South Africa Trip

Recently, Dave and I made a trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe. It was one of the most exciting trips we have made. We visited Kruger National Park, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Langa in South Africa. We also traveled to Zimbabwe, where we were chased by baboons and saw the beautiful Victoria Falls.

One of the absolutely insane things we did was to do the “Zip Line” across the gorge at the top of the falls. I say insane because no one in their right mind would actually pay to be thrown over a cliff to fly about 300 feet above water. At least, that is what I kept telling myself as they put the harness on me.                                         
Take a look at the evidence of this event.

It was very scary for me because I do not like heights of any kind. We had to stand on this little platform and attach to this cable line. Dave and I did it tandem, because even though I may be crazy, I am not stupid. I was not going to do this alone. You talk about taking a leap of faith ---- well, once I committed to dying ---- there was such a peace that came over me when I finally realized the harness I was in held and I was going to be okay. Hey, is there a sermon coming on????? All in all, Dave and I enjoyed the trip immensely. If you ever want to see all the pictures we took (about 400) we would love to share them with you.

I thank all of my St. Barnabas family for allowing me to take the time to go. Thanks to the Reverend Marcia McCrae for filling in two Sundays for me. My hope is that everyone who reads this Blog will get a chance to travel to South Africa and Victoria Falls some day. ......And take your own "leap of faith".

Peace, Denise+

Having a Critical Spirit.....

Criticism—when we hear this word we are convinced that when a person is doing it he/she is justified to give one’s own “opinion” or “view” on a situation or person. But when someone criticizes us or what we are doing, well, that becomes a negative or hurtful situation.

Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV) says, “Do not judge or you too will be judged, for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

If we were to replace the word “judge” with “criticize” I think this passage takes on a whole different focus.
“Do not criticize or you too will be criticized, for in the same way you criticize others, you will be criticized……”

Catherine Marshall* talks about a time when God asked her to fast one day from criticism. What she found out was that a critical spirit always focuses on self and one’s perspective is distorted. A spirit of criticism has a tendency to block positive creative thoughts and ideas that God longs to give us. Being critical puts an obstacle in the way of God’s Spirit and hinders God from working love, mercy and acceptance in and through us.

Being critical of someone or something only takes our focus off of what God is wanting you and I to accomplish. When we see something wrong in another person’s behavior or a situation, instead of criticizing or grumbling about it, God desires that you and I seek God’s Spirit through prayer to intervene and correct what is needed. Because in all truth change can only come through the power of God’s Spirit.
Let us together love each other and let God transform the areas that need fixing.


*Catherine Marshall, A Closer Walk (Old Tappen, NJ: Chosen Books/Revell, 1986)

Growing weary in doing good

Galatians 6:9    “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

There are many reasons for growing weary. One of those reasons is because we step away from God and deprive ourselves of the nourishment God provides through His Word and fellowship with believers. We grow weary in our efforts, missing the harvest ahead, because we’re busy trying to accomplish everything in our own strength without ever stopping at the cross of Christ.

If we look at the verse from Galatians, we see that reaping the harvest arrives in “due time”—that is God’s time and because of His work. Our responsibility in the equation, however, is to continue to do good work – meaning strive to fulfill the call on our lives according to Scripture truths; and to not give up –not allow difficult circumstances or challenges to cause us to throw in the towel and stop persevering to the end. We need to nurture our relationship with the Lord through being with God personally and with the body of Christ. We also need to ask God to shake up our priorities so that He is first in our lives as we look to the harvest ahead.

Gracious God, I pray that you will strengthen us when we become weary and help us persevere to see the harvest ahead. Thank you, Lord, for the work you are doing in us and through us. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

What does it mean to be a Missional Church?

We hear so much lately about being "mission-minded" or becoming a "missional church"; but what does all of that mean? According to Alan Hirsch, most churches think they are missionally minded because they have a mission statement or they talk about the importance of mission. But a missional church is a community of believers who are more focused on moving outside the church and allowing God to work in and through a person in every sphere of his/her life. No longer are we to attract people to "come and see", but we must place our energies on "go and be".

Ray Oldenburg writes about "third places" in his book, The Great Good Places. First places are our homes. Second places are where you and I might work or the place where we spend most of our day hours. Third places are the informal settings where we enjoy hanging out and relaxing with friends. Places like coffee shops, restaurants, the mall, or fitness centers. All of these settings are "mission fields" design to share the Good News of the Gospel. Being missional is to be evident in the whole life of a believer in Christ, not just while they are in church.

Below is a link to a video that explains the way you and I are to be missional in our thinking both as an individual and as a church.

http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/missional-community-simple/

"Ordinary Time"

We are about half way through what the church calander call the Pentecost Season. Yet it appears that the further we move from the celebration of Pentecost during “ordinary time”, life within the church can appear to be dull and boring. Let’s face it, Advent, Christmas, and Easter Seasons are all so exciting. Our worship services are different with lively music and color. Even Lent is exciting because of the mysteries associated with sacrifice and prayer.

So why have the Church Fathers and Mothers designed our church year with such a long Pentecost Season? I believe one reason is that it gives you and me time to grow -- to dig deeper in our relationship with God. Remember Pentecost was the coming of God’s Holy Spirit to dwell within each of us. The book of Acts talks about how this indwelling of God’s Spirit was manifested in the lives of the disciple of Christ -- so too for you and me. Pentecost Season is a time for you and me to discover the ways in which God’s Spirit works in and through our lives.

God knows better than anyone what our deepest potential is in relationship to the larger picture of life. Our responsibility is to discern from God’s Spirit what God’s will is for us so that we can live into it. Another way to say this is that we need to cultivate spiritual discernment.

Spiritual discernment is the quest to discover God’s will in our lives. Jesus said in John 5:30 “I can do no thing on my own … I seek to do not my own will but the will of [the One] who sent me.” In today’s world, you and I are the body of Christ. Our purpose as Christ followers is to allow God to act in and through us as we live out our lives.

Spiritual discernment allows our rational minds to join with our intuition by allowing God’s Spirit to mysteriously reveal to us what we need to know and how we need to act. It is a prayerful informed and intentional attempt to sort out the voices we hear with in. By cultivating our spiritual senses, we develop a keener sense of what God’s voice sounds like within us. Our goal in spiritual discernment is in fact to find the mind of Christ.

Though prayer is a key component of spiritual discernment, it is not about saying prayers to ask God to guide us, but more of a sense of being still and listening with the ear of our hearts. It draws us in and harmonizes our lives with God’s plan. It requires silence and waiting. Practicing spiritual discernment quips us to be constantly alert to the presence and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5)

Pentecost Season is long and ordinary because our focus needs to be within – growing deeper in our connection to God’s Spirit. It is a time to become grounded in our conviction that God’s Holy Spirit is an active presence in our everyday lives. God’s Spirit is eagerly waiting for us to open ourselves to God’s will. Can you discern that?

The Plumb Line

Last Sunday’s scripture reading in Amos 7:7-17 talked about God using a plumb line as a standard for the Israelite people. The simple plumb line is the oldest tool used in the construction trade. It is used to determine if something is or is not perfectly aligned or upright. God’s Word functions as a plumb line that tells us how the stresses of the world will make faulty human construction doomed to collapse. God’s Word is the Holy Scriptures, but much more. The Holy Scriptures are about God’s involvement in the existence of humanity. The Old Testament gives us the story of God’s presence and involvement through the Israelite people. The New Testament is the story of God’s Son, incarnate, living among us as an example of a life lived centered on (always pointing to) God. God’s Word is not only the written scriptures, but also the living Christ. Christ is our “plumb line” for living in this world. It is the measure by which you and I deem what is important.

The Church today finds itself, as Amos did, a reluctant prophet to the world reminding the world of the unpleasant realities of human crookedness. But as the Body of Christ, we, the Church, have a standard to follow that standard is Christ, himself. We are called to be in relationship with the living God always checking to see if we line up with God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and peace. When Christ’s followers live uprightly, then the world will be able to see its own crookedness.

St. Barnabas' Feast Day

Today, June 11th, is St. Barnabas' Feast Day. Since our church is named after St. Barnabas, it is a great day of celebration. Our church community will celebrate on Sunday, June 13th to honor our patron saint.

All we know of Barnabas is to be found in the New Testament. A Jew, born in Cyprus and named Joseph, he sold his property, gave the proceeds to the Apostles, who gave him the name Barnabas. He lived in common with the earliest converts to Christianity Jerusalem. Barnabas was instrumental in persuading the community in Jerusalem to accept Paul as a disciple. With Paul he brought Antioch's donation to the Jerusalem community during a famine, and returned to Antioch with John Mark, his cousin. The three went on a missionary journey to Cyprus, Perga (when John Mark went to Jerusalem), and Antioch, where they were violently opposed by the Jews that they decided to preach to the pagans. When a dispute arose regarding the observance of the Jewish rites, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem, where, at a council, it was decided that pagans did not have to be circumcised to be baptized. On their return to Antioch, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark on another visitation to the cities where they had preached, but Paul objected because of John Mark's desertion of them in Perga. Paul and Barnabas parted, and Barnabas returned to Cyprus with Mark; nothing further is heard of him, though it is believed his rift with Paul was ultimately healed. Tradition has Barnabas preaching in Alexandria and Rome, the founder of the Cypriote Church, the Bishop of Milan (which he was not), and has him stoned to death at Salamis about the year 61. The apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas was long attributed to him, but modern scholarship now attributes it to a Christian in Alexandria between the years 70 and 100; the Gospel of Barnabas is probably by an Italian Christian who became a Mohammedan; and the Acts of Barnabas once attributed to John Mark are now known to have been written in the fifth century. Barnabas’ feast day is June 11. St. Barnabas is known to be an encourager, one who empowers others to use the gifts that God has given them. He was instrumental in leading many to Christ and strengthening them in their spiritual journey.