Tag Archives: New Year

Following Jesus in Mission

An epiphany is a moment of realization often experienced as a sudden, and perhaps surprising, insight. Earlier this month, Christians celebrated Epiphany, when the church reflects on God’s revelation through the coming of Jesus; I believe it presents us with an opportunity to reflect on how Jesus is speaking to us today.

As 2023 launches, one of the things I continue to reflect on is how we are called by Jesus to be on mission in our world. I am involved in a ministry called the Inspire Movement, which seeks to help Christians abide deeply with God and live missionally in the world. The goal is that people will become the kind of disciples who live as everyday ordinary missionaries. When we share this vision with people, they are often hesitant to embrace the idea that they are called to be a “missionary” or “evangelist.”

I think part of the hesitancy comes from two similar misperceptions about living lives on mission for Jesus. First, there is the misperception that we are not gifted in evangelism, and therefore cannot or even should not be engaged in sharing the gospel with others. While the gift of evangelism may not show up in our spiritual gifts inventory, Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew make clear that disciples are called to be engaged in the world: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13–17, ESV)

While being salt and light may not look like preaching on a street corner or traveling to exotic locations around the world to spread the gospel, the potential impact is still significant. We can still share the story of our relationship with Jesus with our neighbor. We can share how Jesus has changed us and invite that person to see how Jesus might work in their life.

Another misperception that prevents us from living a life on mission is the idea that the work of evangelism has to be done on our own. We may think that the work of evangelism and everyday mission is the stuff of superheroes, not ordinary Christians. But for Wesleyan-minded Christians, John Wesley’s teaching on prevenient grace makes clear that it is God who is on mission; we are invited to join God in his work. For Wesley, prevenient grace describes God’s initial work in our salvation, when the Lord is drawing us to himself and toward awakening and repentance. According to Wesley in his sermon, On Working Out Our Own Salvation, prevenient grace includes, “the first wish to please God, the first dawn of light concerning his will, and the first slight transient conviction of having sinned against him.” Wesley is clear that this is the work of God, and not by our own efforts or the efforts of others. We can be confident that God was at work in a person’s life long before we came on the scene.

However, this doesn’t mean we have no role to play. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, we may have different roles as we join God on his mission, but it is God who does the work: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” We are still called to share the gospel with others, but rather than having to be the “Lone Ranger” to invite someone to follow Jesus, we can trust the Holy Spirit to be at work in that person’s life drawing them and awakening them to the reality of the God who loves them.

How is Jesus calling you to join him on mission this year? As you reflect on your life with Jesus during this season of goals, I invite you to consider how Jesus may be calling you into mission in your community, school, or workplace. Take confidence in the fact that the Holy Spirit goes before you and will be with you as you seek to follow Jesus in mission.

Featured image courtesy Erica Nilsson via Unsplash.

Shalom Liddick ~ Your Brother’s Keeper, Sister’s Keeper: Intercessory Prayer

Note from the Editor: This weekend our sermon on intercessory prayer comes from Rev. Shalom Liddick. She and her husband Rev. Mike Liddick are church planters of a Wesleyan congregation, Resurrection Life Church, in Marana, Arizona. Click play to listen to this sermon in its entirety. A short excerpt is featured below.

Rev. Shalom Liddick, “Brother’s Keeper, Sister’s Keeper” Resurrection Life Church
January 5, 2020

To know the heart of God, we need to remain in God. John 15:7 says, “If you remain in me and I remain in you, you can come and ask and I will give it to you.” When you remain in God, you know the mind of God.

When we begin the New Year, we start making resolutions – “new year, new you.” We begin to think about ourselves and what we need to change – we turn inward. “What about me needs to change?”

But read in Isaiah 62:6-7 – “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”

When they built communities, they surrounded them with tall walls to try to protect the people inside from attacks – animals, war. When they built these walls, they posted people at different sections of the walls. These people were called watchmen. Their job is to have eyes to see what is coming. To see a runner who has news, to see an attack – to see what is coming and to alert and announce to prepare, to do something.

In this new year, you are watchmen, watchwomen.

When we make resolutions about how life is going for us, remember: you are your brother’s keeper; you are your sister’s keeper. You’re a watchman. And where God has placed you, God has placed you on purpose.

Watchmen stand in the middle to communicate, to see, to defend. An intercessor stands in the middle to intervene on behalf of somebody else. The word “intercessor” is a word of the courtroom – you stand in the middle to intervene for somebody else in intercessory prayer.

