The Perfecting Church

God loves broken things. Nothing makes Him happier than when we recognize just how broken we are without Him. It's not that He's an ego maniac. It's that all things are held together by Him. Brokenness realizes that we can't impress God with our knowledge -- He is all-knowing. We can't impress Him with our power -- He is all-powerful. We can't impress Him with our wealth and posessions -- He owns it all. We can't even impress Him with our religion -- He is the Holy One. We can't impress Him at all, because apart from Him we are broken. Our brokenness isn't the kind that is fixed with a touch. We have the kind of brokenness that comes from missing a part. God is the missing piece in our broken lives. We need Him. And we need Him far more than we realize.

Arguably, the most important event in the church and dare I say human history, aside from the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. If Saul had remained a Jewish rabbi nearly half of the New Testament would be missing. The radical change of direction in the gospel being shared not only with those who were Jewish, but with the rest of the gentile world, may have gone undone or greatly delayed. Saul of Tarsus' conversion was deeply personal, but its impact was profoundly global. Like Saul travelling the Damascus road, we too are entering into a season of profound personal and global change. This year will be a series of conversion experiences for us and our world as we know it. Like Saul, our transformation will be the key to far more change than just our own thoughts, beliefs and ways. Our tranformation is going to radically impact the lives of those around us and the world. Welcome to Transform 2014 -- A Year of Conversion.

Uncommon Love means love is no longer something we look for, but it's something that we've become. The fruit of His Spirit within us is love. Love is the greatest power that has ever and will ever exist. Love does not choose sides. Love chose the cross. He saw all of humanity having the same sin problem and Jesus came from the other side to rescue us. He came from the other side to become one of us, to die for us, and to give us what we did not deserve, Uncommon Love. This year was about “us” going to the other side. It was about us going to the people and places we’ve judged, feared, criticized and didn’t know enough about. This year was about us learning to love with an uncommon love.

If we took the time to think about it, we would all realize our lives have been full of people turning the other cheek for us, giving their outer coats to us and going another mile for us. Not one of us sits here self-made. We are all the results of gifts, great and selfless gifts, given to us. We are happiest when we recognize and embrace that fact and respond by willingly turning our other cheek for others, giving our coats to others and by going the extra mile for others. Jesus' command to us to live as givers is not something He is foreign to Himself. He has travelled further, subjected Himself to more and given more than any of us ever will. His command is actually an invitation to be in this world but not of it. It's an invitation to live life as an extension of the God of the second mile.

Walk another mile, turn your other cheek, give them your outer coat too, were all commands that Jesus gave His disciples. He knew that the greatest ingredient to fully embracing God's gift of "This day" was the denial of self. As long as we are at the center of our days they will be up and down. But when we willingly deny ourselves to serve and follow Him into the lives of others, we end up finding the often despised and overlooked power in giving Him the second mile. When our trust and obedience are firmly committed to the One who overcame death, hell and the grave, He leads us into becoming more than conquerors and receiving His grace to walk another mile, turn the other cheek or give away our coat.

What difference does a new day make when we messed up yesterday? We said the wrong words. We made the wrong commitments. We travelled down the wrong road. We reacted the wrong way. We spoke when we should have listened. We ran when we should have stood our ground. That's exactly why we must be still daily and accept the life-changing fact -- His mercies are new every morning. We lose precious days when we let yesterday's mistakes rob us of today's mercy. God's mercies are new every morning for a reason. They are God's way of giving us a brand new day. His mercy gives us a fresh and clean 24 hours with Him and everyone else. A good life takes the fresh mercy every morning, fills itself with it and then extends it to others. New mercies every morning!

God's thoughts are above man's thoughts and His ways are above man's ways. All of creation is the work of His hands, the Master Architect. Days are God's invention. It's been His plan from the beginning that we live life in 24-hour, bite-sized pieces. We struggle when we try to go beyond the wisdom of His original design. Those of us who are burdened with worry, fear, depression, anger, unforgiveness or pride are usually guilty of trying to bite off more than we can chew. The simple truth is, we have been graced for today. This doesn't mean we can't plan, think or pray ahead. But when we become obsessed with what happens next or what's happened before, we lose sight of the fact that today is a gift and God's grace is sufficient for today. This is the day the Lord has made. What a difference a day makes!

