We confess that we choose to love ourselves first and only.

We pray that everything we do as a community will be to better love our God, love our Neighbor and love our Brother. (Luke 10:27, Galatians 5:13)

I am pretty good at loving myself. There are times I have a hard time feeling compassion towards others, but I can always feel sorry for myself. I have a hard time giving away hard-earned money to those who need it, but it is very easy for me to drop $20, $30, $40 a month at Starbucks. I don’t think this is a new or difficult concept to grasp. Self-love is everywhere. From the image-conscious model to the homeless man who leaves dirt on his face to improve his chances of getting help, we all know how to love ourselves. What is difficult is loving others with the same – or even more – love that we have for ourselves.

But this is what we are called to do. When summing up the Law, Jesus says in Luke 10:27 that the greatest, most important thing we can do is love our God with everything we have. If we are following our Christ well, everything we do should create a deeper love for God inside of us. 

Not only are we called to love our God, but our neighbor too. Jesus sums up what he meant by neighbor by telling the parable of the good samaritan. Long story short, neighbor is everyone outside of the following of Christ. From the friendly man down the street who believes that all religions lead to the same eternity to the crack addict living across town who can’t get a job because of his past, we are to love this group with reckless abandon. We are to love the un-redeemed sinner more than they love their own sin. This is not an easy or simple or even logical calling, but it is ours.

Lastly we are to love our brother. Simply put, this is anyone inside the following of Christ. Depending on our different personalities, we tend to either love our neighbor or our brother, not both. If loving our neighbor means serving the worst that society has to offer, loving our brother means loving those who think they are the best the church has to offer. In the parable of the prodigal son, the Father runs out to meet both sons, the prodigal (neighbor) and the older son (brother).

The end goal of loving the neighbor and the brother is to bring them into the body of Christ. How beautiful a plan is it that by following the command to love our God we are more willing and motivated to love our neighbor and our brother. 

Let’s pray this week that everything we do as a community will be to better love our God, love our Neighbor and love our Brother.

Confession:

We confess that we often live our lives and make our plans for our own good.

Prayer:

We pray that we will live our lives in the truth that we are placed here and now in order to seek God and help others do the same. (Acts 17:26-27)

From the time I began learning about life, I was taught that everything I do is to better serve me. The better I paid attention in class, the higher my grades would be and the better chance I had of succeeding in life. The more I learned how to be around other people, the better I would be at making friends, and the happier I would be socially. It even extended to church. When it was time for Bible trivia, I wanted to make sure I was the one who knew the last book of the Old Testament or who begat the guy who begat David’s Uncle. As long as I did that, and attended regularly, and signed up for the leadership team I would learn how to be a Christian.

This isn’t the calling we are called to. God has us where we are and when we are in order to seek Him, and help others do the same. This means that we should make our plans, from the everyday to the long-term based around those two callings. What if our decision about where to get our coffee wasn’t based on location or price, but on our ability to engage the baristas with the gospel? Or what if we choose a career path based our ability to use our gifts to reach our surroundings for Christ, not based on salary or job security.

Let’s pray this week to change our mindsets about our mission in life. This won’t be easy, and it will require some painful and difficult changes. It will take intentional, authentic community that is committed to keeping each other accountable about living life on mission.

Confession:

We confess that we live our lives based on many truths found outside the gospel.

Prayer:

We pray that we would embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ as the most significant truth in all of life. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

Most of my life, and from what I observe, most of our lives are spent living by truths found outside of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For each one of us it may look a little different. I, for example, often operate under the assumption (or “truth”) that my life as a Christian should run relatively smoothly. I also live according to the “truth” that I should love, care for and reach out to my friends, while leaving my enemies or even people I just don’t know out in the cold. For others it might be the idea that we are here to live comfortably, and spend our lives working towards financial, emotional and physical security.

These sins are not as blatant, open or public as others, but they are just as detrimental. We must begin and continue to live our lives under the Truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means viewing all of life in light of the gospel. 

So instead of being hurt/bitter/angry towards a friend or enemy who has wronged us, we look back to the cross and what Christ did while we were enemies towards Him. This alone allows us to love people unconditionally, especially when we have been wronged or hurt.

Instead of being worried/upset/anxious about our financial, emotional or physical health, we look forward to the day when our risen savior will reign over our perfect bodies in a perfect world. This allows us to be a light of hope to those around us who are caught in similar circumstances. 

This week let’s pray that we as people, and one day as a church will live our lives in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This transformation will take prayer, meditation, and honest accountability amongst ourselves about where our hearts are.

About a year ago my heart began to be pulled towards church planting. It started with a general excitement about the idea of churches spreading and growing, then phased into a humble realization that pursuing church planting would carry with it certain costs that I would need to evaluate with myself and my wife. After going through this period of evaluation, including praying, reading, listening, studying and attending a conference we have decided that it is time to at least begin this process.

As my vision for a church began to develop, I realized that I needed to share this with people in my life who could give some positive and constructive feedback. The first person I shared it with was my wife. After talking through what needed to happen, she confirmed that this is something we (somewhat reluctantly) desired to do. The next step was to meet with men in my life who would help give me some direction.  From my pastor Kyle Martin to graphic/web guys and buddies Zach House and Matt Simo I began to share, edit, and re-share this vision.

To make a long story short, here is where we are:

We want to develop an intentional, authentic, missional community in North Dallas starting in the city of Addison. To work towards this end, we are spending the next 7 weeks in prayer for our community and asking God to raise up fellow leaders to join us.

Every Wednesday I will post the prayer for the week as well as any updates. If you are interested in partnering with us in any way, we would love to sit and talk with you over a meal or coffee. We have a long road ahead of us, and know that we do not have all the answers about how to best run a church. That being said we have been called to serve in this way, and are passionate about pursuing this calling.  At the end of the day, we want to be faithful for doing our part in making Christ known and treasured in our communities.