NWUncorked ConsumeChristorOther

#love #trinity #jesus #newwine #nwnws 

Followers of Jesus are called to consume Christ. And yet this world would have it that we consume it and its products. 

In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Kayla, and Matt are joined by Matt’s mom and Kayla’s Granny, Beth Farlow and Sarah Gonzales, Kayla’s sister-n-law, and together they step into the lush fields of consumption. What do consumerism and the Church have to do with one another? In a world of consumption, what is the Jesus follower to do? Is all consumption wrong? 

Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship.

Dialogue is the truth of participation as dia via Latin from Greek dia-logos invokes a participatory conversation. It is interactive. From dia "through" + legein "speak." Going through the Word so to engage through our word, New Wine seeks to uncork the impossible possibility of the human and our pursuit of this Uncommon God so to realize our common good.

 

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Web: http://www.new-wineskins.org/

New Wine Uncorked: Following Jesus: Into the Promise Land or the Polluted Landfill

#love #trinity #jesus #newwine #nwnws 

Following Jesus means that you know Him, or at least have an idea of where He is leading… So what then of the path in front of the Jesus follower? Is it a path of promise or a polluted one drowning in toxic “love.” 

In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Phil, Kayla, and Matt traverse the wonderful terrain of love… When we follow Jesus on to the path of love, where exactly does this path lead? And am I equipped to walk such a path? 

Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship. 

Dialogue is the truth of participation as dia via Latin from Greek dia-logos invokes a participatory conversation. It is interactive. From dia "through" + legein "speak." Going through the Word so to engage through our word, New Wine seeks to uncork the impossible possibility of the human and our pursuit of this Uncommon God so to realize our common good. 

The Crux

Through Christ we come to realize that our restless heart understands itself only if it comes to understand true reality. Such reality that is only experienced through the love offered by the divine heart that breaks for us upon the Cross. It is a love that was broken wide open on that rugged cross so as to be poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5.5).

Truth is, our hearts are in need of a revival. Each of us needs to be reminded not only who we are, but why were we created - or better yet, the purpose of our personhood. And this is why we need Jesus…

Jesus is the crux of Christianity—He is the core of our faith, the foundation of salvation—He is the Christ. However, many today balk at the aforementioned. Sure we are willing to accept Christ as being a “good teacher,” but as the Son of God, the salvation of humanity, our actions (and our words) hardly support anything other than a belief that to be a Christian is to simply memorize Scripture, follow rules and do good deeds. But being a disciple of Christ is so much more…

Throughout the Bible we witness the truth that God is love. And in this truth we come to know the beauty of His mercy. To know Christ is to know love so as to experience His merciful love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

The mercy and love of God are at work even in the midst of his enemies.  It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour.

Yes Jesus was and is a “great teacher,” but to keep Him only as such is to place Him in a human constructed box. When Jesus took on flesh He became mercy for us. To know Christ is to know mercy. To know mercy is to be mercy, which as Paul writes, is to participate or fellowship in Christ’s sufferings and His death. Being precedes doing.

Christ’s love and mercy know no bounds. He loves friend and foe, and He calls us to do the same. When we know Christ, we know salvation and from such knowing our hearts experience the revival from His love poured out by the Holy Spirit. It is a love that elevates us from being simply observers of His life to the extraordinary place of participants in His truth.

We are called to fellowship in Christ’s sufferings and conform to His death – this is what it means to workout our salvation; this is what it means to participate in Christ’s performance. We are called to be mercy, compassion, and most of all, love. This is what it means to be a player and participant in God’s drama.

Room at the inn

Have you ever wondered about the foundation of your beliefs? Have you ever thought about the craziness faith?

Take a moment and think about Christmas...Think about its foundation and what we are asked to believe...

Truth is, this thing called Christianity does not make sense to this world. And why would it? A baby born in a dirty cave because there was no room at the inn, is said to be the Savior of the world. This same baby grows into a man that we are called to follow and emulate even though He does crazy things like walk on water, fraternize with the outcasts, heals the lame and cares for the prostitutes.

This dude that we hail as king was beaten to death - I mean he represents everything that is sooo not American hero - right? No bone crushing did He do - He let them crush Him. No whooping a little a$$ - He allowed them to beat Him to His last breath.

And so at Christmas what is it we celebrate? 

