Tag: First Steps

Posted on

“First Steps”, by Rev. Dr. Shane Green, November 4, 2024

November 4, 2024

In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel that small acts of kindness and generosity go unnoticed or seem insignificant.  But in God’s eyes, even the smallest gestures make a difference.  Jesus compared a mark of discipleship to a cup of cold water given to little ones.  Those generous souls will not lose their reward (Matt 10:42).  Furthermore, the Kingdom of God was compared to a small mustard seed that can yield a massive harvest.  A small and insignificant seed becomes something far more, like simple acts of generosity.  

In our church and community, we often witness the beauty of the smallest of deeds.  Perhaps a meal prepared while someone is recovering from an illness, a kind word shared during a difficult time, or a prayer uttered for someone in need are just a few examples.  I’m still energized by the small act of a few people gathered around a table to make a food bag full of ingredients.  One small bag after another until, eventually, 25,052 bags were made in a single morning.  By setting aside three single mornings over three years, 76,200 bags were made, which equates to over 460,000 meals.  On one level, small and insignificant acts became a massive harvest.

Your small acts have a ripple effect that extends far beyond our sight and understanding.  Therefore, look for ways to lend a hand to a neighbor or someone in need.  Seek to make another person’s life better.  Ask yourself, “How can I practice small acts of kindness and generosity today?”   The Hebrew writer reminds us, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).

 

This Week’s Readings:
Monday – Numbers 9
Tuesday – Numbers 10
Wednesday – Numbers 11
Thursday – Numbers 12
Friday – Numbers 13

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Numbers. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:
Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election
Pray for spiritual maturity.
Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders.
Family restoration through forgiveness.
Continued growth of the faith of the people.
Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6
Posted on

“First Steps,” by Rev. Dr. Shane Green, October 28, 2024

October 28, 2024

Dr. John Gladstone, an English Canadian Baptist minister, told a story about a fellow English clergyman who was serving a very small church.  Each week, at the end of the service, he would offer communion for those who stayed.  Week after week, only a handful of people would stay for the sacrament.  One Sunday, even less stayed. The minister even questioned if he should have it because there were just a few.  Eventually, he went on with what was promised.  He got to the part of the liturgy where it said, “And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn…”  He stopped, looked up towards heaven, and said, “God forgive me.  I didn’t realize I was in such company.”  

This coming Sunday is All Saints’ Sunday.  This Sunday reminds us that we are in a community above and beyond time and space.  In a mystical union, held together by Christ, we are connected to all those who have gone before us.  Frankly, I’m comforted by this connection.  I hope you are as well.

This Week’s Readings:

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Numbers. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

  • Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election
  • Pray for spiritual maturity.
  • Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
  • Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
  • Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
  • Family restoration through forgiveness.
  • Continued growth of the faith of the people.
  • Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6

Posted on

First Steps, Rev. Dr. Shane Green – October 14, 2024

October 14, 2024

A few weeks ago, this hymn was sung in worship.  In 28 years of ministry, I can’t recall ever singing this hymn, which is unfortunate because the words are beautiful.  You might be familiar with this hymn but if not, I offer it to you for reflection.  

O God of Every Nation

O God of every nation, of every race and land, redeem your whole creation with your almighty hand; where hate and fear divide us, and bitter threats are hurled, in love and mercy guide us, and heal our strife-torn world.

From search for wealth and power and scorn of truth and right, from trust in bombs that shower destruction through the night, from pride of race and station and blindness to your way, deliver every nation, eternal God, we pray.  

Lord, strengthen all who labor that all may find release from fear of rattling saber, from dread of war’s increase; when hope and courage falter, Lord, let your voice be heard; with faith that none can alter, your servants undergird.

Keep bright in us the vision of days when war shall cease, when hatred and division give way to love and peace, till dawns the morning glorious when truth and justice reign, and Christ shall rule victorious o’er all the world’s domain.  

In the past few days, I’ve used these words as a prayer.  I invite you to do the same.

This Week’s Readings:

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Leviticus. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

  • Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election
  • Pray for spiritual maturity.
  • Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
  • Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
  • Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
  • Family restoration through forgiveness.
  • Continued growth of the faith of the people.
  • Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6

Posted on

“First Steps” by Rev. Dr. Shane Green, October 7, 2024

October 7, 2024

Richard Rohr has written many books on spirituality and maturity.  He wrote one that I deeply appreciate and frustrates me to no end, Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation.  Drawing upon the Bible, Christian tradition, and other cultures, Rohr argues that men in Western society often lack meaningful rites of passage to help them mature.  Without significant rites of passage, one is confused, disconnected, and stuck.  

