The Great Wall Destroyer

The Great Wall Destroyer

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Ron Hutchcraft, and the Scripture is Acts 2:1,42,44  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   All the believers were together and had everything in common.

That word fellowship underlined above is koinonia; it means intimate closeness.  If you want to tear down a wall between rooms, use a crow bar. If you want to tear down walls between people, you use prayer. You can't get really, really close until you really, really pray together. Oh, sure, sometimes prayer can be a time when people still keep their masks on, keep it superficial, stick to the general praying kind of stuff. But real prayer is where people come together and express how they really need the Lord. You know, worship Him with specific thanks for specific things He's done recently. You fight together on your knees for the lives of people you care about. You come against Satan. You come against the stronghold of darkness that you both know is there. You admit your struggle, you passionately seek His strength, His answers, and walls start coming down.

Every married couple needs to pray together daily. It is the ultimate glue between people: Christian coworkers, parents and their children, Christian friends, even if it starts out feeling awkward. Go to your Father together. In fact, the person you're having the most difficulty with is probably the one you most need to be praying with.

When we go into the Father's presence sort of distant from each other, we almost always come out of His presence closer. Prayer softens hearts; prayer helps us see people and situations through God's eyes. And prayer is the great wall destroyer.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Acceptance

Acceptance

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley & Stuart Hall from their book Max Q, and the Scripture is John 13:34-35  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Many unbelieving teenagers feel unaccepted by the church.  Christ didn't make people feel that way.  As Christians we believe that certain things are right and certain things are wrong, and we have difficulty accepting people who are doing the wrong things.  We think that accepting them means lowering our standards.  But Jesus wasn't lowering his standards by accepting sinners.  He wasn't condoning people's behaviors or lifestyles by loving them.  He was simply doing just that:  loving them.  He loved them so much that he hated what sin was doing to them.

 

North Point Community Church is full of people who disagree theologically with us.  It's full of people who are over their heads in lifestyles and habits that are contradictory to God's design.  Our youth ministry is full of these kinds of teenagers. Yet they like us.  They want to be around us.  They appreciate and reciprocate the acceptance that we show to them.  And as a result, we are able to continue to pave a path of influence in their lives and draw them nearer and nearer to faith in Christ.

 

The inability of the church-at-large to accept people who are different-whether in appearance, belief, or behavior-says more about our insecurities than it does our spirituality.  Lost students don't become more hungry and thirsty for God by having our students reject them.

 

Acceptance leads to influence.  We close down around rejection, and we open up when we feel accepted.   Teenagers not coming to faith in Christ are a sign that unconditional acceptance and love are missing.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

An Introduction to Another Life

An Introduction to Another Life

 

The short excerpt is by Larry Crab from his book, The Pressure's Off, and the Scripture is Romans 8:18  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

 

In September 2001, airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center and into the Pentagon.  Religious leaders tried to reassure an unnerved citizenry by saying, "God is in control."

 

What do we mean to say that God is in control?  What should we mean?  And what comfort are we to draw from whatever we mean?  If God does exist and if He really is in control, it's patently clear that He isn't doing all He could to relieve suffering.

 

I cannot even approach an answer to these age-old questions without first fixing two thoughts firmly in my mind.  First, this life is only an introduction to another life, for followers of Jesus a better one.  Suffering could have a future point that justifies letting it continue in order to do its work.

 

The second thought is this:  God is devoting His power to an agenda I don't properly value.  We want the better life and we trust God to provide it.  After all, He is in control.  He can give it all to us, so we set about to persuade Him to use His power on our behalf. Somehow we've missed the arrogance in this thinking.  Believing that our greatest need is to be happy, safe, and fulfilled is all about us.  And we believe, deep down, that we're entitled to whatever we think we need. 

 

God is in control of seeing to it that nothing thwarts His plan for His people.  Is that plan to give us a better life now, as we define it?  No.  It's to reveal Himself as the greatest treasure the human heart could ever imagine, to draw people into a relationship with Him that utterly delights their souls. 

 

This life is only an introduction to another life, for followers of Jesus a better one.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining