Can you see clearly? A few years ago I caught an absolutely hilarious MythBusters episode where they tested the theory that it is IMPOSSIBLE to walk in a straight line blindfolded. They took it to the extreme, used sight canceling goggles, earplugs, etc. so that no outside influence could affect their ability to find a direction. And this picture is roughly like what the walkers' paths looked like. When they interviewed the walkers, each person described in detail how good they felt they were doing, how straight they seemed to be moving, how on target they thought they were. Each was sure they were going to be the exception to the rule. Wow, were they wrong! Without the point of reference in focus, guiding them straight, they simply could not stay on course AT ALL. And that, my friends, is what life is like. Without an external point of reference we flounder and spin. I truly believe we each want what is best for ourselves and our families, but I know that people feel at best uncertain about what that actually looks like. The human tragedy aspect of it is that regardless of how we feel we are on target, our lives end up looking like the picture. And who wants to reflect on a life shaped like that at the end of their days?! "I worked too much. I didn't really know my kids. I never forgave my father. I should have spend more time with my wife. I never did anything of meaning." The Good News, is that we have a simple and accessible guiding standard in Jesus. Jesus taught a paradigm-busting set of truths, establishing himself as a model of living that no one in the history of humanity has undone or superseded: 1. Love God. (Keep your eyes on the Way, the Guide, the King.) 2. Love one another. (Serve and welcome and give.) 3. Do not judge. (Because nobody's perfect - least of all you and me.) For 2000 years, no one has articulated human excellence better than this. The entire Biblical history is summed up in these. No one has defined right living more clearly or succinctly, and no one has established a better paradigm for our health, well-being, and living a life of blessing. Ultimately, it is up to each of us. We are free to roam, free to circle, free to meander. Or we can make the choice to stay as close to the Way as possible... and see how He will guide us in living a life we could only otherwise imagine in its richness and blessing. See you Sunday at 10! We believe this one hour spent worshiping together will change every other hour of your week for the better. Invite a friend - you may never know the difference it will make in their life! Have you had to relocate? We moved every year or two for over 20 years! Think of that! Many of those moves were local as leases came to an end or new home purchases became available. But regardless of reason, every year or two, we would pack everything up and relocate to a new house or apartment to unpack and call it home. We laugh sometimes about feeling like gypsys, packing up and deciding what was necessary to keep or get rid of. It was always in the back of our minds, the need to move it all. At some point we stopped decorating, donated the wall art, and just settled for something a little more generic. I guess God was preparing us to be a portable church. Moving and packing up all the sound equipment, signage, marketing, and food each week has never felt impossible as other veteran portable church leaders described it would. We just did the work and streamlined as much as we could to make it easier. Interestingly, as we live into what having a space of our own, a home for the church is going to feel like and how our work habits will change, I was most struck by the vast difference in how we communicate identity, values, personality than the school building we rent. Now let me clear, we LOVE the schools that have hosted us so kindly. Concrete block, painted school colors, communicates institutional identity and efficiency to an ever-growing and changing student body. If we were describing Big Life Community Church and a public school, I doubt there would be many of the same words or phrases used. We are simply aiming for very different targets. Just like our personal homes communicate our identity, beliefs, taste, and comfort levels, our church environment does as well. We are so looking forward to describing our creativity, warm personal welcome, passionate belief in redemption, and authentic faith in Jesus through the walls, floors, seating, etc. We are ready to welcome, encourage, and share Jesus in a way that is truly our perspective and that does not need to be tossed on a cart, and packed up in 15 minutes or less! As Geoff described in his message Sunday, communicating authentically goes to the heart of what church is called to do. Communicating warmth, safety, and our redemptive faith as a congregation is vital. We are getting really good at doing that one on one and in the portable setting. Every person you greet and welcome or serve alongside feels that. However, we believe it is going to be feel radically different - uniquely US - when we are able to do it in our church home as well as person to person! Huge progress on the building fund this week! We are SO excited to get in and get to it! It's getting closer!!! Check out the donations rolling in below! Way to go church!!! See you Sunday at 10! We believe this one hour a week will change every other hour of our lives. Invite a friend - you may never know the difference it will make in their life. "...God longs for our faithfulness in the life He has given us." James 4:5 What a powerful statement. In the middle of James' rebuke of faulty Christianity, he reminds us of the point of the entire history of humanity; it's the entire Bible in a sentence! God desires with deep and holy longing for us to be faithful inside the life he gave us. This is so powerful we need to stop and think. Often we believe we need to make some changes BEFORE we can be faithful. We wish we had different people around us. We imagine a different job. We envision different habits, fitness, health... But God's longing, God's deepest hope for us, is not about different. It is about now. Right now, right where you are, how can you be a faith-filled? According to Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition) Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, [a]the title deed) of the things [we] hoped for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Faithfulness lives as FACTS that which the senses do not have revealed. God's part is to be God. Our part is to believe it as FACT even when we can't feel it or see it. So go back to think about your ordinary life. What God facts can you live right where you are now?
