The Church...

"You go to church, right? What's that like?"

Who hasn't fielded this question from a co-worker or friend?
When someone asks me about church, I normally reply by giving them
Wyandott's location, the time our Celebration starts, and a quick
endorsement of Brandon's singing or Andy's teaching. But does this
response really answer their question?

In the Gospel of Luke chapter ten, verses one through four, we
find Jesus in the middle of forming the church. He's on the eve of his
crucifixion and has even told his disciples that he's about to be
betrayed, but they don't understand him. You'd think that this would be
the part of the Bible where Jesus tells his followers how to conduct
church after he's gone. You know, the answers to important questions
like: How long should the service last? Do we take communion with wine
or grape juice? Which translation of the Bible do we use?

But if you read those verses in Luke, you'll see that Jesus
didn't waste any of the precious time he had left on earth talking about
a building or detailing the format of a Sunday morning service.
Instead, he turned the focus of his followers outward. He paired them
up, pointed them toward the surrounding towns, and said, "Go, tell them
about me." That's it.

So maybe the next time I get a church question, I should answer
by talking about my wife's missions trip to Mexico, my awesome Reset
group, the Friday morning men's breakfast, or Tim Anderson's latest
Outreach. Because those are the activities that define us as a
church-not where we gather on Sundays.

* Share your church story with someone this week and post the
results of your conversation to our blog. I dare you.

* Is your church story only about a building and an hour on Sunday
mornings? Step out of your comfort zone and tell me what happens next.




Don Bentley

Prayer...

I think Mc Hammer said it best... "You've got to pray just to make it today".

In all seriousness I'm learning that prayer is the anchor of our faith. If I'm honest I can also say in the same breath I have much growing to do in this area. What I mean by that is my life doesn't reflect the truth I just made. My life doesn't reflect the truth of prayer anchoring my faith. I believe it to be true, my story is full of times where prayer has not only influenced me but also completely changed an aspect of my life. Without prayer I know I wouldn't be where I am today... Yet my life doesn't reflect this truth.

Let me clarify... I don't have a "dynamic" prayer life, I don't discipline myself enough to spend X number of minutes/hours with God, I don't find myself on my knees crying out to God. But I should...

For the past few months I feel like God is calling me to Him. I feel like God wants my prayer life to be "dynamic". I feel as if my relationship with God could be so much more than it is and I'm the one that is missing out.

I'm not saying I don't pray... I'm saying I don't make it a point to spend time with just God. I'm not talking about while I'm in the car or right before bed... I'm talking about time with God with no distractions...

What about you? How does your life stand up to the truth of prayer being an anchor of our faith? What does your prayer life look like?

What might you be missing out on?

I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Love

John 3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does
not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in
the name of God's one and only son."

Absolute, gut-wrenching terror. That's what I felt as I looked around
our empty family room, searching for my mom and brother. The
furniture and other familiar objects surrounding me loomed ominously
to my eleven-year-old eyes, and my heart thundered against my chest.
Our church had been showing a graphic movie series depicting the lives
of people left behind after Jesus' second coming. Once again, I'd
convinced myself that the absence of my family signified that I'd
missed the rapture. I knew that I'd become a Christ follower during a
Sunday night service years earlier, but the memory of cheating on the
previous day's math assignment weighed heavily on my conscience. Had
I waited too long to ask God's forgiveness for that sin? Was I now
destined to spend the next seven years trying to stay one step ahead
of the antichrist's soldiers?

The comforting echo of my mother's footsteps as she climbed the stairs
from our basement put my fears to rest. For now. Flush with relief,
I ran to my room, confessed my sin and prayed the sinner's prayer yet
again. For a couple of days I felt all right, secure in my knowledge
that God still loved me. But I knew that sooner or later I'd say or
do something I shouldn't and experience a fresh wave of terror at the
sight of an empty room.

This cycle went on for years. Every time I'd mess up, I was certain
that this time God would refuse to take me back. This time, he'd draw
the line and say, "Son, I think I've been about as patient as anyone
could expect a father to be. We had a good run, you and me, but this
time, you're on your own."

My version of God consisted of an old man dressed in white robes who
kept a clipboard at his side, always ready to mark down my latest
infraction. If I could remember my sins in time, and beg his
forgiveness, he'd scratch out my mistake and I'd be ok. At least for
a while. But I knew in my heart that God always stood ready to add
another transgression to my ever-growing list.

