Hurt

Johnny Cash - Hurt
Uploaded by notpil

grass through cement

I read this today in Tom Sine's book The New Conspirators: Creating the future one mustard seed at a time.

"like grass through cement, it is God breaking through the rock-hard horror of our world with surprisingly small blades of life and promise"

My heart has been confronted with the amount of pain that exists just within the block that I call my neighborhood. As an American society we have become experts at covering up and concealing our pain with mere temporary solutions. Layer after layer the pain has been built up and the outward reflection of that pain comes in various forms. For some, drugs, alcohol, food meet that need and for others sex, shopping, money, social life are methods used to fill the void. We use any number of things to numb and dull the constant nagging that we and the world around us is simply not right.

How do we actively walk alongside of the hurting and hopeless with which our lives intersect? How has Christ uniquely gifted us to remove a layer at a time until He can reclaim them at their most innocent and honest state?

Poverty

This is a great video on the definition of poverty.

Change is a comin'

Good morning all.

Clayton and I have been doing a lot of talking about next steps, what God might be calling us to, how we see God working in the world. To be honest, it is a lot of talking. We strive to hear accurately from the Lord and let that leading guide our decisions and want nothing less than what God would have for us as a community.

When I first moved to San Mateo, CA in 1998 I took a drive down to Santa Cruz to hit the beach. Along Highway 280 there is a strange building that runs under the freeway near Palo Alto. It is called the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC for short) and it is a one mile long shed like building that essentially speeds up atoms for the purpose of splitting them. Now to say that atoms are small would be an understatement. A recent Rob Bell DVD I watched stated the size (or lack thereof) of atoms as this: If you were to take a drop of water and have every person on the planet count one atom per second it would take 2000 years for all those people to count the atoms in that single drop.

So, a friend of mine worked at SLAC (workers there were affectionately known as slackers) described the process. In layman’s terms it loaded atoms in a “gun” and shot them down the lane of this mile long building to get them to split. Had the building been shorter, the very microscopic and critical work they were trying to do could not be achieved.

What does that have to do with us at the Center? I believe we are trying to do some very critical work. All around, the Church universally is struggling. We are gathered together to cling more closely to Christ and operate as He would have us be His hands, feet and voice in our world today. This is a very delicate process and it takes time. The challenge we face is that time is limited on the chosen night we currently have in place.

Many factors limit us on Saturday evenings. An ever present reality is that children have a bedtime, adults are invited to weddings and numerous other things pull at our attention and time. Just when the Spirit might begin to work within our group, our natural and earthly selves start leading us elsewhere.

The question might be raised “well where is your commitment?” To be honest, my commitment sometimes stops at 8:30 because I worked hard on the lawn all day and I start falling asleep or our commitment is really leading us to enjoy the sunshine (a limited resource in Eugene/Springfield) for an hour longer (in the case of two weeks ago when no one wanted to be inside).

So we would like to propose that we begin the process of moving to Sunday mornings. Not too early for those non morning people but early enough that we do not feel pressed for time. We want to be open to the Spirit and allow God to work within us. If we end on time so be it. But if the Spirit moves us into the afternoon we also have the freedom to go with it. We would still have time for a meal afterwards and I believe it will open us for greater fellowship opportunities with each other and the community as a whole.

We would like to begin to implement this sometime before the summer reaches full swing. Anyone who has been here for a year or two knows that this is the recreation capital of the Northwest and people tend to disappear on the weekends around here. We were thinking either May 18th or 25th, though the 25th falls on Memorial Day weekend and some people may be gone.

Please understand that this is not a decision to fall in line with the traditional church or do something because that is always the way it has been done. We simply want to open up the freedom for God to work in our group without any limitation.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome.

Earth as it is in Heaven

I was in a church a few weeks ago and the “Serenity Prayer” was mentioned. I was not familiar with this particular prayer. I was born and raised catholic. I know a lot of prayers by heart but I have not ever heard this one. There was a phrase in it that hit me like a brick wall and I could not get around it. It says and I quote “That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. “ Reasonably happy, I don't ever remember Jesus telling us that we should be reasonably happy. In fact he says just the opposite. The lords prayer that Jesus instructed us how to use says “Your kingdom come on EARTH as it is in heaven.” one earth as it is in heaven. I can't tell you how many times I have said those words growing up and how little impact they had on my life. God made earth to be a beautiful place of peace, happiness, joy, truth, love, life, freedom, worship, and wonder. What has it become? Why is it that we think that we should only have a reasonable life now? When Jesus said the “Our Father” prayer it came from his heart and was spoken to God's heart. Jesus knew God's purpose and desire for earth, His people, His children, His creation. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. He created light to push back the darkness. God created the oceans and all that are within them. He created the skies and all that cross them. He created land and all that cover it. God said it was good. He did not say that heaven was better. He did not say that angel were created in his image and likeness. We were. His children were created in His image. He gave us the Holy Spirit to be in us always. Not some of the time but always. God is among us. He is also in heaven. He is not in one place then another. He is in one place and another. God created us as temples for him to reside and live in. God's kingdom does not stop at the gates of Heaven but goes all the way to the bottom of our hearts. God is in our hearts. I pray that God would change and renew the world one heart at time.

God sent his heart down to earth as a human man. This man changed our world forever. His name was/IS Jesus. God sent his heart to touch other hearts. God lived in other hearts. I have God in my heart. He wants me to open my heart and keep it open so that other might see Him in me. So that others might experience God on earth as he is in Heaven. In all of his beauty and glory.

We can never be disconnected from God because he made us. He made us and in doing so he put apart of himself in us. Just like when we make a drawing, a lego masterpiece, pop sickle stick fort, a tree fort, igloo, or a baby we become a part of it. Since we have invested our thought, passion, time, materials, and effort into something we become invested in it. That is why we feel elated when someone commends us on our creation because it is beautiful and fulfills the purpose it was designed for or distraught and heart broken when our masterpiece is scorned, frowned at, criticized, or it does not stand up to the expectation placed on it. God wants us to be living at our fullest potential. That means being his image bearers, his multipliers, and his worshipers.

We can experience heaven now in this very moment. God created this world, my life, and your heart. We are on display. People look at us and judge us. Do they see the creators spark in us? Would they criticize God's creation or marvel at his work? I don't know how many times I have been to museums and was just bored to my wits end looking at pictures, paintings, sculptures, and pottery etc. It was not until I STOPPED and strolling and studied a piece and read the “little” excerpt next to the art work or was told about the history of it by a tour guide that I was able to really appreciate it. This is what would make the art worth looking at, studying, and appreciating. It takes a story to truly understand, relate to a creators work. Sometimes it is our story and experiences we have had that create that connection. My point is that God's creation has a story. It has significance. It is a part of Him. We need to to take the time and interest to share God's story/our story. We need to let others see god in us so that they might see God's beautiful creation on earth as it is in Heaven. This is not a reasonable life we have been made to live but a LIFE of fulfillment, purpose, and love.