Archive for the ‘Pastor Tim’ Tag
Living In and Through Your Impossibilities!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, Trinity | Tags: Advent, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Followers of Jesus, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Hope, impossibility, Jesus, jesus ministry, Pastor Tim, Promise, Sin, Suffering, the Coming of Jesus, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Youth Ministry
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Everywhere I turn lately, and I mean everywhere, I am seeing and experiencing impossibilities! On a national level, I see the impossibility of our trying to permanently solve domestic abuse issues. I see the impossibility of our laws and courts to legislate racial harmony.
Locally and personally, I experience the impossibility of seeing the issues and biting problems of communities, families, and bad relationships issues solved by people participating in the Good News of God: Father, Son and Spirit. I have learned the impossibility of trying to use apologetics and healing to prove and convince people of God. I know the impossibility of trying to solve some of my thorniest and bone-weary problems, including getting a house sold and rented properly for more than 18 years after moving from it for the sake of Jesus calling me into His practical pastoral ministry in another state! hmpf! And being middle-aged, I am learning the impossibility of so much more than that “small stuff” I just mentioned…hahaha… (anyone 40 and above feeling me?!)
AND, in God’s good grace, I am learning that this is REALLY all Good News! Ha!
Why?!
Well, as Andrew Root writes about in his book entitled “Taking Theology to Youth Ministry”:
“The Church has often confessed that creation itself is ex nihilo, “out of nothingness”….The God of the burning bush [God: Father, Son and Spirit] reveals Godself out of human impossibility. Sarah is ninety, Abraham is impotent, Moses is a stutterer, and David is too young and small to be considered. God reveals Godself next to nothingness and impossibility; the breaking in of God often happens next to human weakness and yearning, in the backward and hidden (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is here that God moves; it is here that God is revealed; it is here that Gospel and mission are linked. God’s mission is to enter our impossibilities with the goodness that from the act of God a new reality in the love of God is breaking forth.
So, when we ask…’What is God up to in your life, where is God moving?'” we are compelled to look for God’s action in the kinds of places God is revealed. We look for God in places of brokenness, yearning, and suffering, places where God takes these deaths upon Godself for the sake of life. God is active at the places of our raw humanity. It is here, in our raw humanity, that we enter gospel and mission, that gospel and mission are held together. For the God of creation, the God [Father, Son and Spirit], the God who hears the groaning of God’s people, acts where there is the scent of nothingness. The God of exodus acts in those places where we are held captive, revealing Godself so death might be overcome with life.” pp.87-88
Footnoting the late Ray Anderson on this topic, Andrew quotes Ray who writes, “Why did the Lord wait until Moses was eighty years old, a failure and fugitive, with no possibilities? Because the element of human possibility must be removed. The people were powerless and helpless. They cried out to the Lord. Moses was chosen to be the redeemer because he was also without power on the human level. Moses understood that this “powerlessness” is itself a necessary ingredient in the chemistry of divine grace.” The Soul of Ministry, 45.
\May this Advent season for the Church, or season of focusing on the Coming of God: Father, Son and Spirit, in Jesus Christ, be a reminder and encouragement to you that God comes to us in our nothingness; our sin, death and hells. Our impossibilities. And He comes not at our initiative (our initiative is long dead and broken in sin!), but in his own initiative to bring forth his own future by His own Coming.
So as you and I believers enter into and participate in the suffering and death of this world with Father, through Jesus, and by the Spirit, no matter our age or circumstance,
“…we embody the promise that God is acting to bring forth God’s kingdom. Our hope is not that our efforts can make the world a better place. Our hope is in the action of God to open our eyes to see the small-but-sure ways God’s new reality is breaking forth.” – Andrew Root, Taking Theology To Youth Ministry, p.69
“[The end times and last things]…has finally not to do with the best that we can hope for in this world, but with a new world which will be brought into being only when God wills and acts to do so.” Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart, Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium, p.174
(In a related thought, though many people have been have been MISUNDERSTANDING and making fun of Janay Rice’s comment that she and NFL husband Ray Rice’s recent domestic violence incident was “God’s Plan!”, I suspect God: Father, Son and Spirit has shown up, and out, and IN the Rice’s impossibility. He loves creating possibilities out of our nothingness!)
