This is the fifth and final devotional in a series on leadership written by Dave Paolozzi.  

Read slowly and prayerfully through this to see where God might be speaking to you today.  If you'd like to go back and reread any other devotional, please click:  Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4.


WEEK 5

Verse
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”


Attitude
Your attitude determines what kind of leader you will be. At 20 years old my daughter, Zoe, is a world traveler. She has gone on two different Youth With A Mission (YWAM) trips all around the world. On both trips she’s had pretty traumatic things happen. The first trip she lost all of her clothes when her suitcase was stolen. The second trip her fanny pack that had her cell phone and wallet was stolen. Both times she was devastated. Believe me, it was really hard. But what I love the most about her is she bounces back and has a good attitude. She finds a way deep inside to reconnect with that joy that the presence of God brings. “Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God.” - Sam Storms.

Trials and difficulties will come, but the question is, how are you going to deal with those and how are you going to bounce back? Life will still happen. All around you people will have trauma, you will have trauma, it’s inevitable. How you respond to these things is the kind of leader that you will be. If you can somehow find a way to bounce back, dig deep and find a good place to land, you’ll make it. You will be a leader for your lifetime.

You actually have the ability to control your attitude. It’s a matter of brain chemistry. Try an experiment sometime: I guarantee the more you think about negative things the more negative you will become. The more you think about positive things and positive outcomes the more positive you’ll become. The crazy thing is what’s deep inside of you will boil out and you’ll see what kind of person you are, either a negative person or a positive person. If you end up seeing that you’re a negative person then it’s time to do some inner work and figure out where that negativity comes from and deal with that positively.


Prayer
Lord, help me to be the type of person that has a positive impact on all those around me. The negative places that I go in dark times, will you be with those areas, will you change those areas, will you pull me out of those areas. Help the core of who I am be a positive person and a positive influence on all those around me.

We are continuing with the devotionals on leadership written by Dave Paolozzi.  Take the time to prayerfully read through this important series that helps distinguish great leadership.


WEEK 4

Verse
Exodus 33:14-16
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”


Presence
As a leader you need to see the big picture. What is God doing with not only yourself, but with those that you are leading?  The cost of leadership can be steep. If you lead people in a direction that you want to go and God isn't behind it, well let’s just say, that it won't end well. It never does. Learning to follow His presence is key to leading others into His presence.

Have you ever put a puzzle together? My Grandmother used to have a puzzle out all of the time. They were 1000 plus piece puzzles. There was no other way to do it but to look at the big picture. She always told me to stand back and get a feel for the puzzle before you dive in and look for individual pieces. She was a true master. Just like the master puzzler, the presence of God needs to show us the big picture before we start to put the pieces together. That way we can build off of the previous piece. Learning to let the presence of God lead you takes time and practice.

Moses understood what was at risk if the presence of God did not go with him. He understood that if the presence didn’t go then it was not a trip that they wanted to take. Likewise, our daily lives, our ministries, the way we lead people, needs to have the aspect that if Jesus or the Spirit of Jesus doesn’t go with us we don’t want to be a part of that.


Prayer
Jesus, be with us, guide us, show us what it means to walk in your presence. Show us what it means to lead people into your presence and into a future that is right for them. Give us the patience, the endurance, the fortitude to learn to walk in your presence.


Find previous weeks by clicking:  Week 1, Week 2, Week 3.

This is part of a series of devotionals on leadership written by Dave Paolozzi.  Dig in and discover more about the shape of leadership in the Kingdom of God.  

In case you missed it, here are the other blogs in this series - Week 1 and Week 2


WEEK 3

Verse
James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

Thoughts on...

Listening 
Being a leader is so much more than just leading. Being a leader means you are hearing from God, following Him for yourself, and calling others to follow you. It also means listening to those around you. The spirit of God speaks in 3 primary ways: 1. Through the Bible.  2. Through others.  3. Directly.  To be a good leader we need to learn to hear God through all three ways. 

Speaking
Our words have the power of life and death. Our words can build up or tear down people. Learning to be slow to speak doesn’t mean slowing down your speech like Dory in “Finding Nemo”. It means being careful of your words; choosing your words before saying them. This is hardest and most important when you are angry or excited. However, these are the moments that are most important. People will be watching in these moments to see what kind of leader you are. In the most anxious of times, will you build people up or tear them down?

Anger
Being a leader means working with people. Working with people often means getting frustrated or angry at them. One of the ways to temper your anger is to dig into your personality and truly understand yourself. This can help you find what triggers you. In return, you can stay on top of those inner personality conflicts. This can be a big deal especially during moments of stress or anxiety.


Prayer
Jesus, help us to be slow to speak, quick to listen and slow to anger. Let these things give you glory. Let our lives represent your character. Develop us as leaders and put into us the characteristics of Your kingdom.

This is part of a series of devotionals on leadership written by Dave Paolozzi.  We often think of leadership in a more authoritative way, or assume that only the pastor is a leader.  Here at TMV, we believe leaders are people committed to this church and influencing the community around them. Therefore, this blog series is not only for paid religious professionals, but for anyone with a desire to grow in the area of leadership.

Take the time each week to read and reflect on the devotional.  You will discover more about the shape of leadership in the Kingdom of God through this series.
(Week 1 can be found HERE)


WEEK 2

Verse
1 Corinthians 11:1 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Thoughts on Leading by Example
People will watch you and imitate you. They will see what you do, the good and the bad. People are watching to see if what you say lines up with your actions. People really want to know what kind of person you are. Are you going to be worth following? Be patient, trust takes time to gain and seconds to lose. In order to be a good leader you have to be a good follower. Ultimately, Jesus is the One you are following. He is the One you need to have your eyes on.

There are two types of leaders: managers and visionaries. Managers are great at keeping everyone on task. They keep the goals out in front of everyone so that everyone is working towards the same target. When a problem or issue arises managers fall back on protocol. Seldom do they stray from the big picture plan. For the manager it's much easier to take people to a place that you have been before. Visionaries are the ones that often set the direction. They point in the direction and say “let’s go over there!” They tend to think outside the box. When a situation comes up they initiate a new way of tackling the obstacle. For the visionary it’s much easier to long for a place people have not been before. Both types of leaders have to be excellent followers. 

Paul was quite confident in his ability to have others follow his example. He distinctly knew that he would be a consistent and good follower of Christ. I believe that Paul was a visionary. He could see where Jesus was leading him and he longed to go. 

Prayer
Jesus, as we learn to follow you, help us to lead those around us by example. Help us to understand our role as a leader, and lead in the way you have given us.

This is the first in a series of devotionals on leadership written by Dave Paolozzi.  We often think of leadership in a more authoritative way, or assume that only the pastor is a leader.  Here at TMV, we believe leaders are people committed to this church and influencing the community around them. Therefore, this blog series is not only for paid religious professionals, but for anyone with a desire to grow in the area of leadership.

Take the time each week to read and reflect on the devotional.  God just might be growing each of us in and through this important series.


WEEK 1

Verse
John 13:2-17 “The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Thoughts on Servant leadership 
Our core motivations tend to direct us towards what we do. If you are hungry for leadership, hungry to have power, hungry to have others look to you as the one in charge, then I want to challenge you to look at your core motivations and compare those to Jesus’s example above. Do they line up? If people are not interested in serving in the simplest of ways, then they are not ready to lead.

By using Jesus’s example we see a leader as the servant of all. Are you ready to serve all those around you? Don’t worry, not many people are ready for that. Take a look around. Are there simple ways you can serve your family, friends, neighbors, or the local church? These are the areas where you should start your journey towards leadership. The funny thing is you will develop relationships, respect, authority, basically all the things you need in order to lead well. But, it takes time and a heart's desire to serve others. True leadership in the end is about serving Jesus and His people.

The very first place I volunteered in was set up and tear down at the church I went to. I was big and strong so I fit the part well. After a few months of the church getting to know me, they invited me on the worship team. After a few more months they invited me to help lead the youth group. That's just kinda how things work. So, I encourage you to jump in and find a place that fits you. Begin to serve and leadership will be given as it is appropriate.

End prayer
Jesus, help me to be a servant. Guide me to serve in my community. Show me what it means to serve as you served.

By Jill Tatge

When was the last time you truly admired something beautiful?  As in actually taking the time to appreciate whatever it was – your child’s laugh, the sunset, a bird – and praised God for it.  I started wondering about this after reading Philippians 4:8 as part of a devotional recently.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

For me, so often things just fade into the background or become mundane and ordinary. I don’t normally appreciate the beauty of the scenery as I’m driving or notice my neighbor’s flower garden on a walk.  If I do, it is usually a quick and passing thought.  I certainly don’t take the time to think about such things.

Reading this verse reminded me of a few years ago when my friend told me about an exercise she does.  She chooses a color each day and tries to find something that is the color.  She said it gets her out of her head and makes her pay attention to her surroundings all throughout the day.  I loved that idea and started doing it myself.  I gave each day of the week a different color.  Working through the rainbow, each day had an assigned color, with Monday being red to Saturday being purple and then Sunday was black/white/gray.  Since I also enjoy photography, I took a picture each day of whatever I found.  

I was amazed at what I would notice!  Different shades of green would pop out to me every Thursday, or whatever color it was that day.  It became this fun scavenger hunt that made me more aware of the beauty all around.  

One yellow day I walked out my door and saw that a bush I had walked past dozens and dozens of times had yellow on the leaves.  I had never given that bush a thought and probably always assumed it was only green.  Since I was actively looking for yellow, I finally saw the beauty of the bush that was in my own yard.  

When I went for a hike this past weekend, instead of rushing to my destination and constantly watching the ground to see where my next step would go, I took frequent stops to appreciate the views, junipers, even the rocks along the path.  As I did this I saw a kind of bird I have never seen before.  (I’m not 100% certain, but from my google searches I believe it was a yellow-breasted chat).  I may not have gone a great distance on this hike, but I appreciated everything I noticed, admired it’s beauty, and thanked God for creating such loveliness for us.

As I slow down and pay attention, my stress levels all but disappear and I feel calm and at peace.  I feel closer to God and allow the space to actually listen as He speaks to me.  Personally, I need to consciously make the time for this to happen or the day will pass without a thought and the beauty all around me fades into the background.  

How will you slow down and admire God’s creation today?  Will you look for beauty in animals, a specific color, your family?  