For Rohr, he believes that each male must own five key promises or insights to grow and mature (I agree but also think it would apply to women as well).  Here are the five key promises that each of us must learn:

  1. Life is hard.  Therefore, one must accept the inherent difficulties of life rather than avoid or deny them.
  2. You are not that important.  Therefore, one must emphasize the need for humility and the recognition that you are part of something larger than yourself.
  3. Your life is not about you.  Therefore, one must find purpose beyond personal success, focusing instead on service and the benefit of all.
  4. You are not in control.  Therefore, one must stress the importance of surrender which aids in the unpredictability and acceptance of what one can’t control.
  5. You are going to die.  Therefore, one must remember their mortality which inspires one to live with meaning, purpose, and urgency.  

We need these insights for our wellbeing.  Each of these precepts are part of the Christian journey.  If you have never considered these, I invite you to do so.  Don’t read them only to discard later today—dig deep with these, contemplate these over the next few months while listening to the voice of God beckoning you to go deeper.  

This Week’s Readings:

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Leviticus. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

  • Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election.
  • Pray for spiritual maturity.
  • Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
  • Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
  • Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
  • Family restoration through forgiveness.
  • Continued growth of the faith of the people.
  • Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6

Posted on

“First Steps” by Rev. Dr. Shane Green, September 30, 2024

September 30, 2024

Why is it that we are really proficient in compartmentalization?  For Christians, there is the uncanny ability to separate the secular from the sacred.  Peter Scazzero, a pastor in New York, summed up this problem by quoting a question asked by a church member, “Why is it that so many Christians make such lousy human beings?  In a word, compartmentalization.  We divide our lives into categories:  Over here belongs to God…over there belongs to me.  

For some, there is weekly attendance in worship on Sundays but no evidence of it from Monday to Saturday.  For another, the berating of a family member for their lack of spiritual maturity, all under the banner of defending God.  Finally, one can be lost in the joy of worship of God only to complain, gossip, and blame others.  

How shocking it is to read that there is no noticeable difference between the way evangelical church goers live, and non-church goers live when compared to divorce rates, giving patterns, sexual promiscuity and cohabitation, and racism (See Ron Sider’s The Scandal of Evangelical Conscience for statical data). 

Spiritual maturity is more than what one believes.  It equally involves how one lives.  Orthodoxy and orthopraxis must align.  When there are disconnects, where one compartmentalizes the spiritual and the secular, there will always be problems.  A life with God is one of unity (body, mind, and soul)—all of it is spiritual and sacred.  Everything that we are and everything that we do is connected to God.  The work of God’s Spirit is to bring wholeness.  Therefore, we can segment our lives so that what we do on Sundays and what we do the rest of the week aligns—everyday is Sunday for that matter. 

This Week’s Readings:

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Leviticus. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

  • Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election.
  • Pray for spiritual maturity.
  • Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
  • Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
  • Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
  • Family restoration through forgiveness.
  • Continued growth of the faith of the people.
  • Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6

Posted on

“First Steps” by Rev. Dr. Shane Green – September 23


As we continue to look at the connection between spiritual maturity and emotional wellbeing, one of the ways we bifurcate the two is by ignoring our feelings.  For most Christians, there can be a resistance by ignoring anger, sadness, and fear.  Some would even go so far as to say those feelings are sinful.  Afterall, aren’t Christians supposed to be filled with joy, love, and peace?

We ignore our anger because we assume that we are not loving.  We ignore our sadness because we think to be sad is a lack of faith in God.  We ignore our fear because we believe fear and faith are juxtaposed.  Therefore, when we experience these emotions, we quickly deny them which creates a disconnect in our lives.  Our emotional wellbeing suffers.  

One of my favorite passages is 1 Samuel 30.  David’s camp was ransacked by the Amalekites.  David’s family and all of David’s follower’s families were kidnapped as spoils of war.  Everyone was angry, sad, and fearful.  David was “greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul…” (Verse 6).  Before David did anything, he owned his grief, acknowledged his feelings, expressed his emotions, and strengthened himself in the Lord his God.  He didn’t deny his humanity.  

When we deny our humanity, we push against what it means to be ourselves.  Human beings have emotions.  Jesus had emotions.  To repress our feelings is to rob ourselves of what it means to be created in God’s image.  Not only does it create a massive disconnect, but “it also deadens our humanity, instead of setting it free to develop richly, in all its capacities, under the influence of grace” (Thomas Merton).

Feelings and emotions are gifts from God.  They are natural expressions of human action and interaction.  People are not robots—so don’t try to be.  The spiritual mature and the emotional healthy own their emotions.  They use them in adequate ways to give expressions of their life experiences.  If you are struggling today with owning your emotions, I invite you to spend time in the Psalms.  Each chapter is filled with emotional discourse of what it is like to be a human following God.  

This Week’s Readings:

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Leviticus. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

  • Facing your honest feelings
  • Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election.
  • Pray for spiritual maturity.
  • Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
  • Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
  • Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
  • Family restoration through forgiveness.
  • Continued growth of the faith of the people.
  • Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6

Proudly powered by WordPress