4Ü #279
Take responsibility for your own learning
24 May 2007
- WASSUP - Unbundling God
- INSIGHT OUT - Take responsibility for your own learning
- OUTSIGHT IN - Mirror mirror
- SEE YA SUNDAY - Soul Quest: Origins
- LAST WORD - The false gods of self made solutions
WASSUP - Unbundling God
Telecom; the company we all love to hate. We all want faster internet and we want it now! Yet it is like drinking porridge through a straw. Oh that this service could be unbundled!
The Church is another organization that many love to hate. Most people have no problem with God but God's agent has bundled the services of God so tightly that God is inaccessible and untouchable to them.
Oh that God could be unbundled!
The problem is that for so long the church has been selling a "one size fit all spirituality".
What if God wanted to make a personal connection with you?
If that's the case then the connection will be uniquely you.
To find your personal way of connecting with God try one of the following on-line tests.
- http://common.northpoint.org/sacredpathway.html
- http://www.sacchurch.org/action-steps/sacred_pathways.htm
Andrew
INSIGHT OUT - Take responsibility for your own learning.
I'm amazed that for every problem we face in our society the first of the magic answers we call for is education. The answer to every problem is education. That means that we all have a convenient excuse. While the problem lies with someone (them) or something else (the education system) we have no responsibility for the solution.
Wonderful! That lets us all off the hook.
I came across this quote by Charles Darwin this week
"I consider that all that I have learned of any value to be self taught"
Take responsibility for your own learning!
You are your own best educator.
What do you know?
What do you need to know?
What do you know that you don't know?
Now take responsibility for your own learning, become the best teacher you have ever had!
OUTSIGHT IN - Mirror mirror
As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man
Prov 27:19
When was the last time you took a good look in the mirror?
What did you see?
What was the condition of your heart?
Take a look at this self portrait of Norma Rockwell
Do you see yourself younger or older than you are?
Who are your heroes?
How would you like to see yourself?
When you look into your eyes do you see into your soul?
SEE YA SUNDAY - Soul Quest: Origins
8.30 & 10.30
This series explores how you can know God without selling your soul. Many people have a concept that becoming a Christian is all about becoming a stranger to themselves, this could'nt be further from the truth. It's about becoming more authentic to who you really are! God has designed you to know him. The clues to knowing God are already in you.
If you would like tape or CD copies of the messages at St Columba to pass on to others please make your request by reply to the email. There is a nominal charge for this.
Sunday evening service this week ...
"Ian White" Live in Concert! 7:00pm @ St Columba
The acclaimed Scottish Singer/Songwriter and Minister returns to New Zealand to tour his new album "Move That Foot."
Ian's songs are for all ages, so bring the whole family! It will be a great evening that you don't want to miss.
Entry is by donation at the door.
Can't wait ... see ya Sunday
Thanks for this time to chat.
Andrew
St Columba
Where Life and Faith Meet
andrew.norton@stcolumba.org.nz
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LAST WORD - The false gods of self made solutions
The true solutions are not those which we force upon life in accordance with our theories, but those which life itself provides for those who dispose themselves to receive the truth. Consequently our task is to dissociate ourselves from all who have theories which promise clear-cut and infallible solutions, and to mistrust all such theories, not in a spirit of negativism and defeat, but rather trusting life itself, and nature, and if you will permit me, God above all. For since man has decided to occupy the place of God he has shown himself to be by far the blindest, and cruelest, and pettiest and most ridiculous of all false gods. We can call ourselves innocent only if we refuse to forget this, and if we also do everything we can to make others realize it
Echoing Silence, Thomas Merton (p.35).