|
Body-Builders |
|||
|
Issue 16 from |
|
||
|
In this issue ·
Building the Walls of Your Life —
Part 3 ·
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 the sixteenth issue, and I welcome
your feedback. For my latest personal newsletter, please click here. Every blessing, George Alexander For Artios Ministries |
||
|
You
can now subscribe a friend to Body-Builders (and please do!). Just click here.
Your friend will first receive an e-mail offering the chance to
subscribe. (To
update your own information or to unsubscribe, see the links at the end.) |
|||
|
Ruth was married to Boaz, and they met first in a
field. He was harvesting, she was gleaning—that
is, following along behind the harvesters and picking up anything they
dropped. It was an acknowledged
practice, and the way some of the poorer people ate. And it was written in to God’s Law. When you reap the harvest of
your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the
gleanings of your harvest. Do not go
over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I
am the LORD your God. Lev
19:9,10 Modern practice is very different from this. We’d want to go over it a second time and
even a third time if necessary, reaping right to the edges and maximising
productivity any way we could. Why
leave anything for the poor, the alien, or anybody else for that matter? That just lessens the yield! The influence of this thinking is wider than merely
farming. We used to have one whole
day in the week when the shops were shut.
It meant that most people were neither working nor shopping, and could
do other things that day. However,
that is not “reaping to the edges”.
To the retail trade it seemed wasteful. They could increase productivity by 17% by opening the extra
day! As in shopping, so in other areas—and in the UK we now
live in a 24/7 culture. There are
many consumer benefits to this. It’s
perfectly workable. However, if the
principles were carried over to the lives of individuals, the result would be
disastrous. Why work only five
days? Would it not be more productive
to work seven? Why stick to eight
hours? There’s more of the day
available to use! And is all that
time sleeping really necessary? Could
sleep not at least be severely curtailed? These questions may seem very silly, and no doubt they would
be—if it were not that many of us had already volunteered to “live in the
answers”! The Wall of Rest and Renewal We’ve been looking at Building the Walls of Your
Life. As Nehemiah was motivated
to remove the reproach by rebuilding the walls of the city, so we can bring
renewed internal definition, demarcation and order as we build the
walls of our lives. Having dealt
previously with personal purpose, and last issue with time and
priority, we now turn to rest and renewal. Short-term thinking The best sprinters can run 100 metres in less than ten
seconds. But what if someone started
a 10,000 metre race at 100 metre pace?
At first he would lead the field, but it wouldn’t last. He might soon be too tired to continue
the race, far less complete it.
Runners know they have to pace themselves. In our enthusiasm for serving the Lord, we can drive
ourselves at a pace we simply can’t sustain over the long haul. But what’s the alternative? Slow down and rest? It seems so wasteful, even sinful—but
that’s nothing other than short-term thinking. Better to burn on and be of lasting benefit than to burn
out and be of but fleeting benefit. A candle and a stick of dynamite have a lot in common:
both can be lit, and both will then give off light. The candle will burn with an unspectacular but steady glow,
while the dynamite fuse may look brighter, more vital and much more
exciting. It’s not long, however,
before the dynamite’s light is catastrophically extinguished, in the process
damaging everything in its vicinity.
The candle is less exciting (and less explosive), but more effective
in the long term. If you’re burning
for the Lord, seek to burn like a candle—it’s more useful in the end. The Principle of Sabbath It was God who instituted the Sabbath; and He told
Moses: “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in
six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He
rested and was refreshed.” [Ex
31:17 NKJV] We may imagine God as
being so exhausted from His efforts in creation that He needed to sit down in
His armchair for a whole day to rest and be refreshed—but that would be an
error. Rather, He’s modelling the
Sabbath for us and giving it foundation.
God subjected Creation to the rhythm of work and rest, and by
precedent observed it Himself. The principle of Sabbath is this: set aside for rest and
refreshing one day in seven. This is
not necessarily a day of inactivity—it could be a day of different
activity. The important feature is that
it creates a context, a cycle of weekly seasons of which our life
consists. Rather than every day alike
being yet more of the same, we work in manageable cycles punctuated with the
opportunity to “catch our breath”.
