Some of us have felt powerless over the past, pandemic year. Work, mobility, health, and other valued things in our lives have been threatened. We had to isolate and dress ourselves with the garments of safety. However, we serve the One, in whom true power dwells. While the pandemic made us more aware of our weaknesses, the power of God is being revealed to us in new ways, through our human weaknesses. The key is to let go of expectations and let go of what we think is is right, normal, and even deserved. The real lesson is to learn that God's power, the unexpected, unpredictable, and life-giving Spirit that blows through our lives like the wind is being made known to us in new and fresh ways (through our weaknesses).

Hospitality requires the embracing of the stranger in such a way, that a change to the community is allowed. When our physical churches open up again, what we will have will not be the the old thing we enjoyed in the past; it will be something new. It will not be a resuscitation, but something in the lines of a resurrection, a new kind of body. Letting go of hostility is just the beginning!

Especially during this pandemic, we find ourselves without physical temples. As dispersed people, we lack a single geographical center. As a major silver lining, we find the authentic life of the people of God expressed in faithful communities. Overtime, these have emerged from monasteries, mission outposts, underground gatherings, homes and open spaces. Anywhere that devoted followers of Jesus can find in order to share this life that God has granted to us; a life that is for us and also for the sake of the world!

We can be a people of goodness when we view our rights as gifts, that empower us to live a shared life of mutual responsibility and care. It's amazing how our own needs get addressed in the process of serving others. Letting go of one's "self-determination" and serve experience something profound going on in their own lives. It just might be that this experience may be directly tied to them participating in God's goodness.

It may be good for us to ask ourselves what our experiences over the last year have revealed about our own need for healing. What is God showing us about our need for His fresh touch in our lives? What does it mean to let go of our shackles?

The picture is this: The mission of the people of God is to be present and faithful in a broken world where God is working, to reconcile that world to Himself and not counting their trespasses against them. Our laments demonstrate our solidarity with the world and our devotion to the God whose mission is to redeem it.

The Subversive Acts of True Humanity (Hebrews 13:1-16, John 15:12​-17)Mike McNichols 2021-2-14 by The Vine Church OC

Do we really need a High Priest? As the mediator for the new covenant between God and us, Jesus works in the present in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 5:1-10, 7:26-28, Mark 1:21-28). Mike McNichols shares as fully God and fully man, Jesus is the perfect example as our merciful and faithful High Priest!

The rest that God always desired for His people is not a geographic location. Rather, it is a centering in the very life of God (Hebrews 4:1-12, Mark 1:14-20). The invitation is not into their rest, but rather into His rest!

As Jesus is fully man, He became one of us (Hebrews 2:14-18, 3:1-8, John 1:43-51)! In Jesus, God experiences the full extent of the human experience: conception, birth, life, suffering, and ultimately death. Today, Pastor Mike McNichols preaches on one of the most human aspects of Jesus: being tested.