Being Church: Missionally Shaped

Continuing through the Prayer the Lord taught his disciples, Jesus states, “and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”  Jesus understood temptation.  He was in the desert for 40 days.  If anyone knows about temptation it is He.  I am glad He understands temptation.  I am also glad He understands it yet was able to resist it.  It would be ridiculous to have someone who claimed to be God in the flesh fall to temptation.  I am not sure we as Christians consider that to be very important.  But it is important.  If Jesus had fallen to temptation, we would not have to be held accountable to it.  He did not though.  Hence, we are held to the strictest of accountability.  Though it is not a fun subject to discuss, it is nonetheless important.  There is oftentimes where I find myself in the center of temptation.  This is usually because I have opened myself to it.  God has given us a way out though.  I am glad for that.  Through the Holy Spirit, we can be sure in that.  Maybe there is nothing new in this but it is something that I have considered recently and something I have found deeply moving and significant in my walk with Christ.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I found it interesting that the first time the word forgive is used in the Bible, is Genesis 50. It almost angered me that it had not been used in the previous chapters. For whatever reason, the Holy Spirit did not find it fit to mention the word “forgive” in Scripture until that point. The story is based on the story of Joseph and his brothers who sold Joseph into slavery. They asked Joseph to forgive them. Joseph wept and took care of his brothers. He said, “What they had intended for evil, God intended for good.” I can understand that statement. My birth mother was raped by someone she knew when she only 15. I was the result of that rape. I can look at that situation in my life and only look at the evil and sickness of the even that took place and wonder what significance of my life really is or I could search my life and ask God to show me the good that has come from it. I did not pick the way I entered into this world. There is good that has come from this situation though. Namely, I am alive and well. God has given me a family that loves me and cares about me. Finally, God has called me to share my testimony with others. When I was 14, I made an active decision to forgive this man that had raped my birthmother. Don’t get me wrong; it is still hard. But I am forgetting the past and pressing on towards the goal – Jesus Christ. That is what matters most for me.

The next part of this prayer is probably one of the most powerful prayers we oftentimes seem to miss.  Give us this day our daily bread.  God gives us what we have because of the grace He freely gives.  To give means you have to have and God has a lot.  I am not getting all prosperity like; I am just saying God has everything we would ever need, and then some.  I am convinced that God gets joy when He is able to give us stuff.  It is almost like He shows off in a humble manner.  I think sometimes we want more than we can chew.

I believe that is why this prayer is so important.  Give us this day.  What a thought.  What would life be like if we just worried about today?  If we decided that we would not stretch our “needs” past today?  God provided each day for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness for forty years.  They were only allowed to gather food for that day (unless it was the Sabbath the next day – which meant they had to gather for two days).  They were not allowed to gather more than was needed.  If the tried to do so, it would rot.  Perhaps if we were only to ask for what we need for today, our lives would not be rotting away with mindless and meaningless crap.  Perhaps our lives would be more relaxed and less stressed if we were to worry about today alone.  This part of the prayer ends with “our daily bread.”

Again, the illusion goes directly back to the Israelites and their walk in the wilderness.  God provides for sure.  He gives us what we need each and everyday.  If a kid asks his earthly father for an egg, a father would not give him a snake.  How much more would good give us if we ask him to give us our daily bread one day at a time?  I am not sure.  All I know is that God calls us to pray in this manner.  It is a prayer in humility.  So, Lord, give us this day our daily bread.  I do not know what tomorrow holds God, so I will not attempt to ask you for something that is beyond my understanding.  The only thing I really know is right now.  And you know what I need.  So I humbly come before You, Lord and ask for what I need for today.  I wonder how the church would change if we acted this out and lived this out each and everyday.  I hope one day, I will see this way of living in my lifetime.  I hope it no longer lives as a dream for the Church but an actual living event in our daily lives (at least for today).

I figured I would continue with the second part of this text (Matthew six) in hope of working my way through the text part by part.  Meditating on these thoughts has given me a greater appreciation for who God is in my life and who He has called us to be as His children.  The next part speaks of God’s Kingdom and God’s will both on earth and in heaven.

I remember being a young boy and not getting what I wanted.  I remember creating a ruckus in the mall because I could not get the toy I wanted that day.  When I got home, I would run to the cookie jar and try to sneak a cookie in before dinner.  My dad would come in and say, “Son.  I do not want you to eat that cookie before dinner.  Please obey me.” Slowly I would put the cookie back in the jar and go on to something else.

I never realized that part of my life would be played out in part, through such an intimate prayer spoken by Jesus, Himself.  Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”  The only real problem I have with that part of the prayer is that I am not in it.  I mean seriously.  Where is what I want in the equation?  Does it exist at all?  Perhaps God forgot that part when He spoke to His disciples about it.  In all reality, I have come to realize that what God wants matters most.  He could honestly care less what I want (selfishly).  He knows what is best for me and what I need (even before I ask Him for it).  Like my earthly Father, God knows how many treats I should have.  Not that it makes it easier mind you.  It is what it is though.

God’s plan is so much greater than you or I.  That is why we should desire His Kingdom to come and His will to be done.  If it were left up to you and I, we would screw up the whole thing.  No.  God in His perfection has a plan and a purpose for each and everyone one of us.  It is up to us to desire to accept the things of God and to push back the things in which we selfish desire for ourselves.  And, when we decide to go at it God’s way, He blesses us.  And, we begin to realize what we thought we really wanted was not really anything worth going after.  It is not easy to take us out of the equation but it is what God wants for us because He knows what is best for us.  Now if we could just learn to do it each and everyday.  Perhaps our lives would change and we would be better off.

For this first post, I have decided to take the first part of this prayer in Matthew six and focus on the importance of “Our Father.”  I do not think we consider God as our Father as much as He desires us to see him in that fashion.  He is in fact, our Father, and He loves us, as an honorable Father should.

As I sit and reflect about God as my Father, I cannot help but think when I have skinned my knee after falling off my bike and running to my dad.  When I was younger, my dad would pick me up in his arms and tell me it would be okay.  He always encouraged me to continue to try once again and to never give up.  When I was finally able to take the training wheels off, he was so proud of me.  Is it possible that God; in the same manner looks at us that way as well?  When we are in need, is it possible that we can call upon a Father who loves you and I to help us in our times of need (even for something that seems trivial like skinning one’s knee after falling off one’s bike?  I believe He is.

Not only that, but God never leaves us or forsakes us.  He is not like a great portion of earthly fathers who walk out on their own kids for selfish reasons.  He sticks it out.  Whenever we feel like we need something stable in our life, God is always there to answer our call.  In this intimate prayer, God is our Father.  He is more than just our Father but He is to be revered as our Father in heaven.  To some, it bothers them that God is no longer here on earth.  And I guess I would think the same thing.  If I didn’t know any better (which oftentimes I don’t), I would treat God like a Father who packed up and moved out.  I would ultimately live like the prodigal son who ran off to do his own thing while he left his father behind and out of the way.

In my younger years of being a Christian, I have learned even though God is “far off” He is also close to those who call upon His name.  He is really not that far at all.  He sees all we do (which can be a really scary thing) and holds us accountable in our actions and deeds because He has done so much for us.  All of this to say; God is our Father.  He loves us and provides for us in ways we seldom understand or appreciate.  He is the model Father.  He is the One we can call on whenever we are in need of Him.  I guess the question then that we need to ask of ourselves is, “Do we really believe God is our Father and not just some ‘god’ who keeps to himself and cares nothing about what he made here on earth?”  It is an honest question I think sometimes we overlook.

For myself, I have to believe that God is my Father.  He desires to have a personal relationship with me all the time.  He seems to always work His busy schedule around mine and yet also seems to keep everything organized and running on time.  He has a lot of responsibilities but He is never too busy for me (or for us – the Church).  So when we pray, we never need to feel like we are a bother.  He desires for us to call upon Him in our times of need and also when we just want to hang out with Him.  He is fair, honest, and just.  And, unlike my earthly father (though an amazing icon of God), our Heavenly Father is perfect.  Thus He deserves the honor and praise.  His name is truly great, that is why we praise Him in the manner that we do.  He is our Father, who is in heaven.   And His name is great.

We do not have normal services at The Well.  In fact, I do not believe I have ever been to a normal service there since I have been there now at least six months.  I am okay with that though.  So it is that I have continued to learn more about what The Well is all about.  It was good that we had this kind of service.

This was more a service to explain where we have been and how we got to where we are.  We are technically a three-year-old church.  It used to be a “different name” back in the day but it has unveiled itself as a new place of worship about three years ago.  So, we consider ourselves a “baby” church.  Todd spoke today about how a three-year old acts mentally and emotionally.  He also talked about how we need to grow up in a positive way.  I agree.  I guess it is fun to be a child and not grow up at times.  For us, it is important that we do grow up though and live up to what God has called us to live up to.  It is not a punishment of any kind.  It is just an important role we need to fulfill as a body of Christ.

So, Sunday night, we had our Midrash service.  Midrash simply means teaching.  We were going to eat and celebrate our three years as a church over food and fellowship.  Not a bad way to begin a night.  We were then going to discuss where we felt the church was going and what it would look like in three years, if we could predict where it would be.  Since our church comprises of PBU students and many other college students, we know our aim is not to be this “mega-church” model.  We wouldn’t do too well in that department anyway.  We know that we are a sending out church.  Eventually I will be going out to do the ministry God has called me to do for His glory.  That is how it works.

We were asked to draw what we thought the church would look like in three years, using only two words.  For me, it was a challenge cause I am not a great drawer at all.  I did my best though and felt as though I was able to convey where I thought The Well was going.  There were a lot of people who had great ideas.

For me, I thought we should be a body that infects people for the Gospel.  If we are not acting like a virus, we are not really being effective.  What would you draw if you could use words to convey what your church should look like in the future?  How would you show the body of Christ to others?  It is a tough question.  At the end of the night, I felt as though, for now, God had me at The Well to learn more about what it looks like to see the body of Christ in action.  I am learning a lot and know that I can take a lot of what I am learning into the ministry God has called me to.  I know I am blessed in the Father’s hands.  It is to this end, I serve God to the best of my abilities.