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In Mesopotamia, in the ancient world, there were many accounts for the creation of everything. Some of these accounts will sound familiar to us, because the greeks and romans adopted many of them. There were stories of gods, having children and fearing that these children would conquer the older gods, so they tried to destroy them by eating them. One of these gods escaped, his name was zeus. The way the story goes is, there was an epic battle, a fight, a struggle where Zeus defeated the older gods, and set free the younger gods. This fight and struggle created chaos in the universe, and out of this chaos the world was born. (that was a brief and bad retelling of the story)
While this story was being told there was a group of people in the same part of the world with a different story. These people had a story that involved only one god. These people believed in a God that preexisted time. This God was never born, nor could he die, unlike the other gods that the surrounding areas spoke of. These people believed that this God, didn't have to struggle to put the universe into motion. This God didn't struggle, nor was he involved in an epic, cosmic battle which created the heavens and the earth, but instead he spoke. This God didn't have to raise a finger, but spoke and all of the chaos of the universe fell into complex and beautiful order. This God was so great and powerful that all he needed to do was say a word and the mysteries of the sea came into being. With a Word the depths and the wonders of the vast ocean were separated from the awe inspiring mountains and plains of the land. With these words, He spoke countless creatures of all colors and sizes. Everything from the earth worm, to the great whales, to the sparrow, and the lilies of the field came into being with just a word. With his words He spoke humanity into existence. He spoke and created a creature that was in his image. A creature able to think, create, love, do good, and able to speak words.
In the gospel of John we hear a simplified, yet even deeper, account of creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over come it.
Wow, such a beautiful and rich account and picture of this all powerful God. A God that didn't need to struggle, didn't need to fight, didn't use chaos, but used a Word to bring order, beauty, mystery, and love into being.
And now that same Word that was in the beginning, is in us.
How powerful our words must be.
In gospel of Matthew Jesus is speaking and brings up this idea that what ever you bind up on earth will be bound in heaven, and what ever you ask for from heaven will be given on earth. He says " if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
This is a powerful verse, and I feel often times gets used out of context. Many times this verse is used for the "health and wealth" gospel, or "if you want a new Benz, just ask and believe and right now God wants to bless you with a NEW CAR!!!" "God wants you to be RICH and SEXY so just ASK!!!"
Not so.
If we look at where this verse is placed, it is surrounded by verses dealing with sin and repentance. embedded in verses dealing with what "true greatness" is, and is being hugged by verses speaking of temptation and forgiveness, and serving others.
Not exactly the anything we hear from the TV.
Last night we continued to explore the idea of foundation and what we are currently standing on and how we can begin to rebuild. We expressed these foundations we are standing on or the ones that we want to stand on by drawing on a paper brick templates.
We then broke up into smaller groups to speak it out. To use our words to express where we want to go, what we are struggling with and what we want to repent of.
I believe the asking Jesus talks about, is the asking for what we need, freedom from our addictions, freedom from our complacency, freedom from our hatred and freedom from our unforgiveness, freedom from our old foundation and our old ways of life, and freedom to step into the light, into life.
I believe just as God spoke the world into being, our words are full of power.
The power to bring life or bring death.
The power to encourage or the power to tear down.
The power to bring hope or the power to bring fear.
The power to move mountains, or the power to make even bigger mountains.
The power to break down our shaky foundations before the flood and the power to build a new one.
Our words are full of power.
As we move forward lets not fear our words, or the Word, but lets use them to speak light into each other. Let's be bold and step out and speak light into our own lives. Let's use our words to break off the chains and the burdens we carry. Let's use our words together to cry out for God to come and set us free and lead us into that truth and understanding that he talks about.
Let's ask for help.
Let's be needy.
That verse in Matthew is great, but in writing this i realize often times we don't even realize what we do need. We think we know, but we don't. With out knowing it we created God in our own image to fill what we think we need, to give us what we want. We keep asking and asking for what we "need" and God seems silent. We cry out and think this verse is bogus, because we don't see what we are asking for coming into the light.
Maybe we are asking for the wrong things.
I think all of us in the group are asking God for something, we are in a place of need for the most part. I'm going to make a bold statement, and I could be wrong, but maybe we are asking for the wrong things.
Maybe we have put God in our box so we can get what we "need", or really want.
Some of us are saying I need a Job, I need my family here, I need to be alone, I need direction, I need to be someplace different, I need more money, I need more vision, I need... and Lord you know I need... once I get that I'll be where you want me.
