HCLM BLOG

I had a couple good conversations over the last couple days.
I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of good conversations.
But today it was striking to me that good conversation could partly be the point.

Look at this,

How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

All the dew on the beard stuff is an ancient Israelite way of saying “really good.” This is an ancient hymn from the scriptures. I wanted you to look at it cause the point is that God bestows his blessing (life) when his people come together. That’s how I’m thinking of the good conversations I’ve had lately. When you’re paying attention, in good conversations with God’s people, he will drop the sorts of truths on you that open up life. It’s in those conversations that you’re reminded who you are, what you’re doing, who God is, and the sorts of things he does. If you haven’t been having those sorts of conversations, then come hang around my friends, cause I’m telling you oil is dripping on some beards around here.

If you were to go by the building right now you might not think we are going to be up and running here in two weeks.  There’s a lot to be done still!  But there’s also a lot being done behind the scenes in getting eqiupment, setting up deliveries, confirming appointments, etc.  God is making it happen!  It’s still going to be tight but I believe everything will come together, just at the right moment, not without a lot of help from you all hopefully!!  That’s just the way God works it out sometimes.

God knew from the start when our church would start…we just threw a dart on the calendar and said “Those dates look good!”  Well, there was a little more thought to it than that!  But if these truly are the dates that we will start ministering to the community, God knew that from the start and they have been anointed by Him.   It wasn’t just a dart he threw hoping it would hit a certain target. He has carefully planned and thought it out.  There is a reason why he has placed my family and an incredible group of people together at this specific moment in this specific place.

It reminds me of when Mordecai was talking to Esther, and he said to her ”Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time is this?”  What Mordecai was telling Esther, is that she was placed in a certain high position and a certain relationship to the King, and it was her, and only her, that could get the Jews out of a very difficult and life-threatening problem.  Her whole life and everything that had happened was being culminated so that at such a time as this she could do something incredible!

I feel God is telling us that today.  For such a time as this God has made you and put you with theCross east lake in some way so that together we can do something incredible in Lake County!  What do you believe God is calling you to do right now?  Who are you talking to right now inviting them to come and hear the love of Jesus?  How are you using the places and the relationships God has brought to you to benefit His kingdom?  These are questions we are all exploring together as we keep striving to be the people of God that He has created us to be!

This past week was rather difficult for me.  I felt overwhelmed one particular day with all the things that were on my plate.  At home, my youngest son Brady was sick and my wife Allison wasn’t feeling well either.  Being that she wasn’t feeling well I was up late at nights and, yes, early in the mornings with Brady.  Then I was thinking about work and all the stuff that still needed to be done for our church to open on time (or at least what we have always planned on).  The building isn’t ready to go yet, we still need a permit from the city, and approval on a couple of things from people that don’t feel the same pressure and deadlines that was weighing on me.  The pressure was on last week.  A lot to be done.  Time was running out.  Family wasn’t well.  Enough to make any man or woman go insane.  Let’s just say, “I was overwhelmed!”

Then, I thought about God and realized that all God calls us to do is to trust in Him. Then, I was reminded of 1 Peter 5:7 where Peter tells us to “Cast all our cares on Jesus because he cares for you.”  I think it’s in moments where we feel a lot of pressure or stress that a lot of us feel drawn to pray or to look outside of ourselves.  And I think that’s exactly the place where God wants us to be.  He wants us to do our best for him but if things are ever getting tough, to trust in Him and to be overwhelmed by His love and by His grace!

You can either choose to be overwhelmed by all of life’s pressures, or you can be overwhelmed by God’s love and grace.   Which one are you going to choose?

We talked about Peter this morning.
He was sort of the de facto leader of Jesus’ inner circle.
His story is encouraging for me…

a fisherman who will try almost anything, Peter left his job to follow Jesus. There were no obvious guarantees that would pan out, so that was probably a pretty big decision. Then he was always the one who would answer questions and found the nerve to walk on water. All in all I get the feeling he was a cool guy.

but his story really gets interesting toward the end of the Gospel story. Just after Jesus is arrested and taken to a trial, Peter is recorded as denying to a girl first and then a crowd that he even knew Jesus. He was either embarrassed of Jesus’ arrest, or afraid they would arrest him too or both. The guy who would try anything totally let Jesus down.

but the same thing that makes the story interesting is the thing that makes it encouraging because just after the resurrection Peter has the courage to preach. Not just a nice little sermon, he stand in front of thousands of Jewish believers at the temple in Jerusalem and announces to them that they killed the savior of the world. Wow. from afraid/embarrassed  in front of one girl to indicting a whole crowd of thousands.

