Come and Build!

This week a servant team from Our Savior’s will join together with a team from Colorado and build hope with Amor Ministries. This hope will rise up from the ground on a new solid foundation of poured concrete. This hope will rise up when we partner with two families who will have a new home in just four days. This new hope will live on long after we have departed. Hope in us. Hope in our families. Hope in our friendships. Hope in our partnerships that bring life to the world. 

Lift your prayers for Amor and their work that takes place in Tijuana, but also throughout the world. It all started when a husband and wife felt the call to “Come and Build.” For over thirty five years they have poured out their lives on behalf of the poorest of the poor on planet earth. They called and invited thousands of people to join them on the journey. Thousands of lives transformed - the recipients of the homes, the pastoral networks that hold it all together, the travelers and servants who provide the resources and hearts and muscles to build. Be sure to give high fives to Sherry Chesak, Ava Chesak, Deb Goodew, and Lucas Goodew. Their YES! is an affirmation of God’s ongoing work in the world.

Consider this: The Christmas story tells us that Mary and Joseph were turned away because there was no room in the inn.  Thus, Jesus was born in a manger. The two new homes that will be built this week are mangers for Jesus. These homes will be where families gather to celebrate life. These homes will tell a story of God’s activity in the world. These homes will ring out with joy of the new thing that God is doing. These homes…….mangers of God’s love and hope for all.

May we always make room for Jesus. May we always make room for the work that God most needs done in this world. May we, God’s church, serve as mangers for Jesus!

Goodbye 2017. Hello 2018.

Amor! Come Build Hope!

Pastor Chad

Merry Christmas from the Johnsons!

God’s greatest dream accomplished in Jesus...

   A life lived with us…..for us.

A God ever present…..A God alongside us on the journey. 

We sing with family and friends…..The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight….

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

We thank God this Christmas for the gift of faith born in you!

Jesus has a story to tell the world and that story is found in you!

Merry Christmas from our hearts to yours……

Pastor Chad, Susan, Koko, Norah, Merritt, Holland, and Jewel

Ready or not here He comes 12-12-17

Every Advent Season, we hear from the voice of John the Baptist. He is a voice crying out in the darkness of a divided world. His voice directed people to the everlasting God. Isaiah – and like so many prophets before him, they were voices crying out in the dark. They pointed to the life and hope that is found in this One called God - God as deliverer - God as redeemer - God as the new day that will dawn for all humankind.

 

We desperately need the prophetic voices of God with and for us - and God needs our voices to be prophetic today. We the church are called to be those voices in the darkness!

 

Isaiah 40:1-11 is very important in understanding John the Baptist. This passage announces God's intention to dwell among God's people. God gives directions for the way to be prepared. By who?  By the people God wants to visit?  No! By God's own servants.  God does not say, "Tell the people to get ready and when they have done so, I will come to them.” God says, "Prepare the way! I am coming to my people (whether they are ready or not)." You see there is nothing from John the Baptist or Isaiah in the scripture accounts that say, “Prepare our way…make our roads for life.” They both say, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” Because God is coming!

 

The voice of God in the Isaiah text has the character of a wounded lover.   God is desperate: "I will come to my people, and nothing will keep me from them. Mountains will be torn down, valleys will be filled in, rough places made smooth - whatever it takes!"  It is hard not to think of the old Diana Ross song, "Ain't no mountain high enough,” when we hear these words.

 

The announcement is gracious, with only the dimmest echo of warning. Neither Isaiah, nor John, nor Mark intended to say, "God will come to those who are ready; those who are not, will be left out."  The accent is simply on God's imminent and certain advent, though such an announcement obviously calls for response. God is coming to us! This is fantastic news!  So, what can we do to get ready?   Confess your sins, John suggests. Get baptized. Repent.   Later, Jesus will add, "believe in the good news!" (Mark 1:15).

 

God will come and fulfill all of God's promises whether or not we do any of these things. But knowing God is on the way, why wouldn't we want to do them? To take a somewhat silly analogy, children play a game called "Hide-and-Seek" in which everyone hides and tries not to get caught, but eventually, when the game goes as it should, everyone gets found. The game is interesting from a psychological point of view because "hiding" is not really very much fun. If you ask most children, "Do you want to sit somewhere all by yourself and keep very quiet for a long time?" you will not get many takers. What's fun about "Hide-and-Seek” is not hiding, but getting found! Everybody likes to be found.

