Mt 10:40 “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. 41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
A friend of mine recently told me about Bill Gates who just left the helm of the Microsoft Corporation. As you know, Bill Gates has been listed as one of the richest men in the world with net worth being valued over $58 billion. Gates has set out to make sure that every child on the face of the planet has a complete set of vaccinations against disease.
That’s staggering to contemplate. Consider that there are somewhere around 4 billion children in the world. And still its amazing that of all the uses Bill Gates could think of for his immense wealth, the way he has chosen to spend it is on people who need it the most, making sure they have a chance at getting a good start at life.
Why would he do it? What could possibly be the reward? I’m sure a financial manager has somewhere made the argument that Mr. Gates money would be better spent earning a good rate of return on his $58 billion. I imagine that he’s even been courted by political candidates arguing that if he would help them get elected then that would be the greatest impact his money could have.
But it’s when we empty ourselves enough to give exactly what’s needed to the ones who are the least in our society – that’s when our hearts most resemble the heart of God.
You see, the heart of God is to show mercy to those who don’t deserve mercy and forgiveness to those who don’t even know they need to be forgiven of anything. The heart of God is to love the unlovable and to draw into community the ones no one believes is fit for relationship. The heart of God is to raise up leaders from among those who have been cast out and dismissed because – well, that’s just how God is. I suppose if he were to raise up spiritual leaders from among the rich and powerful there might be some confusion over who actually got the credit! And so God chose Moses – an infant cast off by his mother out of fear for her son’s safety. And God chose Samuel, who had been given to an elderly priest to raise and teach. And God chose a reckless harp-player turned bandit named David to become Israel’s greatest king. God has a heart for the underdog it would seem.
Do you? Who would you give the most simple of gifts to – a cup of cold water? Who is deserving of your selfless love? -- Jay
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
STREAMS!
Please be in prayer for an emerging network of churches that Promise Church is apart of called “Streams.” Streams is a developing association of churches around Nashville and Jackson who are beginning to share resources, ministries, and encouragement. Typically the churches are smaller church plants like our own who are dedicated to being places where the Spirit of God can move freely and nurture incredible faith, mission, healing, and community.
Pastor Jay is working closely with Tony Woodall to develop this network and will be planning a retreat for the pastoral leadership of these churches in September in Pensacola, Fla. Please pray for Jay and Tony – for energy to do this in addition to their other job responsibilities. But also pray that Streams will be a fresh source of inspiration and energy to all of the churches involved and that it follows God’s organic plan for nourishing the body of Christ!
Pastor Jay is working closely with Tony Woodall to develop this network and will be planning a retreat for the pastoral leadership of these churches in September in Pensacola, Fla. Please pray for Jay and Tony – for energy to do this in addition to their other job responsibilities. But also pray that Streams will be a fresh source of inspiration and energy to all of the churches involved and that it follows God’s organic plan for nourishing the body of Christ!
Lose Your Life. Find Your Life.
Mt 10:37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."
If you think about we all have a basic philosophy of life. Seriously. We all do. Our philosophy might be to build a business. It might be to simply go in and be a good employee, do a good job, and be rewarded for our work. Some people have the philosophy that society should provide them with the basics of life. Others have the philosophy that one can never count on society to provide one with anything at all. Still others will say that they have no philosophy, which sounds nice, but usually only means that they haven’t really thought about it. Talk to someone for long and you’ll begin to sense the idea that guides their most basic beliefs about their life.
Jesus in this text challenges those who put even their own self-preservation before God. He begs the question that is so powerful – “Is there anything worth living for if you don’t have anything worth dying for?”
For Jesus, what’s worth dying for is a vision of God’s reign that draws in people of every stripe and calls them to simply be who God created them to be.
That sounds too simple! You mean that Jesus didn’t give his life for a political ideology or for economic prosperity or for some notion of personal freedom? That’s right. Jesus died for a vision of the world where people lived in freedom, had REAL prosperity, and lived with perfect governance because they lived in willing obedience to God.
To the cynic, that sounds pretty Pollyanish. How incredibly naïve to think that broken, selfish human beings could ever experience, let alone achieve anything like that. And the cynic would be right. Human beings could never achieve that. But God could.
Through God’s own power (and grace), he could take broken, selfish, self-protective human beings and mold them into a people who could enjoy creation and each other rather than live in fear of their own annihilation. If only they would say “yes.” If only we would say “yes.” If only I would say “yes.” Saying “yes” is to enter to “abyss” (Kierkegaard!) of trust. It’s on the other side of that abyss that we are restored to the Garden of Eden – to perfect intimacy with God- where literally heaven and earth meet.
Do I trust enough that God is able? Am I willing to lay down my life and all the hopes of this world to trust that maybe, just maybe, life with God is as amazing as the Spirit has revealed to us?
If you think about we all have a basic philosophy of life. Seriously. We all do. Our philosophy might be to build a business. It might be to simply go in and be a good employee, do a good job, and be rewarded for our work. Some people have the philosophy that society should provide them with the basics of life. Others have the philosophy that one can never count on society to provide one with anything at all. Still others will say that they have no philosophy, which sounds nice, but usually only means that they haven’t really thought about it. Talk to someone for long and you’ll begin to sense the idea that guides their most basic beliefs about their life.
Jesus in this text challenges those who put even their own self-preservation before God. He begs the question that is so powerful – “Is there anything worth living for if you don’t have anything worth dying for?”
For Jesus, what’s worth dying for is a vision of God’s reign that draws in people of every stripe and calls them to simply be who God created them to be.
