Better Together

How are you doing with ‘social distancing?’ I, for one, am so grateful for social media, that once reviled part of our world. The internet is helping us to stay connected, ‘talking’ to one another, sharing life, love, laughter … well, yes, it’s not all good. But on the whole I am thankful for it.

Human beings are wired for connection and in its absence we become depressed.

Christians are called into a holy community.  Jesus said "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." (John 15:5-6, NIV)  

Some only focus His words about our mystical connection about the spiritual life received from Him through faith. Let’s not miss an important sub-text.  "You are the branches!"  Christians are not only alive through Christ they are part of a Living Tree. That connection is VITAL for health and effectiveness as a follower of Jesus.

The book of Acts, which tells us the stories of the first generation of disciples is all about church planting, the experience of knowing Jesus inseparable from being part of the Church. They did not use that word to describe an organization or a building. The ‘church’ was a living thing, people who became intimately connected to Christ and one another.

As I read about the formation of the first church I noted a key line for this moment in time.  "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2, NIV)  Their lives were changed by connections, relationships, and shared experience. AND it wasn’t all centered in a building, around a program. It was practiced in everyday life.

Social distancing may keep us from the building but it does not need to keep us from the Body!

Our worship together at church is surely a part of being in the Vine and in fellowship, and I am eager for the day when we can raise our voices together in the church house, but we remain His Church. Let's be intentional about making life together, about getting involved in the work of the Kingdom in a way that demands a second set of hands, that makes us love the prayers of the saints.

Reach out to a friend today and see how they are doing.

Send someone a text, email, or (really be old fashioned) send a written note.

Make a phone call or Facetime with someone.

Talk about more than the weather, the trivia of life. Inquire about their heart and soul.

Pray with someone. *Yes, you can!

Our word from the Word is a call to connection. 
Do you hear it? Will you listen and obey? 

"You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts-limbs, organs, cells-but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ." (1 Corinthians 12:12, The Message)

"What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way-the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons." (1 Corinthians 12:20-23, The Message)
________

We Will Stand
(Russ Taff sings a great song about being together!)

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

Prayer of Peace

Everyone I talk to says something like  “I just do not know what to think.” No one does. The phrase ‘uncharted waters’ finds its way into the various press briefings when officials are pressed for details. 

This is an unnatural state for me, a do-er, a man who looks for solutions, who likes to fix things and people. I have struggled through anxiety, wrestled with anger, beat back the desire to just do something, anything.

Yesterday, I sat in silence, letting myself feel my powerlessness, willing to enter into brokenness, until I came to a place of repentance – for pride, for self-will, for failing to desire God wholeheartedly. I confessed my lack of trust, my desire to control my life to God, and relaxed into His grace. Once and done? I think not!

This is a kind of praying that is called ‘centering.’ In this prayer, Christ Jesus is made the focus. It is not a time for petitions or beautiful praise. It is a heart-cry, an act of adoration, a time to receive a gift of His peace. It’s like those moments when you see someone you love and you reach out in embrace, holding each other close, wordlessly, just being together. 

Ah, my friend, this is a time for being with Jesus. Trying to figure out the ‘why,’ may come, but not today. Trying to find some silver lining may help at some moment, but maybe today we must be content with just being His, centered in our confession of faith, knowing that HE is present. That can be enough.

The key to this is something Americans particularly struggle to do – being submitted to the Spirit and entering into silence of the soul. Paul urges us to dismantle "every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and (to) take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV)  In the story of Job, when his suffering drives him to angrily demand a confrontation with the Lord, God comes, not with explanations, but to reveal Himself in greater majesty. Job’s response is humility. He says, "I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth." (Job 40:4, NIV)  

Centering prayer helps us to re-enthrone Christ Jesus as Lord of life, our hope, our God. I return often to the words of Isaiah inviting us to holy submission. When Assyria threatened them, the people of God wanted to run off and try to find help from the armies of Egypt.  The Lord called them to re-center their hope on Him! "This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." (Isaiah 30:15, NIV)  He invites us to the same kind of faith that is actively focused on Him rather than on a solution of our own making.

Waiting can be much more difficult than working!

The angst is real. The threat is not imaginary. The crisis is unlike any we have ever known. Now, there is a choice about how to live. We can attempt to control it all and find ourselves full of frustration. We can look endlessly at the challenges trying to rationally explain them and find ourselves battered by doubts. We can trust someone official and when their response proves inadequate will be overcome with panic and/or anger. Or, we can enter into His Presence - centered on Christ! The Spirit is inviting us to a new and deeper spirituality, beyond the comfort of our religion.
Engage your whole person in this kind of praying.