 

So, when Advent comes around every year, we are reminded that God is coming to find us.  We have our ways of hiding.  But today when John the Baptist shouts, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" it is as though God has just called, "Ready or not, here I come!"  And we remember: this is the God who always finds us. That is the voice the world needs. That is the prophetic voice that we all need. God will always find us!

 

Which means we are free to live, free to love, and free to serve with reckless abandon. There is urgency in this life to prepare the way for God. How do we do that?

 

A story…Sir Nicholas Winton…..saved 669 children from Nazis death camps. When he was 105 over 100 folks gathered for his birthday party. Most who were there were the actual people, or children of those, whom he had saved in 1939. He had never met them face to face. He did not know they would be at this party. To see the short inspirational clip of that moment go to this link….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0. There are over 6000 living today who owe their life to this man. Were it not for his passionate voice in the midst of darkness none of them would be here.

 

It was late in December 1938 when the stockbroker from Hampstead cancelled a holiday to go to Prague to see what was happening to refugees there.  Winton spent only three weeks in the city - the most leave he could get from his job at home - but it was enough time for him to recognise the impending threat facing the refugees in October 1938. He immediately set about organising eight evacuations of the children on the Czech Kindertransport train. He advertised in newspapers for foster homes, got the necessary permits from the immigration office in the UK, and persuaded the Germans to let the children leave the country.  When Winton returned to his job in London on 21 January 1939 he continued the rescue mission, working in the evenings until the last train was cancelled when war broke out in September 1939. He told very few about this work. It was only uncovered when his scrapbook was discovered by his daughter who shared it with others. One of Sir Nicholas Winton’s core values was this: "If it's not impossible, then it can be done."

 

Our Savior’s….we proclaim….”With God all things are possible!” We don’t say that as some nicety or even false hope. We say that with a bold passion because we know it to be true. We know it because of the voices surrounding us that cry out in the darkness and for the voices that answer back in that same darkness.

 

We are not alone…God is with us. God comes to us…where we are….as we are…whether we are ready or not! The gift we can give to our God is to prepare the way. Where there ain’t no mountain to high, no valley to low, no river to wide! The church on earth…..saving lives…just like Sir Winton.

 

Just imagine with me for a moment….a few John the Baptists types shouting out in the crowd today reminding us of who we are and whose we are. And then imagine you sitting in a chair in the midst of that gathered crowd at 105 years old. People have come to celebrate your life. And at some point…the person sitting next to you leans over to give a hug. Saying… “You Our Savior’s…you a disciple of Jesus….saved my life…I am here because of you!” Imagine standing up and turning around to see hundreds if not thousands standing up when a person says…stand up if Elizabeth, Mark, Sarah, Jack…saved your life. Oh the stories that could be told. Oh the faces that would be smiling and staring back at you. 

 

You see….we the church are in the saving business….saving our very own lives….saving all those we come into contact…..saving our brothers and sisters the world over….that’s the voice of the church….that’s the heart, hands, and feet movement of the church….that is why we exist!

 

Our Savior’s….Prepare The Way Of Our Lord! Ready or Not, Here He Comes!

 

Peace and Hope,

Pastor Chad

FACEBOOK with Jesus in community 12-5-17

In 2017 I can say with all faith enthusiasm that we as Our Savior’s have been Facebooked with Jesus in Community. Jesus is written on our pages, our hearts, our faces, our very lives. Jesus has been seen in countless ways. Jesus has been unleashed throughout our body. We have been Facebooked!

Now I know that all of us are not on the major social networking sites of the internet. But surely we have all heard of facebook. This networking site has gained in popularity since its inception in 2004, and today garners most folk’s attention. By logging on, setting up your page, posting photos, a descriptive profile of who you are, etc., you are set to navigate the social circles of today. After setting up your page, before long you will have invited or been invited to be friends with people throughout space and time. Childhood friends, work contacts, distant relatives, you name it – you will find them and be ‘accepted’ or ‘accept’ them as friends. And then, you find yourself touching base with these friends throughout your weeks and days – with simple thoughts, birthday notes, prayer requests, and invitations to events. It’s all there. More and more folks are getting Facebooked.

