Wont You Be My Neighbor?

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Wont You Be My Neighbor?

As you consider your calling to your neighbors this summer, think about this one short phrase, “Be a front yard neighbor." Create encounters by intentionally moving part of your life to the front yard. Take a walk and meet people as you go, buy a front yard tree swing for the neighbor kids to play on, or bring the grill to the street and invite a few neighbors to join you. Bring your Life Group members along for the mission as well because community is a powerful evangelistic tool.

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Holy Week Devotional | Thursday

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Holy Week Devotional | Thursday

On this day, Jesus observed the Passover meal with his disciples. Passover served as a means of remembrance for the Jewish people. Packed full of symbolic imagery, the meal was celebrated to remember God’s saving work. Many years before, God’s people were slaves in Egypt. In their distress, they cried out to him and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and stepped in.

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Holy Week Devotional | Monday

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Holy Week Devotional | Monday

On this day, Jesus made his way to Jerusalem to visit the Temple. On his way, he saw a fully leafed fig tree and, in his hunger, went to examine it for fruit. However, the fig tree, appearing by its leaves to have fruit, was fruitless. In his disappointment, Jesus cursed the fig tree. The next day the disciples noted and marveled that the fig tree had withered under Jesus’ word of judgment (Mark 11:20). In this event, Jesus is not simply “hangry” – that condition we are all familiar with of being so hungry you are angry. No, Jesus is performing a prophetic act. He was expecting fruit from Israel and her leaders, but upon examination, he has found her fruitless. She was invited to repent and to bear fruit in keeping with her repentance, but she, following her leaders, persisted in unbelief. They would eventually experience God’s judgment for their rejection of Jesus and their unfaithfulness.

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Two Love Stories

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Two Love Stories

You would think that after a childhood filled with so much danger, Jesus would have lived by one rule: self-preservation. Instead, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even a criminal’s death, in order to save his beloved. Jesus could have wielded his power to save himself on the cross. For that matter, he could have just avoided a lot of pain and suffering by not leaving heaven in the first place. And yet, the great I Am took the form of the most vulnerable human we can think of, a baby, and died the most vulnerable death we can imagine, a Roman crucifixion. Love led Jesus to sacrifice himself to save others.

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Finding [True] Joy

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Finding [True] Joy

True joy is not dependent on happy circumstances. It’s transcendent joy, but it’s not blind to the crushing realities of the world. The apostle Paul, who was not foreign to suffering, described his ministry as “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”. During heartbreaking circumstances, he rejoices with the constant expectation of God’s faithfulness. Christianity is honest with brokenness but persistent for joy. The musician Bono once said, “Joy is an act of defiance.” He hit it right on the head. Because Joy is more than an emotion, it’s also an adopted attitude that resists cynicism or fear, and it defiantly sets its hope on future promises.

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