I was driving into work this morning feeling a bit down – not too sure what to do or how to proceed in my life. Reaching down, I located a worship album and slid it into the CD player. The first song on the album started:

I'm giving You my heart
All that is within
I lay it all down
For the sake of You my King
I'm giving You my dreams laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride
For the promise of new life

At first I didn’t catch the words so I re-started the track…

All that is within
I lay it all down
For the sake of You my King
I'm giving You my dreams laying down my rights

Off and on over the past few months I have been listening to a ten part series about the Kingdom of God from the Waterville Vineyard (Maine). Today I decided to finish the series by listening to the last few sermons….  [@more@]

The first sermon was about the Parable of the Sower. Only Marc Pitman (the pastor) highlighted something I’ve never heard before: stay in the center.

Paths, rocks and weeds tend to be on the edge of gardens or fields, while the good growing soils are in the middle. By staying in the middle or the center, we keep our hearts firmly in the Kingdom – not moving back and forth from the world to the Kingdom, the Kingdom to the world….

Note that being in the center isn’t safe or easy – far from that!

Jesus said that we would be aliens in a foreign land. We are sheep amidst wolves.