Known by Love

I heard a new teaching for me.  RVL talks about how we are the temple. I used to think that we, individually, were the temple of God. But lets take another look. What if it is we, plural? "Upon this rock I will build my church." Matthew 16:18. Christ is the most important rock, the corner stone, and we are to be standing stones built together in unity to represent Him here, now. How are they to know us? How are people supposed to recognize us?  Is it because we do not live like others and go out getting drunk and having sex with everyone. Yes, but there is more.  It goes deeper.

One of the things that all of us have recognized about the "churches" is that none of them seem to get along.  There are different doctrines and beliefs within each individual church and they all seem to be claiming that they have the right way. It is within this separation that Christ is found guilty and the rest of the world is turned off by our own bile within our own mouths.  Do I agree with each church and their doctrines?  Do you agree with each person in your life? Of coarse we don't, but how do we handle those disagreements? It is only through respect and love that the essence of love can be seen.  

If we are the stones that are being built while we walk out our daily lives, we stumble and roll down hills that refine our sharp edges and break off some of our sharp corners. It is out in our daily life where we learn about love and learn what hate makes us feel like.  We love, suffer, and cry within our relationships with others. Each swipe with the chisel is carving us into the perfect stone designed specifically for each one of us. Then, what we are supposed to do is come together in worship of the same God who loves us perfectly. As we come together, we form the temple of the Most High God. It is not just about me.  I alone am not the temple, but I together with you, we form the temple. I am a stone, just one part of the entire body of the temple. You are one part that offers another color of the mosaic glass that glows as the Son beams in though and enriches the texture of His artwork. Each is vital to the whole.  Some seem to go unseen while others are right out in front. However, each is touching the world individually.  Each is indispensable in showing Christ to others.

Romans 12:9-21 helps us see how to love others.  This does not mean that we let others run all over us and treat us poorly.  Oswald Chambers   "Jesus did not commit Himself to man... for He knew what was in man." As we relate and join with others in this life, we do not give ourselves to them.  We give ourselves to Christ.  We love and join with Him in loving the world as He loved the world, but we do not give ourselves over to the world.  We give ourselves over to Him who loves us authentically and without blunder. That is where we feel true love. Then we can go and show His love to those we are in relationship with/good or bad. This gives us perfect love and helps us guard our hearts so that we are not devastated through life's wounds. We do not have to take their struggles and place their wounds within our own hearts. We do not have to react with how they treat us.  We can remain calm and at peace no matter the storm they are in. With His calmness upon our own hearts He can become known by our love. We are the stones that together build His temple, the church. Are we displaying His love while the world watches us? Not only will others know Christ within us by our love, but we will be known by Him through our love. It may just be that we each just need a few etiquette lessons ;) 

Walking Through the Fire

1 Corinthians 3:13-17, " But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgement day to see what kind of work each builder has done.  Everyone's work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.  But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.   Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?  God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple."

I have had my mind and heart on my calling this morning.  I have a great sense of responsibility to my family,  but my family does not stop with just my husband and my children. (They are first, but they are not my only family.)   My family is extended to my church family as well.  So who is my church family?  My family is huge!  They are the people that I see on Sunday morning.  I may not even talk to them, but I see them and their presence strengthens me.  My family are my women friends, some of whom do not go to my "church", but they are my church family.  My family are my college kids.  They are my older children whom I love dearly and I am very excited about their lives blooming.  My family is Live @ Webster Hall, where we gather and learn to love.  My family is my church. (I wish our culture called Sunday morning church, Sunday morning synagogue.  Instead of "we are going to church", "we are going to Synagogue."  This would help us when we talk about our family, for our family is our church.  And the church are the people, not the building we meet in.)   


As I read 1 Corinthians 3 this morning, the whole chapter called out to me, but vs. 13-14 really caught my attention.  What if the judgement day is right now?  What if I am in a time of "testing" to see how I respond to my knowledge of my salvation?  What if everyday of my life is my work, and the struggles with the relationships and the things to be done, are the fires I am to persevere through?  What am I doing today as I walk through this judgement day?  It is not about my salvation.  I am saved and nothing can take that from me, but what am I doing with that salvation?  How am I affecting my family?  How am I loving, or disrespecting His temple?  How is He calling me to work today?  


