Improve Rule 3: Making Confident Statements with Love
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.1 Peter 3:15–16 Two weeks ago at Creekside we started off our exploration of lessons from the life of improv by looking at the first two lessons: 1. “say yes” and 2. “say yes and.” It is a call to change our posture from looking for things that are wrong in the world to...
Read MoreLove and Yes
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 When God calls you to himself, when you begin to follow Jesus, when you become a Christian you are — the Bible — tells us “a new Creation.” How are we to live as new creations? Many people get this wrong, isolating themselves from people who believe differently then they do, being antagonistic to people and ideas. How are we to hold ourselves then in a world that is not our home? Jesus says the short answer is to hold ourselves in a posture of love, to ask, regardless of the circumstances, “am I acting out of love?” Immersed In Love That sounds...
Read MoreStopping Injustice
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female...
Read MoreCreekside’s Summer At The Table
Jesus spent a lot of time sharing meals with people. So much so, in fact that he was called a glutton, a drunkard and a friend of sinners. I wonder how many of us are in danger of a similar charge because of our love and investment in people? The Bible calls us to hospitality, which it defines as the love of strangers — it’s a great thing to have good friends and family over to a meal, it is an even better thing to include people you don’t know so well. When I think of why meals were so important to Jesus and why they should be so important to us, a few things came to mind, things that shape...
Read MoreTrue Allegiance is a Posture Not A Pledge
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”[Jesus] got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid?...
Read MoreAll Things New
[Jesus] said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and...
Read MoreDiscovering The Forgotten God
[Jesus said], “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:25–27 When I say “Holy Spirit” you say “____________.” What word or phrase comes to mind? If someone asked you to describe God, what would you say? Is there a “person” of the Trinity that you would mention most? How about least? I’m...
Read MorePraying Jesus’ Prayer
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. John 17:11–12 In John 17, Jesus prays to his father as his earthly ministry comes to a close, as his assertion to the father comes ever closer. He prayer for and blesses his friends, his disciples, his Church...
Read MoreRejoicing and Mourning in Motherhood
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Romans 12:15–16 This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. At staff meeting this morning we wondered aloud how differently the Church would integrate special days such as mother’s day and father’s day if they did not occur on a Sunday. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day present challenges to pastoring a community that is diverse in their parental experience, from their family of origin to their present reality, hopes and dreams. At Creekside we seek to be real, not phony. By that we mean that we want to smash...
Read MoreA Fruitful Prayer Exercise
“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be...
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