I recently began reading a book with a group of friends called “Loving Our Kids on Purpose” by Danny Silk.  So far it’s been an eye opening, paradigm shifting book that has initiated good conversations between us.  One conversation it sparked was on the topic of control.  Mr. Silk quotes 2 Corinthians 3:17; Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Then states,

“We sing songs all day long about how God is in control.  He does not control you, and neither does your wife, your boss, or your children.  No one controls you.  As a matter of fact, we’ve been given a Spirit of power, love and self control (2 Tim. 1-7).  You cannot blame your life on God…”

One opposing opinion that came from this excerpt is that God can be in control if we give it to Him.  This prompted me to do a little research, so I did a keyword and topic search for “Control” in the Bible… I found where the Bible speaks of God controlling animals, the wind and of us controlling ourselves (self-control), but nothing on God controlling us, or us giving Him control.  To me, to give someone control means to give them your free will, your choice.  Now we can go through life situation by life situation debating weather God was in control or not, but to me, the real question is; Does God want to be in control??  If He created us to be free, if He gave us the choice to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, if He gives us the choice every day to choose Him or to reject Him… why would He want control?  It reminds me of part of the script from one of my favorite Veggie Tales shows, A Snoodles Tale.  I hope it provokes thought, prayer and maybe even a response;

SNOODLE: But sir, if you made this incredible land,
Can’t you make snoodles obey your command?

NARRATOR: The big one smiled warmly the said to the small,

OLD MAN: A gift that’s demanded is no gift at all.

by Morgan Dietz

Every time the month has a 5th Sunday we do something a little different. I put down the laptop, the band puts down the instruments and we serve with all our heart. No message time, no music time, we still have coffee, and we clean up the facility where we gather that belongs to the Boys and Girls Club of Chico. This has become apart of our rhythm as a faith community. Why do we do this? Well simply put it comes from this passage of scripture: [26] It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, [27] and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, [28] even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
(Matthew 20:26-28 ESV)

If Jesus came to serve then we as his followers must serve as well. Cerebral Christianity is killing the Church and this is a very small attempt to move Christianity into action. Our serving does not provide salvation, we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus under the direction of the Holy Spirit and love of the Father, but we serve because of our salvation. We do not serve because of some duty that we are bound to from some cold deity…. no, no, no, we serve out of the overflow of love from a God that saves. It is my hope that this is just one way that the people of God in Fusion are serving. I hope that we are all looking for ways to love in the name of Jesus.

My prayer is this… that the Church not just Fusion but the Church globally will be come known as people of faith, hope and love through Jesus Christ. May our faith be evident by the way we live trusting God for our needs, may our hope be evident through our living as people of the kingdom of God, may our love be evident by the way we love one another and others, may our love be evident in out serving…

My hope is that this blog could be a place where everyone connected to Fusion would write, share, comment and connect in a unique way.

It is no fun if this is just me sharing me things. So come on folks lets get some good stuff on here and some great conversations started.

I will go first…

One thing that I have had the privileged of doing is bringing a message once a month at the Jesus Center. My slot is the third Wednesday of the month. I get about 20min. to share what God has laid on my heart with the staff and clients.

Initially I thought that this would be another way for my to give and support the Jesus Center. I was not prepared for the blessing that would come from this opportunity. Each week I am blessed by the reaction of the people and the feedback that comes. Also while I am speaking I receive an amazing amount of God’s grace.

God has created me to preach the word and I feel his pleasure when I am doing so… weird as it is to think about, it is how I feel. When I am preaching I feel the most alive.

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