Dear Friends,

Have you ever noticed the rules of the elevator?  There is the “face the front” rule and the “fold your hands in front” rule but the one that intrigues me the most is the “don’t talk to anyone about anything” rule.   That one is unbreakable!  What is going on there?   Are we afraid of the repercussions?  People were created for community yet we hide from each other!  In elevators, neighborhoods and even in our homes. 

There still remains a longing in our heart to live as we were created.  Starbucks sees it.  Have you ever noticed that Starbucks doesn’t advertise their coffee as much as they sell the “Starbucks Experience”?  Starbucks knows that people are longing for community and their coffee (good as it is) is really just a part of that community building process. 

In Genesis we see that it is not good for man to be alone.  Now surely God is talking about primarily about man and his relationship with a woman but the principle is still there!  It is not good for man to be alone and God created people to be with each other.  God sees it.   Starbucks sees it.  Why do we keep fighting it?  Why do we fight living in community with each other?  The reason is that we are broken people.  Because of Adam and Eve’s little fruit incident, we don’t live as God intended us to live but rather live “broken”. We hide because we fear betrayal from those we might dare to trust or love… and pretend that living in such fear is somehow safer than living in a community of grace. We hide because we are not nearly as self-righteous as the façade we erect around weary souls.

Through Jesus Christ, what is broken will be restored.  As people restored by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, we can live in freedom and joy without having to hide in broken bushes.  Next time you are in the elevator, exercise your freedom, build a community of grace, say “hello”.      

On second thought, don’t wait for the elevator, quit hiding in your house and build an authentic Christian Community of Hope right where you live. Tear down walls and build bridges of hope. Enjoy it!  Its how God made you to really live.

Living in Grace,

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

A Beagle Kind of Faith

Have you seen the TV commercial* with the beagle that lives inside a tube?  It’s a commercial advertising heartworm medicine and makes the advertising claim that the best way to protect your dog from fleas and heartworms is to either live in a sealed bubble-like tube, insulated from the world or give your dog their daily meds. Strange isn’t it that a dog would live in a plastic tube! In fact it’s downright preposterous! Dogs, especially beagles, aren’t designed to live in a plastic tube. They are designed to chase rabbits through brambles, dig under fences, wake the neighborhood while they howl at the moon and lick the chocolate off their human’s face.

Dogs aren’t designed to live in a bubble and neither are Christians. Yet so often I see Christians hide in plastic bubbles to keep from interacting with the world.  I’ve done it myself and cringe at my foolishness and lack of love and faith.  Sometimes Christians even build these insulating tubes to keep from being tarnished by each other. The irony is that such bubbles designed to insulate can end up being quite cold and toxic.  If it wasn’t so sad, it would be just ridiculously funny. Christian, we follow a God that left the “bubble” of heaven to live among his creation, to sleep without a pillow or a house to call his own, to live with those that would hate him, to love on those that would kill him, to die that we would live. Doesn’t that seem a long way from the bubbles that we create? Do we really believe that someone that does not trust Jesus would want to step into our sterile bubbles? Jesus didn’t come to live in a bubble. He came to live with man. And he calls us to follow him. Follow. Jesus.

Christian, go chase rabbits, dig dirt, wake the neighbors and lick the chocolate! (maybe scratch that last one ;) )  Get out of your bubble and live life as God has designed you to live it – in the world.

By grace,

Harrison

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeTGb3a7n1U

Dear SouthLake Family,

Sunday evening, July 23, marked a significant moment in all our lives. It was more than turning the page to the next chapter of a book. It was opening the cover of a new book. It’s a new life with new hope, new dreams, new loves… let’s don’t stop short of his new life. The gap between our old life and new life is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 5 which we will unpack this Sunday. John Newton sings of it as well in Amazing Grace –

“Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see”

An event from my life a few decades ago illustrates well the transformation Christ brings about in us and individuals and as a community.

***********

It was a cold day, spitting rain and windy. Still I was out in it fishing. With weather like that, there is little surprise that I didn’t catch any fish! But I didn’t come home empty handed… Moving along the shore I heard a noise from an empty boat shed. Curiosity got the better of me and I moved in to check it out. In the back right corner, something cowered. It was winter on the lake and all the summer residents had long since departed. The only live animals anywhere around were sure to be wild. This one could have been a wounded deer or a rabid coyote! I should have been more careful but instead I went on in. I was 13 year old boy so who knows what was I thinking!? The mass turned out to be a very large yet scrawny, shivering, wet, muddy and matted German Shepherd. She had some open sores and something was wrong with one of her legs. And she was so very scared. She was nothing but a mongrel that many would have just put to sleep. I remember thinking that if she lived, this mongrel would need a name… so I called her Duchess.

It took a while but I coaxed her out, fed her from my hand, bathed her and treated her wounds. Many days passed before she learned to trust me. I never did find out where she had come from. She had been lost and was found, wounded and near death but was now healed and healthy. She had been alone and now had a family. Over time Duchess became a strong shepherd. Instead of being afraid at the touch of her master’s hand, she became ridiculously devoted! She had been a filthy mongrel but within a month, I found her sprawled on the sofa! This mongrel loved the life of a Duchess!

My life is so much like that mongrel’s. With a soul that was lost, matted, muddy and afraid, I was far from God. Yet he pursued me. He came into the dark corner and called me out. He bound up my wounds, healed my soul, gave me a new name and a place at his table. And I am ridiculously devoted to Christ Jesus my Lord!

God’s hand of lavished love and incomprehensible grace might be strange to you but do not fear his touch. He calls you out of the darkness to give you a place at his table. Christ came that you might have life and have it to the fullest.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus in John 10:10

Anchored in Grace,

Harrison