Our young adult group just started a study on the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.
In the first chapter, he challenges the reader to "stop praying." This sounds like bad advice for the one who is seeking to connect with God. His point is that we should discontinue our prayers where there is a lack of an awareness of God in the midst of our seemingly spiritual activity.

As you are praying, as you are serving, as you are reading scripture, consider God. Consider His holiness; splendor; power to save and heal; self-giving Love; anger against sin and arrogance; compassion for the broken and lowly ; Justice; holy jealousy for us; Creation and power to give new life; What characteristic of God is especially significant for you today? Let that give life to your prayers and your activities of this day.

I've been thinking about God's majestic power after reading Psalm 29
⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
⁵ The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars;
the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
I image the power behind the shattering of a mighty tree by lightning or other internal pressures. To be anywhere close to that event in the woods would cause us to dive for cover.
This mighty force is directed toward the blessing of God's people:
11 The Lord gives his people strength.
The Lord blesses them with peace.

Our journey toward full devotion to God will start with the revelation of who God is. Jesus invites us to whole-heartedly live for him. This journey will be charged with life and passion as we continually consider God, most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, God's Son, Lord and Savior.

Stop! and consider God. Open the Bible; meet with other believers; meditate on your understanding of God; Today, pause several times just to consider God and to praise Him.

Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.

My prayer is that this would be the direction we take in life in 2010 as the people of God --that our thinking (counsel), behaviors (way), and our belonging (seat) would be centered on the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ.

I'd like to be counted as part of the men, women, and children who delight in the Lord. I look forward to joining together with others in our church community who will be reading through the Bible this year. (You're welcome to join us--just start in today. We are following the One Year Bible. You can find the reading plan at http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/. Our worship and sermons will focus on the scriptures read that week.) I'm excited to hear of many who are joining this journey.

I trust that 2 things will happen as we discipline ourselves to soak in God's Word daily:
1. God will plant and solidify the big picture of His unfolding story and plans to redeem all Creation under the Lordship of Jesus (and we're part of that story in Christ!) as well as the truth and guidance for "life and godliness" that scripture offers.
2. Each day the Spirit will grip our hearts with a particular promise, correction, word of guidance that will strengthen and equip us to to be faithful ---or---maybe it will be a fresh understanding of God that moves us to praise and surrender to the Holy One.

What will propel you to delight in God and His Word?

• pray and ask for the Spirit to instill that delight in your heart and mind

• be disciplined to come into the Lord's presence daily--delight grows as we see God more clearly, love God more dearly, and follow God more nearly;

• be grateful daily--look out for God's faithfulness to you daily

• meditate on God's Word--wrestle with the truth God has spoken to you; carry it
  into your day; live it;

• surround yourself with those who delight in God and His Word; let this be the influence
  that others have on you--not wicked counsel and mocking;

• be cleansed of sin through repentance and cleansed of worry by entrusting your life to
  the Lord's guidance and care; Let delight then emerge from under this weight;

• Go and live faithfulness: Live rightly and be light in the darkness; Be part of the
  redeeming work of God in this world through Jesus Christ;
  

You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.
You have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Psalm 16

I am thankful for the faithfulness of God in my life.
I am thankful for the privilege of walking with Jesus by faith; for April, Brook, Sam, and Ellen-an amazing gift; for the community of faith God has brought together at Zion; for health and strength; supportive, solid friendships; joys of life--biking down back roads, sitting by the campfire, playing quoits, reading, playing soccer, laughing around the supper table; being able to share and live the good news of overcoming sin and brokenness and being a new person in Jesus Christ--restored to God.

Writing this out calls me back to pursuing and appreciating these things in life.
Thank you, God, for your faithful presence and guiding hand every moment of life. May I live in the awareness of that promise and reality.

I'm feeling the call to prayer as we dive in to this focus of "When God's People Pray," and carrying more expectation as I pray that God will listen and answer--resulting in praise to God. I'm striving hard to keep a commitment to pray for each person of Zion each week. I also hope to stay consistent in "praying for 5" on a daily+ basis. I don't say this to sound super-spiritual because, in fact, I find that I talk about and plan to pray much better than I actually "do" prayer.

I pray that the Holy Spirit infuses in us a desire to pray and a submission to God in prayer that then gets expressed in faithful living and seeing the manifestation of God’s power and love all around us and in us.

We had a great time of worship this past Sunday hearing the testimonies of those who were coming forward for baptism and those being received into membership. We heard how the Lord spoke his invitation to faith in a variety of ways--family prayer times, in conversation with camp counselors, struggling to integrate beliefs with friendships and our experiences of life--often not reflecting the goodness of God, wrestling to take ownership of the faith experiences of one's childhood, being influenced by the church family around us.

It was an amazing thing to hear the interaction between mentors and those who were coming forward for baptism. I appreciated how seriously the mentors took their role of providing guidance and support as they studied and shared life together over the past few months, and to hear how they witnessed genuine and emerging faith in their mentees.

I look forward to the investment and impact our new members will have on our ministry. God is building us and bringing us together to join Him in bringing all things under the reign of God in Jesus Christ.

