I have a confession to make. Both Jonathan and I are worn out from the Spiritual Growth campaign. We confessed this to one another in our most recent meeting. The book is, well, thick and heady – it’s not the most enjoyable or engaging literary work. There are certainly good lessons that I’ve taken from the material though, such as the more-horizontal relationship between heaven and earth, and the proclamation that the transformative power of the Spirit is present for this life rather than pushing it off to the next. And then, there’s the repeated emphasis on the Exodus. And I mean, REPEATED. Fair enough, since the Exodus was in fact the primary faith formation event for the Israelite
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 NIV On Wednesday evenings, our kids have been learning about the Fruit of the Spirit. And guess what we’re up to? PATIENCE. And guess what my devotions were about today? PATIENCE! Boy, it’s like God is trying to get me to pay attention or something. It can be so hard, in our instant-gratification-purchase-but-wait-10-to-30-business-days-for-a-refund-society to deal with something as simple as patience. There’s simply too much to do, and not enough time to do it in! We need to do all the things AND be ready for anything AND deal with the realities of what actually happens at all times! But is any of that rea
Over the past few weeks MPCYouth has been talking about how every person is wired for connection. We are wired to be connected to three things: 1) God 2) Ourselves 3) Others. This idea is based off of Matthew 22:37-39 which states, “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” We can obviously see that Christ called us to be connected with God first and foremost. In youth group we talked about how it can often be hard to connect with God because He can seem distant. However, if we look around ourselves, whether it be in natu