commUNITY

Everyone wants to be part of something. We all want to have our place that we fit in. Whether it's with our friends, or our jobs, or our families, we long for community.

I believe that the desire for community is something that God has put inside of us. He designed us to be in community with Him, and with other believers. In Galatians 6, Paul exhorts the church to bear each others burdens, and to do good to everyone, especially the other believers.

Paul tells the church that we're in this life together. We don't need to try and go at it alone.  The sad thing is that this seems to be something that the church has missed. Instead of bearing each others burdens, instead of seeking to do good to everyone, we judge, we condemn, and we gossip about whatever sin "they" fell into.

God's church should be the greatest community on earth, but far to often we reduce it to what would be expected of children. We miss the point that we're supposed to help each other, and we end up pushing each other down with the false idea that we're better than them.

Forgive me if it sounds like I'm ranting, and I know that I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. But I believe that it is time for a change. It is time that we raise the bar of community in the church.

If you read through the book of Acts, the church was a beautiful example of the community that God calls us to, not without fault, but unified. It was the way that they lived, and the way that they treated the people around them that brought people into the church. The ones looking in from the outside witnessed the community, the grace, and the love in the church, and they craved it. People were being added to the church daily.

Today, there are still people looking in from the outside, but what they often witness is something far from community. The way that God's people interact with each other, and with the world is no longer what brings people in. It has become what keeps people away.

Christians are known today for being hypocritical and judgemental. That breaks my heart, for the people who won't give Jesus a chance because His church has misrepresented Him, and for the church who has apathetically allowed itself to fall to such a place.

There is grace. God is a God of love, and forgiveness. I pray that as you read these words, let Jesus infiltrate your heart and change how you interact with those around you. Let's become the community that shows the world Jesus.

Lord, we aren't worthy. We aren't good. We are empty and in such need of You.
Fill us, equip us, break our hearts for this world.
Let Your name be glorified in Your church, amen.

Outsiders

I think that every one of us at one point or another has felt like we were an outsider. We've all felt like we didn't belong. Whether it was true or not, we've all had those feelings, and nobody likes that. Nobody likes to feel out of place, or unwanted.

If you look at the Bible, that's why Jesus came! Because of the sin in our lives, we were separate from God. We had alienated ourselves, making ourselves outsiders, we couldn't go near God. So Jesus came and He died on the cross to make the payment that was needed for our sin, so that we could have that relationship with Him. So that we could enter into that fellowship with our Creator.

The more that you look at the Gospels, the more you will see that Jesus came for everyone, but specifically the outsiders. There was a religious "in crowd" made up of Pharisees, and teachers, and scribes, but Jesus didn't pay too much attention to them. His harshest words were in their direction.

More often than not, we see Jesus with the people who were social outcasts for whatever reason. He hung out with tax collectors, and prostitutes. Jesus made a point to reach the outsiders.

One of my favorite stories is in Mark 1:40-45. A leprous man approaches Jesus, and falls at His feet crying out, "If You will, You can make me clean." In that day, leprousy would make you a total outcast. You were forbidden to come too close to people, and if you broke that barrier, they would begin to throw rocks at you. It was impossible to be more of a social outcast.

This man runs up to Jesus, and falls in front of Him. Everyone is waiting to see what Jesus will do. Will He spit on him? Will He throw a rock at him? Will He even notice this lowly, disfigured outsider?

Verse 41 says "Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."

Jesus doesn't ignore this guy. Jesus doesn't insult this man, or throw a rock at him. Jesus TOUCHES him.  Just think about that for a moment. Imagine the reaction of the crowd. They might have even been holding their rocks, waiting for Jesus to give them permission to throw them at him. But instead, He touches this man.

Jesus did the last thing that they expected, but exactly what this man needed.  Jesus wasn't worried about the crowd's reaction. He saw the need of this man, and He reached out and touched him.

