Unity

Psalm 133:1-3
How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.

It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

 

God blesses unity. On a mission team unity is right at the top of the priority list. I've been in positions where I have been working to go in a seemingly good direction and yet stalled in making progress because of a lack of unity. You would think that I would learn from this...

 

This past couple of weeks it became evident that God was convicting me of my lack of unity. I became more stubborn and self-righteous while thinking I was pushing for what was best. My heart had become harder when I needed it to be soft. I am not charged with leading this team. I can a will lead in some ways, but I only within God's plan and his use for me.

 

It is good to have a voice and communicate ideas and opinions. It is good to talk about them and come to a decision. It is not good to then question the decision and work against them. I want God to bless what we are doing here. I want him to have a clear path to our hearts and to the souls around us.

 

1 Cor 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

 

Heb 13:17

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

 

I am seeing now that this is an area God has probably been showing me for a while. My humility needs some work. I hope and pray to learn these lessons quickly so as to be under the blessing of God in our work here.

 

I am striving to be more of a help and support to our awesome leaders here in Tri-Cities. Please join me in prayer for the Ruben and Evie as they seek God's vision for this church and diligently live it out. Pray that I also can be an encouragement by being unified with them.

Less Faith Sometimes

Today I am in the midst of a juice fast that Francine and I are doing together (for health reasons). It is always a challenge to get through the first couple days. I get a headache and feel tired. After that it goes pretty well. There is still a bit of weakness, but I love the clear thinking I get and the allergies go away. It's amazing what nutrition can do.

Having faith is kind of like fasting. Denying yourself daily is exactly what we do as disciples. If we don't, we get just like we do when we eat terrible food regularly. Fat, sick, cloudy thinking. When we live by faith we live the only healthy (spiritual) way.

Rom 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

When I get worried about our small mission team here, it is because my faith has weakened. When I doubt that there are people searching for God around me, my faith has weakened. When I get critical about the other disciples and what they are doing, or not doing, my faith has weakened.

Kieth preached this past Sunday on pride. It was great. Not so much that he did great (though he did), but I think the Spirit really moved in my heart. All morning I wrestled with pride and while listening to the message I knew it!

It started with not getting out of the house when I wanted to. We had family in town and I could not get to church early as I had planned. I also had some people I had invited coming to church, so I paced around worrying about it well into the service. They ended up not coming. While song leading I forgot some words and labored to connect my heart to the singing. Then I felt critical about the service in general.

All of these things stemmed from what I wanted and what I thought. Pride. It really was a faith killer.

It is great to have an awesome wife like mine to remind me of these things and help me get my head clear. With some prayer and heart checking, faith will live on...

Pray for us.

Family Matters

John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

One thing we have been working on since the beginning is the family element of our church. Acts 2 gives a pretty good look at what God's church should look like. Relationships are difficult to cultivate and maintain. Marriage is a good example of this. It takes work. The fellowship of God's people in any given place also takes work to make into a true family. This goal; family, is really testing us in our living out the John 13 scripture.

Lately, in relation to this, I have been feeling the pangs of both anxiety, and also the Spirit. It is an odd contrast, and I think they can be easily confused. If I believe it's the Spirit speaking when it is really anxiety and worry, then I blaspheme (calling what is good, evil). If I the Spirit is calling and I think it is just nerves, then I have lost an opportunity to walk in step with God.

I find myself asking "What is this feeling I have?"

On top of these "feelings" I am wrestling with the day to day life of not only my own flesh and blood family, but the family of God here in Tri Cities. As one of the married couples with kids, we have found that one of our roles is of shepherding. We are a young church, with young families and leaders. This creates a dynamic that could be troublesome. If we do not continue to create a true family of believers, it will be near impossible to demonstrate God's love.

Therefore I contend with the worry and the Spirit...

So far, I have avoided the mystical world of self-deciphering what the Spirit is saying. I think it is dangerous to make assumptions in spiritual matters. Instead I have turned to prayer, which I think is pretty much the only solution to most ailments of the heart. Even if I "know" what to do or say, I probably do not, so I should pray. That is not to say that an action should not be taken, but it should not be done lightly.

John 4 starts by talking about "Testing the spirits." This could be a very lengthy writing if I were to get into it. Suffice to say, there needs to be plenty of testing. This I think can primarily be done through prayer, fasting, and the word of God.

So far this wrestling has produced some clarity in the matters at hand. On the other hand, there are so many issues and questions "hanging out to dry" with no answers or solutions yet. It is then by faith that I can have peace in this process. God is very much interested in seeing his family love one another. Pray that we come to him with our lives in this and also turn to each other as true brothers and sisters to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12).

Again:

Heb 11:1-3
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Lord let our faith be true, and increase, because we have so little faith...

Grace Unleashed

This past week we had a couple of events that were really great. The women had a "night out" to bond, get a little time away, and refresh one another. The men had a cookout that was really awesome. Three men, all neighbors, came and enjoyed the man-time. We ate, played Ultimate Frisbee, and got time to talk about guy stuff...

Church was fantastic! We saw about 10 new visitors this week. 2 of them are studying the bible. Many of the visitors are being brought by other visitors. Domino! Love it.

It is wonderful to see God drawing the people around us to his dwelling place; us. The days where I really take care to consider with faith what is happening around me, I can't help but see God working powerfully. I pray the day will come when I will be petitioning some of my faithful brothers and sisters from other churches to come and help because of the amazing grace we are experiencing.

Acts 11:22-24
News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

I am convinced that faith will win the day here in Tri Cities. The fact that we are not seasoned church builders and expert leaders has provided the perfect soil for God's seed of faith to flourish by his grace (I feel).

We are praying and looking for a place to meet as the weather turns cooler. Right now we are using the lovely, FREE parks in the area. I know we always have a place to meet in our homes, but I hope we will find a perfect place to meet over the winter months.

There are several people studying the bible right now and the number is growing almost daily (Acts 2:47...). Many of them are young campus students. One is a single, divorced man named Jeremy. Please pray for the Spirit to give us the words and faith to exhibit the Kingdom to these friends. Soon I hope to be celebrating their inclusion into God's Kingdom.

There is sickness, sadness, spiritual attacks, and other troubles pulling at all of us. Please pray for the strength of the workers and the protection of our hearts. Pray we can band together in unity to fight off all the flaming arrows. Amen.