Why Meeting in Homes is Great

Having church anywhere is awesome, but I thought I would just compile some of the reasons I love meeting in homes:

1. Your can have a dog in your lap.

2. You can drink coffee while listening to the lesson.

3. The coffee is free.

4. You can have refills.

5. Sometimes people bake muffins.

6. They are also free.

7. If your baby starts crying, no need to take him outside; someone else will be glad to hold him for you or at least help you cheer him up. Everyone around you is your friend, after all.

8. If that doesn't work, you can always stuff a free muffin in his mouth.

9. Just kidding. Do not stuff a muffin in your baby's mouth.

10. A/C too high? You don't just have to sit there and bear it in your dress and high heels ("why didn't I bring a cardigan?"). The blankets are in the basket over there.

11. Oh, and by the way, you're probably not wearing high heels because you took them off at the door. Or you were smart and didn't bring them. Or you're even smarter and don't own a pair.

12. When you walk in, you are prepared to listen, but also have the comfort in knowing you will be listened to.

13. Flexibility. If someone has an urgent need, everyone stops right then and there to lift it up. If a song is laid on someone's heart, it can be sung. If a word is laid on someone's heart, it can be read or said.

14. Not. Intimidating.

15. Inviting someone to your home feels easy and natural anyway.

16. The bathroom is, like, right there. Which is good because you just had about 3 cups of coffee.

17. I should probably also say something about the whole authentic community thing.

18. People genuinely knowing you, and yet still loving you, is an awesome feeling.

19. You genuinely knowing other people, and finding that you are now willing to forgive, love, and work at relationships where before you would have run away, is an awesome feeling.

20. And even if no one else in the home loves you, at least you still have the dog in your lap.


None of this works, though, unless people are willing to make it work. The home is not some magic place in which people suddenly stop sinning or being selfish. We have to be willing to get into each other's messes and actually enter into each other's lives, to care for each other as family and sacrifice for each other. To give until it hurts, and receive until it hurts our pride.

Because Jesus makes his home in us, we make our home in each other. And that is how the world knows our true home is elsewhere.

Jesus Loves You

"Jesus loves you," she was assured, by people with big smiling faces who promptly went home to their big homes with big white families inside to eat a big Sunday dinner and watch football on a big TV.

"Jesus loves me," she sang with the rest of the kids in the Sunday School class, even though she might as well have been of a different species the way they wouldn't talk to her and giggled when she walked in.

"Jesus loves everyone," she was told she must tell others in order to be a good girl, by a pastor who didn't know her name and was more concerned about how many people came to a building each week than how many little girls didn't have a nice big family like his to go home to.

"Jesus loves the world," a cool video said, and she was told to go to Haiti and help build a home for orphans. But she didn't have the money to go with the rest of the youth group, and her parents thought it was pointless anyway, so she just longingly looked at the Facebook photos of the $70-Chacos-wearing youth group smiling with cute Haitian children.

And then, one day as she invisibly walked home from school with a heavy-laden backpack, not invited to get ice cream with the rest of the school friends who would then tell her Jesus loved her on Sunday at youth group, someone called her name.

"Hey!" said a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, wearing dirty white sneakers and a nose ring. They'd talked a couple times in homeroom and realized they lived in the same neighborhood and liked the same TV show. "You want to come eat with my family and me? And then maybe we can watch TV!"

In that moment, for the first time in a long time, she wondered if someone up there just might love her.

Elephants and Termites

Two lifelong friends sit at their favorite restaurant, discussing their day, their work, and their kids. These women have so much in common – the same worldview, the same church, the same hobbies (they always go play tennis while their husbands golf together on the weekends). They have the kind of friendship in which one can confide anything to the other and know that her secret will be safe. They’ve helped each other through family losses, emotional battles, countless tears and joys…nothing can tear them apart.

And then it happens.

One woman says, “I just can’t wait for Halloween! I’m having so much fun helping Jenny look for her Hermione Granger costume.”

The other woman bristles a little on the inside. How can her beloved friend not realize the origins of Harry Potter and Halloween? Why is she exposing her child to such things?

“Oh…well, our family doesn’t believe in celebrating Halloween. And we don’t allow our kids to read Harry Potter.”

Silence. Tension. Judgment on both sides. (How can she take the fun of Halloween away from her kids? And Harry Potter has so many Christian themes!) All of a sudden a wall comes between them.

Between women who have helped each other through near-divorces, through crises of faith, through the loss of one parent to suicide, another to a car accident.

I heard the phrase “It’s not the elephants that will get you, but the termites” a while back. In context, it’s saying that it’s the day-to-day troubles that will wear on you, rather than the catastrophes. But I think we can also apply this to our relationships, and it’s no different among believers. We split over the small stuff.

