Spoken word by the spiritual poet

“Bind us together with your bond of unity.  ‘Cause your word says we are brothers.  Let us be one Lord, even as you and the Father are one so the world can see you inside us.  Make us one heart.  Make us one mind.  Make us one.  Let your will be done.  Make us one flame to proclaim your name, make us one; make us one.”

As a community of faith we confess, we have come this far by the strong grace of Almighty God and the “Living Hope”, his Beloved Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We also do confess that the giants of mortality egregiously breached our community of faith in an abrupt, intrusive and invasive manner in 2013.  These giants of mortality, relational hardship, financial hardship, spiritual hardship, and the spirit of death and unrest have left us seemingly adrift, alone, bereft and broken in our 21st century sea of solutions.

We long for God’s morning star to witness his dew drops of mercy quench our communal hardship.  We long for God’s morning star to witness his communal abundant life rich with faith and hope that is abundantly far more and above all which we could ever ask or imagine.  We long for God’s morning star to chase away the darkness that we may witness why we should count it all joy when we face trials of many kinds.  And we long for God’s morning star to witness his amazing grace shower down Yehoshua, his living and enduring Word incarnate afresh upon our community of faith to clothe, comfort and console us in our time of need.  For these formidable giants called test and temptation have come to wash us away from the peaceful shores of new creation back into the waterless wilderness of deep darkness and dead places where children of wrath crave the wages of wrongdoing.

In all this, we pray that our hearts will not fear or dread; for his divine power has given us everything we need for life and pursuit of godliness in the year of our Lord, 2014 and beyond.  So we pray and ask God to breathe “Hebrew Faith” into the life and times of our community of faith and allow us to see beyond what our eyes can see.  We pray that our community of faith will not shrink back in 2014 but will grow in salvation with robust roots of faith which burrows deep beneath the hardened desert places of hardship until it finds the river of healing waters which makes glad the city of God.  And we pray that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will cross over before us into 2014 as a devouring fire and consume all the giants in our land that we may walk in faith and victory in the inheritance and promises of our prayers as a community of faith.

As a community of faith, we stand on the threshold of 2014 forward facing with “Hebrew Faith” knowing that our confidence is in the “Living Hope” who is among us. He reminds us that we were once not a people and without purpose, name and mercy.  But he has called us to be his people and given us new purpose and a new name written down in glory and there is an unbounded abundance of mercy at his thrown of grace.  Scripture says “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. – 1 Peter 2:9 NRSV”

So, the Lord has called us as community of faith to the bond of unity.  The Lord has called us as a community of faith to be one in heart and one in mind.  The Lord has called us as a community of faith to be one as he and the Father are one that the world may see him inside us.  And the Lord has called us as a community of faith to be one flame which burns bright with Majestic Glory and holy fear proclaiming his name and the mighty acts of him who called us in the life and times of deep darkness devoid of his marvelous light.  Therefore, let us be bold and be strong as a community of faith as we march into the year of our Lord, 2014 as Emmanuel, the Lord our God is with us.