– tjbrassell
What Jesus’ Coming Means For Us Today!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Advent, Amazing Grace, Answers, Bible, blessings, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, compassion, death, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, God Father Son and Spirit, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God's Amazing Grace, God's Grace, God's Judgment, God's Will, Gospel, Grace, gratitude, Holiness, holy, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, Jesus's coming, Judgment, kindness, life, Love, new life fellowship, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Preaching, Purpose, Questions, Reality, Rebellion, Reflection, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, response, Salvation, Sin, Sinners, Suffering, Thanksgiving, Theology, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Will of God, Worship
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On this 1st Sunday Of Advent 2014, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore delivers a message of Good News entitled, “What Jesus’ Coming Means For Us Today!” Through Hebrews 10:1-10, he proclaims the GOOD NEWS that GOD THE SON’S COMING IN JESUS IS OUR REALITY, LIFE, and RESURRECTION and that WE WILL BE FULFILLED BY NOTHING LESS THAN HIM!
In this message we reinforce that:
~ Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of ALL and will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those waiting for him.
~ We, IN OUR BROKENNESS, don’t GET to start everything; don’t get to control or guide the outcome of life with our questions and answers. It is our pleasure, our role, to RESPOND IN GRATITUDE to what has been done to us, and INITIATED by GOD FOR US, IN HIS GRACE. GOD, in Christ, and by the Spirit, SHARES THANKSGIVING with us as a human response to HIS GREAT INITIATIVES in our lives!
~ God’s will for the world was for the Son to be born into it as Jesus. The purpose of Jesus Christ was to BE AND DO THE WILL OF GOD AS MAN! It was NEVER put upon anyone other than Jesus to meet the will of God or to meet God’s expectations for Man. We were never meant to carry the burden and impossibility of working out our own adoption and salvation. It was always up to Jesus Christ to meet the expectations of God. We were meant to be dependent on Christ. It was the will of God to make humanity HOLY – to rule over everything and everywhere under Christ, God himself! Further, it was the will of the Father to bring us to Glory as his adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.
~ The Reality of God in Jesus not only stands FOR US, but also against us and against all other people, things, and attempts for us to fulfill our own lives and create our own purpose!
~ The Lord wants us to run in the JOY of being sons and daughters and not with the weight of trying to prove that He exists or in our trying to transform the world. He empowers believers to be witnesses and proclaimers of who HE IS, and to be a people of Promise and Hope!
– There are better ways we can take part in Jesus’ Ministry as His Church that will make us more free and less bogged down as we join Jesus in His Mission to His World.
~ Whatever Jesus’ coming means for us TODAY doesn’t mean He isn’t coming in the future, and whatever His coming means for us in the future doesn’t mean He isn’t already here!
Photo Compliments Rio Vista Community Church
Thank God He Is His Amazing Grace!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Amazing Grace, Benevolence, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, compassion, death, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God's Amazing Grace, God's Grace, God's Judgment, God: Father, Gospel, Grace, healing, Holy Spirit, Idolatry, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, Judgment, kindness, Love, new life fellowship, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Preaching, Rebellion, Reflection, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, response, Salvation, Sin, Sinners, Son and Spirit, Suffering, Theology, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship, worthy of his love
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In this 24th Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore proclaims the GOOD NEWS that God is His Grace in this riveting Gospel Message entitled “Thank God He Is His Amazing Grace!”
Pastor Tim explores Hebrews 10 and poses the question:
Will you continue to understand yourself and life in terms of man’s idolatry, rebellion and sin or will you begin, as the scriptures do, by looking at the revelation of God in Jesus Christ? After All, it can only be idolatry to trust in anything other than God, anything other than the One Who made and sustains you!
In this gospel Message we learn that:
~Jesus is the Light of the world, and our idolatry, rebellion and sin are NOT, therefore understanding “Who Jesus is?” is the ONLY Way to begin understanding all of scripture. The Context of Jesus, Himself, must fundamentally guide all of our interpretations of the biblical text!
~Jesus is God as Man, and therefore, in Him God the Father and Spirit have also taken up the cause of humanity forever, determined that we will not perish!
~Some of our sufferings, though not caused by God, He works in and allows so we can come to the end of ourselves and trust only in Him!
~Grace isn’t something that stands apart from or beside God. GOD IS HIMSELF HIS BENEVOLENCE AND KINDNESS! Grace isn’t something we manipulate, or a magic symbol that we make – God is himself HIS GRACE and He is the one Who ultimately acts and delivers us. He, personally, is your REST!