One of my college kids sent me this verse today, Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Where is my heart?  My heart is on God and His calling in my life.  So where is my treasure?  My treasure is in my family.  Our hearts desires show us what is important to us.  My treasure is my reward.  My reward is my huge family.  (A small twist on a very big verse ;)


I have been through some very big trials in my life.  It was during these trials that I found myself all alone.  It was the loneliness of the situation that brought me to defeat within that struggle.  This life is hard.  When you find yourself in the courtroom of life facing a judge who is holding the weight of your world in his hand, it is so much more comforting to know that you have a whole team of people who are on your side and who believe in you.   I always had my parents in life, helping me and going to fight for me, but now there is so much more.  There is something that brings great comfort in knowing others will fight for me too. So often we feel we are all alone, and that is how we become defeated!  This is one of my calls.  This is one of my deepest commitments. My God is calling me to show others, they are not alone.  This fight is not a fight to battle by yourself.  This is why He has given us such a huge family.  We are the church and we stand together as one body.  This is my work.  He is calling me to share my life with others and to be with them while they are experiencing theirs.   


Today in this day, does my husband know he is not in the battle alone?  Do my children know I am always here for them?  Do my sisters know and feel my presence?  Do my college kids know they are not walking alone?  If I am doing this job well, I should see my treasure now.  My treasure that He is blessing me with does not have to wait, I should be rich in relationship.  It does not mean that it is easy.  With relationships there are always fires that need to be kindled, but with relationship there are a bounty of blessings that cannot be revoked.  This is the greatest command, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
How is your love walk today?  What is your job?  How is your work coming along as you build within this house of God?

Religious

The other night at Live @ Webster Hall we talked about the term "Religious". What are your feelings when you hear this word? What do you automatically assume?

Some love to use the term religious. They see it as how they express themselves to God. They love their religion and get very offended when that term is used in any kind of derogatory remark at all. They hear "religious" and their minds go right to the place of worship. That intimate time with their God. The most precious time to them is expressed in the religion they hold so close to their heart. Others however, do not hear the term "religious" with heart warming sensations, but feelings of judgement, condemnation, and laws. This is the place where man has taken over for them and God's words have been abused against them. This is the place where I have come from. This is the place that freaks me out!

When I have spoken in the past I have had a very hard time not mocking the traditions, the seemingly meaninglessness of the worship schedule that seems to appear within many of the worship orders of any given Sunday morning. The people stand and monotonically read the words that are projected in front of them with no feeling or understanding of the scripture. They stand and quote the Lord's Prayer asking God to forgive them as they forgive others. Seemingly without even noticing the very next line, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." When I hear this seemingly thoughtlessly repeated just out of wrote memory, I just about have a conniption. "Do you not hear what is next. Please God forgive me like I do NOT forgive others. If you forgive me like I forgive others, I am DOOMED!" And lets not forget the passing of the collection plate at every service!

Then one day I was abruptly corrected. That thing that I fear from the "religious people." Those judgements, those places of being silenced, those condemning and judgmental looks, those fears were a true revealing of my own heart. I had become what I feared most from others. I was not stepping back and looking at their worship time as something that may just be their hearts cry to God. I was seeing it through my eyes and not theirs. I was passing the most judgmental look upon them and their outward appearance and seeing only the "seemingly" from my broken heart and not able to put myself in their place, (which is what I am always expecting others to do for me).

One of the things that I cherish the most about my church is the fact that we have have young and old worshiping together, in different styles, in different clothes, with different wounds, with One God. It is our belief in One God that unites us. It is our coming together to join our lives in our time of worship that unites us and gives us strength. My most precious time is my time with my family on Sunday mornings. It is my time to see that I am not alone. It is my time to hug and receive hugs from others whom I would not see on any other ordinary day. It is my time to express my gratitude to my Savior and my time to accept others in their gratitude toward Him. It is a time for my broken heart to be softened toward others who have also been wounded by the world and even by other "Christians" as well. Without those who are older than I am, who would I go to for advise? Without the young, who would offer me so much energy? It is all of us together, laying down our differences for the sake of others, that is what makes us a family.
F- forget
A- about
M- me
I- I
L- love
Y- you
I can lay down my wounds to allow you to come to your God in your way. I can set aside my fears and my misunderstandings. If I do not, it is my fault that I do not feel close to my family. If I insist on things being my way, it is my own heart that will tell on me. Then, I hope you can do the same for me. My worship style may be different from yours, but it is how my heart sings to my God. It is in those moments that I can share with you our love for Him who unites.

