Tag Archives: Mosaic_Nashville

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The Bible is a Story

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If you haven’t noticed the little countdown on the side bar, I’ve decided to join a group of folks from Mosaic in reading through the Bible in 12 weeks.

Adria explains well why we are all doing this:

Why read the Bible together in 12 weeks?

1. To know what the Bible says, so that we can better understand what the Bible means, and what God’s message is to us through this story, so that we can live well.

2. To have an experience of reading the Bible as a whole book, and not just it’s separate parts. The beauty of reading the Bible in such a concentrated amount of time is that we better understand the overall story and let it put our lives into context.

3. To create community around a common goal.

To facilitate the community part of things Adria put together a blog, 12 weeks, for all those reading to write their thoughts on and to create some dialogue. It’s a pretty neat thing and I’m excited to be a part of it. It did take me a couple days into it before I finally joined in.
If you want to keep up with what I write as I read you can bookmark this link, or grab this feed.
And now you know what I’ll be reading for the next three months.

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I know you read this…

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It’s come to my attention recently, that there are people from the church I have been attending, Mosaic, that read my blog.

Those that have posted a comment on here before I appreciate that, it establishes your presences and acknowledges to me that your out there.

Some though, have been lurking in the shadows, investigating into my thoughts and writings without hinting that your there. If that’s you, I want to encourage you to come out of the shadows.
I’m not looking for anyone to comment all the time, but I would like to know that your reading what I’m writing. I think that would be courteous. Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything, it would just be good for me to know who I’m talking to.

If it’s nothing more then a quick comment or an email (ariahfine at gmail dot com) the gesture would be wonderful.

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Threads: Love

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LOVE: Acts 4:32-34 . John 13:35 . Mark 12:29-31

-love God, love others
-not easy, but real
-service, sacrifice, selfless, unwavering
-everyday, exist for other
-forbearance
-breaking down walls
-respect
-community (with a cause)
-unnatural/supernatural/unique
-bigger than us
-messy

“Love one Another” is probably one of the most repeated phrases in the New Testament (particularly by this John fellow). And then you got that Love God, Love others stuff Jesus talks about. I start to get the impression that when you boil it all down, if you had to summarize this whole gospel thing, God thing into one word it would have to be “Love.”
My friend gave me a sticker it says: “Love Wins.” Probably already my favorite sticker of all time. Because it seems that’s the truth. In the end, the end of ends, Love Wins. And Love is not a confusing concept, it can be much more clear then we sometimes make faith and action decisions out to be.
When Christ says, “Love your enemies,” I think it’s obvious he means with a deep love, the same love as “love your neighbor as yourself,” the same as loving your own child. It’s true love can be messy, but it’s also a powerful force beyond measure.
Love means loving your great grandchildren and loving creation. Love means loving your neighbors kids and not just your own. Love means loving the man on the corner and not just yourself. Love means loving the starving child and the AIDS stricken villages.
And that Love calls us to some sort of action. That love calls us to recycle and waste less gas and other resources. The love calls us to care about public schools and the education of children. That love calls us to buy less car, less entertainment, less material possessions.

Love is a verb.

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Threads: Mission

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MISSION: John 17:18

-sacrifice.choice.destiny
-to change/impact the world
-connecting people to the living God
-real time, being real, living for others
-being Jesus among people, serving people
-allowing God to work through us, uniquely
-being out/visible
-movement
-our story

In the book of John, Jesus prays this: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Many point to the last word’s of Jesus recorded in Matthew as the central point for what “Mission” is all about, but I think this might be a better place to start. Jesus says “As…” God has sent him, in other words, “In the same way.” This is a clear indicator that we should be looking at the way Jesus lived in the world and shape our lives to live in a similar way.
And Jesus makes it clear that we are a continuation of what he was doing, we are part of that story. I like some of the words they choose to describe this mission mindset: Sacrifice, Choice, Serving, visible, Movement, being real.

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Threads (It’s a “Mosaic” thing)

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My wife and I have been hanging around these folks from the Mosaic Community on Sundays since we’ve been in Nashville. Mostly, we’ve just been chillin’ with some cool people and talking about things that interest us (and listen to others talk about things too). Oh, and Mindy sings a bit.

A little bit ago they did a series of talks about “Threads.” This is how they introduced it:

threads: the values from the ancient scriptures that are at the core of God’s story and at the core of who Mosaic desires to be as a community of Jesus followers.
these are the essentials that are woven into all we are and all we are becoming ? both as individuals and as a whole. They shape us as followers of Jesus, defining our role in the movement of God. This is who we are. These are non-negotiables that we hold to, that we strive for. They become the rhythms that we live by.
Mission. Love. Design. Relevance. Surrender.

I found the piece of paper that listed out the different threads and gave some verses concerning each thread. I figure I’d try and take one each day this week and just sort of think outloud about each of them. So, you’ve got the intro, now enjoy the individual posts…