4th in the fire

For the past 11 summers, I have taken youth groups on mission trips with TeenServe. We're not going in 2011, so that we can focus on a local need at a church in Dorchester. My first summer with TeenServe, they had a band called 4th in the Fire, based on Daniel 3.

Jordan's post about a golden head and a granite foundation made me think, "If Jesus is the head of Faith, then we are called on to be the granite, something rock solid that our members and those in our neighborhood can count on to be solid."

We had a lengthy Finance team meeting last night. A handful of gentlemen and our treasurer, Barbara, have worked extremely hard to make sure that we're in the black. Our Council has also been burning the midnight oil to ensure that we're focused on our purpose, why God has us here as the church on the rock.

While it may have to do with youth ministry, outreach, or using our gifts to give God the glory, one thing is certain: without Jesus, we are headless...we have no vision. How can we, as individuals, families, and a faith community see the world with Jesus' eyes? How can we have the mind of Christ?

We just need to open our Bibles to Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, "If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross."

Beautiful. Thank you, Jesus! Help us live into that kingdom life.