The Jeep Community

 

Ten years ago I bought my first Jeep Wrangler. When I drove past other Wrangler drivers they raised their left hand from the steering wheel, usually just the fingers, keeping their thumb hooked onto the wheel, and they waved. What was going on? Did I have a light out? Was something wrong with my vehicle? Soon I realized that there is a community among Jeep owners, particularly Wrangler drivers. That left hand wave? It’s a thing, really, called the “Jeep Wave.” (Go ahead, Google it.) Now I do it, too. See a Jeep headed my way?  Yep, I raise my left hand and with a wave I acknowledge my place in the Jeep Community.

Far more significantly, I belong to another community, the Church. I became part of that family through faith, at the invitation of Jesus. "So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26-28, NLT)  This passage reveals God’s plan for His Church, a unique community in this world. Our affinity is not built around ownership, heritage, or race. We share God’s life in the Spirit, which erase the lines that too often separate people in this world.

We need to hear the voice of the Spirit in this time where so many things are tearing apart the world in which we live.
We are not white or black Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’
We are not rich or poor Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’
We are not male or female Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’ 
We are not politically progressive or conservative Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’ 

Honestly, I’ll admit that those statements are so much easier to write than to live. Deep suspicion about others and their motives is part of life these days. Power is worshipped as the means of gaining equality which makes authentic conversations impossible. If we attempt dialogue we will be viewed as a collaborator with the ‘other side’ no matter the issue. If you agree that black lives matter then you must be anti-police. But, it is equally true that if you say that blue lives matter your good faith in racial matters is suspect. If you say that you are committed to the sanctity of human life then you must hate women. And so it goes …  the greater tragedy being that the Church, God’s family, allows these issues to creep in and divide those who are called to be ‘one’ – people deeply committed to Him and to one another.

Christian community is radically important to our spiritual health. We cannot  be all that God intends without being in communion with His Body, sharing our spiritual gifts, living life together, supporting, strengthening, and living the Gospel of Christ in our world. The calling is just too big for one person to even attempt alone. The truth is that a solitary Christian just cannot be. "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12:4-5, NIV)  

Post-COVID America has even less place for ‘church’ it seems than it did a year ago.  For reasons I have yet to understand, large numbers of people who claim faith in Jesus are attempting a faith without fellowship. That choice is one of spiritual peril. We do not just enjoy each other’s company, we need to be committed, working at sharing the life of God in our worship and service. Our unity must go beyond a polite nod or a convenient moment that we fit into our schedule.   

Yes, the Church and your church, has issues!  Politics has crept in, an ugly perversion of the mission of Christ. Corruption is too often allowed to go unchallenged. Misfocused missional statements turn Christians inward rather than outward to serve. Dysfunction makes some churches places of ongoing conflict to such an extent that we might wonder why bother at all?

But, for all those problems, there is also a rich fellowship of Believers, real love, and the fulfilling work of redemption that is possible when we become His Body rather than a club or association. My challenge to you today is to renew your commitment to Christ and His Church. Work at it! Make gathering a priority. Begin conversations about BIG IDEAS of service and mission, daring to turn dreams into reality as the Spirit empowers.  Let’s repent for our pride, our desire to be served, our insistence on uniformity of conviction. Instead let us pray that we will learn how to be ‘one’ in Him.

Can you receive the directive of the Word? Will you humbly accept His call? "And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:21-25, NLT)

Now that is real community, promising far more than the Jeep Wave!

_____________

 We Will Stand

(I love this 1980’s song with a timeless message. Let Russ Taff’s artistry encourage you to stand together with other Christians.)

 

Sometimes it's hard for me to understand

Why we pull away from each other so easily

Even though we're all walking the same road?

Yet we build dividing walls

Between our brothers and ourselves.

 

But, I don't care what label you may wear,

If you believe in Jesus you belong with me!

The bond we share is all I care to see,

And we'll change the world forever,

If you will join with me,

Join and sing, sing.

 

You're my brother, you're my sister,

So take me by the hand.

Together we will work until He comes.

There's no foe that can defeat us,

When we're walking side by side,

As long as there is love,

We will stand!

 

The day will come when we will be as one

And with a mighty voice

Together we will proclaim that

Jesus, Jesus is King.

It will echo through the earth.

It will shake the nations.

And the world will see, see that;

 

You're my brother, you're my sister,

So take me by the hand.

Together we will work until He comes.

There's no foe that can defeat us,

When we're walking side by side,

As long as there is love,

We will stand!

