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Day Two of Lent. The theme per the ReThink Church Lent Photo Challenge is:

“RETURN”

“Church work without soul work is just busy work.”

My candidacy mentor, Pastor Wade Killough said that to me today in a meeting with him today. I would encourage us to remove the word church and put a blank there instead.

“________ work without soul work is just busy work.”

The blank is placed intentionally because it isn’t church work that can distract us at times, its any kind of work. Today for my picture I chose a picture of my John Wesley Study Bible and my Moleskine because it represents a practice that I have very recently gotten back to doing. It’s the simple practice of reading God’s word and journaling my reflections as I read. I returned to this practice because quite honestly I desperately need it.

“The word of Christ must live in you richly.”

If it doesn’t then we are left to our own words, which lets be honest aren’t the most trustworthy of words at times to live by. For us to completely understand what life Jesus was talking about in the “abundant life” there must be a relational activity going on all the time. In order for any relationship to deepen there has to be effort on both ends. Give and take, Give and take. When we are not participating in the relationship by reading God’s word it turns into Take, Take, Take. Which doesn’t work. Ever.

So, today we return to the right understanding of what a relationship with God is supposed to be like. We return to our Heavenly Father and repent and believe in the Gospel, and when we do this God remembers us and restores us.

Holy and Awesome God,

Help us to return to you and your love and grace.
Help us to repent and believe in your gospel.
Create in us a new and faithful spirit that is connected in a vibrant relationship with you.

We ask this in Jesus’ name

Amen.

 

 

 

This year at Lent I am practicing it as a photo challenge. The photo challenge that I am doing is put on by rethinkchurch of the United Methodist Church. You can find the challenge here. The instructions for this challenge are listed below: 

As we journey through this season of Lent, some will choose to give up something. Some will go about their lives as if it was ordinary time. Some will choose to be more reflective. Whatever your practices this season, will you join this photo-a-day challenge and share with the community how you perceive each word or phrase for the day? No explanation needed, unless you want to. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Tag us on your instagram photos with @rethinkchurch or on twitter [@umrethinkchurch] with #rethinkchurch and #40days.

Connection. It’s what Lent is all about. Finding the connection with our creator and for even a moment each day cultivating that connection. Everyday of this challenge I will be posting my pictures from instagram to my blog here on methodork.com. I hope that through this blog series that we will find God in the most amazing places. So without any further explanation let’s begin with….Who Am I? 

 

I am a husband, a brother, a son, but above all else I am a child of God. This is where Lent begins in knowing who I am. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who am I? That question is one that we continually battle with, at least I do. The battle is usually mixed in what we do, which is where we go off track. What we do is not synonymous with who we are. In order for us to do things effectively we must first know who we are. Not the reverse. 

So who are we?

Honestly I can only speak for myself.

I am a child of God.
I am a husband.
I am a brother and a son.

More importantly I am free because of God’s love and grace. I am made new. 

This is where start. 

Knowing this is crucial to knowing what we do. 

So, who are you? 

This past Christmas Amy was given a present from my parents, the Gungor live album called “Creation Liturgy.” This album has quickly become one of my favorite albums to listen and it is largely how it finishes. The last song is titled, “The Doxology.” For those of you that are not familiar with the lyrics I have provided them below: 

Praise God from whom all blessings
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above the Heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

 

Gungor leads a congregation in singing this song a cappella and it is a beautiful thing to hear.  At the end of the song Michael Gungor says something. 

“Grace and Peace be with you.” 

If you are a part of a church this phrase probably doesn’t shock you or even sound weird to you, but I pray that we truly recognize what this means. We live in a world that is down right obsessed with ourselves, i mean narcissistic doesn’t even begin to cover how obsessed we can be, especially in our part of the world, the United States of America. 

We have many things, so much so that we are obsessed with things. 

What this means is that saying Grace and Peace be with you is a completely subversive countercultural thing. I think we as the Church can get to the point that we say things some many times that it starts to just repeat in our minds and yet sometimes I feel that we really don’t hear it. 

We listen to it, but we don’t hear it. 

So, I pray that as we live our lives that the words we say would be honoring God and worshipping God at all times. So, I’ll finish with this: 

Grace and Peace be WITH YOU.