The Perfecting Church

As we fast, there must be a focus, there must be an expectation. As a woman who has just been told that she is pregnant, there is preparation for what is to come. Expectation is the womb of manifestation.

God is a gentleman, is a common refrain among clergy and followers of Jesus. It captures the meekness that’s a part of God’s character. He has all power; He is present in all places; and He knows all things — but He doesn’t use His power, presence and knowledge to bully His will into our lives. But there are times, both in the Bible and our personal experience, when God uses His power, presence and knowledge to force His goodness on us. And when we find ourselves in those moments, it’s dangerous and possibly fatal to resist. When God wants, what He wants, for His creation and our lives, it’s best for us to bow and shout - All Hail the King!

If we could take all of the decisions we’ve ever made and form a person with them, it would be exactly who we are right now. Our lives are the cumulative effect of decisions — the ones we’ve made and the ones that’ve been made for us. Fasting and prayer is one of those decisions. Fasting and Prayer is a decision to consecrate, dedicate — setting our lives apart to choose God over and over again.  

The Kingdom of God was the message Jesus’ proclaimed — referring to the Kingdom nearly 100 times in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus’ teachings established the Kingdom of God as the priority for our personal lives, of all our endeavors and even our prayers. The Kingdom of God is the territory over which God reigns and rules. Psalms 145 declares, “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations.” As we enter into 2023 the posture of our hopes and hearts can be found in three simple words — Thy Kingdom Come!Scripture(s): NKJVLuke 11:1-212.31.2022 Message TakeawayThis year is an on-going shift — from our agenda to God’s Kingdom agenda.  Friends fall into different categories and so do Jesus’ followers. This is the year of the confidant — those who’s hearts and hopes cry, “Thy Kingdom Come.”

On this last day of Advent we anticipate the coming Christ. We look and wait for the manifestation of God’s promise. The original hearers of Isaiah’s message would have heard it as a riddle. While it seems so obvious to us that Isaiah is pointing to the promised Messiah; it would have been less obvious to Isaiah and even less obvious to those listening in that day. Like us today, they all had the same need but each looked for a different solution.

The Christmas season is the time of year to reflect on the love of God through the birth of his son Jesus. However, we can get distracted from resting in God's love entering the world by the troublesome events that happen daily in our world. The birth of Jesus in 1st century Judea provides us with assurance that love can both abide in a hateful place and conquer it.Scripture(s): NKJV

In the midst of a census, for the taxation of the entire Roman occupied world, God inaugurates His heart Kingdom for all who will receive His Son. There is a deep, personal joy found in Jesus for each of us; a joy that can not be found in any other thing or in any other way. To know Jesus, is to know a deep and abiding personal joy..

The Messiah has come that we might have peace within, peace with others and peace in the world. The word shalom in all of its forms is mentioned 550 times in the Bible. We typically use peace and shalom interchangeably in the English language. But shalom is far more comprehensive than simply the absence of war and chaos. Shalom is the relational restoration of creation as God the creator and sustainer intends.  Scripture(s): NKJVIsaiah 9:6-7Luke 2:1-14

We celebrate Advent, Christmas, the arrival and birth of Jesus the long awaited Messiah. Jesus is not only the hope of the entire world, He is the hope of every single event in our lives. No where can hope be seen more clearly than in the way God takes our temporal lives and sweeps them into His eternal plan for all creation. 

Dropping Materialism, Individualism and Consumerism is not a once and for all thing. It’s a decision we make daily. This world never stops telling us we aren’t worthy and God isn’t trustworthy. So we must choose God and His way over and over again, until our serial yes produces a different kind of person — a person with a heavenly perspective, peace and provision — a child of the living God. 

Mankind traded the good life — life as God intended — for the goods life — buying and selling the life we choose. No where is selling and purchasing the life we choose more celebrated than American Western culture. We pride ourselves on being what we want to be, doing what we want to do and accumulating what we want to have. But in the end, life part from God is a lie. The goods life ends in chaos and destruction or by God’s grace, it ends in being reconciled to God by Christ Jesus.    

We are blinded by materialism because unlike other sins it hides and holds us captive. It convinces us our lives consist of the things we have and apart from things we aren't inherently valuable. Materialism is a functional god that forces us to serve it and trust it, convincing us if we have nothing we are nothing. Jesus sets us free from materialism by giving us His peace, His joy and eternal worth -- things that materialism promises but can't deliver. Scripture(s):Luke 19:1-2Luke 12:15Luke 19:3-7Luke 19:8-10

Materialism, Individualism andConsumerism undermine Jesus’ intent for our lives and the Church. The Church was never intended to exist simply to make our lives better. Jesus’ Church has been placed in the world to extend His Kingdom and to usher in eternal life.

Individualism stems from a determination to get what we want rather than embrace God's will regardless of the outcome. But, it's in our valleys, times of despair when things don't go as we hoped, that we develop a deeper dependence upon God and experience God's power to shelter, protect, sustain and position us in His will now and for what is to come. It's in these moments that we must trust God is a Good Shepherd who according to Psalm 23 leads us, lays us down and restores us, especially When the Rain Doesn't Come.

Listening to God demands radical love that engages a community sacrificially requiring excessive generosity - THIS turned the world upside down - let’s turn our city upside down