kyle reynolds is... @kylereynoldsisblog - Tumblr Blog

| • M Y S T E R Y • | ⠀ ⠀ The mystery is in the moves! ⠀ ⠀ What? ⠀ ⠀ Colossians 4:3-4, Paul so beautifully writes…”Pray for, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ” he then goes on in verse so share the paradox..”that is why I am here in chains” ⠀ ⠀ The mystery, I love the word…mystery. To often we attempt to make sense of the things that we need not make sense of…could perhaps this very season be apart of the mystery of God’s plan? ⠀ ⠀ Stop trying to figure it out and start making moves! Paul was in chains and he couldn’t be stopped…we in “lockdown” don’t tell me we can be stopped either! ⠀ ⠀ And finally…Paul says it best…⠀ ⠀ “Live wisely among those that do not yet believe and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response to everyone” ⠀ ⠀ We control the narrative not the media…tell a better story today! (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_xHLyqgNU-/?igshid=1fcj8m72vfpp4

| • Q U A R A N T I N E • | ⠀ ⠀ Anyone feeling the disconnect of our quarantine? ⠀ ⠀ The isolation is beginning to ware on me as I watch nature awake from its winter slumber and spring forth to it’s full potential, while we stay dormant. ⠀ ⠀ Well your not alone! ⠀ ⠀ “We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, we hunger to feed others these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive, not just to be known and understood for all the good times and bad times that for better for worse have made us who we are, but to know and understand each other to the same point of seeing that, in the last analysis, we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in all the world as anyone who is really a stranger.”⠀ ⠀ ~ from SECRETS IN THE DARK: A LIFE IN SERMONS by Frederick Buechner (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_m-VqMgxW5/?igshid=f3p0jsh4zphg

| • A D A P T • O R • D I E • | ⠀ ⠀ Well…actually no… ⠀ ⠀ What if the church wasn’t broken? What if COVID19 was actually the booster shot the church needed? ⠀ ⠀ The visible church is all the people that get together from time to time in God's name. Anybody can be told who they are by visiting church to appear. ⠀ ⠀ The invisible church is all the people God uses for his hands and feet in this world. Nobody can know who they are except God. ⠀ ⠀ Think of them as two circles. The optimist says they're concentric. The cynic says they do not even touch. The realist says they occasionally overlap. ⠀ ⠀ In a fit of high inspiration, the author of the book of Revelation states that there's no temple within the New Jerusalem….the reason for there being no temple within the New Jerusalem is presumably the same as the rationale for Noah's leaving the ark behind when he finally makes it to Mt. Ararat. ⠀ ⠀ Why? Because the church was never supposed to be contained in a building, it is and always has been merely a shell.  ⠀ So whether we can meet or can’t meet we still can be the hope of the world! ⠀ ⠀ The best is truly yet to come! (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_DmVPwgkN2/?igshid=zs8uyr5gqpbv

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 7 • | ⠀ ⠀ Today is Easter, the day everything changed. Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.⠀ ⠀ Remember Jesus of Nazareth, staggering on broken feet out of the tomb toward the Resurrection, bearing on his body the proud insignia of the defeat which is victory, the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.⠀ ⠀ Everything changes.⠀ ⠀ We are no longer people of the cross, we are people of the open grave! ⠀ ⠀ He is alive. ⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ Just when I thought I was lost : my dungeon shook and the chains fell off. ⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ Matthew 28:1–20 ⠀ Luke 24:1–53⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ What could it mean to practice resurrection in my life?⠀ ⠀ How have I witnessed new life flow forth from death?⠀ ⠀ Pay attention to evidence of new life, whether in nature, relationships, people, or situations (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-4U05yAhBC/?igshid=ww0m435gndvx

