fi n d i n g an d fo llo w in g Je s u s… to g e th e r

www.thelivingroommontreal.org

ORIENTATION:

The alignment of oneself or one's ideas to surroundings and circumstances.

REORIENTATION:

To adjust the alignment of oneself or one's ideas to surroundings and circumstances

in a new or different way.

For most of us, it will take effort to reorient our thinking and expectations toward the new reality that Jesus came to announce. In fact, since most of us have been imagining a King-less world for years, a certain amount of deprogramming will probably be involved. But after we leave some comfortable assumptions behind, we’ll be ready to grapple in new and healing ways with our culture and the relentless demands it places on us to make a destiny for ourselves apart from God.

Rick McKinley, This Beautiful Mess

outsidersreorienting how we view others

IN THE BEGINNING...

ALIENATIONBITTERNES

SGUILT BLAME FEAR

Excessive Self-Preoccupation

“When someone challenges you fight back, be brutal, just go get them. Show me someone without an ego and I’ll show you a loser.”

“If we are not a generation in love with itself, we are, undeniably, one that is obsessed with itself.”

Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern

Narcissistic Angstmaking other people our gods

Spiritual Narcissism our spiritual lives are consuming

from using people to loving people

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22.37-40

loving people

Love God + Love People = liar

Love God + Love People = liar

Love God + Love People = beautiful

table of love

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

1 John 4.16-17

loving people

“Love, to be real, must cost, it must hurt,

it must empty us of self.”

Mother Theresa

loving people

Love is always self-sacrificial. You cannot be loving and be

thinking of yourself.

“Only a life lived for others is worth living.” Albert Einstein

loving people

WHY?

what is the mission of a person who follows jesus?

youyou

those those peoplpeopl

ee

herher

themthem

neighneighbourbour

himhimcoworkcowork

erer

strangstrangererspouspou

sese

the the peoplepeoplearound around

youyou

RECONCILIATIONthe act of bringing into agreement or harmony

Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.

2 Corinthians 5.16-20

yoyouu somesome

oneone

godgod

love

reconciliation?

reconciliation?

Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story, one so inclusive that is gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into our future so that we can take the next step ... If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.

Ivan Illich, philosopher

Your life and your words

should speak of an alternative story

Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God.

NT Wright

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings;

He will not serve before obscure men.Proverbs 22.19

Others at work

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God

the Father through him.Colossians 3.17

For most of us, it will take effort to reorient our thinking and expectations toward the new reality that Jesus came to announce. In fact, since most of us have been imagining a King-less world for years, a certain amount of deprogramming will probably be involved. But after we leave some comfortable assumptions behind, we’ll be ready to grapple in new and healing ways with our culture and the relentless demands it places on us to make a destiny for ourselves apart from God.

Rick McKinley, This Beautiful Mess

“The world will not receive a gospel of transformation from untransformed people.”

John Ortberg

An alternative

story