“The Christian faith is not a state of mind. It is not a philosophy. You become a Christian when you meet the person of Christ, when you encounter Him. When I say I know God, I am not saying that I know about Him abstractly, I know Him. I have a relationship with Him.... The certainty that comes doesn't come from the fact that my philosophical system is 100% or that I have all of my theology tied up. The certainty that I have comes from the fact that I know Whom I have trusted and I am convinced. I have a relationship with Him. So, I can speak about Him. I can explain it, and I can give it ideas, but in the end my relationship is with Him. It is not a certainty that can be found in any other religious system. All others just have someone else's ideas. Without Christ there is no Christianity(MR)...... We draw a distinction in saying we know an absolute God is not saying we know Him absolutely. There is a difference between God and us. I can know God sufficiently, truly and really, but I am not saying I know absolutes or that I know Him absolutely. That is a knowledge claim that I do not have the capacity to make, and it is not possible. I am saying that the Absolute One, the One Who does have all knowledge is capable of revealing Himself, not exhaustively, but sufficiently... and that means that Absolute Truth has made Himself known (SM).” (Fourth Presbyterian Q&A)

Birds are Singing

I love the promise of new life. Winter is long up here. The birds are singing again, but with the season's change, also comes Spring cleaning. It is time to clean the house, but who wants to spend their days inside? Winter's long sleep can no longer be ignored and doubt creeps in about how we are going to handle our new found freedom along with our new responsibilities.

We have a friend who is 6'7", a very tall man. When he comes into my home, I have a tendency to get very insecure, very fast. Most of my friends are around the same height as I am and I do not know anyone who is taller than Jason, but this friend has a whole new look on things. He walks in and I immediately notice where his eyes can see. He sees dirt in places that I never think to look, "for I don't need to clean that place, no one sees it." That is not the case when he walks in my door. After he leaves, (I do this, no joke) I get a chair and see my home from his point of view. Now I have a choice. I can either address the things that his height has pointed out, or I can go on ignoring them and settle back into my comfort zone. But settling always has a tendency to back fire, he will come over again, and I will once again be made uncomfortable. I am a person who looks forward to summer with all of the crazy emotions that are awakened and all of the work that it brings. I love to hear the birds sing. This change brings promise, but with this promise also comes lots of work. I just cannot sit back and ignore the dirt.

I know many who are struggling right now. They are hurt. There have been many who have had their own hearts revealed to themselves, and to others, in ways they would have never imagined. This is good. It brings light upon things that are normally left alone. It helps us to notice the dirt that we have been ignoring in the past. It helps us to see the truth about how we really keep our house.

Ephesians 1:22, "God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself."

Remember that Christ is very tall. He can see in places that we try to ignore. He can see right into our own hearts. We need to allow Him to show our hearts what we really need to notice. It is not about what others around us are doing and saying, it is about our own hearts, that is what really needs to be cleaned. This is the season for change. I am so excited about this new season and the hope that it brings. There is going to be lots of work. There are many things that have been exposed. I have many hidden fears that try and come in and try to silence me. I have many doubts that make my heart want to roll over and go back to sleep, but my doubts are in myself. I doubt that I can do what I know Christ is calling me to do. He wants my eyes to see the places in my own heart that need to be strengthened. He wants me to see myself. He wants me to take a good look in the mirror and not to just walk away and forget what I look like, but to keep looking steadily into His perfect law that sets me free.

If I concentrate on what others are doing in their own house, I have a tendency to start throwing dirt. I have discovered that when you start throwing dirt, all that really happens, is that you loose a lot of ground. You start concentrating on what they need and should be doing, I stop looking at my own reflection in the mirror. What Christ is showing me to do, never gets done. In this season, can I hear the birds singing? In this season, can I see the joy they bring? In this season, am I willing to work where I need to step up and work? Have I pulled out my chair and taken a look around my house to see things from another view point? Have I taken a look at my own heart from where Christ stands? Am I willing to concentrate on Him? This is a good thing. This can be fun. This is a time when we can sing with the birds. This is a time to notice things from another angle, no matter how uncomfortable it make us. This is a time to sing.

Un-Group, I Love this Body!

Every Tuesday night, for almost 2 years now, I have met with a group of women. We started out meeting in different homes, but now we all gather together in my home. I have a basement that is perfect. That is why we settled on this. We call ourselves the un-group. We have no agenda. We have nothing in mind for our time together. We have no book to guide us. We do not even, always study the bible. We come together and allow God to lead our un-group into praise and worship of Him. We cry together. We laugh together. We share our lives together. There are some women, who are always there. There are others who float in and out, depending on their home situation and what they are needing right then. This un-group of women, this is my church. This is where the true beauty of God comes alive. This is where we see the Holy Spirit move and where we see lives changed.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11, "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have." This is my church body and I love her.

Last night we had a discussion about going to church on Sundays and what that looks like. During this discussion we had several different opinions being tossed around. I don't think that any of us really knew. Church on Sundays is an institution. I hate to say it, but it is. There are certain things that have to happen. There is a certain program that has to be run in order for everything to go smoothly. The question was tossed around about what kind of teaching needed to be taught there. Does it need to me "milk" for the ones who are new and who do not have a strong faith walk yet? Does it need to be "meat" to help spur on those who have been Christ followers for sometime now?

