Scripture Talk by Grace Church

In this, the last episode of at least this form of Scripture Talk, it's all about Christian community. Western Christianity makes a big deal about our personal salvation. Certainly, we need to form a deep, personal, and saving relationship with Christ, but that is meant as a point of embarkation - not arrival. Our relationship with Christ is meant to draw us closer to God and God's people. For the final time, Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy look deeply into Godly community and this thing we call church.

Revelation is not just weird creatures with even weirder numbers of eye balls, death, destruction, and eventual victory. It opens with a section that's a lot more like Paul's letters with God passing messages, through John, to various churches. In these brief letters, there's both encouragement for what they're doing well and challenge on where they still need to grow. It's God talking in a mode that we all should know well. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy recognize that we can all see ourselves in these same journeys and need to hear the challenge alongside the praise,

So much of the Gospels feel like a fantasy land to us. We know that they tell of true events, but their ability to directly access Christ in a tangible way - to walk with him, talk with him - is so far from our own faith experience. The Road to Emmaus, in Luke 24, is different though. Yes, they talk directly to Jesus but only recognize him at the last moment. This is a faith experience that we can have, where we realize in retrospect, that God was there with us the whole way. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy point out that this is also an experience that we are meant to have together.

It's Pentecost, once again. We are reminded that the Spirit is with us, once again and that miracles are possible, once again. Since that same Spirit is with us and that it never went away, we can know that things can always get better. We may feel like the world is getting away from us, but that is our own lack of faith in God. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott, live from the Texas Annual Conference, pull our eyes back to inherent optimism of the Christian faith.

Jesus rises to Heaven, but the story of God's people keeps going. It's not that Jesus is gone. It's that he's given us the power that we may keep the mission going. Earthly kings keep the power. Jesus gives us away and gives us the opportunity to be apart of the greatest story ever told. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott focus in on our continued mission as God's people.

You ever wonder where is this whole thing going? When you're thinking of devoting your life to something, it's important to consider what's its end goal. What's the vision statement? Saving the world? Conquering the world? Curing cancer? Making money for shareholders? The end of Revelation is God's vision statement - everyone at peace, everyone having what they need, everyone at one with God. However, this being God, it's more than a pie in the sky future. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy remind us that this outcome is already guaranteed.

Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit? To the average Jewish Christian, circa shortly after Pentecost, this still would have seemed mildly crazy. They'd been trained, since birth, that only a narrow band of people got a connection with God. To see the Holy Spirit jumping that barrier was a show of just how powerful God's new way of doing things was. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy discuss that this ability to jump across boundaries is a hallmark of God's work in the world.

Jesus ran into skeptics in his own time. He knew that you're never going to satisfy everyone because at the core of faith in God is still an act of faith. For some, no amount of miracles or declaring himself the Messiah was going to be enough. That's true in our own time. People trip over the leap of faith. However, Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott challenge us as Christians to not be the thing that people trip over on their journey towards Christ.

If Christianity has been doing one thing consistently for the past 2,000 years, it's radically changing lives. Behavior change is one of the hardest things to do as any teacher, psychologist, or public health officials can tell you, yet stories, like that of Paul in Acts 9, is a common thread throughout human history. If you judge something by its fruit, then one of the Holy Spirit's consistent impacts has been lives turned around. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy point out where the proof is in this pudding.

Doubting Thomas? Really? Is that the take away here? It seems more that Jesus is calling out all the disciples for having the easy avenue to belief. They get to literally see Jesus, to walk with him, and to eat with him. Instead, it's a warning that belief is going to get harder from here. That their task will be to lead a world to belief that do not have the same advantages that they had. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy connect with their task because it's become our task - making disciples in a skeptical world.