Friday, May 17, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Excerpt from a Godly Warriors lesson for Today at Aikido of Northwest Kansas
It's a funny truth, but Jesus talked a
lot about how we had to surrender our lives to gain true life. He
made it clear that if we did surrender everything that we would gain
everything, as well, but we still had to give it up (Then Jesus said
to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants
to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me
will find it.”). Ironically, AFTER trusting and following Jesus
and while 'giving up our lives' continually, we get the Holy Spirit
whose gifts include SELF-CONTROL.
This may seem funny, at first, that we have to give up our lives to
gain life and THEN we get more ability to control ourselves, but it
actually makes a lot of sense and parallels Aikido progress.
In
Aikido new students have to learn to 'go with the energy given' in a
technique and just move. This can be one of the hardest parts of
Aikido for many—especially for perfectionists or those who feel
they need to have control at all times. There are SO many things
that we can focus on in even the most basic technique—say
cross-hand wrist-grab wristlock-throw kota-gaeshi. It is possible to
write pages on that technique about foot position, timing, balance,
breathing, shifting weight at the appropriate times, angles, torques
on and through wrists, maintaining extension, keeping centered,
making sure to keep weight underside, being relaxed throughout the
technique, blending with the attacker's direction and energy, and
even where the eyes should look at different parts of the technique.
However, the more a new person focuses on more and more details and
tries to CONTROL every aspect of the technique, the worse the
technique usually gets. The mind literally cannot keep all the
details going at once when consciously thought through. We HAVE to
learn to let go of our need to control everything with force of will
and muscle and RELAX while just starting with one or two things.
Only once we let go of our rigid control can we let the movements of
the technique and the actual DOING of Aikido teach us. We may have
additional help from those who have more experience (as we do in a
Christian walk) or even direct advice from instructors or manuals
(again parallels the Christian way), but we still have to learn to
LET GO and RELAX and TRY. Ultimately, our greatest teacher is the
movement and the flow itself as we learn to listen to it (much like
we learn to listen to God and the Holy Spirit). Eventually, a
student gets much better at this and can even 'see' and guide many
techniques with a high degree of accuracy while they are occurring;
in the sense that they can now hear the flow and move within and even
guide a technique (as opposed to how they started off by trying to
forcefully control a technique through exerting their internal
strength and power) they have gained so much more control of any
incoming attack and of a technique—and in a way they never could
have done by controlling every little detail. This is a great irony,
and it is a great truth in both Aikido and the Christian walk. To
truly listen and 'hear' and learn, we have to first give up our need
and desire to control all parts of our lives/the techniques and
attackers in our lives. Only then are we TRULY able to learn from
the Aikido/from God and life.
More details about Godly Warriors lessons can be found at (www.GodlyWarriors.com).
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Unite Game Night April 19th
We had a PARTICULARLY fun Game Night last Friday with a large variety/spread of students attending. Check out some photos on facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.435166739908524&type=1). We've also posted one or two below--enjoy!
Saturday Small Group
It was SO GOOD to meet with the all-guys Bible study/small
group community yesterday! It feels like
it’s been hard to get us all together as busy as the semester has been, but
three of us made it, and we had a truly refreshing time in the Word and
sharing.
Some days such readings and discussions can be good and
thought-provoking, but somehow this one felt different—at least to me. There was a lot of prayer and time spent
listening between thoughts and readings, and we received some really
interesting insights. We discussed how
in John, Jesus answers the question about how He is only revealing Himself to
the Jews by talking about the Holy Spirit in believers and how, ultimately, (when
that info is correlated to Hebrews) Christ WAS revealing Himself to everyone
(not just the Jews) through the Holy Spirit in believers. We also discussed how many in the John verses
before couldn’t hear what He really meant (or did hear in part but wouldn’t
change for fear of being thrown out of the synagogues) and how in Hebrews it
explains that the Holy Spirit opens ears and hearts and eyes and minds… In other words, that method is what is
required to help people hear when Jesus does reveal Himself. It was interesting to reflect on. What was equally if not more important to me,
though, was just being with the guys in the quiet of the day with God. It was very needed and refreshing. I am excited for the next time we can join
together.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Newsletter
Hello everyone! In response to newsletter readers’
suggestions, I am making the newsletters shorter,
but I will begin posting more frequently here on Unite's prayer blog! The posts online will cover some of my
ministry adventures along with more in-depth updates, stories, encouragements,
and prayer requests. I may still put out
longer newsletters from time to time,
but I will attempt to keep most of them shorter. Please check out this prayer blog and
let me know if you think this is a good, bad, or neutral change! I have already posted an update to the prayer
bog that would have normally
been last month’s
newsletter, so read it and let me know what you think! For this month’s newsletter, I have included
some photos. The photo above is from our
creative stations of the cross experience that we set up for Good Friday at
Unite Game Night. Besides the stations
of the cross experience, we also had a coffee demonstration that night and gave
information about the slave trade in coffee production. Since Jesus came to set the captives free, we
felt it was appropriate to read about ways we could help set others free, too! Not many students went through the prayer
stations that night (not too many were there at all—many had gone home to be
with family), but those who did seemed to have a genuine, positive experience. Overall, Unite Game Night continues to go
strong, and we hope that it serves as a good place to find community and to act
as an alternative to the typical Friday night activities in Hays (photo of game
night is below).
