There is no shame in struggle.  Even the best among us will face trials and adversity.  It is no strange thing.  

I know many of us have been taught to hide our problems and pains, as some false demonstration of strength or some foolish pride.

Unfortunately, concealing our struggles and pain often makes it worse because we just end up feeling alone and ashamed.  

If you’re going through a difficult season, understand that you are not alone, that it is not a strange thing, you are not the only one, and you have no reason to be ashamed. While adversity finds us all, it needn’t define us all!  

Now, there is a shame that comes as a consequence for our own misdeeds and disobedience, but there is grace for us even in that!  When we waiver, we are chastened as God’s beloved but we are not destroyed!  

I want to encourage you this morning.  Don’t allow your struggles to make you ashamed. All of us are going into, coming out, or right in the middle of some struggle that we did not cause or create.  Such is life, but we needn’t allow shame to send us into hiding where loneliness and despair takeover!

We have one another and God has us all!!

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.  

1 Peter 4:17

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Don’t Stop Caring 

When we are under intense pressure for an extended period of time, we can slip into isolation that consumes us.  We can begin to think that no one cares and no one understands what we’re going through.

Depending on our disposition, we can slip into a type of uncaring that we think is a protective posture, but instead it imprisons us in loneliness.

So, my challenge today for you is to remain open.  Keep your mind, your eyes and your heart open.  You are not alone and you mustn’t face your challenges alone.  And I am here to remind you that despite the loudness and harshness of a world that would have you believe that it’s ‘every person for themselves,’ I want you to know that I care, but more importantly that God cares, if you will just keep your eyes, your mind, and your heart open!

Yes, we must all risk disappointment when people fail us, but the alternative is far worse.  Isolation can very quickly become callousness and carelessness that causes us to become and perpetuate the cold hardness that we are attempting to avoid.  

That’s all.

So my encouragement to you today is simple.  Remain open – eyes, mind, heart, and hands – what your soul requires will return to you – but you must remain open and expecting to receive. Get it?

⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.  

1 Peter 4:8-9

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

In the Church and within every local congregation, I have a theory that there are very rarely real shortages in resources.  Instead what I’ve witnessed is a lack of resolve to share what we have – each one of us – our time, our talent, and our treasure.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how needs get met, problems get solved, and obstacles are overcome when those who are in the room begin to open their hearts, minds, and hands – deliberately sharing insights, surrendering talents, investing their own resources in some cause!  

I’ve seen firsthand the surprising and miraculous ways God sustains a community committed to sharing and taking care of one another!  There are no leftovers and none left out!   One’s abundance is for another’s lack so there is equity!

I know such talk can make some of us nervous, since we are so often preoccupied with our own goods, but hear me when I say that there is rarely a lack when we learn to share!

This is the witness of the first Church.  Are we paying attention?

⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  

Acts 2:44-45

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

I have always wondered what the tipping point was for the early Church.  When did things shift from being about praying together, praising God, teaching, and caring for one another?

When did we allow the weight of our programs, our proclivities, and our property to displace God’s plans, God’s purposes, and God’s promises?

I think when we prioritize private, personal faith over the public practice of faith that demands compassion and justice, we lose our point of reference.

This is when subtle idolatry of individualism and selfishness erode the relationships that form the beloved community that the Church is supposed to be.  When we  cease to have all things in common, we inevitably  descend  into competition and comparison that breeds not only conflict but contempt. 

We may do well to remember this simple phrase that marked the attitude and atmosphere that permeated the first Church: 

⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and ^fhad all things in common.

Acts 2:44

Our ancestors understood this when they said things like, “I am because WE are… and because WE are, therefore, I am…”  

Good Morning, I love you all!

Ihs,

just adam

There’s no doubt that we have complicated and convoluted the simplicity of the Gospel with our attempts to make it ‘cool’ or keep it relevant. And as a result, the Church, rather than being God’s idea, has become our own.