I read that has the change the resurrection of Jesus can work in somebody.
Today, it’s encouraging to know the resurrection might work that sort of change in me.

Sunday we talked about
Jesus giving us the authority to forgive folks of their sins.
Not just big holy absolutions, forgiving can be simple:

“You know, you don’t have to let that define you.”
“Remember you don’t have to feel guilty anymore.”
“You don’t have to keep making that same decision.”

I’ve been thinking about that, and this one story came to mind.
Jesus forgave this guy his sins and the people were offended because only God could forgive sins and to presume to know God’s mind or speak for him was not cool.

So there are several reasons “theologically” why we are able to speak out what belongs solely in the perogitive of God but, the point for today is this: God trusts you.
He trusts you enough to lend weight and authority to the words you speak.
Jesus told his followers: whatever you forgive on earth it will be forgiven in heaven, and whatever you do not forgive will not be forgiven.

As I drove home yesterday I thought man, we are kind of a big deal.
Our words carry the weight of heaven!
Think about that as you sit at your desk and eat your lunch and watch t.v. today
You are an ambassador of the Kingdom of God that’s kind of a big deal, and your words carry weight.
So you have to make a decision…what will you say?

this morning,
this sentence came out of my mouth:
no emotion is wrong.
the more I think on that the more committed to it I get.
no emotion is wrong.

I am thinking about that famous list describing the life we have access to through Jesus. It starts with emotions: love, joy, peace. Then I remember that the one who lived and died for me came through every emotion: he scooped up little kids, he wept at death, he cried in stress, he acted in anger, he was moved by love, he spoke in frustration…

All of that comes because he was so present in each of his moments. He was with people, and felt as they did.
The more people I know, and the more I learn to be with them in life, the more emotions I feel.
This week just randomly ended up super-emotional: deaths, births, jobs, stresses, fears. But the cumulative affect of that is not draining, it makes me feel more alive.

So, what am I saying?
I’m saying we were meant to invest in people and projects and to feel everything that comes along with it. Good and Bad.
That’s where life happens.

the other day I shared some words that came to mind in the midst of prayer.
the words were super-encouraging at the time but looking back I kind of wondered why.
they sort of just said, suck it up and do it.

I was mentioning that to Stephan.
I said, “it was super encouraging but I don’t know why? why is suck it up and do it encouraging to me?”
He came back right on point. He said, “Cause God is calling out what’s in you, it like ‘pick up you mat and walk’”

He was talking about this story.

Jesus looks down at a paralyzed man and tells him, “Quit making excuses. Get up and walk.”
One cool thing about Jesus is that he’s not an overbearing leader.
I mean, he doesn’t do everything for folks.
Jesus will give you everything you need, then tell you to get up and do it.

He knew he’d given that paralyzed man what he needed to walk.
and Stephan was reminding me that Jesus had given me what I needed to do the work in front of me.
the “suck it up and do it” talk was encouraging because it meant, God knew I had what it takes.
hmm…

What can you suck it up and do?

 *You may have noticed that the hclm.org blog has been a little slow as of late.. Yeah, um, so did Holy Cross Member Bethany Sciortino. The cool thing is she actually volunteered to write a few posts for us. I hope you guys enjoy her writing as much as I do. -Chris Johnson

He is Risen Indeed – a reflection on Easter
An article by Bethany Sciortino

Like a lot of people, I spend a good portion of Easter Sunday devouring candy; my husband can attest to my borderline addiction to sugar. But, honestly, I never really understood the correlation of candy and rabbits to Easter. It is a German tradition that uses rabbits and eggs to symbolize reproduction and fertility – hardly age appropriate stuff for a child's Easter basket, right? But, I do have kids and the Easter bunny is cute and fluffy and I like to see my kids have fun, so I succumb to the marketing ploy of attaching a gimmick to a Christian holiday and I invite the Easter bunny into my home. Had I known he would show up at 5:30 in the morning I might have reconsidered, but I digress.

We went to church in the morning, and after a long day of ups and downs from sugar consumption and two Easter egg hunts, we wrangle the kids into their beds and unwind for the night. Nick, my husband, suggests that we watch The Passion of the Christ. It had been several years since I had seen it and Easter Sunday seemed to be the appropriate day to watch it again.

