Weekly Blog

A Divine Legacy.

God hears our prayers.

Last Sunday we prayed for five individuals by name who need a miracle because of their health circumstances.   We also prayed together as a church that our shipment of lights for the upcoming Neighborhood Church Christmas Light Show would arrive quickly so that we could kick off presentations this week.   

One of the people we prayed for is my Great Uncle Bruce who has COVID-19. The doctors said he didn’t have much of a chance to live, but they were concentrating on making him comfortable. Uncle Bruce said he was ready to go be with Jesus.

Jesus' promises are still true!

Jesus is the same, He will never change.  

Jesus is with us and will never leave us.  

Jesus will provide everything we need.  

Jesus has already come and given His life so we can be forgiven and live free.  

Jesus is the King seated on the throne in heaven, and in my heart.  

Jesus knows what we need before we even ask Him. 

The God of the universe is still in control and is working on our behalf.

I woke up this morning with this verse running through my mind…

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 

- Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

We lean on our own understanding far too often. That’s why the writer of Proverbs 3 warns us not to fall into the trap of “figuring it out on our own.” Jesus is willing to carry us if we will stop walking off on our own and let him pick us up. Our “independence” is not maturity, it is ignorance. When we try to do life on our own we put ourselves in a space that makes us more apt to be self-centered, self-protective and closed-off to the world. The enemy of your soul will lie to you and lead you astray when you try to independently walk through this life.

What does loving your neighbor look like in this season?   

Matthew 22:39 says, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”   

What if Jesus really meant that we are to love our actual neighbors? Sometimes we see Jesus saying this and we think “our neighbor” is some fictional person in the future to whom we can’t relate.  However, I believe that Jesus was imagining his followers intentionally engaging in relationship with their neighbors and serving them.   

“This life is just a cup of coffee, before it’s gone you better trust Jesus.”  

That’s what Don Rogers’ father told him many years ago and he never forgot it.  He was right; this life is fragile and we only have today – tomorrow is not promised to us.  In these days of a pandemic and devastating fires our sense of mortality has never been greater.

Our culture is trying to dive into any entertainment possible right now to drown out the sounds of fear, anxiety, worry, and a sense of being out of control.  People don’t like to feel out of control.  The truth is, that control is an illusion – we only “think” we are in control.  The idea of knowing that if you get this virus you may not live has stopped many in their tracks.  Turning up the music louder doesn’t help your heart reconcile the wars that are raging there – these are only temporary distractions.  When we are alone with our thoughts, we realize that if we aren’t walking with Jesus there isn’t any self-reassuring or hope available.  

As Jesus followers we are called to influence the world as an ambassador residing in a foreign kingdom.

Some are hoping to hunker down and try to isolate from this world scarred by sin, but that’s not the posture to which Christ is calling us. Jesus came to bring heaven to earth, not to just extract us from the world. The Lord launched a “rescue” plan by sending Jesus to come and die for us to ensure we could be in heaven forever; he never had an “escape” plan for us to leave before it’s time.

Yesterday the sky turned orange and ash rained down on our city. It reminded me of the first day of the Camp Fire and the emotions were running high, for sure. As I watched the city come unraveled, I knew that this was an important day to reflect Jesus to a very stressed-out world. 

We are dual citizens.

As followers of Jesus, the Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:20 that we are considered citizens of Heaven. Since we are still living on the earth, we are also citizens of the Kingdom of this World, but our new homeland and allegiance belong first to our King, who is seated in Heaven.

It can be a great challenge for us to learn how to live between two Kingdoms that are in great conflict. We are tempted to separate from the world altogether and protect ourselves instead of remaining present in the world to be the “light of the world” that Jesus tells us to be. We are also tempted to assimilate and blend into the world, losing our distinctiveness as Jesus followers and forfeiting our true identity as sons and daughters of the King.

We need to live our lives realizing that the Bible declares that positionally, we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.

Jesus tells us the most important core values of His kingdom.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 18:1-4 (NIV)

Jesus talked about the importance of building the house of your life on the values and truth of the Kingdom. 

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."   Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV) 

The year 2020 has inspired a lot of jokes and quips about the changes and challenges necessary to face a year filled with tragedy. Some have featured the idea that we are all playing an apocalyptic bingo game where the squares of the board have different natural disasters and tragedies on them. Certainly, the Coronavirus would be the center of the bingo card. In Chico we can now cross off a square that might read, “choked with smoke and ash.”  I was hoping after we had crossed that off in 2018, we could skip it for at least ten years!