Reggie!

Reggie Sanders died a few weeks ago.

I have only known Reggie for a year. I have only had three contacts with him during the year. And yet I feel as if I have lost my dearest friend.

When I heard Reggie had died from a heart attack, I crumpled to my knees for I knew the body of Christ had lost a great warrior.

Reggie loved Dawn. In fact, I can’t say I have ever observed a husband that loved a woman as well as he loved his wife. I found it a bit annoying, because he was so much better at it than I am. He kept raising the bar for the rest of us.

Drat that man!

Bless that man!

Reggie encouraged me. That annoyed me too. He was so good at it. There was not a discouraging bone in his body. He always called me “The Apostle Paul.” It made me feel special. And it occurred to me today that I won’t hear that again, since in heaven that title truly belongs to someone else.

Reggie Sanders died a few weeks ago. And I cried. And I continue to cry. But it in no way diminishes the confident hope that is mine.

Reggie lives.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

John 11.25 (ESV)

Community Makes the Difference

I am fascinated by Alyssa (not her real name). She has been coming to CA for a year now, but she has yet to make a decision to follow Jesus. She comes form a Buddhist background, but her family would be better described as non-religious.

Alyssa started coming to CA because her roommate invited her to come. There is no doubt she was a bit confused by her first exposure to Christianity. She was sure she did not believe what we believed (she told us that), but she kept coming anyway. It wasn't long into the school year that we discovered that Alyssa would come to the weekly meeting even when her roommate did not.

There is a reason for that. Alyssa was accepted for who she was without judgment. She came into the meeting each week and found a group of people that just plain liked her for who she was. There has never been a demand for her to be a Christian in order to belong.

Amazingly, Alyssa came to Infusion, CA's spiritually intensive retreat at the end of the school year. What has become seared into my memory is a picture of a smiling Alyssa carrying her Bible and notebook as she headed off to a scheduled alone time with God. I have been wondering what her conversations with God were like during Infusion.

I have not been privy to them for good reason. But I do know this. If Alyssa seeks God, she will find Him.

And she will find a community this coming Fall that will love her no matter what.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5.1-2 ESV

My Applause

This is the second of three installments - note the previous post of 8 June 2011.

My Applause
Zach Carhart

The glamorous life has blinded us all
Our own pride has captured us, ever since the fall
We are sucked into the lie of forgetfulness
Forgetting that we were once lost and oppressed

Our faith didn’t come from a glamorous scene
The crucified Christ came to seek and redeem
The broken and crushed were always on His heart
Because when Adam sinned, the world began to fall apart

The master plan didn’t include the glitz and glam
A Savior’s body was scarred for the sake of man
Pain and suffering was His pursuit of choice
To show His love for those who had no voice

The sick and the shameful, forgotten and lost
The freedom for captives required a great cost
To lay down one's life is the greatest love of all
To imitate Christ's humility, YES THIS is our call

Satisfaction can't be sought in the acceptance of man
But in God, who holds our life in His hand
The lost and the sick, everyday they pass by
But we don’t even spend the time to look them in the eye

TURN, TURN back to the cross, and see the blood which was shed
That purchased our souls now ALIVE, not dead
Breathe this new life, let it shine in our hearts
To carry out God's plan, for this we were set apart

Love, LOVE the weak, the lost and the slave
As this is the narrow path Christ has paved
Seek the love and grace flowing from the throne of God
As we SHINE for His glory, YES this, THIS is our Applause!

Freedom

One of the pleasures of Infusion is the encouragement of artistic expression. Three of our young people blew us away with their creative articulation of what God was doing in their lives. Here is the first of three. It is worth your attention!

Freedom
Tara Petty
May 2011

Like fists pounding on inside walls of my ventricles
Splitting nerve endings and atoms
Looking for one path out, of my locked box
Like dust collects on old photos trapped in frames
I have collected fear filled memories.
And that’s how tightly sealed I have stayed
Never changing in outward appearance
But with each change for repression tissue dies
So from the outside I know I smell like decay
That is the opposite of freedom

Like Chains bind up my being
And Fears come to life and
Tie my hands behind my back
Like in the dead of the night
I let out a scream and no one hears
And again I’m all alone
Frozen in time
Like wanting to move forward
But living in the past
With no way up or down.
That is the opposite of freedom

Like when someone comes into my life
And steals my most intimate possession
Then walks away like it didn’t happen
And I have no where to turn
So the devil turns to me face to face
And then I’m not only bound up in fear
But also in self-hatred and lies
Like being entangled, entrapped, and ensnared in sin
That is the opposite of freedom

A key to a locked box
Light to a dark room
A companion to untie the knots
Like when love is no longer a four-letter word
But the one thing I cling to
Like walking right up to the Berlin wall
And knocking it down in one breath
That is freedom

Going Down!

Baptisms make me speechless (which is why many people wish I would attend them all the time).

Seriously, I struggle to find any words that adequately describe them. But as I observed six people take their stand for Jesus a few days ago, here is what I saw:

GOOD NEWS: The truth about Jesus saving traitors and betrayers continues to be true. We don't deserve His kindness, but it is certain that He loves to extend it.

POWER: Jesus in our lives changes everything. Directions change. Desires change. Purposes change. All because He recreates us back to His original intention.

COMMUNITY: The excitement of being set free brings fellow believers to their feet, clapping their hands, and raising their arms in praise to God. I wonder what it was like in heaven - the angels must have been going crazy (decently, and in order, of course).

WORSHIP: In the end, after the testimonies - after the baptisms - after the celebration - what was left was worship. And that was enough.

They were "going down" but it was a good thing, for the eternal result occurred. There was joy!

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6.4 (ESV)

I tell them...

I tell them...

If they keep singing songs I don't know (I dislike mumbling and stumbling through unfamiliar music)...

And if they keep playing the music too loud (my poor ears - have mercy!)...

And if they keep singing the same thing over and over (feed my mind, please!)...

I'm leaving!

But I stay.

I stay for them.

I find God in their midst.

And I worship.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.

Psalm 96.1-4 (ESV)