Mosaic Blogs

Here are slides from Sunday, Some practical links that weren’t mentioned are included there as well.

I’m sure many of you have more tips and resources, feel free to add to the conversation.

Link to the advent conspiracy video
Link to the eco-house tour video profiled

Some thoughts to take things further:

God cultivated life on earth. What does that look like if we’re made in His image and likeness?

God commanded creation to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ even before calling humanity to do the same thing. What might the implications of this be? (Genesis 1:20-22)

In Genesis God seems to create vegetation for both humanity and the animals to enjoy. Though we’re limited to a vegetarian diet, how might the fact that God has created a common source of food for us all impact the way we distribute and consume food?

To have ‘dominion over’ creation, is not the same thing as dominating over creation. If Jesus is our model of life and leadership, how ought humanity interact with creation?

The church has been behind the curve on the environmental issue for a long time, why is this?

What’s stopped you from becoming more environmentally conscious and responsive in the past?

How might the similarities and differences be between a follower of Jesus and an environmentalist?

Shalom means peace in the fullest sense. Peace with God, with one another, and with all creation. What changes can you make in your own lifestyle, home, church, school, workplace to better reflect God’s heart towards creation?

Jesus came to redeem all things. Repairing and restoring creation is a key part of the mandate of the church. What would it look like if the church really embraced this?

 

- If we want to be Jesus-oriented and counter-cultural, we can do so via the way we find rest and sabbath
- Jesus was unquestionably busy, but he was never hurried. What might that imply in our own lives?
- Jesus didn’t heal everyone, yet he still saved the world.
- Many of us find ourselves busier than we ought to be because we’re doing things Christ never called us to
- Is there something you should be adding to your to-don’t list?
- Sometimes we can find rest by learning to receive and allowing others to help
- Sometimes the help God’s trying to provide us isn’t exactly what we’re looking for (like sabbath), but we still need to learn to receive
- St. Augustine said that our hearts won’t ever find rest, until we find our rest in god
- One way of looking at the creation story of God resting, is that it obviously wasn’t because he was tired, but because he was so satisfied with his work that he could step back from it. How might the end of your days be like this? 

I’m sure many of you have many more thoughts, feel free to comment on the blog post. Practically what I hope we can all commit to receiving the gift of sabbath in some way

- this could be a full literal day of god, rest, and non-productivity
- broken chunks throughout a week
- committing to not doing something any longer
- scheduling a personal retreat
- other creative expressions?

Here are the slides with the passage and images from the message this past sunday if you missed it or wanted some recall.

What do you think?

I’m not saying we all need to be poor.  The opposite of greed is not poverty, but generosity.

How might you be intentional and strategic about living a life of generosity and not greed or selfishness?

What would it look like to not plan your life towards independence, and not needing one another, or God himself, but planning on a life of generosity that needs inter-dependence & community in return?

There’s a quote by bono i believe in the song a beautiful day that goes along the lines of - what you don’t have already, you don’t need now’.  Could there be some truth in that?

Just a thought on the message last Sunday.

The question of whether God blesses good Christians with wealth? Well if so, then Jesus probably wasn’t a very good Christian, eh?

Click Here

A question that was emailed to me that I forgot to address during our last talk on sex…

- Is it okay to long to be married?

First off, there’s plenty of scriptural support that encourages us to find contentment in all circumstances. Whether you’re single, courting, married, whatever the circumstance.

Secondly, let me go out on a limb, and say that in a very broad sense, marriage seems to be the default status God guides people towards. There are plenty, plenty, of exceptions to this in which single people live God-honoring and amazingly thriving lives. But, there does seem to be a bias towards marriage, family, child-raising, etc.

Thirdly, with that in mind, I think there’s nothing at all wrong with having a desire to be married. In fact, whether a person gets married or not at some point, I think we should all be preparing ourselves to be good husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers. If God were to bless us with something as sacred as marriage we ought to be at least somewhat ready for it. I’d encourage people to use this desire for marriage to prepare yourself to be the right person, should God bring you the right person.

Finally, above all of this, I don’t think the ultimate goal should ever be singlehood, or marriage. The goal is Christ-likeness. With Christ as our guide, I think it’ll make a number of our other decisions a bit healthier.

* I know last Sunday was really rushed. I’m more than happy to field any additional questions privately via email or for the community on this blog.

Slides from last Sunday’s talk if you want a quick refresher.
(Our primary texts was the life of Caleb through Numbers 13-14, and Joshua 14)