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

By Michelle Desmond

When I first began taking following Jesus seriously, He would impress upon me to do uncomfortable things. It started small, such as, telling a homeless man how much Jesus loved him as I handed him a hamburger. One time, I felt led to pull over next to a young man walking up the street and give him $20. I was to tell him it was from Jesus. However, nothing compares or will EVER compare to what Jesus asked me to do five or so years ago. I was asked to tell my abortion story at the Family Life Pregnancy Center (FLPC) fundraising banquet.

I had been telling Saundra Galloway, our Associate Pastor now retired, about a teen that was contemplating abortion. Her father was putting severe pressure on her to end the pregnancy. I admitted to her that I had had an abortion at 18 in 1980 and I was able to relate to the teen how I had felt afterwards once the relief I had initially felt faded. I had never told anyone about it. When I met Jesus, I was made clean and forgiven. End of the story. Except, it wasn’t.

Saundra encouraged me to take a bible study at the FLPC that is specifically for healing from having an abortion. It was 9 weeks of emotional and spiritual healing that I never thought I needed. I believe this is what Jesus was waiting for. Now I was ready for my terrible secret to be redeemed. A few months later, Kim Nixon, the former Director of the FLPC asked if I would give my testimony at the annual banquet. In. Front. Of. 350. People. All of them from various churches in town including my church. Not only many of my TMV family would be there but David Parker, our senior pastor at the time, was doing the message at the banquet. Oh, I told her I would pray about it, but that was a lie. I knew I wouldn’t do it. There was absolutely no way I would tell my story to a bunch of Christians! There was no way I would tell my family ahead of time in case someone they knew was at the event. No way. Period.

I had every excuse ready to give. They would judge me. It would cast a bad light on the church since I was working in the office. I wouldn’t be able to face anyone afterwards. I would not know how to tell my story. I don’t have the right words. On and on the excuses rolled through my head. I went to bed practicing my “no” to Kim. Even as I was formulating my answer, I felt God had another plan. In the back of my mind, I knew He wanted me to do it.

I fell asleep with firm conviction that I would not be that transparent of a Christian. I had a dream. In this dream, I was in front of a roomful of people giving my testimony. I woke up actually saying the words. My mind was full of the words I would use. I got out of bed and wrote down my story. It was all ready to go. I prayed to be let off the hook. However, I realized that the fear of being obedient to what Jesus wanted me to do was the uncomfortable task of humbling myself in front of all those church goers. Humbling. Oh so humbling.

The most amazing thing happened that night at the banquet. I got up when my name was called. I walked up to the podium and delivered the words that Jesus had given me in my dream. I believe He gave them to me. I believe He gave me the strength to say them. In return, He has blessed me more than I thought would be possible. I have been able to share my story with other young girls on the brink of a fateful decision. I have even been able to talk with other women who have had an abortion and tell them that there is healing and the life of that baby is not wasted.  I feel my story is a useful tool in the Kingdom of God.

Every time I am led to step out of my comfort zone, I remember that banquet. If I could do THAT, I can ask a stranger if they need prayer or whatever else comes along the way. Jesus does empower all of us to do the uncomfortable and even the seemingly impossible.

By Kathy Burns

Back in the 80’s I heard a radio interview about the importance of hobbies. They said it’s important for your mental health to have a hobby while you’re working and that it’s important for a happy retirement life as well. In choosing a good hobby, they said that you should look for one that you are somewhat proficient at, so that you stick with it, but also look for one that you will never actually master, so it leaves you endless room for growth. Research shows that having a hobby can provide one with the psychological benefit of having purpose, a reason for living. In 2020, many lost the daily structure that working had created for them, much as what happens when folks retire, and countless articles and blogs sprung up about hobbies.

My ex-husband and I differed on many things, one of them was hobbies. He had none and I had too many, or at least that’s what he thought.

I’d majored in painting, but never pursued making a living with it after college. And although I had been told by my professors that I was talented, I suffered with poor self-esteem and the thought of walking into a gallery with my portfolio seeking representation terrified me. I never even tried. I ended up in sales in NYC and painted as a hobby.

Over the next four decades I stuck with that hobby and added a few more. My active hobbies like running, skiing and ballet had the added benefit of endorphins, which combated my tendency towards depression. My sedentary hobbies, like painting and reading had the added benefit of temporarily taking my mind off my problems in life, giving my tendency to worry a break.

Running eventually faded due to injuries, and my love of skiing died when I tore my ACL. I replaced them both with horseback riding, something I had done as a child and something that one of my children became involved with. What I loved most about it was going out on the trail and being in nature on a thousand pound animal, Dreamy, that I quickly fell in love with. I had always been a city girl, and nature was a new experience to me. Trail riding (and painting) became my life line as my marriage fell apart.

In 2013 I loaded up my horses and set off to ride and paint in all the lower 48 states trying to “find myself”. To my surprise, I found God during the grueling, painful journey. I reconnected with Him through worship music on the radio and a “God Songs” CD that my daughter had given me, through the magnificence of the wilderness and through Christian women that I met in campgrounds who encouraged, helped, fed and prayed for me. I was baptized about half way through the journey. I was 60 years old and life started finally making sense to me. I thought about how much time I had wasted wandering around blind all those years.

So I guess you could say that my hobbies set the stage for me to find God. In hindsight, I believe that God planted these interests in me. He gave me talents which led to my hobbies. Today I ride with worship music playing and it never fails to inspire me. I paint with worship music on too, and for the first time since I started painting I have begun to sell my work. He also revealed to me a new hobby, writing, with my first project being the story of my horse-camping journey which is really all about my reconnecting with God and the restoration that He performed in my mind. God has woven His way into every aspect of my life, enriching it all and for that I am eternally grateful.

2020 was the most awe inspiring year of my life, my hobbies kept me sane and my faith kept me grounded. For the first time, I had faith in the storm, something that I had strived for ever since being saved. And Lord knows how badly I needed that when a family crisis hit in March. If God hadn’t called my name back in 2014, I couldn’t have overcome my fear and grief. But He did, and this enabled me to guide my child, who was miraculously healed right before my eyes. And just so you know that I’m not exaggerating, the doctor also calls it a miracle. And it all started one day when we were watching church on tv because everything was shut down. Out of the corner of my eye, during the alter call, I saw my child raise his hand.

Let me tell you, I know this is truth, God can do anything, and I will praise His name forever.

By Nigel Morris

Be warned! I’m going to write about one of my favorite topics – Drums and Percussion! I’ve been playing both in a wide variety of settings for nearly sixty years at this point in my life.  I love to play pretty much anything! I’ll let you into a secret – everything makes a sound if you hit it!  Consequently, I’ve made all kinds of sounds utilizing all kinds of “interesting” objects over the years: trash cans, parts of cars, plastic buckets. You name it, I’ve played it!

Most drummers I know, as a standard part of their equipment carry what is called a “stick bag.” It’s literally a kind of bag/pouch with different compartments where you store the often-varied collection of drum sticks and beaters considered to be pretty much essential tools of the trade for a drummer’s craft.  On a standard drum kit the bag itself is usually hung on one of the nearby drums so as to be readily available to the player during the course of a performance. Super handy too if you drop a stick, all you have to do is reach down and quickly grab another.

During the years I’ve been playing, the actual art of manufacturing drums has become progressively sophisticated, not to mention expensive, especially the cost of higher-end instruments. The options for today’s drummer regarding the choice of different materials used in the production of a drum kit are mind boggling.  Along with the advances in drum set manufacture, the production of drum sticks has equally advanced. If you’re so inclined, you may purchase a hand matched, perfectly balanced pair of sticks made from the same piece of wood and “tuned” to the same pitch!

And so, as with many other things these days, if you believe the manufacturers blurb about their drums and drumsticks, it would seem that all you need to do is to purchase this particular drum set and use this certain brand of sticks to have instant success.  That will surely fast track you into sounding just like your favorite drumming hero!
 
Except, it doesn’t work like that!  Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to drumming than just hitting stuff! Along with the practice involved in developing proficiency, there’s also the cultivation of something which is often sadly neglected.  That something is called “touch.”  It makes a world of difference to the overall sound one produces and draws out of the instrument.  All great players on any instrument possess a sense of touch which is unique to them.

For instance, take three excellent pianists.  Each one can sit at the same piano and play the same piece of music and yet the sound produced is different for each, why? Because each of them have their own distinctive “touch.”  It’s the fundamental connection between the musician and their instrument! Their personal connection with the keyboard or any other instrument you care to mention.

I am not saying the quality of the instrument doesn’t matter, it does, but not nearly so much as manufacturers would have you believe. Believe me, if you could hear someone who can really play a triangle properly it would blow you away!  So, for me, the “sound” of the drums is not so much in the drums themselves or even in the sticks, but in the hands of the person playing.

If you’re still with me – let’s review some basics!
Drumsticks are obviously made to strike drums.  That’s why they exist, solely to serve the player’s purpose and to act as an extension of the performers hands.  But beyond that, to also express something far deeper, call it the performers “heart” if you will, it’s a question of touch and feel!

The only thing a stick has to “do” then is to be available, to be in the bag and accessible should the player require it.

If you could look inside my stick bag, you’d find a really, shall I say, interesting assortment of sticks. There are mismatched pairs, old broken sticks for obtaining special effects, as well as other beaters of odd sizes.  Unusual to say the least, but necessary for me to obtain the effects I hear and want to reproduce.
 
In the hands of any drummer who knows what they’re doing, what at first may look like a somewhat random collection, become in reality tools that produce beautiful sounds as they strike the drum or cymbal or whatever.  In fact, for my purposes it is only by using such a motley array of old sticks and beaters that I can reproduce the unique sounds and effects I love.

All that to arrive at this simple analogy:

We’re not so different from the motley collection of sticks in my stick bag if you think about it, are we?  Odd shapes, odd sizes, a somewhat quirky bunch if we’re honest.  All gathered together in this “stick bag of faith” known as the church!!  Many of us were broken, tossed aside, passed over, and consequently as a result felt pretty disqualified to be of any real use to anyone.  An interesting assortment of people to say the least.

Until! When we become available to and for THE MASTER something amazing takes place. It no longer matters what we look like, or whether we’ve got it all together. All that matters is that we have been personally selected by Him and chosen for His purposes.

And if you’ll allow me to stretch the analogy:
 
He reaches down into the “stick bag of faith” and uses us as extensions of His hands and heart.  Under the MASTER’S touch we are transformed!  Beautiful expressions of His great love and mercy for others.  The heartbeat of a truly different drummer!

By Jill Tatge

All four of my grandparents were an integral part of my faith journey.  Each in their own way helped me cultivate a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus.  Teaching me to pray, how to love and care for others, and discussing questions I had, were all a part of my relationships with my grandparents.  

My one Grandma had always wanted to be a teacher, so would come up with fun and interactive lessons for my brother and I.  We often didn’t realize we were being taught anything.  However, there was one day when I was in fourth grade that Grandma decided I needed to start memorizing scripture.  She had already helped me memorize things, such as The Lord’s Prayer, but I wasn’t overly excited about this new task. (Yes, I do know The Lord’s Prayer is in the Bible, but didn’t at the time!)  I fought every step of the way as she showed me various techniques for memorization, and broke down Psalm 23 into bite sized sections.  After some significant complaining, Grandma said I could pick whatever verse I wanted and work on memorizing that instead.  

I instantaneously knew what verse I needed to find.  It was somewhat of an urban legend, this verse that my uncle told me about.  Could it be true that there was a Bible verse that was only two short words?  I scoured the Bible, believing it was somewhere in the Gospels, but couldn’t quite remember.  I kept reading and searching as my Grandma went about her day’s household chores.  I don’t know how much time passed, but it was a good chunk of time.  Then, finally, I found what I was looking for.  I stood up proudly and said, “Jesus wept.  John 11:35.”  My Grandma smiled and nodded her head. Without taking any chances, I quickly closed the Bible and ran to the play room, certain I had outsmarted her.  

As an adult, I remember this interaction very fondly.  Grandma knew exactly what she was doing.  She never intended her lesson plans to be burdensome or become works-based.  All she ever wanted was for me to be familiar with the Word.  I am sure that day I spent more time feverishly reading the Bible in search of John 11:35 than I ever would have if I had actually tried to memorize the first two verses of Psalm 23.  

Now I read this short, yet powerful, verse very differently than I did that day when I was 10.  I see it in the context of Jesus being human and so relatable as he mourned the loss of his dear friend.  He wept. I find it comforting that Jesus wasn’t afraid or ashamed to express his emotions.  He reacted how you or I would react:  He wept. It shows me that emotions aren’t the enemy, but instead authenticity is what Jesus modeled as He wept.

This verse also reminds me that I don’t have to read large quantities at once.  The Bible can become overwhelming if you look at the sheer size of it, but God speaks through each word in it.  I don’t need to read the entirety of the book of John straight through in order for God to speak to me.  I can sit with two words and have a meaningful experience with Jesus.  

John 11:35 became more significant for me as a young adult after Grandma died.  I have wept as I read those words, knowing Jesus is with me as I mourn her. I treasure everything I learned from all of my grandparents through their loving guidance.  Reading the Bible builds my relationship with Jesus, at times reminds me of these happy memories, and lets me know that God is with me through it all.  

By Nichole Hamblin

Reading the Bible and being able to extract help, guidance, and information can be overwhelming, challenging and truly intimidating. Or at least I think so.  There have been so many times over the years I have read a verse, a chapter, or even a story out of my Bible and sat there thinking how in the world does this apply to me?  What am I supposed to get from this?  Can anyone else relate?  There are a few things I have tried over the years that I find to be super helpful when reading the Bible.  

First, I start by reminding myself that the One who wrote it is there with me.  I ask the Holy Spirit to make me aware of the Presence of God with me.  I also ask for them to speak loud and clear and in terms I will understand.

Then I read:

And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV)

This just happens to be one of my most favorite verses in the entire Bible. I have attached myself closely to these words, the truth, the love, the passion in this verse over the years. I visit it often because it reminds me of who God is, who I am and what my purpose is.

After reading the verse I ask questions about the verse, most of the time my journal is close by and I will write down some of these questions:

What does it mean that ‘He died for all’?

What exactly was the purpose/reason/point of Jesus dying?

How do we live our lives for Jesus?

Living for Jesus seems difficult, hard, time consuming, overwhelming, scary, weird.
 
What does it look like daily to live for Jesus?

How do we live for Jesus in a world that does not accommodate for it?


Sometimes I will read the same verse in different translations.  With each of the different translations there are words that stick out to me, or it’s worded in a way that brings something new to mind.  With the different translations I may ask new questions or understand it on a deeper level.

My favorite translation of this verse is from The Message:

One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. 2 Corinthians 5:15

The Message uses different words, so it helps me to get a different feel for what the writer is trying to say or helps to put a different visual in my head. In this translation they refer to Jesus as ‘one man’ which reminds me that He, Jesus, the Son of God, was also a man, 100% human like me.  That this man, Jesus, died.  Died on purpose.  He chose to commit fully to the Father’s plan for His life.  It goes on to tell us that this man died for ‘everyone’, this is all inclusive.  Everyone is everyone, no one is left out. Everyone qualifies.

The verse goes on to say that ‘everyone is in the same boat’, we are alike.  How are we alike?  We are all, because of sin, separated from our Creator. This separation is not God’s intent for us, His created people, those He created for relationship with Him.  So, God the Father sent His Son Jesus to die a death of redemption so we His people could be put back in right relationship with Him. Jesus, the redeemer, restores our relationship, brings us back into connection, with our God. When Jesus died, it was for every one of us, and in His death, He paid for all our past sins, current mess, and future chaos.  He took care of it all.   He included us in His death so we could be included in His life.  That right there is the best news we will ever read.  Life changing!  

‘A resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.'
 
A far better life that I will ever achieve on my own.  Who does not want a ‘far better life’?  One beyond our dream/imaginations.  In current time we are hit with social media, commercials, life coaches telling us we can achieve the life of our dreams, we can make it all happen.  But what if that isn’t the case?  What if this were only possible inside a relationship with Jesus?

I want to know more about how this new life looks.

How will my day-to-day life look and feel?

I read this same verse in the New Living Translation:

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 2 Corinthians 5:15

Do I live for myself?  Do I put my desires, my needs, my wants, my comforts, my opinions first?

I pause and ask Jesus to speak,

Help me to listen. Help me to hear You.  Help me to know that this new life that You Jesus died for me to have is full of great things. Great experiences, great joy, great freedom, peace, love, mercy, forgiveness.  Help me to experience it fully with You.  Help me to learn each day what it feels like to live with and for You.  Help me to remain humble, surrendered, and teachable. Thank You for Your enduring love that leads me step by step in this new life.  I love You Jesus, Amen.

By Michelle Desmond

“He (God) reached down from on high and took hold of me;
He drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
From my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster, 
But the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place,
He rescued me because He delighted in me.”
Psalm 18:16-19

I have a deep-seated fear of drowning. I panic easily when I am in the water especially with others. Just the thought of water crashing over me fills me with anxiety, even as I type this. I think this is the reason this particular verse speaks to my heart. I have a fear of physical drowning in water, but for a large swath of my life I was spiritually drowning in guilt and shame.

Feeling guilty was such a part of me that I didn’t realize it is pretty much a useless emotion unless it prompts you to change. Guilt was the air that I breathed. I felt guilty about everything. If I was happy, I felt guilty when others weren’t. If I was sad, I felt guilty that I was not happy!  I won’t even get started about how guilty I felt if I became angry.  The feelings of guilt threatened to splash onto my face, hardly giving me a chance to catch a breath. Until I met Jesus.

I truly felt as if a life-preserver had been thrown to me. During worship at a very small Calvary Chapel, instead of the wave of guilt engulfing me, I was pulled out of the deep water of guilt. For the first time I felt the presence of Jesus wash over me. I knew I was clean and forgiven. I knew that the things I did need to feel guilty over were taken care of by Jesus. Suddenly, scriptures such as Psalm 103: 11-12 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” began to make sense to my heart. My head always knew it but after this encounter with the Holy Spirit, my heart now understood. However, my foes had other plans and shame has a way of sticking to you.

Shame. My powerful foes (unseen but very real) used all at their disposal to draw me back into the water. Memories came unbidden to my mind at the most inopportune times. It was almost paralyzing. Thoughts, such as, “You don’t really believe you are off the hook do you?” or “So, you think you are done paying the price?”, and more often than not, “Oh, you may be saved and all that but you have disqualified yourself from doing anything good.”  Jesus has a way of putting people and events into my life to help me. Leaning on friends that have worked through shame helped tremendously.  I was in a Bible study that focused on healing from shame that brought home the truth that the Lord supports me. He is on my side and by my side to bring me through. Jesus lifted me out of the muck and mire of shame and set my feet on the solid rock that is Him.  Psalm 40:2-4 “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

God, through His word and His Spirit, has rescued me. He is my anchor in the storm and  He rescued me not because He pities me but because He delights in me. Me! I can hardly wrap my mind around it. The King of the Universe is delighted by me in spite of what I have done or not done. I’m still getting this reality to sink way down into my inner self. In the words of Zephaniah:
“The Lord your God is with you,
   the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
   in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
   but will rejoice over you with singing.” 
Zephaniah 3:17

Rescued, delighted in, and rejoiced over with singing...guilt and shame are seriously eclipsed.

By Dave Paolozzi

What is the first thing that comes to your mind in the morning when you get out of bed? If you are anything like me it is I have to go to the bathroom, or I am hungry, or I have to do….. It's all self focused though, right? We just automatically think of our needs. Now I am not saying that is wrong, I am just pointing it out. I think recognizing our propensities is the first step in changing our ways.
 
Philippians 2:3 - “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others more important than yourself.”

What I love most about this passage is it teaches us to actively look for ways to put others' needs ahead of our own needs, wants, and desires. For some that is not an easy task. Why though? We live in a world that is so full of hate and opinions that living selflessly speaks louder than those hates. Actions speak louder than words. Billy Graham once said, “I preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary I use words.”

From a young age we have been taught by our loving parents that our (the individual) needs are super important. When I was a baby I needed my mom to change my diaper and feed me. Now that I'm older I can do those things myself, (No I don't need a diaper anymore) but has the focus changed? Am I still the center of the world? A test can be when I don't get something that I want, how do I respond? Am I angry? Sad? etc…  Even though it feels like we are the center of life, there is so much more going on around us. Life isn't all about us and our wants and desires.

Put your finger on your nose. Repeat after me. “It's not all about me.” Come on, say it out loud.

