Called for Community

By Suzane Avadiar | @suzaneavadiar

One of the very first things Jesus did at the start of His ministry was to find His disciples. Jesus knew that in order to accomplish what His Father sent Him to do, He must surround Himself with a close and trusted circle of companions.

Jesus placed a high value on the need for community and friends.

A community is crucial; doing life with people is important. In fact, it is vital to our walk of faith and general wellbeing in life. God’s design for the growth of His church has always involved ordinary people, through whom He can do extraordinary things.

The church of Christ will only thrive when every believer BECOMES the church and encourages others to do the same. Church means Community and we are all called for it.

Here’s what I’ve learnt about the importance of community in my walk with Christ. I’ve learnt that it is through the community God has placed me in that He shows up for me and provides for me.

It’s through people that God gives me a hug and shows me He loves me! It’s through people that God sometimes relieves my heavy heart and wipes away my tear. It’s through people that God gives me the support system I need.

AND it is also through a community that God refines my character and because let’s face it - people aren’t always easy! God knows that and He frequently uses the people around us to mould and transform us into His Son’s image.

In our every day walk with God, we too must follow Jesus' footsteps. We too must surround ourselves with trusted and faith-filled friends. We too need a circle of companions and allow them room to speak into our lives.

We need the encouragement and friendship of others to help us grow in our faith and we need them to call us out when we stray. We must learn to seek help when needed and realise the importance of community support in our lives. And we must work towards being and doing the same for others.

Community-life inspires us to edify each other towards Christ-like transformation. It is only when we embrace the importance of community can we truly fulfil God’s purpose and will for our lives.

No one can fulfil his or her commission alone – no matter how important the work. There is strength in numbers and we must always "consider how to stir up one another to love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24).

God created us for fellowship – with Himself and with others around us. We were never meant to do this life alone; it was always God’s plan for us to live with a community and in unity as ONE body of Christ.

When Jesus prayed for His followers in John 17:22-23, He prayed for this unity:

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” 

All through scriptures, God accomplished His plans and purposes through fellowship with His people. He is completely capable of bringing His will to pass on His own, but He doesn’t want to.

God wants to involve us in His plans, the same way He wants us to involve others in our lives. And it is through our intimacy and relationship with HIM that we can extend our lives to those around us.

When our upward life with God is strengthened, our outward life with people becomes stronger. It is easier to lean on a community when we are always leaning on God.

It is through a life of community and collaboration that God always brought His vision to life here on earth; He partnered with His people, setting perfect examples for us to partner with each other.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 urges us to “encourage one another and build one another up” because “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

To live as Christ means to live beyond ourselves; we must always live aware of those around us.

Philippians 2:3-4 encourages us, "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."

This is what it means to be the Church of Christ. This is how God intended for us to live: to live mindful of the needs of our families, friends, neighbours, and community.

1 John 3:16 says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

Ponder:

How often do we lay aside our simple needs just so that we can serve the needs of others?
 How often do we remember that to love Jesus is to love people and our community and so, our daily lives should reflect this?

Suzane Avadiar is a writer, blogger and avid traveller from Malaysia. Over the last 18 years, she has written extensively for various publications in the global marketplace. Writing is not only her passion but also her instrument of worship. 

Suzane has a deep desire to reveal the Father’s heart through her writings so that every reader cultivates a deeper intimacy with Jesus and steps into their God-given identity. She believes Intimacy strengthens Identity! 

Suzane also writes devotions on social media for her church, Destiny C3 Subang. She recently completed her first book, Sent To Journey – Devotions for the Traveller, and is pursuing publishing opportunities. Contact Suzane through her website at www.suzaneavadiar.com or on her Facebook page.

Who's in Your Story

By Suzane Avadiar | @suzaneavadiar

My mother used to say that I tried to run even before I could crawl. I was always so eager and in a hurry to get to places. And I wanted to get there on my own. When I first started driving, I hit 80 miles/h within the week. I wanted to get from point A to point B in the shortest time possible. I hated the brakes.

In the last decade, however, God has taught me to slow down…way down. He has taught me to keep my foot on the brake pedals – sometimes to a complete halt. He has taught me how to be patient. He taught me how to wait.

And in one of those seasons in the wilderness, He taught me dependency. It was difficult – almost painful!

A season of dependency in the wilderness with God feels like winter when everything looks barren and dead. But, it is also when we rest and let our roots grow, much like trees.

After a lifetime of me trying to perfect the art of being independent, God began to unravel my art. He took apart my carefully adorned canvas. I began to learn that true maturity in Christ means complete dependency – solely and completely dependent on Him.

And like many other things in the Christian walk, Christ-like dependency was a bit of a paradox to me because it also involves a community.

You see, God wants us to first lean on Him without any crutches. He will sometimes isolate us and take away all our safety nets so we rest only in Him and then when we do, He begins to send people our way.

