Braving The Wilderness: God Chooses You... And Everyone Else!

God is the initiator, God reaches out, God wants the relationship, there are no prerequisites Jacob must meet in order to have this divine encounter. The term we use for this is prevenient grace, it’s this idea that grace comes first, that God chooses you before you choose God. 

I want you to know that God chooses you. God sees you as unique, special, precious—God looks at you and sees you, God sees your inherit, eternal value…

Yes God chooses you and when you are in the wilderness, when you find yourself in places of uncertainty and vulnerability, God reminds you that you are chosen and chooses to be with you and to reveal to you the truth about you that you have purpose, that you are a part of God’s purposes.

Braving The Wilderness: Becoming A Good Shepherd Society

Will we become a good shepherd society that imitates our good shepherd by ensuring everyone has access to good, fresh, affordable food and what we have seen in this crisis is that families are dependent on schools to feed their kids and there is anxiety among parents now about the summer, will my kids continue to receive food in the summer is a real fear.

Will we imitate our good shepherd by creating a society where families make enough income to feed their families good food year round, where they do not have to choose between good food and paying rent and putting gas in the car. 

Braving The Wilderness: God Provides

God provides in the wilderness. Author Anne Lamott puts it this way: “It’s almost indigestible: death, divorce, old age, drugs; brain damaged children, violence, senility, unfaithfulness. Good luck with figuring it out. It unfolds, and you experience it, and it is so horrible and endless that you could almost give up a dozen times. But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang. Through the most ordinary things, books, for instance, or a postcard, or eyes or hands, life is transformed.” 

God provides, maybe not the all-you can eat buffet you really wanted but you’ll eat and be full, yes God provides, God provides, God provides.

Braving The Wilderness: Keep Going

If we want cleaner air, we can make it happen. If we want to protect our doctors and nurses from the next virus — and protect all Americans — we can make it happen. If we want our neighbors and friends to earn a dignified income, we can make that happen. If we want millions of kids to be able to eat if suddenly their school is closed, we can make that happen. And, yes, if we just want to live a simpler life, we can make that happen, too. But only if we resist the massive gaslighting that is about to come. It’s on its way. Look out.”

So how do we resist the gaslighting that is about to come? 

We have to break with Egypt in order to heal, we have to choose to break from the commands of Egypt—the consumerism, the self-centeredness, the greed, the narcissism, the pride, the ego, we have make an intentional decision to no longer live under these priorities anymore and choose instead to give our obedience to God, to live under God’s ordinances, God’s commands, which Jesus makes clear: love God and love others.

While It Was Still Dark

You see when you know God’s history with darkness, when you know God’s grace and steadfast love, you don’t fear the dark so much. You know God is faithful and will be faithful to you and see you through these dark days

Jesus Never Said "God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle"

We will experience times in our lives when we go through really difficult things, we will face adversity….we are in one of those rare—oh how I pray it is rare—moments in history when we are all going through something hard, we are all grieving the life we used to have just a month ago, we are all grieving the uncertainty of the future, grieving the loss of security for ourselves and our beloveds, what is there to hold on to?

As one of my favorite theologians puts it: Our life on earth can be unpredictable, we can be happy one day and sad the next the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, what is there to hold on to, who is there to feel secure with, who is there to trust at all times?

Only Jesus, the Christ.  He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide, our friend. Hold on to him.

Testimonies: Things About God I Had To Unlearn

This week, we hear from Dr. Gary Fox and Brandi Manes as they give testimonies. This week’s podcast is the entire service.

Jesus Never Said "God Said It, I Believe It, That Settles It"

People are not perfect conduits of God’s word, but we are what God has to work with, so God works through people but we have our own biases and our own agendas and that’s true of the Biblical authors, like the Apostle Paul for example: he never claims his words are God’s words but he does trust that the Spirit is leading him and helping him as he leads the early church.

Jesus Never Said: "God Helps Those Who Help Themselves"

God helps those who can’t help themselves…through people. There will be a time, and you may have already experienced this, in which you are the one who needs help. In which you cannot do it yourself: you cannot fix or save yourself, you cannot help yourself, you cannot will yourself out of your situation. God will send someone, something, to help you. A beautiful sunrise. A letter from a friend. 

A second wind to help you keep going. A good therapist. I have one, I know. A church family to bring you meals or to leave groceries or medicine at your door; let us know if you need anything, we are here for you. This is called grace. And there is nothing you do to earn it, nothing you do to deserve it…it is God’s willingness to help you when you can’t help yourself.

Jesus Never Said "Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin"

If you start dividing humanity into groups, if you draw a dividing line between who’s in and who’s out, Jesus says: you will find God on the side of the outsiders. You think you know who’s in and who’s out? You don’t know. 

When you say: Love the sinner, hate the sin you have put yourself in the position of the Pharisee, you’ve put yourself in the position of seeing others as sinners. That’s not the position Jesus wants for you.

Jesus Never Said "Everything Happens For A Reason"

We are given responsibility, we have the ability to respond to God’s invitation, to God’s commandments, but we can refuse, we can choose not to care for the earth and when we do that, well the earth will suffer…but God doesn’t just create us and give us dominion and leave us alone…

God tries to help us and influence us to do the right thing and make the right decisions: God gave us a conscious, and a brain, God gave us commandments and prophets to guide us…

God came in Jesus to show us what it means to be human, to show us how to live selflessly and generously, and then God gave us the Spirit to be with us, to counsel us and nudge us in the right direction…yes God never gives up on helping us to make the right decisions but we still make the decisions.

