Reaching Further

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In this third part of our conversation about who God made us to be as a church, we talked about the fact that connecting and growing, while necessary, are not sufficient in and of themselves.  Thank you for taking part in this conversation with us and reflecting on God’s design for your own community.  Don’t miss next week as we put everything together and celebrate the thing that gives it all substance: The resurrection.

 

Reaching Further

Have you ever had a secret that was simply too good to keep to yourself?  It was news that you just weren’t going to be able not to share; you were just going to have to deal with the consequences later?  Or perhaps make this more personal: Have you ever gotten a bit of good news that you couldn’t possibly have not shared with the world?  In our social media-crazed world, some days it seems like most folks think everything is worth sharing.  “I got a promotion!”  “I ran a marathon!”  “My kid is on the honor roll!”  “My dog really like its new bed!”  “I woke up this morning!”  “I’m asleep now (my fingers are set on auto-post)!”  What starts to happen is that as everything gets shared, it can begin to seem like really, nothing is worth sharing.  I submit to you, though, that some things really are worth sharing.  What’s more, some places are designed to help us do that.  And I’m not talking about Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 31:30

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“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

We live in a day in which the physical is everything.  Spiritual matters are forgotten or ignored.  We apply this trend not only to things, but to people.  We are told over and over again–mostly subliminally through the images we are surrounded with on a daily basis–that how we look is the most important thing about us.  Sure, we throw a bone at the idea that the inside matters, but this is routinely just lip service.  What the Scriptures proclaim, though, is something different. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 45:22

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“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Did you know that your thumb is bigger than a house?  Don’t believe me?  Next time you go outside, find a house or any other building around you.  Once you’ve located just the right one, close one eye and hold your thumb up in front of the open one.  Now, move it in a bit closer.  Closer still.  Just a bit more.  Magically, the house is gone and all you can see is your thumb.  If you can’t see the house when your thumb is in front of it, your thumb must be bigger right? Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 31:10

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“An excellent wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The Scriptures are often pegged as being anti-woman.  They create a world in which women are expected to be submissive to their men, serve their men, support their men, and basically go with and do whatever they say.  They are not to have any roles in the church, but are to be there and be silent.  They aren’t seen as leadership material at all either.  At least, that’s how the narrative often goes.  And then you actually read what it has to say… Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: John 3:3

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“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of my favorite ideas about God (and one I think is entirely true) comes from G.K. Chesterton in his book, Orthodoxy.  Here it is:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daises alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

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