Oaks Parish

Scripture Text: John 15:1-17Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionOaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ.Thomas Merton, New Seeds of ContemplationHe abides in us by His love, and we in Him by our faith. The secret of the life of the soul is not activity but union: not achievement but grace, not a program but a Person.John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of JohnThe vigor of the branches depends on the root, so that it is only by the communication of the root that the branches live. In the same way, the life of the soul depends on Christ alone, so that without him men are like withered and useless sticksD.A. Carson, The Gospel of JohnJesus insists that his own obedience to the Father is the ground of his joy; and he promises that those who obey him will share the same joy–indeed, that his very purpose in laying down such demands is that their joy may be complete (cf. 1 Jn. 1:4). What is presupposed is that human joy in a fallen world will at best be ephemeral, shallow, incomplete, until human existence is overtaken by an experience of the love of God in Christ Jesus, the love for which we were created, a mutual love that issues in obedience without reserve. The Son does not give his disciples his joy as a discrete package; he shares his joy insofar as they share his obedience, the obedience that willingly faces death to self-interest.Application Questions1. Looking back on your walk with Jesus, how have relationships—whether mentors, friends, or community—helped you abide in Christ and bear fruit?2. Think of a season when your faith felt dry or withered. How did that experience reveal your need to remain connected to Jesus as the true vine?3. Where do you sense resistance to Jesus in your life right now? How might remembering that he has chosen and loved you free you to trust and follow him more fully?

Scripture Text: Matthew 25:31-40; Ephesians 2:1-10Pat RoachQuotes for ReflectionLucian of Samosata, late 2nd CenturyThese deluded creatures [Christians], you see, have persuaded themselves that they are immortal and will live forever, which explains the contempt of death and willing self-sacrifice so common among them. It was impressed on them too by their lawgiver [Jesus] that from the moment they are converted, deny the gods of Greece, worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws, they are all brothers. They take his instructions completely on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods and hold them in common ownership. So any adroit, unscrupulous fellow, who knows the world, has only to get among these simple souls and his fortune is quickly made; he plays with them.Application Questions1. When in your life were you either least or lost? How did God meet you there? Who did God send to help?2. Who are the least and lost in your spheres of influence?

Scripture Text: Luke 10:1-12Andy TobinQuotes for ReflectionPaul MillerHere’s my point: When the Spirit of Jesus becomes the captain, the ship itself begins to change. Instead of a professional and program-driven ministry, the saints are energized and equipped for mission. This takes enormous pressure off pastors. The entire dynamics of the congregation are reshaped around mission—which many are already doing! Saints are natural dreamers, enticed by the Spirit to work and live in daring ways; but without an encourager calling them to greatness and pulling them out of the doldrums, that all withers, and passion never takes flight. But when it does, then prayer becomes critical, because the saints need help. When the power train is connected to kingdom vision and passion, all heaven breaks loose. J.C. RyleBut we ought not to confine our Lord's instructions to ministers alone. They ought to speak loudly to the consciences of all believers, of all who are called by the Holy Ghost and made priests to God. They ought to remind us of the necessity of simplicity and unworldliness in our daily life. We must beware of thinking too much about our meals, and our furniture, and our houses, and all those many things which concern the life of the body. We must strive to live like men whose first thoughts are about the immortal soul. We must endeavour to pass through the world like men who are not yet at home, and are not overmuch troubled about the fare they meet with on the road and at the inn. Blessed are they who feel like pilgrims and strangers in this life, and whose best things are all to come!Dorothy SayersLet the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade – not outside it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meet they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. Bu the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meet for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word. Application Questions1. To what people and place has God called you?2. How might prayer become more central to your engagement in mission?3. What does mission in word and deed look like in your life?

