Leawood, Kansas, united States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 24 July 2014 "New community, a place of no condemnation"

Leawood, Kansas, united States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 24 July 2014 "New community, a place of no condemnation"
Daily Scripture:  Romans 8: The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms
1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Reflection Questions:
In verse 1, Paul echoed Jesus' words: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17). As The Message puts it, "Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud." Paul said there are basically two kinds of people: those oriented away from God and toward self, and those oriented toward God (living by the Spirit). The second group form Christ's new community, living in peace.
Verse 5 spoke about what our life is based on, not about every detail of our actions. How have you sensed yourself shift, over time, from basing your life on self-interest to basing it on the principles God's Spirit teaches you? Where is the "growing edge" of your life right now—in what areas is that shift (not without struggles) taking place?
In verse 3, Paul wrote that God sent "his own Son to deal with sin." Moralistic religion often reinforces condemnation by telling us that it's entirely up to us to "deal with sin" in our lives. How can trusting that Jesus has already dealt with our sin, and rid us of condemnation, free up our energy to live out the positive principles of service and community God calls us to? How can you keep your faith focused on Christ and the good he offers you, rather than focusing on the bad you don't want to do?
Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, as a member of your new community, I choose to focus on you and the power of your convicting, reconciling love, rather than on myself and my feelings of shame and despair. Thank you, Jesus, for making this new life possible. Amen.
Insight from Shawn Simpson
Shawn Simpson serves as the Director of Technical Arts and Operations at The Church of the Resurrection’s West campus in Olathe, KS.
Last week marked one of the most hectic weeks we have in the Tech Arts department.  The National Worship Leader Conference is an “all hands on deck” event where anybody who can move a mic, wrap a cable, carry a flat of water, or point a wayward guest to the proper room is enlisted for all-day duty.  2000 people descend on the Leawood campus for a host of exhibits, workshops, and concerts.  The organizer of the event for Worship Leader Magazine, Suzie Stablein, often speaks of the intent of the conference being to rejuvenate and energize worship leaders to touch the people in their congregations.  The whole focus is to be serving those who are in service of others.
My job during the conference was to be the “Deck Boss,” which is a cool way of saying that I managed everything getting on and off the stage in the sanctuary.  With multiple artists leading worship, each with their own specific configuration of musicians and vocalists, it was very important that we be very deliberate in how we staged each group to facilitate fast and orderly changeovers from one to the next.  In some ways, it was very daunting and could be frustrating at times.  The groups were invariably arriving from their own hectic travel schedule, coming into our venue where they didn’t know exactly what to expect. ALMOST all of them provided us with a “rider,” which is a document specifying their setup, but NONE of them actually used precisely what their rider called for.  That’s where my crew came in.  It was our job to work with them to quickly figure out what they actually needed and what we could provide, and in what ways we could make it all go as smoothly as possible.
As you can imagine, there were times when an artist (or their representative) would get…ummm…cranky…. about how things were going.  I’m happy to say that in every case, though, the crew was able to get everyone going and all of the artists led fantastic worship sets.  Some groups were more fun than others to work with, but in the end we all parted with handshakes, high-fives, fist bumps, and profuse mutual praise for a job well done.
One artist that really stood out was the closer for the whole conference, Paul Baloche.  This is the third time Mr. Baloche has led worship at NWLC and each time, he and his band have been a pleasure to work with.  This year was no exception.
As I said before, these artists are usually playing NWLC as a stop on a longer tour they are doing.  They are travel-weary and exhausted.  Our soundcheck with Mr. Baloche’s band was at 11am on Thursday morning and they arrived 20 minutes early to get setup. Ben Gowell, the band leader, came right to me with exactly what I needed to know for their setup, then asked ME what THEY could do to help!  Michael Rossback and Carl Albrecht, the bassist and drummer were equally helpful.  The setup went smoothly and they progressed through a smooth and professional soundcheck.  Mr. Baloche came in after the band was setup and ran through his own soundcheck with them, equally smooth and professional.  They finished their soundcheck with time to spare and left us to our work of getting the rest of the groups for the evening checked out.
Now, being a professional in your setup and soundcheck isn’t anything remarkable.  These guys do this all the time and I’m sure they understand that things go smoother if you come into it with a good attitude.  The deck crew works on that same philosophy, so it makes sense that we would click that way.  Here’s where it gets remarkable…
They didn’t play until after 8pm on Thursday evening, following three other worship artists.  Their set was scheduled to last for 45 minutes, but went for over an hour.  No complaints there.  Mr. Baloche is a masterful worship leader.  Following his worship set, the conference was officially closed and it was time for the participants to gather themselves up after three days and head home to their respective churches.  Mr. Baloche’s band had done a great job and could rightfully have gathered their gear and headed out the door to their next gig…but that’s not what happened.  As the house lights came on and the work of tearing down and loading out began, we found that Ben, Michael, and Carl were surrounded by curious “fans.”  Ben was happily talking guitar pedals with a smiling group.  Michael was giving an impromptu clinic on the rigors of being the bass player AND keyboard player in the band.  Carl was holding court with a group most fascinated in how he setup the drum kit to suit his playing style.  In each case, these guys, all of whom had to be extremely exhausted were putting aside their own comfort and legitimate right to call it a night, and instead were joyfully serving the people for whom the conference was held.
It was truly inspiring to see a marvelously talented group take the time to deliberately focus on the faithful spirit and serve rather than to focus on their own needs.  Nobody would’ve blamed them at all if they’d gone backstage and waited until the crowds left.  Instead, they stepped up and offered encouragement and blessings to tired and stressed worship leaders.  Beyond the music they played, I believe their true service was to offer that kind word to rejuvenate and energize the attendees to go out and touch the lives of their own congregants.  My prayer would be that I could see those opportunities to look outward rather than inward and share the blessings that God has given me.
(and so you don’t think Mr. Baloche was skipping out on some post-worship service, he was in the narthex signing autographs and taking pictures for anyone who asked…smiling and encouraging every person he came into contact with.)

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