7.26.09 :: RETRO (Love) July 27, 2009

Last night’s big theological concept – God is LOVE. 

That’s what we believe.  And that love is always on the move.  At it’s core, our religion is designed to be a mission of love.  We are charged as God’s church to always be reaching out with open hearts especially to God’s children who aren’t in the church already – who haven’t found their place in this family.  Our founding father’s would have said, the question isn’t “Am I saved?” but “For what ultimate purpose am I saved?”  Wesley believed that much of our purpose was and is loving outreach to a broken world.

So to get at what loved shared looks like, I used a borrowed metaphor.  First we sang a couple songs.  Bronco(the youth band) led us in worship this night.  Then we passed out the FruitLoops…

Everyone got a little cup of them – you know the yummy cereal?  I asked everyone to describe their fruitloops.  They shouted out words like: sugary, crunchy, fruity.  Then I asked them to think about what real fruit tastes like.  They shouted out things like: juicy, naturally sweet, refreshing.  Then we talked about those differences.  We decided the Fruitloops were a sad impression, if that, of real fruit.  They were only fruit(y) at best.

Real fruit is the real deal.  It is good and it nourishes and is rewarding.  BUT – no matter how good a piece of fruit is – until it feeds someone it hasn’t fulfilled it’s purpose.  If it just sits on my kitchen counter or in my fridge and rots – how is that good for anyone?  Fruit must nourish and strengthen – that’s what it was made for.

Am I talking about real fruit?  Of course not - Galations 5:22-23 says: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The fruit produced by someone planted in Christ is:
a life of love,
an attitude of joy,
the presence of peace,
a felt patience,
a kind heart,
a shared goodness,
a true faithfulness,
a gentle spirit,
and practiced self-control.

Did I just describe you?  I know that when I read that list – I’m challenged by it.  I have a lot of gardening to do!  This list should describe my life, but I’m not quite there.  Just like real fruit, these “fruits” are designed to be shared – to nourish – to be given away for sustenance.

BUT unfortunately, a lot of the time we instead hoard the “fruit” we produce right here within the church walls – instead of giving them to a starving, malnourished world – bringing sweetness and succulence to an all-too-often dry and bitter existence.

These “fruits”  should be the 1st thing people think of when they hear the word “Christian” — unfortunately that’s not always the case, is it?  Even when we do get the fruit to grow, too often we don’t share it well with others = instead we get “fruit loops.”

When we only feed ourselves it is like that crunchy, dry piece of cereal.  We are left with a hint of fruit – but none of the sustenance.  We might get temporary energy – but not long term sustenance.  When we don’t reach out and feed that hungry world – it’s just dry and sugary, fake and chemical.  Not like the fruit that God intended – organic, natural, good for you and delicious.

So as we get back to the basics of our faith, it’s important that we recognize that a huge part of what it means to be a believer is to love our neighbor – to share our fruit with them – to be about the missional love of Christ.

When I stand alone as a Christian, I can sing a pretty good song – it will speak of God’s love.  But it is only the beginning.  When I can stand with my neighbor (and the world is my neighborhood) then we together can sing a song that is God himself incarnate.

We watched the following video:

What a beautiful image of the love we’re talking about.
When we reach out in love we can unite God’s children all over the world.  We can stand by each other and unite in the song that is our God’s grace and salvation.  We can join in with the gifts God has given us, each adding a layer of beauty to a picture as diverse as God himself. 

Following a short discussion of this video, John spoke to us some of John Wesley’s take on our church’s mission of love.  He spoke about how Wesley believed “the world is our parrish” and that we have a responsibility to reach out as far as our arms are able.  He shared Acts 13:47 – For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ”I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

So grow that fruit!
And live out that love (past the walls of your church) so that we don’t get stuck with Fruitloops.
May we join in the great song that is flowing in and through creation to reach ALL God’s children.

Here is our current prayer request list. (Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know! You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.)

:: Jackie Anderson is still traveling a VERY rough road. Pray for the details to come together. For hope and healing and willingness to hang on tight!

:: Pray for Katie Thompson’s grandparents – her grandfather fell and broke HIS hip the day her grandmother was supposed to come home from rehab on her hip replacement surgery.  He has some dementia issues and the situation is difficult.  He continues to surpise them and is recovering well

:: Pray for Christa and her sons

:: Pray for Lacy Thompson – she’s serving as a missionary in Ecuador until Thanksgiving.

:: Toni, Randall, Amanda & Darcy are all looking for new jobs – pray God will open up the right opportunity.