Scripture Text: Revelation 4Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionJames K.A. Smith, You Are What You LoveWe are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires. We adopt ways of life that are indexed to such visions for life, not usually because we “think through” our options but rather because some picture captures our imagination. C.S. Lewis, The Weight of GloryAt present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances The focal point of the cosmos, the center from which all things are to be measured, is not in Ephesus or Pergamum, where our congregations live and move and go about their daily business. Nor is the center of the cosmos in Rome, where the great power brokers and shapers of the political scene wield their influence, but in the realm beyond ours. John’s visions begin at the center of John’s universe, at the very throne of God (4:2).George Elden Ladd, RevelationHere is a great mystery, which the New Testament affirms but does not explain because it involves ineffable realities at the point where God's spiritual world intersects man's historical world. Christ's worthiness and ability to break the seals of the scroll of human history and destiny are dependent on the victory he won in his incarnate life. If he had not come in humility as suffering Savior, he could not come as conquering Messiah.Application Questions1. Can you think of a time when you were blown away by something beautiful? How did it affect you? Why do you think it can sometimes feel hard to experience God in that same way?2. Many younger people today are coming back to the church because they’re longing for something transcendent. Why do you think that longing runs so deep? What might that mean for us at Oaks?3. God wants worship to be something set apart from everything else in our lives. Why do you think that matters to Him? What parts of our worship service or sanctuary help you step into His holy presence?

Scripture Text: Jeremiah 29:4-7; 1 Peter 2:11-12Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionOaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ.Andrew Rumsey, ParishThe Church is primarily concerned not with ‘the world’ becoming ‘the Church’ but with the world finding its true place by virture of the Church’s action and presence. The Church has no need to extend its own territory into the world: rather, as yeast workign through a batch of dough, it seeks to effect the transformation of the whole-not, plainly, that the batch should all become yeast. In this parochial ecclesiology, where the local congregation is a transforming agent-a means not an end-the nature and condition of society is of the greatest interest. Rodney Stark, The Cities of GodThe power of Christianity lay not in its promise of otherworldly compensations for suffering in this life, as has so often been proposed. No, the crucial change that took place in the third century was the rapidly spreading awareness of a faith that delivered potent antidotes to life’s miseries here and now! The truly revolutionary aspect of Christianity lay in moral imperatives such as “Love one’s neighbor as oneself,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and “When you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me.” These were not just slogans. Members did nurse the sick, even during epidemics; they did support orphans, widows, the elderly, and the poor; they did concern themselves with the lot of slaves. In short, Christians created “a miniature welfare state in an empire which for the most part lacked social services.”14 It was these responses to the long-standing misery of life in antiquity, not the onset of worse conditions, that were the ‘material’ changes that inspired Christian growth. But these material benefits were entirely spiritual in origin. Support for this view comes from the continuing inability of pagan groups to meet this challenge.Application Questions1. How does God’s commitment to humanity and His world reshape the way you respond to the challenges of our city?2. In what ways do you feel most at home in Portland, and in what ways do you need to remember that you are a sojourner and exile here? How might that shape the way you live in your parish?3. How can our Parish Communities become places where people truly experience the glory of life in Christ?

Scripture Text: Romans 12:1-2Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionOaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ.Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society The Christian story provides us with such a set of lenses, not something for us to look at, but for us to look through.Tim Keller, Center Church Community shapes our ethics and the spoken and unspoken rules that guide our behavior. Far more of the biblical ethical prescriptions are addressed to us as a community than as individuals. The Ten Commandments were given to Israel at Mount Sinai to form them into an alternate society that would be a light to the nations. The call of Romans 12:1 – 2 to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” is usually interpreted as a call to individual consecration, but it is actually a demand that we commit ourselves to a corporate body and not live as autonomous individuals any longer. All of Romans 12, in fact, should be read as a description of this new society.N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone At the centre of genuine Christianity is a mind awake, alert, not content to take a few guidelines off the peg but determined to understand why human life is meant to be lived in one way rather than another. In fact, it is the way of life of ‘the present age’ which often involves the real human immaturity, as people simply look at the surrounding culture, with all its shallow and silly patterns of behaviour, and copy it unthinkingly.Application Questions1. In your mind, why is it helpful for the local church to have a clear vision? 2. How can you see the difference between worldly sacrifice and gospel-empowered sacrifice?3. As you look at the challenges of our city, what is one way that the gospel can lead you to a different mindset?