Two people may agree that trusting Jesus bridges the gap between us and God. They may agree that we have an obligation and privilege to always help out our fellow man, even if it means trouble and sacrifice for us. They may agree that human life is always sacred, even if the person doesn’t “deserve” to live, or even if the life hasn’t appeared yet. They may agree that family is a precious treasure that should be preserved at all costs. They may agree that educating people and then giving them a choice is better than just telling them what to do.

But then one drinks a glass of wine, or the other doesn't allow her kids to watch a certain movie, and the friendship is permanently strained.

It’s amazing how angry we get, how emotional we get, over the things that don’t matter in the long run. And everyone has a valid point. Many conclusions can be arrived at logically, and everyone can poke holes in everyone’s arguments and find Scriptural evidence for both stances.

Paul had a similar situation going on in his baby church in Corinth. Some people had come from backgrounds of worshipping other gods and taking part in their rituals and feasts. Now that they were Christians, they had a huge problem with continuing to eat that food because it reminded them of their past (a valid point). Therefore, they condemned other Christians who ate food that had been sacrificed to these gods, saying that they were sinning. These other Christians responded that all food is God's food, so why does it matter? (also a valid point) Here is how Paul responds in 1 Corinthians 8:1-9:

“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

"Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

"However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block….”

These people in Corinth are squabbling over termites. Paul brings them back to the elephants, the things that really matter. The important thing is that we know and love the Father, and that He knows and loves us. Whether we do this thing or we do not, we agree that there is one true God, we agree that He alone created everything, and that we exist and live our lives for Him alone. As for this lesser thing, no one’s choices make him better than his friend. However, make sure to love each other in everything, and don’t do or say something in front of your friend if you know it’s going to hurt him.

So next time your friend disagrees with you about a termite issue, your first reaction may be to bristle, and that’s normal…it’s human nature. But remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians, remember the elephants you do agree on, and respect your friend’s motivation that led to his or her decision. To love and honor God. To love and honor others. And love edifies.

Why go, and not just give?

David Platt answers a question in his book Radical that I've been confronted with as well in the past. I thought I would share his response with you all.

I remember when I was first preparing to go to Sudan, a nation impoverished by civil war. The trip was going to cost me around three thousand dollars. It wasn't easy to travel into Sudan since they were still at war, and we would have to charter a plane and spend a few extra days to make that happen. I remember one dear lady in the church coming up to me and asking, "Why don't you just send the three thousand dollars to the people in Sudan? Wouldn't that be a better use of money than your spending a week and a half with them? Think of how far that money could go."


I wrestled with that question. Was I wasting these funds in order to go when I could simply give the money instead? Should I even be going? I continued wrestling with that question until I got to Sudan. There I had a conversation with Andrew that shed some light on the question.


Andrew was sharing with me about his life in Sudan over the last twenty years. He had known war since he was born, and he described facets of the suffering and persecution his people had been through. He told me about the various groups, most of them secular or government organizations, who had brought supplies to them during that time, and he expressed thanks for the generosity of so many people.


But then he looked at me and asked, "Even in light of all these things that people have given us, do you want to know how you can tell who a true brother is?"


I leaned forward and asked, "How?"


He responded, "A true brother comes to be with you in your time of need." Then he looked me in the eye and said, "David, you are a true brother. Thank you for coming to be with us."


Tears welled up in my eyes as the reality of the gospel hit home with me in an entirely new way. I was immediately reminded that when God chose to bring salvation to you and me, he did not send gold or silver, cash or check. He sent himself - the Son. I was convicted for even considering that I should give money instead of actually coming to Sudan..... Was I really so shallow as to think that my money is the answer to the needs in the world?"




Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that giving money isn't a wonderful thing. It's beautiful when we sacrifice so that others may have food or shelter or medical care. But going somewhere puts a face on the people to whom you're giving. They are no longer an object of your charity; they are your brothers and sisters. Your dear friends. The same things that hurt them hurt you, and you cry with them instead of just for them.

I remember well when my friend Kevin came back from Rwanda. He worked with a humanitarian organization and grew a deep, deep love for the Rwandan people. It wasn't just that he went, it was what he did when he came back. He talked to all of his friends constantly about how wonderful the Rwandan people are, how kind, how hospitable, how hopeful in the face of heartbreak and past suffering. Because he went, many people, including me, now feel a connection with Rwanda, though we have never been there. We can put faces to the country, and we feel like we have a genuine connection with its people. So not only does going to another country make you a brother or sister to the people there, it stirs a deep love in others when you come back.

Money alone is not the solution. Giving money is just one part of giving our love...and our love - that force that says, "You are my brother, and I hurt and hope with you" - is what really has the power to heal broken nations and broken people.

