Merry Christmas Friends!
Vineyard USA national director Jay Pathak sent a wonderful video greeting to pastors in the Vineyard last week. Instead of sharing from my devotional readings as I usually do, I want to share with you a transcription of part of the video he sent. I hope it blesses you as it is blessing me and that you take his words to heart this Christmas and as you go into the new year.
So lemme give you a quick pastoral word. It's basically more of a benediction than anything else, honestly. I wanna read to you from the scriptures. You okay with that? You like the Bible? Still like the Bible? I like the Bible. So let me read from the scriptures to you Colossians chapter three. I prayed and I really felt like this was an important scripture for us in the Vineyard as we go into this year. Paul says this, "Therefore," and of course, you know that "therefore" means you should always ask what is it there for? And Paul is talking about all the things that Christ has done and how God is asking us to put off all of this stuff that brings destruction in our lives. And so he says this,
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And, over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since you are members of one body, you are called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
I don't know about you, but when I read scriptures like that, I think "That's a church I'd like to go to." Like I wanna be in a church that people are grateful and they're kind and they're patient....You know, it starts with "put to death, this or that." I didn't read that bit. But basically, you have a job to do to end things that bring destruction. And then he says, "clothe yourself with this other stuff." You have to choose what you're going to put on. You chose what you were gonna wear right now. Maybe just take a second look at what you're wearing right now. Why am I wearing this right now? Some of you are like, I don't think I made a choice to wear this. Yes you did. You chose to wear that. You chose to wear that when you bought it, first of all, like you bought that. Some of you are like, this was given to me as a gift. You chose to keep it if it was given to you as a gift. And for some reason you chose to put that on today, and my hunch is you did that automatically, unconsciously, subconsciously. Some of you are sitting in your house and you're like, I'm wearing a sweatshirt 'cause I'm at home. Or maybe you're dressed up 'cause you're about to go to something. You're listening to this in the car on the way. You chose to wear what you are wearing for the sake of what you thought you were doing right now. Paul says, "Clothe yourself with kindness, humility," like choose...choose... gentleness and patience. I don't know if you've ever met anyone that you thought was too forgiving or too patient, too kind. I haven't.
And I just wanna say, Vineyard people, these are the marks of the Spirit. This is who we are to be: people that forgive. And we're people that sing songs. I love that what he says is like, you're gonna sing songs because the gratitude of God will fill you. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Let. That one's different, right? One's clothed. The other one's like God is already doing this. The peace of Christ is moving toward you. Allow yourself to be taken in the river. Let him love you. Let his love flow through you. If you just allow him to do so...Isn't it amazing how gratitude, when you start choosing to be grateful, it just keeps flowing. But you have to let it happen. You have to let the peace of Christ rule. And as you do this, and as we are these kinds of people, man, it creates a witness. The witness of your church and your life will not be the intelligent things you say. The witness of your life will be your character, your gentleness, your kindness, your patience, how you forgive, and maybe even just pay attention to what you sing about. And the degree to which gratitude flows from your life is the degree to which we experience blessing together as a family.
I could not be more grateful for the Vineyard. I'm so grateful. And for all that's messy, and all that's hard in this job or your job or whatever we do as leaders, we have been given a gift in what Christ has entrusted to us by his grace and his forgiveness. There is always a reason to worship. There is always a reason to be grateful. And I'm grateful for you.
And so I pray that as we go into this new year, you find ways to let go of what you need to let go of, and you take hold of and you clothe yourself intentionally in that which you want to rule your life. Let the peace of Christ rule within you and sing songs to one another, to the glory of God and for the witness of Christ in the world. So God bless you. I'm honored and privileged to be called your leader in these days. And I look forward to seeing you on the road. I'll see you out there.
Love in Christ,
Michelle