from Gary Jones at the TCF SAS MSC*
This vision / picture / word for Thurrock came out of a group exercise yesterday morning as part of a talk given by Tim Harrold. Five groups were each given scriptures (from the NIV and The Message) to think about in relation to the “such a time as this” time into which we have been born into the Kingdom. This was the response of one of the groups, articulated by Gary Jones.
Zechariah 2:1-5 NIV
Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
I asked, ‘Where are you going?’ He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.’
While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it.
And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”
Zechariah 2:1-5 The Message
I looked up and was surprised to see a man holding a tape measure in his hand.
I said, “What are you up to?” “I’m on my way,” he said, “to survey Jerusalem, to measure its width and length.”
Just then the Messenger-Angel on his way out met another angel coming in and said, “Run! Tell the Surveyor, ‘Jerusalem will burst its walls – bursting with people, bursting with animals.
And I’ll be right there with her‘ – God’s Decree – ‘a wall of fire around unwalled Jerusalem and a radiant presence within.'”
What does this mean?
- What is Jerusalem? It’s where we are living now – Thurrock.
- Why are you measuring? You measure to know the boundaries. We have traditional thoughts about what the boundaries of this area are.
- What expectations / aspirations do we have for this area? “Can anything good come out of Thurrock?”
- What do we see as the traditional boundaries for the people in this area? This area will be a city without walls God will set a wall of fire around it, He will be he glory. He is the boundary around this area and seeing as He his infinite, the boundaries are also limitless.
So what do we have to do?
- Stop putting boundaries on ourselves and this area raise our expectation level.
Who are we going to tell about this?
- Everybody. Not necessarily in a verbal way, by being who we are.
* That is – Thurrock Christian Fellowship’s Seabrooke / All Saints Mission-Shaped Community
>>> Last week, someone gave me one of those old fashioned wooden blackboard rulers, where each ‘inch’ is expanded by four times its proper length, so although the ruler only has nine inches on it, it’s actually 36 inches long – that makes it a yardstick… Ed
