Project 100!

Numbers aren't always bad. In the Bible, numbers figure significantly. There were 12 Apostles, 12 Tribes of Israel, 7 days of creation, 40 days Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, 2000 people saved on the day of Pentecost and 144,000 worshippers symbolically representing God's elect in heaven. In fact, an entire book of the Bible is given over to guess what?!?... NUMBERS! Numbers can sometimes symbolize. Sometimes they communicate truth. Sometimes they motivate to action.

"Project 100" is Promise Church's Campaign to move to the next step of reaching the people in Jackson and Madison Country with the good news of Jesus Christ. Through this campaign we will...

Grow to 100 in Worship
Have 100 involved in Discipleship Groups
See 100 people praying daily for our city and community
Help 100 people discover their unique giftedness and ministries.

How can you get involved? Begin right now praying for an outpouring of God's Holy Spirit on our church family! Pray for God to begin opening the hearts of those who will join this family of faith - that they will be receptive to the word of Jesus when it is shared with them! Begin thinking of people you will specifically pray for and invite to church or your small group. Ask God to begin revealing to you what ministry He has purposed for you to do!
PROJECT 100 is about fulfilling God's great commission to GO into the world and PROCLAIM God's kingdom of salvation and love! Together and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will IMPACT this community for CHRIST creating a SHIFT in culture toward kingdom LIVING! How will you help PROJECT 100 accomplish its MISSION to reach 100's for Jesus?

Beginning August 5th at Promise Church you will hear more about Project 100 and the ways you can personally help our church family quantum leap to the next level! Our "Kairos" moment as a church is NOW! Let's covenant together to be in worship and celebrate the GOOD THINGS God is doing at Promise Church!

I am the Bread of Life!

The National Center for Health Statistics reports that 66% of Americans are "overweight." They also report that 32% of Americans are considered to be "obese." Americans clearly like their food.

If you're anything like me, you've used food at some point or another to provide some measure comfort during times of stress or emotional pain. It's easy after a hard day of work to "take your break today" and tell yourself how deserving you are of that extra snack or something that Taco Bell is now calling "4th Meal!"

For others of us the road to seeing eating as a means to cover something else began when we were children -so often sublimating our emotional hurts in the face of threats not to express anger or sadness - and turning to that one thing that we knew would make us feel "satiated" inside.

Food has become for many of us (including myself) a means of managing life's pain.

The people in Jesus's time didn't have to worry about having an overabundance of food. They lived literally day to day. When Jesus prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread" he wasn't merely using a figure of speech, he was sincerely praying to God that today would be a day without hunger. The people in Jesus's day experienced stress of a different kind. Rather than being faced with a multitude of options and opportunities and choices, they faced being locked into the same routine, the same job, the same family group, the same locale, the same "unenpoweredness", the same oppression, the same lack of prosperity or savings, the same daily subsistence for their entire lives and the lives of their children and the lives of their grandchildren. You get the picture.

So when Jesus proclaimed to them his highly controversial statement, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35) he was challenging them to rethink, indeed reexperience their ideas of need and lack and prosperity. I can't imagine that Jesus was being callous to their real economic and physical needs. Jesus wasn't being trite or cute or witty. He was in possession of knowledge (revelation!) that would literally change the way they perceived their world, how they viewed their lives and its limitations, how they entered into community and loved one another, how they even viewed their emotional disappointments or long standing pain. He was literally telling them that they could have a relationship with God that was infinitely more satisfying than even the daily bread they would strive every day to obtain.

Jn 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

To us today this smacks of religious sentimentalism because that's how we've been taught to interpret these words of Jesus. Yes, yes, we think. Jesus is the bread of life. How poetic. How nice. But to Jesus's original hearers these words possessed incredible power - so much so - that those who opposed Jesus (and had the most to lose if people's world-views shifted) were angered by Jesus's presumption that he could actually satisfy the people's needs so that they would "never be hungry" or "never thirst" again.

This passage has challenged me to think of what it means to allow Jesus to be my sustenance - my food, my drink, my provision. You see, because of the way this culture has infiltrated my own thinking I believe that I have to possess a number of things to know joy in this life and to salve my emotional hurt. How many of us if we were to get to the point where we lived day to day would look to the Lord as our provision? How many of us would be angry at God for not providing what we thought we needed?

I'm ready to quit hungering and thirsting after the wrong things. Our blessing in this country has become for many our downfall because we've hungered and thirsted for the effects and not the source of blessing! Too much prosperity. Too many choices. But Jesus's words still - after 2000 years - ring true. "I am the bread of life."

How many of us today are ready to tell Jesus - "You are my sole sustenance and provision and I have faith that you will provide me this day with all that I need." That's the faith I want to have in my life. That's the faith that I believe leads to eternal life. That's the faith that will move me past my focus on my emotional pain and on being more like my risen Savior who desires that everyone have the "bread of life."

You Are God's Fullness!

Col 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful nature was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Today's New International Version. 1089. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2001, 2005. )

The church at Colossae in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) was a faithful early Christian church. From the evidence we have from the New Testament it would appear that they desired to be zealous in their observance of religious festivals and holy days and strictly observe the law in order to present themselves as holy people before God.

So why would Paul in his letter - Colossians - choose to challenge them to step up their spirituality and leave behind their festivals and holy days in favor of - something, let's say - a little less "concrete?"

It's exciting to be around new believers! They possess an enthusiasm that ignites even the hearts of the most stultified life-long Christians! Their insight into the workings of the Holy Spirit as they see their own lives transformed by a simple, willing, acceptance of Christ provides a window into our own daily renewal of our faith.