See you Sunday at 10! We believe this one hour a week will change every other hour of our lives. Invite a friend - you may never know the difference it will make in their life. How do you beat the chill? Days like these remind us to relish the sunny 70 degrees when we get it! But the coldest moments in life have nothing to do with the weather. They come when we are lonely, broken, feeling lost or attacked, and when we are lashing out in anger and hurt. The enemy has a habit of false promises. It feels like it will help to hunker down, vent and unload our bad thoughts, and wallow in our negativity. But that just makes it colder, further breaks our relationships, and hurts our souls. The book of James talks about how our tongues have the power to unleash hell itself on earth. There is something about bringing the negativity we all experience into the world through our words that defeats God's plan for the Christian life. God's hope for us is counter-intuitive. When we experience negativity, God asks us to draw closer to Him. Jesus assured us that when we bring Him our burdens, He can carry them on our behalf, so that we need not. Rather than living in our own feelings, God asks us to bring those to Him through prayer and spending time with the Word, and through God-centered relationships. This lifts one another up, reminding us of joy, giving us peace, and staying focused on love. This is God's kinder and gentler plan for the world... and it hinges on the self-control of His people. So the next time something does not break your way, make a choice to move towards God. Resist the temptation to wallow in the bad, and avoid verbalizing your hurt and bad feelings. Instead, ask God for help - and for more of Him. Go to James and remind yourself of the consequences of sin with our mouths, and turn to Mark, Matthew, Luke or John and spend some time with Jesus. Even a few moments will transform your heart to look more like His peace, love, and joy. Next steps: be bold and speak using words full of His promises. "God, I give this person to you." "God will work all things together for my good." "God is my god, so I will not be afraid." "God says no harm will come to me." "The Lord delivers me from trouble." "God give me Your wisdom." A quick Google search for God's promises yields hundreds of ways God assures us that He is ready to help - and we can affirm our belief in these things through our words. Our hope for you is that your words start to shine light and give God's warmth to yourself and those around you. Speak joy, peace, and kindness. And they will know you are a Christ-follower by your love. Just pause a moment and envision a world full of believers who live this! Wow, what a difference that would make! See you Sunday at 10! We believe this one hour a week will change every other hour of our lives. Invite a friend - you may never know the difference it will make in their life. Have you ever bought a "fixer upper?" It's a great idea. Buy cheap, then fix everything. Modernize, customize, and end up with a great product you love. And hopefully your fixer-upper has a much higher value than what you bought. But as we all know, there are inevitably problems behind the walls, unseen, until things are ripped open. A house's true history and it's real problems are often hidden under layers of plaster and paint. To fix it and really make it livable is often a bigger project than it seemed when you started. Faith is the same way. C.S. Lewis describes it this way in Mere Christianity: "Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." It is hard and often painful to change our patterns and attitudes. Humility is a difficult renovation. Pride is painful to release as it is often rooted in fear. Loving and serving does not come easily in our 'me first' culture. Positivity takes a huge overhaul of our attitude. Generosity is built with painful, heavy, foundational adjustments to our understanding of God's provision in our money. These seemingly simple things we talk about every single week at Big Life C.C. are actually dramatic renovations of our broken souls. Don't mistake them for fluff. It's hard work to rewire our hearts into a palace for the Lord. Do you have eyes to see?
Easter was a wonderful celebration of the Resurrection. We sang, prayed, laughed, ate delicious treats, and delighted in God's big victory. It was a beautiful morning of worship. But the blessing of Easter is as much about the subtlety of the event as it is the huge news of the Gospel. Not everyone got it. Only Mary Magdalene saw Jesus was not in the tomb. She ran and told the Disciples who were huddled together in fear. Only Peter and John ran to see the tomb. The rest stayed behind. Even when they came back to confirm it, Thomas could not believe in Jesus until he saw his wounds himself. Nothing has changed. People still don't believe in Easter. Then and now, many see the same facts and can't trust God's power and work in our lives. As Jesus said to Thomas when he finally showed him his wounds to prove his identity, "Because you have seen me, you have believed, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 I find most people are still waiting for God to show them something new to change their minds and hearts. Simply put, we still don't believe. Jesus overcame death completely, has power and authority over EVERYTHING, so we have nothing to fear... yet we still worry over death, money, health, and our circumstances. We are still afraid. We still don't believe that the Resurrection means everything to us. The things that are not of earth are hard for our earthly eyes to see. So that is the project for today. Our prayer for you is that your eyes open to the work and power of God. Do you see and appreciate the way God is weaving all things together for good for you? Do you pray thanks over the sunbeam that catches your eye and lifts your heart, or the song that says just what you need to hear, or the stranger who smiled at you just when your mind was racing towards worry? Are you looking for the people God draws near to you for your blessing of kind words, a prayer for their needs, or an invitation? Are you keeping track of how your generosity blesses your finances? Are you eager each week to get to church Sundays to be encouraged and to encourage others to draw closer to God? Open your eyes and your spirit to all God is doing around you, and in you, and through you. He IS alive! Let his peace and the promise of His goodness saturate all things and TRUST in Him and His way. "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don't be troubled or afraid." -Jesus in John 14:27 See you Sunday at 10. We believe this one hour of worship each week can change every situation and every relationship in our lives! Come ready to grow, change, give, and serve! Invite a friend - you may never know the difference it will make in their life. As we start Good Friday, we stand in the shadow of the cross.
Jesus has served the Last Supper, and He has taught His Disciples His Commandment to love one another. Judas has betrayed him for silver coins. Jesus has gone to the garden, distressed about the trials He knows He has to face. The soldiers have come, Judas has kissed him on the cheek, and they have arrested Him. He has been mocked and scorned for His teachings by the church leaders who will turn him over to the Roman authorities to be killed. What remains for today is unthinkable... scourging, the crown of thorns, and He will be condemned to die. He will be made to carry his own cross to Golgatha alongside common criminals to be crucified. And finally this afternoon, He will be nailed to the sky for all to condemn as He draws His final breaths as a man on the cross. Then as all the worshipers have left him to die, He will forgive His captors, and commend His spirit to God. In the middle of the afternoon, they will verify his death with the spear. The sky itself will fall into darkness and the stones WILL cry out as they heave and tear apart the temple's curtain. The people who love him will sit in the shadow of the cross as their teacher, their healer, their God-among-them suffers and is extinguished - seemingly gone from them forever. The earth returns to the darkness of hopelessness. And fear and uncertainty seem to have won again. Can you relate at all? Do you feel alone? Have you suffered loss, fear, pain, or sickness? Are you waiting in uncertainty for something you expected? The shadow of the cross is for you. The shadow of the cross is for me. Regardless of how great we suffer, Jesus has been there too. The worst we can face will not ever be worse than what He has faced. And the Good News is ... the story IS NOT OVER. Your story, our story, His story... is not over. So it begins...