So why do I share notes about this internet sensation with you? Well it’s not to market what is already popular. It’s not to endorse the great things about it or caution against the ills of it. It’s simply to use the metaphor facebook and remind us as the church that Jesus has been facebookingwith the world all along. Our call as the church is to facebook with Him and all people.

Facebook reminds me of the human desire for connection with other people. I can log onto facebook and post a note and within minutes someone will reply to that note. The folks I know who use it will rise a bit early to check their page and before going to bed spend a few minutes posting and reading their notes found there. Most are checking it several times throughout the day on their phones. We desire connection with other people…and facebook is one tool that gives that desire opportunity.

Well imagine with me facebooking with Jesus throughout our day. Rising early to check in with Him, ending our day by spending a few additional moments with Him, and pausing throughout the day to simply log into Him. What would He have posted to our page? What would the notes be that we find there from Him? How would we be changed by the time spent communicating back and forth in that relationship?      

Our Savior’s, Jesus has been facebooking with the world all along. Our call as the church is to facebook with Him and all people.

The Scriptures that we have been immersed in through our worship in the past month and the ones we continue to reflect on this month all have a common overarching theme: “Jesus reaches – connects – befriends – loves – communicates – travels to where folks are – unleashes the Spirit – facebooks – with the people. And more and more people begin to reach – search – desire – love – facebook – this Jesus.” They – the world – are being changed by Him!

And that is what Jesus does! When He facebooks with us – we are changed. I have been an eyewitness along with many of you to His life change in our lives over this past year here at Our Savior’s. 

I have seen Jesus facebooked with us in community through:

Our young people as they learn, grow, and serve in their faith. 

Our small group ministries and the connections of life that are fostered there.

Our worship life where we grow in passionate faith.

Our outreach ministries that raise people here and around the globe.

Our Anyuak worship service where resurrection hope rings true.

Our Wednesday evening meals where we gather around table in sharing life together.

Our Staff that pours out their lives into the whole church in making a difference in our world.

Our leadership teams that are discerning and prayerful in fostering a relevant church for the future.

Our thirty-nine new families who joined the church in October, a true sign and symbol that God is alive in them and in this place.

Our children’s ministries that equip even our littlest ones to be the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus.

Our forty committed youth and adults who will attend the National Youth Gathering this summer.

And the countless daily acts of service that often go unnoticed, but would be incredibly missed if they were not accomplished. 

Jesus is facebooking with us and we are facebooking with Him and all people as we live and serve with our gifts and passions. 

As we have celebrated throughout this article so much of what Jesus has been doing in and through us, let us also not forget the missional challenges that also lay before us. There is so much yet to be done. There is so much need and burden to be shared. Even in challenge, we can facebook with Jesus.

There are many hurting folks in this community – facebook them with your touch. There are many who do not yet know the great love and grace of Jesus –facebook them with your faith. Our children of all ages still watch and wonder if God really does care – facebook them with the story of Jesus. There are souls thirsty and hungry for real life – facebookthem through an invite to worship together.

This much is sure Church…..Jesus has been facebooking with us all along! May we facebook with him throughout all of our days!

Peace and Hope,

Pastor Chad 

Love with your whole heart. 11-28-17

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but a state of thankfulness can be experienced each and every day of our lives. The Psalmist reminds, “I will give thanks to the Lord God with my whole heart.” What a beautiful vision for each of our lives.

What does it look and feel like for you to “love with your whole heart?” 

As you spend some time in devotions and prayer this week, consider the following quotes:

“The best things in life aren’t things.” Peggy Anderson

“Never look down on somebody, unless you’re helping them up.” Jesse Jackson Sr.

“No one has ever become poor by loving and giving.” Anne Frank

“You will rise by lifting others.” Robert Ingersoll

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.” Paul Coelho

“What God cares most about is creation and humanity fully alive!” Pastor Chad

Jesus followers are called to live deep and meaningful lives. Deep in the Spirit. Deep in the Faith. Deep in love. Deep in our shared work together. Empty tomb deep where we embrace resurrection hope. May it be so as we journey and transform this world together. 

Pastor Chad   

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty! 11-21-17

This hymn, published in 1680, has been an age old favorite for so many. The words are timeless.  

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!

All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;

Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,

Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!

Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been

Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;

Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,

If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,

Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,

Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,

Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!

All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.

Let the Amen sound from His people again,

Gladly for aye we adore Him!

