Join us for Cafe Liberty tomorrow between 9:45 and our worship @ 10:15 AM.

It’s a joy to re-connect with friends and welcome guests together. We know summer brings a lot of coming and going, so we hope you can join us either in person or in “virtual space” through livestream @ 10:15 AM.

Our welcome to all worshipers is a call that flows out of the Gospel. It’s part of God’s good news that no human heart can handle the complexities of life alone. The first of those eight beautiful ‘beatitudes’ Jesus gave us is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 5:3)

Without an awareness of our need, we’re sunk! Each day, for each of us, there are discoveries about God’s love awaiting us.

One of the discoveries the Gospels bring to each of us is the way the Lord Jesus left his disciples in suspense!

We naturally read a passage looking for “answers”. After all, we’re in the Google generation.

The habit of getting quick answers on-the-go is so common in our daily lives. we forget that some of the best things God has in store for us come as a result of what we don’t know.

Wondering about things that are beyond our understanding is one of the ways our spiritual hunger grows. It’s an aspect of life that holds rich rewards for those who “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”. (Matthew 6:33)

Clearly, Jesus used direct teaching on certain issues in Kingdom living. For example, when it comes to anxiety and troubling worries, Jesus’ addressed the need to be decisive in the way we trust God.

Then Jesus directly taught His disciples (including all of us) how to stay clear of the tangles of a worried mind.

But in other cases, Jesus used a kind of “suspended animation” to stir their thinking and to draw out the spiritual hunger of His disciples. In both the simple and the profound, the goal was the same: that disciples would instinctively yearn to know Him better. The supreme goal Jesus embedded in His teaching was to realize that knowing God is far more valuable than getting quick answers.

For example, when they asked Him how to get more faith in Luke 17:3, Jesus picked up the tiniest object He could find – a mustard seed, and said, essentially that faith doesn’t work by quantity. The tiniest smidgeon of real faith is mightier than we imagine. It’s the source of that faith that matters. Then Jesus left them in suspense about where they might find that mustard seed faith. But in the path of following Jesus, each disciple’s passion to learn grew stronger so that after the Lord’s resurrection, those tiny seeds began to sprout and thrive.

Suspense was not only a valuable teaching tool. It was essential for a relationship with Jesus. As surely as a mustard seed can only be found in the hands of Jesus, so it is with the things we all desire most. Prayer opens the door into the conversation we need with the Lord. But even in prayer, there is a suspense designed by God to stir us into more fully following Jesus.

We gather for worship in as redeemed sons and daughters of the King not only to learn together but to yearn together. The call to follow Jesus is the active ingredient in God’s recipe for abundant life. Sometimes the path is crystal clear. At other times, it is wrapped in mystery.

When we “lean in” to both learning and yearning, we realize that suspense isn’t so bad after all!

In His love

Pastor Joe