The Perfecting Church

The Lord is our keeper. He keeps us in distinct ways. He keeps some things from us. He keeps and protects us in the midst of some things. He keeps some things set aside and reserved for us. But we’re not naturally given to being kept. Too often we believe the lie we must keep or are capable of keeping ourselves. Being kept is the art of abiding in trust and dependence on the Lord God. We must learn to live kept lives. 

We began our journey of answering God’s call together on July 10th, 2011.  Our first service was held in the United Artists Movie Theater.  We ended up with standing room only in the 153 person theater, with people standing in the hallways. We started, not with a moment but with a movement towards His mission and we continue together on that journey today. 

We tend to believe forgiveness is for the benefit of those who’ve offended us, but forgiveness is more about us than them. Forgiveness is the way out of victimhood. No matter what others do or have done to us our future remains unchanged, as long as we stay in God’s hands by forgiving them completely. 

It’s impossible to live a full life in this broken world without loving and trusting people. But it’s just as impossible to live loving and trusting people in this broken world without being betrayed. We’ve been betrayed by family, by friends, by bosses, by co-workers and others. Betrayal is a part of the human experience. What’s less common, is returning to full and free lives after betrayal. There’s pain in the plan and one of the worst kinds of pain in this life is the pain of betrayal. 

The words of Jeremiah and the words of Jesus seem to be in conflict. How can a good God, who plans to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us hope and a future also be the God who leaves us in a world so twisted it killed its Savior? Jesus, our High Priest knows the brokenness, depravity and violence of this world first-hand, yet he prays to the Father to keep us here and to keep us from the Evil one. As Jeremiah states, God has a plan. But as we’ve come to know first-hand — There’s Pain in the Plan.

Fatherhood has a unique role in creation. The role of the father is not better or more important than the role of the mother, but the role of the father is different and distinct from the role of the mother. Due to the fall of mankind, all of creation has suffered a father wound and all of creation is in need of healing for our father wounds. 

It’s true, the sovereign, radical loving God of creation causes all things to work together for the good. His plans and purposes for His creation will prevail. This doesn’t mean there won’t be afflictions, falls, temptations, traumas and tragedies along the way. It does mean, in spite of it all and in the face of it all, God is working it together for the good. In the end He prevails and in Him we prevail. He’s working it together for the good. 

Pits are the traumas, tragedies, and excruciating transitions in our lives that God providentially allows or authors to get us to the people, places and plans He’s pre-ordained and to make us into the person He’s pre-ordained.  Our direction and destiny often has much to do with not only what happens to us but how we rehearse and remember what’s happened.  If we are going to fulfill the fruitfulness God has intended in and through our lives we are going to have to grow in our understanding of pain and suffering.

We will all endure heartbreak in this life.  There are many ways our hearts can be broken, the death of loved ones, divorce, betrayal, job loss, financial ruin, health challenges, estrangements, inequities, and the death of a vision, to name a few. Losses can distort our hearts and keep us from the radical love God offers. God’s desire is to heal our broken hearts to expand our capacity to both receive and release His love.

Radical love is unlike storge love, it’s different from eros love and it goes beyond phileo love. Those loves are exclusively for family, our romantic interests and our closest friends. But radical love does not exclude anyone for anything. It willingly accepts all things, in order to make all things new. Radical love is all inclusive.