FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Thirst Things First”

I love my cooking shows!  Truly, when I watch TV, it’s about all I watch, and my favorites are the competitions.  The mix of new cooking techniques, suspenseful judgings, and delicious end products ticks every box for me.  I am especially drawn to contestants with interesting stories.  

One of my favorites is a twenty-something who still lives with his mom, and eats nothing but grilled cheese, plain hamburgers, boxed mac n’ cheese, and pepperoni pizza.  That’s. It.  That may sound like a fabulous diet to some of you, but even as young as twenty-five, this guy has figured out that trying to live on these foods alone has had a negative impact on his health and therefore his life.  He confesses that he doesn’t want to eat like a five year old anymore.  (Hey, my five year old eats way better than that!) His purpose for coming on the cooking show was to try to learn how to cook and improve his quality of life.  

What about you?  Do you enjoy eating unusual food or are you a plain hamburger kind of person?  What’s the most unique thing you’ve ever eaten?  

In John 4:27-38, Jesus talks with the disciples about food.  After a day of traveling, the disciples ran into town to try to find a drive-thru while Jesus rested at the well just outside of town.  This is where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and had a great conversation about living water.  But now the guys are back with burgers and fries and are a little confused to see Jesus chatting up this lady.  They wait a little awkwardly for her to leave, wanting to give Jesus the food they know He’s been waiting for.  

After she returns to town, however, the disciples are shocked when Jesus refuses the to-go bag.  Instead, He says, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.” (v. 34 Msg)  Um…what?  Did someone already bring Him food?

What Jesus means is that doing what God wants (“the will of the One who sent me”) is what really fires Him up.  His drive, His inner fuel and motivation is knowing the Lord’s will and getting it done, like sharing God’s grace with the Samaritan woman.  It’s what fills Jesus up inside and makes Him happy and content.

What about you?  To be honest, most of us find our inner fuel in “five year old” things: playing, hanging with friends, sports, job success.  The food that keeps us going is having fun doing what we want.  Eventually, however, we figure out that trying to live on these things has a negative impact on our hearts and therefore our lives.  Jesus is showing us that focusing on God’s mission—being missional—is way better.  It’s so much more fulfilling to care for someone in need, the way Jesus would, than it is to simply care for ourselves.  It improves someone else’s quality of life…and after life…and it makes us better, too.  Win-win!

What can you and your family do to live on mission?  How can you focus your time on God’s will?  What will help you make that a priority over some of the others fun things in life?  Think of one thing you can do this week to be missional.  Put it on the calendar or make a big sign to remind everybody and get excited about it!  Then pray and ask God to fuel you all with his mission.

Living On Mission with Joseph and the Gospel

Living On Mission with Joseph and the Gospel

Hatred. Jealousy. Murder plot. Sold into slavery. You have to admit; these are elements of a really bad day.

Poor Joseph couldn’t catch a break. His brothers hated him so much that the love of his father couldn’t even protect him. He dreamed of greatness but found himself being thrown into a pit to die only to be pulled out and sold as a slave. Where is God in this story?

I love this story because it provides a beautiful picture of the Gospel.  

 

Wait. What?!?  All of this bad stuff is a picture of the Gospel? Yes!!

 

The life of Joseph rings true for so many of us. Who among us has been betrayed? Who has been mistreated and abused? Who has been traded for something of very little value? Who has been the target of malice? Joseph endured YEARS of slavery, pain of separation from his father and family and being forgotten by people he helped. Sound familiar at all?

 

The Good News is that this is NOT where the story of Joseph ends. It is not where OUR story ends either. The story of Joseph ends in redemption, healing, and reconciliation as will OUR ultimate story when we put our trust in Jesus.

 

Living on mission is about being sent by God to tell people about the Gospel – the Good News that we can find redemption, healing, grace, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and unfathomable love in Jesus. Preach this Gospel to yourself when you need to hear it. Share it with those around you who are facing difficulties and struggles. Let your life be an example of how bad situations can be used by God to make a very good ending.

 

Let’s practice living on mission and look for the Gospel – the Good News – in every situation!

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Josiah and the Book

Living On Mission with Josiah and the Book

I think Josiah must have been a big fan of HGTV, just like me. Ok, maybe not. But, he was doing some renovations on the temple. (Flip that Temple! Ok, ok. I’ll stop.)  At some point while work was being done on the temple, High Priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Law and told Secretary Shaphan about it. Secretary Shaphan dutifully took it to King Josiah and read it in his presence.

 

King Josiah’s reaction to the Book was incredible.

 

King Josiah was devastated. He was so distraught that he tore his robes – a physical expression of the grief in his heart. He instructed High Priest Hilkiah to, “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.” (2 Kings 22:13)

 

Josiah realized that he, and the people, and all of Judah had broken the laws and the heart of God. He knew that God was angry, and rightfully so, because they were completely ignorant of His Laws. The Truth was revealed in the words on that scroll. That Truth impacted Josiah and set him on a course to align his heart and his actions with what had been discovered.

 

Josiah was changed by the Truth of God’s Book.