During this Thanksgiving week, this will be a tune that is on my heart and lips. How about you? What song is God leading you to sing? For what are you most thankful? 

May our Thanks and Praise of all that God has done and is doing in this world, lead us forward in faith.

A blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Pastor Chad

Our Work in South Sudan 11-14-17

Part of our work together as a local congregation and a church body named the ELCA, is to accompany our Global Partners. One of those instrumental partnerships is South Sudan. Please view this link on the ELCA website (http://semnsynod.org/southsudan/) to see the work that is being accomplished.

As you are reading this, I will be participating in the dedication ceremony of the Lutheran Center in Juba, South Sudan. This is a center for education, medicine, and faith. Most importantly, it serves as a center for real hope in the midst of one of the worst refugee crises that the world has ever seen.

 

"This center will be a place of encounter for a community that has experienced the horrors of war," said the Rev. Rafael Malpica-Padilla, executive director for ELCA Global Mission. "It will be a place of hope for the next generation of leaders, an instrument through which we will touch people's lives for the flourishing of human community and where the good news of the gospel will be proclaimed."

 

Since South Sudan became an independent nation four years ago, it has been dealing with immense internal conflict among its many tribes. Due to the armed conflict, more than 1.6 million people are internally displaced, and many families and individuals, particularly youth, are flocking to the urban centers seeking a place for healing, as well as training and education. Local partners, including ELCA Sudanese congregations in the United States, the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan, and the South Sudan Council of Churches, hope to see the Lutheran center and clinic become that place of reconciliation and restoration.

 

 "This project has been, since day one, a story of hope, reconciliation, and rebuilding," said Andrew Steele, director of ELCA Global Church Sponsorship. "The Sudanese community in our ELCA congregations started a movement to establish the Lutheran church in their home country and now we are able to do just that.  A $1.2 million goal of support from across the church was pledged to ensure our brothers and sisters in South Sudan are able to experience the love, grace and healing of God." Our Savior’s Austin is an outreach partner in this life changing project. It not only brings hope to those in South Sudan but to our brothers and sisters right here in Austin.

 

South Sudan is in the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis. Political conflict, compounded by economic woes and drought, has caused massive displacement, raging violence and dire food shortages. Over 5.1 million people are in need of aid, and 4.8 million are facing hunger. 

When did the crisis start?

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, but the hard-won celebration was short-lived. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the ruling political party that originally led the way for independence, is now divided and fighting for power.

 

In December 2013, political infighting erupted into violence in the streets of the capital, Juba, after South Sudan’s president accused his vice president of an attempted coup. Fighting between the two factions of government forces loyal to each soon moved to Bor, and then to Bentiu.

Violence spread across the young nation like wildfire, displacing 413,000 civilians in just the first month of conflict. Tens of thousands of civilians rushed to seek refuge in U.N. bases that were subsequently turned into makeshift displacement camps. The fighting has continued, becoming increasingly brutal and affecting the entire country.

What's going on now?

A handful of peace agreements have been signed over the course of the war — the most recent in August 2015 — but they have been repeatedly violated. The situation remains highly unstable and is prone to outbreaks of violence. This year new areas of the south of the country have become embroiled in the conflict, and lands that were once known as the breadbasket of South Sudan are not producing as much food. On top of these attacks, the country's economy is in crisis — the South Sudanese pound has declined in value, and the cost of goods and services has skyrocketed. The inflation rate — 835 percent — is the highest in the world. In early 2017, a famine was declared in parts of South Sudan, leaving 100,000 people on the verge of starvation. While famine is no longer declared as of September 2017, an estimated 6 million people — more than half the population — are at risk and 1.7 million people require immediate assistance.

 

What's happening to people in South Sudan?

Since the conflict began, almost 1 in 3 people in South Sudan have been displaced. Some 3.7 million citizens have been forced to flee their homes: more than 2.1 million people have escaped to neighboring countries in search of safety, and more than 1.8 million are trapped inside the warring nation. South Sudan is now the third-most fled country in the world, behind Syria and Afghanistan. Many have fled to the borders of Ethiopia in the Gambella region. Our Anyuak community at Our Savior’s have family and friends, and a sister church in Gambella. 

 

Why did the humanitarian situation deteriorate so quickly?

