Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

The image of being locked in a room with God from last weekend resonated with a lot of you. Maybe you turned back toward God and tried to make the best of it this week but you felt alone in the room. You asked him to make his presence clear—you asked him to help you feel he is near—and you still feel alone. Now what?

// Know you are not alone. The Psalmist often cry out to God about his silence.

"Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!" (Psalm 44:23)

"O God, do not keep silence…" (Psalm 83:1a)

This is such a painful experience and so common that hundreds of books address the subject.

// Understand the breadth of your brokenness. Your brokenness, because of sin and Separation, isn’t just physical and relational; it’s emotional. Your emotions need healing. Your senses are always off. No one will experience God’s silence or absence at the New Creation.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God." (Revelation 21:3).

But until then (when God will unlock the door for good), some of us will struggle sensing God at times, and some of us will struggle more than others with the sense of God’s presence.

// Listen to and trust God’s Word. The Bible is how God speaks to you. When he says he’s there, trust his words more than your broken senses.

"The Lord is at hand…" (Philippians 4:5b)

Commit to the practice of questioning your senses and understanding more than you question God.

// Get up and serve others in the room. It’s in the context of proclaiming the Great Commission that Jesus’ promises his presence.

"And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20b)

Some people are even wired to experience God’s presence most through serving. And no one gets a pass on making God's kingdom our highest priority.

// Learn to “see through” in corporate worship. You’re going to hear me talk about this a lot in my next series, but here’s what I mean. It’s easy to become addicted to the sounds, sites, beats, togetherness and tunes of worship and to fail to see through to whom we are worshiping. Don’t equate emotional highs with God’s presence. Last weekend’s worship is a great case in point. It was quiet enough to “see through” the words and the tunes in a fresh way.

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." (John 4:23)

There's a place for exuberant and loud worship, but make room in your life for simple and quiet worship too.

// Know you are not alone. Yes, I said that already, but this means you need to share your hurt with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes you will see and hear and feel Christ through them.

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2)

God has designed us to grow and deepen through our brothers and sisters in Christ in his church. If you are hiding your pain or withdrawing you are declaring yourself smarter than God. Try it his way.

Blessings to all of you, Pastor Henry

Wednesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers, Yesterday we did a quick lightning round at our weekly all-staff lunch and here are some of the things that were shared:

• Milestone awards to staff: Deb Carr, Cindy Yarington and Tim Bubar have been on staff at Five Oaks for 10 years. Deb Johnson and I have been here over 15 years. Brian Burquest presented all of us with beautiful plaques, a new Five Oaks staff tradition.

• Dan shared how Nathan Stocker did a lot of the behind the scenes work on the Five Oaks Christmas CD, besides singing a couple of songs he arranged. I love the CD. Libby and Dan also do their own arrangements of some great Christmas songs.

• The Student Ministry Christmas Extravaganza changes lives. Over the years lots of students have been introduced to the Five Oaks Student Ministry and subsequently came to Christ through the yearly Extravaganza. Be praying for this event which happens next Wednesday.

• Story of God starts January 14. Register here.

• Those personalized Christmas service invite cards are a powerful tool to inviting people you know to the service. Take some and send them out (or hand them to a friend).

• I will be preaching a focused, evangelistic sermon at our Christmas services and inviting people to respond. Who can you bring to hear the good news of the gospel?

• If you're not bringing someone to the Christmas services, how about serving one hour in the Children's Ministry and then attending a service?

• The Volunteer Hospitality Suite will be up and running again during the five Christmas services. Great food last year!

Here's the sermon from last weekend in 10 tweets: "The Choice" (Exodus 33)

1// God is not simply a means to an end--the one who gets us unstuck. God is the end itself.

2// Crabb: "God seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play."

3// What matters more to you when the room is a broken marriage, loneliness, illness, financial struggles, drinking problem...?

4// When getting out matters more, we turn our back to God in anger, frustration or indifference. That defines our relationship with him.

5// Moses has a choice: Blessings from God without the blessing of God himself or stay in the room.

6// God wants for you what Moses had--to speak to you face-to-face, as with a friend. Ex 33:11; Jn 15:15

7// Make the most of your time in the room: know God more deeply, set mind to God's mission, reflect on God's glory.

8// The difference isn't avoiding the room but experiencing G's presence in the room. And that makes all the difference. That gets noticed.

9// You can turn from him or serve him until the day he unlocks the door.

10// Jn 1:14 the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father

Blessings, Pastor Henry