Chasing The Wild Goose

Confused about the Wild Goose?

I've had some questions about the name of my Blog, so I thought I'd offer a little explanation.

The following is an excerpt from a sermon called "Wild Goose Chase" by Mark Batterson at www.theaterchurch.com:

Celtic Christians had a fascinating name for the Holy Spirit. It almost sounds sacrilegious at first earshot--the Wild Goose--but I'm not sure there's a better description. Being led by the Spirit is a wild goose chase. That is the essence of what Jesus said in John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." There is an "element of surprise" or "air of unpredictability" that is part and parcel of following Christ. Oswald Chambers said, "To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth." In other words, we ought to expect the unexpected.

Scripture is full of wild goose chases. Hebrews 11:8 says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Abraham didn't know where he was going or how to get there. It was a wild goose chase.

In Acts 10:20 Peter is praying on a rooftop and the Lord says, "Three men are downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them." Peter has no idea where or why God wants him to go with them. It was a wild goose chase.

In Acts 8:26, an angel of the Lord tells Philip to "Go south." God doesn't tell him why he's going, where he's going, or what he's going to do when he gets there. He just tells Philip to head south! God was calling him into the unknown.

Here's another online sermon I found that goes into a more detailed explanation and history of the term.

Earthly Empires

According to the latest issue of BusinessWeek:

Evangelical churches are taking a lesson from big business, expanding both their reach and influence through niche marketing, brand management, multimedia campaigns, capital investments and political networking.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

I'd love to know what you guys think of this.  Is this a good thing, a bad thing, or somewhere in between?  Post a comment and let me know what you think.

What is the Real Christian Life really like?

This is one of the best descriptions of the "real" Christian life, I've ever read.  If you believe that Christianity is a ticket to the trouble free life . . . read no further.

Shattered Dreams

By Larry Crabb

Thesis

God's goal for humans is different from ours. The author uses the Book of Ruth to make his point about God's goals. He asks, "What does it mean to hope in God as we continue to live in a world where good dreams shatter and God seems to do nothing about it?" The answer requires a change in the way we naturally look at life. It demands a revolution in our understanding of why we're alive at all - of why God keeps us living in this world for so long before He takes us to heaven. The problem sincere Christians have with God often comes down to a wrong understanding of what life is meant to provide.

God's Idea vs. Our Idea

God's idea is to move us through a cycle from happiness through despair to joy. Then, since joy is never fully settled, the cycle repeats itself. This happiness-to-despair cycle is familiar to every honest person who sincerely tries to follow this crazy, narrow, pothole-ridden path called the Christian life. But it's not our idea of life.

Our idea is that God will keep the good times rolling. When we signed onto the Christian life, that's what we thought was the deal. We do what we're told, and God stacks presents under the tree. But God knows that happy people do not live well. That's why happiness, the pleasant feelings that pleasant circumstances generate, must be taken away in order to be replaced by joy.

Hearing God's Voice

I think learning to hear the voice of God is probably the most vital part of the Christian life. I've found that most Christians have baught into a Christian life of principles, tips and techniques. When they are faced with a question/problem/challenge/whatever they look for the latest spiritual principle to deal with the issue. While spiritual principles are valuable, I've found that if you teach someone a technique you may have solved their problem, but if you'll help them learn to hear the voice of God you can help them solve the rest of their life. That's really what discipleship is, walking daily in intimate relationship with God. You can't have intimacy with someone you only have a one way conversation with.

I've been planning to write a post on hearing the voice of God for a while now. Today I received the following article written by my friend Robert Fitts. It does a better job than I would have done tackling the subject, so I'm posting it here for your enjoyment.

I'd also like to take an informal anonymous survey. Please post a comment (without your name) and tell me how often you hear the voice of God (in whatever way you hear it). Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly or I've never heard what I know was his voice.

So here's an excellent writing by Robert:

God Reveals His Will to Men

Every believer can be led by the Spirit of God. Paul said, "They that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. " (Romans 8:14)

The Top 10 Churches in the World

by Wolfgang Simson

Agreed: influence in today´s world is far more important than size.

