Ever Been in Exile?

by Pastor John Eiselt

Exile is not really a place we think fondly of, and for good reason. 

To be exiled is to be taken or sent away from all that is normal and "home" to you. 

To be exiled is to be expelled, kicked out, cut off, rejected. 

To be exiled is to have the most basic and urgent needs that all people have taken away.

“The grand narrative of Scripture speaks to the most urgent needs all people have, including the needs to be connected and grounded, to be protected and to belong, to know who you are and where you fit in. The Bible contains the stories of the people of God when they lost all of that. People torn away from their land, torn up as a people, and torn down by humiliating loss.” - Mel Lawrenz

When our most basic and urgent needs go unmet, we naturally enter into survival mode. The reality is that our need for connection, protection, and belonging are God-given. They are a part of our innate being, and to exist without them is to become less human.

When our basic needs are unmet, we find other things to meet those needs. But most often those are things that are cheap imitations of the real thing. This becomes particularly concerning and dangerous when we are living in exile, removed from a culture that upholds the same values and purpose for life. 

This weekend we dive into the life and book of Daniel. It is an incredible story of faithfulness, trust, and identity.

Daniel is in exile and so are we. It is an uncomfortable purgatory between what is now and what will be someday.

Circumstances like Daniel is facing threaten to convince us that our “now” is insignificant and therefore doesn’t matter. However, if we live how Daniel lived, we receive the someday promise in our present-day reality.

Your “NOW” matters “NOW”!

Join us this weekend as we dive into what this means for our personal identity and the identity of The Church. We’ll find some incredible implications, and a renewed sense of purpose and mission.

Photo by Gilles Pfeiffer on Unsplash

One Resolution for Catalyzing Spiritual Growth

Thinking about resolutions for the new year?

Oddly, most of my resolutions come while I'm on vacation. Maybe it's not odd and I'm not alone, it's just I've never heard of anyone else who makes multiple resolutions while on vacation. 

But I do have resolutions around this time of year (especially if I'm on vacation at the end of the year). 

Do you have a resolution for this year? If so, don't waste it.

The best ones are catalytic--they have a domino or ripple effect?

For example, if I would review my master to-do list for 5-10 minutes every day, I would then trust my to-do list and put all my to-dos on that list. And if I did that I would stop scattering reminders everywhere (e.g., I can't move that book off my desk because it will remind me I want to use it for a sermon three months from now). 

A simple discipline of checking my to-do list daily would make my life less cluttered, my mind more nimble, and my wife very happy. 

I don't know what would be the most spiritually catalytic resolution for you. Catalysts are different for different parts of our journey. But I do know what is the one catalytic practice that is profoundly impactful no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. 

Here are the late R.C. Sproul's reflections on this one catalytic practice:

"The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart, but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind."

Undeniably true. 

“We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.”

So convicting.

If this is your one resolution, consider attending the Story of God experience, starting Sunday, January 21 (register here). It'll deepen your understanding. It will help get in your head what your heart needs in order to love.

Or maybe resolve to start each day with DailyLife (subscribe here). 

Photo by Trent Erwin on Unsplash