God likes to use a community to sustain and keep us in check. He never meant for us to walk this journey alone.

I’ll be honest; the idea of a community was (and sometimes still is) tough for me. It initially felt odd. Truth is, I had preferred to cast my social net over a few than wide.

The concept of ‘church-family’ was foreign to me because I never truly experienced a conventional family before. And at first, I didn’t understand how and where they fit into my way of life. In many ways, I’m still learning.

But, God’s way of life involves people.

Proverbs 24:6 says, “for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counsellors there is victory.”

 

We need wise voices to speak into our lives so we stay on course and finish well. We need witnesses to have our backs in our trials and struggles.

People are a necessity in life, not an option.

 

For me, it wasn’t easy to let people in and it was harder still to accept help because that meant letting go of independence. But, I’ve learned that independence is not all that its cracked up to be. Or at least, it is nothing close to what the world leads us to believe.

Let’s face it, no one can be completely independent; we can’t watch our own back. Aside from the fact that it is literally impossible, that kind of “independence” forces us to always look over our shoulder. And it won’t be long before we lose sight of what is ahead or around us.

Independence can be lonely. The pages are only a few.

Community helps us write the story of our life. People are the plot and no story can survive without one!

 

When we begin to wholly depend on God, we will learn to trust Him fully and that trust will always overflow into all areas of our life. We will then learn to trust and let people in. When we begin to do that, we will see our need for community.

We will realise the importance of slowing down. We will begin to invest in people, patiently. And a lot of the times, we will see the need to step on the brakes and linger for a while.

That’s when our real story will begin to write itself.

Who’s in YOUR story??

About Suzane Avadiar

Suzane Avadiar is a writer, blogger, cat-lover and avid traveller from Malaysia. Over the last 18 years, she has written extensively for various publications in the global marketplace. Writing is not only her passion but also her instrument of worship. 

She has a deep desire to reveal the Father’s heart through her writings so that every reader cultivates a deeper intimacy with Jesus and steps into their God-given identity. She believes Intimacy strengthens Identity! 

Suzane recently completed her first book, Sent To Journey – Devotions for the Traveller, and is currently working with a literary agent to pursue publishing opportunities. She can be reached at www.suzaneavadiar.com or you can follow her Facebook page for more content and updates.

Book Review: The Pounamu Prophecy by Cindy Williams

Blurb: Since she watched her village burn to the ground, Mere's life has been anything but dull. Now as an older woman she has come to stay with Helene and James to finish writing her life story - a tale of injustice, revenge and reconciliation.

But Helene and James have their own problems. After five years together, their marriage has become dull, predictable, boring ... and it starts to unravel.

Weaving fiction with the traumatic history of the Ngati Whatua tribe of Auckland, the Pounamu Prophecy sweeps from the sultry heat of Australia to the verdant shores of New Zealand.





My review

This story begins on two fronts: a traumatic event in the life of six-year-old Mere in Okahu Bay, Auckland, New Zealand in 1951, and a modern day couple struggling with the challenges of marriage, in Brisbane, Australia. Both stories are woven through the book at a pace that keeps the reader turning the pages.

James and Helene's story is a romance with a difference. It's about a couple who are past the first bloom of love and trying to keep a marriage alive with the pressures of careers and modern opportunities and temptations. It has all the ups and downs of any romantic story and it's not as predictable as some romances are. Both characters are complex and well written. I was annoyed with both at times but also found them endearing in their own ways.

The story of the young New Zealand girl, Mere, which takes the reader through to her old age, is a gripping historical saga. The events which are the focus of her story are not ones I knew about and so I was both intrigued and saddened by the unfolding tale of injustice, the strength of character of the tribal people and the lessons that were to be learned about community, respect and appreciating cultural differences. The character of Mere is a completely engaging and lovable one. It was easy as a reader to become very attached to her, as a young child and also as a woman in senior years. The wisdom and spirituality that is shared through her character is moving and challenging.

If I have any criticism of this story it would be that I would have liked more about Mere's story and a little less detail about Helene and James's journey, as engaging as it was. But that would be a personal preference for the historical over the romantic aspects of a novel.

Overall I found this story compelling. I'm not surprised it was a finalist in this year's Caleb award for fiction and look forward to reading other stories by Cindy Williams.
Carol Preston

Carol writes historical novels based on her family ancestry in Australia from the First Fleet. They include the Turning the Tide series; Mary’s Guardian, Charlotte’s Angel, Tangled Secrets and Truly Free. Two of her earlier novels, Suzannah’s Gold and Rebecca’s Dream, were re-released by EBP.  Next of Kin was released last year by Rhiza Press and the sequel, Beyond the Fight, was released this April. You can see more about Carol and her novels on her website, her Amazon author page or FB author page.

www.carolpreston.com.au

www.amazon.com/author/carolpreston

www.facebook.com/writingtoreach