SERIES THEME: “MYSTERY”
How can we understand God? Who can know the mind of God? Mystics and religious practitioners through the years have proclaimed a knowledge of the workings of God. Books are written announcing the means to understand the ‘secret’ of the universe. There is only one way to know the ways of God, and that is to experience them as they are revealed to us in Jesus Christ, and brought to life within us through the Holy Spirit.
- “My Story”
So many people are trying to figure out life. They’re convinced there is some secret knowledge, some ancient wisdom, some new technology that will help them make sense of life. And they seek and search for the answers. The power for living is no secret – it is, however, a mystery. And as each of us comes to know the mystery of God in Jesus Christ, that mystery becomes My Story.
- “Invitation”
Throughout the Scriptures, God proclaims Himself as the One Who is. And we keep asking ‘how?’ We want to figure it all out, and understand how everything works. In fact, just about all our anxieties in life and all our sleepless nights revolved around ‘how.’ How will we pay the bills? How will we get over this illness? How will this relationship work out? And God never answers our ‘hows.’ He simply proclaims Himself as the Who. And when we come to Him, and surrender to Him as the One Who is, every how becomes irrelevant.
- “Integration”
In the account of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush, God responded to Moses’ question about His name by saying, “Yahweh.” I am. And as those who are create in His image, we are able to answer the same question in the same way. We are. I am. In life, however, we learn to attach labels to our identity, and we are thereby reduced. We are fat, nice, Lutheran, Brazilian, old. And the labels become the way we think of ourselves. We are more than our labels. Redeemed as the children of God, we simply are. And there is something fundamentally liberating about being able to shed all the labels and step into our essential identity.
- “Inspiration”
We are often dry, going about the business of our living with little joy or enthusiasm. We fall into routines, and do the same thing over and over, with little thought or purpose. Life becomes mundane. It is not meant to be that way. We are meant to live powerfully and joyfully as the children of God, with every action a joyous celebration of Whose we are. Impossible? Perhaps for us, but not when the Spirit breathes. The Spirit breathes into us and turns the dry bones of our living into a dancing celebration.
- “Intention”
Faith. We use the word all the time. But sometimes we don’t understand its power. There is a difference between belief and faith. Belief is the knowledge that God can act in a certain way. Faith steps out as if God has already acted. Often, we ask God to act and then sit around waiting to see if He will. We believe He will – at least we say we do. Faith acts as if God has already accomplished what He said He would. Are there miracles we’re waiting for God to do in our lives? Faith lives as if they’re already done.
- “Investment”
Most people want a big return on a minimum investment. Most people want to put a little in and take a lot out. Unfortunately, they take the same approach to life as they do their finances. They put little into anything, and wonder why there’s no return. Jesus told a parable about a man who sold everything he had to purchase a field in which treasure was buried. That’s the investment we are called to make – everything – whole-hearted. And the return? Beyond what we could imagine.
- “Initiation”
The big Mo. it’s called momentum, and it’s one of the greatest forces known to us. Momentum carries us along when we are almost worn out. And sometimes, momentum begins with one small step, one small task, one small risk, one small endeavor. Why is it people settle for so much less than they were created for? Of course, it’s fear. They’re paralyzed, and do nothing. When all it sometimes takes is one small step of faith.
- “Inversion”
Turn the other cheek? Right. That’s not the way the world works. Hurt me and I will hurt you. Except two wrongs make nothing right. In this life we experience our share of sufferings and hardship. In fact, as disciples of Jesus we can expect suffering and hardship. But, in Jesus, the suffering and hardship serves a purpose, and the negative carries within it the seeds of the positive, and the minus becomes a plus.
