The cure
Recently, I have engaged with a number of people who are struggling in their spiritual lives. Some are overwhelmed by the problems of life, some are beset with habitual sins, and other feel alientated from the presence of God. As I have been praying with and for many, I believe that that there is a simple, biblical cure that is so simple, that most feel that it can not be effective.
The cure is community. God specifically places his people in community for blessing, bonding, and believing. We were never meant to walk our spiritual journey alone, but need others, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, to ground us and help us focus on the important, over against the urgent. We need others to help keep us accountable for those sins that would chain us and keep us from experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised to his followers. We need to see that the presence of God is not always a mystical experience within the ecstacy of worship, but resides in the smiles, touches, and words of trusted travelers in the journey.
Contemporary culture is set up to reward individuality and make authentic community very difficult. We are so busy that finding time to simply "be there" for another is challenging. Our homes are set up so that we entertain in the back yard, in fenced yards so that we have privacy and our neighbors ge tthe message that they are excluded.
The church is to encourage a rich web of relationships, with some being more intimate than others. This is the focus of the early church (meeting regularly for encouragement, accountability, and worship), but we have lost that passion.
Who are you in community with? Who knows about your deepest and darkest secrets? If you are spiritually out of sorts, you should ask yourself whether you are in community with other believers.
\God bless,
Pastor M Traylor
The cure is community. God specifically places his people in community for blessing, bonding, and believing. We were never meant to walk our spiritual journey alone, but need others, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, to ground us and help us focus on the important, over against the urgent. We need others to help keep us accountable for those sins that would chain us and keep us from experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised to his followers. We need to see that the presence of God is not always a mystical experience within the ecstacy of worship, but resides in the smiles, touches, and words of trusted travelers in the journey.
Contemporary culture is set up to reward individuality and make authentic community very difficult. We are so busy that finding time to simply "be there" for another is challenging. Our homes are set up so that we entertain in the back yard, in fenced yards so that we have privacy and our neighbors ge tthe message that they are excluded.
The church is to encourage a rich web of relationships, with some being more intimate than others. This is the focus of the early church (meeting regularly for encouragement, accountability, and worship), but we have lost that passion.
Who are you in community with? Who knows about your deepest and darkest secrets? If you are spiritually out of sorts, you should ask yourself whether you are in community with other believers.
\God bless,
Pastor M Traylor