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Body-Builders |
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Issue 12 from |
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In this issue ·
Feedback For new subscribers: ·
Introducing
“Artios Ministries” |
Welcome to Body-Builders! This is a new series of teaching articles intended to
bless and build the Body of Christ. I trust you enjoy this twelfth issue, and I welcome your
feedback. Every blessing, George Alexander For Artios Ministries |
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Although there’s a wonderful sense of God’s blessing in
these days, there’s also a lot of burnout. Burnout can be sudden and surprising. And yet the inward underlying causes will
have been operating long before the problem is manifest outwardly. Burnout occurs when the visible,
the public, the external can no longer be sustained by the invisible,
the private, the internal.
So we must look under the surface, in the inner life. Paul prayed: “I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Eph 3:16f) He’s praying for spiritual strengthening
and resourcing in the inner life. Sensing that this is timely, the next several
Body-Builders will be on the theme of the inner life. 20My son,
give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21Do not
let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. 22For
they are life to those who find them And health to all their
body. 23Watch
over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the
springs of life. Prov 4:20-23
NASU Notice that life springs and issues forth from the heart;
that the flow of life is from inward to outward. We see the same thing in 3 John 2: “Beloved,
I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as
your soul prospers.” (NASU) Here, outward prosperity is sought, and
inward prosperity is presupposed—inward to outward. Therefore we ask the question, “Is your
soul prospering? Is it well with your
soul?”, and we’ll look prosperity in the inner life. What is the inner life? The inner life is the solid foundation on which the rest
of your life is built. It is the
underpinning of everything else that life consists of, that private place
within you where no one else can go or even see, the core of your being. As Gordon MacDonald puts it: But our inner world is more
spiritual in nature. Here is a centre
in which choices and values can be determined, where solitude and reflection
might be pursued. It is a place for
conducting worship and confession, a quiet spot where the moral and spiritual
pollution of the times need not penetrate.1 In Florida, especially in certain parts, there can be
the appearance of a sudden “sinkhole”, where the ground itself simply
collapses into a pit in the underlying limestone, perhaps caused by the
drying up of an underground stream.
This frightening phenomenon pictures for us what can happen when the
inner life is neglected, and our world suddenly comes tumbling down. We experience a sense of emptiness,
hollowness. We feel like a beautiful
soap bubble, floating—until the skin bursts, and there’s nothing inside. Because the inner life is less measurable and less
demanding, it’s often neglected until there’s a cave-in. Paul said: “Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor
4:16). For us, it’s often reversed—outwardly
we’re “doing fine”, yet inwardly we’re wasting away. The goal is personal integrity through and through—a
public or outer life that is consistent with and flows from a private or
inner life. What is the value of the inner life? Persecution and tribulation test reality—it’s
easy to feel mature in the good times.
In the Parable of the Sower, the seeds sown on the rocky soil grow
quickly and look good. But when the
heat’s on the plants wither, because they have no root (see Mark 4:5,6). The root is akin to the inner life. Jesus promised us that in this world we would have
trouble (perhaps not one of His more welcome promises!). But in the same verse He promised that in
Him, we’d have peace (Jn 16:33). It’s
the picture of being at peace in Jesus right in the midst of the trouble in
the world—as in the eye of the storm.
Peace is internal. Can you be alone and at peace with yourself, or must
there always be activity? “Be
still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10) There will be storms.
The issue is: are we storm-proof?
Later in Mark 4, Jesus was asleep in the storm, but Peter was in a
panic. But by Acts 12 Peter was
asleep in his “storm”, and panic was gone. Are you a panicker?
If you are, it suggests your inner life may not be in good order. It’s not that we ignore the reality of the
storm, but that we find a place of poise in the inner control-centre of our
lives, where we know that the correct steps are being taken and that the right
outcome will result. How do we get deceived to a place of
no inner reality? First, by neglecting our relationship with God. We can easily begin to function
“horizontally”, blessing people, serving people, fellowshipping with people,
even zealously doing “Church work”, but neglecting the vertical dimension of
relationship with God. Others may not
notice and God may not complain, but at the centre of our being, something is
becoming hollow. It’s particularly
dangerous when we justify our neglect by being too busy. Busyness dulls the hollow feeling. Fred Mitchell used to keep on his desk a
motto that read: “Beware of the Barrenness of a Busy Life”. Secondly, by giving out more than we’re taking in. If we do that, we’re running down our
reserves, ministering from memory, and we can end up with insufficient
resources to sustain ourselves. We
need input. It’s an increasing danger
the further “up” we go in leadership.
As Ray McCauley famously said, “If your output exceeds your input,
then the shortfall will become your downfall.” Thirdly, by living at the level of another’s
revelation while ours lags behind. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we’re further on than we
are, and project ourselves trying to impress others with what we’re
really not. It’s incongruous, like a
three-year-old in a three-piece suit.
If you’ve been a Christian for thirty or forty years, it’s no
guarantee that you’re mature; but it’s harder to admit that you’re not. But if you’re not, you need to admit
it. Unreality leads to burnout, and
reality starts with the arrow that says, “You are here.” Fourthly, consciously or subconsciously by
imitating another. We try
to live up to others’ expectations.
We tend to imitate people we admire (our heroes), and forget that our
giftings are different from theirs.
We force ourselves to do certain things or act in a certain way,
because we think these are the things that people in our position are
supposed to do. We pick up such
expectations from watching or hearing about others. These things may be appropriate for the others because
they are called and gifted in those areas.