Was my caricature of God accurate? According to the Gospel of John,
absolutely not. You see, John 3:18 reads, "Whoever believes in him
(Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him stands
condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one
and only son."

According to that verse, even though I would continue to mess up,
because I believed in Jesus, and had surrendered my life to him, I
could no longer be condemned. Period. End of story. For the longest
time, my human mind couldn't process that simple truth. Who really
loves that way? Who can honestly look someone in the eye and say, "No
matter how you hurt me, no matter how your actions embarrass me, no
matter what you say about me, I will still love you. In me, there is
no condemnation."

Think I'm making this up? Check out what the Apostle Paul had to say
in Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit
of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

Kind of Resets your definition of love, doesn't it?

- Don

* Andy said that sometimes this truth is hard for us to accept
because we don't always see this type of absurd love modeled in our
families. Have you ever seen someone in your family model absurd
love? Tell me about it.

* In the Robb Bell video we watched Sunday, Robb said that the son
thinks, "I'm found out. I'm guilty." All the while, the Father is
saying, "There's nothing you could ever do that would make me love you
less." That may be one of the hardest truths in scripture to
understand. Have you ever had to come to terms with this truth in
your life? How?

Surrender...

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me". (Luke 9:23)

I'm not sure we truly understand the implications of this verse. I mean if we just read it we can't even understand it... To become a disciple means to learn to be like Jesus. That is a really simple definition to a really BIG ask... Because the second part of that verse asks us to "take up our cross daily and follow Him".

Our cross... What does that even mean? One of my commentaries makes this point; "To bear the cross means to accept the rejection of the world for turning to Jesus and following Him. Discipleship involves a death is like a crucifixion". Even that can be misunderstood, especially in our country, I mean we aren't "against/rejecting" Jesus so how does that apply to us?

The truth is following Jesus is living a life very different from the way our country attempts to have us live. We live in a "I want it now, I earned it, look out for yourself, etc" mentality. Yet Jesus asks us to put our selfish desires aside and seeking His desires.

I mentioned before that Discipleship involves a death like a crucifixion, which is often a slow death. This is why we need to make the decision daily to pick up our cross and follow the one who died for us. It shouldn't be a surprise that Jesus would ask the same of us. Because when we decide to die to ourselves, Jesus tells us that we can really start living...

The question is will you do it? Will you make the decision to seek God with all your heart, mind and soul? Will you seek him with everything you have? Because let's be honest we often do this for the things we want in life so why wouldn't we do it for the one who sacrificed it all for us?

Fair...

So if God is love how can He be unfair? It doesn't seem like those two things can co-exist. I mean we are raised to play fair or to play by the rules, but when we read the Gospel Luke we see that Jesus didn't play by the rules... I don't know about you but when I first connected with this truth I'm not sure I liked it, but after looking closer I sure am glad Jesus doesn't play by the rules.

What I learned was that my disbelief that Jesus doesn't play by the rules really comes from my "assumption" that He should. I know for me it is really easy to think what makes me feel good or what makes me happy is or should be true of my faith. I mean is it really to much to ask to treat people fairly? Isn't that all the other son wanted in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)?

My problem is typically when I read that story I identify myself with the lost son and I get great joy from that story, but what about the other son? What about the son who stayed and worked, the one who picked up the slack from the son who wanted all his money now only to squander the money... Then and only then did he realize that he had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go except to go back home and at best, in his mind, be a "hired servant".

Well the story takes a turn... The father sees his son and accepts him back, throws a party and allows his son back into the family like before. That is a beautiful picture of grace... See the son didn't deserve it, he squandered it all and his brother is the one who was "doing what was expected".

So who are you in the story? Are you the lost son squandering what you have or are you the son that is doing what you are "expected" to do? Either way Jesus tells us He loves us and He is extending grace to both. So if your to "good" son Jesus asks you to extend grace to your brother...

It isn't what he deserves, but is it what he needs... Sounds familiar doesn't it? It sounds a lot like what Jesus does for us... He gives us grace and accepts us into His family, His love is so great that He loves us right where we are... But He loves us enough not to leave us there.