from Lamentations 3:13-26 and Colossians 1:15-23, 2:6-7
In Isaiah 43:18-19a we read, “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?” In Revelation 21:5, we hear the words of Jesus captured by John, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” Since the beginning, God has been in the business and the process of taking that which is broken, and rebuilding it…making it new!
In the third week of our series we are invited to consider the integrity of the foundation on which we are seeking to build our lives, and even on which we are seeking to be about building God’s church. Following our time considering what it might look like to clear the way for God to build something new, when those things that we don’t need or that God doesn’t want for us are stripped away, we are brought face to face with the steadfastness or the integrity of our foundation.
What if the foundation on which you were building your life and on which we are seeking to build God’s church became the firm foundation of God’s faithfulness instead of the shifting sands of what this world prioritizes.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 6:46-49
While the idea of the Kingdom of God may be a familiar one, it becomes easy to get tripped up when we are faced with the evil that exists in this world. If God’s Kingdom is present, what are we to do with all that doesn’t reflect His Kingdom in this world? What is our role in the evil that is so present?
What is the foundation upon which you have built and are living your life? It seems like an odd question, doesn’t it? A foundation is not something we generally give any thought to unless there is a problem with the foundation.
In Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders, He is clear that it’s not a question of if the foundation upon which your life is built will be tested…it is a question of when. What does it take to build a firm foundation?
w/ Vern Collins
from Joshua 24
Options. Many live in a culture full of options. Options for clothing, cars, the way you spend your time…upgrade options, warranty options, media options, options for the way you connect with others…it is a culture that caters to the consumer.
What if, however, we have become so accustomed to crafting this life to be the most comfortable it can, that we have made optional things that should not be?
Take serving and loving others for example…Jesus never presented it as an option…even in our Old Testament passage from Joshua, we see that amidst the options of lesser gods, Joshua makes it clear that those options are no option at all, really.
What if the way you served was a life style, not simply another option on your list?
w/ Luke Edwards
from John 15:1-17
How is it that we’ve boiled Christianity, that is, what it means to be a follower of Jesus, down to NOT doing the things we shouldn’t do, and being sure to do the things we should?
The invitation of Jesus is to life…a full life to be more specific. Yet, we have somehow bought in to this idea that life with Christ is little more than behavior modification.
In this week’s foundation of Connecting, we consider that what we DO for God is simply not as important as how we are WITH God through our connection in our relationship with Jesus. Perhaps the fruit, or what we “do” comes as a byproduct of abiding in Christ as He calls us to do in John 15. Not only in relationship with Jesus, but in relationship with one another do we find that God is able to bear fruit in and through our lives that is beautiful in His sight.
Rather than focusing on, “doing and achieving,” what if your focus became, “abiding, and being?”
w/ Vern Collins
from Revelation 7:9-16
Silent Mediation. Old Hymns. Traditional. Contemporary. Praise and Worship. There are as many different opinions about what worship should be as there are people worshiping…or as there are people in church.
As we begin our “Foundations” series by looking at both foundations of the faith and foundations of who we are as a church and how we accomplish our mission of, “Loving our Community and inviting all to discover life in Christ,” we begin with worship as being a vital piece of that identity.
What your worship were not a matter of preference of style, but was the, “True Worship,” Jesus refers to in John 4, and that we catch a glimpse of in the vision of the throne in Revelation 7?
w/ Vern Collins