Intercessory prayer is prayer given up to God, when you stand in the middle to intervene for somebody else. God calls me and calls you to be people who get in the middle and say, “God, can you help my sister? Can you help my brother? Can you help my community?” If you keep aware in your community because you talk to neighbors, you talk to friends – it makes it really hard to make a New Year’s resolution that’s just, “new year, new me.”

Something that should give you hope is the knowledge that God is present in every situation – every calamity, every disaster. No matter what your friend is facing, no matter what the news says, God is present in every situation. God is present – in the middle – of everything.

I’m your keeper – you are mine. The fact that God came to Cain and asked, “where is your brother?” tells me something. It tells me God will ask me about my friends. God will ask me about my community. “Hey – where is…?” It is my responsibility to pray for you. Where are you, friend? We live in a culture where we want to be independent. But I need to make it a point to always present you before God, and you need to make it a point to present me before God.

In John 17 we see Jesus praying for us before we even came to be. And here we are. I come before God with the expectation that God hears me. When it comes to your intercessory prayer life, don’t get stuck in that one thing that you think God didn’t answer. Prayer works, and our job and our duty is to continue to bring our friends, our community to God. The awesome thing about our relationship with God is that God allows us to do that.

Maxie Dunnam ~ A Brand New Year: How to Leave Your Stuff Behind

Do you ever wonder how to leave your stuff behind? Loren Eiseley was one of my favorite writers, a distinguished anthropologist and essayist with the eye of an artist and the soul of a poet. He saw beyond the surface and had that rare double gift which enabled him to enter deeply into an experience and then share that experience with us. In one of his poignant vignettes from boyhood, he shares a moment of time that bears timeless truth.

Eiseley was 16, and one day he leaned out the second-story window of his high school and saw an old junk dealer riding in a cart filled with castoff clothing, discarded furniture, and an assortment of broken-down metal objects. A broken-down horse was pulling the cart. As the decrepit figures passed below him, Eiseley had a sudden sense of what time means in its passing. He wrote: “‘It’s all going,’ I thought with a desperation of the young confronting history. No one can hold it… we’re riding into the dark. When my eye fell upon that junk dealer passing by, I thought instantly, ‘save him, immortalize this unseizeable moment, for the junk man is the symbol of all that is going or gone.’”

After that, Eiseley said he could never regard time without a deep sense of wonder. He sought to receive every moment as a kind of gift that was only his. It’s an image to consider as we begin this new year. Let’s look at our scripture lesson, found in Genesis 45:1-28, which you can read here.

Tucked away in this story of Joseph’s sojourn into Egypt is a verse packed with far more meaning than appears on the surface. It is a word that carries a whole wagon-load of goods for reflection. It teaches us an eternal truth that we do well to consider as we move into the New Year. It is helpful in practicing how to leave your stuff behind.

Rehearse the story. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph found favor with the Pharaoh and became one of the trusted officials in Pharaoh’s court. A strange irony of fate (the providence of God, of course) brought Joseph and the brothers who had betrayed him together again. A famine ravaged the land of Canaan, the people were without food, and they came to Egypt to buy food from the Pharaoh. They soon learned that the person with whom they dealt was the brother they sold into slavery, so the tables were turned. Here they were, asking food from the person they cast away.

When it came to Pharaoh’s attention that Joseph’s brothers came, it pleased him. He instructed Joseph to bring the whole family from Canaan, promising to give them the goods of all the land of Egypt. It is at this point we find the power-packed verse. Do this, said Pharaoh: “take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all of Egypt will be yours.” I like the way the King James’ version translates that. “Regard not your stuff, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.”

Regard not your stuff.

There’s all sorts of meaning in that. One translation renders it, “leave your stuff behind.” Now some of us who have moved a good bit, like Methodist preachers, know what that means. We moved from Mississippi to California years ago. Moving across the continent made it even more difficult to decide what stuff we were going to take and what stuff we were going to leave behind. Moving is expensive. My wife, Jerry, collects rocks, and she had bushels of them. She knew better than to get into a discussion about taking those rocks from Mississippi to California. Do you know how heavy rocks are? So Jerry did a very cunning thing. She packed her choice rocks into kitchen canisters and cake tins and brought them along. The movers were mystified, I’m sure, as they handled those cake tins and canisters, and I learned of it long after I had paid the bill!

“Regard not your stuff,” said Pharaoh, “leave your stuff behind…for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.”

By the time most of us get to be adults, we have accumulated a great deal of stuff – all kinds of stuff.

We’ve learned so many wrong things, stored up so much misinformation, learned to respond in so many destructive ways. We’ve adopted all the biting, snarling, snippy styles of relating, become secretive and cynical. We carry a lot of stuff around, and it burdens us down. It’s hard learning how to leave your stuff behind. We get all glued up in our limited world of habit.

