These are Fix's aims and objectives and the things we love to do. It's not as lyrical and pretty as the stream of consciousness below but I'd like to think that it's nailing down some of those thoughts into concrete realities. It's (as my Eastern bloc grandfather used to delight in doing to his backyard) concretizing them...
Fix – Convicted by Christ, Compelled by Christ. We seek to follow Christ’s example by:
1) Knowing and Loving God better through His Word – the Bible
2) Living holy lives pleasing to God
3) Proclaiming God’s saving message to Sydney City and the world
4) Loving and Serving each other
1) We are a gathering of people who want to fix our eyes, thoughts, hearts and lives on Jesus through the Bible. (Hebrews 3:1; 12:3)
2) We have been fixed (forgiven, not perfected) and we want to please God with our lives and use them to point others to Him. (1 Cor 6:11; 1 Pet 2:12; 3:1)
3) We’re part of God’s mission to fix this broken world by preaching the gospel of Jesus to everyone. (2 Cor 5:19)
4) We’re a place where you can get your fix for the week: not some loser pill-popping, consumeristic, self-focused entertainment hit but a taste of the loving, serving, self-sacrificial life of the kingdom of God. (1 Pet 2:9; Heb 10:24-25)
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Why Fix? Original thoughts...
What better way to start a blog on Fix than to ponder some thoughts from Michael Jensen on 'Fix' ??? What do people think ?
Think ‘FIX’ and you think first of a hit, a high, a buzz, a rush. You think of the sheer elated feeling of a dangerous experience that lets you know you are alive. It’s about a release. A FIX promises to make life deeply meaningful - at least for a minute or two.
It’s the opposite of being numb.Or it can be what you need to cope, to get along. The Ecstasy or the Prozac. A FIX is an experience: but it’s an artificial experience.
‘FIX’ also means to repair, to redeem, to mend. Not something you take: something you do. When you FIX something, you mend its brokenness, you heal its injury, you offer it a second chance.
Christianity is not about a quickFIX. It is about getting FIXed. Christianity knows not that people are or could ever be perfect but that they are in need of FIXing. Mostly, humans try a FIX to get FIXed - even religion does this. But Jesus offers instead a true and lasting repair.
Once, Jesus met a woman who had had five marriages break down. He offered he ‘living water’ - water that, if you drank it, you wouldn’t have to drink again. He was saying, “if you keep looking for satisfaction in life in a temporary FIX, you won’t find it. Come to me, and I will offer you something far better.”
Mostly, when you FIX something, even though you say “it’s as good as new” it isn’t true. The scars are still there. The wear and tear remains. The glue shows.But with Jesus, the FIXed version is somehow even better than it was before. God makes glory out of the shabby. When we rise again with Christ, our bodies will be even better than the first time they were made. To be re-born is even better than being born.
When we try to selfFIX, the results are less than convincing. Balancing out the karmic bank books is beyond us. But by the broken body of Jesus, who was FIXed on a cross for us, we can be mended. This FIX is: forgiveness, freedom and the power of God’s own spirit to start mending our lives. But the ultimate FIX hasn’t happened yet. The repair work has begun, but it isn’t completed. Now we see in part, later we will see everything crystal-clear. The world is still now busted. It is still full of broken relationships, broken bodies, broken peace, broken systems and just brokenness. Injustice pain loneliness: these are normal. These will all be FIXed. God promises to punish evil and to right wrongs.
It is not an empty promise. He has done it before. It will be a decisive FIX.
But what do we do now, waiting for the Big FIX? The Bible wants us to be transFIXed by Jesus. “...FIX your thoughts on Jesus...”[Heb 3:1]; “Let us FIX our eyes on Jesus” [Heb 12:2]; “So we FIX our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” [2 Cor 4:18]. We exclude distractions. We live with a heavenly gaze. We have a future focus. We have Christ as our goal. We gaze at what we can’t see. We stare at the invisible. We have Jesus always in our imaginations.
SO...FIX? a group of afterChrists - FIXed, transFIXed, FIXated on him. Living by the humble wisdom of the FIXed.
- Michael Jensen.
Think ‘FIX’ and you think first of a hit, a high, a buzz, a rush. You think of the sheer elated feeling of a dangerous experience that lets you know you are alive. It’s about a release. A FIX promises to make life deeply meaningful - at least for a minute or two.
It’s the opposite of being numb.Or it can be what you need to cope, to get along. The Ecstasy or the Prozac. A FIX is an experience: but it’s an artificial experience.
‘FIX’ also means to repair, to redeem, to mend. Not something you take: something you do. When you FIX something, you mend its brokenness, you heal its injury, you offer it a second chance.
Christianity is not about a quickFIX. It is about getting FIXed. Christianity knows not that people are or could ever be perfect but that they are in need of FIXing. Mostly, humans try a FIX to get FIXed - even religion does this. But Jesus offers instead a true and lasting repair.
Once, Jesus met a woman who had had five marriages break down. He offered he ‘living water’ - water that, if you drank it, you wouldn’t have to drink again. He was saying, “if you keep looking for satisfaction in life in a temporary FIX, you won’t find it. Come to me, and I will offer you something far better.”
Mostly, when you FIX something, even though you say “it’s as good as new” it isn’t true. The scars are still there. The wear and tear remains. The glue shows.But with Jesus, the FIXed version is somehow even better than it was before. God makes glory out of the shabby. When we rise again with Christ, our bodies will be even better than the first time they were made. To be re-born is even better than being born.
When we try to selfFIX, the results are less than convincing. Balancing out the karmic bank books is beyond us. But by the broken body of Jesus, who was FIXed on a cross for us, we can be mended. This FIX is: forgiveness, freedom and the power of God’s own spirit to start mending our lives. But the ultimate FIX hasn’t happened yet. The repair work has begun, but it isn’t completed. Now we see in part, later we will see everything crystal-clear. The world is still now busted. It is still full of broken relationships, broken bodies, broken peace, broken systems and just brokenness. Injustice pain loneliness: these are normal. These will all be FIXed. God promises to punish evil and to right wrongs.
It is not an empty promise. He has done it before. It will be a decisive FIX.
But what do we do now, waiting for the Big FIX? The Bible wants us to be transFIXed by Jesus. “...FIX your thoughts on Jesus...”[Heb 3:1]; “Let us FIX our eyes on Jesus” [Heb 12:2]; “So we FIX our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” [2 Cor 4:18]. We exclude distractions. We live with a heavenly gaze. We have a future focus. We have Christ as our goal. We gaze at what we can’t see. We stare at the invisible. We have Jesus always in our imaginations.
SO...FIX? a group of afterChrists - FIXed, transFIXed, FIXated on him. Living by the humble wisdom of the FIXed.
- Michael Jensen.
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