Recieving the Holy Spirit…..the journey from your head to your heart

Posted: April 7, 2011 in discipleship, Faith
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Acts 19:2 The first thing he said was, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace him with your heart? Did he get inside you?” “We’ve never even heard of that-a Holy Spirit? God within us?”

Being filled with the Holy Spirit seems to be dependent upon whether I have received God into my heart or is God just in my mind.  For so many, we claim to “believe” but that belief is only in our mind and it has never journeyed to our heart.  When we believe in our hearts; when we receive the Holy Spirit God can then begin to change us from the inside out.  This is key and the reason the Holy Spirit is key.  We cannot “think” ourselves into faith we have to receive God into the depths of our soul (whether we are able to understand it or not) and it is in that place that God begins to change us from the inside out.

Receiving the Holy Spirit is first and foremost about opening up our hearts to allow God’s love for us to penetrate the deepest part of our being.  Its first and foremost about moving from our minds to our hearts that we are open for God to transform our minds into being like His.

My hope for you today is not that you are merely a  Christian that believes in Jesus with their mind but that you have let your guard down and allowed God’s love for you to penetrate and transform your heart by receiving the Holy Spirit.

 

Peace from Pastor P

Stupid is as Stupid does…….when it comes to worship

Posted: March 30, 2011 in discipleship, leadership, new church
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Verse of Inspiration–Acts 15:25-26 (worship as freedom)

16:25 Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn’t believe their ears.26 Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.

It amazes me that so many folks in our culture that claim to be followers of Jesus don’t fully engage God in worship.  Why is it that so many folks are willing to just sit back and watch the band play or the worship leader sing during worship instead of engaging and entering into worship?

Here Paul and Silas are in captivity; in prison; beaten; bruised; broken and what do they do?  They sing!  And as they are singing the earth shakes and God sets them free.

Our worship is the very tool that invites God’s freeing, earth shaking presence into our lives.  Perhaps when we don’t enter into worship but just sit back and watch we are actually choosing to remain in captivity; to remain bruised; to remain broken.  For the life of me I can’t figure out why so many folks choose to remain imprisoned in their brokenness because they are embarrassed to cry out and worship the one that will set them free.  I may not be that smart but I’m certainly not that dumb to stay in captivity because of my pride.  I hope you aren’t that stupid either….if you are for “goodness sake,” please stop being so stupid and experience the freedom that comes through worship.

I love you with the love of the Lord!

Peace from Pastor P

Our way or the highway…..the sin of the religious folks

Posted: March 23, 2011 in grace, Hope
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Acts 15:1 It wasn’t long before some Jews showed up from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised: “If you’re not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion, you can’t be saved.”

 

So often in our religious “church” world we assume that our practice of “church” is the right way. We say that we call others “brothers and sister” but at the same time we don’t even want to begin to practice their view of the faith and almost arrogantly assume we have it figured out…..before we know it we are like the jews saying “if you’re not circumcised our way you can’t be saved”

 

What would it look like for us to really be open to other practices of the faith?  What would it look like for us to hold our opposing views in tension because of the things we agree upon?  Is it possible that its not a matter of who’s right and who’s wrong but more of a matter of the heart?  Is it possible we can both be right?  Is it possible we can both be wrong?  Perhaps it doesn’t really matter what we confess with our mouths but in fact its whether or not our lives match our confession; specifically, is the Holy Spirit resides in our lives and is molding us into being like Christ.

 

Peace from Pastor P

On the “go” the role of the church in community

Posted: March 22, 2011 in discipleship, Faith, leadership
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“1 When they got to Iconium they went, as they always did, to the meeting place of the Jews and gave their message. The Message convinced both Jews and non-Jews-and not just a few, either.”

When Paul and Barnabas head into town to begin to get the message of Jesus to the people they go to the “meeting place.”  They go the place where people’s lives intersect; they go to the place where the people of the community gather together.  In essence, they “go” to the people and in this going it opens up the door for many to intersect with the message of God’s love in/through Jesus Christ.

It seems to me that our culture of Church has lost this spirit of “going” and now expects the people of the community to do the “going” to connect with the message of Jesus.  In this current context the expectation is now on the people of the community to do the “going” instead of the message of Jesus “going” to the people.  What would it look like for a community of faith to flip the current axis and take on the role of “going” into the meeting place of the community?  What would it look like for the message of Jesus to be on the “move” through the community of faith by going to the meeting place or perhaps to provide a meeting place for the community for the sole reason that through relationships a transformation could occur in the lives of those in the community by coming into contact and beginning a relationship with Jesus?

Peace from Pastor P

Gospel Wildfire….burning up the status quo

Posted: March 15, 2011 in discipleship, Faith
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S–Acts 13: 49 And this Message of salvation spread like wildfire all through the region.50 Some of the Jews convinced the most respected women and leading men of the town that their precious way of life was about to be destroyed. Alarmed, they turned on Paul and Barnabas and forced them to leave.

h—the message of salvation is one that is contagious; that builds; that spreads like a forest fire.  This fire is set to devour the religious boxes that are set in place.  We’ve got to learn to let the fire burn.

a—I often forget that this message is one that seeks to burn up the status quo and create it into something else.  Its not that this message is meant to destroy but is mean to burn up that new growth might occur.  Unit we catch this vision we will always find a way to combat it with the chains of religion and in doing so we will miss God’s movement in our lives.

p—God, the last thing I want is to miss your movement in my life.  However, I remained scared that I am becoming more and more tied to the establishment then to Crossroads.  I admit that I don’t network like I used to when I first moved here and that in many ways I’ve become maintainer of the establishment.  God forgive me of this and may you give me the grace to be a catalyst for your message; a catalyst to set fire to the chains of religion that you might create something new.  May I welcome the destruction of my life that is holding me back from the wildfire message of Jesus.  Amen.

 

Peace from Pastor P

Missionary not by choice….the way of the first christians

Posted: February 23, 2011 in discipleship
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Acts 8:4 Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus.

The first missionaries became so because they were forced to leave their homes because they were followers of Jesus during the first great church persecution.  These first missionaries were not graduating from school and deciding or joining the latest, greatest “call” thing to do.  No, in fact they left because they were afraid for their life.  What was not an option was to “stay” and keep quiet about the message of Jesus.  These first Christians were so passionate about the message of Jesus that they would rather leave their home and go to a foreign land telling the message of Jesus then staying at home and keeping quiet.

I wonder what would happen if the people that claim to be followers of Jesus in my culture would view “spreading the gospel” as not an option but part of a necessity to life.  Most Christians in America think that evangelism is an option or the job of the paid Christian.  This mentality is so far from the movement of the first followers that I am not even sure the first followers would call us Christians.  A Christian is someone who refuses to stop spreading the message and when faced with persecution simply becomes a forced missionary by moving to another place to spread the message of Jesus.

Where are you a missionary today?  Or have you traded in your mission for the comfort of your own quiet?

Peace from Pastor P

God’s home…..your life…living, breathing sanctuary

Posted: February 15, 2011 in discipleship, leadership
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God has a home on earth.  His home is a sanctuary; a place set aside for Him to dwell within the world, a place that can house His Holiness, Honor, and Divinity.  For the Israelites this was an actual construction of great detail that would ultimately result in the construction of the Temple. (ref Exodus 25-27)

As a follower of Jesus I am taught that God does need a sanctuary to dwell within the world.  The difference is that this sanctuary is no longer a place made out of material but my heart made by the power of the Holy Spirit.  As my life is transformed through the power of Jesus I am being transformed into a sanctuary to house the Living God.  My job is to allow the Holy Spirit to transform my life into a holy, sacred dwelling for the Living God.  The more my life is transformed the more of God dwells in me…..the greater sanctuary I become.

May you live a life today being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit that you might be a living, breathing sanctuary for the Living God.

Peace from Pastor P

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