Scripture Text: Luke 24Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionN.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone The real slave-master, keeping the human race in bondage, is death itself. Earthly tyrants borrow power from death to boost their rule; that’s why crucifixion was such a symbol of Roman authority. Victory over death robs the powers of their main threat. Sin, which means humans rebelling against God and so conspiring with death to deface God’s good creation, is likewise defeated. Jesus has led God’s new people out of slavery, and now invites them to accompany him on the new journey to the promised land. The road to Emmaus is just the beginning. Hearing Jesus’ voice in scripture, knowing him in the breaking of bread, is the way. Welcome to God’s new world.Timothy Keller, Center Church Most of our problems in life come from a lack of proper orientation to the gospel. Pathologies in the church and sinful patterns in our individual lives ultimately stem from a failure to think through the deep implications of the gospel and to grasp and believe the gospel through and through. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts and our thinking and changes our approaches to absolutely everything. When the gospel is expounded and applied in its fullness in any church, that church will look unique. People will find in it an attractive, electrifying balance of moral conviction and compassion.Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary At the Last Supper Jesus tells his disciples to eat in remembrance of him. Of all the things he could’ve chosen to be done “in remembrance” of him, Jesus chose a meal. He could have asked his followers to do something impressive or mystical—climb a mountain, fast for forty days, or have a trippy sweat lodge ceremony—but instead he picks the most ordinary of acts, eating, through which to be present to his people. He says that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. He chooses the unremarkable and plain, average and abundant, bread and wine.John Calvin, Institutes Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing useful and necessary is omitted, so nothing is taught which is not profitable to know. In it, we experience God as he accommodates himself to our capacity, so that we might know him in Christ.Application Questions1. Why is remembering the gospel so central to experiencing Christ’s presence and power in our lives?2. In your own life, what are the ways you most often forget Christ in the routines of everyday life — and what helps you remember him?3. How might Parish Communities this year help us remember Christ together so that we cultivate a deeper life in him?

Scripture Text: Psalm 87Sagar MekwanQuotes for ReflectionErich Zenger There the nations, together with Israel, are to learn the peace that brings creation to its goal, namely to be a house of life and joy for all.Application Questions1. What makes Zion secure and firmly established, and how should this truth bring us encouragement and comfort?2. What are the glorious things spoken about Zion, the city of God, in verses 4–6?3. How should we live today in joyful anticipation of the coming glory of God’s kingdom?

Quotes for ReflectionN.T. Wright, Luke for EveryoneAt the heart of Luke’s picture of the cross is the mocking of Jesus as king of the Jews, which draws into a single stark sketch the meaning expressed by the various characters and the small incidents elsewhere in the narrative. Jesus has stood on its head the meaning of kingship, the meaning of the kingdom itself. He has celebrated with the wrong people, offered peace and hope to the wrong people, and warned the wrong people of God’s coming judgment. Now he is hailed as king at last, but in mockery. Here comes his royal cupbearer, only it’s a Roman soldier offering him the sour wine that poor people drank. Here is his royal placard, announcing his kingship to the world, but it is in fact the criminal charge which explains his cruel death.John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 32David having largely and painfully experienced what a miserable thing it is to feel God’s hand heavy on account of sin, exclaims that the highest and best part of a happy life consists in this, that God forgives a man’s guilt, and receives him graciously into his favor. After giving thanks for pardon obtained, he invites others to fellowship with him in his happiness, showing, by his own example, the means by which this may be obtained.David Brooks, How to Know a PersonThere is no way to make hard conversations un-hard. You can never fully understand a person whose life experience is very different from your own. I will never know what it is like to be Black, to be a woman, to be Gen Z, to be born with a disability, to be a working-class man, to be a new immigrant or a person from any of a myriad of other life experiences. There are mysterious depths to each person. There are vast differences between different cultures, before which we need to stand with respect and awe. Nevertheless, I have found that if you work on your skills—your capacity to see and hear others—you really can get a sense of another person’s perspective. And I have found that it is quite possible to turn distrust into trust, to build mutual respect.Application Questions1. Recollect a hard conversation, recent or from the past, that didn’t end well. Why did it get stuck?2. In Luke 23, practically everyone turned against Jesus. What about the gospel helps you move toward reconciliation with another person?3. This week, where can you apply the subtle yet reconciling power of Jesus?

