this is all i could ever want for christmas.
please pray that i can come home for christmas
(visa complications).
i need to be home.
with my family.
this is the third and final part of the banquet updates.
after the banquet on saturday night mandi, andrew, chris, and i ventured
to an amazing christmas light display after we picked up some
chai from remedy.
we finished the night off with miracle on 34th street
in the fort.
i couldn't ask for better friends here who make me feel
so at home and so apart of our little family.
[1. mad light display. 2. mandi, andrew, me, chris. 3. chris, mandi, me, andrew.
4. chris and andrew pulling mandi in a sleigh.]
It has been slow moving around here lately.
Since we have no Thanksgiving break this time of year we have
been engulfed by our lovely piles of homework.
I am guilty of not doing homework yesterday though...
Instead I watched this until one AM (mom, you would love it).
Our fort is still up, naturally.
Our tree is now up (and quite jolly).
The snow is here as it always is this time of year.
AND Christmas banquet is on saturday.
SO HERE'S TO HAPPINESS:
(ten things that make me terribly happy)
1. the thought of going home soon.
2. christmas lights.
3. christmas drinks at starbucks.
4. our little game of secret santa.
5. my stellar roommates.
6. great new promising friendships.
7. blanket fort.
8. candles that smell like cookies
and other yummy things
9. thrift store half off sales.
10. sweat pants.
So I tried really hard to put the video of my sermon on my blog.
Easier said than done.
So here is my manuscript. Enjoy.
God we thank You for this time where we can come and share our burdens with our peers. I thank You for placing a burden on my heart for unity within Your Body. I pray, Lord, that you would use me. I pray that you would touch my lips and speak through me. Let only your Word remain. Use me to reveal Your Truth and Your Heart. Amen.
When I began going to church as thirteen year old I was attracted to the worship. I had been to other churches before where the people sang along to a piano and read directly out of those dusty old hymnbooks. To me, a church with a band and cool lighting was the ultimate picture of what a church should look like. Clearly people were engaging with raised hands and shouting out to the Lord… nowhere else had I ever witnessed this. Soon I was convinced that the only way to worship was the way that MY church did.
I began to look down on other churches that stuck to the more traditional ways of worship. I am sure everyone can relate to this story whether it be with worship or with aspects of conduct in the church. At some point or another we have all been convinced that the ways we have been apart of are the ONLY ways to do things.
In many cases we are called to put aside our pride to truly create what the Church is lacking in this day and age: UNITY. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus regarding unity in Ephesians 4:1-5:
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely HUMBLE and GENTLE; be patient, bearing with one another in LOVE. Make every effort to keep the UNITY of the Spirit through the bond of PEACE. There is ONE BODY and one Spirit, just as you were called to ONE hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Clearly God’s heart can be seen through Paul’s writings, God’s desire for unity has not changed and is still relevant in the Church today.
Recently I was driving in the car with some friends when a discussion broke out about the importance of tounges in a person’s Christian walk. Needless to say, one of my friends had been raised Pentecostal and the other had not. The discussion soon escalated into a heated argument. I could not help but think of what was happening on larger scale. WE, as Christians are so fixated on our differences that we cannot put them aside EVEN for the sake of the Gospel. Each of us, myself included, have at one time or another suffered from a superiority complex no matter what denomination we are from. This just comes from how we were raised or what we were taught. Can I just ask you to be idealistic with me for a moment? Imagine what the Church, as a whole, could do if we could stop fighting about our differences and banded together in the name of Jesus. Being united as a Body by Christ for the purpose of gaining people for his kingdom is far greater than our view on tounges or take on how to worship.
When I was in Vancouver this year doing urban ministry we took a night and drove up the side of a mountain to pray over the city. Looking out over the beautiful lights of a place my heart had grown so fond of God placed a burden on my heart. I began to think of all the organizations trying to fight homelessness and poverty on the Downtown East Side. Now, I have no perfect model for how to solve the problems on the DTES—PA has made that VERY clear to me. But I cannot help but think about what a difference unity would make within the organizations. In this way God placed unity within the Church on my heart. Up on that mountain in Vancouver I began to weep with the picture of a Church united for the ultimate goal.
The Bible states in James 1:27:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as PURE and FAULTLESS is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Generally, I see that the Church is missing this point. There are widows and orphans at hand. There are lost people DYING every day, in our own families, and all we can do is make reform jokes or bash Anglicans. Do we not understand that we are in a WAR? That this distraction of division within the Body is directly from the Enemy?
In John 17:20-23 Jesus prays in His last hours for HIS people to be unified. Can I just stop and say that again? Jesus spent the LAST HOURS OF HIS LIFE praying for His Body to be unified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. [He says] I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be ONE as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNITY. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Jesus says that the world will know God sent Him and that He loves US through our UNITY. Unified WE are the BRIDE of Christ. “Now friends love me on this one…” God is not a polygamist! Jesus is not coming back for a Baptist bride and a Pentecostal bride and a Reform bride. He is coming back for ONE bride. The bride UNIFIED under His name, THE CHURCH. Now being unified doesn’t mean we have to deny the differences that God created us with, the Bible is clear that we all contribute uniquely to the Body. But our differences should not define us to the point that the Church becomes divided. We should be DEFINED by our belief in Christ.
Despite our interpretations of His Word, look to Christ’s character. Look to who HE was. If we return to the HEART of the Gospel we see that Christ was a man of love. His patience and kindness exuded from his every action. And so we should imitate HIM. Not only to the lost and broken of this World but to each other, to other congregations despite our differences. Because ultimately we are not a bunch of Churches scattered throughout the world. We are congregations—all belonging to one Body and one Church. The Body of Christ. We are all fighting the same battle. So lets push back darkness together.
Someone asked me once “if Jesus came to earth right now and saw what His Church had become do you think he would be happy? I cannot help but think that he would weep, He would weep because of what the Church has become. People that were meant to be united by His name to spread HIS love. Divided by nothing other that different interpretations of the instructions GOD gave us. I believe that all God wants from us is for us to fix our eyes on Him and focus on the mission that He left us… Paul ends chapter 4 in Ephesians with the statement:
“…speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the MATURE BODY of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the WHOLE BOY, JOINED and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Can I please just read a part of that to you again?
“…speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the MATURE BODY of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
UNIFIED we can be His Body; what an honor that is, to be the hands and feet of our Savior.
So how do we begin this movement of unity within the Body of Christ? Perhaps ridding ourselves of pride and building others up in Christ. I do not have all the answers of how this matter can be solved but I think that being conscious of the problem is the first step. Even though I do not know specific ways to fix things, I believe that God can do anything… And that He listens to our prayers. And that UNITY is one of the closest things to His heart… Let us focus on the war at hand and not on the differences we hold.
Just imagine with me for second, a world where the church was one… Where we were united by the love that God has given us to share. No one can love like the Church loves because we are connected to the Creator of love. Our goal as a Body… united as ONE… is to love God, love people, and push back darkness… Together.
Let’s pray:
God we thank You for this time we could come together and examine Your beautiful heart. I thank You that you reveal Yourself to us. Let us do Your work faithfully upon this earth. Let us fix our eyes on You and You alone. Teach us to be unified for a common goal, for YOUR common goal. We love you Lord with every breath. Amen.
Tonight we attempted building a man of snow.
The snow was not sticky enough so we
watched Home Alone instead.
We drank lovely hot chocolate with mint tea bags
(seriously try it, genius invention by Andrew).
After the movie fun we came back to my place to set up
and decorate our Christmas tree.
Nathan, Andrew, Marissa, Mandi and I
had so much fun decorating our house and THE FORT
for Christmas.
It just looks lovely.
I can't wait to be with my family for Christmas.
I feel so blessed to be surrounded here
with such loving friends, but alas,
there is no place like home.
We were in the fort...
Andrew, Marissa, and I.
...and then our imaginations began to soar.
we are in a hut over seas.
it is raining, thundering, and wind chiming.
a storm.
we are nestled in the safety of our shelter.
in the morning we hear
birds, bon-fires, and andrew playing the drums.
it is hot and humid because we are in a tropical
place and it rained all night.
the rain starts again.
the birds stop chirping and retreat.
night comes again and with it crickets
chirping, rain falling, and thunder crashing.
still we are safe.
As we talk this scenario out I realize how special all of our hearts
are. The fact that most of us would say we rather be in a hut
in some third world country than anywhere else...
God is so amazing. He creates us for our callings.
He creates people who desire to have nothing just for a chance to spread
His message. I am truly thankful God has
called me to this life.
A life of having nothing that the world holds as dear so
I may better win people for Him.
Yesterday Mandi and I built an amazing blanket fort.
Today, with the help of some boy-expert-fort-builders we expanded.
We spent hours in the fort today.
In the fort it feels like we are in a magical land.
It feels like we are surrounded by the forest
and there are fairies and woodland creatures frolicking about.
In the fort, if one blanket were to fall, we would see the vast sky
with millions of stars.
In the fort we are comfy and cozy with our blankets and pillows
hibernating for the winter.
In the fort we are content.
There is no place we would rather be.
