A Loving God?

As a Christian I have heard a lot of reactions and responses this week that more or less question the existence of God. The most common, and quite possibly most puzzling question posed is, "If you claim that God is a just, merciful, and loving God, how could he allow tragedy to happen?"

Its a very tough question ... It is a simple answer though ... we do not know. 

Listening to the local Christian radio station today, I heard the dj's dialogging over this very question. They, too believe that this question has no answer. No one can possibly know what this tragedy happened.

I can't help but recall the story of Job. Job's wife tells Job that he should renounce God, that God lets all these bad things happen to him, and that it is foolish to still retain his faith. Job replies, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

One of the most recognizable figures of the New Testament, Paul, had no easy life. He was jailed twice, almost stoned to death, faced numerous trials and tragedies, yet he retained his faith and wrote much of the New Testament. 

Why do these things happen? We do not know.

Are we called to make a change and an impact when these things do happen? Yes! 

I have a passion for the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel focuses on one line in the Lord's prayer, "Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven."

The Social Gospel preaches that if someone does things that make an impact on their world, then that person is re-enacting, and literally, building heaven on Earth. 

Abraham Heschel, a Jewish Theologian, believed that if Jews were faithful to Sabbath and the Torah, then these Jews would bring about God'd Kingdom here on this Earth. 

Christians proclaiming the Social Gospel such as Shane Claiborne and Brain McClaren ask Christians to make a change. Make a change that will impact the world around you. Volunteer, serve, impact your local community, ask the tough questions, love, pick up that piece of trash, love, go to Church, make the Church better, love, treat the environment better, and when all else seems to fail...love. 

Expressing the love of Christ Jesus is the calling upon our lives to be the disciples of Christ that will glorify God! When these situations happen, Christians are called to make a difference. 

I titled this blog with a question, "A Loving God?" .... Now maybe the question of, "Loving Christians?" should be posed. What are you doing to help? 

The Power of Prayer

It was 10:51 when I turned into the PAC at First United Methodist Church in Shreveport, La this morning. I decided to change it up this morning and visit a different church. First Methodist Church is no new church for me. My first semester I would attend almost every Sunday. You could find me in the middle section, close to the back of the Performing Arts Center on Sunday mornings. I love the contemporary service at First. Its very dynamic and in a lot of ways very different than most United Methodist contemporary worship services.

Now, driving up this morning I was expecting the usual - good music, good preaching, and a welcoming spirit that invites you in. This morning, to my overjoyed spirit, Faithlink gave me much more than that.

From the first "Good Morning" I knew today would be amazing. Missy Wise lead the music, while the Rev. Derek Joyce preached the word. He was preaching today a part of the current series, "The Rooms of the Heart." This week Derek was preaching on the Family Room, pt. 2. It was a sermon based on the Scriptures found in Ephesians the Fifth Chapter. He talked about our family dynamic and how the dynamic works together for the glory of the Kingdom of God.

As Derek wrapped his message up the Spirit of the Lord could be felt moving in that place, and God convicted Derek to do something I have never seen done in a Methodist Church, or even for that matter, any Church service I've attended.

As he concluded his message he invited the families of the room (during the last song - more on that in a minute) to join together and pray for one another. Wives for husbands, husbands for wives, and children to parents. He also invited those without a family to join together as the family of God in a time of prayer.

This is what it looked like.....amazing.....

In our hearts, Lord, in this nation

Awakening

Holy Spirit, we desire

Awakening

For You and You alone

Awake my soul, awake my soul and sing

For the world You love

Your will be done, let Your will be done in me

In Your presence, in Your power

Awakening

For this moment, for this hour

Awakening

What a powerful way to end this great service, and what a wonderful way to kick-start our week!

The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

" Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many."

 

Last night at Asbury UMC in Bossier we (the youth group) talked about the body of Christ. We are in a three week study of the book of Corinthians (1 and 2). We discussed that every person has a role in God's Kingdom and that every person has special gifts. We acknowledged that each gift is important and no one gift is special. 

Tonight in Colloquium (CLC's weekly meeting) we discussed what it meant to be a servant leader. We know that every person brings something different to the table, and that we all live in unity to spread God's Word and love throughout our world. We did some cool activities that validated, for me, what unity in the body of Christ meant. 

Tonight we made a personal mission statement. We chose from a list of verbs (three) that described who we are as people. We also chose our core value from a list that we felt best fit us. We combined those into a formula that calculated our mission statement. 

My mission statement was, "My mission is to connect, lead, and worship relationships in myself and others." 

This exercise made me realize that my mission statement is different from the person's sitting next to me, but without theirs the Kingdom of God wouldn't exist and so on.....

"The Least of These"

Some of you who know me know that I love the Social Gospel. What is the Social Gospel? Well, to sum it up in one or two sentences I would say this...The Social Gospel emcompasses the Gospel message of Love practiced by Christ himself towards the "least of these."

We find in the Gospel of Matthew "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

Jesus commands us to pay attention, and serve the people in the world who are less fortunate than ourselves. This year in the CLC we have studied an author who focuses on the Social Gospel in my opinion, Brian Mclaren. We also have focused on the discipline of Servant Leadership. As servant leader you find what your gifts and passions are, combine then with academics, identify a need in the local community, and work with your brothers and sisters in Christ to solve the problem.

I was watching the television a minute ago and saw a commercial for a new show on ABC, The Secret Millionaire. There was a lady, obviously the millionaire, and two elder African Americans who started an organization that feeds the hungry in their community. One of the elderly women had this to say...

1. There is but one father and that's the heavenly father 

2. There is only one race and that's the human race 

3. Never eat the last piece of bread on the table because there will always be someone hungry who might come along. 

This show has my excitement level on cloud 9! The millionaire goes in the community and finds these inspirational organizations and lends a helping hand. Their contributions are in monetary forms and the individuals are truly blessed.

These shows do nothing but remind me on my passion for the Social Gospel, and encourage me to get more involved in my local community.