our love is LOUD...

Colossians 3:12-17

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

~~~~~

those words are so beautiful they take my breath away... and it's freakin hard to live them out.

the denial of self... the death of self... to live in peace and unity... to bear with one another through not only the joy, but the hard times too. the times where the rubberbands that hold our friendships and relationships together, are stretched and tested...

but God is capable of doing so much more than we can even ask or imagine.

Corinthians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

~~~~~
our community group is "feeling the burn" right now...

in the last week i know of many who have roughed it out in relationships or friendship with someone in their life, and thankfully been able to discern that it is not against flesh and blood that we fight... not against people or miscommunication or insecurity or hurt, but rather the one who has come to steal, kill and destroy...

i think we forget sometimes that the enemy waits patiently in the wings for our insecurity, wounds, bitterness, anger or despair to engulf us to the point that he can subtly take ground in the final outcome of those things...

the destruction of relationship and community, where intimacy and vulnerability are nonexistent.

in each situation i have witnessed, heard of, or handled myself in the last week, i have been in awe of the way Christ has made each person aware of the fact that it is a spiritual battle that we fight, and one that is won through vulnerability, openness and intimacy in the relationships that we find are being tested.

through confronting the true battle and "stepping up to bat" so to speak, all of us dealing with trial this last week were able to keep our eyes on the true source of our strength and swing with all our might as we knocked insecurity, miscommunication, doubt, and lies Satan would have us believe, right out of the park!

that that's not the end of the game... not the end of the battle though... after seeing the enemy for what he is, and hitting him with jonathan's bat of TRUTH (like that, jon?), restoration still needs to happen... there is still a part of the race to run... we still need to round the bases, and hard conversations that bring restoration and peace in the end, still need to be had...

last night when we gathered, many of us were exhausted and yet in awe at seeing God so evident in the things we'd been through. even in our exhaustion we were joyous... joyous that we could come together saying that what we are striving for... what we feel God is leading us to... is worth fighting for...

this week, we saw the battle for what it was. it wore us out, but in many ways we were much more prepared and aware of it than we ever wouldve been before... before talking and wrestling with our questions and our doubts, and before sharing life with one another.

i think our discussion last friday about conflict resolution had a big part in the way we each handled the difficult relational issues or hurdles that we had to deal with.

in each battle i heard of that happened with someone in our community, someone else in our community came alongside and encouraged, comforted or supported the person going through it. no one is alone... no one is abandoned. we are a family, and are not ashamed of our tears or our struggles or the fact that we are a raggedy scraggly bunch of kids who dont know what we're doing half the time... but we're trying to figure it out together, and we're learning to love each other through our weaknesses.

where one is weak, others are strong.

this wont be the last time we struggle... this wont be the last time we battle it out...

but the fact that we struggle... that we fight for what is important to us...

it shows that we are alive and kickin...

as joy spoke so beautifully last night in prayer... "our love is LOUD!" and we are sounding the battle cry... the one that shouts "THIS IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!"