(Note:
This blog entry is based on the text for “Rivulets VI: Closer Than You Think”, originally
shared on March 7, 2022. It was the 196th video for our YouTube
Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
What is reality? Do we make our own reality,
or does reality make us? Today, we’re going to share 10 means by which the Holy
Spirit might work in people’s hearts to answer that question.
Philip Dick, the science fiction writer
whose highly esteemed written works like Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep? and Ubik were turned into popular movies, such as “Minority
Report”, “Total Recall” and “Blade Runner”, once said, “Reality is that which,
when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
What is reality?
There are lots of different kinds of cars in
a parking lot but there is one thing that they mostly have in common. Their external
mirrors.
Passenger-side mirrors on cars made for the
United States, Canada, Nepal, South Korea, and India have a safety warning on
them that says, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”
The driver-side mirror is flat, but the
passenger-side mirror is convex; that is, it is slightly bowed out in the
middle.
That gives the driver a field of vision that
is a wider, but distorted, view of what is next to and behind the car. Reality
is not always what it appears to be. You just have to take that into
consideration.
Paul, writing about selfless love (agape)
says this, in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13,
8 Love never ends.
But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will
cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For
we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but
when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When
I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For
now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I
know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully
known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide,
these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Our understanding of the work of God is
imperfect, even distorted, but one day it will be made complete. Our knowledge
of the workings of God is partial, but one day it will be thorough, as thorough
as God is fully made known to us.
Reality is not always what it appears to be.
We just need to take that into consideration.
Faith and hope and love dwell within us, but
the greatest of them is love, selfless love. Why? I think that it’s because the
self-less love of God is the source of our hope and of our faith. They come as
the gift of the Holy Spirit through the selfless love of God.
It seems like we should be doing something
to earn our salvation. We should be good. We should be loving. But, that’s not
the way it is in the Christian life.
We love because God first loved us.
We act, filled and transformed by the Holy Spirit, as a new creation, in a
living relationship with the one true living God.
That is the foundation of the Christian
life, and we share it because we want to. The Holy Spirit wells up from within
us. Selfless love flows from the living relationship with the one true living
God that we have been given because God is love. We don’t take the initiative.
We can’t. God can and God does.
When we speak of Christianity, we don’t
share something that we have invented ourselves, or even something we endorse
because it works. When we speak of Christianity, we are describing reality. We
don’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we don’t even fully understand it.
The reality of the Christian life is that
God died for us so that we might have abundant life now and forever, and then
he took his life back again.
We describe what reality is because it
exists as a gift from God, because the Holy Spirit has given us the vision to
see it. We live as we do, in God’s love, in response to what God has
done. For us.
All things require an interpretive framework
to understand them even a little bit. Our interpretive framework is formed by
experience, authority, prejudice, education, and many other things. We don’t
see things as they are. We see things as we are.
So the Christian message isn’t “You need do
better!”, it is “We all need a Savior, and we have one in Jesus Christ.”
Knowing that, living in Him, makes us better in response. And that leads
us to want to do better.
How do we share that Good News?
The only clarity we can receive in life, and
then give to others, comes from God, from outside of ourselves.
We don’t know how God works or why or when.
God is God and we’re not.
All we can do is to be the means by which
God the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit that wells up from within us like
“streams of living water” which is the Bible’s metaphor for the Holy Spirit in
both the Old and New Testament sections of the Bible.
Today, we’re going to associate that stream with
rivulets.
A rivulet is a small stream. It can be the
means by which people come to the larger stream.
We’ve previously uploaded videos/blogs/podcasts
called “Rivulets of Living Water”, “Rivulets: The Sequel”, “Rivulets III: More
Flow”, “Rivulets IV: Return of The Rivulets”, “Rivulets V: X Valentines, and
now, Rivulets VI: Closer Than You Think.
Today we’re going to look at 10 more
“rivulets”. That is, practical means that might guide people to receive the
streams of living water that is God, the Holy Spirit, and be filled for life
transformation.
These
rivulets won’t make people Christians. But they can be the conduits by which
the Holy Spirit works in people’s hearts, that is, their true selves, to lead
them to new life in Jesus Christ, and we pray that they will.
And maybe these 10 rivulets will stimulate
your own thinking about how you can share the faith that God has given you.
51. Fish With a Net
Most Christians are line fishers.
One-on-one. These days, we also have the opportunity to fish with a net. The
Internet. Share your faith on social media, on your page or profile, in dialog with
others online . Share your faith with your Network of friends, family, clubs,
or community broadly targeted messaging, fliers left around town, in your
Christmas letter, and with decals/labels/bumper stickers. Find ways to fish
with a net by reaching groups in addition to reaching individuals.
52.
“Like” your Church’s Facebook Page and other Social Media Sites
Help build recognition and interest in the
ministry of your congregation.
53.
Leave a Good Review
Leave a good review of your church anywhere
the option is offered. Write about the people and about what God is doing
through your church. Talk about how lives are being changed for the better and
about what people can expect if they attend a community event or attend
worship.
54.
Share Your Church’s Stories
Was your congregation covered in the
traditional media, or does someone compliment it online? Share that story. Provide
a link in your social media or call attention to the coverage in person. Point
out the impact your church is having to the glory of God in your community and
beyond and why that’s important.
55.
Volunteer or Support Your Church’s Youth Ministries
According to The Barna Group, 94% of people
who come to Christ do so before their 18th birthday. Volunteer or
support your church’s Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Youth Groups, Bible
Camp and other youth ministries and lead by word and deed.
56.
Share a Post-It Note
Fun fact: did you know that Post-It notes
were invented when a choir member was frustrated by their plain paper place-holders
falling out of their hymn book during choir practice?
Hand someone a Post-It note with a message
of encouragement, your church’s web site address, or the location of your
church’s online worship services with a message like, “Just thought you’d like
to see this.”
57.
Use a Custom License Plate Frame
Does your church provide license plate frames
with the name of the church and a slogan or website address? If not, have them
made yourself and attach them to your
car. And be an especially courteous driver! :-)
58.
Invite Someone Who Knows You
Invite someone who knows that you are a
Christian to come and experience worship with you. Build-in some time afterward
to talk about their experience and answer questions. Invite them to come to
know Jesus.
59.
Use The Name
Use the name “Jesus” in a conversation with
someone you don’t usually discuss such things with this week.
60. Pray About Your Inviting
Pray that God would work thorough you to help
others hear the good news about Jesus. Pray about who to invite and how. Ask
God to work in you so that you show the work God is doing in you to God’s glory.
Ask God to overcome your gaps and insecurities in your trusting Him. We are all
imperfect. Leave the outcome to God.
What is reality? Reality is not always what
it appears to be. We just need to take that into consideration. When we speak
about God, we speak about reality as it is. These ten rivulets may be the means
by which the Holy Spirit works in people you know and care about. May the Holy Spirit speak through these
ideas, and other like them, that all people know that God is closer to them
than they thought.
Ask God for guidance on how to use them. May they be the means by which people realize that God has bent toward us to give us a broader, if humanly imperfect, vision of reality. That the Christian community is closer than they thought, that God is closer than they thought, that they are closer than they thought to a living relationship with the one true living God through the selfless love of God on the cross, made known to them by the Holy Spirit, gushing up from within us like streams of living water.
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