The result can be regular spiritual, mental, emotional and physical
renewal. The story is often told of two men chopping logs. The first man chopped and chopped all day
without a break. The second man
chopped for fifty minutes of each hour and rested for ten. The first man smiled to himself at the
slackness and inefficiency of his companion, confident that he would have a
bigger pile of logs at the end of the day.
Yet at the day’s end, the second man had the bigger log pile. The first man’s question exploded: “How
did you do that? I worked flat out
all day, you worked and rested and worked and rested, and you’ve got more to
show for it than me!” “That’s easy,”
the second man replied; “Every hour
when I rested, I sharpened my axe.” That’s what the principle of Sabbath does: it sharpens
us, so that we accomplish more in the six days than we would have
accomplished in the seven. True rest We say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” If “all work” truly dulls us, then “play” is not only
permitted, but actually necessary.
And yet “play” itself is not the heart of the issue. True rest is more than leisure, more than
relaxation, more than sleep—though all these may be involved without guilt. True rest includes reflecting on the wider
and the higher issues, focusing on the eternal truths, seeing work and the
daily activity in perspective. True
rest looks again at purpose and mission, and reminds us what it’s all
about and Who it’s all for.
We climb up to a higher vantage point, see the bigger picture, and
then go back down again with fresh motivation to “work it out”. Some struggle with this, feeling frustrated by
temporarily-enforced inactivity. “I’m
too busy. I haven’t got time for this
luxury!” But the truth is it’s more necessity
than luxury. We can actually get so focused on our calling, our task
and activity that we wonder how God and the world could cope if we took some
time off! True rest reminds us that
we’re not indispensable—it’s not all up to us! God is fully capable in Himself. As Jamie Buckingham said, “We take
ourselves too seriously—because we don’t take God seriously enough!” Martin Luther died in 1546, yet his name and legacy are
still well known today. He would be
considered significant and important and productive in his day. But he apparently understood rest, for he
said, “While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer, the gospel runs its
course.” The Wall of Rest and Renewal contributes to our internal
prosperity. It’s a significant part of
bringing definition, demarcation and order to our inner life. All those years ago, Nehemiah motivated the
building process and the walls of the city were successfully rebuilt. Today, you have the opportunity to be your
own personal “Nehemiah”, rising up and building the walls of your life. George Alexander January 2006 Note: All Bible
quotations are NIV unless otherwise stated. For a printer-friendly
version of this article, click here.
|
|||
News and Update |
|||
|
It’s 2006, and time is moving quickly.
Much is happening in the Church, in the world and in the Spirit. It’s a great time to be alive! At last, this is the final part of the series of articles on the theme
of “the inner life”. We started with “Internal Prosperity” (for a quick link to the Article,
click here.) We continued with “How To Develop Spiritual Strength”, and then at “Building the Walls of Your Life”, Part 1. Last issue we had Part 2, and now we complete the series with Part 3.
All feedback appreciated. These articles make reference to and go along with Gordon MacDonald’s
book from the middle 80s, a book called “Ordering Your Private World”. It made quite an impact, and has become
something of a classic; and it’s 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 1-897913-67-2 In response to a request, printer-friendly versions of the Body-Builder
Articles are now available. To access
the list, click here. There’s update information on the Artios School of Theology, and links to any previous issues of
Body-Builders that you may have missed.
There’s also a link to my latest personal newsletter. 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
|
|||
Previous Body-Builders |
|||
|
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?) Issue
12 (Internal Prosperity) Issue
13 (How To Develop Spiritual Strength) Issue
14 (Building the Walls of Your Life — 1) Issue
15 (Building the Walls of Your Life — 2) NEW! Printer-friendly versions of the articles
only are now available. To access the
list, click here. |
|||
Artios School of Theology |
|||
|
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 2004. The second module,
“Acts of the Apostles” had seventeen students, and completed in December 2004. That was followed by,
“Gifts and Ministries”, “Spiritual Dynamics”, and “New Testament Survey”,
which finished before Christmas 2005. The current module, Romans, is now in
full swing. For more information,
click here. For general information on the Artios School
of Theology, 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. |
|||
Introducing Artios Ministries
|
|||
|
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. |
|||
|
“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 |
|||
|
Contact Information |
|||
|
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) |
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Artios Ministries |
|||
