The photo below shows a MainStreet Church alive and well, gathered around a fire for our fall “Fireside Chats” series hosted at our home. One attender shared afterwards, “Last night was exactly what I needed. I was given some eye-opening things to think about. I’m looking forward to many more nights by the fire. It was so good!”
We’ll gather Sundays at 5pm for “House Church” at least until the snow falls (making our driveway tricky) and then move our gatherings back to St. Martin’s. There’s something special that happens when you gather around food and in the more intimate and casual surroundings of a living room. We hope YOU will join us as well!
We’re currently doing “old school” Bible study, opening up the Gospel of John and finding thematic echoes pointing back to the Old Testament. We’re tracing four dynamic themes in particular that (we hope will) tug deeply at all our hearts. Let me briefly introduce them.
Jesus steps onto the scene in John’s Gospel and introduces these themes with a potent exchange with his first followers. Jesus looks at them and asks the question that should probe each of our souls, too:
- WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHAT DO YOU DESIRE? WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING?
We’re going to ponder that question together, as well as rummage through Scripture looking for stories about other people desiring and seeking both properly and improperly.
The second theme arises from the disciples apparently simple response to Jesus’ question, but John intends it to have a deeper spiritual meaning. The disciples ask Jesus:
2. WHERE ARE YOU STAYING? WHERE DO YOU ABIDE?
The heart of Christian discipleship is learning to “abide” in the atmosphere of God’s grace and loving presence, and to be uprooted from the squalor and toxicity of the unholy dwellings our soul often “abides” in. Come and learn how we can move out of the dismal dwellings of fear, anxiety, strife and shame. We don’t need to inhabit in that mental, emotional, or spiritual space anymore. Jesus will show us how to abide in Him, and (surprise, surprise!) we’ll also come to behold the staggering truth that Christ wants to come and make His home in us as well!
Finally, Jesus offers the invitation of a lifetime and the invitation that can change everything if we accept. He turns to you and me this fall and with love and longing in his eyes, says:
3. COME AND SEE.
But “see” is another loaded and layered word in John’s Gospel. Those who “come” to Jesus and hitch their life to Jesus as disciples, or apprentices in kingdom living, will begin to see reality in a whole new way! God will heal our pessimistic vision, give us corrective lenses for our fickle and faithless eyes. We will begin to see God and his angels buzzing around us where we used to only see broken promises, dashed dreams, and human failures. We will begin to see our same old circumstances with brand new, faith-filled eyes. We will see the Kingdom. We will see glory where we used to only see gloom.
So, friends, join us Sundays at 5pm and heed Jesus’ invitation to COME, SEEK, SEE and ABIDE like never before.
Kingdom Harbor 
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