Cohesion

If you missed it, you missed a great celebration!! I am talking about Milestones last Sunday, in which we celebrated Family Dedications, New Members and Baptisms.

These are the things that really create cohesiveness.

In physics, two of the ways that substances stick together is through adhesion or cohesion. If two substances are different, they require adhesion (e.g. adhesive tape to connect a paper with a door). The problem is that such a connection will fall apart the moment the tape loses its stickiness or is stripped away. But, cohesion is like water poured out on the counter. If you watch, the water beads. Water molecules like to stick together.

And that is the church when it is living out what it is! That was what Milestones (which happened last week and is coming around again in November) is all about. It is an opportunity to bring cohesiveness and wholeness to Fellowship Bible Church. We prayed for families, we worshipped, we celebrated, we committed to one another. That is cohesion!! That is where the church grows in wholeness and stops trying to piecemeal tape everything together!!

Take Time To Pray And Listen

I don’t know how many times I have to learn this lesson because it is so obvious, yet so easy to forget. Here is the lesson: take time to pray and listen.

You would think we wouldn’t have to be reminded of that, and yet, I caught myself sitting at my desk on a long Wednesday workday trying to plow through a bunch of different things, only to hear a still, small voice gently rebuke me. “You aren’t trying to do ministry all by yourself, with only your own thoughts and efforts, are you?” So I got up, found one of my favorite nearby spots to pray and listen and (big surprise coming) it was amazing what God led me to think on, act on, to consider!

If life is sweeping you away like a river after the Spring rains, stop!! Take some time—in fact, PLAN SOME TIME—and get by yourself and pray. Ask God to show you whatever it is He wants to show you. You may very well find this time to be the most productive hour of your week!

Draft Picks

On Wednesday I received “the other Bible” in the mail: The 2012 Pro Football Weekly’s NFL Draft Preview. OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration :-), but I have always been a draft-nik. I love watching how teams utilize the draft to build up their teams…except the Browns! Usually, when they get to their picks (with the exception of the last couple of years), I want to put my foot through the TV because they so often overreach for a player (use a high draft choice to get a player they could have gotten in the later rounds)! Not that I am bitter....

As I watch how teams build themselves through player selection, I cannot help but think that if God were putting together a team through the draft, everyone would be left scratching their heads at His picks. You, me, us…He WAY overreached for us!! He traded up to the top pick of the draft with His own Son to claim us. No one in their right mind would have done that! But, that is both the amazing grace of God and the amazing genius of God. Somehow, through a plethora of mind-boggling choices, He crafts a winning team - His church. He coaches us, teaches us, puts us into the right position and empowers us. 

Yes, on April 26th, I’ll be eating wings and watching with bated breath as the Browns choose their players for the future.  But, I will also rejoice in the grace of God and how He has personally chosen every one of us!!

Foreshadowing in the Old Testament

Considering that Matthew wrote to a much more Jewish audience than John did when they were writing their gospels, John really draws out a lot of Old Testament imagery as he tells the story of Christ. The story begins with allusions to the Genesis creation story. Further along (John 1:51), Jesus proclaims Himself the new ladder from Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28:10-22). But it is the work of Christ on the cross that preoccupies John the most. Indeed, John spends chapters 13 to 20 basically detailing the last week of Jesus’ life. And it all reflects back on the foreshadowing of the story in the Old Testament - stories in which God purifies His sanctuary of sin by applying blood to the cover of the ark of the covenant: a flat surface with two angels, one on one side and one on the other, looking down upon God’s mercy where the blood is applied. So, this week, look into John’s telling of the passion of the Christ. But, more importantly, stoop into the cave in John 20:11-12, and see what Mary Magdalene saw - the flat surface where Jesus’ body had been lain and an angel, one on one side and one on the other, looking down upon God’s great mercy for us in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus.

The Real Shepherd

As I was thinking about John 10:1-42 and the theme of false shepherds and the real Shepherd - Jesus, in case that was unclear :-) - I really got to thinking about how important it is for us to choose our leaders wisely!!  I have served under great leaders and poor ones…and ones in-between.  I have also thought how critical it is that we really choose our friends (the people who we really live life with!) wisely also.  If we want to be more like Jesus, then the people who will have the most influence on our lives (to the extent that we can have some say into this), should reflect this Good Shepherd’s personal make-up.  If we want to be courageous (Jesus was the most courageous human to ever walk on this planet!), then we need to select people who exhibit courage!  If we want to combine grace with courage…and wisdom and humility, then we should look for people with those kinds of traits, or who really pursue the development of those virtues.  We are so shaped by the people over us and around us.  And in John 10, we see Jesus giving us the ultimate Person whom we should model ourselves after…but being rooted in community means that we are called to look for people who love Jesus and live like Him to shape our own lives.  Paul even told the Corinthian church - “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)  Choose wisely then, because there is a lot of fake and flimsy in this world!