7.19.09 :: RETRO (Assurance) July 20, 2009

Third week: Assurance
Even though so much of God is clouded in mystery – we can still KNOW some things.  We can know with our heart even if our mind is not quite there.  From his gut John Wesley eventually got to the place where he KNEW that he was God’s child.  He felt his heart “strangely warmed” after years of fighting to earn that love, and he finally came to a place where he could accept it as a gift. 

Romans 8:14-16 says it so well:
those people who are led by God’s Spirit are his children. God’s Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.  God’s Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. 

We, too, can be sure.  We can know some things about God.  And this is one of those things.

So we opened the night with another “retro” presentation – thanks Toni!!  Her pictures were awesome – and she brought in a collection of old 45’s that was very impressive!  We had an “unplugged” version of the band leading worship.  We started with “Made to Worship” by Tomlin and then “Your Love is Deep” by Jamie Smith. 

John, our Pastor, talked a little about Wesley’s struggle with assurance and how it changed his life once he came to an understanding of it.  And then we challenged those present to think about what they “know” of God.  We had tables out for the night – and on the tables pens and a spread sheet.  In the spreadsheet there were three collumns. 

The first column was for “things they KNOW about God”
The 2nd column was for “how that knowledge makes them feel”
The 3rd column was for “what they think God is saying through it”

Filling in this chart was an awesome exercise.  An example might read this way:
1- I know I am a child of God; 2 – I feel peace and belonging; 3 - I am precious to God and he cares about me.

While we listened to some sweet “retro” music, people worked silently, searching their hearts about what they believe.  When they were mostly done, I asked for volunteers to share what they wrote.  Quite a few had some beautiful and profound things to share about what they find assurance in.  A single mom spoke about being able to let go of fear and bitterness in her life because she knows that God is a Father to her son.  A man who was only a few months ago homeless thanked God that he has given him all he has – and that it is abundant.  A college student spoke of knowing God has a plan for him, and that even though he is scared and impatient, he can trust in that plan.

I shared on the back of that sheet some of my own ramblings about what I believe.  After a very cool conversation with someone on what we can “know” I wrote the following as a journal entry:  

I believe in the fullness of summer; the romance of fall; the quiet of winter; and the newness of spring.
I believe in the healing of rain; the joy in laughter; the mystery of faith.
I believe there is a creator in my creation; a purpose for my living; a wonder worth embracing; a calling to follow.
I believe in hugging, smiling, grieving & listening.
I believe that peace comes with patience; that miracles are all around us; that everyone is beautiful; and that everyone longs to know so.

I believe in quiet moments – God is there.
I believe in large groups – God is there.
I believe in honest exposure – God is there.
I believe no matter what – God is there.

I believe that as good as it gets here and now, we are seeing but a dim reflection of our true home.
I believe that’s why we always long for more.
I believe because my bones seem to agree; because there is peace in it; because I am an optimist; because it adds up; because in belief I am made more complete, more beautiful, more real.

Without belief I am full of anxiety; scared of messing up; unsure of myself; depressed and desensitized; hopeless and hungry; tired and torn.
With belief I am more than myself; I am a tool in the hands of a master craftsman; I am a part of a larger story, and that story is magnificent.

So my voice rises higher…
I believe because You are truth – the truth is that You set me free.
In freedom I find hope and purpose. That is the song of the redeemed.

I believe because You are love – the only love that conquered death.
In death I find a resurrection that is the hope of every breath.

I believe because You are light – the brilliant light of brand new days.
Days of promise, full of mystery and even then my soul will say…

I believe because.
I believe in spite of.
I believe within me there is reason to believe – You are.

I challenge you to do the same:  sit down and spend some time figuring out what it is that you believe.  What you KNOW.  What you stand on.  It will be beautiful – and God will speak.

We closed with a couple more songs: “Amazing love (You are my King)” – full of what we can know in our salvation!  And “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns.   It was a cool night.

Here is our current prayer request list. (Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know! You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.)

:: Jackie Anderson is still traveling a VERY rough road. Pray for the details to come together. For hope and healing and willingness to hang on tight!

:: Pray for Katie Thompson’s grandparents – her grandfather fell and broke HIS hip the day her grandmother was supposed to come home from rehab on her hip replacement surgery.  He has some dementia issues and the situation is difficult.  He continues to surpise them and is recovering well

:: Pray for Christa and her sons

:: Pray for Lacy Thompson – she’s serving as a missionary in Ecuador until Thanksgiving.

:: Toni Ruppert is looking for a new job – pray God will open up the right opportunity.

7.12.09 :: RETRO (Salvation) July 13, 2009

2nd night of this series.  Salvation.

We first had someone share their “retro” – Thanks to Sam! – some awesome pictures of his huge fro and he even brought in his Atari!  Good stuff!

