“Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin in departing from him, for i can never in this life perfectly obey and cleave to Christ.”
Valley of Vision is a series of blog post that will contain quotes from the book Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions
Between Thursday and Friday each week I have multiple meetings focused on how the Gospel needs to change us as individuals and a body. Saturday and Sunday evenings I am faced with challenging messages (like this one) from Josh. Sunday mornings I meet with my Fight Club- me and two other guys who will (lovingly, not literally) punch me in throat if I don’t deal with my sin issues. Mondays, my small group meets where we attempt to build up and challenge each other, and Tuesday mornings I meet with a group of godly guys for prayer and encouragement.
I hate it
The sinful, prideful, arrogant Jakob doesn’t want any of this. Deep down, my flesh hates it: “Community? Really? Why on earth would you want others involved in your life? You can and should do this on your own! Why let others challenge you when you are doing just fine!?”
I don’t want to be part of Gospel-centered communities because they hold me accountable for my sins and encourage me to grow. They challenge my heart. They force me to look at myself and my actions and compare them to God instead of others. They speak the call of Gospel into the life that I so want to be in control of.
I need it
But I cannot imagine being away from any of it! I sometimes wonder what my life would be apart from these people, the Church, God…
What would it be like if I dropped the Fight Club? If we ended our small group? If I quit Atmosphere? Nothing. Nothing good anyway. Pastor Cousineau talked about that in a recent sermon- if I stop moving forward I begin moving backwards. That is why I need my small group, Fight Club, and everything else: they hold me accountable for my sins and encourage me to grow. They challenge my heart. They force me to look at myself and my actions and compare them to God instead of others. They speak the call and the comfort of Gospel into the life that I so want to be in control of.
Being part of the body of Christ is vital to staying connected to the head.
We showed this clip at Atmosphere Park Ave. this past weekend. We hope that you can take the goal of Atmosphere and run with it into the community that you have been called to.
This might help us better understand what our role in the lives of others is:
“We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.” (Francis Chan- Crazy Love, p.25)
Is that what the Bible calls for? No, look at what James says about our communication with one another:
“…let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1.19-20)
Our Conduct
Look again at how you use your social media accounts. Are you bitter? Angry? Do you show the love of Christ even when you aren’t near other people? Christ called us to lives that are worthy of His calling (Luke 14.27; Eph. 4.1-3) are you living that?
Real Friends
So if we are supposed to live lives worthy of the calling of Christ, why don’t we? Do you think you don’t have time to show love? Are you too busy? Do you care? Here are some ways to show that love of Christ and live according to the calling:
Are there other ways to live lives worthy of the calling even while you’re on-line?
Because friendship’s intent is to be more than just the list of names on a social networking site, a tangible view of friendship should destroy any semblance of a false communal identity. So let’s remove this idea of friendship being a fad. Lets show the world that our friendships are gifts in Christ and the community He grants us has a purpose. But what is the purpose? What can friendship mean apart from people with similar goals and interests?
True friends stab you in the front
…according to a popular rock band.
Now this isn’t to say that we should all walk around with switchblades waiting to shank our buddies when they beat us at Halo. What this displays is vastly more important.
Friendship should echo Christ’s love through classmates and be sung among co-workers. It is a voice that encourages, a hand that defends, and a judgment that corrects. It is the wall between us and our next fix.
Paul describes the Church, the ultimate community of friends, in 1 Corinthians 12 as a harmony synonymous with our own body, with eyes seeing and ears hearing, legs running and arms grasping. Friendship means that we should live for others as Christ died for us. True friendship = True community
The word friend seems to mindlessly categorize the multitudes of people in our lives today. We have friends on facebook, at work and at school. These friends sometimes aren’t even people that we have met; we’re simply their friend because we sat near them at Starbucks once.
We get this elusive term from the Germanic word freond which means ‘to love’. We sometimes also translate phileo (a Greek term meaning love) into our friend.
How many people on your “friend lists” could you say that you love? I know you think you love them all, but look at what Jesus says about loving our friends, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay his life down for his friends” (John 15.13) fortunately for us, this was displayed perfectly through Christ’s death and not our own. But we cannot let the idea of a greater love simply end with Christ‘s death.
Building Relationships
So what do we do for and with those that we love? We hang out, go to the movies, visit them at the hospital, listen to them, and even cry with them. Of my 425 friends on facebook, I can only think about 20 or so of them that have actually experienced those things with me; I am only a true friend to less than 5% of the people on that list! That’s a far cry from considering them a friend in the context that Christ laid forth for us.
How are you doing treating your virtual friends, as real friends? What steps can you take to build a deeper and more Christ like friendship with them?
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…until it’s on facebook.
I’ve heard this many times, especially when I began dating Emmalie last fall.
Driving home from school one day, I remembered that phrase and began to wonder about its veracity. Think about it: if our “relationship status” changed on-line but we never acted like a couple in person, would we be liars? If we acted like we were dating when we were around each other, but never changed that status, would people believe us?
Religious Views
Are you a “Christian” on facebook? What do you mean by that? If I proclaim that I believe in Christ, but never change my facebook status to reflect that belief, would you think less of me or call me an unbeliever?
We must be the same in real life as on-line. Are you? Does your blog, twitter, facebook, or myspace profess your belief in Christ while you daily neglect Him? Or are you professing belief daily in person but putting on a rude, judgmental, and “less than Christian” face on-line?
