Hope is expectant, forward-looking faith, and in such trying times, it can be hard to hold onto hope. That's why we need to surround ourselves with supportive community—other Christians who can point us to our hope in Christ when our hope dims, and for whom we can do the same.
God’s love is generous. My Grammy and Papa taught me so much about what it means to be a generous person. Their generosity throughout my childhood taught me what it meant to become a generous adult. They never ran out of love for us kids, and apparently, that meant the Candy Drawer never ran out of candy, even after Christmas, and even into adulthood.
There are three functions that I want to encourage us in from our Scripture as we prepare ourselves for the message of hope throughout this week. Being a hope bringer, being a hope carrier, and a hope establisher.
Biblical peace is more than just the absence of conflict. As a follower of Jesus, peace is an intentional action toward restoration in humanity’s brokenness. It’s not something we can just conjure up or manipulate, but in reality, it’s something that can only be achieved by practicing peacemaking (not to be confused with peacekeeping) in community.
The word for peace in Hebrew that is used throughout Scripture is shalom. The “peace” that shalom is speaking of actually has less to do with happiness or calmness and more to do with wholeness and completeness.
Peace is not found in the experiences of your life or the lot that you have been given. Peace can only truly be felt deep in your soul. So, what does it mean to me to have soul-level peace?
The Advent season is a season of waiting. Waiting for the coming of the revelation of God Himself in human form. The revelation of salvation. The revelation of the fullness of God’s love, joy, hope, and peace. Peace. The anticipation of the coming of peace.
We begin a season called Advent and a series called God With Us. Over the next four weeks, we’re talking about peace, hope, love, and joy. I think we need more of all four.
The Spirit of God is looking to rest upon you and our calling is to yield to this, give up and allow full control so the Spirit may lead us and when we do we can find rest.
There are so many disconnections when we don’t seek to understand the true character of the Trinity, but the disconnect I want to highlight most today is this: we are created in the image of a Triune God that is in community with each other.
I had asked the Lord to give me a life, not a job, not a career, but a life. I wanted what I did every day to mean something. My life Scripture became, "Here I am Lord, send me." from Isaiah 6:8. Well, the Lord took my prayer request seriously and I learned that God provides.
The best part about my life is not knowing where I’m going but being constantly surprised of what God is doing. I encourage you to raise your sail and catch the wind of the Holy Spirit. You’ll never regret it or whatever you leave behind because He always has better.
For this devotional, I’d like to talk about the idea that God uses the fruit of the Spirit in us to draw people closer to Him.
Today, I just want to bless you. I want to send you off with a blessing into the weekend. I don’t know what your weekend will look like, but I certainly want to do that.
God has married my heart with His in His mission for His creation with prayer, intercession and the prophetic to edify, encourage, and comfort as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 14:3.
I like to use the sentence, I’m happy you’re here because saying that phrase is the action step I choose to take. It is so simple, a quick little “I am happy you are here”, and it reassures the overthinking mind and clarifies the tone of any situation. We are looking for genuine and honest interactions here, but how incredible would it be if we just said what we felt, and made sure people knew that we are so grateful for their presence.
As I have encountered people in all walks of life during my assignments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Argentina, Washington, DC, Chad, and now Switzerland, I have tried, imperfectly, to be the visible expression of God's love to those I meet. In many cases, it is simply by not ignoring them; but truly seeing them and engaging with them as one child of God to another.
Today I want to talk about how we, as Christians and the church, can impact the world by laying down the best foundations for people to encounter and interact with God. For that to happen, it is vitally important that we, the church, create places that have what I want to call, delicate eco-systems—where soil is rich and full of nutrients and the Spirit is present, but where if the wrong things are injected into it at the wrong times, it can be easily spoiled.
While we are believing for at NCC, and doing big things in our communities—addressing ongoing violence, caring for survivors of sexual exploitation, providing compassion and care for the most vulnerable; Jesus says "whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me." So, we believe it begins, empowered by the Spirit, with small acts of love.
About ten years ago I emerged from a particularly rough period in my life and ministry with several valuable lessons that God taught me. One lesson was about the gospel and the kingdom of God. In the Old Testament, the Israelites built monuments to remember lessons learned. The tattoo on my forearm is a “personal monument” for me to remember the lessons. The design is a Trinity or Celtic knot.
Jesus’ invitation is for us to sit with His love—to allow His love to rub on us. Jesus wants us to feel so connected and safe with him that we can offer safety and connection to others. Thus, I believe Jesus has called all of us to the ministry of sitting with people.
Living life on mission isn’t about being a savior to someone in need. It is about pointing them to the Savior and we do that through acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly. My hope is that you will answer the call. The mission will be hard, you must serve humbly, and seek God continuously, but when you do you will experience the miracles of heaven.
Creation of man begins with God’s breath indwelling the earth. It’s a moment of ignition as spirit comes into contact with soil, combined in the person of Adam. In fact, Adam or Adamah means land or soil. God’s spirit inhabiting a physical place and with that spark, we are created, created with a charge of presence within space. Adam is created and charged to work and care for the earth.
As we end this week of NCC daily’s and as we wind down on this series, I get the chance to leave you with one last thought. What better passage to guide us here, than the very last words of the Bible itself? The end of the book of Revelation.
Imagine that you run into a friend of yours, not an especially close friend, at Ebenezers when you go to get your Saturday morning cup of joe. You’re in line together and you’re just sort of chatting and you ask him, “Hey - so what have you got on your plate today?” And your friend goes, “You know, I feel like I have something but I don’t remember… otherwise, I think it's just a slow Saturday.”
Today we are continuing our conversation on eschatology - the study of the end. For the last two days, I’ve referenced verses in 1st Corinthians 15. That was not necessarily by design, but it’s sure not by mistake.
Today, we’re going to keep talking about “eschatology,” about the doctrine of final things (as it is sometime grandiosely called). Today, I want to share with you a verse that surprised me the first time I read it. It surprised me because it sort of turned my idea of eschatology on its head.
But the English word “eschatology” comes from the Greek word “eschaton” which means “the end of something or the goal of something.” In Christian theology, eschatology has come to mean “the study of God’s intended end for the world.” That’s what we’ll be talking about.
No matter what the situation looks like. No matter the season you find yourself in you can have confidence in the fact that Jesus is with you. With Jesus in your boat, the best is yet to come.
