August 2024

Belief follows in the echo of Christlikeness Taken from a Red Rock News Article Rev. Dona Johnson | Jan 21, 2024 Paul summons the Christians in Ephesus to “be careful.” He in fact, summons them to be “very careful.” “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph 5:15-17). In other words, he is saying be extra careful. So what did living carefully look like for these early followers of Jesus? The word live literally means to walk. Paul is summoning Jesus’ followers to walk carefully, to be always be reminded that to follow Jesus in many ways means to live with intentionality and be deliberate in one’s devotion to God, to above all things love God and unconditionally love our neighbor.        The whole of Ephesians 5, emphasizes how the re-created status of Christians should result in changed lives, lives that look different from those who do not serve God and whose deeds will bring about God’s wrath. The church is universal in the sense of being open to all, but the church still exists in a “present darkness” where evil is at work against it (Ephesians 6:12) . Paul continues with a warning to the followers of Jesus to be wise. One must make the most of each day and every opportunity, to walk carefully, in-step and cooperate with God and one another because the days hold evil. It’s dangerous being a disciple of Jesus. As we walk the road of discipleship, the road is lined with shifting allies, fierce temptations and worldly distractions that pull us away from our Christian values. It is difficult being good and doing the right thing.        There is a lot of evil and darkness in our world today. It is no different than when Paul wrote his letter to the congregations in Ephesus urging them to be careful and wise. When we think of evil, we often think of the violence in others or Christian persecutions and those who gather secretly in countries where they run the risk of being harassed, imprisoned and executed for their beliefs. But there are more subtler kinds of evil that affect all Christians in the 21st century. What about materialism and affluence which a large majority of us wrestle with—are we living carefully? What about the lust for power, status and our insatiable drive to acquire an identity and sense of importance—are we wise or unwise? What about our battle with self-righteous attitudes, spiritual superiority and extreme self-involvement which today we call narcissism. What about living a life of confession without any attempt of repentance?         Robert Mulholland Jr., author of “The Deeper Journey” writes, “I heard a wise teacher say, “Repentance is not being sorry for the things you have done, but being sorry you are the kind for person who does bad things. I began to realize that underneath my thin layer of religiosity, lived a perversive and deeply entrenched self-referenced being which was driven by its own agendas, its own desires, its own purposes, and no amount of superficial tinkering with the religious façade made any appreciable difference.”       The world will not believe in Christ because of our sound theology, our correct creed or our well-defined dogma, although essential. The world will believe when we manifest Christ-likeness. When we walk in the way of Jesus; wise in how we form a Christian world view, careful in how we interpret the times and how we resist being influenced by secular values and beliefs. The world will know that God sent his Son not because we say it is so but when those in the world see with their own eyes Christlikeness lived out in us.Prayer: As we walk into each day, help us to walk carefully, to discern with Christlike wisdom where we place our hearts and where we place our feet. Amen.

Faith Disrupts Our Lives Taken from a Red Rock News Article (August 16, 2024) Rev. Dona Johnson | August 18, 2024       Faith disrupts. Have you ever prayed and asked God to disturb your life? How many of us would have the courage to pray this prayer? Let that sink in for a moment. “Lord please disturb me.” Who in the world wants their lives disturbed. Who wants their daily routines, their lifestyles and their comfort zones disrupted. Sometimes in our lives, when we least expect it, our life, plans get interrupted or put on hold. And how we respond to disruptions and change says a lot about our temperaments, but more importantly, it says much more about our faith.       When a disruption comes into our lives, it can feel as if the floor we are standing on has been pulled out from under us. It could be the loss of a job opportunity, a sudden illness or injury, an unforeseen rejection or betrayal in what you thought was a trusted relationship or it could be a new biblical insight—that tests and disrupts your once held tried and true assumptions about God.       Are daily disruptions interruptions or holy invitations to grow our faith? They can stretch our understanding of what it means to deeply live out our faith, to depend solely on God’s power to sustain us. Christians are called to make ourselves available to daily interruptions, knowing God is in the center of every encounter.  There are also times when disruptions bring us at a crossroads. Where what once worked for us and served us quite well is no longer moving us forward but holding us back. This could be for believers as well as entire congregations. In the words of Jeremiah, “This is what the Lord says” “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16). How do you respond when you come to a crossroad? How do you handle unexpected disruptions? Maybe you grumble, maybe you resent your life being interrupted? Or maybe you use it to open yourself up to what God is about to do.       Throughout biblical history, there have been several huge disruptions that changed how humanity viewed the world. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ was a monumental interruption to a religion that had grown cold and stagnated (Luke 2). Throughout his ministry, Jesus’ days were filled with endless disruptions. Crowds of suffering people swarmed around him. Wanting to be healed. People came interrupting him at all hours of the day and night to find out how they might inherit eternal life (John 3). Jesus never turned anyone away. He stopped. He stayed. He listened. He ministered to them. Then the ultimate disruption that dramatically changed the course of human history was Jesus’ death and resurrection, upending the stronghold of sin and death.      Large or small, daily disruptions are holy invitations to wake us up to people and opportunities that bring us closer and more dependent on God’s will and his power to grow us spiritually. We often get so locked-in to our daily routines that when they are disrupted, we easily become irritated. Routines can become a form of self-protection and self absorption. Many people today live life on autopilot—just going through the motions.      In closing, here are a few wonderful words from a prayer by Sir Francis Drake, “Disturb us Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves…Disturb us Lord, when having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity…Disturb us Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. Amen.

I Am the Bread of Life Taken from a Red Rock News Article Rev. Dona Johnson | August 11, 2024 Like many ancient societies, Egyptians and Israelites were dependent upon cereals and grain; so much so that the word for bread, “lechem,” is synonymous with food. And in many countries today, bread is still a major source of food that satisfies the hunger, malnourishment and nutritional needs of both people of poverty and people of means. Now Jesus understood and often addressed the reality of human hunger. In John 6:22-35, Jesus had just fed over 5000 people by multiplying several loaves of bread and a few fish. But he also understood at a deeper level that every human being lives with a spiritual hunger. The crowds who had witnessed Jesus supernaturally multiply the bread and fish and those who were fed, were truly amazed at the miracle. They were so intrigued by the whole encounter, that the crowd wanted more of this good thing. So they followed Jesus and the disciples to the other side of the lake. They saw something was strangely different about Jesus. When the crowd finally caught up with Jesus, he went right to the heart of the matter. He was not their gravy-train or traveling food truck. He said, ‘You’ve seen wonderful things. You’ve seen how God’s grace enabled thousands of people to be fed. Your attention and affections ought to have been turned to God who fed you. But instead, you are still thinking about how you can get more free food. It’s as if Jesus said, ‘You cannot take a moment to think about your souls because your focused on your stomachs.’ Jesus was concerned not for their physical hunger but on the state of their souls—the eternal. He proclaimed and offered himself as the bread of life, an eternal bread. A bread that satisfies hungry hearts. A bread that feeds the soul, tempers our lustful desires, quells our greediness and need for power and our insatiable appetite for wealth and possessions. There is a human temptation to see God as a Genie in a bottle. If you worship God and pray in the right way, God will grant your wishes, keep you from all hardship and increase your prosperity. Some of us worship God with the hope that all our prayers will be answered quickly and meet our desired outcomes. In other words, some of us seek all the benefits of Christ without the desire to commit our lives to him. And this is exactly what we see in the hearts of the crowds who followed Jesus. All the crowds cared about was getting their stomachs filled with bread from the world, rather than feeding their souls with bread from heaven.God desires nothing more from us than that we love him and seek him not with divided loyalties, but with our whole hearts. God desires that we put him first in our lives. Because when we do this, all the others things in life fall into place— our marriages, relationships, livelihoods and our consumptive lifestyles.Once Napoleon and a friend were talking about life. It was dark; they walked to the window and looked out at all the distant stars. Napoleon, who had sharp eyes while his friend was dimmed sighted, pointed to the sky: ‘Do you see all those stars?’ he asked. ‘No,’ his friend answered. ‘I can’t see them.’ ‘That,’ said Napoleon, ‘is the difference between you and me.’Are we too dimmed-sighted? Sometimes our vision of God is too small. Sometimes our concerns and what we don’t have right now are so anchored in the present, in getting our own needs met, that we can’t see the hope and power of God that lies right in front of us and beyond our current circumstances. Jesus sums all this up quite nicely, ‘Don’t work for the food which perishes but for that which lasts forever and gives eternal live.’ Amen.

Patience and the Slow Work of God Taken from a Red Rock News Article Rev. Dona Johnson | Aug 4, 2024 Being more patient in your daily life reduces stress levels and involves a concerted effort to manage negative emotions, reframe challenging situations, and maintain a focus on long-term goals and values. Many of us experience periods or times when we are impatient. We pack a lot of activities into each day. Due to technologies, we are more accessible than ever before. Traffic congestion, 24-hour-news-cycle and people’s various moods and personalities can trigger our emotions and cause us to react impatiently.       What causes a person to be impatient? Impatience is expressed when something we want to accomplish takes longer than expected. We become impatient when our efforts towards a goal or a desire get frustrated. Or we become impatient when we’re forced to compromise on something or someone disappoints us. When any of these things happen, we can easily become annoyed, anxious, bitter, resentful and for some, we feel offended and disrespected. Our impatience, if not kept in check can hurt our loved ones, and long-term impact the quality of our relationships. Patient people have an easier time cultivating deeper friendships with others. But in terms of faith, many sins, impulsive mistakes, outbursts and flared tempers come from the lack of patience. Biblically speaking, at the heart of impatience is self-centeredness or selfishness. In other words, impatient people want theirexpectations met on their terms and timeframe. In the real world, this is not the way the world works.      Paul tells us that patience is the fruit of the Spirit, it is evidence of the Holy Spirit alive and working in us (Gal. 5:22-23). Paul also describes patience as an important characteristic of love—love displays patience and kindness (1 Cor 13:4). God is much more patient than we are. As a general rule God works incrementally—a shift in perspective here, a small breakthrough there, slowly enlarging our capacity to see and receive what he has for us. Of course, God has the will, the power and capacity to transform us on the spot. When someone suddenly is cured of an addiction or illness, it’s a tremendous spiritual lift. And yet, most of the time becoming like Jesus is more often a slow, steady journey. Eugene Peterson has named this journey in patience “a long obedience in the same direction.” Learning to be still, to be at peace in the midst of chaos, crisis and reactive people doesn’t happen overnight. We live in a world that expects quick fixes or looks for the short cut. However, changes in the heart, replacing bad habits and doing the inner spiritual work takes time, intentional effort and prayer because God works exceedingly slow.      And yet. sometimes, we think we are ready for what God is preparing for us, and yet we are not. So, God takes the time to grow and transform us in ways we are able to grasp and receive. And although God’s work is often slow, it does not mean God is inactive. Peter beautifully describes God’s patience, ““Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). And so we pray, we examine and lay out our lives before God and we thank him for the slow, patient and grace-filled work he is doing within us every minute of every day.