Imagine a world where everyone looks out for the needs of others. The passage says “consider others more important than yourself.” Is that the kind of world we currently live in? Not at all. The world is a consumeristic society. A consumerist society is one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources, and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist society is consumption is good and more consumption is even better. The United States is an example of a hyper-consumerist society. It's self focused to get all you can get. Do you remember the slogan, “have it your way”? This is how we live life. I go to the coffee shop and I can order a Venti, non-fat, no foam, triple half caf, two splenda latte. It is how I roll. It's how we all roll, but do you see the problem here? It's hard to look out for other people when we live in constant consumption of products for ourselves.

Here are a few thoughts:

How often do you do something for someone without trying to get something out of it for yourself?

Is it healthy to be in constant consumption?

Try to find one thing per day to do for someone else that would be helpful. How about cleaning the house? Vacuum, do the dishes, or not complain? Maybe speak something positive to someone, wear your mask, check on a neighbor or pay for the person’s coffee behind you. These are all things we might not naturally do or not even want to do, but it is looking at other’s interests instead of your own. Try to do these helpful things in secret. Don't let anyone know that you did it to help take the focus off of yourself.
 
Take a few seconds and let the holy spirit talk to you. Are there any areas when you have made life all about you? Are you feeling frustrated because things are not going the way you want them? Give those things over to Him.

By Steve Hamblin

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21 NIV

Long before The Mandalorian made the phrase “this is the way” popular, this particular verse has been a special one for our family.  If you have not seen The Mandalorian (you should), it’s a short expression of one particular warrior tribe that sums up their discipline, choosing the right path that may not be the easiest path, and their solidarity in their cause.    

About 15 years ago when our boys were very young, a great opportunity arose that would change a lot of things if we accepted.  It would mean moving away from family, leaving behind a church we just helped plant, great friends, a good job, and the stability of the known.  The challenge in the decision wasn’t that one choice was bad, and the other was good.  The choice was challenging in that both options were great and we wanted to ensure our decision was lining up with God’s direction.  Choosing between good and bad isn’t too hard - it’s choosing between good and good, or good and great that makes it tough.
 
We shared the decision process with family and close friends, and one friend in particular brought this verse to us:  
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

This verse was a great confirmation to us - not that it gave us a particular decision, but let us know that either way, God was with it!  Sounds so simple, but it was a defining moment for us.  I can still see the bright emotion and encouragement in the person’s eyes who told us this verse.  This encouragement was much like a parent lovingly nudging a timid or unsure child on to new and wonderful things - they know that the fear or uncertainty of the unknown holds some fantastic unveiling of God’s awesome creation.    

This decision, and others to follow, led to things like earning my pilot’s license, buying and selling homes, being involved in church worship and leadership, having our family make amazing friends in multiple cities, states, countries, and even to living on the other side of the globe for some time.  We experienced amazing new things, new and different churches, and places that we never would have ventured to had we not taken those initial steps.

Is it possible to make poor decisions?  Of course; I know I’ve made plenty.  However, I’m assured in the fact that I can’t outrun God’s grace and love in my life and he’s right there with me.

So as you face the thousands of decisions that come to you in life, know that you have a loving Father who encourages you, walks alongside you, loves you, and will be there with you regardless.  This is the way!  

By Jill Tatge

The pandemic has affected each and every one of us.  Since hitting the stay-at-home-order anniversary, I have been reflecting on this past year.  Along with the rest of the country, I spent March of 2020 trying to educate myself and be as safe as possible, believing this would all be over within a short amount of time.  As the weeks went by, I started noticing how people in my life were struggling with isolation and loneliness, yet I was handling it well. In no way do I mean to diminish the widespread devastation of this pandemic, but am recalling my own personal experience.

I tried to offer my support to friends and family as best as I could, which meant many video chats, phone calls, emails, and texts.  By May I was conscious of how expansive my social life had become.  I was talking with old friends I normally only correspond with at Christmas, making deeper connections with new friends, taking online classes and webinars, and leading a Bible Study online.  My calendar was filled to the brim and I was loving it!  

Life was good.  I was feeling connected and heard in ways I had never experienced before.  You see, I have chronic illness.  Ever since I was 15 years old, I have dealt with life-altering and sometimes debilitating health issues.  Staying at home in bed for weeks at a time with no contact to the outside world, aside from phone calls with my mom, is just a part of my life.  Up until COVID happened, very few people really understood what it is like to be stuck at home for any length of time.  Then suddenly, we were all stuck.  For the very first time, everyone was in the same boat as me.  We were all at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go, may as well connect with one another!  

As I’ve talked to others with chronic illnesses, I’ve heard of similar circumstances.  We all had a pretty good 2020.  Some of us, including myself, would even say we were doing so well we were thriving! I have heard many stories of chronically ill and/or disabled people who have vastly increased their productivity while working from home. Not having to waste precious energy getting ready and traveling to an office or workplace has meant that energy can be put towards the actual work they were hired to do.  Having regular human interaction, conversations with friends old and new, and not having to worry about over-exerting ourselves while being physically active out in public meant we were doing better mentally as well.  

However, now things are starting to open back up again.  People are going back to work and school in person and getting together in real life.  I hear complaints about not wanting to do another stupid video chat.  Texts and emails have stopped being replied to and the phone goes to voicemail because so many are getting back to being too busy doing things in person.  Once again, those of us who don’t have the luxury of health are being left behind.  If you have been fortunate enough to be “getting back to normal” lately, please take the time to think about the people in your life for whom “normal life” means being at home alone. According to nationalhealthcouncil.org, nearly 81 million Americans suffer from multiple chronic illnesses.  The severity and how it affects their daily lives will vary, but that means we all know and love someone who, more than likely, suffers in silence.  

When reading this, it may be easy to feel pity for me or others with chronic illness. Pity doesn't help, it only creates more separation – a group of healthy people over here and a group of people over there whom we feel sorry for because they’re unhealthy. Walking TOGETHER, side by side with our brothers and sisters is what is truly desired, and fosters biblical love and compassion. Being treated as a normal person, but having my limitations respected when I realize I've reached them is my greatest aspiration. Not pity, not making decisions for us, not being forgotten about, but love and understanding.  Loving our neighbors can be easy when we can go out and have fun together.  Yet how can we love our neighbors who don’t have that ability?

Here are some simple ideas for how you can show support for our chronically ill and disabled brothers and sisters:

- Set a reminder in your phone or calendar to reach out regularly.  Do what is right for your relationship, whether that’s once a week, month, or every-other-week. Getting a text on a random Tuesday afternoon will brighten their day!

- Send them a card.  An actual physical in the mail card.  It can be something silly.  It can be heartfelt.   A cousin and I send obscure holiday cards to each other.  Arbor Day is coming up on April 30th, just sayin!

- Don’t complain about video chats!  These are often a lifeline to us and the only human social interaction we have.  Instead, schedule a monthly date to have one.  It doesn’t have to be a 2-hour marathon, a 10 minute check-in is fantastic and can be manageable even on bad health days.

- Personally, I still love doing the through-the-front-window chats with friends.  Don’t forget that some of us are high-risk and still not able to be out in public, but as we learned over the last year, that doesn’t stop you from dropping off some food or waving to us through the window.

- Watch a TV show or movie at the same time and text during the commercials.  As a teenager, way back before streaming and DVRs, I had a friend who would come over each week and we’d watch our favorite TV show together.  It was the highlight of my week.  Adapting that idea to today’s technology is a fun way to interact and connect.  

- Make a note of when they have a doctor’s appointment and ask them how it went.  Respect if they don’t want to go into details, but let them talk if they want.  Most appointments are simple and routine, but it is really nice when someone remembers.

- Share the links to online services, groups, or blogs.  I am thankful for TMV continuing to have online options for services and small groups. Not all churches were able to transition online or have gone back to fully in person only.

As you can see, each time we interact doesn’t have to be some epic amount of time or effort.  Text that funny meme you found.  Send a picture of the view you had on your hike.  Forward the recipe you tried last night that was good enough to make again.  Simple exchanges are manageable for both people and can have a huge impact, especially when it’s the only interaction you have that day.  Expressing pity or giving unsolicited medical advice is never the way to go, but having an honest, caring relationship with someone who happens to have chronic illness is a wonderful thing for all involved.  The last year has been challenging, devastating, and impacted our lives negatively.  At the same time, we have learned to come together to support one another in ways we hadn’t realized were possible.  Let us not let go of that sense of community and instead continue to build from it, doing life together.  

by Jim Fredericks
Website: JimFredericks.Com

Tap into your memory bank. When you finish reading this paragraph. Close your eyes and imagine. Draw from the sounds and feel of a time when you were completely accepted by a person, without reservations, not for what you could contribute or give but simply for who you are. Linger in it for a bit.

How was it?

Now, I want to shout to you. On your good days and on your bad days, this is a small taste of how the Father, Son and Spirit feel about you. They are “for” you…always. Paint this picture over any false pictures of God in your memories. God has fashioned and re-created each and every one of His people to abide in this initiating first-love in divine interconnectedness.

I know of no greater thought than God’s initiating love toward me!

Do you know Jesus personally through faith in Him? Then you have been drawn into the presence of this Community-of-Three to experience the same co-love with which the Father loves His Son. Yes, the same love the Father has for Jesus is the same love He has for us. Have you read over John 17:25 too quickly in the past without His words settling deeply in? His first-love draws us close, whether our minds grasp this or not. This is Reality, whether we feel waves of the tingles of His love or feel nothing. Are our hearts open for such an extravagant love?

“The living God…draws near to us to draw us near to himself within the circle of his knowing and loving of himself” (Darrell W. Johnson, Experiencing the Trinity).

God initiates; we respond by partnering with the Spirit. God draws and invites us into communion without boundaries because of His great yearning for us. We must respond to open our heart by faith. Embrace our heritage that the Father draws us toward.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (Jesus in John 6:44).

The Good News shouts to me: “I don’t have to respond tomorrow in the same way I did today!” Live loved. Always begin with His passion for us. This is prior to our passion for Him. This Community-God (Father, Son and Spirit) always awaits the chance to give us days of joyful intimacy with Him. Transformation is in the air when we authentically come to know God’s initiating love. Our confidence and vulnerability flow out of the freedom of genuine friendship with the Community-God (John 15:15).

How often, though, do we respond and scatter His Sabbath-rest throughout our day? Extend enough leisurely time to give Him the chance to bless us at the core of our beings with the same interpersonal love the Father, Son and Spirit experience with each other. His presence brings stability into unstable times.

Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken (Psalm 16:8).

How do we learn to believe that God continually stands at that position of authority and compassion in our lives? He initiates and we must only respond. He is nearer than our next breath, yearning for deepening friendship. Let me jump start your thoughts with these few, brief quotes from the Psalms, a wonderful book for our adventure of friendship with Him.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6, emphasis).

