Unmasked

Wrapped up our Unmasked series.  Messages were on wearing masks, our focus (on God or us), and the 3 gifts of Grace - Love, Repentance and Forgiveness.  It is Grace that allows us to remove our masks trusting in what God says about us and receiving and giving Love, Repentance and Forgiveness!    We so often want to wear masks because we know all of our deepest and darkest secrets and with that we find it hard to believe that anyone, especially God, could be ok with us.  When we start to trust what God says about us and that He accepts us we can begin to remove our masks and develop a community of grace.  Knowing our own sins and God's Grace and Mercy we can accept others just as they are so that they can remove their masks and for the first time stand naked and unashamed before God and others.  I hope this series is taken to heart by many and influences many masks being removed.  We desire to be a community of authentic people following Christ.

Transformed

Working on this powerful series on being transformed by God in 7 areas of our life taken from Rick Warren.  As I am developing each message the thought keeps occurring to me that this message series could seriously change lives, but only if people will apply it to themselves.  As we go through our year with all of our messages every message comes with "homework".  If we don't take up the message and actively apply it to ourselves we will not reap the benefits.  I guess this is pretty basic, but I see it occur so often.

I hear from some people that they need to be fed spiritually, but no matter how often the food is placed right in front of them they won't eat!  There is a part we play in being "fed" and a part we play in being transformed.  We have to do our part!  Get into the groups and dig deeper!  Pray actively about what the message is about!  Take it seriously!  The message is not for entertainment, it is for life change!  It may be presented in an entertaining way (hopefully) but remember this is serious business.  When we grow and improve and are transformed God uses us in powerful ways to affect our communities!  Be an agent for change!

When you die and move on into eternity will your passing matter?  Will you leave an empty space behind because of what you gave to your community?  When God uses you there is a noticeable gap when you are gone!

Update

Easter was a great time!  Here is what happened at The Bridge on Easter -

Good Friday Communion –               38

Easter Egg Hunt -                             120

Saturday PM Service -                       70

Sunday 8AM Service -                       56

Sunday 11Am Service -                   224

Sunday PM Service -                         15

Total Attendance Easter Weekend -          523

Total Attendance at Services -                    403

We were able to make a connection with over 500 people.  2 years ago we were averaging that many people at our weekend services and today we are averaging half that - 250.  With all the setbacks from being shut down and relocating for 7 months we are doing well regrowing.  We have been back in our facility for just over a year now and have grown from 150 in attendance to 250.  

Through all of the transitions we have seen people's lives changing from a new saving relationship with God through the Son to relational healing to freedom from addiction issues.  God has been good to us and through us.  We are praying that God will glorify Himself through us.  Looking forward to whatever is next!  

Noah

I want to get my 2 cents in on this Noah movie.  Have not seen it yet but will as soon as I can.  My issue has nothing to do with the movie.  I expected some type of back lash from the church community over this movie.  I was not disappointed.  There have been several "Christian" reviewers I have read and they range in their reviews from liking it to attributing it to a work of Satan.  I think the reviewers that say something to the effect "while it does not adhere to the biblical account it can be a great conversation starter and has some powerful biblical points that can be drawn out" are the ones that have a healthy response to the non-christian world digging into the biblical text for entertainment.  Why does the "church" have to respond like this? So negative and attacking and derisive of the unchurched or non christian people using the bible as a source for entertainment?

I remember shortly before becoming a Christian as a young adult a movie came out called the Last Temptation of Christ that had such a tremendous outpouring of hatred and anger come at it from the "church".  This movie was not appealing to me and I never watched it until after becoming a Christian and hearing vague criticisms of it from people that had never watched it.  Upon watching it I found 2 things.  One was that it really was not that horrible and had some very valid positive messages in it despite some very non biblical content.  Two was that people in the church attacked me as a Christian for daring to watch it.  I could not believe that as a follower of the Christ that is the way, truth and the life, the one that promised that those that seek the truth will find it, I was being told that just watching a movie that may have non biblical content regarding a biblical story was dangerous.

What it appears to me is that the "church" is fearful and believes Jesus' followers are weak minded.  So scared of some story or movie - so scared of "magic" and false religions - so scared of so much!  The early church and particularly Jesus were not scared of anything.  Paul pointed to the idol made out to the unknown god and proclaimed it as the one true God!  If we did that today the rest of the church would cry heresy.  Paul did not fear the false gods and false religions because he was confident in Jesus and His teachings.  A confident follower of Christ would be able to take a movie that was put out by the "heathen" about a biblical story and point out how correct it is in the areas that they get right.  Why do we feel compelled to attack in these situations?  Why can't we find the common ground and build from there?

My little rant for today! Thank you.

Bold

Doing a new series on Boldness - Bold Witness, Bold Prayer, Bold Speech and Bold Obedience.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

We are called to Boldness.  Boldness leads us to great actions!  Bold Actions come from Bold Prayer and Bold Obedience.  God will provide you with the courage you need to do the great things He has planned for you!  

Freedom – again

         I have been questioned on why I believe freedom is so important.  Why do I focus on personal freedom and free will in my thinking theologically?  Especially when we are called to be slaves of Christ and are reminded we were bought at a price (Christ on the Cross) in the bible.  My thinking on this really boils down to some simple things. 

         If we do not have free will then nothing matters.  What we do we do because either God makes us or the deterministic qualities of the laws of physics make us.  Either way nothing matters because we have no say in it.  Without free will this writing is determined to be done outside of my control. Without free will there is neither evil nor good.  All is neutral.  There is no choice. 

         Biblically we see choice as one of the first gifts God gives to His creation called Man.  Everything we see in the bible points to God creating us to be in relationship with Him.  He could create all the creatures He wanted that had no choice except to love and worship Him, but a real relationship requires the ability to choose.  There is great risk with the ability to choose, but this is also the only way to get the reward of relationship. 

          When I look at the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, sinless man dying to redeem sinful man, I have often wondered “Wasn’t there another way?”  As a Sovereign God He could have ended sin simply by taking away free will.  With no freedom to choose we can not choose to sin.  When I look at the other options this is all I see in regards to salvation of Man and the restoration of the relationship (which is another big conversation). 

         A question asked is “Is salvation based on God’s sovereign will or is it dependent upon Man’s freedom to choose God?”  I would say both.  God’s sovereign will is to grant free will to Man not imposing His will upon Man, rather allowing the freedom of choice.  Man must choose to receive what God is offering through His Son on the cross.  The key point in this is that Salvation is not based upon Man’s actions; it is based upon Jesus’ action on the cross and through His resurrection.  The only point of influence that Man has upon Salvation is that of choosing to receive it or not. 

         Final thought on this is regarding being asked why it is such a big deal to me that free will be upheld in my thinking theologically.  It seems to me that free will is the biggest crux of the whole story of the Bible.  It is the gift that sets us apart from the rest of creation.  It is the abuse of that gift that has led to all of our problems.  It is the submission of that gift to God’s will that leads us out of our problems and it is the use of that gift to receive what Christ did for us that we find Salvation!  If God’s goal was sinless Man then the removal of free will was the way to go, but God chose the more difficult path of redemption in order to maintain the gift of free will He started us off with for the sake of having a real relationship with Man.  On top of all that the repercussions of a lack of free will are unthinkable – it truly means no personal responsibility.  Anything goes!