Face2face band
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The gospel, our faith has much greater implications than this, a self-help environment. Sadly, today many have reduced ‘faith’ to personal gain and advancement, to achieve their destiny and goal without reference to the dream or goal of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:18 has Jesus announcing, “ All Authority Given To Me In Heaven & Earth”, but why “ All Authority”? How can I open this up, by firstly stating Christ came to bring back the Nations to their rightful place and this is why Nations are to be affected by our discipleship.
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Not to say that bringing an individual through to Christ and beyond is nothing more than magnificent. In reading Matthew 28:16-20 we are borough to an awareness of the Great Commission to disciple the Nations, I suggest this is not the one-to-one but something greater and grander is hidden hear. Now back to my reason for writing on Nations. A group of people with a relationship that brings about a changing world, including creation. A community that seeks to inform our world and creation that God has a purpose and goal while sharing in and declaring God’s dream. The ecclesia is the apple of God’s eye, the vehicle of the Kingdom, the magnificent manifold wisdom of God expressed with no predetermined form or shape, Christ expressing. I see the church, the ecclesia as being a fluid, flexible community that fills wherever the people of Christ are, that fluid and flexile dynamic people group expressing Christ, living Christ, being incarnate to our world. In other words, the pattern is unimportant it is the life expressed, the life of God, from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and through each person that is central, Christ central in it all. I believe fully and am part of the ecclesia of God, however, I do see the liberty to express a people and community determined by culture and social expression, what does that mean it is not one pattern fits all, the body should be expressed diversely without feeling deficient if I don’t follow a pattern. Now as an aside before someone points a finger and goes off on one that I don’t believe in the gathered church, that is so far from the truth. Perhaps we have realised the fundamental need to move from the entrapment of ‘platform celebrity’ forms of ecclesia (church) and the performance effort of each Sunday or whenever you meet to realize we do need to discover discipleship in life and all it entails. With all this movement I wonder what will be and what is Nationhood, what are Nations?Īs a follower of Christ, we are probably impacted by some ‘lockdown’ process and are more aware than ever of the practical challenges to our practice of faith, on the one had much work in a food bank or similar to help but how do we practice faith as in the past. Population figures inform us that at least 79.5 million people have been forced from their homes and 26 million of these are under 18 (UNHCR). One of the great plights within our world is the refugee or migrant movements that now face us with millions on the move, which we are told with the climate issue this is only going to grow due to soil conditions, millions under enforced migration due to political, safety and economic reasons. Therefore, I am a Christ-follower that has residence on Earth or Welsh who happens to be British or even UK born that holds a South African residency or yes to it all? I wonder how you would describe yourself, by your culture, by your language, by your colour or by nation, place of birth? Who am I? Who are you? Perhaps I should have included my Heavenly Citizenship as well. I’m Welsh, I could not speak a word of English until I reached the double figures in age, so I’m told, or British or both or adopted South African having a permanent residency status to our beloved South Africa. I’m not sure if it is a cry for belonging or control and dominance, time will tell, probably both.
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For many years what is Britishness has been a debate only fuelled once again with the rise of the 4 nations of the UK looking at separation sovereignty. Nationhood and identity have become large in peoples mind and the evidence are all around us. Some would say it’s the increase of modern tribalism, I am of this and not of that, I belonged to this group, not that, ours is better than theirs, us and them all the same root, politically, national or religiously. Some of todays’ headlines read, ‘Make America great’, ‘United Kingdom separates form Europe’, ‘Rise of Nationalism’, it is the world as we know it.