All these things are really good things, and things I believe God wants to give, but maybe they aren't what we need in this moment in time.
Maybe instead of telling God what we need we should be asking God what we need. We need to humble ourselves and admit, we don't have any idea of what we need, and put our desires to death. We should take the risk and stand still and say what do I need, then once we hear, let's ask for it together.
Let's surround each others and be one voice, use one word, and stand on one foundation.
Where there is light there is no darkness. So let's speak light into our own lives breaking off the old lies and speak life into one another's life.
Let's walk forward and build this foundation together, and invited others who need to rest on our foundation to rest with us. Let's invited others to be weak with us, and believe that just maybe God will be glorified in our messy broken lives. Let's invite others to build with us, and to teach us.
Grace and peace,
Chris
As we read the story of God’s people we read of many ups and downs in their journey of discovering their creator. As we know the Jewish people ended up in exile, under the Assyrians at some point in their history. In the book of Ezra, there is a king who finds favor for these Israelites, and allows them to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, the Temple of God. It is pretty amazing how much favor this king has for the Jews. He gives them back all their gold and silver and says they need to go back to the land and build a temple to their God so that they can offer sacrifices. He even givens the animals and grains for sacrifices.
After a group of Jews go back to the site where the temple is to be built they start laying the foundation. This was not an easy task. Not only did this foundation need to be perfect because the temple of God was to be built upon it but also there was all the rubble from the previous temple. Back in those days when a city was conquer by another city, they would destroy it and burn it down. The temple was one of those things that had been destroyed. As the Israelites started to lay this foundation, the cities around them started to come against them. The last thing these surrounding cities wanted was the worshipers’ of YHWAY back in town. Last time they lived there they ruled the area with an iron fist. The people in the surrounding countries and cities, started to complain to the king. They would also try to distract the Jews from building.
At one point the governor of the area asks them, “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure? And what are your names?”
And the Israelite builders while continuing to work replied, “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago...”
I think it’s awesome that here these men don’t want credit for this foundation, for their hard work, but they find their identity fixed in God.
What would it look like if when people came to discourage us from doing good, from changing old habits, from breaking off addictions, we stood so firm in Christ we could just answer, “I am a servant of the God of heaven and earth,” and kept on pressing into God.
As the story ends up, the foundation is laid and the temple eventually built. I am sure for these builders, priests, servants of the God of heaven and earth that building this foundations was terribly hard and quite honestly terrifying. Not only did they have to move old stones, they had to re-dig and lay new stones, not only did they have to lay new stones but they had to watch their backs to make sure they didn’t get attacked while building this temple, and not only did they have to guard themselves but they also had to rest and breath, and remember why they were even laying this foundation. They were laying this foundation for the Hope the God would make them a people again. That God would build the house of Abraham and fulfill his covenant. The Hope that God would use them to bless the nations.
Last night we asked a few questions. We asked what does it really mean to have a good foundation in Jesus?
What have we currently built our foundation out of?
How can we help each other build a foundation?
And maybe when Jesus says house, he is alluding to something much greater then we realize.
Tom said something pretty awesome last night. As he was looking into this part of Luke and thinking about the rest of the bible he reminded us that foundations are spoken of a lot in the Old Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament say that God laid the foundations of the world… Wow.
Lets think about that...
If the foundations of the world are built upon God, the Holy Spirit, Christ then that means, art, education, science and tech, justice and government, business, family and even religion are supposed to be built off of the foundation of God. If Jesus says this foundation is built by putting what I say to action, then that means we have to live with a radical love everywhere we go. As live this way we will be planting good seeds that break away the old broken foundation, and we will begin to lay a new foundation that will house people for generations to come.
If we live the way Jesus taught we will inadvertently repave this world, with God’s good and true foundation.
If we live the way Jesus taught the systems and ways of the world works will be flipped upside down.
If we live the way Jesus taught us the covenant made with Abraham, that we would bless the world, will become a closer reality then it was the day before.
If we live the way Jesus taught us we will be partnering with the creator of the universe in his world redemption plan. Man, How exciting is that.
I believe God has been building up our foundation as a group and as individuals for some pretty epic things. Let’s not stop talking with God through out our days and seeking to grow and take his lead.