Scripture Text: Luke 22:14-46Bryan BuckApplication Questions1. When it comes to the Lord’s Supper, what have you been missing about its centrality to a gospel-centered life? 2. How do you particularly struggle with a self-centered existence? 3. How does gospel-surrender result in greater gain than the world can ever offer?

Scripture Text: John 2:1-11Jason CurtisQuotes for ReflectionEugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places You would think that believing that Jesus is God among us would be the hardest thing. It is not. It turns out that the hardest thing is to believe that God's work--this dazzling creation, this astonishing salvation, this cascade of blessings--is all being worked out in and under the conditions of our humanity: at picnics and around dinner tables, in conversations and while walking along roads, in puzzled questions and homely stories, with blind beggars and suppurating lepers, at weddings and funerals. Everything that Jesus does and says takes place within the limits of our humanity. No fireworks. No special effects. Yes, there are miracles, plenty of them. But because for the most part they are so much a part of the fabric of everyday life, very few notice. The miraculousness of miracle is obscured by the familiarity of the setting, the ordinariness of the people involved.Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.Gerard Manley Hopkins, As Kingfishers Catch Fire As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is — Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men's faces.Application Questions1. What does the story of the Wedding at Cana reveal about God?2. What do you make of the fact that Jesus didn't announce the miracle to the entire wedding party? What implication does this have, if any, for our life and worship?3. What are some normal, mundane activities that seem trivial to us where God might be actively forming us and others through us?

Scripture Text: Luke 21Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag ArchipelagoThe line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.Darrell Bock, The Gospel of Luke: NIV CommentaryWhen one looks at a powerful nation, it is easy to think that it will exist forever. Most people at the height of the Roman empire would have found it difficult to imagine that it would one day be relegated to the pages of history. Other institutions also take on this air of indestructibility, one of them being the temple. In Jesus’ day, it was in the midst of a grand rebuilding program. Starting about 20 B.C., it continued until A.D. 63–64. So when Jesus spoke in A.D. 33, the program was well underway. Certainly a building so grand would have a long life. After all, it was decorated by gifts from many of the surrounding nations and was a building that had received notice around the Roman world.N.T. Wright, Luke for EveryoneWhy study an old book, they say, that’s never done anyone any good? The answer is the same for us as it was for the Jerusalem Christians nearly a generation after Jesus. Keep alert. This is what you were told to expect. Patience is the key. Pray for strength to keep on your feet. There are times when your eyes will be shutting with tiredness, spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, and when you will have to prop them open. This is what it’s about: not an exciting battle, with adrenalin flowing and banners flying, but the steady tread, of prayer and hope and scripture and sacrament and witness, day by day and week by week. This is what counts; this is why patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Read the story again. Remind one another of what Jesus said. And keep awake.Application Questions1. When you read the prophetic words of Jesus, what emotions or memories do they evoke? 2. Where might your heart be too fixed on something of this world? 3. The fact that Jesus spoke about spectacular realities and then returned to mundane responsibilities is telling. What does it tell you?