So this word of Pharaoh to Joseph’s brothers is a good word for us, particularly as we begin this new year: leave your stuff behind. What is some of the stuff you need to leave behind as you begin the new year? What can you drop off your weary, bending back to make your trek into the New Year a bit easier and far more meaningful?

Leave behind self-pity.

Self-pity is a burden most of us are unwilling to drop off. Someone hurts our feelings and we carry our hurt with us forever. We’re treated unfairly and we never forget it. Something happens in our family and it seems to us like we’re being put down: someone else is receiving special treatment, so we get a kind of complex. We suffer physically and we get the idea that the whole universe is out to persecute us – such an easy snare to fall into! As long as we carry this burden of self-pity, we can blame our failures on someone or something else.

To go through life with the burden of self-pity is to go through life hampered. It is to stumble along at an uneasy, faltering pace, so we need to leave the bundle of self-pity behind us. We need to stride into the future, not with self-pity, but with self-affirmation. And when we rehearse the gospel, we know that we can do that because the whole of Scripture, especially the Gospels, is an affirming, not a destructive word.

Jesus said that not even a sparrow fell to the ground without the Father taking note. Then he added, “you are of more value than sparrows.” And how extravagant is this? “The very hairs on your head are numbered.” Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable miracle of God, and there is a place in God’s heart that only I can fill…that only you can fill.

“For thee were we made, oh God,” said Augustine, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” No wonder he said that; the psalmist himself had captured it long before – “You have made us a little lower than the angels, a little less than God, and crowned us with glory and honor.”

We don’t need to go into the New Year with self-pity because God is on our side. To let go of self-pity is to begin practicing how to leave your stuff behind. God created us. And God is going to be with us.

Leave behind illegitimate responsibility.

The next bundle of stuff we need to leave behind is illegitimate responsibility. I’m talking about the responsibilities which we rigidly claim for ourselves, but which don’t legitimately belong to us.

Our journey will be more meaningful if we can determine that there are certain responsibilities that are ours; these we will accept and give our resources to. There are other responsibilities which we simply have to leave with others and with God. Parents, there is a limitation to the responsibility we can take for our children. We must do all we can to nurture our children to live productive, helpful, meaningful, Christian lives. But beyond a certain time and place of nurturing, we must commit them wholly to God, and leave with them and with God the responsibility for guiding themselves.

This is conditioned by a special word to young parents. A Chicago suburbanite put on a last spurt of speed to catch his train but missed it. A bystander remarked, “if you’d run a little faster you would have made it.” “No,” the suburbanite replied, “it wasn’t a case of running faster, but of starting sooner.” Young parents, you can’t begin too soon to relate a child to God – to demonstrate clearly to your children your own commitment and values. We can’t depend wholly upon the church to instill within our children a love of God’s Word. That won’t do it; of course the church has a responsibility, but parents are primarily responsible. When we have been faithful in our parenting, we can leave our inordinate feelings of responsibility for our children behind.

There are responsibilities that we can and must assume – but many of us are weighed down by responsibilities that don’t belong to us. We must leave them behind.

Leave behind cancelled sin.

There’s a lot of stuff we ought to leave behind, along with self-pity and illegitimate responsibility. What stuff do you still need to leave behind? We can’t name them all, but let me mention one other bundle that we need to cast off as we stride into this New Year: the bundle of cancelled sin. The phrase comes from Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.” He claims that this is the work of Christ.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,

He sets the prisoner free;

his blood can make the foulest clean;

His blood availed for me.

Scores of people who beat a steady stream to my study door for counseling are burdened down by cancelled sin. Somewhere in the past, they did things, got involved in situations, and were caught in relationships about which they feel morbid guilt. They carry this around as an inside burden which no one knows about. But like a malignancy, it grows and spreads until it poisons the person and brings a sickness like death.

The heart of the gospel is that God through Christ forgives our sins, and our sins are cancelled by God’s grace. But obviously, this fact and experience are not enough. Cancelled sin still has power – destructive power in our lives.

How then is the power of cancelled sin actually broken? How do we leave this burden behind? There is one key: confession and inner healing. I believe that under most circumstances, not only confession to God but confession to another is essential for healing and release from the power of cancelled sin.

This is the reason James admonishes us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another. Once we confess to a minister or to an intimate friend or group, we don’t carry the burden alone. The poisonous guilt that was bottled up inside is now released. The cleansing and freedom that comes is wing-giving. Forgiveness and acceptance are confirmed in our lives and the fear of others knowing who and what we are is taken away.

A medical analogy works well here. When an infection appears somewhere on the body, antibiotics are given. If these do not destroy the infection, usually the infection is localized and has to be lanced. The surgeon uses the scalpel and opens the boil in order that all the poison can be drained. Confession is something like the surgeon’s scalpel. When we honestly open our lives in confession, all the poisonous guilt that we have bottled up within has a chance to flow out. Confession becomes the cleansing process by which the self is freed from the power of cancelled sin.

Now there are two requisites for redemptive confession – one, you must trust the person or the group to whom you confess; and two, your confession must not be destructive to another person. We cannot disregard the health and wholeness of another in order to seek our own release.

The big point is that the burden of erased wrongdoing is too great for us to carry into the New Year. You can leave that stuff behind, because God forgives. God loves you and accepts you. And if you’ve not experienced the release from cancelled sin, if the burden of it is still with you, you may need to find a person whom you love and trust with whom you can share. Open your life to them, and allow the poison to flow out in your honest confession. Remember the promise of John’s gospel: “if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”

I want to invite you now to use your imagination. Picture yourself with a big trash bag. Move through every room of your life; select the stuff you need to leave behind. I’m talking about self-pity and illegitimate responsibility.

Put it into the trash bag.

What cancelled sin still has power over you, what hidden hatred, what frustrating fear, what devastating doubt, what powerful prejudice?

Put it in the trash bag. Do it. Act it out in your imagination.

Put it into the trash bag.

Is there an unresolved relationship with a husband or wife, a parent or a child, a neighbor? Is there a jealousy you’ve never brought out into the open?

Put it into the bag.

It could be any number of things. You know what weighs you down, and what stuff you don’t need to take into the New Year.

Put it into the bag. Be specific in identifying and visualizing all the stuff in your mind to put into that bag.

Now stay with me in your imagination. Get in your mind the picture with which we began – the junk man with his cart filled with cast-off clothing, discarded furniture, all sorts of abandoned useless things. Do you see it in your mind? He’s passing by.

In your imagination now, throw your trash bag onto the junk wagon and let it be taken away.

Have you done it? In your imagination, just cast it onto the junk wagon to be taken away. Be silent now and enjoy the relief and release of getting rid of that burden. Keep the image of the trash man in your mind for a moment, taking all your trash away. Now substitute for the image of the junk man, Christ himself.

Do you see him? Jesus. Listen. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Leave your stuff behind – all your junk. Leave it.

You are forgiven. Your failure and weakness are accepted. Your past is buried in the sea of God’s loving forgetfulness.

Go into the New Year with Christ, and go joyfully.

Cole Bodkin ~ Trading Your Resolutions for Jesus’ Questions

It’s that time of the year again: New Year. We pump ourselves up, decide to set goals or resolutions, and…end up failing, or not even beginning. Despite our defeats, good intentions are behind this resolution-setting. Hopefully, introspective and purposeful questions guide the way. Who am I? What do I want to change about myself? Who do I want to become?

Deep, meaningful questions are quintessential for our personal development not only in general but also in our sanctification. A single question has the ability to stop you dead in your tracks, pierce your heart, or propel you towards uncharted territory. In order for the necessary steps to occur to enact effectual change, you must often begin with a question.

So, what if you do something different this New Year? Instead of setting goals for yourself with your own questions, what if you sit with Jesus’ questions, look at yourself long and hard in the mirror, and allow his questions to shape and guide you into this next year? What if you trade your resolutions for Jesus’ questions?

Since there are so many questions that Jesus poses in the Gospels, it might be easier to look at one Gospel and focus on a few. Let’s look at John’s Gospel.

“What do you seek?”

Those just so happen to be the first words that come out of Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel of John (1:38). After a glorious introduction sketching the creation of the cosmos, and how this Word spoke all things into existence, you might expect a declaration, something like: “Let there be light.”

But that’s not what we get. Instead, we see the Lord of Creation’s initial remarks aren’t declaratory, but inquisitive:

“What do you seek?”

Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us, but over and over again we find the portrait of Jesus in the Gospels is of one who asks questions. He asks 307 questions, whereas his inquisitors ask only 183. It’s telling, for all sorts of reasons, that the Lord of the universe employs questions. “What are you searching for?” is a different kind of consideration than, “what are your annual goals and resolutions?”

What sort of Lord is that?

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a shock that here in the beginning of the gospel of John, Jesus—the Word who became flesh (incarnation), who decided to dwell among humans—is in the midst of a discussion with two people regarding location.

If you’ll recall, a long time ago a duo in a garden far, far away had just committed an egregious act and hid. The first words directed to them, the first conversation between God and humanity began also with a question:

“Where are you?”

Now fast-forward. Instead of running away from God, they are coming toward him. They are moving toward the God who makes his dwelling with humanity. These two former John-the-Baptizer disciples respond to Jesus’ question—what do you seek?—with another question:

“Where do you abide?”

Initially, I thought this was another example of oblivious disciples: “um…where do you live?” Palm over face, right? Wrong.

Their question is actually brilliant.

They are searching and seeking his dwelling place, his abode. We’ve already learned that this God made his dwelling in the flesh in Jesus; but what is it like, the place where he abides and others abide with him?

Surely, Jesus could have said, “Go up 100 steps to the North, take a left around the bend towards the outskirts of Galilee. Enter the village and the second house on the right is mine.” He could have said something to that effect, he could have drawn a map in the sand, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus says:

“Come and you will see.”

Come and see where I abide. Come and see the place for which you are seeking. Come, where I abide with you and you with me. Resolutions fall far short of the journey toward which Jesus beckons us.

What do you seek?

In John’s Gospel, this isn’t the only time this question occurs. It is also directed to the soldiers at Jesus’ arrest (18:4,7) and to Mary at the empty tomb (20:15). Perhaps this is the question of John’s portrait of Jesus.

Are you ready to sit with Jesus’ questions rather than your own resolutions as you enter this new year?

What do you seek?

What are you chasing?

Who are you looking for?

What do you desire?

Note from the Editor: a version of this first appeared on Wesleyan Accent in 2018. Cole Bodkin is a valued contributor and former editorial assistant at Wesleyan Accent.

Edgar Bazan ~ Relaunch

In the past, I’ve talked about reset as the ability to embrace and move into the new things that God has for us by not allowing the hurts of the past to hold us back. We can’t change the facts of the past, but we can change how we feel about them and how we allow them to affect us today. It’s possible to reframe our past experiences into a story of redemption by looking at them and talking about them through the lens of Jesus’ love and grace.

The outcome is that, as we experience redemption, we are able to move into the new life God has for us; we stop keeping our future a hostage to our past. We free our future by allowing God to redeem our past and reframe our whole lives around a new story of hope, redemption, and new life.

Today, I want to talk about our future. When I use the word “relaunch,” I mean the action, the opportunity, or the decision to try again that which has not been going well.

Our text comes from Isaiah 43:18, 19:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

The context of Isaiah’s writing to the people of Israel takes place at a bleak period in Israel’s history. They were in captivity, conquered by the Assyrians who had become the dominating military and political power of the region. They had lost everything they thought they would keep forever, and they were homesick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.

This happened because they were suffering the consequences of wrong choices against each other and God. Israel had abandoned everything they once represented as God’s people; they had become selfish and unjust. They had missed the mark of their mission and calling as people of God. They had forgotten time and time again that the blessing given to their father Abraham and their mother Sarah was meant to be stretched out to all the families of the earth and that this was the reason for their existence, their purpose and goal as people of God. They failed because they forgot who they were meant to be. Instead of pursuing their purpose, they settled with ephemeral comforts and tried to become like everyone else.

No doubt Israel was discouraged because they thought this was the end of them. They were stuck – emotionally, mentally, and spiritually – in their past, unable to see the new life and opportunities that God was opening up. God was speaking hope and encouragement to them in the midst of their darkest times.

God wanted them to know that even though they were suffering, they were not forsaken. God wanted the people of Israel to understand that the hardship they were experiencing would not be the end of them. God wanted to give them a fresh start, a new beginning in their life, a relaunch, so to speak. By telling them, “forget the former things,” God was saying, “it is time to move on.”

Maybe that is where we are! We may feel we are stuck, that we have failed people we love – including God – so many times that we are just getting what we deserve. If God dealt with us based on what we deserve, we wouldn’t be here. No, God deals with us with grace, to bring out the best of us and make us whole again.

God is not in the business of annihilation, but of redemption. Our God does not dwell in the past, for he is always doing a new thing. Don’t ever believe that God doesn’t want anything to do with you. If you think that you have no future, I have good news for you. God is saying, “it’s not over, I have plans for your life. I am about to do something new for you,” because God is always on the move, and he is always calling us forward.

Today, I am saying this so you can not only believe it, but so that you can also fully embrace a new life.

How can we embrace this new thing that God wants to do in our lives?

We begin by realizing that our God is forward thinking. Consider: the moment things went wrong at the beginning with Adam and Eve and their sin, God introduced a plan of salvation. Every time people got it wrong and messed up God’s work, God would continue to keep his plan unfolding. When Jesus called the disciples, and everyone else for that matter, he did it so they would follow a new path, a new way of living. He called them forward. So it is with us!

This tells us that God is far more interested in our future than in our past, that we are not a final product, and that God wants to do something new in us every day regardless of what has been. Some people think that all God wants to do is remind them of the things they have done wrong. God is more interested in your future than in your past. God is always working a future for us.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Back to the Future. In this movie, when Marty goes back to the past, he stands out. He knows things and has seen things and acts differently because he is from the future. In the first film, there are some scenes where he is thought of as weird for making peculiar decisions because his peers don’t understand where he is coming from.

In the same way, we can view all of us, Jesus’ followers, as people of the future. Let me explain. If you jump back 2,000 years to when Jesus was walking the earth, a majority of the Jewish people believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that at the end of time, when God set the world right, the righteous would be resurrected and vindicated. The twist is that Jesus accomplished that in the middle of the history, not at the end. God did for Jesus in the present what Jewish people thought he would do for all at the end. So, in the resurrection, it’s like Jesus became a person of the future.

In the same way, everything else Jesus has done for us – how he brought a new world, a new way of living – is about bringing the promises of the future into the present. With this, God calls us to live as our future selves right here in the present, to step into what God says is true about us, and to stand out.

We don’t have to wait for our best life to happen someday; it can begin to happen right now if we step into it. Most of the things that get in the way are our choices. I know you are thinking, easier said than done. And you are right.

How do we relaunch our lives to embrace the new thing that God wants to do in our lives? Let’s look again at the story of Israel and the challenge they had.

The problem that this story presents may help us to understand why we too struggle to embrace new life today: they forgot who they were meant to be. They lost their way. They allowed things to get in the way that disrupted their purpose and sent them onto a path God did not intend for them.

The miracle in the middle of this story and all of our stories is that God never gives up on us. God is always working to give us a future. God is always invested in our healing, redemption, and restoration so we can get back on track.

This is not just about wanting to save us but wanting to give us a good, abundant life that accomplishes the desires of God’s heart and our hearts. God has written in our hearts his goodness and creativity, all the best he wants for us.

What is your heart telling you today? What are the things that have gotten in your way, in your marriage, your family? What are the thoughts, the dreams, the desires of your heart that have been lost or forgotten over time?

Many of us have learned to have our faith in God –and that is a beautiful gift. Our faith in God grounds us in the hope for tomorrow. But let me add something else that has do with the voice of our heart: our faith in God does not mean we must doubt ourselves. Our faith in God ought to lead us to trust ourselves too. Our faith in God leads us to know not only how much we are loved but also why we were created.

Here is where many of us struggle. Do we know how much we are worth? Do we know how large our life is meant to be? Let me tell you something. Self-doubt forces us into lives that are too small for our dreams. We settle too soon. For the most part, our lives are about safely conforming to what has been, rather than building up new and wild dreams. And we doubt ourselves because we focus on our weaknesses, on our mistakes, on what people think and say about us, rather than on the beautiful ways we were created and gifted by God.

To this God says: “Forget the former things!” My friends, this word today is God telling us, “remember who you are, who you are meant to be. I am always with you.” God knows that when we live in doubt and undervalue ourselves, we give up on what we are meant to be, on any pursuit of our heart’s dreams. But we are the only creation in the universe that was created after God’s own image. Are we to reject that? No, we need to embrace it because by doing so we honor and glorify God.

Today, God is telling us to stop doubting ourselves and to find our strength and purpose. I believe that God placed dreams in our heart as the fuel to move and encourage us to live forward, and that God is overjoyed when we pursue those desires.

Can you hear God’s voice in your heart? What is God saying? How is God encouraging you right now? What dreams have been placed in your heart?

Often, when we pray over and over again for the same thing, it is not because God is failing to give us an answer, but because we have not heard the answer we want. What if this year we go with what we have already been told, with what is in our hearts, as scary and challenging as it may be?

I finish with this. To relaunch is not to keep things the way they are but to endeavor into new things. When God says “I am making a new thing,” that new thing is for you… you are not forgotten. What we think is the end is actually the beginning of the next chapter. It is time to move on to what’s next. You can only grow if you allow a new chapter to be written in your life. To relaunch is not about replaying the same old song but learning a new one.

If we welcome God’s love and grace in our lives; if we have faith in the future he has promised us; if we know that God is for us and not against us, then no matter what situations we face, we will be able to engage with them in a positive way, because we know that we have life ahead of us, and that whatever the former things were, they have no claim over us anymore: we have moved on from them.

I invite you to look for the courage to act on the dreams God has placed in your heart, on what you are meant to be. Maybe you are like a bird who for a long time has had thoughts of flying but is in a cage. Here, the door is open. God created us to spread our wings toward the bright sky he created for us to enjoy. May your choices reflect your hopes for the future and not the fears of your past. Live tomorrow today. Amen.

Otis T. McMillan ~ What Defines You This Year?

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” – Matthew 5:6

The proper appetite is required to be filled: am I hungry enough?

With the disciples sitting at the feet of Jesus, he shared with them key points of his teachings. In this verse, Jesus declares that those that hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. It brings to mind two questions. First, how large is my appetite? And second, what am I hungry for? Wholeness comes to those who have the proper diet and are not satisfied with just a portion of the meal.

What are you hungry for, what drives you? Your appetite will determine your behavior. If you are seeking to use God to obtain what you want in life apart from his will, you will be left empty. As you commit yourself to pleasing the Lord and give yourself to growth, the end will leave you full. “He that hungers and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.”

What a change occurred in Saul’s perspective after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus! Leaving on his journey, he was sure that what he believed was right. When Jesus’ voice pierced Saul’s heart, his whole worldview turned upside-down. Everything Saul thought he knew had to be rethought: his understanding of truth, his worldview, his life mission. This encounter was just the beginning of his transformation from Saul the persecutor to Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. What difference has encountering Jesus made in how you live and lead?

Jesus called his disciples into a life of community. He did that with his first disciples, and he continues to do that today. Following Jesus as our leader is not merely an individual exercise. He calls us into his body, his family. He knows that we will need traveling companions—brothers, sisters, people to encourage us, people to challenge us, people to walk alongside us. Who are you walking alongside today? Who encourages you as you learn to lead like Jesus? Who are you strengthening by your presence?

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” — Hebrews 10:24-25

Prayer: Lord, open my mind to see the world from your perspective. Let the reality of your presence reshape my leadership and purpose in life. In your name I pray, amen.

Note: Featured image is an unidentified painting by Piet Mondrian, 1908.

Heather Semple ~ Feed the Creature

This weekend’s sermon comes from Rev. Heather Semple at Red Cedar Church, a Wesleyan congregation in Wisconsin.

Michelle Bauer ~ Waiting for a New Song

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear

and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40: 1-3

Are you in a comfortable place? Spend a few moments in silence. Take a few deep breaths and feel your body begin to relax. When you feel your mind becoming quiet, offer a simple prayer to God, thanking him for his presence and inviting him to speak to you.

Waiting is hard work. Can you remember a time when you waited well? When have you struggled to wait? Take a few minutes to compare and contrast these experiences.

Or – are you waiting for the Lord right now? What are you waiting for God to do or say? What makes it hard to wait in this season? What things are comforting to you as you wait?

God gave us our imaginations. When used well, our imagination can help us to connect more deeply with him. Close your eyes and imagine God turning towards you. What do you see? What might God see?

If you were to cry out to God today, would it be through tears or in an angry voice? Perhaps you are crying out, trying to get God’s attention. Whichever form it takes, crying out is what begins our part of the conversation with God.

What conversation would you like to have with God right now?

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a slimy pit? Can you describe what that was like? How did you get there? Do you feel stuck right now?

David, the writer of this Psalm, describes the Lord lifting him out of a pit. Notice, he did not say that God stood back and lectured him about being in the pit. He also did not have Amazon deliver a book describing how to get yourself out of a pit. In the same way a loving parent lifts a child from a crib, God lifts us from our pit. What is your response to this rescue?

God wants to give you a new place to stand – on a firm rock. That’s a big improvement from mud and mire! What does it feel like to stand on a big, solid rock? When we are stuck in mud it’s hard to think about anything else. Standing on a steady thing gives us freedom. What will you do or be with your new-found freedom?

Offer a prayer to God. Thank him for his presence. Express your desire to experience God’s presence in an even deeper way.

Leave this quiet time in peace knowing that God is making you new.

Cole Bodkin ~ How the Questions of Jesus Can Shape Your Year: What You Love

What sort of questions does the Resurrected Jesus ask?

We’ve already seen that before the crucifixion, Jesus liked asking a question multiple times in different scenarios. In many cases we see his dialogues often contain a rapid succession of questions. In the final chapter of John we see the resurrected Jesus posing the same question multiple times to an old friend.

“Do you love me more than these?”

What a painful question to receive, but what an important one, too. Whenever a person is asked this, there is usually some heartbreak involved, or some sense in which trust is in question or betrayal has occurred. Peter responds matter-of-factly, or possibly nonchalantly, “Yes Lord; You know that I love you.”

Jesus replies, “Tend my lambs.”

But maybe it isn’t sinking in yet, so Jesus asks again.

Do you love me?

At this point perhaps Peter is a little confused (Did you not hear me the first time?), frustrated (Jesus, did I stutter?) or even getting a little nervous (What’s going on?). Again Peter responds, “Yes Lord; You know that I love you.”

He hears a similar response from Jesus: “Shepherd my sheep.”

Maybe the disciples sit for a little bit and take a few nibbles of fish, in silence, warming up by the fire. The smoke makes its way up Peter’s nostrils and suddenly jogs his memory of being questioned about his relationship to Jesus by the fire in the courtyard (“No way! I don’t know that guy!”).

Then the dagger comes that brings the big man to grief.

Do you love me?

Three times Peter denied Jesus in front of others. Now, three times Jesus asks if Peter actually loves him. The pain of failure returns as Peter is faced with a question of allegiance. Sheepishly, Peter mutters in despair and despondence: “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”

One last time, Jesus charges Peter, “Tend my sheep.”

Do you love me?

Peter has been around long enough to know what it means to love Jesus. It involves abiding in, remaining in his love.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (14:15).

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (14:21)

“Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (14:23-24)

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (15:9-11).

It’s interesting that Peter doesn’t reciprocate the love language that Jesus uses. Jesus employs the rugged, covenantal commitment kind of love (agape), whereas Peter seems to only bring himself to use the brotherly kind of love (phileo). Yet, Jesus with this test meets Peter in his current state, and—despite it all—accepts, restores, and continues to implore him to, “feed my sheep.” In some ways, it resembles the end of Matthew’s Gospel. The resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples on the mountaintop and some still doubted. Nevertheless, Jesus still charges them to embark on the Great Commission.

When you’ve failed Jesus, denied him, or not lived up to what you’ve been called, take hope that Jesus doesn’t give up on you and still has a job for you to do.

So, where is Jesus leading you in 2018?

What questions do you need to hear?

What are you looking for?

What does your love for Jesus look like?

Cole Bodkin ~ How the Questions of Jesus Can Shape Your Year: Who You Are

It’s that time of the year again. Usually, we pump ourselves up, decide to set goals or resolutions, and…end up failing, or not even beginning. Despite our defeats, good intentions are behind this resolution setting, with introspective, purposeful questions guiding the way.

Who am I? What do I desire? What do I want to change about myself? Who do I want to become?

Deep, meaningful questions are quintessential for our growth not only in life, in general, but also in our sanctification. A single question has the ability to stop you dead in your tracks, pierce your heart, or propel you towards uncharted territory. In order for the necessary steps to occur to enact effectual change, you must often begin with a question.

So, what if we decided to do something different this year? Instead of us setting the goals for ourselves—via our own questions—what if we sat with Jesus’ questions, looked at ourselves long and hard in the mirror, and allow his questions to shape and guide us into this next year?

Since there are so many questions that Jesus poses in the Gospels, it might be easier to look at one Gospel and focus on a few questions. Let’s turn to John’s Gospel.

“What do you seek?”

But that’s not what we get. Instead, we see the Lord of Creation’s initial remarks aren’t declaratory, but inquisitive:

“What do you seek?”

Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us, but over and again the portrait of Jesus we find in the Gospels is that of one who asks questions. He asks 307 questions, whereas his inquisitors ask only 183. It’s telling, for all sorts of reasons, that the Lord of the universe employs questions. What sort of Lord is that?

Perhaps, upon further reflection, it shouldn’t come as a shock that here in the beginning of the gospel of John, Jesus—the Word who became flesh (incarnation), who decided to dwell among humans—is in the midst of a discussion with two people regarding location.

If you’ll recall, a long time ago a duo in a garden far, far away had just committed an egregious act and was hiding. The first words directed to them, the first conversation between God and humanity began also with a question:

“Where are you?”

“Where do you abide?”

Initially, I thought this was another example of oblivious disciples: “um…where do you live?” Palm over face, right? Wrong.

Their question is actually brilliant.

They are searching and seeking his dwelling place, his abode. We’ve already learned that this God made his dwelling in the flesh in Jesus; but what is it like, the place where he abides and others abide with him?

Surely, Jesus could have said, “Go up 100 steps to the north take a left around the bend towards the outskirts of Galilee. Enter the village and the second house on the right is mine.” He could have said something to that effect, he could have drawn a map in the sand, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus says:

“Come and you will see.”

Come and see where I abide. Come and see the place for which you are seeking. Come where I abide with you and you with me.

What do you seek?

Sit with Jesus’ questions rather than your own as you enter a new year. What do you seek? What are you chasing? Who are you looking for? What do you desire?

Note from the Editor: The accompanying featured image is a work entitled, “The Constant Question,” by Spanish artist Chicote CFC.