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 6 • | ⠀ ⠀ Holy Saturday.⠀ ⠀ Sometimes called Black Saturday. ⠀ ⠀ The day in the liturgical calendar when the altar is stripped bare. We go silent on this Saturday, transported into the Holy Waiting. We stay there, are held there. We remain in the Black. We, too, enter the tomb that becomes the womb. These are the still hours when the sun seems suspended. ⠀ ⠀ The moment Jesus visits hell between these two points. The agony of waiting, of calling and yearning fora response, of grasping for the light switch of a promise kept in the complete dark. The seeming lack o movement from crucifixion to the resurrection, from the death of self into eternal life. A fear of the vague drifting of having turned aways from the knowledge of God, and the perception of God’s having turned away in return. Its what the ancients identified as the worst fate imaginable: the curse of having been forgotten. ⠀ ⠀ Into the Black… ⠀ ⠀ It’s Saturday, but Sunday’s coming . . .⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ Listen, Lord, to the cries of your poor: break hell’s hold, fling wide heaven’s door.⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ Matthew 27:57–66⠀ Isaiah 12:2-6⠀ 1 Peter 4:1–8⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ Practice solitude, stillness, and silence on Holy Saturday, allowing yourself to truly experience darkness (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-1sMvqAtYR/?igshid=91sogoubxd8z

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 5 • | ⠀ ⠀ "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD," John writes, "that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That is to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only son even to this obscene horror; so loved the world that in some ultimately indescribable way and at some ultimately immeasurable cost he gave the world himself. Out of this terrible death, John says, came eternal life not just in the sense of resurrection to life after death but in the sense of life so precious even this side of death that to live it is to stand with one foot already in eternity. To participate in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ is to live already in his kingdom. This is the essence of the Christian message, the heart of the Good News, and it is why the cross has become the chief Christian symbol. A cross of all things—a guillotine, a gallows—but the cross at the same time as the crossroads of eternity and time, as the place where such a mighty heart was broken that the healing power of God himself could flow through it into a sick and broken world. It was for this reason that of all the possible words they could have used to describe the day of his death, the word they settled on was "good." Good Friday.⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ He who hung the earth upon the waters : today he is hung upon the cross.⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ John 18:1-19:42⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ Attend a Good Friday service tonight at Journey.Church/live⠀ ⠀ Observe a period of silent contemplation ⠀ ⠀ Step into the shoes of the disciples, who did not know Jesus would rise from the dead, and imagine your world without the resurrection⠀ (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-zVDgng3bK/?igshid=146nl5ko2up0t

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 4 • | ⠀ ⠀ Today is Maundy Thursday. On this day, we memorialize the Last Supper of Jesus. This is the day that he washed his disciples’ feet and issued a new command—a mandate to love and serve one another. This is also a turning point—a final breath of peace before the descent into betrayal, suffering, death, and burial.⠀ ⠀ Following the meal, Jesus invited Peter, James, and John to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest. Instead, they slept while Jesus wept over all that lay ahead. ⠀ ⠀ When Jesus finally rises from prayer, it is to receive his betrayer's kiss.⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ Will you let me be your servant? : let me be as Christ to you?⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ John 13:1–17, 31b–35⠀ Mark 14:12–25⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ Practice the Lord’s Supper tonight as a family ⠀ ⠀ Rise in the middle of the night and pray with Jesus (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-wxL_TAZMZ/?igshid=fuh2tnh9k0ov

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 3 • | ⠀ ⠀ By Wednesday, the religious leaders were conspiring to kill Jesus, and Judas began striking his deal of betrayal.⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ In your great mercy, O God : answer me with your unfailing help.⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ John 13:21–32⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ Prayerfully consider the ways you have betrayed Jesus, in thought, in word, and in deed⠀ ⠀ Honestly repent of the ways you have sinned, by what you have done and by what you have left undone⠀ ⠀ #holyweek #easterpeople #easter #heiscoming ⠀ #wednesday #takethecity ⠀ (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-uGy_-AOby/?igshid=1nyvyxmp7liaw

#holyweek #easterpeople #easter #heiscoming #wednesday #takethecity

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 2 • | ⠀ ⠀ On Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus debated with the religious authorities in the Temple and issued his famous discourse about the end of the age on the Mount of Olives.⠀ ⠀ | • I N V O C A T I O N • | ⠀ ⠀ Save us, Lord, but not us alone : redeem Your whole creation.⠀ ⠀ | • R E A D I N G • | ⠀ ⠀ Mark 11:27-33⠀ ⠀ | • P R A C T I C E • | ⠀ ⠀ Consider areas in your life that need to be submitted to the authority of Jesus⠀ ⠀ #sundayscoming #passionweek #holyweek ⠀ #easter #tuesday (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-rcyEbgWB_/?igshid=1c4p1zwj2kq7w