Jesus broke the  awkwardness for this guy. Instead of leaving feeling out of place, he left healed, with a part in what God was doing. Now he belongs.

God wants to do the same thing in your life. That's why when Jesus died on the cross, the veil to the Holy of Holies was ripped in two from top to bottom. There is nothing keeping us from access to God. The sin that blocked us from Him has now been paid for.

In Jesus, you belong. In Jesus, you have purpose. In Jesus, you're no longer an outsider, but a child of the King of Kings.

Are you living on the outside? God loves you so much that you can't even comprehend it. So much that He willingly sent His Son Jesus to die in your place. Jesus died in your place so that you could have unrestricted access to God. Take hold of that! Enter into that fellowship, that community with God.

Maybe you're reading this and you're thinking, "That's nice and all, but I'm not on the outside.... I have an awesome relationship with Jesus."

If that's the case for you, then I offer you the same challenge that convicts me today. Are you reflecting Jesus in the way you treat people? Jesus reached out to the outsiders, He touched the untouchables.

Are you following the example that He set for His church, or are you following the example of the Pharisees, who were ready to throw rocks at someone who needed a touch from Jesus?

For Freedom

Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." 

The words that stick out to me there are "stand firm" Stand firm. Seems simple enough right? The idea behind that is like an army facing an enemy. The army that stands firm is an army that refuses to back down, they refuse to be defeated, they refuse to even yield an inch to their foes. As Christians, we're called to stand firm. We have an enemy, and Jesus has given us the power to stand firm against him.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

I love that verse, because it doesn't just say that we stand firm, but that we attack. We take our own prisoners. I think if we are all honest, there are things in our lives that satan has managed to get a grip on. Areas that we haven't stood firm, and now they are enemy territory. We are called to take back that enemy territory in the name of Jesus. Galatians 5:13 tells us that we are called to freedom. Keep in mind, partial freedom isn't really freedom. We're either free or we aren't. The freedom that we have been offered was given to us by Jesus when He laid down His life on the cross for our sakes.

Jesus bought our freedom.
Don't give satan the victory that Jesus died to purchase. 

This freedom that has been given to us is something that we must fight for. We must choose to stand firm against the repeated attacks of our enemy. We need to refuse to give him any ground, because that ground was purchased with Jesus' blood. Jesus owns that territory, and He has given it to us for the taking. Let us rise up in faith, and reclaim what the devil has stolen.  

Traffic.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic? For a long time? I remember driving home from Christmas last year… It was supposed to be a ten hour drive, but it became a thirteen hour drive. For three hours, I didn’t go more than ten miles an hour. We were inching along. It was terrible. I hate traffic. I was just ready to get home. I think that we all hate traffic, because it keeps us from reaching our destination. It makes us take longer to get where we’re going.

Traffic keeps us from our goal.

I think all of us have some Spiritual traffic in our lives. I know I do.

We all have things in our life that keep us from becoming more like Jesus.

If we were to rate our walks with Jesus on a scale from 1 – 10, none of us would have a perfect 10. We won’t have perfect 10s until we’re with Jesus in Heaven, and that’s because there is traffic here that keeps us from Him.

So, what’s your traffic?

What is it in your life that is keeping you from getting to Jesus.

Galatians 5:1 – 

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery."

When Paul says, “Don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” he’s saying, don’t let the traffic slow you down.

Jesus knows about the traffic in your life. That's why He came and died on the cross.

His death paid the price that you owed for your sin, so that through faith in Him, you have the power to bypass all of that traffic. 

It doesn't happen naturally, we don't just end up past the sin in our lives.  

Sin isn't something we outgrow.  

We have to choose to fight against it, we have to choose to put on Christ daily.

I love how Paul says it in Romans 13:14, 

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." 

We have to stop feeding our flesh. We have to cut out the things in our lives that create traffic, keeping us from Jesus.

God wants to take you to a deeper place in your walk with Him. Will you remove the sin, and bypass the traffic in your life to get to Him?