However, looking at the number of people attending some of the world´s largest churches in the year 2004 gives us an understanding of where we are going in the future. Many things are changing: Churches, that have had 300.000 attenders 10 years ago, like the once famous cinema-church "Ondas del Luz y Amor" in Buenos Aires, are almost gone. Completely new models are emerging, like in India´s city Allahabad, where, on Sunday, a University simply changes into a church, with up to 80.000 people attending weekly.

Membership figures are changing strongly, and active participation can be more acurately measured by attendance - "voting with our feet" - than being a name on a membership roll. Yonggi Chos church in Seoul, for example, speaks of 773.000 members, but "only" 253.000 do actually attend the services in the main church and the Seoul satellite churches.

Screwtape Letters

I've been listening to The Screwtape Letters, narrated by John Cleese (the English Comedian). Cleese brngs them to life in an amazing way. I found these at my local library and I'd highly recommend getting your hands on a set.

ALMOST everything changes

I wrote this about a month or so into my time in Belize. Its from a letter to a friend, but Jon thought I should post it. I suppose everything is temporary and that everything changes...almost.

All is well in Belize. It is starting to not feel so
strange being here. The scorpion bites, cinder block
houses, cold showers...piece of cake. Now, the
cultural differences I'm still working on. And, most
of all, the lack of conversation/etc. pals is
very difficult. I'm making friends here fine, but I
would like to talk ABOUT this place and my experiences
here and that doesn't make much sense to people that
experience this every day. So, I guess I'll just talk
about Jesus. That's a good idea, because, number one,
that's why I'm here. And number two, he's relevant to
all and the center of what's really going on in me.
When everything changes and there are no friends
or routine or normal goals to pursue, He be comes the
only constant. About the only thing that is the same
in my life is that I am to live to glorify Him and
enjoy Him. Its weird. I feel closer to Him and less
concerned with what my life is supposed to be like.
We can be free in this world, but only when we give
everything first to Him. Sure, we know this, right?
But when everything changes, he puts you in a position
to practice seeking Him first as your foundation, we
learn these things again in a deeper way.

The Ragamuffin Gospel

A man walked into the doctor’s office and said, "Doctor, I have this awful headache that never leaves me. Could you give rue something for it?" "I will," said the doctor, "but I want to check a few things out first. Tell me, do you drink a lot of liquor?" "Liquor?" said the man indignantly. "I never touch the filthy stuff."

"How about smoking?"

"I think smoking is disgusting. I’ve never in my life touched tobacco."

"I’m a bit embarrassed to ask this, but-you know the way some men are-do you do any running around at night?"

"Of course not. What do you take me for? I’m in bed every night by ten o’clock at the latest."

"Tell me," said the doctor, "the pain in the head you speak of, is it a sharp, shooting kind of pain?"

"Yes," said the man. "That’s it-a sharp, shooting kind of pain."

"Simple, my dear fellow! Your trouble is you have your halo on too tight. All we need to do is loosen it a bit." The trouble with our ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to live with. The tilted halo of the saved sinner ts worn loosely and with easy grace. We have discovered that the cross accomplished far more than revealing the love of God. The blood of the Lamb points to the truth of grace: what we cannot do for ourselves, God has done for us. On the cross, somehow, some way, Christ bore our sins, took our place, died for us. At the cross, Jesus unmasks the sinner not only as a beggar but as a criminal before God. Jesus Christ bore our sins and bore them away. We cannot wash away the stain of our sins, but He is the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world.

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning, Page 72-73

Now that's LUKE TEN

This Sunday morning, while attending World Mandate in Waco, Texas, I heard the best message I've ever heard on Luke 10. It was absolutely incredible. We're trying to get the CD so we can make it available at www.simplechurch.com. Jim Yost shared from Luke 10 and used the cells that they are planting in Indonesia as examples of how the church can spread by "serving tables." It was awesome. I'd highly recommend getting the CD set of the whole conference from Antioch by clicking here.

Jim Yost and his family have been ministering in Irian Jaya (now called Papua) Indonesia since 1977. They have witnessed spiritual awakening in tribal villages and are currently involved in cell church planting. In the last three years, they have seen a church of 600 people birthed in the coastal town of Sentani. Jim's growing burden is to catalyze missionary movements in Papua, throughout Indonesia and beyond.

The Passion - Watch the Trailer

Take a look at the new trailers for Mel Gibson's, The Passion