Glimpses of God

For the last two weeks I've set up camp and pondered these two verses:

And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.  But without a parable He did not speak to them.

And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.  MARK 4:33-34


Jesus, God himself, knew the enormity of God's Kingdom.  Following Jesus through the Gospels, we find him sharing glimpses of this Kingdom in what he said and did...

• He healed the sick, raised the dead, restored sight, hearing, and physical infirmities... 
• He spoke forgiveness... 
• He taught about living in such a way that relationships with God, self, others, and creation are always honored... 

As Jesus journeyed through life, he shared illustrations and stories that gave people glimpses of God and His kingdom... 

A kingdom where love reigns!
A kingdom where relationships are never compromised!
A kingdom that has more beauty and abundance than humankind can fully imagine!

Journeying through life,
there is evidence of God's Kingdom all around!  

"The kingdom of God is like…”
 - a man who sowed good seed in his field.  Matthew 13:24    (it’ is good)

 - a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field  Matthew 13:31 
   (it starts small and grows)

 - yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of yeast until it worked all through the dough  Matthew 13:33 (a little bit can make a big difference)

 - treasure hidden in a field  Matthew 13:44 (it is very important and should be protected)

 - a merchant looking for fine pearls  Matthew 13:45 (it is precious and worth a great price) 

 - a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish  Matthew 13:47 (it is filled with variety and produces in abundance)

 - the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old  Matthew 13:52  (everything has value) 

 - a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants  Matthew 18:23  (it is filled with integrity)

 - a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard  Matthew 20:1  (there is lot of work to be done)

 - a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son  Matthew 22:2  (in it there is joyful celebration) 

Jesus is providing small glimpses
of what a life with God is like.  

He's inviting you in...

Do you see it?

Does it make you wonder? 

Come in, 

sit down with Jesus, 

let His Word,
 and the people who follow Him,
explain what he means!

The Kingdom of God has Come Near

If you weren't looking, you might have missed it... 

The children came first to ask 

"what ch'all doin?" 

We're having a party.  There's going to be food, and music, and pretty soon a bouncy house.  Go tell your friends and come back. 

On the surface, it looked like a block party... food, music, fun and good company.  

Below the surface was the heart through which the party had been planned.  It was the heart of Jesus who heals the brokenhearted and redeems the lives of those who walk with Him. When Jesus announced “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” he was saying: God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.

Sunday for the City, a day we designated to pray for cities throughout my denomination's district, which spans five states.  In Baltimore, we planned an event to B.L.E.S.S. one city neighborhood.  

                                                     As we BLESS, we
                                                           Befriend
                                                           Listen & Learn
                                                           Eat Together
                                                           Serve another person
                                                           Share faith in Jesus

... and the kingdom of God is near

We were in Sandtown-Winchester, the Baltimore City neighborhood that was the center of the unrest that erupted here after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died from a nearly severed spine after being arrested in April. DeWayne Wickham, dean of Morgan State University's School of Global Journalism and Communication, wrote in an article for USA TODAY stating heartbreaking statistics about this neighborhood:

"More than half of the people (ages 16-64) in this area are unemployed. In 2012, 49% of its high school students were "chronically absent," 61% of the population 25 and older lacked a high school degree, and a third of this community's houses were vacant. Even more disturbing, it has more people in Maryland's prison system than any other community in the state. Maryland taxpayers spend nearly $17 million a year to keep 458 people from this Census track in prison, according to a recent Justice Policy Institute report."

This was a day where the kingdom of God came near!

The table was set and food prepared for our guests

A stage for music was set

Prayer walkers went into the neighborhood and invited the people to come

Guests arrived

Food was served

Stories were shared as people talked, listened and learned about each other

Testimonies of God's care and faithfulness were shared

We prayed, and God was certainly near!

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, :here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  LUKE 17:20-21

As I handed out bottles of water and said, "thank you for coming out today," thankful eyes looked deeply into mine accompanied by the words, no, thank you!  These were eyes appreciating that people truly care, eyes that appreciated warm food served with love (instead of food from a dumpster, as one man told me), eyes that may have been seeing a glimpse of God's kingdom for the first time, and eyes that are already part of the kingdom and saw God's love pouring through.  

Love and compassion speaks a language all its own.  

I am privileged to speak this language and pray that those who received this message on Sunday felt the love of God and the peace that passes all understanding.  May they be moved to faith in Jesus, the one who loves unconditionally!

This, is Mission, Jesus Style!

If you would like to support the work of LINC Baltimore

and the mission work we do, our donation page

Grains of Sand

Walking along the beach on a beautiful sunny morning, the Words of God that ran through my mind were 

"more numerous than the sand on the seashore."  

I paused... looked in front and behind me.  The beach stretched as far as I could see in both directions and I began to imagine all the beaches that I have visited.  It's quite an illustration to think about anything being more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore.

Grains of sand...  each so tiny...  so many! 

I think of God's promises to Abraham.  Still childless at the age of 75, the Lord challenged Abraham to count the number of stars in the sky and promising that his heirs would be more numerous than that!   It took another twenty-five years later before Isaac, the son of promise, was born.  It's a long story of promises, faith, obedience, disobedience, forgiveness and restoration.  He left his country to go to a strange land, there were family conflicts that resulted in separation, there was adultery and abandonment.  

It's messy!

There was failure!

Walking with God is a journey!  

Many years later in the New Testament, Paul writes: 

We walk by faith and not by sight.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:7  

Sometimes the journey is filled with joy and at other times sorrow.  

Sometimes the steps are clear and at other times it's like groping in the dark.  

It's not that God's not clear, it's that our human understanding is clouded.  

That may sound trite...  But, it's true.  I have met some brilliant people, but none compare to the one who spoke creation into being!  It's hard to imagine that such a vast and complex universe that works with such precision and order could have been formed without intelligent design.

God is constantly at work on our behalf,
seeking to redeem and restore humanity.  

He can't bless sin, but he does bless obedience!

Here, we come to the point where the Lord is testing Abraham: 

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  GENESIS 22:15-18

The blessing follows obedience!

Abraham now had enough experience with God
to know that He always kept his promises
and this encouraged Abraham's obedience when God spoke. 

Where is God calling you to believe him and trust him?  

It may be in believing that He is who he says he is.  It may be in other steps of faith. Abraham waited 25 years for the first step of God's promise to come to fulfillment.  As for the grains of sand, they are still being formed as one by one, people around the globe believe God at His word and act accordingly.  

Who will be blessed because of your obedience?

How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.  PSALM 139:17-18

The Lord is true to His Word! 

A Mighty Fortress by Christy Nockels