\
On a completely
different ministry front, a few of the Aikido of Northwest Kansas students who
also go to Unite Game Night accompanied me on a Godly Warriors Aikido demonstration
for a youth conference in Hoxie (photo above). We were very privileged to be one of the two
main speakers/demonstrations at the Way of the Warrior youth conference. We gave two demonstrations, and I talked about
being a Godly warrior (more info at www.GodlyWarriors.com).
It was a good time for those of us who
went, and I think it was a blessing to those at the conference, as well.
Prayer Requests
Please
pray that the NOMADS trip in late April be used by God for good purposes.
Please
pray that God direct us as we seek to meet with outside entities about [alt]
this year and as we discuss how it may look.
Please
keep several local ministries in your prayers that are seeking to start up or
drastically shift gears as new leaders come in.
Please
pray that God help me connect with new churches and private individuals who
would want to fund the ministry endeavors out here; as I prepare for marriage
and increases in expenses, I need my salary to increase to closer to minimum
wage (and ideally to closer to my goal amount).
Please
pray for my fiancé Tella, and I as we go through pre-marriage counseling; we
are very excited!
Please
pray that God help us find a good house to buy (or a good place to rent if we
aren’t to buy a house right now); we are interested in buying a house near the
college sector in the short term in which we could rent out the basement to
help finances; long-term we might be interested in using such a house as a
ministry house in which we could rent to Christian college students for
discipleship or to just anyone or to international students in particular as an
outreach ministry.
Please
keep our small groups in your prayers—as finals approach, it is harder and
harder for students to gather in community and study the Word.
Finally,
please pray that the churches in the region unite in love and continue to serve
others as the Body of Believers! As
always, thank you for your prayers
and for your financial support!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Brief Reflections on My Day
This morning, I met with a college-aged man in the chapel of
the Protestant Campus
Center as is my weekly custom. Most of what we talk about is private, but I
can say that the conversation gently reminded me to relax back into spending
more quality time with God daily—though I have been praying and seeking to move
in the Spirit, I haven’t taken the Sabbath time I need to not only rest in God
but also to digest what He has been teaching me. The conversation was interrupted by thunder
and some gorgeous heavy rain along with hail.
After that meeting, I met with a local area pastor (as is my
weekly custom). It was an excellent time
to sit and listen over lunch, and later to share. Again, most of what we speak about is private. This conversation encouraged me in a few ways
that I cannot share, but it also encouraged me to keep praying and not worrying
about life too much as I seek to live for the Kingdom daily. In truth, after praying and doing all I can
do, there really is nothing else I can do in most situations; though there are
several things that I could try and think through and worry about in life right
now—they really are in God’s hands. I am
excited to see what He’ll do.
The rest of my day involved a brief community time at a
small group I lead; I am excited to be able to likely spend more time talking
and reading the Bible next week! I also
taught Aikido, spent some time with my fiancé, and took care of quite a bit of
office work that needed done; there’s still more to do! Now, I am TRULY excited to let my head hit
the pillow and to sleep in my warm house.
The weather is bitterly cold (it dropped from sixty something today to under
twenty), but it is warm inside, and tomorrow, for the first time in a LONG
time, I can sleep in a bit and almost make 8 hours of sleep! Good night, and God bless!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Reflections
Wednesday before Easter was a surprising day—I had been
feeling under the weather, so I slept in a bit.
