every day mattered

Few weeks back my good friends Dana and Deanna and I were talking about this new book Dana is reading, called Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with Christ by Elyse Fitzpatrick (find book here). 

Dana talked about how enlightening it was and how she had never thought so much about how the Incarnation of Jesus influences our life. Deanna and I admit that we hadn't really taken the time to think about Jesus' life, like a real person doing real things. 

I think sometimes the person of Jesus is so swallowed up by his birth, death, and resurrection, that we hardly take time to think of him as God, the Incarnate. Its so true in my own life. 

Then, Dana said something that hit me sideways and changed everything I thought about the Incarnation. 

In Fitzpatrick's book, she suggests that Jesus' life was about more than being innocent. If Jesus' only purpose in coming to Earth was to be sinless or innocent, Herod could have killed him when we has a toddler, or for that matter he could have died shortly after birth, and would have been completely innocent. 

Jesus' actual life mattered, and still matters. But why?

Days went by and I just kept thinking about what she said and how profound that was. But it still didn't completely satisfy my curiosity. I kept thinking back on that verse in Hebrews 4:15,

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

This verse helped me a little, but I still couldn't figure out what exactly God was trying to show me. As of right now the closest similarity I have to Jesus is that I live a normal life, fighting flesh and sin. I wasn't born miraculously, and I haven't yet died and resurrected with him. 
So, why does Jesus' life matter so much to my life? How does the gospel of Jesus Christ speak into my everyday life? 
That's the question I was wrestling with...
So as I was wrestling with those thoughts in my own mind, my husband and I were preparing for our small group Bible study at our house. We were reading Romans 5 over dinner when I came across a verse that honestly confused me. Romans 5:10 states, 

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

I started to break it down in order to understand it a little better. Then it hit me... There is something profound in this one verse and God gave me the eyes and mind of faith to receive it. 
Paul seems to be setting up two different situations or two statements, referring to death and life.

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son...
1. Before we professed faith in Christ  while we were Gods enemies, we were made right through his death. Basically Jesus death makes us holy and pleasing before the Lord. 

After reading that first part I thought to myself, "well that seems good enough, right?" I mean Jesus died to bring us near to God and now that's accomplished so everything is all gravy....
But we still have that same question, what about Jesus' life?

...how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
2. Number one shows us that we were reconciled by death, but this statement talks about now that we are reconciled, to those who have professed faith in Jesus or also called saints. On this side of the cross and through faith we are saved through his life.

This means Jesus' life matters for our continual salvation.... I am not saying that you can lose your salvation, in fact I am saying the opposite. 
Jesus' life matters because we cloth ourselves in Christ (Romans 13:14) which means we not only take upon his death and resurrection, but also his actual LIFE. 
Jesus didn't just live 30ish years because it seemed right or because God liked that age. 
Jesus lived every moment, day, and year in perfect obedience to God on our behalf. Every day mattered in Christ's life because he lived perfectly in every situation. 

When I lie to my friend and turn my back on her, I am saved because Christ was a perfect friend and completely faithful on my behalf.
When I am angry at God and I ignore him and choose sin, I can look to Jesus' life, that although he had seemingly good reasons to be mad at God, he was perfectly faithful and joyfully chose obedience to the Father. 
When my mother fails me and lets me down, I can look to the Christ who was true to his word and gave me a new, everlasting family.

Now, on a side note I do want to say this is also referring to true life in the resurrection of Jesus. But even in that we can look to Jesus as the first fruits, the one who went before us perfectly, even in his death and resurrection.

I plead with you to dwell on Jesus' life...
There was not a day the Father ordained by accident in Jesus' life. 
All he did, written and unwritten, mattered.
He is not just a moral example or an innocent human. 
This is our hope of life with God as he makes us more like Christ until we dwell together one day. 
Clothe yourselves in the life of Jesus Christ and look not to your failures but to the perfection of Jesus Christ and the righteousness he offers to the glory of God. 

Which day of the week is Church?

I am going to think out loud. 

I have been thinking so much about the Church lately, and where we are in 2014 and what God is going to do among us all.

As I think about the Church, the buzz words come to my mind; small groups, community groups, life groups, gospel communities, missional communities..and the list goes on.

I am not saying anything bad about these terms, but as a Church, collectively, we don't know what they mean or which one we want to use. 

