Word of Life Church Podcast

Our mission as the Church (to preach, baptize, make disciples, teach, do theology) flows from our worship. Why do we preach the gospel, make disciples, teach, do theology, build churches, care for the sick and poor? Because we worship the true and living God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything we do as a church flows from our identity as a worshiping people. Worship is central, primary, formative, and it is essential. Our attitude when we gather together on Sunday mornings should be that we are disciples intending to worship, not consumers needing to be entertained. One of the worst ways to evaluate worship is by how it makes you feel. The purpose of worship is not to make you feel something (it's not about you, afterall), but rather, the purpose of worship is to properly relate to God and be properly formed. On Sunday mornings when we gather as a corporate body, we will be faithful, intentional, thoughtful, and thankful. And we will remember, everything we do as a church flows from our identity as a worshiping people.

Guest speaker Brad Jersak from Abbotsford, British Columbia, paints of picture with words of God's dream for humanity and the Kingdom of God as described in Isaiah in a message inspired by by Tom Sine's Mustard Seed Conspiracy.

Mountains are a classic metaphor for prayer. A lot of praying in the Bible happens on mountaintops. Once, when Jesus was praying on a Galilean mountain, his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. So Jesus did what all Jewish rabbis did to teach their disciples how to pray, He gave them a prayer to pray. He didn't teach on abstract concepts or sentimental ideas, he gave them a specific prayer. Without being taught how to properly pray, we simply recycle and reinforce our own fears, desires, and misguided opinions. We never make any actual progress; we just keep trying to get God to do what we would do. We try to manage God. It is a pagan concept of prayer to attempt to cajole God into doing what we want. The Christian concept of prayer is that we need to be transformed by God. The primary purpose of prayer is not to advise or manage God, but to be properly formed.

In Christ we have come to the mountain of God. And God, much like a mountain, is far too vast to be comprehended from one perspective. If you want to have a full conception of the living God, you need more than one perspective! To have more than one perspective of a mountain, you need to traverse the mountain, to climb on it. Of course, it's not easy. Mountain climbing is never easy. It's difficult and demanding; dangerous in places, scary at times; and seeking to understand God is the same way. But you can do it. And it's worth it!

In the final track of the 2012 edition of Finding God on Your iPod, Pastor Brian Zahnd examines the vision of Jesus and Paul for a new humanity, gathered together into one flock with Jesus as the shepherd; A humanity in Christ that learns to kill the hostility instead of kill one another. From this text, Pastor Brian is able to offer a prophetic critique of the systematic destruction of the indigenous peoples and cultures of North America in the name of Manifest Destiny. "Manifest Destiny" was an American self-delusion justifying the systematic destruction of indigenous peoples and cultures in the name of "progress."

Jesus taught that lamp of our being is the eye. We can have bright eyes or dark eyes. How we look at life has a lot to do with whether our soul is filled with darkness or light. We can look at life with squinty-eyed greed, calculation, and cynicism. Or we can look at life with wide-eyed wonder, love, and acceptance. After four years, Bob Dylan finally makes an appearance in Finding God On Your iPod - the song and the sermon are called Dark Eyes.

The satan is the spirit of accusation, especially fear-based accusation. When people feel threatened in some way, such as their security, their worldview, or their ideology, they tend to channel that negative vibe into an accusation of someone else. This is the scapegoat phenomenon. Instead of allowing the spirit of faith, hope, and love to control them, they seek to dispel the negative feelings by transferring it through accusation. This is the primary work of satan. And it is the opposite of the work of the Holy Spirit! The way you deal with accusation is not to lash out, but rather, to forgive, and when possible, help people see what they are doing. You cannot let unjust accusation turn into self-accusation. That's the devil in your head. In the song Negative Vibes by Irish singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey, he addressing his critics and the spirit of accusation when he sings "I'm never going to let your negative vibes and comments get through to my psyche and cripple me."

For a long time God has been trying to communicate his self-revelation to humanity. We must realize that Jesus is the exact imprint of God's nature-the perfect, eternal Word of God! Everything we know and believe must be reconsidered in the last days in the light of God's final word- Jesus Christ! Jesus is the revelation of truth that is superior even to Scripture. Jesus Christ is God's final world to humanity, and Jesus Christ is God's final word to YOU!

Pain in the great equalizer. We have all felt pain of one kind or another, but we do not have to bear it alone. We can take our brokenness to Christ and experience healing of body and soul. Healing and recovery is a part of the life story of Johnny Cash, a true American icon. Six months before his death, he recorded the song "Hurt" originally written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. In this song, Johnny Cash sings in mournful regret of the hurt he caused others through a life in turmoil. While he created a lot of hurt through his life-long struggle with addiction, he experienced healing and wholeness as he chose to live in the kingdom of God. As the story of Johnny Cash demonstrates, God did not turn an blind eye to our suffering, but chose to enter into suffering humanity so that by his wounds we can be healed.

We are God's workmanship, his poem, created in Christ Jesus. God is not a machine mass-producing religious experience industrial style. God is an artist. We are his work of art and we move the life with the grace of Christ. We should desire to be a work of art. This is the longing in The Guggenheim Grotto song, "Philosophia". As we engage our lives with Jesus Christ, the redemptive result is poetic. Our lives gain a graceful structure and poetic expression that is beautiful. Jesus is the poet who can rearrange the logos of our life, the words that tell our story, and do it in such a way that our life becomes a beautiful poem. For your life to be a work of art, for you life to become a graceful poem, the place to begin is to give your life over to the great Artist, the great Poet.