 

James Hollihan | Russ Taff | Tori Taff

© 1983 Word Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055

God’s possibilities

 
I serve a God of possibilities! He made me in His image, capable of creativity, with abilities to build, to know, to love. In Him I find purpose, meaning, and hope.  He is not my ‘good luck charm.’ It is a tragic misunderstanding of God’s promises that causes some people to of God kind of like a lucky rabbit’s foot. Remember those?  In the past (does anybody do this anymore?) people sometimes carried a preserved rabbit’s foot. Allegedly the charm would bring ‘good luck’ to its owner. Silly? Of course.

Is God your good luck charm, only brought to mind when you need healing, or financial resources, or help with a wayward kid, or an advantage in some effort in life?  That is not faith, that is superstition. Let’s explore that together. Following a discussion about salvation and serving God, the disciples felt overwhelmed, aware of their inability. Jesus told them “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” (Matthew 19:26, NLT)  That phrase finds its way into many a discussion when life is hard, when a new project is proposed. Often it is reset into a context of positive thinking, changed from “with God all things are possible” into “since God is with me, all things are possible…for me.”  The focus shifts from God’s leading to our desires, and HE becomes our good luck charm.

More than a few people have told me that their faith has collapsed, that they are giving up on God.  The conversation goes something like this. “Pastor, I have faithfully gone to church, tried to live by the teaching of the Bible, said my prayers, gave in the offering, and did my best to be good, but God let my _____ (fill in the blank with some major disappointment). So, I do not believe anymore.”  I feel their heartbreak, empathize with their disappointment, and wonder how they came to think that they should be exempt from the common human experiences that include things like sickness and death.

The God of possibilities invites you and me to know His will, to seek to be led by Him, to trust Him to create new things out of the rubble of life in which we sometimes find ourselves.

Did Daniel’s faith exempt him from ‘bad luck?’ Not at all. In fact, his faith caused him great difficulty in the short term when his prayer life made him a criminal, breaking the rule of the king!  Serving God led him into the lion’s den! But, he continued to trust and God used that horrible night to increase Daniel’s stature in the Babylonian empire. 

Paul’s faith caused him to become a traveling messenger of the Gospel.  God asked him to endure years of hard travel from one end of the Roman Empire to the other as he built the Church. As he faithfully served God, he also experienced persecution, shipwreck, and imprisonment.  Did he grow disillusioned?  Not at all.  In fact he declares, “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:1-4, NIV)

God doesn’t exist to be our personal good luck charm. He asks us to make Him our “Lord of life” and promises to walk with us through each day leading us until we are welcomed into our eternal home.  IF we insist that God keep us from all troubling situations, if we attempt to use prayers to ward off every unpleasant thing, that ‘faith’ will fail because it is not really faith in God; it is faith in our ability to use God for our own purposes.  

Here is an amazing fact about true faith – God does do things in us, for us, and around us that are ‘impossible,’ in the words of one my favorite passages – “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”  (Eph 3:20)  This is the God of possibilities! 

Disciple, don’t allow your faith to be reduced to the status of a silly superstition! Make faith in God the center, that by which all things in your life are measured, from which all decisions flow. There will be moments when it will seem that God is not present, when prayers go unanswered, when nothing makes sense. Remain faithful!

Here’s a word from the Word. Meditate on the revelation of His majesty, praying for faith to let God truly be God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:8-12, NIV)

________

Thrive

(Casting Crowns reminds us that God is at work!)

Here in this worn and weary land

Where many a dream has died

Like a tree planted by the water

We will never run dry

 

So living water flowing through

God we thirst for more of You

Fill our hearts and flood our souls

With one desire

 

Just to know You and to make You known

We lift Your name on high

Shine like the sun make darkness run and hide

We know we were made for so much more

Than ordinary lives

It's time for us to more than just survive

We were made to thrive

 

Into Your Word we're digging deep

To know our Father's heart

Into the world we're reaching out

To show them who You are

 

Joy unspeakable

Faith unsinkable

Love unstoppable

Anything is possible

We were made to thrive

 

Mark Hall | Matthew West

© 2014 Atlas Holdings (Admin. by Atlas Music Publishing)

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CCLI License # 810055

God's Counsel for Monday morning

 

As I thought and prayed at the start of this new week,  the Spirit impressed me with the importance of choosing the direction of my thoughts.

