Are Your Ready To Show The World?
Good Morning Friends,
What is your image of the power of God in His Church? Is it winning souls, changing lives and impacting the communities in which we live? Is it the strict adherence to laws? Today we contemplate Easter and the Ascension and the days of preparation before Pentecost in full knowledge that on Pentecost the Holy Spirit came so that the Church could be Jesus’ presence in his absence. When the disciples could no longer follow an earthly Jesus, Jesus sent them and us someone to bind us together in the abundance of Christian love. He sent us the Holy Spirit so we would have the advantage and ability to collectively experience the redemptive power of God. Are Your Ready To Show The World?
Scripture: 11Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set.
Exodus 17:11-12
Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, . . . and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
4Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. 5And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
Zechariah 8:4-5 (NRSV)
Message: Very late on Friday I returned from a retreat at Laity Lodge in the Hill country of West Texas. It was, in part, about the future role of Leadership Foundations in the bridging and bonding of social, human and spiritual capital for sustainable economic development in the world. Moving from jobs to vocations and then to callings. It affirmed for this movement that development is not just a goal of rational actions in the economic, political, and social spheres alone. It is also, and very deeply, the focus of redemptive hopes and expectations. In an important sense development is an expression of our faith to be lived out in a spiritual battle, helping one another as Moses was helped in the Battle…raising our hands to God in surrender. Friends, here Development is clearly a vision of redemptive transformation for the most vulnerable as Zechariah envisioned. It is not just improved material conditions. Here the reality of spiritual capital is founded on an understanding that all resources are entrusted to people by God…that both individual persons and groups are called to preserve and develop a wealth of resources for which they are accountable. Thus, spiritual capital is about trust. It is about a demonstration of our faith. It is about living life with God’s help. Within this frame of reference, economic development can be seen as a process through which persons and communities learn to care for and use the resources that sustain life…seen as creative management of endowed resources by stewards who act on their faith commitments. Here, genuine economic growth is guided by normative laws, character, and principled habits and practices that take into account the preservation needs of human beings, their environments, and their physical, mental, social, cultural and spiritual lives. In the ultimate sense, spiritual capital is the secret sauce to be combined with human and social capital. So now in an era of rapid globalization and greater interconnectivity and interdependence across national boundaries, the whole idea of spiritual capital is the critical step to addressing issues of trust, corruption, governance, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. Friends, it is clear that the existence of good faith, trust, stewardship and a sense of purpose cannot persist in the absence of the solidarity and hope that come from our faith. When this is lost we decline. When this abounds we prosper. The consultants from Bridgespan working with us at Laity Lodge though were finding it difficult to define how this all worked. They were in a cloud of unknowing yet still seeking. Of course we looked at each other and thought that living in the grace of Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit is no secret at all. Here we too move from less thinking and less knowing to more loving.
There is a miracle that lies within each of us that empowers, equips and enables us to receive the power of life…love. In love we have the power for living, the power to witness, the power to pray and even the power to perform miracles. What it amounts to, when in unity with other lovers, is the power to be like Jesus in this world. The Holy Spirit gives us capacity individually but more importantly collectively. Indeed we are to know and to rely on the love God has for us individually but collectively as well. We are to witness by and through the power of the Holy Spirit in which we move, live and have our very being. Friends, we need to live in the power of the Spirit here on earth until we get to our heavenly home that Jesus has prepared for us. We need to rejoice because Jesus has interceded for us to protect, sanctify and bring unity to us all through love for His church. We are to be the living connective tissue that bonds us to a world of hurt and the redemptive power of God for God.
Pray that when we move we move with God. Pray we have the courage to follow the leaning of the Holy Spirit. Pray we thank God for the companions along the way. Pray we move in unity of Spirit. Pray the called out assembly in this place lives to emulate Him. Pray we learn to love creatively with faith in the power God to do great things in and through us. Pray we have the power to live for Jesus. Pray we individually and collectively are in the unity of God’s love. Pray we have the power to believe and the power to have faith. Pray we realize the power of the Holy Spirit is for a purpose. Pray we conform to Christ-likeness. Pray we receive the gift of the Father through the Son. Pray we share what we have received in Christian love. Pray that the streams of Holy History converge into one, of Christ transforming every area of human experience washing over and transforming culture in the power, revelation, and revival of His presence with us. Pray we remember those who have loved. Pray our thinking leads us to the experience that we are and that God is united in love. Pray our focus is on right relationships…the table…not the chairs.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 