Lampstand

8-28-08

Lampstand

SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 2:5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

OBSERVATION:
Apparently, what the Ephesus church did, at first, allowed them to be a light / lampstand to their world. They were operating at the top of their game. It's in Ephesians 2:8-10 that we find the words "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Maybe the "Repent and do the things you did at first" has to do this idea of being "God's workmanship, created...to do good works..."

APPLICATION:
I want my life, our family and the people of Radiant Life Fellowship to have a Lampstand that burns bright in our world, now. Fueled by the grace of God, my hope is that we would exhibit the good works that come from being God's workmanship/masterpiece/artwork: Putting Jesus on display everywhere. According to Revelation 2:5, "repentance" will need to be an integral part of the DNA of my life, our family and our Radiant Life community.

PRAYER:
God. I ask your forgiveness for my pride, indifference, apathy and lack of genuine love. I am broken and in need of Your healing and restoring from my inside out. I desperately need you. Make my (our) Lampstand a torch in this world. Help me to love with your love. Serve with your heart. Forgive with your grace.

Chris

Urban Restoration On Tuesdays

This is where we go on Tuesdays

Debbie Eaker and Cole Thompson loading the 44 extra bags of grocery that we needed tonight.

Cole loading grocery bags

Gary & Debbie Eaker

Cole standing outside in the rain, ready to carry grocery bags for those who needed it.

On Tuesday nights (6-8:30pm), you will find people from Radiant Life Fellowship serving the needy at Urban Restoration. We hand out free and full bags of groceries to those who are in need. Tonight, almost 150 people lined up to get their grocery bag. We then have the opportunityto love on them, bless them, get to know their names and ask to carry their grocery bag to their ride (bus, car, bike).

When I serve the poor with love, I discover that they give me a greater gift than I could ever offer them. I am somehow "saved" from drifting into discontentment. I regain a sense of gratitude for who I am, what family I live in and what I have. I always leave with a sense that I did something for someone else who could never pay me back. I served because I loved.

Without regular interactions with those who survive with much less than I have, I lose perspective. I start to think I need more, bigger, newer and better stuff. My life starts to center around "I". That's why I need to regularly find myself in environments where I am in the minority. It's just one way God has given me to counter my bent toward self-centered-ness.

Thank you God for Radiant Life Fellowship.
Almost 100% of the Radiant Life people have served the people
that benefit from Urban Restoration each week.

Chris Thompson

Life Group

It's impossible to totally feel connected to the people of Radiant Life just by showing up on Sunday mornings. We're looking for more opportunities to connect on more personal levels.

That's part of the purpose of our Life Groups. It represents the "WITHWARD" direction that Radiant Life is going...

We value the image of God in all people, everywhere. We believe that we were created to live deeply with one another, carrying each other's burdens, sharing and stewarding our possessions, contributing financially to the on-going ministries of the church. Praying for and confessing our sins to each other, suffering and celebrating together. In that context, we are the active, living, loving representation of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord here on earth. It's in these honest, loving relationships that God transforms us and truth becomes a reality. The way of Jesus cannot be lived alone. This "Community" will serve as Christ's presence here and now.

You are invited to check out a Life Group.

Tonight, Jenny and I had a very refreshing time at Life Group. For this week, we got a sitter (because we were all having dinner together...Italian night @ The Dickert's house) and we totally enjoyed it. There was lots of laughter.

If you are interested in joining a Life Group (or starting one), please contact me: cthompson08@bellsouth.net

Life Journal Olympians

As I stay up late each night to watch the Olympics, I am amazed at the courage and dedication it takes to be an Olympian. They had to make a choice to arrange their lives around certain practices that will one day make it possible to compete at that level of athleticism.

Bolt and Phelps did not just wake up one morning and randomly say to themselves: "Next week, I am going to break world records and win lots of gold medals." If I made that sort of statement around my house, my kids would roll in the floor laughing. They know what I know: I have not trained. I have not disciplined myself to win any sort of race...unless I'm racing Jake (my 4 year old) pretty much anywhere.

Bolt and Phelps (and all the Olympians) decided years ago that they were going to set their hearts and minds on the goal of winning gold. Then they arranged their whole lives around that goal. It took consistent training to get their bodies into the kind of conditioning it takes to be an Olympian. Because of the training, they can now do what they once could not...win!

The same is true for disciples of Jesus. You and I can't just wake up one morning and exclaim that we are going to be more: patient, generous, kind, forgiving, thoughtful, joyful, faithful or loving.

First, our hearts and minds need to be captivated by the value of being a person of: patience, generosity, kindness, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, joyfulness, faithfulness and love.

Then we have to begin training. We need to sit under mentors and coaches like: David, Paul, Barnabas, Peter, Moses, Elijah, Abraham, Noah. We need to walk in the dust of our Rabbi: Jesus. And one way we do this is by orienting our lives around certain practices that will enable us to be the kind of person God has created us to be.

I am inviting each of you to join together as a community and push our way to adding this new habit of doing daily devotions using your Life Journal. All along the way there will be successes and failures. Richness and Dryness. Depth and Nothing. Encouragement and Despair. But it is a journey and on a journey, the scenery changes and I can think of nothing more inspiring to give my life to than to do THIS with YOU.

Chris

Let them see you read your Bible

I will admit, I've never been a consistent journal-er. I don't keep a single organized prayer list. And I would guess, that most of the time my kids would rarely see me intentionally taking time out, while they are awake, to read my Bible....for me.

So, when I discovered the Life Journals, I was both thrilled and apprehensive about taking on this new habit. Thrilled because now there's a tool that's within my reach. I believe I can do this. I want to do this. Apprehensive, because I am usually good at starting things and not so good at sticking with them for life.

This is something that we, as a family, have committed to stumble our way into this habit of daily time with God.

Yesterday morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table with Cole and Noah and for about 35 minutes, we were all working through our own Life Journals. We were quietly reading our passages for about 15 of those minutes (they finished much quicker than I did). Before we knew it we were following the S.O.A.P. & S.O.A.P.Y. formula. Occasionally I would peak over and see what they wrote down for their prayer requests. It was a moment I will not forget. And the thing that topped that moment, was when Cole reminded us the next morning that it was time to do our Life Journals.

We will need to adjust our times once school starts, but I am confident that this will become a habit in the Thompson family.

Chris

Popular ways to access your daily Bible reading

If you would rather listen to an MP3 reading of the daily Bible readings, you can get that downloaded to your iTunes.
http://enewhope.org/podcast/dailyreading.php


If you would rather read your daily devotion online, then check out this website:
http://www.lifejournal.cc/bible/
or
http://www.biblegateway.com

SOAP

S.O.A.P.

Scripture
Observation
Application
Prayer