Info Supplier Center

Missional living is definitely a popular saying that is all over the place these days. The fact that we need to label churches, missional, has forever been weird to me. please, shouldnt all places of worship be missional in their very nature? why cant a church, at its very core, shoot to meet their culture and neighborhood with the message of Jesus as a missionary would in a another country? Isnt that what the places of worship is commanded to do in the great commission in Matthew 28:19? Our own hometown deserves this brand of church. Churches in Austin is slowly going to what our Creator instructed in Holy Word.

Christ gives the charge in Acts 1:8 saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 personifies this topic as, right before Jesus Christ goes up to Heaven, He directs the disciples on a story that would begin right in their personal community. He begins with their area of Jerusalem, and then stretches the call to the uttermost parts of the globe.

As Christians, we are not called to isolation, but to be missional people who are actively going out and connecting with others right where they are with the gospel. We have noticed this throughout history: God motivated Abraham on a mission to go out of his country and his people and go to the city that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God sends Moses on a journey to renew an enslaved people and lead them to independence (Exodus 3:8-10), God moved Jesus on a story to globe to restore all things to Himself through the death of Jesus (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending the church on a mission to engage neighborhoods, cities, peoples, and even nations with the story of Christ(Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we reject this urge and continue to treat the church buildings like a invite only country club ” urging that people fix their abilities, pay their money, and visit to our church God will continue His story without us.

Yogi Sean: When we did the previous talk about the wrathful deity, I was really strong by saying, “You want to do some other practices before you get into this because you want to have the foundation.” What you want is a sense of Continuity of Being. In other words, if you’re still clinging to defining yourself based upon the circumstances of your life, and you embrace change as your deity of choice, as your entraining image. In other words, as the image you’re going to entrain your consciousness, your awareness to; then you’re in deep doo doo. Again, if you’re identifying who you are with the circumstances of your life, and you begin to do a practice that basically reflects change, then what that’s going to do is jumble up the circumstances of your life.

When you’re angry, when you’re really pissed, you see the world around you with that sense of being pissed off. And you even see, as you said, other people getting mad at you.

Interviewer: Right, there’s this sense that they’re mad at me even though I haven’t even checked to see if that’s true.

Yogi Sean: That’s because you’ve taken on the persona of an Angry Man. That’s your image. That’s the tonality of your being. This is complex stuff, even though we’re doing it from a very simple perspective; we’re going from a circle.

Interviewer: It’s a very simple, very elegant practice, but very potent it seems.

Yogi Sean: It is, because it is offering the option, the choice, to focus on Wholeness rather than focus on multiplicity. The beauty of the circle is that it’s so simple it allows for flow. In this sense, flow can be multiplicity, but there’s a sense of continuity in it all. You use the term elegance; there’s a beauty and elegance about it.

So what happens is that over time, working with the circle in fact, I would say that if you or the readers experiment with the practice, they will actually find a sense of continuity in their world around them that didn’t seem to be there before, because the continuity is happening within them.

Interviewer: Will I notice that continuity while I am doing the practice, or after the practice, or both?

Yogi Sean: Actually, what you’re going to notice while you’re doing the practice is the continuity of the circle. But then as you say, “Okay, well, I’m done,” and you get up and you’re walking around and doing things in the day, you will have an inner reflection that says, “Hmm. There’s a sense of Wholeness about what’s going on here. This is cool and amazing.”

In Genesis God tests Abraham’s faith by telling him to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen 22:1-19). Abraham was faithful and God intervened at the last moment. This is a story most of us are familiar with and you might have noticed a similarity between this event and what God does through His own Son in the New Testament. In both events a father is offering up his only son as a sacrifice for others. Casually reading the Genesis account you might have thought that the stories stop being similar when God spares Isaac, after-all Jesus did allow Himself to be a sacrifice for us, but the similarities do go on just a bit further. Let’s take a close look at Genesis 22:19 which occurs at the end of the event…

“Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.” (Gen 22:19) (NIV)

Where’s Isaac? Obviously he was there, where else would he go? So if he was there why was he not mentioned? He was mentioned as they were going up the mountain, so what’s different now?

In fact we are not told what Isaac is doing after this event for two whole chapters. Let’s see what he is doing the next time we are told about him…

“Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in Negev. He went out to the field one day to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac”…

…”Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and he married Rebekah.” (Gen 24:62-64, 67) (NIV)

So the next time we “see” Isaac in the Bible is when he is receiving his bride, which his father’s servant found for him. Now, this is very subtle but this exactly what is occurring right now. Jesus has left earth, His Father’s servant (the Holy Spirit) is retrieving His bride, and we will not see Him again until He receives us as His bride.

Have you received Jesus in your heart as your Lord?

Richard is the managing author of DiscoverGodsWord.com, a non-denominational site devoted to helping Christians discover the treasures in God’s word, the Bible. www.DiscoverGodsWord.com