God doesn't command us to give thanks because He has an ego. God commands us to give thanks to deliver us from ours. In every situation and every circumstance of life, God's first instruction to us is give thanks! God is confident in His plan, His ability, His faithfulness and His power. We don't give Him thanks in every situation and circumstance because we lack that same confidence in Him. Thanks is the holy repsonse that anchors our hearts in the plan, ability, faithfulness and power of God. Thanks opens our eyes to see and trust His hand at work in each scene of our lives. Giving God thanks delivers us from ungratefulness, worry, anxiety and fear by reminding us we're not in control, God is -- In Everything Give Thanks

Nothing demonstrates our brokeness and self-centeredness more than our ungratefulness and the refusal to give thanks. When our eyes are stuck on self we walk around with an attitude of entitlement, quietly comparing ourselves to others and grumbling about God being unfair or uncaring. So often we live having vowed to take things into our own hands or giving up altogether, convinced the odds have been unfairly stacked against us. The ungrateful heart feels justified thinking, if God knew or if He cared He would do things my way. If we are nothing else, we should be thankful. When God doesn't see our gratitude it surprises Him. Thanks lifts our eyes off of ourselves and onto God. Thanks acknowledges His place in our lives and the goodness He brings. Only thanks can bring the quality and approach to life that gives God glory -- Give Thanks.

The quality of our lives is directly tied to the quality of our relationships. Life here is entirely about how we relate to God, our neighbors and things. How we relate to those three ultimately impacts not only how we live now but how we will live for eternity. In the beginning God was the one and only life-giving relationship for man. But after the fall and man’s separation from God we began to walk-in our own ways and thoughts. Breakout is about returning to God’s original intent, living in relationship with Him and trusting Him to shepherd us into how to relate to everyone and everything else. As long as we attempt to live in our own ways, protecting and providing for ourselves, we will remain stuck -- separated from the righteousness, peace and joy God has preordained for us. Today once and for all let us surrender and choose to allow God to break us out!

Have you ever seen a person that resembled someone you knew so much that you went up to greet them, only to find out they were a complete stranger? Seeing a complete stranger can bring up memories and experiences shared with someone but to our embarrassment it can be a totally different someone. Bitter Root judgments and bitter expectancies are like that. They cause us to treat one person as if they were another because of old feelings, fears and judgements that come up when we interact with them. Often times bitter judgements and expectations can keep us from even interacting with certain people because of conclusions we've made before we even got to know them. Bitter root judgements and bitter root expectancies can be more dangerous than strongholds and inner vows. They, more subtly than the others, cause us to "keep getting what we keep rehearsing", rather than the glorious, purposeful lives and relationships that God has in mind for us. We must breakout.

Strongholds are like corrupted files on a computer hard drive. We did not intend for them to be there but they are simply there because we have lived and experienced life. Quite frankly, life bogs you down so much it can be hard for you to see what you can offer or what you are uniquely qualified to do. Like all computers, occasionally in life we need to press CTL + ALT + DELETE and start over. It doesn't mean we have to start from the beginning, but maybe, just maybe it means we need to rethink, recalibrate, retool, reevaluate how we see, think and feel about the things that are going on in our lives.

Have you ever seen a person that resembled someone you knew so much that you went up and greeted them as if they were that person, only to find out they were a complete stranger? Seeing that stranger brought up memories and experiences shared with someone but to our embarrassment it was a totally different someone. Bitter Root judgments and bitter expectancies are like that, only they aren't triggered by what we see but by what we feel. They cause us to treat a relationship with one person as if they were another because of old feelings, fears and judgements that come up when we interact with them. Often times bitter judgements and expectations keep us from even interacting with certain people because of judgements and expectations we have before we ever get to know them. Bitter root judgements and bitter root expectancies are the most powerful of all unseen negative forces in our lives. They cause us to "keep getting what we keep rehearsing", rather than the glorious,purposeful lives and relationships that God has in mind for us. We must breakout.

As we continue to breakout, we are confronted with recurring reminders that can either move us forward or bring us back. Despite what others say about us (good or bad) or what we say about ourselves publically (good or bad), there is a private conversation that we are continually having-the inner dialogue. Our inner dialogue will determine our actions and reactions to every challenge/opportunity we face. We must decide whose voice will dominate our inner dialogue and ultimately define how we see ourselves. This decision will lead us into a lifestyle of bondage or breakout-you choose.

In life no matter where we go we bring ourselves. We can change schools, friends, careers, spouses, even the place in the world where we live, but the one constant is us. When we find ourselves continually getting the same results, ending up in the same ruts, attracting the same kinds of relationships, we need to take a closer look at ourselves. Often times what's at work are inner vows and judgements that we've made in reaction to trauma, past hurts and difficult seasons in our lives. Inner vows and judments are our way of protecting ourselves. They're our attempt to keep the past from happening again. But they end up keeping us attached to the past to live it over and over again, creating our own version of groundhog day. God wants to break us out!