"You Raise Me Up"

You Raise Me Up
- Selah -

When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary,

when troubles come and my heart burdened be.

Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,

until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders.

You raise me up to more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders.

You raise me up to more than I can be.

There is no life, no life without its hunger,

each restless heart beats so imperfectly.

But when You come and I am filled with wonder,

sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders.

You raise me up to more than I can be.

You raise me up, to more than I can be.

Community

I'm learing about community right now in my small group and in my training manual for small group leaders. I wanted to share some quotes that I found interesting from my readings:

"Community should be understood as the movement between persons to experience 'common' life...Community is about the interpersonal connections between two or more beings. God exists in community. Community inplies that persons with differences come together for a common life. God also exists as different persons with a common, intimate and interconnected life. God created human beings to be unique, separate and different, but also to have a common life... God is separarte and very different from humanity, but we learn in scripture that God's great creation desire is to be in community with humanity...Community is the reason for creation. Community is the purpose for Jesus Christ, the Son God, being born, living among us, dying and being raised from the dead...Comuniity is the common life between God and humanity and small groups are the most visible and frequent form of this community" (Gareth Icenogle, Biblial Foundations for Small Group Ministry, p. 10).


"God created and calls us to oneness. When we pursue that, we move from a collection of players to a winning team; from instruments labeled woodwinds, strings, percussion, and brass to an orchestra that produces the sounds of music; from artist, coulour, shapes, canvass, paint, and subject to masterpiece. No one would think to claim that the canvass, the intruments, or the positions were the sought-after end. When we are together in community (harmoniously combined in oneness), we reflect our creator...Relating is at the heart of knowing God. Relating is also at the heart of becoming the people of God. Our faith journey is one we make together. Community is the context for our growth, and it is a distinctively Christian concept" (Julie A. Gorman, Community That Is Christian, p. 24).


"Each one of us hides an awful secret. Buried deep within every human soul throbs a muted pain that never goes away. It is a lifelong yearning for that one love that will never be found, the languishing in our inner selves for an all-consuming intensity of intimacy that we know will never be fulfilled, a heart-need to surrender all that we are to a bond that will never fail.

The silent churning at the core of our being is the tormenting need to know and to be know, understand and to be undertood, to possess and to be possesed, to belong unconditionally and forever without fear of loss, betrayal, or rejection...

Our mourning is for the closeness that was ours by right of creation.. Our grief is for the gift lost in the turmoil of rebellion. And now, whenever there is hope, our hope is for paradise regained, for human destiny remade in the redemptive restoration of community, the only certainty of oneness for here and for eternity" (Gilbert Bilezikian, Community 101: Reclaiming the Local Church as Community of Oneness, pp. 15-16).


The following quote is from a non-Christian perspective:

"Membership in groups is inevitable and ubiquitous. All day long we interact first in one goup and then in another. Our family life, our leisure time, our frienships and carerrs are filled with groups...We are born into a group called the family and we would not survive the first few years of our lives, the first few weeks, or even the first few minutes without membership in this group...Our personal indentity is derived from the way in which we are perceived and treated by other members of our groups. We learn, work, worship, and plan in groups. As humans we have an inherent social nature: Our life is filled with groups from the moment of our birth to the moment of our death" (David W. Johnson and Grank P. hohnson, Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills, p 7).


So, what are your thoughts?