The Tree Trunk

Our focus for discipleship this year is the Tree of Life!

We spent the Fall examining the inner soil of our lives where our life with God takes place. Right now our focus is on the tree trunk: that solid protection that comes with life in community. In the Spring, we will be interacting with the leaves and the branches: our life of kingdom serving the world.

Last week in huddle, one of the women broke down crying in discouragement. Her husband is looking for a job and was hitting lots of obstacles in the process. Promised phone calls weren't being returned, interviews were being cancelled, etc.

So, we began to enter into kingly intercession, where we wait and listen for what the Lord's heart, will and direction is for us to pray, and then we speak it out. We take seriously 2 Cor 1:20 which states, "No matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. That is why we say, 'amen' when we give glory to God through Christ."

We are given the privilege to say Amen: so be it for what God wants to do. It's the kingdom partnership that we have been invited into....

We prayed during huddle, and our friend's spirits lifted. Here is an email she wrote for the rest of the story:

"Hi Ladies, God is so good. I have to set the scene for you when I arrived home. My husband is standing in the doorway, hands on his hips, and he asks, "Have you been praying or something?" I just shake my head....wow! One of his contracts will be finalized today, and he got a call from a head hunter about another job. Hmmmm. I shared about some of our prayer time, and he is in a good place, and has felt the shift. Yeah, Holy Spirit at work.

I want to thankyou for all the sweet birthday wishes, cards, cupcakes and ballooons. But, most of all, I want to thank you for standing in faith and prayer with me and my family. How amazing you all are! Thank you to our fearless leader for guiding us on this journey. It's been a wild ride for sure. The trunk is working!"

The Trunk is working. I love this. When we are able to be vulnerable and share what's happening in our life, go to the Lord in prayer and give one another support, this is the family that Jesus calls us into as his family.

I also have to mention that this family lives less than 5 minutes from where we met for huddle. God took the fast track to answer our prayers.

Where are you in your life in the trunk of community?

Missio Lux Hosts a 3dm Taster this Week!

This is an exciting week for Missio Lux. We are hosting a Taster for ministry leaders to "experience a taste of 3dm."

We have taken a team of 5 to South Carolina 4 times over the past 20 months to learn from 3dm, and to discover their structure of huddle, missio community and celebration that is helping equip churches and leaders to walk out the two themes of the Bible: Covenant and Kingdom: the Great Commandment and the Great Commission!

It's a gift to be able to invite ministry leaders from this area to discover 3dm too. It's a lot closer to come from Seattle or even Spokane than to take the really LONG journey to South Carolina.

I am looking forward to introducing Steve Cockram to many of my Covenant friends and other ministry leaders from this area. (Steve and his family are in the picture).

I am most looking forward to introducing Peter Sung, the Director of Church Planting for the Covenant and my boss, Kurt Carlson to huddle, as it has made such an impact in our lives in Missio Lux.

One woman that has experienced life transformation through huddle. She came to Missio Lux a broken woman, just moving out of a very painful divorce. However, in the atmosphere of huddle, she has grown by leaps and bounds....able to hear God's voice and pray it for others; her desire and love for the "trunk" (the people of God) is huge and she shows it in tangible ways, and her passion to share what's taking place in her life with her friends and neighbors and just about everyone she meets, is overflowing.

My dream is for this life transformation story to be all of our stories, across all churches, denominational lines, and across the US and the world. As we discover what Jesus is asking us to do, and then do it; it changes us.

The Spirit of Adoption

I've been so drawn to Romans 8: 14-17: "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

Tonight at Huddle we explored the difference between the Spirit of Adoption and the
Spirit of Slavery. I understand that slavery comes from being an orphan, because no one who is adopted into God's family will ever be a slave. We are invited to the table, given everything we need, and are overflowed with his love.

I was amazed at the list that came up for each:

Spirit of Adoption: chosen, unique, being loved, trust, part of the family, WANTED, provision, security, belonging, redeemed, new identity, new name, rest, peace, SIGNIFICANCE, valued, comforted, nurtured, new beginnings, protection, promise of eternity

Spirit of Slavery: abandonment, SHAME, anxiety, perfectionism, uncertainty, insecurity, cluthing, false identity, BLAME, CONTROL, self protection, hard heart, unprotected, mistrust, religiosity, misplaced love, idolatry, never full, co-dependance, addiction, wanting REJECTION, risk adverse, self-sufficiency

Do you see the difference? One leads to life. One leads to faith.
The other leads to fear. It leads to death.

I told of a story of a little girl who was adopted by parents who had wanted a child for a long time. They had her room all decorated and new clothes hanging in the closet. They made wonderful dinners and set the table, but she wouldn't come to eat. She wore her torn and tattered clothes to school and continued to use her old name. They even found her sleeping in the concrete basement.

She was never able to make the leap from being an orphan to becoming a beloved adopted child.

Did you know that adopted children cannot be disinherited? They can not have their adopted name taken from them ever. It's a law in England, Austrailia and the US.

It's God's law too. It's the law of his heart. He has adopted us and we are forever his. He wants us to know so much that he gave us himself to live in us. The name is Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us makes us even reflect our new parents. How cool is that.

At the end of huddle, we went around and prayed for one another. We got up and put our hands on one another's shoulders so that we could experience the heart of our adopted Daddy on us.

Nobody left untouched tonight. To me all of this really is the VERY GOOD NEWS!