Spirit Led, Spirit Fed

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

This is what we are created to produce. This is our purpose, this is what Christ wants from us, this is what we are made for, the Holy Spirit helps make it possible for us to bear this fruit in the world, God does God’s part so that it is possible for us to bear good fruit, but we do have to do our part, you don’t just buy a farm and expect a big harvest to appear.

So all this leads me to ask you: have you produced the fruit you were made to produce? Is your life fruitful—Is there evidence of the Spirit’s work in your life: are you loving? Are you joyful? Are you peaceful, do you regularly experience peace, do you practice peace? What about patience, are you a patient person? Are you a kind person? A generous person. Are you faithful? Are you gentle? Do you have self-control?

Spirit-Breath

Religion without the power of the Holy Spirit is dead…religion without the influence of the spirit is dead, religion without the discipline to listen to God’s guidance and direction is dead…the people of Israel exist, they exist but they are existing as people who are dead, they are a dead sect, they are dry bones.

Do you sometimes feel like you are dry bones? That you are existing as one who is already dead, that you are going through the motions…or that parts of you are slowly dying.

What this passage says, what our faith says is: you can live, you can come alive again. You don’t have to live like dry bones.

So how does that happen? 

The spirit of God. The spirit of God has the power to bring you to life again—and—and here’s what’s even more remarkable. It’s not just that God has the power to bring you to life again, God has the desire to bring you to life, God wants you to come alive again.

A 5C Church: Committed

God doesn’t just call the equipped, God equips the called. God gives you what you need: God gives you the time and resources and people and money and everything—but you do have to manage it, that’s how it works, God doesn’t micromanage, God says: you manage it.

That’s the last part of the scripture today, Jesus says: if you are going to build a tower, you have to map it out and think through what it is going to take to finish it—you need a plan, this is very practical, you have to get organized and set your intentions so you can use the resources you have been given well, so you can fulfill your purpose.  

Podcast: Rule Of Life

So you filled out your Rule Of Life - now maybe you need some resources! Listen to Pastor Blair, Pastor Cathy and Aaron Manes talk about what resources they like and use to aide them on their path of spiritual growth! Listen as they share what weekly emails, apps and other resources are important to them as they seek their own spiritual growth.

A 5C Church: Christian Community

That’s the church, that’s Christian community—you know sometimes folks say to me, well I go to my yoga studio instead of church, and look, I love yoga, I try and do yoga, I think it is very spiritual, but just to be clear: your yoga studio isn’t storming the gates of systemic racism, your yoga studio isn’t going to be there with you every week, two or three times a week, helping you to storm the gates of illness…you need the church. 

And the church needs you. I want you to hear that, the church needs you. I need you to storm the gates of hell, Jesus says.

A 5C Church: Constructive

A 5C Church: Constructive

In this service you will hear testimonies from three faith leaders who will answer the question “What is one theological idea that has shaped your faith?”

The guest speakers are Brittany Burrows, Rev. Holly Reinhart-Marean and Rev. Larry George.

A 5C Church: Creative

A 5C Church: Creative

When you start to live in the reality that God is making all things new, then you start to see the pattern, you see the new thing coming from the rubble, you see the stump of the tree to be sure but you know to look closer and you see the shoot of new life coming through.

So you can trust what is coming next - you look back and you grieve what was and you feel the pain of what is not there but then you turn to your imagination and you trust that something new is going to come out of even this.

I will tell you in February last year when the General Conference of the United Methodist Church doubled down on discriminating against LGBTQ+ persons, I was so deeply sad: this is not the church I know, not the Wesleyan theology and tradition we are about It was the darkest time in United Methodism I have experience but then the Spirit hovered over our congregation and what emerged is our conviction and courage to not just say we are inclusive but to show it through our actions by voting to open up our altar to same-gender weddings and it has made us an even greater witness for Christ’s love.

Present To Peace

God is always initiating peace with us. “My peace I give to you,” Jesus says. But we have to accept that gift, that peace. We have to receive it. And when we finally do accept that gift, it changes us. We are transformed. We experience inner peace that changes how we experience the world, how we interact with others. We become conduits of that peace through our being.

St. Francis put it this way: Make me an instrument of your peace. Make me an instrument. Change me so that I become a way through which your peace is shared. 

What if that became your prayer this Advent season, what if you invited Christ to make you an instrument of peace, at your dinner table this Christmas, at your workplace, with your friends…let me sow seeds of peace in every situation, in every relationship.

Present To The Presence

The Advent Worship Series begins as Pastor Blair interviews with Dr. Ruben Habito to talk about how we find and practice the presence of God in our own lives.

About Dr. Ruben Habito

Ruben L.F. Habito is a Filipino former Jesuit priest turned master practicing in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen. In his early youth he was sent to Japan on missionary work where he began Zen practice under Yamada Koun-roshi, a Zen master who taught many Christians students, which was unusual for the time. In 1988, Ruben received Dharma transmission from Yamada Koun. Ruben left the Jesuit order in 1989, and in 1991 founded the lay organization Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, Texas. He has taught at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University since 1989 where he continues to be a faculty member. He is married and has two sons.