A Challenge

"What, therefore, is our task today? Should I answer 'Faith, hope and love?' That sounds beautiful. But I would say - courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature... we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth... a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth and and the destruction of God's people. To rage when little children must die of hunger, while the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and the madness of militaries. To rage against the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against COMPLACENCY. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the kingdom of God."

-Kaj Munk, 1944, killed by the Gestapo soon after

The Vision

So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this… The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision ? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing… This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?


And the generation prays


like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrel loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive


inside.


On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

 
-- 24-7prayer.com

We Need You.

I think a lot of people have left the church because they have either felt useless or abused. We have corrupted the image of the Body as a group of interlinked, codependent parts, and instead have exalted some parts above others. This is my humble plea as a member of an aching Body in America.

Many people spend years consuming sermon after sermon and song after song without ever knowing the satisfaction of working for the Lord, walking in the good works He has prepared in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:10). Sometimes this is out of laziness, but I think more often it's because they don't feel needed or equipped. Even though "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3), we sometimes believe the lie that we are simply dangling limbs being carried by the preacher rather than active, moving parts of a dynamic Body. We sometimes feel that a seminary degree is a prerequisite for service, even though such a requirement is never found in Scripture. In fact, Paul, even though he proves at the Areopagus that he is certainly knowledgeable about Greek culture and philosophy, deliberately tries to suppress all knowledge not related to the Gospel when preaching because he has "resolved to know nothing while he was with [them] except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Wow. So just know that simple fact and you're ready to do some pretty amazing stuff.

The fact is, no single part of the Body is expendable. You are not expendable, and we are depending on you to fulfill the mission Christ has for you specifically. All have infinite value and God promises to use every branch that is connected to the vine of Christ to bear fruit - in other words, to heal souls in the same ways Christ did while He was here (John 15:5). What an incredible mission, and what an terrible tragedy that people connected to Christ forget they have this power! So many have turned away because it's so easy for us to doubt our worth simply because a few other people (who have but a breath in their lungs and wither like the grass, according to God!) make us feel small. Don't believe the lie any longer that you're just a money-spewing consumer at church, because you are in fact a vital part of the mission of expanding the Kingdom of God on earth.

Those who have not necessarily felt expendable have been abused. Abuse can come in many forms - gossip, taking others for granted, or prejudice, to name a few. Some have been taken advantage of because of their willingness to volunteer for the jobs no one else will do. Some have been the victims of people who care more about what they can offer (ex. money and time) than about who they are as beloved children. Others have attended "prayer meetings" only to find that they were really gossip groups, or been looked down upon because of teen pregnancy or family problems. Whatever the cause, many have been wounded. And so many attempt to continue their relationship with God without the Church.

The problem is, we can't live in obedience to God if we do not meet with believers regularly, nor can we be filled up with all the blessings He promises us. Not only does He command that we "not give up meeting together" (Hebrews 10:25), but He has formed us to need each other. You not only need us, but we need you! Solomon, the wisest man in the Old Testament, knew this well as he wrote in Ecclesiastes, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" Not to mention that we are told God will be in our very midst if we have two or more gathered in His name. Jesus was hurt by many, many people, even his closest friends, and yet He didn't use that as an excuse to wall himself in on all sides.

This doesn't mean that you should fling your burdens on people who can't bear them. Deliberately look for people who are truly following God, who love Him as you do. I promise they do exist. Dare to dream of a group in which each member "considers others better than himself...not looking to [his] own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2). I promise you're not the only person who desires this. In fact, talk to just about any Christian, and she longs for a deeper, intimate community of believers that is upheld by trust and purity. We all want this. We all want to be surrounded by "a great cloud of witnesses" so that we can "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (Hebrews 12:1). Forgive those who have hurt you, as Christ has commanded, and dare to allow yourself to be loved again.

We need you back. Unfortunately, churches (because they're made of people, and groups of people in general tend to do this) sometimes act like clubs that require a rite of passage. Take all those reproaches you've heard in the past for not going to church and throw them away. I know this sounds funny because I myself am encouraging you to go to church, but what I mean is that often we invite people to church with an attitude that it's "their obligation" or "their duty," and we take it as an opportunity to demonstrate what good Christians we are by inviting them. BUT our attitude really needs to be one of need, not giving a guilt trip! We NEED you back in the Body. We need more people to encourage us and who will run the race for God with us. God has appointed you to minister to people. There are so many hurting souls who have yet to hear the good news, so many hungry waiting to be fed both physically and spiritually, so many young people who need you to disciple them, so many older people who need you to inject fresh, youthful passion for the Lord into their hearts. So many who would LOVE to have you in their lives and share your struggles and triumphs.

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body...The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'...But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to those that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." - 1 Corinthians 12