Love... Christmas (like Easter) is the celebration of love... Love incarnate. Yes Christmas is the celebration of the greatest gift given... God Himself...

Immanuel - God with us. At Christmas, God with us is said to us by God Himself, we come under a lordship . . . We come under His Lordship which is bathed in radical love.

In Jesus Christ we understand the Word of God as the epitome of God’s grace. It is a word of radicalness...

Why do Christians do what they do? Why do Christians act in ways deemed crazy and insane by the world?

Because they have been visited by the truth of Christmas... Their hearts have been overwhelmed by the eruption of God's radical love...

And what did they do with this love? They said yes. Radical Christian love happens when there is room at the inn of our hearts... Amen Jesus!

Merry Christmas...

Eruption of Thanksgiving...

To give thanks insinuates something to be thankful for; it points to something beyond ourselves that has impacted our lives in such a way that our response is one of gratitude and praise.

Today many of us will find a multitude of “items” or “people” who fit this bill, and truth be told, many of us do have a plethora of things and/or people for which we are thankful.

But what if we stopped and took a moment... What if in the midst of all the food, football and fellowship we are missing the deeper, underlying foundation of thankfulness?

I wonder for those who bear the mark of Jesus - for those who call themselves followers of The Way, how many will illumine the cross on this day?

It is the cross where thanksgiving is found…it is where thanksgiving erupts.

As soon as we gaze upon the cross our hearts, our eyes are taken to the scene of the manager hidden away in the dusty, dirty, dark crevasse of a mountainside. Yes, thanksgiving is found from the cradle to the cross for it is here that we find the One who is the ultimate giving of thanks…Jesus Christ.

For God so loved the world that He gave… Our giving of thanks is the direct result of being given Love. That is, we must always remember that hanging on the cross is the One born in the manger—not just any baby, but the One who was with God, the One who is God, the One who is with us...The One who is Love...

Might some time today we give pause to the majesty of the cross? Might we stop to thank the One who gave of Himself so that we might receive the truth of ourselves? Might we take a moment and enter the drama of salvation so as to become the faithful performance of love?

Let your celebrations be magnificent this day! Stand, dance, shout for joy! And in your moments of bliss don't forget the One who is thankful for you! Amen Jesus!

Podium Participant

Transformation...

Such a wonderfully sexy word, concept, slogan...

So what is transformation? In the midst of the "olympic world" right now, transformation seems to be akin to one who was 4th in 2012 but worked hard so as to become "transformed" over the last 4 years into a "podium" participant.

But is this really what transformation is? Nothing more than behavior modification? Is the podium participant truly transformed? What happens after the podium? Truth is, the podium is not the epitome of transformation - at least not in the realm of faith...

When speaking from a Christo-centric perspective, transformation takes on eternal significance because it is rooted in the way, the truth, and the life of the One who came to transform our hearts, our souls, our whole humanity... He came to transform so we might go and act...

Truth is, Jesus was intentional in His act of transformation. That is, He came to us - to you and me - so as to invite us into His eternal act of love. And if and when we say yes, we find that in Christ transformation is real.

Participating in the will of God occurs when through the Holy Spirit, Christ becomes the pattern of our life, when He becomes our first love. As Paul writes:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5.1-2).

A life that has this world as its first love seeks peace and hope in the comforts of the world. But a life in love with Jesus stands in stark contrast to a life lived in love with the world. For the truth of the Christian faith is that peace and hope are only found in the One who is peace, the One who is hope.

When He is our hope we can step into everyday and see it as an opportunity to be intentional in how we love the other. That every moment is an opening to be love.

And how do we become love so as to be love? We follow in the way of the Master Builder who told us, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

We become love by building up the other through our intentional acts of love. Moments that will open up into amazing encounters that allow us to invest in the heart of our community by investing in the hearts of the other.

Truth is, this world is in need of more people who seek to elevate the other rather than tearing them down. Daily each one of us should strive to be a servant who seeks the betterment of society. Daily each one of us can make a difference through our intentional acts of service. For when we seek to serve the other, we live out the truth of being love. And in our intentional acts of love, grace, compassion, mercy, and justice erupt and overflow so as to begin transforming the landscape of this great nation of ours.

Let us this day be love by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, welcoming the stranger, and freeing the enslaved. Let us this day step off the podium and become transformation by lavishing our love on the other...

Transformation begins with the heart…it begins with you…

Fall into His heart

Read James 1.2-25

Ever have those times when you feel like doing nothing but crying? Times when you hardly want to get out of bed and have no energy to do anything, let alone prayer or reading the Bible. You know those times when every door seems to close, every way seems to be darkened and everybody seems to have turned their back to you?

Times when even God seems distant and unloving and you actually wonder if He even sees you…

Strange truth of faith is that through our trials we find growth, because we find Him… 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (vs. 2-4).

Joy? How so? Because such trials have a way of pressing us to go deeper with God. When we are brought to our knees we see fresh truths about God intersecting with our lives in the hardest of times. When we fall to our knees so as to cry out to His heart we realize what David did: “He sent from on high, He took me…He rescued me,” –and here is the best part—“because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18.6-19).

How many of us, when we cry out to Jesus, realize that He has entered into our suffering with us, broken down the barriers of sin and eradicated death so as to reach out and rescue us because He delights in us?

In our trials we are not expected to fall back on our own power, control or resources. No, Jesus wants us to embrace the Spirit so as to “rely not on (myself) but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1.9).

All Jesus wants is for us to fall into His heart so that He can take care of us.

There in our suffering and through our trials Jesus says to us, “I want you to have peace. I want you to be deeply joyful. I want you to believe in what I say and what I do — to have unshakable faith. I want you to have the kind of peace that I give, not the world. The kind of joy that I give, not the world. The kind of faith, I give, not the world. I want you to have the truth of love and the truth of faith—I want you to have Me.”

Do you want Jesus? Then go to Him, embrace Him and receive His love…Amen Jesus!

Choose Joy

Read Psalm 100; John 15.1-11

All around people struggle to find happiness. I know I get caught up in this battle. But what I have come to find is that I am not in search of happiness, but joy…And He is right there before me.

Truth is, there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is usually something on the surface—it comes and goes with our feelings. But joy…joy is different. It is deeper. It is alive and in our soul.

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen once wrote:

“Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us…Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow. I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope. I dare even to say: ‘My grief was a place where I found joy.’ Joy does not happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to Jesus and have found in Him our refuge and our safety, and that nothing, not even death, can take Him away from us.”

Yes, unlike happiness, joy is essential to spiritual life. When we are not joyful we cannot bear fruit. Jesus calls us to Himself so that His joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete…if only we go to Jesus.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, wandering, oppression, doubt, war, or even death — can take that love away.

Right now (you may need to find a “secret” place) let yourself celebrate joy…let yourself celebrate Jesus. Stand up, dance around, sing out, throw your hands up in the air, laugh uncontrollably, fall to your knees, cry profusely… whatever you need to do to celebrate heaven’s joy, do it. 

Right now forget formalities and normalcy. 

Right now enter into the joyous praise from Mercy Me and let this beautiful song fill your heart… Greater.

Right now embrace the Spirit and choose Joy by stepping into the crazy insane love of Jesus and celebrating His undeniable love for you. Amen Jesus!

The heart of Jesus

Read John 17

Every moment I spend with Jesus is yet another moment I am filled with wonder. Every minute I spend in prayer is time I spend taking in the beauty of eternity. In Christ and through the Spirit, I have come to know this—Love.

When we come before His throne of grace we find the peace, the hope, the joy of heaven. We find that in Christ we are not alone.

We are not alone because He is our strength, our defender, our refuge in the storm. When we embrace the Spirit so as to step into the heart of Christ we come to find that through all the trials He has always been faithful, bringing healing to our soul.

Let Jesus be your everything. Today, become engulfed in the prayer of Christ—His prayer to the Father for the protection, the blessing and the glory of His beloved.

“I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (v8-9).

For the truth of His love is the truth of our eternal joy. He came to wrap us up in His arms so that we might have peace, so that we might know that we are His own. Jesus’ prayer for us should bring our hearts to such a place of worship that we can do nothing but proclaim:

“You amaze me, Redeem me, You call me as Your own.”

If we say we love Jesus, our lives must show we love Jesus and the greatest way to do this is to jump into the “heart of Jesus.” Take a moment and listen to I am not alone by Kari Jobe and let the truth of this song invigorate the glory of your day. Amen Jesus!