The Perfecting Church

The good news of the Messiah's coming — the Promised One — ushers in good trouble. It upsets the status quo when the One who owns it all, rules it all and controls it all, comes to redeem and reconcile it all. And the gospel of the Kingdom has come to upset the existing state of affairs. Jesus and His body are anointed to bring trouble — Good Trouble.

Jesus has many names that reveal His character and the nature of His ministry; the Lamb of God, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the I Am and the King of Kings are a few. Although it’s not explicitly in the biblical text, Jesus has another name that is equally true about His character and the nature of His work — The Great Emulsifier. Jesus’s life and cross bring things together that are opposed and distinctly different, making something entirely new.

In light of it all and in the face of it all, don’t forget the sovereign God — He sees further than we can see; He knows in ways that surpass human understanding; He loves with a depth that exceeds our love; and His eternal purposes go beyond our temporary lives in the earth. God

You may be feeling challenged, overwhelmed, stressed or even depressed by the current affairs in our society. Trusting God and remaining faithful when He initiates or allows difficult situations to accelerate His purposes is essential for the believer.

The Sovereign God has promises ordained for each of our lives and for each promise, there is a process of manifestation He has determined. Though it often differs from that which we would have chosen ourselves, we can confidently trust in the Master’s process for His masterpiece.

Life from an eternal perspective causes us to see and experience day to day in a profoundly different way. Things that seem insignificant are significant and things that appear to be of little value are the key to it all. Like a good cook knows not to throw away the scraps — life from an eternal perspective reminds us not to judge useless, what others wish they could forget or just get beyond.

Life with the sovereign God brings moments and seasons where it appears He's for someone or something other than us. In fact, there will be times when everything happening seems to prove, God is against us. The eternal truth of the matter is, God is absolutely for us. He’s just for a version of us that is united with and yielded to Him. Because we were made by Him, for Him and unto Him, the best version of us will always be the version found in Him.

Kitchens are places of preparation and transition. Kitchens are where raw ingredients are made into finished products. Kitchens can be messy. Often, it seems the best chefs, have the messiest kitchens. With a focus on the end product, they give their greatest attention to the outcome, the end point, not the messy and often difficult details along the way. We live chopped lives with messy kitchens.

The glory of the triune God is that He is diverse yet one. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are distinct and unique yet completely united as One. We are made in His image male, female, every culture, every ethnicity and we reflect His image and glory when we are united. Our division denies the glory of God and leaves men, women, black, white other cultures and nations fighting for supremacy. We have been made and born again, diverse but not divided.

What if our purpose in life was inseparably connected to our response to the evil and adversity we face in life? So often we believe our purpose is wrapped in ascending to some adversity free experience in this world, but that view isn’t consistent with scripture. The question isn’t will experience evil and adversity, the question is do we believe our faithfulness to God’s ways and words will deliver us from evil? The Mater’s Recipe for our lives is seasoned with ingredients we would never choose for ourselves and a goodness and sweetness we won’t find in anyone or anything other than Him.

We tend to struggle with the unknown, grey, and in-between. We want to know what God is doing and we want the details. But the truth is we can’t handle the full picture. We wouldn’t want it. We wouldn’t understand it. We wouldn’t pursue it. God never tells us all we want to know about what He’s doing. So we must learn to trust Him in the midst of chaos, suffering and difficulty — knowing He’s good even when we don’t know what He’s making.

Life throws some of the most difficult things at us — things we didn’t ask for, things we feel we don’t deserve and things we never imagined for ourselves. Yet, time and time again, God takes life’s most bitter and detestable ingredients, using them to accomplish His will. Few things turn out just the way we want; but all things work together for God’s good and eternal purposes. We live Chopped lives — His ingredients producing His results.

We are sent people. We are living in this world, but we are not of this world — our primary source is the mouth of God/God’s word. Our sent lives begin when we’re restored to God’s word and liberated from secondary sources as first priority. It is the word of God that perfects us — restoring our mindset to the original intent God had when He sent us to the people, places and times we find ourselves. We are here to live a sent life.

Perspective matters and how we see and perceive is rooted in what we believe. We will never have right perspective, if we don’t begin with the simple yet profound truth — we don’t come from this world; we’ve been sent to this world. Too often, we cry out for God to take us from what He has sent us to. Everything in our lives looks and feels different when realize we’ve been sent to — we don’t come from.

We’ve all met someone, were making small talk or being introduced and were quickly met with the question, “Where are you from?” The question is asked so often because it tells so much or at least leads to so much assumption, about who we are and what we’re capable of. Even Jesus was dismissed by one of the early disciples when introduced as, Jesus of Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? The truth of the matter is our destiny is linked to our origin and our origin is linked to our destiny. The two are inseparably intertwined. Life will continue to ask us, “Where are you from?” And more than we realize, our destiny is tied to our response.