"On this day around the world Christians remember that tense, sensitive time Jesus spent with his disciples in the upper room and the last supper he shared with them. Many refer to this day as "Maundy Thursday." The word "Maundy" comes from the Latin word for commandment (mandatum), which Jesus talked about when he told his disciples that he was leaving them "a new commandment," that they "love one another." (Read more from Bible Gateway.) Maundy Thursday is the day our celebration of Communion comes from. We serve the bread and cup to one another in worship Sundays every week to remember His gift and sacrifice as He first did on this day in the upper room. But there's more to Maundy Thursday than being the first demonstration of Christian Communion. At this same meal, Jesus undressed, wrapped a towel around his waist and began washing His followers feet. One by one, around their table, he washed all their dirty feet off in a basin of water. Imagine that! Here's a modern metaphor: you are called to an important meeting with your boss, the founder of your company. You don't understand what is going on at the company. You changed your whole life to work for it because you believe in it - but now you suspect there's trouble. Your boss has mentored you and frankly, you can't imagine ever working for a better leader. When you arrive at the corporate gathering, all the department heads are there. Your boss stands up, takes off their suit, puts on a bathrobe and says you have to get a foot massage from them. You're tired from traveling, you are nervous and anxious over the situation, and a foot massage would be great in another setting. But your boss on their knees touching your feet? That's crazy. But Jesus did just that. His Disciples were as uncomfortable as you would be. And he did it because as He described, 'He did not come to be served but to serve.' This is possibly the most important and definitive lesson in Christianity. It defines our posture towards the world. And illustrates what Jesus himself meant when He commanded that we "love one another." "Do you know what I've done for you? You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you speak correctly, because I am. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other's feet. I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you also must do. I assure you, servants aren't greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them." -Jesus in John 13:12-16 Now here's the hard reality. Christians have a very hard time being the servants RATHER the ones being served. Churches often look like a different - more human - kind of hierarchy and believers often use the exact opposite language and thinking from Jesus. Our comfort as believers is often the most important thing to us - and our church experience centers around how we are being served - rather than how we are serving one another. Our humanity just keeps creeping in, while Jesus' divinity - His example - His mandate - keeps getting pushed aside. So do a gut check today on our remembrance of His great servanthood. As a believer, are you taking? Or are you giving away? Is your concern about your own comfort, desires, and tastes? Whose feet (metaphorically) are you washing? Pray and reflect on this today. If you are able, celebrate Communion tonight... as a family, alone, or with friends. Read Matthew 26:17-30 Watch for our Good Friday devotional tomorrow. See you Sunday at 10 as we celebrate EASTER!!! We believe this one hour of worship each week can change every situation and every relationship in our lives! It's our happiest day! Top of the mornin'!
It's St. Patrick's Day! This is one of our very favorite holidays - and not JUST because we love corned beef and dancing jigs. St. Patrick is one of the most inspiring missionaries in our faith! Patrick was trafficked in slavery. In the fifth century he was a Christian child in England - then under Roman rule. According to the Confessio of Patrick, when he was about 16, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain, and taken as a slave to Ireland - then NOT Christian but Druid - and very violent. He was put in slavery looking after animals, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a priest, he felt called to return to northern and western Ireland as a missionary, sharing Jesus in the land he was once enslaved. St. Patrick was known for the creative ways he articulated Christianity to the native people of Ireland, using their symbols like the shamrock to describe God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in one. He used creativity, inspiration, and reliance on prayer to share Jesus with a dangerous society. That desire to share Jesus (to even difficult people) is the true lesson of St. Patrick! So today as you enjoy some of the frivolous aspects of the day, remember your faith. Offer to pray for someone else's need. Be generous and bless someone who needs it - even if is just a second shamrock shake for a coworker. Invite someone to church this weekend. Sunday will be a fun worship with Palm Sunday and a little more St. Patrick's celebration! Who do you care about?
It's not easy to care. Caring takes effort. Caring isn't convenient. Caring take resources, money, and time. Jesus was asked a pivotal question, "what is the most important thing to God?" Jesus made faith simple: "love God and love your neighbor as yourself... every commandment boils down to these things." Though Jesus' answer was simple, it certainly isn't easy. Love is choosing to care. Caring digs in and gets to know the other person. Caring understands the struggles, and the celebrations. Caring is measurable, in our thoughts, emotions, time, and money. Caring is the highest bar. So how do you care for God? How do you care for others? What does your love look like? Does it invade your thoughts, emotions, time and money? Does it transform your ideas into action? In the version of this story in the Gospel of Luke, the person asking the question had a follow up, "who is our neighbor?" In other words he asked, "ok, so who do I have to care about? Who do I have to love?" Jesus answered by telling the famous story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) In the story, a man was attacked and badly hurt. Every religious leader passed the injured man by, avoiding the mess, but a member of a race despised and even avoided by Jewish people of that era, a Samaritan, took the injured man and paid for him to be nursed back to health. The illustration is clear. We only love when we get involved. We must care. It feels like the messiness might be too hard... like it might be too much for us. We aren't alone when we feel that way. But we are wrong. The truth is the opposite, that we were made for love - even in the mess. Modern society has shown over and again that when we don't care, when we isolate and ignore, when we avoid caring for God and others as a way of life, the cost to our soul is so high, so damaging, that we literally waste away in our selfishness, meaninglessness and even sickness. Our souls starve and die and then the bodies follow. We see it happen over and over. Caring is the ONLY antidote. Caring is our ENTIRE purpose. Caring for God and others is our FULL life's meaning. Caring is how we get to the big life. So who do you care for? How can you care for God and others more deeply? |
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