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Jesus said that the Great Commandment is to love the Lord our
God with all our heart with all our soul with all our strength
and with all our mind (Matthew 22:36-37) God has shown us such
love, that we see returning that love, with all we have to
give-our time, our talents, our resources, our lives-is our
only right response. We seek to live lives that bring Him all
the glory, honor, and praise that He deserves. We do this both
individually, and communally. We encourage and equip for
personal worship, and when we gather together we strive for
participative group worship in a familial structure.
Jesus said, "Love each other as I have loved you." (John
15:12) This may be the toughest thing Jesus ever called us to.
Let's face it, we're not all that lovable: we've got quirks
and issues, baggage and prejudices, flaws, faults, and
failings. It is a challenge to love each other. Nevertheless,
we seek to give our lives to this command, trusting that Jesus
will strengthen us, humble us, correct us, and guide us as we
strive to honor Him in this.
Jesus said, "…go and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew
28:19). Jesus desires and deserves to have all nations (people
groups) on earth worship Him, giving Him their full allegiance
above all else. In the past, the Church has done this in some
terrible, heinous, and atrocious ways. (We all remember the
Inquisition and the Crusades, right?) Nevertheless, Jesus has
called us to make Him known around the world, so we will seek
to obey. But, unlike some efforts in the past, we only seek to
work toward His ends, we also seek to do it His way, His
means. This means that peace, gentleness, and love will mark
how we make Him known…not coercion, manipulation, or guilt. We
never want to compromise truth, but we do not want to
compromise grace either. Our skills, our resources, our lives
are at His disposal for the accomplishment of this task.
"Jesus said…" Just before calling His followers to make
disciples of all nations Jesus said, "All authority in heaven
and earth has been given to Me. (Matthew 28:18) He is our
authority (since ALL authority is His) so what He says, goes.
Following Him means submitting ourselves to Him. We have
found, and are still finding, that giving up our delusion of
autonomy is beautiful and brings peace beyond description. He
is our King. We love Him, we are loyal to Him above all, come
what may.
Good question. As a community we get together twice a week for
house church-church in someone's home- (Wed. evenings and Sun.
evenings) for the purpose of communal worship, prayer,
fellowship, teaching/learning, giving, sharing, eating,
serving. Individually, we encourage everyone to spend time
with Jesus daily, and to share their lives with each other. We
understand that we need each other on this journey, so we
value time together. But we also value spending time with
people who don't know Jesus yet. It's a tough balance…the
desire and security of being with each other (family), and the
desire to see Jesus known, even though that often takes us to
places that are indifferent, antagonistic or even hostile.
But, hey, no one said life was easy.
Visit our parent
church, Common
Ground for more information.
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