I wrestled with these questions all night. When I awoke this morning and opened my bible, I could hear the answer. It did not come to me through the words that I was reading. It came to my heart. (Then later my heart's desire was put into its place and I have changed what I thought needed to be changed in this writing). Sunday mornings is a time for the believers to come and sing praises to their God together, to worship Him. It is a time to introduce yourself to new people. The meat that we so desire that Sunday morning to give us, is not enough if we expect it to happen once a week. This cannot happen on Sunday mornings, not the way it happens to us on Tuesday nights. If everyone were part of a "small group" then when that person comes in for the first time, who does not know what worship is all about, then the believers should take that person and invite them into "group" night so that the body can work its magic. Just like there are many different "churches" in a town there needs to be many different groups, so that a person can join that group and be fed what they can eat at that time in their life. If they are a new believer, they can receive milk. If they are someone who has been on this journey for some time now, they can eat the meat they need.

This is how it can work. I saw a new woman in our church one day. I made it my goal to go up to her, introduce myself, and invite her into my home on Tuesday night. Now, I am not sure if our un-group is the "right" one for her, but at least she feels like part of the body now. She can come to church on Sunday mornings to meet with people who have the same goal in mind and she does not feel like an outcast by being there. Tuesday night is where the true body of Christ is felt for us. This is where true "church" happens. Now that my friend feels comfortable in our group, if she needs to find another group, she will not feel so uncomfortable in joining another group that may better serve her what she can handle. She is part of the body and she can now find her place. But it all started because she walked into our church, she was invited into a home, she felt desired. This would have never happened if she had not been invited home. Home is where the true teaching needs to happen. Home is where the true church meets.

So if you go to church on Sunday, why are you going? Are you going there to get your fill for the week, until the next Sunday? Are you joined with other believers, part of a small group, during the week? Do you see the new faces who need to be invited into your home, into your group? What does church look like for you? If you are new, if you have been there for your entire life, have you plugged into a small group? If you have not, you are missing the true "church".

Worship

Genesis 33:10, Jacob replied, "What a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God!"

When Jason and I first came to Community Church, "church" had broken us. We were starving and begging for action. We had realized something, if you go into a building and only go so that you can put a check mark in your box of things to do that day, you are missing the entire reason for meeting. One of the best parts of our transition was the fact that I got to watch my husband lead me to a new kind of worship. Before we ever stepped into the building to see how the Sunday morning service would go, we met with Pastor Steve. We discussed with him our hearts desire and found out what his vision was as well. Then we entered into a new kind of worship. We dove right into every aspect of Sunday mornings. We participated and we began to grow. I have never been more blessed than I am with my church.

“You want to define Revival-- Draw a circle around yourself and ask God to revive everything within the circle,” (Stewart McAllister). As I have watched people and their attendance on Sunday morning I have noticed one thing that is very consistent; Most people are not consistent at all. Is going to church, every once in a while, on Sunday morning your entire worship experience? I hope not, but it is something that I have found to be essential to my love for the body of God. If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that my God is consistent. The question I am continually asking myself is, "Am I?" “The Age of Sensation- We think that if we do not feel something, there can be no authenticity in doing it. The Wisdom of God says- We can act our way into a new way of feeling quicker than we can feel our way into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship our deep essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured... If you wait till you feel like it, you will never do it... Who would go to work on Monday morning if it were on the basis of your feelings... You act your way into a new way of feeling, and you do what is right because it is the right thing to do. And that brings us around full circle to the way of the cross,” (SM).

There is a group of women that meet every Tuesday for prayer and worship. (I like to host this group at my house, for I know it would be too easy to succumb to being too tired and not attend.) We love our God. We come together and worship Him. We do not all meet at the same building on Sunday, but we are a church and when I see these women I can truly say, "What a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God!" Then, I can add to that group the rest of my family on Sundays and other days when I see someone out and about. But that started with Jason and me. We had to be consistent first. We had to step out in faith and worship Him in every aspect of our life. “Unless we can worship Him individually, we will not be able to worship Him corporately. If you are not worshiping Him individually, then how do you expect to worship Him corporately,” (Ravi Zacharias). You cannot expect a Sunday morning service to satisfy you, if you do not live your life for Him. You cannot expect to feel connected to others in that service, if you are not consistent in meeting with them. Every relationship takes work on your part. You cannot expect to be healthy and satisfied, if you do not put yourself out there and expose your heart first. It takes work on our part, not be selfish and see that someone else hurts worse that we do, and that is all part of being a body. My favorite part of my every day is my worship. What is yours?