Or if you like Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message better:
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in…God for the rest of my life (Psalm 23:6, emphasis).

David knows God. He was certain that our Shepherd’s bounty meets our deepest needs, even though the way leads for a time through the blackened valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:1-4). Not death but the shadow cast by death over the events of our lives. Our archenemy attempts to keep us in bondage through fear, and God’s perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18). In your dark valleys, where do you turn? To your limited resources? Or to the Good Shepherd’s rod and staff to protect and comfort?

David also knew our generous Host prepares a lavish, six-course dinner of abundance in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23:5-6). God’s goodness and love chased David around every day of his life, and also chases after us each day. “I’m at home in God for the rest of my life!” Fire up your sanctified imagination. Glance in your rearview mirror today or turn around as you are strolling. With eyes of faith, see the goodness and beauty and love of God chasing after you.

You will…surround me with songs of deliverance. [The] Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him (Psalm 32:7b, 10b, emphasis).

Have you personally placed your faith in Christ? Are you pushing into God with a growing trust? Then be aware of the LORD surrounding you with His songs of deliverance and with His unfailing love. Do you have eyes to see His high commitment to relationship with you?

Take a deep breath and rest quietly in His presence. Silence is for careful listening and listening for heart-change. Breathe a silent prayer of gratefulness for His unfailing love (or shout it out if you wish!) This means that nothing can reach you and no one can do anything to you that does not first penetrate through His deliverance and unfailing love. For you, God causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28). This is not fatalism. Not blind faith. God fashioned humanity as image-bearers for such active trust.

Both God’s part and our part. He initiates and we respond by partnering with the Spirit.

His “unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.” The Father’s pure love never failed Jesus and it will never fail you…as you develop a heart to abide in it. Simply cultivate an awareness of the Reality that you are, in this present moment, submerged in the ocean of God’s perfect, abundant love.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me! (Psalm 139:17-18, NLT, emphasis).

Awake in the morning with your first conscious thought: “O God, how precious and innumerable are your love-thoughts about me!” Well, how vast are they?

Go to the beach (physically, in your mind, or through an internet picture). Pick up a handful of sand and let it sift slowly through your fingertips, a few grains at a time. Now multiply that one handful of sand by the number of handfuls of sand in every beach throughout the entire world. Each grain represents one love-thought streaming to you from our relational Trinity.

Is this abundance of God’s love-thoughts precious to you? Come alive as we enjoy His presence.

Solitude alone with God will not feel alone because God’s relational Family presence is here with us, displacing any sense of abandonment or aloneness.

A single moment resting in His presence with “one foot raised” ready for action is infinitely valuable as we intentionally focus our awareness on Him. Attune our hearts to God. This state is crucial if we are to feel vibrant, alive, filled with His presence. Then we perceive God and ourselves and people and our world with greater clarity. He transforms His Bride from center to circumference.

Recent studies of our brains provide insight into how God designed us, so we know why such a process is essential. Our brains are grooved over time when we default repeatedly to negative thinking or emotions or choices. A recent study shows with actual before/after pictures of our brain that after twenty-one days of soaking our thoughts in God-Reality for twelve minutes daily, those grooves are smoothed out. Our minds have been renewed, literally (Ephesians 4:23).

“Bookend” your days with a time of reflection on God-rich passages. Begin with a time first thing in the morning. End with time just before sleeping in His arms so our minds are set on Him.

Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

Other translations or paraphrases are “cease striving,” “relax,” “chill.” Or my favorite “Saff-ism,” “chillax.” We begin here, by resting and relaxing in His presence without striving to make things happen. As we lean into His presence, we often wake up to His life-giving presence.

…when I awake, I am still with you (Psalm 139:18b).

A helpful practice scatters a “One-Minute Sabbath Rest” between our daily responsibilities as we briefly lift our hearts to our Family-of-Three. For a free PDF, see my website: JimFredericks.Com, “Christian Growth Tools” tab, “One-Minute Sabbath”.

If this blog has left you wanting “more,” I have a book by this name available on Amazon.Com (Cultivating Enjoyment of His Presence, Moment by Moment in the 20th Century by Jim Fredericks).

By Mike Safford

Life is sometimes really, really hard. If you're old enough to read a blog, I can guarantee you've learned this truth by now. In some seasons it's unbearably difficult, while in others there's just a simple undertone of difficulty. The question that seems pertinent to me in reference to this inherent difficulty of life is: what does the Christian Faith have to say about it? What might it offer as a remedy, as a solution, as a framework of hope within the midst of the oft-arduous experience of living our normal lives? Think about it for a moment...how would you define the nature of Christian hope? How do you understand it? How would you relate it to a loved one who was feeling the weight of life's pains and sufferings in this moment? Do you know?

Most Christians actually really struggle to articulately explain the nature of Christian hope. The reason for this is that we often don't fully understand it ourselves. The way most Christians understand our primary hope is that we will one day leave this painful world behind and go to a whole new, distant, pain-free place called heaven. In popular imagery this place is somewhere up in the clouds, looking very clean, very illuminated and very other-worldly. In short, it's quite the opposite of what we experience here on earth. We trade this painful place in for something much, much better. We imagine heaven to be so much better precisely because it is so very different from what we know here and now. However, is it really so very different?

Here's a question: Does anything of earth squeak into heaven? Is it only "mostly different" (ie 'The Princess Bride's' "Mostly dead"?)? While writing this blog a friend texted me to say that his grandmother just passed away. Part of his personal consolation was that "grandma was now reunited with grandpa" who had passed some time before. In his thinking there is at least some continuity. Grandma will recognize Grandpa and be overjoyed to be with him again. However, where do we draw the line? Do only relationships we enjoyed transcend this life and have overt recognizability in the next? Will I be as cognizant of the relationships in my life that were painful or simply awkward? Will I recognize my high school sweetheart or my first crush? Will I remember that marriage that failed and ended in pain? Will that person be happy to see me? It seems to me, in my twenty five years of pastoral experience, that we have a tendency to pick and choose what we think should transcend this life and be waiting for us once again in the next. We seem, collectively as the Church, to have a general belief that Heaven will be wholly-other than this life, yet we make allowances for Grandma to recognize Grandpa.

This pick and choose rejection of the now for a future that is much more enjoyable comes not from scripture, but from a deep need to envision a life free of the pain, and suffering and overarching difficulty that is present in this one. We want to exchange earth (or most of it anyway) for a heaven of our liking. We easily lean into a mentality of looking beyond this life and toward the next. We then call this leaning "Christian hope". Earlier today when I was scrolling my facebook feed I came across a clip of a speaker at a Christian Conference who was talking about the difficulties of this life. His encouragement? "Don't let them get you down my friends, remember that this life is just practice, just rehearsal for the life that is to come in heaven".

Does this idea reflect how you think? Is this your understanding of the nature of the Christian's hope? Let me be blunt: what Jesus did and modeled in his life, death and resurrection reveals that this all-too-common-perspective is radically unbiblical, and (might I say) unchristian. One needs look no further than the bodily resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene to realize that the life we will live after this life will have great continuity and carryover into the next one. In fact, "next one" is not a helpful way to think of it at all. What we live out here in this life will echo through eternity (to steal a line from Maximus in Gladiator). Here's how one of the most respected and insightful New Testament teachers today puts it:

“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

God's way is simply never to give up. When things are broken, he fixes them. When things are lost, he finds them. When things die, he restores them. God's approach to our brokenness and incapability was not to reject us or cast us aside. Rather, he came after us himself. All of human history pivots on that starry night in Bethlehem on or around 4 BCE, when a poor couple from Galilee gave birth to a baby boy. This boy would grow to become a man who would touch lepers, eat with sinners, sleep amongst the poor, restore the outcast and heal the sick. His primary message was that heaven had broken through into this world, that it had come near, that it was present and amongst us in even the dirtiest and most forgotten corners of our world. After preaching and modeling the invasion of heaven into earth, he died for our sins. What happened next was the real game changer however, and from it we get a glimpse of what heaven is actually like. Jesus rose bodily from the dead. He did not ascend to the heavens as a spirit. He did not leave this flesh behind and exchange it for a whole new reality in a whole new place. After lying in a garden tomb in Jerusalem from Friday night to Sunday morning, his body breathed again. He walked once again amongst his friends, touched them, ate with them, celebrated with them. Friends, this event changed our world forever, and informs us that there's far more continuity between this life and the next than we might imagine. Think about it...Jesus still lives today, bodily, carrying the wounds in his feet, hands and side that he received that Friday so long ago. He can't forget his "past life"...he carries it with him everywhere he goes!

What this says to you and I is that our hope is not found in trying to get out of our reality such as it is. Rather, our hope is found in looking to welcome God's Kingdom into the normalcy I now live. What we do, experience, build and love in this life will have continuity to it. It will carry on with us after we die. We, like Jesus, will be raised anew to carry on living such as we are. Paul calls Jesus the "firstfruits" of what awaits all those who entrust themselves to his care and follow him in this life and into the next. I pray that this Easter you remember and recommit to the idea that Jesus isn't looking to get you to the finish line so you can get out of here. Rather, he is looking to build heaven so dynamically into your normal, everyday life that the next feels just as familiar. The resurrection reminds us that what God has made us, what he has entrusted to us and what we do with those things, will carry on in actuality for time without end. Look around friends...heaven will look a lot more like this than you might think. Our true hope is that our wounds don't kill us, but rather become scars we carry for eternity that tell the story of a God who led us from brokenness to healing in this life and into the next. Praise be to Jesus, the risen King of the world!

By Daniela Matthews

God is our Heavenly Father - and He is a good, good Father. Like any good father, God talks to His children. I pray and talk to Him daily, however, I have never heard Him speak to me audibly. God speaks to me quietly, in my heart. There have been times when I don’t ‘hear’ anything at all. Is God being silent? What should I do?

I don’t believe God is ever silent. He left us the Bible and speaks to us through His Word as many times as we dare to pick up the Good Book and read it! God speaks in many ways – through our surroundings, successes, and even failures. God created us for relationship, and those in relationship communicate or the relationship dissolves. Remember, God’s ways are not our ways. “'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8)

Faith in God is believing and trusting in Him for our salvation. It is an act of commitment to serve Him in a world where we may not be able to physically see or hear Him. Through faith in God, He guides us along the way, showing us His countless blessings every day. This is how I hear Him speak to me most times. I might receive a specific idea, word, phrase, feeling or sense of His thoughts, desires or will for me. I might see a flower in the desert, a sapling standing firmly in the strong winds, or snow falling softly on blossoming rosebuds – and God speaks through these sights and gives them special meaning and understanding for the moment. In these times, God appears to be silent, but surely He is not.