This shouldn’t be
We who profess belief in Christ must show it with what we do. We live in a social media oriented age, and since everyone can always see what we’re doing, we need to be intentional with our internet lives.
So if you blog, blog for Jesus; don’t waste our time with mindless ramblings; edify the body.
If you tweet, use your tweets for the glory of Christ. Proclaiming the Gospel is more important than telling us when you’re taking a shower.
If you’re on facebook or myspace: “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5.22)- don’t make it look like you aren’t in Christ.
Revisiting
If you’re a ”Christian” on-line but you never act like it in person you’re a hypocrite. If you act like a believer in person, but never show it by reforming your use of social media, should I believe you?
Most of you know I spend a good amount of time at Starbucks. For me there is more to it then just coffee (here’s why). Recently I was part of a conversation with someone who was saying how they wished when they walked into Starbucks the barista knew who he was. This made me think of the old show cheers, which most of you have never seen – so here is the intro:
In the theme song it says Where everybody knows your name, where the troubles are all the same. Does this describe Atmosphere? When you come are you excited because you know you are going to a place where community is active and intentional? Most of us walk in and walk out, the whole time being alone.
Now I know many of you might not like Starbucks, but isn’t this what we want to have in church? Now I’m not saying we want our church to be like Starbucks, but don’t you want and need a place where when you walk in everybody knows your name. Shouldn’t we want to be a community of believers who know each other and care for each other. Shouldn’t Starbucks look at the church for true community and not the other way around.
Many days you will find me sitting in Starbucks, Bible open, Computer open, or book in my hands working away on plans, sermons, blogs, and reading. Those who know me well know that I don’t do much in my life without thinking through it. I have a reason for just about everything I do. With that said I spend time at Starbucks for many reasons. Here’s why:
Missional Living – As a pastor I don’t see many people who either are not Christians or are not being drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit. So, basically, I usually don’t interact with people who are in desperate need of the Gospel. But, the people at Starbucks don’t have a clue about who Jesus is.
Intentional Relationships – Now I’m not attempting to romanticize me drinking coffee at Starbuck but I truly feel that Jesus if He was on earth today would not spend all His time in an office alone, He would be out and among the people.
Input – I have different opportunities to speak into the lives of many people just by being here.
Contextualization – I have a chance to hear what people are talking about, what people are going through, their struggles, joys, hardships, concerns etc…
Why do you do what you do? Are you living with intentionality, or just going with the flow?
This is a post my wife did over at her blog about how she is feeling this Christmas, I likewise share these feelings and wanted to share them with you here at our Blog. May this post be an encouragement to your soul and a challenege to your heart.
Love ya More then ya Know!
There are 18.3 million children in this world living without a mom & dad… Jason Kovacs Blog
This year has been really fun preparing for Christmas with Braden. He now can understand why we celebrate Christmas, & all that is going on. I’m so excited for tomorrow morning with the boys. For them to open up their stockings & presents, spend time with family, make Jesus a birthday cake 
, but I’m also feeling some mixed emotions as well. What are our 2 little princesses going to be doing tomorrow? As they prepare for bed soon, do they even know it’s Christmas? Do they even know tomorrow is a special day? Will they have someone to give them hugs & kisses & tell them Merry Christmas? It kills me to think what situation they’ll be living while their brothers are here happy, being loved, & spending time with family. What’s even harder is to think about the rest of the millions of orphans that don’t even have a family waiting & praying for them. They have no one to cry to, be loved by, to call Mommy & Daddy. I have so much anger towards what these children have to endure. The only hope I have is to know that the hatred Satan has towards these vulnerable children started with one Child. The Child that has given us the ultimate gift of eternal life & the Child that will soon come back to save these children & be their ultimate Father. The hope I have is that my Savior will stand beside those children to endure everything they are enduring, & in the end will devour the one that is causing all their pain.
God gave us the ultimate gift on Christmas….His Son. His Son who came to our sinful world to pay the ultimate price so that we may become His adopted sisters/brothers. Because of what Christ did, we are now adopted into His family. Why are there so many orphans waiting for a home? God sent His Son to be beaten, tortured, & bruised so He could adopt us into His family, when all we need to do is set up a spare bed in one of our many spare bedrooms, trust in Him to provide, yes, quite a bit of money, to adopt a child into our family? A child that will wake up tomorrow morning, with no one to celebrate Christmas with. A child that has absolutely no one in this world to care & love them.
I know I’m so anxious for next year. To throw on some purple Christmas pj’s along with our blue ones. To have dolls waiting under the tree along with all the cars, planes, & trains, & most of all to love on those little girls & give them a family to celebrate Christmas with for the 1st time in their little lives with their brothers. What will you be doing next year for Christmas? Filling your spare rooms with TONS of presents or filling it with a child that knew no family until you decided to give them a home?
Just something to think about…. I get this response a lot…. “We could never adopt. It’s too expensive.” Remember what the creator of the universe gave up 2000 years ago so that we could be adopted into His family. May this Christmas be one where we give thanks for our adoption and maybe, just maybe take a moment and think about what we can do for the “Christmasless” orphans of this world.
!!!Merry Christmas!!!
Photo by: Seriously_Crawf
