Life Can Be Different - From Self to Mission
Life Can Be Different - From Self to Mission
- Scott White
- Acts 16:26-40
- Break Forth
- 42 mins 56 secs
- Views: 980
Pastor's Letter
Life Can Be Different: From Self to Mission - Week 3
"Available": It is a simple-enough word, isn't it? I found myself looking up its roots this past week. The word's history seemed to begin in the mid-15th century. Its original meaning carried with it the idea of "serviceable" and "effectual." Apparently, the word implied that the one who is available serves effectively.
"Available": It is a simple-enough word, isn't it? I found myself looking up its roots this past week. The word's history seemed to begin in the mid-15th century. Its original meaning carried with it the idea of "serviceable" and "effectual." Apparently, the word implied that the one who is available serves effectively.
I have been thinking a lot about this in light of Paul's availability. In Paul we see a man with a clear calling as a gospel message-bearer to the non-Jewish world. From the earliest days when Barnabas went to Antioch in search of Paul till where we find him in the Acts stories this weekend, we find an available apostle.
We know that we live in a profoundly consumer-oriented culture. We also live in a country rooted in the ideals of independence. Those two truths, linked together, have probably had more influence on the idea of "availability" than we will ever know. Availability too often is seen as a choice we make, not a description of who we are, and it's rarely linked with the words "service" or "effectiveness."
This weekend, through the lens of Paul's availability, we look at the gospel breaking forth into a new region, Europe. This breakthrough results in a third continent's beginning its Christian journey and continues the global movement to Christ.
About 1,800 years later, a European named Gladys Aylward went to China as a young woman. She understood availability:
"I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China. I don't know who it was. It must have been a man, a well-educated man. I don't know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing, and God looked down and saw Gladys Aylward, and God said, 'Well, she's willing.'"
To His Glory,
Scott White
Associate Pastor of Missions & Evangelism
Study Guide
Life Can Be Different: From Self to Mission - Week 3 - Study Guide
For those who want to re-engage with this passage of scripture this week, I want to invite you to do it in a different way. Though primarily created for use in small groups, this style of investigating the scriptures can also be meaningful for individual study. Do not be either fooled or judgmental of the simplicity of this tool. The power of the tool is in its simplicity, and in that simplicity is also great reproducibility. Anyone can learn this, and anyone could lead it.
life can be different: From self to mission
Acts 16:1-15
For those who want to re-engage with this passage of scripture this week, I want to invite you to do it in a different way. Though primarily created for use in small groups, this style of investigating the scriptures can also be meaningful for individual study. Do not be either fooled or judgmental of the simplicity of this tool. The power of the tool is in its simplicity, and in that simplicity is also great reproducibility. Anyone can learn this, and anyone could lead it.
Read through the passage and ask these six questions of it:Replace this with Guide 1...
- What do you like best about this passage?
- What do you like least about this passage?
- What do you not understand about this passage?
- What do you learn about God from this passage?
- Based on what you read and learned from this passage, what do you personally need to do?
- Which phrase or verse from this passage do you want to take with you?
Take number 6 with you into your day, your week. Write it on a notecard and put it on your car visor, your work cubicle, your fridge door, or as a sticky note on your monitor. Ask God to show you how to most effectively engage with this phrase or verse throughout your week. Using this verse or phrase, make yourself available and see what God might do...
2014 Study Series • Copyright © 2014, Lake Avenue Church