pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: community


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The Relationship

In Exodus 33 God decides to take a little break from the Israelites.  He tells Moses that an angel will accompany them instead.  But Moses does not like the plan.  Its kinda like having Michael Jordan on your team and him telling you he’s sending his four-year-old niece instead next game.

For Moses, it is about that personal relationship he has with God and also about the corporate relationship the people have with God.  The relationship is with God, not an angel.  To Moses, no substitute will do.  An angel instead?  No thanks.

Put in the same situation, we should react the same way.  Today we view God as three ‘parts’ of one person – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Our personal faith is tied to God.  This relationship is the one thing that determines how we live our life.  Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Our faith grows as our relationships with God deepens and we in turn become a greater part of the community as well.

As a community of faith, we are also bound up in this same relationship.  How we live as a community of faith is determined by our relationship with God as well.  And in the community of faith we find support, encouragements, correction, and learning.   We honor Jesus’ second command most often as a community – to love neighbor as self.  As a body of believers we are intertwined and interconnected not only with each other, but also with the greater world outside our church walls.

Scripture reference: Exodus 33: 12-23


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Natural Connection

Do people of faith always feel connected to God and to other Christians?  Do we always feel like we are part of the family?  At times I think we all feel disconnected from God and from our community of faith.  We are never truly disconnected, but at times we feel like it.

As life tosses us about we can wonder if God is present in the midst of the storm.  We do not see Jesus walking on the water towards us.  As emotions of sadness or loneliness sink in, we question if He is there.  We do not see His hand reaching out to pull us up out of the turmoil.  As we pass through difficult seasons in life, we sometimes look around but fail to recognize Him.  We do not see Jesus in the people God sends our way.  Yet we feel apart from God only in our own minds – God and His love are always present.

In these trials, how do we maintain contact with God and our community of faith?  It starts long before the storm, before the sad emotions, before the season.  If we spend time reading, praying, studying, we build up that “reserve” that will carry us through the trials.  The more we know God, the more natural that connection becomes.  If we spend time in fellowship and in caring groups within our faith community, then we are known and we know others in ways that will sustain us in the trials.  Just as we can learn to sense when another needs us to walk alongside them, others too will come to sense when we need that as well.  We train for the race so that we can run it with perseverance, with strength, and with God’s presence.

In Psalm 31, verse 3 we read: “You are my rock and my fortress; for Your name’s sake You lead me and guide me.”  When we know Him as rock and fortress, trials are so much easier to walk through.

Scripture reference: Romans 11:1-2a


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Within AND Without

Are you an ‘innie’ or an ‘outtie’?  Does your faith reside mostly inside of you, like a well-kept secret?  Or is your faith out there to be shared with all you encounter?  Each moment of our lives can either be a God moment or just a moment.  God is everywhere all of the time – try and find Him there!

Is your community of believers more of an innie or an outtie?  Is the community consumed with what’s going on inside the walls?Or does your church look outside to the world some of the time?  A healthy church does both.

Just as the church must focus both within and without, we too as a person of faith must look both within and without.  We each need time reading the Bible, praying, meditating, and fasting to grow in our faith.  As a community of believers we need fellowship and loving and caring relationships between the members of the body.

Personally and as a community of believers we need to also reach outside of our own personal space or the four walls of the church so that others can come to know this mighty and awesome God we love and that loves us.  Not everyone will enter a church to find faith.  Some find it in the experiences they have with us or with our church.  We must be both within and without.  It is not either/or.  It must be both!

Scripture reference: Psalm 133


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Bearers of the Greatest News Ever!!

We form a relationship with God in a personal way.  We also experience and welcome in the Holy Spirit in a personal manner.  But growth as we continue our journey of faith must be made within community.  This community is both within the walls of our churches and also outside in the big wide world.

We are all part of the body of Christ, each a valuable member.  As we live out a Spirit-led life, we participate in the mission of the church.  The man mission of the church is the transformation of the world.  Once we participate in this we begin to see what God has in store for our world.  These little glimpses of ‘heaven on earth’ fuel our desire to make disciples of all nations.

Just as we struggle from time to time with sin, so too do the people we are trying to reach.  They just do not yet know the power of Jesus Christ to defeat that sin and temptation.  We are called to sow seeds of faith into people’s lives so that they too can come to know the redemptive love of Jesus Christ.  May we be bearers of the greatest news we have ever heard to those who need to hear it today!

Scripture Reference: Romans 8: 1-11


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A Family of Faith

One day Peter preached about Jesus, repenting of sin, and being baptized into faith in Christ.  Baptism was the sacrament that celebrated the commitment of one’s life to following Christ.  On this one day many people heard Peter’s words, felt his passion, and felt that little tug upon their own hearts.  3000 responded and we baptized on that one day.  3000!!

Each of these ‘new’ Christians returned to their homes and daily lives.  But they were different because now they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  And through this faith and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they were each connected to the larger body of Christ.  This commonality allowed them to come together as a community of faith where they could sustain this newfound belief and could begin to grow in this faith.  As they gathered they could help and encourage one another.  They could practice that love of neighbor that Christ called them to.

Like they, we are also made to be in community.  Each of our Christian communities is important to us because it is centered on this love of Christ.  To encourage and love and support and pray for each other, we come to know that couple or family or single person that sits down from us in the pew or row.  And they come to know us.  We notice if they are missing or if something seems different about them.  And they notice these things about us.  It becomes our family.  They become part of our family and we become part of their family.  This Sunday, when we gather, may we see ALL as our dearly loved brothers and sisters in Christ, all as part of the family.


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Serving and Growing

God calls us out into the world to be His light for the lost. At times we catch a glimpse of what God’s world would look like. In these moments we are truly blessed!

 

Last night we gathered with about 45 youth and a dozen adults. We shared our time with each other and also learned more about God’s love for us. This morning we will go out into the community to be His hands and feet. Caring for others is our method today.

 

Serving in the name of Christ is just one way to share our faith. It is our way today. What will be your way to share Christ today?