It's the Same !!

I love this passage from Romans 8:11, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you".

The very same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you and me? Do you realize what that means? It means that God didn't give Jesus one type of "spirit" and then gave us a "lesser kind of spirit". It says that we have the same spirit. But do we live our lives as though we believe that?

In our Old Testament readings, God only gave His Spirit to a select few people but now that Jesus has come, the Spirit is available to all. Acts 2:38 says, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".

To me this says that I don't necessarily have to wait until the Resurrection to be living a new life. Jesus said in John 3:5-6 that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

If God's Spirit is living in me (Christ in you and me), then we have the power to overcome whatever it is that wants to keep us beaten down. I love what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:2-4: "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

We can live a new life - now, because the Spirit lives in us. We have the power to break the chains of bad habits that may continue to plague us. May the same Spirit of the Lord that was with Moses, Gideon, Joshua, Samuel and Jesus come powerfully upon us!

Called to Remember

Our reading for today (April 3) is about the Ammonites oppressing the children of Israel. Judges 16:6-18. The reason?

Israel (once again) has abandoned God, stopped serving Him, and done evil in God's sight. So He turned them over to the Ammonites who oppressed the Israelites for 18 years. Israel was in great distress - and once again, they cried out to God saying, "We have sinned against You because we have forgotten everything You did for us." (my translation). But God initially says to them, "Nope. Sorry. Not this time. Go cry out to the other gods you have been worshiping. I am not your "whipping-god". (again, my translation). But verse 15 says, "But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, 'Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.' So they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD". Here's the interesting part; It says that God "was grieved by their misery".

God loved them so much that He was grieved by their disobedience. It must have broken his heart. He desperately wanted them to worship and serve Him only - not because He is some kind of narcissist, but because He had good plans for them; a purpose. He wanted to bless them and "tabernacle" among them as their God and they would be His people; but He was grieved by their misery.

It's a miserable thing when you are distressed and oppressed by sin. But here's the good news for us; Jesus took all of that "misery" for us to the cross. He showed us how to live faithfully and restored hope to all us. because Christ lives in us, we are new creations.

This week is a week of remembering. The entire universal church focuses like a laser beam on the nucleus of our faith – the passion and resurrection of Jesus. Because God is grieved by the misery that sin brings to our lives, He sent Jesus to ultimately rescue us from that oppression. Do we recognize that when we sin, it means that we have forgotten everything God has done for us? Jesus must have known that we would constantly suffer from spiritual dementia when at the Last Supper he said, “Do this in memory of me”.

Join us at Bellwood on Thursday evening (6pm) as we are called to remember and celebrate everything God has done for us.

Rest in Peace, Earl - and Thanks.

This may be a little different post than the rest but consider it a "doodle". Yesterday, banjo great Earl Scruggs died at the age of 88. He had a huge influence on my life even though I never had the opportunity to meet him. He was the other half of the legendary bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. (Lester Flatt died in 1979). Together they forever changed bluegrass music and greatly influenced other genres as well.

Earl was probably best known for introducing a three-finger style of playing the banjo which forever changed the approach to the instrument. He wrote the instrumental, Foggy Mountain Breakdown which was the theme song for the movie, "Bonnie and Clyde". Who hasn't heard this classic? Along with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Scruggs also performed the theme song for the hit TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies.

The death of Earl Scruggs creates an empty space in me. I grew up listening to Flatt and Scruggs. They were the masters. They took bluegrass music to new heights. They introduced it to new audiences. Earl's signature sound was the driving force behind it all. I get goosebumps when I think of the innovation and creativity he had, yet he was such a humble man. He never cared for the spotlight, never liked public speaking, but man could he make that banjo ring! Country great Porter Wagoner probably summed up Scruggs' importance best of all: "I always felt like Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was, and the best there ever will be."

Because bluegrass music is such a huge part of my life, (I probably own every Flatt and Scruggs recording), I feel like Earl was a close friend even though I never met the man. It's kinda funny - I've never met Jesus either, but He too has had a huge influence on my life. (Much bigger than Earl Scruggs) Could it be that our lives can still impact others even after we are gone? What kind of legacy do we want to leave? Will our life make any difference in the life of someone else?

Intentional Church Growth

Some thoughts from pastor Brandon Cox about the urgency to be intentional:

If we fail to intentionally be the church, we will unintentionally just do church.

If we fail to intentionally make disciples, we will unintentionally just make fans.

If we fail to intentionally be authentic, we will unintentionally just perform.

If we fail to intentionally embrace all people, we will unintentionally play favorites.

If we fail to intentionally be generous, we will unintentionally consume everything.

So what should we do? How do we stop our drift and shift out of autopilot? With focus, intention, and effort, we need to:

• Check our hearts and our motives.
• Remind ourselves of the mission often.
• Repeat the vision regularly.
• Keep Jesus at the center.
• Put people before the organization.
• Do it all with a sense of desperation.
  

What number are you?

I am at 16,516. This is how many days I have been alive (365 days x 45 years, including leap years and up to today). As I've reached beyond the mid-point, I'm starting to realize the importance of making each day count. I can never get it back.

In our readings for today, Moses writes a prayer at the end of his life. This is Psalm 90. The well-known verse is: "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." He describes the eternity of God to the brevity of human lifespan. Life is short! And Moses encourages the reader to make it worthwhile. He implies that wisdom is gained through living our lives through the lens of eternity. Every day we are faced with choices to make. Whether good or bad, right or wrong, hopefully we learn from them and gain wisdom.

Today is the day to examine our lifestyles and our motives. Are we truly using the gift of “time” that God has given us wisely, or are we wasting it looking for pleasure that will only last for a moment? Since we all return to dust, how will your life be different from anyone else? Moses gives us a healthy dose of realism. Our mortal life (this life) will not go on forever. There is an ending and we don't know when that is -so live and learn like every day is your last.

Follow the Cloud - not the Crowd

In the past few weeks, we have read about how the cloud would cover the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. When the cloud moved, it meant it was time for the people to move. God was on the move and the people were to follow. (Exodus 13, 14, 33, 40, and Numbers 9, 13, 14 )

The children of Israel were constantly given reminders to follow God, to obey his covenant - to follow the cloud. But sadly they looked away. They complained. They weren't happy. They longed to go back to what was familiar - even though it stole their life, freedom and identity. They wanted to follow the crowd and go back to their old way of slavery in Egypt.

We are faced with the same challenge today. We are constantly being bombarded with voices, noise, enticements, and advertisements to follow the crowd. When the Christian walk gets tough, we complain. When things don't go as we expect, we murmur. We may long to go back to a former life that really isn't "life" in the first place, but the God who still miraculously rescues people today calls us to follow Him.

Stay faithful. Don't look back. Keep walking in the word. One step at a time. We are called to be holy (set apart). Live differently than everyone else. Don't follow the crowd, follow the cloud.

Life in Community - Jean Vanier

Almost everyone finds their early days in a community ideal. It all seems perfect. They seem unable to see the drawbacks, they see only what is good. Everything is marvelous. They feel they are surrounded by saints, heroes, or at the least, most exceptional people who are everything they want to be themselves. And then comes the let-down.

During this time everything becomes dark; people no longer see anything but the faults of others and of the community. They feel they are surrounded by hypocrites. Life becomes intolerable. The greater their idealization of the community at the start, the greater the disenchantment. If people manage to get through this second period, they come to a third phase; that of realism and of true commitment.

They no longer see other members of the community as saints or devils, but as people; each with a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, each growing and each with their own hope. The community is neither heaven nor hell, but planted firmly on earth, and they are ready to walk in it, and with it. They accept the community and the other members as they are; they are confident that together they can grow towards something more beautiful.

Jean Vanier is founder of L'Arche International.