WAR & HEALING IN THE KINGDOM

SATURDAY NIGHT, May 30th, the house churches of the Journey had a Gathering at Cambridge City Park to celebrate personal victories and healing. Victory never comes without a battle - so the two themes: war and healing, come together in our human experience.

When it comes to addictions, (those things that take control of our lives against our better intentions) it often requires a true battle to evict them from the claim they have on our lives. These are the things that are "energized" by the Ephesians 6:12 struggle, not just with our own weaknesses, but against spiritual enemies, without bodies. Submission to God is only a first step when it comes to confronting these "strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4), we have to take a second step. James 4:7 states we have to also "resist", as do Ephesians 6:13 and 1Peter 5:8.

Few of us were taught this dynamic when we learned about Jesus, how ever we came to know about Him. Yet, about a third of Jesus's ministry involved "resisting" these evil spirit beings, starting with Satan himself in the wilderness. We also see Him resisting the money changers in the temple courts with a camel whip. Not the classic "gentle Jesus" we see in the paintings. When He was resisting, He was never praying, so His example takes us outside of the teaching of even most current books out on the topic of "spiritual warfare". In Jesus's ministry, there was no such thing as "warfare prayer". War was war, and prayer was prayer.

Once the dust settles, after the battle is won and the enemy is out of the "house" (that is, our bodies - God's intended temple), Jesus the Carpenter needs to go to work restoring the areas of our soul that have been damaged, including the paths that the enemy has worn so well in our mind, will and emotions. The battle is about driving out the enemy that is at war with God's design for our lives. - Healing is the restoration process after the enemy is out of the way. The picture we get from the Old Testament Tabernacle is helpful:

The teaching of Jesus ties the Tabernacle to our bodies as God's intended home, and so its design reflects the blueprint of our soul. God's idea of "salvation" gets real practical when we talk about removing any things that do not belong there, and inviting the Savior to set up housekeeping and start restoring and redecorating us - as His sacred place.

How differently do we see our life when we consider that we have been made a "sacred place" - a temple of God Himself? Some of the words shared on Saturday night reflected the power of this truth. I think it is really God's passion that we see ourselves and others as sacred places, made to be inhabited by God's presence.

Bob

EVENTS & PEOPLE

THE JOURNEY - OPEN GATHERING
Food, Music and Open Mic to share what God is doing!
TOPIC: Healing & Addiction
May 30th from 5 to 8 p.m.
Cambridge City Park

Our Weekly House Churches:
BLUE GROUP - Contact Bob & Becky - nogah@izoom.net
RED GROUP - Contact Josiah & Fancey - josiahlorsung@yahoo.com
GREEN GROUP - Contact Scott & Tammie - stjmelliott@gmail.com

"Look at what they make you give."

The past few weeks, I was reminded of this phrase, spoken by Jason Bourne (acted by Matt Damon) in the third of the Bourne sequels, "Bourne Ultimatum". He had come to the end of any desire to play the game, and spared the life of another agent who was assigned to kill him. When the other agent asked why he didn't kill him to save himself, he answered with these words. "Because, look at what they make you give." He realized that they were all being driven by a third party to play a game that none of them could win. They were pawns, and the only way out was to stop playing, possibly at the cost of their lives - which were already forfeited anyway.

None of us gets out of this life alive. All we can choose is what we will say to the world we live in with the time we have. There were many things in life that Jesus pointed out we could not hold onto as tightly if we were going to follow Him, and (as we would say) "Get a life!"

• Devotion to extended family;
• Devotion to employers without boundaries;
• Devotion to financial gain;
• Devotion to religious traditions.

I think we all see the battle in one or more of these areas on at least a weekly basis. For us in the journey, we are finding out the cost of carving out a different life rhythm as we try to walk with one another in closer proximity...and finding out that transformation always comes at a price: something like taking up our cross. It's not that Jesus didn't pay it all, it's just that getting the "flesh" (patterns, habits and attachments) out of the way is really painful. But God gives enough grace to survive it.

So, why did Jesus have to die? Partly, to show us the cost of following Him in life. Why would anyone follow Jesus in dying to what is a "normal" life to us? Maybe my answer to that is to say, "Because,...look at what we made Him give!"

GATHERINGS AND PEOPLE

PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER WALK FOR LIFE
Come Help us Keep this Life Saving Station Open!!
Saturday May 16th - Register 9 a.m., Walk 10 a.m.
Cambridge City Center Mall Parking Lot - Call 763 689-4319

THE JOURNEY - OPEN GATHERING
Food, Music and Open Mic to share what God is doing!
TOPIC: Healing & Addiction
May 30th from 5 to 8 p.m.
Cambridge City Park

Our Weekly House Churches:
BLUE GROUP - Contact Bob & Becky - nogah@izoom.net
RED GROUP - Contact Josiah & Fancey - josiahlorsung@yahoo.com
GREEN GROUP - Contact Scott & Tammie - stjmelliott@gmail.com

DIGGING INTO WHY JESUS HAD TO DIE

On April 25th at the Gathering, The Journey brought us to look into why Jesus had to die. We had a few passages of Scripture and divided them among three groups, who looked them up and listened to what God might be saying to us about them. When we got back together, we were all in awe of how the Spirit of God had spoken to us - we were energized by the power of God and how He had set up so many events in history to speak of the meaning of Jesus's sacrifice.

If you would like to follow our Journey through Scripture on this topic and see what God might say to you, here are the Scriptures for the last two weeks in May:

Week Three - Fulfillment of the Law:
(1) Jesus fulfilled the requirement of the law, that sin results in death, but since He had no sin, His payment could be applied to us. He drank our cup of judgment, and gave us His cup of “blessing”. (Matt. 20:22, 26:39, John 18:11, 1Cor. 10:16)
(2) Jesus as Son of Man and Son of God holds both delegated dominion and effective dominion in this world (Matt. 28:18).
(3) Through His perfect sacrifice He prepared us for adoption (Galatians 4:8ff) and restored our spiritual dominion/authority in this world (Ephesians 2:6).

Week Four - The Lamb of God has Unique Authority
(1) Jesus identified as the Lamb of God (John 1:29)
(2) Jesus worshipped as the Lamb who is Worthy (Rev 5:12)

We will be jumping into a new topic starting May 30 at our Gathering in the City Park in Cambridge (5 to 8 p.m.) - "HEALING & ADDICTION" . All are welcome to hang out with us there!