I figured that in the long run it was more important to get well quickly
than it was to get in an extra hour of work; I also knew that I could work really
hard to make my time up. I had a LOT
of work to get to! There were a million
little detail-things that needed done for promotion material for the upcoming
Unite Mission Trip, some work for upcoming [alt] coordinating meetings, and work
for an awareness drive reminding the churches of The Welcoming Event for next
semester. Little did I know that my planned
work day was about to change course drastically.
The night before, a Chinese college-aged student had stopped
in the dojo during open mat time and asked me if I could help him with his
car. His window wouldn’t go up. It didn’t take long to figure out that his
window arm regulator was shot. With a
little bit of work we got his window back up and sent him on his way with info
for a mechanic. I also had left him my
ministry card for him to call me if he needed any help.
Now in the middle of my busy Wednesday (right as I sat down
to work, actually), I received a call from him.
It turned out that the mechanic couldn’t help him until next week, and
the student needed to leave in a couple of days (he wasn’t an FHSU student—he
was just visiting friends who were, and he needed to get home); so, I directed
him to another mechanic. Then he called
back with the same result. After another
such call or two, I suggested we meet back at the dojo so I could see what we
could do. On the way, I called a
mechanic from my church who said he could help out the next day. After some work and a call to the mechanic
from my church with both the student and me on the other line, we got it all
figured out.
By now, I had lost a lot of my work time, so I called my
fiancé to see if she wanted to join me for a Wal-Mart run instead of a bike
ride; I had to get out there to buy some things for an upcoming event at Unite
Game Night. She understood the change of
plans and agreed. We dashed through the
store and loaded up our car. In the lot
as we were about to step into the car I got an excited wave from a college-aged
guy I know. He parked and came over and
shared a very exciting and encouraging story about what God had been doing in
his life. Within a very short period of
time, it became apparent that he needed to express what all had been happening,
and I truthfully wanted to listen as did my fiancé; so, we did. The story was great, it had a good lesson for
me to ponder in my life, and we all left happy—gladder for the
conversation—about forty-five minutes later.
By now, most of my day had been eaten up by seemingly chance
encounters, so I hurried to drop my fiancé., Tella, off at her Perspectives
class (after getting us both some food); afterwards I was going to head to the
youth group I help with on Wednesdays.
As I dropped Tella off at her class, she said something prescient—“if
you end up talking with a student late, don’t worry about it; I have a book so
you can pick me up as late as need be.”
Well, sure enough, I ended up in another long (though
EXCELLENT) conversation. This time, the
lesson at youth group was good for me to reflect on AND
it related to the lesson I had received earlier in the day when listening to
the young man in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
One part of that lesson was to not let life distract me but to focus
back on Jesus and the Kingdom (the people He came to save). At the end of our time in youth group, a
young woman whom I know was sitting in a corner by herself, seemingly lost in
thought and upset. I sat down nearby and
just chilled in silence. Eventually, we
began having an excellent conversation.
Over time the youth pastor (Jeff) joined us, and we continued to talk
for almost another thirty to forty-five minutes. The talk was deep, critically important, and
one that I very much enjoyed. I would
not have traded it. Afterwards, I
hurried to pick up Tella at Perspectives, which had been over for awhile. It turned out that she already had a ride
home, so I met her there and hung out with her for a little bit before going to
bed and crashing from a long day.
The lesson I learned about not being distracted in Youth
Group very much applied to my day; it had started busy with many worries about
logistics for valid ministry things; however, my focus was off—it was on them
in a stressful light. By the end of the
day, it became obvious what at least three of the things had been that I was
really supposed to have done that day, and all of them weren’t on my radar
screen. It was an excellent reminder of
what God’s Kingdom Work really is—people.
It’s not to say that those other things don’t need done or don’t benefit
people. I also acknowledge that there
are times that I have to get that work done to facilitate good God-moments with
other people. Both things are a part of
it; however, it can be very easy for me in my busy days to get so focused on
those details that I am too busy to stop and listen to the real opportunities
around me in the actual day that is occurring.
I am a firm believer that the Bible talks about planning for the future
wisely to some degree; I also see that it says not to WORRY about tomorrow and
that it seems to emphasize living prayerfully in the moment now—for that is the
only moment we have. It is within the
balance of those two truths that I seek to live—and man can that be hard some
days! Please feel free to pray for me in
that ;) Still, when I am in the balance
between those two, I find that I can both listen to the opportunities and
engage them as they come AND get the work
done when the windows for such work come, too.