Well..I'm not going to solve that problem, in fact what I say might make the problem worse (before it gets better however). 

We, the Church, are doing an okay job at the weekly meetings. We have learned and are convicted that meeting once a week to study the Bible is either what we are supposed to do or it's a pretty good thing. 

Either way...we are doing it. 

We may even meet again in a different group of people, maybe its all women or maybe you help with the youth. 

But, two times a week is what Christians would called "involved" in your local church. 

Again, these are all wonderful things. This blog isn't about those weekly times together (that's a future blog).

 This is about inconsistency...a hole in our understanding of what is means to be the Church. 

We get together throughout the week; laugh, share stories, pray, cry, play with one anthers children, drink coffee, make meals, watch football, speak Gods word to one another, and fellowship. 

Those are small groups, life groups, gospel communities, or missional communities. That's life. 

But, we aren't quite sure what to do with Sunday morning...

?????

???

??

?

Ive asked myself this question recently; Why does Sunday morning look so different from the rest of our week.

Unless you're from outside America or your church is at grassroots stage, this applies to you. 

Why does Sunday morning feel scheduled, stiff, or programmed?? 

This isn't meant to harp on any local body, because I know there are congregations filled with the life-giving Holy Spirit.

But why does Sunday morning have to look any different from the rest of our weeks?

What happens when a small/life/missional/gospel community gets bigger and starts to outgrow the house it meets in?

------we raise up leaders to start a new group at someone else's house, in someone else's neighborhood, where there are new people, new surroundings, and a new opportunity to worship in new community. 

But, what happens when a Sunday morning gathering gets too big? Outgrows its walls?

------we move buildings? we build new ones? 

This is all I have ever known, and honestly this is all any of us have ever known, because this is what the American church has been doing for most its life. 

I have heard the reasons and have spoken the excuses myself. "If we want more people to come to hear and learn about Jesus than we have to make room for them. The more room the more converts to Jesus." its as simple as that.

I'm a product of this, so don't get my wrong..I'm really trying not to be harsh.

Well what do we do in theses situations? Like any good Christian we go to the early Church in Acts and we see what God was doing among them... 

The first verse we usually point to is Acts 2:41,

So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

See, there is nothing wrong with having a large church or a bigger building, we can't possibly live in a close community with 3,000 people on a Sunday morning. That's impossible... 

It is impossible. 

But God revealed something to me in his word that spoke to me concerning this disconnect between our missional lives and our attractional Sundays. 

The ONLY reason there were 3,000 believers that day is because it was PENTECOST.

It wasn't normal. It wasn't typical. It wasn't ideal.

Acts 2:1,5,9-11;

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men form every nation under heaven. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors form Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians- we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty words of God.

God did something amazing that day, he drew in 3,000 believers because it was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God himself. 
This is an atypical situation... 
They were drawn the temple area because of the Jewish celebration called the Feast of Weeks, and hearing the rushing wind and the tongues of the nations and seeing the tongues of fire caused the men to turn their attention to the apostles and ultimately to the mighty work of the Holy Spirit. 
This was significant.

But that's not the point of this blog. 
The point was at the end of that gathering, after 3,000 believers were baptized in Jesus Christ and all was said and done, they went home.
Of course they would gather. They were used to gathering. 
But they went home. They met at home. 
They didn't build a mega-synagogue to meet in. 
The people of God lived their Sunday mornings, daily.

Here are a few examples of the early Church doing "Sunday"
“When they [Paul and Silas] had come out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house where they saw and encouraged the brothers, and then they left” (Acts 16:40).
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus...greet also the church at their house” (Romans 16:3,5).
“Give greetings to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and to the church in her house” (Colossians 4:15).
“Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved and our co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church at your house” (Philemon verses 1-2).



When we outgrow our building, lets meet at someone else's building too. 
The early Church was the spread out, sent out people of God.


Then in Acts 2:42,45-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

Church, lets go home. 

I hope that the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and unifies us together can speak to this hole missing in the Church.
May the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit convict our hearts, in the way we teach, worship, break bread, spend our money, and take care of one another. 

