joe DiMaggio. Sheila Walsh. What will "they" say? Jesus and willingness to disappoint. The true you. Feeling your desires & preferences. The path. 2b.-detachment. Being loved. Jesus in wilderness. Three temptations. 7b.-going back to id family "commandments" so u can enter into ur new family, id & son ship - values Chapt 5

2c.-explore idolatry via addictions (5 traits) and the path to freedom via acceptance of brokenness as space For grace. -- Then apply to possessions, power & human relationship trinity to id & liberate --How does grace liberate? Explore