Days that flow beyond well like that seem rare, but they are sure are cool
when they happen! What’s much cooler is
that I have a God who is willing to help guide and direct my stubborn self into
the moments in my day even when I am unaware of them. Thank God for that and for special moments
with others—they are part of an abundant life and the abundant life to the full
that Christ came to freely give us!
Moments like that with God and others are special to me beyond
words. I pray that you may have some
special moments with God and other people in your future, as well, and that you
are listening to the opportunities in the day and seize them!
In an effort to keep newsletters smaller in future, I will
be publishing more reflective pieces like the one above on the prayer blog (http://www.UniteEph4-1-16.blogspot.com)
and on the Unite Facebook page. I will
still occasionally feature them in newsletters, but the newsletters will be
shorter and present more of an overview of the month (with some
exceptions). If you like this idea or
dislike this idea, please email me at Brandon.Nimz@gmail.com
and let me know your thoughts. As
always, thanks for reading and may God bless!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Feb 2013 Newsletter: Urgent Updates!
It appears that
God has answered two prayers in a very big way.
First, thank you all VERY much for your prayers for the Perspectives on
the Christian World Movement class. Through
prayer, God’s providence, gracious donors, and new students signing up for the
class, the course is now financially able to run for the full semester. Though that may seem minor, it was very
important for the students who were already taking it—including my girlfriend,
Tella. That brings me to the second
answered prayer (or prayers)—my girlfriend Tella and I are now engaged! We are both (obviously) very excited about
it, and we are very much looking forward to what the future holds!
In both of these
instances, I know that many believers were praying. For Perspectives, many people responded to my
email and said that they were praying, and others went out to see what God
would provide. In relatively short
order, the needs of the course were taken care of. Regarding my engagement, my family has been
praying for me to end up with a good wife for many years. I myself have long prayed that if God had one
special person set aside for me that He would help me find her; I also prayed
that if He did not have one specific person that He would help me make the
wisest/best choice possible. I further prayed
that He would do whatever was necessary to help me get there since I can be
very stubborn and hard-of-hearing in such matters. Though I had thought a couple of my earlier
relationships might be the one that I had been praying for, specific
circumstances eventually made it obvious that they were not. After a time, I gained more experience, and I
believe that God helped me hear His voice a little better. I noticed in Proverbs that it says, “He who
finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord” (Prov 18:22),
yet it also says in Proverbs 19:14, “Parents can provide their sons with an
inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the Lord can give an understanding
wife.” Since only the Lord can give an
understanding wife, and since my lifestyle of service to the Lord whatever He
may ask very much requires an understanding wife, I began to pray that He would
provide one. I also began to realize
that only if He provided one would I ever be able to have a companion and live
how I desired to live.
After dating
Tella for some time, I started to wonder if she might be that answer to
prayer. Even as my girlfriend, many of
her attributes already fit with me very well and with what I needed, and who
she was fit very well with who I was.
Our hearts and desires for the present and the future were also heavily
in line. Over time, it became obvious to
me that I would want no one else as a companion to walk with me through life’s
adventures and that I would much prefer to walk through life with her than
without her. She is such a great
blessing to me that I do not have words to adequately describe it, and I myself
receive joy beyond words seeking to be a blessing to her. Now we are on our path together, and I thank
God beyond words.
The way that
those two prayers were answered is a good reminder for me to trust God to
answer prayers in His way and His time. While
the prayers for Perspectives had an immediate answer, there was more than a
decade between when I began praying about a potential partner and when it came
about. I also had numerous false leads
that might have, at the time, led me to believe that God wasn’t answering my
prayers. Ultimately, we can now see that
He has answered my prayers, and He answered them well. Despite my stubbornness, He seems to have
helped keep my earlier relationships from becoming what they shouldn’t have
been, and then He ultimately blessed me with my relationship with Tella in a
way that was even better than I could have asked for! Thank God for such providence and for the fact
that He is true to His Word and true to His nature!