We saw from Colossians 1: 15 ff that all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, are under the authority of Christ. All things were created by him and for him. He is the head of the church. In all things, Jesus has the supremacy.
I again would like to remind those baptized along with all of us who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior--come under that authority.
The authority to forgive: Jesus has been granted that authority through his willing sacrifice
on the cross and his resurrection victory over sin and death. He intercedes for us at the
right hand of the Father in heaven. Thank you, Jesus, for your unconditional love.
The authority to transform: Jesus has the authority to work in the lives of those who are
"new creations" in him so that they align with his teachings and his example--a life
of union and obedience to the Father, of love, of purity, of being reconcilers, free from
being treasure hunters of the stuff of earth, of fellowship with others in Christ, of
service to those in need;
The authority to protect: Jesus Christ, the name above all names, has authority of all
things on earth and in the spiritual realm. Only in that name can we be protected from
the persistent interference of Satan to disrupt, discourage, and disable the life of faith
and obedience Christ is establishing in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The authority to send: Jesus sends us out to continue his work of preaching, teaching, and
healing:
proclaiming the hope that can only be found in Christ
teaching and shaping lives toward holiness (set apart for God)
healing through prayers; our faithful, supportive relationships; and our service.

Have you come under that authority? Pray even now for forgiveness and to surrender to Christ's loving and supreme authority.

Pastor Steve

I had big plans for this blog in late June. I was planning an 8-day bike trip to Columbus, OH for our Mennonite Church USA convention. I hoped to blog each evening about the people I met, conversations I had, and spiritual reflections that came to be along the way.
A week before the trip was to start, I was discovered to have high blood pressure. My doctor recommended not attempting such a rigorous adventure until my pressure could be stabilized to a better level. While disappointed, God did use this time for spiritual reflection in a powerful way.
Here are some highlights (shared during a sermon/testimonial on July 12):

For the first time in my life, my body said, "No" to something I was planning to do. This was a big surprise in the midst of playing competitive soccer (yes, over-40 soccer still has some intensity) and "conquering" hills in my training rides with no symptoms. I began to see this as a metaphor for my life as I live by the attitude of "I'm going to do what I plan to do." For my bike trip, I even had the fleeting thought of doing it anyway and monitoring my blood pressure along the way--discontinuing if need be. I began to hear the Spirit speak to me questioning how much I seek the will of God and His direction for my life and ministry. Philippians 1 and 2 were scriptures upon which I have focused lately. Paul prayed, "May your love abound more and more (my focused pursuit of daily, ongoing relationship with my Lord) in knowledge and depth of insight so you might discern what is good..." I feel challenged to live by greater discernment of God's good for my life, family, church, community, and world.

Another aspect to all of this was worry and fear. This is one of my weak links in life. The one symptom I have been feeling recently is heart palpitations--stronger beating than normal. For me, worry intensifies when I feel this strong beating and wonder what's going on in my 'ticker'.
This is especially true when laying in bed with no distraction. Also, going in to Rite Aid and testing my blood pressure on one of their machines and just waiting for the verdict to appear.
"Will it be too high?" This has led to some intense prayer sessions and reciting of God's promises--sometimes alone and sometimes with April. It's been good training in learning to trust and put my life in the hand's of a faithful God. This may be a little blip in my health timeline or maybe something more significant will appear (up to this point, testing has shown nothing unusual except for my blood pressure). No matter what, do I trust that God has a plan for my life and His kingdom purposes in any and all circumstances? Will I respond faithfully?

In the midst of some of these concerns, we heard a fellow pastor reflect on 2 Corinthians 1:
God is the Father of compassion and the Lord of all comfort. Paul had dire struggles, even to the point of despairing of life, so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered...and we have set our hope that he will deliver. The preacher proclaimed that God's comfort is a "transformative" comfort, not just a pat on the back. We are changed as we trust God through our struggles. Dallas Willard, in "Divine Conspiracy" suggests that an even better translation for the Holy Spirit as "comforter", is Strengthener. We are made stronger, more mature as we rely on God through struggles.

One evening as I sat overlooking Blue Marsh Lake and the sunset, I was struck with the question, "What is causing the restlessness in my heart (beyond the physical)?" This was modified into the question, "What is smothering joy and peace in my life?" This is on ongoing question I am asking along the way. Romans14: 17 became a helpful verse, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Spirit."
Lord, may that arise in my life in new ways.

Finally, I appreciated the focus on our convention in Columbus--Breathe in and be filled.
A key scripture was from John 20 when Jesus entered the room of a fearful group of disciples on resurrection morning and offered them "Peace." But that was not the full extent of what he offered. He also breathed the Spirit upon them and sent them out--just as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Much of what I have written about in this blog is about me . But God wants to do much more than just give me joy and peace. I am sent by my Lord, Jesus, to be a witness of the Kingdom of God-- Inviting people to find and share in the life that is offered us through Christ--to find forgiveness and freedom from sin and shame, to be accepted fully by God as His child, to walk in obedience, to proclaim and live for righteousness and justice, to demonstrate grace and mercy, to point to the Truth, to trust in resurrection--hope for God's glory and setting things right forever.

Thanks for patiently wading through this to the end. I should have blogged along the way. It's been helpful for me to write out my reflections and experiences to clearly see how the Spirit has faithfully spoken into my life. What are you hearing?

Pastor Steve

Jesus challenges his followers to consider what fruits are being born in their lives. Good fruit comes from a good tree, bad fruit from a bad tree. (Matthew 7: 15-20)
A healthy, fruitful tree is one planted by the streams of (living) water and yields its fruit in season. (Psalm 1)
I appreciated one commentator's reflections on this passage when he suggested that Jesus' saw the inevitability of this fruit growing in our lives as we come to the Father through him.
Later, he will speak of some with lots of religious sounding words and great deeds in his name, but "I never knew you."

The apostle Paul prayed for the Philippian believers for this kind of fruit as they came to Jesus. Let's make it our prayer as well.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1: 9-11)

Others will recognize us by our fruits. What fruit are people "picking" from your life. Does it lead them toward God's light and life?

May God bless you on your faithwalk today as Christ's fruit is recognized in all you do--to the glory and praise of God.