As we move forward to build our foundations, lets not worry yet about what kind of house we want on top, but more importantly what this house is built on. Let’s remember that this foundation building is active, not passive. Our foundations are not finished because we say a prayer to Jesus, but they are started when we accept Him. Lets build this house, this house of people together. Leaning on each other when we need it, resting when we need it, allowing one another to barrow our little slab of concrete if theirs gets washed away.
Lets have our actions be full of grace and love, and never forget that our foundation is what EVERYTHING else is built on. That means our jobs are to be built off of this same foundations, our schooling, our relationships, the way we deal with all of our time, the way we deal with our money, the way we deal with our stuff, is all to be built off of one foundations. We don’t need a summer home and a work home. We don’t want a Church home and an everything else home. It’s all one house, and we are that house. That means our view of Jesus needs to be even bigger then it already is, if we are to fit all of that onto a foundation of Jesus. We may have to forget what we have already been taught and relearn who God is. Relearn that God is bigger then we are, God set the foundations of the earth, and God can not be stuck in a box. This foundation should be a home for all the spheres of society, and a foundation to bless the nations, and even our neighbors.
Grace and peace,
Chris
Story time Continues. I think I should just start writing a book, because these entries have been so long.
We as a group are in an exciting place. A place of stepping out into knew things, a place to experience God deeper, and a place to learn to love each other a little bit more.
I know I have been referencing to the book of Acts a lot as of late, but bare with me while I do it once again.
In the story of Acts after Jesus leaves his students and goes to be with his Father, the crew of people that were with Jesus were in a strange place of trying to figure out how to continue Jesus’ ministry. Up until this time they were kind of along for the ride. They would follow Jesus, learn from Jesus, eat with Jesus, and live life with Jesus. For the past several years before Christ’s death and resurrection everything in their lives revolved around this Jesus person. Everything they did in their lives from causing a ruckus in their churches, to washing or not washing their hands before a meal was wrapped around their teacher and friend.
After Jesus ascends into heaven they are at a loss with what they were supposed to do. They had learned so much, experienced ridicules things, and had their lives started on a transformation process, that we now know, spread into the world around them. The only direction they received wasn’t so much direction as it was prophecy.
Jesus said to them before going home, “… but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” How is that for directive guidance, basically Jesus just said you are going to travel, you are going to travel to you neighbor in the house next door, you are going to travel to your estranged brothers in Judea, you are going to travel to the people hate in Samaria, and you are going to go to places you never dreamt and probably didn’t want to go, you are going to the ends of the earth.
Great.
I’m sure they were thinking ok,
How do we do this?
What does this look like?
How will this make me money to live off of?
Do we start preaching?
Do we start feeding the poor?
Maybe I should start fishing again; I know how to do that?
Jesus, seriously, could you have been a little more specific with what this looks like?
As the story continues they decide to eat together, worship together, pray together, and live life like they were with Jesus. They chose to live life.
The crazy thing about them living life was that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on them and 2,000 joined their numbers in one day. I don’t think it was ever in their plans to have 2,000 new people join their family in one day, I mean they were just trying to live life the way that was shown to them. But the transformation around them just flowed out of this way of life.
As their crew grew they realized that they needed to organize a bit better, because things where being over looked. Widows weren’t getting the food they needed, people filled that role, there was a lot of resource that could be used for those in need, so they organize for that, different people from different cultures where joining their crew, so they adjusted for that, they started teleporting around the world, so they had to adjust for that, visitors from other regions where coming and going continually so they needed to be open for that. But even with all these structures that needed to be put in place, they still tried to live life the way Jesus had shown. In fact this crew of people became known as, “The Way”, because they were demonstrating the way to life, both eternal life as well as life here and today.
This crew made many mistakes, but had grace to adjust and shifted accordingly. This crew was open to be challenged and was also very encouraging of one another. There were arguments, there were new things birthed, people had disputes on how things should look, but ultimately people had grace and peace for one another and that allowed them to move forward.
Now I know we didn’t hang out with Jesus in the flesh, and we by no means have 2,000 coming, (which I am quite glad about, that could get hectic.) but we are in a place of wrestling out what it looks like to live life as well as position this Thursday night thing in such a way that we can grow, and others can join us in our journey to The Way of life.
As we pray about the direction of our crew, our family, our mini tribe lets keep life in prayer as well. Let’s not forget that Thursday night is not about Thursday night, but it’s about something greater. It’s to help us Encounter the Living God, to learn how to live life, and we can never forget it is to help the oppressed, the tired, and the broken. Let’s surely put the structures in place that need to be in place, but let’s not let the structures become more important then Jesus and those around us. Let’s pray for wisdom, compassion, and a deep love for one another. With those things our love for Christ will grow, and our life will start shining in ways we don’t even realize.