In the same way
as He answered prayers for Perspectives and for me to have a wife, I trust that
He will continue to provide for our basic needs if we continue to seek first
His Kingdom (Matthew 6) as we prepare to embark on this new journey. I also believe that He’ll do even more than
that! Jesus on multiple occasions said that
if we give up our lives for Him, He will give us true life and life to the
full. He has helped me slowly let go of
my old life, and He has certainly given me life to the full! I have been blessed beyond words—I have a fiancé
who is better than I could have dreamed of, I have a job that is not just a job
but a passion, I have adventure and variety and the unknown in my life, and I
am blessed with friends, loved ones, and a community. What more could I ask for, truly?
Despite this
tremendous providence, I have been questioned at times by those whom I love if
God is really providing for me based on my income. It is true that my income is small for the United
States--$907 per month out of a goal income of $2,320 per month. However, it is more than enough for what I
need now. He has always helped me meet
all of my critical needs, and even on such a small income, I have been making
aggressive repayments on my couple of small remaining school loans and my
business/ministry startup loan. Sometimes
as my car breaks down or other things happen I take two steps forward and one
step back, but I have still always been moving forward. This, to me, is providence. It is true that my expenses will increase
when I marry; Tella is still a student for another year, so there will be no
extra income, but my rent (which has been so low since four of us guys live in
a three bedroom house) will increase when she and I move in together after the
wedding, and I will have to look at private family health insurance options (I
am currently uninsured). Even so, I remain
firmly convinced that God will provide for these things—our basic needs—as He
always has.
However, in part
due to some of my loved ones’ doubts and in part because I believe He will
answer it, I have been praying and continue to pray that God would provide even
more than that. I have been praying that
God will help move my income not just up to the most basic new needs, but up to
the goal amount of $2,320 per month, which is equivalent to what I would earn
if I left ministry and taught Math or Spanish at a high school (both of which I
can do right now with my degrees). It is
also starting salary for many full time youth pastors and part-time salary for
many college ministry workers. Since I
do more than full time college ministry and other missionary work, it seems to
be an appropriate amount. I have been
praying this for some time, and I feel that God has begun slowly answering it;
though my income has held at $907 per month, there have been occasional surprise
one-time donations, and there is just a feeling I have that He will be showing
more soon. I have also recently had good
conversations about approaching churches for financial support, and I feel
peace to finally step out and do it in the same way that overseas missionaries
and other in-state missionaries like me frequently do. Many churches may not want to support me on a monthly
basis, but if I look at this as a yearly goal, then only $16,400 needs to be
raised by the end of this year to get my salary taken care of. If just 32 churches vote to give $500 on a
one-time or yearly basis, that would completely cover it! When it comes down to it, I firmly believe in
the vision of this ministry and what we can accomplish—and I do need funded to accomplish
it! As such, I am willing to work at
this as hard as I work at the other parts of the ministry, too. I continue this prayer, and I ask you to join
with me in it. I also ask you to
seriously, prayerfully consider asking your church’s leadership if they would
invite me to come out and speak about my mission work and seek to raise
financial support for it. Regardless of
whether God answers this prayer quickly, slowly, or in a surprising way, I am
convinced that He will answer it, too, and that however He does answer it, it
will be for the best. Thank you!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Newsletter
Foreword:
Hello everyone! I had planned to send out this newsletter at
the end of January as a special ‘double issue’ covering the end of last year
(December) and the beginning of this year (January). Unfortunately, several unexpected things
(including praying and seeking money for Perspectives early this month) set me
back a bit! I will still send out
February’s newsletter near the end of February, but I will likely make it
shorter since this one is so long! I
apologize for the delay, and I thank you for your continued prayers for me as a
missionary and for Unite as a ministry!
Newsletter:
God seems to
often work through the unexpected. As
those of you in Northwestern Kansas know, this New Year’s Eve day brought in a
LOT of snow—more than had originally been expected. My girlfriend, Tella, and I were going to
head up to Plainville with some friends to bring in the New Year. With several inches of snow on the ground and
more falling, we had to change plans and stay in Hays.
While we were
running out to get some supplies at Wal-Mart, we passed someone walking down
Main Street. Tella recognized the person
as Martha, one of the women from our Monday morning small group this last
semester. The snow was too deep to turn
around directly, so we looped around a block and pulled up next to her and
offered her a ride. As it turned out,
she was on her way to a special evening mass at her church; we were able to
give her a ride to her service and time our shopping so that we could pick her
up, too. When we picked her up, she
surprised us by inviting us in for dinner.
We were a little
unsure whether or not to accept—we had some plans for later that evening and
didn’t know when everything was going to happen, but we felt like we had enough
time, so we went in and joined her for supper.