Everything is not as it seems. God knows all things, and man does not. He knows what we need to endure through life’s challenges. His seemingly silent ways gives us opportunity to practice what we’ve been taught and strengthen our spiritual muscles of obedience, challenging us to have patience, compassion, turn the other cheek, pray for those who persecute us, and more. Our enemy wants us to believe that what seems like silence is the same as abandonment, rejection, or dismissal from God. On the contrary, this is sometimes God’s way of telling us He trusts us. He’s taught us whatever it is we need to know for that moment and He tests us to show and give us confidence for the future. It’s like learning to swim or ride a bike. You have to try. A mother bird pushes her chicks out of the nest when she believes they can fly because they need to learn and exercise their wings if they are going to survive in the world they occupy. Just the same, God pushes us out into the wilderness to exercise our spiritual muscles. However, with God, there is no “pass” or “fail,” there is only grow.

God is always with us, but he did not say we will always hear Him. Job, of whom God said “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8), could not always hear God, but knew God was present. “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me,” he says in Job 20:20-21. David, whom God Himself said was “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) could not hear God all the time. He cried out in Psalms 22:2: “My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.” Job and David, great men of God, had moments when they could not hear God, yet they did not give up hope. Not hearing tests our faith and trust in God. Pressing in and persevering strengthens our commitment to God. I’m guessing it’s part of the training to be faithful and obedient, all the while, bringing glory to God. And so the growing begins!

When it seems like God is silent and you don’t know what to do, here are a few things to put into practice:

1. Be thankful. God has given us so many things, big and small. There is always something for which we can be thankful: life, a beating heart, feelings, materials (little or much), internet (you’re reading this so you must have it), pavement, sand, flowers, stores, pastors… I think you get the idea. Look at everything as a gift – even pain. Pain breeds qualities of endurance, patience, compassion, and understanding. Give thanks.
2. Ask. Matthew 7:7 tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you…” Cry out to God and pray. God not only hears our prayers, but He listens. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12)  If He weren’t listening or paying attention, then He wouldn’t have sent His only Son to die a painful death on a cross for our sins! God hears and listens. Pray for others around you and even people and you don’t know. We are not the only people to have ever gone through our experiences. Pray for others who might be suffering in a similar way as you. Praying for others keeps the focus off ourselves and lifts others up to God with Whom all things are possible. Pray for your enemies; if they are doing wrong, you know they need God.
   
3. Seek. Matthew 7:7 continues, saying, “seek and you will find;…” Keep looking for God. Search the scriptures, recount the blessings in your life. Press in and stand upright and steadfast on His solid ground. As the band Journey sang: Don’t stop believing!
4. Finally, knock. Matthew 7:7 ends with, “knock and the door will be opened to you.” Be active and carry out His commands. Listen to His Word and be obedient. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) I love His assurance that He is always with us! Be faithful, just as He is to us.
   

While it may seem like silence, be still and listen. Better yet, open up all your senses to see, smell, and feel, as well. God is always communicating, and we ‘hear’ Him through all our senses. Indeed, difficult times create excess noise and clatter making it difficult to hear God’s voice, whether it is thunderous or still and small. Though the moment might seem lonely, and painfully silent, quiet the senses and expect the unexpected. God is speaking.

By Emily Stults

Doesn't that title sound wonderful? The idea that you can read a blog and all of a sudden have the answers to fix those areas in your life that are just, well,...broken. Friends, I wish I could hand you the glue to put together those pieces.  (I would use sparkle glue just to help you see something bright coming together) But that’s not how it works, is it? 

We can’t just throw glitter on our spaces and feel all of the things come together.  Instead we wrestle, we fight and we cry, and we look at our circumstances and feel the crushing weight of those areas we just can’t fix, and we wonder where in all of this mess can we possibly begin to find God?

While I can't possibly solve all of your problems in a few short paragraphs, and I can’t possibly speak into every area of your life, I can share my story. I can share my pieces with you in the hopes that maybe if we start piecing together parts, you and I can complete a picture of what it looks like to fix the broken pieces into a puzzle, and form something new instead. In ancient Japan there is a tradition called kintsugi which is the art of fixing broken pottery. They take all of the broken pieces of pottery and put them back together with melted down adhesive that is speckled with gold. They call this the “Golden Joinery”, and the result is a beautifully unique piece of pottery joined with gold linking each fragmented piece together (not far off from my sparkle glue idea is it?).

My prayer is that you and I would link arms in this golden joinery and find exactly where we need that gold to seep in and restore us, not to what we were prior to the breaking, but into something new. Something stronger. Something better. 

The first time I recognized brokenness within me was when I was a little girl and I felt the first real sting of rejection. It was a subtle remark but the response in me brought to the front an issue I would wrestle with well into my twenties. 

That rejection exposed a need in me to seek approval in my everyday life. From wherever I could get it: be it school, or work, or going above what I could possibly do to seek that affirmation. And in high school that need for approval found itself right in the struggle a lot of high school girls face: relationships. I had my first relationship and it was like the broken parts of me were on display. In an attempt to fix those areas, I settled for the most fragmented relationships I could find, trying so hard to find what could stitch me together. I sought affirmations and approval and love in all of the places I could find, and in return all I was left with was the need for more.  There I was stuck in this broken pattern of relationships, hyper aware of all of the ways I was failing myself, and in turn, aware of all of the ways I was failing God. 

This became my pattern, until I encountered my own version of the well we find in the middle of John chapter 4. The one where Jesus offers living water and freedom from shame. My encounter with Jesus didn’t take away the brokenness. It didn’t erase it from my story, but it did transform it. I found myself at the bottom of myself, and there he was to say he was not finished with my story. So I read the bible (which sounds easier than it sometimes actually is) and I found out that the stories were full of broken people who looked just like me. I watched as Jesus became the gold for their broken pieces and the potter, who knits together all things, transformed the world. He took Peter and turned him from a fisherman to a fisher of men. He took Saul, a killer of Christians, and turned him into the author of the majority of the New Testament. He took the Samaritan woman from an adulterer to a witness of the living king.

Friends, our brokenness does not count us out from the glory of the cross. If I leave you with anything in my words let it be this, if you want to fix the broken places of your life, turn to the cross. Tell Him. Right where you are. Admit that the brokenness is there. Don’t hide it, instead hand over every piece no matter how shattered and watch what He does with it. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, we see Paul wrestle with the Lord about his weakness, about his brokenness, and in this we see Jesus respond saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness”, in which Paul states in response, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Your brokenness does not discount you, it points others to the glory of Jesus. So I am standing right there with you. Bringing my pieces to Him right next you and together we stand with Jesus, shining in all of our golden joinery.

By Nigel Morris

I once heard Philosophy professor, speaker and author Dallas Willard say something along these lines “If you want to know God’s address, (figuratively speaking of course), the place you’ll always find Him is at the end of your rope!”  Now that’s not the kind of thing we like to hear! We don’t like running out of our resources; we like to be on top of things whenever possible; and if we’re honest most of us like to be seen to be on top of things, because that’s one of the ways our society measures success.

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the “upside down” nature of God’s Kingdom and how He often does things in such an opposite fashion to the way we’d do them in order to produce the result that He wants.

The apostle Paul was way on top of things by the religious standards of his day, his credentials were impeccable, and surely if anyone were qualified to be God’s man of faith and power it would be Paul! His religious resume read something like this:

“You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to god’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law book.”

Impressive stuff humanly speaking!  But everything Paul thought was on the credit side of his eternal account was actually on the debit side because it effectively left Christ out of the picture altogether.

There was no room in Paul’s life for Jesus. Paul had it all together on his own, and he was on top of everything until that is God allowed him to reach the end of his “rope.” That was the place where he literally saw his need for Jesus (you can read about that in the book of Acts).

Paul found out that Jesus’ idea of who qualifies and what qualifies a person for relationship with Him are drastically different from the all-too-common mentality of someone “having it all together spiritually.” It’s upside down in fact! In the Message version of the bible Matthew 5 verses 1-3 states:

“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside.
Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions, this is what he said,
‘You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope, with less of you there is more of God and his rule.’”

I experienced the truth of that statement in my rookie days as a police chaplain. Early one morning I was home asleep when dispatch called.  A male subject was threatening suicide and the attending officers were requesting a chaplain.  I was totally unprepared.  I felt so unqualified for the task ahead, and there was no time for a shower, morning prayer, or even early morning coffee!

I drove to the scene, trying to wake up but I know enough to pray “HELP” (the one prayer God always answers!) I arrived at the house and sat with the man in his kitchen as he poured out his tale of woe.  This amounted to a veritable catalog of one trauma after another: three recent family deaths, the last one being his father, a lost job, people owing him money, and finally his truck breaking down.  That wasn’t the only thing breaking down.  This man was at the end of his rope emotionally and it was exactly in that place that he found God waiting for him.

The whole scenario proved to be something of a set up for both of us.  Instead of taking his life he surrendered it to God right there at his kitchen table. I was later able to arrange grief counseling and follow up for him.

It was fairly easy for me to see how much room there was for Jesus to operate in this man’s circumstances that day, but as I left the scene that morning it struck me that that was equally true from my perspective also. I’m no counselor or the son of a counselor, all I did was show up, totally reliant on God to do what I knew I couldn’t do.  All I did was tell that man my story, which was rather like his story with a few variations.

To the casual observer it may have looked like I knew what I was doing! But the reality was as far as Jesus was concerned, He was dealing with two people who were on the same playing field for vastly different reasons, both of us at the end of our ropes resource wise. Both of us were painfully aware that neither of us had the wherewithal to get through the situation without some serious help. And serious help is exactly what we received when we needed it most.
Perhaps because there was so much less of us, God had plenty of room to move, and in doing so demonstrated once again the upside-down nature of His kingdom. His power and His strength are often demonstrated in times of our greatest weakness  He is able to bring his light into the darkest of our circumstances and reveal that there is always hope and there is always help …………even when we find ourselves at the end of our ropes.