Easy song picking – we went all Hillsong United!  We did “Salvation is Here” & “Mighty to Save” and ”Lead Me to the Cross”.  And then the Nooma started (a short film by Rob Bell.)  We used “Trees” to tie into the topic for the night.  Following the Nooma, I said this about Salvation…

For those who choose God, there is a moment “between the trees” (Nooma reference) when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice and are “saved” – and we need saving!  The consequence of our sin is death (separation from God both now and forever).  There’s no getting around the death.

Unless…you accept the death Jesus gave on the cross – that’s the offer.  He died so that we can live.  He took on our sin, so that we can take on his righteousness.  And it worked out for him much differently that it would have worked out for us on our own – he’s God, so not only could he die for all of us, he was also able to beat death at it’s own game and rise on that 3rd day!  Creating the opportunity for us to be resurrected as well!

Ephesians 2:4-10
God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

So when we say “yes, thank you. I’d like to have that gift of life”  the result is we are connected to God, both now AND forever.

Fredrick Buechner says this about Salvation: “You do not love God and live for him so you can go to heaven. Whichever side of the grave you’re talking about, to love God and live for him IS heaven. It is a gift, not an achievement.”

So Salvation begins at a given point BY OUR FAITH in Christ alone; there’s nothing we could do to earn it – but that doesn’t mean we’re done, either!  The process continues - “the gift,” as Buechner put it, is only beginning when we say yes. We talked about that some last week – this is the Sanctifying Grace Richard described.

It is the process by which we “move on toward perfection” (John Wesley’s way of expressing this continual choice to do good work, to become more like Christ.) 

What we do with our lives “between the trees” has everything to do with Heaven.  You already know this. We say it all the time. “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thine name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN.”

Being a Christian – being “saved” – isn’t just about us going “up there”
It’s about us bringing “up there” “down here” – isn’t that what Jesus did?!

That scripture comes ringing back into my ears…
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, SO WE CAN DO good things

There is such tension in the Christian life between faith and works.  They are completely different, and yet completely intertwined.  You can only be saved by faith.  BUT a saved life always bears fruit through good works.  When these two things are running well together – heaven is brought down to earth.  And we’re not wasting the time God has given us here, waiting for some finale.  When we stay only with one or the other – we’re missing it.

Then we got into groups of 3 or so and discussed the following questions:
- In your own words: define salvation
- Describe what you felt when you “got saved” – if you haven’t made that choice yet, what feelings hold you back?
- why is there tension between faith and works?
- what “good works” do you think God has planned for you? OR How could you bring some heaven to earth NOW?

Then John, our pastor, got up and talked some about Wesley’s take on salvation.  He talked more about the role our choice plays in our salvation, and that we can choose to deny God’s love as much as we can accept it.  That United Methodist theology doesn’t track with “once saved always saved” because of our focus on the relationship as an exercise in free will.  The Good News of course, is that no matter how stubborn we are, or how often we might choose lesser lovers over our great God, his grace is always waiting to restore and renew.  All we have to do is turn back around and say, “Yes, Lord”

So we closed with that song and thanked God for the gift of salvation!

Here is our current prayer request list. (Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know! You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.)

:: Jackie Anderson is still traveling a VERY rough road. Pray for the details to come together. For hope and healing and willingness to hang on tight!

:: Sonya Cooper’s Aunt – Mary – passed away last week.  She’s home!  Pray that the family can work through their grief in this time of loss.

:: Pray for Katie Thompson’s grandparents – her grandfather fell and broke HIS hip the day her grandmother was supposed to come home from rehab on her hip replacement surgery.  He has some dementia issues and the situation is difficult.  He already had his surgery on Sunday and is doing ok so far. 

:: Pray for Christa and her sons

:: Pray for Lacy Thompson – she’s serving as a missionary in Ecuador until Thanksgiving.

:: Toni Ruppert is looking for a new job (while working a paper route!) pray God will open up the right opportunity and that she and Zach will pull through this tough time.

7.5.09 :: RETRO (grace) July 6, 2009

Started a new series last night:

 

 

 

 
We think it’s good to slow down on occasion and look back at the basics to get a handle on our here and now.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the drama of today that we can loose sight of those things our faith is built upon – so in this series, we’ll stop, rewind and remember. 

Our “religion” has claimed some phenomenal ideas as foundational truth – we call that THEOLOGY (the study of the nature of God and of religious truth).  John Wesley, in particular, had some awesome and inspired ideas that are why I think the United Methodist Church is so cool.  So, it’s talking about these ideas and unpacking them that create for each of us a spiritual life that is much deeper than religion. 

