Ruined by Jesus' love

To our family at Jacob's Porch...

So by now, you have most definitely seen the pictures on Facebook of some of the crazy happenings from worship last night as we pondered our verses from Acts 2.44-45: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."

You might wonder how we at Jacob's Porch would decide to talk about stewardship. I think our theme of "Keep Church Weird" definitely sums it up.

During different Bible studies in the last week and our time with Shane Claiborne last Friday, the theme that kept popping up was that this is truly about sharing all of our lives together & love. To make a long story short, our worship centered around a different theme last night. Taking God's leading from Luke 19 and the story of Zacchaeus, we spent the evening focused on Jesus. And His love for us. Posing the question, what would it take for us to truly realize what it means when we say that He does love us. Would it take Him walking into the room, sitting down beside us, and putting His arm around over our shoulders? On the day that Zacchaeus was found by Jesus, that's what changed everything for him. Realizing as this person who was an outcast and outsider, that the God that spoke the universe into being was calling out his name, was the same that was calling out ours and saying He would dine at our house & He did. In fact, last night at Jacob's Porch, He provided the meal...bread & wine, His body and blood. And even more than that, that Jesus a few days after dining with Zacchaeus, Jesus walked the rest of the road to Jerusalem and provedHis love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, He died for us. Talking about a very real encounter with Him that is changing us. And while we can talk about needing to love more, and we do, it's not our love that changes things. When we come near to Jesus' heart and we abide in Him, without even realizing it (much like the crazy reaction of Zacchaeus), this love of Jesus flows out of us and all over everyone else. And that every day we are born again, again, again, again, again.How does that relate to all the pictures of posterboard and dollar bills? Well. We talked about that loving our neighbor last night does mean those outside of our community but also those inside it. We confessed our needs last night, writing them on dollar bills anonymously & before those dollar bills were tacked to the wall of the sanctuary, they were transcribed to the poster board hanging now all over the sanctuary.

Not knowing if everyone was in the place that Zacchaeus was, but for those who God was changing their hearts, people could look at all the needs of our community & sign up to help fill those needs by leaving ideas, their names and phone numbers. The money that is tacked to the wall will go to help the members outside our community at the end of the quarter. Loving our neighbor and loving our neighbor.

I'm not sure where your hearts are in the aftermath of last night. Mine is still just quaking at watching what Jesus is up to, but if you feel called to, take a look at the pictures on fb & post there, or come to the porch to help sign up to fill those needs. (And check the wall to see those members of our family who are here supporting you and call/text/email them with the information listed there). If you feel like God is calling you to give, you can tack more money to the wall, or visit this website to donate directly to the porch: Jacob's Porch Support.

My prayer in the midst of it all is that God would continue to show us what it means that He loves us & that He would ruin us with His love.