By Daniela Matthews

Life is like a bed of roses: strong stems lined with prickly thorns, topped with delicate, fragrant blossoms that strive to overcome changing seasons, disease, and a bounty of carnivores who graze on its most prized possessions. We live full lives of joy and splendor, but there are trying seasons where disease, drought, and the demands of mankind strip us of our armor, leaving us raw and exposed to the elements that bring heartache and pain. Why is it so hard to see God in these most difficult times of need?

When my husband is asleep and I enter the room at night, I don’t turn on the light so as to avoid waking him. My eyes strain in the darkness to see and make my way around the room. When we can’t see God in challenging times, we either turn to the first thing that calms our fear of the dark or strive to see the God who formed us in our mother’s womb. God intricately fashioned us and gave us life. He did so to have a relationship with us, but not just any relationship. God wants us to look for Him, yearn for Him, seek to find Him. He wants a meaningful relationship with us, one where He gets to be actively involved in our lives, and not just the Great Magician called upon only to wave His magic wand.

As I fumble around in the dark, I know the bed, nightstands, dressers, and lamps are there. Just the same, as we wrestle through trials, God may seem hidden but He is always with us. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) We have access to God at all times – we just can’t physically see or hear Him all the time. Imagine if we could. Would we even need faith? Wouldn’t that be just like any other relationship?

God is God. He is not an ordinary, human figure. He is GOD ALMIGHTY. He created the universe, the stars, time, even you and me. He is to be revered, honored, respected, and upheld. Thus, our relationship with God is not, and will never be, ordinary. It must be one of faith.

While difficult circumstances are not the most comfortable or the most sought after seasons of our lives, they can become the most worthy experiences that are later looked upon with warm reflection. These are the moments that encourage us to grow beyond our imagined potential. It’s been said, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” That seems to be the case when it comes to people that hold the most meaningful positions in our lives – spouses, parents, children, loved ones. When we don’t talk to them or see them, we miss them and long for them. Is it the same with God? We can neither see, hear, nor touch Him, but does this leave us wanting, seeking, and reaching for more of Him? Or do we question why He isn’t doing anything (namely what we want), and stomp angrily away? 

There is conflict in every relationship. We question, argue, get angry, and forgive; but the strongest relationships stand the test of time because we communicate and are willing to persevere through the storms. It’s the same with God. A life of strong faith requires us to communicate with Him, even if we are angry and don’t understand, and especially when we are struggling to see Him. Eventually, our eyes will adjust in the darkness and we will not be afraid. Psalm 16:8 reminds us “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”  

The world is like a big garden. Some seedlings take time to grow, while others sprout instantly like weeds! Some plants need special fertilizer, others a trellis to help them stand. Weeds are constantly in the midst trying to choke out good growth. Life’s struggles cause us to dig deeper and sometimes get a little messy. That extra maintenance breeds character and a cultivated sapling, grafted with the Spirit of the One who gave His Life for us, will grow to produce fruit abundantly for the glory of God. Difficult trials, when we can’t see God, help us persevere and press forward, strengthening and broadening our faith. When the time comes, we will be able to stand stronger in service to Him. For life is not about man, it’s about God and His Kingdom. God doesn’t need us in His garden, but He wants us – that’s why He created us, and He wants us to grow and live strong, healthy lives. 

Consider the stars. During daylight hours, we go about our day and never give a thought to the beautiful display that shines above us. It is the darkness of the night that is needed in order to enjoy their beauty. Likewise, God is always shining brightly over us. The darkness of trials and tribulations is necessary to truly capture His beauty, acknowledge His presence, and cherish the value of His companionship.

Fear grows where darkness dwells, and the trials we face will try to crowd out the Light that is God. These difficult circumstances will challenge our faith – our belief in God as Savior, Protector, Healer, and Lord and our commitment to Him. When life gets tough, remember the stars still shine and, like them, the God who placed them there and holds the universe in His hands is holding you. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

By Nigel Morris

Compassion is really important for us!

Any favor we enjoy in our community is simply because we’re part of a group that has consistently reached out to others and stayed the course over the years. Why have we done that? Is it out of a sense of duty or because it’s the right thing to do?

Well, it is the right thing to do! But that really isn’t all there is to it. We’ve learned there’s something more that has to fuel faithfulness if we’re to sustain reaching out to others over the long haul. All of us, especially during this season, are involved with people on some kind of level, some of them very hurting people. How do we avoid the hardening of our hearts or becoming  burned out and giving up altogether? These are perfectly legitimate and practical questions.

Let me show you what I believe our primary calling card needs to be if people are to experience the church in a way that brings light and life into their circumstances and honors God at the same time. Sustaining ministry in this way is never easy but it is possible. In Matthew, chapter 4:23 states, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” 
This verse acts as a kind of bookend and summary statement, for when we get to chapter 9:35 we find the other book end! “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.”

These summaries of how Jesus occupied his time can be found throughout the book of Matthew, they cover weeks and months. Hefty chunks of Jesus time!   Because of that they are important. Matthew just doesn’t throw them in for effect! No, he deliberately places them to let us know that this is what Jesus was all about; this is front page and not back page stuff! This is in your face, in your heart, in your life Jesus kind of stuff! We find him moving among ordinary, everyday people who were glad recipients of his ministry. Bear in mind he only had three years, possibly less to fulfill his mission, so for the sake of efficiency, why not get all the sick together in one place and do mass healings and deliverances? Kind of a one stop shop! But he didn’t do that. He spent inordinate amounts of time one on one with people. What was his motivation for doing that, day after day, week after week, month after month? Matthew tells us in verse 36 of chapter 9.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The motivating energy behind Jesus’ ministry was His compassion.  The word means something like being moved in the inward parts, a deep feeling of sorrow for the misfortunate, and a compulsion to act on their behalf. It goes way beyond just feeling sorry for someone.

Jesus’ mindset, as he walked among the people, was not one of anger or condemnation but one of MERCY. This was his primary calling card wherever he went. He saw the people and the distress they were in and he was compelled to act on their behalf to alleviate their suffering.  We see Him, healing the sick, feeding the poor, touching the untouchables, and patiently teaching the people. He always was, always is and always will be the champion of the least and the last, the torn down and broken. What sustained him and strengthened him in all of this was that Jesus knew and experienced firsthand the great love and affirmation of his Father.  Because of this he dealt with people accordingly, ministering to them with sympathetic tenderness and delivering power. As a friend of mine puts it, the love that found him was the love that sent him out to a harassed and hopeless people. Now who on earth would have a problem with Jesus doing that kind of thing. Well, people like the Pharisees would!

Verse 34 of chapter 9 starts with “But the Pharisees”  Those three words give us the context in which these acts of mercy are taking place, right under their noses! They resent Jesus and what he’s doing to the point of accusing him of being in league with the Satan himself.  Why all the antagonism? They were the ones who were supposed to be guiding, protecting, and shepherding the people but they simply weren’t doing their job. They had their own agenda. 
Many of the Pharisees took advantage of the people by lording it over them, Jesus challenged them on this, and they resented him for it.

In describing the people as being like “sheep without a shepherd” Matthew uses a familiar way of describing Israel without a prophet or King to take care of them. You can look it up in Ezekiel 34:1-6. However, in the person of Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep arrives! And because of his compassionate mercy nothing would ever be the same again! But there’s more!

This is where all His followers enter the picture too. In Matthew 9:37and 38 Jesus said to his disciples: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." In most of our bibles there then occurs a really unfortunate chapter break because we are meant to read chapter 10:1 as a continuation of verse 38 “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” In other words Jesus says in effect to his disciples, (first to the 12, then the 70, and finally through them to all his disciples of every generation), “Now you go and do what I have been doing, the way I’ve been doing it. You be the light wherever you go. You bring my life. If you’ll sign up for that and do your part, I’ll back you up by doing my part.  You won’t have to do this in your own strength.” That’s the standing invitation! In accepting this invitation, we need to remember that just like Jesus and the disciples we will face opposition along the way.

Matthew chapter 10:16 Jesus informs his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves therefore be shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves”. Don’t you wish he had said “I’m sending you out like raptors among bunnies” or something along those lines? But no! It’s sheep among wolves, and being a sheep when wolves are around means totally relying on your shepherd. Without him we have nothing but our stuff to give away. People don’t need any of our stuff, they need Jesus’ stuff.

Whether it’s praying for the sick, giving someone a bag of groceries, or ANY act of kindness done in Jesus’ name, however small, is transformed when he’s in the picture. The compassionate love of the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit, that’s what I want to give away, how about you?

We’ll only ever do that if we catch God’s heart. The same heart of love that Jesus had then is exactly the same today. His mercy hasn’t gone into foreclosure, his love isn’t bankrupt. You can’t overdraw on His compassion. Here’s what I want us to get hold of: that’s the very same heart he has for each one of us, right now. This is where catching the heart of the Father for others begins. We can ask God for His heart for people, we can ask Him to open our eyes so we may see more the way in which he sees, we can practice deliberate acts of kindness whenever we get an opportunity...  And then stand back in amazement at what God may do through a people like that!

To Wait is the Answer
By Daniela Matthews

Have you ever reacted inappropriately, spoken too soon, or “put your foot in your mouth”? Maybe you reacted out of anger or frustration, without contemplation. When we don’t take the time to think things through, our immediate reactions have the potential to cause pain, embarrassment, and even escalate arguments and rumor’s. In today’s world, social media encourages and immediately spreads these reactions at the click of a button - that’s not always the best way to handle things. It’s too easy to send hurtful words and accusations across every screen and device, not really understanding or even desiring the impact they might have. Whether we react face to face or behind a screen, to “wait” is what God tells us to do, and waiting is necessary for healthy spiritual growth.

Our lives revolve around waiting – waiting in lines, on the phone, for a particular job. Since Bible times, waiting has been the name of the game: Abraham waited to be a father, Moses waited in the wilderness, Job waited to be healed and restored, Joseph waited to be freed. There are countless other stories, and the Bible is chock full of them. Why is that?

My guess is that we are an impatient bunch, we humans. When sin broke loose, patience was one quality that went flying through the door at first chance. We don’t like to wait. We want immediate gratification and somehow feel entitled to having more or better than what we deserve. We desire to control everything going on in and around our lives and react too quickly, or overreact, when we disagree or dislike something along the way. Our reactions run the gamut, from nonsensical words and dramatic displays of emotion to complete silence and inaction to thoughtless posts and memes. We don’t realize that what we say/don’t say or do/don’t do can have a negative effect on ourselves, the receiver, and even an innocent bystander.