But are you? You may be called
and gifted in other areas.
That means that you should work out your calling and gifting in other
ways. Anytime we do things that we’re
not resourced by the Holy Spirit to do, we do them in our own strength; and
therefore we run ourselves down. If
it continues, we end up completely “run down”. I recently had trouble with the alternator of my
car. It was working
intermittently. When it wasn’t
working, the battery was not being charged, but the car was running on the
battery, running it down. Then the
alternator failed altogether. The
night was dark and cold, and I knew I couldn’t use the heater, but I had to
use the lights. I had only a short
drive home, but by the time I was almost there, the battery was so low that I
had to switch the lights off just to keep the engine running. When we operate as God has gifted us to function, His
alternator provides the power, and keeps our batteries charged—we can
function indefinitely. But if we do
what others do to get the results they get without ourselves being gifted in
these areas, we drain our battery, and can come to the place where we need to
shut things down just to keep our most basic functions going. The only person you can successfully be is you. And that’s the only person God wants you
to be. Imitation is responsible for
much burnout. And so we return to the question: “Is your soul
prospering?” Are you experiencing
internal prosperity? Persistent neglect of this unseen inner reality will
ultimately disqualify you from usefulness in the Kingdom of God. Pursuit of it will be the key to Christian
stability and success. I pray that out of his
glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your
inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Eph 3:16f We need strengthening in the inner being. Next issue we’ll look at “How to Develop
Spiritual Strength”. George Alexander March 2005 Note: All Bible
quotations are NIV unless otherwise stated. 1
“Ordering Your Private World” by Gordon MacDonald (Highland Books) ISBN
0-9446616-31-0 Back
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News and Update |
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Things tend to go in cycles, and that can include problems and
difficulties. I’m hearing several
“burnout” reports recently, which remind me of the late 80s and early
90s. In the middle 80s, a book by
Gordon MacDonald called “Ordering Your Private World” was published, and made
quite an impact in this regard. It’s
become something of a classic and is still available. I recommend it as a timely read or
re-read. The full information is: “Ordering Your Private World” by Gordon
MacDonald – Highland Books
ISBN 0-9446616-31-0 In this issue I’m beginning a series of articles on the theme of “the inner
life”. These make reference to and go
along with Gordon MacDonald’s book mentioned above. The series starts with Internal Prosperity.
All feedback appreciated. There’s update information on the Artios School of Theology, and links to any previous issues of
Body-Builders that you may have missed. Artios Ministries is being developed in three phases, and Phase 1 is
almost complete. Check out www.artios.org
for updates. If you have difficulty opening these e-mails or if the text looks weird
and you suspect it’s not showing as it was intended to (I know it looks a
little strange in Hotmail for instance), please let me know and I’ll try to
solve the problem. Alternatively, you
could try the web version (click here). I continue to receive more requests to subscribe to Body-Builders. If you have received this e-mail
second-hand and would like to be subscribed, please click here. If you’d like to subscribe a friend,
please click here.
(The friend will first receive an e-mail offering the chance to
subscribe.) More news and developments soon …. Return to top
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Previous Body-Builders |
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You may have missed or
mislaid a previous issue of Body-Builders.
If so, don’t despair! They can
be accessed by clicking the links below: Issue
2 (The Beginning of Life) Issue
3 (Getting the Word Out) Issue
5 (The Purpose of the Church) Issue
6 (Pointers to Personal Purpose) Issue
8 (Laying Hold of the Word) Issue
9 (The Community of Perfect Love) Issue
10 (What Should We Do With Christmas?) |
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Artios School of Theology |
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Artios School of
Theology is a modular course leading to a Diploma in Theology from Artios
Ministries. The first run of the
School, with classes held in Dunfermline, is currently under way. The first
module, Old Testament Survey, had eighteen students enrolled, and was
completed in June. The second module,
“Acts of the Apostles” had seventeen students, and completed in December. The current module,
“Gifts and Ministries”, is in full swing, and will run until the second part
of March. For more information on the
Artios School of Theology, please click here*. For information on “Gifts and Ministries”
only, please click here. “Old Testament Survey” and “Acts of the
Apostles” are currently in preparation as correspondence courses. * If you tried this
and it didn’t work, you may have to download an Acrobat Reader first. This is available free of charge from
Adobe. To get it, click here. |
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Introducing Artios Ministries
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Artios Ministries is a new ministry launched
officially in October 2003. The Founder and Director is George
Alexander. For 12 years, George pastored Liberty Church in Dunfermline,
Scotland, before being released in 1997 to a wider teaching ministry. The
aims of Artios Ministries are: 1.
To proclaim the Christian doctrine and principles through teaching,
literature, and other means 2.
To provide Biblical education and ministry training 3.
To promote good practice and sound doctrine in the Church of Jesus
Christ Artios
Ministries is a charitable trust recognised in Scotland as Scottish Charity
number SC 034194. |
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“Artios” is
a Greek word occurring in the New Testament. It means, “complete,
fitted, completely qualified, with all its needed parts”. It
occurs, together with another word derived from it, in 2 Timothy
3:16,17 “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work.” RSV |
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Contact Information |
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Difficulties or Comments? Just click here and let us know. |
Artios Ministries 13 Whinhill Dunfermline Fife KY11 4YZ U.K. |
01383-739537 (+44-1383-739537) |
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© Copyright 2005 Artios Ministries |
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