Loving One Another Looks Like…

May 9, 2012 in Bible, Brotherhood, Community, Love with 0 Comments

Leviticus 25:35–38 (ESV) | Kindness for Poor Brothers
35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

Jesus said to his disciples…

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13:34–35

When one of us is down, we pick up the other. Bearing one anthers burdens is the joy of the community of Christ called the church. We do this, not for charity, but for love. This is the rhythm of our lives together.

The Mission of God Naturally Means Sacrifice but It’s Worth It

May 4, 2012 in Brotherhood, Community, Fear of Man, GOSPEL, Jesus, Love, Mission, Relationships, Will of God with 0 Comments

Capitol Hill Subway Construction Site

It’s been a year of new beginnings for all of the LinL community. Each of us are in a season of obedience to the sending of the Spirit to a new expression of our faith in Jesus Christ.  A new expression of what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ. Each of us has been believers of Jesus, but disciples? That’s new to many of us. Western culture often debates the difference between believer and a disciple. But the scripture clarify’s the disciple of Christ with vivid imagery of the initial twelve disciples, their assignment of the great commission, their walking out of that in obedience leading to their eventual death, and the many sacrifices made along the journey.

Some would debate, that was their calling, not mine. I will not attempt to convince you of why that is not the answer of a true disciple of Jesus. Because chances are, you are reading this post because you agree that it is time for us to live out our radical devotion to Jesus in action, not simply talking about it amongst ourselves while filling our calendars with events to excite ourselves to talk about it more.

The number of believers we hear from around the country echoing the voice of the spirit to live the mission of God not simply talk about it is growing weekly.  Often my response is simply to quote Jesus:

 John 10:27–30 (ESV)
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.

Many are afraid to step out of their normal routine of the event going lifestyle. Many vocational ministers have spoken to me about their fears of being labeled a heretic, losing all their friends, their pay check and speaking engagements. But they hear the Spirit calling them to live on mission personally. Hear my heart, I am not saying that if you don’t quit your job, sell all you have, move to the city or a foreign land for the sake of the gospel than you aren’t saved. But I am asking, if you knew God was asking you to lay down your comforts, identity, and all you had, would you? Is that not the measure of true discipleship?

Matthew 16:24–27 (ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

I had an amazing conversation yesterday with a vocational minister whose family is well known in the charismatic circle of mega-churches. We wept together as we spoke about God’s calling and how wonderful it was to know that we were not alone in hearing the Spirit and obeying. The mission of God is for every believer. The great commission is for every believer. The great commandment is for every believer. Living these out is the very thing we are empowered by the Spirit to do. It is also wonderful to know that God does not call us on mission by ourselves. Jesus always sent the disciples out two by two. Men, your second is not your wife.

God calls us on mission in pairs or with a community that is living on mission already that you join with. A true genuine community of Jesus, where the gospel is lifted, Jesus is centralized, transparency is normal and the fruit of God’s Spirit are seen in it’s members (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). For true gospel mission means doing life together, not events together, life together. Where we share one anthers burdens, steward one another to confession, repentance, and the forgiving work of Jesus in the gospel. As well as the mission of God, unconditional love, and the reconciliation of our city and neighbors to Jesus through service and good works.

Some have said to me, “That sounds hard”. I can wholeheartedly, with tears in my eyes say back to them, “It’s worth it”.

It’s messy, but freeing. Trust me when I say, when you follow Jesus it’s never about what you have to give up but what he frees you from that you thought you needed. For never have we felt such freedom to just be ourselves with a community, free from pretense, centered on Christ and joining with others to simply say to one another and the world around us:

“We’re not perfect. In fact we are very broken, but our hope is in Jesus and we’re living this life in love and service to him and each other. Together, not alone.”

The Church in Secret, but not In Hiding

May 2, 2012 in Community, GOSPEL, Love, Mission, Relationships, The Church with 0 Comments

What would it look like if our cities saw our good works, but the entire onlooking world (mostly online) didn’t? What if we loved and served our neighbors simply out of our love for Christ and for them? What if we were the church in secret but not in hiding?

As a community we have devoted 2012 to going through the Sermon on the Mount. The fundamental teachings of Jesus found in Matthew chapters five through seven. Beginning with the beatitudes, Jesus communicates the blessings of Kingdom life. Then he moves into some more challenging teaching for the disciples and Jews that were present. He corrects the teaching of the law that they’ve all heard and countered that teaching with the phrase, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you…”

What a challenge it must have been for Jews to have given their lives to the teaching of men, only to find out it was wrongly taught. Hearing Jesus confront everything they’ve lived for and telling them that their outward works would not be enough, that without inward change they will be lost. A message of hope to many gentiles was a message of radical change to the Jew. Would they follow the teachings of man, or of God? No longer shall you find your righteousness in your work, but in your faith in Jesus. This was the writtings of the law from the beginning, but their teachers had wrongly taught the it to them.

I’ve been challenged in April on these words of Jesus found in Matthew 6. Possibly I am drawn to it as a missionary, as everyone in our community is. Having given up suburban comforts to love and serve a community either rejected by the church or forcibly told to change by the church. We enter life with the Capitol Hill community with nothing but radical love and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Seeking to love the city, not change the city. When the pressures of American church planting arise with in and I begin to desire money and fame, I am reminded of these words of Jesus:

Matthew 6:1–4 (ESV) | Giving to the Needy
6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

As we serve, we are often tempted to let the world know. Tell people about the good works we are doing. As a church planter it means proving to people that we are actually doing something and it could mean them sending us support (Support is ministry code for money). But as a follower of Jesus it becomes a blurry line quickly. What are my motives? Why am I posting this to Facebook? What do I truly desire? Am I simply wanting to regain the very comforts he asked us to lay down?