“Patience is a virtue.” That might be true, but I believe patience is a Godly character, one God displays numerous times with me every day. The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 that patience is a fruit of the Spirit. It is a quality borne out of endurance and perseverance. While not easily obtained, it can be learned over time, thus the reason for the countless lessons and the stories that follow.

For most, patience requires a conscious effort to wait. Whether we know the correct response or just want to express our opinion, pressing the “pause” button can do us some good. Depending on the circumstance, this could mean pausing for just a few seconds or waiting days, months, or even years. You’ve heard the expression “timing is everything.” It really is. If you’re a hunter, a day could mean the difference between having food for the winter or starving. If you’re running in a race, a second could mean the difference between winning or being disqualified if you jumped the gun too quickly. If you’re just the average Joe sharing photos on Facebook, it could mean the difference between getting a “Like” or alienating a friend. However, when the Bible says to “wait,” it says to “wait on God” or the Lord. If timing is everything, then timing involved with waiting on the Lord is essential.

Waiting on the Lord means waiting for Him to answer, act, move, teach, reveal. This is a time to remember who He is, what He has done, what He promised He would do, and what He commands us to do. Do you remember the acronym ‘WWJD’ or What Would Jesus Do? If we ask ourselves this before we react, we’d learn to wait and likely avoid undesired situations. When we wait on the Lord, our reliance on God increases while our dependence on ourselves decreases. This builds a stronger, deeper relationship with our Lord and allows us to react in a more Christ-like manner.

Waiting also gives us time to evaluate our true motives, and provides the opportunity to change direction before any chance of regret. If tempers have flared, waiting cools the flames anger ignites. This pause allows us to think twice (or more) before we react. John 18 tells the story of when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest out of anger and fear. Jesus commands Peter in verse 11, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” If we wait, we might realize a better outcome. Waiting adjusts our focus to what really matters and allows us to respond more wisely, if even at all.

Godly wisdom is attainable when we seek His input during the wait. Job 33:31-33 says, “Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. If you have anything to say, answer me; speak up, for I want to vindicate you. But if not, then listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.” All the thoughts in our heads, the reactions in our surroundings, and activity on our devices need to be silenced. Listen, be silent, and God will speak and teach wisdom. We may still have to wait, but His wisdom we can learn and our reactions can reflect His grace.

Waiting doesn’t mean we are patient, but it can help us to become patient. Remember all those times we just couldn’t wait to take a sip of that hot cocoa and burned our tongue? Or when we quickly grabbed a chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven, piping hot, with melted chocolate chips oozing out… OUCH! Don’t get burned! Acting too quickly can leave us searing in defeat. We might even burn someone else in the process, intentional or not. While waiting, let’s try not to complain. This will help us overcome our fears, stay grounded, endure and persevere through trials, and eventually reveal that greatly desired fruit of the Spirit: patience. If we learn to wait, without complaint, we can enjoy the rewards of patience without losing face, leaving a mark, or burning our taste buds.

The next time we are tempted to react quickly with a “Like” or “Share”, evil glare, swift turn, or know-it-all opinion, let’s choose to wait and seek God’s input first. Our world is hurting right now. The ability to inflict pain, stir chaos, create tension, and divide is so much easier and more effective than ever before. Let’s take a moment to open our senses to what God might be revealing, and choose to wait and react with God’s wisdom and love.

By Dave Hail
Home groups are a place where we go beyond community to practice building relationships. Whether we call them kinships, life groups or family circles they are a place where we learn and practice relationship with God and each other.

Each meeting we share life with each other and respond to that sharing. Assuming we do not harm each other with that response, trust is built. In some cases, intimacy is developed and relationships are formed. Of those, some will build relationship to the point of interacting outside of the group. However, what about relationship with God?

While we are naturally spiritual people, our culture teaches us not to trust this side of our nature. Because of this mistrust of our spiritual side, we let others develop a relationship with God and are satisfied to watch and even follow them as long as their behavior doesn’t venture too far outside of our own accepted limits. These others are the pastors, priests, or spiritual leaders that we look to each week for our spiritual input and guidance.

Part of this behavior is based on the Old Testament system of temple worship. When the Holy Spirit wasn’t available to us all the time, the people relied on the priests and prophets to be the connection to God for the people. But we have Him all the time now.

Jesus told His disciples:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. (That is) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you…” (John 14:16-17)
As group leaders, people look to us to be examples of trusting that spiritual side of ourselves. So how do we do that? How do we make that space for the Holy Spirit to move in our groups?

The following areas can be opportunities to invite the Holy Spirit in any group:

• Preparation 
• Worship 
• Teaching
  
• Ministry time
  
• Fellowship

Your group may not include all of these areas, depending on the nature of your group. There is a pattern in how we connect with Him. With a desire to connect with the Holy Spirit, these principles can be used in any group format.

PREPARATION
Making room for the Holy Spirit to move in our group starts with the leader[s]. As a minimum the leaders and the host and the worship leader(if you have one) should get together before the meeting and pray for the meeting, those attending and that the Holy Spirit would have His way to teach, heal and guide all who come. This can be in the time just before the meeting or sometime during the week before. Other members of the group can also be invited to this time if you desire a more inclusive experience.
Preparation also includes expectation… expectation that He will show up. Not only in the leaders, but also in the members of the group. You can encourage the members to have that expectation when they come to see what God will do during the meeting.

WORSHIP
Before, during and after worship are times that the Holy Spirit can move in our group. We always invite one of our members to open worship in prayer. You can hear the heart of that person while praying and bless them without saying a word.
During worship you may see the Holy Spirit moving one or more of the group to stand or raise their hands or even kneel. We have seen people dance, wave flags, weep or just lay on the floor during worship. Larger groups may have different experiences as members get more comfortable with each other.
After worship we leave a space for people to share what they experienced during worship. It could be a scripture, vision, word of knowledge or wisdom for the group or someone in the group. Explain why the space is there so they have permission to share. This builds faith in the group and can allow the Holy Spirit to move powerfully in the meeting.

TEACHING/DISCUSSION
Some groups will have a focus that does not include teaching, but the principle is the same for affinity groups and community groups. Be sure to involve the group in the process and encourage them to participate. When you see an opportunity to encourage someone’s participation, always be listening for the Holy Spirit to help you lift that person up and bless them.

MINISTRY TIME
Initially some people may be hesitant regarding asking for prayer. If some of your members are ministry team members you may ask them to lead this part of the group time.
Sometimes ministry will happen as a normal part of fellowship. People will be talking and share things that are going on in their life. The person they are sharing with can be listening with an ear to the Holy Spirit and be prompted to ask if the other person would like some prayer.
Some meetings ask for prayer requests in writing and the leaders or ministry team members or intercessors can pray later for them.

FELLOWSHIP
Almost all home groups have a fellowship/snack/food time. Sometimes at the meeting, sometimes after the meeting at a different place. It is during this time that another type of connecting takes place. Over food or snack, people are more relaxed. As group leaders we can observe the different connections being made and ask the Holy Spirit to guide the conversations, to do His work in and through all the members of the group.
For it is here that believers, those with questions about God, and skeptics can interact with each other in a non-threatening way. Relationships can be built that God will work in over time. God’s love can be observed working in lives of unbelievers and believers, alike, over the course of the group.

Home group leaders do not have to be experts at teaching or worship or ministry to be leaders. All we need is to want to know God more each day and to want to share that journey with others. May God bless you on that journey as we have been blessed.

Thanks for your time.

My Creed was “Don’t tell anyone anything.”
When I became a Christian, I had no idea what I was doing or what was going to happen. I remember sitting in the pastor’s office at the First Baptist Church and giving my life to Christ. I read something out of the Bible and said out loud that I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I walked out and I thought, “I guess that is it, that was easy.”  It was a little uncomfortable, but I felt good about it. I was wrong and right about it being easy accepting Jesus in my life.

I was wrong about it being easy when I ran into verses in the bible such as “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” — James 5:16. Let me tell you, I am not telling anyone anything! This was drilled in me from my dad from a young age.

My dad was a different kind of man. To be honest he was just a provider. He was a rage filled person. My dad spent all his early adulthood in Federal prison. So, I was taught prison rules (did not know it at the time):  never rat on anyone, keep your personal stuff to yourself, do not show feelings. The only time he hit me was when I was in first grade. I had told on a friend so I would not get in so much trouble. That worked for the school but when my dad heard, the only thing he heard was I ratted out a friend. To be honest, he punched me in the face. I stood there holding back tears and anger, thinking I will never say anything again.

Being a Christian was not going to be easy, all these principles I was doing the opposite. What I never accepted was what having a relationship with Jesus would do to my heart. I had 30 plus years of lies, deceit and major dysfunction. I remember the first time I shared with a fellow Christian that I had a drinking problem. The response I got was “turn that over to Jesus and everything will be alright”. I stood there baffled.  I had no idea what to do with that statement. Now I was trying to be different, but just like growing up, I learned to not share anything personal. I spent my time in church going in and straight out, and did not make eye contact. Just like my time growing up, all my relationships were superficial.

What changed? Well, I would love to tell you it was my experience in church, but it came from Jesus in a personal way, to my soul so to speak. It came from confessing to Jesus and another person about my drinking. He met me in Alcoholics Anonymous, where I learned these Christian principles. Confession changed my life, it was freeing. In AA you make a list of people you harmed and then you share it with someone and God. Sounds a lot like what James was inspired to write. (James 5:16). I remember sitting there with that man, laying it all out, guilt, shame, fear, anger and betrayal. Now that statement made sense. As time went on, I realized that my past was lifted from me.

A few years later when my dad was dying, and I was the only one to help him. I always hated my dad, but I felt compassion for him. I never had that feeling before. The last year of his life I was able to have a relationship with him. It was not a father-son relationship, but it was peaceful and good.  It was a gift.

My life today is good, not because everything is perfect. When I confessed that Jesus is my Savior, I did not know that it “was ON!”. There was nothing I could do for my salvation, but he wanted me to participate in what He was doing. I did not have to change; I have tried being good before and never could do it. I am slowly being changed, changed into His image. Sometimes I laugh when I see that I am doing something good, something that I was not capable of doing before I met Him. I also get a chuckle when Mike is preaching on community. We are all “in” for community if it is a BBQ or something fun, but from my experience, it is also about sharing our life with Jesus and with the people in our life. It is about confessing to this community our sins, faults, and shortcomings. It is about loving the hard ones in our life. Pastor David used to say that church people can be terrible. That we are like porcupines and we need to remember “quills down”. Let us be gentle as we confess to one another