Sudan, and what was then the semi-independent Southern Sudan, endured a brutal civil war for more than 25 years, which resulted in South Sudan’s independence in 2011. But the conflict in December 2013 reopened deeply-rooted political and ethnic tensions that hadn't yet been reconciled — and those divisions have continued to fuel ongoing clashes.

 

After those decades of conflict, South Sudan was and still is one of the least-developed countries in the world, which has further complicated the situation. The larger cities in South Sudan had experienced some development, but the majority of the nation is rural. Even before the crisis, more than half of its citizens lived in absolute poverty, were dependent on subsistence agriculture and suffered from malnourishment.

 

In addition, the country has very little formal infrastructure — roads, buses, buildings — which makes it difficult to transport food and supplies. Many towns and villages become inaccessible during the annual rainy season due to closed airstrips, washed out roads or lack of roads altogether, sometimes limiting any delivery of humanitarian aid to the isolated areas that need it most.

Can people buy more food?

What little food is available has soared in price, and most displaced families have no money to buy any goods. In Juba, the retail price of sorghum, a staple grain, is 600 percent higher than it was in 2015.

Is South Sudan getting enough assistance?

The short answer: no.

The UN appealed for $1.64 billion to assist 7.6 million people in need in 2017. So far, some 70 percent of the budget is funded.

 

Many humanitarian organizations, including Lutheran World Relief, are partnering with the U.N., using both private contributions and funding from the international community, to address the urgent needs of innocent people in South Sudan.

The Lutheran Center in Juba

The Lutheran Center is a symbol of healing and hope. Lives will be changed, future generations will be blessed, and this young country will be strengthened. This grass roots work and accompaniment model of support is a tremendous work and we thank God for all that is taking place. 

Pastor Wal Reat from the Southeastern Minnesota Synod

Wal Reat serves among South Sudanese refugees in several refugee camps in South Sudan and countries bordering South Sudan. He recently preached at our Joint African Worship Service. 

I will share stories and photos from the Juba trip and from a site visit to Gambella and our partnership church there in late November. In the meantime, please be in prayer for our brothers and sisters around the world, for our faithfulness in providing outreach and support, and for the work of the ELCA Global Church.

 

Peace and Hope,

Pastor Chad

 

(*Country info. from Mercy Corp., the ELCA, and the Southeastern Minnesota Synod)

Core Living As The Body of Christ 11-7-17

Romans 12:4

For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another. 

 

I love this verse from Romans, as it is instructive for us as the body of Christ. In a world of seemingly unordered functioning, where life just seems to happen, where random events pull us to and fro, this verse reminds us of a common center: a core strength. It is a way of being that brings focus and clarity – a unified front and a blessing of inspiration that we are in life together.

 

We are ONE body. We are many, but no one exists in isolation. No person, no church, no organization, stands alone. We are uniquely tied together by Christ. We are many members – and yet ONE body.

 

Paul desires to remind us through this verse in Romans that the 2,000 members of Our Savior’s are many and that we are ONE. Our body does not just consist of those who declare to be here, but all those whom we live in relationship with. Our body spans space, time and location. The body envelops the world. The core emanates and ripples out from our particular street corner, but it connects to the greater world through our relationships. We are many: We are ONE.

 

As church, we proclaim that often but fail often in engaging it as our way of life. Paul teaches that not all members have the same function. We often take that teaching and live then as disconnected people. The church becomes a place of disjointed wants. Individuals randomly show up at different ministry functions depending on taste, sight, sound, age, and other qualities. We separate each other out rather than see each other as part of a vitalized whole.

 

That is not what Paul is teaching. Paul instructs that while we have many different talents, abilities, and passions for living out our faith, we are joined for ONE common vision: ONE body deeply connected at our roots. Individually we are called to bring our best to the body. And by bringing our best, the body is blessed. By all individually serving, the body strengthens. By every member functioning, the body is whole. The vision: ONE!

 

ONE does not mean one idea, one event, or one experience. ONE does not mean one gift, talent, or ability. ONE does not limit spirit-blown creativity. ONE does not over-focus on the large and miss the small. ONE does not hinder innovation nor multiplication of ministry foci.

 

ONE body with many members increases the vision exponentially for the grace-filled life through varied missions. Within the body of Christ, we have all we need and more to accomplish what God sets before us. When every person is fully functioning within the body, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. When every person is living the faith life to the fullest in the body, our world is changed. 

