4G Challenge - God in our midst, Always

November 18th, 2012. - Ezekiel 8:1 It came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell on me there. In the beginning of today's readings I noticed how Ezekiel is with the Elders, that Ezekiel is not alone in his ministry and in sharing that leadership God's hand moved on him. I think there is something there, don't you? Shared leadership that opens up God's blessings. Let's do this prophetic thing together!

Ezekiel 9:4 The Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” You see God even when he is ticked and hurt, and upset with our rebellious ways, God is always reaching out to us in hopes tat we will return to Him.

Cherubim - wow what a creature. God is so creative with his master pieces isn't God?

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. If angels look like a Cherubim with 3 faces, man-lion-bull I think I'd know if I gave it hospitality how bout you :-)




Hebrews 13: 5 being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” WHAT A PROMISE!

Man there is so much good stuff in this chapter. Too much to Blog and it's too late to go on. So let me leave you with this: Hebrews 13.15-16 let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

4G Challenge - Keep your eyes on the living Jesus

Ezekiel 5:11 So as I live,’ . . . [I will respond to your dishonor] What struck me here is that so often we live and behave like God is not present, that Christ is not alive . . . But because Jesus is living and present in our world and in our lives or as we read "so as I live" He has to speak out against our lack of faith and lives that act like God has no part of it. Not to punish us to to remind us and others that HE IS ALIVE! 

Ezekiel 6:4, 8 So your altars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. However, I will leave a remnant . . .  I get a vision that because our church did not listen to God and follow as the disciples we were called to be our church dwindled and was in ruins. My friends we are the remnants that are called to return to God, to rebuild His church.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, . . . let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, . . . That is how we will rebuild God's church, with endurance and our eyes on Jesus! It's obvious from Hebrews that there is hard work to do. We will need to help other who struggle to keep up with us, to bring them into the church and community we are called to become. And the good news is that we can't keep God's community from being formed. But the question is will the community be at St. Charles Presbyterian Church and are you going to part of it? 

4G Challenge - Open your mouth and eat

Ezekiel's Wheel

Ezekiel 1-2  Today's beginning sounds like Apocalypse Now doesn't it! But often our deepest spiritual experiences are hard to describe and difficult to put into words. We shouldn't get caught up in Ezekiel's vision but realize that he was witnessing something unique to his spiritual eye but in the midst of it stood God. 1²⁷  there was a radiance around Him. ²⁸ As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And don't you just love how Ezekiel describes God's appearance, "like a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day."  And what we should take away from this vision is that Ezekiel didn't just stay in that divine ecstasy but fell away from it to respond to God and listen to God. You see, a spiritual high is worthless unless we use it as a time to connect with God and then take what God is telling us in that moment and share it with others. And often we are given these divine graces as a way to strengthen us for a difficult task that God is calling us to.
      And I love how God prepares Ezekiel to go to a hard and dangerous place - by feeding him with God's words.  ⁸Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” ⁹ Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it.  My friends that's why we are reading the Bible everyday together - to be fed by God so that we can Go and make disciples and to be strengthened for a radical journey.

Hebrews 11:1-19  It's all about living by Faith baby!  Even when we don't understand, even when God's promises seems to be taking so long, even if we know what to do but we are getting weary of doing good, BY FAITH, we live and move and trust that God through Christ will make it happen. Ours is not to question why, but to live , respond, and radically follow in the Faith of Jesus Christ!

4G Challenge - A New and Living Way to Live Our Faith

Lamentations 3-5 Wow! Now we know why they call this book Lamenations. Personally I would name it "Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth." Hard to read how terrible things were for the people of Israel and how the people and the writer view God. 
 
But as we reflect on our own lives and our lives together as a church, it's easy to see the times when we too felt "afflicted" and we have been far from a sense of peace and happiness. 3:17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. But the good news is that if just stop for a moment and look deep within ourselves, where God's Spirit reside, we will realize we are not alone, we will realize the Word of God lives in us giving us a future and a hope. 3:20-21 . Surely my soul remembers . . . . This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. That's what we have that the children of Israel did not have. The promise of Christ never to leave us, nor never forsake us. So even in our darkest times, if we but need to wait a moment, and seek after God, God will restore our souls, our hearts, and our spirit.  3:25 Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 3:32-33 For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness. 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to The Lord? 5:19, 21 You, O Lord, rule forever;Your throne is from generation to generation.  Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;
 
Hebrews 10:19-39 - Today's Epistle reading is a great companion to today's Old Testament reading because it shows how different and essentially easier way we have it because of Jesus Christ. We have a new and living way ²⁰ by a new and living way . . . to live our faith. And so we should have confidence that we can be dangerous Christians, Radical Devoted Followers of Jesus because we are not alone in this journey. Not only do we have Christ in us and around us but we have each other. That is one of the reasons we Gather as a church, to support one another and to be reminded of the Good News of God's Word. ²⁵ not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; [so that] ³⁶ you may receive ^[what was promised.

4G Callenge - A Hint of Good Things to Come

Lamentations 1-2  These are hard words today! Jerusalem is destroyed. Israel and her people are "swallowed up" by her enemies. So what do we make of today's text, in light of how we have experienced God through Jesus Christ?  Too often we want to ignore how we are the ones who have misbehaved and have ignored God's goodness, mercy, and presence in our lives. We want our cake and eat it too! In other words we want to live how we want to live without following Christ words and call to righteous living.  The key to these first two chapters I believe is found in verse 18 of Chapter one:
¹⁸ “The Lord is righteous;
For I have rebelled against His command;
     You see, too often we want to blame God for when our lives feel attacked and we our overwhelmed by life. But I would argue most of the time it is because it because we have rebelled against God's ways and not followed after Jesus.  Sure there are times when we are attacked, when things go south in a hurry, but if we are walking with Jesus these things will not swallow us up, nor will we feel God is silent. Instead we will feel God's presence, be strengthed by His word, and be able to endure our suffering, our loneliness, our heartache.  Keep the faith!

Hebrews 10:1-18 I love how The Message put the first verse:  1. The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. "Only a hint of the good things to come."  Wow! As a church this should give us courage, because I believe what God is saying is that the Old ways we use to do church and the blessing we have had in the past history of this church is only a hint - only the beginning of what God wants to do for us as His Radically Devoted Followers of Jesus Christ.
     And the good news of todays message is if we will just but follow and open ourselves up to His Spirit in our lives this is the amazing thing that happens:
¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them . . . :
I will put My laws upon their heart,And on their mind I will write them,”

¹⁷ “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

    What a tremendous blessing it is to have God's Word - Jesus Christ, inside of us guiding us, encouraging us, teaching us, letting us know the difference between right and wrong, and also telling us that we are what we once were but are righteous because He is righteous. I know I often have a hard time seeing that in me! The goodness - the holy, but I think if I step up to the challenge of reading my bible everyday for the next year, I just might begin to believe and understand and grow in spirit of God's covenant of Christ in me and freedom from my past.  What an exciting year this is going to be. Can't wait to see what God is going to do in my life and in yours! :-)

4G Callenge - A Radical New Way

Jeremiah 48-49 - These are hard words for us as Christians to see God as a destroyer and a punisher. But what this says is that God has standards and demands for as as a people and a church and if we are complacent, prideful,worldly, and greedy the we are going to fail. We are called to be faithful to God alone and if we are not then more than likely calamity will happen.

Hebrews 7 - 22 so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. What I took away in Hebrews is that since the way the people did it before  didn’t get the job done, there needs to be a change of direction and leadership, and the change will be a radical new way of being a church, that is solely focused and center on Jesus. 15 the law[past]  brought nothing to maturity. [But the new radical way]  is —Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God.

4G Challenge - God is not done, it's time to grow up

Jeremiah 46-47 46.28 I will not finish you off I have more work to do on you! . . . I am not finished with you yet! I am excited that God is telling us as a Church that God still has plans for us and a purpose. 

Hebrews 6 1 So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. . . [with] God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it! I love how the message puts it. Let's leave the preschool finger-painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. It's time to grow up my friends and become the radical disciples we were made and called to be. Preschool was fun but it's time to graduate and begin to learn the ABC's of our faith and doing some homework.

4G Challenge - Stand firm and listen

 Jeremiah 44:4 Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again . .  God is persistent and patient and continues to reach out to us over and over in numerous ways because He loves us.  But at some point God's patience runs out and there is a price to pay. The 4G Challenge is a time to get back to the place God is calling you to - not a place of exile, not to the ways of the world, but back to what church is suppose to be like. Back to the fundamentals of our faith. If we don't surely we will die. Now is the time to stand firm in our church and allow God to rebuild the church around us and through us.

Hebrews 5:11-12, 14 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, . . . I think all of us, or at least most of us, realize we are not all that God has called us to be, have not grown as we should have grown, and have for a while have become a little dull in our faith. This challenge to gather, grow, give, and go is our opportunity to receive the spiritual food we need to grow deeper and make a huge impact in the community in which we live. 

4G Challenge - Small but Mighty

Jeremiah 40-42. 4. "See I am freeing you from the chains which are on your your hands.Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right for you to go."  - I believe if we are faithful in listening to God and if a group of people take up the 4G Challenge God is going to lighten our load, and deliver us from our past mistakes and allow us to move freely into the future.

Jeremiah 42:2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet“pray for us to the Lord for this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many." My friends, we are the remnant, a few out of many, who remain faithful to God's call as a church. Know that as God has built His people up and protected them in the past, God will do the same now, IF we "walk" the way God directs us  faithfully. Jeremiah 42:6 Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God!”  Amen!

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  This is why we are reading the entire Bible together. To change our lives and transform the church.

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. As we take on the 4G Challenge and pray the transformation of our lives and the churches, know that Jesus is guiding us, loving us, walking with us.

The beginning of the 4G Challenge

Today is the beginning of the 4G Challenge to 1- Gather each week for worship for the rest of the year.  2- Grow spiritually by these challenges and by reading through the entire Bible in the next year. To help you can go to www.biblegateway.com and click on "reading plans" on the left and then pick Old/New Testament reading plan and you get to pick the version you want to read.  3- Give by tithing for the rest of the year and on Nov. 18th pledge a % of your income that is part of plan to tithe. 4- Go and invite other to come to our church and be responsible for one new member joining this year. That is the 4G Challenge! And to walk with each other I hope to Blog about our scripture reading each day and for us to talk about our experiences.  

Jeremiah 37-39.   37.2 did not listen to the word of The Lord

The people didn't listen to the prophet, made false accusations, beat him down, imprisoned him (I have felt like that from time to time, how about you?) they cast him down in a well and he sank in the mud (sometimes it feels like I am sinking, plodding in the muck. :-( )

What I get from this story is that God is calling the leaders and people to go out of the safety of their congregations into the unknown. To reach out those outside our comfort zone.

You see, sometimes  following God's word is risky and the fear of what God ask keeps us from all that God wants of us. But as the story shows God's word will not be thwarted, and those who don't listen and follow God's direction will tumble and those churches will grow smaller until they no longer exist

Hebrews 3. 4 "every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is God"

What I took away from the lesson from Hebrews is that scripture allows us to hear God's voice and learn from those who didn't listen.  It's my prayer we will learn from those who has gone before us as we join God in building us up into church Jesus is wanting us to be. 

I look forward to our journey together as we gather each day for the next year and as we gather each week for the remainder of this year to listen to God's word and to Grow closer to Christ and one another.