Making it Personal

Sunday morning retuning: Pastor Alan Kropp reminded us of how Jonah struggled, shared his own struggle with God’s redeployment, and challenged us to consider our heart with regard to going.  A great word to us from our Lord.  As you hear God whisper “Go”, be careful your living isn’t replying “No”!

The last few weeks I have been asking you to join me to pray “Show Us Your Glory”.  We have considered the context around Moses’ request of the same thing in Exodus 33.  Last week I called you to consider what Exodus 34 does not say about God’s answer.

Now I want to come at this from a different angle.

We have been asking God to do something in our midst, when we are gathered for worship, but now I want you to ask yourself a question.  Am I willing to let God do in me what I have been asking Him to do through us?  Though similar, that question is different in that it requires us to look inward more than outward.

You see, asking God to reveal His glory in our church, though dangerous, may or may not have implications on your willingness and preparedness to respond to His manifest presence. Asking God to reveal Himself in you has direct and immediate implications on you.  And just what might those be?

God must make us spiritually fit to receive all that He is longing and willing to do.  God revealing His glory will usher in LifeChange.  Am I ready for that?  Do I want more of Him or more of the same in my life? The second question seems easy to answer, but it really all hinges on the first.  Am I ready for changes in my life?  

This will require that we examine ourselves.  That we consider who we are, and who God is, and be willing to make the necessary adjustments to be more like Him.  He wants His glory to be seen in us, but are we ready for what that will require.

I am not saying we have to get ourselves together before we come to God.  Quite the contrary!  I am making clear that if we want to know His presence manifest in our midst we must be increasingly willing to engage in the process of transformation.

Am I ready for God to reveal His glory in my life? Am I ready for him to change me?   Am I ready for a taste of heaven?  Am I ready for God to move?

I think of the lines we have been singing lately from the song When You Move...

For when You move our lives are changed.  We know a taste of heaven here.  We crying out for more of You, Lord come and move.

Jesus, help me to know if I am ready for Your glory in my life, and through my life in my church.  Spirit, examine my heart and reveal to me any things I may be longing for more than You and the evidence of Your presence.  Father, I want to long for You glory more and more.  Show me Your glory.  Amen.  

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy

Seeing God’s Glory

Sunday morning retuning: Sobering words from Pastor Paul about our role in going.  Are you taking any action steps to press into what God is calling you to do as you go?  Carefully consider what God may be saying to you and commit to letting God’s light shine through you, no matter where He leads.

So the last few weeks I have been encouraging us to think about Moses encounter with God where he asked to see God’s glory.  I have also been challenging you to partner with me to pray that God was show us His glory, and I am still accepting willing participants.  Before we go any further though I want to take the opportunity to help you understand exactly what we are asking for.

When we consider Moses encounter, I find it fascinating that we only have sketchy details as to what the experience was like for Moses as described in Exodus 34. We know God came down in a cloud, stood there with Moses and passed in front of him.  We know bowed down and asked the Lord to go with them again.  Moses stayed there on the mountain for forty days and nights with eating or drinking, and wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant.

What we do not know is what that looked like to Moses.  God’s glory is not described to us, and frankly, I think that is a good thing.  If it were, we would be prone to what to reproduce it somehow, and desire the same expression, as opposed to receiving the Lord however he wants to reveal Himself to us today, and in our services.  I have often said that I am thankful for the descriptions of worship in the New Testament, as opposed to prescriptions, for it gives us the freedom to seek God without constraining His creativity to reveal Himself.

So how do we “see” God’s glory?  James McDonald in his book Vertical Church puts it like this.  “When someone or something evidences the reality of God’s existence, that revealing is God’s glory.  We don’t see God; we see the evidence that He has been at work; we see His glory.”  That is well said and the goal of our seeking, to see evidences of God at work.

I believe we see evidences of God at work.  We have recently had a talented musician who happens to be a relatively new follower of Christ serve with us on worship team, and their response was gratitude for being able to express their love for Jesus with their music.  This is only one evidence of God’s work I have seen lately.  Will you join me in praying for more evidence?

Jesus, reveal to us the evidence of the Father at work in our midst.  As you do, give us eyes to see it, and Him.  Show us Your glory.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy

Show Us Your Glory, Expanded

Sunday morning retuning: So we will spend the next four weeks focusing on the middle name of the C&MA, that is Missionary.  Giving, praying, going, and ,sending, but not necessarily in that order.  From this first Sunday the question...Are you willing to make a Faith Step with regard to Missions Giving?