As God continues his story here in Capitol Hill Seattle I desire that it remain his story. That this is not the story of Love is not Lost, nor a story of Christian rejects, recovering evangelicals, or reformed charismatics forming a community to change the world. But that it remains purely and simply the story of God.

So you wont see a lot of bragging coming from LinL. No marketed materials for handing out. No commercials, mailers, or publication ads. Not because those things are wrong, but rather because we sense conviction to see God’s kingdom grow from the grass roots of relationship and community. We dont post our happenings because we would rather you engage in the the mission of God than watch online. We would rather you live out God’s story in your community, then have your emotions tickled by God’s work in ours. So if you desire to watch, instead engage.

So we are the church in secret but not hiding. Thankful for your support, but not depending on it. So that the glory is not seen of us, but of God. That no one could ever mistake this mission to be man’s, but that of God himself.

Grace and Peace, Zac

It’s Not About Us, It’s About Them

March 24, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

What would it look like if we as believers would live among those different from us and love them for who they are, not who we want them to be for the purpose of our own comfort zone?

It’s what Jesus did for us, we ought to do the same for others who need to be lead home to the Father through Jesus, or simply to love them the way he does where they’re at.

What is Missional? What are Missional Communities?

February 4, 2012 in Community, Mission, Relationships, The Church with 0 Comments

We are abundantly thankful for Jeff Vanderstelt and SOMA Communities for their continued model and growing relationship with us.  Being pointed to Jeff by Friends, Colleagues and ReTrain  has given much of what we are walking into clarity, language, and mentorship.  Pray for us and this growing relationship for God’s mission in Capitol Hill and beyond.

Religion Vs. The Gospel

January 20, 2012 in Bible, GOSPEL with 0 Comments

By Tim Chester, Steve Timmis

As the Lord has been leading us to build missional communities here in Seattle.  We have been going through the book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.  It has been a positive reshaping in us of what Gospel Community is and how God wants us to walk it out together.

I thought I would post these video teachings of Steve Timmis done through The Resurgence.  They’re a good supplement to the book and conversations we are having.  Enjoy!

Grace and Peace, Zac

SESSION ONE

SESSION TWO

SESSION THREE

Total Church Training Session

link December 17, 2011 in Blog, Community, Jesus, Love, Mission, Relationships with 0 Comments

It’s About Giving Up, Not Trying Harder! – Romans 12

December 10, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Romans 12:1–2 (NLT) | A Living Sacrifice to God
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.* 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
We must remember that it is the work of God to renew our thinking not ours.  Our surrender is what we are empowered for.  Renewal is not a striving, renewal is a surrendering. The power to change is not up to us, it’s up to God.  We must let God transform us into a new person by allowing him to change the way we think.  It is possible to avoid most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant.  For these things show only the work of man, not the humility of surrender.
Only when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates, and redirects our mind are we truly transformed.  We cannot make a commitment to change.  Human effort constantly fails!  We can only hold back our sin nature so long.

Our Problem Isn’t Knowing God’s Will, It’s Obeying It…

November 16, 2011 in Bible, Blog, Fear of Man, Mission, Sovereignty of God, Will of God with 0 Comments

The LiNL team has begun walking in a new direction, a new calling, a new way of life.  It actually is not new; it’s just new to us.  It was early in the fall of 1994.  I was a senior in high school and the Spirit of God began quickening me to surrender my life to Jesus.  I remember very specifically whispering a prayer, “God please don’t make me a missionary, I can’t handle living in a third world country.”  A total selfish baby prayer, but a real one, God likes real prayers.  He can work with real prayers.  He hears them, not that my wants of comfort, stability, and air-conditioned bedrooms mean anything to the call of God.  Can I tell God what to do?  Can I tell God what to make me?  Can the pot tell the potter what to make him? It is the artist that makes the pot beautiful, not the desire of the pot.  If we are the clay and he is the potter, then we can rest in his sovereignty, rather than our pursuit of personal desire. (Isaiah 29:16)

Often we wonder what God’s will is for our life.  How do I know what God wants me to do?  Me specifically!  What is my God given destiny?

How come we never see biblical examples of men wrestling to know God’s will?  We simply see men that merely wrestle with whether or not they will surrender to God’s will.  None of the disciples ever asked, “What is my destiny Lord? What do you have for me to do?” Continue Reading…

Corey’s Story

November 7, 2011 in Community, Jesus, Love, Testimony with 3 Comments

This is our friend Corey.  I met Corey about a month ago through one of our LiNL crew.  Hearing Corey’s story has completely reminded me of why LiNL exist, why God has called us to the city and why we endeavor to live the life of the believer not get lost trying to structure it with events, activities, and ministry minutia.  To build a community that celebrates life through the Spirit of Christ on the earth, not just the gathering of the believers.  For it’s in our gatherings that we ought to be equipped to be scattered, for if not scattered we become self-serving, lost in religion, and filled with an emptiness.

Galatians 5:13-14 (NLT) 13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

It always begins in the word, but then that word must become mission-focused in our lives.  Mission is service to our neighbor.  The word began as incarnational experience and remains through incarnational experience through the life of the believer. The gospel is good news! It only loses its effectiveness if we fail to proclaim it! Because we are not sharing our lives, truth is not applied and lived out.  Let us celebrate the living out of the incarnational word of the living Jesus that God may change our hearts and the hearts of man. Continue Reading…

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