Recently I have been thinking a lot about spirituality. In my house group with church, we are currently examining spirituality. In January we start reading a book by Greg Boyd called Present Perfect. Boyd addresses the lack of spirituality in the church and examines different applications of how to experience the presence of God in our ever day life.
After reading Boyd's Present Perfect, our house group decide to read through Acts to see how the beginning Church experience the presence of God. Only being through Ch. 10 in Acts it is obvious that the beginning Church was dependent on the Holy Spirit for guidance and growth. Starting out, I was asked what I hoped the group would get out of reading and meditating on Acts. Although I can't remember the exact words I said, I believe there were a few key points I wanted the group to understand. Those being: 1) that we are to live differently since the Spirit is leading us; 2) we need to change our expectations of God and how he works; 3) that God has a calling for our lives and is involved in each of our lives.
As we continue to go through Acts, I am continually asking a few questions:
1) What is this showing us about the characteristics of God? Or what are theses writings revealing to us about God’s heart?
2) What were the disciple’s expectations of God, knowing his heart and characteristics?
3) How are these words relevant to the way we are suppose to live today?
4) How is the Kingdom of God being brought to the here and now, like in Acts?
5) How are we daily living “missionally”?
6) What do we see the “church” becoming?
Recently, I have found this very hard to keep at the fore front of my mind. To bringing the Kingdom of God to earth is something that does not come naturally. It is a yearning in my heart, but it gets drowned out by a bombardment of everyday worries and logistics.
As I write this, I am distracted by my to-do-list of the day. It is extremely hard to quiet myself and sit in the presence of God listening to the Spirit. How does one listen to God, when His voice is drowned out by the white noise of the world? For me, I am realizing that it means that I need to silence myself before God and I need to find joy in the things that God has created as a reminder that He is ever present.