Could it be that the faithful church at Colossae was missing out on something really exciting by translating their faith into set religious observances and patterns? Remember, Paul didn't say this was in and of itself a bad thing. He just wanted them to experience more in their walk with Christ.

In order to pull this church back into an "original" experience of their faith, Paul re-teaches them about who Jesus - as the "Son of God" - actually is. He is the "image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:15-17)

In other words, don't get caught up in all the things you consider to be religious as a way of growing closer to God. Re-establish Jesus in his rightful place as the Lord of all Creation!

That's a little scary for many of us because we like to have simple patterns and habits that we can look forward to and that will structure our days. But Paul's challenges us to re-enter our experience of Jesus's salvation and remember what it was like to once be completely lost but now to be completely in the grip of God's grace. At one time we were "completely alienated from God" in our minds "because of [our] evil behavior." But now... but now... we are reconciled through Jesus's sacrifice. Do you remember when you first became a Christian?

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile himself to all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (1:20)

God was pleased to be completely revealed in Jesus. All of God's love, character, mercy, forgiveness, teaching could be known through Jesus the Christ! To me, that's amazing.

But here's the kicker. Just as Jesus is God fully revealed to all of creation - we who are Jesus's disciples "have been brought to fullness." This struck me hard when I read it. It was easy to place all of God's attributes in the person of Jesus. But to see myself as somehow a continuation of that fullness - as I was "brought" to fullness was a challenge. In the way are all my feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy. In the way are all my past sins, my hurtful words, my willfull rebellion against God. And yet, even in this imperfect body, God sees can look past all of that and bring me to a fullness of his presence through which I let others know of God's grace and love.

You are God's fullness! You don't need anything but Jesus Christ to be completely shaped as a reflection of God. And in being the fullness of God - you have a task to perform. Let others know of what God is doing in this world as He reconciles all creation, all people back to Him through his mercy and love. Isn't that an awesome "to do" list? Isn't that something worth living for? Isn't that a wonderful reason to get up this morning and face the day's work and relationships? God has purposed for you to reveal Himself to the world around you. And what better "job description" or "life purpose" could their be?

What we have to offer as Jesus's disciples is not a reflection of "religion" but an amazing relationship with God's very son - Jesus. Are you seeking that relationship in your daily life?

Tearing Down the High Places!

2Ki 18:1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. )

The land surrounding Jerusalem is a hilly place and from since the beginning of its habitation, the early Canaanites would establish holy shrines to their pagan deities upon the high places of the land marking their covenants with their plethora of gods. As the Israelites came to conquer and inhabit the land that had been promised to them God had warned them not to become like their neighbors but rather to root out and cleanse the land from the worship of idols. Many Israelites remained faithful to the God who had delivered them from Egyptian slavery. But many succumbed to the need to fit into the culture of the people they had just conquered. And after time, they too set up high places of worship to the Cannaanite deities of fertility and nature and just so they might offer some recognition to the God of their ancestors - they gave Yahweh a high place as well - alongside the Canaanite pantheon.

Recently, I have found myself praying constantly for my children. As I watch them grow and develop and see them begin to take on distinctive personalities I see also the influence of our culture on them - an influence that as many parents hope and pray - you wished all along they would transcend. But a culture's influence is pervasive and subversive. In thousands of small and unnoticeable ways, culture nurtures and gives meaning. Culture gives a sense of security and promises blessing. It provides art forms for expression of the human spirit. Culture draws us into the marketplace and articulates for us in powerful ways and through eye-catching mediums our needs and desires. My children (nor their parents) have not escaped this influence.

Hezekiah - the young king of Judah - observed as the chosen people of God "acculturated" themselves to influences that were not of Yahweh. They worshipped on the high places the deities of their neighbors. And in offering their worship to these gods they came to take on the values and habits and patterns of their neighbors - values that were completely foreign to the mission of light and justice and holiness God had called his people to perform and to be blessed by.

To strike at the heart of a culture's god or gods requires incredible boldness and courage. Doing so risks alienation and marginalization. In tearing down the high places one risks being regarded a fool judged as they are against powerful worldly norms. And yet, this is precisely what Hezekiah - twenty-five years old - did.

I wonder what it means for us to become "Hezekiahs" - in our family and home? In our workplace? In our church? In our schools? In our relationships? What does it look like for the people of God to take the leadership of the culture rather than simply (and in futility) always allowing the world to set the agenda for the church?

For many - this question brings fear and to them smacks of fundamentalism and small-mindedness. That is precisely what the world would have us believe - that any radical departure from our cultural norms and any observance of holiness and righteousness and community represents a revolution against "stability" and "politeness." And so - those who would "tear down the high places" and seek to restore the love and justice of God are marginalized to the edge. To my mind - this is a risk worth taking.

I see too many people whose lives are disintegrating, whose marriages are falling apart, who are addicted to substances that control their mood and behavior, who think that joy comes only in a momentary "high" rather than patiently over time in a life well lived. My heart grieves for these people - many of whom are close friends of mine.

But there is a way! It's a way that became revealed in fullness in the life of Jesus Christ. It's a way of wisdom and love, of sacrifice and yes, death. But on the other side of that death is an amazingly rich life of holiness where rather than give value to the high places of this world... we stand at the altar of God and surrender ourselves to Him alone. God has promised blessing to His holy people. I, for one, believe that promise to be true.