Choice or Feeling

I was at the School of Generosity (at City Church) today, and during the Q&A session somebody asked this lady who had difficulties with her father, how she had dealt with it. The way she summarised was that too often we try to feel our way into a choice, but rather we should choose a way into a feeling. Her point was that she had to chose to forgive her father for his failings (as all earthly fathers will fail), which might not have come naturally, or maybe wasn't what she wanted, but it was the choice she had to make. I felt it was a powerful and simple point about choosing how we feel, and not being a victim in our circumstances.

So how do I choose to feel today? How do I chose to respond to my wife? How do I chose to engage with people at my business? It is my choice, no one is control of me...

For interest, this lady has a blog - http://www.heartdoctorblog.com/ - go check it out.

School of Generosity #4

Day 4 of the course, I wanted to capture what JoAnne Ramos said in her session, which spoke to me deeply. She is an amazing speaker, and God has done an amazing work in her life, and I just want to honour her by this.

She was talking about how Kingdom Culture is created and established, specifically in 3 ways:

• What we believe about: God (Psalm 145:16), Yourself (Proverbs 23:7), Your resources.
• What we speak (Matthew 12:34)
• How we live (Matthew 5:16, 1 John 3:18)

She then interjected with these few nuggets:

• When we are in a state of self-pity, locked into a victim mentality, God doesn’t feel sorry for you – in the sense that he knows who he created you to be, and you being a victim is not who he created you to be [side note: please don’t feel like God doesn’t care if we are down and broken, the point is he knows who are.She said that at home they don’t allow any victim mentality, but rather create an environment where people are encouraged and built up.
• When sharing about resources, she said how her son had one day asked her why they didn’t have that much furniture (e.g. not enough sofa’s for everyone to sit on), and she said they didn’t chose to buy them. Her son had thought that they were too poor, whilst JoAnne said it was more how they chose to spend their money – on earthly things with limited lives and value, versus eternal things.I loved that point – it is all a matter of perspective, and choosing how to invest (and also sacrifice for the short term)

Genesis 8:22 (NIV): “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Joanne pointed out that of those 4 things (seedtime & harvest, cold & heat, summer & winter, day & night), only 1 part was in our ability to influence – seedtime & harvest.

The forest is in the seed:

• Seed – we have itCorinthians 9:8-10God gives seed, which you can then give away
• Season – the right timeEcclesiastes 3:1
• Soil – where to sowJohn 12:8We sow because we live a God life motivated by his compassion.

At the end of the talk at a Q&A she had a question about giving, and specifically if spouses disagree about how much to give or what to give. She responded by saying if you disagree on something, pray pray pray, and the Lord will reveal to both of you what he wants. However if one partner’s heart isn’t in a specific area (maybe they aren’t saved) then give of something else - it doesn’t need to be just finances, it can be of your time, your skills, your hospitality…

School of Generosity #1

On Saturday 12th January I attended the first class of  'School of Generosity' at City Church, Kirkland. Below are a few of the key points I felt hit my mentally and spiritually.

People generally fall into 3 categories:

1. Majority are drifters... not knowing who we are, where we are going - life being becomes survival.
2. Smaller group are go-getters.... work heard, accumulate great wealth, only to realise that they have missed it all
3. Minority actually discover who they are, what their purpose is, and live that out in a life of love, significance and leaves them fully satisfied.

(at this point I was thinking... hmm, I relate with the first 2 categories more than the last 1... but that is what I want)

The speaker went on to do talk about how God promises to be with us, to provide life in abundance  to provide for our daily needs. Deuteronomy 28: 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God. (on a side note, I believe that God blesses us beyond purely material blessing - therefore we cannot measure God's goodness by our material blessing - as that is not of eternal significance!)

The second speaker had a few great points:

1. He referenced the quote from the film 'Chariots of Fire', where the main character says "God made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure". Stepping into who we are made to be surely must give God great pleasure - just as I guess an earthly parent would feel great satisfaction seeing their child reach their full potential (which could be completely different to their other children!).
2. Do I live as royalty? Living as sons and daughters of Christ the King! Not arrogantly, but humbly, stewarding the blessing, but also being confident in coming to Father as his children.
3. Are we contagiously generous? We give, but ultimately everything we have came from him and is his...   On a personal side note, in Proverbs 19:17 it says "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD" - and I believe the Lord's interest rates are ridiculous..

So why don't I give to him more? Probably out of fear that he won't give back, that it put me out and cause issues in the future... that is what I now need to work, but I am thankful that he is speaking to me, and giving me peace about it... know that I don't have to worry, as it is all his.