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Body-Builders |
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Issue 6 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 sixth issue, and I welcome your
feedback. Every blessing, George Alexander For Artios Ministries |
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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.) |
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POINTERS TO PERSONAL PURPOSE |
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Take a word out of context and you can change or lose
its meaning. Put it in to context and
the meaning becomes clear. Our lives are like that. Out of context we can become confused or errant. In context, our meaning and purpose become
clear. The context for your personal purpose in God is
the purpose of the Church. And
the context for the Church is God’s eternal purpose — to bring all
things in heaven and on earth together under one Head, even Christ (Eph
1:10). We said last time that the
purpose of the Church is to be a people under one Head, and to
proclaim and act in such a way that more and more people—and more and more of
people—will be brought together under one Head. In that context, we must seek and find our individual purpose. It was a full evening of powerful ministry. The whole town gathered at the door, and
many were healed and delivered. His
popularity was high, and it must have been very tempting to remain, to enjoy
the celebrity or repeat the experience.
But the next morning, Jesus moved on.
Why? Because He knew why He
had come. Jesus lived to
purpose. (Mk 1:32-39) There’s awesome power in personal purpose. Personal purpose inspires us. Personal purpose motivates us. Personal purpose enables us live a focused
life: to sift out the right things from the possible things,
the things we should do from the things we could do; to discern
the things that matter from the things that dilute and deflect and distract;
to separate the specific “to do” from the general “worth doing”. This article obviously cannot tell you your
personal purpose! But, once we have
the context right, it can give some pointers to finding it, again
using Ephesians chapter 1. Begin with worship (Eph
1:3)
Everything begins with worship. It is essential that we give God His place
first. It’s about Him. It’s His show. We are bit-part players — He’s the star. We may protest, “But I want to do
something important!” The Westminster
Confession reminds us that the chief end of man (i.e. the most important
thing) is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We need to bring to God a worshipful heart, and also actual
worship. In Acts, Paul makes three great apostolic or
missionary journeys. Paul was fruitful. He fulfilled his personal purpose. Where did it begin? “While they were worshipping the Lord
and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul [Paul]
for the work to which I have called them.’” (Acts 13:2). It began
in worship. Start with knowing you’re thoroughly blessed (Eph 1:3)
Do you know you’re blessed? Or do you feel sold short? If you’re not convinced of blessing and
living in gratitude, you’ll either serve grudgingly as a poor relation, or
you’ll serve in order to gain blessing. This motivation is works and not grace. In Luke 15, the Prodigal Son was in the
wrong in squandering his inheritance.
But his elder brother was in the wrong too. Everything his father had was his, yet for years he’d been
slaving in the fields, craving his father’s favour, yet unaware of it — not
knowing that he was blessed. Christians can be ungrateful! (Strange, but true.) Sometimes we grumble and complain and
forget where we’ve come from, and how good even the bad times
are now compared to what we used to know.
We easily lose our sense of perspective. Often it takes a reversal or near catastrophe to shake us back
to right perceptions. Recognise the blessings you have in Christ
Jesus. Anything else is a bonus! Submit to the sovereignty of God (Eph 1:4) Our personal purpose is God’s choice and God’s
appointing. We don’t get to sit in
God’s restaurant, look at the “purposes” menu and make our selection. Paul knows that he is “an apostle of
Christ Jesus” and that it’s “ by the will of God” (Eph 1:1). Our assignment is a discovery
process. Arguments are pointless. The task God gives us to do at first may not be
His ultimate for us. But unless we do
it, we may not see His ultimate.
Our tendency is to imitate others, either assuming their call is our
call, or wishing it was. But there
really is no point in trying to be someone else. The only person you can ever successfully be is you. We can imitate others’ good character and
be challenged by their responsiveness to God, but it’s pointless being
jealous of their assignment. God
won’t change His mind. The reason is
not His intransigence, but that in order to change His mind He’d have to
re-make us. God’s will for us
is actually what’s best for us as He designed us to be — whether at the time
we realise it or not. In the light of God’s choice, we “submit”, that
is, we take our place. Establish your stance: By His grace to
His glory (Eph 1:5-14) Reading these verses again with this phrase in
mind, we can see it — by His grace, to His glory. The alternative is that we think we’re someone special with
something special to offer. We are
— but only because He’s made us to be.
It’s grace. And it’s not to our glory, but His. We’re not seeking our personal purpose in
order to shine in that purpose for our own sake. It’s not to impress or to be seen by men, but to serve well to
the glory of God. When we take the stance “by His grace, to His
glory”, we position ourselves as safe for God to release us into His purpose
for us. In any other stance, we’re
likely to cause damage, however unintentionally, to ourselves or to others. Quest continually after wisdom and
revelation (Eph 1:17,18) “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the
knowledge of Him.” (NASU). The Message translation renders these
verses in this way: I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make
you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused
and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he's calling you to do,
grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians … There is wisdom and there is revelation, and God
speaks in both these ways, focused on Jesus.
God tends to reveal His plans one step at a time. One way to understand this is to consider
that He can give overall personal vision (revelation), but that the
outworking of it depends on daily small steps (wisdom). We always seek more, always need enlightenment — “We
know in part.” To recapitulate: begin with worship; start with
knowing you’re thoroughly blessed; submit to the sovereignty of God;
establish your stance: by His grace, to His glory; quest continually after
wisdom and revelation. After these,
there is one last thing to add: Make a commitment to be a functioning
part of the Body, and solidly under the Head (Eph 1:19-23) It’s only in doing the general that the specific
emerges. Serving in general is the
mechanism that releases more clarity to serve in particular, that is, to find
our specialism. Otherwise we make the
revelation of a particular purpose an excuse for not serving. Therefore make yourself available. Volunteer. Look for things that need to be done and do them. But don’t be driven in hyperactivity. Be solidly under the Head, co-operating
with the rest of the Body rather than creating tension in it. Obeying the Lord, pulling together,
building together. As you do so, your personal purpose will be there
to fulfil. And together we’ll live
in the purpose of God — “to bring all things in heaven and earth together
under one Head, even Christ.” George Alexander June 2004 Note: All Bible
quotations are NIV unless otherwise stated. |
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I admit it — this issue of Body-Builders is late! Other matters have been pressing. Thank you for your patience. In this issue, I’m completing the short series of articles on “Living
to Purpose”, which I trust will build one on another. All feedback appreciated. There’s update information on the new Artios School of Theology, and also on Destiny College. In addition, there are now links available to previous issues of Body-Builders
that you may have missed. 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.) 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, please let me know
and I’ll try to solve the problem. 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) |
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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, has eighteen students enrolled, and will be
completed before the summer. The next module will
be “Acts”, and registration is now open.
Classes will be in Dunfermline starting in September. For more information, please click here. At
present, the course cannot be offered by extension (distance learning), but
it is hoped to make this available in the future. |
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Introducing Destiny College
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Looking for a one-year full-time course? The Destiny College course offers a comprehensive
period of serious study and discipleship, leading to the Certificate in
Christian Leadership. It runs from
October to June each year in Glasgow, the UK’s third-largest city. For full information, 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:
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 2004 Artios Ministries |
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