Fixing our Focus on the One who STILL IS!
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” — John 14:8–13
I shared this poignant scene in an impromptu ending to our Resurrection Sunday message because it struck me so HARD and so PERSONALLY I couldn't not share it. Poor Jesus, having been with me so long, shown Himself so faithful, been so patient with me; and yet I keep asking Him, “Can’t you just show me the rest of the story?”
And He lovingly looks at me and says, “Don’t you see? I AM the story. I am the One it all flows from, and the One it all culminates in. I am the creator, sustainer and point of it all. I AM the story!”
As we leave this Resurrection Season, let’s not leave Him behind. Since He is the STORY, let’s SEEK Him Hot-Heartedly.
To that end I am asking you to join with me for the next 7 weeks in the following ways:
FIRST - Join me on Sundays as I teach through Colossians in a series we are calling “I still AM…”
we will be back in James sometime this summer Lord willing, but for now I feel led to focus on The Supremacy of Christ - the Theme of Colossians
be sure to not only watch, BUT PARTICIPATE IN the messages with the Sunday Resources we are providing and the Daily Readings we send out via the ‘In the Word Today’ devotional.
SECOND - Join me and my family via ZOOM each Wednesday evening from 6-7pm for Worship and the Word.
We will sing and share a Psalm together each week.
This week is Psalm 23 - The Lord our Shepherd.
THIRD - Join me and my family as we FAST FROM THE DINNER MEAL EVERY WEDNESDAY from now until Pentecost — May 31st — and replace the physical food with the spiritual food of Worship and the Word from 6-7pm on Wednesday evenings.
WHY ARE WE FASTING AGAIN?
As I have shared several times as we went into the Resurrection Season fasting together, fasting is really about FOCUS. We are turning our mind’s attention and heart’s affection on Him, praising Him for who He is and what He’s done. Like repentance, it is not simply stopping something, BUT REPLACING it with Christ - that we might walk WITH HIM more closely. We are replacing the physical (food) with the spiritual (worship and the word).
WHY NOW THROUGH PENTECOST?
We celebrated the start of Passover (and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as part of our Seder teaching) on Wednesday the 8th. We lamented at the Cross of Christ on Friday the 10th. We celebrated the Feast of First Fruits on Easter Sunday because, “It is a fact that Messiah, the Christ, has been raised from the dead, as the first fruits…” (1 Corinthians 15:20) And we have been praying for REVIVAL (the Holy Spirit’s POWER) to come to us since last March. And that is what Pentecost is all about.
WHAT IS PENTECOST ANYWAY?
The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot or Pentecost) was a seven-week time of waiting from the Feast of First Fruits until the Spirit of God united the people of God into the nation of God. As followers of Jesus, we celebrate Pentecost 7 Sundays after Resurrection Sunday (which is May 31st), in anticipation of the Spirit of God conforming the people of God (the church) into the image of the Son of God. Just like He rose 2000 years ago, the Body of Christ (the church) will rise again! Count on it!
In Acts 1:5, the Lord Himself said, “In a few days you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit!” And then He was taken up before their eyes. In Acts 2, we see 120 followers of Christ gathered to celebrate Shavuot/Pentecost, and “suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house…” This is what was written of in Ezekiel 36:27 and Jeremiah 31 when God says He will write His word upon the tablets of human hearts. THAT IS REVIVAL!!!
SO WHY ARE WE FASTING FROM THE DINNER MEAL EVERY WEDNESDAY BETWEEN NOW AND PENTECOST?
In a word — REVIVAL. We are begging God to show us His glory, to conform us into the image of Christ, and to let His Holy Spirit fall down upon us in POWER.
It is a way that, even when we cannot gather physically, we can GATHER SPIRITUALLY; and TOGETHER, SEEK and SEE His glory.
I pray you will join us and we press into this space of knowing Him.
MUCH love!
Pastor Doug