• Sit quietly.
• Place your hands open, palms up, in front of you.
• Draw your breath in slowly. 
• Pause, then then breath out as you say the name of Jesus.
• Tell Him simply, “I receive your peace.” 
• Stay there!

For most of us such praying, entering into His Presence is so unnatural that we will feel foolish, or nothing at all – at first. But, He is there.  It is likely that your mind will initially reject this ‘quiet’ and you will want to reach for your phone, turn on some music, just ‘do something.’ Choose Jesus! It’s simple, but it is not easy! Keep handing yourself to Him, giving the Spirit mastery as you meditate on His Word and Promise.

Here’s the word from the Word.

"O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. …
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning." (Psalm 130:2-6, NIV)

_________________

Be The Centre

Jesus, be the centre.

Be my source, be my light,

Jesus.

Jesus, be the centre.

Be my hope, be my song,

Jesus.

Be the fire in my heart,

Be the wind in these sails,

Be the reason that I live,

Jesus, Jesus.

© 1999 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire) (Admin. by Vineyard Music UK)

Michael Frye

CCLI License No. 810055

Paradigm Crash

Many of us are disoriented, as if we are actually living in one of those wacky dreams where nothing seems to work, where every attempt at a remedy creates yet another problem. We cannot help but wonder how the world will look when this crisis is over.  We are experiencing a paradigm crash, a phrase I borrowed from Dr. Earl Creps. "A paradigm expresses my basic orientation toward how life works; it is my 'operating system' of unspoken premises that runs in the background unattended. ... A crash happens when pain makes the frailty of those assumptions impossible to ignore... sometimes violent, sometimes gradual.” Sounds bad doesn’t it?

Consider this – “Paradigm crashes create an opportunity for God to take us off road, awakening us to mission by crucifying aspects of our culture and spirituality that need to die."

This Monday morning when I look out over the coming weeks, my prayer is for new vision to emerge from the wreckage. I want to remain open to the possibilities that are created by this interruption of ‘normal.’ Will you join me in that quest?

Let’s ask ourselves some tough questions about our relationship with God.

Were we content to be ‘religious’ thinking that we had a deal with God?  Was this unspoken assumption underlying our choices: “I’m good, moral, kind, and say my prayers. You bless me!”?

As the assurances of the life we hoped for are much less certain today, are we leaning into knowing Him, our hearts and mind open before Him? 

My desire is to pray, with faith,  “Lord, I want to know YOU” even more fervently than “Lord, fix this mess so I can be comfortable again.”

When we experience a 'paradigm crash' our assumptions about Him, ourselves, and the way that life should work disintegrate. It is a dangerous time and we must not try to navigate a renewal alone.

1. Build strong friendships with people who are passionate about Him, too.
2. Go back to the core Truths about God’s grace and goodness.
3. Let key Scriptures remind you that HE knows you, your weaknesses, your strengths, your failures and successes- and loves you with a love that no human love can equal.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus went through something like a paradigm crash. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry." (Luke 4:1-2, NIV) Led by the Spirit into the desert! The phrase shouts with meaning for me this Monday morning. God had a purpose for His Son’s encounter with the Devil, with temptation. Jesus emerged in the Power of the Spirit to be our Savior.

You will emerge from this time a different person. We all will!
What kind of difference will it be?  

Is Jesus the King of your life or is He King in name only?  Who is really determining how you live - Self or Jesus Christ?
That is a tough question, perhaps one you cannot honestly answer today.  Is confusion lurking in the darkness at the edges of your mind? Ask God to show you the truth about your self, your assumptions about the world, even your expectations of Him. Perhaps you believed on Him a long time ago as Savior, but only now are coming to grips with making Him Lord and King of your life. Trust Him! He will not write you off, throw you away, or forget you. There is a new grace to be discovered at the end of the life you have planned, when He is allowed to bring into existence the eternal life He has planned.

The word from the Word informs us about our foundation. When we are living through a paradigm crash we need a solid Rock.

“I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.” (Luke 6:46-49, NLT)

_______________________________

If there ever were dreams
That were lofty and noble,
They were my dreams at the start.
And the hopes for life's best,
Were the hopes that I harbored,
Down deep in my heart.
But my dreams turned to ashes,
My castles all crumbled,
My fortune turned to loss.
So I wrapped it all in the rags of my life,
And laid it at the cross.

Something beautiful, something good;
All my confusion He understood.
All I had to offer Him
Was brokenness and strife,
But He made something beautiful of my life.

Something Beautiful -
Gaither, William J. / Gaither, Gloria
© 1971 William J. Gaither, Inc. ARR UBP of Gaither Copyright Management CCLI License No. 810055