{"id":9819,"date":"2021-12-03T10:17:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T10:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9819"},"modified":"2021-12-03T10:17:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T10:17:58","slug":"beyond-waiting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9819","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Waiting\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">If you read last weeks newsletter or attended one of our services then you would be aware that the season of Advent has kicked off. We are in a season of preparation, anticipation, and waiting. <b>Sometimes I think we like waiting because it means we do nothing<\/b>. Francis Chan in his book \u2018Crazy Love\u2019 says \u201cMost of us use \u201cI\u2019m waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">as a means of avoiding action.\u201d <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Francis Chan throws out a very compelling challenge to us in this season of waiting \u2026 \u201cDid you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn\u2019t that television, vacations or exercise are wrong, but that <b>we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God.\u201d<\/b><\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Maybe this rings true for you?\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Francis Chan goes on to recount a story \u2026\u201dA friend of mine was speaking at an event recently.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Afterward a guy came up and told him, \u2018I would go serve God as a missionary overseas, but, honestly, if I went right now it would only be out of obedience\u2019. \u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">I guess the question would be ..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">\u201dSo whats wrong with acting out of obedience?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will obey what I command\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/John14%3A15\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John 14:15<\/a>).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Jesus did not say, \u201cIf you love me you will obey me when you feel called or good about doing so\u2026.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">If we love, then we obey. Period.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">This sort of matter-of-fact obedience<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">is part of what it means to live<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">a life of faith even in this season of waiting.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you read last weeks newsletter or attended one of our services then you would be aware that the season of Advent has kicked off. We are in a season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,52,3,51,45,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-destiny","category-faith","category-identity","category-mindset","category-obedience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9820,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions\/9820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}