Jesus Needs a Few Good Pioneers



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Stories from the frontier are inspiring and mind-boggling!
The frontier culture demanded that you look at a wilderness with no roads and see a road. You saw a meadow with no shelter and saw a home. Your school, your church, and your community were the ones which you envisioned, and determined that you and your new pioneering neighbors would craft with your own hands, God being with you. That pioneering culture brought the vision of a new community to reality.
But something happens when we go from pioneer to settler. Pioneer culture assumes that we have to put our own hand with God’s hand to make the vision a reality.  But soon after we become settlers, we become accustomed to what has already been created, and we can become comfortable with what is, or, at least, begin to stop envisioning what could become reality, if we dare to dream and do.
In 2 Corinthians 4, we are reminded that in God’s kingdom, we don’t always see what is about to become. In this awesome passage, you can just hear what makes pioneering culture work! God just loves to take challenging circumstances, wilderness scenes in our life, and build a new reality where it seems impossible! But to take this and other scripture in context, this is not just our sitting and daydreaming! The context of scripture lets us know that we dream and do right along with God, who gave us brains, hearts, and muscle, because the dreaming and doing go together!

Whatever our circumstances today, may we not dream human size dreams, and live humanly explainable lives! Let us join God in dreaming and doing God-sized visions of our new Kingdom of God community!

I See Him Now!

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850,000 people in Milan today, Sunday, June 3rd, 2012, crowed to see Pope Benedict XVI and worship. In the middle of a Vatican Scandal and a world with many troubles, people still want a glimpse of God’s kingdom! It was like that for the Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah (see chapter 6 verses 1 through 8.) A national leader had just died; there was the threat of instability in politics, society, finances, religion. But the word from God was not news of any of this, at least not yet. The big revelation of god was this: Here I Am! In all God’s glory, he made himself known. How many of our problems seem so big, until compared to our God?! Isaiah had a picture of God with which to face the challenges of the day. So do we! The wisdom, knowledge, and inspiration we need is secondary to the one we need: our Lord. Seeking him first, and then facing life with knowledge of him, our problems are cut down to size!

Golden Opportunities-More Than a Memory!



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75 years ago, May 28^th, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic. In 1933 the economy was horrible. Spirits were down. No wonder it was called the Great Depression. We now look back and know that those tough times were about to improve. It did not look that way at the time. But a group of determined people had a vision. It was a vision that would take wide support, hard work, resources, and sustained effort. With these values, the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in about 5 years, opening up a vastly improved route across the San Francisco Bay. It broke records and became a lasting reason for pride in the awesome accomplishment. It is hard to believe now that it faced fierce opposition. People said it would hurt the city and area. They had fears that the bridge would open up such access to the city that it would be impossible for the military to protect the city. But the majority voted in favor of it. And with focus and undiminished determination, the vision became reality.
This is but one of many examples of the power of human agreement. But we see in Acts chapter 2 the power of human agreement coupled with agreement to the purposes of God’s kingdom.  The power that results is so great that even those who witness it are confounded.
Today we, too, face many obstacles. We find power in banding together for all kinds of causes. But when we band together for the cause of God’s kingdom, even in the toughest of times, there is so much power in His spirit! And it is the power to let Christ’s good news be known. Hard times are a ’golden’ opportunity for us to let God’s spirit inhabit our banding together for the cause of Christ! Let’s give the following generations the memory of us being one for our Lord!

God's Favorite Number

As Jesus passed the Kingdom baton to his disciples,  (John 17:6-19) he prayed that they be one. They were an eclectic group. They were very different in background, occupation, and personality. But he clued them into the fact that if they could be one in the kingdom purpose, the resulting body of believers who were receiving this holy baton would be blessed in the mission. Jesus passed on more than just a set of skills. He gave a purpose. The purpose was timeless. But the application of the purpose would be ever unfolding in each time and place. The purpose would be hammered out in each of us as believers in an unchanging God, who is present with us as we face new circumstances.
Our personalities and opinions are a wide variety. But even in our uniqueness, our purpose and focus is on the kingdom, which Jesus described to us. As John Wesley reminded us: in essentials, unity, in all else,  charity.  Let’s practice God’s favorite number!

All in the Family

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 Mother’s Day cannot help but bring back many memories of family. I remember in 1971 when our family sat down and watched another family: the #1 Neilson rated All in the Family. Millions tuned in and laughed at how Archie (played by Carroll O’Conner) embodied so many forms of blatantly bigoted behavior. As America laughed, it took a look at itself and how it treated each other.  America resonated enough with the themes to keep it at the #1 spot for 1971-1976, a record for the time.

Acts 10:44-48- takes another look at how one group has looked down upon another in our religious ‘family.’ It represents one of many ways in which we could fail to see our family resemblance and our common position as receivers of the love, blessings, and gifts from our heavenly Father.

Life is full of opportunities to see each other as brothers and sisters, with one heavenly father. And if we will all take a good, long, honest look at how we draw our lines as the family of God, we have a long way to go.

Let’s all pray for God to change our hearts. The power of his reconciling love can overcome the long-standing walls we have built. He designed us to truly be all in the family. Let it be! (It’s more than a John Lennon song!)

Are You Ready for a Miracle?!

Are You Ready for a Miracle?

IMP awards Rick Law-PJC

In the 1992 film, Leap of Faith, phony faith-healer Jonas Nightingale (Steve Martin) is stopped in his tracks when a real miracle occurs (see clip: Leap of Faith) It's a touching story about the power of faith to perform miracles, including a physical healing and an end to a natural disaster, drought. As inspiring as these miracles are, we are reminded in Acts chapter 8 of a greater miracle.
Phillip, and the rest of the believers, have come under intense persecution, and they have even seen one of their own stoned to death. Even so, people were receiving physical healings. Enter into the story an 'Etheopian Eunic' who has traveled a great distance to find answers to life, and is returning home, still not coming to any understanding of any good news for his life. How out of place would one feel if they are not even known by name, but just by ethnicity and the inability to have children by surgical procedure?! The encounter between these two, both with struggles and heartaches of their own, both outcasts of some sort, is a miracle. They are at the same place at the same time for the same purpose. The spirit of God orchestrated the meeting. The Word of God was the guiding truth that got explained. It was the working together of spirit and truth. And the healing that took place was this: a searching heart found peace with God.
This is God's plan of salvation: that we live daily by both spirit and truth, that all may know the healing that lasts forever! Are we ready for some miracles?!

The Cure for Post-Pardon Depression

 How ironic is it that after the resurrection of Christ, his disciples initially were down and depressed? Just picture the disciples on the Emmaus road, so distracted by their own issues that they could not recognize Jesus walking beside them. The greatest event of all time, our pardon thru the Christ event, had just happened, and these two disciples are talking about how disappointed they are!
It’s merely being human to be disappointed, and see that the world, even post resurrection, looked, and still looks, unredeemed! Just because we begin a relationship with Christ, and accept the pardon he paid for, does not mean that the world in which we live will be an encouraging evidence of completeness! But if we can get our mind around the fact of what Christ did, and choose daily to allow the Lord to give the eyes of our heart his vision, we do not have to be depressed! We can choose to believe, and let him explain to us the way things really are, just like the two disciples in Luke 24:13-32 then we can have a kingdom perspective on life. We can see thru his eyes the reality of complete pardon, even while living in a world not yet complete in regeneration. We can walk out our faith choice on our road. This Christ-given insight into the walk of faith is the cure for our Post Pardon Depression! So, today, let’s not start with our day informing us how incomplete it is, let’s begin with letting Christ reminding us how complete is his redeeming work!