Do you know that you can direct your thoughts?  We cannot let our minds meander down the pathways where the World, the Flesh, or the Devil invite us to go. If we let the troubles of the world that we live in set the tone of our thoughts, we will most likely become anxious or angry given the chaotic situations of life. If we listen to the whining of the sinful nature that begs for indulgence, we will become slaves to the appetites of our bodies. If we listen to the whispers of demons, we will be doubtful, insecure, and without hope!  

What’s the option?  Tune into the Spirit of the Living God! 
The Psalm advises us to "Exult in his holy name; O worshipers of the Lord, rejoice! Search for the Lord and for his strength, and keep on searching." (Psalm 105:3-4, NLT)  Right now, pray a sentence prayer with me:  “Lord, I thank You for the gifts You have prepared for me today. Amen.”

I closed the sermon at church yesterday with a familiar passage. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:4-9, NIV)

First,  determine where you will go to find joy.  “Rejoice IN THE LORD always.”
Will you look for it in success, in a meal of fine food, or in fantasies of another place?  The Word tells us to celebrate our relationship with the Lord!  Remind yourself, “I am God’s kid! He’s a good God.”  Look up, past the problems, beyond the disappointment, higher – and sing a song that extols the wonder of our God.

Second, tame that urge to take control.  “Let your gentleness be evident to all.”
Another version tells us to be “moderate.”  God’s tells us we should seek to be equitable, fair-minded, not quick to judge others. Conventional wisdom is that we need to ‘kick butts, power up, and make things happen’ when faced with challenges.  My natural response to life’s challenges is too often one that only increases stress when I attempt to force solutions on others or press them to act as I think best.  When I am not gentle, Jerry replaces Jesus and results are never for His glory.

This is not an appeal to indifference. But, what a difference it makes for us and others if we are gentle like Jesus, if we start a hard conversation with “Tell me about …” rather than “You better do this now!”

Third, let prayer shape your thoughts.  “By prayer present your requests to God.” 
Make your concerns His concern, He cares for YOU. He will give wisdom, He will guide. Best of all, He promises that if we will pray He will  steady our minds and hearts with a gift of peace that guards us from the fear that will rob us of rest.

Fourth, choose to think the best, not the worst.  “Whatever pure, lovely, admirable, excellent praiseworthy  - think about such things.”

So of that difficult person at work, you can declare him a fool in your thoughts and create an adversary, or you can think of him as person in need of help and pray God’s grace in his life. Which creates the better outcome?  That hard reality that is part of your life right now can be something you whine about to anyone who will listen or you can go to God and ask Him for strength to carry the weight. Which choice will leave you in a better place by this evening?

God’s Spirit reminds us that we have a choice.  We can exercise faith and expect better things, see the best, and seek out the excellent.  Does this mean we cannot be honest in our evaluations? Not at all.  Are we forbidden from speaking truthfully about gaps and flaws? No.   Even then, we can destroy or build. We can help or hinder. We can encourage shared success.

Set the tone for a better life this Monday morning.  “Rejoice in the Lord.”  Sin and evil oppose the good of God, all the time.  Sickness comes. Heartbreak is inevitable. Friends fail us. Businesses take the hit of down economies. Temptation will roar from the shadows of your mind. Satan will prowl on the perimeter, looking for an opening to attack.  But, through Christ Jesus, we are ‘more than conquerors.’

Here is that passage again, this time from The Message, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible.

"Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies." (Philippians 4:4-9, The Message)

Come on, Christian, let’s do it, for Christ’s sake!

____________

Good God Almighty
(sing along, find joy in this happy praise)

I can't count the times
I've called Your name some broken night
And You showed up and patched me up
Like You do every time
I get amnesia I forget that You keep coming around
Yeah ain't no way You'll ever let me down

 

Good God Almighty
I hope You'll find me
Praising Your Name no matter what comes
'Cause I know where I'd be
Without Your mercy
So I keep praising Your name at the top of my lungs

 

Tell me is He good (He's good)
Tell me is He God (He's God)
He is Good God Almighty

 

You say Your love goes on forever
That Your mercy never stops
So why would I assume
You'd be somebody that You're not
Like sun in the morning
I know You're gonna be there every day
So what on earth could make me be afraid

 

Praise Him in the morning
Praise Him in the noon time
Praise Him when the sun goes down
Love Him in the morning
Love Him in the noon time
Love Him when the sun goes down

 

Jesus in the morning
Jesus in the noon time
Jesus when the sun goes down
Jesus in the morning
Jesus in the noon time
Jesus when the sun goes down

 

Ben Glover | David Crowder | Jeff Sojka
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