Love God Love One Another

Loving, Celebrating, and Sharing: these are universal human experiences found across the globe. These actions describe broadly the elements of worship…and everyone worships something! What is the focus of my worship? Career, family, money, recreation? Worship is our best shot at experiencing the joy that God wired us to have. Our entire life is meant for loving, celebrating, and sharing what God is actively doing in, through, and with us. This includes all our brokenness, too. Living a life honoring to God is an act of worship.

The church is a strange herd. We need each other as we do life together. As we discover what it means to reach out, connect, and get involved, we learn to look beyond our immediate walls to touch the needs of others. Community doesn’t happen overnight, but this is a place where we come alongside each other in all circumstances. As we have all been loved, cared for, and accepted by God; it is our mission to move God’s love into the world community.

In our cars and on our phones we take advice from the GPS voice as we navigate our way to destination. God provides a trustworthy GPS for the soul…accurate directions for life and recalculated instructions for our mistaken turns. God’s Word is trustworthy. To maximize the GPS for your soul, give God access to your current location; keep a strong signal of prayer; declare your destination; avoid traffic and tolls (already paid for by Jesus on the cross); and save the route for reuse. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:6)

What does it take to forgive someone else? Forgiveness is not mindless detachment, focusing on a positive future, or a power play over others. Forgiveness is an act of pure grace fueled solely by the Holy Spirit—seeking to move beyond the hurt, anger, betrayal, and sin with the ultimate goal of restoring the relationship, as much as is possible.

Life is tough, even when its good. Forgiveness is one of those tough things. Being forgiven is especially difficult to embrace when we are broken. When we do things that hurt ourselves or others, how difficult is it for us to let ourselves rest in God’s promise. “If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins.” (1 John 1:9) Let’s pray that we break through the tough to be released for new life and community under the cross of Jesus. “Create in me a pure heart, oh God…Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51)

How do I know God loves me? “In this…the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:10) It is God’s first activity that models love without condition and it is also God’s forward promise to give us what we need. To know it is to share it. Let us love one another, for love comes from God.

We can’t live without air…and we can’t live without the Spirit of God. Invisible, powerful, mysterious, life giving—God’s provision is an eternal promise of presence. The promise is not based on who we are, but wholly on who God is. To be fully and completely alive is to be filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ. I am alive! Our response is not just to go to church, but boldly BE the church into the world.

The power of vision grows from God’s transformative grace. Grace changes us from the inside out. It is an opportunity to bask in the love and presence of Jesus Christ from which we can see far beyond our own life’s horizon. As the Samaritan women once learned, and as we, even today, now learn…grace is living water for a thirsty soul. Grace is life giving; it changes everything!

What message does God give us at times of goodbye? As I prepare to say goodbye to Messiah this weekend, I've wondered what does it mean to show hospitality in goodbye? Messiah has taught me so much about hospitality, kindness and joy—and as I began my call here I had such a sense of the direction of the Holy Spirit. Now that the Spirit has sent us on divergent paths, how does Jesus remind us of a future filled with hope?

Happy Mother’s Day! This may be a phrase of joy, happiness, sadness, or regret depending on your life’s circumstances. We are all in life together and we are here for each other. God serves as our pacesetter for love. We share the responsibility to receive and pass along the baton. Who’s life do I influence? And what do I want for them? May I be one to give authenticity, grace, love, and faith.

How does Easter change our church? Easter reminds us that the church is meant to look forward, into the future, with the hope and promise of new life. Sometimes people in the church wonder: who will lead when I am gone? Where is the next generation? This week at Messiah, we know the answer, as we celebrate 23 students completing Confirmation. Today— through their Faith Statements—our confirmation students will help preach the message, and remind us how Easter, and the hope our students bring, can change Messiah.

Ever since Easter this year, my 4-year-old son Jacob has been asking: when will the Easter bunny come back? He's already forgotten the gifts of this Easter and is looking to the next. Do you feel this way about Easter already? The eggs and candy are over and now it's time for what's next? If so ... take a moment to dwell in Easter the next two weeks. Easter changes us - moves us from despair to hope. And that change changes our relationships, too. Learn this week what Jesus' resurrection means for your relationships: with God and with one another, with a close study of Jesus' words to his disciples in John 15.

Not just a one-time event or annual celebration, Easter continues…and, yet, do we see it this week just like last week? In truth, we notice what we look for. Our Road from Emmaus beckons, will we see Jesus on our walk? Jesus walks on…ready to bring peace and lead us out. Let’s lift our eyes above ourselves to see Jesus ahead and to also see others on the road.

Bob Mooney | Easter comes this year at a time that might not be aligned with great joy in our personal lives. And yet the message of Easter is perfectly timed and quite simple. God loves you. God gives you grace. God calls you by name. God tells you, today, that in this sometimes messy world you will never be alone!

Angela Denker | This Easter season, we've been talking about how to experience God. But you may come to church with the same question Jesus' disciples asked as they ran to his tomb. Where is God? Where is Jesus? In the face of violence and fear, today Easter reminds us that God is HERE. And that the Great I AM means something for every one of us. The Great I AM means YOU ARE. Jesus means you matter, and God is here - in the success and defeats of our lives.

It will be a crazy week as we travel with Jesus from triumphant celebration on Sunday to the darkness of human despair that comes by crucifixion on Friday. As we ponder the transformation, we become aware of Jesus’ hands: rugged, still sensitive; powerful, yet yielding; totally wrecked, and ultimately restored. Looking at our own hands, what are the stories of compassion that others will see in the evidence left by our fingerprints of action?

Lenten testimonial of Carlo Bell

Joseph had every reason to want nothing to do with his brothers. They had hated him, were jealous of him, betrayed him, sold him into slavery and left him for dead. Yet Joseph does three things to create the potential for not only forgiveness but for the possibility of reconciliation. First Joseph avoids sitting in God's chair and does not pass judgement on his brothers, he takes a view from God's perspective, and he responds to his mistreatment not only with forgiveness but with practical affection for his brothers who had harmed him.

Lenten testimonial by Lynne Kiernan

Faced with betrayals we begin to doubt God’s presence, grace, and love. Why doesn’t God take this pain away from me? Betrayal takes many forms between people…deep disappointment can feel devastating. Who, God, can know my situation? Feeling betrayed and denied, Jesus still demonstrated his love for Judas (and for me). “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13). Choosing humility, forgiveness, service, and release are the fundamentals of Experiencing God in the face of betrayal.