 

What about you and me? Are we devastated when we discover that we have been going against something in God’s Word? Do we allow God’s Book to change our hearts, our behavior, and the course of our lives? Can we change our ways and “do everything it says we must do?”

 

Let’s practice living on mission, and be people who know the Book and do what it says!

 

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Josiah

Living On Mission with Josiah

A couple of things jumped out at me immediately when I was reading about Josiah in 2 Kings 22. 

 

The first thing I noticed was that Josiah, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” (2 Kings 22:2)  This sounds a lot like discipleship to me.  Of course he wasn’t taught or discipled directly by David, but evidently someone had learned some things from David and passed them down to others. We can be impacted by the lives of others. We should also think about the impact that our lives can have on others. Am I living a life I would want someone else to follow?  I’m so glad that Josiah was impacted by David instead of some of the other not-so-great-ok-actually-evil kings in his heritage.  What a great thing to be influenced by David who loved God wholeheartedly and ALWAYS turned back to God no matter how far he strayed.

 

Missional thought: Let’s be mindful of who is influencing us and who we are influencing.

 

The second thing I noticed was that Josiah instructed his finance department NOT to ask the construction leaders for receipts for the items they had to purchase in for the temple.  He said, “…they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings.” (2 Kings 22:7)  (Obviously they didn’t have the IRS breathing down their necks!)  This shows either remarkable trust in these men based solely on their position, or that Josiah had built relationships with these workers. Bless him if this was based on respect for their position. How rare to find someone who is quick to honor another in this way! And double bless him if he had actually spent time building relationships with these men who served him as the king and served God by rebuilding the temple. I love that Josiah chose to honor and trust the people around him.

 

Missional thought: Relationships matter. Trust matters. Be a person who builds relationships of trust. 

 

Let’s practice living on mission!

 

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Jude and the Holy Spirit

Living On Mission with Jude and the Holy Spirit

¹⁷ “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 17-23)

There’s a lot going on in this portion of Jude! The Holy Spirit is a common theme that really stands out as we look for ways to live out this passage.

Verses 17-19 warn us about the dangers of living without the Spirit. I think we have all experienced the tension between living out our own “instinctive” desires and living according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Our own desires are ungodly and cause division because they are directly opposed to the desires of God.  Here’s an example: We want our own way. All the time. God says, “My ways are higher than your ways.” We selfishly seek to obtain more – of everything.  The Kingdom way is, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor.”  (Luke 3:11)

 

Verses 20-21 teach us to persevere by building ourselves up and praying so that we can keep going until our final redemption. We are strengthened and transformed when we really know and experience the love of God. We have to connect with Him every day. We have to learn to live in His presence. This is where our power comes from.  This is where our life is.

 

Verses 22-23 show us the posture we are to take toward others. Only when we are fully immersed and aware of the love of God can we truly love others.  Only when we are full of the Spirit are we able to exhibit His characteristics toward others.  We can be merciful – if we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will passionately seek salvation of others – when we are full of the Holy Spirit. This is how we trade our own natural, ungodly desires for the desires of God.  

 

Let’s practice living on mission!

 

Pastor Angela

Living on Mission with Jude in a Fight

Living on Mission with Jude in a Fight

 

“Dear friends, I’ve dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.” Jude 3

 

There are times in our lives when everything feels like a fight. Our jobs are stressful. Our kids are running wild.  Our bank account is low and our debts are high. Our loved ones are not well.  We become confused by answers (or lack of answers) to our prayers. We battle dark thoughts, addiction, or depression.  We might be overwhelmingly grief stricken. During times like these we can be tempted to give up and throw in the towel.  We wonder if this faith thing really works. We shake our fist in the air and accuse God of not being there for us.  We find ourselves barely hanging on to hope by a thread. We all face battles at one point or another in our lives. 

 

We have to hang on and fight, Friends! Many things and sometimes even people will work against our faith. Hang on to Jesus. Hang on to the hope He plants in us. Hang on to His word. His word is called the sword of the Spirit, and that is just the weapon we must have for this fight. Fight to hang on to the precious gift that has been entrusted to us, guard it and cherish it.

 

One really great thing about this life of salvation is that it’s not something we’re forced to do alone. We’re not meant to do it alone. Remember, Jude wanted to talk about “this life of salvation that we have in common,” and “this faith entrusted to us.” (emphasis mine) We’ve learned that when we are living on mission – knowing that we are sent – we live with others in mind. And, the cool thing is that everyone else is doing the same!! So, we don’t have to be alone! We don’t have to be a solitary pillar of strength. On mission, we’re a family. We hold one another up. We fight for one another. We fight alongside one another on our knees in prayer. 

 

Let’s practice living on mission!  Put up your dukes!