That sounds too simple! You mean that Jesus didn’t give his life for a political ideology or for economic prosperity or for some notion of personal freedom? That’s right. Jesus died for a vision of the world where people lived in freedom, had REAL prosperity, and lived with perfect governance because they lived in willing obedience to God.
To the cynic, that sounds pretty Pollyanish. How incredibly naïve to think that broken, selfish human beings could ever experience, let alone achieve anything like that. And the cynic would be right. Human beings could never achieve that. But God could.
Through God’s own power (and grace), he could take broken, selfish, self-protective human beings and mold them into a people who could enjoy creation and each other rather than live in fear of their own annihilation. If only they would say “yes.” If only we would say “yes.” If only I would say “yes.” Saying “yes” is to enter to “abyss” (Kierkegaard!) of trust. It’s on the other side of that abyss that we are restored to the Garden of Eden – to perfect intimacy with God- where literally heaven and earth meet.
Do I trust enough that God is able? Am I willing to lay down my life and all the hopes of this world to trust that maybe, just maybe, life with God is as amazing as the Spirit has revealed to us?
Saturday, June 7, 2008
YOUR FAITH HAS HEALED YOU!
Mt 9:18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
Mt 9:20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Mt 9:22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
Mt 9:23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
I often ask myself “How much do I really believe in what Jesus can accomplish?”
I had a conversation with someone at the gym a few months back who told me that she was having trouble getting past some difficult issues in her life. Her life had been on a collision course with alchohol addiction and in finding healing through AA meetings she was still experiencing some lingering bitterness over some of the things that had happened during and since her addiction.
During the conversation (I was on one exercise bicycle and she was on the other) I suggested that she ask Jesus to heal her heart of the pain she was going through. My thought at the time was that believing in God as one’s “higher power” is a good first start, but that like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment that there is power to be released when “press through the crowds” and go after Jesus with all of our heart.
Her reply has stuck with me and it has challenged me to think – and pray – about how much we can expect from Jesus today in our own lives. She said, “Jay, those are nice stories from the Bible, but I’m looking for real healing in my life today.”
Her words struck me to the core. Are the stories of healing just children’s stories to make us feel good and create in us a very general (and inchoate) hope of restoration and healing? Or is it possible that the work of Jesus never ended with his death nor with the death of the last apostle. Rather, are we right in believing that Jesus’ ministry to our bodies, souls, AND spirits continues to the present time?
I’ve been amazed by some of the stories coming out of Lakeland, Florida of the healing revival taking place under the ministry and leadership of Todd Bentley. In fact, one night Susan and I and some others put the revival (that is broadcast on God.tv) on the projection screen at church and simply watched in awe as people came forward to be healed of blindness, severe illness, deafness and other physical ailments. A tangible presence of God filled our worship center. I began to weep as I saw people press through crowds to be prayed over and touched and given encouragement and then healed.
There was a season of my life that I would have been the worst skeptic about this sort of thing. I simply had been taught some wrong things about God and at the time didn’t know better than to believe them. Our challenge today is to accept the grace of God to have our eyes and ears renewed so that we can see and hear the places where God is moving today. Deep down, we believe in the possibility of the miraculous – of the transformation of individuals, communities, and even nations! We believe in the possibility. Now is the time perhaps for us to believe in the actuality of God’s will and purposes being accomplished in this world that He has created. And as we see them – let’s celebrate them together.
Mt 9:20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Mt 9:22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
Mt 9:23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
I often ask myself “How much do I really believe in what Jesus can accomplish?”
I had a conversation with someone at the gym a few months back who told me that she was having trouble getting past some difficult issues in her life. Her life had been on a collision course with alchohol addiction and in finding healing through AA meetings she was still experiencing some lingering bitterness over some of the things that had happened during and since her addiction.
During the conversation (I was on one exercise bicycle and she was on the other) I suggested that she ask Jesus to heal her heart of the pain she was going through. My thought at the time was that believing in God as one’s “higher power” is a good first start, but that like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment that there is power to be released when “press through the crowds” and go after Jesus with all of our heart.
Her reply has stuck with me and it has challenged me to think – and pray – about how much we can expect from Jesus today in our own lives. She said, “Jay, those are nice stories from the Bible, but I’m looking for real healing in my life today.”
Her words struck me to the core. Are the stories of healing just children’s stories to make us feel good and create in us a very general (and inchoate) hope of restoration and healing? Or is it possible that the work of Jesus never ended with his death nor with the death of the last apostle. Rather, are we right in believing that Jesus’ ministry to our bodies, souls, AND spirits continues to the present time?
I’ve been amazed by some of the stories coming out of Lakeland, Florida of the healing revival taking place under the ministry and leadership of Todd Bentley. In fact, one night Susan and I and some others put the revival (that is broadcast on God.tv) on the projection screen at church and simply watched in awe as people came forward to be healed of blindness, severe illness, deafness and other physical ailments. A tangible presence of God filled our worship center. I began to weep as I saw people press through crowds to be prayed over and touched and given encouragement and then healed.
There was a season of my life that I would have been the worst skeptic about this sort of thing. I simply had been taught some wrong things about God and at the time didn’t know better than to believe them. Our challenge today is to accept the grace of God to have our eyes and ears renewed so that we can see and hear the places where God is moving today. Deep down, we believe in the possibility of the miraculous – of the transformation of individuals, communities, and even nations! We believe in the possibility. Now is the time perhaps for us to believe in the actuality of God’s will and purposes being accomplished in this world that He has created. And as we see them – let’s celebrate them together.
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