Behind The Curtain

We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:5–7

We want to follow Jesus. We want to hear his voice. We want to know his will for our lives. Yet most of us are never still enough to hear God when he speaks to us. Our lack of listening creates a silence, the ramifications of which permeate into all of the spaces in our lives.

At Creekside this fall, our focus has been on the INWARD journey. We are attempting to step into this dissonant reality. Our approach has been three-fold:

1. To help us as a community to see (without beating ourselves up) the reality of how unstill and unhearing we are;
2. To help us as a community to catch a glimpse of splendor and a desire for what life can be when lived in the simple rhythm of listening to God and moving in the direction he points; and,
3. To help us as a community to learn practical steps and methods that can lead us into the experience of the presence of God.

Last Sunday we looked into the reality of our emptiness, the reality of who we are – sinful, broken, incomplete; jars of clay. The freeing truth is that as we establish routines and disciplines of being in God’s presence we are then able to see our full brokenness in the greater fullness of how much we are completely known, and completely loved by God. We are set free to move as he calls us, realizing that it is God who does his work through us, not we who do God’s work with him. The INWARD journey is the path OUTWARD.

So, let’s get real, just between you and me, how’s it going?
What are you thinking about?
What are you learning about yourself? What are you learning about God? What questions has this brought to your mind?
What are you hearing from God?

Peace. Hope. Love

Doug

It's Your Move

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 1:29; 2:16-17; 3:6–13 NIV)

The story of sin entering the world.
The story of the fall of man.
The story of good verses evil.
The story of responsibility and choice.

The story of Adam and Eve is a reminder from the Bible that from our very first breath, God created us with responsibility and with choice. The lesson from the garden: There is not a scenario where God creates humanity without the power and the freedom to choose.

Most people feel that their life – especially their spiritual life -- is not what they wished it were. But so often we stop there, we hope and we pray that it gets better. We need to move to the next step of examining what we are doing to actually grow. What are the practices and priorities that are shaping us? What are we choosing?

The reality is that God will never do anything that overrides your will in your life. He respects your will, he allows you to choose. He gives you the power and the desire to move, but ultimately it is your move.

If you are going to experience transformation, if you are going move towards the life you were meant to live, you have to own your choices. And realize that the choices you make today create the life you are going to live tomorrow.

Two simple questions:

1. What are the choices you are making that prevent you from moving toward God?
2. What choice do you need to make to move to where you want to be?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Who Do They Tell You You Are

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him . . . and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13–17

What emotion does God feel when he thinks about you? What stirs in his heart when you come to his mind? Your identity, and all that’s connected with identity, flows from your answer to that question.

The reality is that the one who makes something always knows best the thing that has been made, whether it is a car or a poem, a painting, a building or even a person. Your identity only truly can come from the one who created you, your maker, and your sustainer, the only one who fully knows you and fully loves you. Our lives are full of voices that try and tell us who we are, what we should be, where our value comes from. These voices drown out the voice of God. Most of us are really never still, we don’t set aside time to listen God’s voice. So, we don’t hear it -- we can’t hear it -- we drift, untethered from whom we really are.

The reality is that God is madly in love with you. He calls you to himself; calls you to hear that love. God invites you, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) But, how often are you still? Stillness does not come naturally to most people. Stillness and silence take practice. It takes intentionally setting aside times to be still and silent. The practice of solitude and silence is one way to allow God’s Spirit to descend upon you and confirm this love.

- Think through the words that God the Father spoke to Jesus in the passage above. Dwell on the word “beloved.” Why did God choose to say that? What do you think Jesus felt when he heard these words? Can you imagine God saying this about you? What does it mean for you to be beloved by him? In what ways can this belovedness impact your own feeling of mission in the world? What else does this passage unearth for you? How can it point to a deeper sense of his love for you? How does his belovedness give you identity? What tempts you away from your identity in God’s love?

Only with the love of God can we face the temptation to leave who we are in order to settle for a lesser good and a false identity.

Peace, hope and love

Doug