~We are often looking for God to give us something primarily other than himself when God says in Christ “I AM YOUR RESPONSE TO ME! The one who stands in for YOU! Work to believe and trust that! I Am your reward!”
~We need to THANK GOD HE IS HIS AMAZING GRACE and not divide Him too strictly from the great Works HE does. IT IS HIM at work when His works are being done, NOT a substance or a commodity called “grace”!
~If we don’t understand and proclaim God as his own Grace then we will subtly allow a “works based” and legal orientation into our lives. We will think that it is our prayer or religious things that are getting the job done when it is actually GOD IN AND AS HIS AMAZING GRACE getting the job done, many times in and through those things!
~God’s judgment and destruction doesn’t mean the end of us as men and women, but the end of what seeks to destroy us as men and women! Threats in scripture don’t always mean that the bad consequences are actually going to happen because, as the writer of Hebrews wrote, “we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”
Listen, Enjoy, be Encouraged, and find rest in the GOOD NEWS of God as His Amazing Grace!
Jesus’ Compassion On The Harassed And Helpless!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, Spiritual Warfare, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, compassion, death, demons, Discipleship, disease, Evangelism, excorcism, Followers of Jesus, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God: Father, Gospel, Grace, Great Commission, Great Commission Resurgence, healing, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, Love, meditation, new life fellowship, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Preaching, Reflection, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Salvation, sickness, Sin, Sinners, Son and Spirit, Suffering, Theology, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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Have YOU ever felt harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd? Not without clothing, food or water but, in the midst of plenty, still feeling LOST, despite knowing there is a Shepherd????
Of course you have, and do!!!
In this 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore proclaims a Gospel Message entitled ” Jesus’ Compassion On The Harassed And Helpless!”. In this Gospel he explores Matthew 9: 35 through Matthew 10: 1-8 proclaiming The GOOD NEWS of God’s compassion revealed and active in Jesus! Observing the literal Body of Jesus Christ in Mission reveals God: Father, Son and Spirit does all kinds of interesting and redemptive things with “foolish” participation, people, preaching and pausing!
In this message we hear that:
1~ God in Jesus begins a radical form of calling people to Himself in a gathered and scattered way that transforms their lives and the lives of others as he reaches out in compassion to His world and humanity. God in Christ DOES have an agenda and He DOES care to make himself known to people even as He does good works. He is even willing to become broken to reach out in His compassion and see humanity healed!
2~ Even with money in the bank, food to eat, shelter, we can still find ourselves harassed and helpless, but WHY??? Pastor Tim gives one compelling reason this may be so in our times, considering the present mission of God revealed in Jesus and His determination not to be Himself without us!
3~ We have not understood the “foolishness” of God in Jesus Christ and why we need to be willing to RECEIVE His foolishness as He works in this world to compassionately SAVE people!
4~ Jesus Christ is not only GOD’S GOOD NEWS, He is GOD’S GOOD NEWS in LOVING MOTION: in Gospel Mission and Ministry action, in and through His special believers! In and by the Spirit, believers become THE BODY OF CHRIST – JOINING in what GOD is DOING as He calls and gathers even more disciples and sends them with HIMSELF in MISSION. From the Father, in Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit, believers are the compassion of God, helping to heal His harassed and helpless humanity.
Listen and ask yourself: DO I SEE THE COMPASSION OF GOD REVEALED EVEN IN THE BROKEN HUMANITY OF JESUS CHRIST? AND AM I, THROUGH JESUS AND BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WILLING TO RESPOND TO GOD’S CALLING TO BE HIS BODY AND COMPASSION RIGHT NOW, AS HE WORKS OUT HOPE AND HEALING IN AND THROUGH MY BROKEN HUMANITY FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS?!
Profit And Loss
Filed under: Bible, By Richard Andrews, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Adoption Advent Season Bible Christianity Christian Living Christmas Church Easter Evangelism Faith Forgiveness God God Likes You god the father Gospel Grace Hell Holy Spirit Hope Incarnation Jesus Le, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Contract, Covenant, Evangelism, Followers of Jesus, God, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, new life fellowship, Pastor Tim, profit and loss, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Suffering, Timothy Brassell, trials, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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Are you wondering WHEN are you going to experience the treasures that come with knowing God?
