This has been a great Christmas season for me as we’ve been engaging in the Advent Conspiracy. It has been refreshing for me to regain focus on the magnitude of what it means for God to come to earth as a human so that we could be redeemed and have connection with him. That amazing love changes everything about how I love my family, my friends, and everyone around me. It changes how I give and how I receive. I pray that we would all be overwhelmed this Christmas as we see God’s love that came for us so long ago and continues to pour over us today. I pray that same love will flow out of us to the hurting around us and change everything.
The last two days as I’ve opened my browser a very intriguing thing has been happening. Yesterday a site that normally has lots of various information had a simple full page white background and the line “Tomorrow is just another day” faded in with simple black letters followed by another line fading in saying “you’ll never forget.” That was it. I was excited but I didn’t know why. Something was going to happen the next day that I would never forget and I should be excited about it! As I opened my browser this morning the same simple white background had a black and white photo of four very famous rockstars and the announcement in that same simple text “The Beatles. Now on iTunes.” BAM! (I added the bam) You were struck by the simple statement presented as a plain fact that your world has changed because you could now purchase music through iTunes made by this band.
I have nothing against the “Fab 4″ and enjoy a lot of their music but I don’t know if I could call myself a Beatlemaniac. However, I was side-tracked before I could navigate away from that page and the longer those four stood there staring at me, telling me how excited I should be, I got a little giddy, even texted a couple of friends about the announcement. How amazing is it that a simple message like this would change my behavior with such seemingly little effort. This lead me to wonder, how many messages do I change for every day and don’t even realize?
Proverbs 5:1-6 shows a warning of a parent to their child to “observe discretion” because “the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood”. Couldn’t the same be said about the world today? We have so many smooth and sweet messages that seem so right, but in the end don’t really fulfill us at all and in fact sometimes can lead us to very harmful decisions. So what do we do? Proverbs would say to seek wisdom, gain understanding, and guard our hearts. The great thing about messages is that when we listen to the right source, we find life. I love the picture in Isaiah 30:21 as the prophet tells the people, “Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
I’m so blessed to have such a wonderful wife who encourages me and builds my faith. As we’ve been really seeking God’s wisdom and direction in our life I asked her to pray for me that I would not feel overwhelmed and that God would give us clarity and vision. She shared this verse with me and I want to share it with you as an encouragement to your faith that God has not left us without hope or guidance but has given us His spirit as a source of strength, faith, and direction.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear - Isaiah 11:2-3
Whatever you are facing in life now, I pray that you would find encouragement, faith, wisdom, and boldness to live from the Spirit of the Lord.
Growing up in a rural town going to fairly traditional churches I spent a lot of time singing old hymns (I’ve never understood the silent “n”) and I remember one in particular that begins with the line, “I heard an old, old story, how a savior came from glory” and goes on to speak of our “Victory in Jesus” (also the name of the hymn). So is this a blog about the value of hymns? No, it’s about the amazing power that lives in stories. Stories were the primary form of education long before schools were invented as the entire history of civilizations were passed from one generation to another as children sat at the feet of the parents and grandparents hearing stories. It is the story that brings us all together to learn about and celebrate our collective history.
The great thing about stories is that we all have one too, and it’s alive, and it’s uniquely ours, and we have the opportunity to live a new chapter in it each day as we join God in the creation of the story of our lives. It’s so great too that our stories connect with the stories all around us and sometimes we even get to have stories WITH others. This makes me excited. Why? Because I know that this means that the greatest part of my story and I believe even of OUR story as Grace is yet to come. Don’t get me wrong, we have some outstanding stories from times past, but I believe that God has even more in store and is doing more even as I write this as we have folks creating stories in Haiti, doing church online, doing church at Watterson Court, doing life all around town (which some could argue is not much different than doing church), and who knows where all we will do church in the days to come! Yeah, we have some great stories.
So, in honor of our stories I would like to hear from you. What is one of your favorite stories about Grace Community and your life? And/or what are you most excited about as a future story line?
Have you ever wanted to have a worldwide impact? Sounds ambitious, grand, and exhausting to me at times. But I’m learning that with God all things are possible, and they’re not always difficult. Just last night a team of 6 of us from Grace Community and a former Gracer in North Carolina were able to minister to over 100 people from 46 different countries including:
American Samoa, Argentina, Asia/Pacific Region, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Republic of, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Sudan, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Yugoslavia, Zaire.
That’s pretty amazing and honestly a lot of fun. While I love the staggering numbers that we see come out of the ministry of Church Online what really gets me are the stories of individuals and families who are changed forever because of God’s intervention in their lives.
One of those moments happened for our team last night as a young man came into the chat stating that he wanted to become a follower of Christ. He had been trying to chat with Jerris in the Live Prayer but was having technical difficulties and finally said something in the main public chat. We were excited to talk to him about his relationship with Christ and he professed his faith in Christ with all of the chat participants there to celebrate. THAT WAS COOL, but it gets even better. His sister came into the chat later celebrating and saying that her brother was so excited calling all of his friends. Then she told us how she had been in a place in her faith weeks ago where she felt as though she had fallen away from God and that he would not take her back. She came to church online and was encouraged through a live prayer chat that she was still and would always be loved by God. That prayer time encouraged her to then minister to her two brothers, one of whom had become a Christ-follower shortly after that time and the one who gave his life to Jesus in the chat last night! You never know what impact a simple chat or spending time to speak words of life and encouragement to a person will have.
