In response to my "Fear of Weakness" post (below - March 20), my brother in the Lord Dave Sutherland emailed the following to me today with the subject line "Desperate to hit ROCK Bottom." I thought I would post an excerpt here to edify those who read this blog. It is worth thinking about:
First, although the weaknesses revealed were very personal to you, there is a lot there that all of us have to grapple with.
Secondly, the many layers of self-garbage that you mentioned have given me a new understanding of a special scripture.
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." - Luke 6:46-48
What really struck me is that the man, in wanting to build his house on the rock, first "dug down deep". I think the message that is standing out to me now is that in order to be someone who really listens to Christ and really does what He says, we have to first dig and dig and dig through the shifting sands of our many levels of perversity. If we don't first dig to find Christ, then the whole basis of our lives and speech and ministry is self-garbage. And your realizations seemed to me to be that type of digging that Christ requires of His followers. To identify and move to the side everything that is not Him so that when we lay our foundation it is on Him and not our our illusions regarding self.
...
Discipleship isn't just a building process, it's a digging down process first. In this way, you don't have to fear that you are moving backwards when you are realizing problems. You are in a digging phase. You will uncover the reality of Christ and find a sweet foundation on which to build.
10 Thu MVT l'ship retreat - L'Arche or Silver Lake 22 Tue 5:30pm dinner (S/M/NN+) 25 Fri (1) 3pm ph call (LP), (2) 3:30pm Tw mtg (DL) 28 Mon (1) 9:30am VT prayer mtg, (2) 1pm ET video mtg (EvR), (3) 2pm ET video mtg (Europe) 29 Tue (1) 10am mtg (JSh), (2) 3pm mtg (SM+)
DECEMBER
2 Fri (1) 12noon appt (Ray), (2) 2:30pm time w/ DrPL 6 Tue 6:30pm Lounsbury Christmas party 8 Thu MVT board mtg 9 Fri 3pm appt (Ray; ~J working) 10 Sat afternoon/evening MVT Christmas party - Mississauga
14 Wed (1) 4pm video mtg (SM), (2) 8pm Bible reading group 15 Thu 3pm appt (Ray) 16 Fri 4pm neighbourhood kids Christmas party 16-18 Fri-Sun Ottawa family Christmas 24 Sat Christmas eve - neighbourhood 26 - Jan ~10 Time away
JANUARY ... Jan ~10 Time away 12 Thu 3pm appt (Ray) 20 10am CCWM board mtg
2023+ Feb 17-20 MoveIn conference Feb 21-24 MVT staff retreat March poss. ministry trip to Djibouti/Cyprus April 22-24 Sat-Mon Manitoba ministry trip May 5 Fri CCWM board mtg (Fri) June 17 Sat Prayer Journey
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