Microchurch Minute
On Sunday we looked back on our year and followed up with Samuel’s story of raising an ebenezer, an altar in recognition of God’s faithfulness. It’s easy to fixate on the tragedies of your year, traditionally we look at the negatives from last year and make resolutions to fix/improve or save ourselves from them moving forward. But friends, we don’t have to live this way. We have a good Father in Heaven that has shown up for us time and time again, no matter the hurts we have faced in this fallen world. Because we trust that God is good, we can simultaneously mourn with our spiritual family while recognizing and celebrating what He is doing and has done in our lives.
What did God do for you this past year? I saw God bring new families into our church family. I saw spiritual growth in so many people. While we have cried and prayed with those that have received hard news, we have also seen favorable diagnosis and God’s hand in aligning His perfect timing in circumstances that we couldn’t have imagined otherwise.
Loving God and resting in His promises doesn’t guarantee an easy life, Jesus even told us that we would face trials in this life. However, when we choose to look back and reflect on God’s faithfulness, we raise our own ebenezers – in recognition of where we saw Him shine. I have seen God’s goodness too many times to not believe that He will do it again! I have seen His “not yet” turn into a delayed blessing that wouldn’t have made sense if He handed it over in my timing.
Brothers and sister, I encourage you to go before the Father in prayer and petition for the yearnings He has placed on your heart. But, before you do, build Him an altar of your own, out of the ebenezers – the real life examples of what He has done for you. When you remember what God has done in your life, it builds your faith into what you know He is capable of doing (spoiler: it’s everything, He can do it all). You will pray bold prayers. You will expect God to show up, like He’s done before.
We each took a stone and took time to write words on it that served to remind us of events from the past year that wouldn’t have been possible without God. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to keep it going, until I have a front yard rock garden full of reminders that God loves us.
Heavenly Father, I know the circumstances we face are not always perfect in our eyes. Yet I have seen You delay what I wanted so You could bless me in Your perfect timing. I have watched You move in the hearts of others to accomplish Your greater plan. God, I trust that Your ways are infinitely better than my own. As I place my confidence in the evidence of Your goodness, I will continue to build my altar—stone by stone—each one a reminder of where You have shown up before and a declaration of my faith that You will do it again.
Microchurch Minute
Who hasn’t struggled and felt torn between the earthly power of sin and the divine power of the Holy Spirit? While we may have always known that some things are outright bad… such as murder and theft, the more intimate details of our souls are revealed in the law. It is wrong to desire what your neighbor has. It is wrong to worship anything that is not God. These convictions strike us deeply when we align ourselves with Jesus. I don’t know about you, but even with a genuine desire to serve the Lord alone, I still find myself wrestling with the flesh far more than I wish. I don’t want to give in to sin, but the facade of worldly happiness has such a pull about it that it truly takes an act of calling upon the Holy Spirit inside of you to free you from those temptations. Paul uses the analogy of marriage to show that just as a woman cannot enter a new covenant while her husband still lives, we cannot fully enter into relationship with God until we put to death our former “marriage” to sin. Our freedom from sin was bought through the act of Jesus’ death on the cross. By our own doing, we cannot rise above the law, we are never free from it. But when we choose to lay down the chains that entrap us to the world, we are free to live under the presence of our Savior. The bible never promises us that walking in faith would be an easy journey. In fact, it turns the whole idea of “earning” holiness upside down. Instead, we see that we must only accept the grace and forgiveness that the Father has opened up to us, and we will be inspired to want to do good deeds because we have already been bought, forgiven and accepted.
Microchurch Minute
Isn’t it a beautiful reality that God’s grace supernaturally knocks out all traces of sin? We are given a divine position through our faith is Jesus Christ. When we follow the Word of God and the convictions of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we are aiming to walk a life worthy of the position that God’s grace has elevated us to. The forgiveness we receive through grace does not ever serve as a permission to sin freely license. On the contrary, grace provides a spiritual death and resurrection that unites us with Christ, who is incapable of sin. Tis is expressed through the act of baptism. We get to symbolize that we are dying to our old selves, the sinful descendants of Adam. But, just as God chose to resurrect Jesus Christ from the grave, we too are raised from the watery grave. By accepting His grace, we have broken the dominion that sin held over our lives. The old “me” is dead, and a dead man is no longer affected by lying, cheating or any other sins. Grace means freedom to willingly serve the Lord, not to sin against Him. The “new me” that has been born again in Jesus, now lives to bear fruit of the spirit wherever I go! As mere mortals, we will find ourselves surrendered to something. Shouldn’t it be to the will of God instead of allowing sin to reign as your master? Turn every part of you over to Him, to be used for His purpose and His glory. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say, we have all seen that acts of sin are not fulfilling or life giving, they only end in disaster. There is no gray area or confusion to be found here. Man may choose to serve sin, to which the wages are paid in death – or we are free to serve Christ, who rewards us with the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Choose wisely, your eternity depends on it.
Microchurch Minute
Justification is such a beautiful gift. Through Christ’s death on the cross, we have been given a closeness to God that completely erases our sin. It truly is an *ideal* father/child relationship that Jesus granted us. Because of this closeness and hope that we have in eternity, we are able to face troubles of this world with peace and keeping joy in our hearts. Without trials, we would never develop perseverance that leads to the confident hope we have in God’s promises to us. Think about it, if God sent Christ to die for you while you were still a sinner, completely unworthy, keeping God at arms’ length, how much more does He care for you now that you’ve opened your heart to receive Him?
We clearly see the contrast between sin entering the world (Adam) and the later gift of abundant grace (Jesus Christ). Through a single act of following his wife’s rebellion, Adam took on responsibility for all humanity and death entered the world. In contrast, through one giant act of self-sacrifice, Jesus brought the opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation to all of mankind. It is written, the penalty for sin is death, but when we believe in our Lord, we accept Christ as our substitute and that debt has been paid in full.
People often question “What if Adam had never sinned?” or “Why are we punished for what happened in Eden?” But, let’s think about it for a minute. If Adam had not sinned, he would have gone on to live in Eden – sure, that sounds great. But, because of the fallen world and Christ’s redeeming act of love, we are granted eternity in Heaven! We have received heir-ship in the family of our Creator. What great majesty we have to look forward to due to the redeeming act of Jesus. Fear not, spiritual family – we may live in a fallen world today, but our eternity is held in the almighty hands of the King of Kings.
Microchurch Minute
Romans 4 takes a deep dive into justification by faith. Our salvation is not something we can boast about, it’s not something that we earned. It’s a contrast to the logical nature of earning what we deserve. At the end of the pay period, we expect payment from our employer – we have earned it. But, God freely forgives us and offers us eternal relationship when we lay all of ourselves down at His feet. Paul confirms that Abraham believed God’s promises, he had this faith even before circumcision. God’s covenant with Abraham did not come through the law, it came directly from the grace of God. When we believe that God is the One that raised Jesus from the dead, the faith we have is credited just as it was to Abraham when he believed God would make him the father of many nations. In faith, we are descendants of Abraham. Do you realize that as you continue to read about the lineage of Abraham, you’re actually reading about your spiritual lineage? This directly applies to you! The divine blessing of adoption into the family of God means that we’re written into the story, descendants of the father of nations. What beautiful family legacy we’ve obtained in our justification. God allowed Jesus to be handed over to death, so that He could mightily display his ultimate power of death. We accept that. We believe that. Our faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead allows us to be justified and enter eternal relationship with the creator of the universe. God doesn’t give us what we earn or what we deserve. For that, I am so glad.
