Living On Mission

I’ve been reading through Deuteronomy. It is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It has so much promise for Israel’s future. If they are obedient to the vision and plan of God, they will take possession of the land. It is something they can not do on their own. The enemy is stronger and has fortified themselves with walls. Last fall we celebrated forty years for our church and prophetically declared we had passed “through the Jordan.” That was not the crossing of the finish line, it was the beginning of the mission. In the Quad Cities we are facing a Jericho situation. The land we want to claim for God’s people is strongly opposed to what we believe. Our region is the 15th post-Christian community in the United States. Most of the population has moved on from Christianity, been influenced by progressive institutions, and has little interest in religion. There are huge walls that have been built up by secularism, pluralism, and bad experiences with people mishandling the name of Jesu...

  I am sure you have heard the expression, "Go the extra mile."  It is actually a biblical principle.  It comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where he was teaching about how to successfully love an enemy.  In Matthew 5:41 he says, "And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."  To fully understand this you have to know a little bit about the context Jesus was living in.  The Jewish people in the first century A.D. were under Roman occupation.  The Romans were pretty lax on the people they governed, as long as they paid their taxes and did what they were told they were given a lot of freedom in how they managed their own affairs.  One of the stipulations, though, was that a Roman soldier could consign any Jewish person to carry their armor for them up to one mile, no questions asked.  Jesus used this common source of frustration and bitterness to make a point - go above and beyond for others, even your enemies. If we are t...

Be Encouraged by this LIVING ON MISSION story: I was cleaning our lunch area at work because I work with slobs lol and we are trying to find a reliable day porter. A guy we hired a few months ago greets me and we started chatted about weekend plans. I told home about church and our Super Bowl party on Sunday. He asked what church I went to and told me he recently went back to church. He shared that he grew up Catholic but turned away from the church when he grew up he shared that he currently going to a large church and I let him know that that was a nice church and that I used to go there. I explained that I drifted away because it was so large that I had no accountability and had a hard time building relationships. I told him how awesome and diverse our church is and how I’ve gotten a second family from attending.  He then asked me if I read the Bible and I was like sure do! We talked about how to read and the best place to start. I told him about the app and how cool it is to be...