Oil Ministries

so this morning i was out playing tennis with a friend. (i don’t think either of us are VERY good)  we warmed up and then decided to play a game.  the game went well,  but there was some sort of a competitive tension, we both had to one up the other and in trying to win, we really had a miserable time because the ball was all over and outside the court and really not so much joy in it all.    we said, let’s play one more game, so we did.

at the end of the game, i said, let’s just have one volley real quick…. and it was this moment that everything changed.  we were playing well together, not trying to bash the other one down, or hit the ball out of reach… not trying to hit so hard that the ball flew over the fence or trying to “win”…  it was good teamwork and an enjoyable time, much better than when we were working against each other.

you see, competition is a sometimes a good thing in it’s place.  but what a life lesson to be learned in relationships.  they are so much more enjoyable and edifying when you’re not keeping score.  whether it be for positive things or negative.  what would it look like to let loose and let go?  not be in competition with friends, family, and neighbors. . . simply to love and enjoy each other  working together to accomplish something.  rather than trying to have the leg up…

“The opposite of sin can only be faith, and never virtue.” ~H.A. Williams

“Come to the edge, he said. They said:
We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said.
They came. He pushed them,
And they flew…”
- Guillaume Apollinaire

How often do we feel like we are in this place. i know for myself, it’s often… i tend to be quite stubborn. I don’t want to deal with something until i am forced to . . . but its in this place where we’re “forced” to move on that we find out what we are made of. perhaps it’s nothing more than procrastination, but i’d venture to say that fear tends to be a guiding force in my life.

One simple example i think of, espcailly this time of year is graduations. . . many college and high schoolers are in a place where it’s time to face the future… i didn’t face the future until it was too late. i made my decision to go to college essentially at the last minute, as did i with my decision to start working because i simply ran out of money… why didn’t i make a decision, because i didn’t want to, i was afraid i would make the wrong choice, so i decided to make no choice at all…

I’m a little more spontaneous than most, i don’t typically “have a plan” i tend to take life as it comes, but i’m afraid to let life come to me.  what if. . .  what if i were to come to the edge……  is it really all that scary?  the other day someone said something to the effect of isnt’ that what its all about, when you come the point where you can either shrivel and die, or jump & fly. . . what a thought, what a glorious thought. . . something david crowder seemigly thinks about too…

David: yeah. Uhmm. But the ground pulls at my feet.

Andy: hold…hold on just a second. Uh but I mean what about the number 7?

David: did you ever notice that the sky is all the way to the ground?

Andy: wait. Hold on. What?

David: we’re walking around in it. We’re in the sky. There is sky and there is ground and we’re somewhere in between. That is where we live. And sometimes some of us take wing and when they do, when their feet leave the ground, even for a second, they pull the rest of us with them. And when we rise, and when we rise, and when we notice that the sky has been around us all along. We have been walking into it. It has been this constant collision. Divinity and depravity. And we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise…  

//here’s the context of that interview… http://www.sweetslyrics.com/152261.David%20Crowder%20Band%20-%20A%20Conversation.html

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the body of Christ and what unity looks like.  i’ve been talking with people that are having quite a bit of difficulty with friendships they imagined to be long term and Christ-centered… and let’s be honest, i’ve been in more than my fair share of these frustrating relatinships myself!

I found it surprising that so many other people are dealing with the same thing at the same time… A little riff here, a lie or two there, and there is no longer a unity, but a division.  this really got me to praying and thinking.

how often is it that we allow satan to speak lies about who we are and who other people are to us.  what unrealistic expectations do we put on them, and why do we so often look to them to fill the needs that only God can.  Its true for me, and i would guess for you as well. 

there is just so much bickering, so much anger and frustration, so much that does not glorify God.  and thats what satan wants.  you see, i’m starting to look at a bigger picture here… starting to scratch my head and relize the “cosmic battle” that i’ve chosen to ignore. Sin is totally an aiding factor in all this… without sin, the world would be as it should be. 

Here’s the catch, John 17:20-23

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

The question is, our lives, our unity with other belivers, this is one of the most significant ways the world is supposed to see God’s love.  are you exemplifying that in your relationships, i can think of a few where i do.  but it breaks my heart that they all aren’t that way.

“You are the average of the five people
you spend the most time with.”
- Jim Rohn

“I have learned that the greater part of our
misery or unhappiness is determined not
by our circumstance but by our disposition.”
- Martha Washington

Last night, we gathered in fellowship and participated in an amazing mystery dinner.  It was a time to meet new people and to get to know acquaintances on a deeper level.  As we gathered, we didn’t know what we were going to be served, the mystery began to become clear as others received their meal course by course.

Yet, we must think of those unfortunate at this time of year as well… those that don’t know what they’ll be eating for dinner, not because it’s a mystery, but because of poverty…. i recently viewed rob bell’s nooma video, ‘rich’ here are just a couple startling poverty statistics…

1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water

1 million people wont eat today.

Experts have estimate that for us to remove poverty in the world and provide everyone in the world with clean water, adequate nutrition and health care, it would cost somewhere around $20 billion

US alone spends $20 billion every year. On ice cream.

Think about this. . .

Pray about this. . .

Do something about this. . .

what does oil mean to you?