The Right Community

James 4:1-3, 7-10. NRSV

“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.  . . . Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

We are in community. It depends on the community we are in that will affect us. Verse one through 1-3 shows community with the world. 7-10 shows community with God. Which one? In 7-10 are imperatives- commands on what we are to do. Let’s hold to community with God. Blessings! 

Watch Him

Hebrews 11:1&6 NRSV

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. . . . And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Go back and read the whole faith narrative. It builds and builds and builds. We understand what faith is, “It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Then we have examples of those who had great faith. But in the middle of it all a bottom line, a conclusion, and then on more to those who had faith. “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

That’s faith. We don’t need great faith- but faith in God.  is indeed great faith. We know what he can do, we trust what he does, what he will do. He has our best interests at hand . . .in his heart. When we are sure of that, we can rest in that. Hold on to your faith in God. You see, many times we place faith in mankind and mankInd will let us down. And we transfer that hurt that disillusionment to God. Oh but when we reverse the process. When we place our faith in God-we can’t lose. We are not disappointed. Faith in God does not disappoint. My my my. Watch what God is doing in your life. And thank him for what you see, and for what you don’t see. He has moved mountains on your behalf. He is still the One. 

Congratulations Adam, on your graduation today! 

Congratulations Marq on no more boards.

Blessings of hope for each of us as we watch what God is doing. enough for now.

Don’t Miss

Acts 8:26-40 NRSV

“Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: 

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, 

and like a lamb silent before its shearer, 

so he does not open his mouth. 

In his humiliation justice was denied him. 

Who can describe his generation? 

For his life is taken away from the earth.” 

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.”

You know this story. But keep in mind that it would not have been possible had Philip not responded to God. He had preached to crowds in Jerusalem and now he is sent to one person. One person who because he was a eunuch (deformity) and black could not be accepted into Judaism. But that is who God sent Philip to on that road. 

The Eunuch was from a culture with different beliefs, but he worshiped God. This Ethiopia is not what we know now as Abyssinia, which is in the hill country to the east of upper Nile. But most probably the ancient kingdom of Meroe, which was south of Aswan between the first and sixth cataracts of the Nile.  The cataracts are places of shallow water or  whitewater rapids where the surface of the rocks ad stones stick out of the water. 

Meroe was a flourishing kingdom from the eighth century BCE to the fourth century CE. Their kings were  viewed as incarnations of the sun god and was a ceremonial role. The real administration was in the hands of the powerful queen mothers called “the Candace.” The eunuch was held in high position as what we would call “the Minister of Finance.” 

So God sent Philip who was already in Jerusalem to someone leaving Jerusalem and getting near the last watering place before the desert to help him understand what he was reading, and he was baptized. God uses who he uses, accepts who he accepts. Our position is to listen, and obey. Don’t you love it? There is no big opportunity or small opportunity as the big come out of the greatness of the small. Don’t miss what God is doing in your life. enough for now.

We have to Get There

Habakkuk 3:17-19 NIV

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

This Habakkuk’s resolve after he had lamented to God. He complained and received answers, although not the answers he wanted. Go back and read all three chapters. But he shows us how to get real with God.. When we get real God is real with us. Too often we say he is real, but we are not real with him, and we miss that space of communication with him.

When we can pour out what we are feeling, then we can hear clearer what he says. But we have to release first. This passage is the closing of Habakkuk’s release. and it’s a resolve that we want- we want to be in that place that whatever happens-yet we will rejoice. But we rejoice after releasing in lament. more later.

Listening

Acts 16:13–15 (NRSV)

“On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.”

The book of Acts is also called the Acts of the Apostles, Acts of Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. We can see that played out in this passage. Lydia was from Thyatira and made purple dye for the fezzes and prayer shawls. Thyatira was known for producing quality purple dye.   

Holy Spirit showed me that the importance of the color purple lies in how it was acquired. Purple, ar-gaw-mawn, in Hebrew, por-foo-rah, in Greek, was produced from the secretion of the murex shellfish. “Tyrian Purple,” was a high-priced dye produced from the mucus of small gland (hypobranchial) (hy po bran kial) found in the neck of the mollusk marine mulex trunculus. The shellfish were opened, and the glands were removed and crushed, producing a liquid that turned purple when exposed to the air. It took 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of pure dye. Purple was an expensive color to produce. So she was a great business woman.

Thyatira was also know for its spiritual formication. Yet, Lydia was a worshipper of God, and God had moved her from Thyatira to Philippi. Holy Spirit blocked Paul from going into Asia. Thyatira was in Asia. But Paul had a vision of a man asking to come to Macedonia to help him. Paul went to Philippi and went to the river to meet. You see, whenever there were ten males of households a synagogue could be formed. If there was no building, they would always meet by the river. So Paul expected to meet the men but found women worshipping. And Lydia was there. She and her family were baptized and the first church of Philippi was started. She was the overseer, or pastor. All because she was listening. Paul was listening. We have to listen to Holy Spirit, and obey. Can you see how God will move us into where he wants us for his purpose for us? More later

Peace in Unity

Psalm 133:1-3 NRSV

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, 

running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, 

running down over the collar of his robes. 

It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.”

The blessing of unity is indeed powerful. While the original hearers would have understood the imagery. We see that the anointing oil used for priest was not to be duplicated. It was special. In fellowship with one another it is a special moment and never the same. 

Mt Hermon stands 10,000 feet above sea level and is snow capped 2/3 times of the year. Although in Syria, it can be seen 120 miles away. It is indeed majestic. The precipitation from Mt Hermon feeds many different canals. It flows into the Sea of Galilee, on into the Jordan River, and down to the Dead Sea. Just as the lands needs water we cannot live without it. It refreshes, restores. 

Fellowship- unity among kindred hearts refreshes, restores. We can’t live without that unity. 

Just as I’m writing this a lizard ran behind my stove. I don’t need to be unified with him. There is no peace, as I keep looking up to see where he is. When we have no peace with some we may “fellowship”with, we need to rethink it. Peace is important. Blessings of unity. more later

Already Done

Luke 24:1-8 NRSV

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words.”

Here we are Resurrection Day. We all know it and celebrate it now. While Jesus’ crucifixion and burial was public, his resurrection was private. But because of the public and private we have life. Because of what has already been done for us we can live victoriously. 

Sometimes we don’t, and I hear the angels’ question to the women: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” The dead things in our mind -we can’t listen, we can’t hear, we can’t follow. The dead things in our heart- we harbor grudges, unforgiveness, we live in bitterness. The dead things in our will- we don’t want to give up our way to follow God’s way. But we don’t have to look for life among the dead things, because he has already freed us to live fully.

“Then they remembered his words.” The women had a close relationship with Jesus and he had already prepared them. He has give us himself in our relationship with him, and we can remember his words to us. And when we remember we can do as the women, and go tell. You see, someone needs to hear our witness. And we need to share it. We do all of that because it has already been done for us. Francis Frangipane says, “We don’t fight for the victory, but we fight from the victory already won byJesus.” It’s already done- we win, because he got up! more later