To the Saints who are VintageNxt

Happy Birthday VintageNxt!
Five years old today! In church years that's a lot. Statistics tell us that for small businesses five years is a break point between failure and success. If a business lasts for five years its potential to last for ten years quadruples. Now a church is not a business nor should it be....it's an organism, a living breathing thing with arms and legs and most of all hearts. I'm sure if we were to apply a business stat model to the early church it would say that Jesus was nuts to try to change the world by leaving it in the hands of 12 men who were certainly not prepared to do what the stats would say would be necessary to implement such a comprehensive far-reaching movement. There would need to be boards established and org charts to be written and staffed, monies raised and media presentations crafted, oh the media that would be necessary! That's not what Jesus did then and that's not what He's doing now. Jesus's secret plan for changing the world was to give Himself up for it...totally....completely....eternally and to empower seemingly incompetent people to act for Him. There wasn't the internet (Al Gore had not been born yet). All Jesus had was the hearts of those that had followed Him through the dusty roads and hillsides and listened....and loved, not only Him, but each other. Jesus said that was what made the difference.....that they showed that His love was genuine by loving each other...that was what was going to change the world. That's what you do, you saints who are at VintageNxt. In a world where people young and old are hungry for love, you give it, His love, His arms, His heart. In this world where people are so afraid, both of not being loved and of loving others unconditionally, you do. You do it for Him, because you love Him! You look past the barriers that people put up to keep others out, whether it's not looking or acting like you, or being shy, or unreachable, or sometimes just plain mean, or carrying so much baggage that the wall takes a jackhammer to get through. You do that. You give others the same grace that God gives you to fail or be a failure or just a plain old sinner. You make Jesus smile and cry at the same time when you give that grace and love anyway. It's not always easy. Love gets messy sometimes. When you start getting close to someone and loving them you begin to see the imperfections because you are so up close. Satan uses our inclination to judge others to drive us apart. It's a good thing when that starts happening because it is an indication that your love is a threat to his cause. He uses our frail egos and tender hearts to cause us to have our feelings hurt and cause divisions among us. That's not a new thing....it happened to the early church too and is actually addressed in the Bible. Hearts that have not been hurt have not really loved....not unconditionally at least.Jesus had His heart broken, didn't He? He died however so that we could reconcile with God over the things that break His heart. He died so we could reconcile with each other too. In fact He commands it in the Bible and mentions it when talking about taking communion. In order to be right with God we need to be right with our brothers and sisters so that our love is the light to the world that it's supposed to be. That's pretty different from the world. He says to go to your brother if he has something against you (not if you have something against him) and make it right. All too often we get separated over stupid stuff that in light of eternity doesn't mean a thing. Or separation occurs when we love wrongly and then when it's over, it's awkward. We need to keep short accounts with our differences with each other....it breaks God's heart and devalues what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus died so we can love, what difference does it make who said what about who....really, what difference does it make? We need to be able to come together and focus on God and Jesus and others and not on the messy little details of life. We absolutely don't need to be avoiding each other because we are mad or it's awkward. Satan love division...Jesus loves unconditionally and wants us to love that way too. It's sometimes easier to share God's love with someone you don't know than with someone you know well, or at least think you do. Let's all endeavor this next year to love more deeply, more unconditionally, with more grace. That my dear saints is a world-changing plan crafted by The High King of Heaven. The One Who loves us like none other, wants us to love each other like no one else on earth. It's not an easy thing....Jesus died for it, but wants us to live for it.....come and lay your wounded hearts on the altar at the feet of Jesus.
Come tonight....and come right.....and come love.....In the words of the Beatles..."Come together, right now, over me!"

See you at the party....you are the party!