In this Gospel Message entitled “Profit And Loss”, Pastor Richard Andrews of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Proclaims the Good News and gives encouragement through The Apostle Paul and by exploring Philippians 3:4-14 and also by reading the Lectionary, 17th Sunday after Pentecost: That our Profit and Losses are not Fiscal Profit and Losses but Profit in the context of our trials – Treasures in heaven. The kind that are measured in our Blood and Jesus’s Blood. The kind that are measured in sweat and tears.
In this message hear how to see our trials and ourselves differently by learning:
~We need to start seeing Jesus and what HE wants differently.
~We need to start seeing the acts and works of our hands differently.
~We need to start seeing the things that come out of our mouths differently as we grow in Christ.
~Our Prize is to move forward, to press on through trials, to see the heavenly calls. (Isaiah 55-1)
~To count it all as a period of cleansing – Our “Pressure Cooker Period”
~To ask ourselves: AM I READY TO LET GO OF ME? AM I TIRED OF WORKING THINGS MY WAY?
~To see trials as a way of melting/weakening of the flesh/ humbling us.
~To see trials as pointing us to THE ONE IN WHOM ALL ANSWERS ARE FOUND!
~To see trials not just as losing self but GAINING JESUS CHRIST, growing in his righteousness!
In this message we understand that:
~There is NO WAY to share in Jesus’s suffering without US SUFFERING! To know Christ is to know him in his suffering!
~Our Father is saying, STAND UP as a Community in the LOVE of God and WALK as a Community to help other Communities. We are never in a vacuum but rather, US TOGETHER with FATHER SON and SPIRIT embracing us all. We stand in the name and power of Jesus Christ who lives in and through us!
*photo compliments http://www.libertynews.com
“Partnering With Jesus In Planting Disciples-Making Communities”
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Adoption Advent Season Bible Christianity Christian Living Christmas Church Easter Evangelism Faith Forgiveness God God Likes You god the father Gospel Grace Hell Holy Spirit Hope Incarnation Jesus Le, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Contract, Covenant, Evangelism, Followers of Jesus, God, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, new life fellowship, Pastor Tim, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Suffering, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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In this Gospel Message entitled ” Partnering With Jesus In Planting Disciple-Making Communities!”, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, shares with us the Mission of GCI and NLF with Jesus which is: Living and Sharing the Gospel! Seeing Jesus revealed in Matt 9:27-38, He Proclaims The GOOD NEWS that we are called to be GOSPEL PROCLAIMERS who participate with Jesus and other disciples, forming disciple-making communities that also proclaim this GOOD NEWS!
In this message we learn that when we see Jesus we see the God, Father and Spirit acting as One in Jesus! What we see coming out of the heart of Jesus is the heart of the Father, Son and Spirit! In Christ God is active in our humanity, BEing, DOing, ACTing, and SPEAKing in Relationship as He saves, heals and redeems His fallen creation!
Listen in as Pastor Tim explores the following questions:
Do you see God, Father Son and Spirit in Jesus?
Do you see God, Father Son and Spirit Committed to His plan of Adoption?
Do you see the humbling of God in Jesus Christ?
Do you see the capability of man in Jesus Christ?
Can you feel the Fierce wrath and Fiery Love of God, Father Son and Spirit?
Do you see the faces of all of the Lord’s children?
Can you discern the whole God inside the whole man Jesus?
Can you see that God the Father desires to be known? Now!?
Can you look at Jesus and see how God deals with the confusion that has entered the human race and creation?
Can you see that Jesus calls disciples to participate with Him in the loving labor of prayer and disciple-making?
“Fresh Hot Soup”
Filed under: Bible, by Joe Heilman, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Evangelism, Followers of Jesus, Fresh Hot Soup, Friar Tuck's Tales For The Common Outlaw, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Love, new life fellowship, Pastor Tim, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Suffering, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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In this Gospel Message entitled ” Fresh Hot Soup,” visiting Pastor to New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Pastor Joe Heilman, introduces us to his book “FRIAR TUCK’S TALES For The Common Outlaw,” a collection of stories meant to help people understand the Gospel better as they transition from one part of life to another.