While she was heating up food, I headed outside and started shoveling
off her driveway. As I was shoveling, I
began to reflect about how well that evening was working out from entirely
unplanned and unexpected events; even though everything came up by surprise, we
each had something that could serve the other well. Tella and I had an already-warmed up car, and
we were already driving around. We were
able to use that as a blessing to Martha.
She had spare warm food and time for conversation. That was a blessing to us. I had the time while the ladies talked to
take care of her driveway, and Martha had experience and wisdom to share when
we talked over supper later. It just
seemed to jump out at me that God really did build all of us so that we could
be blessed and bless one another in turn.
All we have to do is seek to genuinely love one another in whatever
situation arises, and we can experience much of the community that scripture
indicates God built us for.
As the night wore
on, we ate our food and began a series of very enjoyable discussions. One of the more intriguing was over an old
Volga German tradition that Martha could remember that she said was called
‘winching’ (probably a form of a German word ‘Wunschen’). Apparently, when she was little, it was
common custom to go out on New Year’s Day and every day for the next week or so
and ‘wunsch’. This involved knocking on
the door of close friends and family and giving them a traditional blessing in
German to have a good New Year. In
response, the friend or family member would thank those ‘wunsching’ and give
them alcohol (usually beer or spirits), unless the person giving the blessing
was younger, in which case they would be given money. This wasn’t meant to be completed in one
night, but was done over the course of the first week of the New Year until a
person had greeted and blessed all of their family, friends, and loved ones in
the region.
I was
immediately enamored with this tradition for a few reasons. One was simply that it was cool—I had never
heard of such a tradition, and I tend to find history and traditions to be
somewhat fascinating. It also just
sounded like a fun thing to do—kind of like Halloween without the costumes but
with blessings instead of tricks and with better gifts than just candy. More importantly though, I thought that it
was really impressive how this and many other traditions (such as Christmas
caroling) that are more common to the older generations were truly designed to
form and reinforce a broader sense of community. Each one of these traditions made people
think more about extended family and friends, spend more time with them, and
even bless them during holiday times.
It seems to me
that at times my generation’s society works against genuine community—especially
broad, genuine community; we often have small groups of friends but find it
hard to be a legitimate part of a bigger community. While there are many factors that lead to
this, it often boils down to my generation just being ‘too busy’ in our minds
for broad community. I can tell you from
scheduling my ministry’s small groups and leadership meetings that it is NOT
easy to find times that fit everyone’s schedule—between work, school, family,
obligations, and other priorities most schedules are pretty packed. Often when we do gather for things like
‘small group’, it initially takes a fair amount of time for us to quiet down
from our crazy days enough to listen to others and to God. I am not speaking as one who is not overly busy
himself—I speak as one who is often himself too busy. With everything going on it is just so easy to do. The reason that I bring this up, though, is
not to simply condemn busy-ness or exhort us all to open up our schedules more
(though that could be a good idea for some of us, including me), but to point
out that in today’s society we have to make community—especially broad,
encompassing, and loving community—a high
priority if it is ever to happen at all.
It is very easy to
underestimate the importance of community to our health and spiritual lives,
but we all should look very closely at scripture and especially at Christ’s
words before we dismiss community as not very important.
To truly see the
importance of community, I think we have to look at God’s heart and his plan
from the beginning. In Genesis 1:26-27
we see that we are created in God’s image--it says male and female they created
us. In their image, they created us
(some translations of the Bible say He created them, but the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’
used for God is plural, not singular).
This is interesting—that the trinity would create us (plural) in their
(plural) image. This makes sense on
several levels. Love is only fully
existent with at least two—a person loving and a person to receive love. A person who loves but doesn’t have a person
to receive their love is not able to fully express love. Also, a person to be loved who does not have
anyone to love them is not a full expression of love. Only when one person can love another is love
fully expressed (and it is even more fully expressed when it is mutual). The Bible teaches that God is love (1 John
4:8). We just mentioned that love
doesn’t fully exist with just one—and God isn’t just one! There are three—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well that makes sense then that they together
in community are God, since God is love.
