Secret Service: Quenching the Quest for Approval

Saint Nicholas, the fourth Century Bishop of Myra, lived a life of secret service. He did not seek fame or the recognition of others. Rather, Nicholas desired the reward of the Heavenly Father as he went about quietly and generously serving the needs of others. His life embodies the truth of Jesus’ teaching in Mathew 6:1-4. Nicholas’s generosity is the story behind our modern Christmas tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace. If you missed this weekend’s message and want the rest of the story, you can listen to it here! [hyperlink]

Many of us are taking the “Secret Service” challenge this week. We’re looking for five opportunities to lighten someone’s load and striving to do so anonymously! Secret service comes against a false narrative which insists our value is based on what we produce, or how we look, or the way we act. The soul-training exercise of serving secretly frees us from needing others' recognition to feel like we matter. The truth of the Gospel is that we matter to God because of who God is, not because of what we do or say, or how we behave.

As James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful Life, reminds us: “[Our] worth is found in the eyes of a loving God. If you win, God loves you. If you lose, God loves you. If you fast and pray and give your money to the poor, God loves you. If you are sinful and selfish, God loves you. He is a covenant God, and his love never changes. You are valuable, precious and worth dying for – just as you are.” (p. 147-148)

Take the Secret Service challenge with us and let me know what you learn about yourself or your relationship with God as a result.

Daily Bread and Outstretched Arms

When the Israelites needed food, God provided with daily 'manna' in the wilderness (see Exodus 16). There's freedom in prayerful release of control. Spiritual rhythms of trust, like Sabbath-keeping and generosity, loosen our grip and teach us daily dependence on God. If you missed this weekend's message on "Daily Bread Prayer" you can listen here. 

Well over 1,500 children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends participated in CLPC's annual FEAR NOT FESTIVAL. Scores of volunteers served food, gave away candy, painted faces, cleaned up messes and chaperoned activities. It was our joy, with outstretched arms, to embrace every person in generous hospitality. This is the Kingdom of God at hand - locking arms with one another to bless and engage our neighborhoods. Way to go church. Look what God is doing!

Our mid-fall Stewardship series on Living Stories of Answered Prayer continues this weekend with a look at "Miracle Prayer." Read Mark 6:30-44 in preparation. This weekend's message will be no ordinary three-point sermon. That's all I'm telling... :)  Join us for the surprise

Sin Conversations

John 8:1-11 is the poignant story of humanizing and personalizing sin. What begins as a religious test for Jesus and a humiliating experience for the woman ends with the "religious" and the "sinner" personally confronted with Jesus' mercy and justice. Grace and truth meet fully in Christ (John 1:17).

Conversations about sin are more easily played in the political, religious and theoretical moral realm than they are in the personal realm. It's easier to point our finger than it is to confess our sin. Rather than join the piling on about Trump's "hot mic" recording, what if we divulged our own struggle with lust? Instead of Hillary's emails, what if we talked about the ways we hide from others?

Being trustworthy, transparent and direct (dealing with one another squarely and without hidden agendas) is how we live well in relationship to one another. May Jesus' Way shape our words and our lives in Conversations Close to the Heart. If you missed this weekend's message, or any other in this series, you can listen here.

Read Joshua 6:1-17a in preparation for this weekend's message entitled, Breakthrough Prayer.

A Doubting Place

Is it okay to doubt God at church? It's one thing to doubt God in the science lab or classroom. But shouldn't church be a place where we suspend reason and accept certain things on "faith"? Apparently, Jesus and the disciples thought otherwise! 

When Thomas expressed doubts at the proposition of Jesus' resurrection, the disciples (John 20:25) didn't write off Thomas as a lost cause. Instead, the disciples continued embracing Thomas in community (see John 20:26). Neither is Jesus put off by Thomas' questions. Rather, Jesus invites Thomas to put him to the test! ("Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side." John 20:27.)

Conversations about doubt happen when we listen carefully to one another while being honest about our own doubts and questions. Rather than trying to "fix" another person's doubts, we keep the focus on how we have seen God at work in our own lives and we encourage the other to put Jesus to the test in his/her own way. Jesus is not threatened or disappointed by our doubts. We can be confident that if he is who he says he is, Jesus can answer even our most nagging doubts and questions.

If you missed the weekend message, you can listen to it here. To prepare for this weekend, read John 7:53-8:11.

Conversations About Past Hurts

Our church (www.clpc.org) has designated 2016 the "Year of Story." We're learning how to share our real-life stories with one another and learning how to listen for stories our neighbors, co-workers, church friends, and community are telling. We're learning to understand our own stories and the stories of the world around us, in light of God's big story of grace and redemption in Jesus Christ. 

In church circles, it's easier to share stories that have tidy endings. These are stories of answered prayer and spiritual triumph. What we don't share so easily are the stories with tattered edges. These are stories of an absent or silent God - stories of failed relationships or relentless struggles with sin. 

Mark 5:24b-34 tells the story of a woman suffering from past hurts. In anguish for twelve long years, physically and emotionally, the woman emerges from the anonymity of a crowd to touch the hem of Jesus' cloak. Exhausted from a life of pain and shame, she risks it all to share her story with the One who could make her whole. Our church family can be a place where it is safe to be honest and to be known. We can be a place where it is okay to not be okay. We can be community living under the healing touch of Jesus. We do so by mustering courage to reveal the story of our own hurts and making a safe-space to listen for the hurts in others.

How the Story Ends

God's new heaven and new earth / unveiled when Jesus returns

When bad things happen to us, to our loved ones, or in the world around us we wonder, "What kind of story is God writing?" Revelation 21:1-8 gives a glimpse into the Story's ending with God "making all things new." God's story doesn't end with humans skipping off to the clouds leaving earth behind. Instead, God's holy city comes down from heaven. We look forward to a new, resurrected earth and heaven united under God's benevolent rule. The Good News for today is, the One who holds our eternal future also holds the future of today. If you missed this weekend's message, you can listen to it here.

Held Together

When things aren't going well we often say, "things are falling apart." We're "torn to pieces" when a loved one suffers. When a relationship ends we talk about "breaking up." When we say things like that we are appropriately describing the brokenness of a world infected by sin and Evil. It has been noted that the Latin root is the same for our English words "diabolical" and "disintegrate." Sin makes us, and our world, fall apart.

The Good News of God's Big Story, however, is that Jesus Makes Things Right. According to Colossians 1:17 Jesus is the one in whom "all things hold together." Through Christ's life, death, and resurrection Christ has reconciled all things. If you missed last weekend's message, you can listen to it here.

Falling Apart

Human sin is real and it ruins everything. This is the not-so-pleasant part of God's Big Story. Like a giant "Jenga" game, Genesis 3-6 describes how God' creation falls apart as humans grab for their own and distrust God. We see that brokenness in the world and, even closer, in ourselves. Thankfully, God pursues us. God doesn't walk away from our mess. God walks toward us (see Genesis 3:8). This is the rest of God's Big Story.

If you missed the weekend message, you can listen to it here. Join us this Labor Day weekend for worship as we learn what happens next in God's Big Story. It's going to be a great weekend of worship at CLPC!

Prayer for Monday

I realize every picture, every image, every video has a context. At the same time, some pictures take on meaning which transcends the literalness of the circumstance. The image of Ieshia L. Evans standing peacefully in the face of heavily armed police officers portrays the kind of upside-down (or right-side up?) reality of God's Kingdom I can only pray might characterize our collective witness as Jesus followers.

After the 11:15 a.m. worship service yesterday, a church member slipped a piece of paper into my hand. It contained a single phrase from the hymn we had sung earlier that morning: "Cure thy children's warring madness." As the images and stories continue in the wake of last week's violence, the entire third verse from "God of Grace and God of Glory" seems an apt prayer for us.

Cure Thy children's warring madness,

Bend our pride to Thy control.

Shame our wanton selfish gladness,

Rich in things and poor in soul.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal,

Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal.

Fallen idols: Monday Message

Gideon asked the angel, “If God is with us, why has all this happened?” (Judges 6:12). As we face trouble at work, hurtful relationships, or even routine irritations and inconveniences, we might ask God the same question. Sometimes life is hard and God’s promises seem distant. We ask God “why?!”

God’s answered Gideon with an invitation to get rid of idols. Like the rest of Israel, Gideon and his family were not totally surrendered to the LORD God. In Judges 6:25-27 Gideon tears down his family’s idols to Baal and Asherah. Gideon renews his commitment to the LORD.

Perhaps today is a good time to smash an idol distracting your full-on devotion to God. Yesterday in worship we did so by symbolically crushing a dixie cup. You might do the same right now by crumpling a sheet of paper while praying, “Lord, I surrender to you completely. Let me find my strength for today in you alone.”

If you missed this weekend’s message you can listen to it here.

Join us for worship this weekend as we consider the story of Jonah’s call as our series, When God Calls continues.

Eat Up!

People everywhere are watching what they eat. It’s part of a growing awareness that what we eat impacts our bodies and our health. Even fast-food giant McDonald’s is in the game offering a wider variety of wholesome choices and providing nutritional information next to menu items.

What’s true of our bodies is true of our souls.

When God calls Ezekiel, he tells the prophet to “eat this book” (Ezekiel 3:1 The Message translation). Ezekiel ate, and it was “as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:1). The book of Ezekiel is full of wild visions which convey important truths. I doubt Ezekiel actually took a knife and fork to the Torah Scroll. However, the description underscores an important truth: We need the Scripture to feed a healthy soul. In her message this weekend, Pastor Katrina cited Eugene Peterson’s cereal box analogy. Peterson says, we can read all the nutritional information on a cereal box but until we’ve digested what’s inside, the box of cereal does us no good.

What is your soul munching on this Monday? Take a time-out now to reflect on some Scripture (try Psalm 23). Ask God to help you savor its truth and feed your inner self.

Our post-Easter series, “When God Calls,” continues this Mother’s Day weekend with the call of Gideon. Have you ever doubted God’s favor or presence in your life? Do you feel like life is just a daily game of survival? If so, God’s message to Gideon is a message for you! I look forward to worshipping and learning with you this weekend.

Starting the Pornography Conversation

Two weeks ago two others from our church and I attended the Set Free Global Summit in Greensboro, North Carolina. The event, hosted by Josh McDowell and Covenant Eyes, was billed as "the most comprehensive conference for Christian leaders about Internet pornography." We were among 800 lay persons, pastors, youth pastors, and counselors who spent three days listening to experts from a variety of disciplines talk about the impact pornography is having on our brains, our marriages, our children and our churches.

At the conference the Barna Group unveiled its new study, The Porn Phenomenon. David Kinneman, president of Barna Group, presented highlights from the project Monday evening:

• ​Nearly half of young people actively seek out porn monthly or more often
• Young adults consider “not recycling” more immoral than viewing pornography
• 66% of teens and young adults have received a sexually explicit image and 41% have sent one
• More than half of Christian youth pastors have had at least one teen come to them for help in dealing with porn in the past 12 months
• 21% of youth pastors and 14% of pastors admit they currently struggle with using porn.

Those at the Set Free Summit aren't the only ones raising concern. A recent cover article of Time Magazine (April 11, 2016) addressed the issue. Porn and the Threat to Virility reports an increasing number of young adult men contend their "sexual responses have been sabotaged because their brains were virtually marinated in porn when they were adolescents."

It's not just our kids and young adults being impacted. The ramifications of pornography are multi-dimensional. It is eroding the way our culture views healthy intimacy. The production of pornography exploits men and women and drives human trafficking. For some the lure of viewing pornography is addictive and the church's silent refusal to talk about the problem only drives their habit and their shame further into secrecy. (For more information check out www.fightthenewdrug.org)

I want our church to be a safe place to talk about this important topic. Do you know someone who struggles with pornography or who has been impacted by it? Would you be willing to join me, and perhaps others, in conversation? If so, send me an email and let's start talking.

steve@clpc.org

God in the Bush

Are you listening for God’s voice today? 

Moses heard God’s call in the course of an ordinary day tending sheep (Exodus 3:1-6). He noticed a bush, took time to turn aside, and that’s when God began to speak. Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and author, is fond of Paula D’Arcy’s renown quote: “God comes to us disguised as our life.” Moses’ response to God’s voice in the bush, was “Here I am.” 

As you dive into another Monday, are you here?

(listen to the full message at our website www.clpc.org)

What does it mean that Jesus died for us?

"Do you not fear God, since you [and I] are under the same sentence of condemnation?" said the criminal hanging on one side of Jesus to the other.  "And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23:40-41) This is the essence of the Gospel. Jesus suffered a death he did not deserve so that we can live a life we did not earn. Unless we face the reality of sin and our need for forgiveness, the story of Jesus' death and resurrection is only lukewarm inspiration at best. But sin is real. And so is God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ. By placing our faith in Christ, we can receive salvation today. (Luke 23:43) 

If you missed last weekend's message, you can listen to it here.

Reconciled

Are you at odds with someone today? A co-worker, friend, family member, or neighbor? Esau and Jacob were estranged from each other for at least twenty years. After decades of cold silence these twin brothers reconcile (Genesis 32-33). Before Jacob could reconcile with Esau he needed to pray, wrestling with God, and become willing to make the first move. If you missed this weekend's message entitled "Wrestling with Forgiveness" you can listen to it here.

This Palm Sunday weekend (March 19-20) marks the beginning of Holy Week. Read the story of Jesus' crucifixion in Luke 23:32-43 in preparation. Rulers scoff, soldiers mock, and passersby gawk. One criminal joins the crowd's derision while another asks for mercy. Where are you in this story?

Empty Buckets

Last weekend we began the 2016 Year of Story. In John 4 we met a woman who came to the well with an empty bucket and an unquenchable thirst. We’re all thirsty for something. Thirsty for love. Thirsty for success. Thirsty for recognition. Thirsty for revenge. Thirsty for peace. With empty buckets we try and quench our thirst in different ways. Jesus met the woman’s thirst with a promise of living water. (If you missed last weekend’s message, you can listen to it here [hyperlink].)

When Jesus gets involved, the story always changes.

Join us this weekend as we see what happens next. Read John 4:16-26 in preparation. It’s going to be a great weekend at CLPC. I look forward to worshipping with you.

For Christ,

Steve