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The Gospel, what a crazy and deep thing. When I say crazy I of course mean unbelievably awesome, deep and far reaching into everything we call life.
The book of Acts is one of my favorite books. Its a story of a community of people trying to figure out what it means to live the teachings of Jesus. It's a story of people doing incredible things through the power of the Holy spirit, and also missing some of the point of what Jesus was saying when he living among them. It is so comforting to read this book and to read how they kept missing the point, yet they were still used so mightily. This crew of people were on a journey of discovering life and freedom from there hatred of others, there struggles with sin, there exlcusionism, and their relationship with man and God, but while on this journey God was using them to Heal the sick, Bring sight to the blind, Destroy poverty in their community, destroy poverty in the world and introducing people to the person of Jesus in a deep intimate and communal way.
This movement was started with couple hundred of the people that lived with Jesus, worked with Jesus, with him when he died, with him when he rose, and there when the Holy spirit dropped on them. Yet they still had to learn who this Jesus was and what he was about as they lived life together. They were, in a sense, the first wave of this new movement of the Way. There message was very familiar to the Jewish message but was a little different on some points. They lived in a land that hadn't heard the message of Jesus, the message of true freedom, the message of Life. This tribe of people were trying to figure out what it looked like to live this message, because simply speaking it wasn't enough to turn the world upside down. They learned to be generous, to love one another, to serve those who weren't in there tribe. But this was a process we read about. There were certainly points of break through were they really got some of the principles, but then there were other parts that took them a bit of time to figure out.
The other day I was watching the Inauguration at the Temple Student Center. I noticed a few things as I was listening to the speeches and seeing the people around me. I noticed that when Obama, or the Rev. who gave the closing benediction mentioned anything bible, religious, or Christian, people around me would react in a negative way. They would either shake their heads, or give a grunt that expressed how they felt it was not needed to speak of God. Not everyone responded in this way, it was really only a handful of people that would act this way. But it got me thinking of the story of Acts. It made me think that we in some ways are in a very similar place as the early church. We today live in a culture that has heard a message that is kind of like the message that we want to live, the message of the gospel, the message of the life of the person of Jesus, but they, the people around us, haven't truly heard it. They may have heard a piece here or a piece there, or heard a story that is similar in a lot of ways to the one we are exploring. They may have tasted the kingdom of God here or there, but I don't think they have heard the story of the person of Jesus that starts with in the beginning, and ends with liberation, freedom, and joy.
I then got really excited, and thought, "What an honour that I get to explore this life and live it in such a way that I have the privilege to introduce the people around me to the person of Jesus." I was comforted remembering about the church of Acts and how messed up they were, and I thought, "Yes! Even I can be apart of this global ruckus God is wanting to continue, despite how F'ed up I am, and how I truly don't understand this message fully." All I know is that I need to love others, break myself open and serve those I come in contact with, not to "save souls", or to get people into the "church club", but because thats what Jesus did for me, and I want people to meet this God Man that has brought freedom to my life.
Last night was an awesome night. I was well encouraged. We sat together after sharing a meal and shared our lives a little bit more intimately together. We shared what God has been doing, how we have been falling short, how we are scared, how we don't get it, how this Way of life continues to elude us, how we are worried, and how we are week. But I truly believe that in our brokeness of Thursday night the Holy Spirit was there in power and might. He was there ministering to us. There encouraging us. There saying its ok to be weak, I am there for you, you don't have to get up because I will get down on the ground with you. I feel as though the verse that says in our weakness God is made strong, makes a little more sense to me. It encourages me to be weak a bit more often.
As we move forward into this exciting year, lets encourage each other to be weak, let's spur each other to live life more intimately with God and more intimately with those around us. Let's invite people into our lives, and break ourselves open and poor ourselves out for those around us. Let's continue to let our lives be living stones that are building a shelter for those in needs. Let's allow our lives to be woven together for those who are cold and lonely. Who knows where God will lead us, what he will teach us, and how he will use us!
Well crew, I am well encouraged as I said, and am so blessed to have everyone of you in my life, you make it easier for me to live a bit weaker, because I know you all are there for me! Thanks for the Love and Support.
Let's all lead this group together.
until next time,
Grace and Peace,
Chris
How fitting that we start this New Year in the same way we started last year, In the Beginning.
Vernon shared with us what God has been teaching him through Luke 6, as well as how that ties so beautifully to everything else in the Bible. We were talking about fruit and seeds and asking ultimately what kinda of plant are we and what is our heart growing.
It was great to see how God is seeking to teach us about who He is in everything, even in a simple little plant. That In the Beginning he was teaching us not only about how he made plants, but teaching us about the human condition. How he has made us to bear fruit, to tend the gardens, and to be apart of his harvest. In the Beginning He shows us that he has already put the seeds in the ground and in our hearts, not just any seeds, but good seeds to multiply beauty and truth.
It is challenging to examine our own lives and see how God is looking to grow the seeds in us. Some times its hard to actually believe that God has already put good seed in us, let people who we don't even like. Sometimes when we are getting ready to ask God to grow us more into His image we become afraid of the branches he might cut off, the dead branches, the branches we think are who we are and supporting us. We are afraid of giving up control of our own lives and the control we wish we had on those around us. But the truth that we need to grasp, is that when we loose control we are truly free.
No more dead branches getting in the way of the fresh, renewed, and restored branches. We don't have to worry about being wrong or right because its not ours to be right or wrong about.
No more clinging to things that fade and die like our material things, our jobs, our money, and our false sense of security, but being secure in the one thing that has already conquered death and decay, Christ.
But it can truly be quite terrifying to believe that God is in control and not us because we have known the other for so long. If we are to be honest with ourselves, and look at the way we live, we almost trust the dieing and the decay in our lives more then we trust God at work in us. Trusting God and stepping into the unknown is a scary thing, but a freeing thing. If we have nothing to loose then what can we be afraid of because we have already lost it? If we have everything to gain what are we worried about, we will only gain? If we have already put all of our desires and wants to death what are we afraid of we have already died can won't be disappointed when we don't get what we want, or think we deserve? If we know God then it is not an unknown because we are stepping into him, and the fruit will just happen, it will over flow out of our love and knowledge of God. Because love and knowledge for God is Love and Grace for those around us.
And Knowing God is Knowing our neighbor.
This year let's as a community as well as individuals seek to abide in God continually
in the mornings and in the evenings,
with friends and family and while alone,
in joy and in sorrow,
at the barbary and at our places of work,
while teaching and while being taught,
at our schools and on septa.
Let's encourage one another and Seek to renew our hearts and our minds so that we with out even thinking about it bear lasting fruit. Lets live life seeking to have Gods eyes for other people so that we can see what seeds God has placed in them, and seek to partner with the Holy Spirit and grow those seeds in others.
Let's Seek first the Kingdom of Christ, which is Justice, mercy, love and grace for everyone, and everything else will just flow with us, in us, and through us.
Let's throw off everything that so easily wraps us up, entangles us, and trips us and live this life that God has prepared for us.
I'm Excited to hear how God moves this week in our lives, and excited to see how God grows all of us more and more into a representation of Him.
As usual Grace and peace!
Chris
If you ever want to blog anything God has put on your heart Go for it. Just let me know and you can.
The past couple of days I have been reading through the book of Acts. It's an amazing book that always gets me well stoked. Today I was reading chapter 7, which talks about Stephen and his stoning. As I was reading Stephen's response to the religious leaders when they were accusing him of blaspheme, there was something that really stood out to me.
Stephen opens up his speech with the beginning of the history of the Jewish people, his people. He tells the story of Abraham and the faith that he had and goes right down the Jewish timeline to Moses freeing the Israelites from Egypt. Steven Continues down the timeline building up to where they are in that line, a resurrected Jesus and a movement that turning the world up side down.
But when Steven was talking about Moses something really jumped out at me. Steven talked about where God calls moses out of the wilderness to save his people, answer the cry, and he quotes scripture saying,
( Acts7:35) "It was Moses whom they rejected when they said, 'Who made you a ruler and judge?' and whom God has now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush."
When I read that this morning it jumped out at me.
I just finished reading a book called "Jesus Wants to Save Christians," by Rob Bell. (I encourage everyone to read it, its an easy read.) In the book there is a continual reference to Jesus being the new Moses. The new person to lead the Israelites, and now the whole world, to freedom from Egypt, from oppressions and addictions.
I also saw on TV several weeks ago something about Judaism and Christianity and all the parallels in our holidays and ceremonies. Many of the teachers, theologians, and priest interviewed would refer to Jesus as the new Moses. They would explain, even the Jewish teachers, how the gospels are written in a way that parallels the Jewish peoples stories. (If you are interest in more specifics ask and I will explain. It's really quite beautiful and eye opening.)
I have also been thinking about the idea of Life. And realizing how God is concerned with Life. He brought a message that many called the Way, because it was and is the way to Life. Just like God was trying to teach the Israelites how to live in the wilderness, Jesus was showing people how to live in exile, in a world that is terribly broken. The gospel is more about this earth and where we are now then it is about death and what happens when we die. It is a Gospel of freedom, it is a Gospel of Joy, it is a Gospel of wellness, it is a Gospel of the Way. Not a gospel of Death.
Right now you maybe be thinking, Chris needs more writing classes so he can learn to deliver his point with out jumping everywhere. To that I say, "your probably right."
So now back to Acts 7:35. When Stephen says that bit about Moses, I realized he was saying something much deeper then a piece of history that the religious leaders were already well acquainted with. I realized that Stephen was showing the religious leaders the connection to Jesus and Moses and that just like Moses led this group of people to "freedom", Jesus is the new Way to true freedom; the One who would lead them out of Egypt, or Babylon, or Assyria, or Roman, or a Deeper kind of oppression and slavery then any of those physical places, a freedom from Sin.
And think the holy job Stephen had was waiting on tables (Acts 6:2). Man what does God want to do in our jobs, in the places we go and hang out. Exciting! If a table waiter caused such a ruckus in Jerusalem and a ruckus that spread to the ends of the earth, what kind of ruckus does God want us to cause in Philly and where will it end up?
It also struck me how often times we think of Jesus as a judge who came with intent of judging us, but really the scriptures say he came to show us a way out because we are already condemned. He was the Scape Goat for us and everyone around us. God didn't appoint Christ as Ruler and Judge, but God appointed Christ as Ruler and Liberator! Praise God for that.
Like Vernon said the other night " I LOVE IT, (leg kick) when I find these parallels!! haha. "
Hopefully if you got this far in my writing it encouraged you or at least made sense.
Any thoughts?
Grace and peace
Chris
