Ministries and IRM share joint intention (Vision)

After a good Bible study on the passage in the Joint intention 1 Cor 3: 5-6 and 12-18 the table was well prepared for the rethinking of this intention. We took some of the words in the intention and discussed their meaning. The following was said:

Based on the Bible

Our lives must be in line with the Kingdom of God not with individuals.

The Bible should be the base of everything we do.

We need to treat one another based on Biblical truth. We also have to do this in our discussions together.

We are part of God’s story and we need to reconcile relationships that were destroyed by sin.

We need to be the image of God and that means to be servants. The way we want to treat one another also in these discussions

Growing Church

This growth is Spiritual and also in numbers

Change is part of this growing process.

This change should be visible as you move from one point to another.

Sacrifice and dying in yourself is part of this process. The old person must die.

This is a continuing process and does not happen automatically.

A plant need food and water to grow.

How

We need to be ready to learn.

Understand that our position is not where we wants to be.

Need to be ready to die.

We need to celebrate each movement in growth.

This is all done in dependency on God.

We must plan to grow and we need to sow the seed.

Growth brings happiness.  

Discipling

First we discussed the duplication of ourselves as Christians. In this process we have many weaknesses, so we need to duplicate Christ in us.

We disciple others while we ourselves are in a process of being discipled.

The objective is to be like Christ.

Discipleship is intentional

It is walking with one another.

It is sharing Christ with one another.

The discipling process starts with one person that is duplicated and the three are then again being duplicated. Multiply this way through communities.

To give away yourself (Sacrifice) is part of the discipling process.

Biblestudy - Ministries talk to the IRM

I still think it is cheating to arrive in Milange the same day than leaving in Cape Town. It was good to chat about the different ministries and which issues the supporters want to add to the agenda.

We arrived in Milange in the evening and greeted the church leaders. Thursday morning we started by introducing one another and then we did a Biblestudy on 1 Cor 3:5-6 and 12-18. Kobus Eksteen guided us through this passage and it became a very productive time as we could link it to our joint intention between the ministries in South-Africa and the IRM. All through our meetings, the principles of this study were repeated.  I try to jot down some of the ideas:

We saw that in Christ we have a new covenant and that covenant is bringing us in a process of change. We have brokenness before Christ and before one another in this process. The seed need to die to produce a new plant and multiply the seed. We do this through grace and we have nothing to be proud in ourselves. We need to be humble before God and one another.

Only through His Spirit can we understand the new vision and he made us capable to participate in this process. We all have veils over our eyes and it is only in Christ that this veil can be removed. We need to turn to the Lord daily.

The veils are taking away our freedom and we do not always recognize it.

Many times we feel uncomfortable in our discussions and we do not have this freedom. The devil is each time bringing the veil or blanket between us. Sometimes we feel inferior and that we are criticized by the other party. We feel accused. Christ take this veil away and takes away the spirit of accusation. In its place he creates love and then we can demonstrate the glory of the Lord. This open relationship is the Glory of the Lord.

The prayer is that God will take away this veil, in all our discussions, where it exists, these few days.