It also makes sense that they created us (male and female) in their
image—plural. We were meant to be in loving community
from the very beginning, and since love (and God is love) is part of that, we
were meant to be in community with God from the very beginning. Once we sinned, we were unable to fully
receive God’s love (as evidenced when Adam and Eve ran away and hid from
God). Our guilt and shame kept us from
receiving it as we once did, and community was broken in part. At that time, God began a plan to restore us
to Him and to the love and community that we were built for. In Genesis 12:1-3 it states that
Abraham and his
family were blessed to be a blessing and that ultimately the whole earth would
be blessed through them. This came to
fruition when Christ, descendant of Abraham, came and dealt with our sin and
its separating guilt and shame in full on the cross, so that we could again
freely receive God’s love and be in community with Him and others. This isn’t just abstract theology. Let me say that again, Jesus came so that we could be rectified with the
Father and live again in community with God and with others! If His very purpose was to restore us to
community with God and others, then how high an emphasis should broad, loving
community be in our real lives? Does
this reality translate into how we live as Christians and how highly we
emphasize living as a loving community to all others?
Jesus highlights
ways to really love others and live in community in the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5-8), and He reinforces its importance when He says that all the law
and the prophets can be summed up in ‘love the Lord your God with all of your
heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew
22:37-39). He even teaches the disciples
how to do this—washing their feet and commanding them to love one another as He
has loved them right before He went to the cross (John 13). His last fully recorded prayer on earth is
that all believers might be one as He
and the Father are one (John 17). If
that isn’t a mind-blowing concept, I don’t know what is! That Jesus would pray that we have the same
unity and oneness that God the Father and Jesus the Son share! Wow.
All of this is later followed by a bunch of New Testament letters that
constantly exhort believers to love one another, to not give up the habit of
meeting, to seek to be one in the Spirit and one in love. Again and again it emphasizes ideas of unity,
loving one another, and loving others who are not believers. We are repeatedly told as a community to care
for widows, orphans, and the foreigner among us. Everywhere a loving, broad, Bible-following community
is emphasized. In sharp contrast to how
Christianity is often presented in our era (as a religion centered on helping
individuals in their separate, private lives ‘not sin’ and do good things), the
Bible shows that Christianity is centered on God’s heart as He passionately does
what is necessary to save those He loves and restore them to loving community
with Him and others. We then, as a
community, are challenged to reach out and love all others—from those whom
society does not care for to even our enemies.
In this love, we are challenged to become one with God and with
others. What a high calling! What a high emphasis broad, loving community
should have in our lives!
This leads me to
my New Year’s challenge (and it is still early
in the New Year, so feel free to take it up even though we are in
February)! I challenge myself, and I invite you to join me by
challenging yourselves, to seek to live actively for Christ and the Kingdom
this year NOT by first emphasizing
moral purity (not that I am saying I WON’T seek to be morally pure—just saying
that I don’t want ‘not sinning’ to be my primary
focus), but instead by emphasizing looking for opportunities to love others
genuinely and to be in community with others genuinely. May this generation take a lesson from the
older generation in building broad, loving community! May we UNITE
this year in the Spirit and in Love by actively seeking to go out of our way to love and bless
others! Let’s pray Jesus’ final prayer
for us and seek to be one with the One who came to restore community!
Note: Below we have information on various
outreach projects along with ways that you can pray for Biblical community in
them. You are also welcome to become
involved in them directly! Please keep
us in your prayers, and PLEASE feel free to send me prayer requests, too!
More information
about all of these outreach projects is available at www.UniteHays.com.
Unite Game Night and Common Grounds
Coffee House
Pray that our barista
team can pray and be Biblical peacemakers whenever it is necessary. Pray that the churches would send out more
people to get to know the college students and befriend them.
Get Plugged In
Pray that more
churches get involved in this day in a bigger way. Each church is invited to campus this day to
greet the incoming Fort Hays State University students in love and to care for
them. Some have in past given care
packages, food, coffee, and more; may God use this to reach out to campus!
Nomads Trip
Pray that God
use the trip to help those who go from various churches to bond in the Spirit
and in Love.
Unite Small Groups
Pray that we can
open up and share and that God help us see Him as we study His Word. Pray that more Christians would join these
small groups to interact with college students.
Juarez Mission Trip
Pray that God
help those who go from various churches to bond in the Spirit and in love; pray
that we bond with those in Juarez, Oklahoma City, and Hays. May we see more opportunities to reach out in
love in our home communities!
[alt]
May God help
those who plan and help with [alt] to bond as believers as we reach out to
provide an alternative event to the post-Oktoberfest partying in Hays, Kansas.
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