Occasionally things happen that make me feel anxious and uncertain.  Not necessarily out of the ordinary things.  Just life's normal turns and changes.

One of the things that most unsettles me, is the silence of LifeSpring about how she should be planning her future.  "Well, Bruce, you just need to have more faith," you might say.  And that may be true.

Nevertheless, I do not believe that God will compel or force us to go in a way that is faithful and courageous.  Why else would God chastise the churches at Sardis (wake up) and Laodiceas (heat up) unless they had somehow become, of their own free will, indifferent about the Kingdom of God.

Last week, I posted a link to the 1528 Collaborative, and I was going to repost it this week.  But apparently the site is down.  So I won't repost.  But I will ask you to do this.  Read Revelation 2-3.  C'mon; its a short read!  Jot down the things that God is happy about with these seven churchs.  And jot down the things God's unhappy about.

How do you think it might apply to LifeSpring.  Let's talk about it.

I think you will be interested in the way that Lee tells the story of Speer and his service to Adolf Hitler.

In other words, God had an agenda which God set in motion with the coming of Christ to redeem us.  It was not for us to become "fat and lazy" on the diet of God's abundant mercy, but rather that we would respond generously and actively to tell others about God's love.  Wright says similar things in this week's quote from On Earth as in Heaven.

"...in the Bible we are saved not simply so we can go to heaven and enjoy fellowship with God but so that we can be his truly human royal priesthood in his world.  "You were slaughtered," sings the great crowd in Revelation 5 in praise of the Lamb, "and with your own blood you purchased a people for God,...and made them a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."  On Earth as in Heaven, page 227.