 

God has some serious business to accomplish in the world – and YOU, the CHURCH, this BODY – is how the mission will be fulfilled.  We get to live out of each day of our lives stoking our passion for Jesus and his mission for the world. After the empty tomb, the spirit within those first disciples could not be contained. They became ONE body. We are that ONE body today.

 

Today I invite you to passionately commit to “something.” That “something” is meant to not just be for the individual but for the benefit of the entire body. Another way to state this is for you to answer this question, “What is your personal mission statement that has kingdom outcomes?”

 

Everything we do as disciples of the living Christ is to infuse life into all the parts of the body. Every act, gesture, commitment, is to have reach and impact. Every person is to have reach and impact. The whole is to have reach and impact.

 

The challenge is not the “wanting to” of the body. The missional challenge is the “will to.” Will we follow through with passion and purpose? Will we form bonds of connection that enable this ministry to be accomplished? Will we take seriously the call to infuse faith into the life of all our children and youth? Will we be a body of radical hospitality and welcome and truly live all means all? Will members come off the reserve list and actively engage through the serving out of their passions?

 

Church, this is a vision yet to be realized! It is a vision when lived that would transform our community and world. Imagine your kidney failing: The body cannot accomplish as much when that happens. Imagine a person with much talent – but that talent has been pushed aside by busyness or distraction. The body cannot thrive to its potential when that takes place.

 

We have a wonderful body of people who call Our Savior’s their church home. God has done much in and through us. And there is so much more yet to do!

 

The day that all members of the ONE body grace each other with their talents, gifts, abilities, dreams, visions, faith, hope, and love – the BODY will be members of one another. Jesus longs for us to realize that capacity.

 

Remember, Jesus empowerment is all about people, not organizations, staff or buildings: People are the mission for Jesus. He gathered disciples … he sent them, but more than anything, he empowered them. Through him, they brought life to the world. We too are blessed to be a blessing…..all 2000 of us and counting! May it be so!

 

Peace

pc

The 95 RE's of Jesus for 2017!

Well – in true reformation spirit I want to share 95 words that begin with RE – words that put us into God’s lap 100% - no holding back – leading us in our identity and mission!

You ready?? Let’s go!

 

First – we must repent if we refuse to reignite that which God has given us.

 

Then we can resume that which Jesus lived, died, and was raised for – so that the whole world could come to him and have life abundantly.

 

That is why we must return to him, respond to him, receive him, recognize him, remember him, rehear him, refocus on him, reinstate him as the Lord of your life, reveal him to others, recommit to him, be reconciled in him, to let our whole life revolve around him, to be reborn in him, to resubmit to him, to resume a daily relationship with him, to reclaim him as Savior of the world, to rely on him for every need, and to experience redemption in him, because he will make all things new.

 

This means being receptive to change

Reinventing the old to make new

And then – refining the new

Reinforcing the word as a powerful force in life

Reliving the love of Christ daily

Restoring God to the center of life

 

This requires Realizing, relearning, removing, replacing, resigning,

The us, we, and I from the center and letting God alone dwell there

 

Then we can begin to Rearrange, retrain, renegotiate, remodel, revise, redesign, restructure, rework, reformulate, reassess, and reorder - Why we do what we do and for whom are we doing it

 

After that the We, You, Us will experience

Relief, refreshment, remarkable relationships

There will be revival in our lives

Rebar in our foundation that makes us stronger than before

We will have a rebuilt definition of life

A reenergized spirit

Reheated hearts that burn bright

Renewed responsibilities for sharing the gospel

Refreshed resources in the Lord

And have a reshaped mission for the church

 

We will have all this in the Lord

Regardless of the resistance, recoiling, redoing, regulations, repacking, retrying, reservations, rerunning, restarting, redundancy, resentment, remaking, rescheduling, reactivity, and retakes

 

Through all things

Let your reflexes in this world be reflections for him

As Jesus is to be reincarnated in you

Replay the stories of faith

Retreat to pray, reconvene with the people of faith as often as possible

Reach out with outstretched hands

And recommend Jesus to all

Rejoicing in his remarkable victory

 

And Do all this while remaining on the foundation

 

There you will find the resilience that is required

There you will be redirected

Realigned, renewed, reassured, resized, refitted, retooled, reelected, reused, and resent for the world

 

The reason why?

It all results in – not just an ongoing reformation

But a daily resurrection for the life of this world!

 

Whew! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus!