At the church I am so much has happened in the last year or so. We used to meet in a single location near downtown Tampa. A few years back we were given another church property at another end of town and we began to use both properties in our efforts to be God’s people and serve our community.
A couple of years back it was decided by some with the necessary influence to make it happen that we needed to build new facilities on the new property. An attempt to raise the funds was made. It was slow going and the leaders went ahead with the project with a buy now pay later approach.
Just as the new building was completed one of the pastors went to another church. We found a very good pastor from another church just in time for the official opening of the new facility. We now meet exclusively at the new property while the old property is used for offices necessary to attend to the daily business of the new church facility.
Tonight the singles pastor announced his eminent departure, the third to leave in the last twelve months. So much has happened. I really am getting quite accustomed to it and there are some very encouraging things I have found through these circumstances.
The first and dearest to my heart is despite what happens in the realm of the staff at the church facilities, we the church just keep on having a super time in fellowship and Christian love! It is almost like two completely independent groups of people with entirely different realities.
The second is a validation of a singular truth about life, everything an individual needs is found in one person and that person is Jesus. I mean this in the most radical sense. You must give all your closest relationships to Jesus and trust Him with them even when it means it will put distance between you and them. This is the only way to truly experience what a true relationship with those loved ones can be.
If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it]? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish [it], all that behold [it] begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Luke 14:26-30
The fact is that every goodbye has the potential to the last goodbye this side of heaven and every time I leave the church building just might be that last time I see anyone I know and love in this life time. With this knowledge comes the responsibility and delight of lavishly loving everyone you come in contact with. The challenge and pleasure of living and being in the moment, alert and available to the people God has placed you with at present.
There are more lessons I am sure I will learn but this is a great start for me. God wants us first and foremost to rest in Him. It is fine to be encouraged and strengthened by our Christian brothers and sister but if we find it debilitating to be without them we have to realize we are misusing them.
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, [even] Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, [even] Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:8-12
We have everything we need in God! I am so encouraged by the people who are God’s church in my neighborhood! They are patient and loving. My brothers and sister are open about their faults and failings and are excited at the changes they see God making in their own lives and the lives of their families. Life is so short and we will all be together beyond time in a fellowship even greater than we have now soon enough. We should be focused on conducting ourselves in a way worthy of King Jesus so that our church community stands as a beacon to our city and to the whole world! Not out of obligation but with the joy of the Lord as our strength. If there is anything we do grudgingly to contribute to our family at church we should stop and ask God to Give us joy in the task or show us new tasks where we do find joy.
Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as [a matter of] bounty, and not as [of] covetousness. But this [I say], He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, [so let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all [things], may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.
2 Corinthians 9:5-9
We have all the instructions we need in God’s Word and this is what we have the privilege of hearing when we meet together every Sunday and Wednesday at church and in the homes of those we know from church throughout the week. We are so blessed and God plan is to continue to bless us more and more. It is about being in position to receive His blessings!
