A Ready Action

 . . . the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
and self-control.
There is no law (Jewish Law) against such things.

. . .

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in nor steal,  for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is unclear, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

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Not that I have already attained or have already been perfected, but I follow after it so that I may lay hold of that for which I was seized by Christ Jesus. 

I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 

I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

We talk about this sense of reclaiming the Christ of Christianity and reclaiming this sense of liberty, this sense of setting ourselves free from toxic theology that has so often bound so many people up, setting ourselves free.

And last Sunday we invited you to set yourself free by leaving behind the things that perhaps you've carried for far too long that continue to trip you up along the way; allow them to be set aside, so that true liberty might come to your house, trhis house, and all God's people - a sense of liberation.

No matter where you are on life's journey, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE.

We know that as we look around our congregation this morning, even the people that you are sat next to and rubbing shoulders with, the theology of each other may be different than your own, but we dont' insist on a standard inclusion, on a standard way of seeing Jesus. We encourage you to be thinkers. We invite you to not check your brains at the door, but rather to bring them in and to find what God might do with ALL of us.

It is that sense of radical inclusion that reminds me that I don't see the fullness of that face of God until everyone is included at God's table, but that we only see a glimpse until we are ready to welcome the stranger, to welcome those who think different, and might believe different.

Our Hope is built on something more than what the world has to offer.

Our hope is built on a Good News, on a God who has lifted us up, who has been with us on our journey, struggled with us in our times of oppression and liberation, and has called us for such a time as this.

This is a church of hope - a church in this world in this day that, believe me, needs some hope.

That is a cool thing our Senior Pastor shared.

PROGRAM LISTINGS & PROGRAM SCHEDULES

An Extraordinary Adventure

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We are, by nature of being present, connected to whatever surrounds us (our environment) and, by virtue of dynamic existence, re-shaping an ever-widening universe (our influence). The vibrancy and vitality of this experience is not-so-mysteriously a curious function of the ties we bind and those we break. Values!

Welcome to phenomenal life-thriving strategies delivered from the lean side of the mountain and embraced by many on this wondrous journey of life and learning - the continuation of our Extraordinary Adventure series.

"How do we cultivate young people who have the idealism, and the ambition, and the drive, and the passion to start their own journey to bring about meaningful and positive social change?"

You are altogether beautiful, my love;
    there is no flaw in you.

King Solomon

The clearer we are about our desired end result,
the SMARTER our current ACTIONS are likely to be.

"I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, that one will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.   The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Jesus, Son of Man, Prince of Glory, Redeemer.

Who made the mountains? Who made the trees? Who made the rivers flow to the sea? Who sends the rain when the earth is dry? Who made the flowers to bloom in the spring? Who made the song for the robins to sing? Who hung the moon in the starry sky? Yes, all that and way much more! Our mind. Our body. Our spirit. Our soul.

Never let anyone put limits on what you can do! Don't allow it!

Phenomenal Life Strategies

Life Strategy # 9: "Build Your Dream Team"

Phenomenal life-affirming, life-thriving, life-uplifting strategies are being delivered by Our Lord Jesus on the lean side of the mountain. It's a new life.

Action Plan: Build a collaborative team with the breadth, depth and heft suitable to achieve your collective goal. Jesus had a team. "Hand wash hand mek hand come clean." Jesus gets personal with me again, whispering how to optimize limited resources in a way that increases value and maximizes productivity. (What about you?) How do you use limited resources to achieve desired goals?

Rejoice! Be Glad!
We are accompanied.
Many have gone before us.

Welcome to my 'inter-personal' share!

"If the goal is to just be boss, sovereign ruler, king pin, master of puppets, Insulter in Chief, whip-lasher, bomb-thrower, this episode will spoil that dream. This episode is NOT for those! This is for the Beautiful People."

You've got to be willing to go it alone when the tide is high and the wind is rough, when the land is dry and the feet are blistered and bloody, and your gut is - well - messed up. You've got to be willing to go it alone. Alone! Alone! Alone! Yet you will never be alone. Nope! You've got to still want it when you are not sure if you can make it and you are left to tow the road, quite often that very last leg or two or more, all-all-all-all aone through the dark! Not even Jesus escaped this! Strange is the paradox, you see: you will not be left alone when you'd rather be, and you will never make it on your own, yet you must.

It's a conundrum!

You will find yourself wasted if you select hard when smart is the play, if you pick quick and easy in preference to astute and creative, if you shun fear to embrace sweet cheap praises. That route will prove expensive. Quite! For most of us! Most of the time! And if you are lucky you will fail, and that failure will teach you a brilliant lesson or two (sometimes three), and that learning will open paths to grand achievements - success - for the gambler (that is) who by way of hardship was transformed into a resourceful play-maker. Tricky business this is, isn't it?

It's a conundrum!

You need a Wise Match-Maker (one click).

In pursuit of one's utmost at the highest nothing subsumes vision, passion and clarity of purpose. That alignment does not lay bare itself by whim and fancy. It is the honey-bees' labor for the Queen Bee's joy. It is the chiseler's sweat for the sculptor's dream, the steady hand at the tip of the pointilist's silent stream of commands, the lit neurons behind the brilliant equation our world was unaware it desperately needs. The Palace of Epiphanies! M-hm. Except for a boy! M-hm! Or a girl! M-hm! Before their in-born genius is trammeled into oblivion. Hmmmmm. Before the light inside is snubbed out.

You need a Wise Match-Maker (one click).

Do you remember when you were ten? You probably were a TEN too!

Let's go down memory lane (just for a bit - don't set up house there - we're just touring to reflect), see if there are useful dots to connect, which may project to higher probabilities of awesomeness on the road we've taken.

I remember the time. Ten. Drama!

We built our first dream team at ten. And my athletic butterfly flexed its first wings then. I was unaware this is what we were building then - our personal dream team. Reflection reveals that that's what it was - our personal dream team. There were three of us. Even though each of us had other friends, we were a rad bunch - for personal purposes entirely. They called us the Hopetown Boys.

Do you remember the time?

Two or three pebbles to the window, up in PJ's and out - ever so creepily - into the moonlight for our board meetings. We had a whole new world to create. And we did. We had each other's back. Oh, the stories we can tell. Do you remember?

We pushed each other to new heights. None of us were alike. We did not go to the same school. Our backgrounds were dissimilar. One shove from behind onto the dusty roadside and a reflexive high-flying judo drop in response; that is how two of us met. Boys bond strangely at ten. A swing in a hammock, a twirl, a twist, and a tumble. Now we were three and the world has never been the same since. We changed the universe you are now living in. Never mind how. We did. M-hm.

How was it when you were ten? Or eleven? Or twelve?

Who made up your first dream team? What did you learn? I learned passion. I learned belonging. I learned the power of connection. I realize since then that life is the test of those learnings and that experiences way beyond our dispersion will keep grading us. Upon reflection what intrigues me most about this team is the interconnectedness of our individual desires and the longevity of what we valued. Being the globe-trotter of this bunch (two of us still alive, one dead), little did I know by twelve another team was awaiting formation. How about you? Fixed location? Same team to date? No team ever?

You need a Wise Match-Maker (one click).

By twelve through early teens as scouts, and as leader of the Eagle Patrol, if you permit what might seem a brag, adventure upon adventure upon adventure, badges of honor upon badge, a team par excellence, a sprawl of twelve boys proving time and again, while leaving fine etches upon the history of our times, that working in harmony holds a unique capacity for each of us to push the other in ever so much smarter ways to best ourselves and thus better the troop as a united whole, though still filled with enormous pride for awesome memories from those times, it is not this well-honed team that I'll reference, testimonial to the light inside, for this team was formed by dint of hard earned fight for entry. There was another team - a personal team - five of us (three from competing patrols, two not scouts at alll) who unawares pushed each other to finer heights and deeper personal depths. As teens! Yes, early teens. It is in this hind-sighting we are connecting those dots and discovering through that bond what we learned - three of us alive, two dead! Whether it was through the challenges of solving a problem, offering a solution, satisfying a need, enhancing a situation, being a resource, or resourcing each other, we credit those times for who and what we became as young men. Upon reflection what intrigues me most about this team is resourcefulness. I learned the value of timely resources, that some of the most valued resources in the strive toward betterment and achievement includes time (especially timing), moral support (especially courage and confidence), knowledge (especialy knowiing who, what, when and how), leverage (especially acumen). Being one of three globe-trotters in this bunch (two of us still alive, one dead), little did I know by sixteen another beautiful team was awaiting formation that would teach me about the light inside. How about you? Have you ever had a personal team - even a rag-tag bunch? Do you have a personal team? Who makes up your personal team?

We need a Wise Match-Maker (one click).

Yes we are our stories - stories filled with big reveals that can shine light on solutions to our world's needs if not the need of someone a shallow breath from our shoulder. We need to be resourceful. We need a Wise Match-Maker (one click). Awesome!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. _ Robert Frost

Take time (if need be) to discover, hone, and use your gifts. You'll find useful steps (discovery process, action plans) in Riding Moby Dick. Just Click!

Are you using your resources smartly?
Shake everything then look at it down-side UP!

GLO-REY!

"I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, nor shall anyone snatch them from My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them from My Father’s hand. My Father and I are one." All things are possible. Start with what is just outside your comfort zone. Believe. Act upon it. Step outside and breathe.

WORD TO THE WISE: Find the light inside. It is incumbent upon us to be resourceful - after all, are we not smart creations?

We've made a great big leap when it settles in our body, mind, soul and spirit that milk does not come from the supermarket, safety does not come from the police, news is not what happens to someone else, and that as it was with everyone come and gone before us since Adam and Eve left Eden life depends on one's agility, alertness and personal resourcefulness. Those come from the inside.

"Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." Elif Shafak.

Something To Consider

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You are

What POWER!