Look Around....

So I have been thinking a lot about discipleship lately, well to be honest with you that's all I really think about the majority of the time. Questions like, What does it really mean to be in Christ?, or to have the mind of Christ... or sometimes I find myself meditating on the differences in theologies of progressive sanctification verses total sanctification/baptism of the Holy Spirit and/or a 2nd work of grace. Needless to say, I could go on for days thinking, studying, and talking doctrine and theology and the orthodox/orthoprax from which we live and believe.

I recently came across a blog by Mark Batterson that he shared on the importance of us having both a "Paul" and a "Saul" in our lives. The main take away from his blog for me was simply this "LOOK AROUND..." and ask yourself the question, who are we spending time with? If we are to be growing and maturing Christ followers than we must have both Pauls and Sauls in our lives to bring about balance, not only within our selves for our spiritual maturing, but also for the birth and the maturing of others as well.

I believe that we have truly been experiencing this at Overflow in some really natural ways. For instance we are a church that is focused on reaching the un-churched and de-churched in our world, journeying together as we learn to passionately follow Jesus and joyfully serve others. We have been doing just that, journeying together, some of us have been Christ followers for 5, 10 and/or 15 + years, while others just started knowing what following Jesus really means and some are still trying to figure it out or whether they believe at all, and that picture of everyone together is a beautiful thing. Discipleship IS taking place, things are happening in peoples lives, change is occurring with the hearts of people, and yet at times its hard to see it, its hard to not let the little things swamp you and overwhelm you, its hard at times to not just throw in the towel and take yourself to a place where it maybe just a bit more comfortable, a bit less stressful, a bit less time consuming....however through it all God is giving His all surpassing love and grace, his peace that transcends all understanding, his joy that is unstoppable to show us that it is He that is doing a great work among us, just Look Around...