#reality sf

[greyeyedfox]

The Beauty of Sorrow

It was hard for me to find the willpower to attend church this morning.  I kept making excuses.  “I should go home early for Father’s Day.”  “Parking is going to be a nightmare.”  “I’m going to be late, so why even go?”  Thoughts like these have really been at the forefront of my mind every Sunday for quite a while.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I attended church.  One, maybe two months ago?  Apathy has overwhelmed my spirit.  Complacency is a safe place. 

I just moved back to the City this past week.  Reality SF has been my home church anytime I’m back in the Foggy City.  For the summer, they’re meeting in Lower Pacific Heights in a Reformed Jewish Synagogue.  The building is built for worship.  As you enter, your eyes are immediately drawn heavenward to the spectacular artwork lining the massive dome.  The building is shaped in such a way that the entire congregation can see each other’s faces.  All your emotions and insecurities for everyone to see.  It makes you incredibly vulnerable and incredibly connected to one another.

As the sermon came to a close, the pastor lead us in a liturgy remembering our brothers and sisters in Christ whom were murdered in Charleston.  As we spoke the words, I began to cry.  I felt so much brokenness.  I felt the sorrow of God.  My heart broke for Charleston.

I glanced around the room.  Mourning filled the Church.  Heartache hung on everyone’s face.

As we began to worship through music, the Spirit was in full affect.  I’ve never seen a Body so connected by worship.  Everyone was on their knees physically and spiritually crying out for restoration.  Crying out for justice.

This was true community.  This was true Church.  This was the Body.

There’s a verse that’s written on the ceiling.  It overlooks the congregation.

Micah 6:8 --”And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

Justice.  God wants us to seek justice. 

Today, in the midst of sorrow, I saw beauty.  But in the midst of our suffering, I want to see justice.  And God does too. 

It’s time to get to work Church.  It’s time to move Body.  It’s time to bring Justice.

[omgafluffyunicorn]

Below are two generosity prayers we pray often as a church together on Sunday mornings for our time of giving. Holy Father, There is nothing I have that You have not given me. All I have and am belong to You, bought with the blood of Jesus.

[yesdarlingido]

Peter intends his readers to understand who they are before God so that they can be who they are in society.

Scot McKnight, Becoming: The Life of Simon Peter

[yesdarlingido]

Christians are the insiders who have diverted from their culture by being born again. They are by definition those who are not what they used to be, those who do not live like they used to live. Christian difference is therefore not an insertion of something new into the old from outside, but a bursting out of the new precisely within the proper space of the old.

Miroslav Volf, Soft Difference // The Strange People

[yesdarlingido]

I doubt any of you would ever say it out load, but have you come to a point where you have thought to yourself, “I have arrived.” If you think that you have arrived, you have only arrived in your own pride, and you will not be able to take another step because you have confused arrival with what it means to be stuck. If you are still alive, you have not “arrived." In pride, there is no growth nor a desire to improve. There is no worse person to be around than one who is stuck because they always have this subtly demeaning nature that treats others like they have to catch up to them, when the truth is that for a prideful person, everyone has already surpassed them. The best people to be around are the humble. It is the humble who have a genuine desire for growth and are conscientious in their efforts to improve. Don’t ever mistake arrogance for wisdom. Wisdom is marked by humility.

Dave Lomas, Wisdom & the Good Life

[yesdarlingido]

Wisdom is something you walk in. Wisdom can only come from God, but you must walk in it by faith. How else will you know whether you have wisdom unless you make a decision to walk in it? Wisdom is not some arbitrary or wispy spiritual jargon. Proverbs is clear that the tangible ways wisdom manifests is in obedience, love, trust, humility, generosity, and discipline. Now that you know the rituals, routines, and rhythms of wisdom, walk in them.

Dave Lomas, Wisdom & the Good Life

[yesdarlingido]

To spend time in the scriptures means to allow them to shape you, and not only that, but to allow them to overrule your own way of thinking. Of course we love the Bible when it agrees with us, but what about when it doesn’t? There must not be a self-serving agenda when we approach God’s word. When you agree with the Bible, living in accordance with it isn’t obedience—it’s sheer coincidence. It just so happens that your cultural lifestyle lines up with scripture. Having cultural biases that line up with the Bible is convenient, but if your method of engaging scripture sifts through it within the condition of convenience, it won’t be long before you are forced to either choose to be delusional or holy. What happens when a passage doesn’t cater to your opinion? What happens when a part of God’s message doesn't conveniently uphold the way you live a certain area of your life? It isn’t convenient to love your enemies or to forgive someone who has intentionally hurt you. It isn’t convenient to reconsider your views on sexuality, or to alter the way you engage sexuality. To love God, we must live in obedience to His truth, and in order to do that, you must trust Him enough to value His word, which is sure to challenge your most cherished, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. This is what it means to know and honor God, and unless we adhere to this framework, we won’t be followers of God, but people who merely affiliate with the idea of Him when it caters to our own comfort and agenda.

Dave Lomas, Wisdom & the Good Life

[yesdarlingido]

If we have love but not wisdom, we will harm people with the best of intentions. If we have courage but not wisdom, we will blunder boldly. If we have truth but not wisdom, we will make the gospel ugly to other people. If we have technology but not wisdom, we will use the best communications ever invented to broadcast stupidity.

Raymond Ortland, Wisdom & the Good Life