The Church is a virtual vending machine of options presented to the world where all that is required is an appetite.

So,rather than holding to the simple teachings of Christ (the apostle’s teaching), we invent and edit our own. We waver at every whim and wish dream that arises and contort ourselves into a caricature of who we are supposed to be.

We surrender sacred traditions and spiritual disciplines for trends that delight for a season but are as transient as technology.

We abandon grace and community when we disagree with one another, we dilute our strength by dividing ourselves over doctrines that God didn’t intend. We mistake uniformity for unity and miss opportunity for the creative and constructive critique that enables growth and resilience.

We call swelling growth, and call crowds congregations, while neglecting again the simplicity of the Gospel and how we live it out faithfully…

We have the witness of scripture and the gift of the Holy Spirit as our guide… How about we listen?

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,
just adam

When I consider the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching, I laugh at the lengths to which we go (preachers and church folks) trying to make the Gospel catchy or provocative.

When you think about it, Jesus’ story and teachings are actually pretty good, pretty compelling, without us trying to dress them up, huh?

Once upon a time before I learned to cook a good steak, I was often guilty of overcooking and overdressing it. If you have never had a well-prepared steak, it’s understandable that you might reach for some steak sauce or ketchup. Oh, but when you have a good one, you realize you don’t need it – just a little seasoning to accentuate what is already there!

When the Church was in its infancy, it was the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching through the power of the Holy Spirit that nourished and nudged them toward growth…

It was their embrace of the Gospel and their struggle and study to understand it, while expressing it faithfully and practically, that inspired their growth…

Oh, that we might possess such a passion for the message of Jesus and the power of the Gospel.

This type of devotion, even among church folks, seems so rare…

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…

Acts 2:42a

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

We are often mistaken, I think, when we imagine what unity looks and sounds like.  Our mind too frequently goes to envisioning uniformity and monotony.

At the Pentecost we encounter the very opposite.  Yes, the disciples – women and men – are all gathered in the same place, for the same reason, and on one accord, but this crowd is anything but uniform, and they are certainly not monotonous! Have you read the Gospels? 

It must not be forgotten that the crowd outside the upper room was perhaps even more diverse! From all over the known world, Jews from the diaspora were gathered. But because of the deliberate unity of the disciples and the ensuing outpouring of the Holy Spirit, each of these pilgrims was addressed in their native language. Wow!

When God’s people deliberately gather, and devote themselves to prayer, the Holy Spirit demonstrates an amazing power that draws those outside closer… Get that?

When God’s people deliberately gather, and devote themselves to prayer – this unity becomes the pretext to a powerful witness that allows those present to hear God speak in ways they can understand!  

What amazing grace, and awesome power, what compassion the Father shows us through Christ and the Spirit – that God would draw near to us and speak to us in ways we can understand!

Oh, that we may become Christ’s witnesses!

And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.  

Acts 2:6 

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

At Pentecost, the disciples were all gathered together in one place, on one accord, devoting themselves to prayer while they waited on the promise of the Father.

Fifty days after Jesus’ Resurrection, and ten days after His Ascension, the Spirit descended with the sound of rushing wind and holy fire and filled the house.  

And then in a demonstration of spontaneous order, everyone in the house was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages!

Everyone in the house was filled. Everyone.

Imagine that. The entire assembly was filled and empowered by the Spirit to do something that none of them was equipped to do on their own.  Did you catch that?

Everyone was filled, everyone spoke, and everyone operated in order… wow!

Typically, when I read about the Pentecost, I typically get caught up on the power of the Holy Spirit, or the mystery of tongues.  As I read more closely, however, I am intrigued by the awesome miracle of spontaneous order, the overwhelming absence of confusion, and the amazing distribution of spiritual power demonstrated by everyone in the room.

This is what can happen when God’s people choose to be together, choose something bigger than themselves, pray together, and then wait on the LORD…

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  

Acts 2:4

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam