Sunday was exciting for the Mohrman family as Chris Mohrman (husband of Sherri) baptized two of their children: Katelyn Fazekas and Abby Mohrman! Thank you Jeff for leading worship and all the Tech team people who had to deal with a number of glitches on Sunday. We all appreciate your hard work!
In week 2 of the story God uses an elderly childless couple to begin His new nation. It is beautiful to see the process of faith refined in Abraham and Sarah. They had their roughest times of faith when they focused on only the story around them, what they could see and experience. They sometimes didn't take into account that God is working in ways we don't anticipate. And our greatest moments of faith come when we really trust that God will accomplish HIS purposes in HIS time by HIS power. We, like Abraham and Sarah, sometimes think we have a better plan than God. Why do we think we know better than God?
The good news is that God is patient as our faith is refined. We don't have to stay in the place we are in faith. Is there something that you can do today that is a step of faith in GOD'S plan for you? Don't fear. Don't doubt. Don't change God's plan. Just take that one step and see what happens.
An Apprentice of Jesus,
Kevin
Monday, September 10, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
God Builds a Nation - Week 2
I always look forward to Sundays. It's just about the worship, but about being WITH God's people and seeing how Judson seeks to encourage all who come. Looking ahead to this Sunday we have another baptism during the second service (awesome!), and will focus on Week 2 of the Story - God Builds a Nation, which is the events surrounding Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
That is a lot of material to cover in one morning (all the more reason to be involved in a connect or community group), but we will focus on the agreement, or covenant that God makes as he seeks to create a people who will be a blessing to all other people. As the Old Testament continues to tell the story we will see how difficult it was for the people in God's nation to see themselves in this way. They saw themselves as set apart for protection, not set apart for blessing others. Sounds a little like the church, doesn't it?
When God calls us it is so easy to begin to have a sense of entitlement (You owe me, God) and isolation (I don't want to be around bad people). We see the first part of the covenant - "I will bless you and make your name great," but forget the second part - "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." There becomes a tendency to ask God to continue to bless us, but a failure to ask God to bless all the families around us. Even good Christians seem more concerned with what we receive from God than what God wants to do for others who are currently away from God.
Well, there is so much more we learn through this part of the story. This is God's story. How is your story connecting with God's story?
That is a lot of material to cover in one morning (all the more reason to be involved in a connect or community group), but we will focus on the agreement, or covenant that God makes as he seeks to create a people who will be a blessing to all other people. As the Old Testament continues to tell the story we will see how difficult it was for the people in God's nation to see themselves in this way. They saw themselves as set apart for protection, not set apart for blessing others. Sounds a little like the church, doesn't it?
When God calls us it is so easy to begin to have a sense of entitlement (You owe me, God) and isolation (I don't want to be around bad people). We see the first part of the covenant - "I will bless you and make your name great," but forget the second part - "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." There becomes a tendency to ask God to continue to bless us, but a failure to ask God to bless all the families around us. Even good Christians seem more concerned with what we receive from God than what God wants to do for others who are currently away from God.
Well, there is so much more we learn through this part of the story. This is God's story. How is your story connecting with God's story?
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
A Good Beginning
Sunday was a chaotic day of worship! Thanks to Caris and her team for leading us and the Diaconate for all of the work they did with communion, baptism and praying for people. Congratulations to Charles Schultz, Daniel Smith and Matt Nolan on their baptisms! Make sure you pray for those who were sitting near you on Sunday. We are in this journey together!
We looked at the beginning of Creation through the fall and then to the Flood, understanding that these events that are described are not just written to tell us what happened, but why things are the way they are. Haven't you looked around and asked how things have gotten to be so horrible? Where is God in the midst of all the evil that is in our world? The first 9 chapters of Genesis reveal the answers to these questions, and begin to look ahead to God's answers for these problems.
We already have seen how easy it is for we humans to decide we know better than God what we need. We eat that fruit from the garden daily knowing it causes death, yet rationalizing that God must not have meant it since the fruit is pleasing to our eyes, smells great and is good for food. We quickly turn to our own desires and talk ourselves into thinking that it is God's will for us. How wrong we are and the consequences are devastating.
But God does have a way for us. We don't need to stay in this place. The best that we can offer will not be enough to save us. Adam and Eve were perfect and blew it. Noah was blameless and fell short. But God is working to bring all people back to him, with a great deal of patience.
The beginnings explain the predicament we find ourselves in and help us to understand why the world is in this place. We also can see that God is working, even when we don't see anything happening. Hang in their as you walk through this week.
An Apprentice of Jesus,
Kevin
We looked at the beginning of Creation through the fall and then to the Flood, understanding that these events that are described are not just written to tell us what happened, but why things are the way they are. Haven't you looked around and asked how things have gotten to be so horrible? Where is God in the midst of all the evil that is in our world? The first 9 chapters of Genesis reveal the answers to these questions, and begin to look ahead to God's answers for these problems.
We already have seen how easy it is for we humans to decide we know better than God what we need. We eat that fruit from the garden daily knowing it causes death, yet rationalizing that God must not have meant it since the fruit is pleasing to our eyes, smells great and is good for food. We quickly turn to our own desires and talk ourselves into thinking that it is God's will for us. How wrong we are and the consequences are devastating.
But God does have a way for us. We don't need to stay in this place. The best that we can offer will not be enough to save us. Adam and Eve were perfect and blew it. Noah was blameless and fell short. But God is working to bring all people back to him, with a great deal of patience.
The beginnings explain the predicament we find ourselves in and help us to understand why the world is in this place. We also can see that God is working, even when we don't see anything happening. Hang in their as you walk through this week.
An Apprentice of Jesus,
Kevin
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Beginnings
The beginning. Where every story starts is the beginning. We try to be artistic and begin in the middle and do flashbacks, but the middle of the story makes no sense without the beginning. So the beginning is where we begin as we look at God's story, and how our story connects to God's story. This first week we look at three main parts of the Story:
- Creation
- Decreation
- Destruction
- Knowing there is a creator gives us a completely different understanding of the world and the purposes of humanity.
- Knowing that humans are designed with the image of God makes humanity different than all other animals, possessing the possibility of a relationship with the One whose image we bear and holding the responsibilities that go with that relationship.
- Knowing that the best of humanity can fail reminds us that we cannot save ourselves but we need a Savior.
- Knowing that there is consequence to disobedience should remind us of the seriousness with which we need to listen to God's words to us.
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Story Begins...
At Judson we begin a 31-week chronological journey through the Bible, with the goal to help individuals know more intimately God's story, and how to align our Story with God's story. Each week I will be blogging twice - early in the week as a recap of the past week's message and later in the week to look ahead to the next chapter of God's Story.
I find it quite interesting that God's story begins with God creating all things culminating in the creation of man in God's image, and yet man spends so much time trying to create God in man's image. I often hear people describing God and God's desires for our lives in contradiction to the Bible, which is our canon, or measure and rule of faith. We think God should be like this. Or we feel that God would do that. And yet, those same people would not read the Bible. And if they did they will often shrug off the passages that contradict their understandings and focus on what they think or feel.
One quick glance at the Old Testament and you would see a consistent message not to create or follow Gods of our own making. We may not carve images of wood or stone and physically bow down to them, but we do follow the gods we create based on what we want God to be like. Maybe it is time to read the whole story so that instead of creating and re-creating God to fit into our story the way we want, we can discover God's story and align our story to God's Story.
This week's readings are: Genesis 1-4 and Genesis 6-9.
I find it quite interesting that God's story begins with God creating all things culminating in the creation of man in God's image, and yet man spends so much time trying to create God in man's image. I often hear people describing God and God's desires for our lives in contradiction to the Bible, which is our canon, or measure and rule of faith. We think God should be like this. Or we feel that God would do that. And yet, those same people would not read the Bible. And if they did they will often shrug off the passages that contradict their understandings and focus on what they think or feel.
One quick glance at the Old Testament and you would see a consistent message not to create or follow Gods of our own making. We may not carve images of wood or stone and physically bow down to them, but we do follow the gods we create based on what we want God to be like. Maybe it is time to read the whole story so that instead of creating and re-creating God to fit into our story the way we want, we can discover God's story and align our story to God's Story.
This week's readings are: Genesis 1-4 and Genesis 6-9.
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