Definition 1

April 18, 2013 by

ObeyGC ² is a movement seeking to mobilize and equip every person to become a follower of Jesus and live out the Great Commandment and Great Commission in collaboration.

ObeyGC² is about getting everyone involved. It is about training them to do what they can’t already do (in a continuous cycle of growth). It is focused on obedience to God. It is about cooperative effort.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

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Metrics

April 18, 2013 by

The measure of us as followers of Christ is not how much we have studied His word, but how much we are living it.

Metrics are important. There is some truth in the old maxim, “What gets measured gets done.” The United Nations has set forth some laudable goals for dealing with disease, poverty, and lack of education in their Millennial Goals. The trick will be people trying to take credit for improvements which will not have a clear cause and everyone trying to avoid blame when things take major turns for the worse. Issues such as famine, wars, political corruption and so on make it tough to achieve such goals. Don’t get me wrong, I think such goal-setting is a positive step. It is only the first step, however. Action must follow. As followers of Christ we should try to contribute to the reaching of those goals and to the reaching of goals set by Jesus in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Studying those goals will not accomplish much either. We must act on them. Start with a single step.

James 1:22-25, 27

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

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Asking “Why?”

April 18, 2013 by

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I asked God why He allows all the spiritual darkness, abusive leadership, poverty, illness and ignorance in the world. He replied, “Ask rather, ‘Why do we allow this to happen?’ You are my body, my hands, my feet.”

Ever since the garden of Eden mankind has been pointing the finger at someone else and blaming them for all that has gone wrong. God is looking for someone who will take responsibility rather than shifting it.

Matt 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

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What are you living for? (obeyGC2)

April 18, 2013 by

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What are you living for? Hopefully it is more than trying to make as much money as possible or gain as much power as possible for the purpose of living a life of hedonism. There is nothing wrong with pleasure and comfort, but you were made for more than that. God has a purpose for your life. It is to glorify Him. There are lots of ways to do this. In fact, most activities and pursuits can be done in such a way that they glorify God (unless they inherently wrong in and of themselves).

Glorifying God can also be called worship. There are some ways in which we should all be glorifying God. First, we should acknowledge Him and commit ourselves to following His instructions and guidance for our lives. We should also encourage others in the pursuit of a life of worship. We should continually grow in our likeness to Jesus Christ’s character. We should serve others and look out for their interests as well as our own. We should seek to draw others into a relationship with God if they don’t already know him. Conveniently, these facets of living a life of worship are gathered into a couple of summary statements in the Bible.
One time (Matthew 22:36-40) a Jewish lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is referred to as the Great Commandment.

Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave His disciples their final instructions. This was a crucial event because He knew He would never see them again in the flesh. In Matthew 28:18-20 the Bible says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'”

This is referred to as the Great Commission.

This blog is about the ethos of the ObeyGC2 Life which can be summarized as an attempt to help people live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as effectively as possible.  ObeyGC2 is read as “obey GC squared” and by now you might have guessed that GC squared refers to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. ObeyGC2 is an attempt to expand the Kingdom of God by catalyzing a movement of Christ’s followers working together to bring about greater glory to God and doing what they can to see His will done on earth as it is in heaven.  This blog will address my take on what that might look like in practical implementation.

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