October 2020 — pg. 19
WAYPOINT:
Might our ministry have fallen into a tired duty-bound
ethic? Has “compassion fatigue” set in?
Tired people tend to seek more energy or power
rather than more love. What if our greatest need
is a deeper, richer and more powerful doctrine of
holy love (i.e. how high, wide, deep and long is
the love of Christ)?
This is why banded discipleship and the second half of
the gospel — sanctification by grace through faith — and
being “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
matters so much. To become a church with miraculous
capacities we must become persons of miraculous love,
and there are no shortcuts to becoming this kind of
person.
So where does this leave us and our churches with
respect to miracles? The last time I checked, Jesus did
not say, “I was” or “I will,” but, “Behold, I am making all
things new” (Revelation 21:5 ESV). The Holy Spirit, the
presence and power of God, indeed the flame of love, is
now unleashed through our lives in the world. The time is
still fulfilled. The kingdom of God is still at hand. The old
order is passing away. The New Creation has dawned. The
age of miracles is now.
WAYPOINT:
What if we are at the end of a long period of
history in which our part of the church has been
asleep — not lazy or willfully unbelieving, but
unaware and unattuned to the fullness of the
possibilities of God for our lives and world?
Wouldn’t we want to wake up?
THERE WILL BE MIRACLES HERE. It’s time to start
working on our sign. I will be on the lookout, and I can’t
wait to hear the stories.
Let us close this reflection with a prayer and a doxology
from Ephesians 3. Here’s the prayer:
“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 Lord’s holy people, 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” (v.16–19).
Now the doxology:
“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” (v.20–21).+