What do you get when you compose a document with 5,574 words? GENESIS Church! Thanks to 'Wordle' the two most repeated words in the task forces report were 'GENESIS Church.' I praise God for the call that He has placed upon the GENESIS community to become a church in this New England culture that is in such desperate need of a community of people that will Love Jesus, and their neighbor. God's blessings on ALL of us as we step into His call!
P.S. Just thought I would make sure that 'Wordle' was accurate, so I tried it again and it came back with the following image. Pretty cool!
Take a few minutes to read through Mark 6:45-56. These are just some reflections from that text. To listen to the full message that was preached on this text, go to www.genesisthejourney.com/media - message title ‘He Did What?’
Solitude has a way of keeping you focused on what matters most – consider what drove Jesus towards solitude by reading John 6:15 – “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”
I’ve noticed that the harder you work to get to that space of solitude, the more you’ll value it when your their. ‘He(Jesus) went up on the mountainside (solitude) to pray.'
Why is silence and solitude so difficult? Blasé Pascal once said that “you can trace the SIN of the world back to one thing, man is afraid to sit alone in a room with His God”
Solitude forces us to wrestle with the thought: ‘Am I content w/God, and God alone?’ Will He be enough?
When the wind was hindering the disciples, why didn’t anyone PRAY to rebuke the WIND? I wonder if the reason Jesus waited so long before coming to the disciples on the water was to see if anyone would do what He would of done? Was Jesus thinking, ‘Come on guys, you know what to do, you’ve seen me do it – just try!”
What holds us back from doing what we’ve seen Jesus do? ANSWER: FEAR!
I love that Mark seems to highlight (2x) that Jesus WALKED. He did not run, skip or frolic across the water, HE WALKED – fully confident that He would not sink!
When God comes near, why is our natural response to panic, rather then to have peace?
When God comes near, do we fear that He’s coming to level us, or love us?
When God comes near, do we fear that He’s coming to condemn, rather then to demonstrate just how much He cares?
In the midst of the disciples FEAR – Jesus immediately speaks to them – He does not criticize, but uses His words to comfort them. “Take courage! It is I.Don’t be afraid.”
The reality is that in the presence of Jesus, there is NO need to have fear! Not now, not ever!
Fear causes us to FORGET the activity of God in our lives because our current situation (or problem) seems to cause a sort of spiritual amnesia within us. And when we forget what GOD has done, we error on the side of thinking He’s done nothing! And when we believe that God’s done nothing, our hearts grow hard towards Him!
From the OVERFLOW of a hardened heart comes FEAR.
The main problem with FEAR is not so much what fear causes you to do (panic, scream, freak out), but what FEAR PREVENTS you from doing! TRUSTING JESUS in ALL things!
For those of you who struggle with FEAR, know that this is a condition of the heart, not a condition of your circumstances! The Good News is that God knows how to deal with the human heart. When Divine love is driven into the human heart, ALL fear is driven away! 1 John 4:18 – “perfect love drives out all fear!”s
Jesus is speaking to you – ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’
What do you get when you compose a document with 5,574 words? GENESIS Church! Thanks to 'Wordle' the two most repeated words in the task forces report were 'GENESIS Church.' I praise God for the call that He has placed upon the GENESIS community to become a church in this New England culture that is in such desperate need of a community of people that will Love Jesus, and their neighbor. God's blessings on ALL of us as we step into His call!
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