Menthos, Again?

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

We had two of our trusted volunteers perform the famous reaction so you could view it safely from a distance and showed the video on Sunday. Now we know it to be true - if you put a package of Menthos in a bottle of pop, you’ll get a surprising reaction. (See included pictures).

Over the past two Sundays, I’ve used that image to ask two questions: is there anything we could drop in our lives to produce a surprising effect, and is there anything we could drop in our church to surprising effect?

Jesus uses two similar images in Luke 13: a mustard seed and a batch of yeast. Both of them are small beginnings to a much larger outcome. So what is the catalyst in life and faith? What is the yeast – the mustard seed – the “menthos” in life’s pop bottle?

In terms of what we could drop in our church, it’s relatively easy: the Kingdom voice. Anything with even a tiny amount of Kingdom truth in it will produce a dramatic effect. It says in Isaiah 55 that the message of God will “not return void”. In other words – anything which expresses a Kingdom Voice will NOT have NO EFFECT (sorry for the double negative – better to say it this way, “it’s impossible that it will do nothing”).

In fact, it’s simply not possible to get a dose of the kingdom small enough that it will only have a mild effect. Think of the email devotional last week. The parable of the sower seems to indicate there are only two kinds of Christians: the one’s that won’t last, and the one’s that will produce a hundred times as much. There’s no middle ground – it’s either dramatic multiplication or gentle expiry. So again, it’s the same idea: it’s simply not possible to have a dose of the Kingdom low enough that it only has a mild effect.

Over the next two weeks – a small piece of that Kingdom voice is going into 1800 mail boxes in Oakville. You may say that’s no big thing, and you may be right. But it doesn’t need to be. A small thing in their mail box plus a small thing in our lobby (a group of people trying to actually mean it) will produce a dramatic effect. Trust me! I’ve already seen it once!

This next set of messages represent my best attempt to come to terms with both these questions: something we can put in our lives and something we can put in our church to produce a surprising effect – and they are one in the same. It will take us right through December 17 and it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on a package of teaching. I trust you’ll find it challenging.

Be the Menthos!

Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

I hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
How to Have a God - the rest of the story. If not a pet, then what? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
What can we put in our lives to dramatic effect (see above).

THE PLAN
It's our first concerted effort to open our doors to Oakville - add your prayers and passion to it!