“Return to me”
A reflection on Joel 2:12-17
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
The Lord does not want our riches. The Lord does not want our “stuff”. The Lord wants our hearts.
When the Lord touches our lives in love, we should seek to return to the One who created us. The One to whom we return when our days on earth are finished.
He is not an angry God, but a God of love, grace and mercy. Our God who will not turn His back on us, but instead offer us what we really need. Hope and love and peace.
May the Lord bless you this Lenten season with a deeper understanding of His love and His sacrifice so that we may know Him more.
Ash Wednesday – “Where is our Heart?”
Ash Wednesday – “Where Is Our Heart?”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
We live in a culture today that is all about “Me!” It’s a culture that celebrates the individual for their achievements. The other night we watched the Grammy awards as musicians, writers, singers all were honoured for their achievements over the last year.
We’re in a world where it’s about how many people you have following you on Twitter. How many friends you have on Facebook. It’s all about our individual accomplishments, about our “fame”.
If this was not true, then we would not have so many reality television shows out there. We just wouldn’t. They could not survive without the culture we have today.
Now, I am just as guilty as anyone else. I like compliments. Most of us do. I like having my ego stroked now and then. It’s nice to know I’m wanted and that I do a good job. Right? The hard part is trying to not let it all go to your head.
So here we are tonight, hearing words of scripture telling us to not seek accolades for what we do. Telling us to pray and fast in private and not look for praise from others. To not make a public display of ourselves for our own personal gain… Trying to make ourselves look more righteous than we really are. read more…
Ash Wednesday
Today we begin the season of Lent in the church, a time of turning and returning to God. I encourage you to find a church in your area who is having a service today.
Have a blessed Lent.
Work as Worship
We are representatives of God wherever we are.
Stop Complaining… We’re All In The Same Boat
Earlier today two articles were published on blogs. I think they both offer some light and a chance for some discussion about our churches.
The first article is “Stop Complaining About Sunday Morning Sports” by Keith Anderson. In this article he reflects on the continued lament I hear all the time, “We used to have families, before the hockey rink opened Sunday mornings.”
The second article was written by the moderator of the United Church of Canada called, “We’re All in the Same Boat“, a reflection on his experience at the Canadian Council of Churches and discovering that many of our denominations are struggling with the same issues of age, money and building maintenance.
What I take from both articles is that when we continue to focus on doing things “the same way we always have” is that we become completely disconnected with the world around us. I would argue this is no longer an assumption, this is fact. We have become completely disconnected and don’t know how to reconnect.
So, with a number of our denominations now putting “everything on the table” in an effort to find ways in which to support our 100+ year old church structures (building, governance, and political) what should we be learning?
We should be learning the world changed.
We should be learning we haven’t changed.
We should be learning we are now into our third generation with a society that sees no need for the church except for the family honoured traditions of hatching, matching and dispatching (baptisms, weddings, funerals) with no relevance at any other point in life.
We should be learning we’ve left Jesus at the altar and forgotten to take him with us when we leave the church.
We should be learning that Jesus can be just as effective, no wait… more effective when we become his representatives in the rinks, on the playing fields, in the malls, at our workplaces, on our streets, in our foodbanks, in our schools, everywhere we find people.
Why should we expect people to come to our church when we don’t go to them?
Do you go to parties without an invitation from someone you have a relationship with?
Jesus spent his time walking the roads and sharing his message, healing, working with those in need, and people responded by following him. He didn’t put up a tent and wait inside for people to come.
It is time.
It is time for the church to reclaim our evangelistic beginnings. It is time for us to show the world how Jesus changes lives.
And it happens not in our churches, but in the communities/streets/homes around us.