 

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Jesus

Living On Mission with Jesus

What do you think life is like in the Kingdom of God?  It’s probably not what most people expect.  Matthew 9 gives us some examples of the things Jesus did when He was preaching and teaching about the Good News of the Kingdom.  He healed a paralyzed man to prove that He could also forgive sins.  He befriended a tax collector.  He hung out with sinners.  He feasted instead of fasted.  He healed a sick (and unclean) lady on His way to raise a young girl from the dead.  He healed two blind men.  He exorcised a demon that kept a man from talking.  These things surprised and confused folks.  They didn’t expect a holy man to touch an unclean woman or to hang out with sinful people.  That was against the rules.  Wasn’t it?  Every time He demonstrated the way of the Kingdom, it went against religious traditions and WOW people didn’t like that…but they did like the miracles, and they did recognize that He had authority.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

We are called and commissioned to be His workers and announce the Good News about the Kingdom.  People will probably be confused because most have such a distorted view of God and His Kingdom.  Have compassion on them.  Heal them.  Befriend them.  Hang out with them.  Love them.  Give them a glimpse of the Kingdom.  We serve a mighty God who longs for people to come to Him and gain eternal life.

Let’s practice living on mission and get caught RedHanded – LovingOurCity.

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Paul in Jail

Living On Mission with Paul in Jail

I have a confession.  I’ve spent a lot of time at the county jail.  Ok, before you start to wonder about the thoroughness of background checks for pastors, let me ease your mind a little.  When I was a kid, my best friend was the daughter of the county sheriff. The jail and the sheriff’s apartment were both housed in the penthouse of the county courthouse.  Fancy, huh?  Not really.  One of the things I remember most is the concrete floors (these were of course used throughout the jail too.)  While concrete floors were GREAT for roller skating, they were not so great for sleepovers.  Hey, but at least we had sleeping bags and pillows, right?  Even those in jail on the other side of the penthouse had bunks to sleep on.  I’m guessing that Paul often had no such measures of comfort in his jail.  And yet…

Paul chose to stay.  In jail.  On earth.  He chose to delay the comforts of heaven and all of the pleasures that he knew awaited him there.  Why?  So that he could help others.  He showed us what it was like to live not for ourselves, but for others.  He poured out his love, his gifts, his knowledge, and his very life for the sake of others. 

What would it look like for us today to live for our city?  Could we give up some of the luxurious comforts that we enjoy in order to have the means to give to others? Could we go out of our way to show kindness when it’s not convenient? Could we begin to think of the needs of others as more important than our own needs?  This would certainly be a new way of life for me.  I believe that this is the way of life in the Kingdom of God.

Let’s practice living on mission and get caught RedHanded – LovingOurCity.

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Paul

Paul must have been quite a character. People either loved him or hated him. He messed with the religious belief systems much the same way that Jesus did and therefore got treated pretty much the same as Jesus did by religious people. They were intrigued at first and then became angry when their comfort zone was invaded. (Because of this, he often didn’t stay in one place very long.) I can almost hear them now, “What do you mean we’ve had this wrong all along? Stop messin’ with our traditions!” Regardless of whether he was being loved or hated, Paul was always on mission. He knew what he was sent to do; preach Christ. And he did so—boldly, fearlessly, and in a culturally relevant way.

That’s why I love these stories in Acts 17. They show us that Paul knew how to work with the culture wherever he went. In Thessalonica he used his knowledge of the customs and beliefs of the Jews as a launching pad to tell the story of Jesus. In Berea he again went to the synagogue and started preaching about Jesus, knowing that they would continue to study the scriptures to determine if he was right or wrong even though he was only there a short while.  In Athens, he recognized that, “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas,” so he found a way to weave the story of Jesus into their daily discussions. (Acts 17:21)

Paul was smart and used the culture of his day find ways to preach Jesus. He didn’t try to win people by doing something completely foreign to them. He didn’t rush out and bring Billy Graham and his gigantic crusade team into town. He met the people where they were and found culturally relevant ways to bring the good news of Jesus to them.  He didn’t soft-pedal the message in order to fit in culturally; he boldly proclaimed Jesus as Messiah, the word of God, and showed how God has been at work, “…so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27)

We have been sent by God to proclaim the good news.  All of us. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify ways that we can use the culture of our city/workplace/neighborhood to bring the love of Jesus to those around us.

Let’s practice living on mission and get caught RedHanded – LovingOurCity.

Pastor Angela

Living On Mission with Jeremiah and the Exiles

The prophet Jeremiah was given a message from God to His people.  “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

Exiles are outside of their home country, not by choice. Often exiles have been banished from their home country as a means of punishment. Notice in the passage above that God said HE carried the people into exile. (A result of sin.) As Christians, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. It could be said that we are living as exiles because we are not living in our spiritual home country. That perspective makes this passage very relevant to our lives today.  God wants us to engage in life and community where He has placed us; it’s a call to live incarnationally—among the people, and to ask God for good things for them.

God also gives this incredibly comforting word for those who are living as exiles; He will listen to our prayers and He will be found when we seek Him. “This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:10-14)

In the passage above we also find that this God-induced stint in exile also came with a promise to bring them back home. Sound familiar? Jesus promised that He would return and take us to be with Him forever. In a very real sense, we will be living in exile until Jesus returns and we finally experience the full Kingdom of God. Meanwhile, what should we do? Pray for the cities where God has placed us. Know that He hears our prayers and desires for us to seek and find Him. Look for the day of His return and pray, “Your Kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.”

Let’s practice living on mission and get caught RedHanded – LovingOurCity.

Pastor Angela