Thinking about going?  Moses was in Exodus 33, the passage I opened up last week and have been meditating on since then.  How appropriate since we are hearing about going, ie. missions, these next few weeks.  Interesting how God seems to do that when He really wants to get our attention, isn’t it?

So in this passage we find God telling Moses to lead Israel into the promised land.  Moses says something that should characterize our every response to God’s leading.  “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”  [Exodus 33:15]  How often are we willing to go whether or not God goes with us.  As we are asking God where he is leading us next we much acknowledge our dependence on Him.  We could learn a lot from Moses here.

After asking how anyone will know God is pleased with them if His presence does not go with them, Moses asks the question that we must ask ourselves on Sunday mornings especially, but every day as well.  “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  What is that distinguishing factor?  God’s Presence.

The Lord assures Moses He will do what he has asked, then Moses makes the request He has been leading up to.  “Now show me your glory.”  Now I ask myself, he has already been on this mountain with God for some time, received the Ten Commandments, gone down, and come back up again.  He has been speaking with God.  Yet he asks to see His glory.

What is it about God that Moses is aware He has not yet seen?  What more could he want?  I do not know.  The story goes on the describe how God was going to honor Moses request, yet does not record the moment it was fulfilled.

What a bummer!  But what words could convey that encounter?  As we sang, “All I Have is Christ” Sunday, the Lord revealed something of the all-sufficiency of Christ to me.  I tried to convey that to a friend today but could not really find the words.  If you have encountered the glory of God, you know what I am talking about.  and you want more of it, just like Moses.  You can also understand why I am asking you to join me in praying for God’s glory to be revealed in our worship services.

I warned you last week and I am asking now if you will on every Wednesday, and whenever else the Lord prompts you, join me for this next year in this simple prayer.  “Show Us Your Glory” If you will, please reply and let me know.  I will add you to a list and pray for you to keep that commitment.  I want to plead with God for His presence.  Will you join me?  This is your chance.

Jesus, show us Your glory.

Here is a great song to encourage you in that prayer.  Open Up the Heavens.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy

Show Us Your Glory

Sunday morning retuning: Loving Jesus. Growing Together. Serving Our World.  What steps will you take, or rather, where you do sense Jesus is leading you to go to stay one step behind Him in 2013?  You do not want to be the same person a year from now do you?  Please do not look at it like a list of things to do.  Rather, try to see it as a verbal map of how God might be leading you to be more like Him. 

As we round into a New Year, I am sure resolutions are on many of your minds.  Some of you have already gotten off track from the pace you wanted to set.  I pray you will not be discouraged, but rather see this new beginning as a time to recalibrate.

I am thinking about that for us collectively and so my eyes have been mind open these last several weeks for where Jesus might be leading me to lead us.  While reading yesterday, some words jumped off the page at me, and I am believing it was the Holy Spirit that caused them to do so.  Let me explain.

Many of you have heard me pray before a morning service something to this effect.  “Lord, let us each return to our cars later knowing that we have meet with You.”  I have always longed for that to be the mark of what God has led me to do, to create an atmosphere where people can encounter Him.  I have failed many times, but He is gracious AND jealous for his glory. 

As a staff we are reading a book together, seeking God’s insight into how we do church, particularly our Sunday morning worship experience.  The book is Vertical Church, by James McDonald.  I have only read the introduction, but I am excited because it was here that I was reminded of Moses prayer in Exodus 33:18, “Show me Your glory.”  That really resonated with me.  I want to spend some time unpacking that next week, but for now I want to give you something to listen to and a challenge to consider.

Here is a link to a great song that gives voice to this cry of Moses, and connects it with walking with Jesus, think Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-11) Show Me You Glory - Jesus Culture.  I long to look on the face of the One I love, what a great line.

What we really need is the presence of God.  An awareness of His manifest presence in our gatherings is what we need.  It’s what the people who come to worship with us need.  It is what I long for in our services.  So I want to ask you on this Wednesday to join me for this next year in this simple prayer.

“Show Us Your Glory”

If you will, please reply and let me know.  I will add you to a list and pray for you to keep that commitment.  I want to plead with God for His presence.  Will you join me?  If you are not convinced you are ready to commit yet, don’t.  That’s OK.  I will give you another chance next week when I unpack Exodus 33 a bit.

Jesus, show us Your glory.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy