Guest Blogger: Clayton Walker, LifeHouse Pastor

Isaiah 58:12, “Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.”

God was angry with Israel because they went through all the motions of “church” but were not bringing hope and life to the city. In fact, the Israelites even asked, “Why aren’t you impressed?” I think a lot of times we think God should be impressed with the way we do church because we think we are contemporary, different, or because we are growing, but God is looking for a church that brings hope, life, and restoration to the city. He is looking for a church that will rebuild the ruins and restore homes. He is looking for a church that blesses the hungry, poor, imprisoned, homeless, hopeless, oppressed, and depressed.

Reading through Nehemiah recently I was impressed at how Nehemiah was broken over the condition of his city and its people. His brokenness led to God moving in power through Nehemiah to rebuild his city, restore homes, defend the oppressed, and bring hope to Jerusalem. I wonder if we are broken for the condition of our cities like Nehemiah was for his.

At Experience Life we are seeking to be a church that is “For the City”. For us that means blessing the city physically by meeting practical needs in Jesus name and spiritually through the hope of the gospel. Whether through our LifeHouse small groups or corporately as a church, we are strategizing and pressing in to rebuilding the ruins and restoring homes.

May we at Experience Life be a church that is “For the City” and be about the things God is impressed with.

Spiritual growth is tough. No question about it. But I think that a lot of times we make it harder than it has to be. The way we do this is by forgetting what the Bible says is KEY to staying devoted to spiritual growth.

In Acts 2:42, Luke writes, “All the believes devoted themselves to…,” and then he lists a number of things which can be summarized as spiritual growth.

When I’ve read that in the past, I’ve always wondered, “How did they stay devoted to spiritual growth? How in the world do you stay devoted to something that tough?” I mean, probably all of us would say that we’d like to continue to grow spiritually & take next steps with God, but something prevents us from doing so.

What is it? Temptation, laziness, lack of focus? Sure. I think all of those could be reasons. But I think there’s another reason that’s more obvious if you look at verse 42 closely.

I think the key that many of us miss is found in the word that immediately follows “devoted.” They “devoted THEMSELVES.” Like, they were devoted to spiritual growth TOGETHER.

Wow! That makes sense. Isn’t it simple to prove that it’s much easier to stay devoted to something, whether it’s losing weight, breaking an addiction, or growing spiritually, by surrounding yourself with a community that wants the same? I think that’s clearly true. They didn’t try to grow spiritually alone. They grew spiritually (at a rapid pace) TOGETHER!

I think many of us are trying to grow spiritually on our own & it’s hampering our progress.

Perhaps your spiritual growth would begin to take off if you found a small group of people that you could “remain devoted” with.

Try it out & let me know how it goes!

Guest Blogger: Lori Zettler, Campus Children’s Director

Working in the ministry can be very rewarding and at times we take for granted the fact we are doing God’s work and it could only have been done through Him.  If we take the credit ourselves and not give credit to God, then we are truly missing out…

If we work to please others, or ourselves, then we are not pleasing God, or allowing Him to work fully in and among us.  Christians are designed for good works and through these good works we are to bring glory to God, and not to ourselves.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

We are not to boast about the works we have done but give sole credit to our Father.  We are to become secret servants of God.  It is better to do things behind the scenes when serving God and not boast to others about how great of a job we have done.