Saturday, November 23, 2013

Who We Are And What We Are About


Luke 12 (The Message Bible)
"I've come to start a fire on this earth---how I wish it were blazing right now! I've come to change everything, turn everything right side up---How I long for it to be finished! Do you think I've come to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront!"

Jesus will get up in your business.
He will pull out your underwear drawer and empty it for all to see what you've tried to hide, and continue to hide. Why? Why would He do such things? Because He loves us, and He knows our base nature is to hide things. We've been hiding things ever since the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes. Moses hiding in the land of Midian. David running and hiding in the wilderness caves. And the list goes on and on, right down to today with Michael Bynum, running and hiding from Jesus. But thank goodness that Jesus is the ultimate "Hide and Seek" player. Thank goodness that I'm not good at hiding. That I can confess and admit to the wrong and the sin that I had done, only to find out that this is part of the whole "I love you" thing Jesus has going on. Confession...............Repentance...........Restoration...........Right living. How cool is that?

That is what VRC is all about. That is why we meet on Saturday night. We meet to worship (show our love and appreciation) God. We want to hear Him, meet with Him...learn from Him. In the process of the meeting, we want to get rid of any baggage (sin and the effects of sin) that we may still be carrying around.
We want to be about the business of living and working in the Kingdom of God (His dynamic rule and reign in our lives).

Matthew 5:48 (The Message Bible)
"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up!. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

This is also part of the make up of Vineyard Recovery Church.
We want to provide a place where we can all "learn" how to live out our lives as followers of Jesus.
We want to provide whoever comes on Saturday night an opportunity to engage and grow in Christ.
We have a wonderful bookstore with some pretty incredible books that will aid and help you in your journey.
We want to provide audio teachings that you can listen to, and hopefully be stirred to chase this Jesus on your own.
We want to spark you so that the fire inside to know more about this Jesus who paid our way into the kingdom.

Matthew 7:13-14 (The Message Bible)
"Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easy going, formulas for a successful like that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life........to God!----is vigorous and requires total attention."

We're not looking to establish an agenda or a rigid set of rules and regulations in a effort to appear as followers of Jesus. We believe that relationship is an organic thing. One that changes and grows as we change and grow in Christ. I can truthfully say that the Jesus I know today is a lot different than the Jesus I knew 19+ years ago when I came into the Vineyard. Who changed? Me? Or Jesus? I think maybe it was me, since Scripture tells us "Jesus, the same........yesterday, today, and forever."

Consider coming and joining us tonight.
We start at 7 p.m.
Look forward to seeing you.

God on you....
mb


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