Indelible Ink (4/22/2008)

So, last Tuesday night was a little bit different. We had no worship leader and except for a few songs played through the iPod we really had no music. It was strange and different but, I think it caused everyone to really focus in on the sermon.

Over the past two weeks we have discussed Dick Staub’s book, “The Culturally Savvy Christian”. It is a great book that has challenged our thinking and the way we view our relationship with God. This week Jeremiah continued the discussion on how we can nurture the deep presence of God in our lives.

Jeremiah encouraged us to develop our spiritual, intellectual, creative, relational and moral capacities to their fullest potential.

To emphasize his point, we engaged in an exercise where we wrote on our hands the name of someone who has hurt us deeply. We then committed to show love to that person. Easier said than done. Hurt is a hard thing to get over. We’d rather nurse our wounds and justify our stance instead of practice the art of forgiveness. Most of us in that room sat with literal and figuratively stained hands wishing Jeremiah had chosen a different exercise. The Word of God is not always tender and heart-warming. Sometimes it is sharp and rough like sandpaper removing the rough edges. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” 2 Timothy 3:16

We finished the night out by breaking up into three groups where we creatively explained God’s love to the rest of the group. Group one was how we are to respond with gratitude for God’s love, which involved a dramatic reading by Jonathan and pantomime by Mike. Group two was how we embody God’s love in our lives, which included a dramatic presentation by Jonathan Gray. Group three was how we are to respond to God’s love with obedience, which included an explanation by Chad.

It was a great, thought-provoking night.