I am super excited as usual with all that God is doing and has done in us and through us. I am stoked that new people have decided to join us in this journey and want to contribute. It is really exciting. We started this thing a year ago talking about the story of the bible and how God blessed Abraham to be a blessing to the nations. How the Cut Covenant that was made with Abraham continued through the Jews, and into Jesus Ministry, and that same covenant is ours. We have surely been blessed in this group, with good food, challenging and encouraging words, friendship and love. So lets bless others with those as well. Maybe living this life will take us as well to the ends of the earth!
Grace and peace
Chris
In the Bible there is a story of a man named Zacchaeus. I'm sure you are probably familiar with this story. This man Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man, maybe even the wealthiest in one of the richest and most plush cities of the day. One day he hears that this teacher is coming through his city, not just any teacher, but one who has been causing quite a ruckus in the surround territories. A teacher who's teachings are so compelling they draw crowds that are unheard of. These teachings are the teachings of life, but so challenging many walk away sad. A teacher who's life brings an authority to his teachings that no one has ever seen before. Because of this teacher, God man, Jesus many walk away free, liberated, healed, and praising God. Zacchaeus wanting to know what this man is all about decides to position himself in such a place to see and maybe even encounter this Jesus. This short man Zacchaeus takes the risk of standing out, being attacked(he had a lot of enemies), and looking like a fool by climbing a tree to see Jesus. When Jesus walks past he looks straight at Zacchaeus, and tells him that he wants to stay at his house. As the story goes Zacchaeus decides to give away half of what he owns to the poor, as well as apologize and make amends to those who he has wronged.
The bible is full of these stories, stories of people taking huge risks of being vulnerable, weak, stepping out in faith to position themselves to see Jesus, to experience God.
There is another story of an "Unclean" women who has been sick for many years who pushes through a crowd to just barely touch Jesus clothing.
There is the story of a man in the Roman military who is extremely generous with his possessions, and gives much to the Lord by giving to the poor.
There is a story about a two blind men who follow Jesus calling out to him, and follow him into a home, despite being ridiculed.
There is a story of a community of people who believe so much in this Jesus they decide to pray and worship and eat together daily.
There are many more stories that are similar to these. Stories of people or groups of people who very intentionally position themselves to see God. Some of these stories are stories of great risk and faith and others are stories of people doing things that might come more naturally to them. But even though they all positioned themselves in different ways, in the end they intentionally put themselves in a space to see and experience God. The common ending to all of these stories, is that they all end with a powerful and life changing encounter with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
This past Thursday once again was very encouraging for me. We talked about how we feel as though we are in a transitional phase. In the words of Josh we are smashing the hierarchy, and wanting to lead this group together. We all expressed a desire to step out in new ways, ways of accountability, ways of going deeper with Jesus, ways of being more vulnerable, ways of encouraging those around us, ways of being challenged, most importantly stepping out in new ways to experience Jesus.
I feel as though we as a tribe, community, family are at a place in our story that is similar to the stories I told up top. God is giving us the opportunity to step into a position to experience him, to learn from him, and to be healed by him. This position will look different for each of us, but all of us can encourage each other to do that.
As we continue on this really exciting journey lets ask ourselves some questions, and encourage each other in these questions.
Where do we as a group want to go, or where do we feel God is leading us?
Where do we as individuals feel called to go?
What does it look like for us to position ourselves to see Jesus,
Do we have to climb a tree,
Push through a crowd,
Give away half of what we own,
Walking in what seems to be the dark until we get to the room Jesus is in,
Pray and worship and eat with friends,
Seeking forgiveness from those we've wronged,
Or forgiving those who have wronged us,
What will it look like for us to get a glimpse of the Creator, liberator, Savior?
This can be a scary leap of faith for us, but thank God we are not alone in it. We are all here for one another to support and love and encourage. Lets be a community that supports each other in our doubts, in our fears, in our weakness, in our joys, in our success, and in our freeing encounters with the Majestic Creator.
Once again I am excited to be asking these questions and taking these risks with everyone of you. I am so grateful to have all of you in my life. I'm excited to see where God will lead, what He will say, and how He will bring Healing, Joy and Freedom to us.
Let's go deeper, encourage each other, and lead this thing together.
Grace and peace,
Chris