John 20:21

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

-Jesus 

2 0 1 3

the past year and a half has changed me in ways i still don't understand.

i didn't believe people when they told me that i would make it through 2013, i thought somehow or someway i wouldn't make it. 

the funny thing is, you are probably expecting me to say some really bad things happened or i was sick or there was some sort of life or death situation. thats not true at all. 

if anything, the past year was overflowing with good things. but i didn't see it like that.

i was a child, like a little Israelite girl wondering in the desert after being released from slavery. 

there was a promise ahead, and God was walking so near to me. 

but all i could think, was I'm not going to make it. I'm going to die out hear and its all your fault God because you did this to me. you gave me too many good things.

how embarrassing is that.....

in the fall of 2012 i was at wheaton college and had been accepted on the 2013 summer wheaton in the holy lands trip.

the minute i walked onto wheatons campus thats all i ever wanted to do. i wanted to travel and study abroad and see the world, i didn't care how much it cost.

but prior to applying for that trip God had changed my heart and inevitably changed my plans. 

i never wanted to get married or fall in love because i had seen nothing but failure after failure and i didn't want that. i was fine with being alone, i thought. 

but God gave me Derek, and in the summer of 2012 he proposed.

i was so scared, i didn't think i could handle planning a wedding, i never actually wanted a wedding. the date was set for 8.10.13

but God in his goodness revealed to me what marriage truly meant and changed my heart forever. 

so now i was planning a wedding, in my final year of college and now planning to study abroad for 7 weeks a month before the wedding. 

i couldn't handle it. 

i went to my dear friend, crying in fear of failure. she prayed over me and spoke truth into my life and i will never forget that blessing. 

2013 came and i started writing letters to people, asking them to support my trip.

i felt so weird about asking people for money, but i knew i couldn't go otherwise. 

through that God taught me what it means to be the church and what it looked like to support one another.

by the grace of God i raised 10,000$ to study abroad, which testifies to Gods sovereign hand.

in may i began my trip. we went to Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Israel/Palestine. i missed home at times, but more than anything i wished Derek could experience was i was doing. it was truly the most remarkable thing i have ever done.

God changed me so much across the world. i saw so many types of people in so many different cultures. i was humbled and ashamed of my arrogance. i had always been ethnocentric, and God tore my heart apart for the nations. 

i learned so much about myself and what it meant to be a minority. 

i will never read the bible the same, now seeing where jesus and paul and the disciples walked. 

that trip changed me.

so i retuned home feeling like a foreigner still. 7 weeks is just long enough to start feeling at home. but here i was back in the midwest town of 40,000 about to get married in a month and i don't feel like I'm home. 

i was so confused and i just wanted everyone around me to understand and experience what i had. God changed my heart for the nations. 

right when i get home, literally as i am driving home from the airport i find out that my stepdad left me mom while i was gone. 

i couldn't believe it.. my heart sunk and i felt so much despair. 

why was i even getting married? i mean isn't it a joke these days, that people actually get married. 

satan used my moms divorce a month before my wedding to lead me to believe lies about love, marriage, and commitment. 

the flood of lies would come and go throughout the next weeks, but i never truly killed them with the word of God. 

a week before our wedding i was crying everyday. i wasn't crying because i was growing up and beucase my life was changing and i was leaving my parents.

i was crying out of fear. here i was again... crying out of fear.

thats all i had ever done, when things get hard and scary i freeze and cry.

i figured i would probably leave derek or he would leave me, so whats the point anyways. i was so scared of marriage. 

8.10.13 came, and the power of the Spirit covered that day in His grace and mercy.

it was one of the best days of my life. i had so much joy and i was refreshed and encouraged by the gospel of Jesus Christ that day. 

so here i am, its 2014 and i made it. 

all these events of the past year are just details, but they were real to me. 

they may seem silly or insignificant but it was real to me. 

i doubted Gods goodness, faithfulness, and love for me.

but he brought me through. he took me one step at a time and showed me just enough in front of me. 

i knew it was going to be a year that would change my life forever, and it was. 

i was so afraid of taking a step because i was so afraid of failing. 

1 john 4:18....there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. for fear has to do with punishment...

i understand Gods love in 2014 in a way i never could have if i wouldn't have experienced 2013. 

punishment comes from failure, and there is no failure with God.

if God is who he says he is and he is in control, as long as we are walking in step with the Spirit, dwelling in Jesus Christ, we cannot fail. 

2014 will not be without fear or hardship, but it will be covered in grace. 

lets truly believe this is year brothers and sisters, 

"there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus." romans 8:1....