This first night we spent on GRACE - the only real place to start when we’re talking about our connection with God.  We believe that our relationship with God is more than a moment in time, but a journey through a lifetime.  And his grace travels with us at every stage.  So we did some journeying with our congregation. 

We opened the night with a couple songs (“Happy Day” by Tim Hughes and “Desire” by Phil Wickham).  In an attempt to set the retro mood, I shared my retro experience – including some horrible hair pictures and documentation of my love affair with MacGyver!!  Just to give you a taste, this is one of my prize possessions – an autographed head shot, “To Tina…just for you…LOVE, Ricky Anderson”   

There are three kinds of grace and so we had three points to our journey.  At each point they heard from a different speaker who shared their understanding of the kind of grace they spoke of and their experience of it in their own life.   Each group spent about 10 minutes with each person. 

So those three graces are:
1) Prevenient Grace (the grace that comes before) – you could call this preparing grace.  This is when the Spirit is preparing us for a relationship with God.  It’s all the times God is working that we don’t see till we look back through that 20/20 hindsight that makes everything so clear.  

2) Justifying Grace (the grace that saves us) – this is our Salvation experience.  It is the Spirit accepting us as broken as we are, and allowing Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to make us new, and therefor justified.  For some this is a moment in time of saying “yes” to God, for others this Salvation happens in process and is harder to pinpoint. 

3) Sanctifying Grace (is the grace that changes us) – this is what happens after our “yes” to God – if courtship is the preparing grace, and your wedding day is the justification, then the years of growing together in a marriage relationship is the Sanctification.  It is the Spirit sustaining us on all the ups and downs of our journey with God.

We read Romans 5:1-11 which speaks to all three graces…

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.  <<That’s grace!>>

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!  <<That’s Sanctifying grace>>

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.  <<That’s Prevenient grace>>

Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!  <<That’s Justifying grace>>

When this learning journey was over, we went into communion – one of our “Means of Grace” – or a way in which we can experience God’s grace physically and spiritually.  During communion we sang ”I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin and then wrapped up the night with “Oh Praise Him” by David Crowder. 

My prayer for all of us as we journey with God is much like the one I shared as we opened the night…

God – thank you so much for our tradition and history.  Thank you for speaking to your people through the years, for creating a system of beliefs that will guide us down the road with you.  May we take this time to think about what we believe – to really get down to it – so that we can stand firmly on it.  A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  So open our minds, God and let’s talk.  We love you – AMEN

Here is our current prayer request list.  (Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know! You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.)

:: Praise - Connie & Jerry Noland had a great missions experience with the Choctaw Reservation

 :: Jackie Anderson is still traveling a VERY rough road. Pray for the details to come together. For hope and healing and willingness to hang on tight!

:: Sonya Cooper’s Aunt – Mary – is not doing well.  Pray for her and her family as they wrestle with grief and illness.

:: Pray for Katie Thompson’s grandparents – the grandmother’s hip replacement surgery went well, but the grandfather has some dementia issues and the situation is difficult.

:: Pray for Christa and her sons

:: Pray for Lacy Thompson – she’s serving as a missionary in Ecuador until Thanksgiving.

:: Toni Ruppert is looking for a new job (while working a paper route!) pray God will open up the right opportunity and that she and Zach will pull through this tough time.

:: Praise – Jen’s test results all came back clean – she’s good!

6.28.09 – Nicaragua Sunday July 6, 2009

Well, I didn’t make it to this part of my To Do List last week.  And because we spent the night hearing from our Nicaraguan Mission Team, I didn’t have much to  type about.  They did a great job presenting.  The work we’re doing there in partnership with our Nica sisters and brothers is so very cool!  We work with 2 organizations:

El Ayudante – we use these guys for our food and lodging and logistics/ministry help (translators, etc.)  They do a GREAT job!!  And their site is great – go check it out!

Alcance- our newest partner is a non-profit from here in the states.  They started out of Norcross UMC in Atlanta.  They hooked us up with our Sister Church.  We’re in the process now of the first stages of a worship building for them.  We just delivered 170 water filters (thanks to the Advent Conspiracy) that will make a world of difference.  And we’re praying for their congregation of 35 or so families by name.  They gave us a roster with each member in each family listed.  So we’ve divided those names up and asked people to put their family names up somewhere (I put stickies on the back) that would daily remind them of our blessings and their needs (on their fridge, by a light switch, over the bathroom sink, etc.)   

I’m working now on uploading a slideshow of some pictures from this last trip.
Thanks to the team for being such servants and for helping our church understand how big a church we’re a part of!