Much of human curiosity is driven by our need to know it all.  We want to know what the beginning was really like.  We want to know about the world we cannot see but know exists.  We want to know what heaven is really like.  We want to know what the end is going to look like — be like; what God will look like and be like.  We approach much of our life with a child-like curiosity that keeps us poking and digging for the unknown things of life.  But there is a much simpler truth to the life we live on this earth.  When we have finally learned to love one another, we will have learned all we really need to know in this life.  We will have achieved the greatest power on earth — the power to love as God has loved us.  God will make the rest clear when it’s time to become fully knowing.

• With AI (artificial intelligence) becoming a more prolific part of our world, what is to be gained by knowing everything”?
• What can we know beyond what God has commanded that would make God’s power available to us?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to live knowing only that I must love others as You have loved me — the greatest power in the world. Let that be all the power I’ll ever need to please You.

         Can you imagine getting a gift you’ve never had before that came to you without instructions on how to use the gift.  There’s no tutorial, no written instructions, nothing for you to download — yet, you have it and it comes with a lifetime warranty.  It’s yours.  You can’t tell if it works or doesn’t because you don’t know how to use it.  And then suddenly, and without warning, the gift comes on.  It powers up and you can tell something has happened.  You still don’t know how to use it though, how it came on, or what to do with it now that it is apparently powered up.  Nevertheless, it’s yours to keep forever.

         It’s difficult to claim our power from God as an unstoppable force of transformation in the world if we somehow have no ability to connect to the source of that power.  It’s even more difficult to utilize the power if we’re unaware of where that power comes from.  For us, the power we have as a church and as a people comes from Christ.  It is born of his authority and his connection to almighty God.  And because we are the church, his power is available to us to do what he did and do what he is doing.  It’s a power that is always on and never runs down.  The question is, “How do we continually draw from the source of power that we  have the ability to manipulate?”  We can turn it off or on at our choosing.  And therein lies both the problem and the solution.  When we’re connected to Christ, the power to love others is continually at our disposal.  When we choose to withhold that power, the battery begins to drain and we lose the connection to the source.  Our power comes from remaining connected to the source who is Jesus Christ.  It is from his power that we gain our power.

• What causes the church to become disconnected from their source of spiritual power — Christ?
• What must we do in order to remain connected to Christ and continually draw from the power offered to us in him?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and powerful God, enable me to draw from the source of all power that You have put to work in Jesus Christ, that Your will may be accomplished on earth through me.

         People who don’t acknowledge the reality of God are often asking to see the power of God, if for no other reason than to try and verify God’s reality.  And for all that the church is supposed to be and is, very few people outside of the church look first to the church to see the image of the invisible God in action.  Many have ignored the church’s acts of mercy as more and more publicly run social service agencies take over the acts of loving kindness that were often left to the church.  In other ways, the church has been so busy trying to define God intellectually that we’ve failed to do be the revealed presence of God in power loving those dispossessed from the world.

         The world has a financial advantage over the church: it can require income and property taxes to fund its social services. The church, however, relies on the faithful generosity of God’s people—not compulsory deductions, but tithes and offerings given in obedience and love. Even so, the world should be able to see the church as the visible power of God on earth: a place where God can be found at any hour, where those seeking the true God encounter love, justice, mercy, and real help for human need. The church is the power of God where God is meant to become visible, tangible, and transformative.

• In what ways can you envision our church as the visible power of God in our community?
• How can our church be more effective in helping people to see the reality of God and Christ’s power present in our world?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of power and grace, empower me to live in such a way that the power of Your transforming love is revealed in visible acts of justice and mercy.