By reading one of his stories, “Fresh Hot Soup” Pastor Heilman shows:
1) That people think the gospel is a spiritual equation where God will LOVE ME, FORGIVE ME, CLEANSE ME, HEAL ME…ETC…..IF I HAVE ENOUGH…….FAITH, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM,…ETC.
2) That the Gospel is NOT a Self Maledictory Oath signed sealed and delivered (Genesis 15:18).
3) By exploring Romans 5-8 he shows that God’s covenant is not a transaction between us and God but rather a RELATIONSHIP we are INCLUDED in with FATHER, SON and SPIRIT.
Understanding God’s ‘If’s, And’s, or Buts’ RELATIONALLY! Part 4
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Sermons, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Contract, Covenant, Evangelism, Followers of Jesus, God, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Image of God, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, Marriage, Marriage Vows, new life fellowship, Pastor Tim, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Sin, sinner, Suffering, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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In this Concluding Message of the series entitled ” Understanding God’s ‘If, And’s, or Buts’ Relationally!”, Part 4, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Proclaims The GOOD NEWS of our Real Participation in the Real Love and Life of the Loyally Loving God Revealed in Jesus Christ – God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
In this Final Message:
* Hear again how God Himself is the Greatest Love Story in Existence and HAS GRACIOUSLY INCLUDED YOU AND ALL HUMANITY IN IT!
*Learn more pointedly what it means that YOU are made in the Image of God and why it is crucial to understand this properly!
* Understand the specific factors in your life that hinder you from embracing God’s Covenant Love and how God has overcome that!
* Grasp 5 specific reasons God uses “Ifs, ands or buts” language in His unconditional loving of you and how God’s uses consequences in your life to shower His unfailing love on you!
Enjoy!
Are You More Idealistic Than God?
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Ministry, Relationships, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Adoption, Christian Living, Christianity, Evangelism, Faith, Followers of Jesus, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Holy Spirit, idealism, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, lesser evil, lesser of two evils, Martin Luther, Missions, Pastor Tim, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Suffering, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity
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Recently, in pastoral ministry with Jesus, I was placed in the unenviable position of having to choose between the lesser of two evils in addressing a real life and troubling situation! Yikes! Talk about struggling with what to do! I began to pray and write out my options, desperately trying to find a potentially better 3rd option, but it was not to be.
After thinking carefully and much, and talking with another close friend in ministry about my dilemma, it seemed clear that, the case being the case, I would have to choose the lesser evil and “sin boldly”, as Martin Luther, the Reformer, might have said. I must admit that after talking with God, Father, Son and Spirit in prayer, and carefully thinking about the entire situation, I actually had peace and confidence about acting on the lesser evil even though, of course, it was not “ideal”. Long story short, everything worked out better than I could have hoped. I mean!!!
Of course I was delighted last week when a fellow pastor of mine told the story in his sermon about a priest who chose between the lesser of two evils and the result was a miraculous and positively transformed life at the other end of his action. Then, to top it off, I was watching the television series “Luther” last week and heard this dialogue before my very ears:
Friend to Luther: “You know that what you did wasn’t right, don’t you?”
Luther: “Yes.”
Friend to Luther: “Then why did you do what was wrong?”
Luther: “Because it was the right thing to do!”
Hahahaha…Wow! Powerful! The writers of that show seem to know something about living in situations that aren’t always ideal. The thing is, I believe that anyone who watched that episode in its context would most naturally believe that the “wrong” thing was the “right” thing to do in that situation and resulted in real lesser evil.
“Wow! Jesus, you sure are funny and comforting! Thanks!” I thought to myself after wrestling with my difficulty and then having these quick follow ups come to my attention over the next couple weeks.
It all has me thinking a little differently about what may be going on with you and me in our present mission, sufferings and trials with Jesus. You see, I have been tempted to think, in most cases (and because of my legalistic, rule-based, “bible-primarily-as-an-instruction-book” religious background!) that “Gawd!” is all about the exact right and ideal choices, every time. And when you and I don’t always make the exact right choices at the exact right time about these all important rules, “Gawd!” makes us pay for those lesser and greater evils by rubbing our noses in the bad consequences, or simply ignores and/or punishes us until we learn to do EXACTLY what Jesus would do!
Can you relate with that kind of “idealistic” thinking? “Idealistic” meaning that it supposedly has the best chance of resulting in and motivating us to do what looks exactly right according to the rules?
