Trapped or Free?

That To Do List… that relationship… that job… those finances… Do you feel trapped?  Or, are you free?

You’ve heard the good news—that God offers forgiveness, eternal life, and power to live right now. So how can you be assured that He’s making this offer to you? What do you have to do to earn God’s offer? How do you work for it?  Barter for it?
 
The Word claims you don’t!
You don’t earn. You don’t work. You don’t barter.
You receive.

“It is by grace you have been saved…it is the gift of God.”  Ephesians 2:8
 
Do you live in freedom, having received God’s grace gift? Or, are you trapped by an enemy of grace: trying to earn approval by living just right – perfectionism.
 
Identify where perfectionism emerges in your daily living. Recognize how it entraps. Walk away with the antidote. Join us for worship Saturday morning, July 10 @ 11:00 AM.

[PhotoCredit:ctwirler12]

Worship Re-Imagined

Our mission is to live lives of worship, celebrating God’s presence in our midst. Worship is more than singing, it is an attitude of the heart, a way of life. This week, join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm, as we pause, come to stillness and become aware of all the many reason we can praise God with our hearts and lives. Continue the conversation here.

Belonging Re-Imagined

Our mission is to pursue the Kingdom of God as a community. Crossroads is not a place where you become a member. It is a place you come to belong. You belong to us. We belong to you. We carry each others’ burdens, celebrate each others’ joys. We pray with one another and we pray for one another. True community is a gift and a challenge – both of which we have accepted. We are convinced that the way of Jesus can not be lived alone. This week, join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and thank God for our community. Continue the conversation here.

Citizenship Re-Imagined

Our mission is to join God in his Kingdom project of justice, renewal and redemption. We believe the legitimacy of our faith and our community comes from our selfless service; becoming Good News to the poor and the oppressed, the broken and the lost. We believe the church is at its best when it serves, sacrifices and loves, caring about the things God cares about. This week, join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm, as we pause, come to stillness and prayerfully have a conversation with God about how we are being called to join a movement to renew our neighborhood. Continue the conversation here.

Authenticity Re-Imagined

We believe Jesus called people to wholeness. Our mission is to provide space for the development of holistic followers of Jesus. We are intentional about creating avenues for people to bring their true selves into our community. Real spiritual movement is authentic and moves at the pace Jesus sets for each of us. We are here to encourage you, challenge you, coach you, inspire you and learn from you. This week, join us each day at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and prayerfully reflect on how you have experienced increased wholeness this past year, season and week. Continue the conversation here.

Future Re-Imagined

We believe the gospel of Jesus Christ announced God’s reign being extended in the here and now. At Crossroads, we have been invited to enter the Kingdom of God in creative, selfless, life-giving ways. Sometimes this invitation comes in the smallest of venues – a conversation – and sometimes it comes in the biggest of dreams – a city renewed. This week we invite you to join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and begin a conversation with God about how you might accept the invitation to enter the Kingdom of God. Continue the conversation here.

History Re-Imagined

Crossroads came to life out of a deep belief in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. We believe that the Scripture is a conversation between God and humanity, a conversation that continues to this day, one that all people are invited to join. In many ways, our fellowship, our ministries, our worship are all an expression of how we have joined this age old conversation. This week we invite you to join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and prayerfully reflect on how your conversation with God is taking place, how it might be taking place among the people around you, at work and at home. You can join the conversation here.

Broken Resolutions

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  Lamentations 3:22-23

This is the time of year when many of us make resolutions; our New Year’s Resolutions.  Most of the time they are pretty typical stuff.  Someone will say, “I resolve to work less overtime and get more sleep this year.”  Someone else will promise to, “Have lunch with grandma at the nursing home more often.”  There is also the perennial favorite, “I resolve to get more exercise and loose 15 pounds this year.”  All of these things and all the others that people resolve each January are good things.  I am sure that all of us would be better off in our personal lives and as a society if we all made more resolutions and then kept them.

The problem of course is keeping them.  It is relatively easy to start January with an air of excitement.  I leave work proudly at 5 o’clock to go home and have an easy evening before going to bed early.  For a while I put off things at work that I used to stay late to finish.  I leave chores at home undone.  But sooner or later it all catches up with me and then I find myself staying late at work again and going to bed even later.  I wonder if workers at nursing homes see lots of extra visitors during January.  For a while lots of family come to visit with a steady supply of pretty flower bouquets and fresh-baked treats from home.  But it isn’t convenient to visit at the nursing home and so many of them have a funny smell.  Life just goes on and pretty soon it has been two months since the last visit and the time just disappeared.

I suppose some people have just given up entirely on resolutions.  They might say to themselves, “Every year for the last five I have tried to loose weight and I always failed.  What’s the use?”  It is a sad and melancholy feeling to fail.  So instead of failing they just never even start.  I would even say they have given up hope of changing for the better and instead resigned themselves to remaining the same.  Living life without hope makes everything ten times harder.

I think many of us treat spiritual matters the same way.  We have tried to be kinder, or tried to covet less, or tried to remain sexually pure.  We keep failing and sooner or latter consider giving up hope of ever changing.  There was a time in my own life when I had tried and tried to change and was considering giving up all hope.  But God truly is faithful and stands ready to help you and me start over.  You don’t have to wait until next January to make new resolutions.  In fact you don’t even have to wait until the sun comes up tomorrow.  The meaning in the scripture is that God is continuously and every moment standing by to help you and me start over again.  There is never any waiting with God when you want to make a fresh start and try again to change.  There is hope!

[PhotoCredit:Optical illusion & tchuntfr & Harveer]

A Small Reminder

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

My first memory of a hummingbird comes from my childhood. My paternal grandparents had two hummingbird feeders on their back porch. I can remember standing in the kitchen and watching my grandpa make the sugar solution for the feeders. He would heat up a small pot of water and add the right amount of sugar, plus just a bit of red food coloring. Then he would wash out the two feeders and refill them with the fresh solution after it cooled. I would walk out on the porch with him and watch as he hung the feeders up. Back inside it wouldn’t be but just a couple of minutes before a couple hummingbirds would show up at each feeder.

It was always pretty hard to see a hummingbird away from the feeders on the porch. There was a wilderness park along the river near their house. Our family would take walks there and I would look for the hummingbirds. I would look and look for them, but rarely saw any. A hummingbird is a very small bird and very hard to see way up in a tree. Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of one flying, but even that was pretty rare. They dart about so quickly that they would be gone before my eyes could even focus on them. I knew there had to be hummingbirds around because they would come to the feeders back on the porch. Yet based on the number of times I actually saw a hummingbird out in the park, I might have concluded they were a rare bird in danger of extinction.

Some time later I learned the sound a hummingbird makes. It isn’t a sing-song kind of call like a warbler or a bluebird. It sounds more like a chattering buzz. Learning to recognize the sound of the hummingbird changed my walks with family out in the wilderness park. The hummingbirds that I suspected must be around somewhere really were everywhere. I would hear the telltale buzz call and then strain my ears in the direction of the call. I would try to train my eyes on the spot to see the tiny little bird that was making so much noise. In all my efforts I still rarely saw a hummingbird, but I knew they were there. I could hear one or two every time I went walking.

I suppose it is easy to think about God in the same way I first thought about hummingbirds. When I depend on my eyes it is pretty rare to see Him working in the world. From time to time I hear about a friend of a friend who survived cancer with no good medical explanation; a miracle apparently. I hear a story from a missionary in a distant country, a story about lives spared in impossible circumstances. They are fleeting glimpses of God at work in the world. But the reality is that every day you and I are alive is another miracle of God’s grace and mercy. This is easy to forget when I get busy with work and relationships and hobbies. What I need is a reminder that God is present even when I don’t see Him working in a physically visible way.

Just recently I was out doing some shopping, and walked out of a store to return to my car. Right there as I was walking through the parking lot I heard the sound of a hummingbird. I didn’t even try to figure out exactly where the little bird was sitting. But that experience got me to thinking about God’s work in the world. I decided that every time I hear a hummingbird I am going to remember that God isn’t rare or distant. I realized that I just have to learn how to hear Him. And once I learn how to hear God, I am sure that I will begin seeing Him all around me in everything I do and experience.

[PhotoCredit:Noël Zia Lee & seanmcgrath & khsolomon]

My Own Unique Color

“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:11-12

The road in front of my home has a row of maple trees on each side. During the summer they all look pretty much the same. They were all planted the same year so they are all approximately the same width and height. During hot summer months they are all the same dark shade of green. Now that fall has arrived they no longer look the same. A few of them have just a little color showing on top, a nice shade of red. A few more are turning color all over, but it looks more the leaves are fading to a light green. One tree has all of its leaves turned a uniform dark red.

The last place I lived was an apartment that looked out on a courtyard. In the courtyard were elm trees that were all the same species. They also started turning color at different times during the fall. What is more, each one turned a different color. A couple would fade from green to a bright gold or a cheery yellow. Several more would turn shades from orange to amber. The last couple of them would darken to a deep red. Each year I was amazed all over again that nine trees could create such a wonderful variety of different fall colors.

I am really glad that God made so many different kinds of trees and flowers and animals. The world is just more interesting to live in when it is full of such splendid variety. To see a flower that I have never seen before. To see a bird do something I have never observed before. The variety spices up life, and if I keep my eyes open, the variety keeps each day from being exactly like every other day that has come before. I would have to say that I have embraced the idea that God must be a God of variety when I consider all that He created.

For a long time I have thought that people must be a lot like the rest of God’s creation. There are people from Africa, and from Asia, and from Europe. There are tall people and short people. People with lots of hair and people with almost no hair. I would look out at a crowd of people and measure variety by hair color, skin color, height, and a half dozen other measures. But I am beginning to think that God’s idea of variety goes far beyond what I can see when I look at another person.

I am beginning to see that God intends for me to grow up and mature in a way that is unique to me. He has planted specific spiritual strengths in me that don’t exist in the same way inside any other person. For a long time I thought that I was supposed to become like this pastor or that church leader. Now I see that I am supposed to become who God planned for me to become before I was even born. It is an idea that has brought much freedom to my life. I am now free to become who God intends me to become instead of trying to fit into the mold of someone else. I know God is offering you that same freedom too.

[PhotoCredit:Ctd 2005 & blakeimeson & Grantsview]

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