It reminded me of when I was a kid, and each Easter we would watch the movie, Jesus of Nazareth – you know, the 70's mini-series where Jesus had piercing blue eyes? Great movie. The Passion, however, is spoken in three different languages. I have never been partial to movies with subtitles, but somehow this film transcends the language barrier and I feel as though I am not reading, but feeling the dialogue. And, it doesn't take long before I am overwhelmed with sadness and crying like a baby.

Tears stream down my face as I watch the graphically brutal scene of Jesus being scourged. The incredible pain and torture that He endured, the suffering He experienced tends to put things into perspective pretty quickly. After the humility and the pain, He carries the very cross upon which He will be crucified, all while bleeding, being stoned and cursed. All at once I feel incredibly insignificant and terribly ungrateful. I am pretty much sobbing at this point; how stupid could I be? I think of all the complaining I have done recently – getting up all night with a newborn baby, nursing a leg injury, arguing with the kids, feeling the strain of finances.

That is my big cross to bear – blessings. I am incredibly blessed and here I am complaining. Thanks to cinematography, I watch this one man – Jesus – lay down his life willingly and endure the hatred of mankind so that I could be blessed – to hear the cry of a newborn baby, to have legs with which to walk, children whom I could love, and income to feed my family. My cross is dipped in gold; Jesus' was wrapped in torture.

I think everyone should watch this movie on Easter, because the truth is Easter has little to do with chocolate chickens and marshmallow eggs. The mystique of colored baskets and fluffy bunnies always wears off, but Jesus' love endures forever. We are celebrating Easter Sunday, and every day thereafter, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, following his death - the most brutal in history. Easter is about Jesus dying for me, for you, for fulfilling the prophecy that if we want God's forgiveness, all we have to do is ask. Easter is about knowing that no matter how heavy our own crosses feel, Jesus felt my pain first. He is with me – I am never alone.

Today we were talking about next steps and where we go from here now that Pastor Jon will soon be leaving…and it just makes me think, “Man, there’s a lot we got to take care of!”  Jon was in charge of a lot and did a lot of things around here so there are a lot of unknowns and a lot of blanks to fill in!  Just when you think you’ve got things figured out and you get into a rhythm, it seems like life takes a different turn!  Why does it seem like God never lets us just coast or settle for a while?  Why can’t we just enjoy a time of peace and normalcy?

I’m comforted during this specific time that we know that this is God’s church and not ours.  What we do certainly matters, but ultimately the growth and expansion of this church and accomplishing the vision of what we believe God is calling us to do is up to him.  That’s why our Vision2020 starts with this phrase, “God is equipping and empowering HCLM…”  We are not doing anything in and of ourselves…we are doing our best only to go where God is leading us.  

With Jon leaving, does that mean our vision changes?  No!  God has given us this vision and though how and through who we accomplish that vision may change a bit, our goals remain the same.  We believe God is still going to do great things throughout Central Florida and we want to be a part of that.  We want to be a part of 7 new congregations in 10 years.  We want to be a part of supporting those ministries with finances and resources and especially by promoting the teams in each one of them.  We want our school to succeed at a level it hasn’t seen yet.  The important thing to remember through change is recognizing that there is Someone who is greater than all of us who has it all figured out.  Romans 8:28 says that God works it all out for the good of those who love him.  He doesn’t tell us he’ll explain to us why it’s good or even that we’ll see the good in it.  He just promises that it’ll be good.  It comes down to a matter of trust.  Do you trust God in change?

Jon, we will miss you!  I personally wish I could have had more time to spend working with you, though I won’t miss all the obscure Michigan references.  And we know that God has great plans in store for Salem Lutheran Church in Orange County!

It has to be frustrating for true Seminole fans to see so many people hop on the bandwagon after the humiliating loss of the Gators on Saturday afternoon. And if anyone knows humiliating losses, it's a Michigan fan. What is it about human nature that we want to be associated with a winner? Where were all those flags, t-shirts and banners over the last several end of Bowden era years? I know...they were on the shelf at the store. So I'm with you true FSU fans. I hang my Michigan banner every week, even over the last few years when the winingest team in college football history had a losing season...and then another one...

I'm so glad that God isn't a fair weather fan. Could you imagine what life would be like if God only was for us when we were "winning?" It is rather humbling to know that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) We have a God who is for us...all the time. Granted, this is nothing incredibly profound...just a random thought...one of my many earthly examples of the profound love that Christ has for us.

Next blog will be thoughts on wrestling with God through the call process. That one may be intellectually a bit deeper. :-)