Anything is Possible - June 1st

The past few weeks we have talked about the "Jesus Perspective" in which we have used tag lines from a sermon by John Ortberg to frame our discussion. The tag lines "Everyone is Welcome", "Nobody's Perfect", and "Anything is Possible" promotes a type of perspective that shatters barriers in our day to day relationships and allows us to experience true community with each other and with God. John Ortberg took his message in a different direction, but nonetheless he makes some very interesting points. I have provided a link on the right side of the page if you want to listen in.

In discussing anything is possible (if we put our complete faith and trust in Christ), we talked about elements required to build trust. Complete trust in others and in Christ is a process that takes effort and a willingness to pursue and cultivate the relationship. I have heard many times, and have frankly been guilty of this myself, complaints that this "relationship is not meeting my needs," or "God does not seem to be hearing me," or "I am not getting fed from this Church or that Church." Sometimes we need a reminder that Christ did not come to be served, but to serve, and that is the bar he has set for us because it is in this giving of ourselves that we receive, and our relationships strengthened.

In effort to gain a seasoned perspective on the issue of trust and faith in God, we watched two clips from the Ignite series put together by North Point Church and Andy Stanley (refer to the link at the right of the page for the clips). In class we watched from minute 3:59 - 11:40 where Andy talks about God's focus is not for us to obey Him, but to trust Him. Obeying is a bi-product of this trust.

In the second clip, from minute 11:40 - 19:56, Andy weaves a beautiful story of Jesus's interaction with a Roman soldier, which serves as a microcosm of the Jesus perspective and our discussions the past few weeks. In this story, we see Jesus welcoming, associating with an enemy, and honoring his request...Everyone is Welcome. We see the imperfect faith and inner struggle of the disciples to understand who Christ is. But we also know they continued to dig for more, to become more like Jesus, and put others before themselves...Nobody is Perfect. And finally we see the tremendous faith of the Roman soldier. Faith so great that it is the only time the Bible records Jesus being astonished. Faith so great in the power of Christ that a man, whom Jesus had never met, lying in a house Jesus did not visit, with a condition that was not revealed, was miraculously healed...Anything is Possible.

After a prayer we closed with the following charge from Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis:
"And now it is our turn. It is our turn to step up and take responsibility for who the Church is going to be for a new generation. It is our turn to redefine and reshape and dream it all up again. It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to each other, really can change the world."

We are called not just to watch, but to participate. Anything is Possible!