from James 1:19-21

It takes no intentional effort to hear.  Hearing is merely our body’s ability to perceive sound.  Listening however, requires an intentional action.  The ability to perceive sound, and then process what it is and what it means.  I wonder how many of us confuse the two.

Or to push that a bit further, I wonder how many of us when we do listen, listen in a way that values and honors the other person.

In our 2nd week of our “Healing Connections” series we are challenged with what it means not only to listen, but to listen with humble attentiveness.

w/ Vern Collins

from Philippians 2:1-8

Not only were we created for relationship with God, but we were actually created for relationship with one another as well.  We know that Jesus makes possible through His death and resurrection, relationship with God.  But Jesus also makes life-giving relationship with one another possible through that same death and resurrection.

The problem is, something that is meant to be such a gift and such a reflection of Who God is in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…relationship with one another…is the cause of some of our greatest frustration and hurt in this world.

So how do we love one another well.  How do we operate in ways that are healthy and foster relationships that reflect Who Jesus is to the world around us?

We begin with humility.

w/ Vern Collins

from Joshua 1:1-9

What are you afraid of?  What keeps you from taking your next step of faith…from being faithful to that which God is calling you to do?

Boldness is the catalyst for living in to who God has called you to be in this world.  What if you stopped “collecting” the characteristics for a faithful life, and you started living the life God has given you faithfully?  What if you stepped boldly into the work of bringing hope to this world?

Imagine the ways you might grow…imagine how the world around you could be transformed!

w/ Vern Collins

from Luke 10:38-42

We are conditioned, many of us, to compartmentalize our lives as a means of surviving the pace at which we tend to operate.  We can call it self-preservation, and while it might help us feel like we are keeping our heads above water, when that mentality creeps into our spiritual life it becomes dangerous.

Without realizing it, it means that define what is at the center of our lives by determining what Christ can touch and what He must leave alone.  We set aside time to connect with Him, and often in doing so, try to decide the parts of us that He gets to connect with.

What if everything we do is meant to be an act of worship, and act of placing and keeping Christ at the center of who we are?

w/ Vern Collins

from Daniel 3:1-18

What drives your decisions?  What determines the way you spend your time, your resources, your energy, the things you pursue?  Follow the trail of those things and you’re not too far off from being able to determine what you value most.

If Vision (see the message from 9.2.18) determines the path on which we are journeying, then our Values determine HOW we journey that path.  The questions we must wrestle with in this are: Are the things we tend to value worth the value we assign them? And are the values by which we live in fact life giving or are they stealing life from us?

w/ Vern Collins

from Nehemiah 1:1-2:6

Much of our time, energy, and attention are spent reacting to someone else’s urgent or to our own need to achieve or acquire or accomplish.  We have deadlines to meet, meetings to make, assignments due, bills to pay and on top of all of that we set goals and have ideas for things we’d like to accomplish and overcome.

This is life, right?  But is this really the “full life” Jesus came to offer (John 10:10)?

What if the picture we grabbed on to for who we could be come or what our situation or the situation of the world around us could look like isn’t born out of our own need for validation or comfort or security…what if it is born out of something that God plants in us?

What if God has a vision for you?  A preferred future born out of His call to live life to bring Him glory and invite others into His story?

w/ Vern Collins

from Exodus 17:8-16

Alongside beginning this new series in which we consider those truths and characteristics that together build a life of faithfully following Jesus in the call He has on us as the Church, we also have the privilege of celebrating and praising God for 10 years of faithfulness and fruit in and through our Crossroads Worship Gathering.

As we celebrate all that God has done over the past 10 years, we are challenged to consider the truth that ALL of us are invited to play a role in God’s ongoing unfolding work in this world of inviting humanity into life through Jesus.

How will you say, “yes,” to the call?  Where is God calling you to take the next step and invest your life in all that He is doing in this world through the church?

w/ Vern Collins

from John 21:15-25

John ends his Gospel with this curious last sentence: “Jesus did many other things as well.  If everyone of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

What is it that makes, “many other things,” possible?  Work harder?  Delegate more?  Accomplish more?  Sleepless nights?  Saying, “yes,” anytime you are asked to do something?  Sure, these are all possible elements to accomplishing many other things, but what if it begins by saying, “yes,” to a meal?  What if it begins by saying, “yes,” to relationship with Jesus?

And what if we allow Jesus to take us deeper?  What if we allow Jesus to ask more, rather than to work so hard to become what the world is suggesting we ought to be?

w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain

from John 21:1-14

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you?  There is no denying that it is the the pivotal event on which the faith of Christians for generations continues to be built…it is the hope on which the church stands, and we mark it each year when we celebrate the resurrection at Easter.

But too often, we think of the resurrection as just that-an event.  Something that happened.  Something that can be marked at a point in time and is completed.  When we view the resurrection as simply an event, however, it becomes difficult to live in the hope that is made possible through it.

What if the resurrection is so much more than an event?  What if the resurrection is an eternal reality with significant implications in your every day life?

What if Jesus, truly does meet us in the routine with new revelation of Who He is?

w/ Vern Collins

from John 17

In a life spent trying to follow Jesus well, we know that prayer should be a priority.  Why is it, then, that something that is so vital to our connection with God often seems to difficult to grasp?  Am I praying correctly?  Am I asking God for the right things?  Are my prayers too small?  How can I “pray without ceasing” when I can’t remember to give thanks for a meal?

What if part of the issue is not that prayer isn’t enough of a priority, but what the priority of our prayer is?  In John 17, we find that Jesus gives an example of prayer that might just change our perspective on what a life of following Him could look like.

w/ Vern Collins