I pray that as you go, you will be filled with the love of God in such a way that you will be able to minister to everyone you come in contact with. I pray that God will show you the opportunities in front of you to have tremendous impact on the lives of people you may never know.
We received a good reminder this week of how much of a difference it makes in the world when someone takes the time to encourage and believe in someone else. As I look back on my life, I remember the coaches, teachers, scoutmasters, and my mom and dad who gave me so much encouragement and support that helped me to achieve great successes in life. There’s no doubt that as I left home to start college and even as I left college to continue my career, that the continued encouragement and support I receive from so many has given me the courage to trust in God, step out, and live life.
While I am so grateful for those who encouraged me I’m also reminded that there are others now, young and old, who may not have those people in their life and who God has placed in my life so that I can believe in them. Whether it’s a one time kind word or helping hand, or a more invested relationship we can change the world by taking the time to let someone know that you believe he or she has what it takes to do great things in life.
The Bible tells us the book of Proverbs that the power of life and death are in the tongue and in James we are reminded of the sad reality that sometimes we are guilty of praising God and cursing our brothers and sisters with the same tongue. With Facebook, blogs, and the ability to reach almost any one at any time with cell phones and texting there are a lot of words being sent and received these days. Are the words you take in giving you life or are they bringing death? Are the words you send to others giving them life or are they like poison arrows that have lodged in their heart taking life?
In this week’s sermon we were warned about toxic words that we can give or receive. The challenge was presented, as it has throughout the entire Toxic series, for us to truly examine the level of toxicity that exists in the various influences in our lives. Here’s what I love about this week’s message though. Just as there is incredibly destructive power in words, there is even more life giving power and it is such a simple thing for us to use our words to encourage, build up, and bring life to ourselves and everyone arounds us. Pastor Craig said something like, “Speak life giving words at every chance you get.” If we were to take this to heart the possibilities are amazing.
Just this week I was contacted by an old friend who had seen this message on Toxic words and he was convicted for the incredibly destructive things he had said to a former friend in one particularly heated argument about 2 years ago. He told me that after this sermon he felt a leading to contact this person, to apologize, and to speak words of encouragement. The message he sent was met with forgiveness and encouragement as well and the effects of this simple exchange have been profound on my friend. He was crying tears of joy telling me that he had believed that he was “over and past” the bitter argument that occurred so long ago but after making amends he experienced a surge of life and freedom as the toxicity of past bitterness was removed from his life.
What are words of life that you need to give today? Are they words of encouragement for someone that you see everyday? Or maybe words of apology and forgiveness to remove the sting of a toxic encounter from long ago? I pray that as you read these words you are inspired by God to step out and take hold of the amazing life that he desires for you in the words of your life.
August is always full of excitement with the start of another school year! I want to let you know about a couple of exciting things happening this week:
Quad Day: Sunday, August 22 is Quad Day at the U of I and we will be there to meet some of the outstanding young men and women and let them know about our wonderful Grace Community. Be sure to pray for the volunteers at this event and be on the look out for new faces to welcome over the next several weeks!
Middle School Lock-In: Friday, August 27 the area youth ministries are teaming up with the Champaign YMCA to host a Back to School Bash lock-in for middle school students. The hours of the lock-in are 8:00 PM through 6:00 AM and admission is $10 per student for the cost of facilities, activities, pizza, a live band, and more!
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Jesus healing a blind man in John 9. The reason I love it is that after the man is healed he is questioned by the religious leaders about Jesus so that they can discredit Jesus. The healed man’s response is awesome as he tells the men, “Whether he is a sinner or not I do not know, but I do know that I was blind and now I see.”
Isn’t it great that so much of our faith simply boils down to the facts. The facts of how we as people with broken lives are made whole again by a God who loves us so much that he sent his son. When we let this amazing fact sink in, we become like this man who simply can’t be bothered by all the distracting questions because he can’t get past what God has done for him. What’s your story? How are you sharing it with others?
Work is such a funny thing. We dream about the days that we don’t have to work. But it seems like, even when we’re not at our “work” we usually find something that we can “work” on. I guess in one way or another there is always work to be done, sometimes more enjoyable than others, but always with a great possibility for reward.
One of the recurring themes in One Prayer has been that of God stirring new works in our lives. Philippians 1:6 gives reassurance that God begins and sees through the good he is working in our lives. I like that, but I sometimes forget that it is still work and get discouraged when the working out process is more difficult than I’d hoped. Sometimes that process takes me places that I just don’t like, but this verse makes me think that even in those times God can work something great in me. So whatever you’re working through today, I pray that you will be blessed by God as he completes work in you.
