Mailing List Service Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITY WAY February 17, 2002 ------------------------------------------------------ Adventures in God By Andrei Yashurin Have you ever met people who were saying that religion is boring? I guess we all heard such comments, and many of us believed so at a certain point of our lives. Is there any truth in them? Does God calls us to live dull and monotonous life in order to gain His blessings? Or, is there another way? It is not a question to me anymore that Christian life can be the one of adventure, the one that is full of excitement. This is an integral part of "More Abundant Life" that God promised to us. The other alternative is boredom, and I think that there is nothing godly about boredom. I often think that what people's quest for security is responsible for making their lives dry and fruitless. There is a true security, the one that is rooted in our living connection with God, and there are all kinds of false images that we identify with security. When it comes to a religious fundamentalism, we may see that it is born out of desire to find security in a set of ideas about God. When it comes to a social conformism, it is easy to understand that lies behind it a trivial fear of loosing of an approval of others. People are not willing to come out of prescribed or self-prescribed boundaries because they dont believe that they can successfully face all that lies outside. To justify themselves, they invent all kinds of mental booboos. When people deny themselves the right of free thought and free self-expression (no matter what is the reason), they find themselves only half-alive. Instead of turning water into wine, they repeatedly turn wine into vinegar. They magnify the things that they call evil and injustice. They complain about the conditions of this life, eagerly expecting the time when they will have to leave our world. Such attitude, in fact, is an attitude of a lazy servant who buried his talent in the ground. Unwilling to use the resources he had out of fear of loss, he lost all. The true art of life is not about eliminating risks, it is about managing them. Life is a risky business. It is much wiser to trust that God will help us to live rather than to ask Him to change the nature of life. As we may see, the way of an adventure is not an easy road. It has nothing to do with a trip to a Disneyland. It implies risk, hard work and certain sacrifices we need to make in order to achieve our goals and fulfill our desires. They are meant to lead us out of our comfort zones. God puts desires for greater expression into our heart to stimulate our growth, and our true salvation lies in obedience to them. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12,13). Since we all have different personalities, our adventures are different. To have one, we don't even have to leave our home. It is not where we are physically; it is where we are spiritually that counts! It is not what we do in the flesh, but our attitude in any work that we do have real significance for God and contributes to our growth. When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman, He told her about the coming time, when "the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth," irregardless of any earthly locations. To continue the same thought, we may say that true workers should work in spirit and in truth. It is not what we do; it is the process of development that is important. It is not what we do; it is our willingness to put the Truth we know to the test is what God expects of us. It is not what we do; it is our attunement with the Spirit of God brings us an increase. When it looks like our life is shallow and superficial, let us take heed to His words: "Launch out into the deep" (Luke 5:4). We will find our true adventure and excitement in God to a degree we are willing to explore life. ------------------------------------------------------ We invite you to share your prayer requests with us if you would like us to support you in your prayers. We will include your requests in this list (without mentioning your name and an address), or just pray privately if you want so. ------------------------------------------------------ Unity, or Unity School of Christianity, is a positive philosophy of life, based on teachings of Jesus Christ. Andrei, the publisher of this list, is a Truth seeker and non-denominational minister from Russia. You are welcome to visit his web site to find out more about him and how you can help him in his work. E-mail: unityway@yahoo.com http://www.unityway.net Please feel free to share this E-zine with your friends and loved ones. We grow best by word of mouth and appreciate your sharing this newsletter with others. THANKS FOR READING! "God is more willing to give than you are to receive, and you demonstrate what you are willing to receive by what you willingly give." Brad Jensen All messages (c) 2001 by Andrei Yashurin The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New King James Version Bible, copyright, 1980, by Thomas Nelson, Inc. This E-zine is being sended through Felist.com list server only to those who subscribed to it, either at Felist.com or at our site. In order to manage your subscription, you need to go to the list page. I cannot subscribe or unsubscribe you. Please, follow this link: http://felist.com/catalog/lit.unityway/ Our ministry is supported through love offerings from like-minded people over the world. We invite you to join us in our work. 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