But what if the God Revealed in Jesus Christ to be the fullness of God, Father, Son and Spirit, in flesh, is God? And what if that Relational God, in the fallen flesh of Jesus, has experienced every thing we experience, including things like temptation, loud crying and tears, broken family relationships, the betrayal of friends, loneliness, the rejection of His Good News, great suffering and even death, like the scriptures say He has?!
Not the most idealistic action on God’s part, huh?
And yet, that realistic act of God, Father, Son and Spirit in Jesus, wrestling with and through our sin and blindness in our broken humanity (versus idealism), was just the right thing to do, in God’s opinion, even though it was oh so WRONG! The result was humanity’s adoption as sons and daughters into the love, life and relationship of God the Holy Trinity! The result was our being saved from sin, death, hell and the grave and becoming partakers of the divine nature! Shewowsa!
Are you more idealistic than God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? hmmmmmm….Even God Himself did not (could not?!) redeem us without sitting where we sat (even though He did not sin, of course!)
Because God is the Social God of Grace, including Humanity in His Dance, Dream and Mission, He is NOT the solitary god of toxic waste (as my friend Baxter Kruger might say!). He is more interested in people than He is in a set of abstract rules, therefore:
- Maybe you are suffering perplexity about everything, including God, so that Father can get rid of your idealism and prepare you for more participation in His REAL down and dirty ministry in this present evil age?
- Maybe you need to face and carry the dilemmas and dark secrets that people who don’t know of the God revealed in Jesus have to face and carry, so that you will not be arrogant but REALLY understand where they’re coming from and love them with REAL compassion, not just something that looks like compassion?
- Maybe you are experiencing a mess in your close relationships after many years of “peace” because you have been so sheltered in a religious and “ideal” culture you weren’t appreciative or aware of what people “on the street” are really going through in theirs, and you’re being made ready to serve and be FOR them?
- Maybe God the Holy Spirit is distressing your view of the scriptures because you are beating others up with “the rule book of standards and weights” in your efforts to get them on the ideal track, and not loving and understanding them where they are, so you can join Him in mission right in the middle of their doubting faith too?
- Maybe you are unaware that you are still so solitary and self-centered, you even unconsciously think you stand apart and above the others “out there”, and God is allowing you to be blindsided just like your brothers and sisters in this troubling world are, so you can IDENTIFY AND RELATE WITH THEM AS YOU POINT THEM TO GOD IN YOUR MESS, TOO, IN HIS GRACE?
Hmmmmmmm….just another Christ-centered perspective to chew on about your life and considering the fact that GOD, FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT REFUSES TO BE ON MISSION AND LOVE OTHERS WITHOUT YOU (again, NOT the choice of an idealist huh?…heehee…), in this present age!
– Timothy J. Brassell
To Love Another Person Is To See The Face of God
Filed under: Bible, by Paul David Kurts, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Bible, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Evangelism, Followers of Jesus, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Les Miserables, Love, new life fellowship, Pastor Paul David Kurts, Pastor Tim, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, Suffering, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Worship
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In this Gospel Message entitled ” To Love Another Person Is To See The Face Of God”, visiting Pastor to New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Pastor Paul Kurts Proclaims through this quote by Victor Hugo and 1 John 4:7-14, “To Love Another Person is to see the face of God” – to KNOW him more intimately.
Hear in this message that:
~ Jesus lives in you through and by the power of the Holy Spirit! There is no other source of JOY, LIFE and LAUGHTER other than JESUS! He is the Author of EVERYTHING GOOD!
~Sometimes the Spirit takes us out of our comfort Zone so that we can not only KNOW GOD’S LOVE but also, so that we can SHOW GOD’S LOVE! We are called to Love one another with the kind of love the Father, Son and Spirit showers upon us, even when that love HURTS…even when that love is HARD….even when that love is CHALLENGING! 1 John 4:7
~The Story-Line of the Musical “Les Miserables” is a story filled with The Gospel, LOVE -REDEMPTION- FORGIVENESS – MERCY- GRACE – PASSION – SACRIFICE! Like the Bible it is riddled with brokenness but it ends with LIFE! Salvation has a positive ending. It includes our participation in the Father’s GRACE and LOVE AND US SHARING IN IT WITH OTHERS! It is GOD in HIS GRACE that teaches us how to live!