worship preview for 2/22/09

Dear Saints: Every day we hear about businesses and industries that are going through profound "restructuring." Mostly this means laying off workers, reducing production capacity, and lowering wages and benefits. We keep hearing that these actions are needed to keep these businesses and industries alive. "Change or die" is the commonly recited mantra as everyone seeks to respond to the negative trends that continue to deepen. As Christians, we too have been called to restructure our lives, not out of economic necessity but out of spiritual possibility. The gospel of Christ makes it clear that we too must change or die. Unlike the challenges faced by corporations, we change not to ensure our own survivability, not to continue existing as we always have, but to experience life in a completely new way. The restructuring is necessitated by the new possibility that God offers to us through Christ. This Sunday we will reflect on the restructuring God invites us to undertake with His help. We will focus on two Scriptures: John 15:12-17 and Ephesians 4:21-32. As you read these Scriptures, ask yourself what kind of restructuring God has in mind for us? What is the nature and purpose of the restructuring? What kinds of specific acts and practices facilitate this restructuring? What would living in this restructured way look like? Feel like? As always I ask you to be in prayer for all who will attend and lead worship on Sunday. In Christ, Bryan