Scripture Text:Luke 20:19-26Quotes for ReflectionAugustine, The City of GodWhat grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.Martin Luther King Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here?”, 08/16/1967Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, “White Power!” when nobody will shout, “Black Power!” but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power. And I must confess, my friends, that the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. And there will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again, with tear-drenched eyes, have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. But difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future….N.T. Wright, The Gospel of Luke The challenge to Jerusalem, the Temple, its rulers, and their hypocritical underlings, are all concentrated in the second half of the command: give God back what belongs to him. Jesus’ own accusation against his contemporaries is that they have consistently failed to worship their true and living God, and to live as his people before the world. The very Temple itself, the place where Israel was supposed to come and give to God what was his own, in worship, prayer, holiness and sacrifice – the Temple had become a brigands’ lair. Put that right, and the question of Caesar will in the long run sort itself out.Application Questions1. How are you experiencing a power that feels overwhelming? 2. What is one area of your life that needs to be aligned with the permanence of God’s kingdom? 3. How can the gospel save you in playing the long game on a particular issue?

Scripture Text: Luke 19:1-10Bryan BuckApplication Questions1. How does gospel-centered humility specifically help you love others? 2. How can you use summer to slow down and hear God’s voice?3. How can God’s blessing flow through you this week?

Scripture Text: Luke 18:1-17Andy TobinQuotes for ReflectionEugene Peterson, A Long Obedience In the Same DirectionGod sticks to his relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it. The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination; it is the result of God’s faithfulness. We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous, because God sticks with us. Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God’s will and purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise and fall of our enthusiasms. It is out of such a reality that we acquire perseverance.J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the GospelsDo we ever feel a secret inclination to hurry our prayers, or shorten our prayers, or become careless about our prayers, or omit our prayers altogether? Let us be sure, when we do, that it is a direct temptation from the devil. He is trying to sap and undermine the very citadel of our souls, and to cast us down to hell. Let us resist the temptation, and cast it behind our backs. Let us resolve to pray on steadily, patiently, perseveringly, and let us never doubt that it does us good. However long the answer may be in coming, still let us pray on. Whatever sacrifice and self-denial it may cost us, still let us pray on, 'pray always,'—'pray without ceasing,'—and 'continue in prayer' (1 Thess, 5:17; Col. 4:2). Let us arm our minds with this parable, and while we live, whatever we make time for, let us make time for prayer.Paul Miller, A Praying LifeThe difficulty of coming just as we are is that we are messy. And prayer makes it worse. When we slow down to pray, we are immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are, with how difficult it is to concentrate on God. We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual powerlessness like prayer. In contrast, little children never get frozen by their selfishness. Like the disciples, they come just as they are, totally self-absorbed. They seldom get it right. As parents or friends, we know all that. In fact, we are delighted (most of the time!) to find out what is on their little hearts. We don’t scold them for being self-absorbed or fearful. That is just who they are. . . . This isn’t just a random observation about how parents respond to little children. This is the gospel, the welcoming heart of God. God also cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.” No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NASB). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.Application Questions1. What is something that has caused you to lose heart that God is calling you to continue praying about?2. What misbelief about God is keeping you from prayer? How might the gospel reshape your thinking?3. What would it look like for you to come to God messy this week in prayer?

Scripture Text: Luke 17:1-10Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionDietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus…No one wants to know about your faith or unbelief, your orders are to perform the act of obedience on the spot. Then you will find yourself in the situation where faith becomes possible and where faith exists in the true sense of the world. J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on LukeWhen do men cause others to sin? They do it, beyond doubt, whenever they persecute believers or endeavor to deter them from serving Christ. But this, unfortunately, is not all. Professing Christians do it whenever they bring discredit on their religion by inconsistencies of temperament, of word, or of deed. We do it whenever we make our Christianity unlovely in the eyes of the world by conduct inconsistent with our profession. The world may not understand the doctrines and principles of believers, but they are very keen-sighted about their practice.Timothy Keller, ForgiveForgiveness gets down to the bottom of things—to the alienation we feel from God and from ourselves because of our wrongdoing. Jesus was saying: “I want to show you that the deepest need of your nature is for me. Only I can bestow perfect love, new identity, endless comfort, hope, and glory. And the doorway into all of that is to know forgiveness.” It’s time to open that door and walk through it.Alan Jacobs, “Vengeance”When a society rejects the Christian account of who we are, it doesn’t become less moralistic but far more so, because it retains an inchoate sense of justice but has no means of offering and receiving forgiveness. The great moral crisis of our time is not, as many of my fellow Christians believe, sexual licentiousness, but rather vindictiveness. Social media serve as crack for moralists: there’s no high like the high you get from punishing malefactors. But like every addiction, this one suffers from the inexorable law of diminishing returns. The mania for punishment will therefore get worse before it gets better.Application Questions1. How does faith and obedience work together in your mind? 2. Jesus calls for obedience in three areas: temptation, forgiveness, and faith. Which of these, in particular, deserves your attention right now?3. How can the mentality of an “unworthy servant” change the way you live this week?

Scripture Text: Ephesians 1:3-14Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionTish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the OrdinaryFlannery O’Connor once told a young friend to “push as hard as the age that pushes against you.” The church is to be a radically alternative people, marked by the love of the triune God in each area of life. But often we are not sure how to become this sort of alternative people. Though we believe deeply in the gospel, though we put our hope in the resurrection, we often feel like the way we spend our days looks very similar to our unbelieving neighbors—with perhaps a bit of extra spirituality thrown in.C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. It is no good trying to ‘be myself’ without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call ‘myself’ becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop.N.T. Wright, Paul for EveryoneWhen Paul speaks of us as being ‘in Christ’, the centre of what he means is that, as in some Jewish thought, the king represents his people, so that what happens to him happens to them, and what is true of him is true of them. Think of David fighting Goliath (1 Samuel 17). David was representing Israel; he had already been anointed as king, and it wasn’t long after his victory before people realized that he was the one who would lead Israel into God’s future. So with us: Jesus has won the decisive victory over the oldest and darkest enemy of all, and if we are ‘in him’, ‘in the king’, ‘in Christ’, we shall discover step by step what that means.Michael Reeves: Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian FaithIt is by the Spirit that the Father has eternally loved his Son. And so, by sharing their Spirit with us, the Father and the Son share with us their own life, love and fellowship. By the Spirit uniting me to Christ, the Father knows and loves me as his son; by the Spirit I begin to know and love him as my Father. By the Spirit I begin to love aright—unbending me from my self-love, he wins me to share the Father’s pleasure in the Son and the Son’s in the Father. By the Spirit I (slowly!) begin to love as God loves, with his own generous, overflowing, self-giving love for others.Application Questions1. Why is the Trinity important for our fundamental understanding of God? 2. How might the triune God be the answer to our deepest longings—especially in a culture of isolation, anxiety, and self-focus?3. Where in your life this week could the love of Father, Son, and Spirit make a difference?

Scripture Text: Acts 2:1-13Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionCharles Wesley, O Thou Who Camest from Above O Thou who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to'impart, kindle a flame of sacred love upon the altar of my heart.Richard Belward Rackham’s commentary, The Acts of the Apostles: An Exposition Every new beginning in thought or life is inevitably accompanied by disturbance. There is the struggle with the old, and the re-adjustment to the new, environment. So the coming of the Spirit is followed by irregular and abnormal phenomena. Like Jordan, the full and plenteous flood of the Spirit ‘overflows all its banks’ (Josh. 3:15). At first the old worn-out vessels of humanity cannot contain it; and there is a flood of strange and novel spiritual experiences. But when it has worn for itself a deep channel in the church, when the laws of the new spiritual life are learnt and understood, then some of the irregular phenomena disappear, others become normal, and what was thought to be miraculous is found to be a natural endowment of the Christian life.N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone The coming of the spirit at Pentecost, in other words, is the complementary fact to the ascension of Jesus into heaven. The risen Jesus in heaven is the presence, in God’s sphere, of the first part of ‘earth’ to be transformed into ‘new creation’ in which heaven and earth are joined; the pouring out of the spirit on earth is the presence, in our sphere, of the sheer energy of heaven itself. The gift of the spirit is thus the direct result of the ascension of Jesus. Because he is the Lord of all, his energy, the power to be and do something quite new, is available through the spirit to all who call on him, all who follow him, all who trust him.Application Questions1. How has a season of waiting shaped your life recently? In what ways might God be using that tension to deepen your trust in him?2. Why is Jesus’ ascension essential for shaping our perspective in times of waiting, longing, or uncertainty?3. Where is the Spirit inviting you to trust more deeply as you seek to live out God’s calling in your life?