#sundayscoming #passionweek #holyweek #easter #tuesday

| • H O L Y • W E E K • 1 • | On this day, Jesus cleansed the Temple and cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit. That evening, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil and her tears. • I N V O C A T I O N • With you, O Lord, is the well of life : and in your light we see light. • R E A D I N G • John 12:1–11 • P R A C T I C E • Clean a small part of your home, pruning away distractions and clutter to make space for good fruit to grow in your life; consider cleaning one small part each week through Eastertide to keep making room for more good fruit to be born @sacredordinarydays #holyweek #monday https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pA5RighXd/?igshid=nkkqmk77euzs

#holyweek #monday

| • H O W • T O • L I V E • |

“Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— C.S. Lewis

#Coronavirus #Covid19 #Pandemic #hoperises #jesus take the whole car #Jesus #Heavencome

| D E C A D E • I N • R E V I E W |

10 years 4 moves 4 states 4 jobs 2 kids Same dog 1 constant...

Change

It’s inevitable. If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that we are truly not in control of anything! While it takes some time to mourn this reality the sooner we settle this simple fact in our soul the sooner we can adjust our expectations. One of the biggest adjustments I’ve made this past decade is to learn to be fluid. To flow with situations and not fight them. Life is to short and the Lord is too good to not realize we are moving towards something and what we face can stop us if we don’t learn to flow around it. My simple goal for the next 10 years in addition to staying fluid, is to make the most of every moment by choosing to be fully present.

This means... less phone and more memories, less stuff and more experiences, less obligation and more intentionality.

I am ready 2020 for whatever you have and I look forward to reflecting on all that is in store in the next decade.

Cheers to 2019 🥂 (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wH6FIARoY/?igshid=158t77cne7wad

| A L L • I S • B R I G H T | From ours to yours, wishing you all the best! (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6hMMvWA_OU/?igshid=1x77w2v7msyy8

| • F I R E • | What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between, as much as to the wood. When we are able to build open spaces in the same way we have learned to pile on the logs, then we can come to see how it is fuel, and absence of the fuel together, that make fire possible. We only need to lay a log lightly from time to time. A fire grows simply because the space is there, with openings in which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way. - Judy Brown, The Sea Accepts All Rivers https://www.instagram.com/p/B3o7hyfA9Fn/?igshid=1leetswoheqyl

| B O O K • 1 | The first book of 2019 and man was it a doozy! If you choose to read this book be prepared...it caused me to doubt everything I think I know, dismantled my white evangelical understanding and reawakened me to the beautiful, messy, mysterious ancient truths of God's word. Here are three key highlights that absolutely blew my mind... 1. ”A well-behaved Bible is one that rises above the messy and inconvenient ups and downs of life. A Bible like that is an alien among its surroundings, a brittle scroll kept under glass, safe and sound from the rough handling of the outside world. Such a Bible is nothing like Jesus. It also doesn’t exist.” 2. ”What makes the Bible God’s Word isn’t its uncanny historical accuracy, as some insist, but the sacred experiences these stories point to, beyond the words themselves. Watching these ancient pilgrims work through their faith, even wrestling with how they did that, models, for us our own journeys of seeking to know God better and commune with him more deeply.” 3. ”There’s an irony: the passionate defense of the Bible as a “history book” among the more conservative wings of Christianity, despite intentions, isn’t really an act of submission to God; it is making God submit to us. In its most extreme forms, making God look like us is what the Bible calls idolatry. Thanks, Pete for the experience and for digging my spiritual well deeper. (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt6LUWgAip1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vzqbsbn5ri0n

| T O P • 9 • 2 0 1 8 | Memories...all the memories...I look too 2019 with great anticipation! “ . . some moment happens in your life that you say yes right up to the roots of your hair, that makes it worth having been born just to have happen. laughing with somebody till the tears run down your cheeks. waking up to the first snow. being in bed with somebody you love... whether you thank god for such a moment or thank your lucky stars, it is a moment that is trying to open up your whole life. If you turn your back on such a moment and hurry along to business as usual, it may lose you the ball game. if you throw your arms around such a moment and hug it like crazy, it may save your soul.” ― Frederick Buechner (at Cleveland Heights, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrxoAG_ACDa/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1s2dj423a6mb2

| 4 • D A Y S | "Bethlehem is not home, but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last." ― Frederick Buechner https://www.instagram.com/p/BrpqQ08gwf4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=k653jkamaql4

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