Scripture Text: Acts 1:1-11Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionN.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone The point of the resurrection itself is that without it there is no gospel, no Deeds and Teachings of King Jesus II. There would only be the sad and glorious memory of a great, but failed, teacher and would-be Messiah. The resurrection of the Jesus who died under the weight of the world’s evil is the foundation of the new world, God’s new world, whose opening scenes Luke is describing.C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain I had never before seen a real Catholic Mass and I had no idea what it was all about. I had heard that it was in Latin and that it was mysterious and incomprehensible to a Protestant, and indeed, to anyone who did not know Latin. That was all I knew about it. And I liked the idea. I liked it for the very same reason that I liked the Gregorian chant I had heard in records: because it was strange and archaic and solemn. It was beautiful. And when I went into that quiet, peaceful church, and saw the tall, old priest with his white hair, and heard him saying Mass at the altar, in a low voice, and the server answering in Latin, and the silence and the kneeling people and the candles and the statues and the crucifix on the altar, and the dim quietness and the slanting light—I was enthralled. It was beautiful. That was all I knew. And I wanted to know more, to be a part of it. I had the sense that something was happening there that was much more real than anything that had ever happened to me before.F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of Luke From the earliest times in Israel, God was acknowledged as king (cf. Ex. 15:18). His kingship is universal (Ps. 103:19), but is manifested most clearly where men and women recognize it in practice by doing his will.Application Questions1. How does the ascension of Jesus help you reimagine worship? 2. Where in your life do you need the ministry that is uniquely available in the ascension of Jesus?3. What is one choice that you can make this week to bring your life into conformity with Christ as king?

Scripture Text: Luke 16:1-17Andy TobinQuotes for ReflectionN. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone The key to it all is in the opening verses: it’s about faithfulness. Money is not a possession, it’s a trust: God entrusts property to people and expects it to be used to his glory and the welfare of his children, not for private glory or glamour. Money also, according to this passage, points beyond itself, to the true riches which await us in the life to come. What they are, we can hardly guess; but there are ‘true riches’ which really will belong to us, in a way that money doesn’t, if we learn faithfulness here and now. Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor Christians should be aware of this revolutionary understanding of the purpose of their work in the world. We are not to choose jobs and conduct our work to fulfill ourselves and accrue power, for being called by God to do something is empowering enough. We are to see work as a way of service to God and our neighbor, and so we should both choose and conduct our work in accordance with that purpose. The question regarding our choice of work is no longer "What will make me the most money and give me the most status?" The question must now be "How, with my existing abilities and opportunities, can I be of greatest service to other people, knowing what I do of God's will and of human need?" J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels The truth here propounded by our Lord appears, at first sight, too obvious to admit of being disputed. And yet the very attempt which is here declared to be useless is constantly being made by many in the matter of their souls. Thousands on every side are continually trying to do the thing which Christ pronounces impossible. They are endeavouring to be friends of the world and friends of God at the same time. Their consciences are so far enlightened, that they feel that must have some religion. But their affections are so chained down to earthly things, that they never come up to the mark of being true Christians. And hence they live in a state of constant discomfort. They have too much religion to be happy in the world, and they have too much of the world in their hearts to be happy in their religion. In short, they waste their time in labouring to do that which cannot be done. They are striving to 'serve God and mammon.'Application QuestionsHow does eternity shape your relationship with money?In what way is God calling you to faithfulness?How have you tried to serve two masters? What is your first step of repentance?